All ready to go.

I can't believe it took me all afternoon to pack up and label all the little boxes ready to post out for the swap for all seasons count down to christmas.!

I have a victorian cuff to make now for my swap partner Caleen. She has just e-mailed me to say mine is ready so I had better get a move on.

Two little japanese bags are off to their new homes this week too plus a tutorial for a netbook cover is underway.

TLC!

This is Buggsy Bunny Fluffs' faithful companion for the past xxyrs. As you can see Buggsy has worn her paw pads to a frazzel so she has come home to me for some TLC.

There. Thats better. What else are mothers there for!

Fluff and Sweet cheeks are coming to stay for a long weekend so I am now busy dismantling the craft pod in the spare bedroom. Sweet cheeks cousins are coming too along with Mummy and Daddy and loads of baggage no doubt. Now where did I put the extra thick duvet!!!!

More boxes and a confession.

Finally finished all the little boxes. Scor-pal was a boon and I succumed in the end to a X cut guillotine so that I had dead straight edges. Well it was either that or give up the Drink! No contest there.


Before everyone zooms in and says but Mrs A. there are only 24 boxes I know.
Ok. You can all zoom out again now.
Box no. 10 had fallen of the table into the bin before I noticed and put them away. So just to prove it

Here is box no. 10


So onto confession time. Actually its not my confession The Doc did it but he said if he goes down he takes me with him so I'm just coming clean. (Does anyone know if the royal mail lets you sew bags with pretty bows and frills on?)
When we get the chance we like to visit houses and gardens that are open to the public. There is one particular house we like that has gardens that lead straight down to the river. It is a lovely spot to sit for an afternoon watching the swans and other wild life. We don't go in the house so the family portraits are safe from my hands but we do go into the tearoom and get a slice of choklit cake and a drink. To save time we put the cake into a container and take our own coffee and go straight to the river. This particular time the cake was very scrummy and The Doc said he would go back to the tea room and pick up two forks for us to use.
Fast track to home and we are unpacking the picnic bag and what do we find? Two silver forks.
Now we just need to sneak them back before they do an audit and find half the family silver is missing!!!!

The Family Jewels!

Before going to Devon last weekend I managed to cram in a jewellery fused glass workshop run by the incredibly talented Michaela. She showed us how to make our own jewellery designs by using 4 different techniques. The 1st one involved us cutting plain glass into shapes and using off cuts of Dicroic glass(which Michaela had provided ) to make a design up. The pieces were attached with glue and when fired would fuse together in the exact shapes we had cut. We all had great fun cutting the glass which tended to shoot up everywhere. Good job we were all wearng safety goggles. We got through several mugs of coffee as we wern't too sure where all the bits went to.Lol!!

The next technigue involed cutting gold leaf shapes and sandwiching between two sheets of glass. Believe it or not this started out as pale yellow glass and is now a lovely orange whilst the gold leaf has also changed colour. Apparently you can never tell what the results will be until after the firing.

The next one uses a special sheet of glass(called frit glass) which is white with black squiggly lines running through it. You place this over a peice of plain one coloured glass and when the two are heated together they fuse like this. I used a pale pink underneath. You can just see the sandwich of the colours on the earing shown on the left of the picture.

And finally where you pile it up. Any pieces hanging over the bottom slice of glass will drape over the sides when fused together. This is my favourite and The Doc likes this the best too.

Michaelas next class will be coasters/dishes/bowls and I can't wait to go on it.

Esmes' Doll

Faye asked me to make another of these little dolls for Daniels' friend Esme who will be 2yrs old
on 23rd . I did all the machine sewing and then took her to Devon in pieces and made her whilst I was down there this week.



Her face and socks are supposed to be painted but I prefer to embrioder her face and sew strips of felt on her feet to make her socks.



I have cut out the pattern for the netbook cover now and will have a go at doing a Tutorial for it.
Never done one before so if you try following it you may not necessarily end up with a cover!!
Also got a rabbit to repair.
Oh and another confession coming up.

Crumbs!

Going.

Going.

Gone!

And very yummy it was too. It's weigh in tomorrow so I'll let you know how much The Doc has put on!!!!

Confessions of a Non Alcoholic

I don't know where August disappeared to. No sooner were we back in the country when we needed to visit home to see friends and family. Having just got back from there we are off again to Devon so apologies for not blogging for a bit.

