WOYWW - Holidaying Not Crafting !

Well in my ongoing litany of excuses for not doing any crafty projects - here is the old "well I went on holiday" one now !

But as excuses go it was very enjoyable !
We escaped the dreary wet cold British winter and had a lovely 10 days in sunny tropical Barbados !

We have a great mix of relaxing by the pool, wandering barefoot on the sandy beach and also seeing the sights of the island like the unique Chattel Houses, the Rum Distilleries, the famous Cricket Ground (Much Beloved's choice !) and the famous Oistin's Friday Night Fishfry. 


And watching the amazing sunsets whilst sipping a rum punch - well it is always important to embrace the local culture !

 The sunsets were gorgeous - just a ball of fire sinking into the Caribbean sea - you could almost imagine you could hear the sizzling as it sunk into the waves on the horizon !








Even once the sun had set the scenery was so lush, tropical and evocative !











We went up to the Flower Forest in the centre of the Island - a lush tropical rain forest - gorgeous trees & flowers !

And the coastlines were stunning too ...

Do you see the bus stop beside us - all the bus stops either say "to city" or "out of city" - it made us smile !

 And my morning walks on the beach before breakfast were a highlight of my day !

What an amazing view !

As we flew back into London Gatwick in be greeted by 2" of snow, drove home to tackle 10 loads of washing & back to a busy office on Monday - we were back to reality with a bump !
I will be scrapping all those happy memories as soon as I can believe me !

Have a great week !
Ali x

WOYWW - Eating Not Crafting

Well here I am for the second week running with an enjoyable weekend under my belt (literally - more of that later !) but very little crafting done !

Messy Desk this week !

My desk has clutter rather than much in the way of projects - and the one I do have I can't show you !
I have bought a new project zip up bag and pencil case from Paperchase to take some crafty bits on holiday next week ! Who could resist the tropical print ! On top you can see the back of 2 tags. These are the first of the monthly challenges that Lynda & I have embarked on this year. This month's challenge was "crackle glaze" and "tag on tag" - can't show you before Lynda sees them obviously ! But they have a January theme !



I did scrabble a little time together on Sunday when I got home from my weekend away to try to catch up on my 2015 Journal - the diary day page for the previous week harks back to the photos I showed you last week of celebrating the winter sunrise - with my rather wonky silhouette drawing !!








And the Journal Page is based on the Colour Wheel challenge for DLP.

I made up this quote as I thought it was apt for the page !

It is a bit messier than I expected but I had a bit of a barney with the Cosmic Shimmer sprays which were bunged up at the spray nozzle and then splurged !!
But hey it is all colour !!

Obsession January 2015

The reason I was away this weekend was that I was lucky enough to be invited, by the lovely ladies who run one of the ingredients companies we deal with at work, to an evening celebrating the work of 4 Michelin star chefs from Portugal. The festival called Obsession is held at Northcote hotel in Lancashire - itself famous for it's food - and features 27 days with 27 Michelin star chefs. We were served totally delicious & visually stunning food with selected Portuguese wines with every course.
Just amazed us how great seemingly simple ingredients could taste ! It featured lots of fish & fresh vegetables - so quite healthy if we hadn't been enjoying the wine quite so much !!

Our hosts had booked the Chef's Tasting Table which is located in a special room off the kitchen - so we got to see all the service being prepared & served and were hosted by Nigel Haworth - Chef at the Hotel who has held a Michelin star for nearly 20 years and is being instrumental in training young people into the industry.
We had a fabulous & memorable evening !

You can see myself (red frock!) and Helen who so kindly invited me with our souvenir menus.
Below that is a picture for any of you who are into Sugarcraft - an amazing cake designed to show the produce being celebrated at the Obsession event. A delicious salmon dish was served with chive dust !
And our favourite dish of the evening was the lobster in the centre right - totally gorgeous !

Well that was my excuse for no crafting - and I enjoyed every minute !
Have a great crafty week ! Ali xx

WOYWW - Visiting Not Crafting !

Well no crafty action on the desk this week as I was away all weekend in North Wales to visit my MIL.

We had a smooth journey there & back thankfully - which is always a bonus given the twisty mountain roads for much of the way !

 So on my desk this week are just a couple of craft magazines, my daily diary and the new Tablet I treated myself to a couple of weeks ago.




On Sunday morning we went out to the promenade to watch the sun rise .. the light was amazing, vividly bright and throwing everything on the shore into stark mono-chrome silhouettes.

