It is our granddaughter Jessicas 17th birthday this weekend. Along with her main present, we have bought her a few girly bits, like face packs and stick-on nails. I thought it would be nice to make her a makeup bag to put them in.
I usually take ages to sew my projects, but I found a pattern online, grabbed some pretty waterproof canvas that I have been itching to use, and ran this up in an afternoon.
Its not perfect, but I know she will appreciate that I made it just for her.
… lucky to live just a short drive away from my local leisure centre and I go there at least 5 days a week.
I joined just after it eventually opened after Covid lockdown ended.
The pool is lovely and has a moveable floor which means when going to an Aqua Aerobic class its not only the correct depth but its the same depth for the whole pool!
Theres even a lovely splash pool for the children with fountains and water slides too! Theres lots more going on though from a soft play area for kids to the gym, badminton courts, cafe, spin classes, yoga, seated exercise, Pilates etc etc etc!
Sooo if Im not at home … my friends and family know theres a good chance theyll find me there! lol
every fortnight i organise a craft workshop with our local ladies ,none of them had done stone painting but i think they really enjoyed it, the smiles on their faces said it all and their creations for first attempts were good ,i have taught them cardmaking broomstick crochet always thinking of new ideas xxthanks for reading xxHeather
A couple of months ago I wrote about my 13 year old grandson Alfie taking up photography as a hobby.
He started to take really great pictures just on his phone.
Then he asked if he could borrow his mums Nikon digital camera to be able to take close up shots.
He then decided to enter a youth photography competition, not with any expectations as he had only been doing it for a short while.
My daughter messaged me today (Wednesday) to let me know he had only gone and won it.
We were all shocked but so immensely proud of him. The picture is his winning photo of a bird perched high up in a tree. I think it is fantastic, but then Im bias.
The other day, our neighbour had booked a tip run, so he started piling stuff outside his house. Amongst it was a giant teddy bear. Now our youngest Golden Retriever, Sam, loves a big stuffed toy. So hubby asked our neighbour if we could have it.
Sam was looking at it through the fence, so I opened the gate and said, Go get it. He ran straight to it, picked it up by the head, and dragged it home. He took it straight into the house, with a bit of difficulty, and put it in his bed under the stairs with his other two big teddies.
I name all the teddies, one is called Big Frank, another is Fredrick the Fox, and this new, biggest one is called Biffa Bear.
Yes, i might be crazy, but just look at Sams happy face.
… in the garden is looking rosy! My husband, Terry, loves gardening so we always have lots of lovely flowers, and a few veg looking good at any time.
We have a fig tree in a large box that weve had since it was just a little twig!
I wanted it when we were at a garden centre and he didnt think it would survive, let alone bare fruit!
But he was wrong because although we dont get many figs staying on long enough to ripen, it has survived, and we do get a handful of the most wonderful figs, which taste sooo much nicer than the shop bought ones! lol
I can hardly believe its been 8 years since this little fireball was born. Harry George Christopher born at 11.50pm on the 30th May 2018 at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford. It was quite a traumatic birth and Harry was quite badly bruised when he entered this mad world.
Over the years we have seen many facets to Harry, hes funny, smart, a mini tornado and very much grumpy at times, but he is very lovable.
He celebrated his 8 th birthday with a trip to the bowling alley, with his best friend Ronnie and big bro.
Alfie. They had food at Frankie and Bennys and back home for his Nightmare before Christmas themed birthday cake.
Part of my time this past months was devoted to setting up my new office space. Ive moved from my closet office which is still functional to the Family room which is more practical.
Since our children are now all in their own homes this room did not get much use. It also is nice to share this photo with you so have an idea what is necessary to create cutting machine products.
Im hoping my fellow designers will share their setup. I have a new windows 11 computer, monitor, printer and Cameo 5 with electrostatic mat.
Plus during my recuperation period from a broken arm, I became a Lynettes Happy Mail Cardstock subscriber. Right, as if I need more cardstock?What new about all this? New operating system, design software and product creation workflow has been a new learning curve. Im back designing and have lots of ideas for new products. This is my news to the community.
