Thoughts from the Washing Line : Changes

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It's been a while since I've posted some Thoughts from the Washing Line.  But laundry still happens and I still stand there, hanging up my clean, damp and fresh-smelling linen, contemplating the world.  

This past week, there's been a lot of laundry - the sun has been shining, but the forecast threatens rain, so I've been washing things that I might have left until later in the week - or next week - and hanging up three or more loads a day.   It gives me plenty of time to think thoughts in the sunshine...  

Such as the way things are changing around here... 

Last Friday, this man turned seventeen. Somehow it seems a more significant birthday than last year. Seventeen seems more "grown up", perhaps more serious, than sixteen.   

James sat his GCSE exams this summer and the results came at the end of August.  He did really well and now has eight A*'s, four A's, a C (for Art which he chose as a relaxation and something different to all the academic stuff), and a Distinction (A^ - for his extra Further Maths GCSE), plus an ECDL/BTEC Computing as well.  That's a lot of qualifications...   

He started back at school a month ago and has thrown himself wholeheartedly into a busy VIth Form timetable.  He is studying five subjects to "AS" Level (A-level year 1 exams) - Maths, Further Maths, Physics, History and something called Extended Project Qualification.  

For the EPQ he must choose an area of study, research it, compile information and produce a "thing", such as a presentation, a paper, an essay, a report, a short thesis - whatever is appropriate.  It's examined at A2 Level (2nd year A-level) standard. As he had a lot of heart-searching when choosing his fourth A-level, between History and Music, he has chosen to study an area of Music for the EPQ.  

Next year, he will continue all but the EPQ to A2 Level and hopes to gain a place at university, to study Engineering. 

So, you see that maybe turning Seventeen does seem so much more significant.  He's nearly grown up. Almost A Man.  He even has a 'tache - almost -  and refuses to shave it off...  He's not always finding it easy, but he is growing up all the same and starting to look towards the world beyond school.   Time is whizzing by and I'm sure it won't seem long, before he's packing up his books, clean socks and various musical instruments and heading off to university.... Sobering thought.  

Oh yes, speaking of Musical Instruments - look what we bought a few weeks ago! 

James actually asked for a piano for his birthday - though I think it was a bit jokingly.  But we'd wanted one for so long and now we have a space for it...  Two visits to the piano shop, then it was soon delivered and we are so delighted with it!  I'm polishing up my skills again and James just seems to be a natural - he plays away as if he's been learning all his life, but he's never had a single piano lesson!  

Me and James are in love with our new pet... Dave is less impressed.  He wonders why we didn't buy an electronic piano, with a socket for ear-phones - for silent practice.  That's what he says anyway, but I notice he doesn't seem to mind much when James is tinkling away in the Music Room (formerly the "Snug", but there are nine instruments in there now...).  

It's proving a hit with visitors too - here are James and Keri-Anne last weekend, enjoying a bit of together-time.  The weekend before, we had some friends up from London and they - and their little girls - enjoyed bashing away on our piano too.  It seems that quite a few people can "play a little bit" and they're delighted to get the chance to make a bit of noise.  

The cake was a bit small for 17 candles - so a 1 and a 7 were found, lit and duly "huffed" upon...  

Happy Birthday James.  We all wish you a very successful and happy eighteenth year! 

And, now that James is in VIth Form, with no more black-trousers-and-blazer school uniform, the laundry I hang out these sunny days is a lot more colourful than it used to be! 

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)

A Lovely Weekend

I'm a spoiled person... this weekend has been so lovely and I've had two great (early!) birthday presents, to make it even nicer.
Yesterday we went to spend the day with my niece, Keri-Anne, and her little family.  G. had to go to work, so we only saw him for a short while, but we shared a lovely "picnic" lunch (at the table, as it was raining!) with Keri-Anne and the little ones. 

In the afternoon, we played with the babies for a while then, once the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to shine, we went for a stroll along the canal, through the park and into the playground. 

The canal has recently been renovated, to create a marina.  Some large trees had to be taken down and they have been used to make these sculptural seats in the park - great for a bit of climbing, messing around and chatting.

A certain someone didn't feel like chatting - Let Sleeping Babies Lie!

Little swings and Big Roundabouts...

...and a Great Big Swing, for friends to play on together!

I met a new little friend...

...who was happy to take a piece of cereal bar, then scamper off on his own little errands.  He wasn't at all shy and was happy to pose for his portrait.

So were we!  We don't have many photos of the three of us together, so we were really glad to pose for Keri-Anne!

* * *

Yesterday, I received this Birthday gift, from Keri-Anne & Co -

Isn't it great?  It's a fab cushion, for my Studio (when I have a sofa to put it on!).  It's so nicely made and all soft and squashy. I love it!  Look at those great big wooden button-eyes... the cute floral fabrics and the spotty bit for the face... the little scallops for the feathers.  It's wonderful!

After all that exercise and excitement,  I was ready for a good sleep...

I was woken by my DH and DS, with breakfast in bed, plus cards and a Birthday present. We decided to celebrate my birthday today, since DH will be working on Wednesday and will be very late home.

This is what was in my surprise present:

Wow!  I am SO spoiled!  I didn't ask for a Kindle at all... I wasn't even quite sure whether I'd like one, although I have followed the blog debates about them for a while now.  Several bloggers I follow have made very interesting posts about their electronic books and what they think of them.  I originally thought I didn't want one at all - I love Real Books - after all, I do make them!   However, recently I've been borrowing DH's i-Pod Touch, to read books during the night, when I can't sleep; I do like this and have been sort-of mulling over the idea of having my own electronic book, of some kind. 

