At last!

Gosh, it's been a while...mostly because something has been messing around with my access to blogger and keeps sending up a page that interrupts me whenever I've tried to post. I think it's something to do with Virgin having "updated" whatever it is that they update and my system doesn't seem to support everything as it did before. Gggggrrrr!

It's also been a really busy time here one way and another....Stitches trade show was as manic as ever - even more so this year, as I was working on both the Personal Impressions and Deco Art stands. Here are some images from the show.

The Deco Art stand and the make n take area that myself and Mark Gould were manning.

I was adorning T Shirts with Andy Skinner's latest stencils and So Soft paints.

One of my hand painted samples using the So Soft paints.

A Mixed Media hanger...I wanted to do something with a more Summery feel.

There's always time for some fun however busy we are of course!

With Andy...the Master of Mixed Media! And the thorn between two roses at dinner with Andy and Mark Gould...

My new stamps were previewed at the show but, due to the pre production sets not being ready, I haven't been able to make any samples to share with you as yet. You can check out the new sets here though  and they will be hitting the shops from around the 15th March...fingers crossed!

I'm happy to say that I'm now on the Deco Art International Design Team which is really exciting. My first step by step project on the Mixed Media Blog can be seen here and there is a new button in my left sidebar which will take you straight to the general Mixed Media Blog. 

I've also been really busy with Church of course...lots of special services lately, including Ash Wednesday and St Chad's day. I was in Chorley on Wednesday for a full day's seminar on courses that we'll be running in the Summer so that was very interesting - if a little long! 

My garden is looking extremely neglected...probably because it has been! I am just waiting for the weather to warm up so that I can get out there and hack through the jungle of weeds, clean out the micro pond and mow the lawn at last. 

Thomas and Tara are beginning to spend a little more time outside again and I can tell that Spring is approaching by the fact that I am finding cat hairs attached to my clothing again..the moult has started!

 I've also decided to start running small (very small!) Mixed Media workshops from my little studio here.I can only take up to three people per session and these will be full days priced at £50 per person which includes all materials, refreshments, including lunch, and a goody bag of papers, ribbons, die cuts etc to take home. You can check out the first dates in my demo/workshop list on the left or you can request a specific date and I will try to fit it in for you.

Right, I will crack on as I have a large amount of dies to cut in preparation for tomorrow's workshop at Craft Range in Burnley!

Back home

Hello folks, I'm safely back home after a very busy few days at the NEC for the annual Stitches trade fair. I've quite a few photos to share from the show but, before that, here's my boy, Thomas, looking very sorry for himself....

...when I got home on Tuesday night he was holding up his front left paw and wouldn't let me give it more than a cursory once over. My neighbour, who's been looking after my pusscats, hadn't seen anything unusual going on, so it was a bit of a mystery. I decided to see how he went over the next day and, as you can see, I made him all comfy with my cardigan and a nice fluffy hot water bottle.

Unfortunately, his leg/paw just went steadily worse and by last night he was really limping badly so it was off to the vet this morning. I was, as you do, thinking the worst....broken leg, dislocation etc. Anyway, I'm relieved to say that the vet found a puncture wound and, along with Thomas having a very high temperature, he decided it was a cat bite.....mmmmm....I wonder who the culprit could be?! Methinks that T&T have been taking out their annoyance at me being away on each other! So, he's had a jab that will dose him up over a fortnight and the vet says he'll be feeling much better by tomorrow.

This was him a few minutes ago...bless him!

So, back to the show, and it was the usual mix of hard work, long hours and lots of fun, meeting friends and colleagues like Paula Pascual  and Paul Browning as well as having the much needed post Christmas boost that Stitches always gives. Saturday is set up day, with the freezing exhibition hall looking so full of boxes, bubble wrap, polystyrene and plastic ties that you'd think it would never be ready by the following day! There are so many men laying carpet around the hall and the sound of stands being built and finished as well as trucks and cherry pickers beeping as they wend their way between the cluttered aisles. The Personal Impressions stand is one of the biggest and it's all hands to the job of getting it ready. This is the view to the side of my demonstration counter with all my bags and boxes gradually being unloaded.......

