General Chat

Sorry have not been around for a few days as staying at daughters to look after grandchildren while she was taken away for a long weekend for her anniversary. I had a lovely time if not a little exhausting looking after the 3 of them, still at least the baby slept through the night. Difficult as daughter is still feeding him, but he did not mind the bottle too much!

Weather here a little cooler today although very sunny there is a nice cooling breeze. Hay fever at its worst today for some reason, cannot stop eyes and nose from running and will the sneezing ever end!

Sylvia, can I send out a message to everyone regarding you visit to see if anyone is available to meet up as quite a lot of the group are not members on here.

My herbs are not doing too well at the moment think I will have to replace them. Not sure if they have been eaten as we have lots of baby rabbits living in the garden at the moment, they are living in the what would have been a very big bonfire where we chopped all the hawthorne hedges back. OH was waiting for it to dry out!!

Hope everyone is keeping well and enjoying the nice weather

Hi all,
well it has been another scorcher here today. I finished off the plants on the balcony and added some fresh herb plants, so now have fresh parsley, thyme and chives. I will add to these when and where I see healthy looking plants. Growing from seed takes too long for me!
I had thought that I might go with Johan tomorrow to the hospital but have been feeling sick and dizzy this afternoon so think I will wait and stay cool till he comes home. I must do some shopping in the afternoon as my neighbour phoned from Hungary with a request for fresh milk etc. for her homecoming this weekend.
Sunday is Mothers Day so must make cakes etc.
Johan keeps pushing me to write e-mails etc. about our oncoming visit to England. He wants me to meet up with as many people as I can this year.
It is also Whitsun this weekend. I'll be glad when we have "normal" days again.
Must make some more cards soon as my stock is drying up.
Sylvia xxx

Afternoon everyone glad to see you are all OK!!
Sylvia hope everything goes well for Johan on Friday.
It might not look as bad as you think!

Well as it is a craft day on QVC Thursday I am going to try to watch some of it, could not manage to see any yesterday. Would like to try something different so hopefully there will be something on there at some stage. I see it is a Nancy Hill TSV, love her things.

Ginnie sorry to hear you are not renewing your membership and hope things go well for you, have emailed you.
Ros, the cards sound like excellent value, off to have a look, also I did not realise that Lakeland were not doing crafting catalogues anymore, love looking through them and they do have some good bargain.
Have just finished my ATC's for this months so must get them in the post!
Hope you are all keeping well.

Hi everyone

Another glorious day, I hope this is not going to be our summer!!!

Sylvia I do buy most of my supplies online. Its just that Hobbycraft is quite near and on a retail park which is very nice to visit. When my daughter and I first started making cards we went there often and got some really nice stamps and papers but the stock is not so interesting these days. Some of my favourite sites are Joanna Sheene, Cardcraftplus. Stampaddicts and Crafters Companion. I use Create and Craft too and I like to watch the programme. Unfortunately, we cannot get Sky at the moment. The scaffolding is blocking the signal and I am getting withdrawal symptoms.

Have had a good day crafting today. Have been building up a stock of cards. Once the builders have finished my daughter and I will be busy decorating!. The children have been planning their new bedrooms and looking at catalogues to choose all the bits and pieces they are going to need. Hopefully it wont be too long now.

Bye for now

Issy

QVC have 100 cards for £22.41 with scalloped edges and all different colours -just ordered them tonight. Also Lakeland are stopping their craft catalogues so hopefully bargains but still online I think,
Ros xxx

Evening girls,

What a beautiful day we've had here, about time too :))

Ginnie sorry to hear you're not renewing, hope the book goes well.I'll pm my email, I would love to have a look at the book when you have finished it.
Take care. hope to hear from you occassionally.

Hope all the birthday girls are doing well xx

Heather xx

Hi all,
What fantastic weather we are having, temperatures reaching 22 degrees in some places. Like summer. Yesterday was our Memorial Day (like 10th November in England) and today has been Liberation Day, which has now been given a public holiday every 5 years and this year was one of the five! There were music concerts and other events all over the country. In fact these last few weeks we have had fantastic weather and lots of festival days - Queen's Birthday, Easter, Ascension Day, Liberation Day. What a year!
This weekend is Whitsun and also Mothers' Day on Sunday.
Johan is going to have both his eyes operated on this coming Friday to tighten the skin above his eyes. It is actually a beauty treatment and this year we are able to have it on the National Health. He will look a bit of a mess for Mothers' Day, but afterwards a young man???????????
Time is creeping on me for going to England. We hope to leave here on June 12th and drive down to
Calais and catch the boat and make our own way round. We have now decided not to book the hotels as June is not a busy month and then we can stay an extra day now and again if we want to.
I see that Jill is also in the uk then. I hope to see one or two of you when I am there.
Issy, you might to better to buy on internet. There are some wonderful sites where you can buy at good prices. And what a collection they have!
Sylvia xxx

It's been a lovely day. Have been doing some research today while listening to Lord of the Rings on audio book. Never tire of listening to it. Have a few cards to make this week but will wait till the family go back to work and school tomorrow.

Went to Hobbycraft on Saturday and was very disappointed. Their stock of stamps doesnt seem to have changed since my last visit. There were no 12 x 12 papers and a very poor selection of birthday peel-offs.

I also received my first ATC swaps. Thank you very much. Looking forward to swapping more.

Enjoy the rest of the day.

Issy.

