Taking Stock.

 We've just reached the end of the school holidays for my DDs.

We've had a brilliant time!

Part of DD1's holiday 'tasks' (not quite homework!) was to compile a diary of what she got up to and to make some a collage to show some of it.  In fact, she decided to make an A4 sheet for each full week - and a great job she made of them too.

It made me reflect on what we've managed creatively over the holidays, conscious that I'd not done nearly as much stitching as usual.

 We went on a creative glass course as a family.

Above is the start point of a fused piece using bulls eye glass, enamel and frit.  We haven't got our pieces back as they are still being fired (or are cooling down - still in the kiln, anyway).  We're looking forward to seeing how they turned out!

 We also got to mask beakers - this by DD2 was masked with PVA glue.

The other skill was glass cutting - and then arranging the shapes to a pleasing form before they were fused.  Again, results not yet available!

 This beaker by DD1 was masked using masking tape.

 Mine was also masked using masking tape.

All three were sandblasted by me - something that I'd never tried before.

 Of course, nothing like the input we discovered that my step sister had had to this large (huge!) stained glass panel at Symphony Hall in Birmingham.

It was only by chance that we happened to go through it whilst on a day out and that she mentioned it.  I've been looking at it every year when we visit my brother in Birmingham, and we didn't have any idea that she'd been involved in it!

 Back to my and my DDs.

We made our own mosaic panels, inspired by some mosaics that we'd seen whilst on a treasure trail around Kingston upon Thames.

 We enjoyed making them so much that we made an initial panel for two of my nieces.

 Then there was the jewellery making,

 A little selection shown here, using lovely glass beads that I bought some time ago.

 Of course, I was taking some time to work on my scrapbooks too.  I've made dozens of pages!

We also made over a dozen handmade birthday cards using various papercrafting techniques, and my DDs have also spent time colouring and made Hama bead items.

Finally, on the LAST DAY of the holidays, my DDs decided that they wanted to sew!

Zippy pouches, of course.  The first DD to sew wanted a pocket on hers.  No problem.

Of course, then the second DD to sew wanted a pocket AND an embellishment.

They both proved themselves (once again - at some point I'll stop being surprised that even after a long gap between sewing sessions they don't lose their skills!) to be really quite good at wielding a sewing machine with competence!

I was still needed for technical instruction - simple zippy pouches are something that I make without written instructions to share - but they didn't need nearly as much help as I thought that they might.

Anyway, taking stock,  I sometimes want to berate my DDs for not doing much creative stuff and spending more time on screens and tech than perhaps I'd really like to see.  However, looking back at what they've actually done, I'm really rather proud of them.  They may or may not take on a crafting hobby when they are older, but at least I'll know that they've had the chance to try out a few things to see what they think of them!