My computer is being fixed because it wouldn’t let me open blog pages – the cheek of it!!!
So, I will be back with a new post with pictures very soon!
I’m almost ready to show you “the new room” as its become known (its needs a better name, art room? studio? Mums room? – suggestions please!!)
My friend Caroline lives in an amazing house, its like something out of a fairytale – a technicoloured fairytale, and she is also really good at bringing people together. For a long time she had wanted to run a “retreat” for want of a better description, where women would come and have their minds, bodies and souls nourished with good food, arts, crafts and have a chance to just relax and go home renewed.
Last Saturday was a trial run, she had asked me to come up with some craft projects, my Mum was put in charge of the kitchen and eight ladies came to play.
I made name badges for everyone, here they are being modelled by Miss Mannequin!
The kitchen table comfortable sits 12 so there was room for everyone to spread out. It as surprising how quitet everyone was while they worked, there were tonnes of supplies to use and the work at the end was gorgeous. Some people were crafters and some had never tried anything arty before, some people talked about why they were making certain things, the reasons for choosing certain materials and some just quietly worked away. It was an odd day for me because it wasn’t a craft class as such, I couldn’t put a time limit on things, I actually had three projects prepared but we only completed one, but there was a nice flow to the day all the same.
Its hard to find a project that challenges everyone with out being too easy for some or seeming too scary to others, I was delighted with what everyone made, and more importantly they seemed to be too!
It was a long weekend getting everything ready, and here is my Mum at the end of the day actually sitting down…..(the first time all day) she did an amazing job, she made two kinds of soup, three kinds of salads, scones, carrot cupcakes, apple pie and kept the tea and coffee coming all day!
and here are Caroline and Myself, still smiling, fit for nothing except a glass of wine!
This weekend was full of early starts, many miles and great company. It started with the ladies in Ballinameela, Dungarvan. We were so busy that I didn’t take any photos of them, but these are some of the cards that we made from Cosmo Cricket “Tea for Two” 6×6″ papers. I’m not a card maker, so the creations the ladies made were similar to these but much better!! they added lace and buttons and bows, I really wish i’d taken some photos!
Then Sunday I went to Cork to meet the Scrap n Yap ladies, remember that paper I was raving about recently, well this is what we did with it. We altered diaries, notebooks and address books, here is everyone with their finished books…..
and here is a close up of my diary, the cover is just all of the left over scraps layered on top of each other.
Inside there are two tag holders and a pocket, I’m going to put photos on the tags eventually!
and at the back there is a gusset style pocket for keeping important receipts and things.
The back has more left overs, the grungeboard circles set in with eyelets make really good closures. I painted them with a pearl dabber and then stamped over it with a script stamp and archival ink.
I liked this project so much that i’m doing it again on Thursday night here in Killarney, I think i’ll alter an address book this time – come and join us if your anywhere near!!
Some of you have seen this mess craft space before… if you search a way back on this blog you will see a quick video of when it was first built (if I was any good i’d link it for you, but i’m not…) and I must tell you that I love this space! before this I worked on the kitchen table and we all know what thats like.
So, this desk and these shelves were built on the landing which was the only unused space in the whole house. They have served me very well, but as you can see things have gotten a little out of hand!
As bad as it looks, I do know where everything is – if you needed some alpha stickers you go to the pink box on the bottom shelf on the right, or double sided tape? thats on the middle shelf above the desk. Anyhoo, Himself decided enough was enough and the only way to create a craft room was to build on a tiny extension. Wasn’t that nice of him? ( he wants this desk for his own “stuff”, but still its nice of him!)
Last October the foundation was layed, its tiny as I said, about 10x8ft, but it’ll be MINE!! today as I write this there are workmen in the garden putting up soffits and wotnot (i’m sure what soffits do, but we need them apparently) We did almost all the work ourselves, foundation, frame, walls, insulation, panelling, wiring – we only got tradesmen for the roof and the bit they are doing today and a plasterer for inside.
I will put up all the “step-by-step” photos soon, but its not ready yet. On Friday we will lay the floor, the walls are painted (white walls and ceiling, wooden floor) and then the great move begins!! I am scouring the Ikea catalogue trying to decide what I need – drawers or shelves? lots of baskets is the only decision so far, and an arm chair for Tim to sit in when I invite him in for a visit (He fears he will never see me again once its livable!)
