Friday 30 September 2016

Solo September


Solo September final update.  Not as much done as I would have liked on my Christmas SAL but I have almost completed two more sections of this one.  Fingers crossed I can get up to date on this delightful stitch soon.


I finished The Curious Curate today and have moved onto the next book.  We have a little visitor spending the night with us, fingers crossed Harlee will sleep through the night for us.



Thursday 29 September 2016

Rai-sin along


Mum and I are racing through the Agatha Raisin books.  In the past week I have managed to read The Love From Hell, The Day the Floods Came and now I  am working my way though The Curious Curate.  I often wondered how Julie read them so quickly but now I understand.

Mum has already passed the next one in the series onto me to read and they really have been quite addictive.  They have distracted me from other crafts but it's been one of the few things I have felt like doing this week.






Wednesday 28 September 2016

Autumn leaves


I've managed to have a little play in my craft room today and made two very simple cards using my TH Distress Inks, a couple of SU stamps eats and a sentiments from a Stamplorations set.





Tuesday 27 September 2016

New companions in the craft room


Can anyone remember the old Christmas Woolworths advert when someone went into the shop to buy one thing but came out with a handful of other products instead?  Well that was me today when I quickly popped into Lidls after work to buy something and came out without being able to buy what I had wanted but still managed to buy something else.

I ended up buying these two cute autumnal creatures to join my blue Spring sheep in the craft room.  Why I'm not quite sure but they just appealed to me and made me feel better after a hard day at work.





Monday 26 September 2016

Love Note Day


On the NittyGritty Love blog a few years ago they ran a weekly challenge to send or leave love notes for the love of your life.  A bit of fun but also a great way to remind them that you still love them and don't take their love for granted.

Not much has been happening here as still not feeling brilliant.  I've been messing about putting another Christmas card together using pretty much the same layout of my previous card but with different images.  I'm also eager to use the new stash in the top of the photo.


Sunday 25 September 2016

Forgotten purchases

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

I must have bought this magazine back in August but obviously 'tidied' up our magazines and forgot about it.  I don't normally buy knitting magazines but I loved the cute woodland characters and thought they would be fun to knit for the grandchildren to play with.  It's given me some evening reading which was unexpected so a bonus for me.

I think I'm coming down with a cold as I have a slightly sore throat and the sniffles are making themselves known as the evening is going on.  It doesn't surprise me as Lincoln had a sore throat on Friday and Harlee was a little sniffly too - one of the lesser joys of enjoying time with the grandchildren.  The fun of being with them is worth it though.


Saturday 24 September 2016

Sometimes


Why is it so easy to make cards one day and yet another time it's a complete struggle.  This card has taken me three days to finish and I'm not sure why I'm not completely satisfied with it.  I wanted to go shabby chic with the Bo Bunny papers this time as the image was more traditional than the previous ones I've used.


I've used the Lindys Stamp Gang embossing powders on the holly pieces and the sentiment and they give a gorgeous two tone shimmery effect which unfortunately I haven't fully captured in this photo.   Believe me though when I say they are absolutley gorgeous to work with.







Friday 23 September 2016

Fairies


I've moved onto the next book in The Agatha Raisin series this one is called The Fairies of Fryfam and is proving to be just as entertaining as all the previous books.


My Solo September stitching is coming along slowly.  I've got the beads to add to the tree still - haven't found my beading needle yet.  I have made a start on the top left image which so far has the border, Noel and a holly leaf stitched.  With only seven days left in September I need to crack on with this.






Thursday 22 September 2016

Faffing about


The leaves are now starting to change colour and I'm sure it won't be long before they are landing in our drive once more.  The evening's are starting to feel cooler and the morning's are getting slowly darker, but it is I think my favourite time of year.

I managed to play with some stamps and infusions yesterday evening and have several similar images ready to make into cards.  This is the only one I managed to complete once I had finished faffing around with various bits of paper.





Wednesday 21 September 2016

New ink pad storage


I've  got lots of Tim Holtz Distress Inks but don't use them as much as I should.  This is partly down to them being stored in boxes and not always as easily as accessible as I would like them to be which means I reach for other mediums instead.  Last week at Scrapbook Magic I bought this storage unit.


I managed to assemble the unit without any problems now I need to decorate the outside and put my inks in place.  I should get more useage out of my DI's now.






Tuesday 20 September 2016

Toppers


Yesterday evening we enjoyed a get together at Moya's house, its been a few weeks so it was nice to catch up with nearly everyone, sadly a couple of people were unable to join us.  We enjoyed some lovely scones with jam and cream, lots of chat and sharing of projects.

I spent the evening cutting out the tags and embellishments that were on one of the Bo Bunny papers ready to make cards with later in the week.



Monday 19 September 2016

Talk Like A Pirate Day


Can I get my work colleagues and friends to join in with this day? I'll do my best me hearties.

Nothing much else to share today I'm afraid other than I've managed to finish another of the Agatha Raisin mysteries this time The Wizard of Evesham.




 However, I espy another book which mum has passed onto me so I'll show my heels and crack on with it.



Sunday 18 September 2016

Late today


I was baby sitting yesterday so it was too late by the time I got home to schedule today's post and this morning I have been catching up with a friend.

