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I am still working on my mystery project so I can’t show you my desk as it is at the moment, but on Monday I took a break from that and made a Valentine card for my hubby, and I can show you that.

I wrote in detail about it here. I followed a tutorial on Youtube for the pop-up which was very successful.

I am writing this in the small hours and my hubby has gone to bed, so he hasn’t received it yet and I can’t tell you how he likes it!

Just to keep your interest in my mystery project going, here is another sneak peak of some more background papers.

Kitties

I still haven’t had time to edit my recent videos, but here is another photo.

My hubby has been sorting through a lot of old photos and papers and sticking them into scrapbooks and this plastic box came down from his office, and as you can see, it is no longer available!

Health Update

Still no date for my operation. I am watching for a letter daily. I think the hernia is getting bigger and Kermit, my stoma, is definitely not a happy bunny. Yesterday I had to change his bag twice – I am now doing it every day, instead of twice a week which I was doing when everything was working properly. This is the only way I can keep on top of the skin irritation I’ve been getting because he keeps retracting. I am also getting some pain and discomfort from the hernia.

I’ve had a couple of bad days with my ME this week as well and have had to rest. It’s a pest because I’ve got a lot I want to do at the moment! At least things are a lot more back to normal than they were, with my hubby being much more mobile now, and using his boot less and less. He is doing his exercises and gradually building up his strength again after being inactive for so long.

Pancake Day

Yesterday was Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins. Because my hubby isn’t allowed sugar, I couldn’t cook traditional sweet pancakes, so I cooked an old favourite recipe from my favourite recipe book which I had for my 21st birthday. Chicken and walnut pancakes – deeeelicious! There were a couple of spare pancakes left over so I had these for pudding, not with lemon and sugar, but drizzled with maple syrup. They went down a treat.

I made a double quantity and the rest has gone in the freezer for another day. I also cooked enough chicken to make a chicken, bacon and pasta bake which I shall make later today – this will be suitable for the low residue diet I shall be on for a while after my operation. I’ve now cooked up quite a few dishes in readiness and the freezer is getting very full!

Did anyone else make pancakes yesterday?

An Exciting Day Coming Up

Tomorrow, I am being taken to a craft show. It’s several years since I’ve been to one, and this year I really wanted to go, but couldn’t see how it would happen if my hubby wasn’t able to drive me. I asked a friend if she was going, and she said she was, and she is taking a couple of other people as well, so we’ll be a car-full. I am so thrilled to be going, and so looking forward to it.

It’s the Craft 4 Crafters show held at Westpoint, Exeter (where they hold the Devon County Show). It’s always brilliant. I’ve been through the online list of exhibitors and made a note of the ones I particularly want to visit, and I am also making a list of things I want to pick up if I can. You often get good prices at shows, and it’s always great to see things “in the flesh,” especially if you buy most things online. I shall stock up on the basics (cardstock, double-sided tape etc.) and I also hope to get some more Distress Oxides, and maybe a few more punches and dies.

It will be a long day so today I must make sure I don’t overdo things so I’m in a good state to enjoy it to the full!

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Wow! It’s the WOYWW-ing day again! In case you don’t know what I’m on about, click on the WOYWW logo in my sidebar which will take you to our hostess Julia’s blog, where all will be explained.

Another week has gone by and I haven’t yet plugged in my new sewing machine! I did manage to do a few more rows on my knitting, though, but not enough to make an interesting photo.

Most of my time has been taken up working on my recycled mini-album which you can read about here and here, as I have now updated my blog with a couple of posts about it, slotted in in date order. I have also been working hard at the videos, and there are now 5 instalments of this project on my Youtube channel. I will be adding them to my blog when the work on the album is finished. I am now using Final Cut Pro X on my iMac, having got totally fed up with Pinnacle which kept crashing and not playing ball, and various other video editing programs I’ve tried over the years. FCP is a total dream in comparison – it just does what I want, when I want, and it is so powerful. There is loads of fabulous help online and I am now feeling very at home with it, and wished I’d made this investment years ago. It is all such fun, as well as producing outstanding results for me.

