Wednesday 28 August 2013

Once Upon A Time........

 
Oh I can't believe the summer is almost over.  Any day now I will be clearing my lawn of the Gazebo and furniture, ready to pack away as we wait for the shedding of leaves and changing colours of the season.  I hate dark nights, but I am really looking forward to cosying up to the fire and cooking hot meals again.  I have been living on salads for weeks and weeks now and I'm looking forward to tucking into roast potatoes again!
 
I have done an awful lot of baking this summer and have loved every minute of it - so have my boys!  Yesterday I made a great discovery in a charity shop in town.  I went in on a whim knowing full well that I wouldn't come out empty handed!  And as luck would have it, I found this gorgeous glass plate stand which I picked up for an unbelievable bargain of £2.95:

(PS my windows are not really that grubby, but the angle of the pic has accentuated the cobwebs OUTSIDE my house!  And the moment I spotted them, I quickly whizzed out and cleared them!  Honest! LOL!)

It was a little shabby when I brought it home - it had a brownish/yellowish tinge all over it, but lots of hot soapy water and a good sponge, it scrubbed up a treat and I love it!  But you can't have a cake stand with no cake, so I went and baked this vanilla sponge with amaretto cream to adorn it:

Today is going to be spent getting uniforms and school bags ready for the start of the new academic year.  The holiday seems to have just flown by, but it's been great fun.  We took the tent down to Devon for a week and were rewarded with gorgeous weather, and I have discovered Totnes!
 
I can't believe in all the years we've been going to Devon that we've never visited Totnes!  I loved the place.  It's very 'new-age'y with lots of gorgeous shops, but we went on the Sunday when they had the most amazing market which stretched the entire length of the street! 
 
Summer has gone by so fast and I have had very little time with my precious stash.  I have one or two half finished projects which are very much 'work-in-progress' and hundreds of ideas that I want to try out.
 
One project that I have managed to complete is my card for this week's Midweek Magnolias theme which is Once Upon A Time.  Here it is:



 
 
I used some of my favourite Websters Pages bg paper mixed with scraps from my Graphic 45 Ladies Diary papers.  Tilda was coloured with pencils and everything is finished off with a touch of my homemade frontage.  The butterflies and embossed card are Tim Holtz/Sizzix and the big die cut that Tilda is standing on is Marianne's (my favourite die of all time!).
 
Please go and visit the blog as it will lead you to the many wonderful projects that my fab teamies have created.  There is a wealth of talent and inspiration just waiting for you over there and you go with the promise that you will not be disappointed.
 
Thank you for stopping by and have a great week!

Saturday 3 August 2013

Prima Dolls



OK, anyone who knows me knows that I am always the last to discover stuff in the craft world.  However, I can say with my hand on my heart that I actually discovered Prima Dolls quite some time ago, but in truth I really didn't like them at all.  However, I saw them in my local(ish!) shop, Pink Tulip and I thought "My God, they're HUGE!" and I changed my mind about them, so I got a couple.  However, they've been sitting gathering dust waiting for me to find inspiration, and at last I've got them out and made something - with this one at least.
 
Now I know they don't have faces, but honestly the temptation was too great - I didn't want to go mad and put all the fine detail in, so with my Watercolour Teacher's words ringing in my ears, I put a 'suggestion' of a face in.  She is coloured using pencils and the bg papers are 5th Avenue.  The die cut roses are just vintage clipart images that I printed onto Bazzil and fussy-cut (I love that expression! LOL!).
 
Thanks for stopping by my blog, Have a great week! :o) xx