WOYWW 605 - Twelfth Night

Good morning and welcome back to the blog, and another week of WOYWW.  All the details can be found on the glamorous Ms Dunnit's blog here.  Do go and check it out if you're new here, and join in if you can!

This week has been a quiet one.  The decorations came down on Sunday, and whilst the house looks bare, we seem to have much more room again!  LOL.

For Christmas I bought Mr Morti a canvas from Frome - these are made using a piece of software that plays the film and takes the average colour from each movie (correction, scene), and puts a line of colour on a canvas to make a picture.  Can you guess which film this is?

In return, Mr Morti bought me an all singing, all dancing record player.  He has some notion that he can connect it to our old cinema surround sound system, so has bought an amp and we'll see how that goes!

 

The saga of our dodgy builders continues.  We had discovered that our new guttering was leaking, and we needed to fix it ASAP so prevent a repeat of the problem in the bedroom, where years of water pouring down the wall had destroyed the plaster indoors.  So, outside, he climbed up the ladder and took a look at the offending join. He discovered that not only had they cut the guttering an inch too short, the seal at that joint was missing.  A quick trip to B&Q and £2 later, a new joining piece was purchased to enable the seal to be taken out and put into the section.  The picture below also shows how wonky they put up the downspout!

The desk has seen no action other than to have all the Christmas cards we received dumped on it.  The bog standard printed ones will be turned into gift tags for next year, the handmade ones put into a box to be stroked at a later date, or used for inspiration, and the personal family ones kept.  

I always keep the ones we've sent each other, out of sentimentality.  Also, with my memorial jewellery making I am all too aware of one day it being the last card we receive from certain people, and having an example of their handwriting may come in useful.  The necklaces I showcased on last week's blog are a case in point - the Nannie in question went from fit and relatively healthy on a Monday, to no longer with the family by the Friday of the same week, one of the earliest Coronavirus victims. Not only could the family not see her, nor visit, nor be with her when she passed, they were unable to obtain a fingerprint impression which meant I had to be sent her handwriting from greetings cards in order to make the pendants.  Having known the lady since I was 11, it hit home rather hard, and I must confess to them being some of the emotionally hardest pieces I've had to make.

Anyway, onto lighter news.

The 2020 SAL was finally finished! Here it is in all its glory...

The fabric for the 2021 SAL finally showed up yesterday, and it's rather stiff and unyielding so will need a wash and press before it goes on the frame.

The moose hasn't moved on at all, but with good reason.  I have at long last framed up the fabric for my giant Heaven & Earth Design (HAED from now on), Siren's Lament by Anne Stokes.  This piece is being worked on 25 count (the number of holes per inch) evenweave fabric, and the grey gridwork on it identifies it as what is called "easy count".  (Finger in picture for scale!)   

I'm working full crosses in two strands over one thread (we'd say 2 x 1)  - so that will be 24 stitches per inch, or about 9 per cm.  I have made a start on the stitching for it, and at the moment I'm not overly happy with the way it's coming out as the stitching is looking a little bumpy and uneven.

However, I've taken some advice from my fellow Vampire clan members and they've said that I need to increase my tension and it will sort itself out.  So, I'm sticking with it.  It'll be interesting to see how long it takes me to do as this is two evening's work - although I hasten to add that I don't work on it for more than a couple of hours at a time, I'd go blind!  

I've also decided what I'm going to do with my Medicine Spoon Memorial piece, but I really need to get onto that!

That's it for the moment.  I'm also trying to figure out my YouTube channel.  We Geminis are mercurial butterflies who like to try all sorts of things, and have so many interests, and my channel kind of reflects that.  It's (going to be) a mixture of home renovation, hobbies, travel and being a Goth, which I know isn't a recipe for success (you should really do a consistent single thing) but it's me all over....

Speaking of YouTube channels, if you fancy a bit of escapism I can really recommend watching NickiPositano - her vlogs are about life as an expat living in Positano and are actually really rather good. A gentle, simple life with amazing scenery and some fabulous characters.  She's been vlogging for the last 10 years, but has really ramped up her vlogs and posting over the last year and is now looking incredibly professional.  I can see big things in this lady's future - she'd make an excellent travel TV presenter.

So on with the hop!  I'm terrible at getting round to everyone but I will endeavour to make more of an effort in the future.... so much to do, so little time.

