Huddlesford Junct, Coventry Canal

 We had quite a storm last night but the morning was bright and sunny.

After a fifteen minute stop at Fazeley Junction while I went to Tesco's to get a newspaper and stuff we set off along the Coventry canal heading for Fradley Junction.

Passing The Plough at Huddlesford Junction we saw a gap in the moorings and dived in.  That was Sunday lunch sorted. A huge plate of fish and chips for me and a steak for David.  I slept away the afternoon again.


The wild flowers were out in profusion, bluebells and wood anemones inWhittington Wood (we always call in Miles' Wood as a dear friend of ours used to be the Commanding Officer there).  The back gardens we sailed past were also looking good with blossom, bulbs and spring flowers.

Here is an exploding box with a pair of baby bootees inside.

The outside was covered with pink gingham paper, matted onto pink card with a die-cut topper on each side and a rose and die-cut leaves on the lid.

 The box opens out when you remove the lid to show off the bootees.  Each of the four inside box sides was matted with either gingham or spotted paper, again matted onto pink card and 4 die-cut ovals or circles added with leaves and roses.

The bootees were stuck onto the card with glue dots, just to keep them in place, and can be peeled off for use.

Below New Marton Locks - Llangollen Canal

 I know we like early starts, but today was a bit excessive.  We left the basin at a quarter past SIX!!!  It was still dark and we bumped and ground our way down through the narrows, missing all the dramatic scenery, but on the other hand we didn't meet another boat until we got to the lift bridge past the aqueduct.

As you can see, sunrise as we went over.  I walked it again.  Getting really brave, no?

When I got to the 100th turn of the lift bridge I finally noticed that it was not going up any more.

The man on the other boat tried pushing, and I eventually had the nous to wind it own a bit and then up again, that seemed to work.  Still, I didn't have to wind it down.

The hire boats were out in force after Chirk and by the time we got to New Morten locks there were queues of 4 boats coming up stream at both locks - still I didn't have to do much work working them, there was lots of help.

Two days ago it took us 5 hours to get from the top of New Marton to the Basin in Llangollen and 4 hours to get back down!  I've seen a slower current on the Thames!

Another example of my expanding repertoire. 

An "exploding" box, because when you take the lid off the sides explode out and fall down.

This box contains a pair of baby stocks.

The sides are decorated with patterned paper and die cuts with a rosette on the lid.

I have made several in blue, pink and white.

Huntings Bridge, Shropshire Union Canal

Left or Right?  Decisions, decisions.  Leaving the bottom lock of the Wolverhampton 21.

Blogger has been doing some updating.  At the moment it is driving me mad, but I suppose I will get used to it eventually.

We started down the Wolverhampton 21 at 0815, and had to wait at the third one so that the BW guys could fill the empty pounds.  We eventually set off 20 minutes later with help from that lovely lady who lives on a boat at the top lock and looks after abandoned dogs.  This one was a very friendly Staffie.  She always carries her windlass while dog walking and bread for the ducks.  The first 10 locks were for us and we stopped at lock 10 for a bacon and egg buttie from the stall there, then it was on - all the rest were against us and it seemed to take forever.  David had to clear the weed hatch three times!  Eventually we could smell horse so we knew we had only three more locks to do (Wolverhampton Race Course) and then a brief trip on the Staffs and Worcester and onto the Shroppie.

We eventually moored up on the excellent visitor moorings here along with Caxton and Matilda Rose who spent the end of last year iced in in Birmingham.

Now for what I did with the products from dotcomgiftshop

 I made a pyramid exploding box. 

 I covered the inside with some pretty flowery paper and on the outside I sponged a sky using a mask to make the cloud.  Then I stamped a row of trees from one of my Lavinia stamps.  I used green card for the bottom to represent the grass and a strip of Martha Stewart Fence over the join.  I finished off with some paper flowers and one of the rabbits from the dotcomgiftshop

I found that the sticky dot at the back of these rabbits had lost its glue, so I used a dab of PVA.





I used one of the "chicken" for the surprise in the box.  The instructions for this are very clear but I could not find any beaks in the packaging.  Also, they suggested using a heat gun which I don't have, so it was back to the trusty PVA which was a bit messy.

I think I might save the other pompoms for another project.


And now for the card.  A bit of recycling here.  I cut the picture of the snowdrops from a card that was sent to me some time ago and just stuck it to the front of another white card blank.

And now it seems they've taken off the spellcheck.  Sorry, too frustrated to check for mistakes now.