Playing along with Scrapfactor UKS

The layout I posted in my last post was chosen by ScrapDolly as the winner for week 6 of Play along with Scrapfactor!!!! Wow! Thank you Karen, and thank you to Suzanne (Fruitsuet) for giving me some of the inspiration for tying the photo frames together.

Here are a few more of my entries that didnt win. All are in the digi catagory to try and promote digi scrapping.

Challenge: To use just one photo

Challenge; To use a paper advert as inspiration

This weeks challenge was a sketch with lots of circles which I hated!

Play along with Scrapfactor

My UKS Play along with Scrapfactor entry for week 6. HoneyBeeDesigns kits.

Updates

I thought taking the lappie away with me might mean this got done on time, but instead the updates have been sitting in the editing posts box waiting for me to download the camera, oh well!!!

The last day of our few days away, and after another stuffed to the brim breakie we sat in the car listening to the travel reports. The M1 section in to London had been shut for 4 days due to a fire under one of the arches, and with 2 big footie matches and the London Marathon it didnt look like the journey back was going to be easy.

Kelly and Ol had invited us for dinner but it wasnt until 6 so to avoid both the traffic and arriving way too early we decided to go to Woborn. We were dithering over the Abbey or the Park right up until we got to the gate of the Park, but we knew in our hearts the animals were always going to win.

We had been to the Safari Park way back in the 70's and I have to say it hasnt really changed that much. There were far fewer animals to be sure, and way more cars but it was still fun. The first section drives you through the Savana type plain where there are rhino, zebra, deer and ostritch wandering around.

I wasnt sure how they managed to keep all the animals in their own sections but they all seemed to follow the stripy orange and black jeeps carrying the rangers about so I guess they were kinda trained to it.

I did get a tad cross with the idjitt two cars up who, despite all the signs, was feeding the ostritch through the window, causing it to attack the windows of all the following cars expecting more food.

And I got really annoyed with the bloke in the car in the bear enclosure who parked and stopped everyone from moving forward, and had a lovely view of the bear himself but by the time he finally moved on, the bear had moved off leaving me with little more than his backside to take photos of.



The monkeys were good and only one baby monkey took off with a car ariel and that was the bloke's own fault as we were all clearly told to take off our ariels before entering the park, so I had no sympathy for him.


You can drive round the park as many times as you want but it had taken so long that all we really wanted was a drink and a comfort break. The part of the park where you can get out and walk round, seeing some of the smaller petting animals is now looking very tired and old, despite only being opened for 3 days this season. I felt so sorry for the poor penguins who's enclosure had obviously seen better days.

The animals are well cared for, but I suspect economics have hit the park hard.

When we got back to the car, the family of Muslims in the three cars parked in front of us were having a huge domestic. It was so funny to see all the men folk cowering behind the cars as the women tore stripes out of each other. Eventually one of the other ladies told them all to get in their cars and shut up, and then she looked across at me and mouthed an apology!!

In the end traffic was light and we had a good run down to the kids where we spent a couple of hours chatting and then a lovely meal before heading off for home.

Here is my entry for week 1 of play along with UKS scrapfactor. I didnt get picked as a winner but I did get some lovely comments, not least one on Smackblog (and it wasnt a smack!!!!)

Peg bag

I finally finished my peg bag. It was inspired by one I saw in a shop for £14!

Its the first time I have tried machine applique and it was lots of fun. I hand drew the little clothes and chalked all the rest straight onto the fabric to machine sew. I dont have an embrodery machine but the button hole stitch turned out to be just about right!

The pattern was free of the net and the material was from a bundle of fat quarters half price in the hobbycraft sale. Aside from the applique bits I only used 1 fat quater for the bag and half of another to make the bias binding. The lining was an old bit of sofa cushion material.

Knebworth without the music

We were both looking forward to the English Food Festival at Knebworth house, and although we turned up before the crowds, and were unindated with foodie samples, we were too stuffed full of breakie to try all the mouthwatering freebies, so we headed to the gardens to look round first.



The gardens were beautiful even though they weren't in full bloom yet.

I loved all the characters carved from old tree trunks.


The dinosaur garden was interesting too. However, my wrecked kneee, and now a sore foot (a large lump had decided to develop just below the ankle) put us off walking round the house so, slightly peckish by now we hobbled back to the food tents.