Happy hopping!

WOYWW 578 - Resurrection Special

Oh my.

I'm not even going to say it.

So let's skip the self-flagellation and say...

HI!!!

I'm back.

There's probably not a lot of point in trying to do a catch up post.  There's a massive amount that has happened in the last two and a half years. In a nutshell...

Finished my CIPD and qualified in Level 5 Human Resource Management - can now put "Assoc. CIPD" after my name.... 

Lil Miss B celebrated her 18th Birthday.  And her 19th.  Almost at her 20th!

Lil Miss B also started University in Exeter.

I changed jobs - twice.

Had an amazing road trip to Italy and Gubbio - stopping off to see the marvellous Donna Garner en route.  Might blog about that in due course.

Moved to Cornwall. 13 months ago.  Still unpacking!

Joined a new Panto society and appeared on stage...

Oh - got two dogs as well.... :)  

I'll probably cover some of this off in future posts.

So what next?  I will, honest injun, do my best to post more often now.  My life is getting back into some semblance of order.  Honestly, after moving it took months for us to locate the pizza cutter, and the coffee percolator, whilst discovered, is still sitting mournfully in its box because we're not sure it needs to be out permanently these days.  There's still loads of boxes to unpack and the house is basically a money pit that needs a lot of time and energy spent on it.

Craft-wise, not an awful lot has been going on.  Actually, I lie.  I'm working on a crocheted pullover for Lil Miss B.  I finally finished my counted thread piece, Cape Breton Christmas, am working on a Blackwork SAL by Peppermint Purple and have dug out an old WIP to finish. 

I've recently finished a set of wedding stationery for a friend who is getting married in November.  Not made any other cards lately (except one, for my new great-nephew's 1st birthday), but my fingers are starting to itch and so the card making bonanza might start up again.  So might the old jewellery biz.

So, stick around.  I've missed spilling my thoughts out and think it's time I started again.


(and for any random blog hopper, WOYWW, or What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday is hosted by the lovely Julia here)

The Great British Blog Hop, Day 2

Welcome to day 2 of the Great British Blog Hop, as organised by Nicola, aka Sunshine Girl....

I thought about what I was going to do for this, and to be honest, I didn't have to think long!  Most of my friends said that the one thing that is quintissentially British, is afternoon tea (and yesterday you'd have seen Tea @ The Ritz...LOL) so I decided to make a card which rocked cakes.... sorry about the pun.  I thought I'd make something not too fancy or flouncy, a bit British stiff upper lip, if you like....

Image is Pink Petticoat, papers are from Designer Digitals.  Frame is Spellbinders Floral Frames.  Sentiment, Papermania (Clare Curd collection).

You're off on your way to JAK now - if you get lost, use the button on my sidebar to take you back to Nicola's blog and the full circuit...

Enjoy your day and the Hop!

Too funny...

You should go and check out what Simon has been up to on Penni's blog.  He's got some rubbish candy (except it's not) up for grabs.

I'm glad Mr B knows better than to have a tidy up, per se, but who knows whether or not he might blog on my behalf in future!!!

Chucklesome...

First up, it's always bothered me a bit about posting to my blog with the lack of a photo.  Sometimes I kinda figure that no picture can make for a dull post, so I'm now working on the theory that short and sweet will make up for it. 

Anyhoo.....

I was having a bit of a blurf this lunchtime and stuck my nose into Susan Raihala's blog, "Questioning my Intelligence".  Said blog is full of non-photo posts, and has some goodly words in it.  She has this fab link to something rather funny, and I thought I'd spread the word here.

So, head over to Lowering The Bar where we learn just how MI6 is helping to fight terrorism.  Laugh?  I nearly baked....

Deb Mitchell's Emerald Fairies and Blog Candy

I don't often wax lyrical on the subject of other people's blog candy, and designs I love, but I had to share this blog with you!

Deb Mitchell has some gorgeous images, so look here at her blog (as her cards for other challenges are gorgeous too) and here for her shop!

WOYWW 69 – the long wordy one.

