Things about ME!!

WOYWW

2012-01-11T12:03:00.004Z

Finally made it to post on the lovely Julia's blog again, and today we will look through the round window!

Flowers, flowers and just a few more flowers! My glue gun and I have a very love/hate relationship, it loves to burn me and I hate it! Not too bad today so far, only one blister, but with the blue bag in the background full of flowers, as yet without gems or backs there is still plenty of time!

Ooooooh lovely Blog Candy

2012-01-10T23:11:00.002Z

Thanks Missteejay for pointing me in the direction of this fabulous blog candy!

Hop on over to the Crafty Elf and while you are there, check out her blog, some fabulous ideas there, I spent ages looking :)

Another New Year..........

2012-01-10T09:26:00.003Z

........and again I have decided that I will be a better blogger!

Since September there has been a reason that I have been quiet, I went on holiday to Donegal and bought some wool, with this wool I made some hats and gave some of them away. Next I was convinced to take them to a few Craft Fairs and sell some, a few turned into a lot, now I am selling hats and flower brooches every week at a market in Belfast! I have even been interviewed for Scandinavian TV, seems people like the idea of Irish yarn :)

Another Sad Post

2012-01-06T10:23:00.002Z

On the 17th December I had to say another farewell. This time to my best friend and shadow of 15 years.

Smith you were one of a kind, the hardest thing I have ever done was helping you take that last journey. Go now and play with your friends old and new at the Rainbow Bridge and when the tears stop, I will remember all the good times, funny times and the wonderful journey we had together.

WOYWW

2011-05-04T23:35:00.004+01:00

Another lot of weeks gone by, where does all the time go to?

Well this week has been another get together day, with moi as host, so no one who knows me will be surprised to know that we made mini books, from file folders that M didn't know he had lying around, well I hope he didn't know, as he now has quite a few less than he did before we started transforming them! The idea came from Cloth Paper Scissors and as is usually the way, all turned out differently, and of course, gorgeous! Then before we knew it, time bet us and it was 4.30 in the afternoon. Not bad from a 10.30 am start lol.

J did exceptionally well as she is not a paper crafter and was totally chuffed with her book, so much so that she even brought it to our textile class tonight to show it off! Hers is the one on the right using BG Periphery papers. L by this time had darted off to collect children from the school run, so her book will have to be shown another time.

Another Sad Day

2011-03-09T18:12:00.003Z

Today was another sad one here, our remaining cat Billy went to the vet for treatment for a sore on his back that would not heal any other way than surgery. Sadly he had blood work done and was found to have feline aids, so went to sleep.

Sleep well Billy, see you at the Rainbow Bridge.

Neeps and Beeps

2011-03-08T11:21:00.003Z

Mr Tesco has a LOT to answer for!

The other day we were there for the clothes sale, I didn't get much in the way of clothes, but did get three trays of reduced price beetroots. Now I do like, beetroot, don't get me wrong, but three trays? What was I thinking of? So it was off to my trusty preserves book to see what was in there. Well lo and behold, there was a recipe for pickled turnip with beetroot, so this morning like the domestic goddess that I like to delude myself that I am, a pickling I decided to go (having acquired baby turnips yesterday).

I will report next week as to the success or failure of this project, if I don't get arrested for suspected mass murder in the meantime. Beetroot stained hands will be hidden in pockets in public for the next few days!

Oh, the title of this post? I was telling Dolly Traybake about this enterprise, and she misheard me!

Sleep well Jones.

2011-03-07T18:42:00.005Z

Sad day today, after 14 years we had to have poor Jones put to sleep today. The list of what was wrong with her was longer than the list of what was right.

She came to us as a bedraggled scrap of nothing one day when M was at an auction in Belfast. Considering where this auction is, and her love of climbing into vans to be nosey, we were sure that if she could speak, she would have spoken with a Scottish accent. She had to have a lot of help from the vet to become a happier cat, and it took a long time for her to settle down, losing her family must have been a trauma for her and we didn't expect to have her for long, but eventually, settle in she did.

She was a funny animal, with believe it or not a sense of humour, she could be typically aloof one minute and your best friend the next, and of course as I was the one who was allergic to her, it was always me she chose to try to sit on!

Sleep well puddy cat, see you at the Rainbow Bridge.

Late WOYWW!

2011-03-04T08:11:00.005Z

Not like me at all is it? Hey ho! Better later than never :)

This week I was not at home at all! In ever sense, I have been out in the glorious weather we have been having. Who knows how long it will last so best to make the most of it. Now anyone who knows me even slightly will know that my sewing skills are legendary, for their absence, so I went on an Introduction to Textiles workshop last Saturday and had a ball! Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks? I got a basic grounding in embroidery stitches, discovered the joys of dissolvable fabric, made Suffolk Puffs and watched some very talented ladies work on Crazy Patchwork style wall hangings. I have had a veil lifted from my eyes! So much so that I have been buying fabric and I even purchased an embroidery hoop, I didn't need to get embroidery thread as I have a lot of that already, (I use it for crocheting flowers with) so please feel free to be amazed. Now all I have to do is remember the things I learned and go from there :)

This is what I came home with. Not easy to see on this small picture, but the velvet ribbon is held in place with a variety of stitches, and the Suffolk Puff flower has been beaded in places.

So back to WOYWW. This week we were at a friends house where we swapped twinchies, papers, spiders web (?) not sure if that is the right name, and I was on the receiving end of a crochet gift set and some knitting that had been started but never finished :) We did actually make a project too, which of course I have not photographed as yet, but I will. Sort of serendipity with tissue and mulberry papers on a clear pyrex style plate, I even used pink and purple papers! Amazed? I am!

On a Cold and Frosty Morning..........

2011-02-12T10:50:00.003Z

And then the sun came out and just look what happened!

Second post of the day!

2011-02-10T09:35:00.003Z

Not because I forgot to add this picture, but I was getting all confused with adding extra pictures!

I mentioned a while ago about the crazy socks I made, and had forgotten to take a picture of, well L was a good girl and brought them with her when she came to play yesterday and even posed wearing them!

So drumroll please, da da! THE socks!

WOYWW 88

2011-02-10T08:58:00.003Z

Another week has flown in, and here we are at WW time again. NO not THAT WW, I don't like 4 letter words, my Nan always said that using four letter words were bad, so Work Desk Wednesday is the only WW that I will recognise (weight Watchers and, dare I say it........diets, I refuse to acknowledge)

This is my work desk this week

and this is why!

Having friends round to craft on a Wednesday was I thought a good idea, at least I would have something to show and tell :) So the first picture just shows the mess that three people can make :) The second shows J perusing CPS, can you believe that she has never before come across this magical publication?

Last but not least, L is doing what L does best, reducing scraps of paper into cuttlebugged lovelies!

WOYWW 87!

2011-02-02T15:10:00.006Z

Lordy I have missed so many of these, but better late than never!

OK, What can be seen today, I sound like the woman on Playschool, which window will it be today? lol Must be the rectangular window as that is the shape of the door to enter.

Tow projects on the go on that desk, Valentine-ish cupcake cards and a wedding album (no 3) from Nephews wedding, when I run out of ideas for one thing, I change seats and have a go at the other! Yes, I really do use both tables!

These are the cards that will be used in class tomorrow night, as you see, sorta Valentine-ish, but for anyone who either does not "do" Valentines Cards, it can just as easily be a sweet Birthday Card. Had to use the Moomin stamps as they are a bit like Marmite, either you love 'em, or you .......... don't! I am in the latter.

Also very busy making things to send to people in the PIF I have joined, one person so far has received their gift, and what a wally! I forgot to take pictures! As soon as I can get hold of her again, I will get her to model her crazy socks for public viewing :)

A Couple of Cards :)

2011-01-27T00:18:00.003Z

Seeing as I have actually found my craft room again, I have been making it messy again lol. I forgot to take my camera out to take pictures for WOYWW, so the results of my days playing will have to do for now. I was messing about with embossing powder resist, and, even if I do say so myself, I like the results! The stamps are Creative Expressions Party and the swirls are from the set Fuschia. Then of course my beloved Distress Inks :)

Quite "girly" for me, so a bit of a shock when these lovelies sort of materialised on the desk!

Post Christmas Blues

2011-01-17T13:19:00.002Z

We like a lot of other people here in good 'ole Norn Iron suffered burst pipes, power cuts and other niceties over the Christmas period, but we were luckier than some in that we do have a generator so we did have power, our water supply was only cut off for one day, though we did have reduced pressure for a lot of the time, but the worst for me was the burst pipe.

It could have been worse........I suppose, it was in the barn and not in the house like a lot of people had, but in the barn! My workroom is out there!

Craft stuff was brought into the house to be worked on, yep, crates filled, lugged into the kitchen to be disgorged onto the kitchen table, used then packed back into the crate, where of course it does not all fit back into! Then lugged back over to the workroom to be disgorged onto the table over there as it was too cold to stay there and put it all away again. Result, now the pipe has been fixed, I have spent this morning over there "tidying up".

The table looks worse than it did before I started! Too ashamed to post a picture.

Why, oh why did the powers that be make me such a messy pig!?

PIF

2011-01-16T10:55:00.004Z

Pay it Forward 2011

I promise to send the first 5 people who comment on here, a handmade by me item.

All you have to do is comment then send me your address and sometime during 2011 I will send you an item made by me, just for you :)

I joined a PIF on Facebook and thought to myself, now what a nice idea that is! So decided to do it here too :)

Too long ......... again!

2010-12-03T19:07:00.002Z

New Years resolutions are starting early, or late depending on how you look at it! Normally I don't "do" resolutions, I know I will only break them before January is out. A bit like going on a diet, when you know that you can't have something, even a something that you don't normally want, you want it! So my non New Years not a resolution this year is to be a better blogger and to keep in touch with distant friends better than I have in the past.

So no photograph this time, no funny story, no craft items to proudly show off, and not even a WOYWW, just a physical reminder to myself to get my act together!

Been a long time

2010-07-17T11:48:00.003+01:00

I just do not know where the last lot of weeks have gone to! I seem to have been very busy, but have not a lot to show for all this activity.

This is going to be the cover of a holiday journal, that if, and it is a big if, I manage to get over to my craft room to play, I will be making for out holiday.

Getting There

2010-05-18T19:37:00.002+01:00

I am happy to report that me weekend has not been wasted! This is what I have managed so far. The bottom pillowcases, quilt cover and curtains. I has a bit of a panic today when I could not remember what I had been told about doing the Oxford pillowcases and had to go trundling up to Dolly Traybake's house to get personal tuition this evening, but all worked out well and I am now back on track, and she got into the action too by cutting out and doing most of the sewing of a runner and two velvet pillows for decoration. A bit of finishing off to do and i will be able to show the room in most of it's glory. I am not going to have time to do the painting, so the bright blue walls are going to have to stay for now. There are just not enough hours in the day!

WOYWW

2010-05-12T09:59:00.002+01:00

Anyone who knows me will know that this is the MOST unlikely WOYWW for me. Yes that is a sewing machine, and yes, those are two HUGE bolts of fabric. I am hoping to turn them into bedding and curtains for one of the spare bedrooms.

It is all Dolly Traybakes fault. She is the fabric Queen, and when she was here last week I made the fatal mistake of showing her the fabric stash that I have hidden in the barn. Totally fatal!

The idea had been that she would fall in love with some of it, take it home and turn it into something fabulous dahling. Sorta didn't quite happen like that! She knows that I have been itching to do something about the furnishings and decoration of said bedroom and what evented was that I would make bed linen, bolsters and curtains.