 .....and a few hours later with my counter getting rapidly filled up!

 

I'm glad to say that everyone seemed to really like my new stamp ranges - always a relief when you bring out a new collection!

It was mid evening before we got to our hotel and were able to get something to eat before a much needed sleep and an early morning start to theopening show day. It wasn't long before my tidy counter didn't look quite so tidy....

I really do have the messiest demo table at the show!

Just along the way was the DecoArt stand where one of my best friends, Andy Skinner, was wowing everyone with the amazing samples of his work.

Round the corner from Andy, Mark Gould was holding make n takes where he was showing people the wonders of the new chalk paints. Here he is, wowing one of the PI team. Some very talented men at this show!

 As well as demonstrating throughout the show I also teach workshops each day. They are only forty five minutes long and there is not much time between everyone's classes to set up and pack away so always a little stressful! This year I was showcasing Tim's new Jumbo Tattered Florals and Spring Greenery Sizzix dies along with Ranger products and some of my quote stamps. Thankfully everything went smoothly and the ladies (yes, this year I didn't have any men in my classes!) all made great job of their projects....

.....everyone chose their colours beautifully.....

 So, Sunday came to a close at around 6pm and then it was time for a quick wash and brush up at the hotel before our carvery dinner that was really delicious. Most of us had a reasonably early night and it didn't feel like very long till we were back at the stand again next day!

One of the products that I was using was the new Distress Marker Spritzer which creates great effects and is especially useful for working with stencils as it blows the ink very specifically without any seepage to ruin the design. Whilst I was discussing the Spritzer with Neil Walker he wondered how it would work for blowing liquid inks.....no sooner said than done! It blows them beautifully - no need to buy canned air sprays or make yourself dizzy using a straw!

Later on I was starting a tag with a background of Dylusions ink spray including one the new colours - Slate Grey which is subtle and gorgeous. I used the Spritzer to blow some of the ink up to create foliage and stamped the leaping hare from my new Hippetty Hoppetty set using the kiss technique with my Zentangle Fillers set.

I decided to add a couple of little bunnies from the same set as the hare but it wasn't until I'd stamped the last bunny that I (and everyone watching) realised just what I'd done! In case you can't quite make it out, here's a close up....

....naughty rabbits!!! Ooops! Thought you might be amused by my faux pas! 

Monday evening was our traditional visit to the Chinese Buffet restaurant where we ate lots of delicious food and had a lovely time. Here's me and Monica who looks after the craft stores in the North West of England.

 

And this is Anke, who was demonstrating Viva Decor products on our stand, Elaine, my best buddy at PI and Andy. 

So, it was soon the final day of the show which is always a mixture of relief to be going home and sadness to be saying cheerio to everyone.....

.....keeping up the strength to pull the stand down are Jan and Monica......

.....but we still have time for some fun of course.......

....we had these amazing masks as part of our new Mamelok collection and I have to say that we had quite a few laughs wearing them. Mine was Dame Edna!

I didn't get chance to take many photos so I will post piccies of more samples in the next few days. Most of my "stuff" is being posted back to me as, even as a semi professional camel, I couldn't carry everything!

Right, the time has flown by whilst typing this - in fact, it was light when I started and now it's dark outside! So, I'd better go and get my dinner and check how my lovely boy is.

And breathe....

...well, it is Stitches trade show in a couple of days, so life is always frenetic in the lead up as well as at the actual event! I'm travelling down tomorrow morning, God and weather willing, and am just about sorted now. There are still a couple of items of clothing drying over radiators that I have to try and cram into an already full to bursting suitcase and then the final few last minute things to throw into my bag tomorrow morning. All this without squashing any of my samples of course!

