Author: Humbug

What’s been going on over the last few weeks? Well, I’ve been on holiday, I finally got the birthday present for mum and dad (it took so long because I didn’t know what I wanted) I’ve made cards, I’ve worked on some tiles, I’ve done some rope work and I have done some work with some vinyl.

So let’s start off with the holiday. I went away with mum, dad and Mason, down to the boat in Plymouth.

I’ve been around this boat for years going away with mum and dad. I think I was two or three the first time I ever went on Fritha. The boat has been all around the country. The first place I ever remember the boat being was in Falmouth, on the south coast of Cornwall.

From Falmouth I remember the boat moving to Liverpool. From Liverpool I remember the boat going up to Larges, nearish Glasgow in Scotland. From Larges the boat went to somewhere called Grove Haven (no idea how to spell it) that was someone near Oban. While the boat was there we went to somewhere called Tobermory that place was used on the children’s TV programme Balamory.

From there the boat went over the other side of the country I want to say Hartlepool (could be wrong). The boat made it way down to Ipswich, I think. After that the boat made it way back along the south coast towards Plymouth. It stayed in each place for a couple of years before moving on but now it been in Plymouth since the late 90s. I was on the journey across the south coast. That was a fun trip.

That’s enough about the history of the boats journey round the country.

On this holiday we went from Plymouth round the Salcombe. From Salcombe to St Peter Port in Gurnsey. Then we did the same journey but backwards. (Not in reverse jut the other way round. We’ve been to St Peter port loads of times and I’ve always liked the place. I still like the place but this time it didn’t seem quite a good. Some of the shops have change round a bit and some of the ones we always went in have closed down. It wasn’t awful at all it was just different.

My birthday present from mum and dad came from one of the shops in Guernsey. I got some new wireless headphones. They are brilliant. Because they are really good ones I didn’t wear them on the boat Incase they got lost or ended up going for a swim. So I waited until we got home.

Here is a video showing the spirit level on my phone while it was on a flat surface.

I did that when we were in our way back from Guernsey to Salcombe. That video was only a couple of seconds long. It took us about 20 hours to make that journey. Normally it takes about 12. The boat doesn’t go very fast and things rely on the weather and tide.

Unfortunately, with the way the tides work around Guernsey it’s a case that once you’ve left you can’t turn round and go back. So once we left we were committed to the journey. But as you can get an idea from that video it wasn’t a smooth trip. It was a rather bumpy/uncomfortable trip back across the channel.

I’m just so glad that I don’t get sea sick very often or at all. Bug with the MS and the dizziness my head feels like it’s bumping around like that most of the time. Here are a couple of other pictures I took while away:

While we were away it was dad’s birthday and I made him a couple of cards. (I made them before we went away)

When we go back I had to catch up with the cards and make some more. There was one birthday card, seven or eight thank you cards and one anniversary card. I’m not showing a picture of the anniversary card because it hasn’t been given out yet. Here are pictures of the cards I’ve made:

I’m sure there may have been another thank you card but I must’ve forgotten to take a picture.

As expected I’ve been doing Sanntangle tiles as well. I did some of them while I was on holiday. Here are pictures of the tiles I’ve done:

While I was on holiday I made a Sanntangle postcard:

It didn’t get sent anything it just went in my folder.

Well I was on holiday I put some decorations on my walking stick using rope. I had to check a few videos on YouTube to figure out how to do it but this is what I did:

I do have all the colours of rope so I may do similar thing in other colours on my stick as well. I’ll have to wait and see though I say I’ll do it now I’ll probably never happen.

I got the heat press before we went on holiday I did prepare a few things for us to take with us. Mum wanted some draw string bags so underwear etc can be put in while packing and they can be used to put dirty washing in enjoying the holiday then it can be kept separate when packing to come home. Here are the bags I used the heat press to put things on:

Before we left I added something to a bag that I made for Lucy to take to nursery with her. I put her name on it:

I did use some final work on a couple of bookmarks too before we left:

I also decorated my water bottle:

For the water bottle or massive cup I use some glow-in-the-dark vinyl and some light reflective vinyl. On the picture the stuff that looks white is the glow in the dark vinyl and the rainbow stuff is the light reflective vinyl.

While we were on holiday I did take my Knitting and crocheting projects. Because I’m working on a jumper for Lucy at the moment with Knitting it’s a complicated cable pattern I didn’t get much Knitting done. I only managed a couple of rows. I did manage to do more crocheting though. So I’ve got a bit further with the shawl for Mum and the jumper for Lucy is taking a little longer.

