While I was staying with Marc last week there was the most wonderful sunset …. 
…..so wonderful in fact that there was a real buzz of excitement and several people along with myself just stood and watched in awe and then tried to capture it’s beauty on their phones, including one lovely lady who was so caught up in the moment that she gave a very excited running commentary to her sister on her mobile …. 
It was such a magic moment.
On Saturday afternoon (2nd March) I spent several hours working on them, one on each side of my work area, so that I could go quickly between the two, owing to my going all anal about making them look almost identical. To be honest, when I had finished it didn’t look like I had done very much ….. but as my fingers got increasing covered with glue and irritating I decided to call it another day.
I think another afternoon filling up the remaining gaps should complete the overall effect and then I will need to see where I need to add an extra layer or two to add depth and a little more opulence. I have some birds and butterflies from dissembled necklaces to do that with, but I still think I may need some large Primark type flowers to get the look absolutely right. The narrowness of the mirror frames has limited my scope for flamboyance a little, but by using the first layer of jewels as a base I am hoping that I will be able to spread a little more to the sides and over the mirror, some of the lower pieces will be partially hidden, but, in away, that will hopefully add to the eventual magic. So bear with me a little longer and watch this space.
It was blooming freezing …. and I didn’t have a clue what was going on, but it was a sort of symbolic way to “remember” the day. The score? 1:1. And the hat???? …. A present from the Duke a couple of years ago …. perhaps the least said about that the better!!!!!
I made this card for my best friend Sarah, who has recently completed a very long and rigorous process to enable her to adopt the most adorable little boy Jacob. I cannot tell you how much I admire her and her determination and strength to achieve her dream …. she will be the most wonderful mother and Jacob is such a lucky boy to have her for his mum.
I chose the pirate theme because Jacob adores dressing up and one of the gifts Sarah had asked for from work to help him settle was a pirate outfit.
I didn’t have to think too hard about how to put the card together as the packaging of the crystal effect stickers (63p in a sale) really did it for me …. all I had to do was trim a bit off the backing sheet and then work out how best to position the words, for which I used The Duke’s very old and very grubby but faithful Dymo label maker. Simples!!!!
….. and he is also so generous …. he showers me embarrassingly with beautiful things to craft with, like this humungous pile of jewels to finish my “boudoir mirrors” with. I had been waiting for Primark to bring out their new jewellery as I needed a few key pieces to use as a foundation, but to be honest, so far, what they have had has been disappointing ……
….. except for these bird necklets costing £3 each, (bought from the Oxford Street store) made up of nine birds. You just couldn’t buy that many embellishments of that size for the price in any craft shop that I know. So spare time willing, hopefully it won’t be long until my mirrors are finally finished.
I need to find a shoulder strap for it and then need to think whether I embellish it any further, we had watched a Create and Craft programme where they were painting a briefcase ….. I don’t know if I am that brave …. but I think small white daisies could look lovely.
We also perused the Poundland website together for ideas, which I then followed it up by paying the Wolverhampton branch a visit …… buying several packs of these bubbles. We had looked at “wedding” bubbles, but they were a lot smaller and more expensive …. but we both agreed that these are just screaming to be decorated once the labels are removed…… so watch this space for what I do for Tom and Laura’s wedding.
Marc and Rick’s flair for putting things together has also managed to creep into and influence my own decor, especially when it comes to what I affectionately call “London Lounging” ……….
I did have very plain and boring cream cushions in my dining room before my trip to London, now look at it …. Come Dine With Me here I come!! I looked everywhere for cushion covers like this at Christmas but the few I found were so expensive and not half as sequined, but I found these at nearby Penkridge Market for £1 each when I got home ….. oh Marc, what have you done to me!!!!!!!!
I am still doing it in a very hodge podge way. What I had done (so far) just didn’t look right until I took a thick black marker to outline the edges etc. with a beating heart, I knew that if I didn’t like it there would be no going back ……
……. but that’s all I am showing you for the moment….. there are many hours work still ahead ….. so once again it’s a case of watch this space!
I really, really needed to see Marc ….. last Sunday I was struggling with the the idea of continuing to blog as I hadn’t got any scheduled posts in the pipeline or any inspiration, it looked like the end of the road, BUT I knew if I talked to Marc he would give me a “right good” kicking up the posterior ….. 
…… which, believe me, he did ….. he told me that I had become very good at “doing a very good job of doing nothing!!!!!!! ” … which was so true! When the Duke was with me I was getting up at 5.00 to work in the office, do a days work at school and then come home to get tea and then another hour or so of blogging or crafting…. and now, all I have managed to do since Christmas of note was a big fat nothing ….. except for Tom and Laura’s wedding invitations, but in the “olden days” those would have been done weeks ago, boxed up and ready to send out!!!
