My mini portfolio

Sorry all, it's been a while again. I have been busy though and very tired, so between the two I haven't had much chance to concentrate and update.

First things first, Bilbo came home last Sunday and is doing quite well all things considered. The vet sent him home with eight pills a day though, poor little sod, it's a good job he's really good with pills or I wouldn't have any hands left now. If it was Baggins I'd have Bob Hope with that lot. I nearly fainted when they told me the amount on the bill though. two nights, 3 days, a scan, a drip, a full blood test and meds adds up to an average weeks wage. Funny how you never see a bankrupt Vet. Still Bilbo is worth it, he's fought all this time and is still very happy and interested in what's going on around him, so I have to do all I can for him.

Sammy is continuing to grow and get into all sorts of mischief. Today he pulled out the telephone wire from the sky box and chew it up. Not a habit I want him to get into, the little monkey.

Remember the plaster piece from the previous post, well this is the card made up. It didn't end up as I had planned. I was going to stamp a reindeer onto metal, play with it a bit then put it on the plaster panel, but Mr ticky-tock time had other ideas.

And this is what I did with the other bits I showed you. I made a little mini portfolio, it's quite cute and shows a few different styles and techniques.

I made a stencil of diamonds from an acetate sheet and dragged an inkpad over the holes to make the backing paper, then overstamped with a stamp from Grahicus.

Perfect pearls on this page. and a spot of digi scribblings for obvious reasons. I actually quite like the scribbles, I'm going to have to remember that one. You never know what else I can use it on lol.

There are more pages but it's just pages of photos, so a bit boring to put them all on here.
And will you look at this, now don't faint, my work room is T.I.D.Y. Or at least it was till today when I started on a new project. I had to capture it it all its neatness (well neat for me anyway) just so I can prove it does get sorted every so often. lol

I kept the old cat scratching post as it's perfect as a stand for Lappy so I can keep an eye on emails and twitter while I work, hehehe. Can't quite make the cat's understand that it is no longer their post. You'd think the lack of rope might give them a clue, but no, they's still be scratchin on the cardboard tube.

Well that's all for now, take care till next time.

What a roller coaster of a day today has been, crying buckets and snotting all over the place. My beautiful brave Bilbo is in the vets on a drip. They've finally decided his liver problem is not due to a viral infection, but is in fact cancer. My heart sank at those words and my head was screaming Noooooooooo not my baby. He has been ill for a long time now and at the end of every week I've thanked my blessings that he's still with us. We always knew it may not be long before we had to say goodbye but it really doesn't make it any easier. With luck the drip, treatment and his incredible fighting spirit will do the trick and we can bring him home tomorrow or Sunday. I'm praying it will be so. And on top of this I'm starting a lupus flare up, just what I need. Between me and Bilbo we've got enough pills to keep a hospital going, and were both going to be rattling like a pair of shakers. Just as well Colin is away or we'd be keeping him up all night.

On a lighter note, here's a few pics of a couple of things I've been up to over the last week. This first one is going to be something very special, if I can get it done in time. Can say no more at the moment, but I'm quite excited about it. I should have had a lot more done by now, but the mag editor needed an extra project made in a hurry, and then Bilbo. That's life, roll with the punches and go with the flow. I LOVE this reindeer stamp by penny black, and the Paper Artsy wing seems made just for him.
And yet more revelations, these are some of my acrylic paints. There's loads more in the cupboard. Yikes
Back to projects. Pearly paints spread all over mountboard with my fingers, then stamped with a tree stamp by Elusive Images, then overstamped with a large collage stamp by Stampendous. Much more do with this as well, will keep you posted on the progress. Ha ha what a mess I got into though. Good job I'd remembered to change out of my fave White Stuff swishy skirt first.

And this was an experiment. I stamped into plaster, yes slap it on the walls plaster. Now I should have waited for the plaster to cure a bit first, but despite knowing this I couldn't wait and with a gung ho enthusiasm went ahead and did it anyway. Mistake no 2, I didn't oil the stamp first, and yes I knew that as well. Talk about do as I say and not as I do, fine teacher I am. Well believe me do not stamp into wet plaster without oiling your stamp first. I was scrubbing at the sink for ages, I swear the plaster was multiplying by the nano second as I tried cleaning it. Got there in the end. Hurrah for good old proper rubber stamps, so durable and forgiving.