I can’t really think of anything else to talk about, so I’m going to leave it there. I really need to think about something else to do with this blog and be a lot more consistent with the posts and do it more regularly.

So with that Love and Light.

Sorry for not updating sooner. I kept saying to myself that I’ll start doing an update every Sunday night. And as it’s now been over a month you can see how well that went.

I was thinking that I’ll do it after this thing happens or I’ll do it after that or later on, on Tuesday before I go to bed.

It was definitely a case we’re out it off till tomorrow and tomorrow never came. And now because I’ve written that line I have the song tomorrow never comes running through my head.

Yesterday and today I’ve been ill. It seems to be a mixture of something I’ve eaten, IBS, side effects from medication. I’ve just been feeling crappy.

Not really sure what else to talk about so just going to make it a short post and put on pictures of the things I’ve been up to.

So here are the tiles I’ve done:

I’ve made some cards too:

Over the weekend I had some things for sale at a craft fair. Here are pictures of the stall and Marion the lady that worked on the stall all weekend well she’s the one that organised it.

There are all sorts of bits I did for the stall.

Key rings:

Pin badges and faux leather earrings:

I tangled on some coasters:

I made lots of books too.

And I also got a new toy a few weeks ago. I got a heat press. So I put a few bags on the stall with things on them:

When I got the heat press there was a project that came with it

I have a couple of bags that mum and dad wanted and I can’t decide what to put on them. Should I go with initials, names, what the bag will be used for (like shoes) or should I go with something else?

I made a couple of signs for the stall too:

Yes the grammar one is supposed to be wrong, I spoke to some friends and we decided that it would be funny to be saying that sentiment incorrectly. You’ve already seen some of the others from past posts.

There were a few fairy doors too. Some of them seemed to go down well. It was the ones with the stone looking frames.

There were probably a few other things on the stall too. You might be able to see what I missed from the pictures. Some of it was mine but it was supposed to be a knitting stall so the other people put knitting things on there.

And with that I’m going to leave it there. I’m feeling rough so I’m going to go to bed. Good night.

Love and light.

Suppose I should do a real catch up especially as more time has passed since the rant I posted last week or the one before.

So in the last gazillions weeks a few things have happened.

The first is that we took a trip to one of my favouritest places in the whole wide world. More favouriter and funer than boring places like (****insert boring place of your choice****).

We went to the Haribo shop in Pontefract. If you know anything about me you know that I like Haribo. Like is a bit of an understatement but you get my drift.

Golden Bears are simply the best sweets on the face of the planet.

If you don’t agree with that statement I don’t think we can be friends anymore.

Unless your favourite is another kind of Haribo sweet then there may be some working room. If not you can go……..

Bye.

If you’re still reading I can take it that we are in agreement.

I’m just trying to think of other things I’ve been up to, and because it’s been so long since my last post I can’t remember anything.

Something more recent was I had my latest covid jab the other day. I think that’s 7 or 8 now or maybe more. I’ve lost count. Just like the rest of them I was really rough the day after and start getting better from there onwards. But I’d rather be rough for a day than run the risk of ending up in an ICU bed at hospital.

Onto crafty type things now.

So Sanntangle time. Sounds like the name of a song. That’s one for song writer musical type people. Yes I was in the school choir at one point but unless it involves auto tune you probably don’t want to hear me sing now. I’m not sure auto tune would work, it would probably pack up its back and go into retirement.

So here are the tiles I’ve done:

I’ve also done a few samples for Sandra of the last few weeks too. This is a sample I did for her when she launched Tiles, Tangles and Techniques Book 13.:

Here is another sample I did for Sandra for a new stencil that launched on Hobby Maker.

Those two samples were made into cards but I’ve made a few more cards too.

So that’s it for cards but I’ve been doing bits of other crafting too. I’ve made some plaques/wall signs:

And I’ve been making some books too:

I’ve done a little bit of vinyl work. You’ve seen some of the bits on the plaques/signs above but I’ve also made a label for a water bottle for Lucy.

It went through a couple of different iterations before deciding on a finished label. It started off by dad buying some bottles and Katie asking for a label on one so Lucy can take it to nursery.

As I call my favourite niece Lucifer it started with labels on the screen saying Lucy (fer) B.

