Little monster!

My youngest grandson loves Moshi monsters so when I picked him up from school and the usual question came up -"Are we crafting today Gran?" I told him we were going to do something different but "yes we we were crafting!" I had taken my needle felting bag with me, he chose his favourite monster and we cut out some felt and looked for wooltops in an appropriate colour. He is only 6(and 3/4!)but managed amazing well after having 'the safety talk' - mind your fingers etc. 

We did use my little holding tool for starting off but once he got going as you can see he did quite well


We then came up with a combined effort of an imaginary monster which he stuck to the fridge with a pair of magnets as soon as I had photographed it!

                     Cute huh?


On Wednesday my other grandchildrens' school closed for the strike so I had a lovely day with them too! My eldest grandson loves playing football on the WII(he has to have a time limit or I think he would do nothing else all day!!)so of course it was challenge Gran time - I lost count of the number of own goals I scored lol!
My grand-daughter was able to play with my new toy. 

I had bought her a child's version a while ago but she couldn't manage it(having tried it myself I'm not surprised) but this one she managed quite well, with a bit of help!It makes the most fantastic thick tubes! 
I had some lovely fluffy wool with rainbow colours through it so we made two bracelets on to which I then sewed coloured buttons (she was quite fussy about the choice of colours too)

I only took one photo but they were very similar. She wore them with pride when we picked Daddy up to go out for some tea!
 So....today - get on with making some presents, but what an awful grey light and rain pounding outside, might need chocolate as well....


Thanks for looking, Chris.

Morning Has Broken..

I love listening to the birds in the morning and this journal page just seemed to fit with the background I prepared some time ago, I just added some mop up paper towel, then used yet another(clean) paper towel to add some 'snowcap' paint dabber for clouds and then turned the paper towel around and dabbed 'lettuce' through a piece of lace to make a couple of bushes. I drew the tree, birds and birdhouse with Tombow pens.

I have also made some more of these.....

At the weekend we were planning to go to a Food and Craft show at Dalemaine House but when we got there it had been cancelled! Never mind...just down the road was the Alpaca Centre, smiley little things they are! Ooh! and guess what? They had this HUGE bag of clippings! Great for needle felting! Gorgeous subtle colours!

the tissue box may give you an idea of the size of the bag

We had a lunch in the Rhegged Centre then on to have  wander around Penrith, a lovely town if a bit sprawling. Walking down by the church I spied a craft shop(Penrith Crafts) - fantastic - small but very well stocked so bought myself some more Claudine Helmuth stickybacked canvas and multi medium matte gel...thought that was it, but the owner was so enthusiastic about a new product she had in that I just had to have some - haven't tried it yet, so looking forward to that today.

On the way home we decided to go to Shap Abbey, so pleased that we did. No one else around, we got a real feel of the isolation of the place, up a winding path then round to the front of the abbey which was huge, although ruined (thanks to Henry Vlll!)A lot of the original stone had been taken for building farm buildings in the nearby area but English Heritage have put signs around and you can imagine just how busy a place it must have been!

The weather stayed fine so we still had a lovely day, 

we did wonder what weather we were going to have when this was our view on Friday night!!

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments, 

Chris

Little strips

I'm still enjoying my needle felting,

although I have been making a couple of cards and playing in my journals. A few weeks ago I bought a bag of felt bits from Abakan in Manchester, some were quite big pieces, but some were just little strips.

Thought they might come in handy for leaves etc. but then started playing...

I've since made ten of these strips in different colours and I'll show you them when I've "done" something with them.


We had a lovely time in the sun at the weekend. I was treated to lunch at the Midland Hotel in Morecambe, then 'found' a new cafe/gift/fabric shop in a side street called Warehouse 13 and bought some lovely lace. 
On Sunday we went to Fairfield Mill in Sedburgh, such inspiring work, will have to go back midweek sometime though as none of the artists were in their workshops.There is such a range there... textiles, photography, paintings, sculptures, mixed media, the list goes on...well worth a visit if you are up in the Lake District and the views around the area are breathtaking!
From there we went to Hawes and had afternoon tea at the Wensleydale Creamery mmmm....

On the way to Hawes-just had to stop!

When we arrived on Friday evening we saw this little scene at about seven o'clock, 

I was immediately transported back about 54 years..whenever I've seen tractors mowing hay or modern hay bales in black plastic it has meant little to me, but to see this scene took me back to the days when haymaking in the farming area I grew up in was a social affair involving children and neighbours.

The next morning at six o'clock this is all that was left.

We also saw some spectacular skies 

My lovely hubby laughs at me sometimes because, in his words, I have a "soppy grin" on my face when I stand at the door just looking out at such things but I am just appreciating how lucky we are! 

Thanks for dropping by, Chris.

Whoosh!

What a start to the week! Ooops! it's Wednesday already! Hubby back to work, I spent Monday getting things straight(ish!)and doing some needle felting(surprise, surprise)

I've still got to finish these!