All my previous wonderful Popup cards are still available but new ideas keep popping up in my mind. Join me on a great adventure with new products for you.
Its that time of year. Memorial day and Band festival parade in town. This is the first year we did not go to the parade. The weather was not cooperating. There was too much garden work to catch up on. Sound familiar?
It was nice to be able to have a picnic on the porch and enjoy watching the peony bush bloom.
The garden got put in, flowers planted, hummingbird feeders hung and lawn mowed. It was fun watching hubby do all that while I stayed in the craft room with my new toys... Computer and cutting machines.
Im trying to design more cards that are considered Clean and Simple (CAS) and have joined several FB books to get advice.
If you have any ideas let me know.
Our banana trees have been working overtime this year. We had 4 bunches on together early this year and as we have cut one when its ready, another pod has appeared on one of the other trees meaning weve had a constant supply of bananas this year.
This is the first bunch we cut back in March. They are sugar bananas, lady fingers, and the fruit itself is sweeter than a cavendish banana and also a lot creamier to eat.
The skins are quite thin too, meaning you get all the banana to eat.
We have since cut 4 bunches and have another two in various stages of growth on the trees. Banana bread, banana sandwiches, banana with icecream ………yummm How do you like to eat your banana?
Another quick turnaround with the new post box topper. As we walked towards it with the dogs, I couldnt work out what the next theme could be. What a surprise to find that this topper was labelled Just for Fun!
And it is fun, with the colourful animals, including a monkey, a donkey, a unicorn and even a pink flamingo.
Unfortunately, we had had a lot of wind and rain, so some of them were lying down. Still lovely though. My end-of-month SALE is on at the moment, with 20% off my whole store!
Well another half term is nearly over and we havent exactly had great weather on these fair isles. No matter what the weather my daughter and the boys always find something to do.
On this occasion Harry and his friend had fun running around in a wooded area near where they live. On the way back home they passed the local livery where my daughters friend keeps her four horses. Her friend just happened to be in the yard and invited my daughter and the boys to come see her horses, one of them being a cute Shetland Pony.
It was a big thing for her as she is scared of horses, but she was happy to oblige the boys who got to sit on a beautiful Dapple Grey Horse.
… week was the school half term holiday and we had a fabulous day with our youngest grandchildren, Olivia aged 13 and Austin aged 10.
We did some crafting (of course! lol) played board games on very big boards I made from a huge TV box and used painted stones as the counters and big wooden dice too!
Olivia loves to bake and we made Coconut & Chocolate Macarons, which were yummy! Olivia doesnt like her photo being put on any public site so I only included her hands in the photo!
The bottom right 2 photos are cards Olivia designed and drew herself!!
She could possibly be a 2nd generation CUP designer someday in the future! lol
The other day, while looking for a picture on my other hard drive, I came across a lovely photo that one of my cousins sent me a few years ago.
It was taken at my aunts wedding in 1957.
The photo features my aunt, with her mom and dad (my nan and grandad) on either side of her, along with all her brothers and sisters, including our dad, who is in the top left corner of the picture.
I decided to share it on Facebook and tagged some of my family members. It was heart-warming to see my cousins start posting their memories of that day. Although I wasnt born yet and never met my grandad, it was wonderful to read their stories.
Some of them had been bridesmaids. My aunt made her wedding dress, as well as all the bridesmaid dresses—four in peach and four in green.
Last week my youngest grandson Harry went on his first residential away with his primary school. It was only for one night, and only an hour away from where he lived.
There was a specific theme for this time away which was studying the life of Romans which is the topic they are currently embarking on this term at school.
They learned about life as Roman Soldiers and battle strategies. The children dressed up and were given shields and swords. The learned how to use their shields to form a tortoise shell in a group as well as having a bit of target practice.
Harry thoroughly enjoyed it and would happily talk about it non stop.