Friday 27 April 2012

A cat, some fish and a card!

Hello Peeps!

Hope it's been a good week for you all! I've managed to get another coat of paint on the bathrooms. The main bathroom should be finished next week (praise be!). Then just the downstairs one to finish. Had enough for this year now. Don't mind doing it whilst the weathers crud.

I've started a cross stitch of a large rose stitched on linen to go in the main bathroom. It's a beautiful design, the rose looks so life like, it's got lovely juicy shades of red and deep pink in it. After every ten stitches or so, I keep asking Simon "Does it look like a rose yet?", "No" is the simple answer.

Cross stitching is another passion of mine, I've been doing it for about 20 years now (how long?????). I love intricate designs like Teresa Wentzler and Mirabilia and love working on linen or evenweave. I did a lovely Mirabilia mermaid a few years ago, called Mermaid of the Pearls, it's got over 1000 (yes, 1000) seed beads on it, loved every stitch of that project.  That's the only thing with needlework, the results are beautiful, but it takes a long time to get there. (For LuckyDawn - used to spend many hours and a lot of money @ Embsay looking at needlework charts, kits, threads fabrics.......  they knew me well - har har).

Right back to the 'ol card stuff.

Here's a card I made for Simon, no occasion, just wanted to let him know how I feel (bleughhh! soppy moment).


I used, Echo Park & My Mind's Eye papers, Sassafras "Head in the Clouds" stamps, Versacolor ink in Marigold, Versafine ink in black, yellow and aqua ribbon, black/white bakers twine and a crystal. Simple, but sweet.

Next is a peek at my latest project in Crafts Beautiful, out today!!




I really enjoyed doing these, they are so bright and cheery and definitely my style. For more crafting ideas visit Crafts Beautiful. Another brilliant issue this month, check out my friend Claire's quilled Queen and Duke to celebrate the Jubilee. Works of art indeed!!

More piccies - I went a bit mad with the camera today. Here is a pic of the Queen of the house, Bazoo, languidly laying around in the conservatory.



It's such a hard life.

You may have noticed at the bottom of my blog I have a bit of a daft thing called 'Feed the Fish'  Well, here are my other 'babies' the real fish being fed with real food, this morning. The pond is a raised one, under the living room window, as soon as they see me, they all rush to the surface, mouths open. The koi are funny because they have such big mouths you can hear them smacking their lips (do fish have lips???).



They are so funny to watch, I get mesmerised by them. In Summer, I love to sit on the wall of the pond with a glass of wine and just listen to the water and watch them. Bazoo usually comes and sits with me, the fish don't mind her at all. She does drink out of the pond, yuk, disgusting cat. Though the water is very clear. Also, the newts should be coming back soon, last year we lost count at 32.

Well, that's enough drivvle out of me, off to the Vernon tonight for a slap up and a glass of wine or three, bwah ha ha ha!! Have a good weekend. xx

Friday 20 April 2012

It's been a while!!

Well hello!

I know, I know, it's been a while since my last post. Still on with the renovations of the bathrooms, nearly there, just painting and tiling left to do. At least the messy plastering is done. After living with layers of dust for the last 3 months, I've finally managed to have a spring clean this week. Waaayyy! So in honour of this great achievement here is a few piccies of my sparkly, shiny, dust free craft room.









I love my room. Bright, colourful and a bit kitch. It overlooks the back garden (which is nice and secluded) with a lovely big Tulip Tree. I get the sun most of the day and it's wonderful seeing everything coming to life. My room's not usually as tidy as this, no matter how hard I try to keep everything neat and my work desks tidy, I end up with mountains of stuff piled up and then can't find anything. Now it's all fresh and plaster dust free, I'll try to keep it that way. (Yeah, right).

In amongst all work going on in the house, I've been very busy with commissions for Crafts Beautiful, so I've not had much time to make personal cards. Here is a peek of my projects in the May issue of CB, which is out now. The cut out and keep is centered around stitching on cards and the 7 ways with... is very fruity! Oo-er!





Crafts Beautiful has had a mini makeover and the new look and layout is just fab. Projects really jump out of the page at you, and I love the mix of fonts used in the headings and introductions. Well done CB! The magazine theis full of yummy projects, hints, tips, ideas, articles and giveaways. For more crafting ideas visit Crafts Beautiful. Check out the forum too, it's full of lovely crafters and a great place to swap ideas or just have a natter.

Hopefully, I should be able to get a few personal cards done now. So as soon as I've created a few, I'll post them up.

Hope you all have a fab weekend, happy crafting peeps! xx