Friday 26 August 2011

Bring on the weekend!

Well here it is. The last bank holiday weekend of the year for the UK and what is it doing? Raining of course! I don't know why I'm surprised at all because this is normally what happens on this particular weekend of the year!

Plans include meeting mum and dad for a coffee in town tomorrow morning, meeting up with some old school friends for lunch on sunday (one of which is over from Australia for a week), and having lunch with granny on Monday. This coupled with the craft projects I have and all-in-all it's set to be another busy weekend!

xx

Monday 22 August 2011

Late night scrapping

Evening all,

As I'm sure some of you have also done in the past, tonight sees me scrapping into the wee hours finishing off some last-minute bits and bobs for issue 58.

I've just finished the New Papers layouts using a fabulous BoBunny collection and am currently part-way through creating the layouts using the free Serif paper pack you'll get when you pick up your copy.

We're all done and dusted then for the prep, scrapping and editing on issue 58 - just a case of getting everything else wrapped up before it prints in a fortnight, then on to issue 59!

Sleep well!

xx

Sunday 21 August 2011

Sneak peek

Here's a sneak peak at what I've been working on this morning for Simply Homemade issue 9. Really fun off the page project and a beautiful home decor addition.


Some great brands involved with this one including Kaisercraft and BasicGrey so keep your eyes peeled for it!

Linds xx

Saturday 20 August 2011

Free read

Just a quickie for those of you who haven't seen a copy of Scrapbook Magazine, or anyone who missed issue 54, you can see the issue as a digital and free version here.


Take a look and enjoy!

xx

The chickens have landed

As promised, here are some piccies of my sister's new hens. In the end she opted to go for names which were methods of cooking chicken/styles as opposed to chicken-style celebrity names, so without further ado here are Roast, Nugget and Pie.


Much of the afternoon was spent preparing the enclosure around the coop, so as of tomorrow lunchtime the whole enclosure should be fenced and wired ready for them to browse.

Belated summer snaps

On a side note, and as I'm sat at my PC, it occurs to me that I've neglected to upload any of the amazing photos I took this summer in Sweden. I spent another two fabulous weeks in Göteborg with my partner Peter and his family (flawless weather and I really do recommend it), which included two nights at their holiday cottage in Töreboda.

Töreboda is where I took this amazing photo on the first evening when we went out with Peter's mum Birgitta to hunt for cantrell mushrooms!


Still no moose sightings yet (apart from those at Slottskogen Park), so it's looking like we'll have to go north at some point!

xx

Time to plan

As per usual I'm waking up early on a weekend. Seems I've now reached the stage where I've completely lost the ability to have a lie-in - soon I'll be falling asleep on the sofa mid-evening and waking up at 5 like mum!

On the subject of parents, I got home from work yesterday to find them both sat in my dad's car waiting for me to get back, as they had a shiny new microwave in the boot for me! Seems they'd decided to treat me to a little one since I'd mentioned getting one, so I celebrated by a 2 minute job and some Uncle Ben's egg fried rice!

Still a lot to get done today. Little Sweep is at the vets at 10:10am for her yearly booster injection, which is always a bit of a trauma, plus a look in her ears as she's started to sound a little like a maraca!


It started out looking like it was going to be a sunny day here, but glancing out of the window and seeing that it's greyed over I somehow think that the bit of clearing I have to do in the garden will need to be put on a backburner.

On call waiting for Emma to let me know when the hens arrive, so I'll spend the time when I get back from the vets finishing up on the Simply Cards & Papercraft article I have to do then get cracking on the Scrapbook Magazine issue 58 new papers layouts.

xx

Friday 19 August 2011

There's chucks afoot!

One thing I'm looking forward to this weekend is helping my sister set up her chicken coop and getting her new birds all settled in. She's been pondering this for a while and finally decided to go for it when someone she works with was looking to rehome their little 'flock'.

Apparently the chickens have no names so we've taken great delight in coming up with some hen-themed celebrity names for them, which Emma will dish out to the chickens once they're 'installed'. My personal favourites include Yolk-O Ono, Margaret Hatcher and Hennifer Lopez (groan-worthy I know!).

Piccies of the chucks to follow!

Small as it may seem, I'm also ridiculously excited about the fact I'm getting a microwave tomorrow. It seems to have been one of those things I've kept meaning to get for the past 2 years (!), but never quite got round to putting one in my trolley at Tesco! Quick baked potatoes here we come!

Lots of crafting to do this weekend as well, with jewellery to make for Creative Beads & Jewellery, the new papers layouts to create for Scrapbook Magazine issue 58, a festive feature for Simply Cards & Papercraft, stamping and ProMarker pen colouring for Papercraft Essentials, off the oage project for Simply Homemade - let's just say hands full!

xx

A moment to breathe

Well it's been all go here since I last posted (I can't believe it was March!!!).

I've been non-stop with research for Scrapbook Magazine, new products flying out of the doors at the CHA trade show, floods of deliveries of the latest goodies ready for feature in the mag, plus I've managed to shoe horn in a trip to The Makery for a class and visit The Festival of Quilts! Time to get my feet up and have a brew, after a mammoth catch-up post!

I had a great time at The Makery in Bath at the beginning of the month. Me and Simply Homemade editor Diane Grimshaw headed down to Bath for a Learn to Sew workshop and we had a whale of a time. I've tried my hand at machine sewing before and it's always been a complete disaster, so to come out of there with a 100% professional-looking bag was astounding! Thanks to the girls at The Makery for taking on two beginners and showing us the ropes!

Me and Diane also headed down to Birmingham last weekend for The Festival of Quilts. We had a great day browsing all the amazing designs on show and checking out all the beautiful fabrics, sewing, quilting and craft essentials on show (I think we got a bit carried away following our workshop at The Makery as the card came out a few times as well!). It was nice to finally get to meet Vivienne from Rainbow Disks and Katie from Japan Crafts after dealing with them for so many years! Great to see the new releases and plans for upcoming products!

Issue 57 just went on sale last week and issue 58 is already well on its' way, plus I'm sat here planning our winter and Christmas issues to make sure you get a great mix of techniques, styles and themes to keep you inspired in those dark winter nights and over the festive season. Yes, I know it's only August, but here in magazine land we've been working on our Christmas issues of the card making magazines since May!

Lots of lovely goodies on the cards with loads of inspiration coming your way in issue 58, so keep your eyes peeled for this one from the 22nd September.

Happy scrapping!

Linds x