I hope everyone is coping with the terrible weather conditions okay. On Wednesday this area was hit by the massive winds that struck the west coast. It was quite scary, listening to the house making strange noises as it was buffeted by the gales. I thought the conservatory roof was going to lift off several times, but, thank goodness, the house stayed intact. There are a couple of trees down in the park and there were lots of people replacing fences yesterday. Today it's cold, pretty windy and sunny but we had torrential rain and hailstones from midday which was exactly what the weathermen had predicted...they are so accurate these days - shame they can't actually do anything about the rotten weather though!

I'd set aside the morning to get the house ship shape...well, my neighbour will be coming in to look after T&T and I would have been embarrassed for her to see the state that everything was in! I confess that housework is not something I'm very good at, especially when I'm tied up with getting things prepped for a big event. So, it was a nice early start to my day and then a methodical blitz! I started in my bedroom and decided to really have a good clear up. I filled a big bag with rubbish and had a box to empty into the paper recycling bin - that felt good! Dusting, polishing and hoovering and the room looked so much better which spurred me on.

The conservatory was next, followed by the kitchen and I managed to clear quite a lot of counter space before cleaning the surfaces, sink and floor. The bathroom only needed a quick once over and then I tidied and hoovered the living room and porch. The spare room is just a dumping ground at the moment so was the one room that I left as it was!!! The bad weather had left my windows all looking pretty dreadful (ie, could hardly see through them!) so I gave them a really good wash followed by my favourite job of getting the water off with my trusty squeegee - very satisfying! Of course, the rain came down not long after, but hey ho, that's housework for you!

Thomas is already looking at me very suspiciously and Tara has been climbing onto my lap this afternoon - they always seem to know when I'm going to be leaving them for a few days. I do hate leaving them.

Well, here are just a few more pictures to share. I haven't photographed most of my new samples yet, but I'll be sure to take some snaps whilst I'm away. This is a card using Dylusions sprays for the background and my Zendoodle fish as well as a sprinkle or three of Distress Glitter.

The words are from my Quips set.

I've been having fun using my new "Hippetty Hoppetty" stamp set - I always like using silhouette images. This tag also features images from a set called "Change is in the Air" and I stamped the rabbits with various shades of Distress ink to make them fade into the background more.

I was trying to capture the essence of Watership Down with the faded look- I love the book, the film and the music. Here are more rabbits from the set, this time I inked them with Distress ink and then applied my Zendoodle Fillers patterns to the rabbits with a darker ink before stamping, rather than having just a plain silhouette.

So, not much to share today, but I will fill my posts with photos when I get back from the NEC. 

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and it's always a great event for recharging the batteries despite all the hard work! 

Take care everyone, keep warm and dry and safe.

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

A few more Stitches photos

Thank you for all the lovely comments on both my last post and the blog candy post (don't forget you need to comment on that post titled "blog candy giveaway" to be in the draw). It's always good to know that the stamp designs that I work so hard on have hit the right note so to speak. 

I thought I'd share a couple more pictures from the show - and I'll post more samples when I get them back as they're being photographed at PI headquarters just now.

This is a great shot of Rachel with someone that most of you will recognise - Andy Skinner who is as lovely as he is talented which is saying quite a lot! A true gentleman and one of my closest friends...annoyingly though, we hardly got a chance to catch up at all!

 Here's a picture taken at the Sizzix stand with Paula showing the beautiful flowers made from Sizzix dies. They were amazing. The Sizzix stand was so inspirational, with detailed displays which had been dressed beautifully.

 I met up with so many people at the show but didn't get photos of everyone of course. My friend Paul visited the show, so I got lots of big hugs and you can't have too many of those! I had a lot of catch ups with Lynnda and Elaine from Oak House Studio too. The whole event really did me a lot of good as everything was so positive and I was with my "second family" - the PI team, who are a great bunch of people. Lots of people told us that we had the most inspirational demonstrations at the show, so that was very good to hear. I had a couple of bad moments when two people, within ten minutes of each other, who I've not seen for quite some time, asked me how David was. I wasn't quite prepared for that and it gave me a bit of a sideways knock. I ended up feeling bad for them though as they felt so awful...it's one of those things.

