Jane's Journal

A ring project with a happier ending

2012-02-22T16:25:00.002Z

I loved reading all your comments and reactions to my Phoenix ring post. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave them. If you have not read that post have a quick detour as today's post title will make more sense. I really wanted to thank everyone for being so kind...you all seemed to share the disappointment I felt when it went pear shaped. I also felt though it is important to share successes and failures and I still feel that I gained a lot by what happened to my ring. I am planning a trip up to Hatton Garden in the Spring and I will definitely look for a new stone, but it may be really tricky as the original stone is quite an unusual size. Don't worry if I ever replace it I will show you all and the Phoenix Ring will rise!

I wanted to share with you some more of my recent silversmithing projects from my class. This one was to make a set of stacking rings with at least one containing a "tube" set stone.
There is no need for me to place an alert at the beginning of this post as I had a happy outcome and made a very sweet set of stacking rings. To prove it here they are!

They were so hard to photograph to show the purple colour of the lovely amethyst stone that I ended up resorting to using a bulb of garlic to put them on. I actually think they look quite good there but there was no clever thinking behind my use of a prop, more a case of "What can I grab that's near!"

This again was a very interesting project. I first had to make the tube setting for the amethyst.

Here are 2 amethysts I had sitting in my stash. I chose the one which had the most uniform oval shape. Next to it is the silver tubing. Yes it is round and you may think how can you make a setting that is oval with a round tubing?
Well, you need one of these....

A metal former.
I measured and sawed a small piece of tubing and placed it in the former. You can see the cut piece of tubing sitting in the number 10 oval. Using the large forming tool (seen on the right) you hammer your way through the holes until the size is reached. I worked from size 10 down to size 6. Each time the metal was struck you needed to re anneal it to keep it from hardening. This process took some time to complete.

I then had to cut and form 3 ring blanks. Each one is made from round silver wire. Here they are rough cut before I had filed and soldered the joints shut. For the other 2 rings I decided that I would use my silver metal clay flowers which I had spare from the course I attended last year.
I thought having one each side of the amethyst would balance the set of rings well.

Next it was a case of carefully soldering the stone setting and the flowers to the centre of the ring blanks. The white you can see here is tippex which we use to stop the soldered joint melting whilst we solder other areas. Water based tippex works really well. You can see it was quite a balancing act and tricky to line everything up.

Next I put the setting for the amethyst into a ring clamp. I then placed the stone inside and carefully pushed over the edges and then burnished to smooth everything. I soldered the 2 silver flowers to the other 2 ring blanks and there we have.....a stacking set of rings and a happy ever after project....................................

So how about continuing this "happy ever after" theme with my card challenge news. Unbelievable I found out on recently that I am a winner again. Have a look here. There was more happy dancing going on in this house!
I also promised I would show you my prize winnings when they arrived...

A lovely Big Penny Black stamp

A second big wood mounted Penny Black Stamp

and this lovely stash from America. What a lucky girl I am.

You may have noticed recently that I have also taken off my Comment Verification, as requested by many of the card challege blogs. It makes it easier and quicker for them to visit the many blogs they need to.
The other point is that Blogger has changed comment verification to 2 (yes 2!) words which are actually really difficult to work out. I am struggling myself with people's blog who have this turned on. If you have any concerns you can have "moderation" on your settings and you can read any comments before they are posted. I seriously suggest you consider taking off comment verification as this really is a pest now with 2 unreadable words!
If any comments that are put on you do not like you can easily delete them.

Now finally for a very special card I made. This is actually a "fun" card for my darling son who is 23 on Friday. He has always loved giraffes so I had to use the fun Penny Black stamp I own.

It's actually an easel card, this is the card standing up.

Here is the cute image which I coloured with my trusty Promarkers and highlighted with my Prismacolor pencils.
I added some die cut glitter card balloons and tied ribbons to them.

This shows the inside where I shall write our birthday greeetings on these tags.

and this side view shows how the card stands up. These take a long time to make but are really fun for those extra special cards.
I would like to enter my card into the following card challenges.
Paper Sundaes #108 Happy Birthday
Papercrafting Journey #3 cute
Ladybirds craft Ink Spring is in the air
Penny Black Allsorts Bingo my line is Turquoise, cream, brown
Stamping for the weekend colour theme

Although he never reads my blog I am sending my dear son special birthday wishes for Friday. Despite his age and size (he stands 6'2" tall) he will always be my "baby"...now that would make him blush ;0) Happy birthday fella!
Thanks as always for your lovely visits to my little part of blogland. I so enjoy reading all your comments and I thank you for taking the time to leave them. Happy Wednesday everyone. We are promised the dizzy heights of 14c over the next few days......fingers crossed as it's wet and dull today.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Finding chocolate down Memory Lane

2012-02-17T17:01:00.000Z

Over 18 months ago I wrote this post about meeting up with an old school friend and going back to where I grew up, after a gap of over 30 years. This week I again met up with my same friend and she told me of a Chocolate Shop which had opened round the corner from where I used to live in Peckham, South East London.
She suggested this could be the venue of our next get together which was on Thursday. Now I never need an excuse to eat chocolate and when I arrived this display greeted me.

The Shop is called The Melange and is owned by a French Artisan chocolatier who makes all her chocolate products on site. She runs classes and sells on line. It is a tiny shop with just a few table and it's speciality is home made hot chocolate to drink.

She sells all sorts of flavours of chocolate including Mulled Wine Spices, Ginger and Lime and Lavender and Lemon to name just a few. She produces milk, dark and white varieties. Needless to say I bought a few taster bars home to try...it is divine!

We will have to go back in the summer as she also makes ice cream and milk shakes ;0)

So inspired by a morning hot chocolate I headed home to make a "chocolate" card for my next card challenge. I had the idea to use pink with brown as I really like that colour combination. I also decided to have a play with my latest tool called a paper distresser.

It contains several blades which cut into the sides without tearing. It fluffs up the edge as it goes this.
It is great fun to use and gives the edges of card a "distressed," rather vintage look. I had a practice with some pink and brown card before putting my card together.

Here is my card which I have called chocolate cupcake. I used chocolate and pink backing papers.You can see how I distressed all the focal card edges.

I used my sweet Lili of the valley stamp, Never too old for cupcake". She was coloured with my trusty Promarkers and highlighted with some Prismacolour pencil.

I added some lovely mulberry flowers to complement the chocolate theme.

I also added some ribbon, Divine Twine bow and a round sentiment. I glitzed everything up with some glitter and finally added some pearls to the corners. I think they look like milk and white chocolate buttons ;0)

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Joanna Sheen Love is in the air

Sunday's with Crissy Happy birthday

Cupcake Inspirations ~147

Robyn's Fetish Challenge blog Square cards

Really reasonable ribbon Pink and brown

Passion for Promarkers Distressing

Top Tip Tuesdays Mystical, magical and fantasy

Lil's Little Fairies (Not able to upload yet!)

Papercrafting Journey #3 Make it cute

Flutter by Wednesdays Anything with wings

So it's Friday again and another weekend to look forward to. The weather has warmed up nicely and I may even get a chance for a tidy in the garden. We shall also be enjoying some of the chocolate tasters I bought...

mmmmmmm! Enjoy your weekend, whatever your plans and just remember to have chocolate featuring in there at some point!.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Boxing Day

2012-02-11T18:08:00.000Z

No I have not gone mad in this freezing cold weather. I do know it's not yet Christmas despite having the right weather. I shall reveal all later in my post. The big chill continues here and we have had a little more snow. What falls has trouble melting as it is sooooo cold. Last night as we drove home the car registered -4c and it did get down to -7c....oowwch!

This was the view late this afternoon at the ponds. The ponds and river very rarely freeze but they certainly have at the moment.

Even the heron did not want to dip his toes into the icy water.

Just the graceful swan decided to brave the waters!

Other than a quick walk this afternoon we have spent the day in the warm. So now I will reveal why I have called today Boxing Day.....(just in case some of my blogging friends don't get the pun, Boxing Day here in the UK is December 26th). Well recently I bought a new piece of craft kit shown here on the right.

Swooooon, now if you are not a card maker this will not mean much to you so I shall explain. This is none other than a Martha Stewart Scoring Board. It was very difficult to get in this county as apparently it infringes one of the UK scoring boards patents. In the end I had to buy it and pay quite a lot of postage as obviously the supplier shipped it in from the States.
Now the first thing that a decent scoring board does is to make really good neat folds in cards. You just place the paper on the boards, run the tool down the groove and hey presto neat folds.

One of the main reasons I bought this (it was part of my treat to myself with my Christmas bonus from work)
was to try making boxes. As you know a lot of my cards have gorgeous mulberry paper flowers on and you cannot put them in an envelope. I looked at buying card boxes and they cost a fortune. So I decided I would make my own.

Ta-dah!

What do you think? I had loads of practises and decided what looked really cool was to have a plain white bottom of the box and make a lid out of patterned paper/thin card.
This was the card I showed you last week and it looks really cute in its box.

***EDIT ADDED SUN 12.2.12*** There is a lot of happy dancing going on here as I just found I have won my very first "Top 5" award for this card. This is not a win as in coming out of Mr Random Number but actually for the design and making of my card. I am THRILLED take a look here. I have a new blinkie in my side bar which I am proudly displaying :0)

Here is the lid in detail.

I played with lots of other designs including some for Christmas (well it is the weather isn't it?)

I also made a card for my challenges and decided I needed something very cheerful for this cold weather.

I inked up my first Tilda stamp I have ever used and loved the strawberry theme (yes I know I have a thing about strawberries).

Here she is coloured using my trusty Promarkers and highlighted with my Prismacolor pencils.

I added little gems to the strawberry centres to make them sparkle.

The backing paper features sweet hearts (yes it's nearly that time of year) and I added a strawberry button and some sparkly gems to the corners of the card.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;
Ladybird Craft Inks Loves me loves me not
Papertake Weekly Anything Goes
Divas by Design Love
Whimsey Stamps challenge blog Love themed
Joanna Sheen Love is in the air
Sundays's with Crissy Birthdays
Scrapbook Sisters #70 Anything Goes
I love Promarkers Love is in the air
Stamp, scrap and doodle Saturdays red white and pink
Simon Says Stamp Love is in the air

So a Happy Boxing day it has been. My new scoring board opens up all sorts of new card possibilities. I hope you are all keeping snug wherever you are in the world? It's nearly time for dinner here...with a G+T with ice and a slice me thinks. Cheers everyone, thanks for visiting me here and for all the lovely comments you take the trouble to leave. At the request of most of the card challenge blogs I have turned off my comment moderation to make it quicker and easier for everyone to leave a comment. I will try it for a month and see.....?

Meanwhile Billy as usual has the right idea in this weather,

Enjoy your Boxing Day evening ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x

The best kind of snow

2012-02-07T16:55:00.000Z

For once the weather forecasters were absolutely spot on with their predictions. We were promised that snow would arrive on Saturday evening between 6 and 9pm, that it would snow all night and stop by early Sunday morning. Well it did just that. At 6.45pm the first flakes arrived and soon it was snowing quite heavily. By the time we went to bed this was the scene outside our window.

The snow was the type where the flakes are very small and sparkly, not like the large flakes we had last year.
The snow formed like a crust and sparkled in the night.

When we woke up on Sunday morning we found a decent layer of snow greeted Billy at the back door.

Now our Billy is such a fair weather cat and dislikes even rain. He was quite confused by the snow.

What was so funny was that he tried to tread in the footprints of another cat (or fox) which had already walked on the path.

Needless to say he did not stay out long at all and was soon back inside in the warm.

I think he was just a little more comfy here, back on the sofa!

We went out for a short walk on Sunday in the snow. It was fun to see everyone out enjoying themselves but even by the afternoon the snow was beginning to melt. When we woke up for work yesterday morning we were really relieved to see that the roads were fairly clear and the trains running on time. Bliss, that is my sort of snow. The kind which falls over the weekend, when we had nothing planned, and was gone by the rush hour on Monday morning. All fun and no aggravation.

Although there is no more snow forecast for the moment it has turned bitterly cold and we are not due to get much above freezing all this week. So I decided that my card for today would be one with some lovely spring colours to cheer us all up. I went for really bright Spring colours, this card has quite a zing to it!

I have used a new stamp that I have not inked up before from my favourite stamp makers, Lili of the Valley. She is called "Never too old for cupcake".How I agree!

Isn't she a real cutie? I coloured her using my trusty Promakers and highlighted her with my Prismacolor pencils. I had fun adding some Diamond Dust to her wings, which is make of real glass. I also added some Stickles glitter to the icing of the cake.

I used some Mulberry paper flowers which I glitzed up with some glitter but I also make some of my own flowers....

I added little gems to their centres and also made some leaves for them.

I also added a bright yellow ribbon and a hand stamped sentiment.

I would like to enter my card into the following card challenges.

Lili of the Valley week 5 spring colours
Joanna Sheen Feb challenge Love is in the air
Sundays with Chrissy Happy Birthday
Divas by design #20 Anything Goes
The Crafty Pad Fresh Spring colours
Paper Crafting Journey #2 Fairies or angels
Creative card crew #3 Fantasy creatures
I love Promarkers Photo inspiration; bright buttons
Cupcake inspiration Photo inspiration, bright colours
Pan Pastel challenge Happy birthday

It's been my silversmithing day today but I am now home with Billy. Any guesses where he is?