So far I am amazed at myself, I have made two pillowcases, and they look like pillowcases! (they are the striped material) The patterned fabric sitting waiting for me to continue, is the curtains, apparently they are going to be box lined (whatever that is) with the blue fabric still all nicely wrapped up. This has to be taken into the sitting room to be unrolled, measured and cut, hopefully this time without managing to slice my finger open with the metal measure! I have my notes, I understand them and I am ready to carry on. Wish me luck!

Be careful what you say ...................

2010-03-22T15:17:00.003Z

Because you might just get what you ask for and more!

When the Dollies were coming over, I had a look at the long range forecast, as you do, and was disappointed to see that we were likely to be in for a wet weekend. Not a problem as being crafters, I knew we would be able to find something to do, so when the first morning dawned clear and fine, I was happy. When the second day dawned, also clear and sunny I began to hope that it would stay fine till they had to go home, and thought to myself, if it will just hang on it can rain all it likes on Monday. Now here's the rub, be very careful what you ask for, hail, strong winds and driving rain was not exactly what I was thinking of when I said it could rain all it liked!

What a Weekend!

2010-03-21T23:13:00.008Z

4 Dollies, a car, good weather and good food, what more can a girl want or need? Dolly OCD arrived first, collected and nearly missed by Dolly Traybake's husband and delivered to LSS (Local Scrap Shop), closely followed the next day, by Dolly Dunnit and Dolly Traybake. Now let the fun commence :)

A lot of talking, well we did have a lot to catch up with! Followed by a token amount of crafting in The Cat House with a LOT more talking and catching up, so far, so good.

The weather forecast had not looked at all promising, so we had no plans set in concrete, in fact we did not even have any set in mildly damp sand! So the great outdoors was peered at with trepidation, but YEAH! sun was shining and all was was well, a trip up the Antrim Coast was a must, ending with a visit to a ..........wait for it .......... you will never guess ............. a ........ craft shop! I will never tire of showing of the beautiful scenery here, seems the English contingent were quite impressed too!

Food was provided courtesy of Dolly Traybake and the local Thai. That went down well too :) Everyone holding up well.

Then came the Ulster Fry, oooops, that on top of sea air, shopping, chatting, giggling and generally misbehaving like schoolchildren was just toooooo much for some :)

This was the best weekend for a long time girlies, thank you all so much for making it easy, fun and even Mr Froggie says he will will welcome you with open arms next time (note NEXT time!) He is proud to be a survivor of a Dolly get together :)

W(N)OYWW

2010-02-24T15:32:00.004Z

This is more a what's NOT on your workdesk Wednesday than what's on it!

I have been shamed into tidying up. No other reason. It has been so cold here that I have been grabbing stuff and bringing it into the house to play with, then shoving it into a crate to take it back, emptying it onto the workdesk and running away again. Time came that I had to do something about it, so for probably the one and only time this year, ta ta! A tidyish workdesk.

Yes, I was watching a dvd while doing this Reach for the Sky if you really want to know.

The dinky little drawers were so cute I could not resist them. I thought they would be good for my little ink pads, but I am now thinking that the previous arrangement of the metal bucket was the better option.

I have done a swing around too, my not so tidy bits storage. Yes, I do have a few books, and yes, my ribbon storage (?) is being sick. Can't resist a nice bit of ribbon :)

The red and pink boxes hold things like metal embellishments, bling, ephemera, kajinker tool and bits (so infrequently used it is unreal), rub ons and paper patterns, the sewing ones. My Cuttlebug folders and dies are in the boxes with the patterned lids, and Promarkers live in the clear tub.

The beige boxes hold large flowers (you know the VERY expensive Dunelm ones) and crocheted ones, and I think one of them has chipboard words and phrases and shhhhhhh don't tell anyone, but a couple of them are empty!

The ink storage rack was a found item that OH gave me a while ago, I think it must have been for cassettes, but ink pads fit in it perfectly, well not the LLB ones, but they dried up so quickly I will not be getting any more of them!

I did find a couple of things that I had forgotten about, a naked perpetual calendar, might be time to do something with that, and some wooden cogs (why did I want those?)

Harrogate

2010-02-20T13:49:00.008Z

I have had a fantastic couple of days in Harrogate at Art from the Heart. Two workshops with

Claudine Hellmuth

Mad Friend phoned and asked me if I wanted to go, silly question me thinks, and after she got her hearing back from me squealing in her ear, she managed to book us two places, quite a feat as places were sold out in about 6 minutes!

We were held up for two hours on the tarmac at Belfast due to fog in Leeds/Bradford airport, so a long wait with nothing to read did not improve my humour, especially as on the way through baggage control, you know the bit where you have to remove everything that is protecting you from the elements only to be told that they do not know why the darned machine is STILL bleeping when you go through it and would you mind having a full body search? STILL not to find anything and being allowed to get on the plane anyway! Those people, yes, I am NOT impressed with them, they managed to give my handmade brooch away to someone else, who apparently looked at it, said it was not hers and walk off with it anyway! May plagues fall on her head!

Anyway, arrive we did and headed off to stash our cases and troll off into Harrogate. What a town! Architecture, shops, people and Betty's!

I cheated and had coffee, but it is great in there, someone every tourist should go to ........ once lol

Dyan did us all proud, tea/coffee and crumpets/pikelets in the morning, a gorgeous pasta dish for lunch and again later, coffee/tea and homemade cake courtesy of Pat (I think) in the afternoon. How scrummy is that!

Hmmmmmmm enough of the food :) The first day's workshop was the Collage Discovery workshop, background techniques and transfer methods. Brilliant! Messing with paints has to be THE most fun. There was a lot of laughter too over English v American words, especially popsicle/lolly sticks, the others were just a tad too risqué for blog land, I know how sensitive you all are ;)

What is it about button baskets that has us all, even Claudia, grubbing around in them like children? Perhaps that is exactly what it is, remembrances of childhood, and Granny's button tin?

Snowing ..... again

2010-01-30T11:12:00.004Z

Not a lot admittedly, but enough to make it not a nice day to go out. This is what we woke up to this morning. A nice sprinkling that has frozen overnight :(

I had been wanting to go into town today, but the effort it will take just is not worth the effort of clearing, so I am going to put the heating on, grab the lap top and a dvd and go out to my workroom and probably sulk. When I have done that, about 2.5 minutes (I don't do sulking very well!) I am going to have a Valentine's card making session.

It is No 1 Son's Birthday today, so Happy Birthday Son x x. Of course he will not read this, and I cannot say it to him personally as he is away with his Girlfriend, what newly 30 year old wants his Mother along for the ride? Well, not yet 30 as officially he is not 30 until 4.40 this afternoon.

WOYWT

2010-01-28T14:38:00.003Z

OK, I know I am late with this one ............ AGAIN! I do have an excuse though, my Mum has been here for the last 6 weeks and as anyone who knows her will confirm, paper crafting is not a craft, it is just playing with bits of paper and making a mess. She has now gone home again, so I can ........... well ............ PLAY!

This morning was playtime and as I had the house to myself, and was waiting for a phone call, I could not really use my craft room, so I made a mess of the kitchen table, closer to the kettle anyway! This is my take on a lovely card in Making Cards.

I did not have the die cut sheet, so I improvised!

Punches and a pair of scissors are fantastic :)

First Trotting ? ? ?

2010-01-11T13:07:00.005Z

Just imagine the scene, sitting at my computer reading blogs and enjoying a few quiet minutes (OK, an hour maybe) to myself. I looked out of the window because a movement caught my eye and what did I see? Well ..................

............. a PIG! Now I have heard of first footing, but first trotting?

She was quite a beauty, stopped by to see if there was any food going, and drank the cats water, then she was off again.

Sausages anyone?

New Year ......... NO Resolutions!

2010-01-07T23:30:00.006Z

Well here we are at another year. Christmas was lovely, a real Family affair this year. Both Sons here, Step-Daughter, Daughter-in-Law, GrandDaughter and Mother, so it was lovely.

No 2 Son has had another Birthday (29) and we had, what is becoming tradition, a meal out with friends.

Then there has been the snow! Boy! Has there been snow! The photo above was taken on the 20th December, not a very good picture as I had to try and snap it through the windscreen, but the little blobs you can see in the road are phesants .............. traffic jam Hillsborough style!

This next one was taken yesterday and shows that, yes, it is still snowing and the drive is an ice skating rink. I am housebound. Starting to get a little stir crazy, but I have no washing or ironing, my wardrobe has been cleaned out and a big bag of things for the Charity Shop is sitting waiting for me to be able to get to it, the kitchen cupboards are all nice and tidy and those bottles of miscellaneous things that are probably

harbouring something potentially lethal have all been discarded.

My house is the cleanest it has been for ages, but I am BORED! I want to be able to go out! It is even too cold to go and sit for long in my lovely haven, my workshop. It is even too cold to sit for too long in the house, we are considering lighting the fire for this evening as I am sure I saw a brass monkey looking for a welder in the bathroom this morning.

This is was we woke up to this morning, freezing fog that has hung around all day, so no wonder the outside temp has not gone above minus 2 all day.

What a mess!

2009-12-05T10:40:00.003Z

All this mess for one card! Well I did have help, I had a friend staying here over night and as she does not have a Bug, or a George (Cricut) she wanted to play, so we made paper using Glimmer Mists and then she got to playing with George. While poor George was chuntering away, I played with some of the paper and made this ..........

I actually got to use the dinkey little dragonfly and butterfly from one of the new cartridges as well :) Not the worlds best photo perhaps, but I ran the paper through the cuttlebug, highlighted the embossing with a gold ink pad and mounted on gold card, then onto corrugated card, the insects, heat embossed with iridescent powder, were mounted using just enough foam pads to hold them on, allowing the paper to twist a bit to give them life. It is nice just to play sometimes and not to have to work to a deadline.

Speaking of which, I now need to go and collect my tote that I left in the shop on Thursday night after class, what a Numpty! I know I have several of some tools, the result of being a messy crafter, but I do rely on my tote, and until I didn't have it to hand, I didn't realise just how lost I would feel without it!

Maybe this was just a sub conscious way of making me go back to the Continental Market :)

WOYWF ! ! !

2009-11-27T17:30:00.004Z

I know, I know, it is not Wednesday, that's why this post is WOYWF , especially for Julia :)

While chatting with her earlier, I mentioned that I was going to go and actually DO something about my work room because today it really was a mess, I am still finding all the right places to put things, and when I do not see the right place, it gets put on the desk, and as I am having a bit of a sort out as well ................... you get the picture.

As we were chatting we both commented that we have workshops this weekend, she is OK because she has another day to make preparations perfect, mine is tomorrow, excuse me? What was that? Tomorrow? YIKES (or words like that)

Well I promised to put the before pictures on here, show my shame world wide. There is still more to be done around the edges, but at least we can all sit at the tables, and yes, the buttons are still there lol.

Just to prove that I did get all that mess put away, binned or put in the give away box, here is the proof.

Hmmmmmm this is not what I expected!

2009-11-26T09:53:00.005Z

My take on a card :)

This card came from one in a magazine. Now in the mag it was covered in gorgeous Christmas paper and decorated to within an inch of its life. As I only have two hours to to two cards with a very riotous group of girls, they would have only got the one done and then felt cheated, so I embarked on a plan. Out came card, tools, paper, stickles and glue. Well, the basic card went well, but as I sat and pushed paper around, nothing jumped out at me until I went down the "keep it simple" road, so all this used in the end was card, paper and a white pen. I am still not sure that I like my "snow" but that is me not being a very good artist, not the idea, maybe the stickles will still come out to play on this one yet!

Oh the snowflakes are silver BTW, not dull grey :)

WOYWW (I made it!)

2009-11-25T20:31:00.005Z

I have finally got to posting my work desk on the right day!

