Slit Woods, A little Piece of Paradise

Come walk with me…….

Here I go again, back to my roots.

Hot summer days and family fun and picnics. We would pack the car, we had a very large green picnic blanket, a little gas camping stove always a flask of boiling water to make a cup of tea, freshly baked buns or stottie cake a tin of Pek chopped pork a jar of home made pickled beetroot loads of homemade cakes, biscuits home-grown tomatoes (you get the picture). deck chairs Dingy and towels.

We always travelled on Picnics as a family, Nanna and Granda, Aunt Irene, Uncle George, cousins Stephen and Susan, Mam Dad and my two brothers Alan and Russell.

We would head up through Durham, through Crook, then on towards Stanhope Ford which was somewhere we would often stop for a while before moving on to Eastgate then through to Westgate.

Just as you get into Westgate there is a little hidden paradise called Slit Woods, not easy to find but when we did it soon became a firm favourite.

Wednesday….

Chris had took a holiday from work, in truth he wasn’t too well but by the afternoon he was wanting some fresh air so we decided we would head off to see if we could find Slit Wood again.

It took some finding as we passed it once and had to double back but in the end we arrived. Still as beautiful today, there is a burn that runs through the woods which is running down bank and it has little waterfalls along the way.

Isn’t it gorgeous? you can see that is goes down in stages forming shallow pools, as children we would grab our bathing costumes and play in the shallow pools, once I had children of my own they also played in the pools cooling off in the hot summer sunshine.

A place to sit….

Of course not all of the adults would get in the water with us so they needed somewhere to sit and possibly dip there toes in the water for a paddle and to cool down, just a little further up the bank and they would find a sitting place.

Next year…

Time for to introduce Grandson Jack to Slit Woods, I think he would love it.

Maybe I will be the Adult who sits on the rocks and dips in my toes to cool off just as my Grandparents did whilst watching over me having fun.

Until my next walk….

Thought Provoking

Come walk with me…………

I headed out in my new car, I’ll show you that in a moment, I didn’t get very far, as I passed by the sea front I realised that the tide was going out and before I new it I was turning into the car park, reminiscing about my childhood on the beach.

Most summers we went there and strange as it may seam we used to take both the dog Major (Golden Labrador) and cat Kitch (Siamese). We also often took a dingy and a massive tyre inner tube and long lengths of rope for when we went into the sea on them.

So I was stood on the sand remembering all of this, good old fashioned family days out, the beach used to be crammed packed full of families enjoying the sunshine, wind breakers and picnics, buckets and spades and every one playing games building castles and burying each other so that only heads and feet were sticking out of the sand.

Today however  a beautiful day, warm and barely a breath of wind and I could count on one hand how many people were on the beach sometimes when you need to gather your thoughts it is good to go back to your roots and that is just what I did.

Loads of seaweed, we used to collect the black bobbly one and pop it like bubble wrap.

My Dad would take me by the hand and we would go crabbing, he would point out all of the different shellfish naming them for me, we would scoop up the sea water in a bucket and pop the little crabs in it, I always had to show my Mam my finds.

 

These are the rocks we used to search, always holding my Dads hand as some of the rocks were sharp.

Everything was so exciting, you forget that feeling as you get older. it was lovely to be exploring both my mind and the places that brought me so much pleasure as a child.

I walked a little further and found what I was looking for.

The caves, oh how I loved the caves, playing hide and seek, making a den, it could be a castle a home a shop the possibilities of the mind as a child is endless.

I decided to once again explore, I could smell the sea and there was a gentle breeze and I could hear the waves beating on the shore.

This one has a hole right through the rock face, it made me feel young again just being there, I could all but hear my mam shouting for me to come and have a sandwich (always egg and tomato).

The secrets of the cliffs, I’m sure these caves would have tales to tell.

Not a soul to be seen, it was refreshing looking out across the water.

Hiding, now one knows I am here, you can’t find me……. however they always did.

It looks like the birds have claimed this spot all to themselves, they had been doing a merry old dance before I got here.