Suddenly, as if from no-where, hoards of people toting young children in buggies and dogs on leads seemed to appear. The tents were jammed packed, and the food samples dissapeared very quickly. I was run over twice by people pushing buggies (on my hurtie foot both times) and then when we sat on the grass for a coffee (the seats were all full from the coach loads of people that had now arrived) a woman in a wheelchair run straight over the same foot!!!!

So fed up with it all, we went back to the hotel. Martin took himself over to the driving range and I read my book until tea time when we took another outing, this time to the local Toby to have our roastie dinner before falling into bed.

I entered the uks Scrap factor contest before we left home, not because I wanted to win or anything, I hoped and prayed I wouldnt actually get into the full rounds, but Scrapdolly sounded so desperate to get enough people to enter, I decided to booster up the numbers. Here are some of my audition entries.

This was the hardest, a LO without a photo. In the end I found an old LO that I liked and redoing it from scratch because I never remember to save as a photoshop file, I replaced the photo with a quote.

I dont do LO's about me usually, and this is the only 'bump' picture I ever had taken. It was all pre-Demi More so 'bumps' were more for hidding than being proud of.

Just to prove I can do journaling when I try

Oxford or Cambridge

Another not so great start to the day when Martin, attempting to shower in the shower-above-the-bath (I have to say our hotel is lovely but the bathrooms really let it down) slipped over and hurt his arm and leg. Still my inventory was not to be tampered with, and after a very hearty full english, we set off for ... Morrisons!!

Yes despite there being a perfectly good 24 hour Tesco garage a stone's throw from the hotel, Martin had insisted I find out via the net where the nearest Morrison petrol station was so we could tank!!

After that it was on to Cambridge. We decided to use the Park and Ride, but were astonished at the price. Unlike Canterbury where they charge per car and up to 4 passengers, here they charged per person and whats more they charged more if you paid on the bus rather than use the ticket machine, and to add insult to injury the machine didnt give out change.

Unlike our visit to Oxford, where we had a long list of places we wanted to go see, Cambridge didnt seem to have any focal points so we grabbed a free map from off a stand in the shopping centre and just wandered around,....... and then wandered some more .... and then wondered just what there was to see.


Oxford teams with little shops, huge interesting architecture, narrow alleys, and best of all, a bustling atmosphere. Cambridge just felt tired, was all bitty with no main shopping centre or high street, was a mix of mainly newish (60's and 70's) type buildings with the odd older type historic building thrown in.

Of course there are the punts down the river Cam and we spent a few entertaining moments watching a guy who was totally pants at punting attempting to take his wife up the river. This wasn't easy as she was at the front of the boat with one oar rowing in totally the opposite direction to him!

According to the guide map there are more than enough museums, so we tried the first one we found open. It wasnt very intereactive, in fact all we could see on shelf after shelf were stones and bones!



So we had a coffee in the park and listened to a busker playing some pretty cool blues numbers, and then decided to head back to the hotel. Of course only we could get sidetracked by a spot of shopping. As we searched for the Park and Ride bus stop we passed a shop selling suit cases. Ours gave up the ghost last year and we had used my scrapping tote for this holiday but that was only meant as a 1 off, so thats how we ended up dragging two large empty cases round most of Cambridge before finally finding the bus back to our car!

Back at the hotel we decided we would try out the free leisure facilities but it seemed that you had to have booked a spot early in the morning if you wanted to go swimming between 4 oclock and 7, so we lazed in our room for the rest of the afternoon before heading off across the road for a swim. Then we has a drink in the bar before off to bed as an early start was needed for our day at Knebworth in the morning.

Day at the races

We are off on our hols again, all be it a short break. A couple of nights in a Spa hotel in Bedford, chosen because it wasnt too far to go on only a 4 day break and because having enjoyed the delights of Oxford a few years back we felt it only fair to do a tour of Cambridge to keep things even.

It wasnt an auspicious start this morning when, the weather turning to another cold snap, I checked to see if my coat was in the car. It was then I realised that whilst on a training course on Eco and natural activities for the Foundation Stage, in a little wooden hut in the wilds of the woods around Ashford, I must have left my coat there.

