Shopping With The Duchess …..

Well…… at last the Christmas fiddly farty bits and pieces are finally finding their way to the shelves  …… and I know I am making a valiant effort in trying to use up as much of the stuff I already have left over from Christmases past ….. but it’s still good to mooch! 

I have a feeling, like Halloween, it’s going to be a poor Christmas for stickers, but I did find these robins in Paperchase (£1) which are just too cute, I also bought a few packets for Marc because one of his themes this year is robins for a school he “makes for”, and these I hope will be perfect.

Also from Paperchase this assorted box of coloured wooden stars, at £5 a little out of my comfort zone ….. however there are a lot in a box and stars are not just for Christmas, so I think/hope they are going to come in useful all through next year.

Moving on to Poundland, this card wreath …. not for hanging cards but for taking apart for the 24 green pegs, which are a really useful size, which I have found hard to find, and the 24 red wooden beads, which are also useful at this time of year on tags etc..

I think this nail art set is also going to come in very handy, they are all made from metal and look like tiny studs, a useful embellishment on stamped Christmas trees and baubles and for filling the odd gap, etc..

Likewise this pack of 36 self adhesive strips of gems, which of course can also be cut up. I love the colour combinations and have a few ideas for cards just using them more or less on their own.  They could also be used to bling up a parcel or a tag without costing the earth and because of the colours, not just for Christmas …. in fact they look quite Eastery!

And finally, for today …..these houses were a bit of an impulse buy, but hope I can get around to doing something with them this Christmas ….. I was thinking that all they need is a little snowy glitter on the roof and round the bottom, a few gems round the eaves and perhaps a little Santa Stop Here sign???? We shall see.

I’m Not Here, I Am In London

If your comments aren’t posted over the weekend don’t worry, it’s not you, it’s me  ….. I will be in London ….. again ….. with Marc doing something a little bit different….. because on Saturday night Matthew…… I will be in the window of W.E. Interiors being part of a theatrical live window event!!!Ian, Marc’s partner and his sister Lynn Llewellyn-Jones came up with the brilliant idea of bringing live theatre to the shop window using the furniture on show, to promote the shop, on one of the busiest nights of the year in Battersea, when several thousand people, more or less, have to pass the shop as they return from the Battersea Park Fireworks.

My part, which I intend to big up as much as I can, will be in the bedroom section  ….. sitting at the dressing table, doing the full beauty routine including face pack …. and then moving onto the bed to lounge, tweet, read a few magazines and eat copiously from a hopefully mahoooosive box of Thorntons chocolates  …… with three monkeys (special guest stars) sat on the end of the bed having their own party!

I hope to be able to bring you lots of photos of the evening upon my return, no one can ever say my life is boring!!!!!

If you are passing give us (or The Monkeys) a wave ……..

https://www.facebook.com/weinteriors

http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/we-interiors-theatrical-live-window-event-after-fireworks-display-battersea-park-road

Jewelled Christmas Tree Cards

These cards use a 6ins x 6ins 130gsm. Kraft card blank from Craft UK Ltd.

These cards use the bumper bargain boxes of flat backed gems that Marc and I bought from HobbyCraft for £3 during his stay with me. I just love the colours, as there is an unusual dusty blue in with the turquoise pack and gold, black and grey in the other pack which again are a bit different.

When I looked at the gems I immediately thought jewelled Christmas trees as they came in varying sizes and there were so many I knew didn’t have to be stingy when using them.  I could bling to my hearts content!

So,  all I did was cut a triangle shape out for the tree with each side measuring 3.5ins and then I embellished it generously with the gems. The tree was then placed on some very simple mat and layering, first using a contracting colour (teal and black) which was then matted on silver mirri card.  The final touches were made with a little faux stitching and doodling using a white gel pen.

Skating Penguins Christmas Card

This card measures 6ins x 6ins and I got the self adhesive penguins from Michaels in Las Vegas last year.

I think this card is too much!  I started off making a scene with the penguins in a frame (the frame was part of a pack of a Winter Woodland laser cut frames from Hobbycraft and is patterned on one side, but I chose to flip it over and colour the blank side with a Pro Marker Pen).

