A clear out....

.....of the digital kind.

So no, I've not gone mad and had a stash trash or a clutter clearance.  No.  I've come in here, looked through my blog reading list, and had an unfollow session - clearing more than half my list and deleting a grand total of 36 blogs.

What on earth happened to everyone?  All the blogs I've unfollowed have stopped running.  There last post was a year ago or more.  And not a word as to why...

I know I'm pretty bad at blogging regularly, but only one or two of those blogs had folks that had popped on to say "Sorry guys, last post here".  It does worry me that some of our blogging buddies may have met with unfortunate ends.  With that in mind, I'm going to make sure that beloved Mr B knows my logins and can at least get in here and advise you all of my demise, should that be the case.  Two or three blogs had been hijacked by spammers, judging by the content!

It has made me a little more determined to keep up with my blogging, which is why I'm sat here now typing away.  Can't be leaving folks without something to read!

And suggestions please, of new blogs to start following.... always welcome!

WOYWW 368 - welcome to the jungle...

So, another round of WOYWW has hit our desks, and frankly it finds me sat in the corner sucking my thumb, feeling distinctly non-creative.  However, that’s no reason not to join in, so here I am in the hope that joining in the blog hop as instigated by our lovely Julia Dunnit, and currently hosted by the equally lovely LLJ, will give me some much needed oomph in the creative mojo department.

 

Mind you, part of the problem may be down to the state of the craft room.  I can’t get any mojo to tidy it either, and it’s not like I don’t have a zillion things to do.  Like some cushion covers.  And lots of cards.  And some embroidery.  And a makeup bag.  I’m going to stop there before I overwhelm myself completely.  One step at a time.  Tidy the room.

Not that it’s been quiet around here, oh no.  Last Friday saw Lil Miss B’s last ever day at secondary school, with her going in to take her last GCSE (Physics, yuk, to quote she), so I grabbed a quick snap.  I’m not sure where the time has gone.  I did look down the back of the sofa for it but all I found was 3p, a couple of mouldy peanuts and an elastic band.

Friday night and Saturday saw me in attendance at Salisbury Cathedral where I joined the Salisbury Musical Society (such a mis-nomer, it always conjures up an image of smiling faces and docidoh-ing while singin “OHHHHHHHH! Klahoma! Where the wind...”!)  to perform Mozart’s Vespers and Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man – a Mass for Peace.  An absolutely brilliant evening, the acoustics, as you would expect, were amazing and the soloists superb.  It was fun, but I’m not in any rush to join them permanently, as it will soon be panto season.... don’t start, you lot!.... and my Tuesday evenings will be taken up with other rehearsals and meetings and so on and so forth.

 

 

 The Last Post being performed by a member of The Light Brigade

 It wasn't without trouble - the Friday evening rehearsal saw the fire alarms going off with us all being kicked out of the cathedral - cue arrival of fit firemen.  But as I posted on FB in the week who ever would have thought that I'd get a photo of the Cathedral with a fire engine AND a cello! 

 

 

 

Lastly, t’was our 3^rd wedding anniversary yesterday and hubster sent me this fantastic bouquet of flowers to commemorate the occasion.  He also bought me a very lovely Pandora charm.  Awww...

 

So that’s it for this week.  I will endeavour to visit as many of you as I can.  I’m aware there’s a couple of you wanting ATCs from me – we seem to be having a problem getting emails back and forth for addresses, but I do have a couple of spares if anyone wants to boost their collection at all!

Happy Hopping....!

WOYWW......ING. 230

I've been a bit lax lately and not joined in, so here's a bit of fun for today.

I am:

Savoring the last few days of late October. Season of mists, and all that...
Finishing my magazines - they usually get left to rot, unread.
Learning some new craft techniques.
Trying to make better food choices.
Missing my dog, Twig, may his doggy soul rest in peace.
Hesitating on buying a laptop.
Ingesting lots of soup!
Meeting old friends and new.
Feeling optimistic for the future.
Thinking, "Car main dealerships are rip-off merchants when it comes to repairs"
Watching : Sons of Anarchy, season 4 - yes, I'm a bit behind.
Listening to Alter Bridge's Fortress album.
Loving my family very much.
Working towards not having to work.
Anticipating how much hard work a forthcoming project is going to be. (watch this space)
Wishing there was a LOT more time in each day.

What's your latest 'ing'?

 

In the meantime, I will be uploading a proper picture of my desk when I get home.  It is busy - I'm back to the Strawsilk glasswork in anticipation of craft fairs prior to Christmas.  We've had yet another car bill in and things are a bit of a struggle at the moment (so I guess you're wondering why I'm even considering a laptop let alone hesitating to buy one - well that's why we're hesitating) and we need some extra pennies.  We're working on that!

