WOYWW 310

Well, I am off again.  Came back from Nerja a couple of weeks ago and had three days at home and then went down to stay with Wendy for three nights and off to Liverpool to stay with Lorraine for one night so I could go to Port Sunny on the Saturday.  Back home and now off to Nottingham today to see my lovely friend Liz.  Life has been a whirl just lately.  Consequently nothing much happening on the crafting front but I have been doing some atc's ready for the big swap.

The garden is looking a bit of a mess too, the weather has been conducive to "weeds" and they, and the chives and bluebells, have sprouted everywhere.  A little weeding has been done but a lot more needs doing plus our gardener is off ill at the moment so we have a huge lawn which is going to be a meadow before long - and we don't have a mower!

Anyway, here is my desk - didn't buy a lot at Port Sunny, spent too much time chatting - so no point in showing you.  On my desk is a card (left) that Pat made me for my birthday.  It was a bit late so didn't get shown with the others but it is lovely and well worth waiting for.  Consequently I am trying to make a similar one for my friend Liz and that is what is on my desk.  Twinkling H2o's and cut out butterflies etc.  Just in front of my iPad are my atc's for the swap - yeah, I have got some made.

That's got to be it for now as I am running late (it's Tuesday night) and will be midnight in a short while and I am nowhere near ready for bed.  So run along and see what Julia and the rest of the WOYWWers are up to - thanks for stopping by.
xxx

Challenge 80 Artful Times - Hot Pink & Orange

Wendy chose the theme for this challenge and it fit perfectly into my busy schedule as I had just done a workshop with Dyan using her Dylusions Paints so I was 'hot pinking' it in great style.  Not many finished pages in my journal as yet but this one had to be completed for the challenge and so here it is

I used Lemon Zest, Squeezed Orange, Bubblegum Pink Dylusion Paints and then did a bit of stencilling and some spritzing with the same colours.  Finished off with picking some bits out with a white pen.

I did try some fancy work around one of the squares but didn't like it and thought it would be too too much on them all so I decided to use a frog to cover it.  That decided me on everything else on the page and the figures are painted with Twinkling H2o's.  I thought there was a quote something about 'a frog' and 'kissing' but couldn't find it so I just wrote my own.

So there you have it - my page and my contribution to our penultimate challenge.  Hope you find time to join in with us.

WOYWW 309

My desk is exactly the same as it was before I went on holiday.  Pristine clean - in fact I didn't tell you that I had actually dusted my window sill and shelves before I went away.

Came home Friday and then had a Pacemaker check up appointment yesterday and straight away I set off for my friend Wendy's and that is where I am now.  A girly week!  So once again - no mess on the desk as I didn't have time to do any crafting over the weekend after I had put my shrink plastic stuff away.  You have me sussed too - this is a scheduled post again.

Not wishing to disappoint you though I will show you some "Glitter" cards I made at the last but one club meeting.  I have actually mounted them to make them into finished cards - apart from a greeting which I prefer to leave until I want to use the card.  You know me, I am so not into "glitter" but I did enjoy making them and I know my friend, Mary, in America just loves them so I now have three cards lined up for her (providing she does not see them on here first).  All made with peel-offs stuck on card and then glittered before colouring.

Just so Julia does not think I am not adhering to the rules here is my desk - boring or what?

See you over at the Stamping Ground later - adios!

Cream Crackered - Can't Stop Sleeping

Well, we got back from our holiday on Friday evening at 7 pm UK time (would have been 8 pm where we had left so as we set off from the hotel at 10.30 that morning it had been a long day - 9.5 hours!).  We had left a very very hot part of the world and returned to a very very cold and wet part of the world.  I could not get warm when we came in.  However, after good night's sleep and the heating having been on all night I was much better the next day.

Set off for our club meeting where we were revisiting Shrink Plastic and Pat, our tutor for the day, had made lots of things for us to see, had conducted lots of experiments with the various inks and things so there was lots for us to do.

I took some of the shrink plastic things I had made in the past and I made some bits whilst there:

The jewellery pieces on the right are what I had made previously and the three 'lady' pieces at the bottom were from printed images I already had.

On the way home I called at a well known Pharmacy for some lotion with Aloe Vera in it which Lynne had recommended.  Three applications later and my legs are not looking as red as they were

Still sore though and the right foot is still swollen when I sit with it down so a cushion on the stool is the order of the day.  Hopefully it will be better for tomorrow when I go to stay with my friend Wendy.  Whatever it is that is causing this redness (varicose eczema or blood pooling?) it obviously does not like the sun, maybe the pooled blood started to simmer?

Well, I am certainly catching up on any missed sleep, woke at 6.30 this morning, made a cuppa and slept until 9.30 am.  This is so not me - and I had slept most of last night in front of the tv.  I guess it is doing me no harm at all so I will just enjoy dreaming.  Got to do my reviews now on Trip Advisor - especially for the best burgers ever - Momo Burger in Nerja (and I am not addicted to burgers).