Katie didn’t like that and said no fer. So the label then became:

From that Katie still wasn’t happy. But she picked the font she wanted the said “It needs to say Lucy Surname” so went with this:

She still wasn’t happy. But we got there in the end. And being boring just went with her name. The fun started again then trying to pick colours of the vinyl. I’ve got quite a few different colours to choose from:

That’s not all of them by any means but we narrowed it down and eventually came to the decision of the shiny rainbow on a black background. And you’ve seen the finished article above.

I’m going to make some more note books and some more plaques. I’ve sew together some more pages/book signatures and they are ready to be bound into another book. So I’ll get round to doing that soon too.

And I’m going to do some key rings. Maybe some small affirmation cards too. And there will be more birthday/anniversary cards in the pipeline as well.

You may have realised that from my rant post that I’m a bit worried about the disability benefit reforms the government were/are trying to push through. They have got it as far that some areas are now trialing this so this is starting to get even scarier. The other day some figures were released by the DWP that showed the fraud rate for people claiming PIP. You probably are shocked to find out that yet again the government are talking out of their arses (nothing new there) but the fraud rate for PIP claims in the years 2023 to 2024 is a whopping great 0%. And that fell from 0.2% the year before. So no one is really quite sure where the mass amount of fraud is coming if from. (A quick google search will confirm these figures)

I’m really sorry to bother you but I feel that this is something really important you need to be aware of. 

Figures released recently by the DWP are showing that the fraud rate for PIP and disability benefit in the year 2023/2024 claims is 0%. If this is the case why are the government still pushing these reforms if the will have no benefit especially as there is a lot more fraud  and plenty of sleaze happening withing  their own party.

But stressing about this can send me into a downward spiral mentally to the very dark place where I don’t want to be.

It’s a place that can be very hard to get out of, especially on your own.

It’s ok to not be ok.

If you ever find yourself in that place please please please talk to someone and ask for help.

Asking for help is not a bad thing or a sign of weakness. It’s actually a sign of strength and courage.

If need be call the Samaritans on 116 123

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/

Because of all of this I decided to send an email to a few people. I sent it to Keir Starmer and a local candidate for MP.

I wouldn’t mind I sent it to Keir Starmer on Wednesday morning and a few hours later a general election was called so there is now even less chance of him seeing it. But I sent it to him then and Thursday afternoon to the local guy.

This is the email I sent:

Dear Sir,

I’m Chris, I’m 40 from Greater Manchester and I have MS. I’m in pain most of the time and I have severe mental health issues (Because of MS and not helped by the benefits system).   

With all the talk about disability benefit reforms. I just wanted to let you know that I and other disabled people up and down the country are absolutely terrified. Living with a disability and everything that comes with it is hard enough as it is. But, seeing on the news, online and in other places that the government see you as a burden, do not care about you and do not believe you have the problems you do, is scary as hell. Some of us already feel as if we are a burden to our friends and family, but feeling you are a burden to the country adds a whole new weight to your shoulders (making mental health issues worse).

I am on benefits and it has taken some real courage for me to send this message. It is something I will continue to worry about. I’ll be stressing that I have done the wrong thing and made things worse. I live in constant fear of a brown envelope dropping through the door and everything changing. When anything from the DWP arrives I start panicking and worrying that the worst is happening. I normally need someone else to open it and then explain things to me. I can’t express the fear, panic and worry enough. I know I am not the only person that feels this way. It is a very common fear among people on PIP and other benefits.

Applying for PIP is one of the toughest things imaginable to go through. Having every little piece of you life scrutinised down to the finest detail is not only invasive but utterly humiliating and dehumanising. The PIP application process can cause its own set of mental health issues. Now finding out that the government do not care about mental health is worrying in itself. People with mental health issues can not just “get over it”. They need help and support, not ignoring and being made to feel worse. The mental health services in the UK have been so underfunded that waiting list to get help are out of control. 

Please could you reassure me and everyone else that you are doing everything you can to care for and protect all people with disabilities and the most vulnerable in our communities. 

 I put it in red so it didn’t get mixed in with the rest of this post.

But that’s the email I sent. If you feel the same as me and that this is outrageously stupid and care about disabled people I ask that you reach out and check if they are ok. And also contact your local MP or candidates and voice your concerns.

Remember

Silence Is Compliance

Einstein once said: “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

I’ll leave it there and let you think about things and make your own decisions.

Love and Light.

