Macro Monday!

It's BH Monday, but I haven't been anywhere. The weather has been gorgeous this afternoon, so I have been sitting in the garden for a bit. Here's one of my lovely fuschias taken with my macro lens. It is really difficult to get the bit you want in focus - I now use a much smaller aperture to get more in focus. I still manage to get a nice blurry background, but I think this background is a bit cluttered - it would be better without the blob of red at the bottom (another fuschia flower)

Sunday 30th August

Well, here's the after photo! Looks better eh?

Nearly finished clearing the room. Just got a few bits and pieces out on the floor at the moment cos I have advertised them on Ukscrappers and ebay. Then I need to move stuff back in that is in the hallway at the moment!

Hope to get it all ship shape this afternoon and tomorrow cos DH is coming home on Tuesday! Can't wait to see him now!

Saturday 29th August

I spent the day at the The Craft Barn (www.craftbarnonline.co.uk) in Lingfield Surrey with my friend Burn.

We had just the BEST time! We palyed with foil, card, Stazon inks in the brightest colours ever!, black paint, cuttlebug embossing folders and paper artsy fairy tale stamps! First we glued aluminium foil to card, and ran it through the cuttlebug with a variety of embossing folders. Then we got really messy with black paint to 'distress' the foil a bit. Next we applied Stazon ink to the foil with cut n dry foam. Finally we made a background sheet for our stamps with the same Stazon inks. What fun! And I LOVE the little book we came away with.

Friday 28th August

Here's the before picture! Before I clear and clean my lovely pine dresser in my dining/craft room!

Thursday 27th August

I have been doing Emily Falconbridge's 52 Questions (http://embers.typepad.com/e/) this year. She sets a question per week, adn the idea is to make a tag and write your answer to the question on the back. I did another class of hers a couple of years ago, and it's fab to look back on. I decided to combine it with a Big Picture Scrapbooking (http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com)class I had enrolled on and never done, '52 pick up', which gave 52 different techniques for 52 cards - ideal! I haven't sone all the 52 techniques, some I just didn't like! But most of my cards are based on that class. I have just made a concerted effort to catch up - I was about 6 weeks behind! Here they all are, up to week 33, and here's some of my favourites so far:

WEdnesday 26th August

After the paper clutter course I have been doing over on www.simplify.com, I decided to try out the freebie course, Help I don't know where to begin!', aimed at helping you make a start on clearing the clutter in your home. Here's one of my 'clutter' areas, the kitchen sink windowsill. I have since decluttered it a bit, but wouldn't it be lovely to have it so clear that I could just wipe it down without having to move loads of stuff first! My friend (who I went to see this afternoon) has the most clutter free home I know, and I am jealous!!! (But then you can't be a crafter and have a clutter free home can you?)

Tuesday 25th August

I made this bag for my friend for her birthday. I made it mostly today. It was quite easy, except that I haven't done much machine quilting before and hadn't used the 'walking' foot on my machine before! Not too bad so long as she doesn't look too closely at the stitching LOL!