DAS air drying clay

Earlier this week I read somewhere about Air drying clay and thought I would like to have a play with it.

A Kilo bag from Hobby Craft cost £4. I rolled out a quarter of the bag to the thickness of a biscuit, and using the only cutter I could find cut out a number of shapes. Using a set of Alphabet stamps I printed the names of the IAM group and the family, making sure to make a hole for the eventual ribbon to hang 

Left for two days on a cake rack they dried out and I added a coloured ribbon through the holes so they could be hung on a Christmas Tree.

I was really pleased with the result, and when I gave them to the IAM group they requested one every year! I still have three quarters of a bag of the clay so will have another play day, must try and find my other cake cutters!

Christmas IAM

Thursday we celebrated Christmas IAM, only Pauline was missing [she was on a cruise]. 

In a moment of madness I offered to show how to make a penguin from a couple of socks. I had been shown how to do this myself only a short while ago by Mavis a member of another group I belong to.

Suffering the third week of a wretched cold/cough we started the get together with glue guns raised, laughing about a health and safety warning. I must add all seven of us do a lot of craft work so i did not foresee any problems, plus all seven of us own a glue gun.

Three burns and a blister later !!!

Cutting a black sock in half we put a small amount of rice in the toe end and then filling with stuffing tied the top securely. Cut out the ‘bib’ front, feet and wings glued them on to the black stuffed sock. I found a large selection of eyes in my cupboards [why did I have SO many!] these were also glued on. Finally a hat and scarf was cut from the top of another sock and the penguins were ready to line up.

At this point everyone wanted to make another, so twins and siblings were made, each having its own personality.

Don’t they look great.  

Please note instead of using Christmas cloth table covers I choose a roll of Christmas wrapping paper as I foresaw the mess that might occur.

After lunch we had show and tell. I gave everyone the decorations I had made [see another post] and showed the glass fused decorations I had also made.

Clare had made a wonderful Christmas Tree garland

Shirley had produced a pretty crochet blanket.

Next in our day was the gift giving. It is always so exciting to receive 7 gifts [we have a £2 limit] and like children we ooh and aah over every present.

The fun continues with a couple of party games. The Left Right game is played with small stationery items, I ‘won’ a very nice note pad.

Finally we played a ‘swap game’ I seem to forgotten to take any more photos, we were having so much fun and laughter.

Happy Christmas to the IAMers including Jenny who left us this year to move ‘down south’.

Fleece

A few days ago I helped Lynn from church cut 30+ metres of fleece fabric into blanket size pieces for a service project. The finished blankets will be given to a Women’s hostel for family’s fleeing abusive situations. The women and children often leave with absolutely nothing so the blankets will be given to the children.

It was a back breaking job, the fleece was 1.5 metres wide, but went fairly quickly.

As anyone who quilts knows fleece makes such a mess of your cutting board. 

I googled a cure and most said to use a rubber, so I tried it and Bingo it worked, my board is back to ‘normal’.

The section on the right has been ‘rubbed’.

Advent

Happy Advent everyone.

I received two Advent Calenders for my birthday, so today I got to open window one.

The Candle Calender has a scented candle I will light tonight

 and the Scheepjes Calender a 10gram ball of Stone Washed Turquoise yarn, and ideal size for the animal clothes I am knitting.

It’s beginning to look like a zoo

It’s beginning to look like a zoo in my Happy Room. 

Miss Mouse has joined the family... haven’t decided what to call her yet, but she is looking cute in her dungarees and knitted top.

Fusing glass with Vanessa

Monday and a group of friends from the Bedford Sewing group I belong to came to fuse glass in my Happy Room with Vanessa teaching us.

Most chose to make coasters but Sue and I decided to make Christmas decorations that have now gone off for firing at 800 degrees.

It was a fun day, special thanks to Gill for bringing the cakes, and of course Vanessa for teaching us.

Chance 2 Dance

Sunday saw us up early to travel to Stanmore Tube Station where we left the car and boarded the Jubilee Line Underground train to the 02 Arena.

Neither of us had been to the amazing structure called the 02 in London.

We were here for a special event, our granddaughters were performing with their dance group in a competition called Chance to Dance.

We wandered around the many shops and stopped for lunch at the Harvester Resturant before meeting the girls as they arrived from their coach.

The place was swarming with dance and gym groups from around the Country, some taking a few last minutes to practice their routines.