My desk isn’t looking that interesting now, but here goes anyway:

On the left you can see my iMac with FCP running. Moving to the right, the pile of white paper is copious notes and instructions gleaned from the Internet to help me achieve what I want in FCP. To the right of that is the mini-album, now with its pages painted black and the binding more or less complete. Behind it is some talc and a small bowl – I have been lightly dusting the pages with talc in an attempt to prevent them sticking together. Further right, black gesso and black acrylic paint. Just in front of these you can just see the end papers I’ve made for the album. Further right is my palette, followed by more piles of scrap paper with notes on them. These notes relate to the planning of the album and what photos I will need, etc.

Hopefully soon you will see something from my new sewing machine. In the meantime, the rest of my ARTHaven is cluttered up as usual with drying teabags! Nothing new there, I hear you say.

Have a happy and productive week, everybody, and a very happy WOYWW.

Craft 4 Crafters Show, 24th January 2013

On Thursday my dear hubby very kindly drove me over to Exeter to the Westpoint Exhibition Centre for the annual Craft 4 Crafters show. Not getting out much, unless he takes me, this was a huge treat for me, and I’d been looking forward to it for ages! I’d also arranged to meet Margaret from Blogland, and her hubby, who were down in Devon on holiday – Margaret suggested I carried a red rose so I’d be recognisable, and as I was going around, I spotted them from behind (she’d given me a couple of clues as to their appearance) and I tapped her on the back, and she turned round and saw me there with a long stemmed rose between my teeth, looked a bit blank (as well she might!) and then burst out laughing! We had a great time together, meeting for lunch.

I don’t think there were as many stands as last year, and some that were listed weren’t there, but I put this down to the snow. It’s been pretty clear down here in South and parts of East Devon, but up country it’s been much worse, and people may have been put off coming – this would probably also explain the reduced numbers of the public attending, which suited me fine as it was easier to get around and see everything.

My new wheelchair spoke guards (finished just in time for the event!) and my new floral decorations down the front frame were a great success and I lost count how many lovely positive comments I had about them, and how many smiles they generated! Blog post imminent!

Here are some photos of the day. I tried not to duplicate too many of the ones I took last year (like the wonderful display of huge quantities of glitter, and all those beads!) to provide a bit of variety.

There was a stand for Origami South West, hosted by Sean Clarke, who gave me a little private lesson on how to make an origami flower (“we don’t usually teach this on the stand as it’s a bit advanced…” – but I’m always up for a challenge and didn’t want to do anything too simple!!) – I made a reasonably successful one!

Here are some of the pictures I took of the stand.

These rings are constructed from individual modular parts which are slotted together without glue or pins. I love the interlocking rings.

The same principle applies to these beautiful panels hanging on the wall. They remind me of patchwork.

These were some floral bouquets and arrangements, with some floral panels behind.

I loved these naturalistic blossom sprays which reminded me of oriental paintings. Behind was a little tree with hanging ornaments.

Then we had some fun! Here is Sean holding an intricately-folded piece made from brown paper, which he said took him six hours to create.

Here is a little video clip I made:

I’m afraid I couldn’t resist taking more photos of Stef Francis’ stand as it’s always so colourful and her textile art pieces are so stunning.

On the Inkylicious stand, I got chatting with the lady there, and she said she’d seen my Youtube videos on how to use their Ink Dusters! I was thrilled. She said they had been too busy to upload any tutorials, and I said when I did mine, there was nothing, and because I was so pleased with them, I thought I’d be the first.

On the Storage 4 Crafts stand, I bought some Really Useful Boxes – unfortunately they didn’t have both the sizes I wanted but I got a couple of larger ones as well as the smaller ones I’d intended buying. I couldn’t get too many or they wouldn’t have fitted in the car!

