Rosemary Merry

Mad as March hares!

2012-03-02T00:07:00.001-08:00

I think that is a fair description of Nige and I this past week as we struggled to get out all the new 'stuff' that arrived daily. I tell you I have done a lot of oohing and aahing, which is a good thing after over twenty years in this business. Hopefully we will have something that will appeal to everyone. Some things are already creating a big stir.

Inbetween 'lugging' boxes about and making room for new products I have been putting together a three card kit as a giveaway for our demo day. More about that on the website.

We are now looking forward to opening up our caravan in Welshpool this weekend. Plenty of fresh air, walks with the dogs and afternoon naps! I have also packed enough new craft product to keep me going until Christmas. Well I need to know what I am selling so that I can recommend it to you! I am sure the kids are planning something though as they keep asking when we are leaving!

Anyway another busy buzzy day ahead! Enjoy your weekend.

Hugs

Rosemary x

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A date for your diary!

2012-02-25T01:01:00.001-08:00

Saturday March 10th is our birthday weekend (well one of our annual birthdays - it is 7 years since we moved into our current building) and boy are we gonna celebrate. We have a full day of free demos with five demonstrations going on at once in our workshop, including Lindsay Mason and Esther from Kars. We will have special offers on that day and a free, Spring birthday card kit I have designed, for anyone spending £20 or over (while stocks last). Free tea, coffee and cake will be available. Definitely worth stopping by for.

Georgia found an alternative use for craftwork cards Candi!

So now you know how to bling up for that night on the town!

Bling it on!

Rosemary x
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Back, and broke!

2012-02-22T13:01:00.001-08:00

What a fab two days we had at the NEC. Nige and I normally run around all in one day feeling we miss more than we see so it was great to be able to take our time over two days. And boy did we have a good spend. We formed a plan on Sunday for all that we wanted to buy on Monday. That went very well until we kept finding more products that we just had to have that we hadn't seen on Sunday. On top of what we did buy we have a list of products to bring in over the next few months. Exciting! I have a coffee morning planned for mid-April to show some of these lovely goodies so watch this space.

It was a lovely time of catching up with people I know from the industry that I only see on such occasions. Kirsty Wiseman showed me how best to colour faces with pro markers(not actual faces - stamped images I mean!), Jodie from Tonic (and Create &Craft) showed us some fantastic border punches that go through cardboard, and some other tips with punches. We met up with Dawn Bibby, Leonie (who was demoing and getting very messy), the girls from Kanban including Wendy and Dawn ( their booth was outstanding - well done Jill), Kay from hougie, Lindsay Mason, Kay from Indigo Blu who was buzzing as they won an award for their stamps, and loads more.

I am so excited for the new products to start arriving.Watch this space.

As promised here are some photos from our Indigo Blu demo last Saturday.

The little butterfly below was punched from a double sided adhesive sheet.

The beautiful gilded border was created using double sided peel offs.

An embossing folder was used to create the effect below.

We are running a number of workshops next month incorporating the above techniques. April workshop dates will be available next week.

Keep on keeping on.

Rosemary x
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NEC here we come!

2012-02-19T00:34:00.001-08:00

This is just a quick post whilst Nige makes the bacon butties to take with us! What a great weekend it has been so far. On Friday I had a bunch of lovely ladies on my Let's do Layouts class and they managed to complete two double page layouts, one shaped page layout and a pocket page AND five of them were brand new scrapbookers!

For those who love the scrapbook generations sketch books these are the very newest just out and in stock.

Yesterday we had a great demo day and Debi did a fantastic job of demoing Indigo Blu products - what we have left isn't worth talking about. I was kept busy making her coffee as she kept getting gilding flakes in it! Will post photos of samples in a couple of days when we return from the trade fair.

We were even sporting our quintessentially English bunting!

Must dash - people to catch up with and new products to buy (yay!)

Have a lovely Sunday. Rosemary x

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Pleased as punch !

2012-02-16T22:15:00.001-08:00

Yes I finally got to play with the owl punch yesterday and, believe me, it is the cutest. The one punch has a bird, owl, owl wings, branch and leaves on it.

Take a few coordinating scraps of paper and some googly eyes and away you go.

The possibilities are endless.

Busy, busy weekend. Don't forget our free demo tomorrow using stamping with flitterglu and the gorgeous gilding flakes. Nige and I will be in the shop. (yes I am missing my Timmy workshop to be in the shop).

By the way we did get to have a move around in the shop - just need to move the stock to where we want it now, and quickly, as we have the new creativity products arriving next week and Sunday and Monday at the trade fair will result in the arrival of plenty more new stock I am sure (Mr Nigel permitting).

It's cool to be crafty!

Rosemary x

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All change!

2012-02-15T00:51:00.001-08:00

Hope you all had a lovely Valentines day no matter what you were doing. Nige & I spent the morning in Chester and had a light lunch whilst we were there. This was just the starter - we both had a curry to get through after this!

Mum had also invited me to have tea with her at the hospital - macaroni cheese and black currant sorbet (which was beautiful) but, as you can imagine, I was glad to go to bed and lie down last night. Bread and water now for a few days!

Reorganisation day in the shop today. I love to move things about - Nige would rather think about it, so, even though I am still prepping packs for my scrapbook class and desperate to make my owly punch cards (yes I know the punch looks weird but I have seen some great cards made with it) and I will probably get a call to collect mum from the hospital as it is her fifth day today, I intend to make a start this morning.

We have an exciting demo day on Saturday. I was worried our stock of flitterglu and mega flakes wouldn't arrive in time because of its popularity but it did - we have lots of it and starter kits too which include scoochy pads, phat foam and cleaner. We have instruction leaflets too if you can't make the demo. I think Nige has also made up some goody bags for Saturday (details on our website).

Must dash - cant wait to get moving stuff!

Keep warm and keep crafting,

Love Rosemary x

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Her Maj!

2012-02-09T00:01:00.001-08:00

What a mixed bag this week has brought with different challenges every day. Tuesday saw Mr Nigel and I at the NEC for the humongous spring trade fair of anything and everything. Certain trends definitely stood out.

Vintage is still very on trend as are birds and owls. I was seriously in owly heaven. I suggested to Nige that I set up a shop with just owly things and call it The Owl Sanctuary but he made a ridiculous comment that maybe not every one feels the same as I do about the little creatures.

Anyone and everyone had union jack products - some more tasteful than others! In fact the lady herself was promoting her new range of novelty products.

The resemblance was uncanny and I just wanted to stare. She was more like the real thing than the real thing if you get my drift. I text the photo to Georgia and her reply was - "who the heck's that then?" A tad worrying.

Flags of all sizes were also everywhere and this is very evident in new craft products too along with banners and bunting.

Off to Craft n Chat today. Hoping to get mum there for a couple of hours, mobility allowing. Will take her mind off her knee op at the weekend. She posted this photo on Facebook yesterday and it was a lovely reminder of times before sticks and wheelchairs. Typically mum - I love it.

Have a good day whatever you are doing!

Hugs

Rosemary x
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Brrrrrrrrr!

2012-02-06T00:16:00.001-08:00

What a freezing weekend - literally. But that didn't stop me having a great day at our first crop of the year at Crab Apple and it didn't stop an almost full attendance. I took an album of Georgia's that is nine years old but I hadn't done all the finishing touches like cutting slits and apertures in the page protectors so hidden journalling could be accessed without wrecking the album. Made me feel really good to accomplish this!

Today is a mixed bag of class prep, ordering and cleaning house. Just trying to decide what to start first. (Got a great owl punch I am dying to have a play with but that isn't even on the list for today).

To start your week with a smile I thought you might like to see what Cubby thinks of William Shakespeare and his Taming of the Shrew. You try telling him off when he looks at you like that.

Be safe!

Rosemary x

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Owl thoughtful!

2012-02-03T10:20:00.001-08:00

I keep meaning to show you the bookmark customer/ friend Millie made for me.

Using the very popular owl embossing folder to emboss she then blended distressing inks all over it before sponging on the owls with versamark ink and heat embossing using the amazing aged copper powder from stampendous. As you can see this has a touch of verdigris to it.

This little fellow has been stamped and coloured on shrink plastic and shrunk down.

As owls and reading are my two favourite things there couldn't be a better gift!

Keep warm!

Rosemary x

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Well, it wasn't so bad after all!

2012-01-30T12:40:00.001-08:00

January I mean. I can't believe it's nearly gone. And it wasn't half as bad as anticipated! I spent a very productive Monday morning in my craft room making some quick cards with the Spring Chic range from Papermania. The paper is all fresh pastels and only one design is definitely Easter.

This last one also showcases one of the new triboss embossing folders. Look at the definition - how clever! (Not me - the folder). All the stamped images (greetings and bunting)are made using some of the free stamps that come with the new edition of Creative Stamping. There are loads more! This afternoon I spent at the shop helping unpack some new items - I get all the good jobs! Aren't these darling?

And not so cute but very useful for scrapbooks and cards:-

Must dash - Nige is outside in the pitch black with his tripod and camera possibly in grave danger of being arrested. Another one of his hare brained ideas no doubt. I will go drag him back in! I know we have another day to go but Happy February - Spring is just around the corner. Keep cosy and keep crafting, Rosemary x- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

California Here I Come - NOT!

2012-01-28T06:52:00.000-08:00

Well I should have been going - hotel picked, flights found, and, most importantly, Disney tickets sorted! But you know, life gets in the way and, after one thing and another, I had to put away my sunglasses for another six months and put another layer on. I guess CHA just wasn't meant to be this winter. My mum and dad both decided to have 'turn of the year' ops and Boo, our gentle giant is struggling with her hip dysphasia. Have to content myself with memories of last time we went.

But I am not down - we have two trade fairs here in February so I am already planning our visits there (and a workshop with the man himself - Timmy not Nigey- but having trouble fitting that in - grrrrr!) I am already getting plenty of emails of new 'stuff' that will be out so watch this space. Speaking of new things these beauties should be here in a few days. They are a limited edition set.

We had a great workshop preview day last Saturday. It was good to see and chat with so many of you - another busy, buzzy day! The star of the day was definitely Parchment Craft. I thought I would gauge the current interest in this beautiful craft and schedule a class in March. That class is fully booked! Another pleasant surprise was the interest in Creative Wax Painting (Encaustic Art) - that class is two thirds full! Your being inspired inspired us.

