Whittling

We visited  friends of ours during December and Kev got to talking about his hobby of crafting with wood. A week or so later, Kathleen gave us a gift, including a small book on whittling for Kevin.  He had never really had a go at wood carving before (turning is his thing), but decided to have a go.

Incredibly, this is the result of his first attempt!!
My boy is so talented; he is wasted in teaching.

A turned gift.

Our parish priest, who had been with us for almost 12 years was moved by the diocese a couple of weeks ago, and Kev got busy turning to make him a special gift.

He turned a chalice and communion plate, coating the inside of the chalice with gold leaf, and simply waxing the outsides to show the grain.

I hope Fr Des liked them.

Brushscript practice

Last weekend was our church bazaar, and Kev made robins and other ornaments from wood to sell.

To try and help make them look a little more professional I tried out my brushscript to make tags for each robin and a poster.

Together they were a great success and we raised over £80 for the church in under three hours!

He's going to have a go at making angels to sell next year to see if we can break the £100 barrier!

Chalice and Plate

My husband got interested in wood-turning when I bought him a lathe for Christmas a couple years ago.  Since then, he has made many handcrafted items: from plates and bowls, to a pair of bespoke bedside lamps (ordered by me!) for our newly decorated bedroom.
When we heard the sad news that our old parish priest, who had retired a while back, had died, Kevin decided to find out about the traditions linked to the burial of a catholic priest.  One of these involves the communion cup, so Kev asked if he could make a chalice and plate to place upon the coffin during the funeral from wood, as a final gift to Fr Donlan.

 He had been our parish priest for over 18 years, and presided at our wedding 25 years ago. The chalice is our final gift to him and then the parish I have been a member of since I was 4 years old.

I Am...

...Creative.

Remember this post? I loved my little milk bottle crates so much, I thought they deserved a page to themselves!

Papers are Simple Stories 'I Am' (hence the title), enamel dots are faux dots made using Tonic self levelling Nuvo Crystal Drops.

The doily is gold foiled after die cutting using a Minc machine, ideal to go with the foiling on the papers.

Vintage Milk Bottles

At the end of the summer holidays I went out for afternoon tea with Hannah, and the pub we visited served the milk in the cutest 1/3 pint milk bottle; the ones we used to get our school milk in (until Maggie took it away). I loved them so much that I determined to have a few at home.

 Onto eBay and I picked up 8 vintage bottles for a bargain price. As Kev is very handy I convinced him to make two little made-to-measure crates for my bottles.

I then finished them off using paper straws, drink me stickers (both picked up at Primark would you believe!) and a bit of stamping.

I love them on my kitchen windowsill.

Not well...

...the end of term often means I'm sick... and the cold turned into a total loss of voice; not good for a teacher.
Am on the mend now, so thought I would post some of the pages I had made before the silence hit me.

The 4th was all about the plan for December; I simply took down the calendar and added some of the festive dates to the journalling.  I didn't manage to fit them all in, but those days will probably have a page to themselves later on.

For day 5 I chose to journal about Kev's continuing love for messing about with wood.  Since buying him a bandsaw for his 50th and a lathe last Christmas there has been no stopping him.. Wonder what will Father Christmas bring this year?

Turn, Turn, Turn

I hardly ever see Kevin now as he spends much of his time in the garage playing with the lathe I bought him for Christmas.

 He has made some beautiful things all within a month from scrap timber including magic wands for the kids

(even at 19 Katie still wanted one)

mushrooms of all sizes and bobbins for me to decorate,

and my favourite, a gorgeous bowl.