We were driving up to Newmarket, only about 30 miles from our hotel, to enjoy the first big meet of the flat racing season. With no coat, I had to wear my more scruffier looking sweat jacket, (we forgot how everyone usually boots and suits for the races) and even so I was frozen by the thrid race. We stuck it out to the 6th race ending 20p up on the afternoon, before calling it a day and heading off to Bedford, catching the rush hour on the way.

Tomorrow we are off to explore the city (and hopefully find me a very thick coat).

Allly Pally and the BSBSS

Yesterday Kelly and I took ourselves off for a mother and daughter day at the Big Scrapbooking and Stamping Show at Alexandra Palace. I got to travel up on the high speed train which was fast and comfortable (and I wish they would update the rest of the rolling stock to this standard) as well as reasonably priced. I did have to park in a rather dodgy looking place in Faversham (but more on that later), as the road to the all new, all singing (and looking little different from the old) steps and subwalk to the station has now become 2 hour parking zone. A ploy I am sure to make you pay the extortionate prices in the station car park.

Anyway one starbuck latte on St Panc's station later, I had met with Kelly and we were on our way. Unlike all the other times we have been (and there have been many) it was a beautiful warm sunny day, we had our picnick and our money. We were looking forward to spending a little cash on some goodies and seeing lots of demos, so we could come home raring to go on our summer photos.

We were pleased to see they were stopping trollies from entering the hall, everyone had to leave them in the cloakroom. It was amazing the difference this made to walking round and getting in/out of the stands. Why they hadnt thought of this before I dont know, but for once there was little pushing and shoving, and most people moved aside quickly if you asked politely to be let through.

We overheard Barbara Grey of Clarity Stamps say she was demonstrating in the downstairs hall in half an hour. Now last time out both Kelly and I had bought one of the new speedball brayers, but had both had rubbish results with them, but we were both determined to get it right so were desperate for tips from the talented brayer lady herself. We rushed downstairs, and having sat through half a very boring template presentation by the create and craft lady (I'm sure she was fantastic but it wasnt our cup of tea and we hadnt really a clue what she was doing) we managed to grab two front row seats!

Barbara was brilliant. I highly recommend going to one of her demos if you can. I would love to do one of her workshops. As well as being ubber talented, she is a joy to listen to, and she gave us loads of ideas and tips, not just on how to use the brayer. And on returning home, I find I have more or less got the brayering sussed!!

I have to say that the rest of the show was somewhat of a dissapointment. There was stand after stand of Tim Holtz stuff. Although I bought 3 distress ink pads, and Kelly bought a distress stain, I really am fed up with the grunge look and after something a bit more uplifting and brighter. Not only that it seems that yesterday I was having senior moment after senior moment as I managed to grab a distress colour that I already had. An extremelly hard thing to do since I only own 6 colours!! Still it wasnt just me as Kelly picked out a shimmer stray colour we also owned (despite us only having 6 colours of those between us). My lovely friend Kate of Pickleberry Papercrafts has kindly offered to swap it for me though so not such a great disaster afterall.

Just after three we called it a day and left to come home. Again it was the high speed train (only marred by a group of young lads who, although well behaved, were rather noisy in their chatter, spoiling my concentration on my ebook. I was a tad worried about my car, but as I walked towards the corner of the road I had parked it in, I could see it was still there and looked sound enough on that side. It was only when I was close enough to draw round to the other side of it that I got a bit of a shock, as a large chicken, yes I did write chicken, was stood by the driver's door looking up at me. What's more she had two mates standing behind looking over her shoulder and making menacing chicken noises!!!!

It turned out that the three of them were escapees from the house across the road, and the owners had just that moment discovered them to be awol. All three were quickly rounded up and it was safe for me to drive home and play with my meagre haul. I bought:-

6 for £5 mister spray bottles
2 cosmic shimmer's (kelly bought 2 as well and we swapped our colours, filling the mister spray bottles
3 distress ink pads for £11 (bargin)
1 12x12 plastic storage box, these were 3 for £6 but Kez had the other two. We bought them to carry home the
£3 worth of Fancy Pants paper (double sided) at 20p a sheet
Lavinia stamps - 3 dancing fairies and the two sizes of hanging ivy.
10 reels of shiny thread for £10 which we are going to split

New/further attempts at using the brayer.

Wot I has been doing.

This really boils down to not a lot.

