Thursdays thoughts...

All is set for the weekend and as always I am working ahead of my self , most of my Sugar Nellie time is spent on thinking about our new artist, I will tell you that her name is Krista and after seeing a picture of her recently she surprised my by being so young, she is a beautiful young woman with two lovely children , she will go far with her talent for art. keep watching this space all will be revealed soon.

We are keep tight lipped about her for the time being as we have another couple of stamp release to do before we release Simply Sassy on the world of stampers. These are not seasonal and we do not have a  date for release but the test plate has gone to the factory and the DT will get the first stamps within the next 2 weeks I hope, time to play and they we will show you what's been going on behind the doors at the House of Sugar.

Everyone who has had a peek loves them and I am defiantly sure you will too.:)

For a long time now you have been asking for more Country Cousins, ask and you will received, if its within our power of course LOL, so September, OMG can you believe its the end of the summer? Will bring 8 new Country Cousins, 4 will be Christmas and 4 non seasonal stamps, all girls.

September, WOW where did the summer go, its nice out today and maybe, fingers crossed that harvest will finish this week. Katie has returned to College and Debbie is still working in NY, taking a trip to Florida with friends before returning to Scotland in the next couple of weeks. Oh to be young again! No travel for me this year so far, I have only been as far as Glasgow! OOpps I forgot NY but that was in January, so long ago its been forgotten and did I tell you how cold it was burrrrrr last winter was wicked here in Scotland but it did also play nasty elsewhere. Never mind that, the sun is shining today and hopefully winter is a few months away.

How are you all doing with your Sugar Bowl challenges, now that the summer holidays are over and we get back into crafting I would love to see you take part in our very own challenge blog. Gayle is keeping her eyes open for new sweeties and I expect loyalty will play a big part in her choice. It's just a shame everyone can't be "promoted" but things constantly change and you have to be persistent to get anywhere you want to be. So just as a treat I have loaded up a new tag, you can tell someone is having fun making up tags for us, these are just great and we are grateful for these as I cant make them!

Just save this picture and put it on your blog is you do play in the Sugar Bowl. Yes that is a new stamp, she is so cute I know she's going to be popular, one of the Christmas range but because we took the holly away you can use her all year round. Yes I do think of little things like that when offered art work, I too am a thrifty crafter and you need to pick and choose your stamps carefully these days, you as the customer have so much choice out there that we at Sugar Nellie have taken the road less traveled, quality over quantity.

Friday tomorrow and as we did not do a candy give away this week we will give it all away tomorrow, look back for a chance to win the 5 new Christmas stamps featured in this weekend hop.

take care

Karen

A little taster..

Another peek of what's coming this weekend, two wee helpers for Santa this season.

Cute little folk in stripy tights, a delight to colour and these both work well together or a single stamps. I wonder what the DT will make of these?

And two adorable creations by our fantastic DT, Donalda has made a sleigh and Sarah a card with the same stamp from our range of Leanne Ellis designs. Both using traditional colours for these projects its nice to see what can be achieved by our girls, they all do their own thing and bring us so many ideas.

I hope our team give you lost of inspiration this weekend and that you are ready to start with your

seasonal gifts and cards.

We have a few guest joining us for the blog hop, Debbi, Alison, Lilian and Elaine.

Elaine will step up to the DT as this is Janiels last project with us. As we say goodbye to Janiel we welcome

Elaine who will bring something unique to the team and with so much new things ahead she is going to be busy.

Thanks all for today Sugar Addict, catch you again soon. Take care.

Karen

Monday Musings

I had to pick this one from the entries over on the Sugar Bowl challenge, here we have Hamish pulling his sleigh, one of the all time favourites from this range by Scottish illustrator Linda Andreu. This range is on clearance at Funkykits along with others.
Blue, such a popular colour and this card was made by Nicki for the challenge, not only did she enter it in our challenges but also three others, now there is time management for you!. Good luck Nicki and we love your card, lets just hope the weather for sleigh's stays away for a few months more. Today is sunny in Scotland and after a week of rain the farmer is back on his combine, hopefully they will finish the harvest this week as the forecast is for good weather all week, fingers crossed.

I have all sorts on by list of jobs to do  today, Monday is wash day and I have yet to start any. I have been playing with artwork and sending some links to our DT to see what they think, it is hard to keep all the excitement in check but all good things come to those who wait. Planning take for ever these days, I am sure it was a lot easier in the beginning when we did not think so hard about launching things.

We are all ready for the hop on Saturday, we also have a demonstration in the store with lots of special deals for the day if your local pop along. If you cant make it to Elgin, join us for the blog hop, I am sure we can organise some thing sweet for all our loyal sugar addicts too.

Rubber arrived on Friday so there is some cutting to be done, new artwork has gone to the factory and more to follow, its a bank holiday in England and it does for some reason effect our postal service. Other than that its a normal day but if you have an extra day off work, I hope the sun is shining where you are.
take care
Karen

Recipe for all seasons

So what kind of cook are you, Delia or Nigella?

Would you rather plug in your Kenwood mixer or your Cricut machine?

More likely to add a pinch or glitter than baking soda?

