I've been given...

...another award.

The lovely Hazel nominated me for this...do pop over to her blog to say hi and have a peek at what she's up to.
I have been very lucky to receive 3 of these awards now so feel greatly honoured that folk felt they wanted to nominate me. The problem with these awards is that they usually require the sharing of some facts from the nominee - that's me.

Well let me think - what can I tell you about me that I haven't already told **hummmmmmmmmmm - searches brain from something interesting**

1. I am right-handed...nothing mind-blowing there I hear you say. However, Mum says I was left-handed until I started school. No-one made me change but it is thought I just copied everyone else. Strangly enough, about the only thing I can do with either hand is iron...

2. I love chocolate but I'm not a chocoholic...in fact, most of the time I will go for something savoury rather than sweet.

3. Give me the means to do so and I could shop for England LOL When I offered to take my neighbours daughter shopping to pick up some bits for her wedding she warned me to wear comfortable shoes as she could "shop 'til she dropped"...I wore her out.

4. If the weather is kind enough to allow washing to be pegged out on the line the items have to be pegged in a certain way so as to minimize peg-marks - a bit OCD I know but I can't help it.

5. I can not eat a sugared doughnut without licking my lips - apparently it is very difficult not to 'lick'.

6. I love pretty stationery especially notebooks so the BIA was a perfect buy for me.

7. I always wanted an older brother but got a younger sister...I was the only one amongst my school mates who was the 'oldest' - and they all had brothers who had dishy mates...so not fair!!!

8. I am not 'tea-total' but it doesn't bother me not to have a 'drink' if I go out with friends. I can't just drink for the sake of drinking - but I do rather like Baileys or, Red or Rose wine if I am going to have a drink.

Another 8 things about me - not earth shattering but at least I managed to think of 8.

Now I need to share this with 8 other folk - not so easy and some of these folk may already have been nominated, but here goes: -

1. Paula - I have never met Paula as she lives the other side of the world from me but she is a crafter & a blogger and is always there with a kind or helpful comment.

2. Lynn - Another person I have never met except in cyberspace. I'm not sure how I found her blog but I follow it with eager anticipation as I love her artistic skills.

3. Winnie - Like Paula, Winnie is there with kind comments and encouragement. We met through being on the same team during a Cybercrop on UKS and it soon became clear that we could both be completely nutty when it comes to cybercrop chat LOL

4. Eleni - Lives in Greece. We have never met except through 'the web' but we had a craft shop in common - Artbase - unfortunately we were not able to co-ordinate a visit to meet there. I love how she shares parts of her life along with her crafting.

5. Ruthie - Lives only a few miles away but again, the only place we have met is in cyberspace. It is great visiting her blog and knowing many of the places she refers to.

6. Debbie - recently returned to blogging. She is probably the person most responsible for me being a bit more adventurous with my blog - she introduced me to widgets LOL

7. Dan - If I could do a fraction of what Dan can do with some stamps and some ink I would be a very happy bunny. In the meantime I'll just gaze in amazement at his fab creations.

8. Julia - I love her sense of humour. I don't take part in her "What's on your Workdesk Wednesday" but I do visit regularly to see what she is up to at the moment and have learn't (the hard way) not to have a mouthful of coffee or anything else before I have the gist of what her post is about. Surprising how often the keyboard ended up being cleaned in the past or I had to leave the PC due to a choking fit...LOL

It has been very difficult picking just 8 names from all the fabulous blogs I visit and I would like to say if I was a bit quicker with this PC & linking lark I might have been tempted to add a few more......................................

A bit of...

...colouring in.

As regular visitors will know - I do like a bit of colouring in from time to time. It is so relaxing and is something I can sit and do quite comfortable whilst sat on the sofa with the TV on in the background.
This is one of the new DoCraft Perfect Pets stamps (the same one that was used in Andy's class at the weekend). I stamped up a sheet of the images and proceeded to colour them in.
I used the Copic C1 grey to shade the cats and then used my Inktense pencils to colour the collars, head-dresses etc.

I do like to have a collection of ready coloured images to hand in case I have to make a quick card.

I also feel as if my time has been put to good use on those occasions when I don't feel like a full blown crafting session.............................

Whilst I'm still thinking...

...about what to do with the CD mailers - I've made a decision.

I now know what I'm gonna do with some of this...
It's the Tim Holtz Seasonal stack (which I bought well before Christmas).
After using some of these papers at one of Andy's classes I decided that I just HAD to have a stack for myself...after all, it had papers to cover so many occasions & holidays. However, that was as far as it got and to be honest I wasn't even sure where I had put it.
Something else that I've had for a while was this 7Gypsies little treasure. I probably wouldn't be far out if I said this has been sitting on the shelf gathering dust - SORRY - awaiting inspiration LOL for about 18 months (don't look too closely as you can probably see the dust and finger marks).
It's one of their printers trays and the configuration of this one is sections that are ATC sized. Every now and then I have gazed at it wanting to be struck by some brilliant idea but nothing happened - then I thought about how many sections this has...12
The more I thought about this and the "Tim" papers, the more an idea was forming. 12 sections...12 months...each section to be decorated to reflect the month in question.

The paper stack has Christmas (December), Valentine (February), Thanks giving (November), 4th of July (obvious - LOL), Halloween (October), Easter (March/April) and a whole host of papers suitable for the rest of the year.

