August as ever was a chaotic month with school holidays, a family holiday and needs of extended family.

I must apologise for any typing errors in this post, my keyboard is not working properly and I feel like I have to type each word several times, so it is slow frustrating progress and I am bound to miss something along the way.

I can’t believe that is it nearly the end of September and I am still somewhere back in August.

I don’t get a lot of things made during the school holidays as there just isn’t the time or energy needed, but this year we did go on a craft/activity holiday to Manor House Hotel in Devon.  We had a good time and tried many of the activities, well Rob and Emily did, I was limited, but tried what I could.  The hotel was fairly disabled friendly and I was able to hire a mobility scooter to get around, but still needed someone with me to negotiate doorways!!  I was going to write a separate post abut it, but so much time has passed, I will post here what we made.  As ever my computer technology is letting me down and I have to move to PC to get my photos that I should be able to access from my laptop!

Please bear in mind most of the time we were new to these activities and they are all harder than they look and sound!!

Candle Making

We did this activity together, I made the orange one of the far left and the purple glass one. They are far from what I intended, the purple one is actually meant to be a rainbow one, you can just see stripes, but not the colours I intended and you had to let each layer set in fridge between adding the next and I ran out of time, but it did at least mean that I got plenty of sit downs. Emily made the black looking one mainly achieved by dropping the whole thing in the molten wax and having to get it fished out!  She also made the stripped one, no idea how.  Rob managed to be more creative and achieve the ones on the right.  You can see how it should be done here.

Fabric Painting

I accompanied Emily to this activity and she made a bag and two aprons, just with fabric pens on the items and then set with an iron.  See here  for how it is done.  These pictures were taken after we got home and they needed another iron!

Pottery Painting

We all enjoy pot painting, but are not very good at it, these are painted with pearlescent and glossy paint and they are not fired so cannot be used for food.  There was an amazing range of items, but as we were travelling by train we had to keep to the smaller items. Emily did the blue owl and the Christmas plaque, I did the brown owl and Rob did the gold. See Bisque Painting for how they could look!

Silk Painting

Emily and I did this session together, we went for preprinted objects to save time and precision.  It was nice to do, but quite fiddly and the colours run very easily and I found it very tiring.  The scarf was much easier and quite therapeutic as just splashed colour on and it looks quite good, Emily has worn it in her hair. I did the orange one and Emily the flowery one, we now have them hanging in windows that get the sun and they look good.  The experts made it look easy and the items were amazing see here.

Enamelling

We all did this session together.  I had done enamelling at once at school.  It is quite fiddly to do and I was feeling particularly ill that day so found it hard and had to get Rob to do the firing for us all.  I made the cat and the orange pendant, Rob made the dragon fly and Emily made the shoes, butterfly and heart.  They are still waiting for me to put the jewellery findings on them to finish them off.  Again we didn’t really get the effects that we wanted, but are quite pleased with our efforts, and of course you can here what we wanted it to look like.

Glass Engraving

Rob did this on his own and produced some beautiful glasses, see here to find out how it is done.

Patchwork

Emily and I did this as a team effort, cutting the shapes together and taking them and I did the fine stitching to fasten them together whilst Emily painted her owl.  You can probably see one of the pieces is not attached that is because I ran out of energy. We have a bag to sew the patchwork piece onto which is also waiting for me to attend to. Here are the experts!

Card Making

Something I was more at home with, but wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t do much with Emily wanting me to help her or watch what she was doing.  Got some new ideas though and I have a much better stash of items to use at home.  Rob made the Robin which is decoupage and is my Christmas card this year apparently and I think the fish one is his.  I made the elephant and the hearts cards and Emily made the others. Of course here is how to do it!

Other things I made in August were; a bracelet for a friend, sadly the picture doesn’t do it justice

a bracelet for a friend, sadly the picture doesn’t do it justice, using beads and instructions from Beads Direct tiger bracelet.

Card for friend who loves reading, pattern from Joke De Vette Embroidery on Paper for all occasions

A couple of box frame pictures, using Ikea box frames and assorted die cuts these are available to buy on my website

Invites for my parents Golden Wedding Anniversary.

Card for my Mum in Law using x cut Marquee Alphabet dies.

Before I finish I must share these two signs seen on holiday