Changes....

Hi, I have been thinking about making some changes to this blog.

Paper is no longer the most important artistic medium in my life - though I do love it dearly. So Paper Treasures is not really the best title for my blog.

I will keep this blog up for a short while, but eventually it will be deleted. My new blog is here http:/www.underthehedgerow.blogspot.com

So hopefully I will see you there...

Rosie x

Presents from afar...

Greetings Bloggers, I have been the worst blogger in the world just lately and was feeling dreadfully guilty that I had not written anything since Easter. That really is shameful!

Anyway, it was my birthday on Saturday and I received two parcels that were a complete surprise to me. The first one was from my very good friend Kathy, she lives in Canada in Manitoba. Kath is very crafty in the nicest sense of the word, she paints some lovely things and you can see her work at http://www.katiescowsandudderthings.com/

What she sent me, was a vanilla scented magnetic bookmark and a fab little badge, which I have worn every day since it arrived. Both are made out of bottle tops!

The other parcel I got was from another friend Shabala, who lives in Dubai. Sorry the photo is bad, but she sent me a pashmina, a gorgeous address book, some 3d crafty bits, and a box of stuffed dates. You can see by the pic that the dates didn't last very long as the box is empty. I LOVE stuffed dates! So thank you very much Shabala and Kathy.

Well since I have been out of action in the blogging world, I have not been sitting here doing nothing. I have been designing a crocheted rabbit. This is all part of my rebirth and renaissance.

I have always loved paper, messing about with it, the smell of it, the feel of it and the million of things you can do with it. However, wool, and thread also have a huge hold on me. My mum taught me to knit when I was about 6, and my nan taught me to crochet at about the same time. There is just something magical about waving a crochet hook about and almost making lace in the air.

My nan also had one of those wicked looking Singer sewing machines the black one with tons of gold flowers and patterns on it, a proper treadle machine. I remember the very satisfying noise it used to make as she made clothes on it for my Tressy doll - her hair grows!

The sewing machine was in a little sewing room upstairs at the front of the house, it was so quiet and peaceful in there, and I think that is what I love, that incredible feeling of peace and using your own talents to create something useful and beautiful.

Before I got really involved with paper I used to make mohair teddys and dolls houses, then things changed and I remarried and stopped doing them. I also did my C&G Embroidery course and have hardly picked a needle up since! But it occured to me that I have everything I need to start a new artistic venture without using paper. So look out for the Garden Party Bunnies coming soon.

Rabbits and stuff

I really enjoyed making my Easter table. The actual table is an Art Deco glass trolley bought by my grandmother, we have two of them a circular one and the rectangle one in the picture. They have both been in this house since they were originally bought.

My mum was telling me about the two Sylvac rabbits on the tray, she remembered going to buy them in 1936 from Cole Brothers - which is now John Lewis, but will always be called Cole Brothers by most Sheffield people. She bought three rabbits, one of which broke a long time ago. Though when I was a little girl, I do remember there being 3 of them, sitting on the shelf above the stairs.

We had a lovely Easter, just the three of us - mum, my hubby John and myself - lots of nice food, saturday night dinner with friends, and guess what... NO CHOCOLATE! I actually didn't really miss it, since being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes I have weaned myself off the stuff, though now and again I do treat myself with a couple of chocolate digestives.

Over the weekend I have been crocheting, trying to work out some patterns of my own, not actually done any of my own before, and have found it quite satisfying. Anyway I seem to have come up with a rabbit, well more or less, just faffing about with his body and will let you see him/her as soon as its finished.

Hopefully if the weather is nice next weekend, we will go adventuring into Derbyshire to take some pics. I really need to get to grips with my Nikon D40.

Sorry no photos today, but who knows, maybe later...

Happy Easter!

Wishing you a very happy and

glorious Easter.

When I'm feeling blue...

I take a look at these photographs. This is Kuramathi Island in the Maldives, and hubster and I spent a wonderful week there a few years ago.

It was my very first beach holiday and we took a ton of books with us. It was so relaxing, we would get up, have a lovely breakfast, and then go and sit on our little bit of beach and read.


We found this little fellow, just minding his own business, he showed such wonderful colours.

The Indian ocean was incredible, warm, and full of life. This heron stayed with us all morning, wandering up and down the beach, we got very close to him and he really didn't care. For some reason he seemed much friendlier than the herons we got in our garden.
You can ignore the generously proprtioned woman in the photo, she's alot smaller these days. Yes thats me standing outside the wonderful chalet that we occupied on the island. so when I am blue, I think of all the wonderful flowers, the sunshine, the cooling drinks the cute barman made for us. The fabulous ocean, and the tippy toe crabs on the beach. One day I would love to go again, but right now its my dream place.
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I have been crocheting again, making embellishments for pillowcases and towels and if i don't get too bored, bed sheets. Will show pics when finished. Here are a couple of bags and other bits I made recently.

