Tim Holtz and American Craft Day QVC

It's gone midnight and I really should be tucked up in my bed, instead I am sat on my sofa watching Tim Holtz on QVC.  To some people I might be seen as slightly barmy, and who can blame them, but the crafters out there will understand my madness.

So far a couple of items have gone into my basket, I had good reason they are on special pricing for today so would be rude not to.

Missed out on this set a while ago so was glad to see it back on a craft day price of £13.32, designed by Anna Griffin.

Another Anna Griffin set less than half price at £10.42.  I'm looking forward to using some of the smaller scrolls stamped onto american seam binding ribbon

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There's Tilda!  Oh how I adore anything Tilda.  Own most of the books and frequently flick through them drooling over the gorgeous images.  Am seriously tempted by this kit, it is £30 so not cheap, might check around first.

I also noticed a promo for a new cake crafting section being aired later today, will have to sky+ this, got to work which is a bummer.  Wish they would have their craft days on a weekend.  Then again maybe that is not such a good idea for my bank balance!

So there you have it, I am outed as a midnight shopping channel watcher!  Anyone else burning the midnight oil this way tonight?

Hugs, Lolo xx

Ingenious idea for shoe storage

Okay so I'm going a bit Pinterest mad with my posts but I just keep coming across such amazing ideas I have to share them with you all.  And this one is genious!

Source: duitang.com via Claudia on Pinterest

We all have that dead bit of space at the bottom of our wardrobes, you know the place where we just chuck our shoes in a heap.  With the fixing of a little pole and these modified wire hangers it can now be organised heaven.  This also means that I have now found a use for all those wire hangers I end up with from my OH's dry cleaning, which normally I frown at and just throw in the recycling.  Not anymore, bring them home honey ;o)

Lolo xx

A new way to label my Ikea Jars

As part of my kitchen re decoration I've been slowly stocking up on SLOM jars from Ikea for all my baking ingredients and dry goods as I now have two tall shelf units to display them on.  Currently I use my home made chalk labels to show what is stored in them .  If you would like to read my post on how I made these just click here.

One of my main reasons for using these chalkboard labels was so I could add the use by date of the contents onto the reverse of the label coz once decanted I would have no idea.  Now I do still like this idea but find that the labels look rather big and cumbersome, especially on the smaller of the jars.  However I need space for my ugly handwriting so can't really go much smaller!  Well now I think I have found a wonderful alternative.........these.

Source: thepaintedhive.blogspot.com.au via Christen on Pinterest

They look so cool don't they!  I love that they are in the style of dictionary entries, very professional looking.  I hopped straight over to The Painted Hive to investigate further, she uses Decal Transfer Paper which I've never heard of before but am in love with already.  A quick look on ebay shows it at around £1 per A4 sheet which is less than I thought it would be.  I would still keep my chalkboard tag for the date but it could be much smaller now which is better and could also have a pretty design on the front instead of a label.  I should invest in a good quality chalk pen as old fashioned school chalk is not the easiest thing to use for small writing.

Have any of my lovely readers used this Decal stuff before?  Is it as easy as it looks?  Any hints or tips would be much appreciate.

Hugs, Lolo xx

Paper tape from wrapping

I've been on the Pinterest trail again and found this neat little idea.

Source: countryliving.com via KT on Pinterest

I have some old cotton reels in my stash that would be perfect for this.  All I need now is to go out and choose me some pretty wrapping papers.

If you would like to see the instructions hop on over to Country Living by clicking here.

Lolo xx

Comment Moderation Frustration

Morning all!

I've been doing my usual round of catching up on my fave blogs this morning, I love reading what everyone has been up to, or made and always like to leave a comment or two.  But today I am feeling a little bit frustrated.  The thing that is causing this frustration, moderation.  You know the one where you type in your comment, press publish and then are faced with entering some random character combination into a box before it can be submitted.  It's been around for a long while I know, but lately it seems the characters are getting harder to decipher and sometimes after a few failed attempts I admit that I do give up and hit the cancel button which leaves me feeling more frustrated.

Even more frustrating is when I do actually manage to read the jumble of letters to then be told that my comment still won't be published until the blog owner has approved it.  Is it just me who thinks it should be one or the other?  Stopping unwanted spam automatically appearing on blogger can be managed by both methods, so using one method would be sufficient?

I have been a victim of blog spam in the past and I fully understand the need to moderate comments.  The way I like to do this is by using the blog owner approval option in blogger.  This means that my readers can happily type up their comments and without the need to decipher some sort of code.  It means a lot to me that you all take the time to leave a comment and I want to make the experience as seam free possible for you all.

Well that's my rant over for today, it's not something I do often but it just got me today.  Am I in the minority here?  Anyone else out there struggling with jumbled characters or does it not really bother you.  Maybe it's just me, maybe I need my eyes testing, but I do love it when I can just type my comment and hit publish.  I will of course keep leaving comments on all my favourite blogs, jumbled characters or not, I love you all!

Lolo xx

I've had enough now

It's currently doing this outside again.

Well I've had enough of this now and all I want to wake up and see is this.

Mr Snow can you go away and not pop back until, say mid December, thank you.

Lolo xx

Magnificant Madonna

Love her or hate her, I'm in the LOVE camp in case you were wondering, you cannot deny the fact that she is super talented, super fit, made her way from the bottom up, no 'we'll make you a star' programme in sight and her concerts are nothing short of spectacular.

Here she is performing at the recent Superbowl to the highest half time viewing audience ever, nuff said!



Lolo xx

Ikea Bedding

My love affair with grey continues into the bedroom inspired by a recent trip to Ikea.  I fell in love with this set and had to purchase it.  It shouldn't really be on the bed yet as I need to decorate, but I'm always too impatient.

Generally I tend to go for plain white bedding but this pattern just attracted me straight away.  Yes it's an all over pattern but it is also subtle.  The large rose flowers on the pillows were from a Primark sale last year, they were a £1 and wish I had got more of them, they co-ordinate perfectly as do Primark's grey pillow cases.

This shot shows the colour better and also shows the crinkle blanket from Ikea which fell in the trolley with the quilt set.  I've been wanting one of these for ages and on many a trip it has gone in my trolley then out again, my sister will vouch for that as it drove her mad at my indecision.  This time though it made it to the car.  It has also inspired me to have a go at making my own in other materials as all it is is shirring elastic sewn in stripes about 2 inches apart.

After all that faffing around in the bedroom my belly was in need of some fodder so I tucked in to the loaf of bread I made earlier.  It actually came out alright.  I'm going to try soda bread next after watching the Fabulous Baker Brothers make it the other week, no rising you see, brilliant.

Lolo xx

Cat Nap

Look who I spied cat napping on my bed, Alfie.  Too cute!  It was all I could do to stop myself snuggling my face into his fur, I have to confess that I did give in a short while after this picture was taken but he soon nodded back off again.  All that running around in the snow earlier clearly took it's toll on him!

Lolo xx

Snowy Sunday

Did you all wake up to snow this morning?  When I went to bed last night it was snowing but the flakes were really small and I thought, that's not going to amount to much.  Oh how wrong was I.  Look what I woke up to.

Proper snow!  Lots of lovely white fluffy snow.  Best my car has looked in a long time!  The cats weren't quite as impressed as I was though.  I love how a blanket of snow makes it so quite, it's really rather magical.  Proper winters Sunday, fire on, tv on, soft glow of white coming through the windows and a warming casserole in the oven.  Perfect.  A shame it's Monday tomorrow as Michael McIntrye would say "there's going to be chaos" lol!

Lolo xx