Lovely day ...

... today. Late getting going, having been woken by the postie ringing the bell with a recorded delivery.  There was me thinking it was around 8am and it turned out it was 10 ... oooooops! Must have worn myself out yesterday with that rude word beginning with an 'h' - *lol* Met Kieran, eldest grandson, from college and off we went to see Harry Potter. Loved that series of films. Finished off with a pizza afterwards.  It was really good spending a bit of quality time with him on his own. Doesn't happen often nowadays so really appreciate those times when we have them now. Came home and I've done a bit of crafty shopping *grin*. Just got to wait for postie to deliver again.

Thought I ought to post a couple of the cards we made at the Summer Crafting workshop, in Doncaster, on Friday. These are the ones we made in the morning. Everything used was all supplied and all backing papers used on all projects were from the giant 12x12 pad we were given.

This was my least favourite of the day and was also the first of the day. There are bits I like and bits I don't. Not sure as I'd use the idea again but may do .... 

This one I did like.  Quite labour intensive but effective.  Don't know as I'd put all the elements together in one go again but I'd certainly use elements of it again.  This one had a button made from the backing paper with the button maker that formed part of our goodie bag.

  Thanks for dropping by .....

Summer Crafting ...

... the show!

Saturday 16th July - 

Cally and I had decided, after the manic Saturday morning at this show last year, that we weren't going to go early but have a leisurely morning and go for early afternoon, when the crowds were starting to thin out ... hopefully! Instead we had a late breakfast and then went to have a look round the Lakeside Village Shopping Outlet which was just down the road from our hotel. Cally literally 'bagged' herself a real bargain as she found a lovely blue leather handbag which had been reduced to £25 from £80.  I tried on a dress I saw but it stayed in shop and other shops .... Next Outlet and Clarks, didn't get our custom. We walked in their doors and straight out again in both shops. Can't be doing with shops that look like a jumble sale. I don't do rummaging - *LOL* I bought some slippers in M&S Outlet and some cute brads in The Works but other than that there had nothing that attracted us so we stopped for a coffee and made our way to the show having spent quite a pleasant hour or so strolling through the shopping centre, if not the shops *hehe* Neither of us are 'shoppers', unless it's craft related, of course :0)

Works purchases

We got to the show around 1pm and it was still busy.  We bumped into Susan, who we last saw at the House Party and Sue and her friend who had been at the workshops the day before. We then found Toni, who was demonstrating for imag-e-nation.com, and rescued her for a break as we'd promised we would. 

Around 3pm the thick crowds had disappeared and it became pleasant to walk around, which we did and spent a little - and yes, that is a little, very little!  In fact, so little we were totally ashamed of ourselves! We have never spent such a small amount at a craft show and what's even worse ... we've not been to a craft show since this one last year *scary!*  We left the show just after it closed, back to hotel for a rest and analyse our purchases *lol* then it was off to collect Toni from her hotel for dinner. Lovely evening.

My show purchases

Cally's show purchases

Sunday 17th July - 

Late-ish breakfast, check out of hotel and homeward bound. Well, not quite! Cally had been thinking of things she should have bought the day before so we decided to go home via the show's car park to check out how busy it was before we decided whether to go in or not.  OK, so car park was in the opposite direction to home and Boris kept telling me to make a U-turn - *oops!* Anyway, once there it would have been rude not to visit again so visit we did! 10:15am we entered the show and it wasn't busy. Cally got the things she wanted, I bought another stamp set I'd thought :about, we went and said hello/goodbye to Toni and the imag-e-nation.com guys (it had been good to meet Gary in the flesh after all the years we'd known him because of the, now defunct, forum) and we were out of there again at 10:45am and the crowds were starting to build again. Think we escaped at the right time *LOL*

Gary, owner of imag-e-nation.com

11am and we were keeping Boris happy by travelling in the right direction - homeward! Stopped a couple of times for coffee and lunch and arrived home around 5:30pm.

A really good weekend with great company ... roll on next year - *LOL!

Today it's been all back down to earth. Well, it has been since Monday morning really what with clearing up, housework and Dad visit but today .... hands and knees in bathroom! I hate cleaning the bathroom. Still tomorrow I'm picking up eldest grandson from college and we're off to see Harry Potter. We've seen every HP film that's been made, together.  He's grown up with them as the stars have grown up on screen. We're going for a pizza after :0)

  Thanks for dropping by .....

Summer Crafting ...

... Doncaster - and 2nd post of the day :0)

Thursday 14th July - 

Cally and I drove the 255 miles to Doncaster on Thursday in my 'new' car! What a difference to my old one.  Not that the old one was uncomfy but this one is just that bit better. Amazing how things improve over 7 years. Anyways, we left Cally's around 9:15am and arrived at our hotel around 2:30pm, having stopped for brunch on the way up. Chose to take an unconventional route for our journey and it paid off. Lovely hotel and extremely reasonable *result!* Dinner taken at pub across the car park from the hotel, the Woodfield Farm, and what a blow out that was! Superb meal with a bottle of rosé between us and then a relaxing evening back at hotel.

Friday 15th July - 

Workshop day. What - a - blast! Arrived just before 9:15am in plenty of time for the start and took our places. Not allocated so it was go find a seat and sit *LOL* There were 22 tables with 10 people to a table. Rather 'squished' but Cally and I managed to get places with space behind and near the windows, so we didn't feel closed in. There were goodies on the table, in a bag on our chair and a pinny over the back of it.  Over £100 worth of goodies all told and how much did the day cost? £55! Each table had a table helper and ours was Zoe, Stephanie's sister. Stephanie and Nancy set the ball rolling for a day of fun by making their entrance to Eye of the Tiger .... Rocky theme tune ... dressed in pink headband, wristbands and legwarmers - ooops!

Goodies.  A mag is missing as I already had it so I gave it away.  On top of this we had free entry to the show for the weekend - free tea and coffee all day - lunch - box of chocs on each table, topped up as needed throughout the day *grin* 

 Cally in her pinny :0)

Tidy-ish  table before the work began - *LOL*

Close up of note in middle of table. Did we take note? Yep, and ignored mainly *grin*

 Nancy in forefront, Stephanie behind ... hidden.

 Introducing the helpers.

 Not such a tidy table .... midway through card #2!

 Taken at lunchtime, hence empty seats.

Zoe, our table helper, Stephanie's sister

Great day with a good few laughs. 8 projects translated into 4 embellishments and then 4 cards made using the embellishments.

Finished this day with a meal at a Beefeater restaurant just down the road from the hotel. Another good deal ... £6.99 before 6:30pm *grin*

  Thanks for dropping by .....

PS. to Anne Marie - a Stamp-a-ma-jig is a stamp positioner that Stampin' Up sells.  There are cheaper versions around though.  It can be very useful :0)