A fresh start to the week

Just popping in to say I haven't vanished just playing catch up after "the week that was" that turned into two weeks!

I'm starting this week with a burst of energy and making the most of this glorious sunny morning (we are still in January aren't we?) by walking to my new keep fit class. It's a funny route as I pass over a busy A road via two big roundabouts and then walk down country lanes and through the churchyard to get to the village hall. 

I've returned a little red in the face but I'm feeling invigorated and ready for the week ahead.

Send A Little Love Swap Partners

My apologies everyone for not posting the swap partners list but we are having major problems with our internet connection at the moment and I haven't been able to get on line. I'm trying to make the most of the few times when we actually have a connection to post the list. an engineer is due out in the next couple of days so fingers crossed we should be fully back on line. It really makes me realise how much we rely on the internet for everything from shopping, banking and keeping in touch. the teenagers think it's the end of the world!!!

Right enough babbling, let's get down to posting the swap partners

There are 21 of us taking part (I have two partners to make up the numbers)

Fat Dormouse getting thinner and Felt by Rae

Indigo Blue and Stephanie (My Calicoheart)

Joy (Daisy Row) and Jo (Jo@wholepotoflove)

Christals Creations and Debbie  (Busy Little Chicken)

Edige and Me

Ellie Foster (Feltabulous) and Linny (no blog) 

Kimberley and Mad About Craft

Tracy G (Sunny Corner Farm) and Pat's Patch

Winnibriggs and Debbie (Fairy Bluebell's Craft Adventure)

Me and Maria (Dotty's Daughter)

Melanie (The Patchwork Robin) and Glenda (no blog)

Phew!! the internet stayed on long enough for me to add all the links, Melanie and Ellie I have contact emails for Linny and Glenda and will send them to you shortly.

please make contact with your partners and get to know each.

Any problems or if I have missed anything please let me know.

If you need a little reminder of the guidelines then pop over to the Send a Little Love Swap post.

Happy Swapping 

Thursday Treasures

Thank you to everyone that has signed up so far for the Send a Little Swap. 

There is still time to join in as the swap sign up closes tomorrow. You can either leave a comment on the Send a Little Love Swap post or leave a comment below. It's lovely to see some new bloggers taking part this year as well as lots of seasoned swappers.
(Do you see how I tried to avoid using the word old, I even had to use an online thesaurus to help me find a nicer word than old!!)

So what are Thursday Treasures I hear you ask? Well I'm hoping it will become a regular blog post as Mr Mad About Bags and I now have a new Thursday routine.
Mr Mad About Bags keeps canaries and there is a weekly newspaper for keepers of all things bird and it comes out on a Thursday. The newsagent that sells the magazine is next door to a charity shop. Can you see where this is heading!!
I do love charity shop shopping and this charity shop is a good one, the ladies are lovely and they always have lots of new things, the prices are good and they even mark things down week to week. I always seem to come out with one or two goodies (alright it's probably more than two!) and I thought I would start sharing them with you.
This is what I picked up this week

I have a real thing for picture frames but am really rubbish at actually putting photos and prints in them and hanging them on the walls but I'm planning on changing that this year. What this space! I recently picked up about 14 glass jars from a local selling page and have used some as savings jars for Rachel, she has plans for the other to make gifts for her friends for next Christmas and I'm also looking forward to getting to grips with my Cricut cutting machine to decorate them. So I couldn't resist these jars to add to the collection. I hoping to use the jar with shaped lid to store some cotton reels in my studio. The cake stand is really simple and I'm hoping to add a little something to it with some vinyl and my Cricut machine. And finally a new book to start once I've finished my current one. I'm probably a bit late coming to the Gone Girl party as I haven't even seen the film and had to google it to see who was in it!

So what do you think, are my rock and roll Thursday activities too much to blog about on a weekly basis or would you like to see my Thursday Treasures?

Christmas Card Swap

In December I took part in a really easy but lovely swap organised by Amy over at Love Made My Home.

The idea being that we would be partnered with another blogger, get to know each other and then send each other a Christmas Card.

I was partnered with Brenda at It's A Beautiful Life and after a small hiccup of not being able to see Brenda's blog because of the settings on my computer I was able to stalk find out more about Brenda and we emailed back and forth. 

