I haven't felt like whizzing about much with this asthma, but I needed to make two cards this week. One was a get well card for my sister-in-law who had had an operation, and one was a birthday card for another sister-in-law.

I also made some jewellery; I was asked to make a necklace to match a particularly blingey bracelet that I make in various colours, this was in black. I hadn't mad a necklace before, and was mindful of cost to the customer, so have kept the necklace part relatively simple.

Half-term week. I'm still feeling rotten with this asthma, I don't normally suffer with it too much, so it's knocked me for six this time. I've been running about with the kids too, Megan has had two job interviews, to keep her busy until she starts Uni in September. Ryan has his social life with his girlfriend to maintain, and he can't drive yet, Grrrr! So, I haven't had much of a rest. I'm waiting for a VIP, (very important package) to arrive- some new stamps from Graphicus. It's very frustrating as some of the other Guild members have been posting samples of their work with these stamps on their blogs and on the Guild Group site. I just have to be patient, my time will come.

Instead, I've been making jewellery, and eyeing up the blog candy that's out there. No new pictures I'm afraid, just some of the house, the cat, and the garden.

The house is called Poppy Cottage, and is set in a lovely old garden with mature fruit trees and an out building called THE OLD MALTINGS. In Autumn the leaves turn red, it's just beautiful.

Well, I'm not feeling so well this week, I've had a cold since November, yep, November. This week, it's got decidedly worse, and gone on my chest, so my asthma is playing up. My other half had to go to hospital yesterday for an investigation, which turned out to be less serious than we thought it might have been, but he needed looking after for a couple of days. Me not feeling well is a bit of an inconvenience. Roll on the spring and some warmer weather. I went to my local craft shop yesterday, Your Touch of Craft which offers the best tea and sympathy for miles around, it is in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and run by Kay and Amanda,who taught me how to make jewellery. They gave me a cuppa and some cake while Terry was in hospital, and kept my mind on things craft related for a while. Thank you ladies you are good friends not just my teachers.

Here are some jewellery pics, I am a purple girl at heart, but I try to use other colours sometimes!

What I've been making lately

In the card making class that I run, we've been working with Glimmer Mists. (I bought mine from http://www.graphicus.co.uk/ a fantastic website selling rubber stamps, inks, paints, tools, card making and scrapbooking suuplies. I can't rave about the company enough, believe me.) First, we used a range of peacock themed stamps and focussed on some triple embossing on mountboard, using coloured embossing powders to stamp into. Then, we stamped an inked image onto the mountboard first, and layered up clear embossing powder to create a tile effect.

We then made a couple of tag cards with a butterfly tile, using a Glimmer Mist background. For these backgrounds, we used a Butterfly Glimmer Mask when creating the background papers.

The next process we tried was stamping onto a Glimmer Mist background which is what Idid on the Anniversary card, for the entwined hearts. I also used a spare sheet of 200 gsm card and ran it through my printer to get a coordinating greeting. I used sweet pea Glimmer Mist, which is a lovely colour. I have also tried stamping and embossing in gold onto a background of browns, and golds too, which came out well, but have yet to finish that card.

Well life has taken over somewhat, and I've just not been able to keep up with my blog. Hopefully, I can change that now. Megan, my oldest, should have gone to Uni in September, but had to defer due to repeated tonsilitis. She had her tonsils out in December, thank goodness. Ryan, my youngest, is now in the sixth form, and learning to drive.

I have started to make and sell my own jewellery. Before Christmas, this was extremely successful for me, and I couldn't make the jewellery fast enough. I did a few parties for friends, and I sell some jewellery in a local beauty salon too. This year, I would like to continue doing the parties, and some craft fairs, and see how the business grows.

I am continuing to make and sell handmade cards, and I work part-time at Mildenhall College of Technology as an invigilator, and helping in the Language Department. I went to the College myself as a student,and some of the teachers are still there!

We have seven chickens at the moment; pekins do not live long lives unfortunately. I get attached to them, as they have their own little quirks. With the lighter nights starting, some of the chicks that hatched in August have just started laying. Our chickens are not commercially viable by any stretch of the imagination, but their eggs, when we do get them, are lovely!