More Christmas....!

Hello all - I can't believe that it's nearly the end of August and a Bank Holiday weekend looming here in the UK.  But it feels rather an odd one for me - husband and I are on our own, no offspring (or accompanying friends!).  Of course, we've only got the youngest living at home now, but he's headed off with about 12 of his friends to the Leeds Festival, camping (rather him than me!), and looking forward to a few days with his mates and enjoying some music.  Mumford & Sons are headlining on Saturday and I often hear them playing from his room (or him playing their songs on his guitar!).  And our daughter Lauren is currently in New York!  Her boyfriend had been invited to a conference via his University, so they decided they would both go a few days before and see the Big Apple! They arrived yesterday and I had a message to say all was well and that they were going to Central Park and Ground Zero today.  I've told her to take lots of photos!  So husband and I decided we would have a day out tomorrow followed by a meal out - and no house full of other bodies to either feed or taxi about lol!

I've tried to keep doing a bit of crafting - and have another Christmas card to share with you

Sorry the pic seems a bit dark - I think I took it at the wrong time!  I've used a gorgeous LOTV stamp and coloured it with my usual mix of copics, Graphits and promarkers - with some added sparkle and chalk shading.

The papers and sentiment stamp are also from LOTV and I've used the Britannia poinsettia die (I can see that die is going to be a VERY useful Christmas one!).  The snowflake charm is from stash. 

I'm busy now starting the wedding invitations for my lovely step-daughter Lucy - we've discussed papers, layouts, etc., and I've been preparing a couple of samples.  So once her and Jon have had a think about it, I'll start the production line!  But I'm looking forward to it and I'm honoured that they want me to make their invites for such an important day! 

I've also been busy with the crocheting and am currently making another blanket (I just LOVE blankets!) - using a gorgeous pattern from a lovely blog called 'Felted Button'. If you like anything yarn or colour related do have a look! 

I'm really pleased with the colour combination I've used, they are gorgeous soft blues, lilacs and greens - using Stylecraft Special DK. 

Anyway, that's enough waffle from me.  Thanks for taking the time to call by my little corner of Blogland - and thank you as always for the lovely comments as they mean such a lot! 

Enjoy your weekend whatever you have planned,

Back soon,

Kim x 

A Cute Birthday!

Hello all, apologies for an absence and I hope that you're all enjoying your summer (in spite of any weather problems!).  We enjoyed a lovely few days in Lewes in East Sussex with our daughter Lauren and her boyfriend, exploring the local area and a trip into Brighton (with the compulsory ice cream on the pier!).  My stepdaughter Lucy and her fiance were also down there for a few days, so it was nice to all spend a little time together - not something that happens as frequently once offspring move away, have jobs and homes, etc.!  Lucy's 'bump', our first grandchild, is coming along very well and she looks 'blooming'!

A birthday card to share with you today, using a cute LOTV stamp

I've coloured the stamp with my usual mix of copics, promarkers and Graphit pens, with some added sparkle for those wings and stars! 

The papers are from LOTV and the flowers from WOC.  I've used MemoryBox precious hearts dies and AllOccasions sentiment die, and Sue Wilson pierced flag die. 

Hope you like it! 

And, if you'll excuse me, just a little bit of a "proud mummy" moment - our youngest offspring, our son Jack, got his GCSE results today and achieved 6 A* grades in Maths, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, French and Latin, 4 A grades in English language, literature, Art and Geography and a B in Design & Tech! We are all sooooo proud of him - he's done very well! So he arrived back home this afternoon with some of his friends (who have all done very well!) and now they've all headed out to celebrate! 

I hope that you have a good weekend - whatever you have planned! I've got some card orders to get on with so I think I may well be holed up in amongst all my crafty goodies! 

Back soon,

Kim x 

That's it! I've started!

That's it now - I've started and there's no going back....  I made my first Christmas card of 2015!  Now I know that some of you (more organised) crafters are very good and make your Christmas cards all year round, but I can never usually face doing them and then have something of a mad panic around November!  But I thought I'd try and be a tad more organised this year and start making them a bit earlier.  So I dug out the Christmas papers, etc., and made this one

I've used a gorgeous stamp from LOTV coloured with a mix of copics, Graphits and promarkers.

The papers and sentiment tags are also from LOTV.  I've added a die cut poinsettia made with a Britannia die and the cute little 'precious bells' from Memory Box and snowflake from AllOccasions dies. 

