Giveaway Winners

Morning.

Need to eat breakfast and get a few jobs to do this morning before heading out for coffee with a friend at 10.30am.

Because I didn't have that many entrants I have decided to split the dress patters between two people so the winners of the sewing patterns are....... 

Kimberley and Mendingmakingcrafting!!!

And the winner of the crafty kits is ........

Ann.

Congratulations to you all.

Louise.xx

!!!!!Last Chance Saloon For My Craft Giveaway!!!!!

Hi. I don' think I'm going to need a big hat from which to pick my craft giveaway winners!

If you still would like a chance to win just comment on this post.

Good luck!

Do You Watch Or Catch Up?

I was listening to a discussion on the radio this morning about how people access their TV nowadays.The chat basically seemed to say that people do not sit down with the TV guide and see what is there to watch on a certain night. We do!

We have Freeview TV so have lots of channels but we don't have Netflicks or Amazon Prime and we rarely use the BBC I-Player - I have watched Midwife on it once this year. We do tend to stick with programmes that are in a series, on the night they are broadcast, and make use of the + channels if we should watch something that clashes. 

Since we moved to Bronllan we have the TV in a separate room and we just adore spending time in the sitting room where the fire is and just talking or reading; once in there we sometimes can't even be bothered to move. Children will be children and the boys do sit and watch something on their own but they do like the non-TV room, too.

I have previously commented on the way things are now so immediate and always available in life. I cancelled my Twitter account because it removes the anticipation of news sometimes, which is why I love receiving letters, but I do like Google, even though it is seemingly taking over the world, for certain kinds of information searching.

One of our aims when we relocated to Wales was to slow down the pace of our life and we are not doing too bad but we have some ways to go but it is our aim.

What are your viewing habits based around?

Lou.xx

Crafty Giveaway Extended.

Just to let you know I have extended the crafty giveaway and won't be picking the names until Monday morning. 

Lou.x

Touching Wood That All Now IS Fixed.

Hopefully all is now fixed and we are back on track so I will now reply to all the lovely comments I have received recently.xx

Help!

Ladies, and anybody else reading this. I have to apologise but I seem to be having a little problem when I want to reply to comments on my blog, and I have commented on a couple of blogs over the last day or so and they do not seem to show up either. Anybody tecky out there who can tell me if there is something in my settings I need to change? 

Feel I have been rude when I know my comments have not shown up.

Lou.xx

Notebooks, Stationery, Papery Peep.

 

I recently came accross some journals I have used in the past. I used to do a lot of papercrafting and I would create for people recipe keepers, baby books, memory keepers, wedding planning books you name it and at a price far too low for the time and effort it took to produce them. Here you can see some of my efforts on one of my Pinterest boards.

I LOVE note books, journals, chunky books and stationery in general. I am writing this post because a penpal and fellow stationery freak tweeted one of my posts this morning. (I am not on Twitter so it was very kind of Jocelyn at The Reading Residence.xx
 
I frequently buy notebooks with no intended purpose and always have a couple in stock! I love looking at pins of journals of any kind including Journals of Gratitude. I keep one of those and I find it can really help you focus on things when you jot down something you are grateful for each day, even on the darkest of days.

The decorating of the journals was great fun as I always used artists sketch books as the paper was thick for using ink on and the covers were hard so you could stick to them or even paint on them. Here are pages from a journal I am waiting to use as was not used for its original purpose so I have it to look forward using!

Apologies if you have read something similar on my previous blog.

Lou.xx








 

A Giveaway, Because I'm Back!

Ok, only done one giveaway before and that was on my other blog, but here I am about to do two in one go!

Whilst looking through my craft things, I'll stop going on about it soon I promise, I found some things which I am sure I will not use so thought I'd give them away. I have two sets of, hopefully, useful things for somebody.

First set. These are mainly little sewing kits and came from the Craftseller magazine.

This is the second set. 

These are, as you can see, sewing patterns and as I don't make clothes in general I am sure somebody could use them, and the first set, for yourself or in a craft group you belong to.