As regards the burning issue that so many of you ask me about - all I can say is that lines of communication are still open and you will be the first to know if I have any news. Have a great weekend! (Guess where I am)

Rosemary x- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Hippity hop!

2012-01-24T23:55:00.001-08:00

Keep forgetting to show you our new Easter paper from Imaginisce

That carrot paper could be one of your five-a-day! Ah well it amused me. We also have St Patricks Day paper (so will all those people who have asked for this over the years please come in to buy it so that Nige won't be able to say again - "what on earth did you buy that for?")

Snuggle bunnies to you all,Rosemary x- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

What's on my work desk Wednesday?

2012-01-18T12:09:00.001-08:00

I have noticed that quite a few bloggers do a "what's on my work desk Wednesday" (they must spend all of Tuesday evening tidying it!) and I just had to show you this.

How on earth am I supposed to get anything done! I had to keep lifting his ears to score anything past 7"!Just wanted to remind you about our preview afternoon on Saturday. We are aiming to have samples on show for most of our Jan/Feb classes and you can grill Debi and I on techniques involved, future class ideas etc. . Just pop in if you can - it would be good to catch up. Free refreshments will be available. I am still working on it but we will be previewing our March schedule too.

I did actually get some work done and the above samples are some from the Hougie Board class.Keep warm and keep crafting! Rosemary x- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Blinkies, Buttons and Pinterest!!!

2012-01-11T06:51:00.001-08:00

O for goodness sake I just worked out how to put blinkies and buttons on my blog and now everyone is talking about Pinterest. I have absolutely no chance of keeping up with everything! I am waking each morning at the moment feeling I am already behind with the day before I get out of bed (and that's at 6am).Having Cubby (who, incidentally was six months old on Christmas Day) is proving quite useful though. I no longer have to open the mail each day as he does it for me. It does take me rather a long time to piece it all back together so I can read it but hopefully I can fine tune his skills as he gets older. Being cute is on his side!

I do apologise to all those non doggy people - I did promise myself I wouldnt keep posting photos of him but couldnt resist this one.I managed to put out for sale two great paper ranges yesterday - we had no room for them with all the Christmas paper so I had to keep them back until now. They are Prima Printery and Simple Stories Year-O-Graphy. (Those who attended my Thru the Year class will recognise the latter range as the one we used for our final 2011 page.) It is perfect if you intend to make either a journal or scrapbook through the coming year as some of the designs have months or calendars on them (nothing that restricts it to 2012 though). Both very 'of the moment' too.

Spent today completely revamping my Intro to Scrapbooking class and am really pleased with it. I really do want those attending to go away inspired and fully equipped to start Scrapbooking! Nige is uploading samples for classes to the website as they are completed,but here is a sneak peek of one of the cards from our Stamping in Inchies class.

Anyway back to the grind. "It may be Winter outside, but in my heart it's Spring."Crafty wishes to you!Rosemary x- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy bleugh day!

2012-01-10T00:02:00.001-08:00

January is such a bleugh month isn't it. Every day seems a grey day at the moment. My mother-in-law brightened my day yesterday by turning up on the doorstep with a 'valentine' potato that she couldn't bear to use so brought it for me. Isn't it the cutest potato you ever saw?

Just wanted to share the news that Kay from Indigo Blu stamps will be demoing at our birthday weekend in September. She is so popular it was hard to find a day she could come but she really was keen herself to demo on that day. Incidentally, she will be on Create and Craft this coming Sunday and the flitterglu she will be demoing is on its way to us.We have a demo day in February and Debi will be demoing this product with Indigo Blu stamps. Workshop descriptions are now on the website too!Off for another fun filled day. Need to condense the sale stock and tidy it after a mad weekend and then work on my hougie board class! Hugs! Rosemary x- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The North Wind Doth Blow!

2012-01-07T00:25:00.001-08:00

We have had a week of putting fence panels back in and trying to anticipate which will be next to 'pop' out. Being on a corner plot and at the top of a very exposed hill doesn't help at all. Cubby has had to have a vest made with weights for our daily walks - only joking, but I did keep him on his lead a couple of mornings just in case.Imagine my joy yesterday when I realised my blogging problems had all been sorted. Still majorly cross about all the other stuff I lost but won't bore you with that unless you have a spare couple of hours!! I put away all the Christmas decorations for another year. That was a story in itself - how to remove a 7ft 'real' tree from the house through two rooms and over two steps with little mess - and on my own! Impossible! I had to stop twice to empty the pine needles from my slippers. It took me a full morning to remove it and then clear the trail I had left in doing so! It was the worst tree we have ever had for dropping pine needles. But one decoration I can't face putting away is the Christmas card a friend sent us. She has some health problems and I know the work this took.

All the images are stamped, coloured and cut out. As I tidied and was putting photos and scrap book pages away from this past year it was good to relive the highlights.If you haven't tried scrap booking yet or haven't had the time to do as much as you liked this past year why not just do a double page layout with photos of the highlights of the year. It can be as simple as the one I did for Georgia some years back.

Immediately from that I can see it was the year she started school, she was an angel in the nativity play, it was the year Lady Heyes opened (the photo with Bob Carolgees and Spit the dog was from the official opening), and how we celebrated her birthday. So much there I would have had no chance of remembering. Incidentally l found a great iPhone/iPad app yesterday called Photo365. It was recommended in the new scrapbook mag and allows you to take photos for every day of the year and stores them calendar style. Nige was so impressed he is going to get it too.I am currently working on class descriptions for our workshops. The most popular class by far is the layouts one and that thrills me as you know scrap booking is my passion. The tags techniques one is proving popular too

There are tons of techniques on these tags (these are just a sample of the ones you will make). We will be using Indigo Blu stamps, distress stains, tim holtz products, sticky back canvas etc etc.Our sale in the shop started really well this week. The number of you there for opening took us by surprise - in fact I had to park on the caravan park overspill site! It was a lovely atmosphere and good to catch up and wish a happy new year to so many of you.

Anyway its the start of Panto week today - oh yes it is! And although I am not actually in it this time I will have some equally important job backstage like making sure the dames wig is on straight or that he doesn't have lipstick on his teeth! Keep safe and warm in this winter weather and if it is too bad to go out get crafting! Love Rosemary x- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

Come hell or high water, I was determined I would blog today to wish you all a very happy, healthy and crafty New Year. Yes I did take a couple of weeks out after our November retreat but, without boring you all with technical stuff that I really don't understand myself, my usual blogging avenue has been temporarily (I hope) closed off and is under review. So I’m having to go about this with massive help from Nige and in a very long winded way.

I send a huge thank you for all the lovely cards and gifts. I can't believe how many of you know I have a passion for owls and Yankee candles. My house is the best smelling owl sanctuary in the country! I even have owl wellies and pj's since Christmas.

I managed to attend a quilting workshop mid December that Nige actually bought as a gift for me last Christmas. I had a lovely relaxing time and am proud to say I completed a cushion cover in prairie queen block style (yes you can see owls on that fabric).

The rest of my pre Christmas build up seemed to be spent in various hospital waiting rooms with mum and dad waiting for check-ups or consultations for one or both. But all went well and it was good to spend time with them no matter where it was. I’m even skilled in wheelchair driving now as mum has limited mobility as she waits for a knee replacement.

Nige and I have spent a number of days this week sorting the shop out and we both feel inspired for the new year. The sale is looking good and we already have new stuff coming into the shop. It has been good having the time to really sort out things that have been neglected and we’ve been brainstorming new ideas and products. After a tough year in retail last year I did wonder if it would be difficult to get motivated but that hasn’t been a problem for either of us.

Our workshop programme has been released and some classes are half full already - Craftwork Cards 'secret garden' and Tons of Techniques on Tags are storming ahead.

Since we sent the email we’ve slotted in a Hougie board class that had been much requested. That class is on the afternoon of February 24th. Instead of a Thru' the Year layout class this year I’ve decided to do various layout classes to help speed up the scrap booking process for you. Also I’ve updated my Intro to Scrapbooking that will mean less thinking for you and be more layout based, covering the elements of building scrapbook pages such as design, titles, matting and journalling.

Anyway considering I only wanted to wish you Happy New Year I think I’ve rambled on rather too much, and had better quit.

Looking forward to sharing another crafting year with you, and Cubby-the-reindeer says 'Hi'

Love, Rosemary x

(Rose)Mary Berry!

2011-10-27T06:49:00.001-07:00

Okay so the baking plans didn't go to plan. Georgia found something more interesting to do and I should never have started as I didnt feel too good. But I had said I would do it and so I did. What I did though was set my scales on one unit of measurement and measured all my ingredients in another. Doh! So into the bin with that batch. But next day I made up for it and did cupcakes, soup and more - and really enjoyed myself. (Okay I should add that I am the only one able to eat the soup as I doubled up on chillies to give it an extra kick)!

Esthers demo went really well - her samples were all in black and white. We made sure to book Esther for our next birthday demo day. Clare's (aka Molly Bloom) demo was also very successful!

Been up to my neck in retreat preparations and prep for my own workshops. Looking forward to a busy White Christmas class tomorrow. If I bring mince pies do you think they will let me play Christmas music, or am I pushing my luck?

I love white on white! The card below is using the bargello technique (ha ha - my predictive text just changed Bargello to bagel! Now that technique I do like! ).

Information packs to retreaters are very nearly ready to go out.

Just making final checks and sealing envelopes. Can't wait to see everyone again.

Let's get Christmas crafting!

Love Rosemary x

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Cake, coffee and crafting!

2011-10-07T23:00:00.001-07:00

Had a great day yesterday teaching classes. It is always lovely to spend a concentrated amount of time with people when I spend so much time dashing about in the shop. Now the weather has turned nasty in the past few days what better way to spend a day than drinking coffee, eating cake and doing some crafting.

This card is from the Wishing on a Star class and below shows the inside of a book /card from the hougie board class.

2012 retreat bookings are going well - November is over half full and the card making and scrapbooking ones are both over a third full. Debi and I are really enjoying working towards our Christmas themed retreat in five weeks. With 77 attendees pack making is rather time consuming! This is our 10th retreat and we still haven't lost the buzz!

This weekend Georgia and I are planning to do some baking - well she wants to do cake and I want to try a recipe I have for butternut squash soup. Might be a little fraught in our kitchen. Nige is banished to the garden to give it a good pre-winter tidy. No, don't feel sorry for him - he will have plenty of help in the form of Boo, Teddy and Cubby!

