WOYWW 556

BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN...

Hello, I'm back after a week off - life just got too manic and I had nothing to share craft-wise, but I was sorry to miss the significant number of 555!

Part of last week's busyness was reinstating the JanCave:

It's so good to have my space back, I've really missed not being able to just pop in for five minutes here and there. There's a pile of cut out glasses cases and some cardboard templates for a WI bag making initiative that's happening in a couple of weeks time.

Outers with fleece fused on, paired with a contrasting liner, all ready for sewing up. The lovely Laura from the Harbour Lights cafe texted me to say that stocks were low, so I really must crack on.

And the reason for all the upheaval?

My kitchen is all but finished, just the new plaster to be painted and a little bit of tiling in the utility room. We're pleased, it's all come together nicely.

G and I had a spur of the moment trip up to London on Friday where one of our oldest and dearest friends was in hospital, having had a major operation. We shared the train trip up with a group of loud but very funny Welsh gals en route to celebrate a 50th birthday...I don't know if the genteel afternoon tea goers at the Ritz would have been prepared for the on-slaught! Our friend was doing incredibly well, so G and I managed to get a lot of walking in around the back streets of the Big Smoke:

I personally think the Shard is a monstrosity, it looked less offensive at night!

And it amused me to take this pic where it was smaller than everything else.... :-)

We walked for miles, 35000 steps in three days!

I'd never walked over the Millennium Bridge before! And as much as the famous sights were fun, it's the back alleys and the underside of the capital that we enjoy exploring. You come across little gems like this:

I don't know who those Maidens were but they must have dumped a lot to have a warning sign!! *grin*

Hope you've had a good couple of weeks, I'll look forward to catching up with you today xxx

WOYWW 554

YOU GOTTA HAVE PATIENCE, PATIENCE.....

It's funny what you can be patient about - some things don't wind me up at all whereas other situations can have my eye twitching, lol!  

For example, being out of my kitchen isn't worrying me at all, we're managing really well with the camping stove in the dining room.  And the refit is going very well!

There's been a couple of issues - no work like this is ever completely trouble free - but the fitters are brilliant guys, really neat and tidy workers. And this is all fine.

But I'm missing my JanCave a lot!  I've edged one blanket and made another:

I've still got odds and ends of DK yarn so will start another as something to do whilst watching TV.....

I even resorted to sorting out the glasses cases outers/inners to make sure that I can just launch straight in when my sewing machine is back in place. I miss being able to just nip into the JanCave for 15 mins or so - still, not long now.

So for today, my desk is the ironing board!

Hope your crafting is more exciting than mine at the moment, lol!  Have a great week xxx

WOYWW 553

ALWAYS FIND ME IN THE KITCHEN AT PARTIES... 

Thanks for the lovely New Year messages last week, I'm sorry I didn't return many visits, I was laid up with a bad case of vertigo.

Be warned, you're not going to see much crafting for the next three weeks either as my desk is being used for something else:

Yep, it's now in my dining room doing good service as a cooking station. We've had to decamp here because of this:

The kitchen that was......

And the one yet to come.....

I know it's going to be lovely in the end!

So I escaped from the carnage this morning and went to WI Craft club where there was a crochet masterclass going on!

Most of the ladies are extremely competent knitters but haven't crocheted before. There was a bit of head scratching but they got the hang of it!

And crochet is my go-to craft at the moment, I'm making a stripey blanket (again!)

A softer toned palette which is using up all sorts of ends of balls - it's just what I had in my stash. I'm rather enjoying making it :-)

Have a great week and I'll see you soon!

xxxx

WOYWW 552

ANOTHER YEAR OVER, A NEW ONE JUST BEGUN...

2020 - can you believe it? I remember all the fuss about the Milennium and now that's 20 years ago. Good grief - Tempus Fugit and all that!  

May you have a wonderful, happy and healthy 2020 - may your scissors never blunt, your dies cut cleanly, your fabric never fray and your stash be used up ;-)  Let's share the crafty love and desky fellowship, it really does make the world a better place xxxxx

I have some desk action to share on this first day of the New Year:

I'm making another jewellery wallet for a prezzy - I lay out the pieces like that just so I don't forget any important bits!

Great colour combo - I've almost used up that grey now, wish I'd bought more (story of my life, that is!)

