An Heirloom and an Apology!

Firstly, sorry I haven't been visiting for a couple of weeks, (bad blogger) 

I took a little break from technology for the last 2 weeks of the Summer Holidays. Although I don't often blog about non crafty stuff, I would like to explain my blogging being a bit on and off for the last months. I wasn't well at all. I had a chest infection which turned to pneumonia and went on and on and on. 3 lots of antibiotics, repeated Xrays etc.It was all a bit scary and I had so many doctors and hospital visits and generally feeling awful. Somehow, my mojo is still being  very sporadic and sitting at the computer hurt (still does sometimes)

Now, I am planning a phased return to work and working hard on trying to improve my fitness levels and lose weight. I have found myself totally apprehensive about the return to work... I teach teenagers (subjects they don't always want to learn) and my job is quite stressful at the best of times. I am hoping that returning to work will make me feel more like my old self., but, I am really nervous and stressed by the thought.Wish me luck!

Anyhoo, I'm back even if I might not visit so often for a little while or comment quite so regularly, it'll be more regularly than the last few weeks! and I will be reading everyone's blogs (I think getting back to work is going to be exhausting as well as a bit scary)

Ages ago I gave up smoking and took to knitting to help me. I have been making a giant bed throw in the softest pure cottons. I hope it will be an heirloom for my daughter. I have done quite a lot of it (there are more strips than shown in the photo) The colours are softer than they appear in the photo, especially the Denim Blue... It looks quite Cath Kidston in reality! 

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, La la lah!

The title to this post needs to be hummed! Any one old enough to remember the band Altered Images? Clare Grogan the singer, Happy Birthday the song... now there's a memory from the early eighties! Ah, happy, carefree times. I digress!
I love wrapping presents and coordinating papers and ribbons making even the simplest gifts look pretty. As I finished the last one of my daughters gifts... I realised I had totally forgotten to make her a card (shame on me!) It's late, so this is probably the quickest card I have made in years... not a stamp in sight! just 2 pieces of free paper from a craft magazine and some dodgy freehand cutting, I like it though. 

Happy 15th Els... you are and always will be the best thing I ever made!

xxx

Kept it to one colour... couldn't find anything to disguise the Wok though! No, it's not cleverly disguised in the photo's!! Small gifts, loadsa love.

Lookie, Lookie! How Cool is this?

I know I often improvise with my crafting, but I didn't realise quite how much my daughter takes after me! She wanted to take part in her first challenge, but liked small flowers - so she found a way to make them out of the middle of Tim Holtz bookplates!
She made a great tag and spent forever getting it till it pleased her eye. She nearly wrote a tutorial too, it's a good little step by step.
Bear in mind the fact she is only 14! Please go and see her blog (link on the right) and give her a round of applause (Proud mum? What me? Oh Yes... very... very proud!) Miss Els
Signing off most proudishly! I am so behind with my crafting, strangely enough Els 'gets' creating links better than me!

xxx

A Chip off the old Blog!

My lovely, shy, artistic14 year old daughter (whose work I often publish here on my blog) has now taken a deep breath or 2, taken the plunge and started her own blog and is hoping to share some of her creations. I am so proud of her and love (and often learn from) her art. I would be so pleased if you would give her a visit and follow her if you enjoy what you see.

There is a link on the right hand side of my blog at the top of the page and a link here:

Els begins with an E

I've just crafted my coat!

I've just crafted my coat! well parts of it anyway... other large chunks of it have been added to the craftly stash of materials as I am increasingly drawn to crafting with fabric. Last week I found a really shabby coat at a car boot sale, but it was made of a beautiful thick woollen fabric and (as an ex Warbrobe Mistress I know about this stuff, having made a few cracking errors myself in the washing department) I think someone might have washed it by hand and then tried to tumble dry it!! Well, they nearly felted it!
All I know for sure is that it cost pennies and dye cuts Sizzix flowers beautifully. I also think it's amazing what some folks consider saleable... on the other hand, I bought it, so what do I know! The larger flower dye is my beloved Tattered Florals Tim Holtz Die and the smaller flower dye is a Green Sizzix original which I think is gorgeous and I love it, love it, love it!  I've cut loads of these from the coat material and shall be glittering in earnest for the next few nights. If you haven't tried this technique, I highly recommend it, it's a huge amount of fun, you will end up with unique flowers that you can colour coordinate perfectly with your projects and it costs next to nowt! Speshully if you make them out of old coats that someone else ruined! 

I fear I may have single handedly caused a world glitter shortage in the last couple of nights! After dye cutting I added Stickles and Distress Stickles to the flowers (pretty!) I've been trying to get stuff together ready to make a few  Halloween projects. Something I haven't really done much of. So far, I had marshalled up some of my old bits from forsaken projects (I'm such a squirrel), some heavy felt bottles laboriously cut from an old  Halloween gift bag (love these). I painted an empty chocolate box brown and used the Perfect Pearl mist on the background, which is now mostly covered up. I was just putting everything away for the evening, when I started playing... I liked how it all looked chucked into the box, so, I messed around a little more and 'Ta Dah'... a project, well sort of! I liked it, so I took a piccie or two and here it is.  Everything is just laid down, not stuck, so I will be able to re use them on bigger projects.  

By the way, that's real wax on the candles, I made  that for a 12 tagss of Christmas tag last year and borrowed it! I shall be entering this into several challenges.Blogger's Challenge (alter it, my choccie box)  Studio L3 (Lord Tim's Perfect Pearls Mist) and Our Creative Corner (Nature and Bling)
Technique Challenge 16 Linda's challenge at Studio L3
Bling, Bling and an item from nature Our Creative Corner
Alter It, Bloggers challenge (altered choccie box)
Tim Holtz's Website, love it!
The postie has just been and I got a lovely surprise, Craft Stamper sent me a copy of the edition that I have been published in, I am still child like in my glee at getting published. I firmly believe that we all need dreams, both large and small and that the clearer we can see these dreams, the more the universe can oblige and help them to happen. Well, this was such a dream of mine and bless Katy Fox for making it happen.

EDIT:  I have just seen a feature on the Sizzix website called 'I Spy Saturday' and am going to add this as I used so many Sizzix products here, When don't I?! Sizzix - I Spy Saturday