If you are near Frodsham today Esther will be there all day demonstrating new creatables and embossing folders! Pop in and say hello. Also don't forget our Molly Bloom demo all day next Saturday. Visit the website for more details.

Off to attack the weekend (well might have another coffee first). Have a good one.

Rosemary x

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Demo dates!

2011-10-04T22:54:00.001-07:00

So, is it Autumn or is it not? Our scarecrows are awfully confused! Not complaining though - what a lovely week. I feel like I have waited months for this.

At Crab Apple we have another busy week ahead. We have the always popular Esther from Kars with us this coming Saturday 8th October demoing the new creatables dies and new embossing folders. And then the Saturday after we have Clare the designer of Molly Blooms stamps demoing her new designs all day. I am rather excited about this as I know she has some fantastic samples and, like me, she loves folded cards and books. So please do drop by for either, or both, of these demo days for some crafting inspiration.

Today we open bookings for next years Forest Hills crafting retreats. Something tells me Nige is going to be busy on the phone. If you fancy an indulgent crafting weekend in 2012 do visit our website for details.

Hope you are having a great week.

Rosemary x

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Scarecrow Trail at Lady Heyes.

2011-09-29T13:21:00.001-07:00

Lady Heyes has a scarecrow trail running for the next month where each shop has been encouraged to make a scarecrow to display outside their shop. As we were passing Lady Heyes in the dusk earlier tonight on our way back from our favourite fish and chip restaurant we glanced down towards our shop and to our horror saw a car with full beam on, facing the side door. We screeched to a halt, turned around and raced back and round the car park............to find Joel and his girlfriend Dani securing the scarecrow they had made, to the drainpipe. Guess who the scarecrow was modelled on?

Have a great weekend and enjoy the sun!

Love Rosemary x

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Black Sunday!

2011-09-28T23:27:00.001-07:00

Despite Nige being convinced to the contrary I did not sit on it or drop it. In fact, I had been so busy doing other things that I hadn't even picked it up for two days. So imagine my horror when I turned my iPad on to find autumnal coloured lines across the whole screen. Kaput! What was I to do? All my calendar dates, craft retreat notes, class ideas, present buying ideas etc etc were on there. And it was the only way I knew to write and publish my blog! Okay I know that was a long winded excuse but there you have it! The reason for my silence. After counting my pennies that I had saved in one of those coin sorter things and moping about with cow eyes for an hour or so the man in charge decided I could have another. But that was not before trying to get me to agree to share his! As if!

There has been such a lot happening since I last posted. I do love September. Almost feels like it should be the start of the new year. We have had a great month in the shop with coffee morning and our preview afternoon at the start and then most recently, this last weekend, our 12th birthday at Lady Heyes, we had a great demo day with multiple demonstrators. It was so successful we are planning our next for the first weekend in March 2012. (We also have regular demo days with just one demonstrator - both Esther from Kars and Clare from Molly Blooms will be visiting us in October).

Most of you will know the other major thing to happen in the Merry household is the arrival of Cubby, pint sized but a major pain in the neck. I never realised that the smaller the puppy the bigger the scrapes he can get into. Still, he has brought such a lot of pleasure in the past ten days that we think we will keep him.

Debi and I are working on projects for the November retreat and they are coming along rather nicely. Retreat bookings for next years 3 retreats will open next Wednesday so if you want to come along get ready for that!

Could write a book sized post as I feel such a lot has happened this month - but I won't. If you want to really stay up to date with what is happening at Crab Apple Crafts join us on Facebook. All the cards shown are from Lindsay Masons demo last Saturday.

And yes, finally, summer has arrived and I plan to enjoy it in all it's fullness - with a full line of washing out. Oh the pleasures of seeing that!

Fun Fall crafting to you all! Off to teach my last Jul/Aug/Sept Thru the Year scrapbook class to 16 lovely ladies this morning.

Love Rosemary (and Cubby who is biting my hand as I type).

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The heat is on .....

2011-08-30T11:21:00.001-07:00

Literally! That was not an intro to a song. Can you believe it went horrible so quickly. Don't normally mind getting out the woollies but we haven't been away this year and I don't feel ready for dark nights and grey skies yet.

Just because I have been quiet doesnt mean I have been idle. My friend Janey and I made 90 thank you cards for a charity concert two weekends ago. We got a production line going and with coffee, cake and chat, the job didn't seem half as bad.

The shop has also been really busy. Obviously this is due in part to the new products that have been coming in every week but also it always feels that when the weather turns nasty our thoughts turn to getting going on our crafting again. Although I seriously hope the current weather is only a minor hiccup and that we haven't seen the last of summer!

Before I go any further I want to say a massive thank you for all the birthday cards and gifts I received last week. It was so kind and thoughtful. These are just a few of the cards I received.

And the cake Annette made!

Our Autumn/Christmas workshop programme starts with a fanfare this week with our two coffee mornings where I will highlight some of the many new products we have had coming in and throw some demos in too. The Basic Grey Nordic range is shown below.

Also, for the first time, we are holding a preview afternoon. Debi is working really hard to make as many samples as she can for that day so that you can see what the work shops will involve. There are some limitations in that some christmas ranges don't come in until October but if we don't have samples we will, hopefully, have storyboards to show you what materials and techniques you will use on the classes. Also Debi and I will be there to answer any queries you have on the workshops. All are welcome - it is free - and coffee will be provided.

Better get back to my prep for Thursday. Before I forget, Crab Apple now has a facebook page - if you want to follow you can join from this blog page.

Cheerio for now

Rosemary x

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Christmas Is coming etc etc

2011-08-10T23:29:00.001-07:00

Well it is done! Our 2011 Autumn/Christmas programme is complete, showing all the classes we are running up until December. Descriptions are also included in the brochure from today. Bookings opened less than a week ago and we already have over 300 bookings. We are confident we have a great programme to look forward to. If you don't like to book 'blind' come along to our free Preview Afternoon on September 3rd and see samples and talk to Debi and myself. Come along anyway for a coffee.

I have been really busy with a show last week but I am now back and raring to go. I have been placing orders left, right and centre to fill the gaps that we created by placing a lot of items in our sale. These orders have just started to arrive, in fact I have a hot water bottle on my back as I type due to the number of boxes I was dragging around the shop yesterday, that contained new stock. Today we will have on the shelves new embossing folders from Kars, the new Graphic 45 Wizard of Oz paper range, new Marianne creatables and much more. One thing I put out yesterday that is already selling well is the new Craftwork Cards monthly collection - 'Christmas Warren'.

I did take some time over the past weekend to make a book for a friends special birthday. She was so thrilled with it.

This weekend I am looking forward to starting work on the Christmas workshops I am running. Also I have promised a friend I will design and help make 90 thank you cards for a special charity concert. Eek - just realized the concert is next weekend!

Don't know whether this Autumnal weather is just a 'blip' or whether it is here to stay but my thoughts always turn to snuggly sweaters, hot chocolate and settling down to crafting. Join me?

Love Rosemary x

PS. I know that some of you like book recommendations (as I do) and so i wanted to mention two books I read the week before last and couldn't put down - Jodi Picoult's Change of Heart and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold ( the latter I have steered clear of for ages but loved it).

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No news is ......no news!

2011-07-28T13:28:00.001-07:00

I know a lot of you are waiting for 'news' and I assure you that wheels are turning, very slowly, but you will be the first to know anything. With retreat work and the shop being so unseasonably busy and show rehearsals I have welcomed the lull before the storm. Also I have started the Christmas buying and Debi and I sat down to plan our Christmas programme last week. Yes, I know,I do have one of the best jobs in the world.

I have been particularly quiet recently as I am taking part in an all singing, all dancing show at the Forum theatre in Chester next week and rehearsals have been heavy, heavy, heavy.

And those poor guys are still managing to smile! How very professional of them!

Managed a day out to Colwyn Bay in North Wales this week and what a beautiful day that was. Boo and Teddy love the beach.

People seem to have a thing at the moment about lifting me up!

On the domestic front Nige and I are the proud parents of these baby potatoes,

our very first potatoes I should add; our first blueberries,

and tomatoes (we are old hands at tomatoes now).

Our Autumn/Christmas workshop programme is being finalized as I type, and we are very pleased with the content. It will be published and open to bookings from Wednesday, August 3rd, which is also the day our summer sale starts!

Must dash - costumes to sort!

Craft yourself crazy!

Rosemary x
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And there's more!

2011-07-16T04:00:00.001-07:00

Another beautiful day dawned and everyone was raring to go again. The classes were optional but proved so popular that at times there were only a handful of people left in the cropping room.

The Vintage Whimsical Book was definitely our most challenging class but well worth the sweat and tears. This pretty book was made completely from scratch and had plenty of pockets inside. We made good use of the big bite hole tool as the book pockets were bound at the spine with ribbon. This is one class we will be running in the shop early September so watch this space if you are interested.

We grabbed a quick coffee and got down to our last class. Although we completed four double page layouts and a title and end page this 8 x 8" Almost Done scrap booking class was a cinch as all the pieces had been cut beforehand so it was just a matter of putting the pages together. We used Fancy Pants It's the Little Things for this which is a very appealing general range.

Following a carvery lunch (always my fave) the afternoon was free to finish up, and also to announce the winner of our Wonderwall and our Queen of the Crop!

And so another retreat bites the dust but the number of emails, cards and gifts that we have received, and are still receiving, just gives us the impetus to start planning the next. I did chill on Monday but Tuesday I was there notebook in hand!

Dates are out for next years retreats but bookings have not opened yet. We look forward to seeing old friends but also love to meet new ones. The photo below shows half of our group of ladies - the other half wouldn't leave their cropping!

This weekend is our Christmas in July weekend and it is gonna be busy with two Molly Blooms classes today and House Mouse and Whimsical Noel class tomorrow. (Can you tell we love the word whimsical at the moment?). Will post photos of those in a few days.

So Happy Christmas!

Rosemary x

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All done and dusted!

2011-07-14T00:36:00.001-07:00

That heading does not refer to my house I hasten to add - that needs some serious attention! It refers to our ninth retreat and what a great one it was. We had a great time and I know you did too judging by the emails we have had since. Thank you for your feedback - it really makes all the hard work worthwhile to know how much you got out of it. We counted up that we had worked a 39 hour weekend from Friday to Sunday so no wonder we were a little tired on Monday! I just daren't get on the scales yet after a weekend of eating like that - in fact yesterday Nige and I were reliving the desserts in our minds!