It is a right mess as I have still to put away my purchases from the show in Belfast, I am doing cards for class and well, I am just a craft slattern really :)

The christmas paper did not get used, nor did the Noel stamp, silver stickles or sepia accents, but the pale green 1st attempt Christmas Tree did, oh and no I have still not eaten the buttons :)

Over on Julia's blog, she is starting a campaign on the misuse of the word, altering. After all the items used in creating art are not altered they will still be what they were made as when the art is complete, so the item has not been altered.

I have to admit that I do sometimes refer to altering, not because I alter the item I am decorating, a loo roll inner, no matter what you do with it, will always be a loo roll inner, a sardine tin will always be a sardine tin etc etc etc, but as I mentioned before sometime, I am lazy and that is the only excuse I have. I do like making pieces of art with refound items the afore mentioned loo roll inners and sardine tins and adding anything that I can find to stick to, paint, glue, glitter or generally dickey up in a pleasing (to me) way. Altering, decorating, transforming or refinding, call it what you will, I like to do it!

2009-11-19T13:48:00.005Z

I have been very remiss at posting, yet again, so this time I thought I would just post a few pictures of cards that I have done for classes. Hope you enjoy and if you like anything please do ask, I do keep notes on how I made them :)

The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month

2009-11-11T10:07:00.004Z

For The Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Rememberance

2009-11-09T11:33:00.002Z

This is where I went yesterday to spend a few minutes.

There is no one there any more, everyone who had been laid to rest here were repatriated, but it is still a special place.

The only good thing about rain

2009-11-07T11:31:00.003Z

We have been like most people in the UK and have had some seriously heavy rain this last week, but the up side of rain is RAINBOWS!

This beauty was over the house a couple of days ago, isn't it fantastic! It was a full rainbow and I love them, brings out the child in me :)

Choccie Buttons .......... and shopping!

2009-11-05T13:26:00.003Z

OK, there are some that seem to think I would leave an empty packet of buttons just to tempt, well, here is the awful truth, I am not really a chocoholic. Don't get me wrong, there are times that I would kill for the stuff, but so long as I know that there is some if I want it, I am happy.

Yes there are buttons in the bag!

There is also a bit of shopping that sort of jumped into the basket while I was out this morning. I just fell in love with the Papermania Chatsworth stuff. I just had to get the paper and both sets of stamps, they will work sooooooo well with the Home decor cartridge that I got a few weeks ago.

Then we went to Subway (Thursday is my fav day as the special is the BMT) and compared purchases. Now that was a very bad move as I had time to think about another set of stamps that I had not got. Yep, I had to go back and get them. Oh and after seeing what Helen did with the brad maker, yep, I had to get one of those too, green cheese disease strikes!

WOYWW

2009-11-04T21:20:00.004Z

Well here I am again, late as usual, but at least I have something to show this week. Life has been sort of getting in the way. I have been doing things, just not a lot I can show on here as the wrong people might see them! You know it is that time of year again when we all get kinda secretive.

Well, what is there? I left the cards I will be doing in class on the desk so that I would not forget to pick them up, so you can have a sneaky peek at those, a wiper card and a stepped card and making flowers with ribbon. There is my Christmas Planner still in the "WIP" stage, a mini canvas that I am fiddling with and as usual, a huge bag of buttons, and yes, it is the same bag that was there last time I managed to upload a WOYWW picture. My Fairy House STILL does not have a roof, I must finish that sometime, and the alcohol ink backgrounds are STILL waiting for me to stamp on them and turn them into cards, hmmmmmm a lot of to do's there.

Pictures and a query

2009-10-11T11:51:00.003+01:00

OK, so I am trying to be good :) Another post and this time I have even taken a picture of my workspace for you all :)

I am on a card making marathon for a fundraiser on Wednesday, but as far as marathons go, it is more of a snail trail. Inspiration just will not come, even with new stamps to play with! I am making cards, but not liking them very much.

The second picture today is of a set of stamps that I bought and I have no idea at all who makes them, if anyone out there in blog land knows, please, please tell me! I love it and would like to know if there are any more available to buy. I need them ............. honest!

Alcohol Ink Cards

2009-10-08T11:44:00.002+01:00

Hello again, I know, it has been ages since I last posted, I am a bad, bad blogger, so I thought I would give you some pretty cards to look at. I love alcohol inks, messy though they are.

These have been great fun to do and only a small mess made this time, must try harder!

Poor Froggie!

2009-09-14T10:44:00.003+01:00

Well, we had a lovely weekend here, so much so that time was actually spent in the garden tidying up! I have discovered that i make a much better forewoman than gardener .......... no surprise there then!

The poor froggie in the title is not me, it is this poor chap, or chapess (I have no idea how you tell the gender of a frog! (answers on a postcard please)

No 1 Son was helping with all of the practical stuff, like trimming round the edges of the lawns where the mower does not get to and came upon this critter, unfortunately for it, he found it with the garden shears, so froggie will have to go a wooing minus a foot. It did not seem to bother him/her much though, and like the good froggie it is, sat happily for a few minutes for a photo opportunity then hopped off back under the stone he had been under.

He/she has been seen since, so no lasting harm seems to have come to him/her.

Oh RATS!,

2009-09-11T12:02:00.004+01:00

Just as I was getting used to the idea that I was nearly at the end of my quest to have all of the Promarkers that there were to have, what to Letraset do? they go and release a whole load of new colors!

Now don't get me wrong, I love these little beauties, and I am finally getting used to the way that they work, I can even color in something that I am not ashamed to put onto a card now, so these new colors are going to cause me problems, not because I will have to try and choose which ones to have (no brainer that one!) but where am I going to put them all? At the present they are all lying quite happily in a box that a) fits my shelves beautifully, b) is not too heavy to put away when I am done so they do get tidied up and c) they all fit in the one box, bonus!

If I am forced to use two boxes I know I am going to get frustrated when I have not pulled the right box off the shelf and end up using ink pads to color in (what I did before I went down the Promarker road) or, even worse, I am going to have to rethink the box situation, which will mean buying something else, I am just not up to all this thinking!

I am going to go to my sanctuary and have a good sulk, then I am going to take some pictures for Lyn, I am sure she is worried for my stamp collection (and rightly so) Something else I have to think about, as right now, they are all a bit higgeldy piggeldy and stored in different places, but, and I know this will cause you pain Lyn, I DO know where they all are!

This is my workdesk TODAY!

2009-09-09T15:13:00.003+01:00

I have finally remembered on the right day to do this! I just do not know where my mind has been these last few weeks, but I am missing it!

There do not seem to be enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do, let along all the things that just have to be done. I have been card making, mini book making and I have splurged and treated myself to two new cartridges for George (Cricut) from the US, so hopefully they will be here within the next couple of weeks.

If you look VERY carefully Mrs Dunnit, you will notice that I have taken you excellent advice and got myself a notebook, it is the bright pink one hiding under the instructions for the flip book, and yes, I am using it, just not all the time yet :)

Still in shuffling mode here as you can see, I will have it done sometime soon as using two tables just as storage is not the reason I decided that having two would be a good idea. I have come to the conclusion that I am never going to be a tidy crafter, but a messy madam does not really suit me either, I do like to be able to find things occasionally!

A Day Late

2009-08-27T11:03:00.004+01:00

But better late than never I always say! Well, here it is in all it's glory, not a lot this week as I have been messing around putting things in one place, then another, trying different chairs for comfort and building more storage :) I think I am nearly there now though so production can start in earnest (she says hopefully!) I have so much in my mind that I want to do and the one thing that I didn't think about was music, I don't actually have a small CD player to take over with me, so this is going to have to be remedied today, not that I HAVE to have music on all the time, I do like the peace and quiet, but it is nice to be able to if you want to, and the evenings are drawing in now, and there is something about background music in the darker evenings.

So what have I actually got on my desk this week? I am still faffing with bright coloured card as you can see, it just does not "speak" to me. While these two pieces were sitting waiting to be used, I did two Christmas cards, had another play with my Pringles House and shuffled things around, the card is still sitting there!

I am very pleased with the extension lead that you can see lolling around in my stamp basket. I have had two double sockets fitted to the sloping ceiling so that as I need to use anything that needs to be plugged in, I can do so without having leads trailing over the floor, just right for me to fall over. Not that I would be too worried about hurting myself (plenty of padding) but I would hate to damage equipment!

Mojo, Mojo where for art thou Mojo?

2009-08-24T15:53:00.004+01:00

Why is it when you cannot do something, or cannot have something you want to do it/have it all the more?

When the electrician was here I was raring to go, and when I thought the plumber was going to be here at half past silly this morning, I had ideas a plenty, but as soon as I have time and a space to work in, mojo goes a walking?

Mind you, having hayfever from Hell this afternoon does not help of course, but even so, you would think that I would be over in my lovely craft room instead of sitting here moaning wouldn't you? I even have lots of lovely corrugated cardboard to play with as we went to the Swedish shop yesterday to get my second Expedit unit so that the new radiator, when fitted, would fit in the space that I have allowed for it. I have been abandoned! Mojo has gone again.

I have used my lovely room though, as the picture at the top of this post shows, a cute little card using Hero Arts and Habico stamps, I saw the shape for this card in one of my too many magazines, that is something else that needs a good sort through. I don't like to chop magazines up, so I end up keeping the whole magazine if the is something in it I like. My half way through the year resolution, that I am just making now, is going to be to scan any articles that I like and pass the magazines forward!

There I have done something this afternoon, I do feel a lot better for that :)

OK, I know I am late!

2009-08-19T20:04:00.003+01:00

I have not been a good girl, I did not post WOYWW last week, but I think I have made up for it this week! Just goes to show, you give me a bigger space, I make a bigger mess!

This is the result of making some cards and a wedding invite, far too much mess for such a small output! But in my defence (if there is such a thing) I am still finding out where things have to live, so Cuttlebug has not found a permanent home yet, and electrician has STILL not been, so no sockets anywhere near the desk, plumber not coming until Monday, so things are still a little topsy turvey, OK, OK a lot topsy turvey :)

As to the dilemma of the clear stamps Julia, I have most of them in a photo holder thingy which I will let you see, just as soon as I find it! But the most used ones are in the turquoise basket you see sitting proudly in all it's untidy glory at the far end of the table. I am going to be re-doing this system, as I find that A5 folders are working best for me ATM, by maker, and odd ones by what they will be used for. Not a lot of use if you want to display them I know, but as you can see, I do not have much in the way of wall space in this room, I am up in the Gods here, sloping eaves and all.

The only down side to this arrangement is I now have no view to distract, sorry, inspire me. It is the old apple store on the mezzanine level of an old barn, but I am happy with it, and I appreciate the views a lot more when I do come out of my hidey hole .............. eventually!

WOYWW

2009-08-05T14:59:00.006+01:00

Here we go again, another week gone by, but such a lot has happened in the last week! I have got me a new craft room for those of you who did not know this yet!

So now I have two dining tables to work on, the tables are sort of clear, well useful things on it, the box has my Nestabilitie dies in it, I was using them and no, I have not put them back on the shelf where they should belong yet!

Here is another view of the room, pan right!

And another one, pan left!

Yes, those are LO's on the desk, and yes I have finished them :) Started on Saturday and finished before the following weekend, must be a record!

I know it is not very tidy yet Mrs D, but I am getting there, honest :)

Up too late!

2009-08-05T01:14:00.003+01:00

Is this tonight or tomorrow morning, I am sitting here at 1.20 in the morning knowing that i should be tucked up in my bed snoring! What am I doing instead .......... blogging!

