Orange, blue and red.

I have been playing with paper and glue, great fun.    I have a friend coming round Saturday to make some guest books for her wedding later on in the year.  We need to make two as she is getting married in South Africa and having a blessing over here.  I thought I had better have an experiment to work out exactly how we are going to create these books.  I will post a picture of the finished book later on in the week.

Completed this last book for Regional Day (75 days away), I am not making anymore  at the moment, as I now need to make yards of bunting before our next Committee meeting.  Che Guevara is coming along, machined background nearly complete, but run out of the main colour thread, so will JUST HAVE to go to Barleylands to get some more on my way to the bank to sort out a problem. 

 

 I have been having trouble with a Mobile phone company, who 2 months ago, took out of my bank account over £100 more than I asked them too, the foreign gentleman had a job to understand my instructions.It's  not my phone bill and they wont give me my money back, in spite of numerous and very, very long phone calls.  I have been finding it quite hard to remain polite and not to make the air blue. The account I used is where I put any money I am given for my birthday etc, so not a lot of money in there, and I use it to buy my paints and threads etc.  Their error had nearly made me go in the red -not impressed!!!!! 

Not much to show for the weekend.

 Kezzy has continued to work on her art project.  She has to draw a tiger in the style of Henry Moore's pen and ink, so had a go at his sheep first to get the feel of it.  She is going to try and do the tiger tonight.

I have finished the covers for another book. I found this scrapbook paper to line the covers, which looks like it was just made for the job.

 I also did a couple of pages for my journal on my holiday to Cornwall last year. 

A very lazy Easter

I have been down to my mothers for a long weekend.  I was intending to blog Thursday night and wish everyone a Happy Easter but plans to take Kezzy and Mitch to Dovercourt on Friday changed late Thursday afternoon, so it was a frantic dash to get them sorted and packed up to be ready to leave after our evening meal.

It has been strange to be child free for so many days-feels like I have gone deaf!!!LOL  It has been a very relaxing break, sitting in the garden enjoying the sunshine.  We took mum to Olney for the day on Saturday, she always enjoys our trips there but will never drive there herself.

The picture above,  is the pathway through the trees to get to the pond at the bottom of the garden.  This was originally just a bare field that cattle grazed in until my mother bought it.

My brother has quite a few projects going on around the garden.  This is the start of the new kitchen garden.  He has had to enclose the area with netting to keep out the pigeons, rabbits and mountjacks. 

After picking the children up from Dovercourt, we drove onto Harwich to take photos of the setting sun.

Flower wower!!

 Usually as soon as my Tree Paeony comes into bloom, it gets spoilt by wind or rain.  This year looks like I could have the blooms for longer than 1 day!!

 The flower bloom is almost the size of a dinner plate.

While hubby was up in the loft this evening, he found this.  A quick search on Google revealed that it is a Hornet nest.  A marvellous feat of engineering.  I shall be taking it to work with me next week to show my children as we are doing about bugs this forthcoming term.

At last.......

Although the sun has been shining, I didn't get to see that much of it this morning/early afternoon, as I was at the hospital with Mitch.  He had to be assessed to get back on his medication he used to take a few years ago, for his ADHD, I hope it works.
I have managed to get some more machine stitching done to the background of my Che panel this evening.  Hopefully another couple of hours and the sky will be finished then it will be time to complete the foreground.

Tonight

Tonight it is our Embroiderers' Guild meeting.  Our speaker is Jennifer Hodgkin on 'The Quaker Tapestry'.  Tickets will also be on sale for Regional Day on July 2nd.  Visitors welcome.

We spent Saturday at Colchester Zoo, every time I go there I am impressed by the changes they are making to improve the animals habitats.  Kezzy had to take photo's/draw tigers as part of her GCSE Art.  The tiger was on the move the whole time making it imposable to draw, bad enough trying to get photo's.  We must have been outside the cage for almost an hour trying to get some decent photos.  Thank goodness for digital camera's. Kezzy was brave enough to hold a Giant Snail, you wouldn't catch me doing this!!! 

I celebrated my 11th wedding anniversary on Friday.  Hubby bought me enough lillies to fill two vases:0).  We spent the evening at the pub (two pub visits in one week!!!) listening to a live rock group. Another non creative day :0(

Little books.

 Managed to complete the books I started the other day.  The one above, has taken the most time as I embellished it with some hand stitching.  I have got one more like this one to complete but as I am going to my Mothers for the Easter weekend, I might save the hand stitching until then.

This one is for Nickie, slightly different construction so as not to spoil the picture.  I shall post it through her door tomorrow night.  I hope she likes it.

The travel journal, I have used split rings so that extra pages or memento's can be added in easily.  Apart from Nickie's all the other books are for our Regional Day sales table.

At last :0)

I have had a day at home, playing in my room, the first one so far this holiday!  I was beginning to wonder if I was going to achieve anything before I have go back to work.

Nickie bought some little chicks round to go in it them other day, and I have got the chocolate eggs in my fridge in readiness for Josh and Zach's next visit.

Yesterday

In my post yesterday I received this lovely collection of vintage papers from Mary.  I shall enjoy using them in my Mixed Media work.  It was a busy family day, the grandchildren came round for the afternoon and Mitch had decided he wanted to do some creating, so was in my playroom!!

In the evening it was out with friends to the Blue Pig.

Couldn't resist these.

Another day of not seeing the inside of my house.
Mitch and I walked up and down Billericay High Street, actively seeking a job for him.  He has handed in 3 job applications and go one more to do tomorrow.  I found these paper serviettes in the Cook shop, so tonight, instead of stitching Che........

I cut up and coloured some more paper to make pages and...

 started some more covers.  Nickie's book seagull cover has had 2 coats of acrylic wax and is now ready for the next stage.