WOYWW 308

Only a few days late - but I could not let the week go by without joining in with WOYWW.  I did have a good excuse - I tried to do a post via BlogPress but I could not get it to upload my photograph. I even had super sleuth on it as well and he could not manage it (and he was a programmer) so very frustratedly I gave up and sulked.

Anyway - here is what you missed - my desk

As you can see I was busy journalling on the balcony overlooking the sea ... but where was I?  It was hot I can tell you that much.  In fact I have two badly burned legs but then that is another story and it was not from sitting in the sun.

As you can see I have a bottle of Diet Coke there, looks as if Spencer had stripped off because that is his t-shirt to the left of my journal and behind it are all manner of things.  A pencil case that contains loads of pens, my Caran D'Ache little travel box of watercolours and my favourite sticky stuff, Cosmic Shimmer.

Here are a couple of clues to where I was

A peep across the bay

Perfect clear water

This should give it away

or this beach may

Didn't go down to this beach as it was quite steep and involved more walking than my poor legs and feet would do.  In fact I had a very chilled holiday with very little walking involved.  Just ate some fabulous ice cream, had some lovely meals out, read a lot and did a bit of journalling.  I was ready to come home after eleven days of sunshine (hot) but when I got to Manchester early evening today (Friday) I longed to be back in the heat.  Is there no satisfying me or what?  Why can I not go on holiday, beam myself up (as Scotty) check on home and then beam myself back again?

Right, must go and see what other WOYWW'ers have been up to and visit our leader, Ms Julia, to see what important news I have missed over the past two Wednesdays.  

Artful Times - A Bit of Finnabair

Here we are with Challenge no 79 - a bit of Finnabair - we mean for you to look at her work and use some metal pieces, lace, flowers - whatever takes your fancy and see what you come up with.  Here's a link to her blog to get you started:

http://tworzysko.blogspot.co.uk

I just love her work and I so enjoy going to her workshops.  I think I have become a bit of a 'groupy' as I have been to several now and am hoping to go to another two this year.  Oh dear!  I have featured some of the things I have made in her workshops and there is a link on the right hand side of this page if you want to see some of the things I have done.

For this piece I was left entirely on my own - had one or two wobblers but eventually came up with this.  The photo is of my mum and my gran.

You don't have to have photographs in your work, it doesn't have to be a canvas or a book cover, you can just do a card.  I have made some cards and used some of her stamps in the process so I could easily have used those but thought I would attempt a canvas.

top left corner

and bottom right

Now should I put some stamping on or some lines, some torn strips of paper?  Oh dear, what shall I do?

Pop along to Wendy's blog and see what she has to show you and then please join in and make something for us to feast our eyes on and enjoy.

WOYWW 307

Well, you will not believe my desk as it is right now.  Mind you it wasn't like that a short while ago as I had got the most fabulous stamp sent to me by my friend in America.  It is a Stampin 'Up set and is called Lotus Blossom - the flower head being a three part stamping procedure.

Sadly, the same day it arrived I got an email telling me that a dear little old lady of whom I was very fond, in America, had passed that morning.  So the first card I made with the stamp was a condolence card for her son and his family.  Little Edie, as I called her, was not a well lady but she did make the effort to spend Christmas visiting the various family members so I got to see quite a bit of her when I was over there.  I had to smile because I had taken her some scented drawer liners as a gift and she refused to use them for that purpose.  She told me it was "too nice" and that she was going to "make cards with it".  Yes, she was a card maker.

At weekend I decided to try the stamp out again using different colours of my Brilliance inks.  I didn't have that many colours suitable for the flower heads so I went on to using my Chalks.

The Peach one on the left is with Peach Pastel (Chalk ink) and the other two are Sky Blue and Orchid (both Brilliance)

The lilac one below is done with Brilliance Lavender and the other is with Chalk Dark Peony.

There was just one snag - the Dark Peony one rather stained my stamp but it did give the best result. It took a lot of cleaning before I could use a Pastel Peach on it again.

So my desk!  Want a shock?  Want a surprise?  Well you can get both when you see it

and to prove it is all the way around the bit that does not have cupboards/drawers on it (permanent)
we have a view to the left.

Think I need to lie down now I have uploaded that.  But just before I do let me tell you something strange that happened to us on Saturday.

I had a bad back, a real bad back brought on by a mammoth spring cleaning on the Friday.  Chas offered to do the kitchen/diner for me so I let him.  Now he had done this the week before too. Imagine his shock when he moved a couple of boxes from the corner of the breakfast bar (which isn't used as one but I don't know what else to call it - it has cupboards suspended over it) and he found a ..(oh my gosh, I could not believe it and it made me feel all funny inside) ... dead blue tit.  How on earth it had got into the house I have not a clue.  Not had the windows open in the dining room, it must have been poorly and come in to die.  We have no dog or cat.  That is the only explanation I can come up with.  Poor wee thing - but what a good job he found it when he did.  Imagine the smell if we had not cleaned up for a few days.

Right, after that I think it is time to visit Julia and see what she and everyone else is up to.  See you later!