Yesterday I went off to Sale to do some Encaustic art with Tina and Jo. I've never done this before and I really enjoyed myself(no pics yet- camera battery dead)

Afterwards Nicola and I met up with Sarah at the Bean and Brush for lunch -yummy fishfinger sandwiches!!

Picked Hubby up from work and went off to the Trafford Centre where I got a bargain linen shirt which by using some vouchers only cost me £2!!!

At the weekend we met up with one of my sons and two of our granchildren at Dunham Park near Altrincham.

the deer were very close

these lilies were at their best!

I think we were lucky to see them!

Beautiful!!

 Aliens??!!

They have also put in a fantastic little vegetable garden next to the Orangery.

With watering cans so that children can water the garden! My grandaughter loved it!

It was a lovely day and we finished by feeding the ducks!

Thanks for looking, Chris

I just can't stop...

playing with my needle felting! I went over to Paddy's Stamping Place the other day for more supplies as the colour range I had was limited (couldn't resist some new stamps though)and came home and made this

 and this

Paddy is having a closing down sale at the moment too, with some things on on offer at 25% off and a lot at 50% off. It may be good idea to ring and check opening hours before you go if you are travelling a distance, but there are still bargains to be had and she is hoping to clear a lot more stock. Her number is on her blog here.


I went out with friends last night, we have known each other since our children were babes, and we try to meet up every few weeks for  a meal and a chat. I thought it would be nice to take them a little surprise so I made them these

Margaret has two sailors in her life

I think they liked them...

I had a bit of trauma getting there as I had dropped in to my youngest son's with his partner's birthday card.When I came out I went up to the main road to get to the motorway, got into a wrong lane and had to turn right down a road that seemed familiar so thought I would be ok. Nope! driving along realised it wasn't familiar at all. Anyone sensible would have turned round and gone back but not yours truly:( I battled on till I did find something familiar, but it was so far out of the way, totally wrong direction and it took me ages to get on my way...consequently, late again.... fortunately there had been a mix up with their order so I arrived in time to put my order in with theirs! We all had a great time with lots to catch up on despite only having met up five weeks ago!

Here is the card that caused my downfall LOL

The little sweet jars are recycled wrapping paper, put on to my computer and then onto printable shrink plastic.He is doing well with his weight loss so I thought a little treat like this would be the best way!! He loved it, thank goodness! I used Print shop to make the little birthday banner.

Right off to pick up my new posh specs and then packing before picking up our eldest grandson!

Have a lovely weekend, thanks for looking, Chris.

MIXED BAG!

Where shall I start? We went away last weekend, so relaxing! Took a couple of journals and my new needle felting kit (more later) and also did loads of gardening. Everything seemed to have died off... until we cleared the weeds and cut the hedge back(this can be done for us but because I have unearthed four(yes four!) Hydrangeas in the hedge over the past 2 years I prefer to do it myself and just leave the tops to be cut)Seeds are coming up and we have bought some new plants and I think this year could be the best year yet. 

Mr and Mrs Duck came to help, Mr Duck liked paddling where we watered and Mrs Duck helped herself to a drink from the drip tray under a pot.

This pot is outside our bedroom window, where this lovely stump sits, surrounded  by weeds and I like to keep it fairly wild around there for the insects and birds.

Behind it is this view....and a little to the right...this

Lighting is different as first was early morning and last was evening.

We were lucky to see this tender scene over the road one evening.

So,what did I do with my needle felting?

and then added beads when I got home.

Oops! yes it is the same piece!

I also did this

I had a picture in my small journal that I put in ages ago when I first wanted to have a go at needle felting.

Not quite, but I'm happy enough with it.

We both felt very relaxed when we came back..then I had to go for my dreaded retinopathy screening. If ever you have had one you know what I mean when I say that the eye drops feel like a thousand needles have been shoved in your eyes. 

Still, two days later we went off to the Cubby Hole in Crewe for Sarah's Art of Moodling exhibition preview. That girl is so talented, such a range of artwork! See her pictures here,(includes a pic of my hubby who was persuaded to "have a go" at a communal piece)

So how to top that? Well, my son's ex-partner has gone 'mobile' so I had my hair cut at home and she brought my grandson over. He loves to craft and I just happened to have finally got my hands on some of Lindsay Mason's new stamps - 'I dreamed of castles' and 'Hoist the flags' so I gave him paper, stamps, ink and crayons and away he went...

He found he could make the castle bigger by adding to it with the smaller stamps - how clever! Here he is adding some trees that I got from Circa designs bargain box at Port Sunlight.His stamping technique is really coming on - not a single smudge!(obviously hasn't inherited the pearshaped way he!he!)

Finally (phew!)my other two grandchildren came yesterday and both had a go at needle felting and guess what - silly Gran forgot to take photos. Will have to see if I can get a photo next week.

Well, if you are still here, thanks for looking. I look forward to any comments you care to make and will be back soon with more of what I'm doing today.

Chris