Christmas Club - 2 x

Wow it's time for another edition of Christmas club with the lovely Sian. Every Sunday until Xmas, we are joining in by telling tales of Xmas past and present, and maybe the future, who knows. So this week I hope you have been busily preparing for Xmas. I know I have. What with shopping, making, cooking and generally looking at pretty lights, it is certainly feeling alot like Christmas.

So strangely, today is all about Xmas making. I was having a chat with The Mother recently when we talked about childhood Xmases and I remembered all the things we used to make as children. I am sure if she looked hard enough in the loft, my mum could find the odd thing my sister and I had made to go on the Xmas tree or to hang on the wall.

One of my strongest memories is making paper lanterns at school. Such a simple crafting make, but full of fun and possibility. I remember them being hung in the classroom at Xmas times and then brought home to hang on the wall near the Xmas tree by my parents. I'm sure lil sis and I made them every year for many years and they always looked lovely made from shiny coloured paper and with gummed stickers in all different shapes to make them look like Xmas.

If you want to make some, and I can certainly recommend it,  here is a great post explaining how to make your own lanterns

The other thing we'd make at home was paper chains. Mum would buy a few packs in the local shops and lil sis and I would lick the glue part and stick them together until the floor was covered in linked chains of paper shininess. Dad would hang them up from each corner of the room ceiling and where they met he would hang the big paper decorations which came out every Xmas, and which sadly over the years fell apart and had to be replaced.

These days, there are templates for making chains of snowmen, angels and other amazing choices. What a fun activity to do when the children have finished school and you have a spare hour to sit and get them making.

Making is still going on in my house today, where the Xmas cake has been baked and frozen ready for decoration nearer the day, a Xmas wreath has been made and hung on the door, sewing of gingerbread men and crocheting of birds, and making of Xmas gift tags occurred. I suppose I will always be a maker. There might even be the odd handmade present under the tree.

However, you decorate this Xmas I hope your home is filled with beautiful colour and Xmas spirit.

Storytelling Sunday: The Mother's dress..........................

Welcome to another exciting (I hope ) edition of Story telling Sunday. If you have never seen an edition then hop over here to Sian's blog to read more. I you are here cos you have then welcome back and I will let my tale unfold.


Once upon a time there was a beautiful young maiden who was in love with a handsome young Merchant seaman. He had been away travelling but on his return he had popped the question and she had said ''Yes of course''.
She had been preparing herself for the big day and as she was a trained seamstress, she decided to make her own dress.

Conversation 47 years later between the mother and myself:

Me: Please can I get it out?
The Mother: No!
Me: Please Mum I really love to look at it (using extremely whining voice of young child).
The Mother: Well you can get it out if you put it back again.
Me: Of course. But why don't you want to see it?
The Mother: I don't know. It was just such a long time ago.

So there I am reaching up into the cupboard at the top of the stairs for that box which contains one the most beautiful things ever...........................my mum's wedding dress.

 My mum said the box was nothing special, just big enough to hold the dress after the big day.

The veil is just below shoulder length and was made up about 6 layers of material held together with a flower and pearl tiara which my mum said matched the pearl in the dress fabric and the buttons. This is a blurred in Picasa shot to take out the living room background.

 This is my arty shot of the veil.....................

 My mum says the buttons were handmade, she thought by someone else but she made all the little button loops you can see to the left of the picture.

 This is a closeup of the veil detailing which is spread out in small sprinkles across the veil

The mother was not keen to be photographed with the dress and she wishes it to be made very clear she wanted to iron the dress first but I said don't be daft. So yes it is a tad creased but beautiful non-the less for a 47 year old. She can't remember where the fabric or pattern came from but it is a lovely dress. The main thing she can remember is that she was cutting out the pattern pieces the night JFK was assassinated..............gruesome

Here are the mother and the father when they were courting. Aw bless they look sooooooooooo young.
I have hunted high and low for a picture of their wedding day but can't find one just now. When I do I will put it up show you how stunning she looked that day.

Storytelling Sunday....................A Royal rendevous.

Yesterday I was chatting with Sian and telling her my idea for today's post, and she said ''Go with it''. So here goes.

So 2 days a go we were all either watching or avoiding the Royal wedding and about 30 years ago I was watching the wedding of William's mother to HRH Prince Charles. It was such an amazing day and the country were so into Diana, Princess of Wales that they decided to do a tour of her gown.

 The wedding gown designed by David and Elizabeth Emmanuel.

