HS:MS Down

To fall to the ground. What moves down in your space?

Josey, John's guide dog, lies down for a rest after a play in the garden.

Lovely lunch

We enjoyed a lovely lunch together.

Following on the story of the ducks, Sue said: 'sorry HAVE to ask how often do you turn one round !!!:)'

This is where the romance gets tinged with reality!! As John is visually impaired he doesn't really notice the ducks that much - I don't think he's ever turned them round (although he does know they're there)! I'm sure there have been many times when he should have done! As for me, on the odd occasion that I have turned them round, he's failed to notice anyway! The idea of them is really so that the other person sees and gets the message that the other is not happy, but in reality this is wasted on us.

But the truth is that we don't often fall out, but like all couples we have our moments.

HS:MS Double

HS:MS 'Two of the same thing. Find couble in your space today.'

Early on in our marriage we heard a tale about the two ducks. If there is harmony between husband and wife the ducks face one another. If one of the partnership falls out then he or she turns one duck round to face the other way. When he heard the tale my dad bought us two ducks and they happily sit on our bathroom windowsill facing one another.


This seems very appropriate for today because we are just getting ready to go out for lunch to celebrate the first date we had together 17 years ago - at the same restaurant - ahhhh!!

Girls love ...

This is the DLO I did last night for Jo's CJ (on JB). The New English Papers I got recently seem to be perfect for the subject:


Nothing else to show today - still doing boring inserts, bagging etc - checking stock - boring! (Not been feeling too great for the last couple of days, so perhaps I ought to be doing something less boring!) I've had QVC craft day on in the background, but most of the time I've taken little notice of it - is it me or does everything seem to be similar?

HS:MS Earrings

These are a pair of my favourite earrings.

DCM Time

Just a quick card for the Daring Cardmakers challenge on Time.

This is what Kathy said: 'OK, Absolutely anything goes this week as long as it's on the theme of TIME."It's About Time" So you can use clocks, calendars, quotes, sayings, pictures, nursery rhymes, or altered art-type stuff, whatever takes your fancy - just take some time out to play and have some fun; remember, time flies when you're having fun!'

I was going to do something with clocks (might still do something else) but meantime have made this with the 'Happy Time' caption:

Just Bex August Challenges

I thought it's about time I join in some of the challenges on JB for this month (still got a lot of old ones I'd like to do as well - some are WIP).

August Challenge 7: Touchy Feely: 'We want cards and LO's good enough to touch, feel and stroke. It's all about textures for this challenge':

August Challenge 3: Way to go: 'for this we want you do use somethng that helps you find your way for example maps. signs. compass.....................':

August Challenge 6: A little gem: 'we would like you to make a CARD or LO with GEMS use as many or as few as you like'. For this I made two, because they are 'less is more':

August Challenge 2: A Family Affair: 'A nice challenge with no rules except for you need the word 'Family'...any colours, any size, card, layout or whatever you want.......':

August Challenge 5: Sugar 'n' Spice: 'and all things nice. Anything edible for this challenge please. LO'S and cards welcome':

August Challenge 4: Tantalising Tangerine: 'Your challenge is to create a card using an Orange colour scheme':

HS:MS City

The word today on HS:MS is 'City' - a photo of a city near you. Well, London is the nearest city and here is a photo taken at dusk when we went on the London Eye:

CBC July swap cards received

This morning I received the fololowing lovely cards:

From Debs (Buttercup):

From Nigel (Freebird): From Helen (helenc):
From Sue (SueF):
Thank you, everyone. And thanks too to Melissa for hosting the swap and all the hard work that it entails.

Nice Matters Award

I have been awarded the Nice Matters Blog Award by Paruscirle. Thank you, you are so kind. The Nice Matters Award is a new friendship award started by Bella Enchanted.This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. I understand that I have to pass it on to 5 others who I feel are deserving of this award.

So I nominate:

Sheila
Wendy
Lythan
Rachel
Sue

Please nominate 5 people each - thanks.

HS:MS Eyes

Have you come across http://www.herspace-myspace.blogspot.com/?

I came across it yesterday by a mention on someone else's blog and so I included the pictures of roses from our garden, because the subject was 'blooms'. Someone warned me that this site can become addictive - I just had to have a look this morning and the subject is 'eyes'. I've previously used this picture of our grandson on a LO, but thought it would be good now for this:


I'm already now wondering what tomorrow's subject will be!

Secret sender blooms box

The other day I received the third item from my secret sender on Crafts by Carolyn. When I received the first item (altered notebook) I had a pretty good idea who my sender was and even though she tried to put me off the scent when the second item (keyring) was sent, when I received this gorgeous gift, I was convinced I knew who it was. And I was right! (I'm not saying here, because all hasn't been revealed on CBC yet). This is what I received:

The box was 'wow' enough in itself, but when I opened it, this is what was inside:

It really couldn't have been a better present, because my blooms boxes are overflowing and some I received bought had to end up in a carrier bag for the time being - now I have a new place for them. Thank you, secret sender!

Today on and off I've been doing some very boring, but necessary, tasks - inserts, bagging and labelling cards. So I haven't actually made anything, so I thought I'd show a few of the cards that you haven't seen before:

What a glorious day today

The weather today has been just right - quite a breeze, but lovely and hot and sunny (in fact, without the breeze it would have been too hot). So far this year we've hardly sat in the garden much and certainly haven't used the summerhouse.

