Make up your own title for this one....

I think I'm going to blame the music (Yes) or the cheese.

This is my entry for the latest swap over at Gothic Arches. The current theme is Bows. I'll admit that my initial reaction wasn't exactly enthusiastic - in case you hadn't noticed I don't do cute.

Fortunately, I can do weird :)

Daffodils

OK, I know it's not exactly autumnal but that's modern life for you - things are in season all year round!

I needed a birthday card and came across the backing papers which feature the words from Wordsworth's poem. I've been trying my hand at drawing again, so decided to have a go at daffodils, and hey presto - a card :)

What did I tell you?

....I just know that when I get there somebody will say "you should have asked, I've got plenty of them spare".

I arrived at the Cubby Hole this morning with my bag of home made boxes (a couple of which were looking a little sorry for themselves) to find a table groaning under a mountain of matchboxes. Not only had Sue brought enough for everybody, but Carol had sent her OH off on his bike to scour Tesco stores in the wilds of Stoke. I now have a carrier bag full of handmade boxes and several hundred safety matches in need of a home.

The workshop was enjoyable and I have now been introduced to spray inks (and a couple of them seem to have fallen into my craft bag). I'm not sure what I'll store in my matchbox extravaganza, but I'm sure I'll find something soon enough. I also envisage a couple of these being made for Christmas (my granddaughters probably need something to store their hand-made jewellery in).

It looks like we've also lured another card maker over to the dark side as well ;)

Oh, and I must say thank you to Suzanne (aka That Woman) for trying to get me some match boxes during the week.

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

We have a workshop at the Cubby Hole tomorrow, entitled 'Matchbox Extravaganza'. On Monday I found out that we have to supply our own matchboxes. Not just any matchboxes, they need to be the 'bigger-than-normal-but-not-as-big-as-cook's-matches' ones, from Tesco. I wandered down to find the shelves empty, but was told a delivery was due. Next day I received a text from 'that woman' to let me know she'd just bought the last ones! I've spent the past few days wandering around supermarkets looking for suitable matchboxes, with no success.
Oh well, no worries, I'll do what any self-respecting crafter would do, and make my own. If you ever hear me suggest anything similar in future please feel free to slap me! After having to reprint the template because the printer resized it, then find that the inners don't fit the outers and much muttering I finally have a bag of suitably sized boxes for tomorrow. And I just know that when I get there somebody will say "you should have asked, I've got plenty of them spare".

In other news the beaded rope is finished and has been received by a very grateful friend. She was so impressed that I now have a commission for a necklace in the same style. All I need to do is find some beads in the correct shade of pink.

Woohoo

The Arch card has been picked as a winner in one of the birthday challenges over on Gothic Arches :D

Thankfully it was a random draw as there are some seriously talented people on there :)

Bimbling along

Well, I'm back at work so there's not been much crafty stuff going on :(

I've been working on a card today and finally finished it. It's my entry for Gothic Arches Challenge 3. The challenge is to make a card which includes an arch. The background is Autumn, but the scene through the arch is Spring.

I've been working on a bit of beadwork during the week, nothing extravagant - just a spiral stitch rope for a friend. She wears her glasses on a chain and it keeps snapping so I need a 2" rope instead. It's a fairly relaxing process and it grows at a reasonable length. I'm about halfway through so hopefully a few more days and I'll have it finished.

And on that note, I'm going to take my glass of wine and my beads and watch the Last Night of the Proms :)

Taking stock

A long time ago (I think it was Tuesday) I said I was aiming to get a project done each day while I was on leave. Today is the last day. Looking back I've managed a set of ATCs, a CJ page, a canvas, an arch, and two pages in the 'Wheel of the year' book (plus assembling it). I'm not sure if the book counts as 1 item or two, but just to be on the safe side I've managed to complete another set of ATCs (Viva Las Vegas!).
Unfortunately it's back to work tomorrow so crafty output will be back to normal :(. I'm going to have to do better with the lotto numbers!

My first arch

This is my first go at one of the challenges on Gothic Arches.

This is challenge No' 3, a Gothic Arch tag.

The circle is complete

At long last my 'Wheel of the Year' journal is finally complete and ready for sending off (along with various other goodies).

This has taken me the best part of a year to complete. It originally started life as a project for myself to record my journey through the wheel, however it soon became a swap project with a friend. I received my journal a couple of weeks back, and I've been trying to get this finished so that I can 'balance the books' so to speak.