And now I have one! I have my own Kindle.  It is a 3G & Wi-fi version, which will let me browse the Net as well as buying books online etc.  I'm impressed by how clear the screen is, though the keypad is a bit clumsy (especially to someone who's become used to a touch-screen on an i-Pod). I was also surprised to find the screen is entirely monochrome.... just Black on White... with bits of grey... No colour.  Hmmm... I think that will take a bit of getting used to.  Browsing in B&W is an interesting experience.  But then, this isn't designed to take the place of my very nice lap-top pc.  Any browsing I do, will be just reading blogs, or checking on my Etsy shop, to make sure there's nothing urgent to deal with; or choosing nice, shiny new e-books to read!!  

I've already assembled a small library, all ready to read.  I have found a lot of free versions of various Classics; recent books - and a number of very popular classics too - can cost a fair bit to buy.  I'm not sure if I'm prepared to pay £11 for an omnibus edition of something, in an electronic copy, when I can probably buy a paper version more cheaply anyway.  I still love real books and that isn't likely to change.  But I can see that my wonderful new Kindle will come in very handy, especially when I'm out and about, or on holiday!

I am a very lucky blogger today!

Peacocks, Posies, Cards and Cats!

Update!

Just to complete the story of the Peacock Wedding Album, I posted it yesterday, in a special presentation/storage box:

I had a large, plain white box with acetate lid, which I covered with deep blue mulberry paper. 

The inside dimensions of the box were a tiny bit larger than the book - quite handy really, as I was able to add some extra support and protection for the book, by covering cork strips with mulberry tissue, fixing them round the inside of the box and covering them at the same time as the rest of the box, so it was all "fitted" and matching inside. 

I wrapped the book in blue tissue, added a bit of decoration and put the lid on (acetate does not photograph well, so I haven't bothered with that picture!).

Then I wrapped the whole thing in my shop colours - white tissue, wine-red ribbon - packed it in a pizza box, took it to the post office and sent it off to its new home.  I'm waiting to hear that it arrived safely and what the customer thinks of it!

* * *

Things I Also Made:

Inspired by a recent post from the fabulous Alexa, I made this "home made scrapbook paper":

A hand stamped and coloured page border.

This was so simple to do. I cut a sheet of plain white paper to 10" square, then attached it to a sheet of smooth white cardstock, using re-positionable adhesive (note, the "repositionable" adhesive rollers don't always come off cleanly - there are now little sticky bits on my cardstock!! I would recommend the spray adhesive available for craft projects, even though it's more expensive).

I then used an assortment of stamps, with a waterproof black ink pad (like Stazon etc), to stamp a selection of designs around the edge of the paper, letting it overlap onto the scrap paper in the middle. Once it was finished, I peeled away the scrap paper, to leave the stamped border. I didn't worry too much if the stamps overlapped each other, as I wanted the design to fill the edge nicely.

I coloured the stamped outlines with watercolour pencils, then used a small brush and a little water, to blend the colours together. As I coloured, I decided which of any overlapping images would be the "top" picture, then coloured the overlap in those colours, letting the "underneath" image remain just an outline.

Closeup view of a corner.

It really worked very well and I'm so pleased with the result.  Thanks to Alexa for her great tips.  If you haven't been to view her post, I suggest you do - she took this one stage further and hand-doodled on her page as well.  It looked stunning!

* * *

It's my MIL's 70th birthday tomorrow and we're off to her party.  I made her a birthday card:

It's A4 (Letter) sized, the papers are from the "Bella Belleza" collection by Bella Blvd - one of my favourites (I may cry when I finally run out of this paper!). 

I cut the paper to size and left a tab, that I creased and folded round the back of the A4 card that I used as a base.  Once I had finished assembling everything, I stuck the decorated paper to the card and fastened the tab round the back - the card is nice and stable and it looks as if the whole thing is made from this pink scrapbook paper (which wasn't big enough for a whole A4 card, since that would need a piece of card 42cm wide and 30cm high).

  

I used a craft knife to cut round parts of the flowers and butterflies on the patterned paper, then lifted the petals/ wings up and curled them slightly.  I used Stickles to decorate them and give them some sparkle.

  

I attached fabric flowers at the top and bottom corners, using a selection of brads, then added a bit more interest with Stickles.

My DH is happy with this and I think it's rather pretty.  MIL will like it, as she loves butterflies!

* * *

Speaking of Card Making and Crafting, a new UK magazine came out yesterday, from Practical Publishing.  It's called "Simply Homemade" and is aimed at people (women really I suppose!), who like making stuff.

DH has just come home and given me Issue 1, which I'm about to read voraciously from cover to cover!  It looks great and came with a free set of clear stamps, called "Molly Blooms, designed by Clare" - they are so cute! Also there is a great booklet of papers for crafting, on the theme of family and home. The designs are in browns, golden and blues, on a "cross stitch" theme. These also look fab!

There are articles on cooking, knitting, handcrafts, homeware, papercrafts, making things from fabric and felt, soap making, stencilling... There is also going to be a regular feature page, called "Found On...", which will showcase online sellers.  This month's features four shops on Folksy.com (a UK-based online marketing site, similar to Etsy).  They all offer lovely items crafted from fabrics or yarn and I will be hopping over there some time very soon, to see what these shops have to offer.  Next month, they will feature shops from Etsy.  Guess which Blogger You Know Well is having her Etsy Shop featured? Can't guess? You will have to wait til March to find out!  (Here's a clue, I'm very excited about this!).

* * *

And Finally....

DS learned on Wednesday, that not all cats like cuddles:

He always hugs Sherlock when he's going out, but my niece's cat wasn't too happy about this form of "Goodbye".  She swung a paw in panic and her claw caught his right eyelid and the outer corner of his eye (luckily it was no further across!).  He has developed a lovely "shiner"!