Brain Food

When I told everyone what I had brought for my lunch today, they all went "ughh!!". What, may I ask, is wrong with beansprout and tofu salad? I'd marinated the tofu in sweet chilli and soy sauce and it was DELISH! And, do you know, I'm usually sluggish in the afternoons, but after I'd eaten that I perked up and felt really good! In fact it worked wonders for my mojo too, as I began work on my so-called "Doodled Doggies" (all will be revealed at a later date) class and was really pleased with the results. Hoorah. Now I'm about to eat a plate of my trusty onion ring crisps. Wonder if they'll have a similar effect?

I did some sorting and project-planning this morning, and decided I really must do something about my scraps box:

I can't even close the lid now! Yet whenever I go to look in it, I can somehow never find the colour I want! It's a shame, but recycler that I am, I can't bring myself to throw any of it out :o(

I made another set of cards using Wild Blossom papers and chipboard shapes:

I'll be sad when I've used these papers up, they're nice and citrussy!

Now I'm off to look up more tofu recipes! See you soon!

OCD

What did YOU do last night?

I sorted and filed my card candy by colour.

I also ate one of every flavour of these:

Can you tell I don't get out much??

Jelly Belly Crafter

And so another week begins. I was not as productive as I would have liked at our cardmaking evening on Friday (too much cheesecake consumed!) but I did at least get a couple of card sets made:

This one doesn't excite me greatly; would you believe I sweated over the design for hours? The stamps used are Studio G but I think the concept might need some "tweaking" before I produce a baby girl set.

These masculine cards I was happier with:

The stamp is a Papermania one from ages back, PP are Clare Curd's Big One (ahem) and the greetings are Craftwork Cards. These cards will join my "Manly Mixture" set for the shop.

Finally a simple card using the colour of the moment: teal. We have three shades in the shop and they're all yummy. The paper is CC again and the stamps are Stampin'Up and Papermania.

I had the weekend off (yay!) and our excursion this time was to Threipmuir Reservoir at Balerno; the sun shone and lambs pranced and of course I was sans camera so you'll just have to use your imagination. There was even a tiny beach to sit on! Fabulous views over the Pentland Hills too, so definately worth another visit soon.

Work was good today; we had a clearout, with lots of ex-demo stuff going up for sale, and after a good rummage I picked up a few delights at bargain price. Then I went to Asda and bought some of my trashy food faves - gourmet jelly beans, Starburst Twisted chews and a big bag of onion ring crisps!!! I now plan to overindulge while I craft. Watch out for drastic tooth-loss soon, Mr Dentist!

Cardmaking, Cooking, Showing-off!

Hi! This is an unusual time for me to be blogging but I had an early finish at work and thought I'd fit a quick one in before I head off for an evening of cardmaking (and hopefully cherry cheesecake!) with the girls from work. The sun is out and that always inspires me :o)

Tonight I plan to do a few more of my Wild Blossom cards (this version I was actually happy with):

And this morning the mojo gods were with me and I made some cards like this:

Finally, a wee card I made a while ago for the shop to promote chipboard shapes and Doodlebug:

The cat is triple-embossed and his face is made of tiny gems. Think I'll rescue it now and recycle it for MY shop!

On the food front, I have had a successful week of cooking: I made, amongst other things, asparagus pesto sauce for pasta, a ratatouille sauce for pasta and, today, a yummy carrot and ginger soup! I may not be able to bake but I do like my savouries!

Well, I've made myself hungry now! Lucky I have some of the aforementioned ratatouille pasta left, eh? If I do get any cards made tonight (and don't just end up chatting and stuffing my face) I may return with the results tomorrow! Bye for now!!

Recycling and Rainclouds

I've felt too lazy to blog for a few days but as the week is rapidly speeding by, I thought I'd better make an appearance! There have been some pretty heavy downpours and not much good light for crafting (terrible excuse, eh??) but I' m quite pleased with this set of cards:

I made them using some cute felt embellishments that my grannie had saved from an old card, so they are slightly recycled, which I am extra chuffed about. Sorry about the poor light in the photo. The fact that my camera was stuck on timer delay and I couldn't work out how to switch it off, didn't help matters! But luckily I've sorted it now so normal service should resume.