So I spent some time lounging in the sun (very good for the bones with osteoporosis - with plenty of sun protection cream because I'm naturally fair skinned). And every now and again I had a little crafting session in the summerhouse. Well, if I'm honest, you could hardly call it crafting, as I was putting together some cards, gift cards etc that came with a Lisa Bearnson box of goodies. I'm still hoping to have a sale of cards for TEAR Fund in September and I know that this year I can't sit at the cardmaking as much as I used to, so, in order to get a number done I resorted to using the Lisa Bearnson box.

So there's no cards to show because I didn't really create them, just put them together. But I thought I'd show a few pictures of the garden and where I was crafting:

This is the view from tthe patio, just outside he door of my craft room, looking up the garden, with the summerhouse in the distance:

And this is my little summerhouse:

Our garden is mainly planted with shrubs, but we have some lovely rose bushes blooming atm:

One day soon I'll show some pictures of my craft room (wouldn't want to do it now because it's not tidy enough) - although it was done a few weeks ago, I'm still moving things around, finding places, sorting etc Acquired a 12 x 12 stack of trays the other day, so at least my papers are sorted.

Mum's visit on Thursday

I should have included this in my last post, but somehow it got crowded out. Mum came over Thursday afternoon and while she was here I altered a notebook for her. She is going to write some of her memories, family history, that sort of stuff. Although she likes seeing what I've made, she doesn't have much 'craftiness' herself, but she enjoyed seeing me put together the covr for her notebook. I used K & Co Brookfield papers and bits and bobs. I also showed her my robo and actually managed to cut a rocking horse (got the template from UKS - looked very impressive).

Better late than never

Jane set the dare on DCM last Friday:

"For my dare you can choose any theme for the card BUT it must incorporate 'Checks', whether it be gingham paper or ribbon or squares, any thing really as long as it incorporates some kind of shape with 4 equal sides....... so go on- I dare you to think outside the square/step out of the box ..............easy as, eh ?!!"

So here at the last minute are a couple of contributions from me - the first one with layered squares and the second one another of my Disney cards, this time with a strip of yellow gingham ribbon between the heart eyelets. I didn't make the cards today, I did them earlier, but haven't had a chance before now to put them on here:

Among all the excitement of the lead-up to the launch of Salt, I hadn't forgotten that I was tagged by Joanne (Angelnorth) with the Global Bumper Card Society thingie that's doing the rounds; I just hadn't got round to doing anything about it.



The "rules" are:
1) Send ONE card to someone you know within 7 days! (family, friends, associates, cyber people, etc.) ANYONE!!! Doesn't matter who... just do it. Can you imagine the smile on their face when they open their mailbox and see a card from you?
2) Tag (yes, I know, but this is the only way to spread this) 5 people you know to do the same thing (Tag means tag them to send their own cards to their own people).
3) Proudly display this on your blog to spread a little sunshine and pass it on.

More details here: http://papercraftingengineer.blogspot.com/2007/07/playing-tag-and-spreading-some-joy.html

If you get tagged again (we can all hope, can't we), send another card!

Right, my response:

1) Tomorrow I'm going to send a card to a 'crafty' friend who I know is going through a difficult time atm.


2) I'm tagging:


Melissa (http://melissalsmith.blogspot.com/)

Sharon (http://glitterangel.typepad.com/glitterangel_blog/)

Rachel (http://behanfamily.blogspot.com/)

Andrea (http://andreabrownjohn.blogspot.com/) and

Kate (http://www.noseycritters.blogspot.com/)

Great excitement

This doesn't look that exciting, but it is the first thing I've cut on my new Craft Robo! It's not even an exciting cardstock, just any piece of A4 that I put my hand on. It was using a template on UKScrappers submitted by Hesjane - thank you.

My robo was delivered at the end of last week and I loaded the software and have been looking at all the blurb and at various templates. To be honest I was scared of mounting the blade and actual trying it - thought I'd probably break the blade or do something wrong. But, hey, it cut perfectly the first time. I'm hoping that before long I'll come back with something more exciting to show (won't be today because mum's coming to visit very shortly).

Although I'm excited about this, I think I'm even more excited about the launch of the Salt Faith Challenge blog - if you haven't had a look yet, please do: http://saltfaithchallenge.blogspot.com

My contribution to Salt's Praise

I am so excited and privileged to be part of the Salt Faith Challenge team - the Saltinies! We are a group of ladies from various parts of the world who are combining our love of Jesus expressed in our Christian faith with crafting, which we all enjoy with the talents that God has given us.

And the first challenge is...

Praise

Express your praise to God in whatever way you choose.Praise is such a wonderful word. We give praise to people - especially children when they have done something that makes us proud and pleases us. We give praise to God because he has done everything for us and we are proud to be his children.Here is mine...

Please pop over to http://saltfaithchallenge.blogspot.com/ and check it out. We would love you to contribute.

July monthly swap on Carolyn's

I wasn't going to show these till people have received them, but, hey, if the lovely Melissa can show her August (yes, August!) swap cards, I can show these - lol!:




And unlike Melissa, I haven't started yet on the August swap cards.

I haven't achieved anything much crafty in the last few days - some of the time has been taken up with contributing to the team work of setting up the new Salt Faith Challenge - please hop over to http://saltfaithchallenge.blogspot.com/ and have a look and join in.

I'll be back later to tell you about my first adventure with my craft robo which was delivered the other day. So far I've loaded the software and had a look at various sites and templates, but haven't actually yet cut anything with it (too scared!).

Salt Faith Challenge

This morning has seen the launch of a new blog - please go on over there and join in:

http://saltfaithchallenge.blogspot.com/

Watch this space!!

Coming soon - an exciting new challenge blog - in just over 24 hours time this will be launched! Please come back and check it out and contribute.