See you all in Two Weeks

Off on my holidays tomorrow morning - really early.  We are going to Egypt which has been something I've wanted to do for many years.

We will be sailing  down the Nile for a week and then spending three days in Cairo visiting the Grand Pyramid and the Sphinx and then we will have four days on the coast chilling out before flying back home again.

The restful day I planned for today didn't quite work out as I had a flat tyre whilst  doing a last minute bit of shopping. It was the same tyre that I had a puncture repaired in last week! So - spent 75 minutes exactly in a car park waiting for the good old RAC - their estimate was 75 minutes so I was really impressed with the timing. lol  Thank goodness I had my E-reader with me - pity I had forgotten my mobile phone though. lol

See you all when I get back!

Paint Fusion Christmas Candle

Tried my hand at painting a candle today using the paint fusion technique. Not too sure it has worked that well  but thought I'd put it on here anyway - as a record of my first attempt at painting a candle.

Can you spot the 'deliberate'  mistake? lol  I put the light spots on the berries and only after I had finished did I realise I'd had the candle upside down!!!!  

Oh well  - so it has been lit from below!

 Never mind - I'll keep this one on my craft room shelf and hope I can see my progress. I think I'm going to end up with a lot of candles on the shelf before I get one good enough to give away! lol

Hope you are all having a good weekend - I'm looking forward to my last week at work before I go on holiday on 31st!

 

Finally Made it!!!

No crafting for me today as we finally managed to book a balloon flight that wasn't cancelled. It was a Christmas present to my husband from his son and we have been booking dates ever since - only for the wind to be too high for the flight to go ahead at the last minute.

 We were really surprised when last night - at 11.00pm - we heard the flight was on at 6.00am this morning  and that the launch site had been changed due to the wind direction! That meant an hour's drive to get there and about three hours sleep for me by the time I got myself organised and worked out how to get to the new launch site.

It was quite an interesting experience but, if I'm honest,  I'm not sure I would rush to do it again - certainly not if it meant all the booking and re-booking we have had to do this year. I don't want to sound ungrateful but it has taken up so much time waiting to see if the flight was going to take place or not and not planning anything else for that time - just in case. Some of the people on our flight had been trying to get their booking for over a year though so I guess our eight months wasn't bad after all. lol

In the end we were away from home for just over four hours and in the air for about 45minutes which passed very quickly.  They took some photographs with a camera that swung outside the balloon on a boom - here we all are!

Franco and I  are the two in the front left hand corner of the basket.

 It was very misty as you can see and I was a lot less nervous than I thought I would be as there was very little sensation of moving. I wrapped up in several jumpers but it was really warm in the basket because of the flames over our heads so I felt very overdressed especially as the pilot was in a short sleeved shirt. lol.  They were a really lovely group of people and we had a lot of laughs

en-route.

Getting in and out of the basket was fun - I'm glad there aren't any photographs of that! I was tipped unceremoniously out of the basket which was laid on its side after we landed - that was easier than climbing in before we set off though I can tell you.

Once we were down in a farmer's field  - with a bit of bump or two.................. the younger members of the group were comandeered to roll on the balloon to get all the air out and to help pack it away while I watched with a glass of Bucks Fizz - that was a good bit. lol.  We then had to wait for the recovery vehicle to come and find us to take up back to our cars. It took us about 15 minutes to get back by road.

I haven't been very energetic since we got home though - getting up at 4.15 on a Sunday is not going to be a habit - bad enough having to rise at 5.30  three days a week to go to work. lol.

I'd be interested to know if any of you have been up in a balloon  and how you enjoyed it?

Happy Boot Sale Finds!

I dragged my poor husband to a boot sale today for the first time in ages. I was half hoping I'd find some storage for my craft room but couldn't have imagined how lucky I was going to be.

First I found two sets of shelf type compartments that were perect for stacking on the back of my desk to keep all the bits that I like to keep at hand. I thought the seller was using them just to display the items that he had for sale and was really surprised when he said he would sell them to me.

It was just starting to rain as I bought them so we went back to the car to put them in - as the rain had stopped by then we decided to go back in and then I found yet another wooden rack with twelve small square compartments which I thought would fit on a second desk I use to keep my paper cutters on.

I then bought twelve little plastic boxes with lids which would fit inside the holes and headed for home.

I've spent the rest of the day re-organising my craft room and trying to sort out what could go where.

I can't believe my luck as they are just perfect. I've taken a few pictures to show you what I have done with them. 

These are the compartments that I found first - they fit the desk perfectly.  They cover  the gap behind my desk where all sorts of thing used to drop down so they actually make the desktop a bit larger than before. When stacked on top of each other they  make ten  large square compartments - and there's still room to keep my MS punches and the desk light on top so now I actually have a bit of room on the desk to craft!  

This is the second find - I wish there had been two! I'm hoping my husband will be able to make me another one to go next to it as I could fill it twice over. I can even store my Cuttlebug and tiny sewing machine on top.

This is part of the other side of the room which has a large Ikea cabinet on the wall (not a boot sale find unfortunately)   - I can't believe I have filled it all and still need more space.

I paid £4 for the compartments on my desk and £1 for the other rack. The twelve  little boxes cost me £6 so I have done all this for just £11

I would thoroughly recommend a visit to the nearest boot sale - who knows what you might find.

I'm now absolutley exhausted - my craft room  has never looked so tidy but my husband says he doesn't hold out any hopes that it will last!

Do you think he's right???