Fair Time

Waking up in a narrow, single bed in a girl's bedroom is a little strange and a silent house on a Saturday morning is unheard of where I live. It was a nice feeling to pad around in a big Surrey mansion, well big by my standards anyway! After my cup of tea I set about icing 36 cup cakes luckily I'd decided just to flat ice them and decorate with a shop bought topper. They did look sweet.

After a late breakfast my friend and I made our way to the fair to finish setting up my table and get ready for the masses.

It was lovely to receive some lovely feedback from parents on my card workshop, they were really happy with the standard of the cards the children had made, this made up for the fact that I later realised I'd left all my supplies behind and I think they may be gone forever.

After a slow start I did manage some sales and even a final flurry on cushions while we were packing up.

These specimens are now gracing the finest conservatories in Godalming! I had to reduce the prices on some things even though I know cushions and bunting are much more expensive in the shops. Never mind, I learn from every event I do. Just need to find an outlet for my things as I love making them. Maybe next year I'll sell on Ebay or Etsy. After we'd packed up we drove back to Godalming to mooch around but I the only thing I bought was a Waitrose sandwich!
I got back home about 6pm and my boys were very happy to see me, I think I need to go away more often.
Sunday was always going to be a lazy day for me, well apart from getting up early to make my husband and son a bacon roll to go. They had an early start for football but I was excused as I was ill.
We had a lovely roast dinner and watched Elf together, all except my husband who retired to bed at 7.30 with man flu.
Thanks for reading.

Card Making and Christmas Fair

Friday already? All I had to do today to get ready was to make some Christmas cup cakes so I got them in the oven as soon as possible and they were done by 10! I then thought that I could whip up some more lavender bags, maybe another cushion. Then I thought, 'No, I'll just chill til it's time to leave.' Which is exactly what I did. I even managed to tidy up so that the place didn't look like a tip for when my mother in law came to look after the boys.

I drove up to Surrey, calling in on my friend's mother to collect something, don't even get me started on that! It was a lovely drive through the Sussex and Surrey countryside, I just wish I'd stopped to take photos but I didn't want to be late for school. I needn't have worried as I arrived in plenty of time and had to stand outside the classroom waiting for her class to finish.

The card making session went beautifully and I learnt something from the children, which was a bonus.
The Christmas tree card that you see above has a circle cut out above the tree and in it is suspended a snowflake. Now a couple of the children had placed their tree too high so that when I cut the circle it nipped the top of the tree off. One little girl brought her card to me and asked me to cut the circle to the right of the tree so that the tree wouldn't lose its top. Now why didn't I think of that? I love the way that children's brains aren't hard wired into thinking in a certain way.
The time flew by and before we knew it the children were tidying up and thanking me for helping them.
After I'd collected any useful bits of scrap, crafters never throw anything away, I went to the main hall to put up my stall and eye up the competition. It didn't take long and by six o'clock my friend and I were sitting comfortably in Prezzo's in Godalming.
If any of you have seen 'The Holiday' you will recognise the little town from the scenes where Cameron Diaz is driving madly in her little Mini. The best bit about going in December is that it looks exactly the same as in the film as all the Christmas lights are up.
To round off the evening we watched 'The Holiday' from start to finish, which made me realise that I'd never seen the middle of the film and now the end makes sense!

Marshmallow Madness

I woke up this morning with a temperature and the last thing I wanted to do was to make marshmallow snowmen but it had to be done. I was shown how to do these by my friend who said she'd made them with her children so I thought, 'how hard can they be?'
I'm sure if I was 100% fit they would have been simples but I was stuffing the last one into the cellophane bag at about 8.30 pm!

They do look lovely and I'm sure they'll fly out of the door on Saturday.

I also put together all the supplies for the card making class on Friday afternoon, I did mention that I'd be teaching 22 little darlings how to make three cards, didn't I?
All the things for my sale are now priced up and ready to be loaded into the car tomorrow. All I have to do on Friday is make 40 cup cakes, clear up, load the car, pack my overnight bag.......... I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
I'm sure it'll be alright on the night.
Thanks for stopping by.

Workfree Wednesday

Woke up this morning feeling pants as a cold has taken hold. Not good news when you know you'll be looking after four boys as the schools are closed due to the strike. I also knew that I wouldn't get much done for the craft fair.
My husband and eldest son spent the day making a model of a WW1 trench using real mud, most of which was all over the table. I did manage to do the boys advent calendar, which is some feat and takes a surprising amount of planning. Last year I made an advent bunting at a work shop at The Eternal Maker in Chichester, this is a wonderful place full of buttons, ribbons material and card making supplies. They run a lot of different workshops throughout the year. The bunting consists of 24 little houses with a pocket in the front where you can put little goodies. I put a sweet in each and then some tokens which entitles the holder either to a treat or a little present. I have been doing a similar thing for years with my boys but the treats are getting harder to think of as they are a bit too old for 'Choose a book at bedtime'
I hope they're happy with this year's treats.