My family, me, Rachel, the mother, the father and my mum's parents had all gone down for a holiday near Looe in Cornwall. We were staying in a pre-Centre Parcs type outdoor log cabin park with views over the lake. It was beautiful. Anyway one day we planned a trip to Truro especially to see Diana's dress. My mum, me, Rachel and my nan queued for several hours outside the exhibit. We entertained ourselves until we got in, I dont know how cos it did seem like forever. But eventually we got to the front of the queue. My poor nan didnt go in in the end cos she was so sore and uncomfy from standing, she'd only recently had hip troubles, so just me, mum and Rachel went in. All the bridesmaids and pageboy outfits were on display in glass cases along with the piece de resisdence that frock. It was amazing to actually get close enough to see all the tiny details on the dresses. The extra special bows, and embellishments which the TV and magazines couldn't show you. We oohed and arhged as we went around. We then had to go back and tell my nan all the details.

The dress, bridesmaid's dress and shoes etc.

Several years later, my girlfriends and I had the opportunity to visit Kensington Palace on my friend's hen weekend to see a similar display of the Queen's and other Royal dignitary's wedding gowns. If I remember rightly we saw the Queen Mother's, Queen Victoria's and I think Princess Margaret's dresses.

I remember we were all really impressed again by the detail and workmanship which had gone into these beautiful pieces. Evene though they were such personal dresses to the bride, they were also a mark of British work and craft history. Just like Kate Middleton's dress on Friday there were elements of national and personal significance.  To be able to see those dresses up close was n exciting opportunity to feel like a part of history. If you ever get the chance to see any of the Royal exhibition where dresses are central, give it a go, you'll be impressed I can assure you.

It was a really great way to start a hen weekend as well. We then went to see ''Mamma Mia'' which is always worth a return visit. Happy Sunday.

What was on your intinerary today?

Here in Somerset the sun has most definately got his hat on..............hiphiphiphorray! The Mother and I had planned to visit the Stitch and Creative Crafts show at the Bath and West showground but then not got any tickets. Anyway a friend of hers won some in the local paper so we got to go for free, how fabulous.
So off we traipsed, the mother with a very sore and bruised foot asking a nasty fall recently, I do try and persuade her not to wear the stillettos at her age but well what can you do? The show is usually really busy but maybe because of the weather and because there is also the massive show in London at the moment it was fairly quiet. There are lots of different stands, scrapbooking and papercraft, stamps, decopatch, books, wool, beading, jewellery making, the lot.

We wandered around for about 2 hours in the end. I was particularly looking for some red pearlescent card to make butterflies for a riby wedding cake I had been asked to do this month. I am making the butterflies and my mum's friend is making and decorating the cake. She loved the cake ideas for mum's 70th when she made it so suggested it to the lady for her cake.

 We found some lovely card and also a sheet of embossed 12 x 12 card which I hope will make the wings look more butterflyee. After that we just mooched around. I got myself some project boxes, clear 12 x 12 lidded boxes to take bits to crop I am working on rather than lugging too much like I usually do. I also got a bag of Alpaca fleece to make some felt, you can die it so I can make whatever colours I like. I got some skeins of coloured wool too to use for the time being.

The lady from the shop called ''Sewciety'' came from Port Elizabeth, South Africa and was really helpful and interested in my projects. The shop she owns actually delivers fabric to you. She had some beautiful vintage cotton and cotton reels too which I would loved to have bought. I did get some lovely coloured buttons from her too. She also has her own blog which shows u cool places to visit and gr8 makes too. Go check it out here................I also treated myself to a fabulous basket with a drawstring lining for shopping

which because it is orange and not so popular was on special price of £6.00..............I do like a bargain.

So onto the feltmaking workshop. The lady who taught us is a very experienced crafter and does lots of other classes in Bristol but this one was organised by the Art coordinator for the Trust. We were introduced to wet felt making as there several different ways of making it. The first thing we had to do was to learn how to gently tease the wool out of the skeins in the correct quantities. The wool we used was Moreno and is in the pre-spun stage. Once we had mastered this part we started building up out wool to felt. The process is all to do with friction and water/soap. You begin with a sushi mat on your table or you can use bubble wrap with the bubbles upwards. You then start laying out your wool in 3 layers. The first layer lies vertically, you then add a horizontal layer and the final layer is again vertical.

Once you have your three layers you place a piece of netting or bubble wrap over the top. Water and soap is squirted over the layers of wool and the water smooshed out until the wool layers are saturated. You then begin to carefully massage the wool layers until the fibres begin to mat together.

Once you get to the point where you can pick up the piece, you turn it over and massage the back. Next you have to squeeze out as much water and soap as you can and by this stage there was soap lather everywhere!!!

 

The final stages involve rubbing the felted piece together in lots of different directions and it gradually become smaller and stronger. The last phase is squigging the felt into a ball and violently throwing it against the table or a wall, which after this week felt really destressing. Then all you need to do is rinse out all the soap with clean water and leave to dry. In 2 hours we all got to make 2 pieces of felt, I made a plain piece

and one with some decoration. It was really therapeutic and fun, but easy to do. Definately something to try.