It was a wonderful evening and of course Abigail and Eleanor were the best [ I expect every parent and grandparent says that!]

The finale with 3 from each group receiving their prizes.

Three Quarters of a Century

What a week, I celebrated my 75th birthday on Wednesday by getting a terrible cold! We did manage to go out for a quick bite to eat, but then it was wrapped up in a blanket watching a Christmas movie!

So many cards and gifts, thank you to everyone, I so appreciate them.

The birthday cake tins were washed and used to make myself a birthday cake... diet tomorrow!

Thursday I dosed myself up and went to Stanwick Lakes for a needle felting workshop and came home with a penguin to join my merry crowd.

Mr Penguin joins my other needle felted trio. In case your wondering they are not to size!!

My penguin is third from the right, but don’t they look lovely in a group.

Friday friends Ann and Peter joined us for an afternoon at the Games Cafe, both Ann and Peter celebrated birthdays within a few days of mine. Arriving at 2pm we had a wonderful afternoon, leaving after 5pm! The cake was great and the games terrific, we all especially liked the game Colour Brain, must get one ordered for Christmas.

No photos just too busy enjoying ourselves.

Sunday party time

On the way to my cousin’s granddaughters Christening we stopped for lunch at a Toby Inn.

The carvery was delicious and as I had a birthday £10 off voucher we decided to go ‘the whole hog’ and have dessert.

Hope there are no calories in this!

The Christening of Emilia was a joyous occasion followed by a party to celebrate her 1st birthday and her fathers 40th.

Emilia wearing her Grandmother’s Christening dress.

Emilia’s joint Christening, 1st birthday cake

Chris’s 40th cake, with his wish for a Man Shed 

Helen, my cousin had made a cheese ‘cake’

Thursford Spectacular

Time to celebrate a special birthday, 75 this week! We treated the family to the Thursford Christmas Spectacular.

This is our third year of visiting the wonderful show, and the dancers, singers and special acts were a real treat, plus it was so nice to share it with the family.

At the end of the show the lights were amazing and there was a lot of  ah-ing.

Chris had made an effort to wear his Christmas jumper! While Eleanor and Abigail admired the lights.

I love this red tree, such a magical sight

A great way to start my birthday week.

Dungarees and top

The knitting bug is still with me and I have completed a pair of dungarees and a top for the fox.

Went mad and ordered enough yarn to make a duck and mouse with a few more clothes.

I’m finding the knitting a great way to stop eating in the evenings when I am so tempted to nibble, 

plus the small items are great to take away on holiday.

Talking of eating, I have now lost 19 lbs and would just like a couple more before Christmas.

November IAM

Seven of us enjoyed a lovely day, crafting and putting the World to rights.

As Maureen and Shirley had just celebrated 80th birthdays, they bought a cake for us all to enjoy.

Dorn had made a replacement needle case for the one that went missing, she had also completed a couple of pretty bags.

Penny showed us her lovely Star block of the month quilt, although the photo looks like the background is black

 it was actually dark blue and really set the stars off well.

Shirley had been busy hooking a shawl, lap cover and started a BOM crochet project. 

I think she has more hours in her day than the rest of us!

Lots of birthdays in the group, Maureen, Shirley, Pauline, Ann and me.

I completed the bindings on eight Christmas place mats, one more needs a few more stitches and that is one job finished.

The coat

At last the coat for Mrs Fox is completed, what a struggle it has been. I can honestly say I have hated every minute of knitting it, and almost gave up a hundred times. Stubborn determination keep me going to the last stitch.

I found the Linen stitch very hard to keep in order and clenched my fingers so hard around the right hand knitting needle I had to wear a plaster in the middle of my hand to stop the pain.

The coat of much pain!

Now to move onto making her a pair of dungarees, which I’m finding a pleasure to knit.

Games Cafe

The girls are on half term and had been busy all week, but were free on Friday so we picked them up and made a visit to the Games Cafe at Sharnbrook. It was our first visit and before we had hardly sat down we were given a simple game to play. We progresses from there to more complicated games, one of our favourites being Splendour, we also played Battle Sheep and a couple of others.

The cafe sells home made cakes, we all had a slice which was delicious, and the afternoon was a huge success.

Abigail seems to be amazed at the scoring!  Notice the walls lined with games to play.

Eleanor won this game of Quirkle.

5 drinks, 4 pieces of cake, 2 packets of crisps and the games table booking all for just over £30, brilliant value.