Coral Christmas Beading

I'm finding more and more that I want to sit on an evening and enjoy a bit of beading. I love that I can sit with a bead Matt on my knee without the worry of my beads rolling off a tray and sit with Chris watching a bit of TV.

What crafting is your TV Craft?

Anyway, this was mine for the last couple of evenings.

Crystal Cascade kit, purchased from Bead Supply Auctions by Boheme.

Quite funny really as I wasn't keen on the colour ways of this until I started to make up the snowflake elements.

Pretty yes? I think so.

So now I need to find a new project to start.

I was aware that my link for my Jamberry Nail Wraps failed, I did correct it but here it is again Jamberry nail shop. And while I am featuring Christmas her are some gorgeous Christmas designed nail wraps.

 

 

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Photos on Wood

I was playing around with an idea of putting photos onto wood.

I wasn't sure that it would work for me but I knew I wanted to try it. The first couple of tries were a disaster and the image peeled away. I first tried with good old PVA although it seemed to have worked the glue just went milky and when peeling off the backing of the photo, I lost too much of the image to save.

I next tried with decopatch, this worked a little better but again I was losing too much of the image.

My final try was with a product made by Trichem called Voila, I've had this product for 10+ years and it worked beautifully.

I had to prepare the photo and created a sketch from the photo before printing onto a Matt photograph paper. Once I had brushed the Voila over the chopping board I layed on the image and let it completely dry into the Voila. That's when the fun starts, you have to soak the back of the photo and gently roll away the backing and this leaves the image in place on the wood.

I then let it dry and started to use distress inks around the edges and wrapped string and added flower and then give it a spray with a Matt varnish.

Of course once the above photo of my Daughter on her wedding day was done I needed to go on to my favourite subject of my Grandson with his Grandad.

 

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Pip Bead Jewellery

OK I may have became hooked, I blame Sarah Millsop and Ruth Mackie - McCartan both bad influences, I found I needed something relaxing for evenings and something that would allow me to be creative as I grew with it.

I played for a while, different beads different findings different chains and yet I kept coming back to the same, I loved the cords and weaving and the surprising one for me was a needle and thread.

So P bought some pip beads, not really knowing what to do with them I started to play.

this is my first attempt, I believe is was made using a flat know technique for the braid and then I played around until I got the beads the way I liked them by adding to the cords.

I think it turned out pretty dont you?

A Beautiful Day

Oh my, where do I start? I suppose it should start with how happy we all were.

Photo by Inkspot PhotograpChing ching darlings. Peter and Sue from Inkspot Photography are personal friends of ours and they are spectacular.

Oh, wedding favours.

we wanted something fun, vintage in keeping with Natalie's dress and the colour scheme and this is what we plummed for. We may have ate lots during the making of these.

It just made the day even sweeter, if that was possible.

As you can see, it was all hands on deck.

The above was the first day, Adam (now husband to Natalie) came along on the 2nd day to help fill and finish them (not daft).

Next I roped in Sarah Millsop Jewellery designer extraordinaire.

I couldn’t get a necklace to match my outfit so Sarah picked out the Swarovski Crystal for me to make my own.

Of course it didn’t stop there, she had me hooked and I went on to do matching earrings and bracelet.

Then I got to thinking (dangerous I know)

wouldn’t it be lovely to make both my own Mam and Chris’s Mam a set each of Necklace and Bracelet, so that is exactly what I did do.

As you can see I played around with the colour of theirs as I was more confident after making my own.

My Mam wearing hers on the day.

Piece of cake anyone?

I won’t show you the whole cake as yet, I will patiently await the official photographs.

Cake was made by Claire's Artistic Licence Cakes, you will find her on Facebook.

The happy couple are now on their honeymoon and the rest of us are trying to come back down to earth after the most beautiful of days.

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Pain..... it's a pain.

Some days it's a struggle, some days it's good and some days it knocks you sideways.

I think managing pain has to be one of the hardest things to do.

When I was young I thought it was only old people that got daily pain, as you grow into the world you soon realise it can hit anyone at any time.

It even gives you a sense of humour, I have found many people who suffer pain have the biggest sense of humour. The phrase "if I didn't laugh I'd cry" comes to mind.

I decided to write this after suffering a real flair up in my own condition, I suffer from Psoriatic Arthritis and Fibromyalgia. Normally I have it under control and manageable.

