the paper treasure company

Changes....

2008-04-25T17:00:00.005+01:00

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...

2008-04-21T17:27:00.003+01:00

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

2008-03-25T17:11:00.004Z

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!

2008-03-23T18:36:00.003Z

Wishing you a very happy and

glorious Easter.

When I'm feeling blue...

2008-03-14T19:27:00.013Z

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.
********************************
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!

2008-03-13T19:49:00.008Z

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...

2008-02-27T19:48:00.002Z

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

2008-02-12T19:10:00.000Z

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

2008-01-24T22:42:00.000Z

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

2008-01-17T20:17:00.000Z

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

2008-01-15T19:19:00.000Z

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

2008-01-15T18:53:00.000Z

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!

2008-01-14T22:10:00.000Z

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!

2008-01-13T20:18:00.000Z

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

2008-01-11T21:10:00.000Z

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!

2008-01-10T19:24:00.000Z

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....

2008-01-09T13:15:00.000Z

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

2008-01-08T08:40:00.000Z

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

So frustrating...

2007-12-31T10:39:00.000Z

We are back home now in Broom, gotta tidy and clean and make everything look fantastic.. we have a guy coming round on Wednesday to see the property, and we are hoping he will take our tenancy over. It's also freezing in here STILL, the engineer can't come until Wednesday either.

What I really really want to do is go to my craft room and play. I have been looking at loads of blogs and got some fabulous ideas that I can use with quilling and stuff. But at the moment I am trying very hard to keep away from the craft room, otherwise I will just end up in there freezing to death, making myself miserable wanting to do things and knowing that time is running out and I should be wielding the vacuum cleaner and dusting.

So once the coffee has been drunk I will brave the icyness of the bathroom to shower - at least that will be warm - and then the vacuum will become my new best friend. Hopefully working in the house will make me warm, we are about to enter a bitterly cold patch according to the weather forecasters snow and allsorts!

Will post some more later, with blog addresses and other stuff.

Out To Dinner

2007-12-30T00:25:00.000Z

Hi Folks, John and I have just been out to dinner at a friends house. My best freind Lizzi is a fabulous cook. she made roast beef, yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes done in goose fat - completely bad I know, but so delicious! Red cabbage, parsnips, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, and sprouts. It was wonderful! Then we had Christmas pudding and rum sauce. I feel totally pogged! The conversation was good, Lee's dad was there, he is 90 and a great source of amusement, always got something interesting to tell you. Andy who is a musician come anything else he thinks he might want to be, including an electrician at the moment, who is rewiring my mum's house. Samantha who is fortunately getting over the upset of her fiance leaving her, and James, her 13 year old brother. We had a great time.

On Monday we are going back home to Broom, not looking forward to that, as we still have no heating, though the engineer is coming on Wednesday. It's a case of going home to tidy and clean as a prospective tenant is coming to look around the house on Wednesday also, plus the fact that Daniel is coming home too. In some ways I can't wait to get there so that once I have cleaned the place I can do a few cards to show you. I have been looking at some great blogs and I really can't wait to give some of the cards a go. Might have something to show you all then.

As for me, its nearly 1am and its time for bed. Toodleooo peeps.

Just a little something...

2007-12-27T14:25:00.000Z

Hi fellow quillers and crafters, I hope you all had a very merry and happy Christmas. We spent the holiday at my mum's house in Sheffield. My 3 older sons all appeared Edward came on Christmas morning and stayed for a couple of hours before he went to his friends house where he was helping to cook dinner for bunch of em. Nick was here anyway as this is where he lives and Alex arrived mid morning.

It was wonderful to see them all. I do hope that when we move in here properly that we will see more of them. I do miss them.

Daniel is spending this holiday with his dad and step mum. Last night we got a text message complaining that he had been sent to bed at some ridiculous - his word - time. Poor lad, he has been having a hard time of it when he has been to see his dad. Helen has very different ideas from the rest of us and Daniel suffers because of that.

The picture today is a heart I made a couple of years ago, I did go through a time when I made lots of hearts, but this one is my favourite.

I did bring all my quilling papers to my mum's, but now that I have been on various blogs, I keep thinking that I wish I had brought that paper and why didn't I bring that tool, and oh I do wish I had brought my cuttlebug.

Well never mind, maybe just having my quilling papers to work with will make me do things I might not have done normally.

Ok, coffee has gone, time to work....

