Stained Glass Heart

You may remember I attended a stained glass workshop back in November, you can read about it here.  I enjoyed the workshop so much I just had to sign up for another.  Myself and my Mum signed up for the Stained Glass Heart workshop which was held on Sunday.  It just so happened that was my Mum's birthday, so it was meant to be, a girly day of crafting.

The house looked lovely and mysterious surrounded by fog and was a delight to look at as we drove through the park to find a parking space. You have probably seen numerous different shots of the house on my blog.  I love it, situated in the middle of the park, it is so beautiful.  I think I have just about seen it in pretty much all lights now, sunshine, snow, fog, night time.

The workshop did not disappoint and I was pleased to discover I had not lost the skills I had developed from the last workshop.  I am still a bit rubbish at soldering but I am hoping that is a skill that will come in time.  I didn't take any photos through the day this time as it was basically the same as before just with a different pattern.

Here are everyone's hearts finished all together at the end of the day.

When I got home I rummaged through my ribbon stash and hung it up with some of the pretty lace I bought last weekend.  It now takes pride of place hanging up by my bedroom window catching the rays.

It was a really lovely day.  I would recommend one of Mona's workshops to anyone, she is a lovely lady and the workshop I feel is great value for money.  I would happily do another one.  For those living further away than Chelmsford, if there are any workshops in you area, give it a go, I'm sure you will love it just as much as me.

~ Gem x  

Making Me Smile

There are lots of things making me smile at the moment.  I thought I would share some of them with you.

My gorgeous cat Molly sleeping on my bed, and using a hot water bottle as her pillow :)

A new bed cover from Ikea.  (looking very creased in this photo!)

Beautiful flowers bought for me by James (he really is in my good books at the moment!)

Mixing the flowers bought for me by James with ones I had bought for myself a few days earlier to make  a couple of pretty and colourful arrangements, they smell lovely too.

Winning Happiness Is Cross Stitching's Giveaway, the goodies are gorgeous, I especially love the tea bag tags and tea bag holder's so cute.  Thank you Lynn x x 

  

A good friend of mine, Kate has her books for free download on Amazon here.  It is amazing to see how far she has come in such a short space of time.  I'm so happy for her and very proud and inspired by what she has achieved.

So what has been making you smile recently?

Lots of Love 

Gem x x x x

Antiquing

On Sunday me and James headed out to Battlesbridge.  It was a beautiful sunny day and there were so many photo opportunities but I stupidly left my camera at home.  I felt lost without it.  I never go anywhere without my camera, still I managed to buy a few crafty bargains.

I love these old wooden cotton reels.  I am starting to get a bit of a collection now as my nan gave me a few a couple of weeks ago.  I picked these 8 up for a couple of quid.  There isn't much cotton left on them but I have found many other uses for them on Pinterest.  You can follow me on Pinterest here.

I also picked up these pretty knitting needles.  The colour is a kind of a pinky red. I'm not a fan of metal knitting needles, I much prefer bamboo ones, but I thought these would look lovely amongst a collection of coloured needles in a pretty jug or jar :)  (Don't panic Mum, I will wait until I have moved out to start this little craze)

 The purchase of the day though had to be this little beauty.  I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.  From here it may just look like a small sewing machine ornament however hidden underneath is.............

A pencil sharpener.  It was £3 but I had to have it.  How cute will that look sitting on a craft desk.  The handle turns round making the needle move up and down, already it has kept me amused for ages ha ha.  I sat admiring it the whole drive home, much to James' annoyance I think tee hee.

So it turned out to be a very craft related weekend indeed.

Lots of Love
Gem x x x x

London Stitch & Craft Show 2012

This Saturday I spent the day at London's Stitch & Craft Show which was held at Kensington Olympia 2.  If you have been following me for a while you will know that I visited the show last year and was so impressed, I just knew that I had to go back for more this year.  I'm so glad I did.

Trains from Chelmsford and on the underground looked to be an absolute nightmare.  I was going with one of the girls I now work with.  It is funny, we have known each other 2 months but it feels as though I have known her for years and years, I can see us being good friends for years to come, she is so lovely and we have far too much in common.  All the time I had been saying about wanting a friend my own age, into the same things as me and she was here all along ha, typical hey.  Any way I digress, with the trains looking to cause problems Marie decided to drive us there.  It was surprisingly a really lovely drive and much more scenic than travelling on the tube.  When there I met up with some of the girls I used to work with and we set off to trawl the many stands at the show.

There was so much going on, from craft workshops to displays.  I warn you now this is very photo heavy from here on in :).

I fell in love with this dresser at the Cross Stitcher workshop.

I really do love these Singer's they are so pretty.

There was a knitted village, with buildings, trees, cars, people, you name it, they had it.  The attention to detail was amazing.

Even a telephone box.

This one really made me laugh.  yes that is a dog peeing up a lamp post. 

There were loads of quilts on display too.  There was a quilt for each country taking part in the Olympics.

Again the detail was out of this world.  You could tell that so much time and effort had gone into making these beautiful creations.

They were all so different.  It was very inspiring to see just how different they all were.

There were designs that I would never have thought of.

Some I never would have imagined.  take a look at this one.  Each individual square was so small, it must have taken months and months to make this.

While I was there I bumped into Jewel.  I only met her for the first time last month and then without even planning it we bumped into each other not once but twice.  If you have ever been to one of these shows you will know how busy they are, how many people there are there and what a huge space is covered and yet we see each other twice, amazing hey.  No photos this week though I'm afraid.  I didn't even think to get a  photo.

I fell in love with this little cutie, yes a knitted cat, isn't she sweet.  There were loads of knitted cats and dogs but this was by far my fave.

However the highlight of the show for me was...........

Meeting Jamie Chalmers Aka Mr X Stitch.

He is such a lovely guy.  I was expecting to get a quick photo and that be it but he wanted to chat to us, I mean really chat to us.  He seemed so interested and asked us loads of questions, really and truly such a nice and down to earth guy.  I'm not sure what I was expecting.  I mean he is pretty well known in the craft world so I guess I thought it would have got to his head a bit but it really hadn't.

This was his mean face ha ha!

So here is what I bought at the show (almost finished now I promise)

A pretty new handbag

Some lovely ribbons

Some pretty lace £1 for all 3 of these, bargain.

Some wool to hopefully knit some lacey type pieces.

More wool for Christmas :s

Some embroidery hoops, one of which is already in use for one of my current projects.

A rotary cutter, this should make cutting fabric a bit easier.

I signed up to Mollie Makes magazine for 3 months plus I was given a copy of this months magazine, so that is 4 magazines for wait for it ................................£1 yes £1.

I also bought some patterns for tea cosy's.

There was one other thing I bought which I haven't taken a photo of but I will. That will just have to wait until next time.

So how was your Saturday?

Lots of Love 

Gem x x x x

Eggstraordinary Sightings Around London

Last Sunday I was in London enjoying my blogger meet.  What I hadn't bargained on was spotting large eggs hidden around the city.

They are each decorated by different designers.

I love this one.  It is my favourite one so far.

Some are up high.

Other's are down low.

As you can see they are all decorated differently. 

There are 209 eggs hidden around London in total.

Will I find them all?

I'm glad I found this one.  It has my name written all over it (my surname is Peacock!)

Some of them we got help finding :) (This was in Hamley's)

Other's were right under our nose all along (this was outside Liberty, we missed it originally)

I still have a long way to go yet to find all 209, but they will all be together in Covent Garden at the beginning on April so if I don't find them all, I will be able to see the ones I miss there.

Happy Hunting.

Love Gem x x x x