Pen addict - Moi?...

...surely not LOL

Lunchtime today a group of us went to our favourite little café in Southend and had a lovely lunch and a natter in celebration of Suzie's (Weasel) birthday.

I happened to ask in passing where TK Maxx was located as another colleague had mentioned that she had picked up a few bargains in there recently - so Suzie & I returned to the office; the long way.

Now I assure you all, I only went to have a look - honest...one pack of 24 reel of assorted ribbon and a pack of paper later...

However, that wasn't as bad as Suzie's purchases and of course I got the blame (me? how could anyone believe that LOL).

Back in the office, whilst showing off our goodies - I mentioned that I had been considering buying another set of the Sharpies that WHS has on offer. Suzie laughed and said that I hadn't really needed the first set but agreed that it was too good an offer to not buy at least one set...she then asked just how many pens I own...

Ummm, this is where the title comes in.

We sat and worked out that just counting what I consider to be my 'crafting' pens, I have over 800 pens - gulp!!!

I have: -

A complete set of Copic Ciao,
Flexmarkers,
Promarkers (including the seasonal limited editions)
Spectrum Noir,
Aqua markers,
Distress markers (although they haven't arrived yet I have paid for the 12 new colours)
and now my limited edition Sharpies

Okay, so I have a thing about pens **giggle** but I do use them...umm me an addict, hmm...well......................................................................

It rained yesterday...

...umm, just a bit.

I have to say, I did not take these photos - yesterday I was more concerned in getting myself and my car home in one piece.

Essex got well and truly wet yesterday and the rain continued through the night so I wasn't quite sure what I was going to wake-up to today...but luckily Stanford's roads drained pretty quickly.

This picture was taken in a place called Hockley...

 ...the vehicle you can just see is a large 4x4 - the family on-board were rescued by on-lookers.

This is a view of the A127 at the Rayleigh Weir...

...I'm not sure the driver of that vehicle was expecting to go for a swim.

Seafront businesses that had been hoping for a good weekends Bank Holiday trade were meet by this...

...when a storm drain burst because it couldn't cope with the volume of rain water that fell.

It wasn't even raining when I left home yesterday morning but by the time I reached the A127 at Dunton, the Heavens had opened and I could barely see the vehicle in front of me. I had a rather 'damp' wander around Barleylands but I certainly didn't expect the sort of conditions that I met on the way home. The Noak Bridge roundabout was flooded on the southern side causing serious tailbacks and the Police had closed the London bound access to the A127 - causing even more traffic problems.

Most of the roads on my way home were awash but nowhere near as bad as on the diverted route along the Manorway - even moving slowly I was creating waves a surfer would have been proud of.

Despite that, I got home safe and sound. Mum unfortunately was not so lucky as she had water right through her extension (although wet it hasn't actually done any damage and today is dry). Not everyone else on Canvey Island was so lucky as the news has stated that Canvey and Southend took the brunt of the rainfall.

Today has been very overcast and although the sun has come out the sky is solid cloud - don't think I'll hold my breath for a great Bank Holiday Monday weatherwise...................................................

Beat the Christmas Rush...

...25 July to 24 August.

Lots of you will be wincing at the use of the "C" word but hey, it really is coming round at a rate of knots.

Sue (Miniowner) is trying to help us prepare by prompting us each month to get at least 5 Christmas cards made. I joined in for the first time last month and Sue was very kind to feature one of the cards I posted (I only posted 3 because I ran out of time but I did in fact make 7 Chrimbo cards last month as I took part in the Bugaboo Christmas in July event).

I'm cutting things a bit close to the deadline again but this month I have indeed managed 5 cards - and here they are...

 During all my tidying I came across a variety of Kraft card blanks so I decided to make that the basis for the colour scheme I wanted to use. The shaped card and the die-cuts were 'freebies' with a magazine I recently purchased.
The first card is very simple...

