WOYWW 512

                     IN YOUR EASTER BONNET WITH ALL THE FRILLS UPON IT

                     YOU'LL BE THE GRANDEST LADY IN THE EASTER PARADE.

Before I launch into this week's desky madness, I'd like to point you in the direction of this post by Julia, highlighting the details for CROPTEN on June 1st. Have a look and come if you can, it's such a fun day and worthy of celebrating 10 years of friendship.

I was very excited the other day...I finally got my (literally) sticky mitts on a hot glue gun! I've wanted one for ages and when the WI competition was Easter Bonnets. it was the perfect excuse!

I gathered everything Easter-y that I had and set to work.  

I did have a lot of fun - the mug is my Quantum Entanglement (look it up!) mug, Julia has its twin and we think of each other when we're having a brew!

Et voila! Oooh, I really enjoyed myself doing this and came 2nd in the competition!

The Jancave desk has looked like this recently, I'm making more items to sell for the RNLI at the cafe down the harbour. They're going really well and I pop in weekly to see what needs making. The little purses are quite popular so here are a couple more:

It's nice to see all those colourful poppers again! I do have a lot of fun finding the right lining for the outer fabric - sad but true....

Ready to go...

As are these - the two dachshund ones sold as I was putting them in the box to people who were sitting at the next table! That was satisfying.

G's latest photo challenge was to take a pic inspired by his favourite photographer - we're big fans of Georgina Hughes (check her out on Google images) so we had a go at setting up a gardening still life (in the garage, as you do...)

The BBQ cover was draped over a stack of garden chairs and we played around with a trug, tools and seed packets. 

This is what it ended up like as a photo:

I love it!! I might have to have this printed and framed...he's a clever so and so..... :-)

Have a great week everyone - don't forget to check out the Crop details!!

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WOYWW 511

I'M PUTTING MY EGGS IN A BASKET...

(Apologies for the stupid lyrics last week, normal service has been resumed....)

It's been another very whizzy week, with most of it spent up in Wrexham with the band as we competed in the Welsh Regional Finals (we came 8th)  Consequently very little crafting has been done.

I got a second hand 'new' phone last week and needed a cover for it so whipped this up:

I really like these fabrics, they're so cheerful - unfortunately that's the end of the FQs. I can't remember where they came from otherwise I'd get a couple more!

And crochet is my go-to when watching telly in the evenings when I am home - another stripey blanket, it's mindless but addictive!

My friend Mary (WI and gin buddy) keeps chickens and brought me some eggs when she popped around, they were so pretty, I had to take a pic!

The brown speckled ones are from her new hens, Burford Browns - aren't they pretty? They look like they've got freckles :-)

My brother has been in Spain for a couple of weeks, touring around and he sent me a few pics from Seville:

Ooooh, look, a Spanish shop of delights! In the market, I think...

An interesting shop eh? With sooooooooo much gorgeous temptation......

...and there were two floors....I could get lost in there!

It's probably just as well that I wasn't there, lol! So much fabric, so little time........

Hope you have a great week ahead - keeeeeeeep crafting :-D

WOYWW 510

IF I HAD A HAMMER....

or

CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE EUGENE

or

RELIGHT MY FIRE

or

FORGING A LINK TO YOUR HEART

or

SLEDGEHAMMER

etc etc etc..............

Sorry about the plethora of lyrics today, we kept thinking of more and couldn't decide so you've got them all. You'll see why later :-)

After two weeks of being a good girl, photography-wise, it's all gone pear shaped today. Grab a coffee/tea/gin/beverage of choice - we may be here for a while!

I'm organising an Easter stall at the next WI meeting, with contributions of homemade lemon curd, chocolates, cards and crafty items and thought that I'd better make something to add to the mix.  Someone had recently given me some dried lavender so:

I thought I'd use it up with some linen I found at the bottom of a box...

..and go down the Country Chic line....

There you go!

G was going on a photography 1-1 workshop on Monday and bought himself a remote cable release gadgety thing....but it didn't have a case, so:

I used this fabric as it's really tough - it didn't really need a lining but I thought it would look nicer with the black spotty.

I had about 4cms of black velcro left which was perfect for the closure...and there you are. G's course was fantastic - check out Andrew Warren sometime, some great landscape pics! I'm sure I may well show you one or two of G's at some point in the future...you know, when I have nothing to show...or say.... :-)

The WI group have been knitting and crocheting squares - I delegated the job of sewing it all up to a willing (!) volunteer and here it is before going off to a local community group to be given to someone in need:

A hotchpotch but bright and cheerful - hope someone likes it.

Now then, the reason for all the mad lyrics!  We gave our son Rhys an axe making course as his main Christmas present. It was at the Phoenix Forge, Carmarthen (Shaz Silverwolf, you need to check out the gallery, there's a leafy spiral staircase and lots of dragons)

He had a really fantastic day hammering the daylights out of lumps of metal:

What do we tell our kids? Oh yeah, be careful of fire.......

Forging an axe head...

It takes a lot of effort to achieve a good effect. Look at that wall behind Rhys however, I'd love some of those things!!

Making sparks is satisfying!

But the results were worth all the hard work! Rhys really enjoyed it and is proud of the fact that he made this from scratch:

Not bad for a first time eh?  Now to look at all the other courses on offer...hmmmmm.

Woohoo, you've reached the end - hope you're not exhausted!

Have a great week :-) xxxxx

WOYWW 509

IS THIS THE REAL LIFE? IS THIS JUST FANTASY?

I dunno, my life is bonkers enough, thank you very much!

Last week's bunting got sent off and I forgot to take a photo - typical :-D  However, a new band baby was born last week and so more bunting was needed. I liked the colour selection of last week's so much, I did pretty much the same this time around as well.

I don't possess a die cutting machine so have become quite adept at drawing letters backwards on bonda-webbed fabric! 

Hope the parents of little Macey will like this - her Grandad sits next to me in the brass band!

I've been crocheting granny squares for the WI blanket project - it's a perfect TV crafting thing to do and had been after a new colour. The tablecloths underneath were my charity shop bargain - £1 each - and will be cut up into flags in order to make huge lengths of bunting for a Barn Dance that I'm helping to organise. So, cheap but bright fabrics are the order of the day!

We had to take a photo of our WI banner that I helped make for a county reference project. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed doing the applique background and am still proud of this!

And the reason for the Bohemian Rhapsody lyrics? G's camera club challenge was to illustrate a line from the very same song. We thought lots of people would do little men, thunderbolts and lightning etc so we scratched out heads and came up with this...it made us smile!

Just as well that I know my way around Corel Paint!

Stay tuned for more madness next week :-D