I have been playing around with my new craft room, and I even finished the LO's that i did at Saturdays crop! Did I remember to take pictures before I came into the house? Course not! As I will be taking some in the morning for WOYWW they can wait till then. A bigger desk can only mean one thing more room to spread the muddles onto ;-)

Mrs Dunnit thinks she is the queen of procrastination, but I think I can give her a run for her money tonight. Tis the cricket season and I am waiting for Mr Ffrog to finish reading the teletext review of the days play, even though he has watched it, seen the highlights and kept up with what is going on on the radio during the day. What is it about sport that turns grown men into children? Is the result going to change the more reports you get of the game/match?

You see the bed needs made up and Mr Ffrog was asked to help at 7pm and I am still waiting and childish though it may be I am not going to fight with the duvet cover myself, again!

I am going to have to go and do it hough, my eyes are closing all by themselves, and if I do not crawl into bed soon, I will wake up sometime in the middle of the night with the imprint of the key board on my forehead!

My Workdesk Today

2009-07-29T14:07:00.003+01:00

Ok, so here is what is on my desk today. I am still in the doing cards zone, so that is one thing that is there, and yes Mrs Dunnit, I did leave the leftover bits of peel off paper there for you to see :)

The card that you can see is hoping to be a masculine card when it grows up! Looking like it might work too!

This week the messy drawers are actually closed (for a change!) The pile of what looks like papers at the top is actually my working notes! It does mean something to me, honest lol.

Other than that, not a lot different to other pictures really.

Messy ..... is Desk as promised!

2009-07-23T21:36:00.013+01:00

Well after the fiasco that has been the last few days crafty speaking of course, all of a sudden, inspiration, albeit in the form of some magazines and a HUGE kick up the jacks from Mrs Dunnit, in the form of an idea for paper piecing, all of a sudden last night I was up and running!

Firstly came the daffodil cards, the first one paper pieced and the second, the "easy" one.

I always try to do one that takes a bit of thought and effort on the part of the maker, well they are there to learn something! And a second that when theyhave got over having a good whinge about the first one, is easy on the mind and fingers to do. In this one, the image is stamped, mounted and some pretty flower edged organza ribbon is wrapped round the card.

Then came the Damask one. This paper is just gorgeous, it does not take a lot of "doing" to make a classy card with it, and the Inkadinkado stamp set is divine, it is a Christmas set, but I have used it all year round as I love it :)

The "easy" one is a vellum butterfly tea bag fold. This one , with larger 3" squares for the butterfly. Most of them have done before, but it does no harm to remind them does it!? And to my way of thinking, the more often that a technique is practiced, the easier it becomes to do it, not only that, but it is a pretty card to do :)

Next, and yes, there is a next! Came the purple beauties, and if you don't mind if I blow my own trumpet here, I am rather taken with them :)

These bees are about as cute as I get, aaaaaaaand it uses offcuts! Coloured with my Promarkers ...........of course!

But the one I am most pleased with, even if I did pinch the idea from a magazine, is the flowers one. Embossed with gold and coloured with Promarkers. I like the effect of stamping outside the box, it is a technique I use a lot. There are some in the class that I know will just not be able to do this, they will HAVE to have the image centred, but is OK too. I like the effect, but I know that there are some who just cannot "get" off centre stamping, and I do want them to go away happy, that way, they will come back!

WOYWW

2009-07-22T16:54:00.005+01:00

Nothing to show today at all :( Mojo has left home. This is not a usual photo at all, nothing on the desk at all, zilch, zip nada.

The stamps for the class I am supposed to be doing are still sitting there, the cards would just not come together, but I have turned the "signature" stamp over so Mrs Dunnit can see it :)

If inspiration should arrive anytime soon, I will repost todays failure.

Spare Time

2009-07-21T16:53:00.003+01:00

Why is it that when I have an unexpected few hours to myself, I never know how to use them!

Take this morning for example, M, Son and two of his friends had been on a bit of a beano last night, so were all sleeping in this morning, YIPPEE! thinks me, time to myself with nothing that HAS to be done until they all fall out of bed with sore heads.

I say myself down at my desk and ................ NOTHING! Not a dicky bird. So I wandered off out to my in progress workroom, and nothing there either, well I did look at the paintbrush, and I did move a few things round on shelves, but nothing creative at all. So back into the house I wandered, sorting I thought, that always pleases me, but when I had a look, besides making something to do, as I have not really been doing anything, nothing to sort.

One cup of coffee, a magazine and a sit outside became the next thing I tried to get me motivated and do you know what? An hour sitting outside as far away from the house as I could with nothing around me but the birds was fantastic. I actually read the magazine, not just flicked through marking pages that interest me for future reading that never really gets done.

I could have sat longer, but the moaning bodies schlepped outside to see where I was, so it was time to go and start crashing a few pots and pans around, well a good fry up the morning after the night before is supposed to be the best thing for you ........... my excuse and I am sticking to it!

WOYWW

2009-07-15T17:19:00.006+01:00

Here we go again :) I just love this!

There is definitely a bit of the voyeur about me, I just love looking into other peoples lives, even if it is just a peek at their work desks!

I also love Christmas time, when the tree is up, you get peeking into folks front rooms. Dark evenings and lights on inside the house, the tree lit and the curtains open ......... perfect! Funny really, as when I am visiting, unless an improvement or decorating is pointed out to me, I am unlikely to notice! Seems to me that being given permission to be nosey isn't good enough, I need the thrill of doing something that is just a little bit naughty :)

So, what have we got today?

Hmmmmmmm well the usual pile of inks, what would a craft table be without inks?

I am working on a journal of my holiday to Southern Ireland, I was going to make a mini book, but what should I find in a stationers in Birr but a K&Co Travel Journal! Right there in the window, just sitting there! I HAD to go in! Now don't get excited, there was not lot there, and the journal was the only one they had, The nice lady in the shop didn't want to sell it to me as it had been in the window for a few weeks and she thought it would be sun damaged, but I WANTED it! So I got it very reduced :) When I got it outside and ripped it open, no fading at all!

Two new Cuttlebug folders, no Lyn, they have not been put away yet, I need to look at them for a while longer :)

Ahhh yes, two sets of Prima stamps, just happened to jump into my hands and stick when I was getting the folders lol.

Stamps for class preparation, some done, some still to be worked on :)

If you look very carefully, you will also see a little Esso flame man keyring. I am still gradually sorting through M's Aunt's effects, one suitcase/box at a time, this little fella has old suitcase keys attached and has been appropriated for use at a later date :) If anyone remembers what he was called, if anything, please let me know!

As usual, if there is anything you spot that you would like to know about, please ask. What else are we doing this for if not to have a good old gawp at others messy habits!

Been too Long..........

2009-07-14T11:36:00.010+01:00

Since my last post! No crafty pictures to show you, but I thought a couple from my holiday would be nice :)

The drive for the first day was a long one, 320 miles, but I enjoyed it, singing along to hits of the 60's, Tom Jones and Meat Loaf! Don't worry, I didn't sing in built up areas! I stopped a couple of times, once was in the lovely town pictured above, Adare, lots of cute thatched cottages and a great coffee shop!

All the way to Dingle, the town was a lot smaller than I expected it to be for some reason, but the harbour was lovely at 5.30 in the morning when this picture was taken. Dingle is the hone of Fungie the Dingle Dolphin, he has lived in the waters around the town for many years now and is very human friendly, swimming with whoever braves the waters to meet him.

And the West Coast of Ireland would not be the same without a picture of a donkey!

Next are the spectacular Cliffs of Moher, thankfully barriers have been erected since the last time I was there to stop people getting too close to the edge. There are even wardens with walkie talkies to try ans stop those who do try and jump! It gave me the collie wobbles to see youngsters sitting with their legs dangling over the edge of the cliff!

Next is the Burren, an amazing landscape. Barren rocks, or so it seems to start with, but the flora is all hidden in the cracks in the rock formations, called grikes, orchids by the dozen, miniature hazel bushes, wild strawberries and honeysuckle to name but a few, then it was on the see Father Ted's house :)

Enough for now, just a selection of a few of the places I went to and saw, and if you are not good, I will post more sometime, as I am only about halfway through my journey. So many fantastic places to see and people to meet, if you can understand them!

Now I am back I am finding it hard to get back into the swing of things again, butterfly mind syndrome. I have done the Circle Journals that I am in, and I am gradually getting some classes ready for Autumn, I have even started printing out pictures for a journal of my week away, but actually doing anything constructive is proving beyond me. Upside of all this procrastination is that I have a clean house, washing is all up together and even the ironing is done!

Anyone for a guided tour round Ireland?

WOYWW

2009-07-08T14:59:00.004+01:00

I missed last weeks WOYWW because I went on a very last minute few days holiday to the West of Ireland, so I am hoping that this weeks makes up for it!

So, what do we see this week? Drawers lying open, I have started to use up some of the mountain of scraps that I seem to generate to make cards with, and about time I hear you say!

Stamps left out, naughty girl that I am, no I do NOT always put them back as soon as I have used them.

Pro Markers at the ready, I was actually using them, evidence is under the album :)

Guillotine not put back, as usual!

Then comes the album, boy! What an album! An auction find that Mr M bought for the postcards that were in it, and trained as I have him, he knew not to even consider throwing it out till he had asked if I would like it. LIKE IT? I nearly broke the poor man's arm to get it off him! It is a beautiful velvet covered photograph album with metal cut and scroll work on it .....fabulous! I know it will not be acid and lignin free, but I WILL find a use for it :)

The "pages" inside are thick card with arches cut out to put those lovely Victorian posed photos in. There were a few loose pictures in it, of whom I have no idea, but they will not go to waste either.

Now I must get back to sorting and titling some of the 761 photos I took while I was away!

Look What I Got!

2009-06-26T11:35:00.000+01:00

A TOOT and a WOW for Lyn here, have you seen what she has made for me? A new header! Now I am not bright enough to work out how to get rid of the funny color background on it, but aint it FAB! She actually sent ne three new headers, so I will get around to using them all at one time or another, but his one is just so, so, so! Well you get the idea lol.

I just love it when those in the know share their abilities with the technologically challenged of us. Thank You Lyn, I love my new Ffroggie header :)

WOYWW I am liking this!

2009-06-24T10:04:00.000+01:00

It is Wednesday again, so you and I know what that means .......... messy desk time again. This week, I think I am getting back to normal again, that and I have not been able to settle to doing any one thing these last few days so there are several projects on the go today.

So what do we have this week?

This weeks card for class, there is

only one this week as Steph has done one herself she wants to do, and it will be our last week for the summer, so tomorrow night is party night!

The mess in the middle is a loo roll inner book I am working on for Miss K's "Year at Nursery" she is starting big school in August. The nursery t

ook photos over the year and gave all the leavers a cd with their pictures on it, so I swiped it and copied it! I love these mini books as they are good and sturdy and lots of pictures and journaling can be added. Good for a yackety yack like me lol.

If you look really carefully beside the card, there are some beads that I was faffing with, I used a lovely stamp that I also swiped, but this time from our own Mrs Dunnit, she was generous enough to share stamps with us when we were lucky enough to be able to visit her in her own habitat. It is the long skinny stamp at the bottom left beside the ink pads. You will have to peer closely though as they are tiny!

Hmm .......... what else? Yes Mrs D, I have been working on the pringles tube project, there is a little movement there, it now has a window! Been lined with pages from an old book and painted gold. Now I am trying to decide on the right stamp for the ticket collector I am going to put inside. So far all the ones I have considered have not been "right"

While I was painting the tube, I also painted the mannequin, why I hear you ask? Good question, I have no idea whatsoever!

The red fabric on the right is a mini quilt ......... ish A piece of red felt with odds and sods sewn onto it! Yes you heard me right, SEWN! I actually got a needle and thread out and did some sewing instead of reaching for the glue and glossy accents. Another project that I have no idea why I made it except that it seemed like a good idea at the time lol.

