Happy New Year!

Happy new year to you one and all!   I hope 2019 is a healthy, happy and prosperous one for you and your families!!

Thank you all so much for your visits throughout 2018 and all your continued patience!

An Apology

I have to start with an apology again!  I know, I am always doing that lately.  However, my mum is needing more and more support from me and I just don't feel like doing anything much.  I am doing some sewing, but it's more about a need than a want.  So, I have just put together another little slide-show of our September visit to Spain.

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know!

Squeezing In A Quick One!

Have just got back from another mercy dash to the hospital with mum and another five long hours of waiting around!  Mustn't grumble though, all's well that end's well, as they say.  That's two days on the trot now, and I am sooo ready for my break away!

I made this card for my niece's upcoming nuptials. 

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know! 

 If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.

Going Away Again!

Hello my dear friends.  I am just popping in with a couple of cards (made when I made the last one that I posted, but hadn't actually photographed them)   As explained in my last post, my old copy of Photoshop no longer works with the new Windows 10 - good old Microsoft . . . Grrrr - anywho, I am using a little freebie image viewer with very limited editing facility (but it's free, so I can't complain), so the pictures aren't the best, but then, neither are the cards!  I just can't seem to muster up the enthusiasm.  Reading this back, it seems very garbled, so please excuse that.

I will ramble no longer and show the cards.

I will be away for the whole of September, with limited mobile data, so I will, hopefully see you when I return (hopefully, my mojo will return with me).  I hope you all

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know! If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.

A Very Long Absence

Hello my faithful friends.  I hope you are well.  I know that it has been a very long while since I have posted a card and visited all you lovely people, but life just gets in the way sometimes!

I recently grabbed a few moments to make some cards (I just haven't felt like it in a long time), but felt that I needed to use some of the vast amounts of supplies that have been sat waiting for me to return!  They are not as good as I'd like, but hey ho, it is what it is, and they are what they are! 

Windows updated itself a week or two ago and choked so badly, I had no option but to reset my laptop to it's factory state and reinstall all my programs.  However, now most of them will not work with this latest 'update' to Windows!!  So, long story short, my old Adobe Photoshop will no longer work, and the new Adobe CS is subscription only, which isn't worth me subscribing to as I wouldn't use it enough!  So, please excuse the quality of the photos too as I am using a free program at present!

I will post the others soon!

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know! 

 If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.

I'm Back!

Sorry folks, no card.  Just some scenery from our break away!

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know! 

If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.

Blog Update

Hello my loyal friends.  I hope you are all well.  This is just a quick update.  Mum was discharged from hospital after around two weeks and sent to a care home for recuperation.  It really was not the place for mum (most of the residents had Dementia  or Alzheimers, whereas mum is as sharp as a tack).  Unfortunately she is not the type of girl to 'push through the pain' and she has been doing very little to get on her feet and exercise - it hurts too much.  Now, I understand that because I have inherited her low pain threshold, but it has held her back.

She is now being discharged - with a care package in place - and is going home.  It is very bad timing as we are away for four whole weeks (our usual bi-annual visit to Andalucía to visit friends who live in the rural area).  It was booked at the beginning of the year and all paid for.

However, I have put everything in place for her, her care package, medications and everything else  to do with the appointments I usually take her to has all been rearranged.

I have been unable to do any more little videos, as she has always been in a very noisy, and chaotic environment, but she asked me to thank everyone once again, for all the lovely well wishes, thoughts, prayers and even cards from friends she has never met!

So, once again my friends, thank you so very much from the bottom of our hearts.  And I will 'see' you all again, in July, and hopefully life will have settled a little by then!

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know!

A Bigger Disaster

I just got my internet sorted out when an even bigger - and more serious - disaster happened!  Those of you on Facebook already know that I posted from our local A&E yesterday evening because my sweet mother went flying on the bathroom floor and was rushed into hospital in an ambulance.  It turned out, at ninety-two, she had broken her hip quite badly!  I was frantic.  I stayed with her until 01:00 this morning and left when they took her up to the ward to make her as comfortable as possible for the night, and said they would operate tomorrow (today).  It broke my heart to see this sweet angel crying out in agony whenever they tried to turn her or do anything.   I went home in tears.

She had the surgery this afternoon 15:00 and was out of surgery and back on the ward by about 19:30.  They said that surgery had gone well and she was dozing.  I told them that I would let her rest and would visit her tomorrow.  To take my mind off things a bit, I decided to make a card for her while I was waiting to hear news.

I used a Penny Black stamp of her favourite flower - an Iris - I suspect, because that is what her name is, and a little sparkle (as she loves anything that sparkles and shines).  Here it is, I couldn't quite get the colours perfect, I think the closest is probably the one with the ink pad in the picture.

 
My thanks to everyone who sent words of love and caring thoughts.  When I tell mum she will be thrilled at the generosity of strangers, who are friends!

As always, thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know!

If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.

A Birthday Card & An Apology!

Hi crafty friends.  I have a very quick post today I'm afraid.  I have been unable to post anything, visit blogs or, actually get to do much card making done this past week, and I need to explain.

