The Adventure begins

Here we are, our first morning in Cornwall since moving down from Stafford. Our clothes are in the wardrobes and our toothbrushes in the bathroom. Realised in the middle of the night that neither of us thought to bring a clock from the bedroom but then, at the moment, there are no plans to set alarms or work to specific time lines.

Last night, to celebrate, we went to the Trengilly Wartha Inn for dinner. The food and atmosphere are so great down there and we had a nice evening. When we came home we played a hand of Rummy and a couple of Patience and then went to bed, exhausted.

This morning Mum is at her Manaccan art group so i will give her a lift in and then come back to play. 

Janis has some jobs he wants to do around the house but he started his networking last night, telling 

the barmaid that he had just moved in and was looking for work, well it can't harm can it? 

Valentines Day is around the corner, i need to get some cards made and into the Save The Children shop to test the water as soon as possible.

All moved in

The Craft Room is in and all set up. I hope to be able to spend some time in there on Friday just to make sure everything is where it should be.

Amazing how much stuff i have and yet despite that i cannot resist looking at more when we go to somewhere like the Range which we did yesterday. 

The weather threw itself at us with brief respites of sunshine but we made the most of the day with Mum and Janis walking the dogs in the morning, lunch at The Norway Inn and a wander round the Range.

I made this for my daugher in laws birthday using bits from the CC Beatrix Potter range.

Moving my craft room to Cornwall

On Thursday we drove down with a van full of all my most precious crafty bits arriving on a cold and damp evening full of plans. Sadly for us it rained all day Friday so we spent the day helping Mum make some changes to her crafty room and clearing a space in her spare room so that, when the rain finally stopped, we could get all our stuff unloaded without a problem.

  This morning the grey clouds have cleared and there is a sun shining down on our endeavours. Our first plan didnt work out as expected, to move one of the spare beds up into my new crafty room and leave room for our bed, but then thats the way the cookie crumbles sometimes isnt it? 

 My desk is already in and up so now its just a case of bringing in all the shelves and drawers and boxes of paper and crafts. I knew i had a lot but it wasn't until i packed it up that i realised just how much there was. The plan is to use as much as i can to make as many cards as i can and sell them where i can, but we all know what happens to the best plan dont we?    

A new Journey Begins

Life is a series of journeys and I am about to embark on another, with the support of all my family.

Being Retired Part One; - A Saturday in January 2014

This week i have managed to spend some time in my Craft Room which is what my retirement is planned to be all about. I have played with some of my new toys, had problems getting my new Tattered Lace dies to work but worked it out finally and they certainly are gorgeous when they work.

I have so many things to do to tie up my last moments of work and fully settle into retirement but i wanted to put these pictures up, just to get me started.

Scottie
This is a Sizzix die which went through my eBosser beautifully. A lovely clean cut. A Christmas present from my husband who knows how very much my Scottie Charlie means to me.

I stamped and embossed the sentiment and frame, stamped the paw prints as a border and cut the dog bowl out of mirror card. The bone die is all part of the Sizzix Scottie die. The spotted ribbon bow just seemed to suit him.

Birdcage
We found this die in the bargain bin at Hobbycraft. The paper was from my stash and i think it really suits the frame.

I haven't added a sentiment yet. The lacy edge is a border die, not sure who's as I have had it years and years. The lime green and sparkly ribbon was part of a pack from Hobbycraft and the silver frame was a left over from another project.

Happy Birthday Cupcake
I am really pleased with this punch, you get the stamp and the punch in a pack and you stamp the cup cake and then cut it out, all very simple but i think effective.

The Happy Birthday is a Martha Stewart punch which i trimmed the borders off. The oval blue frame is part of a square Tattered Lace die and i like the effect. When i laid all this out before gluing it i had the Sentiment in the centre, but somehow when i glued it it changed. The large scalloped circle is a Spellbinders die.

Happy Birthday

This is just a simple Happy Birthday once more using the Happy Birthday punch and a couple of scalloped circles i had die cut previously and matched together for this card. The stamp was a freebie from a magazine and i added some Pearls to highlight the flowers. You can see the Centura Pearl card stock gives a real shimmer.