Well! It’s that time of the week once more when we head off into the ether to snoop at everyone’s desks, courtesy of the Desk Discovery Diva, Delightful Mrs Dunnit. *did you like what I did there? Cool, eh? A little bit of alliteration never hurt anyone.* I’ve not been too good of late at getting around all the desks. I’m determined to rectify that this week, especially as we’re having a quiet (!) and inexpensive (ROFLMAO) weekend at home. Gardening. And swimming. We have Lil Miss B with us this weekend, and Friday sees her visiting a few local schools to see which one she likes best, ready to start there after half term (which is the last week in October, for our overseas readers). It will soon be upon us, that’s for sure!


I laughed at the inexpensive comment above because we were at Alexandra Palace (Ally Pally) for the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show (BSSBS) this weekend just gone, and now we have to live on bread and water for the next month. Or at least, baked beans on toast. My waistline thanks my crafting habit. Even Mr B got in on the act and hasn’t quite yet worked out where all his money went that day! More on Mr B in a mo – some of you that were there may have encountered him without even knowing it!

I met up with Jennie and Hels, and also Alison (aka CraftyTrog from UKSTampers, in the pic below.  I promise I'm not a giant really, just that Ali is quite petite). I got a couple of odd looks from folks, but I’m guessing that might have had something to do with my T-Shirt! See Julia, I did fly the flag after all, even if it wasn’t deely boppers! I even put the Stamping Ground blog address on the bottom under the WOYWW bit.  Mr B did comment that he wished I HAD worn the boppers, because then he’d be able to find me easily in the crowd. Normally he looks for the person wearing purple…. ROFLMAO.

So here, for your delight and delectation, is what is on my desk this week. Lots of crafting supplies.

Doesn’t look like much does it? No? That’s cos the rest of it is on the floor behind the desk….

That’s how you know you’ve overspent – when you start displaying it on the desk for the obligatory “here’s my stash haul from Ally Pally” shot, and discover that you’re probably not going to have room for a decent shot. Oops. I was good with it while we were there, but then I got home and the guilt started to set in. Bless Mr B – he said:

“did you have a good time?”
“yes”
“will you use the craft stuff you bought?”
“yes”
“will it enhance our crafting for time to come?”
“ye-es”
“Well stop feeling guilty about it then”

I love my man…… LOL


As I said before – some of you may have encountered him without knowing it. At lunchtime we were queuing for food in the Palm Court, and the flat screen telly was showing a Manchester City vs Chelsea football match. Now, Mr B is a Liverpool supporter, so what happened next was really funny. He was studying the telly intently, and then suddenly let out this really manly whoop of delight. Man City had scored! He immediately realised where he was (partly on account of the echo in the court, and partly because all conversation ceased, to be followed immediately by laughter on all sides) and clamped his hand over his mouth. Bless. Why did he cheer? Because he didn’t want Chelsea to win, and if they lost it meant that Chelsea were no longer unbeaten this season! LOL. All the ladies around us were most amused, apart from my mother in whose ear he had shrieked and darned near given her a heart attack!

We split up during the day to divide and conquer. Mr B and Mum sat in on a couple of demos downstairs, and I joined them for a demo by Barbara Gray of Clarity Stamps. I always try to go to her demos, because she’s so much fun. It’s like watching a cross between Graham Kerr (The Galloping Gourmet) and Marti Caine. Even Mr B commented on it.

“This lady must be popular”

“She is – what makes you say so though?”

“Well, this room was only three-quarters full for the last one, and now look”

Lo and behold, not only were all the chairs full, but there must have been about 50 people stood around the sides and back. It was like that all day too – I swung by the Clarity stand at 16.55, only to find Barbara like this:

I figured I should get a shot of Hels hard at work too (sorry Hels, I know you hate your picture being taken, but you did look as happy as Larry!) Tired but happy, eh?

Right – I’m off. Watch out for the girl in the T-Shirt!!!!




Morti
x

Inchies, ATCs and a sneaky peak.....

Ooh - I'm enjoying this creative malarkey! Thanks everyone for your very kind comments....

Along with the Little Book of Purple, I sent nine inchies to Sid for the November swap on UK STampers . The theme was Christmas - I guess these are more wintery, but I'd just seen some gorgeous serviettes in Tesco that were this colour combo, and was inspired. They're a more greeny blue in real life... The stamp is by All Night Media.



