It's all going wrong

This morning my phone broke - I can send texts but can't do a backspace so if I do a typo I can't delete it therefore I am starting to send garbled messages (nothing new there really!), I also can't make or receive calls :(

Two friends have nipped round this morning and my doorbell doesn't work :(

Last week my melt pot broke - I melted some UTEE, poured it out, added some more and then just nothing happened.  All the lights are on but there is no longer any heat :(

Two weeks ago the door knob fell off the front door and although it can be screwed back on the thread has obviously broken as it has fallen off another four times since so has now been taken off but I have left the screw sticking out to save having a hole in the door :(

Three weeks ago the grill on my main oven broke - it comes on but at full blast so basically burns anything - good job I don't use it very often :(

So it's all going a bit pear shaped here at the moment.  Am off to do the ironing - am secretly hoping that that might break too!

My budding little actor

A while ago (March in fact) Oliver was in a school production of Romeo and Juliet - he was the Narrator so had quite a big part at the very beginning and again at the very end but then had to sit very quietly for about an hour and a half during the rest of the production! 

The whole school did fabulous show and when you think that they were only in Years 5 and 6 and the script was all in olde English we were all so proud!

Anyway for my Color or is Colour week 5 - which was Purple - I have done this layout:

should have been done 3 weeks ago - oops!  It was based on a sketch provided with the course but I have promptly lost my paper copy of it and the connection took too long to load on DS's PC earlier so I have stuck this down by memory so it's probably completely different!  I did the base of the layout and most of the bits at my last crop but have only just gotten around to sticking it down and finishing it today - honestly going away on holiday really messes up your crafting doesn't it!

Stuff used:  My Minds Eye 29th Street Market papers, purple cardstock, Purple texture paste, Red inca gold paint, Basic Grey Archaic brads, Prima "Make Me Happy" flowers, Making Memories Passport Alphabet, various Promarkers, Sepia Archival Ink, a Primark necklace key (how quickly have I used one of those!!), Earthy Pastel Hemp.  Distress Inks: Old Paper, Fired Brick and Vintage Photo.  Stamps: Non Sequitor, Stampers Anonymous, Magnolia, and Creative Expressions.

Thanks for looking :)  I have just moved all of my crafty bits and pieces that were in the dining room back into my craft room so I am hoping this will get my creative juices flowing and I am planning on making something else this afternoon too.  Don't you just love bank holidays :)

Oooh you heard it here first!

Primark have some lovely new jewellery in store:

just look at those fab keys! that necklace was £4 and has 9 fantastic keys on it, the long brown necklace was on sale for a £1 and I think the leaves were £2 and the silver one £3 (I actually wore that yesterday too!) - going to have a lovely sit down later this afternoon with my little pliers and take them all to pieces - can't wait to start using them on projects - just think how fabulous those leaves are going to look when I have applied alcohol ink on them - whoo hoo.
Also a big hi to Bekca - thanks for following me :)

Have been awol this week as I have been in sunny Cardiff and Swansea (visiting Primark!) with the family. This week I am hoping to catch up with some more sewing - finally treated myself to a thimble at the Festival of Quilts (fantastic quilt show - well worth going to if you love sewing - the winners quilts were stunning - put my cushions and organisers to shame!). To the girls at my crop I am still working on the Shakespeare layout too! maybe this week eh!

Have also updated the WhatHouseworkBlog so please check that out if you are coming to our charity crop - we have just one space left now!

Thanks for looking :)

I so wasn't looking forward

to going into Birmingham town centre last night, but

was worth it!  We drove in and parked at the Arcadian car park which is right by the Hippodrome, they kept shutting the shutters to lock everyone in!  We then sat in the car and ate our tea (chicken sandwich and a bag of crisps - so romantic!) then walked round to see the show - which was great we really enjoyed it.  I feel like rummaging through the boxes in the loft to see if I can find my 18 Queen LP's! When we came out the streets were eerily deserted but when we drove up to the main Pershore Road we saw that the police had cordoned off the street, then when we drove round towards the Blues ground (we thought that going up the Coventry Road would be safer than driving up the Stratford Road) every road was cordoned off hence an empty town centre.  Quite spooky - feels like quite an adventure now that I am sitting here typing about it!

