Sew

I am making very large curtains for my lounge atm, so lots of sewing stuff laying about in my dining room!

Now I am 48

I thought i would have a little look at my new years resolutions, and maybe update a little, as it is 3 months since making them, and it was my birthday, time to take stock!

Just lately I have tried to clear out a bit of 'clutter' in my life, and have given up the little things that were beginning to get in the way and irritate. So I have given up Spanish lessons, being a school govenor, and Rosemary Conley exercise classes.

So now I have my job, which I am quite enjoying really - loving the money to spend on stash whenever I want, and like the sense of satisfaction I get from cleaning! Just last week I changed from doing Friday morning to Thursday evening. It does mean I have to go in twice on a Thursday, but then once I am finished at 8pm on a Thuirsday that's it for the week, and a 3 day weekend! I think it's going to work out Ok. Only trouble is, I got dreadful backache after doing the 2 sessions!!! I expect it will pass.

I have my crafting, which I am loving more and more. I still love scrapbooking the best, and although I still have a lot of projects on the go at once, I have signed up for Shimelle's latest class at www.shimelle.com. It's called When I grow up. Watch this space, I will let you know. So now I have given up the little things, i actually will have lots more time for scrapping and other projects. I am doing some small swaps, inchies and ATCs, but am not going to let them get out of hand. I have 2 ongoing CJs, well 3 actually if you include the Crawley crop one, but after these I won't do any more for the time being.

I want to spend more time with my camera! I am trying to find a forum with perhaps a weekly challenge, and some inspiring tips. I love the ideas on http://herspace-myspace.blogspot.com/ and will continue with that for the time being, and I am really looking forward to going to to natalie's Photogrpahy course on saturday. I must check out the West Dean photogrpahy courses, and maybe an adult education course for September. I really want to make the best out of this camera, and improve my photography. I do think it has improved just by having my digital compact and taking loads more photos already, but now I need to get technical!

Health. I want to lose some weight. It is a glorious sunny day outside today, and I made a veggie soup for my lunch. Just got to not eat those biscuits! I am sure with all the exercise I do, 3 hours cleaning and at least 1 hour dog walk per day it should be easy! I want to lose 1 stone by the end of June, that is 3 months time. 1lb per week, it's do-able.

I still have AIFHS. I could do more and challenge myself with this, or I could just carry on with membership secretary. I am sort of in between atm, sometimes chipping in with discussion. But there are some persoanlity clashes, and that scares me!!!! I will definately carry on with m/s for the time being. I also want to do far more family history. I spent £90 on a subscription to www.findmypast.com, and I must make good use out of it! It goes really well with scrapbooking, and I have loads of ideas for my heritage album.

Well it's such a gorgeous day, I think I'll take my camera out now!

Bottle

This is for the http://herspace-myspace.blogspot.com/ challenge. A Bottle. This is a gorgeous bottle of handwash given to me by sarah for my birthday. I just love the way the sun shines through the bottle. I placed it on the carpet where the sun was shining in through the window, and experimented with different settings on my camera. I like this one best.

My birthday!

It's my birthday today. I am now 48. That sounds awfully near to 50 for my liking! I had a fab new camera from DH. A Nikon D70s, a fabby dabby Digi SLR. Here are some photos I have taken today. A couple of Merlin in the garden. Our old film camera couldn't cope with the black fur, but digital shows every single hair! And the grass is such a natural colour.




















Hellebore foetidus (I think!) in the garden, taken on the macro setting













Here' the box!!! Full of goodies, and I have a fab camera bag too!











Here's the man himself, reading the quick guide. Mum and Dad came round this afternoon, so we have sat in the lounge for ages today. After they went I surfed the photography forum on Uks, and found some really helpful things, such as photoblogs, and challenges. I am going to try and spend some time this week to find a good one or two to stick with. What I'd like is a photoblog with perhaps a weekly challenge, with tips.

A long shot of the garden from the back door of the conservatory. It looks good from here doesn't it?