There is a message from Brenda for all that sent her cards

I would like to thank you all who handmade the cards you sent they make mine look amerterish if thats how its spelt, they were lovely thank you brenda xxx
__________________

Susan glad you managed to sort it, it all sounds easy when you know how!! You will have to let us know how you get on with it.
Jill glad to hear the lambs are doing well, bet you cannot wait for them to be weaned.
Good luck with the new kitchen

Have a nice bank holiday all of you
Joxx

Good morning to you all from a wet Maine et Loire.
Has been very hot the last two days and is still very warm but with the rain.
Received my ATCs and they were all such good ideas, thank you :)))

Stairs are now nearly all finished and its great to have a proper set after using what was a glorified ladder with hand rail.
Have appointments with kitchen planners now that the stairs are in place and we can see what room is left. Luckily kitchen is 20x20 so plenty of space left.
Lambs are down to three feeds a day so getting my life back at long last, hoping to wean them before we go to Rémi's Christening in June.
Hope everyones having a good holiday weekend

xx Jill

Hi Jo Jo,

Thanks for answering, I will check out the You tube demos, sounds interesting :-)

After much searcing I found the answer on the following link
http://susanbluerobot.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html ( scroll halfway down the page )

It seems I was forgetting to add and weld the shape of a card to the letters.

The above link shows how to do it so simply ...so easy when you know how :-)

As you can see I now have a new toy so am off to play :-)

Susan
x

Hi Susan, I will ask a question with some crafting friends and see if anyone can help I also searched 'Cricut demonstration' on Google and it came up with lots on You Tube, might be some on welding but didn't look.

Good Morning,

Does anyone have a Cricut machine and could help me?

Try as I might and even though I did watch a demonstration, I can't fathom out how to cut a name or letter down the side of a card.

I know I have to join the letters by clicking the 'welding box' after they are touching each other. Is there another button I should be pressing on the software that comes with it? or even manually would be fine.

I am using the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.

Is there an online demo of how to's?

Any help would be much appreciated...all I get at the moment is cut-out letters :-(

Susan
x

Hi everyone.

Weather has not been too bad today. The builders had been very busy and we now have dormer windows. Next week they will be breaking through the ceiling and fitting the new staircase up to the loft. I'm not looking forward to the dust!!!

Ginnie, I will certainly let you know if I find any stamps. There are loads of native American, Asian and Chinese and Japanese available. I would love to get a stamp with a black baby on it as I have several friends who are pregnant at the moment. The lady I was making the card for suggested that I get someone to design a set of stamps. I am always on the lookout when I go to Alexander palace for the Big Stamp Show.

Sylvia, the shop you went to sounds great. I wish we had something like that over here. Are you going to be in London when you come over? I can easily get into the city from here and would love to meet you.

Ann have a lovely time in the Lake District. I hope the weather stays fine for you.

Jo Jo, I enjoy going to Lakeland, we have a shop over at Brent Cross Shopping Centre and they have a lovely coffee shop too which makes the visit more enjoyable. Do you have their craft catalogue? I haven't received one for quite a while.

Have a great weekend.

Issy

Hi all,
Well we seem to be getting better weather here than you are. Shall I bring some sun over next month when I come?
Any chance of meeting up with any of you, or are you all too busy.
Today went to the large secondhand shop to take all the bags of clothing I was throwing out and took a nose around the shop myself - three stories high this shop with restaurant and toilets on the third floor! It has been set up for those wanting to throw out their still good items of clothing and furniture and those out of work to repair/do it up and sell it to pay them wages. It is doing very well. They have some lovely furniture there. I think sometimes when a member of the family dies and their children have plenty of their own they discard their furniture etc.here.
I found a very nice rack for displaying my cards. I didn't go out to buy one but saw it and thought it might be a good idea. Johan, of course, bought up lots of history/war books!
Johan asked me if I would have enough cards to put in the rack. What does he think I have been doing all these last months? Men, they have no idea of what their wives are doing, do they?
Well Saturday again, must make some more bread again tomorrow.
Sylvia xxx

Ann sorry to hear you have pulled something, hope it is not too painful. Have a lovely time away, and buy lots of goodies in Lakeland, love the shop but we don't have one near here.
Have a lovley weekend everyone
Joxx

Sorry not posted on this thread lately, suffering a bit with a pulled muscle in my already dodgy back. Did make a birthday card for a 2 year old yesterday using a Jemima Puddleduck stamp, was quite pleased with it.

Off to the Lake District on Saturday so no card making for a week but may well buy some bits and pieces in Lakeland.

Have a good weekend everyone and I will 'speak' when we get back.

Ann
Glos

The first of May already, where has this year gone. Before we know it we will be thinking of Christmas cards and groups. Still for now it is supposed to be spring, but you would not know by the weather.
Still hopefully it will start to get warmer soon.
Hope everyone is well

Hi all,
Well we have been celebrating the Queen's birthday here today. Well, not really me celebrating but the rest of the Netherlands. There are orange flags, streamers, tooters etc.etc. everywhere and events for adults and children. Shops are closed and I've just been doing what I wanted to do.
Nice to see Jill back again. I was wondering where she was.
Must make the next move to our trip to England. Johan has stuck up on the sliding doors in the computer room a map of the uk. I now have to mark in the places I want to stop in.
The weather here has been mainly dry but not so warm as it has been. I knew I shouldn't have washed up al the winter woollies etc. and gotten the summer clothes out. Can't do anything right sometimes, can we?
Have an easy meal today as I made enough goulash for two days and can put some in the microwave today.
See you tomorrow everybody.
Sylvia xxx