Out and about and soft toys

I've been making some soft toys for the children that DD looks after.  As well as what's shown here I've made some glove puppets.  I'm also going to make a Chinese doll and an Indian doll for her.  They are all my own designs apart from the bird.  The bird is approx 4" high, the mouse approx 8" , the duck approx 8"and the owl stuffy approx 10".

I love seeing Elizabeth's pictures she takes when she's out and about so thought I'd show a few I took in Manchester last weekend when I met a friend there.  Manchester still has trams so I thought it would be interesting to show a picture of the lines and a tram.  I also took a few pics at Manchester Piccadilly railway station.

366 Journal

March's pages complete and April's started :-) Not much to say about them. For more about this challenge pop over to Kate's.

 I've been making other things but can't show them as they're for a challenge for the 'craftydollybirds' formerly the Dolly Birds but as we do so much more than make dolls these days someone came up with the name of craftydollybirds for our blog.  I made a Kindle cover but then turned it into a journal cover.  The journal has been passed on with the head I made for the challenge.  I can show a couple of Easter cards I made as they've been received now.

Also been doing a spot of DIY.  I've put together a vanity unit for the bathroom but had to cut a hole in the base and shelf to fit it round the sink pedestal.  As you can see the cut in the base is very wonky.  I really needed some clamps to hold it firmly and also had to use the jigsaw upside down - that's my excuse anyway and I'm sticking with it.  The hole in the shelf is much better.  Just have to cut the top now to fit round the sink :-/  That may fall to DD's partner.  I'll take a pic of the unit once the top is in place.

366 Journal plus Ferry 'Cross The Mersey

366 Journal pages complete on time for Feb and March's ready to go.  Pop over to Kate's to see her wonderful pages and be inspired to join in.

During half term I went to see my son and granddaughters.  We got the train into Liverpool and then a ferry -The Royal Iris - across the River Mersey to Spaceport, Seacombe.  It was freezing on the way out, not quite so bad on the way back.  I intended to take a picture of the ferry but only had my mobile phone and it's not quick enough.  I did get a pic of the Royal Liver Building before we sailed and then took one from the other side of the river; the colours on that pic aren't very good but it was only with my phone.

366 Journal, other stuff and £100 refund ;-)

Firstly apologies to those who left comments on my last post.  I haven't tried to leave comments in the last couple of weeks but you may remember I couldn't on most blogs.  I'm hoping I can now if not I'm going to try installing Firefox to see if it makes a difference.
Onto the 366 Journal.  I wasn't really happy with the borders I did on January's but didn't get round to trying to take them off and do something different.  February's pages were ready on time but I only photograped them  couple of days ago.  To see more pop over to Kate's.

For the doll group - now the craftydollybirds - we had a challenge to do a Bridal Panel use any theme we liked.  I chose Gothic.  If you want to see the rest pop over to our blog

I made myself a Kindle cover, thought I'd show the inside as well.  I did consider just doing a kind of bag to just slip it in.  If you want to see how this fabric started out look here :-0 May 2009!!!

Lastly; I purchased a laptop from Dell before Christmas.  I'd phoned up as I was having problems with the DVD drive onmy Dell PC and ended up buying a new laptop.  I had been considering it as my PC was about 5 years old and getting very slow plus the problem with the DVD drive.  I was told I was getting a good deal as Dell were doing an offer for Christmas.  I was happy with the price but wondered what price it was on the website.  I couldn't find the same one but found one I thought had a better spec and was cheaper.  Anyway to cut a long story short I wanted Dell to compare the 2 and explain to me the difference.  I emailed them 3 times in all starting 6th January each time receiving an email to say someone would contact me.  I also phoned but think I was talking to someone in India and he didn't have access to the emails I asked if he couldn't get access somehow.  He got frustrated when I insisted that he should be able to as it was all customer services and I didn't want to be put through to someone else as I was paying for the phone call and he put the phone down on me!  Disgraceful behaviour from Customer Services.  After the last email someone did phone and when I explained the situation but said I didn't now have the detailsof the laptop I compared mine to but that I'd put it in the first email.  The outcome was he offered me £100 refund, yahoo!  I think that was mainly 'cos I'd sent 3 emails and phoned without any success.  Anyway good for me in the end :-)
Edited as I'd left the 2nd pick of the Kindle cover out and didn't do the link to the fabric correctly