Slap some pearly paint on it and hey presto looks 100 times better. More on this at a later date too.
Yesterday Sammy and I went for a long walk all round the poshest of posh estates in Bognor and it's virtually next door so to speak. A few thousand more in the bank and we'll be able move and hob nob with the Bognor elite.

I wanted some pictures of Autumn colours, but a lot of tress have only just started to change down here in on the south coast, so pickings were a bit thin. I managed a few though.

And Sammy, the dear little sole has managed to put a smile on my face today with his antics. An hour of his energy would last me a week. He found the sun streak coming though the patio doors today and had a good sunbathe.

Hey wot ya doing Mum? Am I missing anything?
After deciding he hadn't missed anything exciting he went back to sleep, in his bed this time.

Have a good weekend everyone.

The horror of mess!!!

Brace yourselves all. This post contains horrors that may just give you a panic attack grabbing for the brown paper bag to help your breathing. Why are they always brown ones? If you are a tidy freak or sufferers with an OCD for cleanliness, then go no further. I kid you not.

The reason for the warning is simple, there are pictures of my work room. Not my workroom when it's all nice and tidy and everything put away in it's place like you see on many other blogs. Oh no, it's pictures post several projects. It was tidy a week or so ago, but I've really not had the time or energy to sort it over the last week. And it does need sorting out. I really can't work in the mess any more. Enough. Before I embark on anything else, I'm at least going to clear the table, if nothing else.

Now bearing in mind how much stuff is in my workroom, you have to remember that it is also the dinning room on the odd occasion, and we all cram round the table amongst the art and craft paraphernalia. It does at least keep conversation going if there's a lull, lol. And not everything is even in here. We have a cupboard just inside the front door, and this is where all my many pots of paints and glazes are. Think big pots, not your little bottles and tubes of acrylic paint.

Well here we go, take a deep breath. It honestly does get tidied up!!! Dyan, if you read this check halfway down the lamp's arm. Arhh, me lubs it.
Why is there a picture of the fish tank you may ask? Well I made the cabinet underneath, Yes me, all on my own, right from scratch. I drew up the plans, took all my measurements to the wood merchants and got them to cut all the bits to size (couldn't get the wood in the car otherwise). Put it all together, with screws using the electric drill. Then I painted it and did a bit of gilding.

It houses my sewing machine amongst other things. Next to it is my trusty toolbox. It's no good having a cloth trolley when your trundling paint pots about. Believe me what you need is a good'n'sturdy proper tool box just like the boys use. And it works just as well for papercrafting too.

The big shelved wardrobe. Looking at the photo's reminds me I must turn the shelves round. All my stuffs a little heavy for it and their sagging a bit.

In the pink box and all the files on the top shelf are my rubber stamps, all ?!*? of them (that's a lot). All taken off the wooden blocks and mounted on EZ mount. I wouldn't get in the room otherwise.

To lighten the mood a bit here's a few crimbo cards

And to end on a smile a few photo's of Sammy playing his favorite game, tug-of-war. Tugging with one had and trying to take a picture with the other is not easy you know, think I deserve a medal for not loosing my fingers. He always manages to get further up the string of sausages!
And this is him just after I told him off for trying to chew the corner of Lappy................The little monkey.

Dunce of the day

Well I've had a right weekend of it. More technology failure in the form of my HP all-in-one not talking to my Lappy wirelessly. Works fine with the PC which it's wired to, but wireless, forget it, all you can do is print (better than nothing I spose).

It's been like that for months, but I've not had the time or energy to try and sort it out. I did have an IT techie look at it, and he couldn't get it working, so how the hell I thought I might be able to sort it is beyond me. Well I had to reset it anyway as I had a new router on Fri, and no he wasn't a hunk (yet another bitter disappointment, ha ha). He said hello to Sammy who licked his hand being the friendly dog that he is, the look of horror in his eyes was quite amusing. I led him to the sink so he could wash his hands and he had the nerve to ask if I had any anti-bacterial wash! Err no, we just have soap, you know the stuff we've all been using for donkey's years and it's always worked if you use it properly.