Uncannily enough the topic for this weeks Journal 52 is Silhouette - so although I haven't had a chance to journal yet I have got some photos to inspire me !

We saw the morning slip from darkness to light as the tide flowed outwards ...









The sun lifted over the mountains and started to illuminate the tide line ...

We have amazing huge sandy beaches here in Wales and when the tide goes out the beach goes on forever ...

 The board-walk seems to stretch for miles out towards the receding tide ...

I decided to make myself a silhouette against the rising sun !!

Have a great week !
Ali x

WOYWW - A Winter's Tale

Just a short post as not a huge amount happening on the craft desk this week !

Just my Journal going on ...it's sort of a combo of 3 Journal ideas & challenges ...

I am making a short note each day and noting the weather ... and I am using a fun Dodo diary my Mum bought me for Christmas ...

This is then combined with a small picture inspired by the week ... this idea is from the No Excuses Journaling book.



I have done a little water colour of snowdrops .. inspired by the first ones I saw flowering bravely in Lynda's garden last weekend..
This past week has been very cold with snow on Wednesday - 2 cars to scrape clear before we could get to work !!
And Saturday was solid ice - it must have snowed in the night & then frozen solid afterwards - so we had an inch & a half thick of ice to chip off again !
Half an hour to clear one car !!
I don't how you guys who live in snowy places cope day after day - the slightest snow here and everything grinds to a halt !

Hence this week's little picture was of Icicles
I used a pearlescent texture paste .. to create the Icicles - Broken China Distress Stain for the background and sparkling embossed snowflakes ...

This weeks Journal 52 was to create a page inspired by a conversation I had had this week ... I must have a very short memory because I couldn't really recall anything !!

So I decided that my Appraisal which I had last Friday at work sort of counted as a conversation !




The Documented Life challenge this week was to use Gesso.

So this page sort of came together ... a Gesso base layer, I used Gesso through a Dylusions stencil with different sized figures of a woman ... she is supposed to represent me - but is much slimmer than me !!
The words are some of the competencies that I get judged on ... it doesn't quite feel finished but it is coming along !

Well that's all folks - have a great crafty week ! Ali xx

WOYWW - Holiday Stitching !

Well necessity proved the mother of invention on Sunday as I set about stitching for the first time in weeks !

We are off on holiday to Barbados next month - this destination has been on Much Beloved's Bucket List for ages - so we are heading out there whilst we can healthwise etc !

We had planned to take his electric scooter but we have found out they have American voltage electricity which is only half as powerful as the UK so we won't be able to charge the battery !

Thankfully we have found out in time to change our plans over to taking the manual wheelchair - so I need to get my pushing muscles ready !

And it meant that the bag I had made for taking towels and so on to the pool on our last holiday won't be any good - so I had to devise a wheelchair friendly large bag.


I went over to Lynda's on Saturday - we had a lovely afternoon with chatting, lush muffins and playing in her craftroom - whilst the Boys were out watching footie in the freezing cold - hmm - tough choice - NOT !!

She helped me plan out the bag & make a few templates - so on Sunday I was able to cut, layout the pieces to plan how to construct the bag with front & back pockets and the straps to hang neatly from the chair handles.

I have to admit there was some blood, sweat & swearing involved !

Thankfully the blood (I had forgotten how sharp quilting pins are !!) sponged out and Much Beloved didn't blush too much at my swearing !!

But happily it turned out okay - and we test ran it with the beach towels in it on the back of the wheelchair and it looks like it should work fine !!
And I can't resist using up the scraps of fabric - so I had to make a quick cover for my Kindle too !

So not a huge amount on my desk this week as that was my crafting this week .. some Lavinia Toppers I had forgotten that I had and this month's Creativity magazine - and a snowflake picture ready to copy onto a Journal card - inspired by the brave little snowflakes in Lynda;s garden !







Just a couple of journal pages to add - "Pathways" is week 1 challenge for Journal 52 2015 ....

And "Book Pages" is for the Documented Life Project Journal Challenge - they gave us this quote which I loved !

Enjoy your crafty week ! Ali x

WOYWW Journal 52 & pre-Spring Tidy !

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year !

Lynda & I saw in the new year together with our respective Much Beloveds and it was lovely to share the evening with them ! Of course it would have been rude not to see in the Midnight Hour with a glass of Bubbly !
Oh dear -the Star on top of the Tree looks like it has imbibed that New Year Bubbly a bit too heavily !!


