Sharing some Happiness!

Ooo it's been a while since I blogged hasn't it? I have been busy creating but at the moment I am knitting two long term projects so there isn't a lot to show. I have some more bright crochet squares to show but I need to sort them out and I have had a ridiculously mad week at work this week. So excuses over I am still finding "Happy Things" which I shall now share with you! We (the Cabin Crocheters) all got together and shared the squares we had done so far! They looked great all together.

The next week we finally had some sunshine. Several consecutive days of it in fact, with warm temperatures and everything! This glorious sunrise met me one morning as I let the dogs out at silly o'clock and set off for a run! So much easier to run against this backdrop!

And just to finish it off I have already done Week 11 although it doesn't officially end until Tuesday evening! I just don't think I will see anything that makes me happier than these gorgeous magnolia flowers that I have to walk past to get into school every day! It's official...Spring has sprung!

52 Weeks of Happy

Just a quick one today as I am in the middle of creating something......

We went up to London as Eliza has been desperate to buy a pair of Doc Martens for ages.We always go to The British Boot Company in Camden as they stock the biggest range in the UK. Eliza bought a navy pair and I was completely and utterly smitten by a gold pair. I now have 4 pairs of DMs! Katy however couldn't see a pair she liked so we went to Covent Garden where there is another DM shop. They tend to sell much more exclusive (for that read expensive!) boots, as well as the very seasonal ones. Katy had seen a fab spotty pair online so she got them there. They gave her this amazing bag to carry them in. Eliza and I were very jealous so we managed to blag one each! At the end of half term, I had a day sewing at Linda's house. Just round the corner from her is a GORGEOUS fabric shop, The Eclectic Maker. Imagine my excitement when I saw this beautiful fabric; it has pansies on it! Now they are my absolute favourite flowers IN THE WORLD! I love their little screaming faces but as they are an old fashioned sort of a flower, most fabrics are a bit old fashioned too.

These were not! I had to buy 6 different fat quarters. So, so happy!

52 Weeks of Happy

What with all the rain and that we have had recently, I have found it quite tricky to be inspired by happy things! I have focused on the fact that I am not flooded; that I am better off than many in the UK at the moment, but these aren't things I can take a picture of! So for my week 5 I decided to take a picture of a Lego Day we had at school. In the morning the younger children spent the time learning how to build properly, by overlapping the joins, and how to construct a roof with supports. I have to confess that I was prepared to not enjoy this day as I find Lego frustrating in the extreme. However there was such a huge array of different bricks that I was able to build this church....complete with graves! Now I am converted!

Week 6 was easy-peasy. Burnice and Linda and I went to a "Vintage Fair". I think we were all expecting it to be crafts, tea-sets and collectables but it was mostly vintage clothing. We had a great time rummaging through the rails and spotting things we wore "back in the day"! Vintage seems to cover clothing right up the the 90s and there was a good selection of 80s shoulder pads and 70s hippy styles. Some nostalgia for all of us!

52 Weeks.

Now I have worked out a way to get onto Blogger I can post again! So I have been keeping up with my 52 Weeks of Happy. Week 3 and we heard the fabulous news that a work colleague is expecting her first baby! It made me feel all warm and fuzzy all week! Out came the knitting patterns, ready to knit!

Week 4 and I had a lovely surprise on Sunday morning. Katy appeared at my bedside with toast! Very lovely!

Some catching up.....

Not quite sure why but I have not been able to get on Blogger to update. I expect it is a PC glitch but I think I have found a way round it so here goes with some catching up. First off the second week of happy....It was Burnices' birthday and we went to a restaurant in Brighton to eat with a live opera singer! Great fun and def made me very happy!

I treated myself to a new book in which was this great little pattern for a pony! Soon as I saw it I knew I HAD to make it! Took an afternoon to whizz up. The mane was what took the longest time; I can a see a whole stableful on the way!

My new project

New Year so time for a new project. I have done several different things over the years; a Shimelle one where you take photos once a month, some where you take a photo each day and scrapbook them and last years Photo a Day where I just blogged them. I saw this a few months ago and quite fancied it but when I revisited the idea I decided I would end up with a load of random photos of odd things. I also really like this idea so I have decided to combine the two and try to get back into a bit of scrapbooking again. I have come up with.....
52 Weeks of Happy!
Each week I will do a page, usually including a photo, of what has made me happy that week. My weeks will run Wednesday to Wednesday.

So to set me off I need a book to put it all in! I got the pattern for this easel book from here. Nice and easy but I had forgotten just how long making paper things takes!

This morning I just did the binding and the words on the front and just those few bits took me well over an hour!!! Hmmmm I'm out of practise  think.
Now my little book is all ready to receive my lots of happy things!

A Book for Dad

In August my Dad was 70. So what did he want for his birthday? Well, he is having a house built in America at the moment so "nothing" was his reply. I couldn't let such a date go by unmarked so I decided to make him a book with pictures of him growing up. Now this was a tad complicated because he divorced my Mum when I was 16 and I have no photos of his "new" wife although things are very amicable. My Auntie Sue was great; since my Nana died she has all the family photos so she scanned an e-mailed me several. Then my Mum dug out a load and I was able to make him a very plain book, containing some pictures that I hope he will be able to cherish.My Dad with his Mum and Dad and then a war time picture that Nana probably sent to Grandad. He was one of the original Desert Rats fighting in North Africa in the War. My Dad went to University in Cambridge and this is him in the infamous "Bumps" races, then on his wedding day to my Mum.And here are my Mum and Dad with me.I was adopted in 1968 and this is the first ever pic of me with them, followed by a pic with Dad on my first Christmas.

