Midlands Craft Club Celebrates In Style...

Calling Crafty People in the Midlands! Why not come and meet like minded folk who enjoy crafting in Tullamore this Sunday? The Midlands Craft Club is two years old this month and to celebrate their success they are moving to a new venue. From 1pm – 6pm come and meet, chat, scrap, shop and craft in luxurious surroundings at the Tullamore Court Hotel.

Sandra Dunne from PaperPlay Challenges offers excellent tuition on putting together a seasonally themed scrap book page, this month it’ll be a spooky double layout for Halloween. Sneak peaks will be published here this week.

If you do have your own tools available

please bring them along as only limited supplies of spares are available.

Ideally you will need a sharp pair of scissors, a craft knife, craft glue and a cutting mat to protect your table.

No experience is necessary and all are welcome. If you’ve always fancied exploring the craft

scene, now is YOUR opportunity to try it out. For a modest fee, class materials and instructions are supplied, with excellent support from Sandra available at all times. In addition to this you will be making a card from the scraps and Sandra will be doing a quick demo on colouring images using distress inks.

Alternatively, if you would just like to meet people with similar interests and just make use of a space to craft the Midlands Craft Club would still be delighted to welcome you. Annamarie will be there with her Scrapbook Store offering the chance to pick up some gorgeous goodies for your stash.She will also be demo'ing The Slice from Making Memories.

NB. Children under the age of 14yrs must be accompanied by supervising adult participant.

Polly Plays Paper Challenges

Okay, so this week after a well earned rest from exercising my fingers I have managed to squeeze in a few minutes to enter another PaperPlay Challenge 09- Week 14. To be honest, I'd love to do this every week and I do have good intentions, it's just that life has this peculiar habit of getting in the way...

PaperPlay Challenges was set up by Sandie, who also runs the Midlands Craft Club (MCC for short). I prefer to use the full title, as some of my erstwhile friends would be happy to point out that the MCC is also short for Motor Cycle Club. This may have been more appropriate during my younger days, but sadly 'the beast' is resting up, in the same position it's been in for a little over fourteen or so years!

(for more info click on the pic)

Anyway, this week's challenge is set by Elisa ... "The challenge is complementary colours, that is, to use colours that are opposite to each other in the colour wheel , such as red/green, yellow/purple, orange/blue, etc. Elisa"

Purely by chance, or maybe not, I put together a special card for my good friend George. During the deluge drumming on the roof of my studio (aka garden shed) I consoled myself with pretty butterflies, flowers and ribbons for a special lady in his life - his Mam! It just so happens that when I looked up the colour wheel, which I really should consult more often, that the yellows and blues used on this card are on opposite sides, directly "opposite each other"

My PaperPlay Challenges 09 - Wk 14 Card

Hurray! At last, I remembered to scan the card in and it meets the criteria for another challenge. Isn't it a shame I forgot all about it last week when I might have won a prize for my efforts, still, the more the merrier, eh? Regardless, there are some lovely entries for this weeks challenge and hopefully mine will fit right in...

Maybe one of these days I'll be able to call on George for his excellent services as a business coach, let's face it folks, I need some help with my time management - don't I...? Either that or a lotto win, so that I can afford to employ a house-keeper and spend all my time crafting...

Polly Pierce

Thanksgiving Breakfast

Well hello there and a very Happy Thanksgiving! Welcome back to my amazing rampage about life in general, occasionally crafting, & particularly card making.

I should imagine that this post might very well be a little disjointed in places; due to the fact that I am still suffering from a particularly nasty flare up of Fibro pain. Having self medicated with numerous prescription drugs, all of which were prescribed specifically for the management of this condition; I am feeling ever so slightly woozy.

Yesterday can only be described as a lovely day; spent in the company of some dear girl friends. We played Kaluki in front of a blazing hot fire, talked & laughed for hours; interrupted only by a delicious homemade spaghetti ala bolognaise. A dessert of home made cookies & apple tart followed; accompanied by a cafetiere of steaming hot Italian coffee.

My contribution to the proceedings was the packet of proper spaghetti, ie the very long stuff, which was all we could buy way back in the seventies. I thought we could have some fun, after all, the modern stuff is less than half its length & therefore much easier to handle. How; one asks is it possible to eat such a dish tidily? Remarkably, we all managed it; very well and with no nasty accidents! All I can say is that it is a good job that we all share the same whacky sense of humour…

One of our friends is just ten years my senior & celebrated her birthday a few weeks ago. Being super organised I have been carrying her birthday gift around in the trunk of my car for some time now. The stylish, grey & stone coloured bag; with its black grosgrain ribbon ties and handles had, in the meantime, disintegrated to a shadow of its former classic elegance.
On producing this battered, torn offering a bemused look of curiosity flickered briefly upon the face of the belated birthday girl. One can only imagine what raced through that blond head of hers…! Forever the sophisticate; she politely opened the battered and torn package, to discover that carefully nestled within was a gift which every girl would delight in receiving.

