The Last Day of September - 20 Photos from my Garden

Mallow and Dandelions...

Apples & pears...

 

Bright ripe berries...

Spinning spiders...



Red and orange rosehips, ripening against the garden wall...

The last of the roses...
 

The blue September sky...

Fruits and leaves ripening to gold and brown and red...

All the Colours and Fruits of Autumn in my garden!

The Birthday Weekend

Over the weekend, we celebrated my DS' 14th Birthday. 

(Thanks, Amy for the photo-grid template!)

A few highlights of our day - my nieces & nephew, plus my mum and her friend all came for lunch & tea on Sunday and we had a celebration.  It was also little E's 3rd birthday last Monday, so she had a present and cake too. 
J. was very lucky and had some nice presents and plenty of pocket money!  He was pleased with his cake and very happy to have the gifts he had asked for from us.

Also, I made a couple of things for DS' birthday:

A Birthday-Scrapbook-Card (!)

It has a concertina spine, with a ribbon to close it.

Inside the cover is a birthday greeting and a big photo of the family, then I filled it with memories of J's year...

On Sunday night I printed off some photos from J's family party at the weekend and put those in the book before I sealed its envelope.
I left some of the final pages blank, so he can add a few photos himself - especially as he and a friend are going on a Birthday Treat in a couple of weekends' time, to a tree-top adventure place in nearby woods.  J's dad is supervising, but I'm allowed in with a camera, so hope to get him a couple of good pictures to remind him of his day.
J was really pleased with this mini-album. I'm glad I took the trouble to make it - he appreciates the scrap pages and photo books I make - they last far longer than just a birthday card.

I also made this:

An A4 (letter sized) sketchbook, for his various drawings and writings.  It has a hard cover, with a hinge to make it easy to open & turn the pages.  The covering paper is one that J. chose himself, while we were shopping on holiday.  It may not show very well on the photo, but it's a lovely dark green hand made paper and the bleach-stamped flowers are creamy coloured.

And finally, yesterday I finished this Scrap Page for J. as well:

J. queued for 45 minutes at the Village Carnival, to have a go in one of these water balls.  He loved it and when we were on holiday at Wells, he had another go.  He had a great time messing around, falling down and trying to make the ball move across the water.  I commented to D. that we should call him "Rhino", after the little hamster in the Disney film, "Bolt" - and that's where the idea for this page is from. 

I printed off some graphics from the Disney Bolt Webpage and used them for the title and instead of embellishments.  

The shiny letters are some dome stickers with mirror backs, which I have had for ages.  They reminded me of bubbles - or water balls - so I used them. 

I made the film-strip photo mounts, by cutting rectangles from a strip of cardstock and using a great little edging punch that I have.  (It's also fab for threading ribbon through - see this page here!)

I mounted the large photo and title cut-out on foam pads, of two different thicknesses, to add a bit of extra dimension and interest to the page.  I think it worked ok!

Overall, I'm really pleased with my "makes" this week.  Two great books and a scrap page, all for J!  (I also made a photo album for a customer, but more on this another time)

Bloggers' Crafting Weekend - We Are Going!

Woo-Hoo!  It's all booked and paid for!  I just came off the phone to the YHA at Coalport and I have confirmed our booking, for seven beds, two nights, breakfast on Saturday & Sunday, dinners on Friday & Saturday, plus use of the classroom for our crafts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.   The confirmation Invoice/Receipt arrived by e-mail a minute ago. 

We are Going! 

For anyone who would still like to sign up.  It will probably be possible to book more beds etc, as the hostel is rarely busy in November. I will happily contact the office and check availability.  Cost will still be £63.40 and I will organise your booking for you, if you send me your pennies (well pounds!).   Don't leave it too long though... just in case! 

The More the Merrier!

Bloggers' Crafting Weekend - Update

Dear Everyone,

I have just sent out a batch of Paypal invoices, to the people who said they would like to come to the Bloggers' Crafting Weekend in November.

If you are one of those ladies, please login and check you have received your invoice.  If it hasn't arrived, give me a shout, as I do need to have your payment by tomorrow night (so if there's been an error, we need to sort it out!).

To anyone else who'd like to come along - we would Love to have you there!

See  my original post, here, for the full details of the weekend, the cost etc...