It's tough being a cat isn't it. Today has been gloriously sunny, clear blue skies but freeeezing cold. Enjoy your evening and I think Billy has got the right idea ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Keeping snug

2012-02-03T17:03:00.000Z

The weather has turned bitterly cold for the last few days and for the first time this winter we lit our open fire.
Normally with our central heating running it never really gets chilly enough to light the fire but the wintry weather gave us a great excuse to do so.

There is nothing like a real fire. It is so mesmerising to watch the flames. When we moved into our 1930s terraced house in 1983 I really had no real interest in these style of houses. It was just a good house, at a good price in a good location and we bought it. In the front room still stood the original 1930s tiled fire place and if I am really honest I didn't like it and fully intended that when we decorated it would be removed.

The front room when we bought out house was just about the only room which did not need redecorating. We decided just to buy new carpet and it was a very livable room for many years. As we are such slow decorators it took us years until the time arrived to decorate it. As the years passed by I became more and more interested in the style of our house. When we replaced the windows (horrible picture windows with louvres put in during the 1970s by the previous owners) we even went back to the original style with individual panes.

So when the time came to re decorate the front room I was really pleased that the original fire place still stood. It is one of the few left in our road which have not been pulled out. I love it and of course it suits the room as that is what it was made for it. I often think of what it must have been like when the house was built in 1935, in those days open fires were the only form of heating.

The other project we undertook to restore the appearance of our house to that of the 1930s was to find a talented stained glass maker who reproduced for us the number window which every house would have had in their porch. There are only 2 remaining in our road and those owners kindly allowed us to photograph and measure up. We did slightly add to the design but it is pretty faithful to the original.

This is taken in the evening from inside the hall (and obviously the number is visible the correct way round from outside) but you can see how well the light streams through. On a sunny day the light dances about in colours on the walls and carpet.

And here is a close up showing the individual pieces of glass and the lovely colours. We spent a long time choosing them, even the clear glass is faithful to that used in the 1930s.

So this lovely new window see the house through may be another 100 years. The old has become "new!"

Now with that fortunate link I can show you my card challenge for today. It is actually for a New Baby. No there are no babies arriving yet in our family but I am often asked if I make these cards. Up until I few weeks ago I did not own any New Baby Stamps but I decided to buy this very sweet set from my friend Kerry. They are really lovely and I had a play with some colouring...

I have also bought some sweet baby boy and baby girl papers. I decided to make my first card as a Baby Girl card and here she is

Rather than keeping to just pastel pink I decided to go for more bold colours, red and pink. The backing paper also has browns in it. I also added some "celebrate" worded paper which I matted with pink card.

I coloured the stamped image using my trusty Promarkers and added a little gem in the centre of the bow on the pram for a little bling.

I finished off my card with a piece of shiny brown satin polka dot ribbon, a red polka dot button and some red pearls.

I rather like this different colour way.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Passion for Promarkers Challenge 134 New Beginnings
Cupcake Craftroom Feb Challenge New Beginnings
Really Reasonable Ribbon challenge 41 pink and red
Divas by Design challenge 20, anything goes
Party Time Tuesday's challenge 53 anything goes
Just Tracey's Crafts Something for a female
Joanna Sheen's Feb challenge Love is in the air

I am still on a lovely roll with my cards and found I won another challenge last week...have a look here. I really am doing a lot of happy dancing here. I will show you my winnings for my stash when they have all arrived.

So it's fingers crossed for some Lady Luck again this week for my cards ;0) Thank you so much for all the lovely comments you leave about my cards. I am sure it is all your good wishes that have stirred the ether and made my cards into winners. I am proudly wearing my winner badges in my side bar of my blog.

The forecaster are saying we may well have snow here over the weekend but even if we do it should be short lived. We shall definitely be lighting our fire again. Keep snug wherever you are and have a lovely weekend.
If it snows then it is crafting and chocolate for me...!

Bye for now,

Jane x

Lady Luck returns for a second weekend

2012-01-29T17:10:00.000Z

Last week I posted about our lovely, long lucky weekend and that Mr Random Number thingy came up with my name on the Penny Black Saturday Card Challenge.

Well I could not quite believe my eyes yesterday when I checked my blog reader for this week and found I was the winner again! Take a look here. I did a little dance up and down and I have a lovely stamp winging it's way to my card stash. This will join the prize from I-2-3 Stitch, an american craft site who are sending me $20 of crafting goodies from last week's entry.
This was my winning card

Well this afternoon we lit the fire for the first time this year and settled down to have a lazy late afternoon. I started up my Hb's laptop to check my blog reader. As I read through the recently launched posts from the blogs I follow I had to look twice.... I saw one of my recent cards that I made using Kerry's lovely Ladybug Craft Ink stamps staring back at me! This was not a random number challenge winner but my card was being featured as none other than the "Daily Talent Spot"

Here is the link. Now that really does give me such a buzz as it is recognition of my little cards. I did a little jig and showed my Hb.

So this weekend has proved to be not just another visit from Lady Luck but a little feature of one of my cards......I have a big smile on my face and wanted to share it with you all. I have been talking about luck with a great blogging friend Linda over the last few days. She posted on Friday about luck/coincidence/fate and we were joking about buying Lotto tickets....now perhaps I really should make sure I have one ;0)

I don't think I dare enter Penny Black's Saturday challenge this week, to come out 3 weeks in a row as the random number winner would surely start mutterings of ,"Fix" LOL!!

I will be back soon with my lastest card as I so love making them and there are so many birthday's coming up. I have also added a few more in my Etsy Shop here.

Enjoy your Sunday evening. Keep snug - a lot of my blogging friends aboad are having a lot of snow and really cold temperatures.....brrr. Time for crafting and chocolate, always the best combination!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Some colour on a drab day.

2012-01-26T08:25:00.000Z

After the lovely real winter weather we had recently it has become just....dull. All this week it has been that kind of week where it never really gets light. The weather men are forecasting some brighter colder weather by late weekend so I hope the sun returns then. We have had some much needed rain but that has not done much to cheer so I thought I would share some colour on a dull winter day.

Last week I found these snowdrops in flower in my parents' garden.

Unlike last year when there were carpets of them, this year there are only a few clumps. I think snowdrops need a really cold winter and as we have had such a mild one they are taking this year off!

We saw some beautiful Helebores at the garden centre and this one even had a bee buzzing around !

Here is another lovely clump.

My parents also had a lovely pot of tete a tete daffodils in flower in their garden.

Do you remember my little one outside still in bud a few weeks ago...?

Here she is today, fully opened in my raised bed. How I love my daffodils.

Also my hyacynth in water has bloomed and the scent is just divine. As I come into the house that spring- like scent greets me....

This was last week..............

and now..........................

Here she is today, looking out into my very bare garden.
The flowers have a lovely purple edge to them.

How beautiful they are. I have so enjoyed watching my bulb in water grow from first putting down some roots last autumn to her splendour now.

Even Billy is looking out for some colour in his garden
from the heights of my studio roof.

So what else can I offer for some colour on a drab day....how about my latest card challenge offering?

I chose to make a really bright cheerful card using bright blues.

I inked up a sweet Penny Black stamp called "Betsy Bluebird" and I coloured her flowers to look like snowdrops.

I used my trusty Promarkers to colour her and highlighted using my prismacolor pencils.

I cut a border with my Martha Stewart lace punch and added a bright blue ribbon and 2 bright blue polka dot buttons. I used twine to tie the button to continue with the "garden" theme. I stamped my circular sentiment using bright blue ink.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Passion for Promarker's recycle something I have recycled some of my garden twine to tie the buttons with.
Papertake weekly challenge Happy highlights I have highlighted my card using bold blue ribbon, buttons and bright blue ink to stamp the sentiment.
Simon Says Stamp anything goes
Penny Black Saturday Challenge crafty bargains My bargains are the polka dot buttons found on Ebay as a craft destash...!
Joanna Sheen celebrations
Creative Craft the colour blue
Die Cuttin Divas buttons, bows and/or bling I used a lacy scallop square diecut.
Party Time Tuesday colour/photo inspiration I used the colours and the photo as inspiration but gave my card a spring rather than a winter feel to cheer us up!

I hope my post has put a little splash of colour into your day?

It's nearly the weekend again, have a great one when we get there.

Bye for now,

Jane x

A lovely lucky long weekend

2012-01-22T17:48:00.000Z

We really enjoyed taking the day off work on Friday to celebrate my Hb's birthday. We had booked a table at Brown's in Mayfair for lunch

I decided to take my trusty camera with me so that you could join us. As you know my Hb works in London and we were both born and raised there and even now we only live about a 30 minute train journey from central London. It is my favourite city in the world and even after all these years there are still parts of it that I have not noticed/visited before.
Friday was a pretty murky day but we wrapped up warmly and took the train to Victoria Station and the tube to Green Park.

Green Park was looking very forlorn and bare. Parts had been roped off to allow areas of grass to be re seeded, ready for everyone to enjoy in the warmer months.

There are some rather lovely buildings in the area including the world famous Ritz Hotel. This is a really grand building even from the outside.

There are also some beautiful cafes and very expensive shops around....including....

There is also the very beautiful old Burlington Arcade which has just been fully restored to it's former grandeur. This included re laying the marble
floors.

After window shopping in all these wonderful shops we arrived at Brown's for lunch. It was delicious. We shared a box of warmed Camembert for starters.

For main course my Hb had fish cakes and I chose Thai prawns and then for pudding he had sticky toffee pudding and I had Brown's Eton Mess. Mmmmm just the memory still makes my mouth water!
This was all washed down with a Bellini and a few cocktails.
After lunch we had a last look in the shops before we headed home. So do you think we came home empty handed.........

Well of course not. After all my Hb only has a birthday once a year and inside this bag is a wonderful new shirt I treated him to. Happy Birthday M.

Well it is Sunday evening already and I have one other exciting piece of news I was desperate to share with you all. After all these months of entering card challenges....lady luck was on my side and guess what.......yes I won....... take a look here It is pure luck as all the names are put into the random number things....how lucky is that for me.
I could not believe it when I checked the Penny Black Saturday Challenge blog yesterday and there was my recent hedgehog card blinking back at me. I have won a voucher to spend at the generous sponsor's on line store, so more lovely card making stash for lucky me.

Now as I seem to be on a roll (things are supposed to run in threes aren't they?) I am going to enter another card for some challenges today.

Now this is a really different colourway for me. As you know I am not normally a pink girl but I do think it works really well with the blue. I used another coloured image from the stamps I won from Kerry's giveaway.

Here she is in close up. I coloured her using my trusty promarkers and I added some glamour dust to the cake to give some real sparkle.

I have machined around the backing paper in blue thread and added a lovely pink die cut frame together with some blue ribbon and paper prima flowers. I have popped in a polka dot brad to the flower centres.
I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Ribbon Girl blue and pink challenge
Papertake Weekly buttons, bows, bling and blooms
Joanna Sheen Celebrations
Party Time Tuesdays Happy Birthday
I love Promarkers Anything goes
Secret crafter Food and drink

I am also submitting this as an entry to the Quick Cards Made Easy "Make a card for a celeb". I chose to made it for Alex Jones the One Show Host as I felt she did so well on Strictly this year and is such a self effacing lady. I also think she suits the pink/ blue combo being not too "girlie" a celeb!

Now if I think I am on a winning roll and things really do go in 3s.....where is that lottery ticket ;0)

Have a great week everyone,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A Ladybug (or is it a ladybird?) friend

2012-01-19T11:11:00.000Z

Us bloggers and craft makers know there is a really friendly bunch of people out in cyber space or the www as it is more commonly known. I have made some really close friends I have met over the nearly 2 years I have been blogging. I met my dear friend Mia out in Finland via Etsy nearly 3 years ago and through reading her blog for about a year encouraged me to jump into the blogging world. I have not looked back.

We often wonder how we meet new blogging friends, they are often via a 3rd party blogger or sometimes we can't even remember...we just meet them! Late last year I was admiring a card on a challenge blog and I clicked on it and was taken to the blog of a lady called Kerry who owns Ladybug Crafts Ink, a small UK company who make lovely stamps. I was intrigued by the name ladybug as here in the UK we call them ladybirds and indeed one of my early blog posts was all about ladybirds. You can read about it here. It turns out that Kerry is from Canada originally which is a clue to her using the name Ladybug not Ladybird.

I decided to follow her blog and she was having a birthday giveaway which I entered. That was just before Christmas. I got behind with my blog reading as I was so busy only to find that I had won it but I read that as I had not come forward Kerry needed to draw a new winner. I was so disappointed as I rarely win anything. I emailed Kerry mainly to apologise for not catching up with my blog reading. She kindly told me that if the new winner failed to come forward then the parcel would be mine. She even said that if they new winner did come forward she would still send me a little something. How kind was that?

Well luck was on my side as the 2nd drawn winner did not make contact so look what arrived in the post last week......

Isn't her wrapping paper wonderful. Brilliant bold ladybirds.