366 Journal oh yes and Happy New Year

Hi, I'm still in the real world but bought a new laptop just before Christmas and have only just got round to uploading pics from my camera.  Was going to install the camera software but thought I'd see how I got on without it.  But also for one reason or another I've just spent sooooo much time online and none of it for crafty reasons.
Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year.  The main thing I got was a Kindle :-) I'm very pleased with it.  I've read 2 books already and have started War And Peace.  I know! but it's my Everest hahaha.
On to the main reason for this post the 366 Journal.  Not totally happy with January's but faffed about enough with it, and it looks better than it did.  As I didn't keep up to date in December I couldn't remember what I'd done on many of the days as you can see.  Pop over to Kate's if you want to see more or find out more about this challenge.

Have also made a Kindle cover for my youngest sis and am going to make one for myself.

My niece asked me to make a doll for her daughter for Christmas, both dellighted with it.

NB Am having problems trying to leave comments on some blogs.  Can only think it's 'cos my new laptop runs on Windows 7 and the old PC was Windows XP.  I will Google it to see if I can fix it but if anyone knows of a fix please let me know.  (My browser is IE9)

365 Journal and other stuff

I tried to be early with my posting but for some reason I couldn't upload the pics from my camera on Thursday.  Luckily it worked ok today.  November's completed.  December's pages are a bit messy looking but I like them.  Check out Kate's blog for more info.

I made a fabric house a couple of weeks ago; I used mountboard as the base.  I added some wadding under the fabric, and the inside is lined with felt.

The birds aren't finished yet, they won't be having legs, but I'll most likely put ribbon on to hang them up.  The threads you can see on the face mark the position for the eyes (had to put some masking tape underneath to help them stand.

Yesterday was our monthly playday in Sheffield.  Most of us made a wreath and they all turned out really well thanks to Jill's tutoring (no blog for Jill).  Mine's changed slightly as it had a red raffia bow on yesterday but DD didn't like it so I made one out of hessian.  I've had to hang it on the wall as I don't see any easy way to hang it on a UPVC door. 

Here's a link to the rest of them Ann

365 Journal, Prague and a doll

Really my time management skills seem to be even worse than ever; or maybe I'm just being lazy not making the time to blog.  At the moment I'm just intending to blog occasionally.

Have been to Prague with my friend Pat for a few days since I last blogged and have included a few mementos on my Oct page.  The colours for Nov are better IRL.  For more about the 365 Journal pop over to Kate's. 

Just showing a few pics from Prague and hopefully may get round to uploading more soon!  Really enjoyed Prague but it was very cold the first full day and had some rain the next 2 days.  The first picture shows the River Vltava and the 2nd is the Dancing House.  On the 3rd you can see Pat just off the first 'step'.

I've just completed a doll; haven't done one for a while.  The idea for the hair wasn't my own.  I've made her some shoes since taking this pic

365 Journal. Is there anybody there?

Long time no blog!

It's that time of month again - time for showing our 365 Journals.  I've not prepared the daily squares for Oct yet but thought I'd show what I've done so far.

I've been doing lots of sewing lately but not photographing stuff.  My craft room is more or less sorted now, but I'll be spending most of my time downstairs sewing as it's my papercraft stuff I've moved.  Hopefully now it's sorted I can get down to doing more.

We've had 3 absolutely glorious days in this part of the country; bit of a change today though, but still warm.