 

So, go and join in the hop started by the delightful Miss D and we'll catch you around here soon.  Hopefully I might get a chance to visit some folks!

WOYWW 177....

Hello!

Here we are again, another round of WOYWW  courtesy of Mrs JD, and oh my the weeks are flying fast....

Short and sweet for me this week (literally, if you look at the end of this post!).

Here's my desk:

You can see the remnants of post-crop-challenge makings, including the ludicrously pink bag (think that was more the flash than the actual colour of the bag!) we got with goodies in....

As you've seen on other blogs of late, at the Big Crop 10 days ago, we were given a challenge card kit, with the mission of creating something (didn't have to be a card!) with the bits and pieces we were given.  For some reason, unusually for me, I felt the need to go BIG.  Oh, OK, not so much BIG as BIGGER than I normally make....

So here's what I made....

Mr B's reaction was "is it staying here?".  When I said yes, he replied "Oh good..."  I think that means he likes it!

I was asked by Karen T for the flapjack recipe last week, so here it is.  Another really difficult recipe, as you can see.  I do well at the "mix it all together and bung it in a tin" kind of recipes which don't require copious amounts of faffing.

Flapjacks

350-400g rolled oats

Add a quantity (to taste) of seeds/nuts/chocolate

Add 150g plain flour (sieved)

Mix well.

Melt 200g unsalted butter in a pan TOGETHER with half a small tin of golden syrup and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.  Add honey or maple syrup if you like - don't let the syrup burn!

Pour thoroughly melted ingredients into bowl contain the oats mixture.

Mix thoroughly - should be stodgy/sticky

Spread onto a baking tray - at least 1 1/2 inches deep - compress flat.

Bake on the middle shelf for 20-25 mins @ 180 deg. C

When golden all over, turn out, and cut into squares once half cooled.

Dip in chocolate/decorate if required! 

Kings and Queens of England

You'll have to forgive me this little vagary on my normal posting.  Allow me to elaborate.

25 years ago I used to do a lot of babysitting, and one of the families had the following poem on the wall in their downstairs toilet.  I managed to take a copy of it, and then with the change of computer, lost it.

I've been looking online for YEARS to find another one - yet it's not out there.  In having a clear out of ancient paperwork that I've been trawling around with me for the last ten years, I came across a printed copy - YAY!  It seems to be a Victorian poem, but I've added six lines at the bottom to bring it up to date.  I'm putting it up here on my blog because I feel it needs to be out there on the web for everyone else to share, as it's nicer than the others I've seen (like Willy, Willy, Harry, Stee)! 

Enjoy....

Kings and Queens of England

First William the Norman

Then William his son

Henry, Stephen and Henry

Then Richard and John

Next Henry the Third

Edwards one, two and three

And again after Richard

Three Henrys we see
Two Edwards, third Richard

If rightly I guess

Two Henrys, sixth Edward

Jane, Mary and Bess

Then Jamie the Scotsman

Then Charles whom they slew

Yet received after Cromwell

Another Charles too

Next James the second

Ascended the throne

Then good William and Mary

Together came on

Till Anne, Georges four,

And fourth William all past

Comes the reign of Victoria –

Long may it last!

Next Edward seven, George the fifth

Then there came a mighty tiff,

Cos Edward eight, he abdicated

So George the sixth was coronated.

Leaving us with Lizzy two

A queen who’s known by me and you!

Just an experiment, don't mind me....

I've been having trouble uploading images to Pinterest so I'm trying it this way.... don't mind me, eh? 

WOYWW 94....

Hellooooo thar!

No snappy title this week - my brain is on holiday!

So, what IS on my work desk this week?  For those that are uninitiated, you really need to go to Dunnit's Desk of Delights for full info!  But be sure to come straight back before starting on your desk quest - it's addictive!  I feel positively out of sorts all week if I don't bare all for you.... hmmm.... poor choice of phraseology, but I think you get what I mean!

Now, where was I?  Oh yes, my desk...

As you can see, it's fairly mayhem-ish as is pretty much usual.  Now I should point out  the work on the right hand side that you see, which looks suspiciously like my page for the aforementioned CJ in an unfinished state.  It's not - it's actually the abandoned version that was...well, abandoned because I a) dropped an inked stamp in a stoopid place and b) stamped the background too dark.  Also this week, Lil Miss B decided to have a stab at some jewellery making (a kid's set she'd been given for her birthday last year) and very quickly announced that glitter really wasn't her.  Trouble is, it's not really me either so I'm still clearing it up.  What bright spark thought that sticking glitter on bangles was an appropriate method of jewellery creating I don't know!