I've photographed all the pages but, with the exception of one that I
blogged a while back, I'm keeping them under wraps until they have been seen by the recipient. I will however let you see the covers, as she has already seen pics of them.

The 'Wheel of the Year' is a term used by Wiccans and some other pagans when referring to the cycle of the seasons through the year. It consists of 8 festivals which mark the solstices and equinoxes (quarter days) and four fire festivals (cross-quarter days). Although I don't follow the wheel as such, it was a useful yardstick to use for the journal as it gave me a set of way-points to use, and allowed me to understand some of the customs and beliefs behind the days.

Getting there :)

Well, I'm on target with my five day crafty blitz so far.

Yesterday was the turn of CJ4. Thankfully it's a fairly simple CJ theme, so there wasn't anything to intricate to be done, mostly just trimming and arranging on the page. I was going to put up a pic, but as this is only a short post I decided against it, plus it's nothing too spectacular.

Last night and today I've been working on a canvas entitled "Ephemera". It's the crafty element of this month's book at The Fat Basted Chicken Club.
The book is Araby by Gretta Mulrooney. It's the story of a man coming to terms with his mother dying from cancer. The story switches back and to between the end of her life in Ireland, and his childhood in London. The woman he remembers from his childhood is a larger than life character who flits from one thing to another like a butterfly attracted by ideas, hobbies and objects until the interest wanes, or something else comes along. The canvas is inspired by various things that jumped out of the book. I'm not 100% sure if it's finished yet. It looks a little sparse in places, but so far I've resisted the urge to go and add something else.

Anyway, time to crack on with the next task - finishing off the year book. Only two pages to go, so hopefully that will be done by tomorrow night, although as it's two pages I can justify taking two days if I need to ;)

Return of the travelling man

I figured it was time for an update, seeing as the last one was a fortnight ago. There's not much crafty stuff been going on, mainly because I've been swanning around again.

The weekend before last was the Harvest camp at Exmoor. Unfortunately nobody told me it was also the V festival, so I spent two hours parked on the M6, but got there in the end and it was well worth it. Apart from seeing old friends again, and making new ones, there was the usual sense of community spirit and friendship, as well as the sharing of ideas (and home-brew). It was summed up best by Richard; "I've only known most of you for a short time, yet you are some of my oldest friends". The beaded spiders went down very well, and in return I learnt how to play a didgeridoo (well, I can get a sound out of it), how to make charm bags, and how to sing a round. For this camp the harvest ritual was devised and conducted by some of us who don't normally work in a group, and it was a resounding success, culminating in the offering of the communal soup back to the Earth.

It was back to work on the Tuesday for three days before my next trip. Unfortunately those three days included the announcement that 1200 jobs will be going in UK. In the space of 3 hours we were told that we may be redundant, that our jobs are safe and that we are in one of the redundancy areas. When I left work on Thursday the situation stood that we are in one of the redundancy groups, although our jobs should be safe. The 90 day period begins on the 11th so until then little will happen. Sometime after that we'll find out for definite if we're going or not. Personally I think our team is safe, but you never know. Oh well, no use worrying about it, it won't change anything. I'll just bimble on as normal and if it happens, it happens. If it does, I guess I'll have more crafty time :)

Friday was the start of another trip. This time it was off to Uffington, home of the White Horse, for the UKP Southern camp. Nothing as organised as Exmoor, just a handful of us in a field chilling out. Saturday was a wander over a couple of hills to visit the horse and then onto Waylands Smithy. After getting back we sat and watched red kites hunting, along with a buzzard. Sunday was the White Horse country show, so we took a walk over a couple of fields to go and have a look. There were the usual stalls, heavy horse displays, sheep dog trials, etc; and flying displays. First up a couple of wingwalkers on 1940's biplanes (must be mad) and then later, after we'd walked back, a flypast by the restored AVRO Vulcan Bomber. Yesterday was pack-up and drive back, and then taking stock of where I am crafty-wise.

I have 5 days until I'm back in work, and the idea is to get at least one project a day finished to clear the backlog. Last night and this morning it was ATCs. The theme is "I do like to be beside the seaside", and here's my take on it. Unfortunately the scan isn't too good, but the text is from the old music hall song of the same name.

Right, I'm off to the next project, CJ4.