Craft Life

Gnomes in the Attic   If you look up 'gnome' online and synonyms of that word you will find that gnomes, elves, gonks and goblins amongst others are all lumped into the same category. It is even suggested the terms are interchangeable. I find that hard to believe as each has fairly distinct characteristics and of course some similarities.   To my knowledge Christmas elves are often slim nimble and busy little creatures with pointy hats and pointy shoes with big buckles and they wear a sort of tracksuit with a pointed peplum ending below the waist which comes down...

The Beauty of Handmade Christmas Cards There is an elusive fuzzy warm feeling around Christmas and all that is Christmas if you allow yourself to distill it from all of the cynicism that abounds. Humans gravitate toward happy fuzzy warmth in order to balance some of the harsh realities of life. These days with social media internet, radio and television, every bit of news about the whole world and all the suffering that entails, is blasted at us from all sides. We are overwhelmed and/or saturated by all we are expected to process, care about, respond to, believe and achieve....

Thank You Teacher Gifts to Keep Can you imagine being a teacher for a couple of years? Let's say you teach just one particularly great bunch, 25 strong, or whatever the optimum class number is these days is. You teach the junior infants through to senior infants and you all get along famously. It comes time for them to carry on up the ranks. They get another teacher and they all want to give you 'thank you teacher' presents to show their appreciation. Great. So maybe you'll receive a few packets of your favourite sweets, flowers and a plant or...

Gardeners Gifts and Floral Delights It's that time of year again isn't it. When everything is bursting out all over and the birds are having a great time in the glory of Summer. Not that you would think it today. It is bucketing down outside in the west of Ireland at the moment. All of our semi-feral wild cats are cosy in their beds here! Tabby, White Cheeks, Buster, Miss Prim and Miss Molly. I would love to climb into a fleece lined wine crate beside them all and snuggle up today too. Instead I decide to write about floral...

I Love Reading Good Bookmarks Encourage You to Read - Check these Out! I love reading but it wasn't always that way. As a child I thought reading books was a 'dusty' pursuit. Tedious and drawn out. I preferred comics, joke books (I had five on the go at one time) and fairy tales with beautiful illustrations that I used to trace on grease proof paper and keep rolled up somewhere. I am still attracted to children's books with beautiful illustrations and still have some of my childhood ones. I Was Encouraged into the World of Books By the Lure...