Do get in touch (e-mail me - lizziemade (at) aol (dot) com - or Jo - josowerby (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk ).  

 

Just so you all know!

Lizzie

xx

Just a Reminder, or in case you Missed It!

Hello again all Blog Friends!

Just to remind you about This Post, which I wrote last Friday! 

It's about this:

Do go and read it - we'd love to welcome you on 25th November!

Lizzie and Jo

Invitation: Bloggers' Crafting Weekend in November!

Dear Blog Friends,

For such a long time, we have all been blogging, following each others' blogs, chatting, e-mailing - even phoning each other, or occasionally meeting one or other of our "Blog Friends" when we happen to be nearby... 
But, wouldn't it be great, if we could all meet up some time?  Now, it may not be practical for those on the other side of the Atlantic, or "Down Under", to make it to the UK, but for anyone who's a bit closer and may be able to find a spare weekend....

Jo and I would like to invite you to a Bloggers' Crafting Weekend.
 
Where/When?

It will be held at the YHA hostel in Coalport, Ironbridge, Shropshire. 

The dates are Friday 25th November (around lunchtime), to Sunday 27th November (till tea-time if you want!). 

The Basics

We can offer you a comfy, clean bed at the hostel, for the Friday and Saturday nights, in 4-bedded rooms, shared with others from our group.  We would use the hostel's general showers and loos - from experience, YHA hostels are always kept clean!

The hostel will provide us with Friday and Saturday's Dinners and our breakfasts on Saturday and Sunday.  The meals are supposed to be very nice and dinner is 3 courses.  (My personal experience of YHA catering is that it was really quite good, though I've never stayed at Coalport hostel).

We will have our own Craft Room (aka the hostel's classroom), for the three days, from Friday to Sunday, where we can meet up, do some crafting stuff - bring your own pet projects, maybe have a bookbinding mini-workshop, chat, drink tea/coffee, eat cake... just have a good time together. 

Extra Info

Afternoon Out
We thought it might be nice to arrange a trip out, to a local museum or other attraction(s), since we'll be at Ironbridge and also right next to all the old potteries etc.  Crafting 24/7 might be a bit much, so perhaps a change of scenery would be fun?  We can look at possibilities and make more plans on this a bit closer to the weekend. If anyone has a favourite, feel free to let us know!

Lunches
We will probably ask each person to contribute something towards our lunches, since we're not asking the hostel to do these (they would give us packed lunches - I think we could enjoy a "bring-and-share" type of lunch each day, or even get our lunch out on Saturday... anyway, we can do better than a "packed lunch"!).

The Money and Stuff

How do you organise your "place" at this amazing weekend? And won't it cost a lot of money?

Well, I contacted the hostel and have provisionally made a booking, for 6 - 8 people, plus the classroom.  This is being held for me until next Friday (23rd September), when I will need to Pay for It!!
I'm happy to pay up-front initially, but would obviously like to recoup my costs (no profit will be made by me!). 

Price
The cost of 2 nights, half-board - as above - with use of our Craft Room from Friday lunchtime, will be £63.40. 
If you are a YHA Member, please take your Membership Card with you, so that you can show it when you check in... 
Non-Members will pay a £3 per night supplement (meaning you will need to give the hostel an additional £6 when you check in).  This seems the easiest way to deal with the issue of who is/is not a member. 

Any Extra Costs?
The only additional costs would be for trips out, extra meals, shopping etc...  Also, if you would like to join in with a bookbinding session (if I can set it up), I'd ask for the cost price of any materials I supplied you (again, no profit for me, but I'd like to cover my costs). 

* * *

Hopefully you will all think this is amazingly great and brilliant value, for a whole weekend of Meeting Friends, Gossip, Fun and potential Scrapping and Crafting Opportunities!  

It would be great if I needed to ask the hostel for another room, when I call on Friday to confirm our booking! 

What Now?

To Reserve Your Place, please e-mail either me (lizziemade /at/ aol/ dot/ com), or Jo (josowerby / at/ yahoo / dot/ co/ dot/ uk), with your personal details (your "real name", address, phone no  - in case of queries/emergency), also your Paypal account e-mail, if you want me to invoice you from Paypal; otherwise I will contact you to tell you where to post a cheque. 

