Rain, ribbon, cake, cards and chicken!

Hello all, it's been like the sunniest of Spring days here....quite cold but bright and uplifting. Hard to think it was Christmas a few weeks ago and it does make one look forward to lighter evenings and more clement weather. A little different to last week's torrential downpours....

.....goodness, that was a wet day!

The next day I was in Scunthorpe at Trent Valley Crafts where I had the honour of cutting the ribbon to officially open the shop......

.....if you look closely you'll see that most of the customers were inside the shop - keeping warm! Theresa and Linda have done a great job of getting the shop ship shape and have lots of demos and workshops planned. Judging by this beautiful cake that was given to them by their customers (and made and decorated by one of them) I think they will be getting a lot of support in their venture....

....stunning isn't it? It was a shame to cut into it! And I must say that I haven't ever sat at my demonstration table and seen this sight in front of me....

.....there was quite a lot of sparkling wine flowing!
I wasn't doing my usual inky, messy stuff  - a cleaner look was the order of the day, with lots of dies and a few stamps. I used a couple of my old favourites plus some gorgeous flower silhouettes from Inkadinkadoo.

I haven't used my Swirly Birds Owl for a while! Aren't those wildflowers great - really useful designs.

And I really like these Spellbinders curved edge dies that created just the right shape to sit my fairy silhouette oval stamp into.

I'm now working with a whole host of things to create lots of samples for forthcoming events. February is going to be ultra busy! It's Stitches time again of course - my favourite work event of the year - but I'm also going to be at two three day retail shows. Gosh, there's a lot to get done in the next few weeks! I'll be posting details of lots of forthcoming events very soon, once everything is finalised. 

Tara is driving me nuts at the moment! I roasted a chicken at the weekend and, being like a bloodhound where that particular item is concerned, she will not cease pestering me until every last morsel has gone. How she knows that there is still some in the fridge I have no idea, but she does! I've had a roast dinner (I have discovered that I'm very good at roast potatoes!), a chicken salad, a sandwich and, tonight, I made my version of special fried rice with the addition of a little chopped bacon and a few prawns. T & T have had two meals from it so far and tomorrow will see the remnants used in a final sandwich for me and supper time treats for those two! Pretty good going and I reckon I could have probably stretched it to make a soup as well if I'd really tried!

It's an early start for me in the morning. I don't have to go anywhere, but I need to be "up and at it" to get all these show samples made! TTFN