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It's finished!!!!
This fabulous Kaisercraft Advent Calendar. It was given to me as a gift from Andrea some time ago (read 2 years lol).
At the beginning of the year I challenged myself to tackle it and I'm so glad I did. I'm really pleased with it.
The little elves are from Hobbycraft and the white Christmas tree was given to me by Gail. These trees were used an earlier project and she had some spare.
So now all I have to do is find some small treats to go inside (chocolate is always a safe bet !!!!)Roll on 1st of December.
the Hobbycraft show at the NEC Birmingham. Four of us set off on a very early train on Saturday morning with the express intent to go shopping! I'm glad to say we didn't fail. Lots to see at this show although there wasn't as many paper craft stalls as last year. More fabric/quilting/beads/knitting etc.
Here's the stash
Lots of paper
I don't know how I managed it but these chocolate bunnies made their way home in one piece!
And finally I couldn't resist this beautiful piece of glass.
Ok so now I have to find a new home for all my new stash.
So did you go the show? If you did,leave a link so I can check that I didn't miss a bargain.
A tall stick that I brought back from our latest trip to the crafting cottage at Skipton. Hubby kindly fixed it to a lovely wood log and I was ready to dress it.
Adding layer upon layer of vintage style paper from Hobbycraft
until it turned into this amazing rustic Christmas tree.
If you want to make one of these trees then pop over to Scattered Scarlet blog for a step by step tutorial on how to make the basic shape.
ps I can't stop singing "It started with a kiss" - Hot Chocolate. If you know it then feel free to join in.
It's no good you can't ignore it Christmas is coming.....
So if you would like to get a head start I'm running some classes and workshops for Middlesbrough Community Learning at their centre on Lodore Grove Acklam Middlesbrough.
Classes start Wednesday 6th November 7pm-9pm
for 5 weeks, cost £40
Workshops are as follows and the price includes all materials.
Tues 26th November 10 am-1pm £15
Thurs 28th November 1pm-4pm £15
Sat 30th November 10am-3pm £25
These are some of the projects we will be making.
Ring 01642 811400 to book your place and you can breathe a sign of relief that you too are ready for Christmas.
Thanks for popping by.
A quick card using up my scraps and buttons. I just love kraft card at the moment.
Crafting in the countryside. For those followers who have been with me for a while will know that twice a year we go for a long weekend in the Yorkshire Dales. This is fun filled 4 days of crafting, eating (and boy do we eat!) and chatting. This year it was all girls as Sid was sunning himself abroad.
Afternoon tea was the theme and on Saturday afternoon we all donned our hats and gloves and drank tea (and ate cake)
Check out the matching tops!
Even the washing up was done wearing a hat.
And this is what we produced over the weekend. Lots of lovely projects and ideas.
Time to go home and next time we're off to an even bigger cottage.
Since getting back from France I have taken my foot off the pedal a bit so it's time to get going again. So I'm going to start with my month in numbers for September.
886gms= the weight of my first crop of tomatoes.
They tasted delicious! A testimony to our fab summer.
5 = the drawers in a new piece of bedroom furniture.
While my youngest has been back packing round Europe I have bought him a new set of drawers with the hope that it might help him keep his room tidy.
Too many to count = the number of marshmallows in my great niece's hot chocolate.
199 = the steps up to Whitby Abbey that said niece and I climbed.
The view never ceases to amaze me. I love listening to people carefully counting the steps just to check. We actually counted 198.
104 = the minutes taken for my nephew to run a half marathon.
How good was that, I have nothing but admiration for these athletes, a lot of whom were raising money for charity. Well done Ed.
11 = the number of Christmas gift bags made so far.
This year I am determined not be rushing round at the last minute so I have been preparing stuff for weeks.
And finally.....
1 Christmas tree
Sorry about the photo but it was a bit dark today. I made this at our glue and stick group with the help of Gail. It involved sewing (which is why I had help) bits of fabric onto eyelash wool. It's so pretty and I'll try and blog it again with better pictures.
So that's my September month in numbers. If you're wondering what's this all about click on the button on my sidebar and Julie will explain all.
HOME.... It doesn't matter where I go I just love it when I see this.
My front door
This year I have been very lucky and have been to some amazing places but home always makes me feel happy. Even if I don't know what I will find behind the doors? I still have my youngest son living at home but usually he's very good at keeping it tidy.