...I just attached a length of ribbon to the front of the card - no fuss, no frills - just clean and simple.
The second card makes use of one of the chipboard die-cuts that came with the magazine...

...I mounted it using 3D foam and then added some washi tape and a few dots of Ruby Red Liquid Pearls.
The third card was a shaped, printed card blank that came with the magazine...

 ...the only additions were the cardinal and some Liquid Pearls...

 ...the cardinal was mounted using 3D foam and the Liquid Pearls gives a bit of bling & texture to the printed snowflakes.
The forth card uses a die-cut image of poinsettias (mounted on 3D foam)...

 ...a piece of Christmas ribbon to create the sentiment and some self-adhesive glitter domes just to give a hint of sparkle.
The fifth card involves a round topper from the magazine and a tag...

 ...the topper was stuck directly to the card blank and the tag was mounted with 3D foam...

...a few more of the glitter domes and there you have it - 5 Christmas cards ready and waiting.

The deadline for the July/August challenge is almost upon us but I'm sure you could come up with some cards if you fancy taking part or perhaps wait for the new challenge to start on 25 Aug and you will then have a whole month to make five Christmas cards ready for the holiday season.

Do hop over to Sue's site to take a look at what other folk have made...............................................

It's Friday so...

...that means it's time to reveal what has been "Rocking my World" this week.

Each Friday the lovely Virginia invites folk to stop and reflect about their week and to share the things that have made them smile...

...or really rocked their week in a good way.

Well I think top of my list this week has to be Coffee. I really do think that it is my regular visits to Starbucks that keeps me going at the moment...

 ...and despite the fact that over the course of a week I visit 4 different branches - many of the staff are now greeting me with "the usual?". Hmmm, me thinks that perhaps I am drinking too much coffee LOL
Mind you, during August they have had a 'Summer Treat' - buy a hot drink in the morning then...

 ...come back after 2pm with your stamped receipt and you could have any cold drink. This was the last week of the promotion so I've enjoyed a variety of Coffee fraps and Strawberries & Cream drinks to see me on my way home. It has been lovely because the weather has been rather hot & humid/stormy this week.

Suzie (Weasel) has been on holiday up in Scotland this week but before she went she mentioned that WHS had a set of 24 Limited Edition Sharpie Pens on offer...

...instead of being £16.99, if you bought a pencil case you could buy them for £6.99 (and you could buy any pencil case - even a cheap back-to-school one if you wanted) - you all know what is coming next...yes, I have a set of 24 Sharpies and a lime green pencil case. After all, at that price it would have been rude not to **giggle**. Let me also say that the selection of colours is fab.

I'm beginning to see the benefits of having a craft space in my lounge and the organisation bit is coming along nicely.

So those are the highlights of my week. Why not hop over to Virginia's blog and see what she and the other Rockettes have been up to this week and why not join in. It really is good for the soul to take some 'time out' just to look back at your week - even if you thought it was a pretty grotty week, you'll be surprised at how many nice things you can bring to mind. Go on, give it a go..................................

Typical...

...as if I haven't been doing enough travelling - today I went to Cambridge for a meeting.

Oh, and of course, it rained (sad resigned sort of face).

I couldn't believe it when the alarm went off and I was greeted by the sound of rain on the window. Luckily, by the time I set off for the station it had more or less stopped and the journey through to Liverpool Street station in London was fairly un-eventful with service changes going without a hitch...but that was obviously not going to stay the case as at Liverpool Street I was met by an announcement that the next train to Cambridge was delayed.

I think today must have been my day as the delay wasn't very long and the service concerned was one of the new "Stansted Express" trains (quite posh and nice seats). Not only was I going to travel in comfort but the train was only scheduled to make one stop before Cambridge so it was a super fast journey (and very empty - I think there was only one other person in my carriage).
 
Now I have been to Cambridge once before and for the size of the station the entrance seems quite small...

 ...but it was handy because, exiting the station I bumped into two colleagues so we were able to walk to the office together and we were lucky that the rain held off (just a few spits). 

