Sad

Today was a miserable day. It would have been my parents' 38th wedding anniversary... except, of course, my dad is no longer with us. It was very difficult for my mum, being her first anniversary without him here and so close to her first Christmas without him. I could feel her pain.

My dad's youngest sister was thinking of us and delivered two lovely bouquets of Christmas flowers - one for my mum and one for me - which was really kind and thoughtful of her. My dad's sisters - and a few others - have been absolutely brilliant this year since my dad died, despite the fact that they have also has their own grief to deal with. Three or four of my friends have been outstanding in their support too; I feel lucky to have them. Others have been less supportive and understanding - a disappointment.

Very cold again here today. More ice and fog this evening! It definitely feels like winter. I've had the central heating on in the house almost all day... and, for once, it actually feels warm! It hasn't felt properly warm all week! The heating bill will be sky high.

Christmas in Boston

Well... It's almost Christmas and I've been (apparently) missing in action (from this blog, at least!) for quite some time. Useless, I know. I've been chasing my tail. I've also made some Christmas cards and a photo of one is attached. It is very shimmery (water coloured with Twinkling H20s, amongst other things) and it was difficult to photograph.

I've also been on holiday for a week... we went to Boston, which was excellent. I managed to visit a Michaels store (for the first time!) which was four miles from the centre of Boston in an out of town retail park in a place called Everrett. Everything in America is so cheap with the weak dollar (it was just over $2 to the pound whilst I was there), but craft things are so much cheaper anyway. It was excellent. I even managed to pick up some Marvy Uchida scallop punches (at last!) which no doubt helped to contribute to the excess baggage charge which I had to pay on the return leg of the journey. Here's a photo of my husband doing a "trolley dash" through the car park with my crafting goodies in a TROLLEY (because the bags were so heavy!) past a mound of snow. It snowed for half the time we were there and I've never visited anywhere so cold; Scotland feels tropical in comparison!!

Lastly, here's another photo of Boston snow... this time, a view from the Copley Centre/Prudential Centre mall "link tunnel". Boston was fabulous; I'd never been before. We'd love to return.

Still here!

I haven't been posting much recently... very bad. I had a horrible "Delhi belly" bug a few weeks ago and it completely floored me. Since then, I've been rushing around like a mad woman and had further bouts of Delhi (charming) and I now have a stinking cold. I seem to be bug-laden! Never mind.

This is a quick and easy card I made for the 2 year old son of my husband's friends. The backing paper is by K & Co and the number 2 is a Quickutz Revolution die-cut.

Mini Book - Part 2!

A few more photos of the mini book....

Monday again!

Mini Book

This is a mini book which I've been working on for a while. I've almost completed it now; the only thing I still need to do is add some text to the numerous tags etc. It's a mini book containing some photos of my dad; I saw the Bo Bunny "He Is" kit for sale somewhere (online) and ordered it back in July, I think. The kit comes with a plain white chipboard book and some Bo Bunny papers and a couple of ribbons.

I didn't really follow the "templates" of proposed layouts included with the set, although the front cover is fairly similar. I did my own thing with the remainder and added additional ribbons, fibres, buttons and embellishments etc (and lots more tags for journal entries). The ink used throughout the book is Chestnut Roan chalk ink (around the edges of each page, around tags etc and down the internal and external spine). I used a variety of scroll-style rubber stamps and some Black Stazon ink in parts.

I'm really pleased with the way it looks!

Halloween

Halloween is by far my favourite "event" of the year, although it's something of a non-event in the UK. I love everything about it; I've even bought a pumpkin to carve and I hope to do it later today. It's the first time I've ever bought a pumpkin... when I was young, my dad used to carve a turnip for me instead! Pumpkins weren't terribly common.

I've made a few Halloween cards; this one is by far the most basic of the bunch. The focal image is an old Whipper Snapper stamp which I'm no longer terribly keen on. I like the chipboard button (Making Memories) and ribbon (KI Memories). The black paper is by 7 Gypsies. There's lots of black Stickles glitter glue on the card, although it doesn't show up very well in the photo.

Bergamo

Well, it was Bergamo which we disappeared to again for a week a couple of weeks ago. We visit the north of Italy a lot and we particularly love Bergamo. The restaurants are second to none and it feels like a second home because we know it so well. The colours and lighting are lovely at this time of year too, particularly in the old town (photo above). We had a great week and I managed to treat myself to a few more handbags (because I really need more handbags... nope!). We can't believe how quickly the week passed! It was surprisingly warm during the day too - around 26 degrees. It was particularly warm in the evenings and we ate outside for dinner in the evening on a couple of occasions, which was an unexpected surprise.

Above is a photo of one of the cards I made last week (which was inspired, as you can tell, by my trip to Bergamo and the colours of the buildings etc). The paper on the left hand side is by Basic Grey, the scroll stamp and the "grateful" stamps are by Stampin Up! and the stamp on the yellow-ish paper is by Hero Arts. The button is a Making Memories Halloween chipboard button.

The weather in Scotland was lovely today, but it's cold again already now the sun has gone. I do think this is the best weather of all, though - warm but crisp during the day and cold at night. Also, you just can't beat the colours....

Holiday

I was on holiday in Italy for a week a couple of weeks ago and I've had a rotten cold bug/virus off and on since I got back... hence the lack of posts. I'll need to get back on top of things.

It definitely feels like autumn/early winter here now - it's very cold in the mornings and evenings. Autumn is my favourite season, though - great colours (the berries in the photo are in my back garden; I took the photo last week) and lovely, crisp weather with sunshine some days.