Brrrrrrrrrrrr

2007-12-23T08:16:00.000Z

Oh my goodness, it's freezing!!! We arrived home last night from Sheffield thinking that we would come home to a nice warm house, only to find that the flippin' stupid boiler had not fired up. Aggghhhhhhh! John spent ages trying to get it to work, he just got extremely cross in the end. So I put wheat bags in the microwave and we all went to bed to keep warm. This morning the boiler still would not fire up, we checked the oil and that was fine as we only had it filled last week.
To be honest I am pretty pissed off with the Southill estate who own our house, they put a Rayburn in the kitchen but instead of it being an alternative kind of fuel, like solid fuel where we could put logs in, they just made it oil fired like the rest of the heating. So we aren't even sure that will work either.
Oil has gone up tremendously just lately. In April, we bought 1000 litres, at £350, 8 months later in December just 500 litres is now £275! Thank God we are leaving this place and heading home to Sheffield where we have gas plumbed in.
In some ways I will be sorry to leave this place, its very pretty, and is owned by the Whitbread family who have a chain of national pubs in this country, they also own Costa's coffee shops here and I dare say various other chains as well. They live in the big house at Southill Park just up the road from here.
However within the two villages Broom and Southill there are huge village politics and from what I have heard in the past 8 months some pretty nasty things have been said about various people. I don't need to be part of that, and just want the annonimity of my own large city and just my friends and my family.
Sheffield is a great place and I am looking forward to going back. Sorry there are no pictures today I do have things to show you all but may be it will be after the holiday now when I can at least get out of bed without wearing half my wardrobe to keep warm. Merry Christmas everybody!

Figgy Pudding Christmas Card

2007-12-20T23:43:00.000Z

I just love this Basic Grey Figgy Pudding paper, it reminds me of when I was a child and Christmas was a magical time. Not that it isn't these days, but as you get older some of the glitz seems to fall off.

This card is for my brother and his wife, it will be the first time that they have seen a card I have made myself. So am feeling a bit nervous about giving it to them. Sue buys lovely cards, very elaborate and seems to spend a fortune on them. So I hope she likes this one.

I hope you are all finished buying presents and that you have them all wrapped up and you are ready to go...

Black and White Christmas card

2007-12-19T21:30:00.000Z

Just put this together for my friend, this year all her decs are black and white, she has used lots of feathers and silvery bits, and as she likes everything coordinating, I thought I would make her a black and white card. Will let you know what she thinks of it.

Around the world at Christmas...

2007-12-19T13:59:00.000Z

Hello Everyone, You may have noticed the counter on my blog which tells me the cities that people come from who look at my blog. This has only been up for a few days, but already there have been visitors from Vladivostok, Tehran, Bogor, Fort Wayne, Indianna, and loads of other places. Please leave a comment and say hello, I'd love to meet you in blogworld and make new friends with you all.

Re-done the Snowflake card

2007-12-16T11:45:00.000Z

There that looks better doesn't it? Well I think so, please let me know what you think.
Yesterday we travelled up to Sheffield to see my mum and to take some more of our furniture up there for when we move in. Not been there too long when my friend Lizzi's daughter called me - she lives across the road from my mum - to ask if I would go and sit with her for a while. Poor Samantha had received some awful news that morning, her fiance had been to see her and told her that it was over between them. The poor girl was distraught and needed someone to give her a hug and listen to her cries of anguish.
I personally could kill the nasty piece of work, he chose the day very well, knowing that her mum and dad would not be there as they were taking grandpa to see the Tutankamun exhibition in London, so he wouldn't have to face their wrath.
So Sam and I sat and watched the X Factor and laughed at some of the complete numptys who think they really can sing we coped when the tears began to fall again when she saw an ad on the tv that reminded her of Rob. It was just a very traumatic afternoon.

Snowflake card

2007-12-14T14:07:00.000Z

Good afternoon peeps, its Friday and it's pretty cold and dull here today. However, I am warm and cozy with my feet on the radiator listening to Steve Wright on radio 2 listening to nice music and making cards. Feel sorry for my poor dh who is busy doing a plastering course out in the cold.
Not happy with the card above, didn't realise that its lopsided! Otherwise it's ok. Better give this to someone who's eyesight is not brill then they won't notice. LOL

Ok folks, gotta take the hounds for a wander round the village then its back home for coffee and a bit of creative craft watching on tv.

