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All the photographs have been taken by myself including those of holiday.

Tuesday 30 August 2016

August Pinterest Challenge - Pin Chicks ~ Bracelets


Hi,

Another month and another challenge,   this time I saw this pattern on Pinterest and like the idea of making a bracelet with it,   I had several  trys and different sizes of rings and chains and this is what I came up with in the end, These bracelets do not have beads,  hopefully I will find time to try a variation with beads.
The pattern is really simple,  just chains and spilt rings and I don't  have a name for this pattern yet,
                                                      Starting with the first colour
There is a small ring at the beginning for the clips so we start with a ring 8 - 2 close ring.
Ring 2+ (join to first ring) 4-2 close ring
Chain 15 ds
Ring 2-2/2-2 close ring
Chain 15 ds  repeat until you have the required length

Second colour
Ring 2 + (join to the first ring) 4 + (join to second ring on the length) 2 close ring
                                                      chain 15 ds
                                                      Ring 2 + (join to the other side of ring) 2 / 2 + join to next ring on                                                         length)  2 close ring
                                                     Chain 15 and continue until you have finished the length finish with                                                      a ring 2+ 4 - 2 close ring and another ring for the clips 2+8 and close                                                      ring.
I used white lizbeth thread,  in white and purple and white with red and green no 20 threads.

Well there's my challenge do pop over and see what the other ladies had done this month,
Suzanne,                      Margaret 2

Caroline                       Muskaan

We are having beautiful weather at the moment, hopefully you are enjoying it.
                                 Hugs
                             Margaret




Thursday 25 August 2016

Klosters Switzerland and Liechtenstain


Hi,
This is the last post for our holiday and I hope you enjoy this one as much as the previous ones as some of you have.  It seems ages ago but they have been long posts and it takes time to put together.   In a couple of weeks we are off again so I think I better get on with this one.
We start in Klosters,  very famous resort in Switzerland for the skiing and for Prince Charles and Prince William who goes skiing in Klosters in the winter.  These first two pictures are as we drive into Klosters and also shows some of the ski slopes.


These are the window display in the Florist shop in the resort,  they were just so beautiful and I just had to stop and take some photos.



These unusual arrangements, were worthy of a photo and being an ex florist these displays were gorgeous.

Ok we are moving on these pictures are of the resort,  a very expensive resort,  we arrived at lunchtime,  to find the shops closed for a long lunch,  so it was window shopping and I might add there was no prices on the things in the windows,
We did stop and have a nice long drink,  a soft drink was 4.50 Swiss francs,  at 1.27 Swiss francs to the pound I will leave you to work it out.



Mountains in the back ground of the village and the ski slopes



A few more of Klosters





This is me,  Vernon liked the flowers and made me stand to take a picture,  I hate my picture being taken,  but it was too hot to complain, so I let him.








Right we are leaving Klosters and we are on the road to Liechtenstein.






Lichtenstein is a Principality of its own between Switzerland and Austria,  it has a royal family and a ruling Prince,  the Princely house of Liechtenstein is among the worlds oldest of royal families.  It is now ruled by Prince Hans-Adam II who took over in 1989.   Unfortunately I was on the wrong side of the coach to get a good picture of the castle that sits above the capital of Vaduz,  this is a miniature of the castle in the centre of Vaduz. 
Liechtenstein lies between the Lake Constance climate zone (wet and cool, influenced by the Atlantic) and dry warm inner alpine climate around the Swiss town of Chur.   My first and second post showed you Lake Constance and the town of Chur.  The currency for Liechtenstein is the Swiss franc,  so again everything was very expensive.
I hope you have enjoyed my posts about our holiday back in June,  gosh it seems so long ago and I am sorry its taken so long to write up these posts, all I hope that you have enjoyed seeing some of Europe.  Soon we shall be off again but this time flying over Europe onto to Greece.
Until we meet again take care and stay cool
                           Hugs
                       Margaret

Tuesday 23 August 2016

Felt flowers for the Unstampabelles challenge


 Hi,
I hope I am in time for a challenge I found this thanks to Wynn from the CD Sunday Challenge,  I saw it on her blog and thought I could do something,  The challenge lasts for a month and as I do a lot of tatting I thought I would try something new, so I hope this will be Ok.  This month their challenge is anything but a card.
So I have made these felt flowers,  I only got my die cutting machine at christmas so I am limited in what dies I have but I brought this die recently,  so I tried to cut the flower die out of felt.
Hence it worked and here's a picture of the cut shape



Next I folded the middle to make the rose and then sewing stitches very small gathered up the rest of the felt into a flower shape


 Sorry the white does not show up as much as I would like so here's the finished flower with a pearl in the middle.

Close up below.

The picture at the top shows a few I made in various colours.

This was for me an experiment with the die cutting machine and felt,  I think it worked and I will be making more of these flowers,   I did use a thicker piece of felt and it did not cut as well so in future I will make sure its thin felt for these flowers.
Here is a link for the Unstampabelles challenge
Hope the sun is shining where you are 
                                 Hugs
                             Margaret



Sunday 21 August 2016

CD Sunday Challenge - Hot Hot Hot



Hi,
Another fortnight has gone by and now its my job is to choose the winner from the last challenge which was my challenge.  Now its a new challenge and it Hot Hot Hot by Jocelyn.  I am not sure if this is what Jocelyn had in mind but this is what came in my mind when I saw the list.
I used for the backing paper Something for Everyone Cd By La Pashe, Fireman background no 3.
 The corset is a peel off by Starform which I have stitched with gold thread, threaded with matching velvet ribbon,  added some white lace around the top and red feathers at the bottom.  It was then matted on a black embossed base,  with a small matching ribbon bow.
Finished off with the words I'm Hot  in gold peel offs.
Please do pop over and see the DT cards on the  CD Sunday Challenge site and here is a link to the blog.    If you would like to join in we would be delighted to see you and remember to use something from a CD.
                                    Hugs
                                 Margaret

