Post Script

Okay I'm sorry but I think I must have mislead lots of people with my earlier message about today's DCM card - I didn't stamp it - I can't stamp for toffee!

The picture is an old photographic image shared by the fabby Rein....(see post below for more details)
Had Elsbeth been a stamp, then she would just be an inky, smudgy, mucky mess by now!

However, while I'm here I might as well post a pic of the card I've just made for my cousin who's birthday is coming up next week.
Now apart from stamping, I also hate making men's cards, but I quite like this one. I used the same idea as for the DCM, but this time I've used a photo of my cousin (hard to believe now that he was once this cute!), and made a little crown with a couple of layers of thinnish card, using Mr Robo because the chipboard ones are quite thick and I don't want this one to get caught by the stingy Royal Mail's miserable envelope depth allowance and this cardstock is already pretty thick.

Paper is BG Hang 10 - how come I've only just realised how fab this collection is?

The Feminine Side

BF Fundraising Auction for the Ellenor Wiseman Trust
- check what's on offer, and find out how to bid here
For more information on Ellie see here

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It's Lythan's turn to set our Daring Cardmakers Challenge this week.

I am woman

As its coming up to Mothers Day in the UK here’s a chance to make a card that celebrates women and girls . So I’d like to see a card with at least one feminine image on it . And that's it for rules really.
Apart from this one.
And it is sneaky. No Tildas, Sugar Nellies or Bellas please. I love them all. But there are loads of great challenges out there using them so for this challenge you can give them a well earned rest!

Those stamps are so cute - but at risk of being just a bit (or a lot, depending on your point of view) controversial they do seem to be dominating the scene atm and I'm just getting a leeetle beet bored with seeing them everywhere. ouch! I can feel the hate vibes already!
I didn't half panic when I read Lythan's dare - it just screamed "stamp" at me, and if you read this blog with any regularity at all you'll already know that all that stamping stuff leaves me cold. That's not to say I don't like seeing the amazing stamped cards that other people do - I'm in awe of those who can produce fabby work using stamps, I especially love all that arty stamping stuff with layers and masking and collage etc - it's breathtakingly, gobsmackingly gorgeous and part of me would love to be able to create work like that - the other part knows my limitations....and my lack of patience!
And then of course there's that niggling little voice that whispers "think how manay sheets of yummy, scrummy paper you could buy for the price of that stamp"

Well I have a few stamps in my stash collection - well you just do, don't you? Nothing suitable for this challenge though. So I spent the week or so since Lythan gave us warning of the dare mulling it over and panicking and generally running out of time. Plus I was really busy with catching up stuff and getting some commissioned cards done. At some point I had an idea - use that lovely old photograph of one of my ancestors with her little son on his Christening Day. I thought all I needed to do was make a copy as most of my old photos have been scanned onto the pc now. You've probably guessed it - when I looked through the picture files yesterday morning - no photo agggh. The scanner is fixed up to hubby's pc and would have been a right faff to sort out so back to the drawing board.
But then I recalled the wonderful Rein's blog, and her Monday Morning Shares and I caught sight of some chipboard stash from Bubbly Funk that's been lying on my desk for weeks and a little plan started to germinate - taking inspiration from my lovely friend Gillian's work akong the way (Kathy pauses to go and take photos).
Image is Elsbeth from Rein's Monday Share (Thank you Rein). All I did was resize, sharpen and print it onto some card with a little bit of texture to it.
Papers are some I've had for ages and haven't a clue where they come from - I really like that cream and blue striped one - reminds me of my dad's pyjamas!
Gorgeous navy and cream ribbon is from Ribbon Oasis
Chipboard crown and photo corners from Bubbly Funk
"Old White" lace, buttons, beads and eyelets from my stash
Also used: Krylon gold pen, Cats Eye Chalk inks, Stickles glitter glues

I've had a few commissions lately and a couple of them have given me a bit of trouble - as in lack of inspiration and then actually making the things work.
I'm still not happy with this helicopter one, I made the helicopter with Mr Robo and I should have made the original picture bigger so that it would cut more accurately. But, in the end I just didn't have time to re-do the template. One day I'll sort it out but at the moment the very thought of helicopters gives me the shudders!
This one is for a Golden Wedding (obviously....). Now that it's finished I think it would have been better to use a white card for the base, and the gold as a mat for the wordy paper - but it would take far too much time to alter it now so it will ahve to do.
I made the little oval frames for the photos with Mr Robo. All the beads, brads, eyelets and charms are from my stash.

