Wednesday 25 June 2008

Radio Star

It has been a difficult few days, with nothing seeming to go OK however I did get through a Radio Interview that lasted for about 20 minutes live late last night.

I was invited by Steve Redgrave on Radio Humberside to take part in their "every picture tells a story"

so thought I would share my picture with you here too.






this picture show me a fellow designer Elaine Kettle with some very early craft work, here we are presenting a comptetition entry for a garden on a saucer!! looks as those dresses. The sad thing is I have a pair of white boots on with that dress. I can't remember who won, but have started to think about if taking part in these sort of competitions, are part of what has made me want to trying something different, to stand out from the crowd in some small way.

I hope to have some more news about the new designs soon But Andy is still poorly, so get well soon Andy, it is not the same without him.
here is the link to the radio interview and the story they wrote, which is now on their site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/humber/content/articles/2008/06/24/117_eptas_lynndaworsnop_feature.shtml

I am going to try and have a quiet night, get some sleep, get to the doctors as early as possible tomorrow and hope tomorrow is a better day!!

Sunday 22 June 2008

Card Competition and ATC swap

Beverley Scrappers have released the details of the card competition and the ATC swap to run along side their Charity Craft Day. Surprise surprise!! the theme for both is make it PINK!
If you can't make it on the day a great way to support the group and the charity is to send you competition entries by post.
Check out the details www.beverleyscrappers.blogspot.com

Friday 13 June 2008

When you need inspiration, where does it come from?

For some reason I have been struggling to process information today perhaps I am tired because it has been a busy week. I had a late night last night again (well anything after 8pm outside the house is late for me these days). I was invited to to hear Ruth Badger give a motivational speech and she was excellent. Her talk did seem more relevant to those in big business as opposed to someone in the design type business I work in and although I found it interesting, entertaining, informative, it didn't provide inspiration to me. So where do I look for inspiration? where do you find yours?


Whilst I am pondering that thought over the weekend here is a card I made in January. I made it during another difficult time, when I need to remind myself that I believe in what I am trying to do, even if others don't. It has been buried on my desk since I moved in here in February and some how fell out of a file today. So I thought I would post it here to remind us all to believe in a brilliant future.


It was created with one of the large daisy images from the double daisy stamp set. This now come now in two sizes and can be found at http://www.apollo-office.co.uk/


I painted the stamp with black watercolour paint and a thick scrubby brush to get the markings.




Wednesday 11 June 2008

ticket news

Some news from Beverley Scrappers. Tickets for their Charity Craft Day on 19th July at Woodmansey Village Hall, go on sale on Monday to find out more check out their site http://www.beverleyscrappers.blogspot.com/

As one the teachers / exhibitors I should have some to sell soon.
Sorry I haven't posted any stamping recently but the business is keeping me busy, sorting shows and events to attend. If you have any ideas for shows worth going to, shops who would like to host a demonstration of our stamps or craft clubs and classes who would like to us to visit then email me at oakhousestudio@googlemail.com
What do you think makes a good show?

Sunday 8 June 2008

A Grand Day Out

no this is not the story of what we have done today!! but a note about what is planned for the future.

Beverely Scrappers which is a scrapbooking club I help with, are organising a Charity Craft Day. It's on Saturday 19th July 2008 at Woodmansey Village Hall 10-30am to 3pm

the plans at the moment include workshops, and make and takes, with a bit of retail therapy thrown in.

I will be there with our stamps and embossing powders (new colours to be out very soon)!! hey your are the first people to hear that, I haven't told anyone else yet.

if you want to keep up to date with plans for this event checkout their blog at http://www.beverleyscrappers.blogspot.com/

we also have some details on the news page at http://www.oakhousestudio.com/

Saturday 7 June 2008

another feel the fear moment

I have had a wonderful day spreading the word. I have done a workshop in Hutton Cranswick with some very reluctant stampers (to be fair, there were a couple of people who LOVE IT!)
we concentrated on the basics and got them confidently stamping and embossing. We were delayed getting in the room, so couldn't get set up before hand. 24 ladies in one room all running heat guns on a warm June day was asking to be roasted BUT I really enjoyed the day and I think they have too.
They all put their feelings on one side and had a go, a few real converts and a couple of people who are still not bothered but who I hope had a great time and feel more confident about stamping. A good day all round.