But after that …… I lost my way, adding six layers of matting!!!! I know it looks OK, but does it really need so many layers?

I think what I would rather do with the framed scene, is to back it on a matching piece of card,  drill a hole in the corner, add some blue and white bakers twine and make a gift tag with it ….. which could then be put on the tree as a decoration.

Watch this space for when I make Penguin Skating Scene, Mark 2!!

Christmas Tree Tag

Just a very, very simple Christmas tree tag today, measuring approx. 1.5ins x 3ins ……..

….. using scraps of card and paper, a glittered wooden Christmas tree embellishment tree that I have had for years, some tiny silver sequin stars and a little bit of doodling with a white gel pen and black fine liner, completed with a green eyelet set with my Cropodile and red and white bakers twine.  This tag probably took me no more than ten minutes in all to put it all together.

Nordic Heart Christmas Card

This card measures 6ins x 6ins and is made using a hand cut plain grey blank.
Oh my life so much mat and layering, I must be mad!
The heart is made from felt (although it said wooden on the packs) and is left over from the packs of decorations I got from Poundland last Christmas

I removed the original ribbon, bead and hanging thread and replaced them with a plain red ribbon to hid the hole.

If I was being completely over the top I should have put a flat backed gem in the middle of each hole in the scalloped square ……  perhaps I will do this on the next card, as I have a few more felt shapes to use up so I can try different variations on the same theme.

I just love using grey, I got into it in January and am hoping to use it a lot more this Christmas, (ideas providing). I also know that I don’t use my Bigshot or basic collection of dies enough either, so I’ve included one layer using my Spellbinders scalloped edge square to hopefully get my die mojo moving!!  I’ll be honest, there are soooooo many beautiful dies around now I am totally overwhelmed and so rely on Marc’s collection and inspiration when I go tp London to see him.

Time In London With Marc ………

My apologies if comments were not published during the week, I’ve been in London with Marc and his computer is not geared up to give me access to Blogger ……. so if your comments are not published within a few hours you’ll know that I am probably on a jolly!!   It would be nice to have comments posted automatically, but if I did every comment box would be overrun by some very unsavoury links!!!!

On this visit, though we talked crafting almost none stop, bouncing ideas, Marc and I didn’t do an awful lot of crafting …. though Marc did spend quite a bit of time fitting jump rings to one of my future Christmas ideas …… while I was lounging in bed one morning ………

However ……. saying that, Marc has made a very considered purchase, I knew he would, as he hasn’t stopped talking about it since it was launched  …… tah dah ….. Marc has finally got himself a Brother ScanNCut, so that’s what we played with one morning. It was the first time Marc had got it out, but it didn’t take him long to get the basics.

……and I had a little challenge for him! I have finally managed to get my hands on the Sizzix gingerbread man die I have wanted for years (from eBay), and I was planning on cutting out and sewing a few gingerbread men for Christmas, but didn’t really want a face on each side …… and as the ScanNCut cuts felt, I challenged Marc to make a template for me that would cut out plain backs for said gingerbread men ……

……. and he did it in an incredibly short time …….

….. further experimenting by cutting them out using faux suede strips that used to be his window blinds!!!

So two happy people …… I can now have my gingerbread men with plain backs if I want to go all 3D and Marc being extremely pleased with his new toy, so expect to see a couple of projects after my other visits in the future.

Marc and I were out and about quite a bit, especially in the charity shops of Notting Hill and Battersea, which believe me, you just can’t compare to those of Wolverhampton, an Armani jacket for £5, I don’t think so!!!

We popped into FARA-Kids/FARA Baby in Notting Hill (Ledbury Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 2AA), where I found a couple of bargain pairs of Kricket denim dungarees for Iris, that normally I would never have been able to afford, for just £3.50 a pair ….. plus a couple of Fiesta hand puppets, now set aside for Christmas, which, when I found out their real price nearly passed out. Needless to say whenever I visit Marc from now on I firmly intend to take myself off for half an hour or so to go mooching. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fara-Kids-Notting-Hill/18682049804989839-41

In another charity shop in Battersea I managed to find a whole pile of Tulip texture paints for 80p a tube …. I have an idea how I will use them, but I need to have a play first!