Confession 1.
Whilst on holiday I needed to keep blogging so we found a nice cafe with Wi Fi and a very obliging waiter who would set it all up for me. On the 1st day Italians on the next table had some really nice looking cocktails so the The Doc told the waiter we would have what they were having( Well when in Rome do what the Romans do so they say). Not quite sure what was in them but they were green, had mint leaves in the bottom, lots of wine and other things too so we got into the habit of strolling down to the cafe after breakfast and ordering these drinks (the waiter when quized said just ask for Hugos everyone will know what you mean) me blogging The Doc sipping and a couple of hours later staggering back to the hotel to sleep it off on the jetty.

Confession 2.
They used to have pictures in the hotel abroad but they seem to have taken them down for some reason! There were loads of pictures hanging up in the guest house in Southend though. I made it down to the breaksfast room okay but couldn't eat a bite until the pictures were all straightend up. Well it puts you right off your toast and jam otherwise. We met up with friends later that day who were staying with their mum in her flat and needing to spend a penny I popped into the loo only to spot more wonky pictures and even worse in the lounge a large wonky picture. I tell you I needed a Hugo to calm me down. (I don't think I was spotted adjusting them).

Confession 3.
Had a phone call from Mum on the next day whilst still at the guest house to say Dad had very bad runs and would I call in at the chemist and pick up something for him to take. So having found a chemist and eventually arriving at home was greeted by the words "Its okay I think he is better now." Wrong thing to say. You have never seen two pills popped out of their packet and administered to an astonished parent so fast in your life. Dad hasn't gone since Tuesdsay. Erm does anyone know a cure for constipation!!!!!

Confession 4.
Called into the cemetary whilst at home to do a spot of "gardening". I had been searching for nearly 30 yrs to find the grave of The Docs grandmother and I finally located where she was buried a few months ago only to find it had no headstone. The person the grave plot belongs to has since died so until I can trace the present owners I can't have anything erected on it. Whilst The Doc stood on lookout duty I planted bulbs in the grass for her instead. Ilegal I know but no one should be forgotten.

Confession 5.
I have been stewing down some apples and plums ready for freezing when cooled down. The apples were given to me by our next door neighbour and the plums by a different route.
We visited some gardens near to us last week and the public car park is the orchard. They had apple trees and plum trees. Lots of apples on the ground but they were all rotten and lots of nice
plums still attached to the trees. As there weren't any windfalls I was going back to the car but The Doc had other ideas and shook the nearest tree and muttered " Oh look windfalls." Enough said.

I have had a very traumatic week and as it is now offically the Weekend I'm off to have a long drink or two.

Cheers.

Bits and Pieces

This is a sneak view of a doll that I have been working on. I know she looks a little weird ! I've not seen a dolls body quite that shape before and I didn't read the pattern instructions first so it came as a bit of a surprise to find that she needed rods inserted into her legs and then shoved into her body and up into her head. Took some manoeuvring but I got there in the end. She does look rather sweet in her swimsuit and inflatable ring and pull along duck. Can't show you any more until she arrives at her destination which does just happen to be beside the seaside.

My Scor-pal has arrived and I'm very impressed with it. So much easier to make the creases for the little boxes. I've made seven so far. Won't show you what I have made though to put in them. You will just have to wait until the reveal in December. All I can say is that you wear some, use some, and just well look at some! The Doc got very exited when he realised 25 little parcels would be leaving the house until he cottoned on that 25 would also be coming back!!!!

It is my sisters' birthday today so happy birthday Sis. I won't give her age away but I think it is safe enough to say it is in double figures.

Off to Devon tomorrow to spend some time with Faye and Sweet Cheeks. I have another doll to deliver for Daniels' little friend Esme who will be 2 shortly. A certain netbook also needs a felt cover making for it and I need to pick up illicit contraband that not only got past baggage control but international border checks. (I got 4 new pairs of sandals out of The Doc whilst on holiday cos he was under the impression that I couldn't be spending in two countries at once).

Denise and Sandra your little Japanese bags will be with you very shortly. Material and bag designs have now been sorted out for you which I think you will like.

And a note for Linds cos I know you will be kicking yourself all weekend otherwise. "Bits and Pieces" was a number one hit for The Dave Clark Five but can you sing the tune?

Tea!

Coming to a house near you soon, if you live in Devon, if you like choklit, if your name begins with F.