All being well, I do not have to 'taxi'anyone, anywhere tomorrow, so I can make all the books (fingers crossed) in one session. 
I spent the afternoon with my elderly friend.  I was going to stay for an hour, but he had had a minor op' this morning and needed some company.  He is so interesting to listen to, the time just flew.

Going......

Another book has been started tonight, this one is for Nickie.  She found this serviette yesterday, and because of the pattern, I am making it into a long thin book.

I got lovely messy hands, colouring the pages with Brusho.  I had plans to do a lot more creating today, but as always happens when you plan to do something, it often goes pear shape.  Although Kezzy has broken up for her Easter holiday, she had to be in  school today and again tomorrow for extra help in readiness for her GCSE's.  No school bus, means that I have to take her there and back.  Today we also had a visit to the hospital for the orthodontist, and for some me time, off to visit a friend for coffee.
Tonight, has been spent form filling, forms for Mitch to get help at College when he starts in September with his Dyslexia, 2 job application forms and last not least a form so that he can vote in the Referendum.  Hence the need to play with glue and paint!!

Can you believe how quickly this cake is disappearing???

Mad dogs and Englishmen.

I have started to construct the second birdhouse and hope to get that finished this week. Nickie popped round with some little chicks to put inside them and stopped for coffee and a natter, lovely!

  

We have had a very busy day in the garden, sorting out the Koi pond, cutting the lawns and trying to get the weeds under control, a lot more still to do.  As it was so much warmer than yesterday evening, we unwrapped the Barbie and had our evening meal on the deck watching the sun setting-bliss!!!!

Going.......

The fruit cake is proving to  be very popular.

A swarm of butterflies.

Had a lovely afternoon/evening with Karen sorting out Wedding decorations.  First thing though, was off to  Barleylands for ribbons and papers, then to a loacl nursery where I had seen some butterflies.
A cup of tea and a slice of cake before we started on decorating the candles.

Rather than have ribbons with butterflies hanging down from the ceiling, it was decided to make mobiles just to hang over the buffet table.  I wouldn't mind making some for myself at a later date, they brightened up my eating area.

Then the last job of the evening was to make some food picks to brighten the buffet table.

Another 'making day' to look forward to at the end of the month.  We will start to make the yards and yards of bunting to decorate the venue.

Decorations.

Just a small sample to show my friend who has asked for help with decorating her Wedding venue.(sorry not a good pic)  She wanted ribbons hanging down from the ceiling with butterflies on, but after playing around, it is not feasible.  I hope she likes the idea of the bunting, if not it will be back to the drawing board. 

If it tastes........

As good as it smelt, whilst cooking last night, my Hubby will be making short work of this cake. I got the recipe from here.  We have got friends coming round for the day, and we shall be having a slice of cake with our afternoon cup of tea.

Something to show.

My hand stitching at work has been little birdhouses, similar to the ones  the Young Embroiderers' made the other weekend.  I asked Libby for a copy of the pattern so I could make two for my Grandsons for Easter.  It has been a challenge not to make them too girly,  but I just had to embroider some flowers on the sides.

I mounted the birdhouse on foam core board covered in crumpled brown paper, (it was balanced on the flower pot just while I took the photo's)  For the roof I used Grungepaper, which I cut on my Big Shot, painted and then rubbed over with metallic wax.  I made a different shape bird too, just to make it different, covered in a page from an old song book that dates back to 1927 ( I bought it from a charity shop, and it was falling to pieces, that is the only reason that I can use it in my work).
I now need to get the second one finished, then buy some Easter Eggs to put inside.

How can you blog wihout photo's?

I can post pictures again! I paid for some extra space( it took quite some time, but I think it might have been my fault), and it wasn't a lot.

 

These are the photo's I wanted to post Tuesday.  As is was raining, we had our wild animal picnic on the lounge floor.

It was then time for cake making.

While the cakes were cooking, Zach made an Easter card for Mummy, Daddy and Josh.

Then it was time to ice the cakes, but such a hard decision, choosing which sprinkles to put on the cakes.  I had a lovely time, all the more special because I don't get the chance to do this very often because of working.

Wednesday already.

I would post pictures of the fun I had yesterday while looking after my Grandson, but I cant.  I have used  up my allowance and I now have to buy extra space for any photo's I want to post. 
As the sun has been shining today, I have been busy tidying up the greenhouse and garden, there is a lot to do.  Diane popped round with my Inktense Blocks that she ordered for me, and we had a leisurely lunch in the garden.:0) 
This evening I have been playing with my soldering iron and sheers, as a friend is getting married in October and wants some ideas of how she can decorate the venue.

Today-some great news.

In Stitch magazine at the end of last year, they published details of a competition in conjunction with Madeira threads 'Glimpses of Childhood'.  As I was working at the time on my piece for Art Van Go, I wasn't sure if I would have time to make something to enter.  Anyway, to cut a long story short, I managed to get my piece made and sent off in time. 
My memory of my childhood, is long hot sunny summer days, sitting in my wigwam making daisy chains.

I was so surprised when I got this letter in the post this morning saying I had won a prize.  My daisy chain wont be coming home until next March.
Tomorrow, I am looking after my youngest Grandson. I am picking him up from Playgroup, weather permitting a picnic in the graden and then we shall make some cakes.

Yesterday

   

I am intending to get some more stitching done on Che now that I am on school holiday.  So had a quick dash to Barleylands yesterday to get some more of these threads.  I do find it hard to work in reds, as it not one of my favourite colours.  I was spoilt by my children, who all bought me flowers for Mothers Day. 

Rhodri also managed to get me some watch bits to deconstruct so that I can have a go at Steampunk.