I'm back :)

Well, it's been a while :)
A million things have happened since I last wrote, mostly nothing to do with this blog so I won't bore you with them :)
Suffice to say I now have an allotment that is providing us with all our veg and fruit. Except bananas, bit difficult that one.

Here is a piece of work I recently finished in my favourite colours, painted in oils.

I have a title in mind for it, but would love to know what you might call it - feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment box.

Clematis Montana

Today I have to go and buy a new car and put the old one to rest at scrap metal merchants.
Of course it is raining :)

Another Iron Lady gets put to rest today in a state funeral she didn't want. Personally, I did not like her policies but she implemented them with conviction that it was right for the country. Unlike our current government who seem set in tearing it apart. May she rest in peace.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those hurt by the Boston Bombings, victims and relatives alike. A tragic and senseless waste of life.

Janice x

Vintage Sewing Kit

Hello all,

Hope you had a great weekend and for those like me, in the UK, enjoying the gradually warming weather.

This Sewing kit was a free gift on the front of Homestyle Sewing. It included all the fabric, wadding, felt and tape plus some pins, needles and buttons. I've added some needles and the scissors. I was pleased with the finished result but the instructions were not so good. The fabric provided wasn't big enough to follow the dimensions given, so I had to reduce the size to fit. There is the opportunity for a little embellishment to make it your own, but I quite liked the emphasis on the different pretty prints. The magazine was quite expensive at £7.99 but I think the kit makes it worth the price. I'll be looking out for the next issue eagerly.
There are a couple of other nice patterns and projects although IMHO the templates could have been done better. The leg holes on the nappy covers for instance don't match and I have no idea what the diagram relating to the sewing kit means at all.
I love all things owly, so it was nice to see a couple of little projects with that motif on them. Also, you can't have too many bags, and the projects have given me some ideas for one based on theirs.














If you have a crafting blog, why not share your makes or ideas with us on the Show it Sunday page? You'll get some free promotion on twitter and pinterest through the week, letting more people seeing what you do.

Happy Crafting as always,


Janice x

And the Rain comes Pouring Down

They say it never rains but it pours and that has certainly been the case over the last week.

On Thursday last, my faithful old car decided it had run it's last mile and refused to start. A visit to the garage revealed there is a problem with the bit of computer brain that runs the diesel injection system. Unfortunately the car is so old the part isn't made any more except as part of the whole fuel pump which costs three times the value of the car and then some more to remove the old one and fit a new one. The only option is to find a reconditioned unit. Therein lies the problem. Apparently there are at least 5 different versions so we need a part number for the version we have. The garage can't find it. We have a part dissembled car and a whole load of places to go.



Yesterday we had tickets to see Meat Loaf in concert. We just had to get there - it's his Farewell tour. Public transport was no use as the last train back was 9pm and the last bus 7pm. The concert didn't even start till 8pm. We managed to move heaven and earth and call on a friend to borrow her car. It was exciting to see people starting to arrive as we did at the Capitol Arena in Nottingham. People of all ages mostly dressed in denim and leather. There was a real buzz in the air. Then devastation, with just an hour to go before he was due on stage, the concert was cancelled because of ill health. Our tickets would be valid for a rescheduled date in May. To add insult to injury, that's in the week we have booked our holiday!

Today there was some hope on the car front. We had found a supplier of reconditioned units. A large number of phone calls later and hopes were quashed as the particular unit on our car couldn't be verified. We may have one last ditch attempt to get the number following a suggestion on a forum. It makes it almost impossible to have the car ready for when we next need it though, which is Thursday. My OH has to go to hospital for an operation. The hospital is 75 miles away and unreachable by public transport.

We will have to wait until tomorrow to see how things go, but I think I may have to make a very quick decision on getting another car.

I'm hoping for a drier next couple of days :)



Janice x

Robin Digi Stamp

Hello everyone, hope you've all had a great weekend.