Use a rocker blocker than a rolling pin?

Prefer to fold paper rather than pastry?.......................

Lets get together next weekend and try our some of the Recipe's that our fantastic DT have put together. Not only have we got a blog hop planned with our DT we also have some very special guests joining in to show you that it's not just the new stamps that need a little attention at this time of the year but the "golden oldies" are begging to be played with too.

Each hop will take you to a blog full of inspiration and creative goodness, but on Saturday 4th the posting will be a yummy recipe that you can follow to create a delicious card for Christmas. Our girls will share their favourite recipe for a card of their choice which can be used all year around, sketches are not seasonal, you can adapt with the times and turn them around using your own fresh ingredients to fit the time of year. dependant on the time of year there is usually an abundance of new local product that you could incorporate into your recipe or why not clear out those cupboards and use up your supplies before they go past their use by date?

Saturday 4th September

You are all invited to join us next Saturday for our blog hop,

kick starting the Christmas season here at Sugar Nellie.

I do hope you can join us because candy and Christmas go hand in hand

and you would not want to  miss a little sweet treat now would you.

**********************

For the lucky ladies who won candy last time around , be sure to email me your

"anything but a card" creations so we can see what you made.

Please email  info@sugarnellie.com remember to also include a link to your blog.

Wishing you a sweet weekend

Karen

Oh baby boy

Jump on over to the Sugar Bowl and see what prize Gayle and her sweeties have for you this time.

Remember too that Gayle is looking for some fresh talent, it could be you.

 How she found the time to make this super cute baby boy card from Lilians great sketch I do not know.

Yesterday I found the joys of Internet banking, WOW you can look back 7 years, did you know that?

Print off anything you like, (maybe all those lost statement ), without having to pay the bank £10 each!

I also ordered the cup cakes for the demo in store on Saturday 4th :)

And had another brain storming time with a friend,while DS was at football practice. Its good to bounce idea's off someone who has the patients to listen while I change my mind over and over.

 Today I printed off some new

artwork and played with those while sitting for the first time this year in our porch, we did not get many good days this summer. I do prefer ink and rubber to digi, I am sure my image smudged when coloured maybe I need a super dooper printer, no thats not happening.

So watch out sugar addict, Gayle wants more sweeties and I am looking for someone who can do CAS,

 is your blog looking good enough to visit?

Get the crunchies out its Friday!

Karen

Lot of tears

 For Megans 8th birthday she wanted a pet so I gave in after lots of naggin and added two guinea pigs to the family. Nice new des res, two up two down with fancy removable clean up tray. So they settled in well much to the torment of our youngest farm collie, who try as she might could not chew all the way into this new hutch but yesterday she managed to tip the hutch over!
We only found one guinea pig and spent the rest of the night and a few trips in the dark back to the hutch to see if Ginny has come out of hiding from the 7ft hedge that runs around our garden. Never been seen, no sounds of movement and no squeeking.................................we will never know what happened to Ginny, maybe its best that way.
It is very important for children to have pets, they learn lots but most important they learn about death at a young age, morbid I know but to deal with this when they are young will condition them for other sad times.

On a farm, births and deaths as as certain as the rain, and my children were well aware of this from the minuet they can walk. One childminder once had to deal with the view in front of our window of a field of cows giving each other piggy backs, on telling our girls what was happening she was quickly corrected  "Don't be silly Lorna, the bulls putting babies in that cows tummy!"................bless their little lace socks! With lambing happening each and every year the girls also used this in their imaginary play, giving birth to your dolly at age three was a common occurrence under our dining room table, when I say three I am sure Katie was still in nappies and Debbie was giving the orders "push Katie push". LOL.(Oh how to  embarrass your daughters in blog land but then again  it could be worse I could post of facebook!)

 Yes living on a farm is good fun when your a small child but devastating when your a teen and have no transport off the farm when all your mates are playing on the streets in town, as a parent I have to disagree with the teen, to shelter you child from "hanging about the streets" for as long as you can is a good thing because they all grow up far too fast and as a teen, they are very much under pressure to fit in with the crowd and follow the leaders............  I just want to have them play with their dolls under the table again!

Time to move, I'm off to town to hang about the streets and see if I can find some exciting trouble today. The bakers and butcher and then the bank, yes it's going to be an exciting day for me.* rolls eyes*
Hope you have fun too.

Karen

Perfect little box

Oh just think of that little baby boy that you need to buy a pressie for, well everyone has so much of everything now a days, its hard to think what to give that is original and will be appreciated.

This had decorated keepsake box can be personalised as needed and has been lovingly crafted by

Judy and you can find it in her folksy shop she also has an etsy store

She has used one of our stamps designed by Kathy Hare who has also opened a new etsy store.

Diane has always had one called Duda Daze

Now I can't yet give you a link to the artist behind Simply Sassy but I will as soon as I can. ;)

{Mark has chosen his lines to discontinue, these will be going on clearance sale by the end of the week and he suggests that the new range goes on pre order as he was blown away by these and does not want to underestimate the demand, he also ordered new Country Cousins Christmas and Activity ranges.}

So much rubber so little time!

                                                                        Karen