A Day Out!

This post is a bit late, but I wanted to write about a lovely day out that I had on July 2nd.

A few weeks ago, I received an invitation, as a blog writer, to attend the Press Event for the release of the new Autumn/Winter/Christmas items from Rex London (DotComGiftShop).

If you've been a follower of my blog for a while, you may remember this post about bunting, which Rex London (DotComGiftShop) sent me, with a request to review it on my blog.  I'd been a fan of their lovely retro-feel bits and bobs for some time (see also this post from 2009!) and responded to a call for submissions from blogs, when they were compiling a list of favourite blogs that they had found.  
 

Anyway... It seems that they kept my blog on their list of favourites, because I received an invitation to attend the Event and bring a friend.  The Press Event was in London, so I set off in the train and met Keri-Anne at Euston Station, where she had arrived on her train.  

We walked down to the gallery where Rex London (DotComGiftShop) were holding their event and were made very welcome.  

Drinks in little jars, sweets to nibble... very welcome after our walk from Euston. 

...

Then this is what we saw...

...a roomful of wonders and treasure!

There was So Much Lovely Stuff, that it would take several blog posts to show you all of it (of course, you can go to their website/shop and have a browse for yourself).  Here are some of my own favourites from the Day: 

There's a big wildlife theme going on - in various styles - and I loved these little storage suitcases, with wild birds painted on them. Who could resist? 

There was a whole range of lovely items with the wild bird designs all over.  Coasters, mugs (in lovely giftable boxes), storage tins, a tower of lovely lidded glass bowls, glasses and drinking bottles, even a flour or sugar dredger for your kitchen.  Oh, and not to forget the pretty case for my glasses... Tempted again! My favourite is the Blue Tit design - I really like blue-tits.  

Still on a wildlife theme - Rusty and Friends.  A second set of suitcases, this time with woodland creatures on them, along with a number of other goodies, including these brilliant breakfast sets in melamine.  I could cope with eating my porridge, toast and orange juice from these and I'm sure my little nieces would love them! 

Then there were some great retro-themed items: 

Kitchen timers!  

A row of adorable and gorgeous china cups, that look like old-fashioned enamelware (memories of camping, anyone?).  The red one is my favourite, though I remember my mum having a white enamel mug, with a blue-painted rim... and actually, I love all four colours.  Have been trying to think of a good excuse to buy these - perhaps an "accident" will occur with our existing mugs (all 20 or so!)?  Maybe I can find someone to gift them to next Christmas! 

Alarm Clocks! Old-style clocks, like the ones I used to have on my bedside table when I was a very little girl.  Updated now to have a battery-powered clock and a beeping alarm, instead of the old bell-alarm that I had in mine; still just as appealing and I love the colour range! 

Then there was the Japanese Design Porcelain... 

Look at these!  They draw inspiration from Japanese pottery designs, each one being different and special.  I would love to have All of them in my china cupboard.  They are just lovely... sigh... There's a Mediterranean Stoneware range too, which is also gorgeous! 

There were items to appeal to all tastes - it wasn't just "pretty things" and items for children: 

For the Bicycle Fan in your life... 

For the Dapper Gentleman... 

For the Gardener and Nature Lover....

Keri-Anne and I had a lovely time browsing the little Aladdin's Cave full of treasures. 

You can see that there were loads more things to look at - I just haven't room to tell you about all of it!  If you are interested, do go and browse their website shop - it's full of great items, for yourself or to give as gifts.  After all, there are only five months to Christmas! ;-)  

We were sent on our way with a little shopping-bag full of goodies - aren't these lovely? And look, blue-tits on a cover for my new tablet pc! 

Many thanks to Rex London (DotComGiftShop) for your invitation and hospitality.  I had a really fun time and a lovely day out.  

...

And then we had Pizza for lunch before heading back home (spot the Selfie in the mirror!).

The End. 

Scrap Club - Four Pages in One Day!

... must be a record (for Lizzie!)

Sunday was Scrap Club day.  As my title says, I managed 4 pages, which is pretty good going for me.  I tend to be slow and dreamy when scrapping, so it's not often that I manage more than 3 pages. 