This sketch of a Robin
is one I have done from a photograph of mine. It is the first in a range of Digi Stamps I'm planning to produce. They are all going to be accurate natural representations, except for the fantasy ones :).

I thought of selling them with a small copy of the original photo as a colour guide.

What do all the digi stamp fans out there think? Are there any subjects you would love to see?

For those of you who are not crafters, digi stamps are pictures that can be printed at home to be coloured in for paper craft projects. They can also be bought ready coloured. It is a great saving on wooden backed stamps both in terms of cost and space.


I'm off out shortly to see Meatloaf so may have some pics to show you of that tomorrow,



Janice x

Don't look back in Anger

Yesterday was not a good day.

First thing in the morning the car refused to start. It's a very old Vauxhall vectra and has done lots of miles for me with no trouble. But the timing of the breakdown is just not good. Firstly we have tickets to see Meatloaf on Sunday and secondly OH needs to get to hospital at the end of the week - 75 miles away!

Next, I got a message saying that a set of pendants had not arrived with a bride to be. They were for her bridesmaids and posted over a week ago. I am mortified that they haven't arrived for her wedding today :(

I found it really hard to do anything constructive with the rest of the day.

Today I'm going to bring back some positivity by looking at how far I've come on this journey in blogland.

Start at the beginning of this year and my blog was just a handful of pages over 2 years . It had been ignored for an age and had 4 or 5 visitors a month. I scrapped everything I had done except one page which shows how to make a photographic light box for next to nothing.

In January the Ultimate Blog Challenge seemed like a great way to get back to blogging on a regular basis. 31 blogs later and I have a bit of a following and about 20 page views a day. Little acorns .....

February saw the start of a regular feature - Tutorial Tuesday. It's not always on a Tuesday, life doesn't seem  to want to run to my programme :). Now up to about 30 views a day.

March came along and Craftfest with it. Loads of social media tasks meant I was really busy blogging, tweeting, pinning etc. I learned such a lot and by the end of the month my views were up to about 80 a day.

This month and a new project unfolds. A regular feature reviewing craft kits, which will be shown both here and soon, in an online magazine.

My following is gradually increasing and is getting closer to the point where the Give Away can take place. Why not pop along and have a look at what you might choose if your name was the one out of the hat?
Jangill Jewellery

Have you looked back and appreciated how far you have come? Sometimes it is easy to forget how much you have done :)

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this blog and especially to those who keep me going by leaving a comment.


Janice x

The Weather is all my fault.

Honestly, the weather really is my fault.

Why? Because I decided to take on an allotment!








Since we took it over last September, we have hardly been able to get on it. Firstly it spent half the winter under water and then March left it under snow or frozen solid.

As the ground has not been properly used for some time, it actually looks more like a piece of field than an allotment. That means a lot of digging as we don't want to use a rotovator unless we have to. The ground is full of perennial weeds so rotovating would multiply our problem.

Honey Berries

The original reason for starting the allotment was to get our own fresh organic produce. My Dad used to grow a lot of his own, especially tomatoes, and they tasted so different to the shop bought items. Now with the increasing cost of fruit and veg, it may even be a money saver.

Potatoes are a case in point - they have doubled in price but the quality is poor. We were only going to grow a few, but now we will be growing quite a few! There is nothing quite like a few freshly dug new potatoes, no need to peel, just wash and cook.

Charlotte Potatoes

My own favourite though is fresh fruit. We have raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, honeyberries, rhubarb, strawberries and cherry plums.
The plums I am particularly pleased with. The plants are sold as hedging so they are just over £10 for 5. They can be kept to a bush size making picking really easy but can be grown as a small tree if you want to.
I will have to give them some protection to stop the birds getting them all :) The birds won't go hungry though as there are plenty of slugs about and we'll be growing some sunflowers to provide some seed.

We are praying for some warmer dry weather so that we can catch up with our plans.

Are you growing anything? Has the cost and lack of freshness made you think about growing your own?
Have you got any great recipes for using fresh fruit?



I love to read your thoughts and opinions, so please feel free comment :)

Janice x