And inside was.................

Not just one but four of her lovely Ladybug Crafts Ink stamps.

These are really good stamps, they cling brilliantly to my acrylic blocks and stamp beautifully.

I have been having a play .....

I used most of the Promarkers I own for colouring these!

I even made my first few cards and this one is off to a friend's daughter for her 19th Birthday next week.

I used some new ribbons I bought. I love this lush black and the ribbon tape measure I thought was great fun. I fixed the tape at 19 where the sentiment is so that it shows her age.

I would like to enter this into a few challenges.

Ladybug Craft Ink; Bows
Passion for Promarkers 132- humour
Joanna Sheen Celebrations
Paper Sundaes, Choose a favourite previous theme I have chosen a challenge from last year called "How Charming" They are having a fun 2nd birthday blog hop..take a peep.
Party Time Tuesdays Happy Birthday
I love Promarkers Anything goes #100
Creative craft crew Seeing red #2

Now Kerry and I also have something else in common, we both have daughters getting married this year. I have a rare "free" non work day today so I am heading out to the studio to play with the glass lampwork beads I have had made for my jewellery for the Big Day. I hope some sample colours will also be arriving in the post today from another great glass lampwork buddy of mine. We are going to choose the bridesmaids beads from these. All very exciting. It is also my dear Hbs birthday tomorrow and we are treating ourselves to lunch up in London at a Mayfair Brasserie...that should be lovely and beats work! We have both taken the day off. Must dash then, presents to wrap, jewellery to create.....

Have a great day and a great weekend (and thanks again Kerry, my new Ladybird (Bug) friend ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x

Real winter weather

2012-01-16T16:42:00.000Z

Finally we seem to have some real winter weather, you know the sort when there is an icy frost when you wake up and gorgeous low milky sunshine. If you wrap up warm it's a joy to get out in the sharp crisp air. I love it. On Saturday we went down to Southampton to visit my daughter and her fiance for the day. There was a really deep frost when we woke up.

All my plants had a dusting of frost over their leaves.

We arrived by 11am and spent until 2pm just chatting, catching up and being treated to Tom's wonderful cooking....sea food fried rice with extra prawn and squid and a dipping soy sauce...mmmm! Later in the afternoon the sky had clouded over and the temperature had risen and we thought that it would be a perfect time to try a walk down by the coast.

There was little wind and we were well wrapped up so it was really delightful to stroll along the cliff path. The sea looked so cold beneath us. There was no one around.

As time wore on the skies really clouded up and it looked as though a storm would break.....

It was spectacular the way the sunshine was shining through the thick clouds in huge shafts of light. It was almost like a scene from the film "Independence Day".
The coast line we looked out to is none other than the Isle of Wight, one of my favourite places to visit in the UK and home of many happy holidays we took our children on when they were tiny. Through binoculars we could even see Osborne House and it's gardens.

No storm broke and we were able to continue our walk down to the shore line.

We took the countryside route for our return and saw the sky changing all the time.

We even walked past a super thatched cottage.

Until by the time we got back for a welcome cup of tea the icy blue winter sky was back again! I do love it when we get this crisp cold winter weather. There has been more of the same again today and I even dug out my hat to wear for the first time this weekend.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and if it's been cold that you have been able to wrap up warm and get out for a bracing walk?

Here is my card challenge for today. I was able to make some new cards on Sunday as cold weather is also a good excuse for some extra crafting!

I have used a super cute Penny Black hedgehog stamp which I have had in my stash for years and decided to ink him up again to see the light of day!

Here he is in close up. I coloured him with my trusty ProMarkers. I highlighted the coloured image with my Prismacolor pencils. I added glossy accents and glitter to the parcel to make it stand out.

I used the same heart papers and red embossed heart card that I used for my recent cat card. We card makers never waste a scrap of anything! I finished everything off with a polka dot red button and a prima flower.
The little sentiment is a shrink plastic one I made. Shrink plastic is something else I have not played with until recently and is really great fun.
I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;
Penny Black Saturday challenge 184 anything goes
Winter wonderland Birthday wishes
Stamping for the weekend Use old stash my old stash is my PB hedgehog stamp and my shrink plastic.
I love Promarkers Cute and cuddly 2nd entry
Joanna Sheen Celebrations
Squirrel and the Fox Critters challenge 9
Whimsy Stamps challenge blog Happy Birthday #21
Dream Valley Anything goes 3rd entry

I have popped him up for sale in my Etsy Shop here

So here we are on a cold Monday evening. It's Tango again for us tonight. It was great fun last week, a really low dance with no rise and fall...our teacher told us all to keep low enough to get splinters in our legs! We will need to wrap up warm and I hope any real hedgehogs out there are fast asleep in their winter hibernation nests. We may even light our fire in the front room tomorrow evening...we have not had a real fire yet this winter. Now that is another winter favourite of mine......

Have a great week,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The Phoenix ring

2012-01-12T18:34:00.000Z

There is a moral to this post which will be revealed later ..the clue is in the title! I have not updated you on my recent silversmithing work so I thought you may be interested to see what I have been up to last term at my day class. Our first project was to make a ring claw setting for a stone. This is no mean feat as this means literally from scratch from round silver wire. This post looks fairly short but it is actually many weeks of classes.

I have missed out photos of all the endless filing, annealing, bending, more filing, more polishing...you get the idea and have given you a snap shot of the process.

Voila! Yes I know that this does not look much like a claw setting but you start with measuring the stone and making 2 accurate rings from wire, soldering them shut and marking them in quarters. The other piece of wire makes up one of the side struts.

Next I filed small grooves were filed in the outside quarters of the rings and I soldered the strut in place. It was such a balancing act to keep everything in place. It actually took me an hour to set it up to solder.

I made up the other side struts with straight pieces of wire and again after much patience soldered them in place.

Next I made a ring blank by measuring my finger and making this out of square wire.

Like this.

and then carefully soldered the whole lot together. Can you see now that it is looking much more like a claw setting for a ring?

Next I placed the stone in and then had to then cut down the claws tips down to size. You can see I have marked them with red pen where I needed to saw.

And with the claws the right side I had to push over the edges very carefully to set the stone in place.

Now here is the moral of the story.....never fiddle with jewellery! This is what happened next....

After I took this photo I noticed that the ring was very slightly out of shape and as I am a bit of a perfectionist I decided just to make the sank perfectly round again. BIG MISTAKE. I put the ring on a ring mandrel, gave it a tap with a hide mallet to straighten it up but I dislodged a small soldered joint. In trying to re solder the joint the heat cracked the stone!! Yup, I do mean it destroyed the stone despite using heat protector etc etc. It was one of those rather heart sink moments as a silversmith!

I have taken out the stone but I have not yet had the heart to try to find something similar as this was a one off stone. When I am next up in Hatton Garden in London I will have a look. Also the claws will need altering with a new stone so it is not just a simple case of "popping in " a stone. So this piece is now sitting in my tool box waiting for the day that I feel I can resurrect the "Phoenix ring". It may yet rise from the ashes. There is a great song in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a film I remember as a kid, where they sing "From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success". I do find myself humming that when I think of my Phoenix ring.

The really positive thing about this project though is that I learnt SO many skills and perfected ones I already had. Nothing is ever lost when things like this happen, it's all a learning curve. I agree with my Mum who has always said that we learn more through our mistakes than through our successes.

So that I end this post on a cheerful note I have a happy card to enter for some challenges today!

This sweet image is my favourite Lili of the Valley cutie called Rosie Posy

I coloured her with my trusty Promarker pens
and highlighted her with my Prismacolor pencils. I added a little bling to the centres of the flowers in her posy.

I also added some lovely paper mulberry roses around the hand stamped sentiment and added a lovely bright piece of red stripy ribbon.

She is a real sweetie isn't she.
I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Lil's Little Fairies Challenge 2, favourite stamp
I love Promarkers Challenge 99 Cute and cuddly
Passion for Promarkers's Inspired by a song and in keeping with my post my inspiration has to be "The Roses of Success" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!
Cupcake crafts something new My "new" are the wonderful pink mulberry flowers.
Whimsey cards challenge 21 Happy Birthday
Penny black Allsorts Love and hearts
Joanna Sheen January challenge, Celebrations
Top Tip Tuesdays Anything goes
Dream Valley Anything goes
Simon Says Spots and/or stripes

So this card has to be dedicated to all my wonderful blog reader's and I know there are a LOT of you out there; my recent stats show that. Hello to those who silently read and thanks to everyone who takes the time to comment on my posts. I love to read them, it makes my Journal writing very pleasurable.

It's nearly the weekend again, we are off to visit our daughter and her fiancé and we hope to get in a coastal walk. The weather looks as though it may turn chilly so we will wrap up warm.

Have a wonderful weekend whatever you do and remember this card is Just for You x

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Hearts and flowers

2012-01-09T17:05:00.000Z

The weekend was very mild again and I was able to get out into my garden and clear some leaves and have a general tidy up. It felt SO good to be outside again.

As I was raking around I spotted lots of signs of my garden coming to life. There are lots of tips of bulbs and leaf buds swelling.I even spotted one daffodil head pushing eagerly up.

Have you spotted her sleepy head in the centre of the photo getting ready to unravel in all her beautiful splendour?

This variety is the Tete a Tete miniature which is usually is one of the earliest to flower. My heart skips a beat when I think of seeing daffodils in flower. It won't be long now.

Also I have been able to watch the shoots of some more Tete a Tete spring up from the pots I planted in the autumn.

This pot is on my studio workbench. I can almost hear them growing as I sit and craft.

Talking of my studio and crafting I also wanted to show you the necklace I made for my daughter for Christmas. I could not show it before as I know she does occasionally read my blog. Her request was for a black and navy long necklace. She likes her necklaces big and bold. These unusual large flat artisan glass lampwork beads I bought at a bead fair. I have had them in my stash for a couple of years and she spied them a while ago. Each of those beads measures 3.5 X 3.5 cms. As any Mum of daughter's out there knows when your daughter makes the sounds of "Ohh I really do like those beads"...that means they cannot be made into a necklace for anyone else! I must admit I love navy/cobalt blue and black as a colour combo, it really works well with the silver. I teamed it with black onyx gemstones, Czech faceted glass and some Tibetan silver beads. She loved it and it has already become one of her favourites.

I also want to show you today how my hyacinth growing in water is doing.

Remember this, way back in October...

Here are the roots appearing and a tiny shoot, at the end of November...

This was last week

And here we are today, the flower is really coming up now. Hopefully in the next few weeks that wonderful fragrance will be filling my kitchen.

So I am sure you are wondering," So where are the hearts in this post?"

Well here they are....

I also had the time this weekend to get my husband's Valentine card made.

I inked up a Penny Black cat stamp which I have had for ages but never really used. I used my trusty ProMarkers to colour the image and added some lovely red gems at the corners.

I also used a lovely new circular sentiment stamp, which sums up just how I feel about my Hb. Aaahhh! It's always a real challenge to make a card for a man but I think this is bold enough and of course anything with a cat on will make my Hb smile.
For the "Top Tip Tuesday's Challenge blog" My "Top Tip" I would like to offer is when using these very popular circular stamps is to stop trying to stamp them straight onto circular die cuts...they always go wonky! I now cut them out using curved tip decoupage scissors and then stick them onto another circle die cut (if needed). They then look perfectly centred and no one spots that you have not stamped them directly!

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Penny Black Saturday Challenge 184 "Case it"
Penny Black Allsorts Challenge Love and hearts
Joanna Sheen January Challenge Celebrations
Squirrel and Fox Something new my new is the circular sentiment stamp
Top tip Tuesday Challenge 67 Anything Goes My top tip is for cutting out circular sentiments as I have explained above.
Dream Valley challenge 23 Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes Challenge 102, Saturated Colours
Scrapbook Sisters Anything goes challenge 66

Wishing everyone a good week ahead. Our dancing class restarts tonight after the Christmas break..I can't wait to get back...it's the Tango for the next 3 weeks.....Keep Dancing!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Studio news, part 4

2012-01-05T12:31:00.000Z

Good afternoon everyone. Before I share my latest exciting Studio News I have a new card challenge entry to show you today. It is actually great to get out the non Christmas themed stamps and card making stash again having spent since last September making my Christmas cards. Today I am showing you that lovely Gorjuss Girls stamp I used in this post. Amazingly I popped that card into my Etsy Shop last week and it sold in 6 hours! I think that is a record for me. She is on her way to the USA.

For today's card I used a totally red and white colour scheme.

I used the same Gorjuss girl stamp and hand coloured her with my trusty Promarker pens keeping to a red and white theme. Again I cut her out and then put her in front of a couple of gorgeous die cuts from my stash.

I used something new on my card, these lovely red pearl embellishments...I also bought them in white and blue.

Thanks for looking at my card.

I would like to enter this into the following card challenges;

Winter Wonderland Red and White challenge
Totally Gorjuss Happy challenge 112
Simon Says Stamp New something My new are my pearls.
Penny Black Allsorts January challenge Love and hearts
Paper Sundaes challenge 101 Something old, something new New are my pearls, old is my backing paper.
Party Time Tuesdays Challenge 49, something new New are my pearls
Papertake weekly challenge Anything goes with option of something new...my new red pearls!
Ladybug Crafts Ink Challenge 51, use new stash My new pearls and now in my stash!
Joanna Sheen January challenge, Celebrations. My card is a birthday celebration.

