In my paper stash I have a block of really pretty papers. They're perfect for making plain white envelopes look a bit nicer. The pretty papers are simply layered onto the envelopes. Be careful of stripes. Mine are slightly skewed. I learned by my mistakes this morning.
I've just spent an hour pottering in the garden. I cleared the last pots of carrots and as soon as we eat the last of the celeriac I'll refresh that bed and get it ready for sowing or transplanting veg. Now it's time for a bit of crafting and I want to make some nice envelopes for yesterday's batch of cards. I've ordered some more cutting dies with a more male theme as I have very few suitable ones. They should be here by Thursday and I can spend the evening practicing with them.
I've spent a thoroughly lovely afternoon making cards today. We'd started our Sunday with a full English breakfast and a walk around the park. There was no sign of the otters but it was still nice to get out in the sunshine. It's been pleasantly warm out of the wind. Unfortunately the wind was blimmin cold so definitely not gardening weather. My intention is to make all the cards that I'll need for my friends and have them ready just to post when a birthday comes round. I'll share a couple of photos tomorrow as the light isn't good enough to take a decent photo.
For the past few years I've used our entrance porch as a heated greenhouse. We never use that entrance and if it had occurred to me before we had it built I'd have made it bigger. As it is it's perfect for growing veg indoors and this year I'm planning on growing through the winter months too. I've just ordered an ice blue GreenStalk for the porch and hopefully it'll arrive in April. That's the perfect time for me to plant it up with all manner of heat loving plants. Even on a bitterly cold day the porch heats up nicely as long as the sun is shining. Through the winter I'll grow cool weather crops like lettuce, spinach and radish.
This morning I've had a bit of a switch around to make room for my seedlings
Tony and I have been over to our friends for a lovely meal. I'm shocked to say that I polished off an entire bottle of prosecco. Brian always puts on a lovely spread and we didn't get around to dessert as we were a absolutely stuffed. He made a couple of different curries, rice and chips with naan bread. He. knows that I love a belting hot curry. I've left the apple crumble and custard that I made for them to enjoy another day. I've just ordered another GreenStalk for the porch. It'll be fantastic growing veg right through the winter indoors.
I'm absolutely loving the new craft room and making great strides in destashing. Yesterday we chucked out about ten ten years worth of old teaching stuff. It's given me masses more room for stuff that I'll actually use. This morning I sharpened all my chisels and it's lovely to be able to leave my current carving out so that I can work on it when the mood takes me.
I have that big box to sort through and need to get some bags to store the spare duvet and sheets. I couldn't bring myself to part with them as I only bought them last year for the spare room. They've only been used a handful of times.
I've had a thoroughly lovely day so far. This morning while Tony was out I pricked out and potted on some of my seedlings. To my utter surprise the sweet potato is throwing out shoots now. I'll be really pleased if I can actually grow sweet potatoes.
We've just been to the park for our otter fix. In fact we strolled the whole perimeter of the park because it's such a beautiful day. While the sun us out I'll go and pot my potato chits into bigger pots while the sun is out.
We finished this charity shop find this morning and were delighted to have no missing pieces. This afternoon I played whist with our group which has suddenly grown by four new members. They fit in really well and I think they'll continue to come. I was absolutely exhausted though as I'd been awake since 5am. I am overdoing the carbs lately and it's affecting my sleep pattern. I'll have to go back to eating a keto diet as it made me feel so much better. It's probably easier during the summer when I have tons of lovely fresh salad. Winter is all about the starchy root crops as they survive our winters.
The craft room is really starting to take shape now and here's how it looks so far. I have so much stuff to sort out but it will get done a little at a time so that I don't sicken myself of it.
We each have our own crafting space and I made a start filling my craft zone up while Tony was out for a couple of pints last night.
I've spent most of today dragging furniture around in the spare bedroom. It was a bit frustrating to find that I needed 5cms more space than my original layout would have entailed. It did mean a quick rethink and measure but actually the new layout will make much better use of the space. I'm staggered at just how much junk I still need to get rid of. I have so much crafting stuff left over from my time working in schools. I want to concentrate on more grown up stuff so will be giving away the other stuff on a local site. When Tony got in from work he was delighted to see how much I'd got done. Tomorrow we'll be putting our flat pack crafting tables together and with a bit of luck I'll be able to post a photo tomorrow evening
