I'm Back!!!!! Yes, after a week on the high seas, minus internet & phone access to anywhere, other than when in a port and settled down in a bar somewhere, lol. There was wi-fi available on the ship,but at an eye watering £56 a week! This was our home for a week, and it was a very nice ship. We had a good holiday, saw some interesting places, but I don't think we'll be doing it again, apart from maybe a Northern Lights cruise. Not really our type of holiday, in the end. But it was a good experience, lovely crew and very nice fellow cruisers.Oh, and we got an invite to dine at the Captains table one night, which was fun. We arrived home last Tuesday, the 3rd of May.The weather has been extremely warm ever since we came back, I think we
may have just snagged the sunshine and towed it back with us. Unpacking and washing, as you do for the next couple of days, then re-packing an overnight case for our trip up to Port Sunlight for the Happy Stampers Festival. 
What can I say, but Wow! If you've never been, if you're a stamper, you really must. Fantastic show,almost all stamping related, and I came across some new companies I'd not heard of.
We also got to meet our Neet,( Hickydorums) and Chris, (Pearshapedcrafting). I got to meet some other lovely crafters, friends of Neet- one of whom, Lyn, recognised our name from FB posts, lol. Neet brought me a lovely book, full of celtic designs she thought I'd like, and a smashing rubber stamp. Has a plain side, to stamp a background, and on the other side is a gorgeous rosebud.
The pic above was taken at our lunch break- about 1.00pm, we all stopped for a reviving drink, and some food.Much purchasing of stamps was done-now I just have to catalogue and store them all.
Love these cats and dogs from Indigo Blu- and you may spot a bit of a cat/dog theme here.
Some Sweet Poppy stencils- a steampunk cat, and dog(!) amongst others.
Hobby Art stamps here, this time we have Cats & Owls, along with a scenic set.
I also picked up a set with a number of fairies in small sizes in a variety of positions, and I think quite a lot of these stamps are a perfect size to mix and match with the Lavinia Stamps I have, which is always good.
Inkwell Stamps, I have seen before at the NEC, but not really had a good look at what they do. A set of stylized cats(!) grabbed Dougs attention, as well as the Pebble People stamps. A cute penguin and snowman Christmas stamp, along with a NOEL stamp in the sale.
A few from Crafty Individuals- The loose stamps were 5 for £3, a bargain. I think they are oddments from some of their larger sheet sets.
A visit to Helen and Mark at Visible Image provided these stamps, and a nice chat. I'd been chatting to Helen on FB when we were starting to drive up, and thanks to her info about the state of the M5 & M6, we stuck to back roads, and made good time.
A few from Lavinia stamps, I have a large version of the dancing fairies already.
These came from Stamps Away/Clevercut. I'm always on the lookout for sentiment stamps, trying to get a variety of sizes, and scripts. Liked the handwriting font for these, and they are a bit larger than normal, without being too large.
This is a company I had never heard of before, Honey Doo Crafts. They have some amazing, beautiful stamps. If you don't know them, go have a look. They have a huge range of stamps, and loads of other crafting goodies.
This one was a freebie, I think it was buy 4 large stamps, get a small one free.
An awesome little Dinky stencil of Bats.
Then a handful of basics- some Stickles, some pearls, a new pot of Glamourdust, some Puffy Stuff- I thought it might make interesting snow texture- and some glue.
And the final purchase was some deckle edged 8x8 cards, and envelopes. 4 packs of 15 for a tenner.