I had a couple of details to finish, so I did that this afternoon, while the Gas engineer was overhauling the heating!

I used an adaptation of Shimelle's "Stash Diving" technique.  For Christmas I received a rather lovely and very thick pad of scrap papers, from my lovely Niece.  It is called "Lost and Found" by My Minds Eye.  There are a number of colourways and lots of designs, all co-ordinating beautifully.

I chose papers from three "sets", to go with a number of photos I wanted to scrap.  Then I cut pieces/strips of the papers and arranged them to make good backgrounds for my pages, using extras to mount the photos and create some embellishments. 

I have ended up with two single and one double layout; and I'm really pleased with them!  While I won't use this technique every time, it's certainly a handy starting point for creating some good pages with co-ordinating papers.

Here they are:

"Location Location Location"

The two photos are of our very favourite place, Wells-Next-the-Sea, in Norfolk.  As the journalling says, we'd love to live there, if funds and logistics would allow it.  We can't so we have to settle for frequent holiday visits. 

For those who are not familiar with "Kirsty and Phil", the title is borrowed from a popular British tv programme, where two property finders help people to locate their perfect homes. 

I cut little hearts from some scraps of the patterned papers, then used one of my small lino stamps, to make two prints, which I cut with a scalloped punch.  One was printed with a soft turquoise ink, the other with a much brighter shade, so I layered them, with the bright one raised on foam sticky-pads.

* * *

"Play Your Happy Music"

James loves his guitar - possibly more than he loves Sherlock!  He plays it every day and composes his own music.  His tunes are always "happy" and I love to hear him play.  It makes me smile! 

Recently I had a "proud mummy moment", when he played in a local fund-raising concert, at the church in a nearby village.  His friend, A,  got the concert started and his mum helped to organise it.  They did a fantastic job, arranging for the local middle school to bring their choir to sing and for local amateur and professional musicians to play for us.  A and another friend, M, have a band together; James joined them, with his guitar, as they sang / played two very nice songs.  James also had his own "spot", playing "Romance" by John Brunning, plus a tune he had composed himself, which he called "Spanish Armada" - it really sounds very Spanish and is a good, stirring piece, which he plays very well.  The concert raised a good bit of money - over £700 - which was split between the church fund and a charity nominated by A & his family.  We were all very proud of our boys!

The photo on this layout isn't from the concert, but it is James practicing.  We weren't allowed to take photos during the concert, however I know that A's mum did take one of James - I must ask her for a copy of it!

* * *

"Oh for a Book - and a Shady Nook"

Little E. loves to read her story books.  Keri-Anne took these wonderful photos of her reading and drawing. I think they are so lovely and just had to make a layout with them.  It ended up being a double-page layout, as I didn't want to separate them. 

I chose the large letters to emphasise the "Oh" and "Book", as I wanted to have a good "stand-out" title, but obviously couldn't make all words equally large.  This worked really well, with the two "speech marks" and the little pink letters for the rest of the quote.  I wrote the name and dates in grey pen, underneath the quote.  I used my new heart border punch to make some little trims for the title boxes, then cut larger hearts and some butterflies, to embellish little corners of the photos etc.  The cut-out hearts from the edging punch made great "confetti" to decorate the journalling box.  I haven't written any journalling - I think I will ask Keri-Anne to help me with that.

The photo isn't very good - in fact, none of the photos are good, as the light was very poor this afternoon.  You'll just have to believe that these pages look much nicer "in real life"!

* * *

My other Project this weekend, was to have another go at tidying and organising my Studio.  I didn't get it all done - there is still a lot to do - but I made some progress:

I put the folding table under the window.  It had been cluttering up the middle of the room, in the way of the white desk and shelves.  Now the room feels enormous! 