Chris

In the last few weeks I’m not entirely sure what’s been going on in the world other than the government extending the culture war stuff (being polite there) to now bring in disabled people and people with mental health problems. They are talking about reviewing the PIP process to make it even harder for people to claim. It’s hard enough and bad enough as it is. It totally messed me up when I went through it. So much so that if I letter comes from the DWP I’m always scared to open it.

And I know I’m not the only person that gets that fear when a letter like that comes through the door. It a very real fear that is very common with disabled people all over the country. People that aren’t disabled just don’t seam to understand the fear that something like a letter through the post can change you’re whole world and not it a good way. Some of them almost find it irrational.

The government is there to protect the whole country. That covers everyone in it. Including sick and disabled people. The people in charge of this country do not care about sick or disabled people. They don’t care about people with mental health issues. In general they just don’t care about people they care about money and nothing else.

I’ve heard one person say that people with learning difficulties don’t understand money so they should be paid less than other people doing the same job.

At some point over the last couple of weeks I even heard that some wanted to stop giving money in the personal independence payments (PIP) and give disabled people vouchers to use instead. What they fail to realise is that it’s more than likely that the vouchers will only be redeemable in certain places. And, if that’s the case it takes away peoples independence. You know, the whole point of the payment in the first place.

The government keep telling people that there are too many people on pip that shouldn’t have it. Just want to point out that the fraud rate for PIP is 0.2%. The whole application process theis hellish and so degrading it’s unbelievable. It forces you to focus on every little thing that’s wrong with you and analyse it to the smallest detail. You have to look at things from a very negative point of view. And that’s just the form.

Then there is an assessment. At this stage of the process people that aren’t really medically trained (they might have done a first aid course if you’re lucky) assess and analyse you. To see if what you claimed on the form is correct. The whole process is set up to catch you out. In the form if you said you can’t wash your hair but during the assessment if you scratch your head they will mark you down and probably use that as an excuse to not award you PIP. They will look for anything they can to not give it to you.

After the torture of the assessment you need to wait a bit more time for them to decide if you actually deserve it or not. Even if the interviewer was quite positive during the meeting they may still turn round and not award it. It is hellish and I can’t stress that enough.

The whole process leave you with a constant fear that they could take it away in a split second. They don’t give a shit if you spend most of your time in pain or have mobility problems. There have been articles/news segments with former assessors saying they were told to mark people down and look for anything they can to stop the award.

So do me a favour, if you see or hear anyone talking about disabled people are scroungers and lazy ask them to prove it. Tell the person to sit in a wheelchair for a day and get about and go to work etc. Everything they normally do now they need to do in a wheelchair chair. See how they get on.

Then tell they need to imagine do it all while in pain and then from that with being constantly tired due to fatigue or drowsiness from medication. Then tell them the medication they are taking causes side effects (drowsiness, dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, light headedness, there are a hell of a lot more)

Don’t forget some disabled people have to pay for the prescriptions. And that’s £9.90 per item. If you are on lots of different medications that can become very very expensive. And these are normally medication the disabled person needs in order to function.

These are just the tip of the iceberg of the things disabled people need to deal with on a day to day basis. And if you still find yourself agreeing with this demonisation of disabled people you have lost your compassion and humanity.

There is a better than even chance that at some point in your life that you will end up disabled whether that’s through old age (the government doesn’t care about them either) an accident, stroke, mental health problems, or any of the other millions of neurological conditions.

I don’t wish it on anyone but just imagine yourself in that situation and would you be happy if you were told we don’t beleive you, and you’re a lazy scrounger?

Just spare a thought and don’t get angry at people who are dealing with enough of their own crap. Be angry at the people in charge.

Humbug,

(Doesn’t feel right to finish that with “Love and Light”)

Happy new year and all that bumf, it’s been the new year for over 2 weeks now so you know that already.

I’m sure I’ve said this lots of times before but I don’t do new years resolutions. You start the year full of good intentions saying “this will be the year x actually happens”. You keep up with things for about 2 weeks then it all goes to pot and you feel a failure for trying in the first place. So, because of that I don’t make New Year’s resolutions.

A couple of days after my last I started to feel a little off. It was a Thursday. Me and mum went to knitting in the morning and when we got home I was sat in the craft/sewing room and I was struggling to stay awake and I was fighting to keep my eyes open. I gave up and went for a sleep. After a few hours sleep I got up and had tea. After tea I started to feel cold. I mean really cold and no matter what I tried I couldn’t get warm.

