The Light Highland nights

The sky had some wonderful streaks of pink in it last night. This photo was taken at 10:40pm and it was still plenty light enough to take photos. I took a picture of the Mimulus that is flowering away with it's cheeky litle faces just now. So cheerful and pretty.

A card and a garden visitor

Not my best photo, Mr Pheasant wouldn't keep still long enough for me to get a really good shot. Here he is sitting on my garden wall. The wall backs onto a pretty forest.

It's been a busy weekend, but now I seem to have hurt my back...so a day of gentle activities is called for...the housework will just have to wait.

Our little girl went on her first ever sleepover on Friday night and as our older daughter was away too, the house felt very quiet and empty.
I made a special birthday card for my daughter's friend who was having the birthday sleepover...

I used the lovely new Tonic Studios Gothic Verso dies and punch for all those pretty edges. The number and name were cut with my Cricut mini.

A card and a cake to match

I made this card using my Tonic Studio tools. Dog roses are my mum's favourite and I had fun making it. I'm also making my homemade lasagne and some cake for this evening and I thought it would be fun to decorate my mum's cake to match her card.

I do wish my cake covering skills were better, but I used a little handy strip of punched card to hide the flaws at the edges!!! (Maybe I'll be able to get a how to lesson from my talented nieces when they visit mid August. )

Here's the cake...

It should taste good - it was baked by my older daughter, Naomi. Thanks Naomi!

Hand held vacuum cleaners..which one to buy...?

My craft room is currently situated upstairs (otherwise known as my son's bedroom). I am constantly making a mess up there...bits of paper and embossing powder and goodness knows what go flying all over the floor. But my big Dyson is quite heavy for me to take up the stairs and I have hurt my back a few times taking it up and also cleaning the stairs, so I am looking for a small but not expensive vacuum cleaner like a handheld that I can leave up there so I can clear up after myself more often.

I have been reading all the reviews I can but find that some reviews are pretty mixed, so I wonder...do any crafters out there have experience of a hand held or small vacuum that works well picking up little bits of paper and craft debri? If so, which one would you recommend?

Thanks XX