AND NOW FOR SOMETHING CRAFTY....

I'm back with more....my mother-in-law Anne was off to a wedding this week & I speed-made her a corsage for her outfit. I'd made one last year for Ciaran's sister so had a fair idea of how to do this one. The base is sandwich of 2 black suiting fabric circles with an iron on interling filling, zigzagged egding and with a handstitched brooch pin (I get mine from beadcraft). It was then a case of raiding my ribbons/trimmings box and looping and handstitching pieces to the base. All stitches were then covered with the bead and rhinestone decoration which I also added to the ends of some of the ribbons for some weight and more sparkle. I had all the ingredients here in my workroom so didn't even have to leave the house to get started, it's got me thinking I could do some for my Etsy shop once I get it up and running and must make one for myself too!

This week's handmade card submission was for birthday girl Marian, featuring one of my pen illustrations with a bit of collage, beads and machine stitching. Sent to her with a French/English dictionary....she was impressed with the display of Ciaran's foreign language skills on holiday (hee hee, actually he is very good and always tries....I'm afraid to make a fool of myself on the otherhand which is half the battle I think) so we thought we'd give her something to bring back memories! We all had much fun watching the World Cup with supporters of other nationalities and discussing the games in a variety of languages too. I don't think I'll ever forget the French verb plonger (which means to dive) as there was plenty of it going on!

One last item for this post....I finished The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni last night and would recommend it to anyone. My Mum passed it on to me and I loved it, very powerful and painfully sad....a book that's going to stay with me. I did a bit of Googling and it looks like it's going to be made into a film which will be interesting....I'll be keeping an eye out for more information....you know what it's like when a book's characters and locations leave such an impression on you, it's hard to imagine how they will be translated to film. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. So it'll be a new book at bedtime....I have so many to choose from but think I'm going to plump for Welcome To The World, Baby Girl! by Fannie Flagg which my lovely friend Fee bought me for my birthday.

That's me for today then. I'm off to enjoy the evening sunshine and a wander round the garden. Here's to a productive week ahead....

p.s. I forgot to say how I've relished reading my favourite blogs since I got back from holiday....a hearty full week's dose all in one go and so much to inspire and smile at....infact I must have another dozen to add to my favourites list that I've linked to as I've gone along!