I have been working 4 days a week for the Children's centre and with a 56 mile round trip a day this is kinda wiping me out so my day off is usually a half hearted attempt at some show of housework, and the rest of the day chilling between the telly and the computer with a little bit of pottering in the garden (a half hearted attempt at weeding) or some sewing. I have half a quilt made, the start of some applique for a peg bag, and a sewing machine cover that still needs a hem on it.

I have made 3 digital Layouts which I cant share as they are entries for the UKS Scrapfactor competition. I have no intentions of winnning, I only entered because Scrap Dolly seemed desperate to get some digi scrappers joining in, and its so long since I uploaded anything to UKS I have probably stuck them in the wrong gallery anyways. We shall see.

Today I have to go have two fillings, go to the opticians to get my 10 day old glasses straightened and if time nip in the hairdressers and get them to chop some off my hair. Mmm my hair. lLast weekend I had a go at dying in for myself, Laura usually does this for me but being in week 26 of growing her bump doesnt want to be near the chemicals. I got a couple of the new mouse type ones as Tesco had them on offer for a £5 each. One was close to my own colour (Light Brown on the label) and the other was called Hot Brown and on the labels showed beautiful rich golden brown shades. What I got was orange!! A dark but spicy orange with purple type highlights when the light shines wrong on it. Its very different and I am still not sure I go much on it, but so many people at work and at home have said it looks good, so I am sticking with it for a while and may get used to it.

I do just want to congratulate my Kelly though as she got her official results and has obtained a first in her accountancy degree. She is rightly very proud of herself and I am very proud of her!

Long time no blog post

Things that have been happening in my life lately

1. Had my eyes tested, paid out over £580, and now have snazzy new glasses but more importantly can now see!
2. Manned up and went to the dentist, need two fillings, will have nice nashers but be too poor to eat as 'no hole' dentures come in at £280
3. Some unnamed git face scrapped the back of my car stripping the paint work down the metal. Car only 3 months old :(
4. Kelly came down and we had a lovely day crafting - I completed a double layout for one of the 2peas stamping challenges
5. RIP my mum's step brother Dave who passed away last week
6. Martin has had the week off to decorate. The front room now has new plaster, a new window ledge, a new light switch and is all freshly painted a soft Almond White colour. Just a few more bits and bobs to do to finish it off (photos will follow)
7. Quilt is slowly progressing but I need more fabric to ake the border.
8. The kids and Martin all went up to see Spurs v Milan. Martin, Wayne and Craig took nearly 4 hours to get there because a quarter mile stretch of road had been shut and they had to detour round the whole of London, but they arrived in time and enjoyed the match
9. We emptied, cleaned and refilled the hot tub
10. Seedlings in the greenhouse all died due to another cold snap.
11. We had all the radiators sorted, nice plumber man put new temp controlled valves on them all, replaced the shot rad in the lounge, sorted out the leak in the boiler and then flushed them all through (first time in 25 years!). We now have wonderfully warm rooms.
    

I think that about covers it.

Project 12

I did this last year but only got as far as Febrary. Lets hope I get a bit further this year. I loved the first sketch though. Please excuse photo, how do you manage to photograph a double LO and get it straight??

DCWV Nana's Kitchen stack, Core denations Cream and Sugar, Free digi calendar off net, rest from stash.

Quick template

Just a quick digi using a free template for the challenge over on 2peas.

I have used bits from digi kits all over my hard drive so please dont ask me to credit, but thank you to all the designers who helped me put this together.

Poor Kelly/stupid cars

Yesterday Kelly and I were booked into an all-day crop at Pickleberry Crafts. Both Kate and Jane were away to Stitches and to hold hands with Sir Tim while those of us left at home got to play in the shop and workshop. Both Kelly and I were really looking forward to it, mainly because it has been so long since we have seen each other but also because Kelly and Ol have been decorating again and all her scrap stuff has been packed away again.

At 9.45, just as I was about to leave for Faversham, she texted me to say she was stuck on the M25 with a flat tyre. They were not members of the AA but Ollie was trying to get them to turn out. Dissappointed I continued to the crop expecting her to still turn up, all be it a bit late.

