Above and Below the Waves

Yesterday I nipped along to the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft Show at Aintree, not because I needed any craft materials, but because I wanted to see 'Above and Below the Waves'. It's an international knitting project designed by Alison Murray who is a textile artist from Devon, and features a huge 3D underseas tunnel, complete with waves, cliffs, beach, mermaids, jellyfish and a very realistic fisherman..... plus every underseas creature you could imagine. Every single item has been knitted over the past two years. Words can't describe how wonderful it is .... so I'll just show you my photographs.

Look how big it is ... whole families were inside!

The project is raising money for the RNLI, and is touring the country this year.....
do try to catch it if you can!

A Lovely Day Out!

Today I met up with Diane from Heartshaped 

and Lyn from Everyday Life 

in a rain soaked Manchester.

Isn't Blogland a wonderful place ... 

somewhere where the three of us from different counties could find each other, discover that we've got so much in common, arrange to meet up and become friends. I felt like I had known Diane and Lyn for ages!

First of all, we had afternoon tea at the The Radisson 

Let's have a closer look at those cakes .....

... but, do you know we talked so much, that we didn't get round to eating any of them! 

Imagine ... I don't think I've ever left a cake on a plate like that before!

But, not to worry, our waitress offered to box them up so we could take them away with us. We took her up on the offer!!!!

Later, we popped into the Stitchcraft Show at Manchester Central.

It was so good to be at a craft show with two ladies who love crafts as much as I do ... 

and we ooohed and aaahed in much the same places as we looked at the displays.

After vowing that I really don't need any more stash ....

... I did give in to a few purchases.... but, it's OK, it's not all mine!

Worryingly for me, I splashed out on a beautiful Tilda book full of the prettiest summer ideas. 

Look closely ... we each bought the same book!

The challenge has been set ... who will be the first to make something from the book?

Well, it won't be me ... I know mine will sit happily on the shelf next to my unused Tilda Christmas book ... and I will look at it from time to time and sigh!

I had such a lovely day, I really hope the three of us can meet up again one day!

WOYWW

On my workdesk this Wednesday ....

A basket of Christmas cards. They just need a greeting stamping inside, and then bagging up to sell at the Christmas fayre at school

... and a whole pile of mess relating to the above mentioned cards.

 I've been saving up boxes to decorate for Christmas .....

... ready to be filled with tasty treats.

My first attempt at a bead Christmas wreath brooch.

Something cut out and ready to be sewn ... if it turns out it will go into my Secret Santa parcel, so I'd best not say anymore about that.

And finally, some teeny, tiny, knitted teddy bears to go on the tree.

I'd like to say thank you for all the wonderful comments left on my post yesterday ...

you understand so well how I'm feeling about the big move back to work.

 It's lovely to have so much support from my friends in blogworld!

WOYWW

I've seen these letters on so many posts around blogworld and it's taken me weeks to work out what they mean ... well now I know!

WHAT'S ON YOUR WORKDESK WEDNESDAY!
Well, my workdesk is messy as usual:

I've started making Christmas cards

... I've finished quite a few, and others are in various stages of completion

This lovely book has been on my desk for about a year and a half

... I'm waiting to pluck up the courage to actually make something out of it

I've been collecting some fabrics with a Christmas Angel in my mind ...

but sewing is not really my thing at all ....

... so I've been practising with something much easier

... I've still got a long way to go!

Meanwhile, I've started making a waistcoat .....

I recently bought one on the High Street for a small fortune,
and I thought, I could make one of those myself ...

by the time I bought the wool, the pattern and the needles there's not much difference in price ...

but this will give me great satisfaction!

Well, that's the theory ... we'll see how it goes.

My problem is, as you can see from this post, that I flit from one thing to another

and nothing much gets finished!

Whatever takes my fancy....

Radiotherapy ~ Day 23 (9:05)

Earlier this week I showed you a glimpse of my little craft room .... and I had so many lovely comments about it I thought today I would show you a bit more.
It really is tiny, no bigger than 6'x7', hardly bigger than a cupboard but I am lucky enough to have this space all to myself ... and it is filled from floor to ceiling with all my stash.
I reclaimed the room from being a bit of a dumping ground laughingly called 'the study'
.... and redecorated it about 18 months ago. I stuck rigidly to a colour scheme of cream, red and
olive green. If something didn't fit that scheme it wasn't out on show!

We already had the computer desk and storage units in an 'L' shape, and I bought these white shelves very cheaply from IKEA ...  I store little flowers and ribbons in glass jars.... the small ones are spice jars from Ikea and the larger ones are recycled coffee jars.

I used K&Co papers to recover some old books and files,

and old boxes and tins were smartened up with a lick of paint.

Magazines are stored in wooden boxes again from Ikea.

An old cork noticeboard was painted and recovered to match the scheme, and IKEA hanging rails were

put up for extra storage.

Originally there was a place for everything ...

I love these red pails from Lakeland ... they were a set of three and I use them for storing inks and stamps.

Wasn't it lovely!
When it was first done I used to stand in the doorway just looking at it because I loved it so much.

Now... lots of your comments praised the tidiness of this room ... and it was ... tidy ... back then
... but I need to confess that ... today ... 18 months later ...
it looks like this:

It is full of so much 'stuff' ... I can't actually see what is in there!
Sorting this mess out is top of my list of things I need to do when I'm feeling ready to return to my real life (instead of the slow motion world I'm occupying right now).
Who knows ... maybe then I'll be inspired to start crafting again!

My Hobbies ...

Radiotherapy ~ Day 19 (13:05)  Clinic (13:35)

Where do I start with this one? How many hobbies can one person try? My house could give Hobbycraft a run for its money with the amount of stash I have squirrelled away over the years.

                                                                             (This is my craft room on a very tidy day)

In the early 80's and newly married I did a lot of knitting, (generally for myself in those days) and then later when my children were born they had lots of hand knitted goodies too.

Cross stitch, free embroidery and silk painting took over....

... each hobby needing new materials and trips to craft fairs in London or Manchester. It's all tucked away in hidden corners in my little craft room. I have boxes of glass paints in the garage ... so I've dabbled with that too.

For the past 5 years I've fallen in love with Scrapbooking and have books full of lovely memories for my family to keep.

I love planning new layouts and seeking out the right papers and embellishments..... inks and stamps ... ribbons and buttons ... stickers and letter sets ...  Sadly, since I started my Snappycards after-school club I haven't had as much time for the scrapbooking and the preparations for the cardmaking seem to take most of my spare time.

and now I've started to make a few cards myself.

One hobby that has stayed with me throughout all these years has been photography ... I love recording those special moments, but also, increasingly, the more ordinary things that make up our lives right now.

These days, I think blogging is my new addiction. To be honest, since I started blogging I have done very little scrapbooking at all.... it uses the same principles after all ... photos and journalling .... and it's saved me so much money because it's stash-less!!!! Less clutter in the house and more cash in my purse!
Mr B. is very pleased!