Has it really been 7 weeks?

Oh gosh, that's my worst break yet.......but I have been very busy, honestly :-)

So what have I got to show for all that time away? 

Well......a couple of weeks ago DH and I decided to visit Mum's cousin Irene in Devon. We've never met before, so it was quite an emotional moment for us both and we spent a happy 3 hours together, chatting about the family and looking around her studio. Irene is currently painting for two exhibitions and there were pieces everywhere....I was totally in awe. I wanted to buy one but they were all needed for the exhibition, but I was stunned when she presented me with one of her original paintings that she did a few years back...and I absolutely love it! I reminds me a little of my mum when she was younger....

A treasured reminder of a special day......

(Update: For those of you who asked, you can see more of Irene's work here )

After that we spent two days in Padstow and Port Isaac.....

( I had a good look at Doc Martin's house, of course).

Then spent 2 days in St Ives ....where I fell in love with an amazing view

...and where I was ambushed by 2 of these and they took my WHOLE ice cream cornet!!!

 Bad, bad gulls :-(

We also visited The Lost Gardens of  Heligan

 and The Eden Project (climbed up to the new viewing platform at the top of the rainforest biome)

and finally ended up in Mevagissey, where we stayed an amazing b&b. It was the cheapest of all and the best  ......owned by the most delightful couple. It was a bit too nippy to use the pool...but maybe next time ;-)

Trennicks Guest House

We've also been to 2 weddings over the last fortnight and visited Knaresborough for the 3rd time this year. Plus I organised a workshop at my house for 6 lovely ladies last week.

So you see....I have been busy :-)

I finally completed the Stef Francis piece....its going in a frame.

I also completed a scrapbook of my photos from Cornwall...... this is page 2 out of 20.

Peachy helped of course...he loved watching the Cricut machine cutting out letters....

.......but then he got bored and fell asleep in my card drawer.

I've been photographing wildlife in the garden ....

...he'd just wrapped up a wasp for lunch.

And I've become rather obsessed with hydrangea flower skeletons......

 ....so very pretty.

Well I think that's about it..... I'll show you the quilt I'm attempting to make in my next post. Which will be very soon... ;-)
Now I need to start blog-visiting......

Scrapbook Layouts

Rosie and I spent almost 3 days together last week at my house. We had a lovely time .... we visited the Beetroot Tree Gallery and Peartree Yard ('Aladdin's Cave'), went to The Living Threads embroidery exhibition at Trent College which was just brilliant, had coffee and lunch in Andersons (gorgeous delicatessen).....and, oh yes, we did some crafting as well!

I helped Rosie with her first attempt at hand needle-felting and free machine embroidery (she was a bit too good at it) and she got me started with scrapbooking. I'm doing a book on Soller (Majorca). Here are a few of the pages.......

I've still got lots more to do....and I will hopefully get better at it. But it's so much nicer than an ordinary photo album!!

I've ordered a couple of books from Amazon and one arrived today...it looks fab! I'm hoping to learn how to do wet felting and nuno felting properly.Did anyone else go to this? All the exhibits were fabulous and very inspiring...there was also a shop with all hand made items and demonstrations of different techniques. Rosie and I fell in love with the embellishing machine! (But why are they SO expensive - can anyone tell me?)

Chris's Challenge

This is my attempt at a scrapbook page for Chris's 'Love Challenge'.

I though I'd do something a bit different; I'm going to put it above my work table.... so I suppose really its for me. I've been wanting to record the things I love for some time - its a lovely task to sit down and make a list. Of course I couldn't put everything on, there are things missing.......chocolate truffles, fairy lights, natural beaches, friends, turquoise and lime, David Beckham.........

I may have another go at this in the future when I've acquired a few more skills and can make a better job of it!

A few gripes...the print is too small so you'll have to click on it to read the words.

My camera is bending the sides of my photographs!

Thanks for the challenge, anyway Chris. I enjoyed doing it.

Linda xx