Wednesday 17 August 2016

New Tatting Shuttle


Hi,

Today I am in Sheffield,  to see the Professor about my eye, so I thought you would like to see my new tatting shuttle,  (I don't buy shuttles everyday)  but this caught my eye and its so pretty.  I brought this shuttle from Roseground.com here is a link 
Its for our Queens 90th Birthday the colour is lilac although the picture looks more blue it is lilac, the size is small and in plastic but I don't care it has a crown on one side and the writing on the other side, as below.  


I am very pleased with it but I very much doubt if I will use it,  this one is destined for the collection.
Until we meet again have a nice day.
                                   Hugs
                               Margaret

Monday 15 August 2016

Happy Anniversary Vernon

Hi,

Today is our wedding Anniversary,  14 years I have no idea where the time has gone, we have had our bad times with my illnesses,  hopefully I can stay as I am and get no worse with this Fibromalgia.  I made this card for Vernon in the colours of our wedding, gold,  cream and pink.
The die cut I brought off decutter on Facebook,  I matted it on a gold card, and the backing paper is a free sheet from a magazine and I cant remember which one.    I put cream ribbon down the side and gold butterflies which was our theme and colour on the day,  a spray of pink roses and pink rose buds with Ivy leaves,   On the day I had a silk bouquet which I made had orchids in but the card was too small for them so I changed it to roses,  I still have my bouquet but its looking a little worse for wear now.
I hope we have many years to come.
Have a nice day.
                                   Hugs
                              Margaret

Sunday 7 August 2016

CD Sunday Challenge - Lets Shape it up


 Hi,
This fortnight its my challenge for the CD Sunday Challenge Blog it Lets shape it up and being my first ever challenge I wanted something to wow you all,  and I hope this card is a wow.
Firstly I used the Glitter girls fan board,  its ages since I used any boards as they were hard to get at when all my stuff was in a boxes in the lounge, now I have a craft room well they are there to use.
I made the card in the shape of a Fan and then made another fan card out of miri card,  and put it though my die cutting machine with an embossing flower folder.  Then I cut out three panels and put in an image from the Art Deco Timeless Keepsakes CD,  Placed real lace around the top and stuck the miri card fan to the fan shape card making it a topper.   I then used peel off lines around the panels.  Made some parchment feathers and use one real feather with the parchment feathers for the spray placing paler blue roses and ribbon in the spray,  I was going to use a darker blue roses but it looked too dark so I used the paler blue, and added a bow on the card.   Here's a side view picture, it does stand up.


Please do pop over and see the other cards from the design team,  they are totally gorgeous and if you fancy joining in here is a link to the CD Sunday Challenge blog,  and if you feel like joining us please feel free we would love to see you.

Hugs
Margaret

Thursday 4 August 2016

Bernina Express


 Hi
Another train ride this time we start in Switzerland and end up in Italy.  So its all aboard the Bernina Express
The freedom of the mountains,  the ride combines the cool beauty of the mountains with the warm charm of Italy.
Running along the 122 Kilometres of track passing through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges and viaducts the is a masterpiece of engineering skills.  Its combination with the surrounding

 is what constitutes its recognition as a UNESCO world Heritage site,  this site really does stir the heart
We start at St Moritz which is the pictures at the start.  St Moritz is 6,000 feet (1800 meters) above sea level.  One of the most famous tourist destinations in the world,  it was a pity we did have time to look around but I went there many many years ago and it was a beautiful place.
So here go sit back and enjoy a beautiful ride.



 That's Janet's head,  behind the is a amazing waterfall.  I told you about Janet in the last post.  Vernon took a lot of these pictures he stood up as the train went along.  I might add this is only a small sample of the photos taken



 "The water to the north of the Bernina Pass naturally flow via the Danube and into the Black Sea,  while the waters to the south of the pass end up in the river Po and the Adriatic,  Efforts began in 1911 to change the natural order somewhat,  the tap water in the artificial lakes such as Lago Bianco and Lej Nair whose names refer to different colours:  Light for Lago Bianco:  dark for Lej Nair"
I don't know which lake this pictures are but thats a bit about them both.






 That's the train as we go around the bend,   you may see some more of it in the pictures as go along





The picture below has a reflection of Vernon as he takes some pictures



 A better picture of the train and inside with the large windows





We journey around this lake  Lake Pulu with view over to Cavaglia and the Italian Alps beyond.










 This is the Brusio Circular Viaduct,  it does go around in a circle and I have tried to take as many pictures of this as you can see it going around,  yes the train really does go around this corkscrew viaduct.   The viaduct has a 360 degree curve,  artificially allows the railway to preform a brusque change of height in a very short space.


 Yes that is the train,   we are going down and you see the rest of train as you go around the corkscrew.



I took this picture of this bridge I have no idea where we are at the time but I was fascinated by it.

Well thats is you are now in Tirano Italy,  it was very hot 36c and after the coolness of the mountains it was a bit of a shock to the body.
I hope you enjoyed the ride,  as I say this is just a few photos of our journey we did back in June.   We enjoyed the Bernina Express better the ride was slower and we could take more photos,
I have at least one more post of this amazing coach holiday,
Until we meet again take care

                            Hugs
                        Margaret

Information was taken form the guild book on the Bernina Express.