WOYWW 675

 It's Wednesday again, and that means time to meet up with Julia and her band of merry bloggers here.  If you want to join in just follow the link and give it a whirl.  There is nothing at all on my desk at the moment and so it's a bit of a set up.  I have been sat in the lounge practising my pencil colouring skills (which are nil) to the accompaniment of a class I took in February with the brilliant Tracy Scott.  This time I think it is sinking in and here are a couple of practice sheets I have done this past week.  Not much to show but it has not been a very productive week craft wise, apart from my journal page which is ready for tomorrow (with a silly story this week - nonsense).

Sorry it is so dark, I had to turn the light off to get a shot

At the front you can see a couple of new images from Vera Lane/Janet Klein which I rather took a shine too, mainly because the hairstyles were different to a lot of the others and I love to swap heads to make new characters.  These are called 'wanderlust' and as you can see they are all about travel with one holding a camera and the other a map.

Well, that is it for this week - shock horror, it's a short post - I did also make a card but as the recipient has not had her birthday yet I can't show it in case she pops on here.  See you with it next week.

Jeudi Journal - A Challenge

 "Percy had been to the zoo with his class from school.  It was the usual end of year trip and the teachers had decided that it would be both fun and educational.  The children could learn all about the animals whilst enjoying the open air and they could do some projects on the animals they had seen when they returned to school after the summer recess.

Percy was a lovely young lad, easily led by his peers but lots of fun and a very likeable child in many ways.  His mother was very understanding of his mischievous streak but she did her best whilst her husband was away serving his country.  Percey was proud of his dad and wanted to be just like him when he grew up.

There had been a lot of giggling on the coach back home but the teachers had not seen anything to worry about and they knew that the boys were all good pals and did behave silly when together - perhaps they were laughing about the antics of some of the animals they had seen.  

The coach pulled up outside school right on time and there were several mothers waiting for their offspring, including Mrs Bunt, Percy's mother.  Mrs Bunt was glad to have her son back in one piece as she had been worried he might fall into some pit with an animal or something and so she hurried him along to the waiting car.  

It wasn't until they got home that she noticed the knapsack he had taken was moving on its own!    What have you got in there, she asked.

"It's a present for you mum" replied young Percy.  "All the other kids were buying presents for their mums to take home but I thought you would like one of the exotic birds" he said as he pulled a rather bewildered looking bird from his knapsack.

(sorry its a bit skewift)

"Oh Percy", said Mrs Bunt, what am I going to do with you, you are going to be in big trouble, in fact sometimes I despair, you can be trouble with a capital T at times."

Percy looked at her with his big eyes and said "I'm not trouble just a challenge".

This is based on a story I was told when I went as a representative of the Girl Guides (Girl Scouts in America) in the UK, to an International camp in Denmark, many many moons ago.  Now how true it was I have no idea but the (mature) lady who told it was a teacher from the north east and I had no reason to disbelieve her.  I have heard it as a funny story since so who knows?

I am entering this into Art Journal Journey where the challenge this month is "Birds" as set for us by Matilde who hails from Poland.  You can see her work here and I am sure you will love her inspiration page as much as I do.

WOYWW 674

A scheduled post because I am probably not going to feel up to posting early in the morning tomorrow.   I didn't want to miss, don't think I have ever missed posting since I joined way back in goodness only knows when, so I am showing you my latest bit of crafting.

It's ages since I did any of these pointy cards and to be honest I had forgotten how to make them so the trusty computer had to come out for a refresher course.  Thank goodness for You Tube.

That's my little Artisan Explorer you can see on the left - the footprint is only 4.5" but it is a powerful little machine - all metal inside!  The pot with the yellow lid holds my tablets for the day and there is a glue sitting on top of it plus a large one at the side of it.  The circles were what were cut from my circle cards and then I used them to cut the ovals for these cards - that's the scrap.  Along with the bits on the right hand side.

I have also been making more of those circle cards with the crafty things on them - these are mainly for members of the stamp club but none of them come on here so no danger they will see them - they still want names adding in the circles but i did make six.  One went a bit wrong as I stuck too much on and could only fit 'happy' on the circular bit so the 'birthday' will have to go across the centre instead of a name.  These were done a couple of days ago when I wanted my mind occupying mindlessly.  

