Hello

Hi I am not really sure where to start but I guess a little bit about me would help.

I am a mum to 3 children who are all at university and have been married eerrmm 29 years this year (I had to get the calculator working there). I also have 4 cats and all sorts of other animals which belong mainly to my son. My house often reminds me of one of my favourite books when I was growing up - My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell.

I used to be a teacher but unfortunately have M.E (C.F.S.) and fibromyalgia along with various other health issues.

3 years ago I stood up and fell over in our conservatory and broke my hip which resulted in two lots of surgery and a hip replacement. This didn't go well and consequently I am awaiting a replacement of the replacement.

I am hoping to keep this blog lighthearted though so hopefully you haven't stopped reading.

So why the name Karen's Coffee Break? Well I guess I take lots of breaks which usually involve a cup of strong coffee.

I have recently got back into crafting after a long break and was considering calling the Blog Karen's Crafty Corner as I seem to have corners all around the house.

A crafting area set up in what we call the small dining room (no idea why as there isn't room to dine)

The conservatory

The lounge

The next series of pictures are of my craft room which is a constant work in progress and I am forever trying to organise. I am determined to get a lot of it sorted before my next stay in hospital though and labels and organised boxes are appearing as well as some floor being visible. It will be a while until I can step over boxes to get into the room.

So the point of this Blog? Not to bore everyone I hope and to share my craft creations, thoughts and trials and errors. 

Today I have shown in the first 4 pictures some of the things I am doing at the moment. Playing with Leonie Pujol's stamps and masks, decorating plywood magazine boxes (with my youngest daughter), making a fleather case for my eldest daughter's hard drive using Sheena Douglass' technique and a Rowandean embroidery - The Seagulls as well of loads of colouring books and pens and pencils.

I am hoping to get more done with the hard drive case today as well as experimenting possibly with alcohol pens on the masked, stamped images. I have loads of other things going round in my head which include all of the deep embossing crystals I have to play with, a card and tin foil technique with embossing folders and the metallic gilding polish and loads more.............

So hopefully that's the boring stuff over and my next post will be updates on what I am actually doing.

Until then here are some pictures of things I have made recently.

and finally one of each of my cats the tabby is about 7 years old and the other 3 are 2 year old sisters .....

I will post again soon with some work in progress and finished projects soon.

K xx