Time is moving fast and the weekends dont seem to last...

Oh gosh, we appear to be running out of time - week by week at the minute.  Christmas is sneaking its way up on us - day by day at the moment and I cant seem to manage crafting, gardening and having the "damn cold virus" all at once.  I have been dosed up on paracetomal, cough medicine, chocolate and glue from all the things im trying to make whilst ill at the minute.  It sounds stupid but I'd much rather be at work feelig 100%  than at home, feeling sorry for myself - looking at Joe's mardy face and NOT having the energy to get on with Garening OR Crafting?!  Joe said there simply must be something wrong if I'm not even up for crafting?! 

I have come to the decision that whilst the NEW big Tescos is great and all - it aint that sparkling without the Pick N Mix stand?!  I called in there the other night to try and make myself feel better with some "nice-a-ties" and to my pure disgust the Pick N Mix stand was NO-where to be seen?! 
I said to the Tescos Lady "excuse me love, this new tescos is great but where is the Pick N Mix Machine?"
She Said "oooo thats a point?! hmmm I dont think they have set it up yet!"
I said "erm, they havent set it up yet?"
She said "no - cant believe they missed that one"
I thought to myself - "Why my Lovely - it's a good job I was raised and not "dragged up" or I would have had a damn right fit about my Friday night FIX not being available" :)  Might not have had a fit in the store but the poor car is wet through with the tears shed...

I was in NEED of something containg high sugar/calorie content so I decided to ask another lady in the SAME tescos - just in case the first Tescos Lady was asleep on the job - but no, seems she was awake and so was the second lady and I was the one asleep with no sugar :(

Anyway... it appears that petrol in the Micra goes along way compared to the BMW we used to have and I did a nice round trip of Sheffield to find my fix.  Good job - because without it, it appears I lose the gift of craft, gardening and the gab.

Sugared up, high on Glossy Accents and "weeds" from the garden - it appears I have managed some more goodies this weekend...

I have also SO proudly planted my first EverGreens... a Beautiful Cherry Laurel, Conifer and Holly Tree.  The drive is looking much more welcoming now...So where the hell are these Trick OR Treaters?!  I even have sweets ready and a pumpkin... Well a plastic one holding a Torch :) Co-Op had ran out - being a last minute decision to carve one this year. 

If these kids dont hurry up the sweets will have gone and we will have pressed "play" to watch the Poltergeist and I dont think I'll be answering the door once thats on... Eeeeekkkkk!

Happy Halloween my Little Lovelies! xxx

Little Lovelys...

Just adding a few of my little lovelys that I have created recently...

Just some wood, wire and shabby chic goodies and it's a Home Sweet Home...

Saw some wooden pegs and thought of using them to clip pictures for holding down Memories...

Today I created a "little lump of love" to give to a little lump of gorgeous-ness, as we welcome little baby girl Brooke into our lives...

Christmas is a head... so Christmas goodies are to follow... its only 8 weeks-Saturday until the Big Day! Eeeeekkkkkkk

So get crafting you crafters!

Garden Crafting

A friend at work has taken me on as her little project I think... teaching me and guiding me in all she knows about Gardening.  I have managed to find someone who knows tons about gardening and is giving me any information, pots, tools, knowledge she has to spare! I am so excited... I am a total charity case as my mum can confirm but I have a hobby and the hobby needs to be fed, as do my plants and my eyes with crafting goodies!

Mum filled me up a carrier bag with goodies last night too - so I am totally thrilled as she has lent me her Gorjuss Girl stamps!  My fiance's best mate - John and his girlfriend - Tracey, came round at the weekend and she appeared to be blown away by some of the crafting goodies I have made recently as gifts for peeps this coming Christmas!
John phoned me after they had left our house - Saturday dinner time and said: "Lissy, do you take orders?"
I said "No, not from anyone - well except my Mum ;)"
He asked if I would take an order from him to make a Birthday Calendar for Tracey.
I am thrilled! My first customer - the same as the one they had seen in my front room.