The Stash Enabler, aka Jo told me that the PaperArts shop was only a few minutes from Painswick (where we spent last weekend). So I sort of dropped it into the conversation, along with a
{big sigh} " I've never been to a proper big craft shop" {big sigh}
and
"but it's your special weekend so I won't mind if you'd rather not"
Then left him to ponder on it....
Upshot was I got 30 minutes in there first thing on Saturday morning (it was a bit grey and gloomy which helped....) and I had a wonderful time throwing stuff in my basket!
I have NEVER seen so much paper in one place!!!! It was Paper Heaven.
It's probably just as well it's not on my doorstep.
I wonder if anyone reading this was in the shop on Saturday morning (as soon as it opened), there was a crop on and the sight of all those women freaked Hubby out a bit so he retired to the car! Everyone in there was soooo nice and friendly. I mentioned that I'd bought from them on-line on several occasions and the lovely girl behind the till asked whether I'd been happy with my parcels - what good customer relations.
I made sure I didn't outstay my half hour - after all, I don't want to scupper my chances of visiting "real" crafty havens I might find on future travels, do I?

Thanks for looking - please leave a message - I love to read your comments.
Well, except the ones that are just links to dodgy places - thank goodness for comment moderation, eh?

Another Jaunt.....and some craftiness

BF Fundraising Auction for the Ellenor Wiseman Trust
- check what's on offer, and find out how to bid here
For more information on Ellie see here



Hellooooo

First of all, I want to say a huge "Thank You" to everyone who leaves such nice comments on my blog - it's such a thrill to check in here and find your messages - especially when they make me feel better about my stuff like those on my last DCM card did. Thank you so much.

Sometimes things go plodding along nice and quietly, I get my housey things done, I get my crafting tasks done and I even have time just to play. Then there's times like this!
I shouldn't moan though because it's not just been the normal day-to-day stuff - we've just had a lovely long weekend away over in the Cotswolds to celebrate Hubby's birthday. We found this little hotel a couple of years ago while searching the net for somewhere to stay on our Anniversary weekend - we'd been let down at the last minute by the place we'd planned to stay and needed somewhere in a hurry. Obviously, being last minute lots of places were fully booked, including this interesting looking hotel, so we put it in the "another time" folder and went elsewhere.
So, finally this year we' got organised in time to book a room at the Cardynham Hotel in the seriously pretty village of Painswick. As it was Hubby's special weekend he got to choose the room - you'll have to click the link to see the rooms and try and guess which one he chose.
If we ever get round to "developing" the photos I'll show some on here another time - for now this is the only one that's not "raw" - whatever that might mean.......it's of Goodrich Castle, which we visited on Saturday. As you can see, the weather could have been better - it was a bit on the grey side, but at least it didn't rain - and as we had such sunny weather when we were over in France a couple of weeks back we didn't feel too "hard done by".

Since we got home I've been trying to get down to things on my crafty list.
I've finished off my pages in the last book for a CJ which started back last July, my own book is now safely home (I'll share photos soon) but the lovely Karen kindly gave me an extra few days to get hers finished It's now all ready to go in the post, so not long now Karen....
This CJ was entitled "Surprise" and the surprise was that each person in the ring chose the subject for the next person's page - that's all I'm going to say... see if you can guess what subject Nicky chose for me to do.