These are the inside of the bags, lined with pretty lavender and pansy material.



Thanks for looking, see you all soon.

I have been tagged!

Toni from http://3amdesigns.blogspot.com has tagged me. Thank you Toni, this means that at least one person knows about my blog, so thats a relief.

Well 7 weird and wonderful things about me... hmmm, that might be difficult and requires some thought.

1, I read Tarot cards. Nothing sinister about them, even the death card - just means a change in your life. They are a good psychological tool, most people have the answers to their problems, but sometimes you just need a nudge to find the answer, and the Tarot cards are very good at doing this.

2, I lived in Germany and Hong Kong when my ex husband was in the army. I love Germany and was there for almost 10 years. Hong Kong was and probably still is an amazing place. We lived just outside a tiny village where the only water came from a standpipe in the road. The village woman used to do their famly washing there, stamping it across the stones. Goodness knows how, but the school children's white uniforms came out pristine. I still can't get my washing as white as that with a washing machine and superdooper soap powder!

3. Oh no am I only on number 3! I have been run over and knocked down by a car. Once run over when I was 4 years old and once knocked down by a car when I was 10. Both by women drivers, the first one didn't stop... poor woman must have been terrified. The second one took me home, she admitted it was her fault as I was on a pedestrian crossing at the time and all the other cars had stopped. I broke my leg, my collar bone and cracked my pelvis in the first accident and just banged my head on a phone box in the second.

4. I love doing patchwork, the old kind with a paper backing. this one i have been doing for about 10 years, for some reason I only do it in the summer. I find it very relaxing, gets me into an almost trance state, something very soporific about hand sewing. I didn't have a clue what I was doing when I first started this one, you can tell where I started, look at all the pink and blue bits in the middle, then I just went mad and put anything on it.

The quilt below is one I started a couple of years ago, and this time I sort of had an idea of what I wanted to do, blue and yellow stars with a neutral background. Not done too much too it, but its getting there.

5. I don't drive, can anyone guess a reason why?

6. I love medieval/historical novels, Elizabeth Chadwick is one of my favourites, D J Sansome is another, Suzanna Gregory, and Ellis Peters Cadfael novels are wonderful.

However my very favourite book is The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye. A wonderful epic of India.

7. We have just moved up country from Bedfordshire/ Cambridge borders to Sheffield, and one place I miss more than anything is Cambridge. I just want to cry when I realise that it won't be my local town anymore. All those wonderful medieval buildings, the students, the great shops and the atmosphere of laid back culture. The knowledge that the student you are sitting next to in Starbucks, might be a future Prime Minister, or Nobel prize winner. It's just a fabulous place.

Ok there you go folks, not very weird and wonderful I'm afraid but thats me...

Thank you again Toni for tagging me, and thank you to all who visit this blog. Now that we have finally finished moving I hope I will be able to post more frequently and soon I hope to open an Etsy shop or sell things on my blog.

Now I have to tag some more people, however, most of the blogs I read have been tagged several times already, so please if you read my blog, and you haven't been tagged then please consider yourself Tagged with a capital T.

It might be Spring...

Today was a lovely sunny day, a bit blustery, but I love that. Clouds were racing across the sky like fluffy bundles of sheep racing down a hill.

I took loads of photos however, I am not too familiar with my camera at the moment, its a Nikon D40 and all the pics I took of my patchwork hanging on the washing line were all blurred. Hubster informed me that it was on manual instead of P for program. So tomorrow, I do hope that it is another fine and sunny day so I can take the pictures that I took today on the right program.

As some of you may know, here in the UK last night we had an earthquake, it measured 5.2 on the Richter scale. It happened at about 1 am this morning. I had just drifted off to sleep and the whole house began shaking and the ring handles on a chest in the bedroom began chinking. It didn't last long, but it was quite noisy, like a truck heading for the bedroom window!

My mom, was awake immediately being 89 she sleeps lightly, her first thought was that one of the cats had crept in to the bedroom and hidden in the underbed drawers and was fighting to get out... then she remembered that she had a new bed without underbed drawers. Fortunately my mum is not the wimpy type, she realised what it was and went back to sleep.

This is not the first time we have experienced an earthquake, the last was in 1984, and fortunately both that time and last night only one person was injured, oh, and a parrot fell off his perch!