I came across a stand hosted by Textures and Beyond, a group of exhibiting textile artists who don’t necessarily sell their work, but just like to exhibit as a group. This year their theme was royal blue, and the pieces had to be tall and narrow. To me, they spoke of a marine life theme. Gorgeous pieces, aren’t they.

A new one this year (at least to me!) was Marbling 4 Fun, with Craig Joubert. I knew about the normal sort of marbling, where you put oil based paints onto the surface of water and swirl them around, and then apply paper to the surface, but this was something different – the ink is water based, and you add something to the water in the tank to make it slightly gloopy so that the ink rests on the surface. The patterns you create with the ink that you drop on are a lot more controllable, and also, you can marble absolutely any kind of surface! There were examples of stone, metal, leather, paper, fabric, wood… I was so fascinated by this that I’m afraid I broke the vow I made before leaving for the show – “Whatever I see, I am NOT going to start a new craft or art form!” Really, I can’t take me anywhere… Craig popped a little marbled stone, a fabric sample and a clothes peg in with my kit.

Here is the stand.

The beautiful quilts behind were interesting.

The one in the foreground with the white background is apparently fairly new, but the large one behind is about 20 years old, and has been washed repeatedly! (I thought this was a new form of marbling, but apparently not.) You can see how controlled the patterns can be. In the following photo, of a small wall hanging, the patterns remind me of fractals.

For the first time in my experience, there was a Zentangle stand at the show! I got so excited about this, and spent some time visiting there, looking at all the gorgeous stuff she’d tangled – shoes, boxes, canvases, fabric, coasters… and all the books she had for sale, that I quite forgot to photograph any of it! Duh… Anyway, quite a few of the pieces on the stand are on her website, so you can see them there. She was doing good business selling her various kits, including one for kids, and demonstrating. It was great to see Zentangle in evidence at the show.

The NaturaLeigh stand was an interesting contrast to most of the rest of the stands which tended to be very colourful – everything was natural white in colour, and very shabby chic. They were selling natural herbal beauty products and crafty fabrics in natural fibres.

Madeleine Millington was there again with her wonderful felt creations, and dressed as usual in colours to co-ordinate with her work! She is a friend of my sister-in-law’s so I always seek her out and we had a nice chat.

Towards the end of the day I came across Jo McIntosh on her Knit One Weave One stand – she is a textile artist living in St. Ives, Cornwall. I had to stop and speak to her because her appearance was so striking and creative, with her green hair and her gorgeous bright clothing! It all shouted, “I am a true artist!” She was so friendly and lovely, and I asked her if she knew Carolyn Saxby, a mixed media artist from St. Ives, and she said she was one of her greatest friends, and they often exhibited together! Such a nice contact, and I was thrilled to have met her.

Finally, here are some pictures of some of the purchases I made – filling the gaps with colours I was missing from my distress inks etc. and one or two nice extra things too!

At the back is the very pretty bag that the yarns came in – I bought 3 different balls of yarn for my art work. Most of these are slubby (great for mixed media) and/or dip dyed and variegated, so you can cut off lengths of whatever colour you want. At the back on the left is a tag given to me by the gentleman on Ali Crafts, from whom I bought the stencil brushes and the Graphics 45 keyholes, and also the refills for my Tim Holtz blending tool.

In front are some of the Distress Stains I bought to fill the gaps in my collection, including, grouped together front left, the three new metallic ones which I am looking forward to trying. According to various Youtube videos, these blend very well with normal Distress Stains to give a beautiful metallic shimmer to the colours, and you can create great backgrounds with them. I also bought the Fall Seasonal collection of Distress Inks. Unfortunately nobody seemed to stock any of the re-inkers which I am missing but this isn’t a problem as I can get them online when necessary.