Poor Kelly, it was chucking it down with rain and due to Health and Safety stupidity she had to sit on the bank in freezing wet weather, waiting not for a repair guy but for the flat truck to remove her car from the motorway. Apparently it is now illegal to change a tyre on the hard shoulder. (New one on all of us!). Then she had to wait for the second AA man to turn up with the tyre changing equipment because H&S now state they can not use the equipment supplied with the car (even though it is likely to be the stuff specific to that car) because they havent had training. Strike minus 1 for common sense. Infact since the most likely cause of breakdowns on the motorway are going to be blow-outs, strike minus 2 for common sense since the flat back truck driver doesnt carry basic equipment.

Eventually at 12.20 pm Kelly phoned me to say she now had to go and buy a new tyre as the spare was not safe for speeds over 50mph or for great distances, so she would not bother coming to the crop as aside from being soaked and frozen, she was also very grumpy and fed up, and broke to boot since they had had to pay full AA membership (no using Sainsbury Staff discounts for damsels in distress) and a new tyre for the stupid foriegn car with alloy wheels.

On the bright side, I did manage to get 2 and a half layouts finished. In the end there was only one other lovely girl and the lady keeping shop for Kate at the crop so although we did chat, there werent too many distractions - well apart from all the eye candy in the shop that we had to go look at and feel every once in a while.

Creative Scrappers sketch no.142 pp October Afternoon, Websters pages decorative stripe, lace and trim from Pickleberry Papercrafts, Prima flowers, Liquid Pearls Lemon Yellow, thickers, studio g stamps, journaling spot free from Karen Grunberg

I would also like to enter this Layout for Desert Island Crafts Srap challenge #2 as I used only 1 pattern paper (it was double sided so I cut the border in the middle from the same paper, the colour red, and sparkle in the liquid pearls.



Creative Scrappers sketch no 143
More October Afternoon, Jenny Bolin Butterfly, Lace from Pickleberry Papercrafts, Cosmic Shimmer mist

Again I would also like to enter this for Desert Island Crafts Srap challenge #2 My three things being; Movie or Book Inspired, Button, sparkle (both on the butterfly and the shimmer mist).

Just after Kelly phoned Louise who was holding the fort went out for a quick fag, the phone went and the answer phone picked up so we could all hear the lady on the other end. She left us in fits of giggles as she told us she was from Sittingbourne, all her family had gone away to Scotland, she had to go out to buy dogfood and she just wanted to know if the shop was open. If it was shut could someone ring her and say so. If not she was coming over for a visit!

The lady in question arrived at ten to two, with her poor husband in tow, talked the hind legs off a donkey, told her other half in no uncertain terms to go sit in the car and read his paper, and finally (after the poor guy had dragged her out the shop twice) left at twenty to four!!!

Martin was on a late shift so when I got home I got to complete two of the layouts I had started and play with my new Woodware fingerguard trimmer. Then I watched another of my Lovefilm dvd's - our aim is to get through as many films as we can during the free trial period, and then was pleasantly surprised by late guests when Laura and Wayne turned up at just after 9.

A mixed start to my week off for half term.

Fading away.....

Far from keeping up my blog this year it looks like it is slowly fading away .......

OK well lets get that put right with a really long and boring post!!

Firstly things I am not doing - I have given up with The Joy Of Love photos since none of my loved ones are ever about or willing to co-operate, but mainly because some of the suggestions simply were not things I wanted to take photos of (sorry KW).

Things I have done - I have read the class notes for the new free Big Picture class, Embrass perfection. Its all about how not to get hung up and slowed down in your scrap booking due to the need for perfection. Since this is not something I have ever worried about, knowing full well that no matter how hard I might try, nothing I ever stick down is ever going to end up straight, I am actually quite enjoying the fact that hopefully by the end of it, I will be the norm and not the acception! I love Karen's style and hopefully next week we will get some actual LO workshops too.

I have bought a new ATG gun (mine fell off the table and the hinges on the casing snapped) and spray painted it!! Not pink, like everyone else. I nearly did but then as I stood in B&Q about to pick up my purchase I suddenly thought why not choose the colour I want and not what is expected. Hence the lovely turquise!! There are a couple of places where the masking wasnt as good as it should have been and some of the glue from the masking tape still needs cleaning off properly but I am very pleased with the results. I may still add some personalised bling though.




