A week and a bit off....

Well it's been a while, but here I am again. Since I last posted I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which, although I was pretty sure I had, I took a bit of acclimatising to be "official". But now I'm all ok again, well, as ok as I've ever been. And also since I last posted my blogger has changed which has taken more getting used to than the Fibro.

So why have I got a week and a bit off? Well, last Friday I went to Quilts UK in Malvern, and also was out all day Saturday at my normal monthly quilting group, and knowing how feeble I am I took the day off before and also booked yesterday (the monday) off. And that's all the time I intended to take off. However, I have a friend who's husband passed away recently and his funeral was yesterday. So, being aware that if I went to the funeral I wouldn't get the rest I require to set myself up for the rest of the week in work, I went into work last Monday intending to ask for Tuesday (today) off as well. But Monday was such a bad day that by 10.00am I'd asked for the rest of this week off. And my boss said yes.

And what do I intend to do with my week? I don't have major plans - I want to clear up a bit as my son is back from uni on 2nd June for good. Where has that 3 years gone? In fact where has the last 25 years gone? Next Monday, would be my silver wedding anniversary (if I was still married). My eldest, who has just turned 24, is planning on leaving home to set up home with his girlfriend soon. Which of course means that the younger one will want to move into his bedroom. Which means..........

YES I can finally have a dedicated craft/sewing room. And so this week, I'm having a bit of a sort out in my dining room which is the room I try to stick to for sewing, - partly because I can't see my dining room table (or the floor for that matter) and partly because I've ordred a new sewing machine. Oh, did I forget to mention that.

I've been looking at new sewing machines for a few years. When I started looking at buy a new machine they had just started bring out the ones with the larger throat space for quilting, and now there are lots with the larger throat space and lots with fancy embroidery stitches. Every year when I go to a quilt show, I lust after the machines, but haven't bought one. And pretty much every year somebody who has travelled up on the coach with us comes back with a new machine. In the past 2 or 3 years most of my pals have upgraded, and the woman I sat by on the coach this year came home with 2 machines. A pfaff quilt expression 4 and a smaller janome one for workshops. So I thought "Right, that's it, I'm having a new machine" Now, if I'd had an ounce of sense I would have played with lots of them at the show, but we were only there a couple of hours and theere were too many othere things to be doing.

I have tried out a lot of machines in my time, and, if truth be told, I've always leaned towards Janome machines, partly because that's what all my family have had, and they are also the ones that tend to be in classes. So I'm familiar with them. But that's not what I've gone for, mainly because the one I would want is the £1799 (£1499 if you are lucky enough to find it on offer) Horizon. Most of the other machines I would like, without looking at the ridiculously priced sewing/embroidery ones in the region of £3000 or more, or indeed the very nice looking Bernina 820QE which are the rolls royces of machines (at least according to many of the sewists out there) are between £1000 and £1500. But then I found the Husqvarna Viking 875Q on offer for £999. And then I managed to get it for £899 with the quilting extension table included (possibly also a walking foot, but not sure about that)

Now, I ordered it online from Coopers/Sewing Machines Discount, and have heard both good things and bad about them. but I reckoned with £200 discount and a £100 promise of free gifts on special promotion from Husqvarna, and payable over 4 months, I thought it was worth the risk. I won't get the goodies until I've made the final payment, which is a standard thing with many promotions. Today I receive a free set of scissors(£39.99 on the website). I've had a couple of conversations with them, both by phone and e-mail and so far don't have any complaints, other than the fact that I won't be getting as quickly as I had hoped because they ran out of stock, so it's being despatched direct from Germany and I should get it by the end of the week.

When I receive it I shall do a picture heavy post to show all the goodies in the box.

And whilst I'm waiting I'll make the most of the good weather and carry on spraying my nettles with industrial strength weedkiller - it's too difficult to be green and dig them all out.

Later folks
xxx

cut it up and stick it back together

No, I'm not talking about patchwork, but another quick card I've done.   I'm trying to do at least one a night and a couple every weekend because my friend is doing a Cakes for Parkinsons event, (her dad has it) and asked me if I'd do some cards.  So I said yes, and then remembered my Gran had Parkinsons as well. 

