Wow... this year is going fast...

'Can't believe that I will be having a birthday next week.. seems like only last year I was 21!! hmmm what would I like? love, peace and happiness and maybe a dishwasher to help with clearing up after meals... Well, I am a lucky lady as I have the first 3 already and tbh I don't honestly know where a dishwasher would fit in our kitchen so I guess I will be happy with my life and the good family and friends I have already....

til next time then

WOYWW...229

Well then, its not technically on my desk but on my bed now cos its finished! The blanket I started way back in July... Its only a quick post as the previous post stated that I finished it on Saturday but I thought I'd blog it again as I blogged it when it was started!
Remember this lot?

Well here its is finally finished. 2 metres across and down. I am really pleased with it and love the way the colours blend together too.

















Thanks for visiting my blog and don't forget who started it all...  Here is a link back to Julia's blog :D

Lisa
xx

Ta-dah! it's finally finished... (And a moment in time) and a friend has left to go back to sunnier shores and leaves a big hole in our lives

Since July the 7th I have been working on a project that has taken me thru the summer and yesterday I finally finished it (October 18th).  I had to order extra balls here and there if I was running low on a particular colour... So after spending £135.00 on wool and approx 200 (wo)man hours here its is. Hubby measured it for me and its approx 2 metres across and down. I'm really pleased with the result and have just under a ball of each colour left so I am going to try and make some scatter cushions to match.

So now that's completed, Well, I can turn back to papercrafting for a while although my two boys have put requests in for quilts.... should be a bit easier than knitting or crocheting!

And before I forget... Our dear friend Alison has gone back to her home country of Australia! We will miss her so much when it comes to our yearly retreats in March as she has been to every one so far.... The first one she was quite pregnant with her gorgeous twin boys... And the next one she missed her boys so much but it was quality adult time and a mum needs that at times don't they! Anyway, we had an idea of doing an album for her as a memento of our retreats... I made the cover using some papers from an Echo Park collection and all of us did a page in it at 8x8 size and using kraft paper to link all the layouts together....

I am pretty sure everyone who goes has put their layouts on their blogs but I also have a digital layout to show as Mr W did a lo of himself and Mr P. At the last retreat Mr P cooked on Friday night and Mr W cooked on Saturday night...

The very last page I put an 8x6 print in so Alison can remove it and use it on a layout to go in this book too. I know we all miss her so much already but thank goodness for facebook and skype too.

So I'll say bye for now and til next time.

Note Book Swap

I have been involved in a note book swap with some lovely ladies who are great friends and great crafters too...
Here is mine which I decorated for Tara.

First of all I took the cover off and paint it with gesso and some blue paint... the I cut a piece of white card (SU's whisper white) and placed a mask over the top and rubbed some Adirondack cloudy blue paint over and for the bottom part painted it blue then stamped over that using Adirondack denim inkpad and a large script stamp and used some banana frog stamps and cranberry ink too. I made a heart using pearlescent pva. I then covered it all with mod podge. Using my petal pairs punches I made some flowers and diecut some leaves using a crealies die and added those, I added a crystal swirly and then diecut a shape and stamped the note book letters and stuck all those down. Then I bound it all together changing the brown pages for white pages and sent it off to Tara.

Bye for now

The blanket................. just a few pics!

Okay, so here is the wool I've been using for my blanket... and yep, this is the second lot!! so it's gonna take 30 balls of wool!! We chose the colours together as it's going to be on our bed so I thought we could chose a colour scheme that we both like...

So...I popped on to Samuel Taylors website to get my favourite wool... Sirdar Calico which is a summer weight yarn.  The first colour is called Muslin (a regular favourite), the second is Hopsack (this is a kind of pale sage green and you know, I think it's gonna become a favourite of mine too), third is Cotton White, fourth is Amber (I had to get this asap as the colour has now been discontinued! fifth is Peachie.... and last is Banana (which is cuddled up next to Peachie!  Its the first time I've used the Hopsack, Peachie and Banana and I really like them too!

Then.... I thought ooh some of you might like to see more of the wool to get an idea of the colour scheme















And then......I thought you might like to see the colours all together!!

Isn't this is a real bag full of wonderful gorgeousness!!

And here is the first lot of wool already crocheted up and waiting to join the rest of the wool...

So, now it is the time to get my bamboo crochet hook out... I've taped it up as it has a slight crack in it... I have a spare ready but want to keep using this one as much as I can... It's kept me going and it's funny to notice that it has developed a slight curve to it too...


Anyway, I'll keep you updated and let you know how I am going... I'm hoping it will be finished by mid October now I have all the wool I need plus a bit extra to do the scallop edging too.

Bye for now

Lisa
x

Happy Birthday to you....

Dear Gemma, Hope you have a wonderful day, I always remember Gemma's birthday as its the same day as Dom's (he will be 11).

Here is the card I made for Gemma, hopefully she will get it on time...

The card below is for Dominic and I hope he likes it too.

Thanks for dropping by

Lisa
xx

Six days later and I'm making a good start...

Here is a pic of how far I have gotten with the crocheting... it measures 36 inches wide and 18 inches high... I've got enough wool left to do 2 more rows and that will be the first 6 balls used.... I have 12 more balls left and I've decided to make the blanket 6 feet square so I have calculated that I will need another 18 balls to complete it... I've already ordered 3 more balls of Amber as this has now been discontinued! I reckon that if I can get 3 balls of wool every so often over the next 3 months then I will be fine to complete it when I can. 

Any of you sharp-eyed people out there will notice something different from the original design that I laid out to take a pic of previously.... Well, I had 15 balls of wool (3 balls of each colour) then I decided to add cream to it, I think it looks better than the original design too.

