WOYWW 425

IF A PICTURE PAINTS A THOUSAND WORDS.....

Hello lovely WOYWWers - hope you've all had a great week. I'm particularly pleased to see Shaz Silverwolf (and hublet Doug) back from Kos, where they experienced an earthquake and aftershocks whilst on holiday. Your FB antics were interesting Shaz but I'm glad you're ok!

Right...the desk. I didn't know what to do next after all the making for the RNLI and my scraps box was exploding even more. I thought I'd take inspiration from you papercrafters and do some masterboards, but out of fabric. I have no idea what they'll be used for but it was mindless crafting to fill an hour or so!

Just putting scraps together....

That sort of thing....

The scraps box doesn't look any different really huh??!  

The RNLI Open Day was last Saturday, the weather was fab and loads of people turned out to support a really valuable (and totally voluntary) rescue service in our town.

Recognise some of these? Some items didn't even make it onto the table and were snaffled up beforehand, lol!

There is lots of equipment to keep up to date...

The crews did some presentation stuff, capsizing the boat etc. That's the old boathouse in the background, a brand new one begins construction in Nov - it's going to be amazing and much easier to launch the boats.

This crew whizzed off to rescue some kayakers as a demonstration (other crew members in reality)

Bringing them back into harbour - the whole operation was extremely quick. The Burry Port station is the third busiest in Wales - we are on an estuary with a huge tidal range and sandbanks far out to sea where it's all too easy for people to get cut off.

Beautiful but needs to be treated with respect.

And last, but definitely not least, we took delivery of a new coffee table this week.....

It was tested to its limits and deemed worthy :-D

So lots of pictures and not many words today, hope you've enjoyed! xxxxxxxxxx


WOYWW 424

IT DON'T MATTER IF YOU'RE BLACK OR WHITE...

We've had two sets of visitors in the past week which has been wonderful but busy so not that much crafting has taken place. I did get out all all the things that I've made for the RNLI Open Day (22nd July) in order to box them up to take to the relevant people.

There are tote bags, drawstring bags, zippy bags, doggy bandannas, hearts, tissue holders, sunglasses cases and carrier bag tubes - I hope they're useful for raising some cash.

The sunglasses pattern and tutorial came off Pinterest!

The doggy bandannas are folded and labelled....

This was for Son No 2 however, he wanted a doorstop to stop his bedroom door from creaking in the breeze. It's basic but functional...bit like me really :-D

My nephew Matt came to stay with his wife Kim and her mum, also Kim, who are from New York. They had a good couple of days exploring the area. I'd shown Mama Kim my crochet blanket-in-progress and, bless her, she insisted on finding a wool shop when the three of them were out and bought me these:

Posh wool!! It's Merino and incredibly soft. Mama Kim said she hoped I'd make a shawl or scarf for myself. That'll be my Autumn project for sure. How thoughtful a gift was that? As fast as I'm trying to clear my stash, more appears - it's the yarny equivalent of the Magic Porridge Pot, lol!!!

A couple of pics to finish with - Mr LLJ belongs to a local photography society who arrange some interesting trips out - this was last Wednesday's to a National Trust Property.

There were lots of deer enjoying the cool of the evening but the main intention was to see...........

Badgers!! This little one was muscling in to get its fair share of peanuts....

The one on the right was using its paw to shovel in as much food as it could...there were jays and wood mice helping themselves to the feast while 10 photographers sat in a hide. Better than tv huh?!

This is my favourite shot - G really enjoyed the evening and can't wait for the next one!

Have a great week xxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 423

I DIDN'T COME HERE TO PARTY...
I ONLY CAME FOR THE CAKE.

It's a photo heavy blog today folks, so desk first and then feel free to bail out if you want! But first, May, I did try to comment on your blog last week but your link kept taking me away to online advert sites. I hope you realised and have managed to sort it.

Desk 1:
When rootling around in my furnishing fabric box last week, I came across a remnant of this adorable fabric - I love it so much, those little elephants...so cute!!  I had just enough to make two more drawstring bags, one for my charity projects but the second will go to my great-niece Edith. She's a bit little for a PE bag yet but it can be put by and maybe used for other things before that!