I'm just hoping now that I've started I can keep going and try to make a few regularly - so I'm not swamped in a mound of glitter and snowflakes come November....

I hope that you had a good weekend and that your week is going well?  It's been a nice chance to catch up with friends (out last night, out again tomorrow!) and we're looking forward to going to the South coast to spend a few days with our daughter in Lewes.  And her sister (complete with growing bump - oooh I'm so looking forward to being a granny in less than 3 months!) is also there so we can all catch up.  Just a shame that my eldest step-daughter won't be there otherwise we'd have a full complement of all 4 offspring!  I just hope the weather plays nicely and we can get out and about a bit! 

I'd better get off to do some more jobs and the never-ending laundry!  I wish someone would invent self-cleaning clothes....

Back soon,

Kim x 

I've still been busy with the crocheting!

Hello - how's your week been going?  It's not been too bad here, getting back into a bit of a routine after holidays - although as I'm still off it's not the full routine!  Much as I enjoy my job (manic though it is at times!), I do enjoy being off and at home - even though I never seem to achieve all the things I have planned.  Such is life!  Thank you for all your lovely comments, and yes, youngest did enjoy his day out in London on Tuesday!  He and his friend spent the whole day either walking or on the Tube by the sounds of it, and got to see all the things they had on their 'list' - and he estimated that according to the tracker thingy on his phone, he said they walked over 20,000 steps!  Good job his legs are a lot younger and fitter than mine!

I've still been enjoying my crocheting - along with the cardmaking!  I recently finished this stripy baby blanket

I used the lovely Stylecraft Special DK which I think is great for blankets - reasonably priced, soft, washable and pretty hard-wearing!  I thought a range of cheerful colours would look good - and it was a sort of 'make-it-up-as-you-go-along' pattern! 

The blanket measures about 80x65cm which is quite nice as a cot or pram blanket and I added a little shell design edging.

I've added this to the Etsy shop HERE - so I'm hoping someone spots it and thinks it would make a perfect 'new baby' gift! 

I've also added quite a lot of free P&P on many things in the Etsy shop as I know that's often a thing that people look for when shopping online (me especially!).  Most of the things I tend to sell at the moment, either cards or crochet, are from orders via colleagues and friends, but I'm hoping that the Etsy shop will provide an extra "outlet"! 

I hope you enjoy the remainder of your week - and thank you as always for taking the time to read my waffling blog posts and for the lovely comments you leave! 

Back soon,

Kim x 

A girly hat!

Hello all and I hope that you had a good weekend - and saw some sunshine too (although it seems in short supply in our corner of the country today!).  Youngest has gone off with one of his friends on an adventure day out to London - quite a long way from the north west UK!  They left on a train at about 7am this morning (kind hubby did the trip to the station for that one!) and should currently be in the Big Smoke.  They've got Oyster cards for the tube and bus and a list of places they want to go to, so it'll be something of a whistle-stop tour of the capital city I think.  I'm just trying not to worry too much about if they're ok/not got lost/got something to eat/keeping belongings safe/not been captured by white slave traders.....etc!  Mind you, why any self-respecting slave trader would want two 16 year old boys is another question - particularly once they know how much they eat, how untidy they are or how long they take in the shower lol! (Or is that just my son...?)

Anyway, worrying aside, I thought I'd share a little girly card that I made just before I went on holiday.  I'm trying hard to resist the temptation to buy any more papers or stamps until I've made good use of the ones I've got.  Like many crafters, the crafty stash just seems to grow and grow - and I can't bear to throw things away!  So I'm trying to use my older stamps, and find ways of using all the small pieces of lovely papers that I couldn't bring myself to bin (I'll share a couple of those later this week!).

This was made using an older LOTV stamp

Apologies for the poor lighting on this one, I think I took the photo a bit too late in the evening as it seems a bit dark!  I've coloured the image with copics and the papers are also from LOTV. The flowers were made using a Britannia flower die and the little sentiment tag is from HunkyDory (although the foiling meant I didn't get a very clear photo!)

Hope you like it! 

I'm hoping while I'm off work to dig out some of my other older stamps - and also make a start on the C*****mas cards!  Even though I don't really want to think that far ahead yet, I do feel that I really should make a start on doing some to avoid the mad rush in November lol!  But I still think it feels strange to have glitter, snowy scenes and reindeers around in August....

Back soon,

Kim x