Quite a restful day, doing different things, just what a birthday should be. Other presents: from Lucy some special oil and vinegar, from Nicholas a Richard Ashcroft CD (which is really fab), from Mum and Dad a crop a dile (cuts through chipboard like butter, but I haven't mastered eyelet setting yet!) From Angela, some lovely body lotion, from Sarah, 2 storage boxes, hand soap and exfoliating gloves! From Pam, coriander seeds, from Lorraine 3 polyanthus plants. And I had a whole load of birthday ATCs and cards from the Tandites (Tanda stamps forum), they are gorgeous. I'll photograph them tomorrow and upload.

recent crafting

Asian ATCs for monthly swap on Tanda Stamps forum. I couldn't decide which 2 to send, so I've sent 3! (I've sent 1,2 and 3, decided not to send 4, cos it is not so good!) One for Wendy to keep. I've used Paper Artsy stamps, stamped onto paper coloured with distress inks (one of my fave background techniques!), then cut out and mounted on to HOTP Ephemera paper (blue 2 and 3) or home made background with PA maple leaf stamp (1 and 4).












More inchies! Oh I love making these! These are for a swap on UK Stampers. Background is painted stripy with twinkling H2Os, another fab background! I decided to do a 'garden' theme, using up some of my garden embellies from a swap last year, and pics out of an old gardening book, and pics out of an RHS magazine. One or two are stamped as well, eg the buzzy bee one (my favourite!) Also used beads, prima flowers, doodling, glossy accents. Can't wait to do another set!

RHS Wisley Garden

I took Mum and dad to RHS Wisley Garden in Surrey last Friday. I used maurice's camera, but am not totally happy with the results, all a bit blurry I think!

Wisley was incredibly busy in the car park! They are building new access for the new greenhouse, so lots of car park was inaccessible, and consequently the rest was full up! We thought we were going to have to turn round and go home! Dad needed the loo, so wewent back into the car park, and I spotted a space right in the top corner. PHew! Luckily Mum had bought sandwiches, so we didn't have to negotiate the crowds in the restaurant.

We went to the rockery, saw the meadow with it's naturalised bulbicodums, and this gorgeous 'river' of crocuses. The alpine house was at it's most spectacular, as you can see here. We didn't spend long, only 2 hours including a trip round the garden centre! Still a lovely day out, one of my most favourite places for a day out.

Just a quick one ....

Just a quick post, looks like I run out of time always doesn't it? Off shopping in a mo, then I'll have tomorrow (Wed) all free for crafting. Just seen a fab minibook demo'd by Shimelle http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/. Might have a go at that.

I really ought to do some scrapping, seem to have spent all my craft time lately doing inchies, ATCs and birthday cards! But now I am suffering from withdrawal symptoms! I've just become team leader of the scrapettes over on UKs and I haven't made any points yet this month!!

What a beautiful day!

What a fab time I had making these inchies yesterday! They are for a RED inchie swap on tandastamps forum. I took a bit more trouble with them this time. The background is painted with twinkling H20s, then I gold embossed some stitiches, zigzag and crosses with my banana frog stamps. Then I found little pictures, and cut words from old books. Great fun!












Oh the sun is shining today! It is lovely and warm, and it really feels like spring has sprung. We went for a lovely walk along the beach this morning. That and a cup of coffee afterwards sure helped clear the slight fuzzy head from last night! We went out for a meal with S&S, old friends. Trouble is, M and S were showing off to each other and pretending they could still drink like they could when they were 21! So M's hangover was much worse than mine! I felt muzzy headed more from lack of sleep through indigestion than drink.





I pottered in the garden for an hour, then we had a lovely roast lamb dinner. Sat at the dining room table which I had cleared. Just about to go and make it messy again!

DH has gone away for a couple of days on business, so I can craft tonight without feeling guilty!

A Clear Day!

WOOHOO! I have a clear day!! DH took the dog for a run this morning, and my friend has cancelled coffee (although I was secretly looking forward to just sitting for a bit and chatting!).

What shall I do? Not spend all day on here!!!