These are pics of me and Dad in our garden at Willow Park. I guess I am about 10 months or so...

I gave it to him today; he didn't say a lot but I hope he liked it.

A baby sardine.....

Every year, at the end of the school year, I make a little book for my class teacher, from the children. There have been a variety of shapes and sizes but this year I went for something a bit different. We took the children to a Music Festival where they sang the Spike Milligan song, "A baby sardine..." and they loved it. Then I found it on a card so I decided that is what it had to be!

I had been given this super shiny silver card so I made the tin with it "inside out" and painted up the outside to look like a real tin. I then cut out enough sardines for each child to write a message on the back and then using a blunt pencil they "drew" on the front.

Don't they look sweet? She was really pleased with it (luckily).

Postcrossing albums

I am not sure if I told you about this hobby I have? Postcrossing....basically you send out postcards and then receive them back from all over the world. I have been doing this since June and now have had over 140 cards. I did begin to bind them in books of 20, using my favourite odd pieces of paper for the covers, but after doing these first three I have got a bit behind.

So I spent Sunday and Monday evening catching up and binding the next 80 into these 4 little books!

This is a shot of the assorted postcards in the little albums.

Learn Something New Every Day

If you have been an avid follower of my blog for a while you may remember that last September I did this Shimelle class (see the side bar for a link). To be honest I had forgotten all about it until I found a little reminding e-mail in my Inbox when I got back from my hols. Well I wasn't going to bother....but then I would find myself thinking how I could do it this year.....when I might fit in the crafting time and before I knew it....BAM I went and made the cover! Now I know this is nothing like my usual style but I have to confess I made the pages first and when you see them you will understand the cover. And actually I quite like it!

I have been desperate to try this crackle effect with PVA for a while so I did! Basically you paint the undercoat and leave it to dry. Then paint over with thick PVA and straight away paint your top coat colour on. As the PVA dries it crackles. I think it was in Craft Stamper a month or two back if you want a better description! Still I had a bash on the cover.

These are my pages...they will be landscape in the book and as is my usual with these projects I was a good girl and used up my scraps. The scrumptious papers on the cardstock are bits and pieces left over from the soap wrapping my daughter does. I decided that they looked best on pink yellow and green cardstock so rummaged for those colours in varying shades. Now you see where my cover idea came from....

The last bit I have ready is some journalling cards made from record cards cut in half and then I just did the edges with that nice Alterations die Gilly lent me again! I couldn't decide which edge to do so I have a selection!
Now all these ingredients are in a box with some very plain cream flowers and other bits and bobs ready to go on Sept 1st. Do pop by and see what I am learning!

A Holiday Journal

The other day my friend Gilly came over for a day of crafting. She brought with her the Tim Holtz edge dies and said that I could borrow them for a week or two. So I HAD to make a little book didn't I? I also used the tattered floral die for the cover and all was good until I got to cut the pages. Now maybe I am just fussy but I found it REALLY hard to cut all the pages so the holes on the scallops matched up exactly. And that bothered me so I am not sure if I will bother buying this particular die; although it might be good just for edging one page when scrapbooking....

Anyway I decided to use it as a journal for my holiday in N Yorkshire and duly scribbled and doodled away all the things we did and left a few spaces for pics and tickets. It was also quite nice to sketch a bit....not that I can draw but I like to try now and again!

So a proper scribbly scrawly "diary" in my awful writing but I hope it will be nice to look back on in future years!

A little Book...

I'm afraid that I have pinched another idea from a forum friend, Flo. A few months ago she was talking about a brilliant postcard site called Postcrossing. Well I had to go across and have a look and before I knew where I was I had signed up to sending and receiving postcards from all around the world! I always get really boring post so for me this was minimum effort for a few moments of excitement dropping through my letterbox. Ahhh but then I had to do something with all those lovely cards. Now when do I ever need an excuse to make a little book and then I saw this fabby new Doodlebug paper....

...and here are the pages made from the postcards. I have had some lovely ones so please pop across to the Postcrossing site. I bet you sign up too!

End of Year 2 Book

At the end of the school year I like to make a present for my class teacher from the children. This usually takes the form of a book with photos of the class or drawings accompanied by a little message from them too. Two years ago when we went to Corfu, we had to buy some coffee filters. I carefully saved them, and brought them home to use...."one day". Well this was that one day!

I used the new doodlebug papers as we have been doing "Come Outdoors" topic this year. I covered the coffee filters and made tags from plain card for the children to write on. I can't show the tags as they have photos on but each child has written a message underneath and I added a sticker or two to each one too. She has three different little books now! I don't know if she likes them but I like making them so I don't mind what she does with them afterwards!

This is proof that you should never throw anything away! You never know when you might use it!