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!

WOYWW 548

TUA BETHLEHEM DREF

(English: On to Bethlehem Town)

To hear a beautiful version, click here

This is one of my all time favourite Welsh carols - I'm a sucker for a good minor key and mournful sound, that's my Welsh blood coming through!

Anyway, the festive season has well and truly begun here at LLJ HQ....I've already been out playing five times since last week, two of which were covered by the television cameras. It's going to be interesting to see the final programme.

No desk as such today, but yesterday saw me at the WI Craft Club where we made willow stars. Janet demonstrated what to do:

You've never felt such concentration from us girls, lol!

Then we set to - it was really good fun, we all enjoyed though there was the occasional bit of swearing as a bit of willow pinged across the room!!

My mate Helen and her star - Da Iawn, Helen (Very good!)

My attempt!  I enjoyed the weaving part very much - Janet had found wire covered tape which was much easier than using thin willow and more forgiving on the hands. I shall put that in pride of place amidst my Christmas decorations!

All shapes and sizes and all beautiful :-)

I've been practising making Christmas trees out of paper for recycled Table centres for the WI Christmas party. They're improving slowly!

So my desk was the dining room table this time - I was ploughing away and G came in and said Aha! His 52 week challenge topic was Rock Paper Scissors and so we did this:

Fun eh? The little stones with holes in came from the beach near Craster in Northumberland years ago when we lived up there. We have a little bowl of them and they've been with us for 3 decades!

An alternative version:

I don't know which one G used for the challenge in the end but  Gail, if you're reading this, then you might recognise some of the papers you passed onto me!!

On the table is also this:

I've been joining squares the girls in the WI have made to make a baby blanket for a Salvation Army Food Bank appeal that Cindy mentioned on FB. 

And lastly, a fun little project that I've been doing for my own satisfaction and which will end up hanging in the house somewhere - only a little detail of the fabrics though:

Fun huh?!

Right that's it, I'm off playing carols with a small group in an old folks' home this afternoon so my comments may very well be later or tomorrow.

Have a lovely crafty week everyone!

WOYWW 547

I'M LATE, I'M LATE FOR A VERY IMPORTANT DATE....

Well, I thought I'd finished making everything for the WI/RNLI stalls at the fair which is this Friday and then someone turns up with 48 more Ferrero Rocher to knit covers for!!! (This person doesn't knit so has no concept of the time it takes, I think)  I put the call out for helpers and thankfully someone stepped in - bless them!

More little Santa hats (sorry to those folks who've already seen these on FB)

I fancied doing something different and had seen painted wood on Pinterest. My friend's husband obliged with a few slices, the old acrylic paints were dug out and the cobwebs blown off!

I have to say that I really enjoyed doing some painting again!

I put some Stickles highlights on, screwed a little brass cuphook into the top and used some of Sue Dyer's ribbons that she sent me.

Thanks for this Happy Mail Sue, it made my day getting this and it'll definitely be used!

It's been a busy week apart from crafting. I went to the Royal Welsh Winter Fair with my friend Helen, we had a Grand Day Out and enjoyed criticising the judging in the homecraft section, lol! There was lots to see and I admired some of the amazing patchwork and quilting, some folks have soooo much patience:

All different and all gorgeous!

This tripych was the worthy winner, I spent a long time looking at all the details, stitching, bead highlights etc etc.

My band is being filmed at the moment for an hour long programme (6pm Christmas Eve on S4C!) and the camera crews have been in action this week. They were there to record our rehearsal, it was very different for sure, we were far more well behaved for starters!

Cameras were everywhere! The focus is on the people who have been with the band for ages and who are first language Welsh speakers - the programme is about how groups in rural Wales have their Christmas traditions. Watch this space, lol! (I shall mostly be hiding behind my tuba....)

And finally, we did a bit of Christmas shopping yesterday and this was the window display of a secondhand bookshop:

I wonder how long it took them to create it? That's a lot of books! It really looked like a Christmas tree, my pic doesn't do it justice.

Hope you have a good week!