The crop room opened at 5.30pm Friday, although we had greeted most of you over coffee and cake at Crab Apple Crafts in the afternoon, and by 5.40pm the whole room looked like a bomb had hit it. Some serious scrapping had been planned. Although we didn't have any classes that first evening we did hand out an optional project that we had planned to kickstart those of you who needed it.

What always amazes me is that, even after a long day that involves a lot of travel for some of you, you are still loathe to stop scrapbooking at midnight! We were flagging though even if you weren't and still had to stay to put out your goody boxes for the morning.

Saturday started with a 9 o'clock summer bunting book/banner class using the new Countrytime range from Echo park. Anne was proudly holding up her finished project and it was a minute before somebody realized hers was back to front and reading 'remmus' instead of Summer! Quickly sorted though.

A lettering technique class followed and then lunch before we attempted my fave class of the day - the back to front canvas frame using Bo Bunny's Gabrielle paper range.

We did manage to fit in another technique class before dinner using a 12 x 12" plastic template to make a 12 x 12" layout, an 8 x 8" layout and a card.

After a leisurely dinner you were free to scrap the evening away or join Nige on his Nocturnal Exposure trek. It was a beautiful evening and well worth the stroll onto the hill to catch the sunset and have some landmarks pointed out. We were lucky to have some beautiful weather in which to enjoy the views from the crop room and classroom.

And so to bed - will tell you about Sunday tomorrow.

Hugs

Rosemary x

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Ready and waiting?

2011-07-08T00:17:00.001-07:00

Well I made it through 2 weeks that included 23 hours of dance rehearsals,two coffee mornings and manic preparation for our scrap booking retreat. Now I love being busy but there have been times over the past ten days when I wondered whether I had taken too much on. But just when I start to think I should pull back a little I get an email from my 94 year old housebound and partially blind neighbour to tell me she has a new laptop and could I update her email address!! So I shall not slow down until I absolutely have to!

Marge made loads of her gorgeous cupcakes for coffee morning!

We have waded through boxes and boxes of new product, some of which only made it onto the shelves for a day or so as you snapped it up. I thoroughly enjoyed coffee morning and two more of you succumbed to the vagabond machine! We had a rush on tissue tape when you saw how versatile it was but it came back into stock yesterday. You are loving the extended range of 6" x 6" pads and also the new range of dielicious dies from do crafts.

The sample below shows a demo of the new Indigo Blu stamps we had in.

So today sees the start of our 2011 scrap booking weekend retreat and we are ready and waiting to get started. We are confident the classes are even better than last years! I will post photos on my blog of the weekend and the projects. We have worked so hard cutting kits for the classes so that everyone can complete as much as possible during the sessions. In fact I cut 1,980 pieces for my Almost Done class alone!

Anyway must dash as we are setting up at the hotel from 9am. Have a great weekend - I know I will.

Scrap happy!

Rosemary x

Ps watch out for an august schedule next week as we have listened and are including a Craft n Chat and Stay n Play in August. Some of you just don't want us to have a rest do you?

Coffee morning
New products

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Dreams of Tissue Tape!

2011-06-27T01:42:00.001-07:00

Okay I knew I was a bit of a saddo with regards to crafting (after 13 years I still get excited when an order is delivered to the shop and this happens most days) but I woke this morning at 5.20am thinking about Tim Holtz Tissue Tape (seriously) and got so psyched up that I couldn't get back to sleep. So here I am throwing myself into the week a little earlier than I would have wanted!

How fast the weeks fly by! It doesn't seem a moment since I was cutting and punching for the last retreat and here we are doing the same again. And oh how good it felt yesterday to have a day of glorious sunshine to catch up on gardening and washing. Poor Boo was so hot we had to get her paddling pool out.

We have another good week ahead of us as we have our bi-monthly coffee mornings Thursday and Saturday. There are still places left for Saturday morning. I will be showing new products and demonstrating, but also we will be having a sale of ex-workshop stamps and an auction of paper products. 25% of sales from these two things will go to The Children's Adventure Farm Trust which is a very special place that provides holidays for terminally ill, disabled and disadvantaged children from all over the North West. An excerpt from their leaflet reads - "we show the children and young people that there is a world outside of the one they live in, giving them something to aim for, giving them hope."

We have new products galore expected this week. We have already taken delivery of the Quintessentially English range of stamps from Indigo Blu. The cute Molly Blooms range (including new summer designs) and the next Docrafts Creativity mag and range of products, including their great priced range of nesting dies, are expected in the next couple of days. If you are into paper (and who isn't, we have the Prima Madeline range and Bo Bunny Gabrielle as well as others on their way as well as lots of 6 x 6 paper pads as you requested.

If that isn't enough to tempt you to visit I don't know what is. The above card samples are by Kay from Indigo Blu and the stocking is Clare's (aka Molly Bloom).

So bring it on!

Rosemary x

Ps For you readers out there I have read Beautiful (the one about Katie who was the victim of an acid attack) and Water for Elephants in the past couple of weeks and I couldn't put them down!

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Greetings from our Welshpool office!

2011-06-21T08:38:00.001-07:00

After a very hectic week in the Merry household and the realization that we wouldn't be able to visit our caravan for the next five weekends we did a bit of jiggery pokery and managed to spend Monday and half of Tuesday here this week. The only annoying thing is that although this is the place we work best at we get very limited reception as we are in a valley. So this photo shows me in the Welshpool office catching up on emails and texts - seriously the only place we can get a connection is at the top of the field! Yes that's me under the tree.

You scrappy campers should have received your package by now with all the details for the next residential retreat in less than three weeks. Workshop bookings are coming in fast and furious so don't hang about as there is some limit on numbers. We are really looking forward to this.

On Saturday I had a great day at the Craft Range in Burnley demonstrating the Vagabond machine and Marianne dies. Seriously what a great combination. It was great chatting with all you crafters and how well looked after were Nige and I with coffee and a lovely lunch. (I will demo the Vagabond at our coffee mornings next week at Crab Apple - Thursday is well and truly full but there are still some free places on the Saturday morning).

Our July 'Stay n Play' will use the Basic Grey new Sweet Threads kit. Those of you attending these sessions are loving the cards these kits make.

Joel has had a part in Jesus Christ Superstar at Theatre Clwyd this last week and Georgia had her first gig with Brownpaper Productions last Friday at the Mold Contact club. What a very special night that turned out to be. To see the enjoyment this group got from dancing the night away was awesome. They had no inhibitions at all and were so appreciative. Very humbling!

Take That were amazing - that is until number 1 friend decided to collapse at the barrier and have to be lifted out of the crowd by the paramedics. So do I stay and watch what was a fantastic show or do I push my way through the thousands around me on the pitch to support my poor friend! Easy - stay and watch! No seriously I dutifully made my way to the first aid room and asked her what on earth she thought she was playing at! We are still friends though.

Off to make a few more lists, by hand, in my notebook, in the absence of technology! Have to get back to Frodsham for this evening as we have another doggy photoshoot. This is Fizz from our last one.

Hope you are having a great week.

Rosemary x

PS Notice I didn't mention the incessant rain once!

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Take that!!

2011-06-02T12:28:00.001-07:00

What an exciting week! Had a great meeting yesterday. A long day and I was fast asleep by 8.30 last night but I am cautiously excited. Hopefully it wont be long now before I can spill the beans on my next venture so watch this space.

And guess what else happened this week? I got an invite to go see Take That on Friday. The only concert I have ever been to before was Barney at the MEN (and yes I do mean the big purple dinosaur). So I am also a little apprehensive too. It must be a sure sign of getting older when your biggest anxieties are whether there will be adequate toilet facilities and a place to get a cuppa! So,okay, I am leaving home at eight in the morning and the gates don't open until 5pm! Now I remember why I don't do concerts. I couldn't have put more preparation into what I am wearing and taking to sustain me had I been going on a mission to the moon! Sun lotion - check, umbrella - check, fishing chairs - check( seriously).

I have been front line in the shop today whilst Nige was teaching his fairy fantasy class!

The ladies loved it! If you like the look of these, Nige will be running this class once more in July.

Hope the week is going well for you - at least the sunshine is back!

As we say in our house - "I'm sending you a snugglebunny!"

Rosemary x

ps Our July workshop schedule will be available tomorrow. Lots of 'last chance' classes before we break for our summer sale.

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Another day of rain and another Bank Holiday!

2011-05-29T23:16:00.001-07:00

I made it into the inner sanctum and took some photos of georgia's photo wall -and I did get engrossed in all the memories depicted there. It's a reality check really. When she moans about life being boring or having no friends I will tell her to go look at this wall.

We are into masks at the moment at Crab Apple Crafts and you can see the examples from the class we have been running if you hop on over to the website, but just wanted to show you how you can use the same mask for scrap booking and cardmaking. The one we used below was a 12 x 12" mask from Artemio.

Cant believe I taught my last Thru the Year scrapbook class in this block on Friday which means we now have six months of 2011 covered. And June hasn't even begun yet. Oh how smug do I feel having the layouts sitting there waiting for the photographs!

I know that's a backwards way to work for most scrap booking but for an album like this it works. Because of the nature of the scrapbook I was having trouble deciding what sort of album to choose and then I saw this beautiful kraft coloured one from Making Memories that ticked all the boxes.

Another thing that I have been impressed with at the moment is the reemergence of lace (lass-ay). I remember, about ten years back,the painstaking way we had to manually cut with these templates to get the desired effect and now all of a sudden we whizz them through our vagabond or cuttlebug and hey presto. Also we have so much more choice with double sided paper so it feels like a whole new ball game.

It is mad at Chez Merry at the moment. Last weekend Georgia, Joel and I started rehearsals for two shows in August. A three hour dance rehearsal Saturday and a four hour one on Sunday. I could hardly walk on Monday and Tuesday! Why do I do this? Because I was born to dance! Ha ha more like I refuse to grow old gracefully. I feel fifteen again when I put my tap shoes on!

This coming weekend we have had the event of the year (to Georgia anyway). it was her 16th birthday and we have had months of arguing about a party. When did 16 become such an important milestone?The thing is, I know we will have the same arguments when she is approaching 18 and 21! Anyway, long story short - a dear friend hosted it and not only did she invite the grandparents she also invited our dogs (and yes she has met Boo) so that we could stay longer. True friendship or pure madness? It was so much more exciting to Georgia for someone else to be throwing her a party!