I also found a very rustic cutlery tray which Marc pointed out would make a lovely set of shelves, when turned around, either to hang inside or outside my garden shed ….. and filled with small terracotta pots and garden curios, like the little gnome we found for 30p, which I forgot to bring back with me ……..

Talking of gardens we also visited Battersea Flower Station, which is my most favourite garden centre in all the world. 

http://www.batterseaflowerstation.co.uk/

……. there was so much inspiration for my garden for next spring …… I just wish I had taken a few more pictures that didn’t include certain monkeys …..

…… but the ideas are still in my head!

We also went to see the poppies at the Tower of London, the light was fading as we arrived …….

…… but I think that it gave it a completely different atmosphere to that of the day.

  It was hard to take it all in …….

…….. all those blood red poppies, each representing a life lost and never fulfilled ….. and all those hearts broken

…….. it was stunning.

And now within days of my returning home I will be back in London next weekend …… as part of a living window display at W.E. Interiors, I don’t have too many details at the moment …… BUT, if you are planning on going to the Battersea Fireworks on Saturday 8th November the chances are you will pass by the shop ……. and who knows who you might see!!!!!!!

557-561 Battersea Park Road, London https://www.facebook.com/weinteriors

My Garden

Do you remember when the bottom of my garden looked like this and I despaired …… never in a million years could I have done anything with it, I swear it grew even faster when I dared to make any feeble dent in it!And then I found a wonderful gentleman called Phil, and his wife Linda who have transformed it to this (below) ………

I can’t believe how hard Phil has worked ….

….. clearing the neglected and overgrown vegetable patch

….. and covering it with purple slate, giving me a place to sit and have a mug or two of tea and ponder. I have bought a very simple table and chairs from Ikea but haven’t put them out yet!

 

And the edges too have all been dug over and covered with mesh and then  bark, and are waiting for me to decide what select few plants/shrubs  I want there ….. at the moment I am fancying lavender ….. but I have till spring to muse.

The shed has been moved back a few feet giving me a lot more room …..

….  and I would have like to have painted it this summer and begun to turn it into my den, but the floor needs a bit of reinforcing after the move, so I don’t want to invest anymore in it until that is done, hopefully in the next few weeks, but when it is ….. it will probably transformed in baby blue or lavender hues.

There’s still quite a bit to do, but after a little over two years I am no longer frightened or a stranger to the pleasures of the hoe and spade, having finally got off my bum and started to prune and dig like nobody’s business, excited and fired up for what next spring and beyond will bring if I keep on doing what I am doing now, each night after work…….…… despite gaining one septic and very painful finger …….. lesson learnt …. two pairs of gardening gloves from Poundland duly purchased.

I know it must have been worrying The Duke as he was the gardener, seeing me leave it for so long, but at least it’s getting done now so he can get on with his fishing!!!

There is a flower patch in the middle of our village shopping area that is now my inspiration for next year …… I don’t have a clue what most of the plants are, but if I can get my flower beds to look half this good I will be so chuffed!

I have planted a few new bits and pieces and split some of the spreading plants I already have, which seem to have taken ……. so after an autumn of annihilation and a very quiet winter we will see what the spring will bring ……..

M’Lord …. I Have No Excuse ….. My Resistance Was Low!

Oh my goodness, I very rarely buy dies these days, (I go to Marc’s and use his!!!!!!). Dies have to be something really special to catch my eye and then ever specialer to open my purse!!!…..

So ……. when I saw this Tim Holtz Flight of Birds die in a Wolverhampton Craft Superstore you can imagine my state of abject flux and excitement …… it was akin to meeting Alistair Campbell in real life at the Olympics ……. pure lust!!! Well, it went straight into my basket ….. but then I hesitated, as I often do these days ….. £15 is a lot of money (it acquaints to at least 15 something's that I would have to make with it to get my money back) ….. which is why in the end I just took the picture to remind myself of the name etc. and then put it back on its hanger and walked away, my head glancing over my shoulder!

However, my prudence was justly rewarded …… as soon as I got home I managed to secure it on Ebay for just £8.95 with free P & P, result!!!! ….. I just have to wait for it to arrive now…… I can’t wait …. it’s so beautiful!