Poinsettia Chirstmas card

2007-12-10T13:33:00.000Z

I have been looking at loads of blogs lately, so that I can update my card making skills. My quilling, up to now, has been good but pretty old fashioned. I have been looking at sketches of cards which show you how to use different papers, where to put the sentiment, where to put the embellishment etc. These have been very helpful, and I am sure that it will help me with my quilling. Lots of people use these sketches with scrapbooking, but have found a blog called

http://pagemaps.com/index.htm which has loads of card sketches on too. So after reading this blog I had a go at my own sketches, which I will be putting up here soon.

Hope you like the card above, a very easy Poinsettia card which is just what you need for the Holiday season when time is at a premium.

Snowman

2007-11-20T10:31:00.000Z

Here is my Diane Crane style snowman, I'm sure Diane would have made this neater and smaller. However it looks quite cute in real life. Though the greeting doesn't look straight, it is, it just looks this way as I had to straighten the card on the computer so it looks a bit lopsided. Hard to keep it straight on the scanner as his tummy tends to swing it left or right.

The surrounding paper is Basic Grey Figgy Pudding.. Oh what fabulous papers these are, they are just so retro, they just remind me of Christmas paper from when I was a child.

Tonight I have a class at Garden City Crafts in Letchworth, this is a great craft store and very friendly. Tonight we will be doing a gift tag, just a simple poinsettia as these ladies are beginners. Now its time for me to start cutting paper for it all, this is the bit I hate!

2007-11-08T22:08:00.000Z

Fantastic day today with Diane Crane, she is an amazing quiller, so neat and everything she does so small. This is the pattern I did today called Kissing Sheep, mine looks ok, but Diane's was fabulous.

Silver bauble

2007-11-07T17:02:00.000Z

Greetings Earthlings, been a busy afternoon today, found these cards buried in my card drawer

and faffed about with them until I came up with this. It looks really dark on the scan, but it is a very glimmery black pearl and mirror silver. In real life it looks very good, even though I say so myself.

turquoise and gold

2007-11-07T14:28:00.000Z

Turquoise and Gold Christmas Card

Red and White Christmas card

2007-10-30T14:38:00.000Z

Not sure I like this one. I was trying to make it similar to the ice blue one I made last year, but this one doesn't seem to be as good. it doesn't seem to sparkle like the other one, it seems dull. Has anyone got any ideas please?

Modern flowers

2007-10-22T17:34:00.000+01:00

These are flowers out of Claire's book, it looks like the paper under the flowers is rumpled from the glue, but in fact it isn't, and it looks all nice and smooth in real life. The frame came from Paperchase and it is a shadowbox frame and looks very modern. I do wish that I had wiped the frame before I scanned it... lol, never mind. Quite like it myself, what do you think?

Christmas stuff

2007-10-09T11:00:00.000+01:00

Working on lots of Christmas stuff. These are small 3" gift bags made of very thick mulberry paper. I am afraid the scan didn't do a great deal of justice to these little bags, they look much better in real life.

2007-10-08T19:45:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks, I seemed to have missed September out completely.. Oh well nothing much happened so you haven't missed a great deal.

This is a frame inspired by Claire Sun-ok Choi from her new book 'The Art Of Paper Quilling' I love this book, and would recommend you to buy it, if you are a quiller.

So what happened in September, well like I said before, not much. I bought a new laptop, passsed my first stage certificate in EFT (Emotional Freedom Therapy).
Alex and Nick went to Italy and fell out, well it was daft them going together, they are such completely different people, Nick likes to sunbathe, Alex wants culture. Think they are friends again now though.
Was asked to make an 80th birthday card for a friends mum, got to make an 89th birthday card for my mum this month too.

At the beginning of October I gave a talk to the Scissor club on quilling. Thankfully it seemed to go down well and there was lots of laughter, whcih is how it should be. We made poinsettia flowers and made a gift card, and then some of them had a go at a snowflake. Everybody liked my work for which I was most grateful, some of it is quite old now, but it still looks good.

This weekend I signed up for a craft fair in the village hall, its only two hours in the afternoon of Dec 8th, but it will be nice do and hopefully I might sell a few things.

Today I made 4 small gift bags - well the gift bags were already made I just made the flowers and leaves to stick on them. Will photograph them when they are dry and put them up here later.

Lavender and Daisies.

