...and relax!

After a very busy couple of weeks it's nice to have few days to relax a bit, although I'd have been happier if the weather hadn't turned so grim as I had planned to get some outdoor jobs done. The front door and window frames are in desperate need of some renovation, so I've got the paint and am ready to remove the peeling paintwork, fill, sand and prime before giving everything a nice shiny makeover....no chance yet though!

After being ensconced in the Doo Lally room (going a bit doo lally myself too!) making samples it was good when Thursday came around and I set off for the three day show at Event City in Manchester. I had a brilliant time there and it was lovely to see so many familiar faces, including people that I hadn't seen in ages. Thank you to everyone for the kind words, comments and very positive feedback that I received, as well as a few hugs! It did my heart good. Welcome to new blog followers and a special thanks to Neet for the fruit teas and to the mystery lady who passed the angel and heart gift to me anonymously - very much appreciated and it meant a lot.

Well, it was a busy three days needless to say! I didn't get much time to take photos, but here are a few from the show....

 

 .....lots of my Christmas stamps on display behind my demonstration table...and the odd pot or two of Glue n Seal of course!

.....that was meant to be me showing my newly painted Christmas top, but I look more like I'm trying to "get down with the kids".....or is that me showing my age there?!?!

Here's my area, surrounded by samples and products......

This card features one of the first things that I sold out of.....Goosebumps spray from Tsukineko. It's a bit like having Glossy Accents in a spritzer form and creates a texture over any paper or card stock. Of course, as it also creates a resist against Distress Inks, I had to use it to make a snowy sky!

 It's fabby stuff, available in matte, gloss or, the one I was using, shimmer effect. The closer you spray it to the card the bigger the spots will be, or hold it around 12" away for a finer spray. It's very sticky, so I recommend holding the card with tweezers, checking the vicinity for cats (!) and spraying over newspaper or other scrap surface.

Here's Wendy, on the other side of the stand, demonstrating her beautiful cards and techniques with her own range of stamps.....

Wendy works in a very clean and neat way, creating an endless array of delicate foliage and scenes. Talk about two different styles on one stand - if I tried making Wendy's cards they would be covered in inky fingerprints!

Excuse the tatty backdrop to these two tags....I just laid them on my messy craft sheet to take a quick snap!

I just wanted to show the lovely Die-Versions dies that I used on them. The Elf has a greeting taken from the Complements set and the fairy has words made from the Flutterby font set. I really like the way the letters are all diffferent sizes in that set. One rather amusing moment came when I was using Flutterby letters to add words to a snowman tag that I'd been working on. I was deciding exactly what would fit best and was trying out various words, placing letters down on the tag as I popped them out from the die cut sheet. I looked down and saw that the letters had managed to assemble themselves as "Le Snot" which caused some merriment around the table. I hastily began re-arranging everything and a few more letters finally spelled out Let it Snow!

A very busy, fun but tiring few days. You can see how shattered I was in this picture.....

 .....worn away to a frazzle! Sorry - I just couldn't help myself there! 

I'll be with Card-Io again at the leigh show in October, as well as at their new shop - more details soon.

Onto next weekend now, and I'll be down at A Maze of Memories in Long Crendon near Aylesbury on Saturday 21st where I'll be hosting make n takes and demonstrating. You'll need to book a place on the make n takes (contact the shop about this) but the demonstrations are free to all. Really looking forward to this event as everyone is always so welcoming and friendly and we have a real hoot! Susanne, I'm really sorry you won't be able to come this time and hope there aren't too many tears when you wave adieu to your daughter.

Meanwhile, I am off to keep a watchful eye on the weather and check if I dare to start work on that door....not looking good though! 

PS I forgot to say that my Blog Candy finishes at midnight tonight so last chance today to leave a comment on the post titled "Catch up time & American Candy". My neighbour will be picking a winner from the "hat" tomorrow, so be sure to call back and check if you've won!