First Camping trip with Guides!

Well, yesterday we collected Amelia from her first ever real, stay away from home, a Guide camp. Apart from staying over with Nanny and Grandad, and the one night sleepover she did in the school hall with Guides before Christmas, this is was a first experience for us all.

I have been walking around feeling like my arm has been cut off, just feeling a bit lost and unable to settle with anything. Not consciously worried about her, but obviously thinking of her at certain times, like when the heavens opened, again and again. I wondered if it was more of a sailing trip than camping!

Amelia slept well last night, in fact she slept in until 9am this morning, absolutely unheard of!!!! Shame I was awake with Chris for yet another 5am start!

Anyway, this afternoon I was sat in the conservatory having a cuppa with my mum and we were laughing at the antics of a wood pigeon, strutting up and down on the playhouse roof then precariously balancing on the bird feeder stuffing its beak! Amelia watched with us for a while before she nodded off to sleep all twisted around the sofa with her glasses balancing off her tiny little nose!

I eased her around and she is still curled up on one end of the sofa with the cat curled up the other end! I do hope it's just lack of sleep catching up on her and not that she is coming down with a lurgie! 

Obviously Guide Camp was good, despite the appalling weather.

More crafting for men.....

....Well, THE man in my life I think I may have actually found my long lost crafty mojo. Shame really as I have had to work this afternoon and I am working again all day tomorrow! I'll probably have lost it again by the next time I get some do some crafting. LOL

This morning I didn't actually make anything, but I did start compiling a few papers and embellies ready for my next little project. I had great fun, playing with some inks and embossing powers. I am also loving some of my newly organised stash storage. I MUST be strict with myself and tidy up as I go along. The only problem with actually crafting again is that I am never going to finish organising my craft room.

When organising my room I cam across a few little chipboard wings. I had already painted some of them so this morning I decided to attack a pair with a music sheet stamp and some sparkly embossing powder. Then finished off with some inked edges.

I cut myself a chipboard heart using the Sizzix Primitive hearts die, and then applied several coats of rich red embossing powder. 

Just as I was leaving for work Mr Postie arrived with a few new crafty goodies for me, including some white embossing powder. SO, as soon as I got home  I tried it out and embossed a few white flourishes on the backing paper. 

Last job of the day was to make a quick start on some of the wording I want to use.....but then hubby arrived home earlier than expected.....well, he did leave at 5am this morning!

Cannot wait to get back into my craft room to play some more!

Bye for now.

Adele

xXx

Mish mash Father's Day card.

Got a hectic week at work this week so, as today was my day off, I ignored the housework and paperwork and hibernated in my craft room for a few hours. I shuffled around some more of my unmounted stamps then I set down to "actually craft!"

The next cards I needed in my diary were Father's Day Cards , I have 3 to make and this afternoon I made two of them. How organised am I? LOL, makes a change from the lastminute.com attitude I usually adopt.

A total mish mash of stamps and styles but hopefully they all work together. I did enjoy working with these colours, once again I used a snippet of recycled ribbon of of some packaging.

My card meets the criteria over at;

Crafts by Carolyn - Time to Create, something for a man.
ABC Challenge - L is for lots of layers
Rhedd and Rosie - No flowers/nothing floral
Open Minded crafting - Use some ribbon
CraftyHazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - May
Crafting at the weekend - #1 Anything Goes

It's been a long time since I have really crafted so today was a real treat and some much needed me time.

Bye for now.

Adele

xXx

Vintage Card for a Man!!!

Please don't fall off your chairs, BUT.....(drum roll please) I have actually made a card today!

A colleague asked me to sway sessions with her so I had an unexpected day to myself. I was a good girl, did a bit of housework first, then sat down to do some work records. I had a light lunch and spent some more time organising and re-shuffling "stuff" in my craft room then I set to work.

I really cannot remember the last time I made a card, it must have been months ago!

I have recently treated myself to a few new stamps, some from Lili of the Valley, which I was eager to try out. I had already stamped out several image so I thought they were a good place to start my creative journey again!

Yesterday I organised all my ink pads and embossing powders and seeing as they were so accessible I thought I'd dabble with a little bit of heat embossing. I have never really done much, or been that successful but I have a few new embossing powders on my crafty wishlist so I had to justify them. It does help add dimension and texture too.

I would have loved to have got my sewing machine out and sewn around the edges of this card but I just ran out of time.

The background stamp and tags are from Lili of the Valley, the little frame and sentiment are from a very old set, possible Anna Griffin...and the dragonfly is from the recent freebie IndigoBlu set.

I recycled the ribbons, the striped ribbon was some packaging from Next, the textured crinkly red ribbon probably needs no clues, especially if you are partial to a bit of chocolate.

My card meet the criteria at;

Crafts by Carolyn - Something for a man

Open Minded Crafting - Use some ribbon

Rhedd and Rosie - It's all about texture

Totally Gorjuss - Don't be square

Coconut bird feeders!

Now almost a year ago, at a Summer Fair, we won 3 coconuts! They have been sitting in our garage waiting for us to "do something with" since then.

Chris drilled a circle out of the front of the coconut shell and we cleaned the shell out. Next he drilled a few holes out of the top for hanging and a few small at the bottom for drainage. I used twine doubled up for hanging but not sure how long this will last, then I threaded the cut out circle through the hanging twine to form a little "roof!"

Amelia loved helping out and we mixed together some suet and a mixture of bird seed then spooned and pressed it firmly into the shell.

When we moved into this house 16 years ago the garden was beautiful, a country cottage garden, crammed with flowers and shrubs, no lawn, just stepping stones and rockeries around an old oak tree stump. Beautiful but not easy to maintain or child friendly. So over the years with all the changes we have made the birds have visited us less and less. When we fill the bird feeders all it seemed to attract was collared doves or wood pigeons.

We now have all 3 coconut shells out in the garden and I am delighted that the little blue tits are already putting them to good use. 

Little things please little minds! 

Adele

xXx