My inspiration so far is this photo from Pinterest, it was put up by this lady, I think i’ll have to stalk her blog to see what other ideas she has!
If anyone has any storage tips please pass them on, i’m off back to my measuring tape and Ikea catalogue!!
Bye!!! xx
p.s. There is one kit left for Saturday in Waterford if you’d like it?
Last year my Mum was on holiday in Kent and brought me home a colour chart for Annie Sloan Paints. The chart was actual blobs of paint so you could feel the texture, it is a chalk paint so it has that smooth but super mat texture to it, and it paints onto anything, wood, metal, concrete, plastic with NO UNDERCOAT!!!
Anyhoo, off I went Googling distributors in Ireland, there are quite a few, the problem was that paint is heavy so the delivery charges were mad so I gave up on this idea for a while……..
Then last week it was Himselfs birthday so we went on a bit of an adventure to Clonmel. I’d never been there before, so I did my usual tour of a new town scouting out the coffee shops, book shops and what I call “quirky” shops.
I was stopped in my tracts by a beautiful pale blue bicycle with flowers in the basket parked outside Forget-Me-Nots it was indeed quirky! and guess what they sell? (amongst other lovely gifty bits) Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!
Although I had spent much time drooling over the colour chart I couldn’t choose a colour. After much deliberation I chose Louis Blue….. only to discover they were out of it so I chose Provence instead. (its a lovely bluey green, where as Louis blue was more bluey grey)
I can’t believe I didn’t take a before picture! This chair was my Nanas, it is solid mahogany and had a hideous gold seat (thats it thrown in the dogs bed there!) I thought for ages about painting it because I really didn’t like it as it was, but its really old, in the end finding the paint was enough to persuade me!
So here it is after 2 coats of chalk paint.
I gave it a coat of spray on wax and then a good coating of soft Briwax to protect the paint.Then I got a remnant of Cath Kidston fabric from my stash and went to work with a staple gun….
As you can see Toby likes it!
So that is my chair, I’m not sure my Nana would like it but I will enjoy it much more!!
I don’t say this often, but I think this is my favourite paper line ever!
I am very fussy about which new paper lines I actually like, I don’t like them too twee, I don’t like them too pastel or too bold, usually I prefer to buy individual 12×12’s because I only like half the designs in a stack (told you i’m fussy!)
But I love, love, love every paper in this, and i’m about to ring the shop to save me another pack because I think I need a “spare”!
This photo isn’t great, its a bit dark but look it up – its fab, fabby, fab!
I used it to make an altered diary, my aim this year is to be more organised so a pretty diary will help (I hope!) Here is a sneek peak…..
You are only getting a sneek peak because this is my project for next months Scrap ‘n’ Yap. I was delighted to be asked to teach it, it is on Sunday February 3rd at the Cork International Hotel (I think thats what its called, its the big one at the airport) I will put up more details when i’m sure of the time etc.
The day before Scrap ‘n’ yap, I will be in Dungarvan co. Waterford with the lovely ladies over there for the first Scrapzville craft class of the year.
There will be a couple of mini layouts, I’m liking these recently, quick and easy but all together they look great, and a couple (or three or four) cards. Lots of paper, embellishments and pretty bits.
If you’re anywhere near there and would like to go, let me know, its from 10-4 and the kit costs €32.
Again, not a great photo, but these papers we will be using for the class.
Ha! The computer whizz has worked out how to add photos….. just in case you are as computer challenged as myself and blogger won’t let you add photos anymore, this is how you do it…..
Click HTML not Compose, add photos then click back to compose and voila!
So, this is the old fridge, it will be sadly missed…. (if you wonder why i’m showing you pictures of fridges read the previous post.)
This is the new fridge – its really tall, so tall that Ebony can’t see whats on the top shelf (she’s the shortest one of the family!) I don’t know if I love it yet, but i’m very glad its here!
First of all blogger is not letting me upload photos…. Why I wonder? and so this is going to be not as pretty as I hoped (but it would only think it pretty if you enjoy pictures of fridges….)
So, the story so far is this:
On December 26th my lovley big side by side, pewter coloured fridge /freezer died a death.
I opened the freezer and everything was defrosted and the temperature gauge on the front told us that it had given up being a refridgerating device in favour of a rather warm storage cupboard.
Sadly just about everything had to go, think of all those lovely Christmas left overs….. but it could have been worse, it could have happened on Christmas Eve before we had eaten any of it!