I am now sharing my craft room with lots of up and coming veggie plants as the seeds I planted last week indoors to make a head start on the growing season germinated in a mater of mear days! I chose to ignore the bit that said keep them in the dark though and some of them are a bit leggy but I have shut the curtains now and hope they will be ok.




I have had a couple of trips to Hobbycraft to mop up what might be left in the sale. Yesterday I bought a decal for my lappie. Thanks to ebay Lappie is also happy with the new docking station and is no longer running as hot as it was when flat on the craft table. I am still waiting for a set of stickers to tart up the keys as the letters are all but gone now.



Things I have still to finish - I have now crocheted two sleeves and the bottom cable of my jacket. WOW a really big achievement for me. I am half way through making a Tilda Angel for the bathroom. I had to stop to go buy some felt to make the dressing gown but that is now cut out and half embroidered, watch this space. Things I am going to do - I have bought some more felt (well it was all on offer) to hopefully cover my new American Crafts albums. No idea how I am going to do it yet, so still in the planning stage. And finally things that are happening - Laura and Wayne have bought another plot to start their third self-build. So another round of painting and furniture moving to look forward to again.

On into February

There hasnt really been much to blog about - one of the reasons I hate January and February so much. Although I am quite happy at home hibernating and can find plenty to do to fill the time, it really isnt exciting and these two months do tend to drag on. And there is very little of interest to put on a blog entry.

We have been to the Pantomime though, as we did last year we went to the little Playhouse theatre in Whitstable to see the usual crew, or so we thought. Wayne was so impressed last year that he even dragged his parents along. Sadly lots of the old (and I mean old) favourite actors had retired this year and the scrip writters had taken the opportunity with the new blood to attempt a more polished, more musical approach which, while the girls and boys delivered it wonderfully with some great singing and acting, just didnt really hit the right spots with the small local audience. In jokes about our town gave way to more topical political jokes, the Dame was given a Gok makeover into more modern '80's style clothes, the villians couldnt make up their minds if they were meant to be comical or not, and most of the songs came straight out of the more recent pop charts meaning that they were over the head of the majority of people in the auditorium since the demographic average age was probably in the 45-65 bracket.

Other than that and joining Lovefilm and renting a film a night (trying to see as many as we can on our free trial month) life has been jogging along with work and housework. I have a few projects on the go, but none are finished so I have nothing to share.I have started to crochet (with my new set of crochet hooks) a cardigan for the summer, so far I have finished two sleeves that may have to be redone as they seem a bit short to me, and the start of the body of the garment. I am attempting to sort all my finished Layouts into chronological order and have ordered my first D ring album to help with the task. I have bought a latch hook kit in the Hobbycraft sale and have done a few rows, I have at least 2 sewing projects on the go,l and am still searching for some fabric to make a quilt for our room.

As well as all that I have joined the Joy of Love challenge which is a photo challenge to take a photo a day of someone you love.


The day 1 task was DOING. I toook loads last night of the cat asleep on the bedroom floor last night but the light was dismall (oh the wonder of energy saving lightbulbs) and an orange cat on a beige carpet doesnt really work in a colourful world. So this is him doing his second fav thing, looking out the window and was taken today. Trouble is now I have upset all the settings on my camera and the light is a bit blown out.



Today's topic was HOW THEY LOOK. Actually this is a bit wrong as it is Martin watching the telly but when he does this usually he is asleep and snoring!! This has had a few tweaks in photoshop as I still need to get the camera settings set correctly.

Headache

Having spent all day Sunday sewing under a very bright table lamp (since the light in my sewing machine had blown) it was hardly supprising that the migraine I had supported all of Saturday returned on Monday. Another day not only in bed sleeping but also throwing up too, so no crafty stuff at the beginning of the week. I have lots of stuff planned though, I want to make a few Tilda angels and ducks for the bathroom before starting on a quilt for the bedroom, and I have found a super pattern for a crochet cardi that I am trying to find reasonably priced yarn for, alongside a storage case for all my crochet hooks.
I have managed to finish the little book in a tin album I started with the kit Martin put in my stocking.