I have heard that tkmax have got Sketchers in, and as those of you who know me will know, I am a bit of a fan of them, so at less than £20 a pair, I feel the need for a trip into Lisburn this morning :)

I should not be left alone!

2009-06-23T15:36:00.000+01:00

See what happens when I am left on my own on a hot afternoon! I go a changing the layout, size, fonts and colors of my blog! I don't know about you, but I do find some blogs hard to read, especially in the evening when the poor eyes are tired.

Not sure about what I have done, but it will do for now. The great outdoors is a calling, rhubarb to be picked and if I am not careful, I just might find myself doing a spot of gentle weeding ......... or I might not!

You see, I have 3 magazines waiting to be read, and the seats in the front garden are just calling me to sit on them with a coffee and peruse the latest wisdom and utterings of those in the know.

Seeing as I am in a dangerous mood, I thought I would include a picture of two of the Dollies, L and N, scoffing marshmallows in the German Market in Birmingham. I know I am not going to be popular for posting this one, but hey ho! It's Summer at last and I am going outside to read :)

Birthday Girl

2009-06-21T11:25:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was Miss K's Birthday Party. This year Mummy and Daddy decided to have it in Cheeky Chimps, an indoor play park with slides and ball pits. A brilliant idea for the kids, but if you EVER have call to go to one, take your ear plugs!

And whatever else you do, do not encourage 14 children to throw the plastic balls at you lol

I am still trying to find a way of storing clear stamps that actually works for me, I have put them onto card and stored them in a file folder, but as the folder is not within reach, they have to be kept on the bookshelf, I find I really only use the ones that I have out.

So then I started using a photo file that was given to me. Great I thought, this will be a lot easier as it is a lot more portable, but still I was using the ones that were closer to hand, maybe the file was too tidy, out of sight, out of mind.

So at the moment, I am using a large square basket that they fit in loose and it is able to be stored where I can just reach out and flick through it. Not the most tidy of answers to the great clear stamp storage problem, but for now, until I think of anything else, it is sort of working for me.

How do you store your clear stamps?

WOYWW Again

2009-06-17T14:22:00.001+01:00

Well it is that time of the week again, and no, I have not got a picture of tomorrow nights cards yet Katy, but if you look carefully on the desk you will see it :)

The postie has just been, and oh! What he brought me, Promarkers galore! I won't really have time to play with them before I go out this afternoon, but I will give it my best shot, as I also got stamped images from UKS Teamie Caryn (thanks Chick) of the sort of stamps that I have not been buying. Hers are soooooooo gorgeous, that I just have to have a go at them.

What else is there .......... well, the usual tools, inks, my huge peg that I use as a MUST remember to do something with this tomorrow, a half done project from Craft Stamper using painted and decorated Pringles tubes, a couple of cards also from UKS Teamies Lyn and Julia, my frog stamp that I use to 'sign' my cards with and of course, a cup of coffee lol.

I have really been enjoying looking into other peoples craft habits, nice to know that I am not the only messy crafter out there, not that I have shown the evidence of a marathon crafting session for WOYWW yet, but don't worry, it will happen!

Postie has been!

2009-06-13T12:31:00.001+01:00

I have been a lucky girl today, no not the postie himself (he was wearing his shorts today and really should not!) but what he brought. A gorgeous PIF from Mrs Dunnit.

Edited to add: I had not made myself very clear this morning, must have been the excitement! Here is what it said on Mrs Dunnit's blog

"The requirement is to spread a bit of fun really, and to undertake to send a small gift to five different people at some stage in the next year."

A lovely little plaque that really made me LOL.

OK, blogger pictures are playing up again and it won't open. It says "To get back my youth I would do anything in the world. Except exercise Get up early or be respectable" Yep, I can live with that :)

Now I have to choose 5 people to PIf to, so here goes

Please girls, get in touch and e-mail me your snail mail addresses so I can pay it forward :)

Cards Time Again

2009-06-10T23:39:00.000+01:00

Well, another week gone by. Where did it go? I am sure I miss a few days here and there!

I could not even take another photo of my desk to please those of you who know just how messy I can be as I was only bagging up finished cards tonight, but I am sure that I will not disappoint next week.

These are the cards that will grace the table tomorrow, two mens cards. They are the ones that get asked for the most, oh yes, I forgot Moomins, (least said about those the better!) So mens cards it is then :) One will be popular, the shirt one, but I know before I start that the boat one will not be, even though I have even done a template for the pieces for those who want to use it, there will be ranting and much gnashing of teeth before bed time tomorrow night!

They will be dragged out of their comfort zones, kicking and screaming if need be!

Edited to add, why is it that some photos will "open up" and some will not? I don't do anything to them, so why oh why does blogger do this to me?

1st WOYWW

2009-06-10T15:16:00.000+01:00

OK, here goes, I had forgotten about this, all that expectation, and I go and forget!

I was working on a project last night that had me in a right mess, but as it was finished, and there was nowt on the telly, I tidied up! So unlike me!

As it was naked, I decided to wait until I had something to show, the project in making are the cards for tomorrow night, mens cards, one is a stamp and paint one, and the second will be paper piecing.

As you will be able to see, I like to be surrounded by all the things I use most often, inks, tools, pens, my beloved George and my bits drawers.

If you look further than the desk, you will be able to see that the field next door is being spread, yep, can't ya just smell the "fresh" country air?!

WOYWW

2009-06-07T22:32:00.000+01:00

OK, this is another brilliant idea by Mrs Dunnit. It is What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. A bit of fun, nothing more.

Take a picture of your workdesk on Wednesday, hop on over to her blog and leave a comment, you can either use the link, or use the button, over there > > > > > > > better still, go snag it for yourself and just enjoy the fun. I will be on a mission to find out if there is anyone on the planet who is a more slobby crafter than I am :) Who knows it might just encourage me to be tidier .......... hmmmmm not going to hold my breath on that one than lol.

M was out last night, being roadie for a friend with a band, one of the players, who usually carts all the equipment around for them, had the temerity to go on holiday! I mean, how thoughtless! So off to a castle in Newry it was, white van man to the rescue.

As he did not get in until about 4 this morning, and with the light mornings I tend to wake early, I decided to take myself off to a car boot, bad move, this of course was the day when ther were loads of things that I could use, so I had a bit of a party lol.

No pictures yet, but a list, copper jelly moulds, I know there is a use for these, I just have to find it! And at 40p each too much of a bargain to miss, a whole bag of broken jewelry that has lots of danglies on, an on the hob coffee maker, a kiddies game of bingo, for the cards of course! some prints I know will find a use for sometime, two teddies that are going to become grungy bad attitude bears and a wooden screen in the shape of a row of houses, this is the purchase that I am most pleased with, before and after pics to follow.

Our Neighbours

2009-06-05T16:33:00.000+01:00

The neighbours are home! Yep, and they are real cows! These lovely ladies will be resident for the summer now. I always know when "proper" summer has arrived when these lovelies mooooove in (sorry, couldn't resist that one. I will go and smack myself with the kipper).

The first cut of silage is done, then they get to go in, clean up the edges and enjoy the sunshine. Oh yes, and fertilise :) I have not been quick enough to get the pheasant crash landing yet, but I am sure I will. I will have to remember to put the camera on sport mode though as the whole point is the landing. Coming in to land, legs down, wings up, slow it down, prepare for a delicate touch down and .......... oooooops to high! Too fast! legs not down enough ............. OH NO! CRASH and roll over and over, soooooo amusing, even better than last year when moving preciously mentioned cows, one went walk about and lad came to door, overalls and wellies, really looking like the farmer I am sure he is going to be, "please Mrs, can I have my cow back!" You don't get that in the city lol.

That Time Again

2009-06-04T11:03:00.000+01:00

Time for more cards. Why oh why are waterfall cards proving so difficult to do? This will be the 3rd or 4th time we have done them! Everyone seems to be happy when in class, the penny drops and all is well, but as soon as they get home, all sense and reason goes out the window!

I remember all to well when I was about 13 trying to get my head around a math problem, no matter how my Mother explained it to me, it was as clear as mud. I was able to solve it, with her beside me, guiding me, but as soon as I was left to my own devices, there it was ........ gone! So I well understand the problem of a total mental block, but group mental block? Never heard of the phenomenon before, must be a bad teacher lol.

So this week, I have written out the instructions differently. Solving my math mental block involved someone else having a go at getting the information into my poor brain, and however it was done, probably just using different words, it worked. So I am trying that this week. If it does not happen, I am just going to admit defeat and move on, never to do waterfall cards with this class again. Don't 'ya just hate admitting defeat though?

I have been a very bad girl, and bought some more stamps, LLB ones, they are just scrummy. Yes, I know I need stamps like I need a hole in the head, but as I had saved £10 worth of stamps from the Paper Mill Shop, it seemed too good an opportunity to miss :) As usual, I have not used them yet, but I know I will .......... won't I?

Mrs Dunnit has posed a good idea on her blog, show your work in progress, do I want my slovenly habits to be aired to all? Not sure, but in theory it is a good idea. I have admitted to being a slob when crafting, see earlier post showing pictures of said craft space, mind you, if I am crafty with the cropping of photos, I might just get away with it, I could cut out all the mess and maybe, just maybe pretend that the desk and surrounding area is a haven of peace and tranquility ......... in my dreams!

Crikey! I got an award! (or two)

2009-06-03T10:43:00.000+01:00

Well, what do you know! I got 2 awards! Now the rules seem to be easy enough, and if the brain is working, I might be able to do this, we will see :)

Firstly I have to link back to the person who gave it to me, well that seems to be easy enough. This was done to me by the lovely Toni

Thanks chick :) her wedding stationary has been amazing to watch as it was made, go on, go see!

Now I have to pass on to other crafters, this is not going to be easy, who to choose? I follow some lovely blogs, all of which are deserving of awards but I can't pass on to all of them, so here is my list:

Phew! I think I have done it! Now I have to give you all 10 facts about me. Not going to be easy this one, as I am not an interesting person at all lol.

1 I am a Heinz. English Mother, Italian Father living in Northern Ireland.

2 I am an avid crafter, cards, scrapbooking, crochet, knitting, paints, inks, gel mediums, you name it, I will give it a go, but show me a kitchen and I am lost.

3 I LOVE my camera! Wherever I am, my trusty Canon is with me, and if you make faces, try to hide or do anything to make a "bad" picture, I will take it anyway and probably post it in the www. so beware!

4 I love my home. It took us about 5 years to find it, but it was worth the wait. In the middle of the Co Down countryside it is quite remote, but glorious.

5 I love my dog, she goes with me everywhere and is well known to all who know me.

6 I drive a Clio Dynamique, she is nippy and easy on fuel. Not only do I like the freedom that having wheels gives me, I would not ne able to live where I do without a car.

7 I like frogs!

8 I am useless with technology! Paper and card is crafting, I do not understand digital crafting.

9 I hate being late, why wear a watch if you cannot tell the time! I don't wear a watch and can be on time, so why cant you?

10 I drink far too much coffee, strong and black please!

Now I have to add the Honest Scrap logo to my blog, bear with me, I am getting there!

Done it! Well that took a lot longer than even I thought it would, so i am going to have to do the other award later, time for coffee, valium and a little lie down :)

I am back and properly fortified...............with caffine! Anything stronger and not only would I not be able to do this, but I would probably be asleep!

Here is the second award, also from Toni, and I have to pass this one on to 5 more people, some are going to be the same, as I try and restrict the blogs that i follow or I would be reading blogs all day, nothing wrong with that I hear you say, but crafting has to be done as well, and sometimes I do have to do the dreaded h/w!

