News & Updates from Craft Box Designs

Hi Everyone, I hope you are all safe and well. Here on the Isle of Mull life has become very different for some people.

The ferry is our lifeline to the mainland and we (my husband and I) normally make the trip over to Oban with our car to do our main food shopping but now we are not allowed to leave the island unless it is for a vital reason and no-one is allowed to come onto the island unless they are a resident (eg if someone has had a vital hospital appointment) or if it is someone making necessary deliveries (eg post or food).

We have been doing our shopping in our small local Spar shop - which we normally use anyway but not for everything.

This is the only shop in our village. Fresh fruit and veg have been a little difficult to get some days, and some days we cant get bread.

You can imagine our delight when our local Facebook group put out a call last week to say that a HUGE shipment of fresh fruit and veg had arrived from Glasgow and was being divided up and given to everyone on the island for FREE!

We have local volunteer groups working every day to help anyone who needs it, and they all rallied together and organised the deliveries in a way which would have made the army proud.

We all got a large bag or box of fruit and veg - and it seems everyone got loads of bananas because since then there have been lots of posts about people making banana loaves, muffins and ice-cream.

Lol. Some people got veg they didnt recognise and had to Google it to see what it was! But it cheered the spirits and renewed everyones faith in people.

Times are tough everywhere but here we feel blessed that we live in such a beautiful place, we can go for walks without meeting anyone else, friends check on friends and neighbours as a matter of course, not just during a pandemic.

We are busy making masks for our local hospital and I am making sore ear savers for a hospital in England where I have family members working.

Look after yourselves, stay safe and do your crafting to take your mind off the bad things.

You will have lots to sell when this is all over! With love, Sheila.

I seem to have been away from CUP for ages - and that is because weve been moving house. We now have a larger house and a smaller garden and we are in a village instead of being 5 miles from anywhere.

I can actually walk to the Oban ferry now so have also been having some retail therapy!

Once we have finished sorting things out and moved my husbands office out of the spare bedroom and into his new office in the garden (which he hasnt started to build yet...) I will be able to move the boxes piled up in my office/craft room and have a good time playing.

We have lovely views from the front of the house and I can watch the ferries coming and going. There have also been lots of yachts out in the Sound which are nice to watch too.

Unfortunately we havent been blessed with the heatwaves of the rest of the UK and the midges are a pain (literally) - but you cant have everything.

Im just pleased to be slowly getting back to normal.

For a change I escaped my island last month and had not one but two adventures! Firstly I went to Newcastle Theatre Royal to see West Side Story. This was my birthday present from my daughter Julia. We also took my mum as her birthday present.

We all really enjoyed it and I can highly recommend it. Ive told Julia Id like to go to see Mamma Mia for my next birthday! Then a day after my theatre trip I went down to the Norfolk Broads for a week on a boat with my husband, son, grandson and sons partner.

On the whole we had glorious weather and Ive now got the best tan Ive had for years! Mind you, after living in a confined space with other people it was very nice to get back to my tranquility by the loch, and only hear waves and birdsong instead of engine noise!

While the weather has been wet I've been holed up by the fire crocheting bags and dreaming of summer! But I really wanted to share someone else's great idea.

Cardmaker Joyce Watson bought one of my A4 Christmas designs and she printed out 4, laminated them and made them into a set of Christmas placemats.

I think it's a brilliant idea and have told her I'm going to steal it for myself! Thank you Joyce, and all the other cardmakers who have supported my work this year.

I hope you all have a happy, healthy and flood-free Christmas. xxxx The other cards I'm promoting are my new Day of the Year cards.

I've set myself a challenge to produce a design for every day of the year! They will be uploaded gradually as the months go on. Each month will have a set of cards for male and female birthdays. I have chosen one at random to showcase.

So instead of having a card with the person's name you can have one for their actual birthday. This Christmas design is the one made into placemats by Joyce Watson.

After a pretty miserable start to my year with two very close relatives passing away, I was looking forward to my grandchildren coming to stay with us during their school holidays.

Finlay is 6 and Phoebe is 2.

My husband John went a bit mad buying things to keep them entertained and we now have new swings and a new slide in our garden!

We also got a bubble machine, a paddling pool (even though the beach is at the bottom of our garden we can't use it when the tide is in!), new buckets and spades, books, games, toys (we don't see our grandkids very often so we spoil them when we do!) - but the best new present had to be the boat!

It was just a blow up one, but quite large. It's a shame Phoebe had a meltdown because her grandad wouldn't let go of the rope and she wanted to row to Ireland.....

Lol. The cards I'm promoting are just two from my new series of "sketch cards".

My mojo has returned and I'm enjoying my designing again!