So now on to my Studio News...well my dear Hb was very busy on my behalf over the Christmas break. We bought some carpet which he fitted (he had to change the blade of his Stanley knife SO many times, he said it was really hard work).

On top of my wall to wall carpet I have put my heavy duty Ikea mat.

I also have my cupboards installed on
one side.

Together with a brilliant flap down table which he installed at waist height so that I can stand and work too.

How nifty and space saving (and back saving!) is that!

We also cut the 2nd blind to size which he put up.

I plan to get one more blind for the door in a deep raspberry/aubergine plain colour.

He also put up the 2 beautiful prints which were sent to me from 2 of my dear American artist friends and I finally got round to framing.

This one from Shirley was my present from the "Pay it forward" which she and I were part of last year. Shirley does the most wonderful art and she knows how much I love pigs! How perfect is this!

My 2nd print is from Michele who did a very special thing and just sent me this wonderful print of the gorgeous Sea Dragon she showed on her blog last year. I had commented how awesome it was and she just sent it out of sheer blogging friendship...how touching is that! Even the envelope was decorated when it arrived.

So now I can sit at my workbench and be watched over by these 2 very specials prints. Thank you both Shirley and Michele...they are a constant source of inspiration and I treasure them. I also can gaze out to my sweet pig that my son bought and I thought you would all like to know that he has a name now...Percy the Pig.

It's my day off today so I am having a crafting day out in my studio...again the weather has decided to warm up and I can put on my heater and craft away to my heart's content. We have had some really heavy rain and strong winds here in the UK but I am snug in my Studio. I am also hoping to start playing with some ideas for my wedding necklace...this Mother of the Bride business is great fun but time is ticking away now...if you want a precise time...it's 205 days to go ;0) I can't wait!

Enjoy your day too,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Into 2012.......

2012-01-01T08:01:00.000Z

Happy New Year everyone....and welcome to another brand New Year. We went over to my parents for a meal last night to say goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012. I raised my glass to you all!

2012 will be such a special year for our family as in just over 7 months time our darling daughter will be getting married. I plan to show several sneak peeks of some the plans but obviously without giving too much away. My first sneak peak was in this post here
The dress is obviously TOP SECRET but what I will say is that the word "devine" comes to mind!

My Hb and I decided to go off to Wimbledon Village for lunch on Friday. I also suggested this as I had some insider knowledge that Cath Kidston had a sale on. We enjoyed lunch in Paul's and then wandered down the village to the shop. I was then in heaven as there were SO many yummy things in the 50% off sale.

I bagged all this lot for Christmas, it's never too early to start shopping in my books ;0)
I bought Christmas oven gloves, tea towels, serviettes, tin of tags, Christmas stickers and a cute tin candle stick. I shall put these away in my drawer and get them out in December.

Here is the pattern in close up.

and this is the tin candle stick. It's like a real old fashioned "Wee Willie Winkie" nursery rhyme one.

I also got this great 2012 Calender tea towel which I showed in full in my first photo.

Whilst I was standing at the till to pay I also spotted something very special

I was not sure whether I should buy it as I had already got a basket brimming over with goodies but my dear Hb bought it for me.....take a look at this beauty..............

.....the most glorious CK special edition charm bracelet! The details of the charms are just wonderful.They also have enamelled elements to them which pardon the pun make them charming.

Amongst an owl and an anchor there is an old London Route Master bus with Cath Kidston enamelled on the side!

The clasp has a heart attached as well as lucky shamrock and a Scottie dog.

There is even a ship with CK enamelled on the sails and a sewing machine with Cath K embossed underneath.

I am in love!

So I have welcomed in the New Year with some special gifts. What a very lucky girl I am. Wishing you all a special 2012, there is the Olympics to look forward to here as well. Sadly we were not successful in the ticket ballot but I think most people weren't either. Anyway the opening ceremony is the weekend of THE Wedding so our family will be fully occupied.

I hope that all your dreams come true and that you have a happy and healthy 2012. Thank you for being such great blogging friends and I truly look forward to sharing all your news and creations during the year to come.

Cheers everyone!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Popping in post Christmas

2011-12-28T18:22:00.000Z

I'm just popping in with a quick after Christmas post and I also have a challenge card to show you. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas? I certainly did and Father Christmas was most generous ;0)

Here is my card latest creation, using a Gorjuss Girls stamp. I have called my card "Girlie Love".

I coloured my stamped image using my trusty ProMarkers. I really enjoyed getting some depth of red into her dress by adding some shading with my Prismacolor pencils.

Here she is in close up.
Unusually for me I decided to cut her out, I like the way she is more "3D" on my card. I used some heart backing papers which I matted using black card.I rather like this red/black/cream combo.

I made a lace and ribbon border for her to "sit" on using cream lace and cream organza ribbon.

I finished off my "Girlie Love" card with a round hand stamped birthday sentiment.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges.

Ribbon Girl challenge Red, black and cream challenge 14
Totally Papercrafts Time to party challenge 97
Party Time Tuesday anything goes Challenge 48
I love ProMarkers Anything goes Challenge 98
Stamping for the weekend Anything goes challenge 23
Totally Gorjuss A card for someone special challenge 111
Make It Monday link up your cards party Challenge 69
Paper Sundaes Challenge 100 celebrations
Scrapbook Sisters Anything goes challenge 66
Top Tip Tuesday anything goes Challenge 66
Simon Says Stamp Challenge anything goes

Even though Christmas was only a few days ago it does it seems like a while now as we continued our celebrations over Boxing day, when Milly and Tom joined us and also yesterday when Milly and I hit the Sales!
Here is a photo of the table set up on Christmas day

and remember I told you that I have my cracker filled secretly.................

here it is and inside my Hb and put a special Estee Lauder eyeshadow compact in the colour I want for wearing to "The Wedding". It is called Polished Platinum and is very sumptuous.

I had some fab presents including a tumble polisher for my silversmithing work, new CK bag, new card guillotine, beauty products, candles, chocolate (of course, how can Christmas be complete without too much chocolate) but one of the most unusual and so apt for me was this wonderful large resin pig bought for me by my dearest Son. It was in a huge box and he bought him to live on the decking of my studio.

Here he is having trotted down the garden ;0)

Of course Billy had to check him out!

I guess this is the seal of approval and that they will now get on on! My pig is such fun and keeps and eye on all the comings and goings in my studio.

And of course our Billy had his present which was full of cat nip toys which he chased after during the day.
Billy also has a confession......he did steal a piece of turkey from the table! Naughty boy...we sent him off to sit on one of the kitchen stools whilst we finished our dinner!

Of course he looks as though butter would not melt.....and it's impossible to be cross with such a handsome boy isn't it? He was as good as gold from then on (and full of turkey!)

I am looking forward to catching up with everyone's blogs now that our Christmas festivities are over for 2011. I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. We are celebrating quietly over at my parents with a meal on Saturday night. I will raise my glass to all my Blogging friends. What a wonderful year it has been, I have so enjoyed sharing my journal and want to thank you all for the wonderful comments you have left this year and for being cherished friends. There is so much to look forward to in 2012, I can hardly wait! See you next year ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

'Twas the night before Christmas....

2011-12-24T08:01:00.000Z

and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring not even a ..

Isn't he cute? My dear Hb bought me this last Christmas. We went for a weekend to York and we found a delightful shop which sold Maileg products. They are the sweetest toys and I fell in love with this match box mouse. Little did I know that when we got home he phoned the shop and got one sent to him. I opened this last Christmas and fell in love.

If you slide open the box and take off his knitted blankie this dear little mouse is sleeping inside. I will be honest this mouse has stayed around all year as I cannot resist him.

Well here were are at last. Everything is ready, the presents bought and wrapped, the fridge stacked with food, house spick and span. I even picked the turkey up from the butcher's on my way home from work yesterday. I am now off work until Wednesday 4 January which will be such a great break.

My son and his girlfriend and my Mum and Dad will be joining us for Christmas Day. Milly and Tom are at his parents this year and are coming to join us on Boxing Day. The mince pies are made and the house is looking so festive.

Billy is up and about and looks as though he is already looking out for Father Christmas.....(There is a little present in store for Billy as he has been such a good boy this year ;0)

My last window of my Advent Calendar has been opened and in one more sleep the Big Day will arrive. As you all know I just love everything about Christmas and I have so enjoyed sharing another Countdown to Christmas with you all. I have even managed to make it snow on my blog! I have really enjoyed reading all your comments and thank you for taking the time to write them.

You know how I love all things whimsical so I just had to share one last thing with you all in my last Christmas Countdown post this year.

I have a copy of a dear children's book about Pookie (has anyone else heard of him?) which I have owned and treasured since 1965. It still has the old price of 5 shillings written inside in pencil. I read it year after year and it was also read to my own children when they were small. The illustrations are glorious in their detail.

Pookie is a little rabbit with wings who lives with Belinda the woodcutter's daughter.

There were several Pookie books and this adventure tells of Pookie being the only creature in the wood who still believes in Father Christmas.

The illustrations are glorious in their detail. This is his best friend even shunning him for being silly enough to believe in the idea of Father Christmas.

Of course Pookie decides to prove everyone wrong and goes to look for FC . He meets FC who invites Pookie to bring all his friends to a feast so that he can prove his existence.

What a wonderful picture this is with that "vivid" colours from 1960s print!

and just as all good fairy tales should end everyone believes again and Christmas Day is saved!

Thanks for indulging me......only one more sleep and if I've been a very good girl maybe my stocking will have something inside too ;0)

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, may your stockings be filled with sweet gifts, your house be filled with laughter and your hearts be full of love at this very special time of the year.

Back soon,

With love,

Jane x

My last Christmas card for 2011...Simply Christmas

2011-12-21T15:11:00.000Z

There are only 4 days left now in the countdown to Christmas 2011. Where on earth did December go? The month just flew by. I only have to work one more day now, on Friday and then I will have some welcome time off.

I would first like to share with you my last Christmas card challenge for this year. I will continue to enter card challenges but I will be using non Christmas themed cards from now on. I would also like to take this opportunity of thanking everyone for the kind comments you took the trouble to leave. I really enjoyed sharing my Christmas cards with you all. I have not won any challenges yet but I still have my fingers crossed that Mr Random Number Thingy will pull me out of the hat in the near future! As my Hb reminds me "You have to be in them to win them!"

My last Christmas card for 2011 I have called "Simply Christmas" as I have left off my usual bling and created a card which I think is pretty in its simplicity. Here it is-

I used one of my favourite Lili of the Valley Christmas stamps from this year called "Moonlight wishes". I hand coloured it using my trusty ProMarker pens and added some depth and shading with my Prismacolor pencils.

Here is my colouring in close up. This moon image is so sweet.

I kept the embellishments simple as I wanted to show off this gorgeous holly glittered vellum backing paper on top of the silver backing card. It looks as though it is made of ice!

So all I added were some hand punched holly leaves I cut from silver foiled card with 3 red gems as berries......

and finished off with a simple round, hand stamped Christmas sentiment.

So there we are; my last Christmas card...Simply Christmas. It was made for my dearest friend Karen who is simply the very best friend I could ever ask for.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Passion for ProMarkers Mega Christmas Challenge

Papercrafting journey Christmas challenge

Joanna Sheen Christmas Wishes

Make it Monday Blog Party 68
Totally Gorjuss A card for someone special

Weekly Christmas card challenges Non traditional Christmas colors
Dream Valley Challenges Challenge 22, Christmas
The Squirrel and the Fox Challenge 7 - Christmas
Paper Sundaes Challenge 100 - Celebrate
Stamping for the weekend Christmas

I also thought I would continue with my Simply Christmas theme with a few photos of the little things which give me so much pleasure at this special time of year and to remind everyone to take a deep breath amongst all the hustle and bustle around us at this moment in time .....

Simply coming downstairs to see my tree shimmering...and smelling the gorgeous fir tree smell....

....the presents appearing under the tree (and of course my dear Billy who kept trying to rub round and kiss me whilst I took this photo !)

...my growing card collection...am I the only person who still loves to receive real cards? At work now most people just send an email stating that they are "Donating" to charity instead of sending cards. I throw a spanner in the works by saying that I am doing both !

I always hang my cards from the bannisters, they are such fun to see.

Now my daughter has her own home she has started displaying her cards this way too. On the subject of Milly you will be delighted to hear that Tom returned safely from 3 months away at sea on Saturday. That is the best Christmas present we could have wished for.

Simply looking at my violas in the garden , bravely flowering, whatever the weather.

I even spotted.....

yes new shoots from the bulbs I planted in the autumn! What a simple joy to still see new life growing in the dark of winter.

and my last "simple" Christmas joy is........

My sweet advent calendar. The pictures behind the windows have been so delightful. There are still a couple of more doors to open but of course the biggest one is saved til last.......