There, that should be OK. As it is a tad cooler here today, I need to go and do a spot of weeding, the downside of living surrounded by fields. The gorgeous grass that gets turned into milk by the lovely ladies that are my neighbours is not the nice fine stuff that I would prefer on my lawn, on the drive or in the one and only shrub bed that I have. Note I do not have flower beds as I am in no way a gardener, my only concession to garden tools are a sharp knife, a trowel and a ride on mower lol. I think there might be other things in the barn, but I am not sure and I don't really want to find out as I may be forced to admit that I have them and then use them! Now that would NEVER do.

WHOO Another Post!

2009-05-28T11:48:00.001+01:00

Like waiting for a bus isn't it? wait ages for one then two come together :)

These are what I ended up with for class, shrink plastic elements on pink and black card. Playing was fun, and somewhat messy. I wanted to find out if using embossing powder would work, answer........sorta!

When put straight onto the plastic, the static held some on, and it looked good when heated, but there was quite a film of powder left on the desk, so I decided to Versamark it first, then lightly sprinkled powder on, remembering that the plastic is going to shrink and the area is going to be smaller when done, so I carefully sprinkled on a fine mist of powder and heated. Hmmmmmmm not too good unless you like the grungy look, which I do by the way!

Even the lightest sprinkling of powder made quite a puddle that would not stay on the plastic, good look for some things, but not the nice clean look I had been aiming for, so attempt no 3.

This time I thought, well, as the powder was not working, what about ink?

Pink and lightning black went well with the colors I was using, so I inked straight onto the plastic and heated..........voila! It worked!

Now I needed something else to give another look, so this time my hand fell onto some mesh I just happened to have handy (OK, someone near Birmingham will know me better then that, it was handy because I had not put it away) and inked through it, not taping it down, so it moved a bit when inking, not clean lines, but I think a bit funky none the less :) I am going to stamp a mini birdy greeting onto it, but they are in the shop, so I will have to wait to do that.

I have been told off

2009-05-27T12:17:00.000+01:00

I have been bad again, not posting, so I thought that a few photos would not be a bad thing. Monday was my Birthday, so M and Miss K came down on Sunday, and we had a lovely day at Exploris in Portaferry, but as is my want, we were early, so early that we had time to go play on the ferry, Miss K's first proper trip on a big boat.

She loved the fish, and I think it must be genetic, she is an avid photographer already! So now, not only am I not usually to be seen without a camera, she is following in my footsteps!

Dinner was at the Thai that is becoming the place we go for family dinners (they have fish there as well :)) The banquet is what we go for, no thinking about what to have, and what goes with what, it all just arrives! Good food, chicken and sweetcorn soup and lashings of green tea, never before have I seen a little person enjoy green tea as much as she does!

She even has her own mini sized soup spoon! The girls there spoil her something rotten, she was the only one to get sprinkles on her ice cream.

The ride home was just too much for some :)

I was spoilt on Monday too, lunch and shopping with friends, bits of stash were bought, then lunch and presents :) Then more shopping and coffee at Dunelm Mill, I love that place! The gerberas are just perfect for pulling apart and putting onto scrapbook pages and cards.

I am playing with shrink plastic again for the first time in months, it is funny how you forget how much fun, and how exasperating it is! The playing has been fun, but now I have to put it all together in a card, now that is the hard bit, the ideas I have running around my cranium like demented white mice, will just not fuse into something that I am happy with. Time to walk away and think about something else.

Wet :(

2009-05-16T10:44:00.000+01:00

It is not nice here this weekend, I was hoping to get the garden into some kind of order whilst visitors are in Donegal, but it just is not going to happen. The weeds are starting to appear in the cracks in the concrete, the lawns are going to be a challenge for a goat soon, and as for the shrub boarder, well the least said and all that sort of thing! Looks like tomorrows intended trip to Mount Stewart is going to be a washout too, craft and garden fair. The craft fair is normally a bit pants, but the garden bit is usually well up to standard with lots of plants to be got :) Just not nice trudging round in pouring rain.

After last weeks gorgeous weather, it is a bit of a letdown, so just going to have to craft instead. When we were in the Dungannon area, I just happened to mention that the Linen Green had a lovely cafe/restaurant for lunch, and would you believe it, a craft shop! It would have been rude not to go in wouldn't it? So new Bo Bunny and some gorgeous papers that I have no idea who made, later, I was happy, why is it that paper shopping pleases me so much, while food/clothes shopping does not?

To add to my stock of things got to be altered, yes I know I have a lot, but three glazed shadow boxes from a Charity Boutique for £3 was just too much of a bargain to resist. I know what I want to do with one of them, so the other two will have to go into the store cupboard for a while :) I should stop going to these places, but they are like a magnet to me, I love rootling around in them. More often than not, I do leave with nothing, but the thought that the thing I really need, but maybe do not know it yet, is just waiting there for me, is just too hard to resist.

The cards at the top of the post are the ones we did last Thursday night, as usual, a lot of complaints when making it, but also as usual, amazement and delight when it all came together, sometime I wonder why I bother! Should I just let them all sit in their comfort zones and puddle along? Then I think about how much fun it is to get the grey matter working and the answer is a resounding NO, especially as I have not actually managed to frighten any of them away yet :)

2009-05-12T09:48:00.001+01:00

What a Week!

2009-05-12T09:46:00.001+01:00

OK, so what happened to my post! I am sure I left it here this morning!

Ah well, better start again :) What a Week! I have had my Mother and two of her friends staying for a few days, feels like weeks! Don't get me wrong, I usually love having people to stay, but two deaf women and a moany Mother are sometimes, more than a body can stand.

The two ladies have been lovely, mostly, but having to shout about where we are and what is there, from the front of an Espace, while they are trying to hear over the sound of the engine, is not easy, but we managed :)

The one thing I do "on purpose" according to my Mother is drive too fast deliberately to "throw passengers around the car" at 40-50 mph. No one needs to drive faster than 35-40 mph, anywhere, at any time, for any reason! Try is in a car with 6 forward gears sometime, it is not easy lol.

Anyway, we have had some spectacular weather, sunshine all the way, quite a feat for Northern Ireland let me tell you :) Pictures will follow when I do the LO's.

Cosmic Shimmer

2009-05-07T12:39:00.001+01:00

Been playing with Cosmic Shimmer Mists, what a mess! But great fun. I think the blue one I have is faulty as whenever I try and mix it, I should go outside to do it, everything in a wide radius gets splattered!

It does seem to be quite "blobby" too, fine for total coverage, but not so good for a fine misting, even from a distance of about 3 feet, then that gets the surrounding area too. Not too bad on a good day when you can go outside to spray, but not so good in the winter, or if like me, you craft upstairs.

I am sure that more colors are in the pipeline, but for the girly girls, there is no pink, yet. The colors suit me as I prefer the more muted palette the Aqua Lagoon is amazing, I can see I will use this quite a bit, but maybe not as much as Jazz Blue Tattered Angels.

Overall, I would say they are a hit, but I am, and probably always will be a Tattered Angels Gal!

Yesterday's Haul

2009-05-03T10:40:00.001+01:00

I was a good girl yesterday and did some scrapping! 3 LO's in total and a few more cards.

This is 3 Bugs in a Rug paper, K&Co Amy Butler die cuts and a bit

of trim that I got in a lovely scrap shop in Dungannon.

The next two are both Fancy Pants Summer Soiree. The first one I have not done a lot to as the paper is so patterned, I mounted the photo onto some scraps of Bazzill and added a few gems and a journaling stamp.

The second is an overlay, which when put onto the white card, did not show up the swirls very well, so I Stickled them! This too I did not do a lot more to, besides using some blossoms, anchoring the overlay and background card together with the brads.

We are off to market today, the forecast rain has not materialised, so it is off up the mountain for us today. Whoever thought that putting a market on top of a mountain was a good idea needs their head examined! It can be glorious down where the real people live, but you still need hats, coats and scarves to go to Nutts Corner Market, all except maybe two weekends a year. I have not been there for years now, but for some reason best known only to Himself, we are going there today ............ wish me luck!

BE WARNED!

2009-05-02T10:32:00.000+01:00

I have promised fellow teamie that I will show what a slob that I am when crafting, so those of a delicate disposition, please stop reading now!

Exhibit A

I am not a tidy crafter, as I think I have mentioned befo

re, and that is the proof, I do get the JCB in sometimes, and here is the evidence, Lyn, savour it as it does not look like this most of the time lol.

Exhibit B

The day is bright and sunny here, and it is National Scrapbooking Day, will you be scrapping or crafting today? I hope to be, but M has other ideas, they are not supposed to include me, but whenever he gets involved in a spot of DIY it always does. Todays job is the overflow pipe in the upstairs loo, it is ........ well ........ overflowing!

I have a friends number handy as for someone who trained as an accountant, my dearest beloved is not at home doing DIY, and said friend's husband is a builder lol Enough said.

Getting into the swing again

2009-04-29T21:11:00.000+01:00

Well, I have got back into the swing of making cards again, not that I am totally happy with them, but M thinks they are good, and as class is tomorrow, they are going to HAVE to be good enough!

I have used the Create a Scene stamps, oh boy! I have to get me some of these now lol. I love 'em! The colored one has been colored in using watered down Brilliance inks, I like the shimmer that they have, and the second one has just been left monochrome black and white, I was not sure I liked it too much, but as a technique I suppose it is fine, stamping onto the acetate causes a lot of people problems.

Naughty Blogger!

2009-04-27T20:52:00.000+01:00

Well as usual I have been a naughty blogger and not blogged for over a week, things have been a little frantic here in Ffrogland, you think that when you have your kids up and reared that is it, but oh no, not a bit of it!

I may be a naughty blogger, but I am trying to be a good crafter, and as I have permission from Voodoo Vixen to use one of her mini books for the classes I am putting together for the Collage, I have been busy making samples. I even LIKE some of them! No pictures as yet, but as soon as I have them all done and presentable I will take some.

So far I have the Star Book, a Flip Book, Annette's Circular Book, a Tag book, a Maze Book and now I am working on a Felt Book. There is nothing as slow as the wheels of education when you want to get something finalised! The hoops that have to be jumped through are amazing and a chain of command about 10 miles long!

Sometime soon I am also going to have to did out my craft room, why am I such an untidy crafter? The rest of the house is reasonable, the odd dust bunny and I am not that fussy about cleaning windows, but when it comes to my crafting space, I suddenly become a right slob! Drawers pulled out, bits of paper on the floor and a pile of "things" I have been using at my elbow. I usually manage to end up crafting on a space a gerbil would have trouble balancing on.

I always blame the storage I use, and am constantly trying to devise new ways of storing things so I will not get into these pickles. If I am honest I will admit that it is the "storage" part of storage that I am not good at, it implies using something and putting it back into whatever devious plan I have come up with to keep these essential pieces of craft equipment in check. It all looks nice for as long as it takes for me to use said items. As soon as the item has been used, it is put away from me and I go onto the next step, no, of course I do not put it back in the drawer/file/folder/box/tin I got it from, I am on a roll and I NEED to get onto the next stage. Even though I have numerous pairs of scissors, can I ever find one? Nope, it is under or in a pile not far from my elbow.

I am just going to have to accept that no matter what "system" I use, I am never going to be able to be a tidy crafter.

Hey Ho!

Quiet Easter

2009-04-15T12:28:00.000+01:00

Well this has been a very quiet Easter break for us. M and the Boys helped Miss Mouse to move all of her belongings to the new Mouse House, and he managed to do his back! Still in bed and moaning and complaining like a good 'un, so I know he is OK lol.