Monday 2 June 2008

let us all eat cake

I had a lovely night out with some of the girls in the design team as a post script to my birthday.

We met up for cocktails and then went to a new resturant to try out an exciting menu. Elisa was the last to arrive, as those who know her would have guessed. To be fair to Elisa she was the only one who had been "out to work" that day, those of us who work from home get a head start on getting ready. And to be fair, she is the only one with daughters who wanted to help her get ready and make suggestions (to be honest I am not sure what I would have to wear to get my boys to notice any thing different!!). We saw her drive past long before she arrived but she had a parking problem (the rest of us had been delivered by our DHs).

By the time she actually got to the tapas bar, I was well into the singapor slings again, so very relaxed. So I was very calm when she handed me a large cake box, well it was my birthday "do". Inside was a really great cake, the lady who had made it had been on all the websites including this blog, so there I was sat on this cake surrounded by cards, ink pads and stamps. The cards even had images reflecting the new designs especially the floral frames and the sunflower. next to me was my tap shoes. I am well known for taking my shoes off but seeing tap shoes with the little taps underneath was very special. Oh yes! forgot to say, there I was sat with shoes and my head off. Getting to the Tapas bar the head had fallen of the figure on the cake, we stuck it back on several times, and was a bit disconcerting having ones head rolling round in a box, and of course I couldn't bring myself to eat the head no matter how sweet my tooth is.

We had a great night, with half the resturant wanting to look inside my box, but we ate too much and couldn't face dessert. So we ajourned for the night and met up the next day at Hazels. This did mean we had to share with the kids, but they enjoyed a an afternoon getting wet and we ate cake and had a go with Eliza's new brayer.


I really like this techneque but Eliza was not taking to it as well as she normally does, after lots of playing we decided it was the card stock and we left it to try with something more shiney!!
Heres my cake and you should be able to see the brayer and ink pads...now that what I call a birthday.
If you want to see the stamps ( sunflower and floral frames go to http://www.apollo-office.co.uk/products/new_releases.html )



and here are the kids getting wet!They had a lovely time, and I really enjoyed "looking after" them. Not sure they needed looking after BUT!!



Sunday 1 June 2008

back from my travels

We have returned safely from our trip to Norfolk. We went to the Caravan Club National Rally at Holkham Hall. This is something we try and do most years. I have been going since I was about 6 years old.

Martin's parents were there and we were joined by Elaine and her family. Elaine is one the other designers at Oak House Studio. We did lots of talking but very little crafting, surprising little actually.

Martin was playing in the volleyball tournament, but the highlight of the weekend for Martin, Ben and most of the volleyball team was a trip to Wembly to see Hull City make it into the premier league. This trip took some organising. Firstly everyone had to get a ticket which wasn't as easy as it sounds as everyone in Hull wanted to go I think!! Then they had to organise a train from Kings Lynn. Then there was panic that the gates would be locked by the time they got back so more phone calls to arrange late entry, then they had to arrange with the Volleyball organiser to play their games first thing Saturday morning. That agreed time was still tight to get to Kings Lynn so they convinced West Yorkshire to play them at 8:30 am and Leicester to get up early to ref the game. What great sports these guys were to do that. With not too much trouble they won their pool and went through to the next round on Sunday and changed East Yorkshire shirts for City shirts and dashed off.

I stayed behind to look after our dog and another one. I had a great day, lots of walks and fresh air, then found myself nodding off whilst listening to the game on the radio. Records show that Hull City won the game and the from the stories they tell everyone had a great time.




I think the adrenalin they had all been pumping all week carried them through because not only did they win the pool on Sunday beating Cheshire, they got up early on Monday to play the semi finals and won through in the final...Amazing. Martin would like me to tell you he won at cribbage too. The others will tell you it was tie between him and myself but Martin insisted on playing on until we had a winner so as usual we let him win so we could go to bed!!