A Trip Down Memory Lane And A Whole Load Of Other Stuff!!

Things have been quite hectic and jolly expensive around here recently. First purchase was a new Fridge/Freezer. We have been promising ourselves a new one of these for ages as the previous one drove me crazy with the drawers freezing up all the time. A few days later, my washing machine died and went to heaven. Now any of you who know my lovely hubby Mark, will know that he has a reputation for being a bit of a Mr Fixit kind of guy and when he tells me that the motor is kaput and the cost of a new one plus odds and ends is nearly the cost of a new machine you listen to him and go on another shopping trip to a well known white goods supplier. As if that wasn't enough, my beloved dishwasher decides that it too wants to join the washing machine in that white goods graveyard in the sky. I know I could manage without a dishwasher but......I loved my dishwasher and off we went for the third time in a week to C****. I think they love me there!!!

On Friday I spent a lovely afternoon with my oldest daughter Kelly and three of my beautiful little people. They must hate it when I make them pose for photographs but they are growing up so fast!!

Master Ronnie is now the grand old age of six and is minus a few teeth!

 Princess Amillie aged 4 sure knows how to work the camera!!

And the gorgeous Isla aged 17 months really knows how to enjoy an iced carrot cake!!

On Sunday I taught my Framed Triptych class up at The Bead Scene  for seven lovely, lovely ladies who all worked extremely hard and produced some amazing art,

Work in progress.

A whole bunch of stuff like this

Gets transformed into this!!! I think this one belongs to Shelley.

Thank you to all my ladies, it was a fun class and a special thank you ti the lovely Steph from the Bead Scene for allowing me to use her lovely workspace.

Since Monday, I've been trying to re-organise my study/office area, it has been on my to do list for ages and if you can image how much paper a business generates each year, multiply that by 20 odd years and you will have some idea of the scale of things. Now I will confess that quite a lot of paperwork has been stored in the loft but I cannot begin to tell you how much paper I have shredded this week!!! I've spent hours and hours and hours, feeding paper into that teeny tiny paper eating machine. It drives me crazy that it will only work for ten minutes, then it over heats and needs thirty minutes to cool down before you can start over gain. Then if that frustration isn't enough to deal with, knocking the bucket of shredded stuff on the floor is not a fun game.....I know this!!!!

Whilst trawling through the piles of rubbish, I did find a few treasures, things I had completely forgotten about, old photographs and things that I didn't I had. I came across these two old photographs. Please bear in mind that I have taken photographs of the photographs so that I could post them here, so they are not the best pictures in the world but this is how my journey of L.B.Crafts began many, many, many moons ago.

My little, old fashioned, Victorian stylee barrow was situated on the coldest, windiest corner of Milton Keynes shopping centre but I had such great times there, met sooooo many lovely people, some of whom I am still in touch with. I had such basic stock back in those days, I sold millions (well not quite millions but a lot) of Winnie The Pooh stamps as well as other Disney stamps,piles of mulberry paper and lots of alphabet sets and initials. It was considered very arty if anyone purchased a botanical stamp by PSX cos they were the Rolls Royce of stamps way back then. And now twenty years later, with the barrow and the shop firmly behind me, three grown up children and four grand children, I am wondering how the heck I managed to do all that stuff as my days are still pretty full and I'm supposed to be retired.........shhhhh, don't tell anyone but I have had and am still having a great time!!

So what does the rest of my week have in store for me??? Tomorrow, I am going to Ally Pally with a couple of girlfriends for the knitting & stitching show (have to be back at a reasonable time though as Thursday evening is college evening and I can't miss that). Friday I'm going to a fund raising coffee morning that my daughter Kelly is organising in Woburn Sands for McMillan. Saturday, I am going to pop along to the BSSS in Kettering for a few hours to do a spot of shopping. Quick plug for my Paperartsy friends.....they have a stand there......they have re-stocked all the Liquid Leaf and Treasure Gold that I featured on my blog a few posts ago but of course they also have all the new JOFY Christmas stamps which are simply fabulous, so it's worth going to the show just to see these guys!!
Sunday, my parents are arriving for a couple of days and by Tuesday, I think I may need a rest!!!!

Hope you are all having a fabulous week.
Lin