I did run away on Easter Sunday to take little Miss K

on an Easter Egg Hunt at beautiful Mussenden Temple, we should not have been, but we were surprised at the greed of children nowadays. The older ones took off at a great rate of knots and filled pockets and arms with as many eggs as they could carry, leaving the smaller ones with nothing, little Miss K was so disappointed at not finding any eggs, another small child had two, so gave one to her. This was lovely, but not the point, an Easter Egg Hunt is supposed to be about finding eggs, not relying on the kindness of others, who have been properly brought up, to share.

She loved getting an egg, but it would have been even nicer if she had been able to actually find it herself.

So that she had some nice memories of the day, I took them to the beach afterwards, like me, she loves the beach, in any weather.

Rock pooling is an all time favourite of ours, I have never grown out of the fascination of what lives in these little left over pools of water. It seems that no matter what age you are, at some time in your life, if given the chance, curiosity will get the better of you, and staring into these little worlds will always be one of the things to do at the beach.

Then there is chasing Daddy to clean off your sandy hands on his clothes, this is always a good game, just how much sand can you transfer to his jeans?

I am not sure who enjoyed this game the most, her, him or me!

I really do need to go and do some crafting sometime soon, it seems like ages since I sat at my desk, and it is need of a good tidy up anyway, I had thought that I would be a good girl and use the scraps for card making, you know the idea, use the scraps before you start to cut into more pristine paper, instead of putting them all carefully into a drawer, never to see the light of day again until you have the grand purge because you cannot get any more into the drawer. Well it is clearly not working for me, so into the drawer all the bits will go again :)

Crazy Weekend!

2009-04-07T12:04:00.000+01:00

This has been a lovely, but crazy weekend!

Our houseguest moved out into a flat of her own, and to help I roped in my sons to help, so they brought their families down as well, so there were 6 adults, 1 3 year old, 1 baby, 2 dogs and 2 cats in the house. Noisy, crazy and GREAT fun.

Miss K had a great time with her cousin, she just loves to hold her and try to feed her, but Miss E is not always as sure she likes to be a doll. She is growing so fast now, 13 weeks old, when did I get old enough to have 2 Granddaughters?

Both of them are little posers too, get the camera out and they love it, no problems getting lots of photos to scrap with them, Miss K is even going to turn out to be a bit of a camera buff too, she knows how to turn my camera on, how to take a picture and how to view them! She also watched me downloading from the camera to the computer and showed me how to do it next time too! Just as well she loves her scrapbook, it won't be long now until she is making her own :)

The house feels very empty this morning, just the washing and tidying up to do now, but I would have it no other way, and I do have the 200 pictures I took to keep me going till the next time lol.

More Cards!

2009-04-01T17:30:00.000+01:00

Well here is a surprise, as it is that time of the week, I have some more cards to show you, these, as usual are for tomorrow evenings class, so you might just notice the theme here, a sort of harder card, and then another in the same vain.

This week we are going to have another go at penny spinner cards, not that hard in the usual way of things, but not that easy when there is a race going on in class to see who can do their cards first and get gone! Why , oh why does this have to happen?

Today was Him Indoors's Birthday, pity we were both suffering from rough head colds, too much so to bother with going out for dinner which is our usual thing. We have got to an age where expensive Birthday presents are not needed, so dinner out somewhere nice is what we usually do, but tonight it was dinner in, a nice Chinese dinner including duck pancakes, yummy. I did offer to get him slippers and a nice beige v-neck cardie in honor of his advanced years, wet fish and my ears were mentioned lol.

British Summertime (and a ramble!)

2009-03-29T12:34:00.000+01:00

A Happy Summer to you all! I hope you have all remembered to go to BST today, well those of you in the UK anyway lol.

Isn't it great, I have a follower! Thanks Lyn :) Who would have thought that something so simple would give such pleasure, not that I blog for followers as I don't think that I have much to say that is very interesting, but it is nice to know that I am not the only one to read ...... occasionally!

Another non crafting related photo today, but isn't it gorgeous,

daffodils at Belfast Castle, very Spring.

Mrs Dunnit's blog has been making me think, for those of us who do, why do we blog? Is it because it is a 21st Century form of keeping a diary, somewhere to sound off, networking, idea grabbing or all of the above?

I have kept a diary for many years, and in it are all sorts of random things, a lot of them I would never want to be read by anyone while I am still here, but when I am gone, it could be useful to future generations to know what sort of life I have lead, I do not presume to think that I have done anything so wonderful that the world will want to know anything about me, but as a record of a life lived, maybe.......... I will never know, even though I have told my boys that I will still be around haunting them forever lol.

So, somewhere to sound off? Yep, some blogs are, these are personal thoughts and it should be remembered that it is only the writers opinion and not something to use to have a blast at the writer, I am not in favour of anyone using a local craft shop for convenience, then letting all know that they make their bigger purchases from well known TV programmes, or bringing catalogues into a shop to share with other potential customers right under the nose of the shop owner, the shop owner is not daft enough to think that if you use their shop, it will be the only place that you buy products from, but it is insensitive and rude to rub their noses in it.

Then there are the few blogs that bash people just because they can, I know they exist, but I don't read them. Why is it considered necessary to bash anyone who you personally do not agree with just because they are well known? Jealousy?

I love reading blogs because I am right nosey! I love the little peeks into other lives and craft rooms that blog hopping allows me, networking? Maybe, I have met a couple of really nice people online, yes I know that I do not really "know" them at all, but what I have been allowed to know, I like. I have had a blog for a long time, but it has only been recently that I have started to use it, there are some amazing people out there, I just have to find them.

I also use blogs to inspiration, you never know when someones fantastic work will spark off something in the little grey cells, I have even loved an idea so much that I have asked to use it "as is", never yet have I been refused, crafters are such sharing people.

My teamies over on UKS are a great bunch, we didn't know each other when we all started, and with only a few exceptions, we are all still together, through all of life's ups and downs.

I have to say, that I blog for all of the above reasons, and I love to talk lol. DH has learned the art of seeming to be listening to me rabbit on, but I am under no illusions that most of the time it goes straight through, so this is a good option for me. If you have got this far, you have been a captive audience, and if you have any kind of feelings on this or anything that I rabbit on about, a comment or two would be nice {wink}

Lastly but not least, there is the idea of blog candy, I love the idea, but I am at a loss to know why some ask that you become a follower to be eligible to win. Going right back to the start of this ramble, I love it that Lyn had been kind enough to follow this blog, but I do not want to "buy" followers or friends, surely the idea of blog candy is because you want to celebrate? I don't mind in the least having a side bar that tells others that someone out there in Cyberland wants to share, but to want to buy my support? Not for me I am afraid.

Interesting Subject

2009-03-28T10:22:00.000Z

One of the blogs I follow has got an interesting post on it. Mrs Dunnit is an inspiration anyway and should be read, but this post is a doozy! Journalling, the 5 W's, where, when, why, what and who.

I left a comment, but thought it deserved a better answer than I gave, so here goes.

When I started this crazy journey of scrapbooking, I wanted every LO to be perfect and in my innocence thought this also ment that the journalling had to be perfect too, so used my computer to do it, no I am more knowledgeable, I know that the journalling does not only say what the picture is about, it tells a story, conveys feelings and thoughts (hmmmmm should concider this more when blogging lol) so I now use my handwriting, even if it does look like a spider has jumped in the inkwell and run across the page!

A lot of time and effort goes into making a scrapbook, and it is personal, so the journalling should be personal too, I usually write in the first person, but this is not a "rule", and sometimes I use hidden journalling, but not because I write things that should not be read. I love elements that DO things on a page, so I often add bits that flip, twist or open on a page, and yes, I am still ashamed of my handwriting, so sometimes hide it! lol. Sometimes the story is just too long to be included on the page, so goes behind the pictures, ten there are the times that there are just too many pictures on the page to allow any room for journalling!

There are occasions when the picture is self explanatory and does not need anything extra (my boys are brilliant at giving me the sort of pictures that need nothing more than a title!)

Then there is the LO I am working on right now, the story of Puss in Boots, it is the story itself that is the LO, so there will be a lot of writing on this one.

Yes I do practice writing what I am going to say first as I want to make sure it is going to fit the space I have left, and to spell check what I am going to write, but if I still leave the odd typo, it does not send me into a tail spin, bad spelling is part of who I am, along with my appalling writing lol.

I am lucky that both of my boys love the work that I do and I hope that my scrapbooks will live on, Miss K already loves hers and looks at it a lot, but she is a vain creature and as one of them is all about her, this is her favourite one :) Perhaps Miss E will feel the same way about hers, as she is only 12 weeks old I will give here a little more time to become interested!

I Survived!

2009-03-27T13:35:00.000Z

Well, I survived the class ............. just! Something else to add to the list of what I won't be doing again in a hurry lol. Not the most popular class I have ever done, but the results were worth it in the end, and I think they were all secretly pleased with them. Going to get them going rightly next week though {evil snigger}

Poor car has had to go to the car doctor today, one of the warning lights came on yesterday, and all I could find out about it was it was the coolant light. The manual said that this is the coolant light and it was not important unless it was lit .......... you don't say! Nothing about what it might mean, was the car going to stop if I drove it home (it didn't) was I going to cause serious damage by driving it (I didn't) but nowt about what the problem was so off it went to the car doctor this morning.

No crafty pictures today, so I thought I would use one of Miss K with a poor appetite (apparently) doing some serious damage to a 6" sub. She ate the lot and then wanted a cookie to finish off her lunch! This was eaten at about 11.30 in the morning AFTER downing an adults portion of porridge at 9.30! Takes after her Daddy that one does lol.

Later on in the day I was regaled with a unique version of Puss in Boots, but that story will have to wait until I have done the lay out of it.

I just love the way children's minds work sometimes, how do you answer them when they ask you "Why do you love me?" I was lost for an answer.

Another Week Gone By

2009-03-26T10:16:00.000Z

Ahhhhh well, here is another week gone by, and not a lot said. I have not been idle though, I have bee sifting and sorting my lovely new stash from the NEC, not made a lot with it yet, but that will come. No longer am I going to be a hoarder of papers, there are always new ones coming along that I just HAVE to have, that it seems to be a waste of money and precious storage space to keep, what will be in a few weeks, old papers :)

These are going to be this weeks cards, beautiful stamps by Creative Expressions, daffodils and a basket weave frame. No patterned paper on these cards at all, just paper piecing, I will let you know if I survive this class, but nothing can be worse than the night I got them all sewing, I thought I was going to be lynched!

I have been working on ideas for the course I am going to be doing, it is fun having a blank canvas to work on, but scary at the same time, I need to get in touch with the co-ordinator soon to see if the ideas I am working on are in the right area or am I totally off the wall lol. She has not e-mailed me back yet, so a trip to the collage is in order, and the fact that a craft shop in the next town has a sale on has nothing whatsoever to do with this decision!

2009-03-19T14:28:00.001Z

Late again, but this time I do have a good reason :) This time last week I was in Birmingham at the Craft show at the NEC and what a good time was had by all, well both of us I should say :)

Somehow we even managed to end up at the filming

of Gok Wan's Fashion Fix!!!!!!!

A bit of evidence I hear you say? Here you go! It was a great laugh, and hands were sore clapping at the end of it. I hope that we will not be in the bits that get to the telly, but you never know. Showing 14 April we were informed.

I don't think that I have ever laughed so much, the things that went wrong were unbelievable, and he is a very naughty boy, but very funny :)

Here are tonight's cards, I just LOVE these Hero Arts stamps, and I got the template for the Curvy Card when I was at the show, I am thinking that I will use it a lot :) If done 4 times it makes a collapsible cube card as well!

Oh, and I have had the news that I have been waiting for................I got the job! Not only that, but I have the opportunity to start a new class for mini books! All my own! I will have to do the whole course myself, starting with a name for it..............hmmmmmmm...........mini books does not really do it does it? Any ideas on a postcard please :) :)

More Cards

2009-03-05T11:14:00.001Z

Another week gone by and I am still lagging behind. Oh dear!