Yes number 24 on Christmas Eve. Now I wonder what on earth might be behind that last window ;0)

I will be back with one last post in my Countdown to Christmas on Christmas Eve. For those of you who may well be travelling away to spend time with families I will simply wish you a very Merry Christmas. For those of you who will still be around I shall see you all on Saturday for my final post. Take care and Keep Calm and Carry on preparing for Christmas. Remember to enjoy the simple things too at this special time..... we are very nearly there.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Crackers for Christmas 2011, only 6 days to go...

2011-12-19T17:44:00.000Z

It's the real Countdown to Christmas now with only 6 days to go. I have been so busy that I am only just finishing making my Christmas Crackers. Those of my oldest blogging friends will remember last year that in collaboration with my dear Finnish friend Mia I posted a demo on making Christmas crackers here. I have always made my own crackers as I like to have something personal and special inside for the receiver.

So I am sure you would like to see this year's offering...............

I chose quite a bright green as they are to match the Christmas serviettes my daughter bought me back from France this summer.

They feature really sweet little Christmas elves with trees and snowflakes. Just my kind of characters.

I bought white and red crepe paper and a packet of light green, red and white tying string and bows to match.

I downloaded the backing paper which I printed out on my own home printer. It features cute reindeer......

and sweet robins. I tied the ends off with the green ribbon and put a bow on each finished cracker.

Here are 5 of the 8 I have made. I am just finishing off the last ones and mine has got to wait for my Hb to put a secret surprise in for me!!

So they are all ready for putting on the table on Christmas day. Now how could I end this post without some of the jokes I found on my search for the corniest I could find?

I hope these make you chuckle! It's been such a miserable day here today. Wet, cold and dark, not my favourite combination at all. These should bring a smile whatever weather you are having/suffering ;0)

What do you sing at a snowman

Freeze a jolly good fellow!

Why does Santa have three gardens?

So he can ho ho ho!

What goes “oh, oh, oh”?

Santa walking backwards

What do you get if you eat Christmas decorations?

Tinselitus

How does Good King Wenceslas like his pizzas?

Deep and crisp and even!

Groan.....tee hee!

I shall be back soon, in the meantime I hope all your lists are being ticked off and you are nearly set for the Big Day......if not just take a leaf out of Billy's book..............

Isn't life tough when you're a cat?

Bye for now,

Jane x

Christmas in London

2011-12-16T20:59:00.000Z

My countdown to Christmas is dashing along and here we are with only 9 days to go until the big day. I have got all my presents bought and wrapped and I have spent this afternoon after work making some of my crackers. I will show some photos when there is enough daylight over the weekend to take some shots. I would like to first show you all my latest card challenge using my favourite Christmas colours, red and green.

I used a new Lili of the Valley image called "Moonlight Wishes". I think this is such a gorgeous stamp.As you know my Mum and I do love the "Man in the moon."
I stamped the image out and coloured it using my trusty ProMarkers. I love the holly backing papers I used they are SO festive!

I really enjoyed colouring this stamp I kept it very simple as I think it suits the drawing.

I added a die cut poinsettia (in red of course!) and a red foil star to give some depth. I also added a die cut fir branch. The matting card has lovely embossed holly leaves.

I finished off with a round sentiment and put some punch cut embossed holly leaves around the edge.

I am entering this card into the following Card Challenges;

ProMarkers Mega Christmas Challenge
Joanna Sheen's Christmas Wishes
Papertake Weekly challenge "I'm dreaming of a (your fave colour) Christmas" My colours are red and green
Paper Sundaes Anything Christmas
Party Time Tuesdays Red and Green Christmas
Papercrafting Journey; Christmas Challenge
Creative Craft Crew "Tis the Season"
Scrapbook Sisters Two colours My two colours are red and green.

I would also like to mention the lovely red ribbon give away on the Ribbon Girl Blog here. I would love to get my hands on that stash!

I had a wonderful evening out on Wednesday when I was treated by my Mum to a festive visit to see The English National Ballet perform The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum. I love London even more at Christmas. Despite the crowds everyone seems much more cheerful. I took the tube to The Embankment and got some fun photos.

I rather like the fuzziness of these shots, it was very dark and very cold so it was difficult to keep my camera still. There is a sense of bustling in this shot.

Embankment Tube Station is very close to the Strand and Trafalgar Square. I had a few minutes to spare I took a stroll with my camera and took some festive shots.

Shop fronts all decked out for Christmas

And here is the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square which is an annual gift to the UK from Norway for the help we gave them during the War.

Beautiful isn't she

And towering up above me in the dark was none less than....

.................Lord Nelson...
You can just make him out as a shadow at the top of the plinth. It was a very chilly night so I did not hang around for long and walked the few minutes to The Coliseum. I actually think I prefer The Coliseum to the Royal Opera House. It is smaller and more intimate and the seats are more comfortable!

It's a lovely old building and inside was heaving with excited people ready to see this wonderful ballet. The Nutcracker has to be one of my favourite ballets to see at this time of the year. It really has such a Christmas feel about it.

At this point there was no more photography allowed so my Mum and I settled back to an evening of pure delight. The dancers were superb, the scene changes spectacular, the orchestra stunning and the costumes...on my ...what a treat. I have found myself humming " The dance of the sugar plum fairy" ever since.

The weather has really changed here in the South of England over the last day, we even had sleet this morning and temperatures of -2oc are forecast over night. Much as I know how it does disrupt life here I can't help but also be humming...
"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!"

I hope everyone is keeping warm and snug, this is the last weekend of work before we can finally greet Christmas. As we are all reminded .......Keep Calm (but Carry on having Fun!)

Billy is certainly managing to do so ;0)

Back soon,

Bye for now.

Jane x

The Original Bah Humbug

2011-12-13T21:15:00.000Z

I love to re read the Christmas Classic " A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens at this time of year as it really evokes the Spirit of Christmas in me. Last year, during my Countdown to Christmas posts, I mentioned a wonderful copy of this book which I managed to find in our local charity shop a couple of years ago. We were decorating the dining room this time last year and all our books had been packed away so I could not show you all. As all our books are now back in their rightful place I can now show you this wonderful copy I own. It is a small book, only 4 1/2 " by 6 1/2" (or 11cm by 17cm for my metric minded readers!)

It still has it's original dust wrapper, which is a little dog eared, but in great shape for its age.

Dickens's obviously wanted to plant a seed of thought in us all at this time of the year as this is the preface he wrote;

"I have endeavoured in the Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my reader out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it."

A Christmas Carol was first published just before Christmas 1843. My edition was published in 1945 in time for the first Christmas after the war. It is printed on economy paper which is explained on the fly leaves. This edition reproduced the original illustrations by John Leech.

The illustrations are so gorgeous. There are not many, just a few colour plates and some line drawings.

This is one of my favourites when Marley visits Scrooge and warns him of the 3 Spirits who will visit that night.

and here is one of the line drawings of Scrooge.

I love this one of the reformed kindly Scrooge after he has seen into his future and decided to mend his ways!

And of course those final words which I can recite....bless Tiny Tim!

I think this book strikes a chord with most of us at this time of the year.

In the words of C.D

..it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.
May that be truly said of us, and all of us!

How I agree........I try to keep Christmas well and this little book does indeed "Haunt my house pleasantly"!

Only 12 days left now...........the clock is really ticking on. I am sure you would all like to see if Billy is still flat out, as he was in my last few posts ......

Good grief he has stirred from his slumbers........I wonder what he is waiting for?

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Come Dasher, come Dancer......make it festive!

2011-12-08T21:47:00.000Z

Thursdays are my day off and I visited a wonderful Christmas display today with my parents at a garden Centre in Kent. There were live reindeer there too! Before I show those photos I would like to show my newest Card Challenge card. This one features another super cute Lili of the Valley stamp called "Make it Festive"

I used my trusty ProMarkers to hand colour the image, enhanced with a little prismacolor pencil.

I added some Stickles glitter to Milly's bow and to the table cloth and ornaments to give some sparkle.
The backing paper features little gingerbread men and I also had some lovely green embossed holly card in my stash.
I also used a lovely deep pink backing card for matting.

I fixed some real lace and some of my punch cut snowflakes, which I gave some extra sparkle to by adding silver glitter and a silver central gem.

I wired together a dramatic bouquet of mulberry paper roses and rose buds which I glitzed up with some glitter.

I finished off my card with a round sentiment.

I am entering my card into the following challenges.
Lili of the Valley White, pink and silver
Paper Crafting Journey Christmas Challenge
Ladybug Crafts Ink Snowflakes and Sparkle
ProMarkers Blogspot Mega Christmas Challenge
ABC Christmas Challenge Y is for Yipee
Creative Craft Crew 'Tis the Season
Joanna Sheen's Challenge Christmas Wishes
Cute Card Thursday Challenge 194 anything goes
Papertake Weekly Challenge Anything goes

Thanks for looking at my card.

So onto my news of Rudolf's friends (well OK they were not really called Dasher and Dancer but I am allowed some poetic licence at this time of year surely ;0)

These sweeties were on display and seemed happy to pose for photos.

In the grounds were also 2 huge stunning willow models.

I also thought this display was very seasonal.

There were lots of lovely tree displays

Rows of different coloured Poinsettia, mind you for me a Poinsettia just has to be red!

And many types of indoor and outdoor lights, some even moved!!

We enjoyed a festive lunch of brie and cranberry panini (my favourite Christmas filling!) and then returned to my parents' house for a cup of tea before I came home. My Dad had also cut me some holly for my house from his garden and I was stunned to see SO many berries this year. Last year at this time the birds had almost stripped all the berries from the trees. Look at the abundance of them!

So that is a lovely festive photo to end my post. I also just need to point out gently that in my Countdown to Christmas there are now only 17 days until the Big day.

I have my work Christmas party tomorrow night, our dancing party on Saturday and then we are going down to Southampton on Sunday to see Milly's tree. Lot's of making merry ahead! I hope you all have a wonderful upcoming weekend and "see" you all next week.

And if you were wondering how Billy is getting on with his Christmas Preparations.....................

.........................................well at least he has one eye open in this photo ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x

Mince pies

2011-12-06T22:46:00.000Z

You may be wondering why I am opening this post with a photo of one of my pretty Christmas plates.
All will be revealed below!

As I mentioned in my last post my daughter came up to see us at the weekend.One of her requests was.......................to make mince pies! Nothing delights me more than sharing some festive activity so I made up some pastry.

I am a great fan of bog standard good old fashioned Robertson's Mincemeat. I have tried lots of different brands..with brandy, extra fruit, low sugar, with cherries etc etc but for last last few years I have come back to this old British favourite, which I really think is difficult to beat. I know I do not make my own, but there are just not enough hours in the day for me to manage that. (Well I suppose I could just take the whole of December off work, now that is a lovely but very unreal thought!)

As you can imagine there is no way my mince pies can be left plain on the top-
Of course they need to be decorated.

I am a great fan of cross purpose craft items. I decided that as well as the trusty holly leaf and tree cutter which I usually use, we could use the new snowflake and ivy leaf cutters. I bought these for using with my precious metal clay. (No I did not have time this year...plans for next year though).

These are some of the fun shapes we cut out from the leftovers of pastry (and yes we also both ate the very last scraps, we still L*O*V*E raw pastry!) I still have memories of watching my Mum bake and hoping there would be lots of scraps left. There usually were.

These are the designs which Milly came up with, note the very large holly berries. Her excuse is that way you get even more pastry! My girl does love home made mince pies.

We managed to make up 2 trays worth and popped them into the oven for 30 minutes.

And here are a few of them, in their full glory on my special plate..........mmmmmmmmmm they were delicious. Milly took some home with her and we had the rest. My Hb also likes taking them to work with his packed lunch. This evening I had the very last one so I need to get baking again really soon.

Also at the weekend I bought a couple of wreaths for the house.

One for the front door and no guesses where the second one is.........

I could not leave my studio out now could I? The smell from them is just delicious.

I am so enjoying seeing all my fellow bloggers also decorating their houses for Christmas all around the world. Keep sharing......It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ;o)

And now the weather has turned chilly you can guess what Billy is doing a lot more of indoors can't you?

Yes, he is flat out preparing for Christmas.

Back soon with another Countdown to Christmas post,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Tree time and a Christmas birthday

2011-12-04T19:34:00.000Z

My Mum just celebrated her birthday. I know that she sometimes takes a peep at my blog so I have waited until today to show you the card I made for her.

I do love this Lili of the Valley image called Dandelion clock. I stamped the image onto a die cut blank and coloured it with my Promarkers. I decided to have a nice bright red, white and blue theme to cheer up the dark days at this time of the year.

Here she is in close up. I added some glitter to her wings. My Mum loves fairies! I also added some glamour dust to the dandelion heads.

I machine stitched around the border of the backing paper with red thread and added a big bright spray of mulberry flowers in reds and blues.

I also punch cut some leaves and added some wire tendrils.

I finished the card off with some pearls and a red butterfly. I stamped my birthday greetings onto a round sentiment and added a piece of bright spotty ribbon.

I am entering this card into a couple of card challenges ;

Lili of the Valley Challenge 123 Anything but a Christmas card

Penny Black December Challenge, Happy Birthday

Totally Gorjuss Sketch

Paper Sundae Challenge 98 2 of 4 toppings! I have used all 4 of the toppings; i.e red, stripes, die cuts and stitching.