So here is tonight's effort.   For those of you who are fans of Nikky Hall and Polkadoodles, you may not immediately recognise her style but if you are a member of her newish Facebook group Polka Doodle Dandies, she has had a couple of free challenges.    So this is one of her images, coloured in with the new Promarker Limited Edition Spring pens, cut up and then stuck together again, in a completely different way.

Later folks

xxx

A poppet of a challenge

Good evening
Not a great deal accomplished today, but that's ok, there's always another day.  I did have a bit of a play with my newest craft CD - Paintbox Poppets from Crafters Companion - if you take a look on my sidebar >>>>>> there should be a blinkie linking to their UK blog - there is also a US blog which you can find via the UK one.

I deliberately chose to get a bit more familiar with this CD, partly because it is very lovely and partly because I wanted to do something for the weekly CD Sunday Challenge blog which this week is "spots and dots"

I haven't got to the point where I'm comfortable using lots of embellishments, and whilsts I love doing a complicated bit of paper engineering, at the moment, my engineering mojo is missing.  But it will be back.   Until that time I need to keep my crafting mojo afloat.

So here's a simple little card using one sheet of images from the card companion section so actually really cheap to make.

And as mentioned above - I'd like to enter it in the Spots and Dots Challenge over at The CD Sunday Challege

Later folks

xxx

More selling and a Paintbox Poppet card

Afternoon all
This time I'm selling The Cinch binding tool, Craft Artist Platinum and MCS Setting the Scene CD.   Nothing wrong with any of them. I bought the Cinch as an impulse buy thinking it would be very useful for all that scrapbooking and stuff I was going to do.  No doubt if I'd ever done it then it would have been worth it's weight in gold.  But you know how it goes, I didn't do it.  

If you are interested go here

And then there is this  which is the Craft Artist Platinum bundle and not forgetting the final item of this little selection which can be found here

Excuse my blatent advertising but if you don't know about it then you can't ignore it.

And one of the reasons I need money is so I can buy more new crafting goodies.  My latest purchase was the Paintbox Poppets CD and stamps and decoupage from Crafters Companion featuring artwork from the very talented Christine Haworth.

And here's a card I made with just a teeny tiny selection from this range

I can feel a bit more creativity coming on.

later folks

xxx

Made 2 cards -updated

I've added a name to the Tatty Teddy card so here is the finished version.   Aunty Sarah was delighted, she's not my Aunty Sarah, she's Aunty to the intended recipient of the card, so I hope the 1 year old Daisy will be fully appreciative.

And I think it looks more "finished" now

Later folks

xxx

made 2 cards

It seems to have been a little while since I've made any cards for anybody specific, and this weekend I've made 2.  I have another 2 to make, but one can be done in the early part of the week (needed for Wednesday) and the other is my mother's day card. For my mother that is, not my own.

The top two are the same card - made using the Tatty Teddy CD and the Ribbons and Rosettes Cricut Cartridge.    If memory serves me correctly I think the Sunday CD challenge this week is "from me to you" and so I would like to enter this card for that challenge

The bottom card is made for a friends 40th birthday.  I have made if for her team in work to give to her.  I will make a different one from me.

That's it for now folks

Later

xxx

SOLD and still selling Cricut

Evening folks - another quickie from me tonight, well fairly quick

I have sold the Big Shot (possibly to "Amanda" who queried it on a previous blog post, as the winner is indeed called Amanda).  I have also sold 3 copies of Craft Artist Professional.   I am thinking of putting Craft Artist Platinum up (which has a copy of professional included along with another 3 programmes), but have to find the letter that came with it providing the product key,  and also Complete Arts and Crafts Creativity Suite - also by Serif, which includes 5 programmes, including Digital Scrapbook Artist and PhotoPlus.

The Cricut didn't sell so I've now put it on as a Buy it Now for 30 days.  If at the end of that time it hasn't sold, then I will use it for cutting fabric, which was my original intention, but thought that having 2 Cricut machines, both the same size, was not really something I could justify doing if I could sell one. 

And I've been having a bit of a play with my new Cricut and my brand spanking new Flower Shoppe cartridge.   And as soon as I've sorted out my new laptop I will upload some photos for you to have a look at. But until then, have a gaze in wonderment (and amusement) at the following YouTube video of some folks using the self same cartridge

Later folks
xxx