This is Teddy under the table all partied out!

Let's all dance as if no one is watching and sing as if no one can hear!

Have a fun Bank Holiday Monday.

Hugs Rosemary x

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For Sale - one large black and aqua dog!

2011-05-14T00:19:00.001-07:00

The dreaded GCSE exams are just about to start in our house but I am not sure just how much revision is going on. Instead Georgia decided to create a photo wall instead (as a break you see) and it reminded me of the power of photos. I guarantee that if you put up a wall of photos people will pore over them - even relative strangers.

(Space here for picture of Georgia's photo wall but denied access to teenage bedroom for normal hours of every day due to amount of sleep needed at this age!)

We have been attempting to do some maintenance in the house (aided by one very nosy and very much 'in the way at all times' large dog. Attempting to paint the hall is very tricky when it is a space that leads to all places. Nige had to gloss paint the skirting boards again after Boo thought it would be a big help to get involved. Black hairy skirting boards are not really a look that's rocking at the moment.

Georgia and Joel are scorning the new disco ball light shades and have decreed that anyone walking through the wall has to do so a la John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever! Have you seen Nige 'dad dance'!?!?

Craftwise I am sorting out what was my qvc storage and work room at the shop and it's taking me ages as I pore over the hundreds of layouts. Can remember airing my first few kits with only a handful of layouts.

I am excited about new opportunities. I am already finding extra time to plan more workshops to teach in my own store and that is something I am always getting nagged about. Yes, you know who you are! Very inspired about a hougie board class at the moment - fulfils my paper folding cravings! Also other exciting things unfolding so WATCH THIS SPACE!

Anyway I will push on. I have been prepping for my scrapbooking class that runs this morning and then after that I can hopefully get on with making a special mdf birthday book for a friends birthday. That is after I have hung the washing out, brushed the laminate, cleaned around in the kitchen etc etc. No! That is what normally happens. I'm sure most of us do what we should do and then there is no time left to do what we wish to do so I am putting my foot down today!

Happy scrapping!

Rosemary x

Ps we have a Molly Blooms Christmas in July workshop day booking now and already more than half full. Visit the website for details. Exciting!

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The merry merry month of May!

2011-05-06T23:59:00.001-07:00

May already! Can't believe I ran the first of my Thru' the Year classes for the second quarter two days ago. April, May and June double page layouts in two and a half hours! Almost speed scrapping.

Thank goodness the bank holidays are done with for a few weeks at least. I've been waking up with no idea what day it is. I was so glad to get back to normal. Although the shop is open Sundays and bank holidays anyway. We did, however decide to close for the Royal Wedding so that we could take a three day break. And how glad I was to be able to watch that spectacle. Everything was so perfect but all I could think was what an anticlimax there must have been after the big day following the months of prep and such a fairytale day. Wonder if Catherine has started on her wedding scrapbook yet.

The caravan park at Lady Heyes opens in the next month so if you have a tourer, come stay and visit Crab Apple Crafts for a class or two. As our photographic studio has opened too you could have a photoshoot at the same time!

Our June workshop schedule has just been uploaded to the website and there are a few classes I would like to mention. We have decided to run a class called Cricut 101 to help all those of you who have hardly taken your cricut out of it's box let alone made good use of it. You will need to bring your machine with you and we will cover everything to get you using it, including auto fill, flip, mix and match, fit to page etc.

Also Nige is getting out the iron again and combining wax with Lindsay Masons new fairy stamps to produce fairy fantasy cards. The new Stay n Play kit uses a new Bo Bunny range called Gabrielle. Eight cards and envelopes

The samples are on the website. Anyway go have a look as there is plenty more on there including our summer coffee morning dates where we will be having a sale of ex workshop/demo stamps.

I feel a move around in the shop coming on! How to tell Nige.

Have a lovely crafting weekend and happy national scrapbooking day for today!

Rosemary x

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Hoppy Easter to you!

2011-04-22T00:03:00.001-07:00

Just a quick message to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Easter holidays. Just hope the beautiful weather holds for the next few days at least. And thank you for cards, flowers and rhubarb! Yes you read that right. Two delightful ladies brought me rhubarb yesterday after I dropped a few hints. So at 5am this morning I was preparing some of it for the freezer. You are all so kind.

Here's to a weekend of reading, relaxing and crafting! (Note I didn't put chocolate in there after the migraine from hell I had yesterday.)

Love

Rosemary x

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The sun has got his hat on!

2011-04-20T01:01:00.001-07:00

Oh how good does the sun make you feel? Even if you don't like basking in it, it just makes everything seem brighter. I hate to say that I have been too busy having fun this past week to have gotten up to much 'craftiness'. But after our busy retreat it was good to pull back and catch up on things that had been sidelined - like friends and housework.

Curtains and light shades have been washed, paintwork wiped down, I have washed clothes, throws and cushion covers for Britain (yes I did get a new whirly wheel for the garden and yes I did have to carry it to the car with a curtain pole for joel's bedroom and a two man tent for Georgia - seriously).

We had a fantastic three days at our caravan in mid Wales at the weekend - even the kids came too. Five of us and two dogs (one 13 stone!) in a static caravan but it was perfect. Special memories. The only thing was I didn't get to nap at all!

Love this one of Nige disciplining Boo. Bear in mind (no pun intended on the word 'bear'!) that Nige is 6' 3".

Then yesterday Georgia and I had a girly day out in Manchester with a friend and her daughter - can't remember the last time I did that and we had a blast. I am normally a nightmare to shop with as I am like a man on a mission. I enter a shop clutching a list, do a quick lap and move onto the next. Yesterday we spent most of the time in the coffee shop for morning coffee and the restaurant for lunch but we still all managed to treat ourselves. It was after 6pm when we arrived home - hope Nige let's me out again!

Bet you can guess which pair were Georgias treat and which were mine.

But don't think I have been sitting back on my laurels. I have done a fair amount of ordering this week after the shop was ravaged by you cardcampers! New stuff is due next week. Also I have been planning workshops for June and, dare I say it, Christmas in July!

At the beginning of this week we opened the photo studio in our workshop. Joel gained a degree in photography and multi media last year and he is enjoying using those skills particularly on the editing side.We are optimistic about this and it sits so well with our belief that making memories is soooooo important! Visit www.smilephotostudio.co.uk for details.

I feel so much lighter of spirit since making my decision to resign from Qvc after months, if not years, of frustration. I have had a few interesting emails and phone calls so watch this space.

Love and much craftiness to you,

Rosemary

Ps I didn't want to miss the opportunity to thank you for the gifts and cards we received after the retreat. We really do appreciate it, but we didn't expect it! Kath - I can't bring myself to light the candles - they look too cute! Wish I could say I hadn't been able to touch the chocolate either! Ha ha.

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Sunday - a day of rest - not likely!

2011-04-13T13:15:00.001-07:00

Oh how quickly Sunday came round at our card making retreat! Although Lynn was so desperate not to have to attend that day that she threw herself at a wall! Ouch!

Craft totes awaited our ladies with materials for the mornings project stuffed inside. This session was our technique boutique where we try a variety of techniques using various materials. We decided to showcase these techniques on a canvas themed in red, white and blue to commemorate the forthcoming royal wedding. We even had an embossed crown embellishment on there.

The techniques/materials we used included alcohol inks, crackle paint, cosmic shimmer watercolour paints, grunge paper and pressure embossing.

We enjoyed a carvery Sunday lunch and then back to our final session. Easter baskets with chicks and sweets helped keep sugar levels up. We used three new ranges from Best Creations for our final workshop - let's party, baby safari and travel!

It's always sad when good things come to an end but it's not too long for some to wait until our scrapbooking retreat in july. Everyone had received goodies,

(after asking to have 52 eggs personalised we are banned from our local Thorntons)!
made 20 cards/notelets and a canvas to display in their craft space and some ladies were also lucky enough to win one of the many spot and raffle prizes we drew over the weekend. Hopefully all went away tired but happy.

Nige and I arrived home at five o'clock and were both asleep by ten past!

Onwards and upwards to the next retreat now.

Love Rosemary x

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Saturday crafting marathon!

2011-04-12T11:46:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I told you about what had happened during the first evening of our cardmaking retreat. I promised more so here goes.

And so on to Saturday! The weather was beautiful outside but we didn't get to see much of that as our first crafting session started at 9am. Goody boxes were on the tables as our cardcampers came in but we soon got them started on our Woodware session using a new set of stamps designed by Francoise Read. We used watercolour techniques using pigments inks and gelly roll pens as our colouring medium.

After coffee we moved onto our next chosen range which was Fancy Pants. This set of cards was mine and Debi's favourites. We made an acetate card using the brand new "Its the Little Things", grunged up Lilac House, and made a clever little construction to house tags on the front of our Hot Chocolate range. (On the photo below the colours are a little dark and we lost the flower off the front of our Lilac House sample so it looks a little bland).

A well earned rest followed with a great lunch in the hilltop restaurant. But soon we were back to work with our next session. Personalized Thorntons Easter eggs greeted our ladies when they returned from lunch.

Basic Grey was our next chosen company. We stamped our first card using the blue and green Marjolaine range, used Claudine Helmuth Studio Medium to transfer the image from our brand new Hello Luscious paper to a mini canvas for our second card and then, lastly, before coffee break, we scored, cut and folded to make this kinetic card using Basic Greys Hopscotch range.

Boy did we need that caffeine!

Last formal session of the day used paper ranges from Papermania. We used stickers and papers from both Birdsong and Born to Shop and stamps and paper to make a paper quilted card from Little Cake Shoppe.

After an 80's themed dinner our retreaters had a choice to relax, swim, dance the night away or craft. Guess what they chose to do. We did give everyone an optional kit using Cosmo Cricket papers and although there was no formal teaching instructions were included for 4 gorgeous little notelets all stored in a larger decorated envelope. We had also given materials to make a different design of folder to hold each sessions cards and some people chose to use the templates we supplied to make those.

Nige, Debi and I definitely did not get to see the sun that day leaving the hotel at 11pm! But we really had had a lot of fun.

Tomorrow I will tell you about the final day of our cardcamp.