I could:

Clean the house
do some gardening (although it is still very wet out there!)
Clear my dining room
Make a BIG dent in my list of craft projects to do
Go shopping ( new shoes, new trousers etc)


I need to:
Get the washing and ironing done
Go food shopping
Buy a birthday present for my niece

Be back later to tell you what I did do, off to have a shower now)

craft stuff

Here are some of my cards for the Emily Falconbridge challenge. (I do think that is a great name!)
week 6 Love is just a confectionof pink hearts and flowers
week 7 muddy boots, cos that's all I seem to wear atm what with walking the dog! I'm going to do a 'Muddy Walks' LO soon, and took some oics this morning. They haven't come out very well though, cos my camera is pants at taking photos in bright light. Might have to use DS's pics.
week 8 I miss ... My Youth 1970s! Pic is of me aged 17 on my Puch maxi moped. I met DH through bikes, cos Dad made me do a motorcycle training scheme, and DH was the trainer!
Week 9 My inspiration is COLOUR. I decided on this becasue once I've picked the photos I pick the colour to match the photos, and it's that that makes a good LO and makes the photo look so good. I think anyway.



This is my Lo for Jackie's Wild West CJ over on UK Stampers. We have all been very slow lately on these, and nothing has moved for several months. Have to admit I've had this CJ for about 2 months! I ordered all my cowboy stamps because of this. And this is my first attempt at brayering! I used a Big Juicy inkpad, and the colours are fab! I really like the cowboy silhouette stamps too. I used a bit of shrink plastic on the brown ribbon.

Beth's Portsmouth crop minibook

Here are some photos of my minibook from the class that Beth took at her crop on Saturday. The whole point was to try out some new techniques, which I certainly did! The front cover has a textured surface, achieved with tissue and PVA glue! Then painted with acrylic paint, and I have highlighted the texture with a metallic rub-on. Beth used nail varnish.

This is the first time I've tried Japanese stab stitiching as a binding. It's easy! I was really pleased that my holes lined up OK, and the stitching looks great!

I finished the book yesterday, and decided to use BG Hang 10 papers, and make it a masculine book, with photos of DH on his BMW R1200GS motorbike, which he bought last year.

Here is my 'window' page.

There is a minibook inside the pocket. There is a photo later on to show the minibook.

On the LHS, I have glued a whole photo. The RHS is made from 2 pieces of acetate, painted roughly round the edge, then joined togther with eyelets, sandwiching a photo. I think this is very effective.

Here is the 'fold-out' page. I will do some journaling on the flaps. Again, I have attached a whole photo.

Inside of mini-minibook

It was a really good crop, with classes both morning and afternoon. Very well organised, easy to get to (only 45 mins from here, and I didn't get lost!), lots of great company, great venue, and there is a fish and chip shop just 2 mins walk away for lunch!!!

Stamp Galaxy cyber birthday event

Fabulous classes! Now I have finished them, I am really pleased with what I have achieved! I have not done stamping on tissue properly before. What a great technique! Got to use my new aquaflow brushes, and my ancient water colour pencils. I am really pleased with this tin, especially the top. The bottom inside has not come out very well because it has a thick layer of glossy accents type stuff. (Too thick actually, I poured it out too quick!) The lovely flower stamp came in a misc bag of stamps from eBay!

These next 2 are stamping onto tissue then adhering it to a bazzil chip. I really like the distressd look of the butterfly one, achieved by rubbing all over with a nearly dry chalk ink pad in light brown.

This is my Bazzil chip brooch! I really like the chip, but am hopeless at adding the beads, in fact, 2 have dropped off already! I am going to hang it from my AMM tote. The stamp is one of the 'retro ladies' from Tanda Stamps.

I was having a lot of difficulty with my Lippy Chick book! I couldn't get it to fold neatly! After playing with my hardly used bone folder, I have managed to get it to fold. The diagonal pieces fold in front, and the top and bottom fold behind the middle piece.

The pics are of DD Lucy prancing about in her ballet gear one evening. She looks fab! especially up on point! In fact, she is really pleased with the book too.

I haven't yet decorated the back, and have lots of pics pf her feet in different ballet positions to go there.

Paper is Blonde Moments, letters are QK 'Lucy', and flowery stamps are banana frog.

Thanks to Kym, Kristy and Sid for fabulous ideas, and very helpful instructions.