I Did It Creations Challenge blog Challenge 84, Flowers

Thanks for looking at my card ;0)

I had a wonderful weekend as it was that special first weekend in December when we purchase "The Christmas Trees". Yes we have 2 as one is the "Chocolate Tree". Last year we were in the middle of decorating so we only had the main one but all that is now finished we were able to get back to normal.

It is always important for us to chose them so we trotted off to our local nursery.

This very patient lad unwrapped lots of trees until we found our Perfect 2. One is a 7 footer the other a small potted tree.

They were both delivered this afternoon and we got busy decorating them.

I love sorting through our decorations and remembering where different ones have been bought from.

This gorgeous glass Father Christmas is a limited edition and we bought him at the Nuremberg Christmas market in 2008

Along with this super Nutcracker.

After over an hour of bauble hanging the main tree was finished and here she is in all her glory. We have so many lovely baubles.

And here is the chocolate tree by the front door during the day...........

And then this evening as darkness falls...............

I also had great fun making mince pies with my darling daughter. I shall upload those photos later and be back really soon with another Countdown to Christmas post. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too, perhaps also getting your trees up?

Meanwhile can you imagine what Billy was doing during all this ................................................................

Shhhhh don't shout too loud...but there are now only 21 days left until Christmas ..... back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane (and a very sleepy Billy) xx

Advent Calendar Nostalgia and a Snowman card

2011-12-02T16:42:00.000Z

Well here we are in December, yipee......I no longer feel so gulity about showing all my Christmas crafting creations. I must admit it was strange making my first Christmas card in October whilst we were in the middle of one of the hottest October and November's on record. Mind you for anyone living in New Zealand and Australia that is the normal. No for me Christmas has to involve darkness, cold, frost and if we are lucky a light dusting of snow which arrives on a Friday night and vanishes before the rush hour on a Monday morning ;0)

Today I have a made a new card which I will enter in a few Card Challenges. It's a different style for me, and features a snowman. There are not my usual embellishments and flowers as this is the card I made for my son. I gave it to him last night and it is looking out at us now from his bedroom shelf. Here it is

He is a very cheerful Snowman standing in some glistening snow

I stamped Mr Snowman onto a round die cut and then coloured him with my trusty Promarkers. I added a clear accent glaze to the hat, bow and baubles to make them shine.

Here he is in close up. I also added some glitter for extra sparkle and some punch cut snowflakes.

I also added a sweet Father Christmas Tibetan charm from my jewellery stash and completed my card with a foil die cut star and some lovely rich green organza ribbon. I used a round LOTV sentiment to send my son our Christmas wishes (and yes he's 23 and still loves all things Christmas).

I have entered my snowman card into the follwing challenges.

The brand new Joanna Sheen Challenge, Number 1; Christmas Wishes
Scrapbook sisters; Anything goes
Paper crafting Journey ; Anything Goes
Totally Papercraft ; Let it Snow
Crafty Annie Challenge Spot; Christmas Bingo. I have chosen the line Glitter/Snow/Red

Thanks for looking at my card.

I would also like to mention the wonderful candy being offered on the Ribbon Girl blog, I would love to get my hands on that lovely stash!

Now 1st December always means time to hang the Advent Calendars in our house. Mine this year is another that I was lucky enough to buy in Nurenburg at the Christmas Market in 2009
Here it is;

This type of Advent Calander takes me right back to my young childhood in the 1960s and I can still remember looking up at the wall and seeing the glitter glistening. I am thrilled they still sell these in Germany.

I just love these sweet images

Here's what greeted me this morning behind window number 2

How cute is that! I had a little winter scene behind number 1 window.

I wonder what I will find behind number 3??

We had some much needed rain last night but today has been sunny again. As the light is fading though the temperature is really taking a dip (finally). We plan to get our tree tomorrow so I will be back early next week with my 2011 Christmas tree post! Milly is coming up on Sunday and we plan to make mince pies. She has already got her tree up...she must have inherited some of her Mum's Christmas Spirit I think!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Hope your festive preparations are coming along well? Just a gentle reminder to you; tomorrow there are only 22 days until the big day :0) And just to remind you who is coming here is a photo of my latest bead purchase which I made up into a simple sweet pendant for a chain.

Ho Ho Ho!!!!

Bye for now,

Jane x

Studio news, Part 3

2011-11-29T18:13:00.000Z

After giving that sneak peek at the end of my last blog post I am back to show you how my Studio is coming along. I needed some blinds and I decided I could not resist a red version of the same blind we have in our kitchen.

Here is my studio blind, it is a Sanderson fabric called Dandelion

I just love it! As the daylight is so short at the moment I have not been able to get any photos without artificial light but I am sure this gives you an idea

My Hb and I fitted this one on Sunday. I have also bought a matching blind for the left hand window and at the moment have not decided about the door. I may well buy a plain maroon red for that or I may just buy the same. They were out of stock so I have time to think about it.

This is a link to the green version we have in the kitchen.

We also have lampshades of this in our newly decorated room.

I cannot get enough of these wonderful retro patterns.

Back at the Studio...this is the light sensitive lantern my Dad installed for me. It clicks on and off with any movement and when I go in and out. It gives such a cosy glow in the darkness.

I also have a clock which I can see from my workbench.

We have assembled the first of my Ikea Billy bookcases for my storage. I have bought another 2 doubles and a single but we need to get an off cut of carpet in place first.

Some of my card making stash in place.

I wound my new fairy lights around the rafters which also give a lovely glow.

That is my Studio news up to date for now. I will of course post again when I have some more to show.As you all know life gets rather busy this time of year.

So here I am working outside in my wonderful creative space. I love it. It gives me a little warm glow inside when I see these photos.

I hope you are all keeping cosy wherever you are in the world. In my Count down to Christmas there are only 26 days left so I really should get on with the last of my cards and jewellery. Have fun with all your festive preparations too.

As I have felt very nostalgic writing the post I just had to share one of my favourite poems for this time of the year. It's the last day of November tomorrow and this seems very apt!

November

November comes and November goes,

With the last red berries and the first white snow.

With night coming early and dawn coming late,

And ice in the bucket and frost on the gate.

The fires burn and the kettles sing

And earth sinks to rest until next spring.

Elizabeth Coatsworth

Take care,

Back soon,

Jane x

It's getting nearer...shhhhhh only 29 days to go

2011-11-26T18:18:00.000Z

Yet another week has flown by and we are now getting so near to my very favourite time of the year....yes CHRISTMAS!!
Four weeks tomorrow and the presents will have been opened, the turkey eaten and our family will probably be giggling over a game of cards...Chase the Ace is one of our firm family favourites.

Meanwhile I have been making some more cards and I am entering this particular one into a few card challenges.
Here it is

I have used a Lili of the Valley stamp called Angels with crib. I have coloured them with my trusty Promarkers and highlighted this with a touch of Prismacolor pencil.

I have punch cut some snowflakes in white and silver and used plenty of Stickles diamond glitter glue to give some extra sparkle. I also used silver card as backing card to give some festive shine.

My backing papers are Dovecraft and I have finished everything off with a lovely die cut bell and a blue organza ribbon.

I used a LOTV circular sentiment for my Christmas message.

I am entering my card into the following challenges;
Lili of the Valley, challenge Anything Goes
Promarkers challenge 127 Swirls and sparkles (swirls in my backing paper and lots of glitter and foil to sparkle)
Winter Wonderland Challenge Nativity (Baby Jesus)
Totally Gorjuss Challenge 108 Sparkle
Scrapbook Sisters Challenge 61 Christmas Time
Paper Crafting-Journey Anything Goes
Ribbon Girl Challenge Jingle all the way to Christmas
Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine Snowflake challenge

Thanks for looking at my card!

Today has been another incredible mild day and as I was outside tidying a little I spied that I STILL have some of my fuchsias in flower. I don't think I have ever had them last this long into the autumn. Just look at them, still adding some colour and grace to my little garden.

We are still awaiting the cold weather and have not even had more than a couple of frosty nights. How good is that! It was 15oc this afternoon. It has meant that I have been snug with my little heater on out in my studio, whenever I get any spare time, to work on the last of my cards and jewellery for this year.

I will be back with some more Studio news very soon to show you how things are coming along but will leave you with a little sneak peek of my cosy creative space taken this evening...!!

I hope all my American blogging buddies had a wonderful Thanksgiving and will now join me on the sleigh ride towards Christmas.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I hope you are starting your Christmas lists? Thank you as always for your visits and for taking the time to leave such lovely comments. It's always such a pleasure to see you here.

Bye for now,

Jane x

A Cath Kidston kind of weekend

2011-11-22T18:39:00.000Z

I had such a great weekend, as I mentioned we went down to my daughter's where my clever Hb managed to get her downstairs radiators working. Luckily the weather is still so mild that this has not really been a problem but when our winter eventually arrives I am sure she will appreciate some warmth.
On the Sunday we went to Gunwharf Quays at nearby Portsmouth. This is a great "outlet" shopping Centre with all the Big Name shops with slightly smaller prices.

It was another glorious blue sky day... as it was on Saturday as well. It was so mild it really did not feel like 5 weeks until Christmas day.
This is the Spinnaker Tower which is a landmark you can see for miles. We did not have time to go up to the viewing platform but will do so another day.

You could also see the ferries which go over the the Isle of Wight.

We had many happy holidays with the children over on the Isle of Wight and will return there again as it can easily be done as a day visit.

The main reason for our visit on Sunday though was to go to the Cath Kidston outlet shop and we were not disappointed.

We turned down one of the walk ways and there was.....

One of my favourite shops. It was absolutely heaving with people and it was not really surprising as most things in the shop were half price.

Lots of lovely goodies on display

We emerged from the shop with bulging bags!

We did some other shopping too and as we left I took a few more photos of the sea front and I just love the milky light in these photos.

I know you will all be itching to see what we bought and a few bits I cannot show as they are off to Father Christmas' sleigh! We really were so spoilt for choice. Milly decided she would like a new weekend holdall for Christmas and found this beauty

This is a REALLY big bag and has an extra strap inside that clips on at the side to make it possible to put the bag across your shoulders. It is a cotton fabric but is Teflon coated so if it gets any marks they can be really easily removed.

I spotted this WONDERFUL retro Christmas print half apron. This just sums up the Christmas paper that was around when I was a little girl and transported me straight back to 1968!!
I am in love! It has a great little pocket too and I may even use it for my crafting as well as cooking. It wraps around you and the ties can then be brought round to fasten at the front.

Here are close ups of this wonderful fabric

I also chose a bag to send to Santa's sleigh

Mine is an oilskin "fabric" medium sized tote bag and has a wonderful retro London Olympic games print. I shall have to be patient for another 5 weeks until I can use it and my Hb has told me I must "forget" it has been bought so that I can be surprised on the big day!

and just as we were about to pay just look what I caught sight of...

Needless to say it went into the shopping basket. How ME is that.........??!!!

Welcome to the Christmas Season everyone and I now have a new Santa sack to hang up on Christmas eve, only 33 days to go!

Bye for now,

Jane x

A Christmas card....for someone special.....

2011-11-18T18:27:00.000Z

It's Friday already and it's another card challenge post from me today. I am entering this into a couple of new (for me) lovely challenge blogs I have found on the internet. These are Penny Black, Winter Wonderland and Gorjuss. I am also entering this week's Lili of the Valley challenge. I am getting quite hooked on card challenges. They are a great way of getting all my Christmas cards made and even some birthday ones too.

Without further ado here is my entry

The stamp is one of my favourite of this year's Lili of the Valley Christmas release called Milly Winter Window and yes my Milly and Billy came straight to mind "Waiting for Santa!"

I have coloured the image with my trusty promarkers and used some die cuts from my stash and some very sweet Tibetan charms which I use with my bag charms. I have bought lots of Christmas themed charms which are so useful both in my jewellery and card making. I do love it when craft ingredients cross over (and it is much more economical too!)

Here are the little charms in close up which spell "Let it Snow" and also a tiny snowflake.

I also added some pretty blue flowers which I "glittered" to give them some extra sparkle.

I finished my card off with a round sentiment.

These are the challenges I am entering my card into;

Lili of the valley card challenge 121 A card for someone special (shhh I can't tell you who this card is destined for yet but they are indeed special ;0)

Penny Black November card challenge All creatures great and small (A big girl and a tiny cat!)

Totally Gorjuss challenge 106 Christmas traditions (my tradition is Waiting for Santa!)

Winter Wonderland Challenge Awww what a cutie any cute image.

I also want to mention here the candy up for grabs at The Ribbon Girl blog. They have a stash of Christmas embellishments that I would love to get hold of!

Thanks for looking at my card.

So there we are, another week over and only 37 days til Christmas. I went shopping yesterday with my dear friend Karen and we started our search for our gifts. I can't give much away but I can say that there are already some gifts for Santa to stack on his sleigh ;0)

We are off Milly's again tomorrow. My Hb is going to try to get her radiators downstairs in her new house to actually heat up properly whilst my girlie and I disappear for some Christmas shopping. I am reliably informed that there is a Cath Kidston outlet shop nearby too.....yipee , I can't wait. I am also meeting up with some old school friends first at lunchtime in London. Some I have not seen since the day I left school, July 1979. It should be great fun. I am then catching the train and will meet my Hb and Milly there.