But now, thanks to Marc I am back on track ….. after my aforementioned telling off. We talked non stop craft, watched quite a lot of Create and Craft, going yuck or ahhhh in turn at the various items, perused the internet for ideas, and drank mahooooosive vodka and cokes from pint glasses and posh coffee …… it was bliss!!!! 
….. And when I got home ……. I immediately started work on the mahoooosive canvas that I had for Christmas, sketching it out at about eleven o’clock, within an hour of my getting home ….. mad or what?? As you can see I am going about it in a very hodge podge way, but then I haven’t really painted anything “proper” since I was at school ….. many, many moons ago!!!
However, I am back on track, there will still only be two posts a week on a Friday and Saturday, but there is a renewed spring in my scoring board ….. all thanks to Marc…… xxxxxxx
I decided to use a WS Design envelope template that I’ve had for years, which makes envelopes that measure 13cms x 13cms…..
…. and some A4 papers that I’ve also had for ages, left over from the days when I was brave enough to force my way through the crowds and trolleys at the NEC Hobbycrafts show!
The envelopes were cut out and scored in no time …… and glued down with just a smidge of glue.
….. I then decided to add a label, mat and layered in either gold or silver mirror card to the front of each envelope.
The notelets measure 12.5 x 12.5cms and are just simply card blanks covered with the same paper as the envelopes. I will use a couple of narrow strips of double sided tape to seal the envelope when I eventually use them. 
The first is a desk calendar I have made for my craft room as I am hopeless with dates and can never find a diary when I need one, so I thought if I one like this, I wouldn’t lose it ….
….. all I used was a Ikea picture frame (measuring 14cms x 9cms), the stickers and a couple of coats of clear varnish …. et voila!! 
I also covered the front of a small notebook to make a shopping list pad to keep in my bag … not sure about the idea really, it looks better in the flesh, …. but something very simple that a child could easily make for Mother’s Day perhaps. 
….. We can imagine the struggle they had, just to get him to put his hand flat on the table long enough for them to draw round it….. believe me they must have been quick!!!!! He may even have had the paintbrush put in his hand for a matter of seconds before he flung it across the room …. leaving a painty trail behind …..
….. but doesn’t really matter how much Stephen put into it, we all love it all the more because we know how devoted the staff are to him and how very much he is loved and cared for …. I cannot express how WONDERFUL these people are, words are just not enough, but on this Valentines Day I shall be thinking about them all at work and thanking them for every tiny little thing they do, not only for my brother, but for all the other adults in his unit, some who have much worse problems than he has and saying “THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LOVE YOU GIVE SO EFFORTLESSLY EVERY SINGLE DAY FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS” ….. true unsung heroes … THANK YOU”
I thought I would do a little review and have a little play with one of the Masking Sticker Sets (ver. basic) I received in my first parcel of goodies from WholePort. The first thing I noticed was just how put the packaging was!
I’ve used them along with my old faithful Dymo label maker to make these gift tags,
Something very simple but effective, especially if teamed up with a plain wrapping paper. 
I added just one strip on the back of the tags and would also be tempted, if giving a card with the gift, to add a few stripes to the envelope to carry the theme through.
And when I moved in … it just got a cursory and very rough lick of magnolia, which was then hidden by a whole variety of display shelves and pin boards.
….. because I could craft 24/7 for the next 50/100 years and would still have paper and packets of embellishments left unused! In away, having so much had become a bit of a burden ….. but now I feel some of that burden has been lifted, if that makes sense?
I have changed my work area round completely, so that I now work in quite an enclosed and compact space, with everything I use on an almost daily basis like my computer, printers, cutters and the contents of six sets of drawers close at hand.
I have also been ruthless with all the stuff that was on the walls and, for the time being, will keep them pretty bare, until I decide what will eventually go back. It’s very much a blank canvas, but I want to avoid it looking cluttered and bitty again and becoming a dust trap. I was given quite a few shadow/memory boxes for Christmas …. so I think I am now going to work on finding a few special pieces to put in them.
There are still a few bits to do, like fitting a blind and a new brighter ceiling light, and this corner (above) …… where the shelves containing all my "bit boxes” used to be ...……. I think the shelves will go back, even though I have managed to contain the boxes, since my “spring clean” in the cupboards below. But the work surface and the cupboard doors need some sort of attention as I don’t want to replace them at the moment ….. so I am thinking about Decopatching them …. which will add a lot of colour and a bit more “me” to what is, admittedly, at the moment a very bland room …… it’s just making the first move and sticking the first piece of Decopatch paper down!!!