We had a pleasant Sunday, managing to dodge the showers, although our original plans were slightly thwarted. After traipsing round two eateries (in the Gallery of Modern Art and the Botanical Gardens), we finally gave up on finding somewhere that was still actually serving lunch at 3.30 in the afternoon, and ended up having a Waitrose-bought salad-fest al fresco in Colinton Dell. It was very pleasant indeed. Then we had a walk and between us took a few photos:

The view as we ate our lunch.

A lot of greenery.

The tree that someone had to build their fence around.

More, er, green.

Nature being creative.

All in all a very nice way to spend an afternoon.

Ooh there's a downpour going on at the moment and it's the kind of rain I like: that heavy summer rain with the sun still shining and the clouds lowering ominously. Just going to watch it from the window! See you soon!

Techno-fiend Extraordinaire!

Ah, I like Sundays! The sun is streaming in through the window, I'm sitting here, blog-hopping and eating Pringles; what could be better?? I feel I've had a productive morning so far, having made a bit of headway in sorting my computer/craft room as a result of some technical assistance from Himself yesterday. I've set up my ancient hi-fi so I can play some of my multitude of cassettes for the first time since 2001 (or thereabouts). And to prove I AM "down with the kids" when it comes to 21st century technology, I've also downloaded some music to my computer! This feels good!

I've had a bit of a Lady of Leisure week because of shorter working hours and I've fitted in lunch with The Parents (I made a quiche. They survived it.) and two coffee-meetings with friends. Sadly, my creative mojo was absent for most of the time and as a result any cards I DID make were not ones I was particularly happy with. Especially these:

I really like the Wild Blossoms papers, the colours are so zingy, but I felt these cards didn't do them justice. I did, however, discover how one can use one's scalloped circle punch to create pretty paper flowers, thanks to this website.

Luckily in recent days my mojo has returned and I was able to make another card for my cat collection class:

And I think I might also have improved on the Wild Blossoms cards, although photos of those will have to follow...

Oh dear, now I've really gorged on Pringles and I will probably regret that later (burp!).

A Lovely Weekend :o)

It's turning out to be a pleasant weekend so far. Have been lucky with the weather, as there were some heavy downpours but somehow we managed to miss them and catch some glorious sunshine in-between. Yesterday, a walk in Colinton Dell with the fresh scent of rain still in the air, brought us closer to nature and blew our cobwebs away. We saw an elegant heron standing statue-like in the weir but as usual I didn't have my camera with me to capture the moment. Then back home to eat spinach and ricotta lasagne cooked by Himself. Tasty!

Today the weather was once again on our side and I actually remembered my camera! We took a trip to Craigie's, a farm shop and cafe near South Queensferry, and lunched on the terrace in the sunshine. It felt like being on holiday.

This wasn't a bad view to accompany our meal:

Then we had a walk round the farm itself. It was nice to see the free-range chickens enjoying their freedom:

We also walked in the nearby woods:

And finally, a trip to South Queensferry itself. It was mobbed and I had a Parking Incident and the world laughed at me and I nearly had a strop but I recovered myself in time for us to take a walk along the waterfront:

Fiddled with my camera a little, trying to work out the settings. I've never really taken the camera out in the field before and I definately need practice. Himself, of course, seems to be a natural:

We sat once again on a sun-drenched terrace to drink cappuccinoes and watch the world and his dog go by, then, before the broiling rain clouds advanced over the horizon we took another walk and finished up eating bags of chips in the car, washed down with Irn Bru. Bliss!

I like weekends like this!

Bad Buns and Bongoes

And so another week nears it's end. It's been quite a pleasant one so far, despite a baking disaster yesterday when my much-anticipated rhubarb and custard buns turned out to be unfit for human consumption (or indeed ANY living creature's consumption!) and had to be consigned to the nearest bin. When will I accept that I JUST CAN'T BAKE?!! :o( Flour, eggs, milk and I just don't mix for some reason. Yet I keep on trying in the vain hope that one day I will actually produce something edible. I planned to take pics of the buns and everything. But they were frankly vom-inducing, so I didn't. Bah.

Never mind, in cheerier news, one of my July classes has been brought forward to next month and it's half-full already! Wahey! I'm going to be using Papermania's Cat Collection Kit (because I have a vague interest in cats as you know) and here's a sneak preview of one of the cards:

I paper-pieced the wee cat and I'm quite pleased with the result. Expect to see more in this "vein" soon.

