WOYWW 565

ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING REMIND ME OF YOU....

Do you find that the time is whooshing past? It was going quickly before the lockdown but now it seems to have speeded up. We do have a daily routine, are doing jobs, having solo time etc etc but no sooner am I getting up in the morning than it's time to go back to bed again! Weird.

There has been some crafting done this week but this post is going to be a pick n mix again:

There has been a bit of bunting making....

I've tried to post something every day on Neet's #Cheers on FB, sharing things to be happy about. These buttons made me smile!

But my ribbons didn't! What a tip - I still haven't sorted them out either...tut tut....

Betty was feeling a bit frivolous....naughty girl, she's such a bad example to everyone...

The top two shelves of the bookcase in the JanCave is filled with things that mean a lot. The canvas and big letter J are both from Julia, the little silver cup is one that my dad won for football, the wooden mushroom was a present years ago and I found the little teapot thimble in my mum's sewing box after she passed away.

Pan left a bit...

There's a little sewn card from Twiglet, the chimney sweep I made for a WI competition, the beach huts canvas was made by Lisa Mellor, our lovely WOYWWer, the cup and saucer with the Welsh ladies on are from Mum's possessions, I dug the horseshoe up in my garden in Wiltshire and the Piggy Bank was a gift from my friend Isabel when I helped her clear out her house before moving. An eclectic mix huh?

Shelf 2 comes next week, bet you can hardly bear the anticipation!!

And finally, Rhys and I escaped for our one permitted walk from the house yesterday, luckily we can get to here:

It really does bring it home how lucky we are.

Keep smiling you lovely crafters even though we are living in such peculiar times. Sending you a big old hug.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 564

A LITTLE BIT OF THIS, A LITTLE BIT OF THAT

I think we're all going to remark on what strange times we find ourselves in at the moment - there are so many folk who are finding life tricky with no easy answers. I'm grateful that we have good and varied forms of communication so keeping in touch with family and friends is easy. Let's hope that the majority of the population obey the new advice so the social distancing is kept to a minimum.

And we have our crafting mates to keep us company (and possibly sane.......)

So, like me, the desk is a mixed bag this week!

I haven't shown a wide shot of the JanCave for a while. There's bags waiting to be made on the desk, together with a shirt that needs mending. The mannequin and dress was for a WI competition but I don't know if it'll take place now (it's in July). Anyway, she's called Betty and I'm rather fond of her!

This was an old duvet from a friend in the WI, I cut it up whilst chatting with Margaret (Glitter & Glue) on speakerphone!  It's nice to have ongoing projects - here's what I've made in the past week:

I'll roll them up ready for when the local shops open again. And Diana, the little WI tag is the right way up for you this week, lolol!!

And with the lovely weather forecast, I'll be tackling the garden, though having a coffee waylaid me ;-)

And after featuring one tall son last week, here's the other!

We have a table tennis table set up in the garage, it's good fun and is better exercise than you might think!

Other random things to share:

The sun streaming through my beautiful blue glass bowl stopped me in my tracks - gorgeous!

And whilst we're admiring greeny blues, here are a couple of pics that G took in Sussex:

I like coots, so ungainly on dry land, so effortless on water..

And the ripples please me in this pic!

There you go, a miscellany of random things to hopefully amuse you. 

Have a great week, take care and keep as cheerful as you can - your desking friends are always here for you xxxxxx

WOYWW 563

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS....

Hiya everyone - this will be a fairly lengthy post today. I'm working on the fact that since most of us have cut back on outdoor trips (unless you're at work) then perhaps we'll have more time today to visit desks and generally have an extended snoop around! We've got to look for the positives eh?

Gordon and I visited Wiltshire last week and then carried onto Sussex, of which more later. But first, the desk:

I'm going to make the most of this enforced time at home by getting through my stash. I've cut out 7 bags worth and am gradually making more for the WI to distribute amongst the shops in our home town, which they then give out to customers for free.

I've rolled them up and tied them with stash ribbon so they'll take up less space in the shops.

All this fabric was donated by WI members and friends so apart from thread and time, these are free to make and give away.