I've been out with my sister Heather today, visiting our mum and then doing some grocery shopping as I was out of just about everything. I had a fresh delivery from the Beanie coffee company today too, so, once I've posted this I'm off to make a cup of double chocolate flavoured coffee - it's sugar free too, so not even any guilty feelings! It's freeeeeezing cold here today so I'm planning an evening snuggled up with Tara on the sofa - she has finally realised that it's nice to be stroked and made a fuss of. She was in a family with children who teased her, so it's taken her a long time to trust me completely. Thomas doesn't do cuddles on the sofa, he's strictly guard duty...sitting by the door when I have a shower, keeping me company in the kitchen when I make dinner and making me laugh with his charging around the lounge after his toy mouse. Cuddles with Thomas are at bed time and he's a purry, furry hot water bottle under the duvet!

Right, there's a coffee cup with my name on it! Don't forget to comment on the blog candy post by next Thursday.

I'm all of a Doo Lally

Hello folks, I was going to write this post yesterday but Tara and Thomas had other ideas - in fact Tara jumped up and turned the laptop off with her paw to show her disgust that I was even thinking about not giving them my full attention! I had left them alone for four days with just my neighbour popping in to feed them, so they were rightfully feeling a little neglected and Tara has been like a fixture on my lap since I got back.

I decided to have a day off anyway after Stitches, which is always a brilliant few days but exhausting. Before I forget, if you click the link in my sidebar you can go to my You Tube site where I've posted a video of the demo areas on the Personal Impressions stand at the show. Look out for the quick Can Can moment at the end...not by me I hasten to add!

Here's a picture of some of my Doo Lally Pip samples up on display at the end of the demonstration counter....

 ....I do like a black background to show off the strong colours. I was really pleased with all the positive reaction to my new Doo Lally designs which seemed to make everyone smile.
Here's me with one of my best mates, the lovely and super talented Rachel Greig of Darkroom Door fame.....

..... Rachel and I were sharing one demonstration booth and here's Rachel with Dyan Reaveley who was demonstrating on counter on the other side of our stand. Dyan's new colours in her Dylusions ink sprays are gorgeous and a must have......

At the opposite end of the PI stand we had Ken Oliver from Spellbinders who was demonstrating the new Media Mixage range and the Artisan Explorer machine. Here he is with Jan from Personal Impressions....

Here's a nice shot of Rachel demonstrating and you can see some more of our samples as well as getting an idea of the size of the PI stand which is one of the best at the show (I know, I'm biased, but it is!).....

 

Another piccie of me here, this time with my lovely friend, Paula Pascual who was demonstrating on the Sizzix stand.......

 .....can you tell we love each other?! I wish I could smile without squishing my eyes up though!!!

We also had a lot of fun and our traditional Monday night at the Wing Wah Chinese restaurant was as bonkers as ever, with "happy birthday" sparkler topped, ice cream filled fruit bowls being brought to two unsuspecting recipients at our tables. This year it was the turn of Ken and also Patrick from DecoArt to wonder why they were being sung to when it wasn't even their birthdays! 

 .......daft, but fun! 

The show was three days of non stop talking, standing, perching on a high stool, teaching and demonstrating and meeting up with people, some of whom I only see once a year. I'm always really sad when the show closes and the stand, that took hours and hours to set up and dress, is ripped down in no time at all and everyone says their farewells. It was especially poignant this year as David always used to help to pack things away and he always took a "Team PI" photograph of us all. 

Thank you for all the texts and emails that I got from so many of you while I was away - I will get back to everyone I promise!

Well, I will post some pictures of more samples from the show in a few days as they are being photographed for Personal Impressions before being sent back to me. Don't forget to check out the You Tube clip and also to read the post below this one to enter my blog candy giveaway! Remember you need to leave a comment after that post to be in with a chance.

Colour full

I'm busy with my last push to get everything ready for Stitches in a few days. I'll be travelling down to Birmingham on Saturday and can't wait to see everyone from Personal Impressions - they are like my second family really, but I only get to see most of them once a year. The whole event is punctuated by lots of "hello"'s between people who only meet up occasionally of course!

