My husband and I have visited many Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes. We have also visited his architecture studio Taliesin in spring green. Yesterday we flew to Arizona to take in the warm weather and visit Taliesin west.
I feel a lot of my passion in popup cards have been inspired by his design elements by using special designing techniques.
Im starting to design popup inserts for cardmaking. Its a learning curve and my valentine popup did make my deadline. Look for new designs soon.
When my 9 year old granddaughter came to stay through the school holidays, we spent some time cooking together. I have been doing this with her ever since she was very little.
This time we decided to make a fruit flan case, which I filled with strawberries and set in jelly and also some fruit scones.
She did an excellent job of following my instructions.
…Youngest granddaughter, Olivia age 13, was competing in the 800 metres race at the National Indoor Championships at Sheffield this weekend.
We were lucky that we could watch the races live on YouTube … Olivia is great at pacing herself.
Shes been running and competing for many years now and her Dad, my youngest son, is a medal winning runner too so hes helped with her training too.
Olivia always hangs back quite a way when she races so we werent surprised she was way behind the leader for most of the race … but then she did her signature acceleration, going into the front … and won the race by a country mile!
Im writing this on Saturday 7th Feb and the final is tomorrow … so Ill update the final results next week!
The post box topper on our dog walk has been empty for a while, and I was worried that the lady who makes them might have given up.
The last one she created, featuring Paddington Bear, was unfortunately stolen.
So, I was delighted to see this beautiful new topper as we walked by. It depicts two swans to celebrate Valentines Day. Her creations are lovely and lift the spirits of people passing by, so I hope this one stays in place.
My husband and I love books and reading, although my husband reads a lot more than I do. I particularly love old books even if they look a bit worse for wear and I love displaying them.
If we lived in a large house our dream would be to have a library room, but instead we have to settle with a small area for our books.
I recently saw these book nook kits and purchased a small one. There are various styles available and they are very detailed. The pieces snap together to create a room and different themes are available. Mine was a library setting and it took a couple of days to complete.
My husband helped me decipher the instructions and voila I now have this gorgeous little vintage book nook which also lights up.
I will definitely be doing more of these in the future.
Some of you know that I am a watercolour artist, but I also like to draw. I find drawing to be a very relaxing past time. It is an easy thing to do anywhere, at home at a desk or even while watching TV. Outside on a summers day.
All you need is some paper, a few graphite pencils and in my case also a rubber. Sometimes I also like to add a touch of colour to some of my drawings, maybe the pink of the lips or a red of a rose.... so many ways to treat a drawing.
This is one of mine, I hope you like it.
…. Had a lovely day with our youngest grandson lat weekend. Austin who is 11 next month, and hes the youngest of our six grandchildren, (our oldest is over 30! lol) Ohhh but did we have fun!
Out came the Lego and the board games ( a few years ago II made huge boards out of a new TV box and painted stones as the counters) but we had the most hilarious time playing with a pink balloon! lol
Literally its hot! Weve had a heatwave over most of Australia the past week with temperatures in some places nudging the 50deg C mark.
Weve had a couple of days at home where it has hit 42 deg C, a couple at 40deg C but to be honest doesnt feel much different day to day…….. its just HOT.
As a firefighter its days like this (photo) where you really hope there isnt a fire call. Fires where the humidity is lower than the temperature are always bad. Quite often there is a hot wind from the west and fires burn hot, fast and run.
Thankfully no fires around here but there is some very bad huge fires in Victoria that have proven very difficult to contain.
They are getting over 40 deg C temps down there too. Not much of the country isnt getting this heat. Then we see the reports of the freezing weather over seas and just a little bit of me says……..wouldnt that be nice!
This weeks designs are another set of pretty Crystal Rose toppers/backgrounds/designer resources
Ive made another bag! I wanted to keep this one simple and classic, but I couldnt resist adding a touch of bling with the rose gold hardware and daisy zipper pulls.
The fabric comes from a little haberdashery shop in our town.