I won't talk meds as everyone is different but I do take a cocktail of injections and tablets to keep me right.

So what has happened to give me the flair up that has knocked me sideways... who knows?

I recently had to do an increase on meds to try to get everything back the way is was and manageable again, I get sick of hearing myself moan about the pain and yes sometimes I cry when no one can see me but I try to steer clear of the self pity route but let me tell you it is damned hard when you are hurting.

So double the meds and the feeling of walking through a dream until your body adjusts, wanting to fall asleep every time you sit down, frightened to drive because of the fatigue.

Hearing phrases like "you look well" and thinking if you only knew the half of it.

Oh and to top it all off my gorgeous Daughter gets married in two weeks and I have the favours to make.

So for now I am putting on the happy face and doing the things I can do and leaving the things I can't.

Jak x

Dinners - My weight loss journey

As promised I thought I would show you some of our tried and tested dinners.

Both Chris and I are creatures of habit, our weeks dinners are as follows, the say if it works don't fix it so we stick to the plan and go with what works.

Sunday - full roast dinner, either pork or chicken, we pile it up with baby potatoes, swede or Turnip depending on what part of the country you live in we use the orange one and call it turnip, broccoli, cauliflower and green beans. We leave out the Yorkshire Puddings.

Monday - Curry night, classic slimming world curry, loads of spices and it tastes as good as a takeaway from our favourite Indian restaurant.

This was it cooking

Tuesday - Beef Stir Fry, marinated in garlic, oyster sauce and ginger

Finished with fish sauce and a twist of lime, I never thought I would like fish sauce but it's lovely.

Wednesday - Prawn Salad, something we both look forward to, quite funny really as when we were first married Chris would now no way eat salad, I think the only salad he had had was side salad with no dressing, I converted him as I always do a tossed salad, loads of boiled eggs, I even chop up crab sticks and toss it with the salad in a low fat dressing mixed with a little cider vinigar.

Thursday - Roast Dinner, just like Sunday's.

Saturday - Steak night, we have always had this, the steak is ribeye and normally around a 15oz steak however the steak that Chris had tonight was a beast and was 18.5 oz. We stopped the unhealthy spicey frozen wedged and now make our own sweet potato spicey wedges and loads of roast onion, peppers and mushroom.

So that is our weekly menu in a nutshell.

However I did make a Slimming World Pizza for a taster event and we were thrilled at how it tasted, the base is made from cauliflower rice and egg and baked blind until crispy.

We would definitely have it again.

 

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Low Fat Meals, My weight loss journey

13 weeks ago after problems with my back again I knew I had to do something, the last straw was I kept collapsing in a heap with pain.

Luckily I have the most supportive husband that anyone could ask for and he came along to A Slimming world group with me.

Of course the weight dropped of Chris and he has now reached his target but he is still coming to group each week to support me.

Some of the meals we have had has been gorgeous.

Starting with my breakfast, I try to have porridge most days, I top it with fruits banana, strawberry and raspberry, alternating.

 

Chris however does a poached egg on whole meal bread.

Lunch has always been my struggle, I try to keep off bread as apart from loving uncut bread that I cut into doorstep size slices, I also tend to add and inch of butter.

So trying to eat different things that will keep me satisfied.

One of my favourites is muffin quiche, 6 eggs, large or 2 small fat free tubs of cottage cheese, extra lean bacon, chopped spring onions, mushrooms and salt and pepper to taste, cook on about 190'c until golden brown.

Jacket potato is another favourite go to.

I use Pease Pudding and lots of salad.

I also tried smoked salmon baby spinach and tomatoes tossed in a low fat dressing

I'll post some of our dinner meals later.

 

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Crochet cushion cover

I finally found some time to crochet a cushion cover, I bought the pattern months ago but it took me a long time to find the shade of Aran wool at an affordable price to make it.

I'm really pleased how it turned out, more so that it doesn't itch my face when I sneak in a Grannie nap.

I think at some point I may need to make a dark coloured inner liner for the cushion but for now I am just pleased that it is finished.

 

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Fancy Fold Concertina Card

having been asked again for the instructions from another card that I demo'd on Create and Craft TV for Hunkydory.
 I have made and instruction video and made a printable sheet to help you out.

This is a picture of how the card should look finished.

and a side view

the video will make it all clear for you.

of course you may want to print out a visual, it isn't to scale but the measurements are listed for you.