Anyone left visiting this poor, abandoned blog will probably be thinking I have run away to join the circus. We just seem to have been really busy. Not doing a lot, but doing enough for me to just run out of time for blogging. However, a few of my friends have given me a nudge (see, sarcasm does work!!) and I am here again.
It's been half term holidays for us this week and my Mam took the week off too so we've been out and about having a few adventures. On Monday we went down to Middlesbrough, to where I go for a monthly crop for a lovely day doing my friend Gail Milburn's 'glue and stick' class. We had a really lovely day making advent calendars using a baking sheet and magnets. Everyone used the same design and just made them their own with the papers and embellishments. Mam made a snowman themed calendar in pink and blue colours and I made a more traditional red and green coloured one. They are both hybrid calendars, all the papers except one piece of patterned paper were printed from digital kits.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3DCK0pudaO4Rzf9p6PkStojtaTXQuzsHoBWDeHT7lMHSrosWepQhklixc8mMASA_WDkevweq138hxJV1E6IlSpZDZNBbOmbztX1B77j79Xz1wFRqURSBWJDN3j8L5hpSBqGv/s320/snowman-calendar-2.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO8HzXAnEk3dpN15vMsu6vpN-lBXFsDG9mPmsOhcPfQcOQc-ooKhyphenhyphenl9N6UJgoc7nuovXCNcocJZQ4qzy5czirVJJ7LJkgeIQaBOwW_5k6GDg6aSK0j0K0NyiWAHLsvWV8olxzW/s320/advent-calendar-1.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiOrkkGVZijyW5loHaq08c1ME1UarLxFbUeW4GVVnHbumm9cKvdIH6EABgjtCGAlvZMOkF3CcJMp6pJrCipM28KFlLdyzbS1uCAhMkeoeZVmOes5Wlgm0YamMAFgAIpbPtVaG_/s320/advent-calendar-1-detail.jpg)
Yesterday we went for a day out to the Yorkshire Dales. We visited Richmond, Leyburn and Hawes and spent a rather scrummy half hour tasting cheese at the Wensleydale cheese factory. Of course we had to bring some home too and it is simply delicious :) The weather was sooooooooooo cold though, at 2.30 in the afternoon it was only 2 degrees!! These photographs don't really show how cold it was - I should have taken a picture of my blue hands and rudolph red nose!!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqfJvOo_5UTCys65EsPSssucvk15Spg_fmx5I2GdsFNKRXMNG9yCqlI7nOb21F-e8eHuHjxIPGTTRrJSkfUAf0GqnLshl5QDi1_RNf8W9CGNjKqc4Hh_kQQ1TmP082y6Ecl_ej/s320/yorkshire-2.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihpDlC_gCH8k4jh9tOkoKlpscHxVeZIVs-_O3PJWlky329WNA1fbIJxw_sIVmL8pN4joIMpu117D5PxMLNfEKtWN35mYIPBuNsNPn0aAzKnYvTY57VSPjxw9j_Ww5cUL7yrgWC/s320/yorkshire-1.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSQe8wS0rXL8-3itjF22gGivjLd4V77Wxa6qEbJl3G6sDFOJtItLaDDjryDrwNYFuejITEYX8MAPnSJUxAmENloNAxxvh70XSKE8SBvpe6emagQW89Vd0KDzJvxkOR1TSc2SEB/s320/yorkshire-3.jpg)
Tomorrow we are going out again, down the coast for a walk, a bit of a poke around some shops and fish and chips beside the sea - I shall wear my thermals.
I have managed to do some crafting in between these adventures, hopefully I shall manage some more at the weekend - I am feeling very inspired now to do all sorts of Christmas crafts :)