In my experience, if something big and expensive is going to break it happens leading up to a weekend or bank holiday when there is no chance of getting it fixed quickly. So calls were made first thing on the 27th to the Samsung “helpline” I finally got to speak to a nice lady who told me she would send a repair man.
On the 31st (we are now 6 days into no fridge, fortunately the weather is cold and the shed is serving fairly well) the repair man came and in less then 3 minutes decided it was beyond help and he would send a report to Samsung. However since it was New Years Eve nothing would be done until January 2nd.
All this time i’m thinking to myself, its only 4 years old, I took out a warranty but was does it cover?
(Am I boring you? i’m sorry but the fridge has been the all consuming conversation since Christmas!)
Then from January 3rd untill 8th I rang Samsung 4 times a day on the “helpline” the first line of the message says “we aim to answer your call within 30 seconds” over the 5 days I was on hold for a total of 3 hours and 17 minutes! Cross is it??!! This was followed by me sending a very stroppy email to them.
Eventually (yesterday)I rang the company that came to fix it and they told me to go back to where I bought it (Samsung had told me they dealt directly with all problems so not to go back to the shop) I rang Harvey Norman, they looked up there records told me my extended warranty was with them not Samsung, got me to send the engineers report and today they rang to say I can go and pick out a new fridge to the value of the old one.
The moral of the story is this…… If I was more organised and knew where the receipt for the fridge was (do you know where your 2008 receipts are?) all of this was written on the back, I would’ve known to go straight back to the shop and we wouldn’t be still fridgeless people after two weeks!
By the way, at 8.45 last night a very timid little girl rang from Samsung, (she obviously got the short straw when it came to ringing the cross women in Kerry!) to apologise and assure me they would be on top of it straight away. I think she was quite glad to know it was being sorted and she was off the hook!
I will post a picture of the new shiny fridge if I can work out whats up with blogger. Appreciate your fridge freezers people, life is hard without them!
I am now going to organise all the “important” bits of paper in the house so this doesn’t happen again!
Well, the dictionary/thesaurus had to come out to find THE word for 2013, and I have yet to find one that means everything I want it to…….. maybe I need to simplify things and stop trying to add so many traits to myself!
So, I finally decided on LEARN – plain and simple, learn to do new things, learn more about the things I already know.
We are having a spell of mild weather which means lots of walks, these pictures were taken at Muckross & Dinis in Killarney. Its a 10km round circuit and when we saw these floods we started to wonder if we’d get round….
Isn’t it pretty though? thats the only good thing about all the rain we get!
So, 8km into the circuit we came across this flood and our choices were turn back or wade through… I cannot tell how cold the water was, my feet went blue!!
I have lots of plans and goals for this year, one of which is to be as organised as possible. If i’m stressing about something I wake up in the middle of the night in a panic, so hopefully being more organised (like having a month of class plans done) will help.
I have a huge list of “in my wildest dreams” wishes, like going to America this year to do art classes with 2 of my favourite artists (one of them doesn’t give classes, thats how random this list is!) but my absolute top wish is this……
FOR EVERY ONE OF MY FAMILY TO HAVE A HEALTHY AND HAPPY YEAR;
Thats it, plain and simple, To be healthy in every way and be happy with our lives.
I wish that for anyone reading this too!!
Well, i’m sure everyone has been busy leading up to yesterday…. and now its all over! We had a lovely day, quiet, delicious food, very relaxing.
I love this week between Christmas and New Year – its kind of a limbo where I get all the days confused. This year though i’m teaching a class tomorrow afternoon and then a camp for the next two days. Thats probably a good thing, it means i’ll have to get dressed and venture out instead of being a total hermit! ( I LOVE staying at home)
Its also about now I get all inthused to start online classes and new habits. I don’t like new years eve at all, for some reason I find it a sad occasion (which is very odd considering i’m a glass half full kinda person) but the new year is a new start, a clean slate, and each year i’m getting a bit better at making goals and actually (nearly!) achieving them.
Today i’m going to start my list of things I’d like to achieve in 2013 and then choose my “Word”. If you could achieve anything in the coming year (like anything in your wildest dreams) what would it be? i’ll have a think about it and then show you my list, learning to speak French is on it every year….. but i’m getting better at it.
I think for my new list i’ll need a new journal so i’m going to make something to write it all in, ooh, a project! just what I need today!