Finally today, some pictures of me and the mother's naughty treat. We went to the local garden centre for tea and cake. The mother had a meringue nest with lots and cream and fruit

and I had keylime pie.

As you can tell the mother enjoyed her treat

;-)

Thank you xxxxx

Well, just wanted to say a BIG thank you for hopping over and reading my pledge post. I have really appreciated your lovely supportive comments. It has meant alot. It is amazing to be able to talk about myself in this way sometimes and I am not alone in that feeling. My friend Nancy Doren writes openly about her depression too. The one thing I would say is it's not right for everyone to be so honest but dont be afraid to try.

I am so lucky to have such supportive blogfriends here who enable me to write like this occasionally.
You have probably noticed I have been absent this week again and that is because a terrible event happened to my friend  Luke and family at the weekend. I am not free to discuss it in this place but please, if you can, pray for him and his family as they really need as much love as they can get. I am even more proud and humbled by Luke after seeing him this weekend. He truly is an incredible guy.

Tomorrow I am going with my mum to a craft fair, she got free tickets how cool. Somehow I will walk and she will hobble around..............she has cracked a bone in her foot. It also gives me an opportunity to give her the Mother's day gifts, as that all got cancelled with the events of last weekend, so I need to make it up to her and I am sure she will love the gift. I will tell u what I bought once she has seen it, cos despite the fact she is not likely to come on the blog, she could find out from someone else. I will also tell you all about my feltmaking workshop I went to last night.

More tea Vicar?

or should I say ''More tea Bishop?'' This weekend has been filled with lots of lovely events, some planned, some unplanned. So I thought I'd blog about them today as a weekend roundup.

 So yesterday dawned, not as warm as predicted but neverless sunny. It was arranged that I would meet the parents in town as dad was involved with a charitable event raising funds for Save the Children and Help for Heroes. They had openned the Bishop's Palace Gardens and private chapel for the day and there were teas and coffees provided by Inner Wheel. So me and mum went off to support these 2 excellent causes. The first person we met was the Bishop, hence the quote, who my parents know well as my dad used to be church warden, all very ladeda. Anyway he was really lovely, and welcomed everyone as they came in. The gardens were beautiful, all the daffodils and trees were in full bloom and as the palace is part ruin and part lived in is really well cared for.

 Here is The Mother modelling dutifully under the magnolia, she does it beautifully dont u think?

 This is one of a number of unique statues in the gardens, this one depicts the banishment of Adam and Eve from Eden.

 This is the cathedral from the back

 This statue is beautiful and depicts the sins we have to carry, but each sinner is a child. Each child is meant to represent something terrible affecting children eg AIDS, infant mortality etc.

As you walk around, you can see the cathedral and also the moat goes all the way to the back and the only way to see it fully is to come inside the palace grounds. As my mum knows loads of people it took a while but I got some beautiful pictures. We also had some fab cakes.

Last night I stayed up well past my bedtime to watch the last 2 episodes of ''The Killing'' which I blogged about earlier this week. It has been such a brilliant series however I felt the ending just happened too quickly with too many questions left unanswered so I felt really let down. However, there is a second series at the end of the year and I will definately watch again.

Today, I slept in oops and missed church but spent sometime sitting in the gorunds here chatting to a new neighbour. Then my friend's son came home and we did his homewor, I know I'm a fab person. We had to do literacy and also he had to design a vehicle and build it which had to transport a cream egg, I got to play with Lego for the first time in ages. It was brill.

 This is the literacy homework in progress.......................

 Of course everyone had to complete their census today and here is m ine ready for posting. I love that in 100 years someone in my family can look back and see where I lived and what I did. I have found the census so helpful in investigating family history and identifying where my ancestors lived.

 I thougt I would also share with you my minibook I started making at crop. It is a class my good friend Cleo taught. We started off with chipboard, paper, some pieces diecut and were asked to bring lots of Tim Holtz style recycled items and photos. I decided to do it about the night I went out with Luke for his 21st. We were also given three 45rpm singles which I caused gr8 consternation with as I only wanted decent ones, of the three 2 were fave bands back in the day OMD and Tears for Fears. The idea was the minibook would be grungy and made very much in our own style. Cleo had brought denim and canvas and cotton fabric plus lots of additional bits and bobs to use. It was gr8 fun. These are the pages I have completed so far.......

 I had the key in a kit and it is perfect for turning 21................

 Here is the record used as an album page.

 On this page I stuck sticky canvas on the chipboard and coloured it with distress inks.

 This is a collage of offcuts from papers and also some corrugated card from a pizza box. I used some teal paint on this page.