Mother's Day over here in the UK is a lot earlier than usual - something to do with Easter being early this year - and it's caught a lot of people unawares - including me. I know I should have had the cards in the box on Hubby's desk at work weeks ago but I'm not that organised, so I spent yesterday making some more Mother's Day cards.
BG Romani papers, Angel Kisses creamy-lemon flower and the Cuttlebug Scribble Flower die
This was one of those half-made cards I mentioned a while back - I thought I might be able to use it for a mother's day card, but tbh I think it's a bit of a failure - took ages aswell, what a awaste of time, should have chucked it in the bin first time around!
Feel a bit better about this one:
My February Self Addresed Kit arrived yesterday and it's lovely - all sunny and cheerful, so for maybe the second time ever I made a card using the papers on the actual day the box arrived - normally they sit around for quite a while before being used.
Came home from Painswick to find an order for 3 cards in my inbox - one for a Mother's Day card. I'm supposed to be working on a commission for a Golden Wedding card but this one jumped to the top of the list as it's needed so soon.
I got these gorgeous Imaginisce "For Peeps Sake" papers a week or two back and have been desperate to use them. They are soooo beautiful, with pretty colours and designs and even a bit of glitter to make them extra special. I used three of the papers, plus a couple of the fab matching ribbons on this one. Shame the glitteriness doesn't show up on the photos. The beautiful Prima pink glittery flowers and the little MM Pebble brad are from the fabby stash of new goodies I bought at the weekend - but I'll save that little story for tomorrow - at least it'll mean I have something to blog!

Dear Diary.....

I promise to spend some time catching up with my blog, but I'm sorry Matey, but it won't be today!

Rhi sent us scratching around in the rubbish looking for bits of plastic we could recycle onto our cards for this week's Daring Cardmakers Challenge. I really didn't think I was going to get this one doen because I have commissioned cards to do (last minute as usual) plus the last entry in a long running CJ to finish so that the book can be returned to its owner after its long long journey. Thanks to Karen saying it was OK if I sent her CJ off next week and managing to get the first (and most urgent) of the commissions done this morning I was able to make this card.
It's a bit rough around the edges and with more time I'd have had another go at the B&W edging because it's not as tidy as I'd have liked, but this is a "thrown together" sort of card so I hope you'll see past the messy bits!
I started off with the packaging from some new Cuttlebug platforms.
I made a scalloped edge from the plastic by first making a template with punched circles stuck on a strip of card.
This strip was then fixed temporarily to the plastic so that I could cut around the wiggly bits.
I cut the lower edge off the front of my card and stuck the plastic piece in it's place.
The B&W edging is made with Tulip pens - I'd planned to use gel pens but the ink just didn't show up, so Plan B came into being - and I was in a hurry so it's a bit blobby! There's a strip of pink paper on the inside edge of the back of the card - you can just see it on the right hand side of the photo - which shows through the plastic border. The papers used are just a bit random - again, because I was in a hurry. I punched a little flower from more of the plastic to make the centre for the flower, and coloured it with bright pink ink - but that didn't dry quickly enough, so I put the flower together then coloured it with more Tulip paint.
The little flower on the message tag is made from felt. Please excuse this rather slapdash effort - time is precious atm, but I do hate to miss a dare!!!

Harry Myllis and other stuff

Another sunny day - starting to get used to this, but keep reminding myself that it is still February - the month I dislike the most because it has a habit of turning nasty. Hubby's birthday is in February so he's always had something to look forward to and he doesn't understood my aversion to it. Still, most days this Feb have been bright and sunny and it's easy to get lulled into thinking that Spring is already here.
This is a photo taken last Sunday afternoon when we went out for a walk - check out those blue skies!

We always have at least one amaryllis for Christmas, it's a sort of tradition. This year we have two. My Aunt and Uncle gave us an enormous amaryllis bulb and it's been the first to flower. At the moment I think there are 9 flowers on it, but there's still another stem which is still growing, so we should get a few more flowers yet. I think we once had a harry myllis with 12 flowers, not sure we'll ever beat that.

Auction News

We have about 30 items already for the Bubbly Funk fundraising auction, there are handmade items on offer plus lots of spare stash up for grabs - if you haven't a clue what I'm talking about check the message below this one for enlightenment. More into to follow on where you can see the goodies and how you can get your hands on them.

My maze book has moved on a bit from the photos I showed yesterday, but I haven't taken any new ones yet - I will do soon though and be back to show how it's coming along.