So, I went back to bed, fully clothed, wrapped in a sheet as normal. I was still cold so I had my quilt on top of that with woollen blankets on top of that . No matter what I was doing I couldn’t get warm. It got to the point where mum and dad had to dig out a sleeping bag that they use on holiday so that went on top of me aswell. With all of those layers on I eventually started to feel a bit warmer.

After a couple of days I started to feel better. All in all it wasn’t too bad. I’m just glad I’ve kept up with all of the jabs. Yes I’ve been ill for a day or two after the each one but I’d rather that than end up in an ICU bed on a ventilator.

So yeah I started the new year not well. I still did my wander round the house with my broom clearing out any negative energy from each room. Just like normal sweeping, I brought it all together in one place. Normal sweeping the dust pan would come out but with energy sweeping when it’s been brought together it’s then swept out of the front door. After that stand at the open front door and welcome in the new years asking that only love and light come in.

It’s interesting that the broom only seems to come out on new year’s Eve. Well it has done for the past few years anyway. When I’d finished the sweeping I went round and recharged all of the protective wards I have dotted about the house.

So far this year I’ve made a couple of cards

There are a couple of condolence cards and a few birthday cards. There are 10 of the cards with the silver cross. They are for a lady a knitting and I talked about them last time.

With the colouring for the 2 dogs a tried a new to me technique of making a flicking motion with the pen. It’s supposed to give a furry look that doesn’t look like a seamless flat blend.

Tangles and tiles or tiles and tangles not sure which way round it sounds or feels better so you can have both. Here are the tiles I’ve done over the last few weeks:

I’ve added a bit more colour to my advent piece with the new watercolour pencils

It’s coming along nicely. And when I’ve added all the watercolour and it’s properly dried I’ll add a bit of shading too.

You might not be interested but here is a colour chart of the new Sanntangle Watercolour Pencils

They are quite nice and easy to use. If you want some you can get them from the Sanntangle website here:

https://sanntangle.co.uk/index.php/product/sanntangle-set-of-36-watercolour-pencils/

I haven’t started the new quilt yet but I have watched a few YouTube videos on paper piecing to get an idea of what I’m supposed to be doing. At the moment though I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to sort out the paper pattern pieces and make sure they are the right size ready to use them,m. It won’t be a straightforward photo copy job because the pattern piece is larger than a4 size. I’ll figure it out eventually, just hope I don’t waste too much paper trying to sort it out and get it the right size where the bite from different people match up where they are supposed to.

Sticking with crafty bits I’ve been playing with vinyl again and made this for a friends:

I made it because the person in question is awesome. I did think about getting some more plastic and making a few of them and giving them out away awards and then realised that would involve doing people things and I don’t really like doing that.

I added some vinyl work to my diary:

Not much but I think it gets the message across that I want it to.

Mum keep saying she wants something for her diary. I keep telling her to tell me what she wants and I’ll get it sorted for her but if she doesn’t give me anything there isn’t much I can do and putting plain vinyl on a cover won’t look very nice.

I was playing round the other day and came up with this:

It’s small and cute and would work really well on a keyring.

Crochet wise I’m still working on the shawl for mum.

I’ve thought about some random things over the last few weeks too.

1 of them was to start another blog on this site but focussed on crafty things so do reviews of craft products etc. Then I remembered that I don’t deal with this blog as often as I should so that wouldn’t work.

Another one was focused around plastic things. I thought I should buy in lots and lots of plastic blankets and make things to sell and sell cards and stuff. Then I remembered that doing that would involved talking to lots of people and I’m not the biggest fan of doing people things especially if it’s with people I don’t know.

There was another thought that crosses my mind quite often is “why do damp cloths soak up water better than dry ones”? I know there will be some sciencey type reason for it but I haven’t really felt the urge to look it up so it’s still something random that floats round my head rent free.

Why is it that I normally get random ideas and thoughts when I’m in the shower?

The shower seems to be the place I do lots of thinking. normally on unrelated and random things.

Anyway random string of sentences over. Be kind to everyone.

Love and light.

I didn’t really now how is should start this post, because it been so long since my last update it started to feel really really awkward.

I’m still not really sure what to talk about but as you know, me making decisions about things isn’t always the easiest thing.

So I’m sure you know about the appropriated pagan holiday that happened the other day. Merry Christmas if you celebrated it and if not I hope you had a nice weekend.