I made a Birthday Calendar about a year ago to keep me up to date with everyone's birthdays, I find it easier to keep on top of them now, nagging mum for more birthday cards to be made up ASAP and showing off the family talents with cards for everyone!  The calendar just runs from Jan to December with dates, no years and no days, so it can be used over and over again each year. 

I finally started the Calendar last night and I even have a deadline to work too... Christmas.  OK so it's not a tight deadline BUT the nights are drawing in and it appears I am drawing and colouring in throughout the night also... :)

Good Job Joe has the new series of: Bones to watch ;)

Girlie Night

Had the best night,  last night with my sister, as always!  Wednesday being Girlie Night - I had planned it all perfectly and got tea ready and everything... big glass of vino and some good ol' music blarring ready for Holly finishing work!
Monday - I text Holly and I said to her: "come to mine on Wednesday and we can colour in Magnolias all over my huge kitchen table and craft lots until we couldnt possibly craft anymore"
To my amazement, Holly was not that enthusiastic about the events planned, but I thought - whatever love - I wanna get some christmas cards made up, so you can "take a hike on a mardy bike" if you dont want to join in! 
Tuesday - I called at Mum's and naughtly stole her Copic pens... i know im the devil in disquise but it is October so it is technically my month to be bad ;)
Wednesday - Holly came in at about 6.15pm with a "not so impressed" look on her face...
She said "Lissy I dont even have a change of clothes for this?!"
I said "what the hell do you need a change of clothes for?"
Holly said "What the hell is newspaper doing on the kitchen table, if were painting it magnolia?!"
Well... what can you say to that?
Two blondes dont always make a right and they dont always make sense either ;)

Anyway, when I told her what we were actually doing, that I meant colour in Magnolia stamps with COPICS not the kitchen table with Magnolia PAINT - she laughed her head off, as did I and she was thrilled... so the evening panned out nicely!

Bought some more plants!

Can't help it, but I have bought more plants... the driveway is looking better by the day!  Deals in Homebase and garden centres has saved our pennies but brought colour to the house even if it has emptied our wallets!  I have also made my better half put the hanging baskets up - finally - which look just lovely!

Now I just need to find the trees I want for my, very own, Cottage Garden (in the actual garden not for the drive ;) ) so I can start growing them into a nicely established trees in time for the summer... any ideas of bargain tree shops?!

I have finally got flowering heads on my fushia clippings which I gave new homes last week, because they are giant fushias, they are going to need re-homing again soon... they are having a growth spurt ;)

Christmas cards in the making... Buttons for the taking...

I have been trying my best with these but I dont know if it comes as naturally as other of areas of my "creative" life... I enjoy it throughly though and thats all that matters...

BUTTONS... love them!

Thank you Mum for donating to your "charity case daughter" and letting me go wild with some crafting goodies!

Outside and loving it...

I have started to make a mini cottage garden at home.  The Driveway is a bit "drab" - I mean great compared to what it was when it was actually herendous but now it needs colour and is lacking in style.  I have potted some winter flowering pansies with some Fabulously Brightly coloured Heather.  The heather is just white-heather sprayed with food colouring to give it some bright warming tones.  I have orange, green and yellow, which in some lights, looks slightly neon!  I have some gorgeous other wintery plants which I am yet to learn how to spell... so I'll pop them on later, but they are simply stunning and very white, making me think of snow falling already.

I have two hanging baskets currently hanging off one another, as I am awaiting my very talented: DIY/Handy-Fiance-Man to put me another hanging basket hook up... I would do this myself but I'm not strong enough to drill into the external house bricks... I hate having to rely on a man though - I would normally give everything a shot myself... but in this case no can do!  The hanging baskets do look as though they are meant to be styled in this way, they seem to replicate a waterfall hanging off each other, flower, after flower... so for the time being - I have purposefully styled them in this way ;)

I managed to find some very cheap trelis from Pound Stretcher already stained - which proved handy - for my Passion Flower Climber, which has taken off like a rocket already...