You see, to cut a very long and drawn out story (fairly) short . . . we changed internet providers, and to say it was a cock up from start to finish would not really do it justice!  Now it is up and running properly, we have a signal that is so weak, that we have had to buy 'boosters' to get anything at all.  Over the weekend, it was impossible to get a signal at all (due in part to internet traffic of course, which always slows it up anyway).  We changed because Virgin was hiking up the payment every month (literally) and we were fed up with being held to ransom.  So we have changed to Sky - and, I fear, it might have been 'out of the frying pan and into the fire'!  

However, they have told us it can take up to 10 days for a line to 'settle in'. We have had the engineers in and out all week, trying to improve things - apparently, Virgin had made such a mess of the wiring, it was a wonder we could get anything at all (the engineer showed us the 'birds nest' of wiring that they had done, so we know he was telling the truth) and he has fitted the sockets better (one was even hanging off the wall, which he put back correctly).  However, the internet speed has dropped dramatically as a result of Sky not being able to compete with the 'claimed' speeds of Virgin (we have never had the speeds from Virgin that they claim, but they were a lot better than Sky so far.  As an example, as I type this, I have measured my internet speed and it is only 6 Mbps upload speed!! But, with our bill having rocketed by 150% with Virgin . . . enough was enough!

So, dear friends, I am sorry if my posts and visits have been, and could be sporadic again for a while - until the line 'beds in', whatever that means - but I am still here, and the weather is warmer than it has been, so fingers crossed it stays that way for a while.  And fingers crossed again, I can manage to get this post up before the signal drops out again!

Thank you all so much for your patience with me thus far.  And without further ado, here is the card.  Not one of my best, but it was done in a hurry.  It's for darling Max, who is two years old already!!

Confession . . . the solitary balloon, going up off on the left, is there because, just as I finished the card and was putting away my supplies, I got ink on my finger (unknown to me) and got a smudge there, so I had to improvise and cover it up!  I know you all have done the same at some time . . . go on, admit it!  😉💓

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know! 

If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.

A New EF & A Bit Of A Disaster!

Hello crafty friends!  I hope you are all having a good weekend?  Yesterday, I went through my card stash to see if I had any gaps - with my loss of mojo and the weather being dire, my cache was dwindling - I noticed I had no sympathy cards left (and as those kinds of cards are not something that you feel like making at the time you need them, I like to have a couple in hand).

I had recently purchased the 'With Sympathy' embossing folder, which was perfect.  I ran a white panel through it and then all that was needed was a little 'something' in the corner I felt.  I tried to use a lighter ink, to keep the stamping more subtle, but it was a grey and came out darker than I had anticipated.  Then, I had to try and 'tie it in' somehow with the rest of the card, so I filled in the flowers with my Gellyroll Stardust pen and then it looked silver!

Anywho, here it is, for what it's worth . . . oh, and we have snow again here, so it will be sewing for me again today!

As always, thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know! 

If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.

Playing With Alcohol Inks

Hello my patient blogging buddies!  The weather is warming a tad - although, it is still very gloomy and wet - but at least I am not actually freezing in my attic now!  So, on that note, I was playing with some alcohol inks on glossy photo paper, and although I didn't like my results as much as some of the amazing pieces you are all turning out at present, I didn't want to waste it. 

I also wanted to try a new embossing folder out, so I cut a frame to put the AI panel behind and run it through the EF.  Then all that was left to do was to choose a sentiment.  I also added some black Nuvo drops to tie in the sentiment.  Here it is.

Thank you all so much for your continued patience and understanding and support!

Also, thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know!

If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.

Mother's Day

Hello stamping buddies, I hope you are all keeping warm and cosy!  It is so cold here in the SW of the UK, we actually had snow!  This is rather a rarity, as, normally our temperatures are a little warmer than the rest of the country because we are so close to the sea!  However, these past few days, have seen minus temperatures, snow and frozen roads.

As I have said before, I have no heating in my craft room in the attic, and so, I have kept out of it as much as possible.  So, my Mother's Day card is yet another cheat - in order to minimise my exposure to the cold - I have added a pre-made card from my stash to the front of a larger card blank, which I stencilled glitter roses over and gave it a generous spritz of shimmer spray.  Mum will understand (as mum's do).  So, here it is.

I printed a lengthy verse, suitable for my mother inside and called it done.  Sorry I am taking a while to get back into my stride this year.  I do hope to do better soon!

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know! If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.

Still Not Feeling It!

Hi crafty friends!  I think you will probably guess from the title of this post - but in case there is any doubt - I am still in a funk.  The weather is still not being kind, although the sun did show it's face today, however, it's still bitterly cold, so I am hoping it will get better now.  It's been so miserable, and I'm still not happy for other reasons that I won't bring you down with.

I hope you are all well and happy.  I decided that I really ought to try and drag myself out of this awful mire.

Anywho, I did what I usually do when my mojo deserts me.  I got out some pre-made bits and bobs.  I already had the flowers that I had coloured previously, so I started with them.  The next thing I did was punch some vellum leaves.  I found the die cut medallion and arranged my flowers and leaves on one corner of it.  Then I stamped the greeting.

Finally, I dry embossed a floral border, fussy cut it out and adhered it to a vanilla card base, then added the decorated medallion and sprayed with a little shimmer spray.

Here it is.

Thank you so much for your visit today and especially if you have left a comment.  You are all appreciated more than you know! 

If you have a question, please be sure I have a way to contact you so I can answer, as a lot of you are 'no-reply' bloggers, so I am unable to reply via e-mail.