Socks and more

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a good summer, if you can call it a summer. Boys are back to school,college and work now so Lily ( dog ) and I have the house to ourselves. I did not get to do much in the way of crafting over summer, but we did do was some gardening, decorating and fellowship. I have managed to knitt my self some socks, first time doing this. I've had an interview for a job but did not get it so its back to the grind of finding another one to apply for. Yuk. My friend Tracy and I went blackberry picking so I made 5 jars of jam, need to make so other types of jam soon, oh and already talking Christmas well just a little.

With the decorating which is still in progress my husband Julio bought me some Thomas Kinkade border to go in the dining room, alway wanted one of his borders in the house, mmm may have to do the living room too. Here are three pics, of most of what the border looks like, I printed these pics so has to make something else with not sure what as yet.

May have to retake once I know what to do, maybe blow one up for a wall picture.

Socks

So here I am with my new socks and waiting for pay day so I can buy some more yarn and needles to make cosy socks, if they turn out ok then some will be for Christmas gifts. It has taken about 2 weeks to get these done, better than watching DVDs we don't watch TV at the moment. There is a lovely wool shop in Bury St Edmunds on the Angel Hill, the shop reminds me of Debbie Macombers http://debbiemacomber.com/ book A Good Yarn, that is what inspired me to knit again. I have read most of her books in the Cedar Cove Series, the local library stocks her books but you have to order has they are popular. The Good Yarn book comes from her Blossom Street Series, you can get a listing from the above link.

Craft group is back on at Brandon and Christchurch churches so I hope to see you at one of them, no projects being taught at the moment, I may teach one Christmas one, I want to spend more time doing my own craft work. See you all real soon.

Eunice xxx

Spring in the Park

Here we are in Nowton Park, we had a lovely day with friends from church, some of us brought a picnic, and me being a Brit. brought flasks of water for tea and coffee. We played games and went for a walk. Need to plan another day like this again.

Cupcake

Well it was one of my sons birthday, so for a cake I got the giant cupcake from JML at Asda. I tried one of the recipes from the book, the cake itself was not great, so we only ate half of it. Well it was the first time I used it.

Inside you can mould it so that you can fill it with a filling. We chose chocolate.

Outside was sprinkled with sprinkles. As you can see the size of the standard cupcake case to the giant cake.

Random pictures of December

Well unfortunately we did not get the camera out for Christmas, we were having such a good time that we forgot, so I have put a few up to view.

Here is a picture I took testing out my new camera, it was taken when we got the first freeze.

One of my sons wanted to get our dog Lily under the Christmas tree, wished we thought to dress her up in her Christmas outfit, will have to wait until next year.
My disaster wreath, it was meant to hang outside but fell and broke, so I brought it inside, then a maggot popped out so it went in the bin, next Christmas I hope to do a better job.

I like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, and thank you for following by blog.

Getting ready for Christmas

Here is my Husband Julio checking the first tree he saw, " that looks good", so we purchased the first tree we came upon, I think Julio was too cold to look around, now if the boy's were with us it would have been a full investigation for the right tree, we opted for a smaller tree this year we like to get the Norwegian spruce as it has long needles that don't stick you when you decorate. We usually go for a 6ft but we was not sure if a 6ft would fit in the car. Maybe next year boy's.

Here is our tree going through the netting funnel, we like to buy our tree from Elveden, nice and fresh, there are little shops for gifts and a food hall for local produce, I got me some chutney for the cold meats.

So here is our tree resting before decorating, Julio trimmed the trunk like you do for flowers, we let it rest for 2 days that way the branches could settle down. We had to put the tree on a platform as it was a bit short.

Here is this years new decoration, I like the little Nativity on the C, at the top of each letter sits a tea light candle. We also bought some new candle holders and the Yankee Candle Home Jar.

There ya go all done up and lighted with my Thomas Kinkade village underneath, still looking for a train to go around the tree, but not TK one. We did not put all our ornaments on just some of the nicer ones.

I think I should have took a close up of some of the ornaments. Maybe on the next post. See you all later.

Wedding

Dawn does not care for the traditional cake so it cupcakes with one small tradition cake.

This is Dawn and Richmond with their four dogs, one of the dogs is white.