Went out shopping for a few hours today with Nige and Joel and split up from them to wander around on my own. Nige tried to give me the keys to the car in case I wanted to pick up a new rotary drier for the garden (after Mondays fiasco) and needed to take it straight back to the car. How considerate to think of that!!! Don't worry Nige - it will balance out all the other shopping I have to get!

Love Rosemary x

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Another one bites the dust!

2011-04-11T11:57:00.001-07:00

What a fabby weekend! Ha ha my predictive text tried to change that to flabby weekend which could also fit after the amount of food we consumed! We held the first of our residential retreats, this one was for cardmakers. Friday morning was a whirl of activity for Debi and I and both sets of parents as we sorted all the last minute things at the hotel. You know, the essential things like choosing staff meals for the Friday evening!

Pat and George were kept busy packing up the retreat survival kits and my mum and dad were sorting goody boxes and wrestling with chicks and Easter baskets.

Keepsake key rings were handed out at the hotel reception as Cardcampers checked in.

Back at Crab Apple Crafts we served coffee and cake during the afternoon and it was good to chat with so many of you before the heavy stuff got going!

We formally welcomed everyone at the hotel at 6.30 and gave out the official glue of the weekend - in our opinion the best thing since sliced bread!

Our session for the Friday evening was a shorter one as it had been a long day for many who had travelled some distance to get here and we were all pretty stuffed after dinner too! We used Kaisercrafts Bubblegum Hill range to make a folded card with a matching band to keep it closed. It went down a treat and even though we were using our trimmers to score, Nige did a roaring trade in Hougie boards and books when lots of ladies realized how much fun folded cards were and, more importantly, how essential it was to score accurately (no names mentioned).

And so to bed!

Will blog some more tomorrow about Saturday.

Love Rosemary x

ps What happened to the sun today. I have been inside all weekend and the day I get to see the outside world it goes grey! Started some spring cleaning and a fence panel blew out in the garden. Sorted that with Joel and then my whirly wheel rotary dryer with 3 wash loads on it snapped and landed everything onto the grass. Need to go lie down with one of the choccy gifts I received at the weekend!

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Nearly there!

2011-04-05T09:17:00.001-07:00

Don't you just love it when all the things on your 'to do' list get ticked off and it's only mid afternoon. We are working from home today prepping for the card camp this coming weekend with 50 lovely like-minded ladies (at the card camp that is, not at home with me.) Really looking forward to cracking the whip and working them hard, but the hotel meals make it all worthwhile. Cannot believe this is the 8th residential retreat we have run. I remember clearly our first conversation that went something like - "wouldn't it be great to .......".

Had a really enjoyable weekend last weekend that began with a coffee morning on Saturday (a repeat of our Thursday one). All of my Saturday ladies were scrap bookers as well as cardmakers which made for a perfect group for me. I told you in my last post that I was going to demo how to use one 12 x 12 lace cardstock sheet and make multiple cards and a layout from it. Well it went down a storm with them wanting to sign up to a workshop there and then on the same theme. Seems a lot of us are daunted by similar things.

This is the original sheet, only the word 'be' was in the open box top left. I had to photograph a sheet I have pieced back together from the demo.

I would honestly never use a sheet like this 'whole', but how useful and economical it becomes when you cut it apart. The card below was cut from the top left corner and turned over so I had white to work with instead. Just scraps of paper were used to fill behind the apertures.

The next card used the bottom left corner and was hinged on a strip at the spine meaning it could be opened as a layer. This could also have been stuck to acetate to make a similar effect. Didn't get chance to finish this one but you get the idea.

I lifted this whole piece with foam pads to give a bit of depth, and used a pen to doodle faux stitching to give the birds and hearts some definition.

Just some layering up made one small piece into a decent sized card. Although you cant tell from the photo there is a glazed and slight glitter effect on the lace sheet.

And lastly, a 12 x 12 layout. I have scraplifted this layout idea from a Jennifer Maguire idea in an old Creating Keepsakes magazine where she used floral lace paper. The strips are for jounalling.

I am on the hunt for other designs now as I have some more ideas.

Anyhows must go make tea. Nige saw me ogling an Eton Mess at our local farm shop this afternoon and when I went to the car with boring things like potatoes and bread he snook back and bought it! Raspberries and meringue are two of my very favourite things! Oh, after chocolate that is.

Hope you are having a great week. See some of you on Friday - can't wait.

Love Rosemary x
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Spring is sprung!

2011-03-30T00:03:00.001-07:00

At last, and what a difference it makes. Yesterday I felt so drab and stuffy in my thick woolly polo neck sweater that I decided to swap all my winter clothes for summer ones in my wardrobe. Okay I can hear you groaning that if anything is guaranteed to bring on freezing conditions, that is, but I felt so much better when I had done it. Gok Wan would have applauded me! I might not be so smug though when I fling open my wardrobe doors this morning and can find only vest tops, cropped trousers and espadrilles!

I also had to have a break from all that cutting and punching. I have punchers palm and guillotine elbow. Our card camp is only 10 days away and what seemed like cracking ideas when we planned it seem like insanity now! It will all be worth it and I know the card campers will appreciate it - YOU WILL!

Coffee morning tomorrow and I always look forward to that. Can't believe it comes round so fast. Lots of new products to show and I set myself a challenge to demo how to use a sheet of 12 x 12 lace paper to get multiple cards and a layout out of it. What a fun few hours I had once I got into it. I have so far managed one 12 x 12 layout and four cards with still a small piece of the lace paper left. Will post photos after coffee morning. Very full tomorrow but still some places left for Saturday morning.

Had to post this following photo. We were on our way home from the caravan on Sunday evening and discovered six or seven lambs skipping about on a quite major road. So we set about rounding them up and getting them back into the field. Easier said than done and at one point I looked around to see if there was a camera somewhere filming us, and if it was all a set up. Not one other car stopped to help and we had lambs running in every direction

Ah yes and now I better mention Nige's hair. It was supposed to be highlights but after the hairdressers fourth attempt to lift it from a vibrant ginger he went for the Rhyddian look!

Anyway, off to stroke my new Tim Holtz coredination papers that arrived yesterday whilst I was sorting my summer wardrobe!

Love Rosemary x

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Cut & punch, punch & cut!

2011-03-18T01:07:00.001-07:00

Well they have all gone! You lucky ladies booked for our soon to happen Cardcamp should be receiving your info pack by today. Don't tell Nige but I have already realized a couple of extra things I meant to say on there. Thank goodness for email!

Debi and I have been hard at work prepping for the retreat. In fact I feel like I have done nothing but cut and punch all week. We are using 9 big papercrafting brands and 16, yes 16, different paper ranges ( a lot of them so new we are struggling to get them in)!!

We had a paradisical (is there such a word?) weekend, last weekend, at our caravan. We both spent the whole weekend smiling - it was so good to be back! I got loads of reading done, Nige fished and we walked the dogs. We are always sad to leave on the Sunday afternoon but we'll be back there this weekend. Sad to say I will be cutting and punching this time tho'! Ours is the fourth caravan from the left.

Below, ours is the one with the black car to the right of it. When I want to order Sunday's TSV from QVC the hill behind is the one that Nige has to run up to get a signal on his phone. If it goes 'limited' I have to shout at him to run faster!

Because we are away now most weekends the house tends to get neglected and those of you with kids and/or dogs will know it can go downhill in a very short time. So Nige allowed me a half day at home yesterday to clean, wash, iron and bake! Ha ha! I know he thinks I am superwoman but I am not that "super". I was so excited to try out my new silicone cupcake cases that I got free in a new baking mag but as usual I started with the boring chores and didn't even get close to any baking! I did make my signature pasta mozzarella dish though so felt like semi-super woman!

Did say I was posting two of Esthers demo cards last time but only one is there so here is the other.

Now please please will you all stop sympathizing with Nige over a mere filling! It is hardly giving birth is it!! He has driven me mad over the past week and now, because you are all fretting over him he is making out I am the bad guy! Anne even brought him a card yesterday.

Must go get ready for some more cutting and punching today. We also have a mini party at the shop today as two of the ladies attending our Oriental card workshop are celebrating birthdays.

Hope you are enjoying the Spring weather!

Rosemary x

PS Did mention QVC on our website but to reiterate there really isn't much to say. They spoke briefly with me last week to say they haven't any hours for me at the moment!

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Marching on

2011-03-12T01:16:00.001-08:00

Ooh what a lovely day I had yesterday teaching another full Thru' the Year scrapbook class. Even though it was hectic we had a lovely morning of laughs and gorgeous cupcakes made by Marge. Who can resist white chocolate buttercream?
Teaching the same class Wednesday and then moving on to April, May, June layouts - we will have half of 2011 scrapbooked before we know it.

Meet Warren from Craftwork Cards. He arrived Thursday. We have a selection of goodies to make the card shown and other equally lovely ones.

And then to cap the day off our Paperartsy order arrived with the most wonderful stamp sets and matching dies. Debi and I were excitedly planning how we can incorporate some of the stamps into our fast approaching card camp! (Card Campers start watching that mail box for your joining letter).

Today I have been up since 5.30am. It is no good but once I wake and start thinking about the day I have to get up and get on. And I am particularly excited about today as we are opening up our caravan in Welshpool for the year. Boy how we love that haven. We only normally manage to stay over Saturday to Sunday but we do try to get there as many weekends as we can. It is a place we rest, relax and lick our wounds! The dogs love it as they spend most of the weekend outside on the balcony overlooking the trout lake. Nige gets to fly fish - well he does a lot of standing about! And I get to nap and read! We do manage to get quite a bit of work done but it doesn't really feel like work there! We have no Internet connection and very poor reception on our phones as we are in a valley so it is a real break from routine.

Wanted to show you a couple of cards Esther made at our demo last weekend. We are expecting another order of creatable dies this coming Tuesday or Wednesday.

Some more birthday cards to follow on next blog update!

Hope you manage to have a crafty weekend - I have packed some crafty stuff!

Rosemary x

PS just thought you might enjoy this photo Joel took on Euston Station. This guy on the right was one of the highlights of their trip to London! It doesn't take much to amuse our kids!

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Thanks!

2011-03-08T00:12:00.001-08:00

Well what a great weekend that was. Saturday morning started with a bang - literally - the urn packed up and we had to boil kettles for our free coffee and cake morning! But there was definitely a buzz about and it was so good to see those of you who stopped by with a card ( thank you Sheila and Ralph for the champagne and Jill for the birthday cake) and those who came to see Esther working her magic with the Creatables dies! When I see someone else playing it makes me itch to do some crafting myself.