2007-08-22T21:16:00.000+01:00

Greetings People,

Got two fabulous quilling books the other day, one by Jane Jenkins and one by Diane Boden Crane. Both have much to offer any quiller. How Diane thinks up all these things like the chocolates - which are amazing - is beyond me. Jane's book is slightly more arty and has wonderful fairies and angels in there. They have already got my imagination going and am thinking up Christmas decs as I write.

We finished our NLP course and am now a qualified NLP Practitioner... anyone need a phobia sorting?

Expecting my mum to stay on friday, she will be here for about a week. It will give her a rest from ironing Nick's shirts and cooking his tea. Though to be honest I think doing these things keeps her going, shes not doing too bad for 89.

Dreading tomorrow, I am going to the hospital to see a guy about my shoulders. I am so fed up with not being able to move them properly, can't put them behind my back which makes dressing /undressing difficult. Am so sick of moving like a 90 year old instead of a 48 yr old.

Neuro LInguistic Programming or just NLP

2007-08-09T20:38:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks, for the past 6 days John and I have been on a very interesting course in which we are learning to be NLP Practitioners. We have been at the home of Joe and Melody Cheal who are Master practitioners and have been teaching us and also 8 other people too. We are a diverse lot, there are social health professionals, project managers, a communication lecturer, RSPB managers, HR professionals and us, who are basically doing the course because we feel it will help us personally.

Today, we wrote our first trance. Learning how to use the correct words positioning them in such a way that as you are listening to them you begin to relax your senses, and your internal and external sensations. Starting off with a normal sounding voice and slowly softening it and pausing it. Making you go deeper and deeper into your relaxed state. Thats right..

Then of course we had to bring these friends out of the trance, I mean I could hardly leave them there could I? Could I?

What a day!

2007-07-30T23:23:00.000+01:00

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...

2007-07-29T08:43:00.000+01:00

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

2007-07-27T22:58:00.001+01:00

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

2007-07-27T15:28:00.000+01:00

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

2007-07-26T14:32:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-07-22T23:50:00.000+01:00

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.

Snowman card

2006-11-27T20:00:00.000Z

This is the card that we did in class today, my student did very well and although she didn't finish it this afternoon, she has made all the pieces for it and will complete it next week.

The colours are a bit bright on the scan, the turquoise is not quite as bright as that and the whole thing has been very sparingly dusted in glitter. Looks good.

Choir boys

2006-11-25T08:35:00.000Z

When I was at the Farmer's market the other week, a customer said she would like some more tree decorations. So, I made these choir boys and the tree is out of Alli Bartkowski's book Paper Quilling for the first time. I got the idea for the choir boys from the UK quilling guild's magazine. Jean Barnwell sent instructions for Christmas Carollers and I altered the design for the choir boys giving them a white under skirt and quilled hair.
I love the tree, its so quick. Only had that horrible bright green for the trunk, will have to remedy that on the next one I make, and also added an extra branch at the top.

Valentines day already?

2006-11-23T16:15:00.000Z

All card makers are probably now finished with making Christmas cards and are thinking about St. Valentine's day. These are card toppers or scrapbook bits. Made with cream and red punched card edged with Krylon gold pen. The roses are pink pearlescent folded roses and LCC's red sparkling paper. The golden hearts are wooden.

The Biggleswade Farmers Market

2006-11-20T17:10:00.000Z

Hey at last I have actually done the Farmer's market! Thats me grinning madly behind the counter. It was a cold day but I was warm enough, I put my Uggs on, and they were the only bit of me that was cold. Was told to take a piece of carpet or a small rug next time to stand on and I will be warmer. I took just over £50, it's not much, but it's a start.

Next month the market is on the 20th of December so I need to make stocking fillers and last minute presents. The tree decorations went well I sold lots of those so will need to do some more.

Had to keep my temper a couple of times, when silly people kept saying "Ohhh aren't they lovely, oohhh aren't you clever" and then they walked away... If they are that lovely and I am that clever why are you not buying them? Didn't say that of course, but just smiled sweetly...

The guy on the next stall was selling wild boar sausages, turkeys, and various holiday food stuffs. So next time I shall have him on one side and the cheese stall on the other. Wonder if they give samples....