I'm just about there with samples and workshop prepping now, so I'm at the "getting myself organised" stage which is my least favourite part! How to fit everything into my case, including several changes of clothes, making sure that I don't leave anything out...not forgetting the mundane things like ironing of course! I'm pleased to say that the new washing machine is behaving very well and is so fast and efficient that I'm thinking of starting a small laundry business as a sideline - not!

As promised here are a couple of photos, though I took them in a hurry so they aren't the best. This one is a canvas that I finished this morning. 

I used Tim Holtz tissue wrap to cover the canvas and a mix of Dylusions ink sprays and Distress inks to colour the surface. I stamped, coloured and cut out "Hopeful Harriet" and glued her down on top of the wings from my "Steamed Up" stamp set. I added her top hat at a jaunty angle. The phrase is from my "Happiness" set - it's one complete quote, but I decided to tear it across to form two parts as it looked more balanced. The pen nibs are TH Idealogy of course and I used Ranger's Emboss it Dabber to add some gold accents around some of the edges. You can't see it here, but I also used Perfect Pearl spray in white (actually called Perfect Pearl but I find that confusing!!) over the butterfly and I added crackle accents over the butterfly body and veins on the wings. Actually, I think it's a moth really! 

I've been keen to use lots of colour for my samples this year and this is another colourful piece. It's a journal page but not in my journal if you see what I mean. For the show it's better to have loose pages so that people can see them more easily. This one has my "Piffy on a Rockcake" images.....it's pretty much a northern saying and has always made me smile! It means that you're hanging around, with the implication that someone, or something, is wasting your time. Much easier to say "sat here like piffy on a rockcake" though!

I used Dylusions spray inks again,  stamped my "leafy borders" foliage and bleached the colour out with water. The toadstools and "Piffy" were stamped, coloured and cut out to be added afterwards. I used some spritzed dictionary paper for grass. I loved making this page with the rich colours and I can relate to the sentiment too as I very often find myself hanging about waiting for things.

Lastly is a card that I kept quite simple really. This one uses my new "He is Risen" Easter set of stamps. 

 I chose a background from the pile that I have ready inked on my table. I liked the un-inked areas on this one and I simply stamped the cross in black with the message below. I added some white gel pen dots to the cross as well as a clear gem that I tinted with a soft yellow Promarker. I made a border strip stamped with the fish from the same stamp set. Simple but striking was the effect I wanted.

Sunday turned out to be a very sad day as I had the news that one of my friends from church had passed away. He was one of the first people there to talk to me and it was Peter who "dragged" me to the church hall after one of the services for a coffee and to introduce me to other people. He always gave me a big hug and we had some really good conversations. We only knew that he was ill last week so it was a big shock to everyone and very, very sad. He'll be very much missed.

Well, time to relax a bit now this evening. It's been a pretty chilly day, so I have some soup ready to heat up for a quick and simple dinner, just what's needed after a busy day.

Washed up

Hello folks, hope everyone has a great weekend planned. For me, it's the last weekend before Stitches, so the final push to get samples made and then I can have a free day to organise my clothes, bags and what have you. David always used to make sure I did as little as possible the day before going to the show, so he would launder and iron my clothes, go through my check list of things to take and generally take over so I could relax. That little bit of time off is great before such a busy few days, so I'll try to be as organised as I can. There's a lot more to take than when I do most of my demonstrations - I need more outfits for a start! - so it takes a bit of sorting especially as I'll be travelling by train of course. You'd be surprised what I can get into my old Tardis case though!

I took a couple of snaps in my workroom today. This one is of the shelf where I display some of my work, both old and new.

Bit of a blue theme going on here! No close ups of anything, but you can see the type of thing I've been up to. The disembodied head at the front is from a broken ornament and is waiting to go into a configurations box at some time in the future!

This was my table earlier when I was busy cutting out toadstools....