Next level down is the Origami South West information sheet, folded in an origami pattern! I did unfold it and actually managed to get it back again, folded correctly! I’ve stuck on the two flowers we made on the stand – yes, you’ve guessed it, the red one was the one I made lol! (Well, it did get a bit squashed on the way home…)

On the right is the marbling kit. You get several pots of different colours, which can be mixed, some fixing agent and the gelling agent for the water, as well as some plastic pipettes for applying the colours. In front of the box are the samples I was given when purchasing the kit – the fabric sample, stone, and clothes peg.

All these items are arranged on some Really Useful Boxes that I bought. Now I’ve got to summon the energy to sort out all the stuff, make labels for my new Distress products, and start filling my new boxes, and I might even get a bit more organised!

Here is a close-up of the two origami flowers I came away with. I don’t think my red one is too bad really – one of the petals tore when I was trying to shape it and it’s not quite as even as Sean’s one, but I shall definitely practise this one as it’s so pretty! I’ve tracked down a Youtube video giving instructions for this lovely flower if anyone’s interested.

Here’s the marbling kit. In the demo, Craig used the lid of the box as a tray for marbling small items. He explained that he also used a cat litter tray for larger things, and even constructed his own tray from cardboard, lined with plastic, for such items as lengths of fabric etc.

The items he gave me show the versatility of the process.

The amazing thing is that if you dip something like a clothes peg right into the tray, the pattern continues right around the object! As you can see from the fabric sample, the pattern is also very controllable. I’m looking forward to getting started with this!

My hubby came to collect me at 5 p.m. and we went to his brother and our sister-in-law’s for a Chinese takeaway supper, which made a perfect end to a wonderful day.

Tattered Time Mini-Album Part 1–Planning

Yesterday evening I started a very exciting new project – my very first mini-album! This is something I have been planning for such a long time, and although I am in the middle of the Card Factory (which is actually more of a chore than a delight…) I really felt the time had come to make a start. I shall be slotting other things in between, so this will be an ongoing project, like my Fine Art Album and my art journal, and other things that I pick up as the mood takes me.

Let me backtrack to the beginning. It was in September 2011, over a year ago, at the Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts Exhibition, that I saw, and fell in love with, the DCWV “Tattered Time” paper stack and just had to buy it. Ever since then, I have wanted to use it for something but was terrified of messing it up, and every now and then I would get it out and go through it, and stroke it, and put it back on the shelf again! I also did a bit of Youtube research to see what other people did with it, and so the germ of an idea began, to make a mini-album with it, but this has been very much on the back burner since then.

More recently, and particularly since my dad has been deteriorating, I have been thinking about his life, and all the things he did and loved, and looking at the Tattered Time papers again, realised that they expressed so much about him. He has always had a passion for clocks, and has collected and repaired them most of his life. He and I have always been very close, and have shared so much fun over his various interests, and I used to “help” him in the workshop when I was small, watching him work, holding things for him, and learning so much. We shared an interest in typewriters when I began my secretarial course – there are pages relating to this – and of course his major passion for music, which is also represented. These are just a few of the things which will be included in the album.

Since I bought the Tattered Time papers, I have also acquired the Tim Holtz “Lost and Found” and “Crowded Attic” stacks – I have used a few small elements from these, but for the most part, they are intact. There are some elements in these collections which will mix and match quite nicely with the Tattered Time papers.

As I have thought about this, the ideas have been coming in leaps and bounds. Just recently, going through lots of old family photos, I’ve come across so many of Dad in his young days etc. My plan is to make a paper bag album, and to add lots of photos and journaling, and also to make some “mechanical” interactive elements to reflect his love of engineering and all things mechanical.

It’s just my personal opinion, but I have never been a great lover of scrapbooking layouts which incorporate photos and papercrafting – somehow to me the elements don’t mix that well, and if one isn’t careful, it can end up looking rather bitty and messy – there are glorious exceptions, of course, but for the most part it leaves me cold. The Tattered Time papers are so glorious that I really don’t want to cover them up with photos, so my plan is to celebrate the papers, and showcase them to the best of my ability, and to hide the photos and journaling on tags and inserts etc., and make it an interactive experience to look at them.