It's hard to see, but there is now an extra shelf at the bottom of the unit.  I had a big stack of paper on the bottom shelf, which was too difficult to get into.  Whenever I needed something, I had to lift out all the paper, so I could get at what I wanted; I had cleared the second shelf from the bottom (the one that's visible, without much on it now) and put half the paper storage on that.  However, the shelf has a big space above it, which wasn't being used.  We have added an "in-between" shelf, so my paper can all be stored on two shelves, but I now have the tall space back, to use for boxes etc.  Still need to sort it out, but I'll get there soon! 

I did tidy my desk and table, but the mess crept back onto them very speedily - especially when I got lots of stuff out, to get ready for Scrap Club!

* * *

The other thing I did on Saturday afternoon:

"Midsummer", by Mariann Johansen-Ellis - a lino reduction print.

I've had this print, which I bought from Mariann, since June 2010. 

It had been languishing in a folder, shamefully neglected, along with all my other prints. 

I finally got it framed up and mounted on the wall, above my white desk (spot the reflections)!  

And I was fed-up with having all the lovely art prints I'd collected, sitting in a folder, waiting for me to save up for frames and mounts.  So, I cut some pieces of white and black card, then mounted them with invisible photo-corners (so I didn't damage them).  Then I attached them all to the wall behind my desk.  I think they look fabulous!

On the left are three wonderful photographs, by my very talented niece, Keri-Anne Pink. 

There are prints here by four artists. 

Top left: Three Cat Lino Prints, Lori Dean-Dyment; Below: "Dandelions", Nina Moscrip (was Clough); 

Bottom Left and also the other bird prints along the bottom row: Amanda Colville;

Top of the middle section - the deep blue owl print - "Night Flight", Celia Hart. 

To the right, next to my poster: "Old Books" reduction lino print, Jennifer Bass; 

details of two prints by John W. Golden. 

The other four prints?  Well, they are my own work and I thought I really should put them up on my own wall!  They are "Reflection" - a three-colour lino reduction print; "Spanish Lemons" - a four-colour lino reduction; the central one, below the clock, is a drypoint etching, "Lace Birds", which I did on my printmaking course at Knuston.  At the top right is a collograph print, which I also did at Knuston; it's not fabulous, but it's not awful either and I like it, so there it is!!

And that is my new Art Wall, that I have been threatening to make for about two years!

So, I think I achieved something this weekend.  Quite pleased with myself!

Pass The Page Blog Hop

Hello all Blog Friends,

The fabulous Julie, of Letting The Days Roll By (who I was lucky enough to meet at our Bloggers' Crafting Weekend last November!), came up with a really clever idea for a blog hop,  waaaaay back in September, to celebrate her up-coming birthday.  She thought it would be fun to have a game of "Pass the Page", so asked for people to sign up and join in.

Three months later, here we are, at the end of our list...  Everyone has had their starting-point picture (the previous person's page) and has created their own scrap page, using the photo as inspiration.  It seems ages since I did mine....

Here's a full list of people who are participating (Helen of Beacon Crafts doesn't have a blog yet, so she is a Guest on my post today!) :

Candace: wannabescrapbookaddict

Lea: finallyscrappin

Helen at Beacon Crafts in Sedgley
Lizzie: lizziemade (you're here now!)

Sian: fromhighinthesky

Clair: obstinatepursuit

Helen: craftimperfect

Alison: llife in the slow lane

Ginger: gingerslifeofspice

Jemma: Just-Jimjams

Lisa-Jane: Inside My Head

Deb Clark: Debisjoy

Alexa: trimming the sails

If you get lost - or if you've come in at my blog and want to follow from the beginning - go back to Julie's blog, or use the list above to find your place.

I have heard rumours of a prize draw, for those who have managed to complete the whole "Hop", leaving a comment at each page, so it's worth doing the thing properly!

If you are following the Blog Hop, you should have arrived here from Lea's blog. 

* * *

Helen's Page

I loved the bright colours on Lea's page, it was quite a busy design - not my style at all but none the less I liked it! 

 

I loved the flowers and bunting on Lea's so I decided to go with that.

I used one of my favourite photos which I had been meaning to scrap for ages !

I've loved taking part in pass the page and I can't wait to see all the finished results!

* * *

Lizzie's Page (that's me!)

