Busy Weekend

I made this calendar to put on my desk at work - people are always stealing post it notes - mine are a very distinctive shape and certainly not the sort we can get from the stationery department!! The photo I took in London a Banksy/Robbo collaboration on the side of the Regents Canal.

This is my annual fridge magnet calendar - another photo taken in London my son took me to Camley Natural Park which is just round the corner from St Pancras Station and if you look very closely you can just make out a crane and three turtles!

And yet another photo of a crane - Banksy style.... with a little enhancement from Robbo again - photographed on the bank of the Regents Canal in Camden in 2010.

I've always wanted to make a 'jacob's ladder' mini book.... this is the start of my mini Christmas book - the mount board is painted with gold paint and I have decorated each page with Christmas scrapbooking papers.

This shows just how many layers make up the Jacob's Ladder.

...and here it is in action.  It took a couple of attempts to get alternating striped and green pages and at one point I didn't glue the ribbons on correctly - but it's fine now and works beautifully.

Another shot of the Jacob's ladder in motion!

Tomorrow is Prize-Giving day!  I started a star chart to encourage the team members to give me their monthly figures in a timely manner!!  I awarded a gold, silver and bronze star to the first three to hand them in and told them there would be a prize at the end of six months.  So this is the prize - we needed cupcakes, but as we are all on a diet I made a 'cupcake' jewellery bag.

How cute is this fabric!

Monday beading class produced this lovely choker - I bought beads to match the t-shirt I bought the other day!

What a busy and productive weekend I have had........

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!

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.

Jaswyn

Here is a little wallhanging I made for my brother and sister in law. It is a photo of their home printed on fabric with commercial fabric printed with flowers and leaves. The quilting is done with cotton thread and is free machined. The wadding is cotton. The quilt measures 12 inches square.

This second photo shows a close up of the stitching. I followed the line of some of the leaves and flowers on the patterned fabric. It's all packed up to post now - I'll let you know what they say about it in a later blog. Well maybe they should add a message on here.