Was It Wills?

Oh my goodness - we had an experience today which left us wondering "was it Wills?"  We were all happily working in the Kings Tower when this horrendously loud noise started.  I thought it was a very loud and powerful lawn mower, then realised we were quite high up and therefore would not be hearing a lawn mower.  Doh Blonde moment!

Someone dashed outside and before long we were all out there looking up into the sky at a big yellow bird.

Now whilst it may seem to some of you rather macabre we all stood there with cameras poised - someone had fallen (we found this out much later) and was going to have to be air-lifted from a walkway above us.

Was one of these Prince William?

Annie had gone to the loo at the time of all this was happening and apparently lots of people on the ground were wondering - "was it Wills".  Was he one of the crew - who knows?

Here's a guy being winched down

The ramparts just above us

Someone being winched up

Apparently this was the mother of the lady who had fallen and broken her foot but I went inside at this point as it was so windy with the helicopter and quite cold.  Perhaps someone else you visit will have the next picture of the injured lady (who had a backslab on and was seated like her mother was).

Once they had the lady safely away in the helicopter it meant we could get on with our technique demonstrations by Liz.  She covered so many different things that people had asked for that she really must be quite exhausted - and now has a long journey home.

Here's Madeline working away at her project, which turned out beautifully.

At the end of the day when everyone had exhausted themselves with the various techniques (and spent up as in my case) we had a "show" of everyone's work - here are a couple of photographs of people admiring the work.

Elizabeth & Wanda

Wendy getting her camera read

And now some of Liz's masks (love them all)

Don't they look good with the Castle Walls?

Big thanks to Liz for her expert tuition and friendship, to Adrienne who worked so hard throughout the weekend for our every comfort and to Annie and Wendy for looking after me so well (and the laughs and friendship)

Well, I am almost falling asleep now so I really must sign off, maybe a picture or two from Anglesey next time.

A Peek Inside Caernarfon Castle

Sorry to say my camera does not like the bright halogen lights and so most of the photos taken yesterday have not turned out as I would have wanted.  However, I will show you the room we are working in and hopefully, later, I will show you some of the pieces we have done.

Here are my buddies, Annie and Wendy

 Liz doing some one to one instructing

Look at those magnificent walls

Adrienne

Adrienne has a grand title (Lifelong Learning Manager) so she is the one who gets us all of the magnificent locations for these weekends.  She worked tirelessly for us all, going shopping for "supplies" (we had a buffet both days) before 7 am on the first morning.  Also she has been running up and down the steps (precarious) with bottles of water for us to keep the pans and the kettle topped up plus a million other jobs - a real star!

Am hoping Liz won't mind me putting one or two photos on my blog - here goes:

These really are - all made with Friendly Plastic

You would never know

The sample on the left shows the use of the ooze technique and on the right are my "windows" ready to be attached to some fabric when I get back home.  I have taken so many photographs of windows and they do tend to come quite often in three's that I thought I would make a little sampler to remind me of my lovely weekend in Caernarfon.

Hopefully more later - now I am off to breakfast and then up to the Castle to see if I can get in to "play" early.

More on that Day Out in Liverpool - Out of Sync

(Pre-post so it reads funny - I went and posted earlier this morning about Wales - doh!)

Back to my day in Liverpool.  We went to where the walled garden was at Croxteth Hall, walking through the Peach House first of all to get there.  Jo told us that there were chimneys on top of the walls as they used to heat the wall to protect the plants - think she said there were vines there.

Here we are like Bill and Ben and Little Weed - thinking about it we should have stood one either side of the big one and then we really would have been those puppet characters.

and underneath the arches

Apparently (I shouted a gardener over because I wanted to know what one of the plants was so he got chatting) this is arch shaped because it was over what was once a greenhouse growing vines.  

Split Espaliers

Can you see the little balls of box he is trying to cultivate?

So you see, there is plenty to do and see at Croxteth and we only saw a fraction of it.  A very reasonable admission price too so why not look it up and hopefully pay it a visit.

ps if you are getting married the scope for photographs is tremendous - that Grand Staircase would be wonderful.

Caernarfon meets Friendly Plastic

Well, here I am, in Welsh Wales!  Landed yesterday afternoon and found that the Guest house we are staying at is purr...fect!  What a lovely place but I don't think I should tell you what it is called as I might not be able to get in next time I am down here.  OK, it is called Victoria House and you will have to Google it if you want to find out more.

Well, yesterday I explored a bit of the town to get some photographs for my inspiration.  This is to save me walking down the stairs and back up again as my breathing is not 100% yet.  Not a clue as what some of the buildings are but I thought I would give you some sketching inspiration today - are you ready?

Think this is the front door

Love arches ...

... see what I mean

Rather Eastern European looking

More Arches

Another obsession is doors

Interesting shape

Breakfast is calling but if you want to use any of the photos for YOUR inspiration please feel free.