Here are just a few of the cards we received. I will post some more next time. I really don't appreciate the one Judith sent. I mean, what is that all about. Judith had the audacity to hand ME this card and say there wasn't room for my name!

On Sunday Nige and I took the dogs to the seaside and how glad I was that we made the effort. It was a beautiful sunny day and the world and his dog were on the beach building sandcastles and eating icecream. I think this is when I miss our dog Poppy the most - she was the one who really knew how to enjoy the seaside, swimming around in the sea, chasing stones that we threw and barking at the seagulls. But the great thing with dogs is that you get to relive the memory of a day on the beach for at least another three days because they bring half of it home with them! We have our own man made beach in our back room at the moment!

Off to play with the cricut. I am a Slice girl but feel I should get to grips with the 'big one'. Got to stay away from craft knives today. Debi looked on incredulously yesterday as I sliced through the top of my finger changing the blade on a circle cutter (and yes I was doing it correctly keeping it's little plastic cover on). I put a plaster on and then cut through another finger putting the circle cutter back in it's plastic case. Debi said I just needed a paper cut for a hat trick! It was interesting trying to make a turkey crumble for tea last night. Joel said he didn't mind pink crumble as long as the turkey wasn't pink!

Rosemary x

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Happy birthday Crab Apple House!

2011-03-03T23:36:00.001-08:00

Okay I know we sound like the queen here but we do celebrate two birthdays at Crab Apple Crafts; our birthday in Sept is the official opening of the site and as we have been here since the very beginning we will be 12 this year, but it is our 6th birthday in Crab Apple House this coming weekend.

Esther from our Dutch supplier Kars will be demoing all day with the new creatables dies. There are chairs so that everyone can see what she Is doing. If you come in the morning Nige and I will be there to offer you free cake and coffee. Now that has to be worth a trip to get something free from Nige and don't forget that the first 25 to bring us a birthday card and spend £6 (cos it's our sixth birthday) will receive a goody bag worth at least ten pounds.

We have lots of new paper ranges that I put out yesterday including kaisercrafts Bubblegum Hill and Nans Favourites, Basic Grey Marjolaine and Hopscotch and Cosmo Cricket Togetherness. Last weekend we received the new Docrafts ranges. Orders have started to arrive that we placed at the trade fair so come have a browse.

Our April/May workshop sheet will be out for tomorrow and bookings are always fast and furious for the first few days particularly. We have 11 brand new classes on there and that is not counting the four new we have this month. So something for everyone we hope.

Anyway must dash as we have a full Grunge book class today and it is such a busy class that Debi has roped me in as her able assistant!

Have a great weekend and hope the sun shines for you!

Rosemary x

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Sunday - a day of rest!

2011-03-01T07:43:00.001-08:00

Well I mean that as a woman would understand it - a day to catch up on washing, tidying and cooking a roast dinner but oh how good those things are when life gets a little out of hand! This past week has been a mix of good, bad and bizarre - all part of the rich tapestry of life!

The good has been very good catching up with customer friends at our full to bursting craft n chat on Thursday, and then teaching the frame class pictured below on Friday. Spent a long day in London on Saturday with Nige, Joel and Georgia primarily to see Love Never Dies (for the third time!) but we also managed to have a lovely meal with friends from Wirral who were also there to see the show.

The bad (particularly for Nige) was the day the drains blocked/collapsed and Nige had to play helper to the guy that came out to fix it. The idea was that Nige watch and alert the expert when anything started to happen down the drain. If you are ahead of me here you will probably have visions of mount Etna, and Nige too close for comfort! I am actually convinced that this is the only way the guy can get his own back for having such a dreadful job! Nige- covered head to toe in unmentionables! Sorry but haven't got photo evidence. I had the more mundane job of serving at the shop.

And the bizarre - my dad who is definitely not yet anything short of a full shilling decided to take 7 days heart tablets in one go as he was so absorbed in Bargain Hunt or some such morning programme and not concentrating on the job in hand! The phone call I got from my mum as I just got to work went something like this - "now don't panic - I am but I don't want you to"!!! What a reassuring opening to any conversation. Dad was whipped off to hospital where he remained all day whilst mum and I spent many anxious hours waiting for these "slow release" tablets to, well, slow release. When I collected him 12 hours later he sat in the back of the car sighing and saying, "what a waste of a precious day"!

I have enjoyed working on samples for our new Stay 'n' Play sessions starting with the new Basic Grey Curio range

and also Basic Grey Marjolaine. Come join me for coffee and card making. Watch this space for dates.

Must dash to type up the April and May workshop schedule. Plenty of new things to enjoy! Below is a taster of our Birds of Paradise stamping class.

Keep on crafting!

Rosemary x

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Trade talk!

2011-02-22T01:13:00.001-08:00

Debi and I had a very pleasant and productive day at the nec yesterday - in fact so productive that I don't have to drag Nige back there today and we can take a day off with Georgia.

I have come to the conclusion that Nige spends too much time small talking and so it takes twice as long to get any real business done. Don't get me wrong - it was great catching up with friends from the trade but having Debi armed with a notebook and pencil making notes of any stand we wanted to revisit or any products we definitely had to order at the show worked a treat.

Stamps were very evident, particularly collage or Tim Holtz style ones, and also cute character ones. The ones that particularly caught our eye were from Paperartsy and a good number of them had matching dies. Also Dyan from Art From the Heart has released a number of stamp sets that we loved. It was good to see Dyan - we go back some years when we immediately hit it off at a retailer training day in Yorkshire. She doesnt know it but she is responsible for my Croc fetish having first seen her wearing them at the trade show in California!

Die cutting and machines to do such, was also very well represented. Of course we had to order the new electronic Vagabond machine. The benefit of this is that it will cut materials as thick as grunge board. It is also very cute! As usual Tim Holtz was very popular and there were lots more materials to create his particular look. I was particularly interested to see that coredination have released 36 new cardstock colours to match the distress ink pads - yummy!

We bumped into Leonie and she is such a happy bunny! She is loving her work with Create and Craft. It was good to catch up with Clare Curd too but as she is such a big Michael Jackson fan and fellow thespian we always move swiftly on from craft.

It was good to speak with Lindsay Mason. She is always such an inspiration. She will be at Crab Apple in the coming months for a demo.

We spent a lot of time with Sue from Imagination crafts. She completely bamboozled us with her enthusiasm for her products and we can't wait for these to arrive. Debi will be incorporating some of these into forthcoming workshops. You might have seen her great shows and samples on QVC. She is eager to come demo for us. Can't wait!

We also loved Molly Bloom stamps as well as the new Wild Rose Studio stamps and coordinating papers. It goes without saying that we found lots of new papers, punches, etc etc but you will just have to watch this space over the next few months as new products arrive and I try to stagger my spending so as not to give Nige a heart attack!

Off to wade through a few more catalogues! Yes Nige we do need to order all these for the shop!

Rosemary x

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Tutorial: How to get on & off a hammock with ease!

2011-02-20T12:26:00.001-08:00

Hello there,

Had a lovely day last Saturday teaching scrapbooking classes back to back. One lady is turning her 2011 thru the year scrapbook into a recipe book - what a fab idea. February is Tempting Tiramisu, and Chocolate Torte on the accordion fold out! How organized is Viv? Was looking at the first scrapbook I made of Georgia and this layout is one of the first I did. We only had one, quite poor, photo of her when she was first born and the layout is so dated but as a scrapbook page I am quite satisfied as it tells me all I need to know about her! I am an avid believer that the journalling is just as important as the photo. Journalling alone can evoke such a picture. Okay I will get down off the orange box!

Eyes are propped open with matchsticks as I type. Just had our last performance of Hollywood Story in Chester last night and I have no idea how Joel and Georgia can exist on so little sleep show week and give a three hour performance every evening. Was thinking I might wear my slippers for the whole show last night as my feet were aching. Definitely be easier to execute those pirouettes without three inch heels! Although the tap routine would be more of a soft shoe shuffle! Like any mother would be I was very proud of Joel and Georgia this week. Check out a couple of their songs on the video links at the side.

At least my craft room is almost back to normal and free of wall to wall costumes.

Nige came along and videoed the dress rehearsal and in cleaning previous footage off the camera he came across a gem! Those of you who know my mum will know she is a tad mad but this is priceless. Please do take a minute to watch it - might give you a giggle.The clue is in the title of today's blog post.

Exciting week ahead with the Craft and Hobby trade show at the NEC. Love this as get to catch up with old friends. Also hope to find new goodies to buy. Should have been on a workshop with Tim Holtz on Saturday but as I had a show that evening I just couldn't make it. Exactly the same thing happened last year too! I have been lucky enough to have taken numerous classes with Tim both here and in the states and he is an inspiration. He is a great teacher and very generous.

Just before I dash off I had to show you this picture of Huey after he had been eating raspberries. That shade of lipstick would really suit him!

Will let you know how we get on at the NEC.

Love Rosemary x
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The show must go on!

2011-02-12T00:52:00.001-08:00

The past week has been a blur of rehearsals and class prep for my very imminent Thru' the Year scrapbooking class. I am only just feeling better from my laryngitis that turned into a stinker of a cold. Still got no sense of taste or smell which is sometimes useful but mostly really annoying. It means I can eat things I don't normally really like so that they don't go to waste but it also means I have no idea whether or not I should wear that sweater for another day or not!

Wanted to share some photo's of my craft room but, as you will see when I upload some photos in the next few days, it is rather full of other things at the moment. Next week Georgia, Joel and I are in a compilation show called Hollywood Stories at the Forum studio theatre in Chester city centre. It comprises between thirty and forty well known movie songs. It is all singing, all dancing with a cast of only eight and boy is it hectic. The fourteen costume changes alone are a challenge without having to perform as well! Really excited about it but as this is the third show we have performed in THIS year I think we are looking forward to a break. Nige will be glad I can focus on work again!

I am excited about the scrapbook class for my own selfish reasons. Last January I decided to create a double page layout for every month of 2010 so that by the end of the year i would have a record of the events - ordinary and special - with relatively little effort. I am ashamed to say I didn't even finish January! So I reckoned if I taught it as a quarterly class completing three months at a time it would make sure I got it finished. And it would seem there are lot of others excited by this idea judging by the bookings. So bring it on.