Although she didnt have much suitable bag-making fabric, I loved the feel of this one; its so soft. I was initially worried that the fabric was too thick for my domestic sewing machine, but since I received a new heavy-duty sewing machine for Christmas, I knew it would be perfect for this project—and it sewed like a dream!My SALE is happening now!
Everything in my store has 20% off until the end of the month, so make sure to grab a bargain!
Well last week we had my daughter Kayleigh and grandson Harry at Young Voices. This week we have Kayleigh and grandson Alfie having a bit of a spa evening.
Usually I would imagine its more common to see mums and daughters having a bit of a pamper, but why not have a grandson doing a bit of self care.
Alfie is one of those teenagers who spends a long time doing his hair and like a bit of aftershave to smell nice.
He thoroughly enjoyed having his mask on although did get impatient waiting to rinse it off again, but at least he wasnt embarrassed to have his picture taken wearing it.
This School holiday we took Alyssa, our granddaughter out to Coal Creek a recreated coal mining village and heritage-listed buildings .
Before though we stopped off in the quaint village of Locke for Coffee and Alyssa had a giant Wagon Wheel (she didnt eat it all though!) Then we carried onto Coal Creek.
We had an enjoyable time looking into and around the old buildings before we stopped on one of the Verandahs of an old house and had our picnic.
Nice day out was had by all.
In the winter, our 7-year-old Golden Retriever, Billy, likes to snuggle up between hubby and me at about 6 am to warm up.
And every morning when Sam, our 4-year-old Golden, knows hubby is waking up, he starts nudging him in the back with his nose.
Hubby gives him lots of pets, then as soon as he gets out of bed, Sam jumps up for a cuddle with me.
So this is what I wake up to every morning. Arent I lucky?
The other night my daughter introduced her partners kids to a good Aussie favourite, the jaffle. Jaffles are an Aussie icon and as well as being a favourite that can be cooked on preferably a gas stove, it is a must when out camping.
They cooked over a fire pit in the back yard. I believe its called a toastie in other parts of the world, but here it is the good old jaffle.
Cooked in a cast iron jaffle maker, you butter the outside of the bread, put your favourite filling on, put the bread on like a sandwich and put it into the jaffle maker.
Some of the favourite fillings here are ham, cheese and tomato (onion can be added if desired), mince and cheese and my favourite is tinned braised steak and onion.
But really you can put anything you like on them.
Just have to be careful when you take off the heat because the filling is very hot. Many a burnt mouth has happened when taking that first bite!
The kids had fun and loved them so I think there will be many more backyard camping done so they can cook some more.Todays designs are Crystal Roses and would make for a very pretty card when you need a Quick card top by just adding a sentiment.
Each year an event takes place called Young Voices, where over a short period primary schools from all over the country take part in a huge sing a long at various venues nationwide.
Last Friday a number of children from RAF Benson primary schools travelled to Birmingham to take part in one of these huge performances.
My grandson Harry was a participant and my daughter went along as a parent helper. Its a long day as the children have rehearsals in the afternoon and the performance in front of a huge audience in the evening.
The children practice for weeks the chosen songs which range from pop to musicals and more. There are always special guest artists too. One was a vocalist who sang at the Kings coronation the other was a young lady called Connie Talbot.
For those who watch BGT she performed as a 6 year old in front of the judges, she was cute and had missing front teeth, but when she sang she blew everyone away.
Fast forward to 2026 and Connie is now 25, has a single coming out and has an incredible voice. Harry and Kayleigh thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Heather Howes has helped me and taught me so much my journey on craftsuprint.com we got chatting years ago and shared comfort to each other when we both lost our other halves with in about a year of each other, then we drifted apart for a while learning to cope and mange with our new way of life but i always though if i ever get anywhere near where Heather lives i want to go and Meet her, So what a surprise it was last Year when Heather and Mick Came to Swindon so we met up in Royal Wootton Bassett Where my son has his business, it was so lovely to meet her at last but i was so surprised at how tiny she is always pictured her as being much taller.
What a lovely day that was to meet Heather Howes my best Cup friend and we are in contact nearly every day again now which is lovely and earning some money again.