                                      This is the 24 houses waiting to be hung on the buttons

                                                   All the coupons waiting to go in the houses

                                           Here they are hanging in a row waiting for the boys

                                                         Strung out along the wall

I took the boys bowling in the afternoon, along with every other school child in the town! A quick trip to MCD and everyone was happy, except the bank manager.
I'm glad they'll be back at school tomorrow and I'll be able to get everything sorted for the weekend.
Thanks for stopping by.

Thankful Tuesday

After the mayhem of yesterday I knew today was going to be quieter as I was working from 12.30-2.30 so would have less time to do stuff. I decided to make the Christmas cakes before I started my class and I'd just put them in the oven when I had a text from one of my students saying she couldn't come and neither could the 2 people she comes with. What a result! The fourth student arrived and I told her there wouldn't be a class this week so she went off happily to do some housework or have a nap!

Great news for me as I was able to knock out 13 thank you cards using some wonderful stamps by the very talented Marion Emberson.

I quickly shoved a chicken in the oven and went off to my youngest son's parents evening. I'd had a couple of calls from his teacher over the last two weeks about his behaviour so I knew it wouldn't be fun. I guess she wasn't looking forward to it either as her hands were shaking! Maybe she was scared of me as I'm sure I'm old enough to be her mother. My son is very bright but I'm afraid he's going down the wrong path and I want it nipping in the bud before senior school, we've agreed on a rewards programme where he is given a mark out of 5 for each lesson based on his behaviour, focus and attitude. At the end of the week, depending on his marks, he will be given house points or lose play time. At home if he gets good marks during the week I'll give him a pound! I find talking to his wallet works best.

I somehow ended up with another child staying the night as I will be looking after him tomorrow as their school is closed due to the strike action. I also have my eldest son and another boy plus my husband booked a days holiday. I wish I could be on strike too.

What will Wednesday bring I wonder?

Thanks for reading.

Manic Monday

I am so busy at this time of year and have always found it useful to write lists as ticking things off it gives me great pleasure. I'm currently preparing for another craft fair on Saturday at a school in Surrey where my friend is a teacher. I did it last year and it was lovely, the children and parents all loved my stuff and quite a few of them bought it too, which is generally the idea! This year my friend asked if I would run a card making session with some of the children on the evening before the craft fair. I said yes as I knew that the children would be well behaved and interested in what I was showing them. What I hadn't banked on was the fact that my friend would dictate what she wanted them to make! I had to come up with cards with movement, 3D and something else other than a bog standard card. I thought about what I could do and had a few ideas and had set aside today to make the three samples, luckily I was free from 9-3 as it took forever. That and the four loads of washing I had to do to catch up.

These are the finished samples, not bad for six hours work, luckily I don't charge by the hour, isn't it?
The first problem I had was with the star card. I'd seen the card in the Prima magazine on Saturday night and thought, 'That'll be easy to knock out.' How wrong can you be? Did you know you can't fold a five pointed star in half and that a six pointed star template is hard to find? No, neither did I until today. The card above is made by putting two triangle together and cutting round them. After I'd done this I posted on the QVC Craft Facebook page asking if anyone knew where I could get a 6 pointed star template from and within a minute the answer came back. Now why didn't I do that first?    If you want to join this group, it's brilliant  http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_nonslim#!/groups/260491897306237/
The tree card was simple and I used a template from Activity Village. The funky card with the baubles is made using the fabulous Kirsty Wiseman's digi downloads and a doyley. The children won't be getting their hands on that ribbon as it is my all time fave.

All I have to do now is prep all the materials, write instruction sheets have a large gin and lie down.

I somehow managed to do all the washing, make the tea, get my son and his friend to football training on time, have a shower and watch the soaps!
Just another day in my madhouse.
Thanks for reading

Christmas in November

After a restless night, I blame the wine and the Prima ideas running through my mind, I was again up early and out of the house at ten, you have to love early kick-offs, don't you? My youngest son plays football for a local team and has been having a really successful season, played 8 won 8, and are top of the league. This makes a wonderful change from previous seasons where they have been down the bottom, losing more than winning. Unfortunately, today they lost 2-0 to the team in second place. Never one to be down hearted he came off smiling as he just enjoys playing the game.

In the afternoon I went into town with my boys as they had some DS games they wanted to sell to raise a little money for their Christmas shopping fund (or maybe just to spend on themselves is probably nearer to the truth) Worthing was buzzing with shoppers and street entertainers and I took great pride in trying to show my boys up by dancing to the Lindy Hoppers and singing along to the band, it worked a treat.
They took me to see the baby rabbits in the pet store and I managed to get out without buying the cute black and white mini lop although I was sorely tempted.

I'd bought a mini turkey roast from Lidl and had decided to do a mini Christmas dinner for us today and wanted to lay the table nicely, once I'd found it under the buttons, lace, materials, stamp pads and other crafty stuff which usually covers it during the week. I made some place tags and wrapped them round the serviettes and I think they looked quite nice. The dinner was lovely and the evening was rounded off with St Trinian's and 27 Dresses.

Perfect weekend, how was yours?