Wishing you all a great weekend. The sun is still shining here in the South East of England and I still have not got out my winter woollies. I was told that it is the warmest start to November for 350 years! I hope you are all keeping cosy and warm where ever you are and that you are just beginning to get into the spirit of my favourite time of year.

I also keep meaning to tell you that dear Billy is now 100% better and back to leaping and climbing. He has a new place to climb to now...

My King of the Castle! He has still not really ventured into my Studio but he keeps a look out for me whilst I craft away.

Bye for now,

Jane x

My penultimate birthday treat

2011-11-15T22:04:00.000Z

Over the months some of my great blogging buddies including Vivienne have joked how some people manage to stretch out their birthday celebrations for days, or even a week. Indeed for my 50th birthday earlier this year I spent from Friday to Sunday celebrating. I shared those times with you all in my previous posts. Well, I had another treat recently, yes seriously all these months on! I was given a "Sunday Brunch" voucher by Milly, Tom and Matt to enjoy a treat at the "Altitude 360" venue in central London. This boasts one of the best high rise views of London. I decided to save my treat until the autumn and we finally booked a table a few weeks ago.

It was actually quite an overcast day but the views were still brilliant and we had a table looking out towards Westminster.

All the windows had painted silhouettes showing all the major sights.

You can see the River Thames with the "Eye" looming over it on the right.

Also on the far right where the trees start is St. Thomas' Hospital where I spent my first 2 years as a junior physiotherapist. We always had a pretty good view! We could look straight across the river to the House Of Parliament.

The food was gorgeous. The brunch started with a glass of champagne and moved onto any combinations of eggs, bacon, veg etc. It was an all you could eat buffet and we then finished off with.....

pancakes. I chose chocolate filling with syrup, fresh soft fruits and a small scoop of clotted cream. It was a great brunch but of course we needed to walk off all those calories so we took a walk around that part of London.

I took my trusty camera so that you could join us! We walked past Big Ben

Past Westminster Abbey..(Remember "The Wedding" ..not "THE Wedding" of course, which is next July!!

We then did a loop along the river to end up at one of my favourite museums, Tate Britain.

If you ever visit London this is really one not to miss. Tate Modern on the South Bank is a really interesting building, but I am not really a great fan of modern art. I love classical art and artists including the Pre Raphaelites. They all have their work on show in Tate Britain.

Stunning!

There was a special exhibition called "The Romantics" on at the time so we were spoilt with more wonderful art

We really had a most enjoyable day. Believe it or not I STILL have one more present to use. I have a theatre tickets voucher but as they have no use by date I think we will wait until the gloomy days of January or February to see a West End Show. Has anyone any suggestions....?

I hope you all enjoyed visiting London with me and sharing my penultimate birthday treat. Now who says birthdays are over and done with in one day? I wonder if I hold the record for the longest birthday celebrations ....;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x

The festive preparations begin

2011-11-12T08:06:00.000Z

Every year my Mum and I take a pre Christmas trip up to London for lunch and to look at the Christmas department in my favourite store, Harrods. We try to make our visits well before the Christmas shoppers arrive in earnest as it then gets far too busy to really enjoy. The crowds in London near Christmas are something to see. I love the atmosphere at that time of the year but would rather not actually be trying to shop at the same time!

This year we made the trip a few weeks ago and I really think it was one of the best displays for many years. Harrods surprisingly allow photography in their store, so I snapped a few pictures with my smart phone.

This is the entrance to the department and yes the chocolate shop is in the same direction...how handy is that!

And look what greeted us through the door

Isn't that a beautiful display? Even the carpet had snowflakes woven into it.
They tend to have their decorations and tree baubles in "themed" sections...

Cool Britannia................(not really my cup of tea but this really does appeal to the tourists).

Nutcrackers and their friends...

A very cute display using an advent calendar theme, all the decorations were stored behind the windows.

Some very intricate (and very expensive!) musical boxes.

Lovely reds, golds and greens (my favourite Christmas colours)

and gorgeous silvers and whites. I loved this display, it was so wintery and festive.

Usually my Mum treats me to a new bauble but this year I decided to have something slightly different.

These sweet little lights are battery powered and they will be going into my studio when I put some decorations out there. My daughter says it will be like Santa's grotto by the time I have finished with it ;0) I also bought some of my tree chocolates.

And then when I was in Marks and Spencer I spotted a brilliant tin for my crafts..

Isn't he great! He contained mini gingerbread shortbread biscuits, which were yummy. Now that he is empty I have decided to use him for my Christmas ribbons. I am such a tin girl, I have quite a stash and I find them so useful for storage. I love finding something unusual and he is a super addition to my collection.

Christmas really is creeping up now, only 43 days to go. As you know I have been busy making cards for some time. I have also bought the crepe paper ready to think about making my crackers and I have started finding my cracker presents for the family.

Next Thursday I am meeting up with my dearest friend Karen. She is taking a half day off work. We are having lunch (with lots of chat of course) followed by an afternoon of Christmas shopping....yippee, my preparations will have started in earnest.

I need to be a little bit patient as before then I have my Open House tomorrow. I shall be spending today getting everything sorted out and displayed ready for my customers.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and that you too may be thinking about some Christmas plans ;0)

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my last post and if you need a countdown to The Wedding...it's 259 days to go!

Bye for now,

Jane x

The Wedding Venue, sneak peek

2011-11-08T16:26:00.000Z

We spent last weekend visiting our darling daughter. One very important visit which had been arranged to coincide with this was for my Hb and I to see The Wedding Venue. As Milly and Tom are getting married near to where they live we had not yet seen the venue they have chosen for their big day.

We arrived quite early on the Saturday and met Milly there. It was quite a foggy morning but the first thing which struck us was the beautiful surrounding English countryside.

There were cattle and sheep grazing in the local fields. This is the view from the back of the venue. Even on a foggy day in early November it was so idyllic.

The venue was originally a barn and stables and has been rebuilt to a very high standard indeed.

This is the view from the car park/entrance and luckily for us it was being set up for a wedding reception later that day, so we were able to get a feel of what it would look next year.

Here is the inside of the barn with the tables being set up. On the left wall you will see the entrance to the little "chapel" area where the ceremony will be held.

Here is a peep inside. You can see that the florist was already busy adding the flowers for that wedding. We were so impressed that we took her details and we are likely to use the same company. They specialise in using scented English flowers and the roses' scent from the displays were quite exquisite.

I love this sneak peek of Milly and my Hb having an impromptu walk down the "aisle". Don't you love the bride to be in Ugg boots! On the "real" day there will be chairs set up either side with the guests watching my dear Hb lead his precious daughter down to the table where the Registrar will marry her and Tom. I got a lump in my throat watching them. I am glad their backs were to me and they did not spot my misty eyes!

After the wedding will will be able to stay overnight as there are 10 guest bedrooms on site which have been built from the old stable block. Just the very immediate family will stay and we will all have breakfast together the next morning with the newly weds.

This is the breakfast room

Here above on the left are a few of the guest rooms. There is also a lovely sitting area and outside space.

We had such a great "vibe" from this gorgeous venue that I know that next July is going to be a very special day.

As my daughter lives very near to the New Forest the next day we spent a glorious sunny afternoon there.

The sunlight made the forest glow and the colours were beautiful...

I looked out for the pigs which have recently been put out to eat the acorns. This is an ancient practice called "Pannage"

The acorns are poisonous to the New Forest Ponies and the pigs solve this by enjoying the feast of acorns on the forest floor. Sadly we did not see any but we did notice some signs that the pigs had been there.

On Sunday evening we decided to have a Sunday Roast at one of Milly's great old local Pubs.

The view from "The Jolly Sailor" looks out to the marina.

There were outside tables but it was far to chilly at this time of year to sit there so we went inside into the cosy pub.............

...where we enjoyed roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and my Hb had a beef and ale pie. Delicious!

It was a wonderful end to a wonderful weekend. It only seems like yesterday that Milly and Tom got engaged but it was nearly a year ago and their Wedding Day seems to be fast approaching. I can't wait!

I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek? The next time I have photos of the venue it will have been after "The Wedding" and they will be Mr and Mrs ;0)

It's been a pretty dreary day here and at 4.30pm it is now pitch black outside...winter is certainly looming. Time to shut the curtains and turn on the heating. Billy has come in from the garden and is making his way to his comfy chair to settle down for the evening. Enjoy yours.

Back soon ,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Bright and sparkly

2011-11-06T22:31:00.000Z

It's another card challenge for me...this week the theme is "Bright and Sparkly" over on the Lili of the Valley challenge blog.
Here is my entry..

I used the super cute stamp called Rosie Posy. I coloured her with some bright promarkers. She is such a happy soul and I have made her dress bright and sparkly by adding some red stickles glitter.
I also added some sparkle to the flowers in her bouquet

and also a lovely bright cherry charm to add some "bling!"

I also turned up the sparkle to these lovely mulberry paper flowers by adding some glitter to these too.

I finished off my "Bright and Sparkly" entry by adding a "Happy Everything" sentiment.

Thanks for looking at my card.

I had a wonderful weekend visiting Milly in Southampton. We went to The Wedding Venue and Oh My Goodness it was SO lovely. I have some sneak peek photos which I will be back with in a couple of days.
I hope you all enjoyed the weekend too....it is finally cooling down here but the sun continues to shine!

Bye for now,

Jane x

Getting the stock made

2011-11-03T08:28:00.000Z

In a few weeks time I will be hosting my annual jewellery Open House. This is always such a fun afternoon as I see some of my customers I have no seen for some time. I also love catching up with my local friends who come to support my work too. I enjoy having a chat over a cup of tea whilst helping them select their jewellery or discussing something custom made. It is always a busy day and I could not do it with out the help of my dear Hb...he is an expert tea maker ;0)

I am sure you will be interested to see what I have been making. Recently I attended the Big Bead show and bought some rather yummy haematite. Haematite is a very popular stone and sells very well at this time of year. It is one of those stones which looks good with casual clothes or "dressed up". Here are a few of my "makes".

I filled some of the circular hollows with sparkly Czech glass faceted beads and some with the star haematite for bracelets. I used the small hearts to make a delicate necklace with tiny sparkly Czech beads as spacers.

These are the bracelets in close up.

I also made up some little earrings using the haematite. I really like the first pair where I have used dalmatian jasper with the hearts and added tiny silver spacer beads.

I also needed some more malachite earrings so I made up these 2 styles, the style below is a new one for me using a crystal rondelle bead. Malachite is such a lovely rich green, very festive too for Christmas time.

I have also been making up some new Christmas themed bag charms as I think they will be great stocking fillers. At my Mum's recent jewellery party they were very popular and I even had a request to make a hairdressing themed one as a Christmas gift for a treasured hairdresser. Here it is.

Fun isn't it and here below are my Christmas Range.............

And do you remember the sweet little reindeer I found at the show....well here he is below.....

I have teamed him up with the happy Snowman. This is a blue colour way which I have called "Frosty the Snowman"

And here he again with some creamy white glass lampwork beads ...I have called this one Winter wonderland and teamed him up with a lovely scarf charm. I think it would also make a very original stocking filler or cracker gift for someone who "knits".

I have been adding some new designs on line and
these last 2 bag charms I have popped into my Etsy shop

So I am busy, busy, busy beavering away in my Studio getting my stock together. I like to have quite a bit of stock to sell on the day as then I don't have to spend too many hours making up extras after the event. As you know I am SUCH a Christmas girl I then really like to focus on my Christmas preparations. I had a look at my countdown widget on my phone again and there are now 52 days to go..................;0)

This weekend we are going down to stay with my daughter and hoping to visit her wedding venue. It will be lovely to see it as we have only seen the details and photos of it on line. I am sure it will be wonderful. I have another countdown widget on my phone for her wedding too...there are 268 days to go!!

I am wishing you all a wonderful weekend, we are nearly there again. Our weather in Surrey has still be so mild for this time of year. It has been a real bonus and the trees this autumn have been the most lovely colours. Thanks as always for your visits to my blog and your kind comments, I always love to read them.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Away in a manger? LOTV challenge 118

2011-10-31T16:09:00.000Z

I appreciate that most people are enjoying Halloween but I am entering another of my favourite stamp designers, Lili of the Valley's card challenges today. As you will remember from this post I explained that every now and again I will enter these challenges to be in with a chance of coming out of the hat and winning a great prize.
Here is my entry.

Today's challenge is to use a card sketch by the incredibly talented Bev Rochester whose colouring master class I attended earlier this year. To those of my blogging friends who are not card makers a sketch is a basic design format. The one we have been asked to follow for this week's challenge is the one shown below. You are able to decorate in any way but the card must keep to this basic template.

You can see in the image above that Bev wants us to use a circular central image with a square and rectangular piece behind and one across the middle. It was a really lovely sketch to work with.

I used the LOTV "Angels with crib" stamp, I love this image..so gentle and warm, it always makes me think of "Away in a manger" the Christmas carol. Indeed I kept humming it as I worked, it must have driven Billy mad but he just slept on!