The huge cream coloured Estee Lauder tote bag was overflowing with goodies; the matching cosmetics purse was generously filled with complementary skin care products, mascara, Silver Ball eye shadow compact, Rose Tea and Bois de Rose lipsticks, a small bottle of perfume, and various other accoutrements. Having been the recipient of such a gift some years ago I knew that that my efforts would excuse my tardiness.

I can’t help think that it is the thought which counts in any given situation. It is so easy to be blasé; to take things for granted and to be complacent. The truth of my gift is that I took the time to gather nice things, which ordinarily would be outside of my friends’ budget and would nevertheless be enjoyed once received. My friend is quite aware of this little quirk of mine and is truly appreciative. It is nice to be nice, isn’t it?

At the end of our day together we all went our separate ways; me to the study, to complete my blog and the two girls to Tullamore. BJK was very kind and took LB off to complete his homework assignments at the kitchen table, while BB sat at the dining room table to complete his.

I was delighted that after the previous day’s discomforts, the pain had settled significantly, having enabled me to win a hand or two at cards. The big jackpots were won by BJK & PCD; who were barely able to carry their winnings at the end of the festivities. One hundred one cent coins can be remarkably cumbersome!

After an easy day yesterday I drifted off to sleep in the happy knowledge that all were fed, watered and generally looked after. I had even mounted the four steps leading up to LB’s high bed; we lay there chatting generally about the day’s events and our wishes for the future. With a little coaxing Gypsophillus, the smaller of the two bitches climbed up the ladder and joined us for a nice warm cuddle! It’s funny how some days are so much nicer than others, isn’t it?

Imagine my horror when, at four o’clock this morning I was finally forced to succumb to intense pain. No matter how I lay, nothing relieved the discomfort on my right hand side. First one part of my body ached and then another decided to join in the fun.

Finally I surrendered myself to yet another of my famous cocktails, or at least an approximation of one. Instead of the usual dose of 60mg Codeine and 1.5g Paracetamol and 20mg Zydol I settled for the slightly less effective dose of 45mg Codeine instead. Lucky for me I had found the one remaining Zydol capsule at the bottom of my little plastic stash bag in my bedside cabinet. Beggars can’t be choosers and frankly I was too uncomfortable to go out to the icy cold car, parked in the driveway!

Two hours later I had had enough! DG’s rhythmic snoring was as consistent as the pain! Six am found me brewing strong, strong coffee on the stove top. On the other side of the kitchen the microwave sprang into action; producing a nourishing bowl of wall paper paste. Microwave Porridge is surprisingly nice, especially when served with maple or strawberry syrup! For those of you who are uninitiated regarding actually cooking in your microwave ovens, why don't you give it a try:

Microwave Porridge

1 cup organic medium flake oatmeal/porridge oats
2 cups boiling water
1 pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together in a deep sided microwave proof bowl without lid.
Place in microwave & heat for 5-6mins on High (800W); stirring half way through.
Remove from microwave oven, stir thoroughly and add cold milk to taste.
Stir again & serve.

Serving Suggestions:

Natural yoghurt & honey to taste;
Stewed apples & cinnamon
1 tsp Brown sugar;
1 tbsp Strawberry syrup;
1 tbsp Maple syrup;
1 tbsp Lyles Golden Syrup;
1 Banana; chopped.

By & 7.39am I had already caught up with my e-correspondence; the majority of it destined immediately for the discard pile. I had caught up with Fly Lady and Neasa from Conemmara, and vowed to embark upon my first scrapbook project ever using my recent Stash Win from Craft

Journal. Seeing as I was the lucky recipient of several colourful pages of card stock, some pretty Christmas embellishments, two packets of dried flower petals, some die cut navy blue dresses, handmade paper envelopes and notelets, Anita’s outline stickers in silver and gold, a pretty little gift box and a couple of other bits and pieces I shall rise to the extended challenge issued by The Midlands Craft Club! If nothing else it will be a constructive way to fill my day, which would otherwise be a complete waste of time; due to my incapacity!!!

I didn't get my scrapbook layout done yet, but I have had fun taking photo's and showing my stash off! Tomorrow's a new day, which hopefully will prove to be better than today has been.

Thanks for dropping by today. You have kept me sane; well almost!

Polly Px

Vinca Cards