**Happy Birthday Naomi**

Naomi has enjoyed a wonderful 15th birthday today ... with lots of gorgeous cards and gifts, (which means she has a long list of thank you calls to make over the next few days) ... topped off this evening with a super meal at her favourite local eatery, The Wok N Spice.  We always get a warm welcome from Jon, Isa and the staff and they made sure our little family group were well fed and watered. 

 

The beautiful birthday cake was a melt-in-the-mouth heavenly chocolate delight.   Trust me when I say it was beyond delicious!
Mega-huge thanks must go to Susan Clunie for being an absolute star at the eleventh hour and producing such a fantastic creation ... complete with ultra-cute sugar paste horse, (that Naomi wants to keep as a memento).   
We're taking Cally a slice when we go to visit her tomorrow morning as she was released from hospital today following her surgery.  Looking forward to seeing her again.
Think I'm going to catch up on some missed tv programmes before having an earlyish night.  Sweet dreams all xxx

Monday Monday

I must say a huge "THANK YOU" to everyone for all for the recent visits and lovely comments ... you do wonders for my ego! Please be patient with me until I get around to visiting all your blogs over the next couple of weeks as family life is pretty busy right now with the school holidays and hubby being home. I know many of you will understand but just don't want you to think I'm rude by not returning your kindnesses. I will eventually get round to you all.
My brother and his family are up visiting from England this week so we are spending some precious time with them before they emigrate to Australia in September. No doubt it will be a while until we see them again.

Following the disaster with Naomi's birthday card, I thought I'd show the replacement which sadly, isn't as nice as the one I destroyed ... but she liked it well enough so that's all that matters really and as she didn't see the original there was no disappointment.
The stamped image is 'Nellie and Foal' and I paper pieced Nellie but used Whispers Brush Markers to colour the foal and added a couple of dragonfly rub~ons that I thought were dinky.
Her favourite colour is purple so I chose various patterned papers and cardstock from my stash, with silver mirri card for layering and the observant among you will see that I once again followed last week's sketch from The Pink Elephant for the layout. Told you I'd be using it again.
Our Creative Corner Colour Challenge is to use purple this week so this will be my entry.

She enjoyed a busy birthday, especially as she had ten pin bowling training in the morning, but the most memorable moment was when she walked into her favourite restaurant that evening, expecting to sit down to a quiet family meal for 4 and was greeted by 18 family members singing 'Happy Birthday' ... well you can just imagine the surprise on her face I'm sure. It was just perfect. A memorable birthday indeed and I've no doubt she will treasure many magical moments of her special day in the years to come.
We're off to the cinema later this evening and tomorrow we are going to visit the The Falkirk Wheel so that should be a fun day out. We took the precaution of prebooking as there's so many of us and we didn't want to risk turning up and there not being enough room for everyone to make the trip. That would be a big disappointment.

**Birthday Girl**

Thought I'd show some photos of The Birthday Girl ... enjoying her special day.

This is the gorgeous horse stamp I recently bought to make her card.
She absolutely loved it as I knew she would. Whispers brush markers were used to colour it and Papermania papers provide the background.

Her brother chose this teddy bear card from my 'Grab'n'Go' box ... made from a Create and Craft card kit so a bit of a cheat really.
Her cake was, (of course), horsey themed ... absolutely delicious it was too!
All Chocolate cake and filling and very very Yummmy!!

Her party at Claytime was a huge success with all her pals ...

... we'll go back next week to collect all the items when they have been fired and glazed and believe me they will look even more gorgeous.
Can't wait!
I had a wee play too and did an 'Elliebank' LOL!

Here she is on the phone to one of my precious CB friends, saying thanks for this gorgeous card ...

Sarah aka Tiggertastic is one of the kindest, most generous ladies I have ever known.

... and this is the card received from another CB friend Natalie aka Sequin.

As you can see it is beautiful and perfect for our horse loving daughter. Thank you so much ladies. Once again you have made a young lady feel even more special than she already is.

Isn't This Fabby?

Had to show you this horse card Naomi made the other day for her friend's birthday. I helped with cutting out the paper and card to size, but she knew exactly the look she wanted and layered it all herself ... isn't it fabby? Her friend was absolutely delighted and no wonder!
I just love the rosette idea she came up with and her 'doodles' with the white gel pen are super neat.

Amazing Artwork!

Most of my online friends and forum buddies know that my 12 year old daughter is passionate about horses and sometimes prefers being around them to people.

Her other favourite hobby is drawing and, in my opinion, she has a definite talent for art. She often sits in the evenings sketching, doodling or colouring in pictures and finds it a good way to chill.

One of her friends asked her to do a picture of a horse and the other night I sat and watched Naomi draw this for her friend.

At the risk of being a braggy parent I decided I just had to show off her artistic talent ... isn't it amazing?

Here are another couple of drawings she has done ... she has always been fascinated with dinosaurs.