The fairy helps my flowers grow

I have also got myself a Winter Jasmine for the front driveway as I really wanted to see flowers in the winter months.  The flowers are not yet showing but I'm sure it wont be long... Fingers crossed!

with a bit of Wood and a bit of String... I like making nice little things...

Finally...

thought my mum was actually going to kill me, so I have finally got around to taking pictures of the "little lovelys" I have made so far and thought I'd post them on my blog.  I have not included everything because even this much is going to ruin some Christmas presents... but even if you know what your getting, it was made with love and thought...

Key Hook - Made for Joe and Lissy's Duck Egg, Country Style, Kitchen

For a Certain Someone... made with matching "Key Rings" including "His and Hers" for her New House...

This is not yet finished but this will have rustic string (as a hanging method) for hanging - slanted - as "a bit of Beach" in a "far from the beach" - Sheffield located - Bathroom

Magnolila... little fairy



VW poster from the 1950/60s... put into a "car wrecked" frame... which were burnt and aged by myself... effective I think



Clocks and Door Hangers to follow shortly...

Will the Virginia Creeper... Creep Anywhere?

My beautiful little sister - Holly - took a Virginia Creeper clipping from her "cottage garden" for me, as its bursting with life and colour and spreading like a fire of red flame all over her fence out back... it just looks simply gorgeous.  Now I know that we have to be careful with Virginia Creeper and it's clinging hooks BUT theres no denying that they are pretty when their leaves are all Red and Autumn has finally broken in England!

I have heard mixed messages about whether you can take a clipping of a Virginia Creeper but I wanted to give it a go because we have a fence at the back of the garden that is in need of a "make over" with vibrant colour and a classic "Cottage Garden" style. 

So the question is: Will the Virginia Creeper, Creep Anywhere... watch this space...

Lissy's Little Lovely's Nursery...

Recently, I have not been feeling very well and the only thing that seems to free my mind... is gardening. 

I have taken about 10 different fushia clippings now, they are all sat on my kitchen window ledge (the now "Lissy's Little Lovelys Nursery") after people have suggested buying them off my as a grown hardy plant... so now as the "random" person I am, I am "willing" them to grow like everything else in the garden except the Brambles. 

The Fushia cuttings I took for friends, about 6 weeks ago, have now got strong roots so I have transfered them into bigger homes to help them spread out... it's such a nice feeling knowing that you can love something enough thatll it'll grow... perhaps against all odds!

My Dahlias

My garden - What a sight for sore eyes

Managed to sell the green house and some bricks in the last week... the green house was too big for the size of our garden and with starting a gardening course and learning to draw a garden plan to scale i wanted a blank canvas.  I will be keeping some bricks as I reckon garden pots and pathway edges would be nice made by the brick material.  Not always your first choice but when your skint you have to make do!  Thought there were about 400 bricks from a broken down shed at the top of the garden BUT I was mistaken, lets say around the 1000 mark - more likely! 

The bricks are slowly going down and we managed to dig up some brambles and have a bit of a mini-bonfire Saturday night.  DAMN the brambles, anyone have any TIPS on killing the annoying things?

I have taken some clippings of the giant Fushia bushes growing wildly in the garden as they are beautiful and I want to replant them next year when they have matured.  I figured this way I can save some money and have my own "Craft Scrap Garden" - Do it yourself and make it your own.  The kitchen currently looks like a green house because its the warmest place to start a plant nursery :) I have got four Fushia Clippings, I will have a Virginia Creeper Clipping shortly and this weekend I will dig out more for my nursery and do my best at getting "Green Fingers"...

Just need to find out who has got a skip locally and see if they dont mind me nabbing some "Garden Craft Scrap"!