This week we will be doing a couple of cards that I find I quite like, one was a request from a lovely book by Truike Bron, full of page maps, and the other is another "new and interesting way to use envelopes" lol.

I do have some actual news this week, I have been for a job interview! Not a real job type job you understand, but now I have been for the interview, I will be disappointed if I don't get it. OK, here is what I will be ............ a part time lecturer! In card making! I had to take samples with me, so I took some of the ones I have done in class, along with class notes, and as I didn't have time to make all the ones I wanted to, I also took along some of the mini books I have made. These had a lot of the techniques I like doing in them.

They loved the cards, but went bananas over the books! There was even talk of a course for them if it could be wangled, so hopefully this is a good sign?

If I am going to hear from them, it will be in about a week, so fingers and all else crossed. If anyone reads this drivel, please cross your fingers for me :)

More Cards

2009-02-26T09:59:00.000Z

It appears to be that time of the week again, these are the cards I will be doing tonight for class. ANOTHER Waterfall Card and a Diamond Card that I found on 'tinternet, if I could remember who's it was i would willingly give credit, but it was when i was wandering around YouTube ........ say no more lol.

Waterfall Cards seem to give this lovely Class of mine problems, This will be the third time I have done them! I don't think it is my teaching, could be though! I hope it is just like me trying to learn some things many moons ago at school when I drove some teachers to distraction not being able to "get it" then all of a sudden it just "clicked".

The little Diamond Card is so cute, and when you follow the instructions properly, easy to do and soooooooooo effective, and when folded down, fits into a 4" square envelope.

My poor craft space looks like the aftermath of a rather bad war. Every piece of kit that I have is out on the desk or the shelf beside it. I am trying to put together a portfolio (big word for me!) for an interview! Sometime soon I could be a part time lecturer in card making!

Blog Land

2009-02-20T10:01:00.000Z

A whole day with no appointments and no plans .............. bliss! So what am I doing with this unexpected time? Am I getting ready for a nice day in town? Am I doing housework so the weekend will be free? Am I Crafting up a storm?

No, I am reading blogs! Sometimes it is nice to spend some time actually reading the blogs I follow, properly, instead of scanning them and deciding I can go back to them and have a good read later. I have even used the blog links on them to go off on a wander into cyber land, and it has been great! I know there are a lot of superbly talented people out there, but I never seem to MAKE the time to go look for them.

Now I have so many ideas buzzing around, I should do something about it, but am I going to? Probably not. Another coffee and off into cyber land again lol.

Has it been a week?

2009-02-19T10:41:00.000Z

Falling into bad habits again! Must do better!

These are the cards we will be doing this week at class, I am just so in love with Nestabilities! At the moment, all I have are the scalloped ovals set for frames, so somewhere near the top of my shopping list are some more of the shapes. I am liking them all though, so will have to decide which ones will be the most used as the shopping list is frightening right now.

2009-02-10T09:26:00.000Z

I really must do better! Indoors for nearly a week and no blogging! I have taken some pictures though, the snow was amazing and at one stage I thought we were going to be totally snowed in, I was not disappointed when we were!

Now the snow has finally stopped, we are greeted each morning with ............... fog! It really is just as well that I have always had a "thing" about keeping the freezer well stocked.

This weekend was the great UK Scrappers Cyber Crop. I didn't get as involved as I would have liked to do, shoveling snow had to take priority, but did some of the classes and a few of the challenges

This was a lovely class by Taniwha aka Rachel, using bubble wrap to paint a background. I love it.

I used a picture of Evie, all wrapped up for an outing and cropped very close.

This one was a

challenge. Use lace. I think I went a bit overboard, but I sort of like it .

This one is a class by Ifa. I didn't have a lot of the things that she used, so I improvised and used hers as inspiration. I will go back and do more of this one though, with the masks and watercolouring as it was a lovely technique.

As you can see, these are real Fun-ghi's ............. I know, 'groan'. Another one that I sort of went off track with.

Laura Godfrey was the designer for this one and she used beads for the web in the bottom right corner, I used stickles as I made a bit of a mess of the inking and had to do a rescue on it.

And finally, the one that is so far out of my "comfort zone" that I am amazed that I did it!

Bright, bright colours and more gems than I have ever used on a LO before!

This was another challenge, use an old favourite, well I bought the paper AGES ago at Birmingham, why I will never know except that I thought it was pretty and there it has sat on the shelf ever since, so the time had come to actually use it.

SNOW!

2009-02-05T20:09:00.000Z

Well, I am going to be a bit more careful about what I wish for.

Wanting a photo opportunity and getting a day of near blizzards are two totally different things. I was a bit silly when I thought that a bit of nice snow overnight (so I took take a few nice pictures) that would conveniently melt by lunchtime just did not happen.

We woke up to a good inch of snow, and it was still falling. So being the good child I am I set to with the snow shovel and salt/grit

mix. I had to go out, well try to go out! As I had a dentist appointment, so Katy and I braved the weather and off we went. By mid afternoon you could not see where I had shoveled!

This is the lane, actually very pretty in the summer!

But "interesting" in a snow storm :) Nice slow driving called

for here.

This last one is of the trees at the top of our drive, very pretty, and no I did not stop to take them, I got Katy to take them for me, clever Ffroggie!

I have been asked if I use Flicker! Up until now I have not, but I think I might go and investigate :) If these poor tired out bones will hold me up a little longer.

2009-02-02T08:24:00.000Z

I am trying to be a good blogger, so I have downloaded the pictures I took yesterday instead of leaving them on my camera until I can't remember where I took them :)

It was VERY cold yesterday, but the snowdrop walk was fantastic! We even took the time to renew our National Trust memberships, so there should be no excuse not to go to some of the lovely houses and events that I see are planned for the coming year.

The first picture was taken at the start of the Lime Walk, a run of pleached Lime trees with a drainage ditch running along side it, it was just a carpet of beautiful snowdrops.

The second picture is a shot looking down the length of the Lime Walk. M

ost of the snowdrops are not properly out yet, so when they are, they are going to be a real picture, and if we do not get the weather forecast, I might get back down again to take some more pictures as the daffodils are nearly ready to flower too.

As you do, we met some lovely walkers, one was a little cutie about 18 months old, who very seriously told me that I had to shut the gate behind me, so, alright says I, I will remember. "Good girl" says little cutie, "you go play in the 'venture park now" says she. Had me in stitches!

Here is one that Miss Mouse took of me that I did not know about until we got home, she claims that it is one that anyone who knows me will recognise! Me lying on the ground in the freezing cold to take a picture of a flower that has interested me! Well the cheek of it!

The hat was lovely and warm though lol.

One last one, just because I like it. One perfect snowdrop.

No Photo's Today

2009-02-01T11:05:00.001Z

I had all these plans to actually get pictures taken and onto here, but as usual, things have gone a tad pear shaped!

Instead of being a good blogger, I am going to go to The Argory in Co Tyrone to try and take some nice pictures of the snowdrops :) You never know, I might even get some uploaded here.

The Argory is a beautiful National Trust property, and if ever you are on a visit here, you should try and fit a few of the houses into your holiday plans.

Well here's hoping that I do not get stuck in a snow storm on the way home :)

Better Tonight

2009-01-31T21:04:00.000Z

Well I feel a bit better tonight, especially as I have found out that I have won a pressie :) Some lovely Bodacious Borders from a lovely lady called Steph on her blog Any Shade of Green.

When the postie arrived, he does not get to us out here in the wilds until lunchtime (or after) he brought me a book I ordered from America, The Art of Fabric Books, just a quick skelly at it so far, but looks good, everything from the making to the decorating, I will keep you informed.

I also had a right rummage through all of my old magazines and had a good chucking session (after removing anything I found I might use :)) and even used my Dymo to label all my boxes of bits, no more rootling around for me.........ha ha. Organisation is happening, just VERY slowly :)

If I was not such a numpty, I would have remembered to bring my camera upstairs, but it will have to wait until tomorrow now, as I am here, I feel the need to go and tidy something else :) I might even have a go at making something :)

Sad Saturday

2009-01-31T10:05:00.000Z

Not such a good morning today, I have just heard that a friends little kitten had died :( Last week he had a run in with another animal, type unknown, and the poor little thing was on the loosing side. He ended up with a cracked jaw, but as he was eating and drinking the vet thought he would be alright. Yesterday he took a turn for the worse and sometime during last night he went to the Rainbow Bridge.

Play happily little Aramis.

OK, I am up for the Challenge!

2009-01-28T22:55:00.000Z

Mrs Dunnit, has gone and well........dunnit! She has put a lovely piccie of her ribbon vase one her bloggie 'specially for little ole moi! So looks like I am going to have to do one too :)

OK, not the worlds best picture I admit, and it was before just a few more were added, but not too bad for a beginner eh?

I have to admit that Mrs Dunnit is right on this one, I had tried all sorts of ways of storing ribbons, and guess what?

This one WORKS! Pins holding them onto cards just ripped unwary fingers open, than as it was fiddly trying to get them back on the card, they got abandoned......again! So every few weeks I ended up having to do an afternoons sorting, so that idea got squashed, then followed pots, well as I could not see into them I never knew what I was looking for or what I had, so that was a no go as well.

When I saw this vase of ribbons I fell in love and just HAD to get me one, well Miss Mouse got it really hee hee, best thing she has done this year IMHO.

So Thanks Julia, and Katy, I loves my ribbon vase :)

2009-01-23T12:43:00.000Z

Right, having a go at a bit of redecorating, and it is not going all that well! Going to have to get some advice me thinks lol.

Miss Mac is up and running!

2009-01-20T22:26:00.000Z

Well, I got me this Mac you see......................

Taken me a while to find my way around her, but I think I am getting there :)

Mr PC has been banished to the other side of the room to stop me using him and to force me to get used to using Miss Mac. I have managed to transfer all of my pictures and documents, moved all of my favourites AND put them into proper folders so I can find them all again, now all I got to do is master the photo suite and I will be away with a mixer......... or the fairies lol. No idea yet how I am going to master resizing pictures to get them onto the www as Miss Mac does not have Microsoft Paint, but there must be a way, and if I don't find it I will ask the lovely people on UKS, they are the font of all knowledge :)

Happy Girl Today

2009-01-14T20:07:00.000Z

I had a nice surprise yesterday, I won some blog candy! A lovely selection of pinkly girly scrapping goodies! This is the person who always has a go, but does not usually win anything, so I am a happy girl today :)
In fact so happy was I that I went to that famous Swedish shop and got a new kitchen table and chairs :)
We spent so long there I was late sending in the destructions, sorry, instructions for tomorrows class, here is what we will be doing tomorrow

New Year, New Beginnings

2009-01-13T12:20:00.000Z

I am now totally determined that I am going to be a good blogger. I have gone to the trouble to start a blog, so I might as well get to grips with it :)

Family is growing, I now have two gorgeous Granddaughters, Katy and Evie, there will probably be loads of tales from them to come. The boys are doing OK, DH is doing brilliantly and I am........well, that same as always really!

Katy does not look very happy in this picture, she could not understand why I wanted to hold Evie first! She did get a little hold of her later and was tickled pink :)

One of the things I intend to do with this blog, is to keep a record of the classes I do throughout the year. I need to be more organised! And as anyone who knows me will be able to confirm, I think the "O" word should be banned! It is a BAD word.

Well a bit of housework is needed here, These were last weeks cards. I diamond top card with ribbon flowers. The girls saw the sewing needles come out and I thought I was going to be lynched! They should have known that after my last attempts at getting them to sew, I would not do anything that would cause myself physical injury. Luckily, they all liked the finished result.