I coloured my image using my trusty promarkers and highlighted it with some prismacolour pencils. You can't see very clearly but I used dimensional magic on the wings to make them appear raised and glossy.

This shows in the photo as looking quite reflective on the wings.It makes them have a bit of a "3 D " look and they are lovely and shiny.

I used a lovely deep grey/silver ribbon across the centre and tied a bow at the side. I cut some silver card snowflakes using one of my punches and attached them with raised sticky fixers to give some depth.

I also used one of my Tibetan charms which I have bought for my bag charms. Don't you just love it when things are able to cross crafts!

I attached it to the back of a foil snowflake from my stash by a piece of silver plated chain. I also added a bit of bling to the centre of the snowflake!

Here it is again stood up on a little easel I bought.

Thanks for looking.

Back soon, I am still getting my stock made up for my annual Open House jewellery party in a few weeks time..photos and a post to follow.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Garden colour for the coming months

2011-10-28T16:11:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I managed to get my bulbs and autumn bedding plants potted up. Yet again we were spoilt by beautiful sunshine and during the afternoon last Sunday the temperature got up to 20oc. We even enjoyed our lunch sitting out in the garden.

The first thing I did was to add the water to my Hyacinth vase, pop the bulb on top and then put it away in the garage under a block pot to keep it in the dark.

I had a peep a few minutes ago and there are already little white roots beginning to be put down into the water.

Next it was time to empty out some pots, give them a scrub and and then tuck some bulbs up into the compost.

I plant my bulbs in layers. Here is the deepest layer with tulips around the edge and a daffodil in the centre. I then added a few more layers of bulbs.

At the top I added my winter flowering pansies and violas. I planted up 3 large pots and a hanging basket with the bedding plants. They are such happy flowers, their little faces "smile" all winter long and they are pretty hardy souls too.

As I had spare bulbs I also decided to try some small pots of bulbs which I have tucked in under the shelter of my buddleia

There are some miniature daffodils here in the tiny pots here and I am hoping I might be able to bring them indoors before Christmas and bring them on for some mid/late winter flowering. Unbelievably I still even have some digitalis in flower and you can see the plants "ready" for flowering next year. I just need to keep an eye that the slugs and snails don't gorge on them too much.

I brought one of the pots down by my Studio so that I can see it from out of my window. I also hope to have some lovely bulbs blooming there in the spring.

I even managed to give the lawn it's final hair cut and I felt great satisfaction that my garden is all neat, the bulbs are tucked up in their posts and I have some colour to give me some cheer in the garden over the coming months.

I still even have a few of my summer bedding plants hanging on and in flower so my garden continues to inspire me even as the daylight shortens.

It's time for our clocks to go back on Saturday night, the end of British Summer Time for another year. We will really notice the difference next week, it will start getting dark nearer 4.30pm; that bit of winter I do not enjoy. But of course that does mean that something special beginning with "C" is on it's way. I have a countdown on my phone and I hate to break this to you but there are now 58 days until Christmas!

If that has shocked you I shall come back to next week; there is of course Halloween to enjoy on Monday. My children are too old be tricking or treating but I could not resist buying them and their partners these...

Fun eh.... Smartie filled little pumpkins. Your children are never too old are they ;0)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We have had some much needed rain here during the week but still some lovely sunny days as well. I am hoping to get the shelving sorted for my studio and I am also working on making more jewellery stock for my annual Open House in a few weeks time.

Take care,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

PS I must also add that dear Billy is fighting fit once more and jumping high over the fence again. Thanks for all your get well wishes you sent him ;0) X

Return to beading heaven

2011-10-23T17:30:00.000+01:00

Last weekend was the return of my favourite bead fair; The Big Bead Show which is held at Sandowne Park in Surrey. Yet again this year it was a glorious sunny day and it was almost a shame to be indoors. However the lure of the goodies inside is such a draw. This show is always very well attended and every stall is surrounded by eager buyers. There are several sellers whom I always visit as their stones and silver findings are second to none. To me strands of beads are like glistening sweeties and even those I cannot afford I love to gaze at. I spent 5 hours there and I will not admit how much money I spent but I found some beautiful new stock. The most annoying fact is that the price of silver is still rising. Necklace and bracelet clasps that I bought last year are now 50% more expensive - eek!

Here is a glimpse at some of my buys

A gorgeous strand of amethyst nuggets

Gorgeous pink and natural shell/mother of pearl

Some lovely shapes of haematite, one of my favourite gemstones as it is so versatile.

I also found some new Tibetan beads at the Fair, as it is getting near Christmas I bought some Christmas themed ones which included these

Cute aren't they! I also found some glorious Owls, just look at these beauties.

These are very large in comparison to the usual little ones I use but I thought they would be fun to make up into bag charms.

I so wish they did pigs this size, I would buy the whole stock! I have already made these up into bag charms, I am really pleased with them.

This little fellow is for sale in my Etsy Shop here

And this fellow is going into my stock for my upcoming Christmas Open House in November.

I also could not resist putting together a Christmas themed one ;0)

Despite the frosts earlier in the week the last few days have been wonderful again. It has been gloriously sunny here today, a perfect day for planting my bulbs and my winter bedding plants. The garden looks really tidy. We even managed to have lunch sitting out on the patio; what a lovely bonus for late October. The really great news is that my dear Billy seems to finally be well again and he is jumping around with all his usual grace and agility. Here he is looking down from his favourite wall whilst I was busy in the garden this afternoon

I am so relieved that his back has settled and he did not need the intervention of the vet. He does NOT like going to the vet's at all!
I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful weekend and you perhaps caught a peep of the sun too? Thanks as always for your visits and comments and "see" you all soon.

Bye for now,

Jane x

My Harvest Home

2011-10-19T15:15:00.000+01:00

Now that we are truly in autumn I wanted to show you the veg I grew in my garden this year. It was a good summer and an even better autumn; we have never known such high temperatures here in Surrey for the early part of October.

Do you remember my corn on the cob I planted from seed?....well here they are harvested.

They grew beautifully, just in the soil by my pots, no special treatment, in fact I think they thrived on neglect!

The ladybirds took care of the greenfly as they usually do. Can you spot this one here?

and the little ears of corn sprouted out as the cobs began to swell...

until they were big enough for dinner.

and here is my cooked corn...I had NEVER tasted such sweet corn before and it really made me think about how old the "fresh" corn that is sold in the shops actually is. The other incredible thing was how soft they were.........mmmm. We harvested at least 12 cobs from the plants we grew, not bad from a 99p packet of seeds was it!

You can also see some of my home grown runner beans on the plate above, they too grew very well this year. I cropped so many and the little plants came from my Dad who had grown them from last year's seed.

Here are my beans in September, I really did have an abundance of them and again the ladybirds took care of the black and green fly.

On Saturday I cleared my beans away as they have now died off and I will have to wait until the spring to grow some again.

I am still picking tomatoes but these will be the very last as the first frosts are due tonight. I have picked enough to keep me supplied with tomatoes all summer.
I also had masses of lovely chillies.

I still have some of my flowers in full bloom including fuchsia and geranium but these really are the very last of the season. I am starting to clear them away.

These photos were taken yesterday but I think tonight's frost will take it's toll. They have bloomed all summer and early autumn.

It's time to start thinking of potting up some bulbs for next spring and a few winter flowering pansies and violas, just to give me a little tiny bit of colour in my garden whilst everything goes to sleep for the winter months.

I bought this lovely selection of winter flowering pansies and violas from a nursery when we visited my daughter on Sunday.

I shall plant them up with some of my beloved daffodils which will snooze away through whatever winter weather we get until they start to pop up in the spring.

I also bought a hyacinth vase this year to try growing one in water. I used to grow them this way as a child so it will be fun to give this a try again.

So it really is time to say "Thank you and Goodnight" to my tiny garden, which yet again has given me so much pleasure for another season of growing. It is time to clear out the pots, tidy up outside and get back indoors (or in my Studio) for more crafting time until nature awakens again in the spring.

Our forecasters are forecasting our first frost tonight with temperatures getting down to freezing. Today has been yet another glorious day of sunshine but it really is very chilly. I wore my coat for the first time and I need to get my scarf and gloves out too.

I hope all of you who have the privilege of having any outdoor space have also enjoyed watching Mother Nature complete another circle of life.

Bye for now,

Jane x

PS Thanks for all wishing Billy well. He is doing OK, he is slowly improving and now occasionally able to "jump" onto a chair but he still has some way to go before he can go up and over the fences with the graceful ease he has. Poor lad, he really did hurt his back. As I type this he is fast asleep on my bed...no trouble getting there ;0)

Studio news, Part 2

2011-10-16T08:42:00.000+01:00

After my very slow posting of my initial Studio news I promised I would be back to update you with how things are going. My dearest Dad came back 2 weeks ago and installed most of the power and lighting and this weekend he finished this off.
When I am "creating" I always like to have my radio on. I celebrated my 50th Birthday in April and I was given some money which I saved specifically to buy a radio for my new Studio. At the time I thought about buying the "Retro" Roberts Radio which I had seen in John Lewis. Last week we took a trip to John Lewis and I went to choose my radio...however my eye was drawn to a new range of "Pure" DAB radios and just look what I found..

I love Radio 4 but I am also quite a Rock Chick, my favourite music station is Absolute Radio and if I am in a "mellow" mood I tune into Magic. My radio has 6 presets so I have tuned my stations in and I can change station at the click of a button. No fiddly tuning.

At the moment I have my radio on my work bench but I may move it onto some shelves I am thinking of having installed.

I can hum away to my heart's content!

I have power and lighting...3 spot lights which I can point towards my work.

I have bought a small oil fired radiator

I don't think I will be able to work in my studio in the dead of winter, it would be too hard to heat and there is no real insulation to keep out the coldest temperatures but this will take the chill off. I also will set it to frost protect in the winter just to keep everything OK. I hope to be able to work out here until later November and start again in February but we will see.

I have also bought myself a comfy work chair, I spent quite some time considering this and chose this one

It has a fully adjustable back rest, a high/low pump mechanism and a very good seat. I can get just the right height to work whether I am making my jewellery or colouring cards. As a physiotherapist I am very aware of good furniture!

I also thought of somewhere for my dear Billy to sleep if he ever does come into my studio

At the moment my dear little fella has not really been keen to venture inside and in fact has been very under the weather for the last week. He hurt his back and is really struggling to jump on and off things. We are taking care of him and hoping he improves as he HATES the vet and we will only take him if we have to.

He is having to stay "low" in the garden and here he is on Friday sunning himself on the back door step.

And my last bit of Studio news is that my first made to measure accessory arrived courtesy of my dear blogging friend Mia
I needed a new coater for my Studio and just look what arrived

This dear little birdie is struggling with his pumpkin

and wait til you see the back....

Just SO me! Thank you Mia, you are so talented.

So now I am all set for tea in my Studio

Ahhh, happy days.
Yesterday I went to the Big Bead show, my beading heaven..I will be back with news about my purchases soon.
We are off to visit my daughter in Southampton today. It is a glorious "blue sky" autumn day and we will go to see the sea! Bliss. Enjoy your Sunday too.

Bye for now,

Jane x

A new sea voyage and new card creations

2011-10-12T18:04:00.000+01:00

For those of you who are not new to Jane's Journal you will remember that last year my daughter's fiance went to sea for 3 months, as part of his marine engineering course. Well a whole year has raced by and that time arrived again. 4 weeks ago Tom departed for Australia to board his new ship and my darling daughter bade him a very tearful goodbye at Heathrow Airport. He will not be back until 21st December.

Last year I made his a special card to take with him and to open when he got to sea. It was this one.

I commissioned a little painting for him of a mermaid holding a ship.
Tom was delighted with this so I decided I needed to come up with something different this year.

As a card maker I love to look at new designs and I have always been interested in "Easel" cards. They look quite difficult to make and I have never attempted one before. They are cards which are made in 2 parts and can be stood up like an easel. I looked at the Internet to find some instructions and then had some practice folding the card.

I decided again that I wanted a sea theme and this time I bought some wonderful wooden ship themed pieces.

These are some ships wheels, I also bought a boat. These lovely wooden shapes are plain and I used my pens to colour them.

Here is the front of the card

and below is the part that the "easel" stands on..

I even used a "reef" knot to tie the string (Tom will really appreciate that).

This is the card shown from the side..it shows how the front stands up..it tucks in behind the ship's wheel.

I hope he likes his card, that he has a good time away at sea and he comes safely home in time for Christmas.

I have also been making some other cards which you might be interested in seeing, as yes, I have been very organised and I have been working on some Christmas cards.Here's a little sneak peak......

As promised by the weather forecasters we finally finished our Indian summer and the wind has started to pick up. For the first time in some weeks we even had some rain. I admit that we really need it, my garden is so dry at the moment with the lack of rain. We finally seem to be heading into autumn. Time for drawing the curtains earlier, watching the leaves blow off the trees and getting out our warmer clothes. I think I will also feel more in the mood for making Christmas cards...making them in summer temperatures did seem very odd indeed. I hope you are all enjoying the beginning of the autumn season or fall as my american buddies call it. Here's to cosiness!

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x