Over the past few days I’ve been doing some intensive research on Youtube into how to construct these albums, and there are some superb tutorials – also on bindings and closures, and I have now more or less decided on what I want to do. Unfortunately most of these tutorials come from the USA, where they have access to a lot of stuff we just can’t get here in the UK – in particular the bags. I have managed to source some, but of course they are a different size, so I cannot follow the tutorials exactly, as regards measurements, and will have to improvise, but this will make the project that much more my own.

Last year, I made some bag skirts for Christmas gift bags. I ordered several sizes of these bags from Ebay, and the seller made a mistake and sent me far too many. When I contacted him about it, he said it would be more hassle if I sent them back, and told me to keep them, and I have often wondered what I was going to do with them. This evening I decided to use some of the medium sized ones to make this album.

These bags are fairly thick, so I hope they are going to work OK for the album. I had to remove the handles, which are made of twisted paper, and quite attractive, so I thought I would save them, maybe to use as embellishments in other projects.

(They are lying on my new scratch paper – not much on it yet so it looks a bit strange!)

I am not going to give a tutorial on how to make up these bags into an album, because it has already been done very adequately on Youtube. I have decided to follow Kathy Orta’s first-class multi-part Youtube tutorial which she made, using the Tim Holtz “Lost and Found” stack, as she makes full use of the bags and their gussets for an album full of pockets for tags. The first part shows how to deconstruct the bags for the album.

Here are my bags with the gussets prepared:

and showing how the gussets fold up to form pockets.

Most paper bags come with a serrated top edge. In this picture, I am trimming this off, so that the bag measures 11 1/4 in from the bottom, with the gusset folded up. This means the finished dimension of each page will be 11 1/4 in wide and 10 3/16 in high.

I have prepared six bags in this way, which should be sufficient to complete my album.

Watch this space to see how this project progresses. Depending on what else I have to do, and how I am feeling, it may not progress very fast! However, once I get going, there may be no stopping me…

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Sorry, no photo of my desk this week as I’m too poorly to do anything, after seriously overdoing things over the last week or two and then the craft show on Saturday. Scroll down to see what was on my workdesk at the craft show!

Hopefully I’ll be back to WOYWW properly next week.

ATCs – thank you so much, everyone who has sent me one so far. I have not forgotten you and just as soon as I am up to it, you will be receiving yours from me. I’ll be doing a post about the exquisite little works of art I have so far received!

Hugs to you all and wishing you a very happy WOYWW.

Coasters and Cards for the Craft Show

Next Saturday there is a craft exhibition/sale at our church, and I have booked a large table to display my work, and hopefully sell some pieces, and also to do a series of demonstrations during the day, of things which should be fun to watch. This time my display will feature my zentangle art, of course, and this will also be my final demo of the day. I am preparing some outline drawings ready to fill with pattern and colour on the day.

I am also demonstrating backgrounds with resist and stencilling, using a variety of techniques (nice and messy), and paper flower making. I have cut two different flower shapes from plain white card in readiness for this, and the demo will include colouring these pieces with Distress Stains, hand embossing them, and assembling them with the hot glue gun.

On the suggestion of several of my friends recently, I decided to get some coasters made of my zentangle designs. I now have two sets of approximately 3-in square designs, so I have had two different sets of coasters made, at one of the online photographic companies that also do mugs and things

Design Set One can be seen here, and Set Two here.

Here are the two sets of coasters.

I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t come boxed – for the price they were, and the quality, I think they should have. It’s annoying because I had to spend quite a long time (which I don’t have much of before the craft show on Saturday) making boxes for them.