   

So to be the lucky recipient of either or both of these sets just comment on this post and I'll pick out of a hat the lucky winners. 

Right, away you go and I'll pick and post the winners name/s on Friday morning.

Good luck to everybody.

Lou.xx 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Doors with knobs on, and other things.

Part of the renovating of the cellar space into my craft room was to move two clothes rails of coats and jackets. These are now housed in the next door cellar space with the washing machine and drier and they are hung on these fantastic, recycled door panels to which Jon has fixed some old dor knobs, handles and even an old tap top. I love them! 

 

I have also come across my Spring decorations from the house and these are now up; need to brighten up the dull days we are still getting. 

At the weekend Jon and the boys were re-building the dry stone wall that runs down the side of the garden at the bottom. 

  































They did a great job and I don't think Jake will try to jump over anymore now. Whilst doing this Jon came across this Bovril jar which is from the 1920's as far as I can make out. How funny to find it in the wall?
 

Right, I think that is enough of me and now I'll take some time to catch up on what I've been missing. Looking forward to hearing from some of you and seeing what you have been up to.

Lou.x

I'm back - if you'd noticed I'd gone?!

Oh I feel like I have been away forever; it's been a couple of weeks since my last post - sounds like I'm coming to confession! and I feel I have been cut off a bit with not being in touch with my friends through the ether.

To cut a long story short we had a few gliches on the laptop but all is well now. I haven't been able to follow very well what everybody has been up to but I have seen a little. Therefore I have a LOT to catch up on; I hope everybody is ok and that you will forgive me as I ramble on a bit! xx

On a personal note I have finished my short course of Welsh classes and now have to practise with the worksheets we were given in class, and do my best to use it when I can in order to improve. I have our monthly coffee morning where I can use it and the husband of a friend is always happy to help me practise along with the shop staff in Bont.

Anyhow onto my other news and stuff that has been going on. My niece found a fab cocktail shaker for me and this will add to my sideboard drinks paraphenalia - love it!

I won't get it until the beginning of next month when she visits with her mum and dad but this is what it looks like. I am determined to have cocktails as a treat at Easter following my having lost a bit of weight. (So far I have dropped 9lbs since January 4).

My craft room is done! We had quite a bit of painting to do as the walls needed a spruce up and Jon has made me this lovely, big bench!

He was able to make a shelf out of the alcove to put things on, too. We just have the floor and adjoining steps to paint. I haven't had any time to do stuff down there just yet as it was finished at the end of half term. But there is always this week! It will be great to work at for sewing or papercrafting and the boys will be able to use it, too. 

I started making a whole gang of pom poms before we moved and only have about 50 more to go in order to make a rug for the floor of the room but need to sort out some sort of backing for it. The first project I hope to start with down there, though, is a cusion cover for the living room but more of that another time.

Now, I have to share these photos. We were looking for a couple of two-seater Chesterfield sofas for the living room but came across these on Ebay and just could not resist! This is a fantastic way of reusing and recycling.

We collected them the first Saturday of half term, gave them a polish and added the crocheted blanket - it belonged to Jon's gran - and we are super happy with the 1930's finished result to say the least!


Outside of the house Jon has been clearing some of the bamboo and what a difference it is making already. 

He also dismantled the old dog kennel ready to give to the sheep farmer, who lives in the property adjoining the bottom of our back garden, along with some sheep troughs he has made for him. Behind it we found these little beauties.

I have picked some and put them in the kitchen! 

We have a tonne of daffs in the garden, I think I already shared a photo of those, not in flower yet but I think these were sheltered by the kennel and came up early.

I began a challenge at the start of the year and that is to send one postcard each week. I am up to date and have bought some postcards from charity shops. When sorting through my craft things I found some plain white postcards so I think I'm going to decorate those ready for sending to people Machynlleth on Saturday and here it is!

Jon said it is top quality and it is going in the guest room we are gradually getting finished at the end of the garden.


Ok I think that is enough for you to deal with for now. Will be back soon with more ramblings.

Lou.xx