A day out at Hinchingbrooke Park.

We had a lovely day out today at Hinchingbrooke Park. Justin had the day off today, and Matthew is on school holidays for this week.

It was a warm day but chilly too, lol, I can't describe it as anything else. Warm in the sun, chilly in the shade??

I used my Sigma zoom lens, which isn't too great. It was a cheap lens (still over £100 though!) and it doesn't like auto focus I found out today, so these are manually focused. We were out for nearly 3 hours! We went on our bikes, and I haven't ridden my bike for about 6 months... I had to walk part of the way. I'm so unfit! 

We took a small picnic as well, stopping off first time in the woods, and the second time by the lake to eat. It was a lovely day... back home and then Justin cooked a lovely roast chicken dinner, which he should have cooked yesterday!

Penny Black challenge, and Charisma Cardz!!

The challenge this week at Penny Black challenge blog (Charisma Cardz below this image)is to create a card with more than one PB image. So here’s my entry.

The girl, the sentiment, and the robin, are not Penny Black stamps, but the two snowman, the lamp post, and the trees are from the Jolly Folly Penny Black stamp set.

Coloured with ProMarkers, glittered with Stickles Stardust glitter.

The card below is for the Charisma Cardz challenge, although the top one could have been as well as it’s for a “more than one fold” challenge.

Anyhooo, here it is. Another Penny Black stamp, coloured with ProMarkers. Glittered with Stickles Stardust glitter.

 

Latest news...

We had to have our 14 year old dog, Sophie, put to sleep on September 19th. She had been getting wobbly on her legs, but while she could still get herself up on the carpet she was fine, but then came the day when she couldn't each time. We decided that it was time, so walked her slowly to the vets on the Sunday night. She fell over 4 times on the way there, but then spent the next half an hour pacing the surgery. It's strange without her here, but we're slowly getting used to it.
Other news.
I got the new laptop, and it's lovely! It has a webcam so I chat every other day with my friend, Jacqui... it will come in handy as she's off to Australia to live in October.
Justin had Friday off work, so first we went shopping with dad in Tesco's where Justin bought himself a new top, and Matthew jeans and two t-shirts. After that, we went into town and he bought me some new black trainers - I wear them at work, supposed to be black shoes, lol. We went and had lunch in a little tiny cafe. It was lovely.
I had the weekend off work, so Justin, Matthew, and I went to Peterborough on the train. First we called into Darryl's to wish our little grandson, Elijah, a happy first birthday. We got to Peterborough about 10m, and headed for breakfast in McDonalds, and then went and done some shopping. We went into lots of shops, and Justin bought some more tops. I got one of those flimsy scarves, love it!!! We had a snack and a drink in the coffee shop at the top of Queensgate, and then more shopping. We met up with Darryl, Abby, and Elijah! Had a chat with them, and then Justin bought me a GORGEOUS bag, I love it!!!!

After that, it was lunch, then we walked to Asda, where Justin bought another top, belt, and me a belt too. Then it was off to Pets at Home so that Matthew could see the gerbils, as he's having two for his birthday in one of those Rotastak cages. We spent about half an hour in there. We then went back to Queensgate and Burton's and Justin got a thin stripey jumper.
We had a great day, and got home about 3.30pm.
Sunday, we went into town and Matthew got another new top. I bought myself a jacket/coat, and a pair of suede boots.
It was nice spending time with them at the weekend, we don't get many weekends together.

Granny Stripe blanket update!

Ok, so it’s day two in the granny house. I’ve now completed 24 stripes… Justin reckons it’s going to take about 154 stripes to fit the bed nicely. Hmmm. I’m loving this blanket, it’s never boring as there’s a colour change after two rows.

Here’s the progress!

I lightened up the bottom two photo’s trying to show the purple wool as in the other photo’s it looks black.

Today I’m also awaiting delivery of a new laptop! My current laptop spends the majority of it’s life frozen, or creeping along, or overheating, or making a horrendous grinding noise… so time for a new one!

The one I’m waiting for is a Samsung R530 in a lovely glossy red colour. Scroll down the page on the link below to see the colour.

Click here to see it.

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1.03.01

BOO!

Yeah I’m still around, lol, but I’ve been very quiet haven’t I?! I’ve not really been up to much lately craft wise, apart from catching up on a couple of knitting projects, but I’ve now started another crocheted double bed blanket. This is going to take a while…

The blanket is a crocheted Granny Stripe blanket, inspired by reading this fantastic blog – Attic24 Wow, the author has some fantastic photo’s on there, and it’s all about colour. I love this blog!! Be sure to check out the blog too, because I’m sure it will inspire you too.

The colours are a little bit stronger than the picture suggests. The “blue” in between the pale pink and yellow/orange is actually a dark lilac!

I started off with a chain of 252.

I shall also add some more colours on Friday… I need some darker one’s I think. EDIT: see further down, lol.

This is how far I’ve got.

Below are some newer photo’s of Elijah when we had him over for the evening while Darryl and Abby went to the cinema. He’s always such a good boy! He’s one year old on September 25th, that year went past in a blur!

Edit:

Ok, so I’m not well known for my patience… as soon as I posted the blog update I went into town and bought these fabby jewel colours!! I’m hoping the red is going to show properly, as it’s a gorgeous rich raspberry colour.