I also spent many a day or and evening walk with my Grandparents and my cousin Susan, searching for pretty glass pebbles and shells, once we had enough we would bring them home and decorate plant pots and also the top of a little wall in my Nanna’s garden.

Still pretty pebbles to be found but not so many shells.

Pinks, blues, greens, reds, browns, knobbly and bobbly and striped, rough and smooth. the seas treasures.

I hope you enjoyed our walk together, I know I did. how far did we go?

this far….

Right to where the cliffs jut out into the sea.

Flourish Swirls with Tattered Lace

It has been so long since I have done some crafting just for myself and after buying the Tattered Lace Embossing Folders with matching Dies I thought it was time to get cracking.

This one is the Flourish Swirls set.

I embossed Parchment Paper and used the Perga Pens to colour the back of the Parchment where it was embossed.

I used the dies to cut 2 parchment Flourish Swirls and 2 from Blue card and added them on top of a laced velvet ribbon then topped the card with a satin bow and some pearls.

Eagle Eyed no... Owl Eyed yes

For those that are eagle eyed you may have noticed my Necklace on today's show, Jo Foster who looks after us all at Create and Craft TV made me the most gorgeous Owl Necklace from using her UTEE and Ranger Melt pot.

He's adorable, his little iridescent blue tummy and his big Amber jewel eyes, I love him.

 

 

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Create and Craftinator

I'm getting ready to pack the car and head off to Peterborough for tomorrow's shows starting at 9am all new gorgeous dies and it's the start of giveaways so be sure to tune in to Create and Craft TV.

I thought before setting off I would share a few more sneak peeks.

Sleigh bells ring are you listening?

Come Dasher, Come Dancer, Come Prancer, Come Vixen On Comet, On Cupid, On Donner, On Blitzen.

Hanging the tree.

In vintage style

Oh Christmas Tree

See you tomorrow at 9am

 

 

 

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Sneak Peeks - Create and Craft Show Times

I’ve been busy preparing for new Spellbinders Die-Lectables shows on Create and Craft starting Monday 18th August at 09:00. I have to say that with such gorgeous dies it has been a very easy task to prep. Even Chris has helped and I put him in charge of the Ebosser last night and he sat and cut out all night.

here are some sneak peeks to wet your appetite.

sweet as candy

Knock knock.

this one rings bells

Fa la la la la!

Home Made Wall Art - How it was made.

You know how it is.... You search for something to finish the room off but just can't find exactly what you want wrong colour, wrong size, wrong shape etc...

So in my head I knew what I wanted and kept trying to explain it to Chris but couldn't get the vision across to him.

 

So I started by cutting out some wording in vinyl on my Silhoette Portrait in two colours and then went in search of some planks of wood.

I used a roller to paint on my darkest colour of Matt paint and then left it to dry.

Once dry I retreated to my craft room and started brushing on the PVA Glue

Before it dried I painted over the top with the lighter shade of paint.

The the magic begins, using my heat gun I started to heat over the glue and paint and before your eyes it does this brilliant crackle effect.

 

Making the planks of wood look all distressed. Now for adding the wording once the paint is dried, I kept the backing paper on my vinyl until I was happy with how it looked.

Once I was happy I applied the vinyl then started to rope up my creation.

 

With the finale knot being tied it was ready to hang on the wall.

As you can see, I'm a tad proud on my new wall hanging.

 

 

 

 

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Slowly, Slowly, Catchy Monkey

It's been a long long haul getting the back room done and I have to say that I am longing for normality again.

The carpet fitters are here and they are making a splendid job.

 

I'm not being adventurous as I need a calming room so we are sticking to neutral tones. I have enough stress in my life without trying to match up Psychedelic colours.

It tickled me that they used a spray adhesive around the edges and it took me all of my might not to

interfere with the spraying.

This picture above is in the passage way of the house so I think I managed to match up the carpet quite well.

It will be good to get our sitting room back, poor Chris has to keep sliding this big boy around the room to be able to get a sit down.

Hopefully the next lot of pictures will be a finished room.

 

 

 

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