After taking down the Christmas decorations on New Year's Day, it felt very good to finish off my Journal Your Christmas for 2013 - it is looking satisfyingly plump with Christmas memories !
 
It is now safely stowed on the shelf with my previous JYC journals - from 2008 onwards !


I have been in a tidy up mood this week - must be the thought of Spring - and the Spring Clean tradition !! - being on its way - even if it seems a good way off at the moment !
So I have been rooting out in the wardrobes, the bathroom cabinets and have a stack of bags for the charity shop, the rubbish tip and the recycling !
My craft desk & shelves are looking vaguely respectable !
And I have even dumped some stash - ugly papers & old embellishments I am never going to use !

And put the 3 randomly part filled scrapbooks into some sort of chronological order in one single album !

I have tidied up lots of part planned scrapbook pages - and feel in the mood to scrap again for the first time in months !

And I have actually done some creating as well as the tidying !

I have been working to catch up on my Journal 52 - I am feeling happy to have finished all 52 challenges for 2014 - and so this is my Second satisfyingly plump Journal book this week ! Good job I have finished the year as the folder is about to burst !! I may even get round to decorating the covers at some point !

I am not sure what my plan is for my Journaling this year - I am thinking of following the new No Excuses Journaling book I have - this goes month by month and builds up week by week - I am using the Dodo Diary that Mum gave me for Christmas instead of the Desk Diary the author suggests as I like the freedom to work on separate sheets rather than a straight into a book ... but I might still follow the Journal 52 challenges in 2015 - oh the happy choices !!!

The final theme of the year was Full Circle ... and one year ends & the new one begins !

This challenge was "Build A Snowman" .... and I do like a snowman - but snow is a nightmare combination with disabled living for Much Beloved   !!

This was to capture one of your favourite songs ...The Whole Of The Moon by the Waterboys will always be in my top 5 tunes !

T

This challenge was to Doodle a page which sounds easy enough but I am pretty rubbish at Doodling .. so I decided to make a collage of doodles and add my own colour & touches !

This challenge was glitter & sparkle - and I have had the tune of "Shine Like A Diamond" buzzing in my head since I heard it on Strictly Come Dancing last month - this seemed a good place to park up up and stop it keep running round my brain !! The photo doesn't really show all the blingy sparkle !

So on my rather tidy desk today (well tidy for me !!) is a new folder to start of some Journaling in 2015

Thought you might like to see all the ATC's that Lynda & I made for our ABC challenge in 2014 ..

But I may need reporting to the Royal Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Cuttlebugs ... look what happened to my poor C Plates when I went to die cut those circles for my Snowman !

Have a great crafty week !
Ali x

WOYWW - Happy New Year 2015 !

Well where did the past year go - the weeks and months just seem to gallop past !
Here we are again with Christmas past and slipping into memories and a fresh new year ahead of us !













We had a lovely Christmas - rather different as we had decided to stay in a hotel for Christmas this year. With the loss of Much Beloved's Step-father in July my MIL had asked that we do something completely different to make the day less painful for her.
Both my side & Rich's side of the family got to celebrate together. And I got to hang out with my 2 Nephews !

We had a brilliant time at the hotel which they had decorated beautifully - the staff were so kind and nothing was too much trouble for them !
We even woke on Christmas morning to find Santa's footprints along the corridor outside the rooms ! And the food was delicious too !
So we glided happily through the Christmas break without anyone so much as peeling a sprout !
And got to spend some time with my family in Sussex too.

And came home on Sunday to an empty fridge and avoiding the temptation to munch through endless leftovers !

So no crafting done at all as we were back to work on Monday - and my desk is a complete tip !
I have just dumped everything on the desk in the desperate hope I may be able to get to finish my Christmas Journal next weekend !!

And if I do get to play I have some great new stash & books that Santa (with a little help from my Sister !) bought for me !















I try to have a sentiment for each year - for next year I have thought it might be something like - "Be The Change That You Want To See In the World".
Rather than just expecting things to change around me, maybe it needs to start with me !
I don't know why I have a premonition of change coming .. who of us ever knows what lies ahead - better to embrace or instigate it than fight it !

 We are looking forward to Lynda & Robert coming to see in the New Year with us - we'll raise a glass of something bubbly to you all at Midnight & wish you all a Very Happy 2015 !