Winter cozy

When the weather turns cold my thoughts turn to jigsaws and knitting.  I have lovely memories of Saturday afternoons spent watching my gran bake and then helping her with a jigsaw.

This jigsaw was a Christmas gift from my mum and it proved to be quite a challenge due to all the tiny food packets.  It took as long as three wasjigs!  

This year my aim is to use more than I buy, so I decided to start with this lovely King Cole sock yarn from my stash.  It knits up lovely and I'm up to the heel shaping already.

Hope you are having a nice day.  

Wow! It's been a while

I was going to delete this very neglected blog, but then I had a browse through lots of my old posts and enjoyed having a nice stroll down memory lane. 

I've just posted this picture on a Shimelle on-line course web site and thought I would add a copy here.

The photos are from August 2015 and show a public footpath near our home.  There were fields of broad beans and corn on one side a free range pigs on the other.  I'm amazed it took us 27 years to walk this path.  The wood is tiny and hidden away in the middle of lots of farm fields.  We also walked past old farm houses, one of which had an ancient fuel pump in the garden.  At the end is an old quarry, that's now a lovely lake for wildlife.

The papers are old Simple Stories Destinations papers.  The page is a bit brown, but it matches the busy pocket page opposite as that includes red and kraft,

Have a lovely week x

My lucky day

Today I received a beautiful card from Nicki.  As always it is more gorgeous in real life.

Thanks Nicki, you made my day. x

Andy Skinner Workshop

On Saturday my local scrapbook crop held an Andy Skinner workshop.  It was great fun as Andy has a nice relaxed style and we had plenty of time for chatting as each coat of paint dried.  The very best thing was that I went home with a gorgeous finished project.  This book has lovely thick pages so will be perfect as an art journal - if I can bring myself to use it...

Here are a few photos:

The front is made from torn embossed white card, a diecut, four baby blue gems, a small square of scrapbook paper, and lots of paint and mediums.  It has a lovely deckle edge and looks really old - like something found in a dusty attic.

 Here is a close up of the compass and the shading.

As the weather turns colder and the leaves start to fall from the trees my thoughts turn to Halloween, so I couldn't resist using this skull stencil on the back.  Up to this point I thought the book would make a nice gift for my hubby, as he likes old rusty car parts, but I'm not sure he would appreciate the skull (perhaps I secretly wanted to make sure I kept the book for myself)

 For a bit of whimsy I added a tiny bat rub-on in his eye socket.

Here is BOOffle having a read.  I wonder what's inside - spells, potions or scary stories...

Today we spent a lovely sunny afternoon walking round Blists Hill Victorian Town.  I love seeing people doing traditional crafts like sewing, baking, jam making, etc.  Even though it was busy it still seems very tranquil.  This beautiful little chapel tucked away down a little path is adorable. It was lovely inside too, but I wasn't sure if the man there was a real vicar so I didn't like to ask if I could photograph it.  Bliss and lots of photos to add to my scrapbook.





Apologies for neglecting my blog for such a long time. 

Frozen Peas

Here are two journal pages I made for a swap.  I made the backgrounds ages ago, but didn't know what to do with them.  In truth I liked them too much to use!  In real life they are brighter and the stars have a lovely mica sheen.

I love the quirky Stampotique girls and have to give them red eyes!  The quotes are Dylusions stamps and say 'change for no one and believe in who you are' and 'never be too proud to serve frozen peas'.  The peas one is my favourite; not sure why as I don't even like peas!

I am looking forward to Shimelle's Journal your Christmas which starts on Saturday.  Last year I made it to day 11 and filled the rest of the book with pages made by my younger relatives - ages 6 to 27!  I just handed over a box of lovely Christmas crafty things and some background card cut to 8x8.  They all dived in and had a great time.  I also added in a cross stitch Santa my mum made years ago.  The pages made by my relatives are my favorites and it was a great way to keep them busy while dinner was cooking.  Can't wait to do it again this year.

I hope you are having a lovely week.  Anne x

Happy Halloween

Ok I know I'm a bit late, but 'better late than never' as my Gran would say. 

I love the colours of Halloween, especially the pumpkin orange, so couldn't resist treating myself to a few Halloween papers and stickers.  Thanks to Shimelle's Remix class I am finally getting the hang of clusters - I suspect I was just trying too hard really.  Anyway I'm loving the class and learning a lot.

Had a quiet Halloween, with only two 'trick or treaters' so I gave the rest of the bags of treats to the workmen who are resurfacing some of the pavements round here.  They must have liked the treats as they have stopped blocking my drive with their vans!

Have a lovely week, Anne x

OperationChristmasChild

One of my favourite charities is Operation Christmas Child.  I think I have as much fun filling the shoe boxes as the children do opening them.

This year I got a bit carried away making hats as I have knitted 16 beanie hats and 3 crochet ones. 

Here are a few of the knitted hats.  I used a lot of Patons Fab as I love to watch the way the multicolour patterns emerge.  It's great value too as House of Fraser are selling it for just £1.60 per 100g.  One ball will make three hats.

 

I also like to crochet this cute girl's hat.  It takes me about an hour whilst watching TV.  It's done in a circle so has no seams to sew.

I designed a small bag to go with one of the hats.  It's a great way to use the novelty buttons I have had for years.  These buttons are two wrapped sweets from a Halloween set.

I also knitted some cute purses that are just big enough to hid a small box of crayons.  I will share a photo later as blogger will not upload it at the moment.

 

Hope you are having a nice day.  I have to take the cat to the vet for a check up later and all I can say is she doesn't travel well!?!?!  Wish me luck.

 

Anne x