Have to dash now as teaching an Introduction to Scrapbooking class this morning before the Thru' the Year this afternoon. It's exciting to introduce new people to the immensely enjoyable craft of scrapbooking!

Love Rosemary x

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That was the week that was!

2011-01-30T01:29:00.001-08:00

This week - two coffee mornings at the shop, 3 show rehearsals, a charity show and laryngitis! I couldn't be accused of sitting back on my laurels. In fact, my mum forbade me from going to a rehearsal Friday night, threatening to phone and check I hadn't gone out. I haven't even lived at home for 25 years!!

The show on Thursday night was in aid of Claire House childrens hospice and we had a great night. It was an honour to be part of something that was for such a worthwhile cause. Joel mingled in costume after the show and he loved chatting with people. This dear man said he had never really appreciated Michael Jacksons music but that he was going to go home and start listening to it. Life is really about people isn't it!

Glue dots once again played a very large part! My mother-in-law made all the costumes for our MJ tribute set (even though she swears she is not a sewer!). I wish I was as poor a sewer as her. Glue dots were used to stick the large gems on this costume. The built up shoulders were made from empty acrylic Christmas card boxes and velcroed to the shoulders. My dad made the plinth which was sprayed with granite stone spray.

Thriller was my favourite part of our 15 minute set. Being masked meant I was totally anonymous and could enjoy myself!

Coffee morning was good fun. I love having a combined social and craft inspired morning. There are always so many new products to show and demo. My favourite demo was the hougie board. I love folding and to have a board that I can use for clever folded cards, mini books, any size box or envelope and particularly to be able to switch between cms and inches just by turning the board over is exciting.

My other fave thing this month is the range of layout sketches books from scrapbook generations. To the non scrap booker these probably look like the most boring books ever but they are so inspiring to me. Alison agrees with me as she ordered the whole six of them too!

Anyway off to rest up in readiness for a looooong rehearsal later today. The kids are laughing at me because they say I sound like the very thin tube-like muppet who can only squeak! Think they are all enjoying the peace. I'll make up for it.

Oh, just want to introduce you to the newest member of our family. Didn't even know we were getting him. Joel sprang him on us. Sure he knew what we would say if he actually asked before getting him. Just thought it odd when he added romaine lettuce, cucumber, grapes and strawberries to the shopping list - he runs a mile from veg and he wouldn't know a romaine lettuce if it hit him in the face! Anyway his name is Huey and he is quite cute. I am working up to having a hold of him. Nige says it is like holding a wafer.

Yours silently

Rosemary x

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Off to CHA - Not!

2011-01-26T12:35:00.001-08:00

I can't really believe I am not heading out to California this week for the big event of the craft retailers year. And do you know why I am not going? Because the kids want me to be part of a ten minute routine in their MJ tribute dance group at a charity event. They haven't even said they want me in it because I am good. But they did say I was reliable which was quite nice of them, I suppose!! They do make me wear a mask though - methinks that is to disguise the fact that I am twice as old as the other dancers! Anyway I did a bit of footstamping and pouting insisting that I just have to go to the summer show in Chicago instead and Nige patted my hand and said that was fine. Still feel I am missing out though.

No that is not me in my disguise but Joel!

Coffee morning tomorrow and Saturday. I only went into the shop today to set up for it and get out new products to show and look what came in. New Echo Park papers - yum! Too late to work up some samples for tomorrow but did manage to have a good stroke of them.

Ah well, better go and get some rest. Big day tomorrow with coffee morning and the charity show in the evening. You see I had even forgotten I wasn't going to CHA (almost)!

May the force be with you!

Rosemary x

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A great find!

2011-01-24T10:54:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to share one of my fave tools of the moment. A couple of months back we were shown a corner rounder punch by one of our regular reps and I am sure he thought he was flogging a dead horse trying to show me another brand of punches when the market is saturated with them. But he happened to mention that the corners of the punch slide out to make it a border punch. Oh how my eyes lit up! I love corner rounders but I love scallop borders even more, and at an RRP of £4.99 I knew we were onto a winner. So here it is firstly as a corner rounder

....then as a scallop border

.....and then bringing my cropadile into play, as a scallop lace border.

I know it doesn't take much to thrill me but what a find! No card or scrapbook page will be safe now.

Happy crafting!

Rosemary x

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And how we laughed!

2011-01-21T13:50:00.001-08:00

How good it was to get back to normal in the workshop with our first craft 'n' chat of 2011. Plenty of crafting went on but there was also a lot of chatting, eating of cake and, boy, did we laugh. In fact, the lady on the right in the photo in red and beige is my mum. She does tend to get overexcited when my dad lets her out!

Workshop bookings are going very well. It seems you really want to get going again with your crafting. We are trying to get samples for classes on display in the shop and on the website three weeks before each class. The drawers below are our next 'wooden it be lovely' class using the oh so lovely Modern Homemaker papers from October afternoon. This would brighten up any craft room!

I am working my way around the shop sorting all the different areas out but I haven't managed to get very far from the front door yet. Things would happen a lot faster if we didn't have to deal with customers too! Joking of course.

Our paper aisles are looking good and new paper ranges are arriving weekly. Well you just have to have the new designs don't you?

I am looking forward to a free Saturday. Well a free Saturday to a woman means catching up with cleaning, washing and ironing but, hey, I will feel good tomorrow night when I have accomplished all that.

Nige and I have been on the diet chef diet for 4 days and we have both lost a few pounds so to celebrate our success we went out to our favourite fish and chip restaurant for tea. Oops! And then weopened a tub of chocolate mingles in the car on the way home (thank you Bri & Mo). Glad we had already dropped off Georgia and Joel at their grandparents or we would have had to share them. Seriously, I have four weeks to lose half a stone. I am in a show then and I have realized that out of the four women in it I am the only one that the men don't have to lift during any dance. Think I would have felt even worse if they had had to get all four to lift me at once!

Been working on samples for coffee morning all day and really enjoyed myself. I miss having the time to craft for myself so this is a good second best. I love having to work on things that don't always appeal to me but are popular with customers. We all have our own styles but it is good to be challenged with product that I wouldn't normally choose. Also I often end up being quite taken with products that didn't previously appeal! Not telling what I have been working with as it will spoil it for coffee morning next week!

Just had to close with a cute photo of our Teddy boy enjoying his Christmas!

Have a great weekend whatever you are doing!

Rosemary x

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Out with the cold, in with the new!

2011-01-18T12:43:00.001-08:00

Well maybe not a drastic change yet but I have been able to turn the heat down in the house and that's saying something for me. Please Spring come quickly as I am really not a fan of January.

We had a great Panto week. Eight performances and still working in the day really is wearing though so it is good to have at least a couple of nights at home this week. I promised to post some photo's and this one really does show how fantastic glue dots really are! I broke the backs off a pair of OTT earrings and used glue dots to stick them to a pair of chopsticks. Thought the stage lights might cause some problems but the same glue dots lasted the week with no repairs whatsoever!

Not actually being on stage until page 30 meant I had plenty of chilling time in the dressing room so I thought I would make some shop samples with new Kanban products. Having to explain what I was doing to every new person that came into the dressing room did get a little tedious so I gave up in the end and worked my way through a tin of quality street! Boy they were good.

Our sale ends today and thankfully there isn't too much to clear away. I am now eager to get back to holding workshops and crops. It will be good to see all my craft 'n' chat buddies on Thursday, and even better as we can now take 16! Bring on the crafting! (the chat and cake aren't too bad either).

I am prepping for coffee morning at the moment. I know our trade shows are still three or four weeks away but there are always new products arriving to show and demo with. Loving the Modern Homemaker papers and embellishments from October Afternoon. Debi and I are fighting over who can use them in classes! Sewing and cooking themes seem to be even bigger in paper, stamps etc, and all with a retro feel. Love it!

Keep warm and keep crafting!

Rosemary x

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Panto time - oh yes it is!

2011-01-09T02:33:00.001-08:00

Can't believe Panto week starts today. I am looking forward to spending a lot of time this week with fellow performers! We started rehearsing in September and what a lot of fun we have had. It is good for me to be able to have a diversion from work - not that I get tired of crafting but when it is your job too it is good to do something entirely different now and again. I will post some photos in a day or so.

What a week we have had in the shop! I mentioned the other day that I've been sorting papers, well we have completely moved our paper shop into the main shop and it took me a whole day to sort just one side of the run of paper we now have. It has been frustrating not to have had the chance to sort the other side yet but hopefully this week things will take more shape. We have had new stock arriving daily and no chance to really think about where we want to display it. O how I love a new year - always makes me want to make changes and move furniture (much to Nige's annoyance).

I just had to post this picture of my dear crafting friend, Moria, in her snazzy winter hat! I am surprised Nige let her into the Craft n Chat looking like that. Congratulations on becoming a grandma this week, Moria.

I have been planning my new Thru' the Year scrapbook class. I, for one, relish the thought of scapbooking 2011 as it happens, just having a double page layout for each month. I can imagine myself feeling quite smug at the end of the year. It is also making me think on a daily basis about the little things that happen every day that make up my year and deserve a mention that month!

Must go get my porridge before putting my 'slap' on for the show and backcombing my hair to within an inch if it's life! Being the Empress Tutti Frutti is very high maintenance!

Just wanted to show you a couple of photos of the cutest customer we had in the shop this Christmas! Say hello to Buster.

Yes this is a picture of Nige slumped behind the counter!

Have a good Sunday.

Rosemary x

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What a day!

2011-01-06T10:56:00.001-08:00

Well what a day! I spent all day organizing and replenishing 12" x 12" papers at the shop while Nige priced new orders that had come in (he has two more to do tomorrow). We were fairly quiet with customers during the morning, but then the afternoon was absolute bedlam! People were loving our 50% sale, and lots of workshops got booked. All in all, a tough but rewarding day's work!

Rosemary x

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Location:At home!

Happy Wednesday!

2011-01-05T02:46:00.000-08:00

Hi! Happy New Year and and welcome to my new blog! It's going to take me a little while to get to grips with it, so please be patient with me.

We had a good day at QVC yesterday and I was really glad so many of you liked the products I was showing. Today, I'm at home cleaning and Nige has been taking the Christmas tree and lights down, and we have a very grumpy repair man fixing our bolier.

We're off the the shop soon because Joel is very busy with customers who've come to see our 50% sale, so I better dash.

Here's to blogging! Love, Rosemary x