What to do on a sunny Bank Holiday Monday?

Recognise this? Well now the sun is shining and it's Bank Holiday Monday so what to do? Go to he beach? have a bbq/picnic? sit in the garden? 

No time for more crafting.

A small gathering of dedicated crafters at our local community centre.

Plenty of mess almost home from home.

Do you collect tags? I can't resist especially if they are shaped or made from kraft card such as those from Mantaray 

 I started with this.

 and ended with these

 Sorry to bombard you with more Christmassy stuff, promise the next time you visit it will be something different not Christmas.

So what did you do on possibly our only sunny Bank Holiday Monday?

What to do on a wet Friday?

This was the view from my kitchen window on Friday and although it looks very green and pretty what the photo doesn't show is the rain and the wild wind that was blowing! 

So what to do on a day like this?  Housework, ironing,shopping no what better to do than meet up with some crafty friends. 

Off to Julies, who filled the teapot, 

fed us lunch (delicious it was too),sorry we ate it before I could get out the camera!

 eat cake provided by Jean

It was yummy,

Fill up a waste paper basket.

I wish I could say I made all of these but I didn't, a certain Effie attacked her bit box with gusto!

I was in, dare I say .....Christmas mode. Listen you can never start your Christmas preparations too early!

Ok so what do you do a wet and windy Friday?

This week I'm loving

pink shoes....

I spotted these cuties on the Clarks site and just fell in love. My days of strutting my stuff on high heels is well and truly over. I need comfort now but I still love colour. 

If you look closely at the photo the only size out of stock is.... yep mine 6 1/2. So I watched the site, two weeks later  still no sign of my size. So what's a girl to do? I needed those shoes.

Then the nice lady at Customer Services told me that a store about 20 miles away had a pair. So I hot footed it up North and I was united with my love.

Look

how could you not love them. I love them so much they're coming to Australia with me.

Have you ever had to follow a must have?

ps I bought another pair (different but nice)  Well you can't have too many pairs of shoes... can you?   

Plus whatever my weight they always fit!

Do you recognise this?

or is this more familiar?

It took me nearly half an hour to clear my desk but only 10 minutes to mess up that nice clear space. I felt quite sanctimonious when I took the first photo but I knew deep down it wasn't going to last. 

I'm not brave enough to spin round 180 and let you see the mayhem that sits behind me!

This week I'm loving

PEGS...... yes that's right  these decorated pegs were inspired by an article in The Craft Stamper.

Mine are a little smaller but still perfectly formed.

 My favourite I wonder why? A cake with my name on it?

 I've used my faithful bit box to make these.

 It's amazing what you find in a bit box

 They're cute and I think I'm going to use them to hold my alphabet stickers together. So what's in your bit box?

Ribbons and bows

Cute eye candy today. Lots of ribbons and buttons from 3djean dress up one of my favourite easel style card..

The button twine bow is courtesy of Claire Rowlands, once you've been to one of her classes you're constantly tying these delightful bows.

That lacy edge was cut using an edge die that I picked up at Ally Pally(if you want to see more of the stash that just happened to find it's way into my bag then click here This particular die is from Impression Obsession.

Hope you enjoy

Card inspired blinds

I just love the combination of yellow and grey so clean and contemporary.

So much so that I took along a sample of the paper, Carolina Breeze and got some blinds made for my lounge.

And then I found these beauties in a charity shop....

perfect.

So has your crafting ever spilled over into your home interiors,your wardrobe or the colour of your car?


 

This week I'm loving

chocolate.....need I say more

When does a banner become a garland?

Is this a banner or a garland? Either way she's rather pretty. I punched the flowers and strung them onto my favourite button twine. The image is from LOTV

I'm trying to make a bit of effort with the inside of my cards.
Usually they're very simple, you know just the stamped verse but I got a bit of inspiration from Jen

Thanks for dropping by.

Ally Pally stash

Lets hope that I can use all THIS stash. But I did enjoy buying it!
My favourite emmmm I think the Spellbinders edge dies.

This week I'm loving.....

embossing on Kraft card.

inspired by a card created by Jennifer Holmes

My Month in Numbers April

I thought it was time to join in with Julie's month in numbers. I've been following this fun and interesting post for some time now and I hadn't realised how easy it is to join in. All you need is a little note book (I think you've seen this before ).

 Jot a few of the numbers that you come across in your month, take a few matching photos, then blog.
So here's my month in numbers for April

4 items on my Easter table this year

2 yummy Easter eggs eaten, Creme Egg & Caramel

21 my little boy's birthday

Wow where did those years go?

1506 minutes of Downton Abbey watched during my Easter break. Apparently I have another Christmas Special to watch!!!!!

5 friends went to Ally Pally.

62 was my seat number on a very noisy train home.

43 days to go before I fly To Australia for the British & Irish Lions Rugby tour, check out Taylor's Tours.



12322  steps taken on a blustery walk along the beach.

 Can you see it's an all time record and boy was I tired when I got home.

So there's my first month in numbers. Why don't you pop over to Julie;s and join in and then I can share your month in numbers too.

Relaunch

Ok so I've read Julie's tutorial. I've got my notebook,

 made some notes

 gathered some photos so I'm ready. 

I'm going to start with a project that I did at a workshop with Jean Hardy from Crafty Individuals.  I'm lucky enough to live near this talented lady and she holds regular workshops so I get to play with all her lovely stamps and dies. It's a canvas within a frame. I choose this stamp as it reminded me of me and my sister. I hope she likes it.

I'm hoping to start a post called this week I'm loving... so that I can to commit to more regular blogging..... fingers crossed.

Thanks for popping by.