... and Thank You too!

Here's the second card "Thank You" card in the series... it follows a similar theme to the card uploaded previously. Again, the die cuts were made using Quickutz Revolution dies. The stamps are by Stampin' Up. The ribbon is by Creative Impressions. I'm still a few cards short - I need to make another couple!

It feels quite cold in the west of Scotland today. I think winter is on its way - we seem to have omitted summer and autumn this year! It's like one long season.

Thank You

This is another card I made yesterday evening (yes, I was busy - needs must!). It's for my husband's parents to say thanks for the birthday gift they bought for me - two lovely granite tea light candle holders; they're fabulous, albeit very heavy - I thought they'd purchased two bricks and could barely lift the parcel!

Tartan Birthday!

This is a card I made last night for one of Ian's friends. I like the way the tartan ribbon (by Creative Impressions) turned out when tied; it's quite "starchy" and sits nicely on the card. The circles are Quickutz Revolution cookie cutter die cuts. Easy, but effective. It has a nice modern feel; my favourite kind of card.

Time

Lots of irritating things happening at work at the moment - no new news there, then! - all of which are causing me problems. Not ideal, but it has been that way for a while and I just need to get on with it. Lots of people have problems, including work-related issues. I suppose it makes you stronger.

On top of everything else, though, the six month anniversary of my Dad's death is approaching. It's 3rd September (calender-wise, at least); I've already decided to take the day off work as a holiday, as it's a Monday. My Dad died on a Saturday, so I suppose one could view this Saturday as the anniversary... I don't expect it matters either way, really, and it's hardly worth dwelling on the mathematical accuracy of the date; I think about him roughly once every few minutes every single day and I'm not sure that that will ever change, to be honest. The pain may fade somewhat, but the reality won't.

I find it incredibly hard to believe that my Dad - yes, MY Dad! (the same chap who was here one minute saying that he had just one more weekend to work and then he'd take a day off and have a holiday) - had a berry aneurysm which we didn't know about and, on top of that, that it caused a haemorrhage and he died within a matter of minutes and we didn't even have a chance to say goodbye. It's one of those things that always happens to other people, isn't it? It's never you - until it is you. I hear so many sad stories about things which have happened to other people; I wish I could un-do them all. There are loads of blogs around at the moment detailing stories of people who have died (some very young) of various cancers and illnesses and, in some cases, detailing the ongoing struggle of those who live on against the odds.

Time is a funny thing; I'm 35, but it seems like yesterday that I was 15. I expect my Dad felt the same way about time; he always said he didn't feel 56 (he was a few weeks away from being 57) and he seemed more or less the same in terms of personality. I know he was sad that he was getting older because he felt that time was "running out" and he mentioned that to me a few times. Notwithstanding that, I know he didn't "feel" any older mentally and he kept saying that it was just the physical elements and human body which let you down! I can't imagine what he would have said if he'd known what we know now - that he had a matter of days to live, rather than a matter of years (the latter of which he found moderately depressing enough in itself if he chose to dwell upon it).

I feel very sorry for my mum and brother, both of whom seem like lost souls. I keep thinking that one day I'll wake up and it will all be a dream... or, at least, that it won't seem so terribly unjust and bizarre. I know that will not happen, of course, and I am left with reality - which is what I must deal with. For that reason, the things which are happening at work are simply too much on top of everything else - I could give it all up tomorrow. It is tempting, but I'm terrible at making decisions if I'm not 150% sure that it is the right thing or the closest thing to the "right thing"; I analyse everything to death a thousand times over and try to think of numerous possible outcomes (that's legal training for you - it almost makes you incapable of doing anything spontaneously). I think it's safe to say that I'm just "playing it by ear" at the moment. I'm taking each day as it comes in every respect.

"You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today; and then one day you find, ten years have gone behind you; no-one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun" - (c) Pink Floyd, "Time".