My little stone face (above) was a gift from my mum many years ago. It was bought in Bakewell market in Derbyshire. I would love to take you all to Derbyshire and hopefully I will with photographs and descriptions, its a marvellous and wild place.

Exploding Boxes

Hello again, sorry it has been so long, but at last I have finally taken a picture of my exploding box. At the moment there is nothing inside, I am still thinking and wondering what to put in there. So this is it open, it has 8 pages in side, but will probably only use the inside four where I have put the peel offs.
Here is the top, I quilled folded roses in pale pink and ivory. The lattice work on the top has tiny pearls at each join. The ribbon is paper too, made of the same colours as the roses with a gold peel off border all the way around the lid.

The crocheted doily that my box sits on, was made by my grandmother, who if she was still with us would be 117 years old. My mum reckons that the doily is about 80 years old, and it has sat on this sweet little cupboard for a very long time.

Sorry

That it's been a few days without a post on here. We have been busy arranging some of our furniture that John brought back from Broom on Tuesday. These were mainly book cases and a million books. How come that all these books fitted on these shelves in the Broom house, and now they don't seem to fit at all...? I still have boxes of books and can't seem to find a place to put them.

The other thing that has kept me away is that my mum is not feeling very well. For an 89 yr old she is pretty fit, she works on the theory that she is too busy to be ill. She walks everywhere. Fortunately the nearest shops are just about 200 yds away and the supermarket is about 1/2 a mile, its up a steep hill and now that we are here, we take her in the car, but normally she walks, pulling her shopping trolley behind her.
This week however she has been suffering with varicose exema, heat makes her legs itch and she has problems sleeping when this happens as she can't stand the bedclothes on her legs. However, today she had a real nasty backache and went to bed at 8pm she thinks it is her kidneys, and if she still has it tomorrow, then I will call the Dr and ask her to come and see her.

Craft wise I have been, wandering through my yarn stash, I want to crochet but can't find anything that takes my fancy in the stash and I can't afford to go and buy some more. I also started a quilled figure, or at least I started the box it will stand on.

Good news! I have at last found the cable for my camera, so now I can at least download pictures. Will do that tomorrow - promise!

Hugs Rosie

Word of the Year

I love this colour combination, I have loved it for years, and now during the past couple of years it has become very popular.
Not much to tell you today, hubster's hand is still bandaged, it's still raining and will most likely be raining again tomorrow and for the rest of the week... Oh joy.

This week has been a complete washout in more ways than one, I feel like we are just wasting time and we have to be out of the house at the end of January.

Have you heard or read about Word of the year, a word that you chose, that means something for you, something like Triumph - meaning that you can triumph over certain things during the year, or Create - an excellent word for all us artistic types.
I think my word is going to be Renaissance - meaning rebirth. So many things have happened to me over the past year, horrible things, some of them brought about by my own ingratitiude and taking things and people for granted.

So I am re-birthing myself having my own renaissance. I will put positive words and ideas on my board like; Gratitude, Joy, Creative and Abundance. For the moment I will just write these words in my diary, and then when I get all my stuff here I will make a very nice board with them all on.

Hugs Rosie

Take a look please

I have put a new blog on the blogroll, Confessions Of A CF Husband, please take a look and give a thought and a prayer to Nate, Tricia and Gwyneth Rose. Once I started following this blog I was there several times a day wanting to know more and praying and hoping that things are getting better. For some reason, the link to this blog stopped working. It is however working now. Please take a look and pray for this family.

Puppies

What a pair! For those new friends just arrived on my blog, these two are Rufus and Millie. They are Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Rufus is nearly 4 and Millie is almost two. They are best friends, and they are uncle and niece. This picture was taken when Millie was only a few weeks old, and they still snuggle up together to sleep like this. Cute huh?

OUCH!

Today was going to be a busy day, well thats how we planned it at the start. We were going to finish unpacking the car of bookshelves and books and various other things. I never realised just how many books we have, maybe I should start a library.
Anyway the hubster was in and out of the front door unloading things when he slipped on the three stone steps outside the front door. He banged his hip quite badly and to save himself he flung his arm out only to impale his hand on the railings at the side of the house.
Fortunately it didn't go all the way through, but caused enough damge to be spouting blood. He never even realised that he had done it, he was too busy cursing and rubbing his hip, it was only when I told him he was bleeding all over the stair carpet that he noticed it.

So we ran onto the Dr's surgery at the end of the road and the nurse sorted it out for him, he is sporting a very impressive bandage! Then to add insult to injury he realised that he was not up to date with his tetanus jabs so he got a shot of that too. He is going to be very sore in the morning.

