A New Beginning

Hello, anyone there? Lol
It has been a while hasn’t it? Life just gets in the way sometimes. I have been trying to write this for 6 weeks!

Don and I took a very sudden but major decision to move away from Derbyshire and the High Peak to the lovely hills & valleys of North Yorkshire to be closer to our daughter Claire and her little family. It does mean that we are further from our son Gareth but not too much that we can’t drive there and back in a day if need be. Fortunately, they have a spare room now so we can actually stay longer (and they can pamper us for a change!)

Preparing to move was a real nightmare for us. We were in a four bed, three storey house and moving into a two bed, single storey bungalow so you can imagine ‘the stuff’ we had. After 43 years of marriage and twenty years in the same house we had managed to collect an incredible amount of ‘stuff’. Plus, we only had 6 weeks to do it. That’s okay for young, healthy people which we are not. Between us Don and I would not add up to one healthy old person lol. Anyway, it took us all of those 6 weeks and we still weren’t completely ready.

The hardest part was of course my craft room. I had so much ‘stuff’ or stash according who was telling it. So, it was a case of give it away, sell it, recycle, throw it out (argh) or keep it. A pile for each and I was brutal. I had to be because it wasn’t all going to fit.

On the day we had two vans and two cars loaded to the brim and the house was still not empty. Gareth, bless his heart went back the next day to finish what he could and still left some pieces behind. It was a relief to know that no-one was moving in and the house would be sold.

I never thought I would convince Don to move but I did. He finally realised that we needed help. I was very worried that I would be dragging Don away from his beloved Buxton FC and all of the friends he has but things have worked out well for him.

Leaving my friends wasn’t so easy. I knew it would be hard but not as painful as it has turned out to be. I haven’t had ‘real’ friends in my life as I am content in my own company – mostly. These ladies are special. To reach 64 years of age and realise that you do have wonderful, kind, funny and caring friends is almost a miracle to me. A miracle I have left behind. I will try to keep in contact and thanks to Jo Rice and her blog I know what they are crafting.

The house – A 19th century terrace in the heart of Buxton Town – is in need of a desperate makeover. I hated that house for twenty years! but, it was somewhere to live. I don’t and won’t miss it or Buxton and I have no really good memories of our time there.

Yorkshire – a beautiful little bungalow on a farm just ten minutes from Knaresborough. We have been blessed with wonderful landlords and fabulous neighbours – sheep, cows and Patrick, the horse in the field we overlook from the front garden.
Every morning you wake up to the birdsong and the rabbits and hares coming out to play. It is so restful and heart-warming.

There are also some red kites nesting nearby and we can sit with a glass (or two) and watch them soar over the trees and fields.

I have my birdfeeders out too and so many different birds come to visit (as well as the farms chickens lol). Greenfinches, bluetits, blackbirds, dunnocks and of course, robins.
I still have boxes of craft stash to unpack but that’s okay, it will take time and we are busy enjoying this beautiful summer with our grandchildren. I haven’t done any crafting yet, but I have a few projects to finish plus a few ideas for our new home.

I still have those days when I am unwell but mostly I am content.

Thank you for stopping by. Take care






Good afternoon everyone. I hope you are all well and in good crafting mode.

I am hoping to get up to my craft room today although it might be more for cleaning than crafting *sigh*

I have been doing a little parching as it's something I can do anywhere. It's mostly just the tracing for now but it will give me a head start.

Parchment seems to be very popular right now. First Clarity with their embossing templates and now Tattered Lace have launched a new magazine which seems to cater for the pricking side with a free fan grid and more in the pipeline. I have some of the Clarity templates and they give a nice crisp finish but apart from the Christmas tree I don't think I will be buying 'pictures'. Some of them are really nice but for me it takes something away from the craft. This is also true of grids (except the horizontal/straight grids of course). The TL fan looks lovely but until I use it I don't know how versatile it is.

I have a lot of new goodies to play with so I hope my cleaning doesn't take too long. Even more new dies, Clarity stamps and embellishments to play with.

IF I manage to make something today I will post pictures but as always - don't hold your breath!

Shame on me!
A little while ago I showed you a blog candy give-away by Linda Simpson (Tim Holtz Book), Well, I won it! It has pride of place on the shelf above my desk. Thank you very, very, much Linda.

Well, I suppose I'd better go tackle the mess in the craft room.

Take care ((hugs))      

New Toy

I have a new toy! My darling husband bought me an Ebosser a few weeks ago and I've had a little play with it. I'm not greatly impressed by it's cutting abilities but it does emboss beautifully. I don't know what I'm doing wrong with the die cutting but no matter what 'sandwich' I follow the cut isn't perfect. I will get it right in the end I suppose. It just needs tinkering. I chose this machine because it was a very good offer and my hands are getting worse. I can still use a handle as I have my beloved Cuttlebug but it's always sensible to look ahead I suppose. To be honest I really like the Crossover machine but it was so much more expensive.