The red gingham lining looks pretty good too but you'll just have to take my word for it!

Desk 2:
Two days later, things looked like this! I have an exploding scraps box too, just like Angela and Julia - mine's just fabric instead of paper. I'm continuing on my stash busting mission and wanted to make a pretty zipped bag for a teenager in band who is off on a major school trip soon...

A bit of ribbon, trim and one yoyo flower later and Bob's your uncle :-D  I hope she'll like the surprise...


Last week, my boys, future DiL and G went for a road trip up over the western Brecon Beacons, ending up in Llandeilo (home of the amazing Ginhaus). We found another shop, Heavenly (for details see here) which was a fab find on a very hot day as it sold the most amazing ice cream. The shop/cafe is laid out in a very luxurious manner:

Sinful chocolates, sweets and ice cream at every turn....temptation on a stick!  But there was more, they make OTT wedding cakes too. I asked permission to take some pics which they were happy to let me do. 

This one's for Shaz and Doug Silverwolf!

The detail is incredible..I love the dragon!

Son No 1 and his fiancee were very taken with this one!!

How lovely would this be for a vintage tea party themed wedding?!

I thought this was my favourite seaside one but....

The mermaid clinched it - fine figure of a woman there, lol!!  It was a great shop with lovely folk running it - I'll definitely be taking Julia there when she next visits :-D

And FINALLY (thank goodness for that, you're all thinking!) my niece Clare emailed me this pic from her day at Wimbledon:
My goodness - is that a JanBag she's carrying?! Yes it is and one I made quite a few years ago. It's good to see that it's still going strong, thanks for sending the pic Clare, you look very patriotic - hope you indulged in some Pimms and Strawberries and cream too :-D

I met up with Lynne (Lynnecrafts) in London  last Saturday as well. we went to the Hokusai exhibition at the British Museum, it was wonderful and very inspiring. We had a great day but no pics were taken, we were having too much of a good time. It has made me think a lot about drawing again though and when the next three lots of visitors have departed, I'm going to take it up again!

Have fun all - and thanks for making it to the end of this post ;-D xxxxxx

WOYWW 422

WHEN A KNIGHT WON HIS SPURS IN THE STORIES OF OLD....

Another week has whizzed by! I've got both sons and future DiL at home, which is really fabulous but expensive when it comes to bread, cereal and milk!! :;-)  Only joking, it's lovely being surrounded by my very tall sons..honestly, if they stand either side of me, it's like looking up at skyscrapers and I'm not exactly short!

I'm also pleased that Julia is home safe and sound - it was good to chat and have a bit of a catch up..yay xx

Some crafting has been done...

I found the ditsy flower print when I was looking for something else and thought that it needed using up! So I matched it with the pink gingham and a purple spot in order to make a craft bag.

Mix and Match but the colours go quite well!

It's got pockets inside and out and a recessed zipped top. Hope someone will like it at the RNLI open day craft stall :-)

And then my hubby asked if I could knock something up for him that he'd seen on a camera website - a sort of bean bag thing to rest the camera/lens on. I had a quick suss out of some photos online and had a play:

I'd forgotten all about this fabric! I just made a boxed corner bag, filled it with stuffing and slip stitched it shut - took all of 15 mins....

...and does the trick! Now G can use the shutter release on his camera without it tipping over. 

It was the carnival in our small seaside town last Saturday - the posters had mentioned a Medieval theme and they weren't joking!

We really enjoyed the jousting performance - the guys in yellow and black were the baddies with the others being the Good Guys. We had a lot of fun booing the baddies and cheering the heroes! They were excellent and put on a great show with lots of hammy acting...the jousting and tilting bit was really exciting:

This guy in particular really went for it - he'd put his head low, urge his horse into a gallop and charge down the course. It was quite stirring watching men in full flow, so to speak!!!!

Take care and have a great week!!

WOYWW 769

 WE'LL MEET AGAIN.... I'm going to take a break from blogging for a while - please don't worry, all is ok! - think I just need a...