The box base was easy. I simply cut a 6-inch square of black card, scored it in an inch from each edge, snipped a wedge out of each corner, and glued it up using Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive (aka Lucy’s Glue lol! – Thank you Lucy, for recommending the best wet glue on the market in my opinion). This made a 4-inch square box for the 3 1/2 in square coasters. However, the lid was a different matter. The first one I made was too big. Eventually I got it right, and I’ve created two svg files in Inkscape, which are now uploaded to my Skydrive – one for the lid itself, and the other for the lid lining.

Both lid and lining have an aperture measuring 3 inches square. The lid has semi-circular pieces cut out either side for ease of opening. To make the lid, after cutting both pieces on Sheba, my Black Cat Cougar cutting machine, I cut a square of acetate measuring 3 1/2 inches and glued this with Lucy’s Glue onto the lid lining. I then glued this onto the lid itself, accurately aligning the two apertures and sandwiching the acetate between the two pieces. I then scored the lid, exactly following the outline of the liner, and folded up the sides as snugly as I possibly could against the liner, and cut wedges in the corners, and assembled as for the base.

The final touch for the box was to add a printed label, and a small insert in the bottom of the box with a short explanation about zentangle.

Here are the coasters in their boxes.

The other day I also made a set of two dozen small (A6 sized) cards featuring the same twelve designs as the coasters. They also have a leaflet in the back, giving some information about zentangle. Here they are, bagged up and ready for sale.

I have also got some plastic coasters on order, that you put your own photos in. I am intending to make these up with more of the same, and sell these individually as a cheaper option, as they are not as nice as the cork-backed ones.

 

A Word about Comments

As you know, last week I had problems with Blogger not showing my comments awaiting moderation. This turned out to be due to a conflict with the latest Firefox upgrade, and for a couple of days I had to deal with them in Internet Explorer (which I don’t usually use). It’s all working properly again in Firefox now, thank goodness, but I’ve got a great backlog of comments still awaiting moderation – I like to deal with each one individually and visit the person’s blog to reply, and this takes quite a time, particularly as Blogger is up to its usual tricks of taking ages to load the blogs, and often timing out. If your comment has not yet appeared on my blog, or you haven’t heard from me, please be patient – I am gradually getting through them all, and you are certainly not forgotten! One of my greatest joys is reading all the lovely comments my fabulous Blogland friends send me – I can’t tell you how uplifting and encouraging your wonderful words always are, so please keep them coming! It means so much to me.

This couldn’t have happened at a worse time, as I’m terribly busy this week, trying to prepare for the craft show, and I’m pulling out all the stops to keep on top of everything, and I don’t want to crash health-wise… I shall probably be very exhausted next week when it’s all over, and again, those of you lovely people who have kindly agreed to swap ATCs with me, I would ask you for your patience as I try and deal with it all! It may take some time.

Thank you so much for your understanding!

My Purchases at the Craft Show

After having a day’s rest, I was finally able to unpack my box of goodies from the Craft Show on Thursday. Please see my previous post for details of that, and it will make sense of this post, hopefully!

I mentioned that I got some Really Useful Boxes. These are such a clever invention! Somebody has really thought about this. They are lightweight and strong, transparent (so you can see what’s inside them), many different sizes and shapes, stackable, and have clever locking handles that keep the lids on. They are infinitely versatile and definitely Really Useful! I was delighted to find a stand at the show that had them, and decided to buy a few to start me off. I’ve had a shopping basket open online for them for a couple of weeks but preferred to see them in the flesh first.

I bought 2 long thin ones which are designed for standard rolls of paper.

I am highly delighted to discover that they fit exactly into my old wooden shelving system. If I want to get other boxes, say twice the height and half the length, I know they will fit too. I have separated my rolls of paper into gift wrapping paper, and art paper. So great to have my paper rolls organised at last, and not collapsing all over the place any more!

Then I got 2 smaller, more square-shaped ones, for general storage.

