CDACPC16...

...and feeling rather sorry for myself.

I should have known, after all it was Monday...

The day started with my camera deciding that the batteries were flat so I wasn't able to take pics of my card for the CDAC progressive challenge 16.

Next the promised lovely weather was rather short of the fab temperatures that had been forcast. I suppose I should be thankful that I dressed accordingly because on my way from Stratford station to the office I tripped on one of the numerous uneven paving slabs and went flying...the coffee that I had just bought went scooting across the pavement but at least due to the layers I had on all I suffered was a grazed elbow, two grazed knees, a nice lot of bruising and a very big dent to my pride (the journey home this evening has been interesting as my left knee is very painful and doesn't want to bend).

Still, I'm home now and I've managed to take the pics that I wanted to post this morning...
I went for a Black/White/Silver colour theme and used the image that had been supplied by The Wax Fruit Company.
I decided not to colour the image but just add some bling in the form of Frosted lace stickles on the petals, Star dust stickles on the stamen and a scattering of flatback gems.
The image was matted onto some black & silver CS from DCWV (The Glitter stack) and then layered over a double layer of paper doilies.

So that's my entry for this stage of the challenge...now where do I get a new knee...................................................

It warms the heart...

...to know even the talented & famous don't like the new Blogger interface.

The lovely & talented Lindsay Mason has been bemoaning the loss of the "comfy/I know what I'm doing" styling of Blogger so I haven't felt so bad about not getting on with it myself. After all, if someone who crafts for a living doesn't like it then why should little me who only dabbles like it...

It has been a pain of a week trying to navigate this new set up - being techy challenged this should come as no surprise to anyone - but right this minute I am a very happy bunny.

Why?

Lindsay found someone on 'the web' who didn't like it either and had found how to revert to the old format...happy dance

So for those of you who 'no likeee' the new setup, hop over to Lindsay's blog where the instructions are really simple - they must be because I managed to follow them LOL It might only be for a short time but it feels so good to be back with what I'm used to.

Welcome back old, comfortable style blogger.......................

Oooo, Lucky...

...Lucky me!!!The lovely Marianne was offering a chance to win one a signed photo of Nigel May as part of the launch of the new CDs by Nigel - you know, of Nigel & Steph fame - and I was lucky enough to be the winner...whoop-whoop!I have been struggling with the new Blogger dashboard setup up and had fallen sadly behind with my blog reading (I know I'll get used to it with practice but being rather techy challenged doesn't make it easy **rollseyes**) so it was a lovely surprise to come home to.Thank you so much Marianne.If you haven't visited "Marianne's Craftroom" (her blog) I think you should as she has lots of different lovely creations over there. Take a look at the pretty gift bag that was posted recently......................................

All Completed...

...and stored away tidily.I am having to be careful not to pile stuff on top of my pen storage case as it is a rather handy worksurface for scissors, glue, PP, CS etc. whilst I'm working.

This is the start of a card that I really do need to get done for a colleague who will be retiring on Thursday - I'd better get my rear in gear and get it sorted.However, what I have managed to do is complete my collection of the Letraset Flexmarkers...

...and as you can see - they are all neatly put away in order ready for use.The only thing missing from the set is the Flexmarker blender pen. For some reason these only seem to come in the 12-pen packs and there is no obvious space on the stand for the individual pens. I do hope this is just an oversight on the part of Letraset and that they are made available along with the rest of the individual pens.......................................

Catch 22...

...do I or don't I? The weather here in the UK has been pretty awful this year with very few 'nice' days to speak of. The weather folk love to cheer us up even more by announcing that this has been the coldest April for 23 years - go figure. In addition to the low temps the April showers have hit with full force causing flood warnings to be issued in many parts of the country. This hasn't brought the hosepipe bans to an end and a big part of England remains classified as being in drought conditions.

The only good thing that seems to have come out of these conditions is the amount of rainbows that have put in an appearance over the last few weeks. Now if you are wondering what I meant by the title of this post; I'll tell you. The cold wet weather is playing havoc with my joints and I'm finding it difficult to craft with my hands/wrists wrapped around a hotwater bottle. The problem is, if I don't move/use my fingers they lock but if I do they hurt...hense the 'catch 22' situation. I so wanted to knit some more baby jumpers & beanie hats to send off to DawnyP but my fingers were complaining about gripping the 4mm metal needles - so I've resorted to knitting scarves again. The 8mm plastic needles seem a lot kinder to the old joints.