I'm afraid full payment will be needed up-front - £63.40 - as I will pay for the whole "block" booking at once (which will be around £380-£400 for me). 

* * *

Also, if you think you might fancy some sort of mini-workshop on Bookbinding, please say so - and whether there's something you'd especially like to learn. If I can, I will organise something - and if you want to join in, then you'd be welcome.

* * *
When you e-mail - or later on, if you want - you could give us some idea of how you will travel to Coalport. 

• If you come by car, there is parking available for you at the hostel.
• If you are using public transport, there's a rail station and a bus/coach station at Telford, which is nearby - we may be able to arrange some sort of "Group Taxi" to meet folks arriving at Telford on the Friday.  Otherwise, the hostel website gives details of local transport facilities.
• And if you're coming by car and think you can pick up a blog-friend on your way, please mention it - they may be happy to lift-share!!  

This is not essential, especially right now, but if you would like a lift from Telford, it would be good to know in advance, so we can see if we can help.

* * *

Well, I think that covers it.... Shout if I missed anything essential!  Do feel free to e-mail, if you have any queries at all. 

Lizzie and Jo!

Fun on Fursday 6 - the Scrap-page Version

What with summer holidays, bookbinding projects etc, I've neglected my "regular" Fun On Fursday slot... In fact, it's been about three months since I posted anything...

So, as the news from the Turtle pool has been rather dreadful the last few days (but an improvement at last report) and as we could all do with smiling a little, here's a scrapbook page I made on Sunday, just for fun, because I loved those photos:

This was at my little Great-Niece's Christening Day party, back in March.  All the kids had a go on the bouncy castle - even the babies (under supervision!).  Little E. was two-and-a-half, but she's so brave; she was up there with the other little kids, bouncing for all she was worth.  J and his cousins had a great time too, doing flips, rolling around, bouncing as high as they could etc. They just had the best time and it makes me smile to look at this photos.

Supplies: Pale blue cardstock is Bazzill Basics, stripey paper by Cosmo Cricket, blue-grey matting paper by My Minds Eye (BellaBella range), fun stickers by Me & My Big Ideas (from that fab Counterfeit Challenge Kit I won in Susanne's blog prize-draw), red & black newsprint letter stickers by Jenni Bowlin, orange letter stickers by Sassafrass, handwriting by me! 

A quick and simple page, but it makes me smile and I hope it will bring you a smile too!

Oh, and speaking of Deb Turtle and things that make me smile... This post was about an event that definitely made me smile a lot!  And it was all thanks to our lovely Deb!

Busy In the Garden!

We've all been busy here over the last week - lots going on. 

DS went back to school last Wednesday - or rather, he went to school, but not "back", since he started at his new Upper School.  When I get organised and catch him a) awake and b) still in uniform, I'll take a photo!

Then at the weekend, D and J were very busy in the garden:

A couple of weeks ago, DH and my niece's husband set up this garden arch, which we had bought (as our "Anniversary Present"). 

There used to be a shrub in that gap, but it got ideas above its station and made a bid to take over the border, so it had to come out - leaving a big space, just right for an arch. 

The archway looked a bit bare and we planned a path through it, to the play area on the other side, plus plants climbing up its sides and over the top. 

We bought some round, flat stones, to lay across the lawn and through the archway.  On Saturday morning, Mr LizzieMade and J. started planning the path.

Several ideas were tried, until we found something we all liked.

Mr LizzieMade removed the turf and dug out the holes for the stones...

He worked very hard to lay the stepping stones...

...under strict supervision, of course.

By mid-afternoon, he had laid the stones and started to dig out the large rectangle for the path under the arch.  It started raining - I think he was probably relieved to have a rest!

 Meanwhile, J worked hard to measure out the area of the path and plan the layout...

The edges were defined with cobble stones and the gaps filled with pebbles...

... of course, J. needed supervision also.

So, by the end of Saturday, we had a great little stepping-stone path across the grass and a Plan for under the archway.

On Sunday, I went out for the day, to Scrap Club.

This is what it looked like when I left...

...and this is what I saw when I got home at 4pm!

I think it's great! Well done to D. and J. for a job really well done!

Of course, they had a lot of help...