So thats our day so far. Still no ceiling taken down, not much done at all today. But we are thankful that he didn't break anything, and he is being a very brave little soldier...

The pic today is another heart! I do love making these things, I had this one framed and I know you can't really see it, but the word Love is done in winter white with a gold edge. It does look pretty good.

Hoping for a less eventful day tomorrow.

Hugs Rosie

Not a heart!

Think this one was a swap for a secret santa. I think I will make another one of these but next time I will add a greeting, make the lace edged panels narrower so that I will have room for it.
Been back to Broom this weekend, my goodness that house get so cold, we put the heating on immediately, but it still hadn't warmed up properly even by the time we left this lunchtime.

Does anyone know how to dry gourds? I was given some a few weeks ago and two of them have gone mouldy. I would really like to keep the rest but I assume they have to be dried, so if anyone knows the best way, please leave me a comment or two. Thanks folks..

Link List

Hi Folks, I have updated my link list and there are some amazing blogs on there. Not all of them are quilling blogs, most are stamping and card making. However, as a quiller, I find these blogs very inspiring. I love looking at the colours and the designs and the sketches which I can case for my quilled work. Take a look I am sure you will be blown over by the work of these ladies.
Oh one other thing, the blog 'Because I said So', is one that you have to read, it is hysterically funny, especially Dawn's favourite posts which are on the side bar.

Have fun...

Yes its actually another one!

Blue this time, pretty huh? All Done in Bazzill Basics and the crackled paper. Can't see the folded roses on this one very well, but they were done in the Lake City Crafts Jewel tones paper in Sapphire.

Who is tuning in from Biggleswade? Jackie is that you? Who ever it is leave me a comment.

Not much has happened today we took a load of old flooring to the recycling tip. Oh and hubster found a drying cabinet in the cellar, well thats what my mum said it was, must be donkey's years old, the forerunner of a tumble dryer. Looked like an instrument of torture!

Going back to Broom on Saturday to fetch some more stuff, will definitly try to bring more craft stuff, though goodness knows where I am going to put it.

Catch you later....

Yep it's another heart....

This one was done for a swap and for my friend Doreen who lives in Calgary, she is an amazing quiller! I am going to help her make her own blog and then you can see for yourselves. I'll let you know when it is all done.

Dan seemed to enjoy himself at Meadowhead School yesterday, he met up with some old friends that he used to know in primary school before we moved away to Bedfordshire.

I had to go up to the school yesterday and when I saw if in the atrium he was surrounded by young ladies. He told me afterwards that it is his hair that attracts them! Daniel has quite long curly hair and his elder brother told him that he would be a 'Babe Magnet' Thankfully they seem to be an annoyance to him at the moment, which at 13 is just how I want it to be.

Finally I have some sort of desk to work on, and have been arranging things all morning, evntually I might even have a space to actually make something.

Hugs Rosie

Happy New Year

Bit late to wish all of you Happy New Year, but I wish it anyway.

We are still in the wierd situation of being here in Sheffield and being there in Broom, back and forth like a dog at a fair!

Today though, Dan started school. It's a bit different here, and he has to get up much earlier than he did before, especially as school starts the day at 8.30 and they finish at 2.50. They only get 30 mins for lunch instead of the relaxed hour he had at Stratton, in fact, this job is more like work than faffing about at school.

Everything is pretty quick lessons are 40 minutes in length and they have 5 mins to get from one classroom to another.

Dan was meeting one of his old friends at the bus stop this morning and being a mom I walked down with him, and took the dogs. I told him I had to take the dogs for a walk anyway and that he could walk in front of me if he wanted. LOL Didn't want his mates to see him walking with his mom now did he?

The picture today, is another old one, I have not got all my stuff here at the moment and not much room to make things until John brings my desk today. Then of course I have to find somewhere to put it all. I do have a craft room sorted out, once we have finished up in the attic, then Dan can move into the bedroom we are using at the moment and I can use his room as a craft room. It's nice and light in there and warm, so I won't be freezing like I am in Broom.

Sorry the pic is a bit on the light side, it is all layered paper, mainly using Bazzil Basics and there is a gorgeous crackled scrapbook paper in there, but I have no idea who's it is. The heart on the front has spirelli on the front which you can barely see and then quilled leaves and folded roses on the top of it. It also has Swarovski crystals on it somewhere as well.

Well I can hear my mum tottering about upstairs, so will go and start her breakfast. Catch you later...

Hugs, Rosie