Sunday 28 December 2008

A Poor Neglected Blog

Oh dear, oh dear, look how long it's been since I paid any attention to this poor blog.

My organisational skills have disintegrated completely over the last couple of months but Christmas is over now and amazingly enough the right people received a present from me, a Christmas dinner appeared on the table and some people even got handmade cards. (Others missed out completely but we won't dwell on that...) So, before I go back to work tomorrow I should give a little thought to this blog.

I have been making a few things since I last blogged and even made some Christmas presents but pictures are sadly lacking. However today I have finished making some desk calendars for friends at work and I took a photo to prove it.





I found a video tutorial on someone's blog with instructions for making this calendar using a Bind It All. Of course I no longer have any idea where I found it so I can't credit the kind person who did it. The original was smaller so I did tinker with it a bit - the cover on mine is four and a half inches square and the pages are four by four and a quarter inches. The calendar in the centre is the prototype and is going to be for me, the other two are for friends.

The week before Christmas I took my Mum to see her sister who now lives in a residential home in Weston super Mare. On our last visit I had taken a photo of the two of them and I made the photo into a mini card concertina as a Christmas present for my aunt. It also included a picture of the 5 siblings as children in 1929 and a photo taken at my aunt's 80th birthday a few years ago. I gave it to my aunt just as we left and a couple of days later my Mum had a phone call to say how pleased she was with it - she hadn't even waited till Christmas day to open it! My Mum said several time she wished she had seen it but she had to wait till Christmas as I'd also made one for her. I didn't take a picture of either of them finished but this is the photo from 1929 - my Mum is bottom right and was 3 at the time. What amazes me is that with 5 young children my grandmother still managed to make them all put hats on!

I'm not really into scrapbooking but I have done a few small minibooks and I love it when it is so special to the person I've made it for.
It feels like months since I did any stitching and as I've got some new stamping classes to prepare for the new year I can't see myself picking up a needle any time soon. However, I will try not to neglect this blog quite so much in 2009.
If I have any readers I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and wish everyone a happy new year.