Maybe more in the morning - depends how hard Liz works us.

A Day in Liverpool (lots of pictures)

Was even better than I expected.  Why, you ask?  Because that little minx Jo had not told me that another friend was coming and so it was a complete and wonderful surprise to turn round and see the lovely Lorraine stood behind me.  Here are the three of us in Jo's "Mad House".

But wait ... there was another surprise

Jo's daughter, Claire, decided to Skype and so I got to chat with her and her lovely little girl.  It was great to see the improvement in the little one, and see how her hair is coming back, and so nice to chat to Claire who has been a face in a photograph up to now.  Maybe, one day, we will meet in person.

After a lovely lunch Lorraine went off to collect her son from school (with his three big bags) and Jo and I set off with the guys for Croxteth Hall.  What a treat that was as we wandered around the rooms:

Am hoping you can click on this picture and read the Rules

and this one shows what life was like for the Servants - not bad eh?

I found this rather interesting - sometimes a valet would have to translate for the master.  Boy oh boy, I wouldn't have liked his job - I like my sleep!

What I haven't told you is that some of the rooms have an activation beam which, when you walk in through the doorway, the characters appear to be having a conversation.  When I went in this room, for the second time to get this photograph, on my own (I found the guy on the right to be a bit spooky - his eyes never left me) I felt a bit spooked, honestly, and it was quite dark.  I had forgotten all about the voices so just as I was about to press the button on my camera he spoke.  Think the camera leaped about six inches in the air.  I certainly got the goosebumps.

This, and the one below, were two of my favourite rooms.  I loved the children chatting and in the one below there was a very interesting conversation going on between the two ladies.  What were they talking about?  You will have to go yourself and then you can find out.

All too soon it was time to leave the Hall as we wanted to see the Walled Garden and the Farm.  This is the magnificent hallway on the upper floor.

It really is a lovely park in itself and I am just sorry we did not get chance to see much more of it, but that gives us an excuse to go back again.  We have to visit the farmyard as well so plenty of reasons to go back.

Sorry Jo (and Dave) we are coming back!

And I'll be back later with some photos of the garden - for some reason Blogger was playing silly and wouldn't let me upload any more.

More Than Four Edges

A nice easy peasy one for you this week you are producing a card like I have done.  Zoe chose this theme and both of us chose an easel card.  Thanks for all the lovely entries in the "Shades of Green" challenge last week.  We do hope you are having fun but we do say no cute and no digi please and sometimes I find myself getting close to the border with cute but I do manage to pull myself back quickly, well, most of the time.

Anyway, enough of all that, here is my entry for this week, using one of my Dimension Fourth polymer stamps.  Didn't get chance to see what Roy had on his stand at Harrogate so hope to catch up with him when I am less busy by visiting his website.

Fancy Labels (two stacked on top of one another) from Spellbinders and coloured in with my Twinkling H2o's.

Looking forward to seeing what you all can do.

WOYWW 120

By my reckoning I have the number right, but then it could be anything because I am so tired.  Not a good night last night, I felt sickly when I went to bed, no reason for it, and I woke early with my hip hurting (nothing new there).  Well, let us not tarry with 'Moaning Minnie' but get on and see what my workdesk is like so that you can move swiftly on and see what  the delightful Julia has been up to and what The Stamping Ground has to offer.  Then you can link in and see what delights others have to offer.

Oh, and by the way, it is Tuesday evening so the above paragraph is talking about Monday night me feeling sickly.  The reason is that I want to need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning (Wednesday) is because I am off to "The 'Pool" to see Jo and Dave so I can return something they borrowed for me to borrow (confused?).  Jo has so much energy I need to have my battery full for the day.  We have a bit of work to do in the morning and then we are off for a visit to Croxteth Hall.  Anyway here is my desk as it is tonight and as it will be in the morning.

What you can see are lots of bags of bits and pieces (you might recognise some of them if you click on the picture) because I am preparing for my workshop at Vicky Stampers on 1st October.  Sorry but I am not showing you the one and a half samples I have to take with me, well not yet anyway.  It is going to be a busy workshop as we have 23 signed up for it, think some are going to be sitting on the roof - pity the weather is like it is or we could have had some in the garden.  Not to worry, it will be nice and cosy and we will all cuddle up (or work with our elbows in our sides).  So, Doone and Jo, not long to go before we all meet up (ok, I am seeing Jo tomorrow but that does not count)

Someone asked a week or so back how I stored my um's - well here it is - my system..

I stamp the images on a sheet of paper, A6 - laminate it and then stick my stamps on the back of it.  They are then all stored on their sides in these silver tins from "ze Svedish" place!  Each tin has a category in it, some have two tins for one category as I am a 'divil' for words and one or two other things.

Well, if you've made it to here, well done, now take yourself off to see what others have done or are doing at The Stamping Place.  See you again soon.