The rain certainly came down whilst we were having our meeting so our 'boss' authorised a taxi back to the station. So once again things went very smoothly - we got to the station and got straight onto a train. Unfortunately, it was one of the old style trains and I think we stopped at just about every place we could possibly stop en-route.
For anyone who has never used Cambridge station, it can be quite confusing...

 ...the platform that you are looking at in the picture is Platform 4 but if you look along the platform to where you can see a train - that is Platform 1 (???) Platform 2 is down the end to the right but I'm still trying to work out where Platform 3 is LOL

Although a slow journey, we got back to London without any problems.

Tomorrow I'm back on the bus to Chelmsford - at least it is Friday and we have a long weekend because it is the late August bank holiday on Monday. At the moment it is feeling very stormy so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get another load of rain.

I have to say, I am enjoying having a craft area in the lounge. When I got home from work today, I put the kettle on and then went and had a tinker with some bits on my craft table. Think I'll go and have a check to see if the liquid pearls are dry yet.........................................................

The tidying & organisation...

...is coming along.

I now have the table that Mum gave me, in place and in use. It is a bit cluttered at the moment as I'm still sorting stuff out but I do have some space and I have been taking advantage of being able to have a bit of a play. The chairs were another 'gift' - Suzie (Weasel) had been given some chairs by her fella to see what would suit her needs best...

....these were two that were surplus to her requirements. The cushion pads are a set that I have had for some time. Originally bought to put on the garden chairs, they have remained un-used as I rarely get a chance to sit out in the garden and when I do, I tend to sit on the bench.
Despite the mess created by gradually getting organised...

...the table is perfectly big enough to have two folk crafting side-by-side...

 ...or it will be once I get this lot sorted and put away LOL.
I said I had managed a bit of a play...

...I found this amongst my stash - it is a "Pub card" - and will make a good addition to my card collection...

 ...I'm never much good at cards for guys...

...so it's good to know that I have this one 'ready to go' as and when the occasion arises.

 I tried several angles to try and show as much detail as possible...

 ...and I think that's about as good as you're gonna get LOL.

All this tidying has been un-earthing some forgotten treasures. This was tucked in the bottom of a bag containing a variety of stash and to be honest, I'd forgotten that I'd even bought it...

...as you can probably see, it is a mug with a fabric jacket. The 'jacket' covers both the outside and the inside of the mug and has loads of little pockets - in & out. A perfect place to put those smaller items that you use all the time. At the moment I have a 4" pair of scissors, a craft knife (and blades), a journaling pen and a variety of glue sticks. I'm sure that this too will change as I progress with this tidying and organising lark but it'll do for the time being.........................................................

What's Rocking your World...

...Friday is here again.

The amazing thing is - I'm actually taking part on Friday...will wonders never cease!

If you are not sure what I'm waffling on about, hop over to the lovely Virginia's blog and you'll find out more. Virginia encourages us to take a look back at our last 7 days and find the positives - the things that made us smile or out & out rocked our worlds. It can sometimes be a struggle but if you take a few moments to just think back, you'll find something.

I didn't play along last week - life got in the way. I did manage a couple of posts but time was used more on getting my craft stuff organised and having fun at a crafting workshop.

Work is still a pain - the travelling is not getting any better but it has given me some time to get through a few of the e-books that I have had stored on my KOBO for a while. I have to say, although I still prefer real books this is certainly the way to go for a commuter. Sometimes what I have been reading in the morning just doesn't 'grab' me in the afternoon so it is fabulous being able to switch to something else without carting several books around - handbag sized e-Readers are certainly rocking my world at the moment.

I now have 100 followers - welcome to those of you who have recently added me to their reading lists and a great BIG thank you to those who have been visiting for a while. Receiving your comments and support is very much appreciated.