Updated as of 11am 7/72013 - Just ordered 3 balls of Banana :D
Ordered 3 balls of cream (Sirdar calico - muslin) arrived 12/7/2013

This month I are mostly...

Crocheting!! 3 inch squares...I bought the yarn from clickoncrafts.co.uk. It is Sirdar Calico in the colours of Peachie (darker peach tone - 0710), Amber (lighter peach tone - 0714), Hopsack (a pale sage green - 0709), Banana (a soft natural yellow - 0733) and Cotton White (which is well...white - 0723) Hopsack and Peachie are two of the new colours and I think that Amber may have been discontinued which is a shame because its one of my favourite colours. I bought 3 balls of each colour (15 in total) and the plan is to keep it on our bed but it may end up being "borrowed" by one of my boys as they have both said they would like a blanket made... like the one their big sister has on her bed...

So far I've crocheted 38 squares & I've not even finished the first ball from each colour!!

 And this is the pattern I plan on using... sort of a steps design I guess

Simply A Moment....

He's back... No.1 son went away on Monday the 10th to camp at Morpha Bay... the school likes to take all year 6 students away for the week once all the SATs are done and its a time of relaxing and letting your hair down also some would say a rite of passage....

So in he came on the Friday the 14th and boy, in that week away he had changed! tales of travel sickness (only once, on the way there!) and the first two nights he was homesick (fortunately not literally this time! a night at beaver camp comes to mind!) but he's had a fabulous time and even got a tan!! allbeit only on his neck and arms...his ears are looking a bit tender because he forget to put suncream on them!

Then he got into school on Monday the 17th and his teacher that went to camp awarded him an achievement certificate for overcoming his fears and going on a zipwire!!! My boy who is a gentle soul! petrified of spiders & heights went abseiling and on a zipwire!!

So it was more than a moment really but a moment that had to be shared because it was a moment when a boy started the journey to becoming a man...


If you have a simple moment to share, Go to Alexa's blog here and leave a link

So, til next time

Lisa
x

A card for a friend

Here's a card for my lovely friend Carin and her family... They have recently moved from Lancashire to the Dorset area. 

I hope she gets it before this post goes live on the 22nd!  Also I finally used a sizzix die that I've never used before!! I wonder how many of us have equipment that we have never used? I sold a lot of my yellow dies to some friends in March because they had never been used and I thought it was pointless to keep them when I have my cricut machine and spellies too...

Anyway, that's all for now folks

Lisa
xx

WOYWW.....

Too much! in fact so much.....

That I ended up crafting...... On our bed!!

And what did I make? Only a little card but it felt so good to play with paper again.... you never know what this may lead to! you will have to wait til noon for it to be revealed...

Anyway don't forget to visit Julia

Bye for and thanks for dropping by too

Lisa
x

Since my last post I've managed to complete a couple of things and start some new things that got finished too...

 This necklace was made using replica Chinese coins and red glass beads with antique bronze findings and below it are matching earrings...

Below is the shades of purple quilt that was a wedding present for my sister and brother in law in October 2007!
Its finally finished (btw it measures 6ft by 6ft 6inches) and now they have it.

The next two pictures are the blanket
that I crocheted for my daughter, the uppermost one is the top of the blanket and the lower is the bottom half... I had intended to block it but it was nabbed and used straightaway!

 This is the canvas that I made using stamps from Paper Artsy and Visible Image with a selection of distress inks and stains...

















Now we are on to the jewellery that I made on Wednesday 24th March using a selection of glass and semi-precious beads... Black & Gold.... a mix of czech druks, golden opals & swarovski crystals are included.

Bracelet & Earrings are no longer available...Caribbean Blue... with clear & teal swarovski crystals used.

White Wedding...

And lastly here is a card that I made using some of the fabulous designs from Visible Image....
Grunge Check Background, Tyre Marks, Vintage Car, Happy Birthday from Set 7 of More Than Words and lastly inside is the phrase... No matter your age you'll always be a Classic



It's been a busy week here, So I think I'll be having a few days rest... But then Yesterday a fabulous new stamp arrived in the post! It's the adorable Clara from Visible Image! So I'll be playing with her and our fabulous friend Edgar over the weekend.....

Thanks for dropping by

Lisa
x

Joining in with Alexa for Simply A Moment....Golden years

My darling girl is now a teenager and this photo is one of the last pics taken of her the night before... I wanted to take a pic of her still 12 and I clicked before she had a chance to turnaround... When I saw this image though it took me back to laying in a hospital bed with a bag of pink & white clothes all carefully folded waiting for her to be born....as 7.33am on April the 9th she came in to the world...all 9lbs 9oz of her! Seeing this tho made me realise my baby girl is no longer a baby... she has life waiting for her and all the joys of life and maybe just a little of heartache... for having learned that you don't get to my age without a bit of it but it's the heartache that makes all the rest of life sweeter... I love her to absolute pieces and love the way that whenever she puts her hair up you can see those strands of wayward hair that refuse to be included.... Well, that moment is now over a week old and she has laughed and cried a few times since then and one of these times was this moment, she is not really a cake lover but likes a brownie now and then so we got her a birthday brownie!
and cos you can't fit 13 candles on a brownie she was happy to have one and indulged her parents by letting us sing Happy Birthday to her too.... This image is rather grainy because it was taken from a film of us singing to her and the moment just before she blew out the candle...












That's a simple moment (or two) and if you want to join in here is the link that will take you back to Alexa and where she has shared a moment of hers too.

Bye for now

Lisa
x