What a day!

Sorry no pictures today. This morning we spent in the garden clearing branches up and mulching them. We have an acre of garden and it has been left to grow weeds since the last people left in September. Apparently the lady who lived here before us, grew lots of things, asparagus, fennel, elderberries, blackberries, to name just a few, there are 4 apple trees, 2 pear trees, a pond we didn't know we had, paths that are all over grown. It's a real mess. I have a lovely lady who comes to help, she's a proper gardener who knows what the plants actually are... which is more than I do!

Anyway this morning we were being busy and my arteries started playing up, not as bad as before, but enough to want to go to the hospital. It took ages in the emergency room, how come they are so busy on a monday.. do all these people wait so they can have a day off work? Anyway they did an ECG on me which was fine. And then I had to wait to see the Dr. 2 and half hours later... I saw a fab guy, stick a baseball on his head and he could have been the latest rap singer! He answered all my questions, in a language that I could understand - no Dr speak here - told me things that I didn't know, that I should have been told last time this happened, and really set my mind at rest. The best thing was the fact that he had sat in the same chair I was in, he too had a heart condition and knew all the stupid things that we think and let our mind prey on. It's so nice to know I am not going doo lally and that I am not alone in this! Apparently 4 in 100,000 get this so its not that common and if you are going to have a heart condition this is the best one to have as it's reversible and there is no problem with my heart its just the silly arteries.

So thats my day...hope yours was better.

Interesting wedding...

As it is the wedding season, I thought this would be a nice card to show you. These are Bodylicious cards, which come with a template of the bust part of the card, so you can turn them into dresses, bikini's, basques, or whatever you like.

Yesterday turned into a nothing day, we were supposed to do the jungle -garden - but in the end we had lunch at the post office, where talk turned to weddings as well. Across the road from the post office is a small chapel, and I believe a wedding was about to happen there. But wandering around smelling the Evening Primrose plants in the post office garden was a rather impressively dressed priest, who wore a long black robe with a scarlet skull cap and an orange scarf. And then into the shop came another churchman, dressed in long black suit with a huge orange flower in his lapel spiky hair and wearing huge rockstar sunglasses. He bought a pack of cigars.... Interesting.. we don't often get such 'colourful' figures in the village.

After we left the PO, we wandered to Hitchin, a small market town to do the weekend shopping and then to Milton Keynes to Borders for a cup of coffee and to look at the American magazines

After dinner of blackened salmon with refried beans and rice, I spent the evening trying to get my computer to play my EFT dvd's. Seems like Simon of Haynes - the computer guy - had lost my dvd player, when he was sorting it all out. So in the end we had to buy a download so that I could play them. Spent ages doing that and by the time I had got my dvd in the player, it was getting to 11pm, an hour watching, and then falling into bed.

Suncatcher

Gosh, two posts in one day, this is a suncatcher I made from flowers that were not being used for anything else, and were just in my flower box. Looks a bit odd there, but looks fab when hanging in the window. The crystals on the bottom are Swarovski.

Victorian Pin Pricking

I love pin pricking, it's somehow very satisfying to create a lovely pattern so easily. This is the second one I have to show you - the first is two posts away. I tried to replicate the pricking pattern with the quilling, didn't quite work out, but it looks pretty good anyway. Stay tuned for more of these.

Wonderful news today, my son Nicholas has got the results for his Masters degree in Law, and basically he got a distinction. So I'm doing the happy feet dance and thinking thank goodness one of them is sorted! I have 4 sons, all very different, but only one of them is the kind of person who knows where he is going and what he is doing. Nick has always been like that, where as the others are a bit dithery 'shall we have this or shall we have that'. Doesn't matter I love them all anyway. Nick will be a good lawyer and although I am biased I know that he will do his very best for people.

Been to Craft Central today in Royston Garden Center, I needed something to cut ovals with. My large oval punch is fine, but a bit too small for the card I am making at the moment. So I bought an X-cut Shape Cutter System, I already have their circle cutter which is great, it allows you to cut six sizes of circle with a special little blade.

Was very sad to see Card Inspirations of Tewin, is closing down. A fine craft store with lots of ideas. I have bought things from there for years even before it was Card Inspirations when it was Designs on Paper. They always had loads of LCC quilling paper there.
I think the fact that there are now so many craft magazines and the dreaded craft tv programmes which have been so detremental to proper craft shops. These days people think that if you have stuck a ready made topper on to a blank card you are a "CARD MAKER" Sorry, all you have done is stuck something that someone else has designed on to a piece of paper. Where is the artistry in using sticky tape?

Ohhh I could vent for hours on this topic, let me know how you feel about it..

80th birthday card

This is a card I made for the baker and his wife to give to a friend who is 80. I printed the Happy Birthday message in black, and was so lucky that because of the card I used, it turned the printing to silver. This made it very easy to put silver border lines along the edge of the lace vellum paper which really seemed to have finished it off nicely.

I took it to the post office so David the baker can pick it up in the morning when he delivers the bread. While I was there Becky the dog whisperer was there and she ordered another 80th birthday card for her mum to be made for September.

John and I spent about 3 hours in the post office, having lunch in the tea room, chatting to Lizzi and Paul and drinking coffee. Its a nice life... just wish it were warmer and not quite as wet.

Long time no see!

Well hello there!

Lots of things have happened to me in since the last time I wrote. A week after I did the farmers market last November, John had a mad midlife crisis, and ran away for couple of weeks, leaving me in a state of complete shock. However, we got over that, then I had a strange type of heart attack in which my artery spasmed, which put me in hospital for a week. Then we moved house!

I'm a strong woman, I'm still here!

Quilling took a rather large back seat while this was going on, the last thing I quilled was the Snowman card. To be honest I really didn't want to quill at all, just thinking about it put me straight back to the night John left. It was all a bit traumatic to say the least.

Now though, we have moved to a lovely village and are renting a 200 year old farmhouse, and I feel like quilling again. So things have definitly moved on for me.

The village we live in is called Broom, two pubs and a few houses, but just up the road is another village called Southill, and there is a fabulous post office and tea room run by some lovely people called Paul and Liz. They come from near where I live up in Sheffield, so its nice to hear a familiar accent. They have a tea room there and Liz makes the most fabulous sandwiches and John and I can very often be found here having lunch.

I have joined a network group which meets at the post office once a month and a fair was planned earlier on in the year which we did last Saturday. It was a roaring success for all concerned and I took all the stuff left over from the farmers market and sold about £50/$100 worth. I was very pleased considerng that I hadn't made anything new for it.

So now my enthusiasm has been fired up and I am now planning things to make for the next one which will be late October/ early November.

Also I have joined the Scissor club, a group of ladies meet once a fortnight in the village hall, we have various speakers, usually to do with crafts. Last time it was sugar roses, very interesting and beautifully made.

This is a card I made this week, I fancied doing a bit of pin pricking, and faffed about with a basket of strawberries to fill the space up.

It's nice to be back, and I hope to have lots to tell you from now on.