Just another Saturday in December...

Hannah made this quilted table mat - proper patchwork and quilting on the sewing machine - she's only 12 - what a clever girl.  She has a plan for her next quilt too.  A project for the new year - watch this space!

Bought this at Bankfield Museum last week - it was their annual Christmas Craft show and I thought this was just too cute to leave on the shelf!

Speaking of 'cute'.... here is Puss Puss in her favourite place which is sitting on her carpet square on the window sill.  She likes watching the birds and next doors cat!

Too cold to bead?

It was far too cold and icy to go to Dot's beading class this evening, so I caught the bus straight home and decided to have a go at today's project on my own....
here are two variations of daisy chain that I tried......

 

Craft Stamper Trade It swap this month was an altered piece of chipboard no larger than 3 inches.  Here is the one I did - it is triple embossed with shrink plastic dangly bits - the stamp was a block with various kitcheny things on - a pile of teacups, a coffee pot, a toaster and a single tea cup.  The colour theme was lemon and lilac.

 

And here is the one that my mum made ...

It is that time of year again and I need to think of a new design for my fridge magnet calendars... these are the ones I made the last two years.....

Another SNOWY day.....

... but I have finished making and writing my Christmas cards, which is a FIRST - I am usually the person who posts them on Christmas Eve and expects them to be delivered the next day. I took some photos for my blog a couple of days ago and have forgotten what they are of, so I will have to take a look when they have uploaded onto the computer....

And here is a hungry jackdaw finding things in the garden...

  

The view from my front door on Tuesday morning - I had the day off to wait in for the boiler being repaired, but the engineer was stuck in traffic and didn't turn up!

You haven't seen the crochet for a little while - so here it is - progressing slowly!

One of the kids I used to childmind (and a friend) knocked on the door on Tuesday afternoon - obviously bored because school was closed, I invited them to call in for juice and biscuits after they had been sledging on the golf course ... I managed to make biscuits, but the coconut cupcakes were still in the oven.

After an hour and a half at beading class - this is what I produced - it will eventually grow up to be a bracelet!

This is the card that I received in the Craft Stamper Trade It swap - many thanks to May Hunt for this little 3 inch square Christmas Card.

And here is one I received from Suzanne; you can't see from the photo but the snowflakes are punched out and glittery paper is stuck behind.  Very pretty.

I was sent home from work early yesterday, because it was snowing heavily, but unfortunately there were no buses, but it was quite a pleasant five and a half hour walk.  I'd certainly risk doing again.  It might have been a bit quicker, but I stopped from a curry lunch at Carlisle Business Centre on the way and then I stopped at the Range and Morrisons to buy some more Christmas cards and do a bit of shopping, and then I stopped at Alun and Julie's for a coffee.... Maybe I could do it in three hours next time!!!

So, even though I don't work on a Friday - tomorrow morning I am off to work if the buses are OK to get there!

I am a bit SAD!!!

... I keep having a look to see if anyone has added a comment to my blog and NO ONE has!  I am very sad!

Surprise!

The village covered in snow!  Taken from the viaduct.

Artistic shot of my footprint!  Or not!

I finished this necklace at bead club on Monday

And this is a close-up of it.

A close-up of one I made earlier

Cute little bracelet using some left over crystals and some tiny seed beads.

Nuts to you!

Peyote stitch bracelet for a man?

Close up of a Potawatmee bracelet.

Potawatamee bracelet

Another cute bracelet with Swarowski crystals and tiny seed beads.

I made this ATC to thank the maker of the tag I received a couple of weeks ago.

The theme this month for the Craft Stamper swap is Gothic Arches, this was a practice.  I have inked the background with Distress Inks and then stamped the tree.  I stamped two owls on shrink plastic, coloured them with pencils and cut them out.  I stuck them on the card with Diamond Glaze.

Christmas in July ??

Mum made this card for the Craft Stamper swap.

And this is the inside sheet that she stamped too!

I made this little Christmas card.  We had to stamp a card that was a maximum of 4 inches square.

We had made these Christmas cards way back in July for the Craft Stamper Trade It swap.  I don't think I have taken photos of the cards we received in exchange.  Will remedy that when I visit my Mum at the weekend.

And now it is almost December and I have decided to make some Christmas cards.  I need to get the ones for Tom and Jerri sent fairly soon.  I was going to buy some ''Christmas Greetings from Thornton Village'' cards from the local Post Office, but the pictures were just general Christmassy scenes , so I had a look at all the snowy photos I took earlier in the year and decided to make my own.  I have also managed to connect a colour printer to this Linux computer and it actually WORKS!!!  It makes life so much easier.  Well I'd better get on and make some cards this evening, instead of blog hopping!!!!

Where's Nemo?

 The other night I sat up until 1.30am knitting with the yarn I am crocheting with and made this little something - scroll down to see what it is....

How cute is that???

This little fellow was eating the bird's food at my Mum's house -  I thought he deserved a spot on the blog!

A little Japanese bag for a gift

And an origami card to go with it - I just love these easel cards at the moment.  I also made this card for card club last weekend.  The theme was ONE.  So I chose one shape and that was square!  Happy 25th Birthday Summer!

Auntie Dawn was 60 last week and this was the first easel card I made - I had used a square stamp and cut it out with a square cutter - but it was slightly too small for the wording.

.... and here is the side view to show how it is constructed.

I get all the best wildlife in my garden.  The bird table in particular attracts lots.  I think this was the first time it has been used as a feline washroom!

Lampwork beads made by my friend Anne... maybe a link to her blog....if I can remember what it's called - maybe another day then.....

And here he is.... hiding in the lampwork beads - good colour choice there Anne!

Jewellery class (again)

This weeks jewellery class was completing the necklace we had started the previous week.  We started with 217 rows of 2 beads in each row and this is what we finished with.......



I added a magnetic fastener - but after wearing it for a little while - the fastener turns around to the front.

Mystery Object Revealed.....

 Yes it's a kitchen unit..... I found the rack with knobs on lying around upstairs and it JUST fitted on the end to hang the tea towels, etc....

 And here is a retro photo from 20 May (now why does that date stick in my mind??) 2007 when Tom made a get well card for his Japanese teacher.  How FAB is that?