Greetings from...

...some furry friends over in Germany.

According to my niece the weather across the Channel has been much like here - a week or so of very hot temps now replaced by wet & chilly conditions. I'm sure the hoondies are more comfortable with slightly cooler weather but I don't think they are that keen on the wet.

Here are just a few of the pics Kristy has sent over...
Russell looking very dapper in his "dad's" beret.
Maisie obviously didn't want to be left out but I don't think she is too sure as to whether it suits her or not.
Jack also keen to get in on the action.
Not sure where Jack disappeared to but this pair were obviously worn out by the photo session, LOL

Strangely enough, the only person I don't have a photo of wearing this beret is the actual owner - Dan.........................................

Sometimes...

...an impulse buy is good for you!

I love flowers but don't often buy them. Today I saw some pretty combinations of Red/White/Blue in the local florist so just had to get some.
Nothing fancy, just some white Gyp...red Carnations and I haven't a clue what the blue is but I thought it looked pretty.
Red/White/Blue seems such a strange combination of colours but it soooooooooooo works.
Not the most wonderful arrangement but they look bright and cheery and certainly brighten up the window ledge in the kitchen.

The weather improved this afternoon and was quite warm and sunny but it is clouding over again now. Fingers crossed for those of you having BBQs or street parties over the next few days..............................

Jubilee Weekend Giveaway...

...amazing offers over at LOTV...and £60 blog-candy too.



But hey, don't tell anyone or everyone will want to win it LOL.......................

Can we forget...

...this week ever happened - Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!

To say it has not been a good week would be the understatement of the decade.

Monday - We kicked off with an evening spent in A&E. Mum had complained about a problem with her left eye on the Sunday so I suggested she went to the optician. At 5.30pm I got a call at work from Mum telling me that she had been advised to go to A&E...1.5hrs to get home and pick up the car, 20mins to get to Mum, 20mins to get to hospital...finally got home from dropping Mum back home at around midnight. A&E were not able to find out what the problem was but they had managed to book Mum an appointment to see an optical specialist the following morning.
Tuesday - Lots of unease at work as folks still had a few days to go until they found out who was being moved to a new department. Call from Mum to say that she had a broken blood vessel in her eye and she would be sent an appointment for treatment at our local 'day' clinic but despite what she had been told by the A&E folk the night before, Southend Hospital refused to refund her taxi fare (they did at least arrange transport home for her).
Wednesday - Late running trains full of screaming/yelling kids didn't start the day well. The evening trains weren't much better with folk packed in like sardines.
Thursday - Staff get told who is moving...lots of unhappy people. It also means that I will still be left with a rather large team but the majority will be inexperienced in the work that needs to be maintained.
Friday - The end to a pretty naff week and the rain has arrived.

In an effort to cheer myself up, I had a hop over to Virginia's blog "Celtic House" where each week she holds Rocking my World Friday. So let me see what good things have happened this week...

1. Mum now knows what is wrong with her eye and it can be sorted.
2. For most of the week the weather has been glorious - no having to wear coats.
3. Visitors to the office commented on how wonderful the decorations looked.
4. My blog has a new follower - Hi Lisa, welcome to my little bit of cyberspace...hope you like it enough to stick around for a while.
5. We now have a 4 day weekend to look forward to and it would appear that many crafty places are celebrating by having Jubilee sales...now it would be rude not to take advantage of this - wouldn't it.
6. I finally got to ride on the c2c train that has been decorated for the Jubilee - and I took pics...



Okay, so not a huge number of good things this week but at least I found some LOL

Hope you all have a wonderful Jubilee weekend - whatever the weather...............................

CDACPC18...

...here comes Summer!!!

The folk over at the CDAC site provided a collection of Summery images to use for the latest challenge "Summer sizzles". The image I decided to use is from "Just Some Lines".
This is another image that I have coloured using my Distress Markers.
I have also 'gone to town' with the flowers on this one - it seems ages since I made a card and used a lot of blooms to embellish it.
There is a real mix of blooms from a variety of sources but I have tried to stick with summery colours without being too bold...pink, lemon and a touch of white & red.

You might also notice that this is one of the few posts that I have done recently that doesn't involve Red/White/Blue LOL

Why not hop over to the CDAC site to see what other folk have come up with............................................

True Colours...

...is the theme over at Papertake Weekly Challenge.

The challenge requires you to use your National colours on your creation.

So I thought I'd make use of my recently coloured 'Ava'...
...not too much embelishment as the background is quite busy.
Background card is from the current Kanban Limited edition of British themed designs - this one is 'Jubilee Bunting'. The sentiment is also from this range.
Just a little bit of card candy in the top corners - Red/White/Blue...of course - and it's all done.

Why don't you hop over to the challenge site and see what other folk have come up with...............................

First play...

...with the new pens.

I soooooooooo could not make up my mind about which image to use for my first 'play' with my lovely new Tim Holtz Distress Markers - so I grabbed a freebie image that I had recently printed off. This cute image from Saturated Canary was offered as a freebie (if you are quick you may still be able to nab one).

So with the image in front of me...
...my new pens and a water brush - I made a start.

In my eagerness to 'play' I didn't stop to think about the card that the image had been printed onto. Smooth white 160gsm card might be perfect for Copics or Promarker alcohol based pens but these pens were going to require the addition of water - point 1 to remember for the future. Point 2 soon became apparent - it is a fair while since I last used a water brush and this was a new valved one...so it took a little while to get used to the water flow; it's amazing just how wet things can get without you even trying LOL.
As you can see, there is a bit of bleeding around the hairline but on the whole I was very pleased with the way they shaded.

I'm sure with a bit more 'playtime' I'll get the hang of this and with the right card I'll be able to avoid the pilling/roughing of the surface. Still, for a first effort I don't think it is too bad..................................