Well, I can safely say that Christmas for the last couple of years has been pants. It now seems that a new family tradition is coming to light. For the last few years at least one person has been ill. This time it’s mum and dad. Recently though dad has been the one taking the brunt of being ill at Christmas though. It’s not the first time this year.

So Christmas Day dad was ill, and so was mum. Dad was worse though. He was really suffering. It’s a stinking cold he’s got but I’m sure it’s sending him a little bit funny.

So food wise on Christmas Day I had a bacon muffin for breakfast. (That’s a tradition that can stay). Then for Christmas Dinner I had some antipasto, a bread roll and some melon.

As we were getting that out ready to start Katie, Adam, Harvey and Lucy came round to see us and get their presents. They were here for a couple of hours. So I think it had gone 6 before they left.

So the starters were all ready but the main bit of the meal, the turkey and beef etc hadn’t even been started. Because dad was ill the cooking fell to me and mum. At that point we made the executive decision to leave the rest of Christmas Dinner and have it Boxing Day instead.

Dads felt better that day so is cooked the rest of the meal so we had the rest of Christmas Dinner for tea and the good thing is that we weren’t on leftovers. That day tea and it was brilliant.

Because mum and dad aren’t well they have been doing COVID tests. Mums done 2 or 3 tests now and has been negative on each but Dad did a test and it came back positive. So Dad has COVID for the second time.

Well Christmas present wise I got some brilliant ones. I got lots of tiny Haribo bags which is awesome. I got some chocolates, a selection box, some money, a couple of vouchers and i got a Kaffe Facet Quilt Kit. When it’s done it will be quite big. I’m nervous to start it but I am excited.

There are bits of foundation paper piecing involved and I’ve never done that before. So, I’ve been watching the video of sewing street when they went through the quilt and I’ve also been looking at other videos on YouTube about Foundation Paper Piecing. It seems really interesting and in the quilts case it looks amazing.

I promise I’ll let you know when I start it. I’ve ordered a couple of rulers and other bits that I can use to help so I don’t think I’ll be starting the quilt for a little while yet.

Sticking with sewing I made a couple of things for mum for Christmas.

I made a long heat wrap with cherry pits. It can also be cold wrap too as it can go in the freezer. I also made 5 small pads too, they aren’t in the picture though.

The smaller squares in the picture are smelly things to put in drawers. I think they are called Pomanders . They are filled with dried lavender so they smell nice and should keep the things in the draws fresh and free from bugs.

The weird thing is that the fabrics I used to make the smaller pads in the picture are actually from the same fabric collection as the quilt kit.

I made a couple of others for some friends too:

Again these are filled with lavender and the fabric is from some Holland and Sherry swatch books. So it’s designer fabric. I also added a little magic to these while I was making them. The people I gave them to can use them however they wish but I did say if they are hung near the door they will keep the room energeticly clean, smelling nice and stop anything negative coming in.

That’s it for sewing recently. The main bulk of the craft things I’ve been doing have been Christmas cards. I really need to get on top of making them earlier next year and not leaving them until the last minute. Here are some pictures of the Christmas cards I made:

This next year I’m determined to be a lot more organised with Christmas Cards. I went through the list for next year with mum earlier and she wants 74 so a couple every few weeks should get it down.

Harvey’s and Katie’s birthdays are in December so of course I made some birthday cards. Here are the ones I did for Harvey’s birthday:

And here are the cards I made for Katie

I also had to make a card for Katie’s to give to someone at work:

I’ve also been asked to make a couple of cards for a friend. She wants some plain and simple cards:

That’s all she wanted on the front. She felt that this image will put across the message that she wants. It’s plain and simple and because there isn’t a sentiment on the front it can be used for lots of different situations.

Here are picture of the tiles I’ve done over the past few weeks:

There has been an important mile stone with the tiles. There have now been over 400 and her is tile 400:

We’ve also been doing the tiny advent tiles project again this year. I’ve finished the drawing but i haven’t done any shading. I’m not sure if I should go with a monochrome look with just shading or if I should colour it:

What would you do?

Colour or just shade it?

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve made a baby blanket. It’s for a friend to give someone else on the birth of a new baby:

I’ve been told that the mother really loves the blanket. It’s always brilliant when you get some nice feedback like that.

I’m going to leave it there because I can’t think of anything else to talk about.

Hope you had a good Christmas and wish you all the best for the new year.

Love and Light