Hearts and flowers

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

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.......

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