Now I have the immune system of a pea, and I'm supposed to be careful (that's always amused the hell out of me considering I used to work in a hospital, you can't exactly get away from nasty little bugs and illnesses there), but to be honest with you, living in a house that's been disinfected to within an inch of it's life isn't going to help matters any, you can't build a resistance to anything, and you're far more susceptible when you go out.

Off on a tangent again, sorry. Anyway back to HP. I spent most of Sunday trying all sorts, I uninstalled, then re-installed and rebooted that many times I think I've worn the disc out! A rather curt email was sent to the support peeps, who replied with a link to their website and one of their quick and easy steps to fixing problems. Honestly you'd have to be an IT buff to understand what they've written. I had tried all these on Sunday, but hey maybe once more would do the trick. Who was I kidding, there step by step guide bares no relation to what's on lappy. It might as well have been in googoo language for all the good it did me. Another email sent, so we'll see what happens. I'm not holding my breath though.

Today I went shopping at Tesco's, I mooched round happily putting things in the trolley (only needed a few bits!!!) sailed through the checkout and then to my horror realised I didn't have my handbag OMG, PANIC, take everything out of the bags and put back in the trolley, apologised profusely and them remember the money in my pocket that I was about to give to my mother-in-law. How stupid did I feel? on a scale of 1-10 100 just about sums it up.

I decided on chips for tea tonight, and then forgot to turn the deep fat fryer off. No fires I'm glad to say, but the smell through the whole house is disgusting.

I've forgotten to feed the fish (again), I put my dirty plate in the fridge instead of the dishwasher, and I gave the cat food to the dog and the dog food to the cat. The dunce hat has a very deserving place on my head at the mo, lol.

Tomorrow can only get better.......................can't it???

Been there, seen it, done it, got the t-shirt

Hooray, I have a connection for the moment, so I'm making the most of it and trying to cram in as much as possible before it goes again. No, I'm afraid my faith in technology isn't quite restored just yet, maybe tomorrow after I've had a visit from Mr hunky-I-can-fix-it man. Well a girl has to have dreams or life's a tad boring.

The other day I decided to take Sammy down to the beach late in the afternoon. He's not been there yet, so I thought I introduce him to the sea. It's funny how you don't take advantage of what's right on your doorstep. The beach is an 8 to 10 minute walk from my house, but I hardly ever go down there. It's a nice quite part of the beach half way between Bognor Town Centre and Pagham. Sadly it's now mostly pebbles from all the sea defence work, and the tide has to be right out before you have a decent amount of sand to walk on. Still better that than having to don your wellies before you get your morning cupper for the start of a soggy day, lol.

You approach the beach up a little lane with some very beautiful, but expensive houses. Tis mighty posh round that bit. This is the your first glimpse of the beach. Mmm, doesn't it look inviting! You just get a little peek of the sea if your lucky.


Spot the dog. He blends in quite well. Good job he was on the lead or I might have lost him. This is him looking not so impressed with my choice of destination.

Right Mum, been there, seen it, done it and got the t-shirt. Can we go home now? these stones are cold and lumpy under my delicate but perfectly formed little bum you know.

Pretty please, I'm going to get piles if I stay here much longer!

I love all the different colours of the sea. They're always changing and even in the winter it can be beautiful turquoise blue.

This is the view towards Bognor Town and whats left of the Pier.

And this is the view towards Pagham, and further on Selsey Bill.

Last week I had a play with my Glimmer Mists and Sreens. I did enjoy myself and went a bit OTT with the spritzing. At one point there wasn't a spare flat surface downstairs out of puppy reach that didn't have something drying on it. I've probably done enough to last me for the next ten years.

Here are a few samples of my mad spritzing spree. I did dry emboss a few as well which looked quite good.

And heres a few peeks of the finished cards. They are another set for Making Cards, so for the moment, I can show you no more.
I love these snowflake charms. Nearly broke my heart parting with them, but the cards just wouldn't be the same without them


And another sneak. Here are a couple of cards made with one of the craft sheets and backing papers from KaJeD Designs. There really is nothing more satisfying than Turning your own work into something for other people to use. Not long now and you will be able to buy and download them.

I chopped off the bottom part of the frame and made a few blocks to turn the decoupage into a pop out card. It works really well and I love it.

Enough for now, keep well till next time, Dee xxx