I think that generally crafters are the nicest/kindest folk around (yes there are always exceptions but we don't need to pay attention to them). Folk that I've never met can be so very thoughtful. My recent gift from Annette (Voodoo Vixen) was very much appreciated and will be treasured because she took the time to make and send it to me. The free digi stamps from Nicecrane Designs just because I left a comment on a fellow blogger's post using one of their images - I loved using the image of the two little ones saying their prayers and as soon as I get some new cartridges for the printer (roll on payday) I'll be using the other images too.

Someone who does the most amazing artwork and shabby chic type creations recently had a teapot giveaway over on her blog - I was lucky enough to be one of the winners and I came home yesterday to find a lovely parcel sitting on my door mat. The Lovely Lynn Stevens of Trash to Treasure Art didn't just send me my teapot charm - she sent this bundle of goodies...

 Here is my cute teapot charm...

 There is also this super Alice in Wonderland rabbit charm...

...and lots of beautiful bits of lace...

Thank you so much Lynn, what a lovely surprise to come home to.

So that's the sort of stuff that has been rocking my world recently - do hop on over to Virginia's blog where you'll find links to other folks who are sharing the positives from their weeks too..........................................................................

Barb's hidden drawers...

...ooo'err Missus!!!

After a week of little by the way of crafting but quite a bit of tidying, it was lovely to spend a day with Suzie (Weasel) at an all day workshop creating with paper and paint. Barb at Sugar & Spice over at the Barleylands craft village has been playing with Paperartsy paints and Craftwork Cards paper collections recently.

Using the lovely Craftwork Cards "Time Flies" collection, some chipboard, some card stock...

 ...and some Crackle medium & Chalk paint. We created a stack of 'books' that are actually boxes with a hidden drawer inside. Everything was created from scratch.
Here is the first completed box...

...and the second...

 ,,,and as you can see - the front of the 'book' opens to reveal a drawer.
The piece consisted of a stack of three 'books'...

 ...which we then decorated with hand-made roses.
The roses were cut from brown CS that had been painted over with crackle medium and cream coloured chalk paint...

 ...using 6-petal rounded flower punches. The larger one was made using a 3-inch punch...

...and the smaller flower and bud were made using a 2-inch punch. I don't think this was Suzie's favourite activity of the day LOL.

Barb made sure we had a note of all the measurements for this project as we got to keep the paper pack which we had hardly made a dent in - she said there was more than enough paper there to make another 5 sets of these drawers. Me thinks this could be a few Chrimbo prezzies sorted.

As this was an all-day workshop, we got to go and have our lunch in the 'La Bottega' café (it used to be call the 'Courtyard' and before that the 'Hive') - Suzie's lasagne & salad looked super and I can tell you for certain...my jacket spud/tuna/salad...was very yummy.

After a busy week at work and at home, it was lovely just being able to take things easy and enjoy a bit of creativity in the company of 'like-minded' folk..................................................................

Not a lot of crafting but...

...take a look at the tidying!!!

First up, you might have noticed that my expedit-type unit has multiplied. It was too good an opportunity and I knew if I didn't get them now, I would never really make a start. So Saturday morning saw me zooming over to Lidl's at Hadleigh, batting my eyelids at one of the lads in store who had one of those pallet-wheelie thingies and with his kind assistance got 3 more units loaded into the car. Mind you, unloading was 'fun' - there's never a fella around when there are steps involved LOL

I decided that the place to put them was along the end wall of the lounge...

...and they fit perfectly. There is even enough room to easily access the plug-sockets at that end of the room (which are not the most conveniently placed).
There will be a lot of 'tweaking' over coming days but I've got a basic arrangement on the go whilst I sort out my stash...

...I've even allowed space either end of the run for my salt-crystal lamps...

 ...I only photographed this one as the other needs a new bulb.
The plastic 12x12 paper trays that I got from Artbase when it closed its b&m location have finally come into use after sitting in the dining-room for "how many years!!!"...