The photo is my baby great niece, who was 7 months old. 

I made myself a "Scrapping Kit" from various papers and cardstock, which went with two die-cut circles that I had. Then I found this photo in my recent set from Photobox.

It just seemed to go well with the die cut and papers - and I already had the 2 crochet flowers, so I made this!

I am so pleased with it - it was very hard not to publish it on my blog for months!! I had to send a photo to my niece, with strict instructions to not publish it anywhere. 
  

The Materials:

Brown Cardstock - Do-Crafts, Die-Cut Circle "Truffles & Trees" - MLS, card for photo mat & patterned paper - K & Co., lettering - Sassafrass and Jenni Bowlin.
Concertina flower and crochet flowers - home-made, vintage buttons from my collection.

* * *

Thanks for visiting to see Helen's and My pages.  Your next stop is Sian, who makes such fabulous pages - I'm sure you are in for a treat and can't wait to see what she did with her photo of my page!

Pat A Cake, Pat A Cake, Baker Girl!

I made a nice page on Sunday.  I was so pleased with the "photo strip" effect on the page in this post, that I used it again. Almost the same template for the layout too - just an extra big photo, rather than the vertical photo-strip.

Pat A Cake - My little great niece's first attempt at making scones. 

Apart from weighing the ingredients and being shown the "rubbing in the butter" part, she did these all by herself.

They tasted great - I know because she saved one specially for "Auntie"! I ate it with some of the jam that me & Keri-Anne made together.

I used a little bunting stamp, and a plate of buns stamp, which I coloured with pastel marker pens.

I raised the stamped images (and the photo of the plate of scones) on foam pads, to give a bit of dimension and interest.

Quite pleased with this page. And it shows you can do a "girly page" without using pink paper!

A Day of Sewing

Yesterday I spent the day at my niece's house, helping her learn to use her new sewing machine.

Grandma bought Keri-Anne a lovely sewing machine as a birthday present, as she has wanted to make clothes for herself and the babies, for a long time.
I bought her a couple of excellent sewing books as well, so she was well equipped with information and tools, but not with experience! Sometimes you just can't learn something from a book - you have to have someone there to show you and help you make sense of it all.

So, we got out the books and sewing equipment, went to buy a piece of suitable fabric and settled down for a day's stitching.

Big Girl was at nursery, but Little Girl was supervising....

though it was a busy day at the office... lots to do!  When she was tired of her job, Little Girl (who is, after all, only 4 months old) had a nice break, lying on her play mat and playing with her toys, then watching her favourite "Baby TV" channel for a little while, before having a snack and a hard-earned snooze.

We traced, prepared and cut out our pattern, then cut it out of the fabric.  Then we got the sewing machine out of its box and set it up, learning the names of the various parts, checking tensions, stitch lengths, needle size etc.  We wound a bobbin with white cotton and threaded up the machine.  Then Keri-Anne stitched her First Seam!

The machine has a handy storage box, which slides on and off, doubling as a "flat bed" for straight seams, but allowing you to have a "free arm" setting on the machine as well.  It's such a clever idea.  All the bits and pieces - like bobbins, spare needles, screw-driver, stitch unpicker, spool holders etc - are held in the box and kept with the machine. 

But you can still get the leg of those bloomers round the base of the machine, so you can stitch the hem and add elasticated thread along the bottom! 

(I actually covet this sewing machine - it has more features than mine and is super-nice! It also weighs about half mine, which would make it much easier to lift onto my table/desk... Still, mine is a Family Heirloom, so I am happy to have it and I don't use it enough - currently at least - to give me an excuse to waste money on a new replacement.)

By the time Big Girl was home from nursery and I had to go home, we had got a long way.  This picture shows the little bloomers before the elastic was stitched round the legs, or the casing was pinned, ready for the elastic at the waist.  That was the situation when I went home.  Keri-Anne had a good, clear set of instructions in her book, which she could follow to complete the bloomers during the evening.

And She Did!

Her Big Girl wore her lovely new bloomers today - don't they look fab?

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!