Eventually I want to get rid of this old computer desk as I no longer need it, and it sticks right out into the room. It is piled high, mostly with boxes of mixed media stuff, and I hope one day to get more organised and store this stuff better (more Really Useful Boxes??)

I’ve had my reserve supply of glues and double-sided tapes, foam tape, foam pads, etc. rammed into a cardboard box (like most of the stuff in my somewhat chaotic ARTHaven!) and decided to get a box for those.

At the show, I also bought some more Pinflair gel glue and photo glue as I get through a lot of this, and some more double-sided tape.

The other box, the same size, I bought with 2 organiser trays. One tray goes in the bottom, and the other sits at the top, with a flange around it which rests on top of the box, and the lid holds it in place. This one I have filled with all my Stickles, alcohol inks, Distress Stains, glitters, Rub ’n’ Buff, etc.

I stocked up on quite a few Distress Stains that I was missing, and have yet to put labels on the lids of these.

I bought a few smaller ones for pens, brushes and pencils, which are on the shelf above my main work table, in easy reach.

It will be really nice not to have that heap of stuff in that corner, which kept collapsing every time I tried to reach for anything!

Finally, I bought a really dinky little one to keep Sheba’s accessories in – her spare blades, blade holders, embossing tools, etc.

For some time now I have been following Colouricious on Youtube – they produce high quality videos of workshops and interviews with textile artists, all of which are so inspiring. I was delighted to see that Jamie Malden was at the show with a Colouricious stand, complete with her famous Indian woodblocks for fabric printing, so I treated myself to some! They also print well on paper, I am told.

They are hand carved in Indian hardwood and make a beautiful impression. You can see them on the Colouricious website.

Jamie loves to embellish her printed fabrics with machine embroidery. Years ago I tried my hand at free machine embroidery but then got into other things and never really followed it through, but I am keen to try again, so I picked up a few gorgeous shiny rayon and metallic threads at the show, along with a new, slimline embroidery hoop.

Finally, on Stef Francis’ stand, I bought a few things for mixed media art and creative embroidery – she sells amazing silk products, both dyed and undyed, including silk cocoons and silk carrier rods. These latter are formed during the silk spinning process (see my previous blog post for details) and they can be used to create amazing effects in one’s work. I love it when things that would otherwise be considered rubbish and thrown away are turned into something beautiful!

These silk carrier rods are in the bag in the centre, with the cocoons on the right. At the back on the left is a sheet of mulberry bark (bleached – it is a buff colour naturally) which can be teased out – like the rods, it is softer when damp – and dyed, and used for backgrounds and textures, and as a substrate for embroidery.

At the front is a skein of sari ribbon, created from strips of sari fabric from remnants left over in the manufacturing process – mixed fibres, gorgeous rich colours with the odd splash of metallic fibre – no two skeins are alike! Good enough to eat!

I love shopping at craft shows, because you never know what you are going to find, and what ideas are going to inspire you. I always go armed with a list – things to stock up on, like glues, cardstock etc., and I take a list of colours of things that I have got, and what gaps need filling (e.g. Distress Inks) so that over the past few shows, I have now managed to get the complete set of Distress Inks, re-inkers and Distress Stains, which are all bread-and-butter materials which one can’t do without! Last year on one stand was a huge bin full of Stickles, and I bought loads of them in different colours. Most stands have excellent offers, with good reductions when you buy in quantity, and of course, at the shows there is no postage and packing to pay. There are great bargains to be had, with many things being sold at special show prices.

It is also lovely to be able to handle the things “in the flesh” – now that our local craft shop has closed (not that I was able to get to it very often) I have to do nearly all my shopping online, and it is not always easy to judge the quality of things unless you can see them and feel them.

For someone virtually housebound unless my hubby takes me, it is also the most tremendously enjoyable day out for me! I just love mingling with all the “crafty” people, exchanging ideas, chatting, having a good laugh, learning so much from the demonstrators, and just being caught up in the general atmosphere of the show. In my experience, most crafters are friendly and generous with their ideas and their time, and it’s great to spend time with them.