I knitted these as a couple of "thank you" gifts. Hope the folk concerned like................

CDACPC15...

...has an optional theme of 'All about the Bears'.

The folk over at the latest CDAC Progressive Challenge provided a collection of the cutest Bear digi images - they were all lovely but I fell in love with this little sweetie straight away...
...the problem was - although I loved the image and really enjoyed colouring it with my Copics, I really didn't want to make it into a card. So I decided to use it to decorate the small Smash book that I have recently bought to keep a note of things to do with my pen collections. I covered the front of the book with a panel of brown check PP (from the latest DoCraft range 'Boofle'). I then printed off some colour charts from Letraset & Copic - I cut sections from these to layer onto the front panel. The coloured image was matted onto this.
Just a little bit of bling in the form of stickles on the stars, halo and wings.
I just love this image from Bugaboo Stamps - he is my Guardian Angel Bear............................

Welcome to...

...wet & soggy East London and Essex.

I really should have known that my luck couldn't hold out much longer. I had managed to miss the downpours two days running - it couldn't last.

It didn't...

Leaving work yesterday evening was not well timed. In the five minutes it takes to walk from the office to Stratford station I was soaked and covered in a layer of slush (the ice from the hail stones). Has anyone else noticed that since the hosepipe ban came into force it has hardly stopped raining...

Anyway, it was not a pleasant journey home. It is most uncomfortable feeling that damp and very difficult on a packed train not to drip on folk. So the first course of action when I got home was to dry out and warm up - once the old fingers defrosted a bit I did a bit more 'baby jumper' knitting - I'm about two-thirds through another one.

However, I thought I'd let you see the items that I had been knitting before the 'call to needles'.

The black/blue/lilac scarf is the same type of yarn as the beige one I showed a few posts ago and the pink/green/olive one is in the new yarn that I got from In2Crafting. I have a couple of other colours in each of these yarns that are waiting to be knitted.

With the way the weather is continuing, I don't think I'll be packing away my scarves any time soon. Everywhere is just sooooooooooooooo cold and damp.

TGIF as at least over the weekend I can decide whether I want to go out or not and if 'not' I can snuggle up with a coffee and just watch the weather through the window.

At the moment things don't look too fab in the outside world - there is a very heavy mist and the temps have dropped again.

I wonder if things would warm up and dry out if they cancelled the hosepipe ban....................................................

Are you a knitter...

...and would you like to help?

On Saturday evening I was doing my usual blopping and Bev Rochester had posted a link to her fellow DT member Dawny P. The link went to a post asking for help from anyone who knits and was willing to give up a bit of time to knit a baby jumper and/or a baby beanie hat.

Why was the call being made?

To help provide some clothing for what are being called "Fish & Chip babies" out in Africa. I think this term is awful but it is something 'coined' by the media and if nothing else it does graphically show their plight - babies are being wrapped in newspaper to protect them from the sun and to keep them warm at night...wrapped in paper just like a portion of fish & chips.

Dawny had a pattern on her blog to make a jumper (really easy as it is done all in one piece) and a little beanie hat. She has said if anyone is willing to get their needles out and forward the results to her she will pass them on to the appropriate folk.

I have been knitting scarves lately as the larger needles don't cause me so much trouble with the old Arfa-ritis but I dug out a pair of 4mm needles and some double knit and got stuck in...
...the request says 'bright/darker colours' rather than the usual pastels that we tend to knit for babies as they are not likely to be washed very often (if at all).
The little beanie is really very easy to knit and doesn't require much more than the ability to count the number of rows knitted.
The jumper is also very easy as it is done all in one piece so you are not fiddling around with lots of tiny bits that then need stitching together.

I got both items out of a 100g ball (and there is still a fair amount left) so I'm sure you could find this small amount of yarn from your stash - why not use up all your leftovers and knit in stripes...