Then over on the Inchy by Inch blog we've had a Christmas Inchy Swap, where we've had to make 12 inchies. I can't remember where the stamps came from, some cheap and tacky set, but they are quite sweet, and the perfect size. Background is 140lb watercolour paper, with DTP background in Fluid Chalk Ink. Images coloured in with Twinkling H2Os.



Onto ATCs now - again, on UKSTampers there's an ATC swap - the theme being Da Vinci. Without running upstairs, I can't tell you where one of the stamps came from, but the other is by Cherry Pie. The papers are Joanna Sheen. I've distressed them a bit with Dark Brown and Burnt Umber chalk ink.



Last but not least - I'm finishing off a piece of art for the UK Art Raffle. This month's theme is Circles. I don't want to show the whole piece until it's received by the winner of the raffle, so for now, just a couple of sneaky peaks.

The Blog Candy Challenge Result!

Well, here we are - above are the entries for the challenge (plus my own card that started it), deadline was midnight last night, and we now have a result!

To get a winner, I input all the names into the List Randomizer, and got it to randomise the list 5 times, 5 being my numerology number.

And the winner is.....




Drum roll


Stitchinwitch!

Or Tracey, as she's more commonly known by!

Very, very well done - and thanks to all of you for entering my mini challenge! Every single one of your cards was fabulous, and if I could have divvied up the prize exactly between you, I would have done....

Tracey - please get in touch with your address so I can send your goodies!

Oooohhhhh - Changes!!!!

Well, whaddya fink?


I found this AWESOME site that allows you to pick up templates and attach them to your blog to add a bit more bling to it. It's bugged me for AGES that I had these blank panels either side of my blog, and now they're gone.

This template is a little bit full on for my liking, but was preferable to any others I saw on their website (see little tag, top left, for details). Once I can get my head round their "how to" template, I will have a stab at making my own on PSP. And if that fails, I shall have to sweet-talk an acquaintance of mine, the fabulous Inchy at Siggi Shop, to extend her range and maybe make something that matches my header. My fabulous header. Which she made.

Inspirational Cathy

Well, I had to come back on here and blog properly.

Another funny thing has happened. Kind of, though you as a reader may not think so. It's just one of THOSE things.

Every once in a while I think to myself "ooh, wonder what my fellow bloggers are blogging these days" and I hit one of the links over to the right to see what's up with my blogbuds. One thing usually leads to another, or as they say right here in blogland, one blog leads to another. So I went from Grendel to Bubba (you're going to try that in a mo, aren't you? See how I did it?) and from Bubba's blog I found the Scrappin' Rapper (yes really) which led to YouTube and I found Cathy Zielske. Except I didn't. I found some mad bird doing odd interviews and general humour plus a piss-take of Tom Cruise and Scrap Porn..... HEHEHEHEHEHE..... and eventually ended up back on her blog. I got there in the end. Her blog is linked to on the right - called "Bits & Pieces".

And I just want to say - Way to go, Cathy! You're an inspiration that us girls can do it just as well as Grendel and Bubba. We CAN take the mickey out of our hobby. We don't only have to blog what we've been doing and saying "what a good girl am I, here is my latest loorollpencilpotturnedintoacookiecutter."

Somewhere along the way I forgot who is me. Sorry Debs, it sounded funnier than "I am". And ME includes wit, humour, occasional rumbunctiousness, a most DEFINITE naughty side. Yes Debs, I'm referring to him.... And I REALLY really have to stop worrying about who is reading this. As long as it's not my other half, that is....LOL

So from now on, this blog is going to change. Oh yes, I'll still have my latest loorollpencilpotturnedintoacookiecutter, but I'll try and be funny with it. And if you don't like my particular brand of humour.... find another blog.

There.

I said it.

Now where is that photo of my loorollpencilpotturnedintoacookiecutter?


PS. Cathy - I hope you don't mind that I snagged your photo from your blog......!!!

Welcome, Inchy!

Or Jo.

Or whatever you prefer to be called!

Why am I welcoming her? WELL, for starters - Inchy made my header (which if it's not there, it soon will be, has done some Siggi's for me and.... tada!.... has just joined the Blogging Revolution. So welcome to Blogland, Inchy! We hope you will be happy here!

I'll add a proper link here as soon as I can snag her logo - but for now you will find her under "Siggi Shop Blog Spot" in the "blogs I browse" section!