 .....ready to go onto the background panel that I made using Distress Stains including the metallic pewter which gives a lovely shimmer to the surface. My oil burner is simmering away on the table to keep me feeling relaxed and calm! Next to that is my favourite coffee mug...just a nice size and with a lovely bunny design. It was from M&S and I wanted to get the duckling one from the same series but they discontinued them before I got the chance...don't you hate it when that happens?!

You may wonder why I titled this post "washed up"...well, my washing is still trapped in the machine but help is at hand! I have a new machine coming tomorrow...the cheapest new one that I could find and nice and simple. They don't fit them though, so the plumber who fixed the kitchen floor is coming on Monday to set it up and to free my knickers! (He's promised not to look!) So, I'll be doing plenty of laundry after the weekend - hopefully!

The double trouble pair have been fed and gone out for a trot around the neighbourhood so it's time for me to sort out my own dinner now. Then it's an early night for me ahead of the delivery men possibly turning up at 7am! I dare say they won't arrive till much later, but I don't want another embarrassing wardrobe malfunction so I want to be ready!

Have a good weekend everyone, whatever you're doing.

Kaput!

The pesky washing machine that's been messing me about for so long has finally decided to give up completely and my washing is now lovely and clean but trapped inside for eternity unless I can force the door open! It finally gave up yesterday evening after I'd been trying all afternoon to unlock the door by restarting the cycle, spinning, draining, you name it. Now the lights are on but there's just a sinister low humming that says to me that the motor has gone. I figured I'd be able to prise the door open with a few "big tools" (after unplugging first of course) but it will not budge!

It's going to have to be a new washer, so I'm not worried about breaking it now....I just want to get my clothes out! Typical for it to happen the week before I'll be going to the Stitches trade show for a few days and need to get my outfits laundered! Oh well, it's a call to the plumber after all then. Oh I really do miss David all the more at times like this...he could fix anything and he'd certainly have been able to use his "Superdave" strength to break that door.

As promised, here is a picture of the new puppet that I was working on Sunday.....

 ....he's got rather grand facial hair! It was lovely to hear the children chuckling as he (and the female character) popped up above the screen. Thankfully, I got through it with no arm aches at all as I decided that I would risk standing on a rather wobbly hassock again, even though I had to move around more than last time. It did the trick and that extra few inches of height made all the difference.  By the way, you can see my twiggy lights in the background...they really have brightened the corner of the room after taking the Christmas tree down.

I did fluff one of my lines and I interrupted poor Lynne, halfway through one of her sentences by mistake, but nobody noticed, so I got away with it. The screen also decided to try and fall apart as we were lifting it to the the front of the church too but Martin, our vicar, came to the rescue so it didn't completely collapse! The perils of being a performer...LOL!

After the service it was the parish lunch which was very enjoyable and it was good to sit down and share it with friends. So I had a pretty full day one way and another. Yesterday I finished prepping the workshops for Stitches, so I can now concentrate on getting lots more samples made for my demonstration stand...well, it's not really "mine" as I'll be sharing it with the wonderful Rachel Greig from Darkroom Door and we'll be taking turns.....I must try and keep tidy!

No more pictures of my recent makes yet I'm afraid, but I'll try and share some tomorrow. As I said, I have to keep things back for the show. I'll have lots of piccies when I come back of course!

The demonstration at High Legh garden centre, near Knutsford, on 2nd March is now confirmed (see my demo list in the sidebar) so I'll add more details of what I'll be doing there tomorrow. 

Right, time to get some dinner made now...veggie stir fry with rice noodles.... and I will try to avert my eyes from the bloomin' washing machine whilst I'm in the kitchen!

I've been Stitched up!