Apparently some "delightful" people have been stealing the images of people's cards from their blogs, putting them on a CD and then selling them as inspiration cds. Taking other people's work and using them that way is just plain sneaky and wrong - so now it seems only sensible to plonk great big copyright notices on any photos we use to make it just a little less convenient for these thieving so-and-so's. So I'm sorry if this makes the pictures less pretty to look at, but just putting a notice in the corner doesn't really help as they can easily be paintshopped over - you've got to make it more awkward for them than that.

The wonderfully talented Leigh threw out a little challenge a couple of weeks back on the JB forum. You know those little cuttlebug embossing folders? Not the big ones we all love but the diddy little ones. She challenged us to actually use them - seems I'm not the only person who's bought a set then not had a clue what to do with them.
I made this

I painted the little flowers on the embossed bit, the other flowers are all Cuttlebug die cut flowers. One of those cards you see in your mind's eye and then wished you hadn't started. It took flippin' ages!
I picked up a bargain pack of Crate's Twirl papers afew weeks back - they were only &4.75 or something like that - I got the Hampton set for the same price too but haven;'t even had the time to even open those. I do like the Twirl papers though - I just wish there were another couple of designs in these packs - they are so lovely, and would be even more perfect with MORE in 'em.
I'm really pleased with this next one - it's that wonderful BG Two Scoops paper again. I think I'm going to have to buy some more.... - especially as I'm using it to make that maze book too.

Cuttlebug flower/pot die and also a slightly "altered" version of one of the corners in the "Vintage" set

Thanks for looking - please leave a message, it's nice to know I'm not just talking to myself!

Sponsored Dare with a difference

Yes, we were lucky enough to have another envelope full of goodies landing on the DCM doormats for this week's dare. But this week the sponsorship came from within the Design Team itself. Keryn in New Zealand and Rachel here in the UK are both building up their businesses as demonstrators for Stampin' Up and decided they could get together to sponsor one of our dares.
If you're interested in finding out more about the company's products why not give Keryn or Rachel a shout, I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.

The word "Stamping" never fails to bring me out in a cold sweat. From time to time I have a bit of a dabble but it's never going to be my thing - of that I'm absolutely sure. It's not so much the stamping as the "what to do next" I love colouring in, but I don't love colouring in stamped images. The inks run, the colours go naff and mostly they look like a 2 year old got hold of the crayons! When these pages of ready stamped images arrived I had a little panic wondering what on earth I could do which wouldn't look a total mess. The papers and card is lovely and had the opposite effect, paper and card I can do!

Qhilst we were using the items sent by Keryn or Rachel obviously our wonderful DCM Darers can use whatever goodies they can lay their hands on to make a card on the theme of

"Love and Friendship"

Fortunately there were 3 copies of the image I've used for my card, so at least there were spares if it all went pear-shaped!
With the exception of the paints (cheapie Twinkling H2-alikes from The Range, courtesy of the lovely Joanne), pens and inks for edging, everything on this card is from Rachel's Stampin' Up goody bag -the papers, card, brads, buttons and ribbon all match perfectly and are a joy to use - I just love these gotgeous pastel colours. This card is heading to someone I've been meaning to get in touch with for the last few weeks - and just to make it worse, I've just realised I missed her birthday. I feel really guilty now, what a bad friend I must be.

Having done that card I felt it was ok to go back to my non-stamping comfort zone and make another card using some more of Rachel's donated goodies
This time I've used the cute little "Flower in Pot" Cuttlebug die, I cut the scalloped edging with Mr Robo, and the greeting was computer generated.

FOR MY VALENTINE

This is the card I made to give to Hubby on Valentines day:
I used a mix of B&W papers, added red and black ink and some Krylon gold pen. The word is courtesy of Mr Robo (he;'s soooo clever....) Layers of red and gold card on a black base card, the backing paper is "Love Conquers All" by Creative Imaginations. The Cuttlbug hearts are cut from various papers in my B&W collection.

