Back To The Day Job

Well, that's my staycation well and truly over and now I'm back to work. But I enjoyed the break, met up with a few good friends, did some crafting and shop-organising and the weather stayed decent. The main bad point was Corrie's illness, but thankfully, she seems to have made a good recovery and she behaved nicely for the vet even though he had to prod her in some rather personal places! Her recovery even extended to "helping" me when I washed and sorted the jewellery left to me by Grannie:

HOW can that be comfortable??

Good news is that my Etsy shop has received it's first sales!! Many thanks, peeps, hope you enjoy your purchases!! I've been making one or two new products to go in the shop, including Post-it Note Holders:

and Treat Bag Toppers:

The Sweet Treat Stack was the inspiration for the toppers, quite refreshing and summery.

And the first day back at work hasn't been too bad either. My classes have a few places booked up already - eek! Better get working on those samples!

Meantime, here's a keyring I bought from the Cat's Protection stall at the weekend - quite apt for me I would say!

That's all for now folks!

Quick Visit

Last night I made a box for my Garden Gang notecards:

Cute, eh? (I found the tutorial for making the box here)

Lady of Leisure

Well, it's been a busy week so far. Hardly any time for crafting, but it's been nice, catching up with friends and family and being a lady of leisure. The only downer has been a sick cat, which required a vet trip yesterday, and she's still not quite right yet, so I'm hoping that won't develop into anything more worrying :o(

On Tuesday I took my parents to Craigie's as they hadn't been before, and we tucked into hearty breakfasts (my dad and I chose the veggie version of course, my mum did the carnivorous one) and then embarked on a trek into the woods, which turned into a much lengthier walk than we'd anticipated. Dad and I both had our cameras (he was analogue, I was digital) and there were times when we were both snapping away, which had mum rolling her eyes heavenward I'm sure. But there were some interesting photo opportunites including a collection of ruined farm dwellings which had been entirely taken over by nature:

And some tiny mushrooms sprouting from a log (or they may have been toadstools; I wasn't about to sample one to find out:

The fields were ripe with berries for picking:

Then, our legs a wee bit tired, we returned to the cafe for coffee and sweet delicacies on the verandah. Nice!

Yesterday I went for a spell of crafting at V's house. She'd laid on a fab lunch of salad with avocado (I now realise I like this, I wasn't sure before!) and grilled halloumi and it was VERY tasty! Sadly my mojo had deserted me when it came to actually crafting, but it was great to see what she'd been up to and to have lots of crafty chat. Thanks, V!

Going to list a couple of things in the shop day, one being this set of simple notecards:

I made them last night from some Doodlebug stickers I've had for ages. I think I might try and make some kind of "tote" for them to be presented in, then they'd make a nice gift, I think. Wish I could have taken better pics though :o(

That's me for now, going to try and find my mojo!

Lots of Photos! (And Overuse of the Word Cute!)

I'm cheating a little today as I haven't made any new cards over the weekend (slap wrists!) but instead, here are a couple of older creations I'm thinking of putting into my shop:

I'll need to take better photos if I'm going to try and sell these! But I really like this set of stamps from Woodware, coloured in with Twinkling H2o's. The other option is to make simpler versions, for my "Manly Mixture" card set. Hmm...

The reason for the lack of new crafting is that we spent the weekend having a couple of walks. The first was an evening viaduct stroll:

Aforesaid "viaduct" or "aqueduct", I'm not sure which!



A nice covered bridge

At the top.

Cornfields as the sun was going down.

Arty cornfield close-up shot by Himself.

Then we had a canal walk after lunch on Sunday:

All very nice, and decent weather too.

And today I'm on holiday - yay! Spent this morning crafting with my young niece who has just had an op and is recuperating at home. I nattered with my sis-in-law and we had pancakes and maple syrup for brunch. Yums!

It was also the first time I'd made the acquaintence of their new puppy, Cara, who is just the epitome of cuteness:

Did someone say cute?

I think the word "cute"was mentioned!

Oh yes, I'm definately cute!

Blimey! This cuteness lark is tiring!

Are those plantpots huge or am I just small and cute? (Clue: it's the latter)

After this overload of cuteness it was time for a spot of light retail therapy and now I'm home and just about to indulge in some tortellini pasta washed down with a glass of pear cider. Ah, this is the life!

Come Back Toby!!