Thanks for looking :)

WOYWW 114

Well I had a busy day yesterday - my Mom phoned first thing and asked if she could have the children for the day and who was I to argue?  My first thought was "great I can catch up with the housework I need to do" so I will let you guess did I a: get out the duster and cleaning stuff and do those jobs or b: get out my craft table, watch a few episodes of Glee and New Tricks and get creative???

Yep you are right I caught up with this housework:

so that was my craft table in front of the telly yesterday afternoon.

These are the few bits and pieces I made/finished off:

made this from scratch - I did up a bunch of tags in Mustard Seed, Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge covered with a lemon mica powder and just went to it with some bits and pieces I had to hand.  The bird was inked with Spiced Marmalade, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo then covered with Rock Candy crackle glaze - when dry I went over the legs with Walnut Stain, the flowers were black and white so I covered them with Barn Door to add a bit of pizazz.

same colour inks over a tag covered with a sewing pattern then I splattered some Wild Honey reinker on the tag and blew it around with a straw.  Coloured the mannequin with Wild Honey and edged with Rusty Hinge finished simply with the tulle, some orange washi tape, four pearls and a metal heart, the bottom is just a tissue tape layered with ribbons and jems.

finished off this embellishment as I had actually made it a couple of weeks ago whilst working on my Colour or is Color? course about layering embellishments.  This one was just one of a few I made and was the most simplest - just used up some old stuff lying around apart from the butterfly.  Yesterday I just glued the nib on the clock and adhered the clock and butterfly down.

Thats it from me today - hoping to catch up with a few desks later as I haven't been joining in for the past few weeks and can't see me joining in again for the next few either!  Both children and I now have bikes so we are spending most of our days out and about.  If you want to join in the weekly fun of looking at crafters desks then please pop over to Julias we would love to see you!

Thanks for looking :)

Its been all go here!

Have been really busy this past week - visiting my Nan for a couple of days, taking the children out on their bikes (how stressful is that!) and also busy beavering away getting my class layout completed for yesterday's crop and also finishing off the mini book I am going to be making at our Charity Crop on 10th September - 4 spaces/kits left if you are interested!

Here is my class for yesterday:

Gorgeous Prima papers which basically did all the work, all we had to do was some cutting and layering, and aren't those new butterflies just fantastic too!  Love this layout and it's even got me on it!

Then on Friday whilst the children were pottering around the house and doing their own thing I actually got on with some sewing - I find sewing far more relaxing than scrapping at the moment - probably because it's far less stressful to follow a pattern rather than designing something from scratch.  Anyway get ready because my little machine was a busy little thing (I even got through 3 needles!). 

First I made this:

Isn't that spotty material just fab - it was a bit of a faff but worth it!  If anyone knows where I can get a cushion to fit it apart from Dunelm Mill (cause I am not sure how to get there!) please let me know.  It needs to be 13" x 20" - thanks!

Next I made two of these:

piping and all!  I even discovered that I have a piping foot after making both of these (can only happen to me can't it!) - now need to make something else with piping just so that I can use that foot!  Now need a trip to Primark (whoo hoo) to get a cushion to fill the second one.

Then I made this:

a quick and simple little basket - looked so much better at the Malvern quilt show though!  still I have enough material to make another one and it will come in handy.

And now I am half way through this:

it's a Mandy Shaw organiser - cause I need another one!  I love making these and they are so useful to keep bits and pieces in - this one will have a notebook in the third section so I will use it to keep notes and pens in rather than sewing accessories.

Phew - told you I had been busy didn't I!

Thanks for looking and please leave me a comment if you pass by.