A LITTLE BIT OF FUNDRAISING

Finally for today I'd like to share a Work-in-Progress.
Over on the Bubbly Funk forum we're going to be having a little charity auction to raise a bit of money to help Ellie, the daughter of Kirsty Wiseman who I'm sure most of the UK crafters will know - you can read more about why Ellie needs our help here

So, we are having a fundraising auction with little bits of stash and things we've made being offered. Caroline is going to coordinate the auction, and more info will appear on the main Bubbly Funk shop page along with a link to the gallery where you'll be able to view the items on offer and instructions on how to join in and help little Ellie. Those of us with blogs will show the items we're offering on those too. Anyone can join in, if you see something you'd like to bid on, you'll need to email (or PM for registered forum members) Caroline with your bids. While you're there check out the shop - there are some gorgeous things in there and more being added to tempt us with all the time!

I'm making a maze book to for the auction - I started it yesterday and thought I'd share pictures on here as I go.
It'll be made using the lovely Basic Grey Two Scoops paper set, and inside there will be space to add lots of little photographs and journalling to go with them. I thought it would make a nice Mother's Day gift, but it doesn't have to be!
These are the first photos - remember it's not finished! I just want to help raise awareness and let all my blogmates know what's going on so that if anyone wants to help by donating, or by bidding for crafty stash and goodies then they'll know where to look

Big New Store in Liverpool

Got to share this.
This is the wonderful, fabby old store that is Selfridges on London's Oxford Street

This is the one in Birmingham

Now, one of my SILs has sent this photo with the title "New Selfridges opens in Liverpool"

Not quite the same as but everyone has to start somewhere!......

As promised.....

I don't know where the time goes. I thought I'd have loads of time to do crafting and blogging today but someone stole the hours between 8 and 4 and I haven't got half the things done I'd intended.
What started as another sunny but frosty morning deteriorated into a really manky, grotty, foggy afternoon. Now I can barely see the trees on the other side of the road.

So, I've done half a card today, walked along to town to do a little extra shopping, waffled to a friend on the phone, and? well there must have been more, surely?

Anyway, I do have a few minutes before heading to the kitchen to do my housewifely duty andmake hubby's dinner!
So first off I have my Crafty Templates pictures to share - I'm going to try and be more organised about my CT stuff. I always seem to be there at the last minute trying to get my photos off to Leo - I know she's got some wonderful new stuff in the pipeline for Crafty Templates so I need to stop being Last Minute Minnie - mind you, it's probably impossible to change the habits of a lifetime - at school and college I was always the one scribbling away the night before an essay had to be handed in, so I'm promising NOTHING! But I'll try.

As I said yesterday the February Design set has an Easter/Spring theme and there are some fab and funky templates to play with.
I used the chick ( - or is it a fluffy duckling?) template to make this Easter card.
The chick's head is cut from felt and stuck onto a piece of card. The folded piece is the body - I painted this first then fixed the fluffy feathers with dst - I knew there was a reason for keeping that drawerful of feathers all this time.
I used a bit of Jo's doodling on the little message card, the letters were cut with Mr Robo.

Among Leo's templates this time was a fabulous great big layered flower design. I was desperate to use this but it took me ages to decide how. I knew I wanted it to have lots of dimension so wasn't sure that a card would be the best way to use it. My first idea was to make a big extravagant flower topper for a gift box - I think I still might do this next time I need to "dress" a gift because it would look stunning. In the end though I caught sight of the pile of paper scraps I end up with when I make the inserts for my cards and always keep to scribble notes or sketch ideas and I decided to make something for ME!

The board is a piece of mountboard - I got a huge bag of the stuff from a local picture framers for £1. My December (I think) Self Addressed kit was still lying around and caught my eye with it'szingy green, yellow and blue colours - perfect for Leo's Spring Templates. I covered the board with a sheet of paper that's been lurking in the box for years but was perfect with the kit colours.
I've layered up the gorgeous flower with plenty of 3d foam and putting it to the side of the board means it really stands out well. I Alcohol inked an old bulldog clip and a giant brad (to fix it to the board) and added some ribbon and buttons etc to pretty it up some more. I'm really chuffed with how it's turned out - now I just need a hook to hang it on.