I also bought a set of Sue Wilson Christmas dies from one of the new craft channels, Hochanda. I am really impressed with this craft channel. Loving the new crafts they show but the quality of picture and sound are not quite right. I can put up with that though. I've even started to watch Dawn Bibby on The Craft Channel. I went through a spell where I didn't like to watch her but it's nice to have her back. I'll be even happier when Leonie is back. Rumours (you know how they work!) have placed her with Hochanda. That will be great as I think it will suit her more - but what do I know!

I also have a set of Apple Blossom general dies as a subscription gift from a magazine. These are lovely to use. We sampled them at a workshop so I knew what I was getting. These dies are a really good price too.

I haven't had a real play with any of them as my heart really isn't in it but they'll still be there when it is.


Thank you for stopping by.

Take care ((hugs))

Back To My Roots

Today I thought I would share a little picture of two of the hearts I made at a sewing club I recently joined. It is run by Stephanie Weightman who is a really lovely person as I am sure most crafters will know. It's a new club so I wasn't quite as wrecked as I normally am when meeting new people although I admit I did have some medicinal help (NOT gin! or any other alcohol  lol)

We were given a choice of fabrics, ribbons, buttons etc so we all had something different. I got to use the Tattered Lace Crossover Machine. My opinion, for what it is worth, is that it's a lovely smooth machine. We were all making hearts so we used a set of Linen and Lace heart dies. They cut beautifully.

It was just a case of cutting them out sewing on the outer edge, leaving a space to fill with stuffing and lavender then sewing up. For hanging hearts we just added a folded ribbon in the top centre. Then it was just a case of decorating them. One of mine has lace and buttons, another just a button and others just plain (not in the picture as I plan to decorate them).


Simples!!
That is all for now. I am off to the craft room as soon as the tennis finishes - GB v France in the Davis Cup (shh we are winning!)
Time for some Parchment I think.
Thank you for stopping by




Personal Impressions Blog Candy

Just a little blog post about some lovely. lovely blog candy at Personal Impressions blog and Linda Simpsons' blog. Links to both are at the side.

Linda has a truly wonderful blog which she updates daily. I love her work and she has inspired me for to try a lot of different things so please even if you don't want (?!) the candy go and look at her blog and of course Personal Impressions should be on your blog list too.

While I am on the subject, my mentor Jo Rice also has a really great blog that you should visit. She also updates almost daily and her work is tremendous. There are step by step instructions to her makes and some truly wonderful techniques that she will introduce you to.

That is it for this post. Have a wonderful day and thank you for dropping by!

                                                         

First Christmas card this year


Well sort of! I haven't mounted onto a base card yet. There is a reason! I'm making the toppers/parchment first and adding the base card later so that I'm working to a system. I'm hoping this will work better for me.
I used the Clarity holly stencil and a Clarity NDC stag stamp. This stamp actually came with a heart in-between his antlers which I carefully cut out. It will still sit in when I need to use it so I now have 2 stamps. I did try to just mask it but no luck.
I used 2 green distress inks for the holly and a red glaze pen for the berries.
Then I brushed PanPastel around the edges, added ribbon with a chocolate box bow and finished it with a brad from my stash.
Simple card but I like it.

I hope you are well. Thank you for taking the time to stop by


Hello! What silly weather we are having. It's been quite nice this morning but it has turned grey and miserable. A term used years ago 'Murky Dismal'. Do you remember it?
Well today, not being a great day for me I haven't done any crafting so I have decided to share the card I made for my granddaughters' 13th birthday on Thursday last week.

      

I love Julie Nutting doll stamps.  They take me back to my childhood.  We were a poor family and couldn't afford real dolls (ahh) so I collected paper ones including the Bunty ones on the back of the comic LOL  I LOVED my paper dolls and I had over a hundred that I remember.

Anyway back to the card. I stamped her out on Clarity Gelli card and coloured her with Graphit pens. These are definitely my favourite alcohol pens.  I went over her hair with Spectrum Noir pencils to bring out some highlights.  Then I stamped the top half of the doll onto some pink/lilac paper and cut the dress out, added colour to the waistband and layered it over the doll.

The numbers are from a DoCrafts set and the Dream stamps are from Inkylicious,  I die cut the corners ( Tattered Lace ) from paper in my stash and added flowers from Wild Orchid crafts. I wish I had put the bottom roses at the other corner but hey ho too late once it's glued down.

The base card looks white but it isn't. I swept the outer edges with red and white to make a pink border.

The picture doesn't show the subtle shading I did with my pens. I know it's not great but for a relatively new beginner I am quite pleased. The only problem I had was the cheeks. I did the dots like Nicky Hall had shown me but they looked wrong so I stupidly tried to change it.  I tried the blender pen then I tried erasing them and finally used  Spectrum Noir white pencils, They look O.K. but 'could do much better'

Right waffled on long enough!  Enjoy the rest of your day.  I'm off for a lay down.

Take care and thank you for dropping by   X