Simply Red

Last night John and I went to see Simply Red, The Farewell Tour, at the Sheffield Arena.  It was a surprise present from my 16 yr old son Daniel.  He knows how much I enjoy their music and as this is the farewell tour I am not likely to see them sing these songs again.

I must admit it was a bit of a strange gig as far as the demographic was concerned,  don't think there were many people under 30, maybe even 40 and it was the first gig I had been to where lots of the crowd had a walking stick, and no they were not to wave at Mick Hucknall....  The two ladies in front of us must have been 65-70 yrs, and there were plenty more besides them.
Now don't get me wrong, I am pleased that they are enjoying themselves and going out to these concerts, but as someone who in an earlier life was into hard rock, it just seemed a little strange.  I guess its just me getting old I suppose.
Never was a truer word spoken than 'you are only as old as you feel'.  Those people last night must have been feeling about 25, and I expect I was too.
But it was a fabulous night, support was Macy Gray who was very good and I really enjoyed myself.

Quilling has taken a bit of a back seat this week, the performance with the dog and the heart sort of broke my stride a bit, but it is St Valentines day in a few weeks and I need to get busy with that. So keep watching there will be stuff on here soon.

Oops!

You can imagine I was not best pleased!

And this is the guilty party!

Apparently my mum went into the bureau where the heart was hanging on the key.  Now my mum has Alzheimer's and can only seem to concentrate on one thing at a time, so despite the heart being about 6 inches high and wide, she never saw it. She opened the desk to get her hearing aid batteries out  and the heart fell on the floor, where it stayed until Rufus felt a bit peckish and  decided it was a tasty snack!  

Meanwhile, I was in town doing present shopping, it was a very difficult morning as town was heaving! It is very tiring trying to dodge people, especially those who seem to stop immediately in front of you and as you are steaming along you have to do quick detour around them or bump in to them.  

I wandered in to M&S and took one look at the queue at the sales desk and wandered quickly out again!  Managed to get into John Lewis and there were only 12 people in front of me so I joined the queue for the pretty mug I was buying for Dan's girlfriend.  She loves hot chocolate so I am going to fill the mug with various flavours, wrap it all in cellophane and attach various quilled bits to it - snowmen, flakes, etc

By the time I got home I was completely shattered! Only to be confronted by a guilty looking dog and a mum who had absolutely no idea why I was so cross.  She has no idea about it.

One good piece of news is that my wonderful husband managed to get my Wishblade working, so tomorrow I can make something new and different.

Christmas past...

Christmas is getting just a little closer now, Radio 2 have been playing lots of Christmas songs, my favourite is 'Don't Stop the Cavalry' by Jonah Lewie.  This song came out in 1978.

 It was never off the radio during my first Christmas away from home, I had been married for 8 months and had gone to live in Germany.  It was a very bittersweet time, wanting to be grown up and married and wanting to be at home with my mum and dad. I was just 19 and had no idea what I was doing!    I can laugh at it now, but crickey, what the heck was I doing!
If I knew how, I would have this song playing along on my blog.

I think my most treasured Christmas memories were when my children were small. Ooh it was lovely!   All the excitement, making the most fabulous decorations covered in glue and glitter - the more glitter the better - at school and being proudly brought home to put on the tree. Then there were the  school parties where we had to make jellies and buns sent in a container with the child's name on it.  Oh and the school nativity play, oh my the tears that have been shed at those!
Now of course, my children are all grown, though Dan at 16 still lives at home and he still does get a bit excited, but when he goes to see his dad for the holiday, it makes it very boring at home, it's just like another day, with nice food and pretty decorations, and yes I know that is not the meaning of Christmas, but children are one of the most important parts of it.   I definitely need grandchildren and at the moment there is fat chance of that happening!
If you have young children and right now they are winding you up and nagging at you, wondering what Santa might bring them, just take a deep breath and enjoy it.  When they are grown, the chances are you will want it all back again!

I made this sleigh about 5 years ago, it has been bumping around in boxes, done house moves etc, so its looking a bit worse for wear.  But it is one of my favourite pieces, there is a hobby horse, a doll,  a pram, a car hanging off the back, candy canes, bells and holly.
I think if I can find time I shall try to make another one, I had to glue the sailing boat sails back on again last night and the top robin was hanging precariously off the side.

This past week since my creations have been on this blog I have made some new friends, and I would like to thank you all for the comments.
My stats have jumped enormously, and my Feedjit has shown that there are people from countries that have never been here, and I would love you all to just say hi, you don't particularly have to comment on what you see, but it would be fabulous if you could just say hello.

Snowflake Heart

S

This is the only kind of snowflake I ever want to see!  We have been inundated with the white stuff and to be honest I am soooo fed up with it.  This morning it is a little bit warmer and the 2 feet of snow we had is now melting, I can actually see the path down the garden.  However the forecast says we are to have more snow this weekend.
I am rubbish in snow, I can be counted upon to fall over, so with that in mind I have just ordered a set of Yaktrax which are metal spiky things that you attach to your shoes.  Lets hope they work, or the dogs will be pulling me along on my rear end!

So here we have another heart, its ok, but it didn't turn out as well as I expected, the lettering is a bit wonky to start with. Never mind, you win some you lose some...

Christmas heart

A few years ago, I started quilling hearts.  They seemed to be quite popular amongst my quilling friends, and with the renewed quilling energy I am having, I thought I might do a Christmas one.  I am not too sure of it yet, it seems somehow empty, with a lot of green background showing, but on the other hand I don't really want to add anything to it.  Perhaps you would let me know what you think.

I do like the little red crystals around the edge, though in the picture they seem to have turned more orange.
The letters are actually red with gold edging and the papers are done by the lady who lives in Holland.  I have had these papers for a long time, they were quite expensive and I am not sure that they are available any more, the gilding is the best I have ever seen.

Doing a Demo

Yesterday I saw a question from Philippa at Quilliance who wished to know if anyone had done a demo for a ladies group.
I did one of these a few years ago when I lived in Broom.  We had as local ladies group called imaginatively the Tuesday night group. There were about 15 ladies who met in the village hall and we did all sorts of demonstrations and crafts, and it really was most enjoyable.  I did two demos for them, one on quilling and one on EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique.
But to answer Philippa's question this is what happened at the quilling one.

The gift tag above is what I made for them, I also made a kit for each of the ladies so they could make their own.  I cut all the card out measured the strips and even stuck double sided tape on the back of the pieces of card so all they had to do was stick everything together.

The tables in the hall are the kind that you use for craft fairs, y'know about 6' long and couple of feet wide, and 4 were pushed together into a big rectangle and then one table across each end.  On the first table I put my display, this was mainly cards and pictures, oh and I seem to remember I made one of those paper cake box cakes, that I decorated with the same poinsettias as is on the gift card.

I told them about the history of quilling, how long I had been doing it, bits about it being mentioned in Jane Austin's books etc.  Then I passed out the gift tag kits and doing one myself I showed them how to quill.  I know its difficult thinking that they might not be able to see everything, but lets face it, with a needle tool it's hardly brain surgery!
 All the ladies in the group were apart from a couple -me included - were seniors, and they all totally enjoyed it and made a great poinsettia gift card.  As they were quilling I went round to see each of them and helped showing them the finer tips.   For the glue I placed PVA on a bit of  plastic and used cocktail sticks.

It was a great evening and 4 of the group enjoyed it so much they enrolled in my next quilling class.

Here in Sheffield, I don't know of any ladies groups in my area, perhaps I should find out.