After the meal was really good, we made the trip back home it only took us 2 hours and ten minutes. The wedding was held at a hotel in nice surroundings, some of the guest stayed there over night or nearby hotels.

Christmas Market in Bury St Edmunds

The day after Thanksgiving we spent the day with Alex ( Bible student) and the Vigori's, we all headed into town for the annual Christmas market that has been running for 7 yrs now. We bought a few present and sampled some of the food on offer, for the first time I had mulled wine and roast chestnuts, not to be repeated, the best was funnel cake that you can get in the USA. In the evening it was back to my place for hot soup, hot chocolate and leftover turkey.

In this picture is me, and Reese.

Reese buying a silver bracelet for herself.

All the traders had to dress up in Victorian costume, which really added to the atmosphere.

Alex, bible student from Uganda, this was Alex last weekend with us before flying back home as he had been here for a year, so he got to celebrate last Christmas with us, and the rest of the yearly celebrations through the year, he is very much missed by all.

Another trader, this year we had wooden huts set up in the new shopping centre.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2010, here we are at the Vigori's house, the house was packed, and the feast was huge, we all had a good time, the bible students joined us also.

We formed a long line to the kitchen, and there was enough for leftovers the next day. yum

Tea and Cake

Just made this at lunch time, its a cupcake trinket box, my nearest thing for cake on this diet.

Inside the card bookmark

This is the inside of Angela and mine, the bookmark is the strip at the bottom. I plan on dressing mine up some more as there is a birthday coming up soon.

This one is of Robinah

Here is Tracie's

And this one is Denisa, she plans on giving it to her friend, I like the idea of putting a photo inside.

Craft Group Projects

By Robinah Doolo, one of our bible students from Uganda

By Tracie Cole

By Denisa Horvathorva bible student from Czechoslovakia

By Eunice Jackson

By Angela Fairbard

On Saturday a bunch of us ladies did some crafting, we did the Project Tuesday card/bookmark greeting card, I am also showing the scrapbook in a CD case that that was done at Crafty Women with Annie Haffermann.

Embossed Christmas Cards

This week I have made more Christmas cards but not for any challenges, these will be sent to people I know, I did a whole bunch. The snowmen one I have used outline peel offs and sukura pens, I might do some more of these as I like the idea of stained glass window effect.

These next three are two stamps that I got from Penny Black. I have used clear embossing ink and sprinkled with glitter powder all onto silver, gold or blue card, I then used my heat gun to melt the glitter. The colour baubles are made by Sticklers glitter glue and I have used peel offs for the frame edge and sayings.

This stamp is called Majestic.

This stamp is Adornment.

For Embossing you will need;

Your Stamp

Clear Embossing Ink

Embossing Powder

Card

Embellishments

Heat Gun

If stamping on shiny card you will need a old dryer sheet or cotton wool and talc powder to just rub over the card, this helps to stop static other wise you will get glitter sticking in places you don't want.

Christmas cards

Here are 2 cards I made from some new stamps that I bought last month, I have used promarker pens, on the blue one I have used flower soft for fresh snow and the other is a glitter glue that makes it look frosty. I now have 3 days to do the project tuesday challenge, I tell ya some of these bloggers seem to whip up something in a day. See you all later.

Candle and Scarf

I bought this candle today along side the one I got for a friend, this one is called "Be Thankful" as soon as I smelt it I thought of the American Thanksgiving and decided to get it. When I got to the checkout I got talking to the owner, she was telling me that she did not think the fragrance would have been a seller as we don't celebrate thanksgiving and that is what the candle was for, as it turns out it has been a big seller this month. And it smells good. I did over hear that she would not be getting any Halloween candles, as Yankee Candles does not think there is a market in Europe, praise God for that, I pray the candles shop owner gets blessed some other way. I get my candles from Buy the Light in the Cornhill Walk Shopping Centre in Bury St Edmunds, I hope some of you get to visit the store, they are great staff and excellent customer service, they also do a points card you get a stamp for every £10 you spend and when the card is full you can get some free candles or money off the big jar candles. Well worth the visit. I shall be going back in the next few months to get my Christmas candles.

This is a scarf that only took 2 days to do, its a pompom scarf and will be a gift for one of my family members, I am hoping to get some more wool to make more but Bury has none, apparently its hard to come by so I may have to order on line, the wool is very popular as it is the latest for this years scarf fashion.