I shouldn't be writing this now. I should be doing housework. Bleh. But who wants to stick to a routine when they're officially ON HOLIDAY!!! Yay! I'm off for the next week! It's going to be a staycation but hopefully it will allow me to meet for lots of coffees with friends and have extra crafting time. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Bit of a stressy time for my work friend K just now. One of her cats went missing on Wednesday and of course she's been worried sick. He's only a year old and a real cutie :o( Last night K, T and I went out in the rain to put leaflets through doors in the surrounding area, hoping that someone, somewhere, would have seen him. And someone had! So K raced to the area late last night and actually spotted him herself! Only problem is, he won't come to her, which is very frustrating. She will have been out since the crack of dawn this morning, trying to entice him back. These cats! They cause us so much angst! My cats are kept indoors for the very reason that I dread them disappearing :o(

In card news, I made this one for my wee niece who is recovering from an operation:

A nice personage kindly gave me a whole load of stamped Penny Black images from their vast collection (I still owe them a bottle of wine in return!) so, although this isn't really my style, I gave it a go and was quite pleased with the result.

In a blatant copying of someone else's work (sorry, J!), I made these cards from bits and bobs left over from a class:

The pp's are, I think, from the Papermania Signature Regency Hill collection and the shapes are cut from the Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge. I love the style of these, so this is a homage to J!

Finally, I had a thrillation this week when Skechers had a halfprice sale for centre staff. K and I went racing up there instantaneously and I picked out these babies:

I haven't worn them in yet, but I have looked at them a lot. Corrie, meanwhile, has been trying to squeeze herself, unsuccessfully, into the box:

Corrie writes: "Bah!"

Now I really must get on with the boring cleaning stuff and then, hopefully, my holiday can begin!

A Birdie or A Bogey?? It's All Golf To Me!

Howdy! Quick post tonight as I'm hoping to make cards and cook a veggie sausage bake thing for my tea.

I had a pleasant weekend, with an evening canal walk in the sunshine and a curry from Asda on Saturday and more outdoor pursuits on Sunday. We went to the golf driving range and paid for 30 shots so Himself could test some clubs he's thinking of buying. However, H's back went, 3 balls in, which was most unfortunate, and I'm utterly useless with a golf club, so it wasn't a roaring success. We did manage three gentle rounds on the putting green though, with H determined that I should get my ball into at least one hole in two shots instead of 15. It didn't happen but I did enjoy the experience. And the cappuccino and cupcake in the clubhouse afterwards helped considerably!

Not much crafting time was undertaken but I have produced a set of cards like this:

This was all thanks to K and J at work. J provided the stamp and K provided the idea, so I can take no credit (but I will anyway!). The pp is Jesse Edwards and I rather like it. It's going to be part of my Romantic Glamour set.

Right I'm off. There's a refreshing glass of cherryade with my name on it - mmm!

Ouch Ouch Ouchy!

Who'd have thought that using hair straighteners on a daily basis would be such a dangerous business? I've never, until very recently, been a slave to my "hot irons", but now that I've started flattening my hair, it's become a necessary part of my everyday routine. However, this morning, not only have I singed my ear lobe (yowl!), I have also developed what feels like toothache in my shoulder, which I can only construe as being a Hair Arrangement Injury of Repetitive Strain (or H.A.I.R.S.), if such a thing should exist. I think I should contact the medical faculty. They may want to write an article in their journals about this phenomenon. Or they may just tell me to put up with having wavy, bell-shaped hair and relegate my straighteners to the back of a cupboard. Most likely the latter, then. Sigh.

In more sensible news (or maybe not, actually), last night's Crafting 'n Pizza extravaganza was a raging success; possibly not on a creative level but certainly on a bonding one. Many, many laughs were had. K laid on a fab spread and I stuffed my face more than anyone, I think. We had japes and mishaps galore with the banoffi pies she'd made, including mistakenly giving the "raspoffi" pie that was intended for the banana-hating person to someone else, who didn't even notice the lack of ban in their offi until it was too late! Then K managed to drop an enormous blob of her pie onto the only card she'd made during the evening, which rendered it completely unusable (unless we develop a new line in scratch 'n sniff cards!)!! Oh how we laughed. It was great.

I was reasonably productive, using scraps and bits and bobs to make this selection of tag embellishments:

These will be going in my shop. One month in and no sales yet. Come on people, you know you want to!!

See you later: off to rub deep heat into my H.A.I.R.S.!