New Friends

Last weekend saw a trip to Scotland to visit the folks - and I made a couple of new friends. I'm not usually a dog lover - much prefer cats - but Edward and Meg were great fun. I

I'm not 100% sure Mum's rottweiler, Rosie, was quite so pleased with her temporary house guests, but she was stoic as usual.

Amazingly the weather was good enough on Sunday to eat lunch outside - it didn't start raining until I crossed the border back into England.

The Trade Show

February sees the UK's biggest trade fair for the craft industry with Craft, Hobby & Stitch at the NEC, so we spent last Sunday at the show, checking out all the latest products.

Its the 4th year we have attended so we are getting pretty good at whizzing round, finding the suppliers we want to visit and keeping an eye out for interesting new stuff. My main problem is getting distracted by the gorgeous things which are irrelevant to The Wedding Crafter, but would make a great addition to my crafting stash (which is WAY too big as it is). This year the rubber stamps from Paper Artsy caught my eye and some new scrapbooking stuff from HOTP.

I did also find some really good ideas for the business (which I'm keeping to myself at the moment!) and I would really recommend going if you have a crafty business (its strictly trade only).

This weekend I'm going to the National Wedding Show to check out the latest bridal trends (and the competition) - I think I will need to book a pedicure for early March!

I've discovered polymer clay

I always though of polymer clay as something used to make those cute figures you put on top of wedding cakes (which it is).

But having bought some to have a play around with, I looked around the internet for ideas and I've found some wonderful artists who are doing amazing jewellery and other projects.

I have been experimenting with Mokume Gane using the techniques from Carol Blackburn's excellent book "How to make polymer clay beads". Lacking the patience for detailed beadwork and jewellery making, I have been using some of the results on cards. Its ages since I made any but it looks like this year I won't need to rush out to buy birthday cards at the last minute!


This card uses small discs of clay mounted over ric-rac braid on textured card (from my scrapbooking stash!)












This is a closeup of a square clay slice made from golds and browns mixed with turquoise.

A Holiday!

Holidays have been rare events in recent years. But this year we took Christmas off and spent it in the lovely Austrian ski resort of Seefeld. It was a chance to rediscover cross-country skiing which we hadn't done since we came back from France.

We also braved the outdoor pool at our hotel (briefly!) and it was amazing swimming while surrounded by snow covered mountains.

Seefeld is a great resort for a winter holiday if you don't want to ski every day - lots of gritted walking trails, ice skating, horse-drawn sleigh rides and Gluhwein!

Luckily there were no broken limbs and we are looking forward to our next holiday already!