Christmas

Well with 75 days left to Christmas and the postal workers threatening to strike I decided to get a head start on my Christmas cards this year!

I already made a pack for our charity day at work and now have made 10 more for my Folksy shop.

Still need to make loads more for family and friends, so will be working hard on them for a while yet.

So far these are my favourites

Halloween

I have loved Halloween ever since our first visit to the USA four years ago. We went to New England in the fall, it was spectacular! Every house had decorations and pumpkins outside it.

I bought this beautiful scarecrow on my recent trip. He will be sitting somewhere in my house this Halloween.

I have also made some Halloween cards and favour boxes for my Folksy shop.

These are party invitations:

And for after the party, or for when all the little ones call trick or treating, some lovely little favour boxes:

The wanderer returns!

Nothing to do with cards but just had to say that I'm over the moon.

One of my two rescue cats went missing five weeks ago today. She wasn't used to being outdoors, so of course we feared the worst! We put up posters in our road and flyers in most of closest neighbours, but nothing.

Until this Monday - when we had a phone call asking if our cat was still missing. The boys went round, and there she was, a lot thinner but in pretty good shape. They tried to catch her, but she ran off again. So I though 'here we go again'. But we got some more flyers printed and delivered them this afternoon. Within an hour we got a call from someone saying that she'd been in and out of their garden all week. We went round, and there she was! At first I didn't think it was her, but it was.

We waited for about 20 mins but she wouldn't come to us. So we left some food and her box at the house and they promised to call if they managed to get her in the box. Finally at about 8:30 they called! Eureka! So we went to bring her home.

We have since taken calls from two other houses in the same row and it seems as if she's been going from house to house all week looking for food.

Can't think where she had been for the last four weeks, but so glad to get her home again.

We just want to say a huge THANK YOU! to all those who called to let us know they'd seen her!

Hampshire Open Studios

The boys went to Crawley to watch 22 idiots dribbling! So I decided to go out too. Read about Hampshire Open Studios on the Folksy forum, so decided to take a look. So, armed with sat nav, coke and food! Gassed up the car and despite the muggy, unpromising weather had a lovely drive up to Whitchurch.

Must admit I'd never been there before, a lovely little Hampshire village!

I watched Alice Bloor making her felt - I never realised what a simple process this was! I won't be pinching your idea though Alice! I'll stick to my cards.

The Studio is wonderful, I wish I had a little place where I could shut myself away from the world and do my thing! The pottery on display was wonderful and although I didn't buy any, both Caroline's and Penny's shops are being bookmarked for the future!

Anyway, to read a little more about The Studio, read Alice's blog raspberry

Having a Clearout!

I know its a bit late for a spring-clean but I'm having trouble getting into my little craft room these days.

I've been selling the odd thing on Ebay over the last few months but its slow going. What I've done now is to open a second shop on Folksy.com to sell on my surplus craft stash. http://www.folksy.com/shops/DestashCentral

I'll mostly be listing excess supplies from my card making but as time goes on I will be adding anything else that decides to pop out of my drawers and cupboards that hasn't seen the light of day in years!

For instance, I found a large bag of costume jewellery the other day, this found its way here when BIL finished clearing out the house, when he moved in. Its not to my taste, but like most things its too good to throw away. I know that there are lots of crafters out there who take apart old pieces of jewellery and re make them into new jewellery or sometimes completely different items. This is my current favourite:
http://www.folksy.com/items/54449-Saphire-blue-stone-earrings?shop=yes gorgeous blue earrings!

I also know I have loads of embroidery threads lying around, which I will never be able to use up, if I live to be 100! I can't even remember what else I have in my little room.

The Card

Aren't I stoopid! I forgot about the card! I made this from a goodie bag bought from one of my favourite craft emporiums - Craftwork Cards.

Need I mention it was a chocolate bag ;-) all lovely choccie and pink papers and treats. I've used it lots just recently.

Folksy - Gifts

Update on the pressies I bought. My friend loved them, her Birthday was Tuesday, so now I can let the cat out of the bag!

The main present was the Eyez pendant from Glamglass Gifts

We had to have some cake! I found this lovely trinket box from Woolly Wotnots

And to finish off I found this beautiful little bag from Dinky Daisy

I was in such a good mood after finding such lovely presents on Folksy.com that I had to treat myself as well, so I bought this beautiful pink wood pendant from Wood Jewellery

Folksy is such a lovely community and there is such a diverse range of hand crafted things on there, I'm sure I'll be buying loads more in the future.

I have loads of Birthdays coming up from September through to Christmas, and now I know exactly where to look!