The two items were completed by Sunday evening (allowing for regular breaks for the poor old fingers and wrists) so shouldn't take anyone too long to complete.

Why not hop over to Dawn P's blog and have a look at the patterns and better still - get those needles out.

I'm giving my fingers a bit of a rest today - although I may get the scarf out later...we shall see.....................................

Don't you just hate...

...when that happens!

You know; you've seen a craft item that you just have to have. You finally get it and then can't think what to do with it.

I have longed for some Whimsy stamps for what seems an age and now one of my local stores stocks them...yipee!!!...so of course it would have been rude not to purchase a couple (it looked like everyone else had been grabbing them too as there weren't many left). So making good use of my In2Crafting money off voucher I came away with three and that was as far as it got. I just couldn't think of colours or anything to make a start so I went hopping as many of the blogs I follow have had Whimsy creations on them in the past.
I decided to make a start with this little miss - Wee Suzi - isn't she adorable.
After a lot of 'blopping' I finally found what I was looking for...Bev Rochester had actually used this very image so I was up and running. Bev normally gives a list of pen colours that she has used on her creations and I find this very helpful as a starting point but on this occasion she had apologised for not remembering what colours she had used so I just went with her image as guidance.
Having broken the barrier, this was coloured using my own colour scheme. There is so much Red/White/Blue available in the crafting world at the moment that I thought I would use one of these images to fit in.
This was my first attempt and it follows very closely the colours used by Bev Rochester - thank you Bev for the inspiration. For any of you who are not familiar with Bev's work (where have you been? LOL) you really should hop on over there and have a look. Her colouring is fabulous and she often does on-line tutorials that can help you with your techniques.

So, I've actually 'inked' the first of these stamps and had a play...now I just need to actually make them into cards......................................

I'd like you to meet...

...Maisie - my niece's latest fur baby.

These are the first photos she has sent me and she warned me they weren't the best as it was the day Maisie arrived.
According to Maisie's passport she is a border collie/lab cross but the previous owners thought she was a border collie/jack russell cross - not much difference there then...LOL
Kristy says this little furry miss is settling in fine and there are some better photos that will be on their way as soon as they are downloaded from her camera.

This brings the fur baby count in my niece's home over in Germany to 7 - four cats and 3 dogs. Well that is certainly going to keep everyone busy especially when it comes to walking 2 Jack Russells and this little miss...............................

Can you believe...

...this coming weekend is Easter.

Another year seems to be speeding away - before you know it we'll be saying "soon be Christmas" LOL
Creme Eggs seem to be around for most of the year but I do like to see the pretty varieties that shops come up with closer to the event...there are some lovely ones on the current M&S advert.

London has had an 'Egg Hunt' involving over 200 Faberge eggs which are now up for auction (remember the elephant hunt the other year?) and are on display at Covent Garden.

I quite like creme eggs but my favourite variety is the Cadbury Caramel Egg mmmmmm (I have to admit to having already polished off a bag of the mini version). I won't be buying any more but I might try the mini Ferrero eggs that they have in the 99p Store.

Easter weekend was always a bit of fun - when I was small, my sister & I would draw faces on our eggs before Mum boiled them for Sunday breakfast. When my sister was tiny she cried when the top was bashed so that she could dip in her bread 'soldier'.

I can remember taking my niece to Hever Castle one year and taking part in the Easter Hunt, it was such fun. From the looks of the weather forecast this weekend isn't going to be too great so lots of children will miss out on this piece of seasonal fun. Still, never mind folks...just enjoy your eggs......................

When the going gets cold...

...the needles get going!

Yesterday looked such a lovely day compared to Saturday - bright, sunny - but oh so cold. I don't like COLD, I don't DO cold...I want to be warm. So out came the knitting needles again.

This was a yarn I picked up at Craft Arena over at Barleylands on Saturday - knits in the same style as the scarves I did over Christmas & New Year but looks a little more...rustic.
I fell in love with this colour as I'm always a sucker for Autumn shades.
It only took a few hours to knit up. One ball of yarn, a pair of 8mm needles and there you have it - a snuggly warm scarf.

This morning seems to be off to another cold start and tomorrow could see rain. Roll on Summer; Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease.............................................