Quick catch up

By gum it's cold! I keep turning the heat off and having to give in again after a while and crank it back up again. The spicy scented candles and the Patchouli incense have re-appeared, the zesty shower gels have been replaced by cocoa butter and honey ones and the fluffy socks, hot water bottle and fleecy pj's have been brought out again. All that, and I've still managed to catch a cold! Oh well, a couple of days dosing up on paracetamol should see me right.

Hello to everyone that I met at Crazy About Cake Craft in Chesterfield on Saturday. I hope you're all enjoying your "spends"! I was busy on the ground floor section of the shop and it was only when I paid a visit to the loo in the afternoon that I ventured downstairs and was amazed by the vast array of baking accessories - everything from edible glitters to cake toppers and lots of things that looked quite mysterious to a non baker like myself!

This Saturday I'll be in Oldham, at Sophie's Crafts. I'm teaching a Luminary workshop in the morning and then demonstrating in the afternoon. We'll be making something along the lines of one of these....

....so it should be a fun class. I think there are one or two places left...the cost of the workshop includes one of the Luminary dies....and if you fancy joining us, just contact the shop directly.

In the afternoon I'll be demonstrating various Sizzix dies as well as a few of my Christmas stamps.

I tried to blow the cobwebs of my cold away this morning by planting some shrubs in the garden. It's got very overgrown, weedy and almost jungle like again lately! I may be a proud owner of a lawn mower now, but I've yet to use it as the grass has just been too wet. However, all the Sweet Peas and Nasturtiums have finally died back from around my bench, so I pulled them all up yesterday and prepared a few holes with gravel, compost and bone meal. So, all I had to do this morning was to put the plants in and fill around them. I'd been waiting to clear the area around the bench as one of the plants is a climbing rose which I've tied in to the arch to train it up there. I've also planted a (hopefully!) beautiful silvery lilac cutting rose in the area of the garden that I'm "trying" to give a blues and purples colour theme to. Two other roses have gone in between the bench and David's rose - one is a pinky red with white streaks and the other a mix of yellows through pinks and reds. They look like bits of twig at the moment so I'm keeping my fingers crossed! The last shrub is a Berberis which has berries on at the moment and lovely multicoloured foliage. Hopefully I'll be able to get on top of the weeds again once December is in full flow!

Speaking of December, I decided to have a "pre-Christmas sale" on my Etsy site, so I've reduced the prices on all of my paintings. I'm hoping to get time to create some new pieces before too long, though my planned days off never seem to quite work out that way!

Well, Thomas is curled up asleep and snug in the chair by the radiator, Tara is snuggled on a blanket on the other armchair and I'm in my usual spot on the sofa but I'm going to get ready to venture out into the cold night air shortly. I'm off to the Vicarage for part two of a four week Bible study course, though I missed last week's so will have to catch up tonight. The last course we did was really interesting and provoked lots of discussion, so I'm looking forward to some good conversation.

So, that's all for now, just a quick sign in this evening! Keep warm folks.