No two are alike because of the images stuck on

There may yet be other cards in the making - all for club members but not all for the club I go to - some for my internet club friends.

Well, that is me for the moment and so I will link myself to Ms Julia and the WOYWW'ers for the weekly desk hop/snoop.  Why not join us, it's all good fun and your desk can be tidy - messy - or in between.  

Jeudi Journal - Time

 Well, linking to Art Journal Journey proved very difficult with the quote set by Wendy for this week.  The quote was "There's not enough hours in the day for all the stuff I'm not going to do" and the closest song I could come up with was by Chicago - "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?".   A tenuous link but the best I could come up with for Alison's challenge which I really wanted to link with.

I did try several songs about laziness, idly lying about but when you examined the lyrics they were not at all suitable being drug related or even worse.  So I settled on the song by Chicago, at least I could write a story.

"Patsy was a crafter.  She was always busy making things, buying new products - you name it, her whole life was about crafting.  She had a lovely dedicated large craftroom, filled with shelving and a huge table in the centre of the room.  Dotted around the perimeter were also a couple of smaller tables where she could work on the different disciplines, such as her die cutting station, her 'dirty' area which was where the large old Butler's sink was for the messy projects she loved to do, and the clean area which housed her sewing machine and bales of fabric which she could not resist buying.

She had a TV mounted on the wall just beyond the doorway and that was linked to her computer so that she could watch You Tube demonstrations whilst she got on with her current project, whatever that may be.  In short Patty was missing nothing in her life.  Her husband was a quiet mannered soul who was quite happy to let her get on with all the things she enjoyed and he was quite happy to help with the housework as and when necessary.  If truth be known he did most of the cooking these days and was becoming quite the accomplished chef.

It was a lovely sunny morning when the two of them were sat having breakfast together on the patio.  Breakfast had always been Patty's thing and she had made two perfectly poached eggs that day which, along with some crisp toast, had been a lovely start to the day.

"What are you doing today my dear?" asked Henry.

"Oh I don't know" replied Patsy.

"Surely in that wealth of You Tube videos you have saved you must be able to find something" he answered.

"There's not enough hours in the day for all the stuff I'm not going to do" she replied, with a smile on her face..

Henry sighed, sometimes he wondered what on earth went on in Patsy's world.  But he didn't say anything, he loved her so much he just wanted her world to be perfect."

WOYWW 673

It's Wednesday and that means it's WOYWW and time to join Julia and her merry band showing their desks.

First of all I want to show you the local church when we visit the area close to The Lakes we enjoy so much.  I was particularly pleased so see that not only had they a cross displayed on the gates for Easter but one beside it which I presume was in support of The Ukraine.

It was another lovely weekend with the weather being very favourable and on Monday I posted about our day in Sizergh which had the most beautiful gardens - I so enjoyed wandering them and seeing the designs of Susan Rowley, the Head Gardener there.  You can read and see all about it here.

Now I have stopped waffling here is my desk.  As you can see not much activity but there are my new stamps featuring Miss Dee, the latest character from Janet Klein. Not too sure whether I will get as hooked on them as I have done with her little characters.  Miss Dee is fun and outrageous but I can't see as many opportunities for using her as I have had with the other little characters.  Maybe one or two insulting cards??  Let's just say I have not ordered the next set as yet.

On the left are my JK images neatly filed away in number order - these are the small A7 stamps - the others are in a drawer.  You will notice they are in Felix boxes from when we fed the cats next door.  Then the fours stamps just bought and the images cut out ready for colouring.

Sorry about the glare 

These are the actual stamps showing you the words

Here she is Miss D with a bit of colour

There are some little bts still to cut out, mainly arms on hips have a space and I notice I missed some heels on a pair of beach shoes.  Not quite sure what I will do with her/them as yet but watch this space - inspiration is, hopefully, around the corner.  Now to link up early.

Sizergh - I fell in love with it

What a brilliant weekend I had.  We went to Sizergh Medieval Manor on Sunday.  What a lovely place to visit.  We didn't manage to do the house as my back was bad and I could not face the stairs but we watched a short film featuring Henry Hornyold-Strickland, 8th Count della Catena, which was very interesting and informative.  Well worth watching.