You can check out and order the templates here, visit the Crafty Templates blog for loads more ideas here and do keep checking back there because Leo is launching some fab new and exciting stuff really soon

Crafty Template Sneakee Peekee!

Too late to do a proper blog entry this afternoon, as I've been busy with housey stuff, a bit of gardening (got to take the chance of this sunny weather, eh?) and a bit of crafting too.

I'll blog more tomorrow and show some of my latest cards, but just for now here are sneak peeks of the things I've made for the Crafty Templates Design Team - Leo's latest set of templates have a lovely Easter/Springtime theme - check out the link in the sidebar for more info.

Pesto - but not Sauce

This week the Daring Cardmakers have another lovely sponsored dare.
New Zealand Kit company Paper Pesto have kindly sent some of the paper and other items from one of their kits to each of the Design Team to play with - and are also supplying a spot prize for one of our lucky darers too!

The Paper Pesto kits are beautifully put together and very inspirational, check out on their website and drool!

Our other exciting news is that we are delighted to announce a new DT member - we're thrilled to welcome Sue Hyde as a full time DT member after her super-supportive Guest Designer spot a few weeks ago. She's such an asset that we just couldn't let her go!
Sue's cards are always beautifully designed and full of detail, she can turn her hand to just about any technique and the amount of care and thought she puts into her work is second to none, she's also the sort of person who will take time to answer questions and willingly share her expertise.
Welcome to the Team Sue, it's fab to have you join us "full-time"!

So that everyone can still join in with the dare (even without the help of Paper Pesto) we've got this nice little template to work with this week.
The cards the DT have made are over on the Daring Cardmakers blog, and we hope you like them. Join in with this dare and leave a message so we can go and see your card made from this template and you'll be in with a chance of winning some lovely new stash courtesy of Paper Pesto.



I tweaked the template by twisting it, shrinking some bits and stretching others, I added the eyelets and brad to the things I received, and used a bit of Jo's fab doodling tutorial from the DCM Midweek Extra and plenty of inking too. The flower centre and the frame for the sentiment - that cute font is SP Coffee Break, btw were cut with the Cuttlebug scallop flowers die set - which I think is probably the set I use the most atm.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone else does with this template, so please join in - I dare you!

I thought I could share this little peek at some pages I've been working on for one of the circle journal groups I'm in - I'm not going to say which one, or who's book these are for though.
Two of the Valentines Hubby took into work yesterday sold straightaway, which leaves me in a quandary. Do I make a couple more just in case there's a rush on (yeah, I wish!)? Normally they are all a bit of the unromantic, "Bah humbug - over commercialised rubbish" over there, (or maybe that's just an excuse for being too mean to buy their loved-ones a card.....?) - Mind you both these were bought by women......
Anyway you never can tell, so I always make a few for the box - I try to make them in a way that I can change the greeting to a wedding/engagement/anniversary one if they are left unsold - is that cheating? hehehe.

Right, got a project for Crafty Templates on my desk in a half made state. I must go and finish it. I just hope I don't HATE what I did yesterday and need to start all over again.

I've Been Making Stuff

I may not have been blogging that much, but I have been busy trying to catch up on my crafty "to do list" so here's the first round up of some of the things I've been making.

Last week I showed the card I made for Rosie's "special" birthday but I wasn't too happy with a couple of bits on it, so I did some tweaking before I sent it. It was only a teeny weeny change but I liked the card much better once it was done.

I used: WRMK Vintage Brass Papers, Glossy Accents, Prima flowers, brads, Cuttlebug flower & pot die




I only put a couple of sneak peeks of the front cover of the maze book I made last week, so here's the full view.

I used BG Colour Me Silly papers throughout, plus scraps of Bazzill card and loads of ribbons and fibres from my stash. I read that BG are discontinuing these papers, which is a shame as it's such a fun, cheerful range - I like some of the new stuff, but it all gets a bit same-y, don't you think? They seem to be dropping the really vibrant, textural ones that I go back to time and time again.