New Home

Another "new home" card made for one of my husband's work colleagues. I like the way the ribbon turned out and I'll be using that format again!

The scroll is a Quickutz Revolution die cut and the patterned paper is by Junkitz.

Swirl Flower

Another card made using the Hero Arts swirl flower stamp. This one was also used as a sympathy card.

I meant to post these cards last weekend, but ran out of time because we went through to Edinburgh to see a couple of Fringe events and we didn't get back until 1.30am! We went to see the comedian Fred MacAulay (again - we've seen him several years on the trot) and also something called "Eurobeat - Not Quite Eurovision" at the Pleasance, which was a spoof Eurovision song contest. It was a good night, but I've been tired all week and haven't been able to catch up on the lost sleep!

Cherish

A sympathy card I made for a friend last Sunday.

Two more Christmas cards...

I've made another two Christmas cards - and it's still August! I'm doing well this year, even if I do say so myself. Last year, I was Last Minute Larry. The paper is by Hot Off the Press and the stamps are part of the new Hero Arts Christmas range. The ribbon is from Doodlebug Designs. The green card with matching envelope is also by Hero Arts.

"You do not understand, this is not how I am.... I have become comfortably numb" - Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb.

Brads

The brads which I'd ordered from the last QVC Craft Day appeared in the post this morning. They're a bit different - metal flowers and round metal brads with inset pearl effect stones and gems.

More Scrolls

This is another card I made a few weeks ago for a friend who has a new job. I gave it to her yesterday.

You can just see the shimmer of the hand drawn elements created using a Sakura Gelly Roll shimmer pen and by following the curves of some of the scrolls.

Scroll Flower

A card I made for a friend this morning. I couldn't sleep and got up at 5am... and this was one of the end products! The stamp is a Hero Arts scroll stamp (which was released this year early summer, I think, although I just got mine last week) and the mini gems in the centre of the flower are from Hero Arts and they are pre-glued for ease of use. The pink card in the background is lovely - it's from the DCWV "luxury stack" range and it has a lovely texture and sheen. The ribbon is by Creative Impressions.

It's funny: one of my mum's favourite colours is lilac, but I'm not a huge fan and, for that reason, I don't use a huge amount of lilac or purple in anything I make. I thought the lilac, pink and olive green colour combination was interesting, though.

Isle of Skye

We visited Skye for five days from last Saturday morning... it was lovely. We had two bad weather days, but that is to be expected. As usual, there were sheep everywhere - and on the roads, too.

We also had a "birthday dinner" (for me!) at The Three Chimneys, which was excellent. We can't speak highly enough about this restaurant. It's in the middle of nowhere with a fabulous view across a stretch of water... and the food is second to none. It's probably the best restaurant we've ever visited.

Crabby

A crabby card.... just trying out some new Rubber Soul clear acrylic stamps and some new Creative Impressions swirl organza ribbon (which is very shimmery "in real life" - lovely). A very basic card - quick and easy to make. I contorted the "sorry I've been crabby" sentiment to follow the shape of the waves (which were made using Hot Off the Press clear acrylic stitch stamps and two shades of blue chalk ink). Crabs are another obsession - they're almost right up there with cows!

Birthday Cards

I'm very impressed... my husband sneaked into my craft room and made (yes, made) not one, but two birthday cards for me! One features a stamped cow (by Rubber Soul). Entirely his own efforts - and I think he did quite well. 150% for effort alone.

Snoring Cow!

A friend, Janet, sent me this fabulous snoring cow as a birthday present! It's excellent. I am obsessed with cows and the snoring noises bear a marked resemblance to my husband's snoring - the cow's chest heaves in the same way too (although I expect it would take up much less room in bed than he does). Remarkable! I keep pressing her foot to make her snore.

Meece Overload!