On Wednesday, with our share savers payout burning a hole in our bank account we spent the day at Bluewater's shopping centre intending to treat ourselves to something nice. Unfortunaltly we just couldnt think of anything we needed or really wanted with a burning desire. We wandered around a bit, had lunch in TGI Friday, wandered around a bit more, bought Martin a jumper, wandered, bought Mart another jumper (and only because the kids had accused him of wearing the same jumper the whole time) and then had all but given up when, in a desperate single bid to save the economy with the purchase of a new sewing machine bulb, we were nabbed by the guy demo'ing the nexpresso coffee making machines. Well yes of course we were hooked, but I have to say it is a great machine and we are enjoying full fat home made lattes left right and centre.
Then we took advantage, for the first time ever, of Orange Wednesday and went to see The King's Speech. We really enjoyed it and yes it definately is worth all the hype.

So that didnt work out so well

I may have been determined when I posted last but things have a habit of turning out differently dont they?

The sewing machine issue kinda resolved itself. So fed up with surfing the net for a new machine, I finally told Martin to take the old one down and get it repaired, at least until I could get my mitts on a new one. While I was at work he decided he would have a look at it, and after he changed the fuse it decided to power up.

Now dont get me wrong and think 'silly little woman didnt think of that did she?' Err yes I did, I had already changed the fuse and it hadnt worked. Obviously the fuse I changed it to must also have been dead, as I had tried it from an old plug, not knowing where Martin had stashed all the new fuses. Mind it still needs a new bulb, it was probably that blowing that blew the fuse.

Anyway whatever, at least I got some sewing done, and as my fabric had turned up from ebay I was able to make a couple of little 'boxes' for the bathroom following Tone Finnanger's pattern in Sew Pretty Homestyle.

I am quiet proud of them really as I had to combine two patterns to get the look I wanted and it took quite a bit of brain power to work it out.




They are to match the bathroom curtains which I am even more proud of as I had nothing more to go on than a picture off the web.



I had hoped to get some scrapping done too, and have all the photos printed out ready, but sadly a migraine laid me low yesterday, a proper one with tunnel vision and everything, so I spent most of the day asleep. Today Martin has gone with Ollie and Kelly to watch Tottenham v Charlton, which has allowed me the chance to sew away to my hearts content and maybe do a bit of scrapping later tonight.

Still determinded

These are not new years resolutions because I don't do those - and I am so fed up of finding Craft challenges that all start with words to that effect, but that is a whole new different moan which I wont bore everyone with here!.

No I am just determined that I will keep updating my blog more often than I have been because if I don't the only one missing out of recording what I have been up to is me, because my memory is not all it used to be.

I am determined to keep up to date with my birthday cards. My mum's birthday is in a few days time, I hope she isnt looking as I want to put this one up for a couple of challenges which end today.

One of the Challenges was for Just Magnolia but I didnt realise they had to be uploaded by 8.00pm. Just as well really then because although its a lovely Tilda, my mum isnt into stamps with no mouths and I had to draw in a smile, so maybe it wouldnt have counted anyway.

The second challenge is for this weeks Sketch Saturday - a difficult sketch which kind of threw me until I thought that maybe it could look like an envelope and then it easily matched the stamp and the idea of lots of birthday cards in the post.


The final place I want to enter this card is for Stamp Something where this week the challenge was to use plenty of glitter, and this card certainly has plenty of that, the paper is from a DCWV 'with glitter' stack Nana's Kitchen but as if it wasnt enough to use background papers encrusted with bling I have also filled all the little triangles in the circular mat with blue pee-wee glitter, and the fronds on the flowers have a dusting of glimmer dust. I dont think it is picked up in the photo, as the evening light in my scraproom is really really bad - another moan I am not going into on here.

Other bits used - Penny Duncan Nestie svg file cut on cricut: roses made from a file from Dan and again cut on the cricut; ribbon I think is American crafts and the sentiment is Stamping Up!

I am determined to keep scrapping - and to that effect I have nearly finished the little book-in-a-tin kit that Martin bought me for Christmas

I am determined that I will keep on sewing - and I did start a new project. I bought some lovely fabric in the Hobbycraft sale, found the online pattern I had saved, and started to make my sewing machine a beautiful and pretty new cover. Only a third of the way through though my sewing machine (which is about 10 years old now, and in my mind very young for a sewing machine) gave up the ghost. No idea what is wrong with it, it just wont power up. Its not worth getting repaired, it only cost £99 all those years ago, and since the last service (shamefully about 5 years ago) cost me £30 I am guessing it will cost more to repair than its face value.