I'm busy with a few commissions at the moment. This one is for another of those Ladies with names beginning with "J" who are celebrating their 60th birthdays around now - J must have been the most popular initial for names 60 years back - this is the 3rd I've done in the last month.
I used: BG 2 Scoops Papers, Various flowers, including a chipboard one, Cuttlebug scallop flowers die, beads & Glossy Accents, ribbon from Ribbon Oasis

Daring Cardmakers Team member Saffa is now on "maternity leave" having given birth a couple of weeks ago to twin girls Zaynab and Tasneem. Her crafty creations have always been wonderful and no doubt these latest two are even more beautiful! This is the card I made to welcome them to our world.

I used: Blonde Moments papers, chipboard flowers from Bubbly Funk, Cuttlebug scallop flowers die, Craft Robo for letters, Krylon silver pen, Ribbon from Ribbon Oasis

And lastly for today a few Valentines cards. These will go in the box on Hubby's desk. He tells me "they won't buy pink" so I've done a couple of less obviously girly ones to see if they like those better!
I used for these two: paper from BG Scarlet's Letter paper pad, Cuttlebug heart die, ribbon from stash

Mixed the pink with some red and used up the last of a sheet of cute paper I bought last year for these two - I forget what it is though. The 2nd card uses more of the UTEEd hearts I made for last week's DCM Red & White dare.

Weekend in France

We went over to France for the weekend.
A few years back I bought Hubby 5 years "rent a row of vines" from 3D Wines for his birthday. You can buy one year, or get 5 for the price of 4 so it was rude not to go for the 5 really, wasn't it? Anyway you choose the sort of wine, and if you take out the 5 year option you can change "your" vineyard every year if you want to. I chose champagne for the first year, then he was able to choose for the others - so we had a couple of years of some good Burgundy then went back to the chanpagne for this final year.
It's been a fun thing to do. The first year we went to visit the champagne vineyard and picked up the champagne while we were there. Other years we had our order shipped to collection points not far from Calais and just picked it up from there. You can also have it shipped to the UK - but where's the fun (or the excuse for a few days away) in that?
So that was the main reason for our quickie trip. Obviously it's winter, so there's no way I was going on a ferry - just as well considering the windy weather we've been having - the Channel Tunnel is a much less stressful option, so come 7am Saturday morning we were on our way. The roads behaved nicely and we were put on an earlier train and in France well before lunchtime.

We'd already decided to stay in Boulogne this time and not to drive too far - it's always tempting to go somewhere new but then you end up spending most of the time in the car, so this time we went for the more relaxing option. We like Boulogne, it's got a great mix of old and new, and a great big beach where you can often watch kite surfers etc getting energetic (and wet).
The weather was pretty good. Lots of blue skies but boy, was it freezing cold and blowing a hooly most of the weekend! On Saturday afternoon we drove just a bit further along the coast to Hardelot, our new fave place to visit. We've only been there in the winter and it's fab; interesting buildings, huge beach, cute little beach huts and a nice long prom to get blown along.... but I bet it's a different, busier and less appealing place in the summer.
Anyway, I thought I'd put a few photos from the trip on here, you can click for a bigger version if you want a closer look.

Cap Blanc Nez

Looking back over to England

Hardelot

As you can see, the strong (thanks Lythan for pointing out my typo ;-) ) winds made the weather a bit changeable! Hubby gave the kite an airing - but at that point it was sooooo cold and windy that I stayed in the car, only nipping out to take a photo as quickly as possible! OK so I'm a wuss.

Boulogne

Hubby had a few "homesickness pangs" (for the IOM TT Races) when we went into Boulogne on Sunday morning to find several hundred motorbikes parading through the streets - he seems to find the noise and stink exhillerating.......... Not sure what it was all about, but there were certainly a lot of them.

This is our "cellar" - it's not really a cellar but a sort of understairs cupboard. The racks are pretty empty really, except for the champagne left over from other years, the 3D burgundy which apparently isn't ready to drink yet, the cases at the back are full of the new champagne from this trip. The other photo is the weekend's supernarket haul all waiting to be put away.
Should keep us going for a while.....








Back later with some new crafty stuff
Thanks for looking