These are the other two cards I made from the BoBunny papers.


As I had two sheets of each paper I was able to cut out the bauble and layer it to give dimension and I also added glossy accents to give it some shine.  I added some gems and used my new bow stamp and matching punch to finish it off.


The same applied to the snowman card, I have layered the hat, scarf and nose of the snowman and added glossy accents to his body.


The sentiment is from a Clearly Besotted stamp set and the banner is SU.


Short and sweet today as I am now settling down to watch the Davis Cup.






Saturday 17 September 2016

Coffee indulgence


It certainly tastes better when sharing time with our daughter.  We popped into town yesterday hoping to open a savings account for Lincoln but not enough staff to be done so we have made an appointment for next Friday.   We browsed around the clothes shop looking for something for Colette to wear on her evening out tonight but no luck.  Good job there is always somewhere nice to go for coffee.


These were an absolute indulgence but oh so gorgeous and just what we needed after our pretty unsuccessful morning.  We did have better luck in the afternoon and picked up a birthday present which is to be from her Nan.

I put together three Christmas cards in the evening but have only one to show you at the moment as the other two I am waiting for the glossy accents to dry before I can take photos of them.


I've added silver embossing to the edges of the paper and cardstock.  Simple but as I want to make as many as possible in two weeks I think a lot of them will be.


Friday 16 September 2016

Next please


I shall be settling down to read the next Agatha Raisin book later this afternoon and adding some more stitches to the Christmas SAL. 


I shall also be wrapping up our daughter's birthday present ready for next week.  Colette admired my Happy Planner so we have bought her this lovely starter set which includes an undated planner, stickers and lots more.




Thursday 15 September 2016

Bo Bunny Tis the season


I somehow came away from Scrapbook Magic with more gorgeous papers this time from the Bo Bunny Tis the Season paper range.  I couldn't decide which ones to have so bought the complete set.  Now I'm going to try and make as many Christmas cards as I can before I go down there again in two weeks.


Actually it's  two complete sets as they are double sided.  If I'd  bought just one of each I'd have the difficult decision of which side to use, by having two I can use them both.  Crafters logic LOL!







Wednesday 14 September 2016

Best Birds

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.  ~Robert Lynd, The Blue Lion and Other Essays


I have finally got round to playing with the Best Birds stamp set that I bought back in May.  Darnell will be pleased that I am using some NBUS and I am pleased with the result.  I did CASE this card by Kim Gavarra.


I used a piece of paper from my scraps and another stamp from an old SU stamp set called French Foliage along with Best Birds stamp set and coordinating dies.

I'm travelling down to Scrapbook Magic today to make a Christmas Sledge Plaque.  I'm looking forward to catching up with the girls, it may have only been four weeks since I was down there last but it feels way longer than that.  It's  always so much fun at one of Margaret's workshops.  

At the end of October Margaret has a weekend of workshops being run by Fran Westmoreland who designs for Prima and Finnibar.  There are two different workshops and details of them can be found here  Fran's blog is called Purple Peanut's Crafty blog so you can see the type of work she produces.  I've got myself booked in  for the weekend and I'm looking forward to learning some new techniques.

Tuesday 13 September 2016

Ronald Dahl Day


Today is Roald Dahl day.  I love this sentiment which is so true.  I have now taken note of it and hope to use it either on a journalling page or canvas in the future.  I think I only ever read a couple of his books when I was younger, Charlie and the chocolate factory and James and the giant peach which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Maybe now I've got grandchildren I have an excuse to pick some up to read and share with them.

I delved into my scraps box last night and made this Christmas card.  I've used a few stamp sets from SU, the sentiment is a new one this year and I love how it takes up a large area of the card meaning you can use minimal embellishments.  The poinsettia is from last year's range and is a three step stamp and I've stamped it out three times and decoupaged it and added some gold Stickles to the centre.  The white cardstock looked a little plain so I  used a small splatter stamp to give a soft background and break up the starkness.



Monday 12 September 2016

Next please


This has certainly been the case for me this weekend as I finished one Agatha Raisin book and started yet another one.


Finished the above late Saturday evening and picked this one up to start reading on Sunday. 


I didn't get to read it though as I had the pleasure of this little man's company for most of the day while daddy sorted out his car.





Sunday 11 September 2016

Solo September update


DH is working today, he's been working all weekend so I have been left to my own devices.  Yesterday morning I spent catching up with household chores - yawn!  in the afternoon I took Max for a walk, picked up our loaf of bread - chilli bread this time.


I cut a slice of it when I got home and initially put just a crumb in my mouth and certainly got a chilli kick.  At first I thought it was going to be too hot and spicy for me but the actual slice of bread was delicious.

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours working on my Solo September project later in the afternoon and have almost completed one of the motifs.  I have just got to add some beads, a few stitches of white and the top two corners.


Here's how the whole project is looking.


We were invited for dinner as DS2's yesterday evening  and Vicky had cooked us a lovely roast beef dinner with all the trimmings with raspberry cheesecake for dessert. A wonderful relaxing evening and a great way to finish off the day.

Not sure what I will get up to today, there are lots of things calling to me it's just a case of what do I want to do most?