house warming

We got the keys to our new house on Friday!   There's been a lot of paperwork and meetings with the mortgage broker, bank and solicitor - all over Christmas...but now we've done it - hooray!
Mum & Dad came to visit on Saturday and bought us the most cheerful & colourful pot of primroses...they look ace on our new doorstep :-)

Feeling sad today

Today we heard on the news that Neil Diamond is retiring from touring because he has been diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease. 

Tomorrow is his 77th Birthday (click here for the article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42784305) 
John and I saw him in October.  It was the best birthday present I have ever had and I will never ever forget it...Neil Diamond was Amazing - on stage for 3+ hours and his voice and charisma filled the arena 10 times over.
I feel so happy we got to see him live, and I hope he knows how smashing he is :-)
https://www.facebook.com/neildiamond/

Perfect for Llamas

 I love this new fabric....it's called I Wove You :: Bubblegum Blanket

 Isn't it lovely?

A rainbow of banners

 Our handmade felt banners now come in lots of colours

 Every single banner is cut out by hand (with my rotary cutter)

 Has a machine stitched channel, with the thread ends (very) neatly sewn in

 The wooden dowel is fed through the channel

 ...and the hanging cord is hand knotted

 Each banner is made with a double layer of felt so you can decorate your banner and then hide the reverse side within your banner.

ALL our banners can be seen on our website here: https://www.paper-and-string.net/shop-61

A holiday day, in the barn

 We're still officially closed - but today I was back in the barn :-)

 (very smugly) I tidied up before we closed for Christmas so I got stuck straight into the fun stuff!

 I've spent the entire day cutting, folding and packing lots of bits for our freebie kits....

...and I've made a start on the freebie kits that will be sent out this week - not a bad 1st day back at work :-)

will it be the year of the blog?