However, lurking there on the front left of my desk is the below creation...

...which I'm not showing upright in it's full glory utnil it reaches its destination.  All I can say is - WTG Nic & Lucy on the birth of your beautiful little girl, even though she was WAYYY too comfy to come out and was nearly a fortnight overcooked  overdue!

As promised from last week - below is a picture of my finished page in Flo's CJ - for all the deets go here.

And that, is that.

I'm off on my own desk quest.  I might even get round more than ten desks this week.  I hope.....

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Computers suck.

I hate computers at the moment with a passion. And yet, here I am, sat at a laptop, blogging about it!

I've not blogged for a couple (ok, maybe three) weeks because the main pc is down. It is so down, it's with Dr Geek for repairs. In fact, he's actually trying to resurrect by donating a few internal organs to bring it back to life. First we had the small matter of the nastiest virus on the planet (I'm stil not convinced we totally managed to get rid of it) then the PC threw a total wobbly and now I have to use the laptop. No email. Well, aside from my yahoo account, which makes me feel like I've had a leg cut off.

On the crafting front, I've finally made it back into the craft room. Well, I did once I'd squeezed myself past a load of junk out of the lounge, and had a cursory tidy of the desk. The next UK Stampers CJ has started, and mine is now winging its way to Sarah (Flo), and I've received one from Fi (Magickdiva, of the Inchy by Inch blog). I might even take the plunge and get back into doing some of the online challenges.

Unusally enough for me, I've kind of lost my Christmas mojo - not least because all my "prepare for Christmas" gubbins is on the main PC (sorry, WAS) - and I'm therefore totally unprepared, and missing a load of address which were ALSO on the main PC. Ergo, if you don't get a card from me this year and you normally do, that's the reason why. Sigh....

We're decorating at the moment. A chance remark by myself about the state of the carpet in the dining room (trust me, cheap carpets and peppadew peppers stuffed with cream cheese don't mix!) led to DH researching laminate floor, and one thing kind of led to another. Result - dining room now decorated and we FINALLY have our maing dining table and six of the chairs in there. However, we now have all the bookcases in there as well, out of the lounge, as there is an archway between the two and the laminate floor has to run all the way through the two rooms. So we are now furiously painting and sanding and soon laying laminate, so that it's ready in time for Xmas and the impending Vist from Mother.

Other Family notes - my beloved mother in law, Betty, had to be evacuated from her retirement flat in central Cockermouth. Luckily, she lives on the second floor, and they were evacuated due to the power cuts (high rise living for the Octogenarians without a lift being a no-no), so the only losses she suffered were the contents of her fridge and freezer. She's back in again now, complaining just a very little about the fact that she had fun in her temporary residence because it meant they all had to socialise a little more (I believe she was in a retirement home for the duration).

That'll do for now - will be back again soon with some photos of the CJ. Once I work out how to get them onto the laptop instead of my usual PC, that is! Boo hoo....

Arty Girlz

I made a last minute card for the challenge on Aunty's, and then after having a wee tiny surf around blogland, suddenly realised I'd done something that would count for the Arty Girlz Red Challenge! Yay!!!

So here it is....



The stamps are all from The Netherlands (thanks Anette!), apart from the alphabet which is Studio G. I did the background with perfect pearls, and the stamping was done with blue ink that came with the set, embossed with clear powder!

Oh, and the answer to the question.... "how do you build a home?"

Inside it says.... "With Love"

What kind of flower am I?

Saw this on CraftyC's blog and had to try it....

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

Apparently "You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

Sounds about right!

Well I actually managed to get something crafty done last night, in a roundabout fashion.

I've started - again - on tidying up my craft room. It doesn't look like I did much (to quote DH) but at least all my Craft Stamper magazines are neatly ordered in magazine files and on a shelf. As opposed to being stacked up on the floor in a corner. A few other things have found permanent homes, and as a result I actually have a square foot of space on my desk, and the rest of it is only piled 4 inches high as opposed to 8... Little by little, I will get the room tidy and clear for the weekend so I can sit down and do some PROPER crafting! :lol:

Tonight I'm helping out at this fireworks do in aid of Trade Aid - at least the weather looks like being ok and I'm not going to freeze my thru'pennies off! DH has been instructed to do pizza and chips for tea, and I'll nuke mine when I get in.

I'd love to toddle over to the Daring CardMakers and Wednesday Stampers websites today, but as I'm not going to be able to make anything till the weekend, why should I torment myself? Ho hum, shouldn't be much longer...

Keep checking back folks - I'm sure I'll squeeze something in soonish!