At work I was asked to make some cards using various products that we have bucket-loads of and it was a challenge I was happy to rise to:

Products included Penny Black's "Ewe" stamp, Doodlebug's Pot Pourri Papers and Papermania's Scalloped Card sets. Thanks, colleagues, for your suggestions on how to put these together!

Finally, I'm feeling not too bad after several good nights' sleep in a row, as my upstairs neighbour has failed to play his bongoes (or whatever it is he has been doing at unearthly times of the day and night) recently. Thank goodness! My earplugs are getting some time off at last.

Well, I'd better go and get on with my Saturday now. That toilet won't clean itself you know!!

Card Candy & Lunchbox Art

It's been a busy couple of days at Mushroom Towers. I've gradually been catching up with all the blogs I read, and Bank Holiday Monday meant a mobbed shop and being run off our feet, although it was actually quite enjoyable. I've started planning some classes I'm hoping to teach in July and am getting rather excited about it. And I've been making cards:

I was quite taken with the wee scalloped embellishment on the second one, so made another batch:

I might put these in my shop when I eventually get round to setting it up!

There was recently some thrillation at work when one of my colleagues won a car after entering a prize draw run by the shopping centre for it's loyal employees. She was so delighted she bought us all fabby kits from a company called Craftwork Cards and we've been playing with them since.

One of the "ingredients" in the kit is a colourful selection of Card Candy, which are basically fake brads. We can't get enough of them now!

I've been using them on everything!

And, finally, I was rather pleased with the look of my lunchbox this morning, so much so I took a photo of it (yes, I know, I'm sad!):

Contents are: (from top right) wraps with cream cheese and plum and rose wine chutney, crispies, choc mini eggs, grapes, salad containing orange, watercress, feta, beetroot and omega seed mix. It was yummy!

Gosh, this has been a picture-heavy post! See you next time!

Back From Blog Wilderness!

Hoorah hoorah hoorah!!!!

I thought it would never happen but it has and boy am I relieved!! After nearly two months of being totally incommunicado I am now back up and running on the internet as of this morning!! So hello to any of my readers who might have stuck around!

So what have I been up to? Well, obviously moving house for starters. I am now quite settled in my wee flat and am growing to really like it, although there has been a lot of readjusting to do. And although getting my craft room organised was a main priority, I am only really halfway there:

This is the current state of one half of my craft room. Scary, huh? Luckily the "working" half is a tad more organised and so there has been some creativity.

I am still very much enjoying the Stampin' Up style and the recent purchase of a scalloped oval punch (slurp!) has meant even more curvy-edged loveliness on all my cards. The Work Girls and I have been producing batches galore at our cardmaking evenings, fuelled by generous helpings of cheesecake and crisps.

I have taught two classes in the shop (my first for 6 months so the nerves were abundant but after they were over I felt that "buzz" - yay!) I have my name down to do a Halloween class using forthcoming Daisy and Dandelion characters that happen to be two cute black and white cats (hmm, that doesn't sound like something I could relate to, does it??!!) Such was my keenness to use these products that I told my fellow class-teacher I would fight her to the death for them!

Not much successful cooking has been going on of late, although I did make a batch of pancakes this morning and, recently, for my work-lunches such delicacies as stuffed peppers and sweet potato -and-coconut soup have passed my lips. As well as regular helpings of the waistline-swelling chips n' cheese from the eaterie in the shopping centre!

Weekends have been mainly work-free, so, with the abundance of nice spring weather we've had lately, many a pleasant walk has been taken around my local area (and, last week a visit to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh - another freebie! As I frolicked in the Rockery and sweated in the humid tropicality of the Glasshouses, it was so reminiscent of my childhood, I could have cried. ) Didn't remember to take my camera on any of these occasions though. Blah.

In sad family news, Grannie recently passed away after a short illness. She will be sadly missed and life won't be quite the same without her :o(

Finally, how have the felines taken to the move? Well, surprisingly well, it has to be said. They have to get used to living in a smaller space and I fear for the leather couches that have come with the flat I'm renting, but so far the creatures have been quite well-behaved. And they still harangue me for food about 300 times a day, so that's a good sign.

Gosh, that's a long post. If any readers are still with me - well done! See you again soon!