We only have 2 shows a year in Exeter, and it is unlikely that I shall ever make any of the big ones like the NEC or Ally Pally, but I value our local ones so much! Roll on September!!

Views from Shoshi’s Settee–This and That–and an Exciting Day Tomorrow!

Today is the 27th anniversary of my becoming a Christian. If you want to read my testimony, I blogged about it exactly a year ago today. I am so grateful to God for everything He has done for me in my life, and above all for sending His Son to die in my place, taking the punishment for my sin, and opening the gate of heaven for me for the future, and giving my life purpose and meaning for the present.

I’ve tried to have a rest today, because tomorrow will be a long day – my hubby is dropping me off at Westpoint, Exeter, for the Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts show. I love craft shows and can’t wait! It’s going to be a very special day for me because my crafty friend Wendy from Wales is going to be there and it will be the first time we’ve ever met, because we’ve only been friends online.

I’ve bling-ed up my wheelchair in honour of the occasion! Since I got my new one, I haven’t decorated it at all, apart from putting some sparkly spoke guards on it – I did bling it up for Christmas in a simple way, but nothing since. I rummaged through the bags under the stairs and found most of my wheelchair bling (can’t find the newest flowers!) and I’ve redone it with my original flowers, with the black sparkly Christmas stuff underneath, and of course, MY LIGHTS!!! I also added some rust-coloured sunflowers that a friend gave me years ago, which I’ve never used before, and I thought they gave a nice autumnal feel to my new bling. I also put on some of my black and silver Christmassy bits, so when the time comes, all I’ll have to do is strip the flowers off and add a few more bits of Christmas bling, and some baubles on the back.

If you look closely, you can see the lights. They aren’t terribly bright, and they probably won’t show up much tomorrow as the lights will be so bright, but in the evening in subdued lighting they look gorgeous!

Last time I went to a craft show with flowers on my wheelchair, everyone loved it and it generated lots of smiles and happy comments! It helps break down barriers and stops people being embarrassed around disability (shame that still happens, but it does…).

Yesterday I went through the stuff in my ARTHaven to make a list of stuff I need (need, not want lol!) from the craft show. Last time I took a little note book with lists of stuff I’ve got in the back, for example what colours of alcohol inks, stickles, etc. that I’ve got, and in the front is a list of all the stuff I want to look out for, and as I go round, if I buy any new colours of anything, I write them down so as to avoid buying the same thing twice – in the hustle and bustle of the show, it’s not always easy to remember what you’ve bought from the different stands! I also take a box with me. The staff are very happy to let me put this in the office, and I can come out with my purchases and put them in the box, because it’s difficult for me to carry a lot of stuff.

While I was sorting out my list, I also sorted my rubber stamps. I have kept them all in empty CD cases up till now, but I have separated some of them out and put them back in their original packaging if I’ve kept it – this way I know what make they are. Now I am blogging about my projects, it’s important to say what the stamps are, in case anyone is interested in getting them. It makes them a bit less convenient to use, but I rather like the feel of them in their flat packs with the pictures of them underneath!

All I’ve done today is change the bed sheets and get the laundry on, wash my hair and have a nice long soak in the bubbles, and at the risk of having a bad night, I’m going to try and get to bed a bit earlier than 3.30 a.m. as I’ve got an early start tomorrow and I’m going to need a lot of energy to keep going all day!

Our middle nephew and his wife and daughter popped in for a cup of tea with us this afternoon – they are down in our area visiting. I haven’t seen their little girl since she was a baby and she’s now nearly 2! She is so pretty, and so full of energy, and didn’t sit still for a moment!

I probably won’t blog about the show tomorrow, because I’ll be too worn out, but watch this space, and hopefully I’ll have some good photos of the day to share with you.