Crafting at work

Today was officially the first day of spring but guess what, it's still cold, grey and miserable with the odd bit of annoying snow! So to cheer ourselves up at work we're going to do a nice spring window. At the moment we have raincoats and umbrellas in there and since then the weather has been pants, so our theory is if we do a spring window then spring will come...RIGHT????? So in preparation of this we have brought a washing line to peg clothes up, painted some new units and I was even allowed to do some crafting at work! Ok so not scrapping but making tissue paper flowers!



Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

Birthday card fit for a brother

Today is my brothers birthday so I thought I would quickly share the card I made for him.



When the "I'm with the band"kit from Quirky Kits came out in October I'll admit I was a bit stumped what to do with it. I don't take any photos over Halloween to make any layouts with it but I knew it would come in handy for making a rock style card for my brother, even though his birthday was 5 months away lol! Then when I went to a craft show with my mum in Kettering I found this stamp from Ali Craft and knew it would fit with the kit perfectly. I also brought some skull charms but didn't think he'd appreciate having these on the card too!

The image was stamped with Stampin Up Early Espresso ink with the help of Ian, no matter how many times I stamped the image I couldn't get a full image so Ian wanting something to do came in and forced it down lol! He has his uses...sometimes!


Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

Rainy day scrapping

As the weather hasn't improved at all I managed to get some scrapping done this morning. I printed some of the official photos from my brothers wedding the other night and decided to have a go at this weeks challenge on UKS. This weeks challenge is set by my fellow Sketchy Scrapper Jo who asked us to use this sketch



We also needed to include some stamping, some buttons and some ribbon or twine. This is the layout I came up with



I loved this sketch and will definitely be keeping it for future use. I stamped and cut out the butterflies, added some pompom trim and a cute flower button. All the papers except for the backing paper came from my scraps bag and are MME, ILS & Crate Paper, the backing paper is Studio Calico. I also added a strip of washi tape under the photo from a set I got for Christmas.

Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

All the fun of the fair

Last night we went for our annual walk through the towns mid lent fair. The Stamford street fair is a chartered fair going back to King someone and is one of the largest travelling street fairs in the country stretching throughout the town. When I was younger I remember going with my parents on Mothers Day to watch the lorries coming in to set up. They are not allowed to come in until 12pm after people come out of church so as soon as the bells tolled you would hear a roar of engines as the lorries would pull in in perfect formation to set up their rides in their designated spots. Then there would always be the fun of police and showmen having to move somebodies car which was parked where it wasn't supposed to be despite the street being closed off the night before lol! I've since grown out of going down to watch this but my dad still goes every Mothers Day, he was even there last week in the snow mad I know! The fair is also where I had my first date with Ian back when I was 13 & he was 15; we were both at school, one of my friends called out to him "will you go out with Jess?" "Yeah alright. I'll meet you down the fair later" (wow that's romantic lol!). I went with a friend and found him with one of his friends both of whom disappeared not wanting to be gooseberries and we went on the Waltzers lol! Now though we dont go on any rides as a: its too expensive & b: I'm a wuss who doesn't like going upside down and doesn't trust rides which are just folded out trailers and not drilled to the floor lol! So instead we walk through, watch the rides, buy some sweets & a hot dog and head home. A sure sign we're getting old!

CURRENTLY...

Listening to:

 Watching: Final Witness on Really

Eating: Christmas Pudding- strange but true, mum found a couple of puddings she made but had forgotten about and I have to say it was very nice!

Thinking: One more day at work and then its the weekend woohoo!

Love & hugs

Jess

Xx 

A Lesson in Packaging

Thankfully today was a lot easier getting around and luckily we haven't had anymore snow. At work we had a two boxes delivered from a brand called Name It. Most brands when they deliver to us send everything together in one or two boxes but not Name It, they like to send each item in its own box so one style of Jeans will be in one box, a style of dress in another, etc which means we have had 50 boxes delivered at once before! So when two boxes arrived today I was expecting the norm but no, one box contained boys jeans the other this



Yep one pair of jeans they obviously forgot to pack with the others!! Seriously? We're told all the time to recycle and about how much waste there is its not surprising when people do this!

CURRENTLY

Listening to: after walking through the fair on the way home some old school 90's classics were being played 

Watching: CSI
Eating: snowies from the fair
Thinking: I better not be getting a headache!

Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

Seriously snow go away!

Well today was back to work which after having 10 lovely days off I was not looking forward to. My mood did not improve when I opened the blind and saw snow outside! I know it was forecast but I thought it would be a flurry which wouldnt settle but no, the rain which fell before had frozen and snow had fallen on top which made the walk to work a nightmare! The council obviously thought the same as me as none of the roads had been gritted so the roads were chaos. The Stamford midlent fair opened tonight but I doubt anyone went as we are still having flurries, its here for the week so hopefully it will improve for them. One person who did enjoy the snow (we think) was the inlaws tortoise Vern who woke up early from hibernation a month ago but has been kept indoors, but we couldnt resist putting him out for a quick photo lol!

If I could knit I'd make him a little scarf for next year!

Currently...

Listening to: just for Gemma after talking about them last week, Linkin Park "The Catalyst"

Watching: the snow flurries outside

Eating: minted lamb casserole 

Thinking: when is Spring coming? 

Photo Bomb

Luckily while I was at Meadow Barn the March sketch for the Tag-a-longs monthly sketch over on UKS went live so I was able to make a layout while I was there. This months sketch was set by Suze



I liked this sketch as it had lots of different layers to it. This is the layout I came up with



This photo was again taken at Port Meirion. Ian was taking a number of pics to make a panoramic scene, when we checked them after this one made us laugh as it looks as though the statue from the building below us is peeking over the wall or photo bombing us! All the papers except for the backing paper are from my scraps. I loved the Polaroid frames which came in a past Quirky Kit but didn't really know how to us them but I thought this one was ideal for framing the statue. I just added some die cuts from my stash, some twine, a doily & some Washi Tape from Gemma.

So that's it for Meadow Barn layouts its back to the grind stone tomorrow but I will try to keep blogging even if they aren't the most interesting of posts lol!

Love & hugs
Jess
Xx