This page is stuck onto calico and coloured. The ties at the top are denim ripped and tied through holes in the record.

Not bad for one weekend dont you think. So off to cook and eat tea now. See you this week for more blogging for scrapbookers. And Shimelle is back in town so I'm sure we'll hear all about her mammoth trip.

Today I am............................

happy because these things make me happy..........................

1. Tim Holtz minibook from one sheet of 12x12 paper........................
2. Sian's fabulous link to Counterfeit Kit challenge's blog where you can make ur own kits from stash with ideas from them, tips on making ur own glimmer mists etc..............
3. The blessings of a new life arriving safely Over at OUr place....................congrats xxxxxx
4. The sight of snowdrops and crocuses at last.................
5. Having a very frank conversation with The Mother last nigth about sex!!!!!1 Apparently the book I bought her for Christmas was a little too raunchy for her tastes..............ooohermrs!
6. Getting a belated Xmas present for my Sissix................Tim Holtz's rosette flower maker,
7. Arranging to see my friend Teresa...............
8. Going back to work on Tuesday as my voice sounds less Minnie and more hoarse, yey for steroid nasal sprays!!!
9. The weekend,
10. My friend and his new boyfriend coming to stay tonight, can't wait.

Have a gr8 Saturday and what makes you happy today?

The conversation went like this.............................

Scene: A large out of town shopping mall in the West of the UK.

Cast: The Mother and The daughter......................additional extras The father, The lil sis,

Act One:

The mother and the daughter are dropped off by the father outside said shopping mall and arrangements made for picking up later that day, the mother and daughter enter said mall..................

The daughter: Where shall we start first?
The mother: Let's go to [ large well known department store].
The daughter: For lil sis present or for cousin's son's?
The mother: Lil sis.

The daughter ascertains correct floors for items to purchase and escalator ride is taken. Daughter taking photos of decorations for JYC Day 8.

The daughter asks sales assistant for place where cutlery is displayed for lil sis pressie not cousin's son whio is only 2!!!

 Unfortunately store no longer sells correct option,.....................vouchers need to be purchased.
Movement to floor below to toy section.
The daughter finds well known brand of children's trains made of wood and asks the mother for list of choices suggested by the cousin. List only has numbers not names!!!  

The daughter: OK mum you read the number and I'll try and find the right thing. Eventually find 2 items which are correct.

The daughter suggests they try the well known toy store next door....................

Slightly eccentric store assistant tries to engage the mother and the daughter in useless conversation,
The daughter taking the bull by the horns: do you stock this or not?
The eccentric assistant: No!

Next item on list....................coffee and cake break at STARBUCKS, need I say more.


The daughter and the mother then walk to well known underwear seller who supplies majority of women's knickers in the UK.

Enter stage left the father who has arrived early..............
The father: Can I go to the ................. [well known music emporium with doggy emblem].

The daughter: Of course. I'll meet you there.
The mother: I'll stay here as my feet hurt.

The daughter enters said music emporium and assists the father to try and find DVD he has wanted forever................no luck and queue too long.

Enter the mother: Are we going now?

The father : Yes I will get the car.
The daughter and the mother bring up the rear, the daughter still snapping away.

The mother: Haven't you got enough yet?
The daughter (aghast): Never say that a scrapbooker, u can never have enough pictures to scrapbook!!!

THE END

Vets visit...........................

So today's extravaganza involved a little trip to the vets, well when I say vets I mean hospital. Anyone have a long memory of years gone by, when as little girls and boys we waited for the event of the week when a bunch of crazed puppets took over the airwaves and took the mick out of superstars? Well if not let me introduce ''The Muppet Show''. There were 2 parts of this programme I loved, 'pigs in space' and Vetrenarian's Hospital'. In the latter Miss Piggy, Rolf and one of the band memebrs layed Drs and nurses. The voice over played in a slow American drawl and me and lil sis repeated it word perfect........................
''And now Vetrenarian's hospital, a continuing stoooooooooooooory of a quack who's gone to the dogs..........'' the standing joke being that Rolf the Dr is actually a dog! He's called Dr Bob and let me make it clear, I actually worked with a Dr Bob and he wasnt a dog but a fine neonatologist. Anyway, off I trotted with the mother to see the thyroid specialist to see why the non-existent thyroid isnt working and why my blood levels are ary. Suffice to say that so far everyone's answer is ''Ur not taking ur tablets!!!!'' Now let me state that I am a nurse, I am intelligent and I have to take thyroxine daily or else I die...........so I get ever so slightly hacked off when the Drs state the obvious and I go all Terminator on them and blow a fuse. Well today was no different but at least he has suggested some other ideas too so we will wait and see. Anyway it gave me a lovely excuse to watch loads of Youtube clips of the muppets in action and now Nurse Piggy will say.........................