I think I will use some of the ATC size images from the stack to decorate the back of each section. I won't change the basic tray as I rather like the dark wood effect.

This will be an on going project because I don't want to rush it - I want to consider what trinkets & embellies I'm going to use and it may be a case of waiting to find just the right things for some of the sections. I'm in no hurry and I want to do this right.

Suppose I should make a start on cutting out some of the papers...................

Shrove Tuesday and...

...did you have your pancakes?
I didn't as I forgot that I would be at scrap night tonight.

Still, never mind...I have all the fixings and will make myself some at the weekend and enjoy them in peace & quiet, without any rushing here & there.

How do you like your pancakes?

I have to have them with sugar and lashings of lemon juice - there really isn't any other way to have pancakes. What do you put on yours........................

Lovely ideas...

...keep them coming.

Annette pointed me in the direction of this which I think is a super idea - I do miss TV Weekly and all the goodies that they used to come up with.

Off to work shortly (yuck) and the sky looks beautiful...then you look at ground level and everywhere is covered in thick frost. Looks like I need to bundle-up nice and warm. Catch you all later......................

Any ideas...

...what I can do with these - craftwise, that is.
Not the best of photos but perhaps this one will help a bit...
They are card CD holders that Mum had come through the post with some audio books in. She has transferred her CDs to a more substantial storage container and presented these to me...to "do something with".

There are two styles - a)a tri-fold card with slots to take the CDs and b)a book style consisting of the cover and a single page (there are slots inside this too for the CDs).

I have been thinking about covering one of the 'books' and decorating it with some stamped images and perhaps using the slots for photos or gift vouchers - making it a combined card/gift. However, I am open to ideas & suggestions...the more the merrier.

If someone comes up with a really good idea I might even send them one of these to play with - as long as they promise to "show and tell" what they do with it and how they did it.

So get those ideas rolling in...................................

Introducing...

...my Mum (you might want to grab a cuppa - this is a long one).

The lady responsible for all my Arty-Craftiness...all 4ft 10 & a half inches of her. Whatever you do - don't forget the 1/2 inch...she gets very touchy about it LOL

Despite her limited mobility these days she is very independant and will still give lots of things 'a go'...here I caught her looking out of the window considering where she was going to plant some summer bulbs.
Things might take her a bit longer these days but she gets there in the end...
This is the person that during my growing up would never be put off of trying anything or trying to adapt something for her purpose.

Knowing the sort of people my grandparents were it has always amazed me as to where my Mum got her arty-craftiness from. I know she and her sister were taught to knit but it wasn't by my nan as she struggled to manage garter stitch lengths that someone else would have to cast on & off for her. Great Auntie Queenie was probably responsible for the basic skills and I know Mum did knitting at school. Nan couldn't sew either...it was more likely to be granddad stitching on a button if the need arose so I know this was a skill Mum definately gained at school.

So from these basic beginnings it is surprising what my Mum has managed to achieve over the years. She is very good at looking at something and then creating something similar. Oh and if you thought my crafting skills were pretty eclectic then you should see what she has tried...knitting, embroidery, dressmaking, home furnishings, woodturning,, watercolour painting, oils, crochet, silver-smithing, beading, just to name a few...

I can remember her making a plaster of paris landscape on a huge board for my sister and I to layout our farmyard buildings & animals. It had a mountain and fields, rivers & roads and was wonderfully creative. Then there was a year when we left it too late to get a Christmas tree so she created our very own "North Pole" - a piece of 2x2 wood wedged vertically between the floor & ceiling in the corner of the lounge. It was covered in red & white crepe paper to make it look like a candy cane and had lights and decorations attached - we woke Christmas morning to find our presents at the foot of the pole.

Mum turned her hand to costume making when I attended Dancing school. Once again her ability to look at something and make something similar came to the fore. At competitions I would often see other children in beautiful (expensive) costumes and beg Mum for something the same. On three occasions she completely covered leotards with sequins - each one stitched on by hand - because it was cheaper than buying the same thing ready made...I had a lovely emerald green one that she even dyed my tap shoes to match by using shoe dye and green glitter, a gold one that shimmered like fish scales but the most beautiful of all was a white leotard covered in mother-of-pearl sequins. It had leg-of-mutton style sleeves - the top part made from crystal chiffon and the long cuffs covered in the sequins. The poloneck collar was covered in sequins and decorated with glittery net butterflies...and more of the butterflies were woven into my hair - looking back, I was a very lucky little girl.

Over the years, although Mum encouraged both my sister and I - my sister wasn't really interested. However, I have always liked to try, dabble, copy - have a go.

Mum is always very supportive of my crafting efforts and I have to thank her for most of my larger crafting pieces of equipment. My Quickutz & Alphabet was a combined birthday/Christmas pressie as was my Cricut. My sister had money for something so I got a BigShot. My Cropadile was an Easter gift as was my Bigbite a year later. When I used to take her to Ally Pally she would see things demonstrated and then ask "would you like one of those..."

Some crafters follow their hobby despite their families "Not getting it" - I've never had that problem as far as Mum is concerned.

So now you have met my Mum (at least virtually LOL) and all I can say is - thank you Mum for giveing me the encouragement to find pass-times that I really enjoy.....................