That is to say that Stitches is over for another year and I'm now in the relaxed, slightly tired (!) state of mind that always follows the show. It's such a busy few days that it flies by every time and, after all the hard work that everyone does to make it such a great event, it's always hard to believe that it can go so fast. It was such a whirlwind that I hardly even took any photos this year.
I travelled down to the NEC on Saturday morning and spent an hour or so helping the Personal Impressions team to get set up....well, I say "helping", but they have it down to such a fine art that I usually feel that I'm more of a hindrance! Here's our stand on Saturday afternoon...it always astounds me how it goes from looking as though it will never be ready to looking pristine by the start of the show the next morning. This year we had a new bright aqua shade along with the classic PI colour, so the stand really did "stand" out even more than usual - groan! I then scurried along to the Ranger workshop which I was really looking forward to - a chance to try new products and to be on the other side of the table for a change! In the first session, with Tim, we made a really neat little hanger based on two teeny canvasses and using various TH products. In the second session, with Dyan (Reaveley) we made a journalling page using the new Dylusions inks and masks. Just check out these hands after the second session! This is me with the lovely Dot, from the Stamp Hut in Bury St Edmunds and the ladies from Two Cats Crafts !It was then time to go back to the hotel for a bite to eat and a catch up with everyone from PI before getting a good sleep in preparation for the busy day ahead. First job for me was to get my demonstartion area ready and put samples up. This was my extraordinarily long counter - the whole stand had been revamped and there was much more room for working on - I needed elasticated arms really! Just to the left, on the wall, you can see the boards showing new PI stamp designs. Next to them are Gorjuss designs, Hero Arts and then Petaloo flowers. I took this photo on Saturday night - hence the ladders in the background! I then had to hightail it up to the workshop area to get everything ready for my first class of the show at 9.30am. I had some help getting ready as the turn around is so fast at the show - one person clearing up after a class whilst the next one is itching to get in and get prepped! My workshop was using the Build a Scene stamps and we did lots of masking and colouring - a gentle start to the show.
Then it was back to the stand where I was demonstrating for the rest of the day. Joanne was at the show as I had given her one of my tickets as a thank you for helping me with samples. I think she enjoyed herself! Here she is posing by Tim's demo area and looking very glam! I managed to get some shots of Joanne with Mario and Rachel Grieg which I'm emailing to her so I'm sure they'll be up on her blog quite soon. On Sunday night, after the show, it was our traditional meal out at the Wing Wah. This is always a fun evening with the whole PI and Ranger team as well as any other overseas guests we have on the stand. This year Alex from Martha Stewart as well as the Spellbinders team joined us. I did take some pics there but they haven't come out well enough to share. Then it was back to the hotel for a few hours in the bar lounge (no rabble rousing though!) before another good sleep - comfy beds!
Monday brought another workshop which I was teaching along with Andy Skinner This time it was focussing on Martha Stewart paints. We were merrily setting up the class until we realised that we couldn't find the canvasses that were pretty integral to the whole thing! Panic stations ensued and I was reminded of Basil Fawlty looking for the missing roast duck inside the trifle! The PI team searched everywhere back on the stand and the canvasses eventually turned up in a cupboard which they had somehow found their way into! So, ten minutes late we got started and, thankfully, everyone was very understanding and all went smoothly (if a little rushed!) from there. Could do without that kind of excitement though!
That afternoon team Ranger were off down to QVC for the launch of the TSV that night, but I did get a quick pic with Tim and the lovely Rachel from Darkroom Door. What a titch I look! Rachel has designed lots more beautiful stamp sets, so I'll be looking forward to working with those soon. All too soon it was the final day and I spent my time demonstrating, arranging new dates for the coming year for various stores and I had a final stamping workshop at the end of the day. Then it was time to pull the stand down which takes hardly any time compared with setting it up! I always find it really sad - a bit like taking the Christmas decorations down in January. Then it was time for goodbye's and the trek home which took me five hours due to points problems at Birmingham New Street station.
As always, we worked hard and played hard! I didn't get much chance to look round the other stands but there were lots of wonderful products and samples everywhere I looked as I rushed through the aisles to the workshops etc. I think the craft appetite will be catered for for another year! Must sign off now as I have to get some new samples made in readiness for the craft show at Leigh at the beginning of March. I am going to do some gentle colouring in to start with after all the heavy schedule of the last few weeks!