One week later!!!

It's been a week since I last blogged, how time flies!

I have had a lazy day today, made some cheese and bacon scones and this afternoon I have measured out all the dried fruit for our Christmas Cake and soaked it in Brandy....probably wont get a chance to do much more until the weekend but the alcohol should have certainly soaked in by then!

Am I finished decorating? NO!!! Nowhere near still. Only three weeks left until carpet fitting day, hallway and stairs still need a few finishing details, my craft room is almost decorated but still needs complete re-organisation and de-cluttering, a massive and ongoing project I think. Jack's room is untouched and only yesterday did I cut and lift band of Amelia's carpet and started working on one length of skirting board!

OMG!!! Only 3 weeks to go and the kids are at home on Half Term.....I feel I am going backwards.

Not much to share with you in the way of progress but I can share a crafty purchase with you and a crafty win!!!

I entered a newsletter give away competition over at Charmed Cards & Crafts  and was lucky enough to be drawn as one of the winners. Thank you so much Karen! LOVE my goodies.

I have been looking at fabrics for my craft room, I want a wacky, mish mash but I am struggling with combining patterns. Although I like what I have got so far I feel I am still missing that bold element I had pictured in my poor little mind.

I was rather disappointed with the top fabric as I ordered it as being red roses on turquoise , and to me it is more like pink roses on green! I have messaged the buyer but with no response so far.

Over the weekend Chris cut back my long worktop so it wasn't so deep and imposing in my little crafty space, we also bought a few kitchen wall cupboards, which are shallow enough to go under my worktop. Frustrating that we cannot put them in until the carpet is fitted but I will just have to be patient....she says drumming her fingers!

I have been gathering ideas over on Pinterest and saved loads of pics of gorgeous and structured craft rooms (who am I trying to kid that I could ever be that organised) and one thing I have had my eye on is a pegboard. SOOOOO......I have ordered one!!! Whoop, whoop, cannot wait, come on Mr Delivery Man, just hurry along with that board!

My first attempt at bunting.....

IS COMPLETE!

Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but hopefully it brightens up the tatty piano!

Next on the list to be "tarted up!" THE STORY OF THE TATTY STOOL!

....oh yes, and an attempt to make a peg bag......those old curtain have come in handy! 

My seamstress skills need a lot of practice.

A little bit of bunting!

Fancy getting excited over a bit of bunting, but I am! LOL (blush)

After decorating I fancied brightening up our bargain piano. I know I shouldn't complain, it did only cost about £20 but it's not very attractive is it? Now one of the first pins I made over on Pinterest was bunting hanging on a piano. I think it was actually Christmas bunting and I was hoping to make some BEFORE Christmas but it never happened. However it did inspire me into thinking why does it need to be Christmas to brighten up the piano? 

SO I found myself an old pair of curtains that I made many moons ago and thought I'd try some out. Now I am no seamstress but surely it couldn't be THAT hard!! (or so I thought!) I bodged a template by cutting a triangle from a magazine cover pinned it to a strip I had cut off the bottom of the old curtain and cut around the edge with my pinking shears and attacked them with my dusty old sewing machine.

Still got to tidy up the edges but I am happy with my trial run pennants .

Are my points pointy enough?  I cut off the sharp bit of the point so it wasn't so bulky then I used a knitting needle to ease out the points. There are not 100% but good enough for my and my old piano. ( Now I have an old song in my head, think it was by Diana Ross! OMG, showing my age now!)

Oh dear, what have I done to my nice clean and tidy conservatory!

By the way the first photo on this post is the lovely little bundle that popped through my letter box this morning.....I will be attacking those IF the Bunting Trial Run goes to plan.

Right, back to cutting and pinning a few more triangles.

Be back soon.

Adele

xXx

I have actually finished a card!

It's been a long day, what with the arrival of the puppies (what a cuddly distraction though!) and the children back to school tomorrow (been sorting through piles of outgrown uniform) any crafting today has been pretty hit and miss...and it's been one of those cards that have had more misses!!

LOL....everything seemed to go wrong on it including my sewing machine scrunching up all the stitches so I had to flip it around to hide the mess under the image. Luckily enough I hadn't cut the strip of sewn card and paper to size otherwise I am sure the whole lot would have ended up in the bin.

Anyway, it's ended up a bit more off centered and unbalanced than I would have liked but it's another card in my little stock box.

I used this weeks template challenge over on Papertake Weekly.....I couldn't resist trying to get my hands on that stamp!!!

Paper by Basic Grey, image Sugar Nellie and circular sentiment by Cuddly Buddly.

Paper every where!!!

LOL...my vertical cropper hoppers arrived today so I am trying to organise some of my papers but I don't seem to be getting very far at the moment. In fact I gave up half way through to finish the Dotties World Challenge #5 that has been sitting on my desk since Sunday ! AS you can see I could not reisist treating myself to Lou's latest Xmas creations .

This weeks challenge was to make a card, using a Charmed Download, and include both stripes and stitching. I dragged out and dusted off my sewing maching for this one!

Triple whammy card!!!

I have just made a version of a design I made up a good few years ago and I had forgotten how much I enjoy hand stitching on my cards. My original has a lot more doodling on it and I am tempted to add more to this one......my big problem with doodling, when is enough, ENOUGH!!

It meets THREE challenges that I have had my eye on:

Just Bex- Challenge 8- Colour matching

"what does this conjure up - use these colours to create a card or LO "

The latest Dare from the DCM team.
Love and Friendship
Keryn and Rachel are daring you to make a card in the theme of love and friendship for one of the special people in your life. It could be a valentines card, a thankyou for a close friend or a way to propose to the man in your life on the 29th February.
and last by certainly not least -
The latest challenge over on Crafts by Carolyn.
To make a Mother's Day card!

A ribbon topped recipe for Amelia!

Well I eventually managed to finish Amelia's birthday card just before leaving for the school run this afternoon..left my glossy accents drying as I shut the door!! Thank you to the Daring Card Makers for such great inspiration.

If you've already done your "Wrap it in Ribbon for Christmas" card and you're ready for a new challenge how about trying our Little Extra for this week. We're still playing with those wonderful Ribbon Oasis ribbons but this time we've got a Ribbony Recipe for you to play with.
The ingredients you need to use on your cards are:
4 brads/eyelets
3 circles
2 rectangles
and lashings of ribbon!
What sort of card you make is up to you this time - as long as you've got all those ingredients on there the choice is yours.

Here's how I made use of the "ingredients!"

4 Brads- x3 off-centred for flower centres, x1 to hold those scrummy ribbons!!

3 circles- cheated with these. I started off as just circles then I had the idea of using them as oversized centres of flowers!

2 rectangles-the backing papers and card

Lashings of ribbon!!Broke my heart using this lot, but at least I get to keep it in a way! Ribbon bunched with a brad in the corner, the stems and leaves of the flowers, used as a divider between the 2 rectangles, a little dash of ribbon on the greeting and lastly the little cat's collar!!!