Well... we've managed to "capture" seven mice this week. So much for my comment that the humane traps wouldn't work. The mice seem to be queueing up to enter them and feast on the pieces of Twix lodged inside. We've been depositing mice in a local field all week - seven of them, no less. Two massive/fat specimens (clearly well fed - by us), two babies and the remainder medium-sized. Four were trapped in the garage, to be fair - which is effectively an out-building (albeit attached to our kitchen and there is no other "through road" to the back garden) and it is easy for them to slip under the external garage door. It is possible that they're making their way into the kitchen/downstairs hall (where we found the other three) by this route. Hard to tell. I haven't taken any photos of them, as they looked terrified enough - and I didn't want to make matters worse by use of a camera flash! My husband won't go near them, so muggins has to do the donkey work/field deposits.

Christmas in August

My first Christmas card this year! I usually start making a few Christmas cards in August (if I can find the time). I thought I'd have a go today.

The main image is part of a set of new Stampendous Christmas 2007 stamps (clear acrylic; the set is called something like Bold Snowshapes) and the right-hand side of the background was stamped with two stamps, a Magenta swirl stamp (in red chalk ink) and a Stampendous swirl Christmas words background stamp (in moss green chalk ink). There's moss green chalk ink around the edges too. I've used Gold Ice Stickles on the "berries" and the organza ribbon is from May Arts.

New Home

A "New Home" card I made for a friend of my husband's. The house stamp is a Magenta rubber stamp, I think. Lots of Chestnut Roan chalk ink (Colorbox) and Black Stazon for the other bits and pieces (the zig zag stitch effect stamp is a Hot Off the Press clear acrylic stamp). Black Denami organza ribbon.

Courage

I made this card for a secretary in my office who has been off sick for a week or so with a serious kidney condition. The lion and "courage" sentiment are by Rubber Soul and the other sentiment is by Penny Black. I stamped the images with Colorbox chalk ink. The lion and courage sentiment are part of a set of clear acrylic stamps. I've been part of the Anti-Clear-Stamp Brigade for many years, although I've decided they have their uses in the last month or so and I've bought quite a few. Wood mounted stamps are still my preference, but acrylic stamps are, of course, great to "line up" as you can see through the mounts. I think they're particularly handy where sentiments are concerned, as it can be difficult to get a small piece of text in the right place. They're also easy to store... and cheaper.

I haven't had much of a week this week. A bit of a nightmare at work, involving numerous late nights (post-midnight) and having to work straight through from 8am-ish on Thursday morning until 1.30pm on Friday afternoon - without sleep. I then slept for most of the remainder of Friday.

We've been having "house mouse problems" recently. We spotted one dark grey fairly large mouse running in the hall and we found a few droppings in an area behind a wicker chest where it must have been sleeping. We couldn't catch it, though, and it ran into the downstairs loo... and was then nowhere to be seen! There are no real exits from the loo, so we're not sure where it went. There's a tiny hole behind the toilet itself where a pipe goes through the wall, so that's the only possibility, I think. It hasn't been seen since, though.

We saw a tiny pale brown mouse in the kitchen today, which we easily caught in one of those "humane" mouse trap things about ten minutes later (it fancied the bit of Twix we'd left inside; I've heard mice like chocolate). It was the smallest mouse I've ever seen and definitely not the one we saw in the hall (which was akin to a small pet gerbil!). The one we found today was about an inch long and looked petrified sitting at the bottom of the "trap" with its bit of Twix. I dispatched it (and the Twix) into some long grass as far away from the house as possible. A mouse of that size would have no difficulty fitting into almost any space, though, so perhaps it's already back with us...

We've had the other, fatter mouse (or perhaps there's more than one?) since at least February and we haven't been able to catch it (although we haven't made much effort, to be fair, and we need to be more pro-active). I remember sending my dad a text message saying we had a mouse (as I could hear it chewing in the attic) and he asked what it was called! I said it was called "Fred" and Fred it remains. We're trying to find him today to enable us to dispatch him to a field somewhere. We have lots of fields nearby, so mice are bound to be a problem, really. Not ideal.