Even my untidy craft room is so welcoming.
So what do you love when you come home?
This is one of my favourite style of card. It's so easy to make and you can find the instructions here at Splitcoaststampers
I've used the small butterfly stamps from Crafty Individuals.
I quite like this colour combination of grey lilac and lime green.
If you haven't tried this style of card have a go it's really easy.
Thanks for dropping by.
holidays! I've been extremely lucky this year in the holiday stakes.Barcelona, Australia and now France. We planned this visit to France before we decided to do the Lions tour. It started off with an idea to take the caravan to the Normandy coast to re-do the DD landings.
We had visited the area before when the boys were young and we spent most of our time climbing gun turrets or running up and down bomb craters!! We were much younger then so I don't think we will be doing that again (but you never know).
Then we decided to invite sister and brother-in-law to join us but we couldn't find affordable accommodation. After all it will be the height of school holidays. BIL came to the rescue when he remembered that his brother had a place in France.
So to cut a long story short, if you're still with me, what started as a caravan holiday has ended up as flights to St Malo, car to Limoges, drive back up to a friends gite in Normandy.
Hope we get to see the DD beaches after all this organising.
Vive La France
As I was sorting out my craft room I came across some pastel gift bags from Hobbycraft. I bought them months ago thinking I could tart them up and use them for friend's birthdays. So they sat on my shelf and patiently waited and waited.
The wait was worth it. They turned out to be so easy to decorate.
I made a matching tag using scraps.
I've used Tilda paper to cover the bag and tag. That gorgeous sparkly trim is from 3D Jean.
I also found some kraft boxes when I was sorting out so I've used one to hold the present.
My friend loved them so much she said that just the bag and the box were presents enough.
Now I just need find use for those dozen or so boxes/bags etc.
UFOs no not the unexplained things flying in the sky but that mound of unfinished objects that are lying around in my craft room. Last week I tackled the mammoth job of clearing out. Do you ever start something and think half way through "Why did I start this?" But once started you have no choice but continue. In one of the corners I came across this box marked UFO.
Full to the brim of stuff that I haven't finished. Most of it were class samples. So I set to and added inserts, envelopes and cello bags. Now I have a pile of cards ready to sell or use.
The UFO box is only a quarter full now and maybe I might find the energy to tackle some more next week. I felt quite good when I finished.
So if you have that UFO box lurking about in your space check it out you may find some gems.
Hi I've decided to combine June and July numbers as I have been traveling around Australia. We went on The British and Irish Lions Tour.(click here for the full story)
10 the number of flights I took. Durham Tees valley-Amsterdam-Bangkok-Taipei-Brisbane- Melbourne- Sydney- Guangzhou-Amsterdam-Durham Tees Valley.
3Jk my seat number. Lovely hubby donated his airmiles for me travel business class and what a difference. The air stewards called me Mrs Taylor. Real glasses and cutlery, food that tastes of what it said on the menu.FABULOUS... thanks Phil.
5944 miles traveled from Amsterdam to Brisbane.
6 different hotels.
2 Smoggy hats (click here for a definition of a smoggy).
22389 steps walked around Melbourne on one day phew!
8 wines tried on our wine tour round the Yarra valley.Cheers
12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road. These are rock formations along the coast outside Melbourne.Absolutely stunning. The observant among you will note that there aren't 12. Well there never has been 12 but the tale goes that a local school girl came up with the name of the Apostles in a competition. Later on the the number 12 was added. Still beautiful whether there's 8, 9 or 12.
79 steps to Gibsons bay a beautiful secluded beach (well apart from all the tourists).
1 very cute Koala
56 the birthday that Phil celebrated on our holiday.
83,704 rugby fans in the ANZ stadium in Sydney to see the Lions end 20 years of defeat. The final score 41-16. FANTASTIC
4 scrumptious pancakes consumed by me, Phil, my brother Charlie and the biggest,eaten by my sister-in-law Robyn.
3 nights spent in the fabulous Blue Mountains.
2 local lads
1 very very very steep railway
0 the number of wild kangaroos seen.
1 fabulous holiday down under.
So there it is my two months in numbers if you want to know more about Julies month in numbers then click on the side button and join in.
If you want to read the full down under saga then click here.
As for the communal count I've opted for
825, the number of photos taken, 0 the number printed.
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