And all cut out with these beauties:

G and I had watched a programme called Made in Britain a while back and seen this company handmaking scissors and lo and behold, my lovely hubby got me a pair! They are such quality, much heavier than my other pairs and a different feel too...but I still don't think I have as many pairs as Julia, lol!!

We had a lot of fun after Christmas dinner with some modelling games though our attempts bore no relation to the pics featured on the box with this:

Owen's 'dog' turned out to be more of a Push Me-Pull You from Dr Dolittle! The other attempts are too rude to show, Blogger would shut me down.....

Slightly more decorous were our attempts at origami - following on from my Christmas trees, G got me a book with papers and so we had a try. Of course we didn't start off with the easier stuff - 

Our cranes turned out ok, we were happy with these!

Thanks for all the love and support this past few years, long may it continue - I'm already looking forward to the Crop in June!

Lots of love,

LLJ xxxxxx

WOYWW 551

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Here we are on the Big Day!  It's been a really busy month filled with lovely goings-on but I am going to have a good break for a few days. The tuba is packed away, the Christmas music is back in its folder and I am going to enjoy a couple of whiskies!!

I have tried to decorate my house elegantly but what can you do when your menfolk do this:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas :-) 

And this:

You can probably work out who did this!! Lol. It shall stay there for the rest of the festive season as it makes me laugh!

Hope you have a marvellous day - thank you for all the desky fun and crafty shenanigans this year. I'm looking forward to the programme featuring my band this evening. If you watch it, hope you'll see why I adore playing in a brass band xxxx

Merry Christmas to you all xxxx

WOYWW 550

SO HERE IT IS, MERRY CHRISTMAS, 

EVERYBODY'S HAVING FUN!

It's the final run-up to Christmas and suffice to say, it's been a busy one. I have four more gigs to play and then I'm done! The Christmas parties and get togethers have been brilliant, it's been such a laugh and I am so lucky to have some truly wonderful friends.

Janet from WI came over last week and we had a very happy morning making table decorations for the Christmas party which was yesterday. We amassed a whole lot of stash and recycled ornaments between us and set to with a hot glue gun each!

It was Christmas carnage in the kitchen!

The only thing that was new were the cake boards.

Every time one was finished it went on the dining room table - these are mine.

The pom poms were fun and the origami trees worked really well...

But this was my favourite!  Being good recyclers, we'll keep the cones, baubles and boards and see what we can come up with next year, lol!

Don't mess with us crafting gals!!

We've got a hot glue gun and we're not afraid to use it!!!

I made a hanging for the WI Christmas competition and showed you the start a couple of weeks back - well, against some very stiff opposition, I won!

I had such good fun with this - it just came together in a couple of hours. I put it into the raffle and someone snaffled it up which was lovely.

I have been out playing carols a lot too - we were in Tesco on Saturday:

This was the morning group just finishing - I was in the 1-3pm section. We collect for the band funds doing this as it takes some cash to keep an organisation like ours going. 
The S4C programme about the band and how we support the community at Christmas is going out at 9pm on Christmas Day. S4C can be found on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat if you're interested. They focussed on the Welsh speakers and the family members but you may see me in the background hiding behind my tuba, lol!

Have a lovely week and if you don't post next Wednesday, may I wish you and your family a Happy, Healthy and Craft Filled 2020. xxxxx

WOYWW 549

STEP INTO CHRISTMAS

Life continues to whoosh by - much like the weather this past couple of days! The one good thing about it being stormy all day yesterday is that I spent quite a lot of it crafting :-)

This was the desk yesterday morning at 10 - it was so dark I had to put the lights on to see what I was doing!  I'm catching up on a couple of late items and have a production line going.

Tomorrow will see me making some more origami Christmas trees with some help from Janet, my WI mate, We'll be making table decorations for the WI party next Tuesday.

This also involves pompoms....

And my good mate Helen turned up trumps when I needed a few different sizes to the Clover makers I already have. I'm very lucky to have friends who are willing to make/create/bake at the drop of a hat. 

Carmarthen is my local town and the shopkeepers have done some great windows - just up the hill from the book Christmas tree is a cafe featuring this:

Fun huh? And all recyclable cups too :-D

My eldest son sent me this pic of his decorating - he said he had no baubles and had run out of space to dry his washing hence:

Um...... well, it's different!  Sock-a-licious :-D

I am out all day and playing carols this evening so I may be very late commenting, apologies.

Have a lovely week!