I bought this yarn whilst away and am making preemie blankets and hats with it for a local special care baby unit. It's lovely soft yarn to knit!

Ok - desk stuff over, onto our trip so proceed at your own risk :-)

We stayed with Julia and Mr D for a couple of days and had a good catching up session but forgot to take any pics - doh! We went to Salisbury and found Franklins where I indulged in a little retail therapy:

Fun huh?! It's for a craft competition so I can't show you what I'm making with this for a while yet!

We then went to Sussex where we'd rented a cottage for a couple of days and met up with Eldest Son:

We were based between Chichester and Arundel - both lovely places to walk around. There were lots of interesting lanes and snickets around Chichester cathedral...

And a good Mexican place for a scrummy lunch!

I loved Arundel, it had a great vibe again with really ancient streets and lanes to wander around.

I loved the patterns of the flint courses in this wall with the bricks and trees providing interesting shapes (though the passers by did look askance at me taking pics of a wall!!)

Unfortunately Arundel Castle wasn't open until April so we couldn't go in - it is very impressive, though it and the cathedral were perched so high lording it above the town, my peasant rebel tendencies made me want to run amok with a pitchfork, lol!!

Although I'm 5'7, I feel very short when I'm around my sons these days!

And the reason we were in the area? Owen had bid for an hour's training in a professional Airbus A320 simulator at his work's Christmas do. G has always wanted to get a pilot's licence but it's just never happened but he loves flying - anyway, they both went in and had a ball!!

They both did exceptionally well - G got a round of applause from the pilot and co pilot trainers as he landed at Heathrow, putting the plane down smoothly right on the central line. That's my boy!! Needless to say, they now both want to build a flight deck at home....I suppose we've got space in the garage, lol.

Back at home we're lucky in that we have loads of beaches on our doorstep to walk freely without risk of getting too close to people. There has been so much erosion on the town beach that these have been exposed from the sand/ash cliff face:

The remnants of a coal fired power station that was levelled in the 90s, they've been buried for years but no longer - like our very own glacial erratic!

And this isn't a UFO:

But the base of an experimental wind turbine that I remember when I lived here years ago, again revealed by the sand erosion. There's no photo jiggerypokery here, that's just how it came out of my phone camera - very sci-fi :-)

Hope you've enjoyed my fortnight's break, it'll be more mundane next week probably!

xxxxx

WOYWW 561

WE WILL PAINT WITH MANY COLOURS...

It has been another whizzy week, that's for sure - extra rehearsals, being out at the contest, WI craft club...good fun but can someone slow down time please?

I took some more glasses cases down to the Harbour Lights cafe and found the box there was nearly empty so it's just as well that I had a good stock to replenish - so far, I've raised £340 for the RNLI *happy dance*

Not that much action in the JanCave this week but there was lots in the kitchen and dining room yesterday....

The WI Craft Club Gals were in town!! We had a really good time painting our terracotta pots...

Trust you to have mucky hands Helen!!

And the lovely thing is how differently the pots turned out:

Shabby chic...

A bit of fun - Kath had brought a pot of herbs so it looked like her pot lady had green hair!

The metallic paints were rather gorgeous....

and Marie did these very smart pots.

I went down the monochrome line!

So there you go, cheap pots and paint testers, amazing what fun you can have for not much dosh, lol!

My band played soooo well in the Regionals but not enough for the adjudicators, we came 8th out of 11. It was such a strong section, everyone played out of their socks but that's the great thing about banding, no matter what the result, you still have fun in the pub afterwards!!

The singing on the bus home was marvellous, lol!!

I don't know if I'll be posting next week so if not, see you in a fortnight :-)

xxxxxxx

WOYWW 560

TIME MATTERS, COUNT IT MANY WAYS...

Brace yourselves (especially you Julia)...

Drum Roll.....

I have made a LIST!!

I know you thought you'd never see the day coming but I have so many different irons in the fire as it were, that I need to just clarify what the priorities are and when they're needed for.  This is just a one off however, it isn't natural LOL!!