Well back to the quilling got targets to keep you know....

memo blocks

2006-10-18T21:49:00.000+01:00

These are memo block holders that I am doing for the farmers market on Nov 15th. Would never have thought of this if it wasn't for Stefani Tadio. She did some for her fair and when I saw these thick blocks in our local newsagents that I thought they would be good for the market and to fill my stall up a bit.

Wishblade works

2006-10-13T18:26:00.000+01:00

This is made with my new Xyron Wishblade. It cuts the most amazing fonts, this one is Harrington which I just pulled from the fonts on my computer. It cut my name in about 2 minutes, perfect cuts and so easy to use. It's not as big as the Cricut which puts it in my favour, as I don't have much room on this desk.

Brown and Blue

2006-08-23T10:42:00.000+01:00

Sorry about the photograph on this one, will have another go and see what can be done to improve it. However at least you can get some idea of this piece of work. Not sure about the frame on this one, the more I look at it the more I hate it. What do you think?

This week has been a bit of performance, discovered that I have diabetes, and am now getting down to eating the right foods and having more exercise. There really is no excuse for my being in this state, and now I am paying for it. These days we are always eating fast and convenience foods, and if you have a sedentary lifestyle - like I have - you need to alter it before it is too late.

This morning I tested my own blood, it was quite easy really, nice little blood monitor tells you all you need to know about your blood sugar. It struck me that it is not the physical act of doing this, but the things going through my dimwit brain that made me stop and think. I am 47 and up until now I have always thought I had good health. I am overweight and according to the magazines and articles my BMI tells me that I am obese. Now that is a foul word and one which I am about to abolish from my life. This is such a big wake up call, I hope I haven't damaged myself too much eating Florentines at Costa's and muffins at Starbucks. Salad all the way now...

Ivory on Blue

2006-08-09T16:42:00.000+01:00

This is my new piece of work, ivory flowers on a mid blue background. My Grandmother had a glass bowl similar to this when I was a girl, she used it on the dining table for celery. It was all very bumpy and lumpy and I used to love to run my fingers over it.

£98 (unframed)

Changing face of crafting

2006-07-20T18:04:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I spent most of the day sorting through a decade of craft magazines. I needed more space and decided to only keep the mags with quilling in seeing as thats what I do most of the time.
When I first started buying craft magazines, here in the UK, in about 1988, there was really only one, called Popular Crafts. It was a magazine that was for all crafts and there were loads of crafts in it, from decoupage to thatching the roof of your cottage. I came across knitting, crocheting, tatting, painting, porcelain dolls, mohair teddy bears, dolls houses, making jewellery... Actually, just about any craft you can think of except making greetings cards.

In about 1990 two other magazines became available Crafts Beautiful and Practical Crafts, and it stayed that way with just three magazines until about 3 years ago when tons of new magazines became available, these are all card magazines and basically they are pretty boring in my opinion.
They all have the same thing, how to make cards as quick as you can, only occasionally do they have something that will appeal to the more advanced card maker and then there is still nothing for the advanced crafter. Even Crafts Beautiful has gone the card making way and Practical Crafts has now changed its name to Practical Crafts and Card Making. I will be so glad when the card making obsession is over and we can get back to having the 'proper' crafts back.

Thankfully quilling will always be on the negative side of popular, people think its too difficult, too time consuming, too fiddly. Only the artists who do it know that it's all those things, but the finished object and the contentment of rolling strips of paper hugely outweighs those niggling feelings.

Printer saved!

2006-07-12T08:58:00.000+01:00

This is another card from the card kits on my website, the dragonfly wings are stuck to acetate so they actually flap.

I eventually got my printer sorted out, thanks to my wonderful John, what would I do without him! We depend too much on computers, oh for a substantial fountain pen, some lovely blue black ink and a sheet of thick cream paper....

#4 son is taking part in the summer performance at his school. He is Cardinal Biggles in their interpretation of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch. Will let you know how it went on Saturday.

Medallion cards

2006-07-11T11:15:00.000+01:00

This card is made from one of the kits on the website www.thepapertreasurecompany.com It was very simple to make and looks much better in real life. Medallions are layered onto acetate and they certainly do sparkle when the light hits them.

Yesterday was spent getting a new hard drive installed in my laptop. It suddenly died on Sunday night, thankfully after I had finished loading tons of peeloffs onto the website. Now of course I can't seem to get the printer installed properly, which means I can't load other products on the site. I have spent all morning trying to do this and am about to scream and throw the whole lot through the windows!