My daughter got me this for Christmas - it ticks all my boxes a) it's an elephant and b) it's craft related! So looking forward to decoupaging him!
And some of the other goodies I received are also fantastic! My DH and I love ballroom dancing so the Stictly Come Dancing annual made us laugh and the beautiful bracelet is a perfect colour for me - the photo doesn't do it justice. And this isn't everything - what a lucky girl I am!
I can never resist all the scrummy beads and bought the above beads and made this necklace to wear to our ususal New Years Eve Eve party tonight!
In the unit next to The Bead Base is Nancyz Crafts, a shop selling lots of card and scrap booking goodies and her web site is at http://www.nancyzcrafts.co.uk. As we have a camper van these toppers definately had my name on them and of course the birthday cake ones are so cute I had to have them as well!!
We always go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve at the beautiful Priory Church in Christchurch. It is a wonderful way of starting Christmas Day and is a good reminder that it isn't just about the food and presents! It is wonderful having the family together and I know that now they are older they will one day spend Christmas with their partners but in the mean time I'm going to enjoy having them home!!!
and
best wishes
for 2012
My daughter and I made these last weekend while at a craft fair.
Apart from this not a lot else has happened in the work room - too busy putting up the Christmas tree!
While she was hard at the computer I put together this little wall hanging!
We also made some Christmas tree decorations but I need to take some pictures. Nice and relaxing to do and good to be crafting with her again.
The day started off really misty, but turned into a beautiful mild autumn day (hard to believe that in 5 weeks time it will be Christmas Day!!)
In my craft room I also have an enormous bag of tapestry wool (It would have been sensible to look at that before going out and buying more of course!) In the bag was an old tapestry pattern for a foot stool - you can't see the price very clearly, but it cost 1 shilling and 7 pennies. I don't remember when England went decimal but it has to be over 35 years ago. Not entirely sure where the wool or the pattern came from either!!
And this is the pattern I've drawn onto the canvas - inspired by Kaffe Fasset. Shouldn't be too difficult to do either.
Not a lot of activity on Isabella's quilt this weekend. We've had visitors all weekend, which has been lovely. It's amazing how long it took to make sure I had all the right bits in the right place - I might actually have spent too long thinking about it and not enough time just doing it! Anyway today I've been able to sit down and actually start sewing. When Ive done a bit more I will post a photograph!
I finally got hold of a 1/4" bias maker to make the stems for Isabella's Garden quilt.
Certainly not quite as easy as the back of the package lead you to believe! It took me a few goes before I got it right. The instructions tell you to cut 1/2" strips, but every one I did frayed and looked horrible. However, once I cut the fabric 1/2" plus a cats whisker it started to go right! As you can see from the photo below they don't look bad.
It was also tricky putting a nice curve on the stems, but I'm pleased with the results!
Kathy in turn got her inspiration from http://www.selvageblog.blogspot.com/. Both are well worth a look!
I didn't realise until I looked at the photo how well the new cottons look against the fabric!
I would like to say that I liked the Barbary apes, which is what Gibraltar is famous for, but although they look playful and cute, they are a bit scary and I know they bite!! (Not me by the way.) They were introduced by the British soldiers who kept them as pets and there are about 250 on the Rock itself, although they are thriving and there numbers will eventually have to be controlled.
We also visited the Botanical Gardens and wondered around the town. Nice relaxing day. 
DH and I have visited Barcelona a couple of times and love everything about it! So stopping there on the cruise despite visiting before was no hardship. We always go the the Segrada Familia and nearly decided not to this time. Every time before the place has been filled with scaffolding (still fantastic, but still a bit of a building site). So when we went back this time we had no different expectations other than we love it. What a surprise to find that the inside is all but complete and it is absolutely beautiful. The light from the stained glass windows gave the structure a citrus glow and we couldn't help wondering what Gaudi would have made of it?
We docked at Cannes and as my DH is a huge Formula 1 motor racing fan we just had to visit Monte Carlo - and what a treat it was. The principality of Monarco is lovely, its clean, friendly and felt very safe. After kissing the tarmac (OK not literally!) we wondered around and visited the famous casino, the beautiful harbour area and a rather nice japanese garden, where we could sit quietly and take on board the wonderful sun! BLISS!
This magnificent building is the Duomo, or cathedral. A truly fantastic sight. We then went on to the Ponte Vecchio, they say you can't leave Florence without strolling across the bridge and browsing in the jewellery shops!
We saw Michelangelos statue of David (not the real thing unfortunately) in Piazza della Signoria and the Gothic Church Santa Croce.
We arrived really early in the morning and it was beautifully deserted, by the time we left it was heaving with tourists.
Our first view of Vatican City. I hadn't expected to feel so over whelmed by the Vatican and its great works of art.
I found St Peters Basilica awe inspiring. It was erected on the tomb of St Peter in the 2nd Century. The dome (pictured above) is by Michelangelo and very beautiful! There are no paintings inside just mosaics, so the colour intensity is amazing!
The Vatican Museum is made of miles and miles of masterpieces and we only scratched the surface. The photo above is one of the galleries. We did of course visit Michelangelo's Sistine chapel. We had been told that you were not allowed to speak inside the Chapel but it is impossible to keep hundreds of visitors quiet! That for me took away some of its excitement. I would have loved to sit for a period of time in silence and just take in the enormity of Michelangelo spending 4 years of his life locked in the Chapel (he didn't allow anyone to see its progress) painting, flat on his back, inches away from the subject.
We also had a tour of the Colosseum (AD 80). Despite it being a ruin you can still get a feel for how magnificent it must have been and visualise some of the brutal 'games' that took place there!
My best day!! 