FAME - Remember my name

Haha, well here it is at last, what you've all been waiting for!  Many of you will know I go to a tap dancing class.  The teacher, Wendy, is an ex-Tiller Girl.  For those of you not of a certain age or not from the UK, in the 50s and 60s there was a show on TV called 'Sunday Night At The London Palladium'.  this was a very popular variety show and the resident dancers were the Tiller Girls.
Wendy's daughter, the very talented Louise, is a singer; she's not made it big yet but did a spot at Glastonbury this year.  She's just released a song and had asked her mum if her class would take part in the video.  The majority of us are strictly amateur dancers with one or two having danced at an early age, but luckily for us due to the brilliant editing of the very handsome Saul who shot the video we don't look half bad.  Here's the link for the video on Youtube: Louise  For the most part I'm front row, 2nd from the left, short white t-shirt.  Wendy is at the front of the class most of the time.  I must say it's a really good song, hope you agree.  There are other videos of Louise if you'd like to see more, just type in Louise and The Pins (The Pins are the other girls in the band)
;-)
EDITED - thought you may like to know you can buy the song on itunes for 79p

365 Journal

August pages completed, September's prepped.  Pop over to Kate's if you want to find out more about this venture.
I'm busy sorting out my craft stuff to take upstairs to it's new home in the spare room.  So if anyone drops by, I will pop round to yours soon :-)

My 15 minutes of fame may be imminent!

I'm not saying any more just now, you'll have to wait till the first week in September haha!  Just one thing though, it's not craft related!

I bought some dance trainers a couple of weeks ago for linedancing.  I only had my ankle boots which had started making my feet ache plus they are on their last legs, well in fact they are past it - new boots this winter (I do have some Uggs though)  The dance trainers are very similar in style to some other trainers but are made specifically for dancing and are very flexible as  you can see here.  I was extrememly lucky as they are £40 or more and I got these for £20 (plus £3 postage) and they're pink too :-)  I know black ones would go with anything but how boring LOL

More fun at Southport and Birthday Stuff

I went to see my son and his girls last week, my other 2 grandkids came with me.  The girls live in Formby, he lives in Southport.  There are a couple of pics of the kids in a park in Formby and DS with his new bike.  He got the bike through Merseyrail, who he works for through a scheme called 'Wheels to Work'.  He only pays £5 a week and less than half the price of the bike which means he could get a really good bike at an affordable price.  We then went into Southport and onto the carousel with the girls love, then the amusement arcade and through the hall of mirrors.  We also hired a little boat for a ride round the lake, all the kids had a turn of being skipper ;-)

Some time ago I showed concertina box files that some friends and I made.  When we did the journalling class with Kate a couple of weeks ago she had something similar but the outer cover was like a book cover.  Some of the 'Ladies Who Lunch' were there and wanted to have a go at making one.  So as I'd done the other one I sorted out how to make the one with the book cover.  When the LWL met up for our monthly playday we did this project.   I forgot I actually had my camera with me or I would've taken pics of what everybody did.  Basically we used a hardback book and took the innards out and made the concertina folder bit.  We didn't have time to decorate the book cover, but I'd already done mine as I thought it would take too long on the day and if I didn't finish it that day it may have ended up being another UFO!  The technique I've used for my book cover I found on Youtub and is one of CapricornArtist73's techniques.  We also made some 'bobbins' mine still have to be embellished.
Pat made me an absolutely beautiful book for my birthday, which was in July and Tracey made me a gorgeous little chipboard 'hangy'.

I bought a new 'toy' from Lidl which I simply love.  It's a Brother Lable Maker, £14.99  This one can do 3 different font sizes and has 4 frames plus an underline facility.  I resisted one of these for a long time as I could do any printing on the PC but it's so handy for card greetings when the PC's not on and DD always wants any cards, she asks me to make, personalised.   I've used it for the 'days' on my 365 pages for August.  Mine has 2 different fonts but for some reason the one Pat bought is slightly different and only has one font and one of the frames is different.
Spent a lovely day in Manchester on Saturday with Suzanne, who is one of my oldest friends.  I treated myself to a vanilla slice in Kendals and bought a lovely long-sleeved black top and a black sleeveless cardi - not a colour I usually go for.