Whilst sorting out fabric for the WI bags, I came across a selection of cottons that Sue Dyer sent me a few months ago. I had a good cutting out session ready for sewing when I need supplies for the cafe. Thanks Sue, they're really pretty!

And I finished off a couple of pieces of my stash too - that's the end of the camper van for example!

My WI are making five wreaths to be used in the D Day landing ceremonies in France later this year - a lot are needed so this is my TV crafting of an evening.

And these are for the WI craft club next Tuesday - we're painting pots! These were damp after being outside at the store so I'm allowing them to dry out first, just as well we don't need that table for a while eh?!

But the most important commitment this week is playing with my band at the Welsh Regionals contest - this is the important one of the year as your finishing position affects your placings in the sections. As with football leagues you can be promoted or relegated so it all hinges on this performance. This is the Second Section Test piece:

I rather like it! However just look at this one small section:

Even if you don't read music, you've got to admit that the composer is having a laugh with all these time signature changes! The 10/8 sections have to be treated like the Mission Impossible music, needless to say there's a lot of counting to be done.

Wish us luck on Saturday!

xxxx

WOYWW 559

PAPA'S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG....

I hope that Storm Dennis passed you by and didn't inflict too much damage - the gales were horrendous here on the coast but we weren't flooded unlike some of the poor folk in the Valleys and Herefordshire/Worcestershire. It was foolhardy to go out if you didn't need to, so there's been quite a bit of sewing going on...and all to do with bags.

I saw a FB post by Catriona a while back about making shopping bags from recycled fabric and thought it might be a good thing for the WI group to do, as one of the resolutions was about stopping plastic usage.  

So last Thursday, a group of us gathered:

Some cut out the fabric....

Some ironed!

And some sewed! We had a really good day, Janet provided lunch and it's amazing how the time flew.

I came home with a lot of spare fabric and decided to crack on and make a few more - so while the wind was howling and the rain lashed against the window panes, I sat in my snug little JanCave having a lovely time!

It's easier to make lots of one thing at a time so there's handles aplenty here.

I used some of my stash - the yellow made a good partnership with the floral ex-duvet cover!!

I made quite a few and was wondering how to photograph them all and found this handy chap who was willing to make a fool of himself, all for the sake of my blog ;-)

Lol!!! 

We took the 48 bags to WI today and each member could pick one, the remainder and all future bags will be going to some of the independent shops in Burry Port and given out free of charge.

They are a good bunch of gals!!

And I came home with more fabric so there's quite a few more bags to be made, we'll have to have another sewing day!

Have a good week xxxxxx

WOYWW 558

COME BACK, BABY COME BACK....

Welcome to the crafty shenanigans of a fabricaholic - there's been quite a lot going on this week with a lot to show all you lovely deskers around the world who link up on What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

First things first - my machine is back - woohoo *happy dance* It was kind of Janet to lend me her machine but I'm very pleased to have mine back where it belongs in the  JanCave. Look:

And it was put to use pretty much straight away!

Not only were there sunglasses cases on the go but I needed some quilted squares to go between my frying pans in the new kitchen drawer (to stop them getting scratched)

So I found some spare fabric (I might have a fair few bits of that, lol!), cut out some squares, fused some wadding, added some fancy pants stitching et voila.....

Does the trick and it makes me smile every time the drawer is opened!

I found a new fabric stall in Carmarthen market - run by the lovely Jane, there's a grand selection of reasonably priced quilting cottons, felts, polycottons and haberdashery.

It's called Foxglove Fabrics (the link takes you to her FaceBook page) I think I shall be visiting there quite often!

And of course I bought some whilst I was there.....

For various projects!

And then I had a card making session with Kim, a friend from WI, as I need a fair few birthday cards for the lovely ladies this year as our membership has risen substantially.

We soon covered the table with stuff!! I'm not the world's greatest card maker but we had a nice time chatting and going Ooooooh over the gems and sparkles ;-)

Hope you are unscathed after Storm Ciara on Sunday, goodness it was scary but we got through without any damage. 

Have a lovely crafty week!!