Bottom line, I determined to buy a shiny new machine. I was bought up with a Singer Treadle, and I know Singer machines are built to last. I was talked into buying a Janome but have never been all that happy with it, the guy in the shop told me Singer had been taken over by Janome but I know now he told me blatant lies. After a bit of research I discovered the Singer Confident range, affordable computerised embroidery machines and in my price range. I liked what I saw, and set out to buy one. Err ... who pinched all the sewing machine shops? Where the heck do you buy a Singer sewing machine nowadays? I don't really want to buy online without a test drive, but there are only about 10 shops in the whole of Kent with the authority to sell Singers now, and of the few holding stock only 2 have the one I want and neither of those are withing a 40 mile radius of where I live. In fact the nearest I can find is over 70 miles away!!

Still determined I ventured online, Coopers being the company I remembered as being good, until I discovered tell of the Trading Standards watching them closely for poor service. Oh dear! Then I found that they also have several web sites under different names. Loosing faith, I stopped there, flummoxed because how could I tell which web sites were good and which not? I have not given up though, I am not going to settle for a machine I don't like and I am going to keep on looking for the one I want. Watch this space as I have a ton of fabric on order from ebay, and I definitely am not hand sewing it all!!

Sad

I hate January and February! I cant get into all these new starts and fresh beginnings, I dont do resolutions and really cant find much to look forward to in the next two months. I think its probably a bit of S.A.D. as I wont really be happy until March when I can get back out into my greenhouse and start planning for the new veggie patch.

And I have to go back to work tomorrow :(

Worst still, today I went out to Westward Cross and the Hobbycraft Sale where I bought 3 adventure games for the PC, a new book on crochet (Chicks with Sticks Crochet book, which seems really good) some fabric to make a cover for my sewing machine, and I ordered some more fabric to have a go at some of the projects in the book Santa bought me, Sew Pretty Homestyle bt Tone Finnanger. Now I have plenty to play with, including all the new scrappy stash I got for Christmas, and no time to play :( Boo Hoo!!

My baby Kelly will be feeling much the same as after a day clothes shopping in the sales with me, she went down with flu and has been in bed eversince. She starts her brand new job tomorrow and will be coughing over all her new comrades, so good luck Kez! And so sad you didnt get to play with all your new stash toys either while you were off.

To try and cheer myself up a bit, I am keeping an eye on a few challenges, the links are in the side bar. There doesnt seem to be that many about this year, but I will make another attempt at Project 12 this year (failed abismally last year) and want to have a go at the A-Z of photography.

The A-Z of photography is a follow up to the UKScrappers challenge, 52 Walks with my Camera (I did about 7 last year) but they are doing rather random words for each letter. I want my photos to reflect more on my family and family life so I have compiled my own list which is a bit more personal and am hoping that once a fortnight I will be able to take a photo or two to cover each letter.

Watch this space

Happy New Year

I have been a little lax of late in keeping up my blog, but I am going to try really hard to do better this year. So to start off on the first morning of the first day of 2011 let me first wish everyone a

Happy New Year

Then I want to share some fantastic news that I have been sitting on for 8 long weeks and one of the reasons I havnt been blogging that much, scared I may let the cat out of the bag.

Martin and I are going to be grandparents !!!!

Laura and Wayne are expecting their first baby on July 11th!!!

They didnt want to tell the public until the scan and the first trimester was pasted, but yesterday the scan showed everything going well so its time to tell the world!!!

We saw the New Year in last night, in their company as the Golf Club abandoned their usual posh black-tie-charge-you-a-month's-morgage-repayment-for-ticket dinner and dance in the marquee for a more quieter and cheaper smart/casual buffet and dance in the clubhouse.

I say buffet because soon after the tickets went on sale, they changed it to rice, chilli or vegetarian curry with chips and nuggets for the kids. Then they discouraged all the kids from coming and took the nuggets off the menu, leaving me with little choice than cheese salad as I dont do spices.

Since the dance floor area took up so much space in the bar, they put all the chairs and tables in the snug and trophy room, meaning no one could see the dance floor so no one got up and danced. Still Wayne, who is looking for a new sport since giving up cricket, got to see inside the clubhouse, meet a few members and we all had a pleasant chat and quiet drink together.