My Birthday Surprise

I had a lovely surprise today, an unexpected parcel arrived and when I opened it I found the loveliest little atc box that Hels had decorated especially for my birthday - and that wasn't all - lurking inside were 2 gorgeous atcs. I was totally bowled over and it meant so much to me, so I want to share it with you, hope you like it as much as I do :) Thanks Hels, you're a star xxxx

In My Pocket

A new challenge was started this week by the lovely Hels called `in my pocket' (see here for more info).

Well as I've not done any crafting for about 3 weeks I really wanted to have a go at this! I thoroughly enjoyed making my little pocket, and am quite pleased with the result. I used some lovely papers from K & Co - the Hannah collection and various stamps and inks and a lovely little closure that I've had for a couple of years and never used! I added some pretty little paper flowers that a friend gave me for my birthday - and voila! Oh nearly forgot, I added the all important buttons which are hidden on the inside! Hope you like it!

Our holiday in Egypt

Well we had a fantastic 2 weeks in Egypt, even if it was extremely hot - I'm talking between 40 and 45 degrees every day - phew! We had one week cruising down the Nile which was a lovely experience but very hectic as we visited loads of places, in fact there was something to see every day! The cruise was made extra special as there was a lovely bunch of people on board and we made some great pals. Also I celebrated my birthday on board and they even made me a cake - how fab is that!





Every morning the guys who cleaned our cabin made sculptures out of the towels, they were lovely, especially the one they made on on my birthday!






I guess I should show you some piccies of the sites so I shall start of by showing a mumified crocodile!!!! I must admit, I wasn't expecting to see one of those!





One of the most amazing places we went to was Abu Simbel. We had to leave at 4.00am in the morning - well as they say, no pain no gain - all the coaches had to meet up and go as an armed convoy (I wasn't expecting that either!) but when we got there it was all worthwhile! The second picture shows Andy standing outside the temple for Nefetari.







Here are the colossi of memnon, The temple for Queen Hatshepsut and me standing outside Tutankhamon's tomb (I'm the one with the silly hat on!). We went inside but were not allowed to take photos but he was actually out of his coffin and on display with his head and feet showing - amazing but I felt a little disrespectful looking at him if you know what I mean.







The Valley of the Workers was my favourite place, although the tombs were a lot smaller they were so much more colourful with amazing, intricate paintings, almost as if they had been done that day! It was quite scary going down there as it was very claustrophobic but definitely worthwhile, again, I wasn't allowed to take photos so I cant share with you how beautiful it was, but if you ever go to Egypt, please visit the workers tombs, you wont be disappointed!

We saw some fantastic things at Luxor Temple and Karnak temple and also at Karnak museum, and I have taken plenty of photos but I dont want you all to get bored!

Finally we went up in a hot air balloon that took us over the Valley of the Kings, it was a first for us and truly an amazing experience!



Hope you've enjoyed looking at these photos, look forward to reading your comments!

Hugs
Karen xxx