 ...as you can see, the spaces in the units will take 6 trays comfortably. Oh, and a place at last for my Ultimate Pro - instead of it being buried under two-ton of stash.

Things that I use on a regular basis such as embellies, dies, punches etc. will live in the boxes along the top - easy to just lift the lids and grab what I need. The remaining 4 boxes will be stacked - probably with a stack of the remaining paper trays.

Everywhere is a mess at the moment but as you can see...I've made a start. This space is better suited for this purpose than the room upstairs as my PC & broadband are downstairs and I can have the TV on in the background. I should also have space for a friend to come over and craft once it is all sorted - there isn't space for that upstairs.

So as I said, it's getting there......................................................

Everyone seems to be doing it...

...tidying their craft space, that is.

Nearly everywhere I visit in Blogland there is someone in the process of organising their craft stuff...the lovely Stef (Glitterbabe) has been changing her stamp storage so that she can free-up some space, Suzy (Sea, Glass & Sand) has been having a tidy of her craft space. Paula (Happy Snappy) has been de-cluttering & re-purposing throughout her house and numerous folk have been discussing the merits of having a shed to craft in.

To add to this, my friend Suzie (Weasel) has been tidying stuff away into boxes so that her fella can redesign her desk/storage and crafting area whilst she is away on holiday.

So, with all this activity everywhere I look, I thought it was about time I did something about this...

...isn't it amazing what you can shove behind the sofa LOL

 

Over the last couple of weeks "The Works" has had these storage boxes on offer...

...London, Paris and New York (I'm sure there was another design when they first appeared in the store but these are the only 3 of this 'post card' style that they have now).
Although they press-stud together easily, they are pretty sturdy...

...and it is amazing just how much you can get in them. At the moment I have just boxed stuff roughly by type - embellishments, stamps, papers, card-blanks & card stock and so on. I will then sort the contents of each box so that the contents are more organised.

 

Today I managed to get an 'expedit' type unit (the 2x2 - in white) from Lidls supermarket - you should have seen Suzie & I carrying this between us through the store (giggle) but when we got to the checkout a man very kindly offered to carry it for us to the car...chivalry is alive and kicking.

 

I have put it together (yep Suzie, all done - don't faint) and now I've got to decide just how I want things arranged.

 

I may be a little late to the party, but I'm finally getting there..................................................  



A very BIG thank you...

...to Ignacio over at Nicecrane Designs.

I received some lovely comments on some recent posts and the offer of being able to choose something from the Nicecrane Designs website. I chose Sweet Kids 3 and Ignacio very generously sent me the whole set of "Sweet Kids"...

...don't you just adore these lovely images.

My printer hasn't been playing very nice recently (I think some of the ink is getting low) but I just couldn't wait to print off this image and get it coloured in...

 ...and get it made up into a card.

 Aren't these two little darlings adorable...

 ...and perfect for colouring with a muted palette of colours.
I tried not to go too mad with the embellishments because I didn't want anything to detract from the image...

...just some doilies, ribbon, lace and a few flowers.

I made an 8x8 inch card blank out of cream CS and inked the edges with Antiqued Linen Distress ink (all the edges of the various layers were inked). I had some script 12x12 PP which I cut to layer onto the card blank and a piece of cream cotton lace was wrapped around this before it was stuck down. A smaller piece of the script PP was mounted onto kraft CS and then wrapped with jute twine. The white doily was slipped under the twine and secured in place then the wax paper die-cut doily was slipped under the cream lace and secured in place.

The image was coloured with Spectrum Noir pens - matted onto kraft CS and mounted onto the card using 3D foam. I used brads to create the centres of the flowers before attaching the blooms to the card with some more 3D foam.

Nicecrane Designs have a fabulous selection of digital images and they also have a blog where there are plenty of examples of how to use them - do pop over and take a look...especially if you love Victorian/vintage style images.

Ignacio - I hope you like what I did with the first of the images that you kindly gifted to me..............................................................................