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1.03.01

Table Runner!!!

It’s finished!!

So, for my first attempt at quilting and patchwork I’m very pleased with it. My wadding came this morning so I was happy that I could do some more with what I’d made yesterday. I didn’t do any fancy patterns for the quilting, I just basically followed the edge of the rectangles. I also got on better with the binding than I thought I would, although my whip stitch needs to be less visible next time. I think I should have used cream thread instead of black lol.

I think next month I shall order some more Christmas fabric and make another runner, this time for the coffee table.

Patchwork sewing!

My new sewing machine came yesterday. I love it! I ordered it from Sewing Machines Direct. Fab service. Russell emails you if you have any queries regarding anything, he is a great help. I can’t recommend them highly enough. Free next day delivery too!

Here is a pic of my lovely machine! Plus, you also get the free 5 pairs of scissors, and all those spools of thread which I’ve put in a box. 50 spools of 1000 metre thread!

Here is a pic of what I’ve been fiddling with today. It’s a Christmas table runner. I bought the charm pack from Quilttaffy’s Etsy shop. The fabric is from BasicGrey and called Fruitcake. I have ordered the wadding today, and I have some cream cotton that I can back it with. The charm pack came as 5 inch cut squares, and I then cut them to 2.5 inch strips. As this is my first project I didn’t want anything too big or complicated to start with. The next picture shows that my patches don’t meet up, but who cares?! I made it for us and for fun.

I can’t wait to buy another charm pack now!!

It was time…

…that I made a scrapbook page! It’s been ages since I made one and I had an image of a page in my mind last night so got on and created the background, adding in the photo’s this afternoon. The photo’s are from last year’s Christmas Eve tea that we have every year. I’m pleased to say that Darryl has had a hair cut since these were taken.

I think the papers are from BasicGrey, but I’m not sure as I bought them as single sheets from my local Coleman’s. I wish I knew because I LOVE the stripy/spotty one at the bottom and the Text cardstock. I cut the sleigh with the Cricut using Joys to the Season cartridge, and used stickers from DoCrafts.

 

Dino! Morsbag.

This is my 5th bag. I’m still waiting for some labels so that they are officially Morsbags.

This one I made from part of Darryl’s quilt cover from when he was little… awww.

I am really enjoying making these bags. They are not perfect, but who cares?! I started making this one last night and had to finish it today after work.

Front.

Back.

Two more Morsbags!

I’ve been up in my little craft room today with Radio Cambridgeshire on, making another two bags. I got on better today despite the machine having a bit of a fit over it’s tension after it had been working perfectly. Nevermind.

So… I made another orange/purple bag from the curtains from yesterday, and a purple bag made from an old duvet cover of mine. Here’s the result… both need ironing still and a Morsbag label putting on… still waiting for the labels though.

I’ve made a Morsbag!

What is a Morsbag I hear you ask…

A Morsbag is a bag made from cotton – old duvet covers, curtains etc to use instead of a plastic carrier bag. The idea is that you make them in the cheapest way possible and you must give them to people for free.

So today I went to the local Heart Foundation charity shop and bought a lovely pair of curtains, complete with pelmet, lol, and turned it into a bag!

My sewing machine is a 20 year old Singer FeatherWeight Model 100. So it’s only tiny. I realise now that I should have cut off the old hems from the curtains, coz my little machine didn’t like the thickness of it. The blue cotton I was using was far too cheap and snapped easily, but the cotton I’d got on the bobbin was very strong. I had to rethread the needle so many times because of the cotton breaking, the little clamp thing flew off, and I broke a needle! LOL! But, I had a fab time making it! I shall make some more.

Have a look over at Morsbags.com and have a read for yourself.

Not bad for never really using a sewing machine…

Here is my little sewing machine, and it really is tiny.

It’s PARTY time!

Jacqui saying she’s hula hoopin’… I think it’s just stuck!

My friend Jacqui, and her boys, James and Harry, had their farewell parties yesterday. We were there all day helping out. They are off to Australia on September 2nd.

It was a fun day, and here are some photo’s from the day.

Bouncy castle fun!

I said “Harry! Stop! Now smile!” and this is what I got!

Harry just chillin’

Justin and Matthew having a bounce. Justin had been drinking Pimms lol.

Four nutters.

Matthew and James – they’re going to miss each other.

Wow, look at that BIG splash coming in from the right!

Me perfecting the hoola hoop!

A Christmas card already!!

I decided to make a start on my Christmas cards for this year, us crafters have to start early you know! I’m going to try and make more than I did last year.

I've just seen I can also enter this for the July challenge over at Christmas All Year Round challenge blog. Have a look over there at all the other fab entries. Also Flourishes Boutique challenge blog, fab entries there as well!!

I used the Cricut Expressions and cartridges Joys of the season for the holly and the reindeer, Storybook for the Noel wording, and either Plantin Schoolbook or Accent Essentials for the ovals. The papers are from the new Papermania range The Silent Night… lovely they are. Some are glittered, or have gold leaf on them, gorgeous! This holly page has glittered red berries, and the green dotted oval has glittered dots. I also added red Stickles glitter to the holly berries.