Say hello!

I'm still computerless..... this is being typed on a borrowed machine, but hopefully it'll be fixed soon.... Anyhoo, I just wanted to say congratulations and welcome to all the new DT members of Crafting Ireland - hop over and say hello to them if you get a chance!
Here is the link to the post

I apologise for this shoddy welcome ladies, as soon as i'm up and running again I will come and say hello to everyone!!

My computer is being fixed because it wouldn't let me open blog pages - the cheek of it!!!
So, I will be back with a new post with pictures very soon!
I'm almost ready to show you "the new room" as its become known (its needs a better name, art room? studio? Mums room? - suggestions please!!)

The Purple Art House.

My friend Caroline lives in an amazing house, its like something out of a fairytale - a technicoloured fairytale, and she is also really good at bringing people together. For a long time she had wanted to run a "retreat" for want of a better description, where women would come and have their minds, bodies and souls nourished with good food, arts, crafts and have a chance to just relax and go home renewed.

Last Saturday was a trial run, she had asked me to come up with some craft projects, my Mum was put in charge of the kitchen and eight ladies came to play.

I made name badges for everyone, here they are being modelled by Miss Mannequin!

 The kitchen table comfortable sits 12 so there was room for everyone to spread out. It as surprising how quitet everyone was while they worked, there were tonnes of supplies to use and the work at the end was gorgeous. Some people were crafters and some had never tried anything arty before, some people talked about why they were making certain things, the reasons for choosing certain materials and some just quietly worked away. It was an odd day for me because it wasn't a craft class as such, I couldn't put a time limit on things, I actually had three projects prepared but we only completed one, but there was a nice flow to the day all the same.

 Its hard to find a project that challenges everyone with out being too easy for some or seeming too scary to others, I was delighted with what everyone made, and more importantly they seemed to be too!

 It was a long weekend getting everything ready, and here is my Mum at the end of the day actually sitting down.....(the first time all day) she did an amazing job, she made two kinds of soup, three kinds of salads, scones, carrot cupcakes, apple pie and kept the tea and coffee coming all day!

 and here are Caroline and Myself, still smiling, fit for nothing except a glass of wine!

This weekend.

This weekend was full of early starts, many miles and great company. It started with the ladies in Ballinameela, Dungarvan. We were so busy that I didn't take any photos of them, but these are some of the cards that we made from Cosmo Cricket "Tea for Two" 6x6" papers. I'm not a card maker, so the creations the ladies made were similar to these but much better!! they added lace and buttons and bows, I really wish i'd taken some photos!

 Then Sunday I went to Cork to meet the Scrap n Yap ladies, remember that paper I was raving about recently, well this is what we did with it. We altered diaries, notebooks and address books, here is everyone with their finished books.....

 and here is a close up of my diary, the cover is just all of the left over scraps layered on top of each other.

 Inside there are two tag holders and a pocket, I'm going to put photos on the tags eventually!

 and at the back there is a gusset style pocket for keeping important receipts and things.

 The back has more left overs, the grungeboard circles set in with eyelets make really good closures. I painted them with a pearl dabber and then stamped over it with a script stamp and archival ink.

 I liked this project so much that i'm doing it again on Thursday night here in Killarney, I think i'll alter an address book this time - come and join us if your anywhere near!!