You may have heard me mention Brenda's blog because I was reading her Restoring the Joy of Christmas booklet during Advent. Sorry I didn't quite make it to the end of your booklet Brenda but it is on my list of "to do's".

This is the card that Brenda sent me and she kindly including some extras too.

And here is a link to the post Brenda wrote about receiving my card as I completely forgot to photograph my card before sending it.

I've really enjoyed this swap as it has been lovely to find new blogs to read and to keep the card sending tradition going.

Thanks to Amy for organising and for Brenda for my lovely card.

Packing Away Christmas

I've nearly finished packing away the Christmas decorations and it's taken a lot longer that I thought it would. I know the decorations really should stay up until the 6th of January but when you have had them up since 29th November you really are itching to take them down the day after Boxing Day!

I have a set of Christmas plates and glasses that I only use for Christmas Day

and they have been taking up valuable space in one of my kitchen cupboards. I wanted to box them up in one of my plastic crates but was concerned that they would get damaged. I was searching the Internet with the intention of buying some quilted plate storage bags or bowl protectors when I remembered that I had some purple quilted fabric in my stash from making these horse riding hat bags for a friend.

I used it to line the bags and protect the hats. I had quite a bit left over as the first batch I bought had a flaw in it and the company sent me some more.

This was going to be a no nonsense, no sew, stash busting project and it worked out really well.

I lined the plastic crate with a piece of the fabric.

And cut squares of fabric just slightly bigger than the plates.

There was enough left over the wrap the glasses.

The whole set fitted into one crate.

And there was even room for the gold chargers and my new to me pudding plate that I bought on EBay just before Christmas for £4.

A job well done and a lot cheaper than buying storage bags.

Now I just need somewhere to store the growing number of Christmas filled crates that are now sitting in my conservatory.

More Swaps......

So yesterday I posted about the 

Send a Little Love Swap

you can read more about here and sign up if you would like to join in.

I've also signed up for Kimberley's@Creative Chaos

Send Us Your Country Swap

To find out more and to sign up pop over to Kimberley's blog.

If you are hosting a swap or a giveaway or know of any more swaps let me know and I'll pop a link on my blog.

Send a Little Love Swap 2016

I'm getting 2016 off to a good start with some swaps

First up is my very own

Send A little Love Swap, now in it's third year

The idea of this swap is to send a minimum of 5 things to include

Something heart shaped or themed

Something deliciously edible

Something handmade

Something red

This swap is open to both UK and overseas bloggers and readers of my blog

(you just need to have an email contact)

If you would like to take part then please leave a comment on this post,

letting me know if you wish to post UK or worldwide

Sign up by the Friday 8th January 2016

Swap partners will be posted on my blog on Sunday 10th January 2016

Then it's up to you to make contact with your partner and get to know each other a little better, swap details and arrange a timescale.

Swap parcels need to arrive at their destination no later than Saturday 13th February 2016

I don't like the idea of rules for swaps so here are some handy guidelines ;-)

Swaps are supposed to be fun and a great way to use items/supplies you already have at home, 

Handmade is open to interpretation everyone's skills are different don't ever think that you can't because the chances are you can, as long as something has been made with love then I'm sure it will be appreciated by your partner

I don't like to put a price limit on swaps but with postage costs at an all time high we can all appreciate a bit of thrifty spending

Life sometimes has a habit of getting in the way of things, if for whatever reason (and you don't have to say why) you can't continue or need to delay sending out your swap then just let me or your swap partner know

So that's the boring bit out of the way if I have forgotten anything then please let me know and if you need any inspiration then there's always Pinterest!

As always I'll be pinning like crazy, I also have a secret swaps board so that I can keep some of my ideas hidden just in case my swap partner is peeping!

Please feel free to use the Send A Little Love Swap button to share the swap on your blogs  

Hello 2016

Happy New Year to you all, I made this on PicMonkey this morning and it seems that today really is Page 1 of 365

I haven't made any new years resolutions but I think I would like to do this

and this seems achievable 

or this

Rachel bought me this notebook Christmas 2014 and I couldn't bring myself to use, which is really silly I know, so this will be my project record book. 

I'm going to write when I start a project and when I finish it. Hopefully that way I won't have tooooo many WIP's left by the end of the year!

I'm looking forward to seeing what 2016 has in store, how about you?