Afterwards we started looking at the gardens and I was surprised just how beautiful they are.  Quite impressive and, to my mind, one of the nicest gardens I have seen.  The Head Gardener is female, Susan Rowley, and what a fabulous job she has made of the planning of the gardens.  I could have spent all day just wandering about and looking at the names of all the plants in the various gardens.

We started off in the Stumpery - and I just loved it.  The planting was done around various stumps of trees and gave a lovely backcloth to the many plants and their foliage.  I thought this was going to be my favourite part of the gardens and had to have a photo of me besides one of the sections.

I just love how they have used these tree stumps and built the beds around them - I have a fascination with wooden pieces whether raw or finished in some way.

From there we went to the herbaceous border and on to the kitchen garden.  I could kick myself for not taking a photograph of the ingenious way they have built the fencing from cherry blossom.  It looks so pretty - maybe we will go again shortly!

Despite loving the Stumpery I fell in love with the Rock Garden.  I cannot describe it and can only say it is well worth a visit.  Despite the meandering pathways and little bridges I just had to wander around and soak up the beauty of this place.   I just loved this view and as I walked towards it a guy with a telephoto lens came towards me and said "Fantastic".  He too, just loved the view before us.

this is by the water in the rock garden

So striking from a distance

The Mirror Lake

Back of the Manor

They ask you not to roll (roly poly) down the banking (above) as it is home to solitary bees and other insects so they don't want you squashing them.

From there we went to look at this topiary and we were treated to a lovely song by a solitary bird sitting on top of one of the pyramids.

I had to shoot into the sun for fear of disturbing it

And then it was time to return to the gift shop where I bought a delightful bud vase before we wended our way home.  A lovely day out - we will definitely be back.

Jeudi Journal - Error

In linking the quote for this week with Art Journal Journey my mind went to that British film "Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War" when I saw the quote I had to use for the journal page today.  It's about Thelma (Pauline Collins) who is sent to a run down nursing home by her son and daughter in law.  

 It's a good fun film, in which amongst other things they refuse to eat the endless tasteless cabbage meals they were given and go out for some fun on the bowling green.  

"Agnes was feeling particularly down.  She had just been to watch a wedding at the local church with her grandson Benji.  Benji had been asking lots of questions about when his Gran got married and wanted to know all about her and Grandpa's lives when they were younger.

Lots of images of friends now gone passed before her eyes and did nothing to lighten the mood she was in.  She had lost touch with so many of her old pals as each had taken different directions in their lives.  Her husband, George, was almost 80 and no longer were they the Agnes and George of old.  Oh what fun they had had when growing up.  What scrapes they had been in.  She dare not tell Benji of some of the things they had done.  Harmless things, like playing 'knock a door, run' and raiding neighbour's bonfire piles before the big day when they were to be lit.  Were they really errors of her life or just part of growing up?

She shook herself and put on a smile telling Benji about the time George took her out to tea and they ate all the cakes on the cake stand not realising that each one had to be paid for.  Poor George had not had enough money on him and she had had to empty her purse and help him pay for the cakes.  The dress she had been saving for for the Queen's Coronation just blew away in the wind that day as her savings dwindled and the pair of them felt quite sick afterwards.  But she did not tell Benji that last bit.

Agnes  remembered her school days when she had been sent off to a boarding school and how she disliked the place. She remembered the real scrapes she and her friends got into and the time she led a revolt over them having to wear straw boaters in the summer when they walked past the boy's school and how the boy's would jeer at them.  Worse still it had almost ended up with her being expelled the time she climbed the flagpole and tied a pair of the house mistresses undies to the pole.   

Agnes had had some upsetting news that morning and she had thought that going by the church and seeing a neighbour's daughter's wedding would take her mind off things and she would shake out of the doldrums - but no, it made her feel even sadder.  She said to herself "the older I get the more I see the error of my ways, but the less I care".  She knew that wasn't strictly true, yes, she had regrets about some things that had gone on in her life but they were not for sharing, and certainly not with her lovely grandson Benji.  "If we didn't have regrets, didn't have those moments in our past to see what errors we had made we wouldn't grow up to be good Grandparents to our little ones.  So I don't care." she muttered to herself.  And with that she called out to Benji to set off to see what Grandpa was up to."