Spring Clean

We’ve had a very productive day in our house today.  In the morning, Hubby cleaned and polished the fire. I cleaned the bathroom and tidied upstaris. After lunch (probably too soon after as I got indigestion!) we cleared the decking of all of the pots – which are looking very sad and not very clolourful at this time of year  - and started power washing the green moss from the decking.  Its come up a treat. The bunnies werent too happy as they got a little wet during the process and I forgot to take in my washing of the washing line so had to wash it again as it got splashed with dirty water! Its very therapeutic having a good clean!

I took hubby into town this afternoon so he could watch the Newcastle v Everton match and then I went into work for an hour to do some testing.

On the way home I went to see my Nephew, Jake for an hour. He’s 14months old and is developing such a cute character and is really clever for such a young child.

I’m going to get a little crafting done now before its time to pick up hubby then its Ross Kemp In Afghanistan on sky one tonight which we love watching.

Most of this weekend my thoughts have been with Jade Goody, its such a tragic situation, and only being recently married myself I know how important today will of been her to in normal circumstances nevermind with the prospect of such a short time with Husband.

Hope your weekend has been a good one.

Lisa

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Sugarcraft spring flowers & Tennis

I finished my spring flowers class tonight (held at cakes, classes and cutters in Gosforth). The class lasts six weeks and has been my first real attempt at making wired sugarcraft flowers (outside of the roses I made for my mam’s birthday!).

the completed display

 

daffodils

snowdrops

 

primroses

 

Some of it has been very fiddly especially the primroses and snowdrops, however the principles for most of the flowers we have made are similar.  We were also shown how to steam the colours which seals the colour and really finishes off the flowers after you have dusted them with colour. After this course, our toolbox is brimming with new tools and our purses are a lot lighter! Its my mother-in-laws birthday in June so hopefully I can put my new knowledge to some use on a cake for her.

Our next class starts next Thursday on ‘patchwork cutters’ so thats something a little different for four weeks.

On the tennis front, my mam and I have heard this week that we have two tickets each from the public ballot for Wimbledon. Mam’s are for the 23rd June and mine for 24th June both days on No.1 Court. As that will be the second week we should get to see to decent players. We havent been lucky on the public ballot for a couple of years so its great to get tickets – roll on the strawberries and cream! Just need to sort out transport as I hadnt realised how expensive train travel was, as its a while since I’ve needed to go to London (about £100 return was the cheapest I could find – ridiculous!)

Goodnight

Lisa

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Perfect Afternoon

I’m in front of the fire with my crafting table out and watching create and craft (sky channel 671). While some of their shows can be repeats and not very interesting, this afternoon Jak Heath (http://crafterskitchen.blogspot.com/) is demonstrating. She’s a local crafter who designs the flippin men and Remember When images. She has launched the flippin women range this afternoon on Create and Craft so I’ve splashed out.

They are really funny, with images including fitness, crafting, horseriding, gardening etc. For those who havent heard of these before, they are called Flippin images because they are double sided. The decoupage is on the front and the back of the aperture. Cant wait for them to come so I can have a play!

Well I’ll get back to my scrapbooking while watching the end of the show.

Lisa

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Peaceful times

Hubby and I were on holiday yesterday so that we could spend sometime with my Mam on her birthday and just chill out as we have both been very busy at work and its not likely to relent anytime soon either.  My Mam loved her cake and slow cooker! I made her a Wimbledon ‘tennis’ themed card and she got all excited as she thought we’d got her some tickets – how disappointed she was when she opened it a saw just a verse! Hopefully we will hear soon if we have tickets though.

The rest of the day was spent just wandering around the local shops and eating a footlong meatball marinara in subway (its the first and last time I will be greedy!).

Got back and we had missed the postie so I had to get up early this morning - well before 10.30 – to go and collect the parcel. It was some lovely diecut decoupage images I had ordered. They are lovely and will make some beautiful cards as they are roses, clematis and daffodils and are photo realistic.

We did our usual Saturday afternoon routine and went to Peter Barratts Garden Centre for lunch. The garden centre was pretty quiet but the cafe was busy. I cant wait for the warmer weather so we can get out in the garden again. I’m at my most creative when I sitting crafting outside.

I think I’ve finally decided on a campsite (Coombe Caravan Park) to visit later in the year as we want to go back to Longleat and have found a campsite near Salisbury which is only an hour from Longleat. It’s also only an hour from Bath in one direction and Bournemouth in the other. So we should be able to visit a few places. I think we’ll go sometime at the end of June – if only we could guarantee the weather since we are under canvas.  Now that we have the bunnies I need to find a boarding place for them, I have found one online in Hexham so we’ll have to visit and see what its like. Putting the cat and bunnies into lodgings will be about £150 for a week, but I am happy to pay it for peace of mind.

After a little visit to my Mam’s today we just went back home and perched ourselves in front of the fire as the weather wasnt the best to be wandering around outside. Hubby promptly went to sleep for about 2 hours whilst I sorted out the scrapbooking which I want to get done from our Wedding and Honeymoon. I’ve sorted out all of the photos I have printed (probably about 1000!) and hope to get cracking on the scrapping tomorrow morning when Hubby is at work.

I have recently received my Penny Black valentine’s stamps which I’m going to use for hubby’s card (hopefully he wont read this!). I got them from www.sirstampalot.co.uk . Just in case he does read this blog, I’ll not put the completed card on here until he has received it! They are stamps we saw at the paper mill shop, and he liked them.

We were watching Noel’s HQ on sky one tonight and I have never seen him get so annoyed by something. A council has refused planning permission for a young lad who was badly injured while serving in Afghanistan and his grandparents would like to build him a bungalow on their land. To cut a long story short all of the neighbours are happy about this however the council are not willing to move on the rules. Noel Edmonds got really annoyed about the whole thing and to right he should. No doubt by next weeks show the Council will have changed their mind as even Gordon Brown could see how ridiculous this was. Politics aside we need to look after our soldiers.

I see my blog ‘hits’ are gradually increasing – so thank you for reading my chitter and please feel to comment so I know there is someone out there!

Goodnight

Lisa

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The weather outside is frightful

We were hit with the snow like everyone else yesterday. The below pics were taken from my office window yesterday morning at 8am just before it was fully light. It looks lovely. Today it’s  just wet and cold with no sign of the snow from yesterday.

View from office window

I’ve made my mam’s birthday cake tonight using my first sugarcraft roses. I’m happy with it. I cheated and bought a pre-iced cake from ASDA as I didnt have time to cook and fully ice the cake. The bobbles around the edge are also from ASDA from the cake decorating section.

Not much happening on the craft front as I havent had a great deal of time lately which is a shame. Hubby is on late shift which normally means I get to do all my own thing this week except it hasnt worked out that way. Maybe tomorrow night…

One final image, of Ellie. She’s not a daft cat, she’s all cosy on the window ledge in my craft room next to the radiator!

Cosy Cat!

Goodnight

Lisa

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