Friday Smiles

Evening ...

... from a very windblown Scotland!

It's time for Friday Smiles over at A Stitch In Time with Annie ... well, actually, it's way past time!!! I've been writing this post up since morning but I got somewhat distracted. You know how it goes, you see a task that needs to be done and then another and another, and before you know it it's almost bedtime, sigh! Ah well, on to what has made me smile today ... a couple of photos of my great-niece, Arihanna.

Here she is visiting us for Sunday dinner and dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. She is four years old now and growing so tall.

Listening intently to great-uncle Alan reading the fairy tale to her.

One of those many distractions was a need to clear out some very old files on the computer today. I've had it about eight years now and Google Chrome tells me the operating system is too old and they will not be supporting it in the very near future. I'm not exactly sure what this means for me but it strikes me that Google is getting to be far to dictatorial! Anyway, the warning prompted me to do some PC housekeeping, deleting old files, etc., and I found this little funny tucked away. I'm not sure whether I've shared it before, do forgive me if I have, it made me smile and as it is about a four year old it seemed appropriate too :)


We were having rather posh guests for tea when my 4 year old daughter said she wanted to wee.

Hurrying her out to the bathroom, I told her that if she needed the loo again she should tell us by saying, ‘I want to whisper’ and we will know what she means.

Well, a few weeks later when my parents were visiting she approached her granddad and said, ‘Granddad, I want to whisper’.

To which granddad replied, ‘That’s all right, you can whisper in my ear sweetheart.’


Take care and stay safe,

Rudolph Day - Countdown to Christmas

Evening Everyone,

It's taken me long enough but here's my Rudolph Day make for this, the first month of the year.

The supplies used are all fairly old - about 2013/2014, I think, maybe even older - and I've mixed the suppliers too. When I was putting together the supplies to use with my Christmas album last year - that is, rather than buy new I just gathered up everything Christmas related from stash to use it up - the Project Life card, measuring 4" x 3", used for the topper was in among them. However, much as I liked the image, and the sentiment, it didn't seem to fit in with any page in the album. Today it occurred to me that it might be an idea to use it on a card instead.

The papers are also snippets leftover from the album - from Vintage Christmas by Hot Of The Press - just trimmed to size, corners rounded and edge with a grey ProMarker, Ice Grey 5 ... the topper is edged with the grey too. The tree sticker is from Docrafts Noel collection. The finished card did look fairly plain, suitable for a male recipient, so I scattered some green star-shaped gems. I think even men like a bit of sparkle at Christmas!

On reflection, I think it would have looked better if I had rounded the corners on the card blank first!

It's exciting times over at our host, ScrappyMo's, as she is joined by her new design team, Kathy, Berina, Jane and Sam.  These lovely crafters will be providing us with lots of creative inspiration over the next few months - just the thing to encourage us to get ahead with our Christmas card making :)

I'm also submitting this to the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 213 - three snippet cards in one week - what has got into me!

CHNC Challenge 265 - use a sentiment

CHNC Challenge Extra for January 2016

Wishing you all well and hope that those who are, like us, in Storm Gertrude's path stay safe and warm until she has blown over.

Happy Crafting,

In A Vase On Monday - A Little Glass of Goodness

Afternoon Everyone,

It's me, back again ... I'm on a roll today. In the earlier post I promised an In A Vase On Monday post and here it is.

All the flowers you see today are from plants growing in pots that are tucked around the front and kitchen doors where it's more sheltered. Oddly, it's all pinks and whites that are in flower: pansies, primulas, hellebores and even one much prized snowdrop.

I'm thrilled with the first of Cathy's snowdrops, galanthus nivalis, just perfect! I look forward to seeing the green tipped centre when it is fully opened. Once again, many thanks, Cathy, this is the only one I could bear to cut but it's such a treasure :)

The helleborus, lividus and lividus 'White Marble', were only purchased at the weekend. I can't get enough of these beautiful spring flowers but they don't do well in my garden, or at least in the area I'd chosen to plant them. The plan is to continue to keep them in pots around the garden and hope that  solves the problems I've been experiencing. The lividus White Marble has cream/green flowers unlike the lividus which is more pink/purple tinged.

I spotted this selection of pink/lilac primulas for sale at our local garden centre and just had to have them. I'm not a great lover of the yellow/orange/red ones that my husband favours. I much prefer these less showy ones, ditto the mauve pansies that are tucked in the centre of the glass.

The sherry glass is one pinched from my husband's heirloom Edinburgh Crystal collection. I swear he paled when he spotted the little arrangement but he recovered quickly as he admired how pretty it looked filled with these dainty blooms.

I think, given the awful wet winter we've had so far, I can count myself lucky to have been able to fill so many Monday vases over winter. I know it's not done yet, another storm is making it's way over the Atlantic today and we will be battening down the hatches once again. We lost the miniature greenhouse that the cat, Bonnie, has adopted as her personal sleep station during the last storm ... it was lifted up and dropped over the wall that has to be about 8' tall, at least, and the plastic cover was torn off completely. She now has a new one, firmly attached to the fence this time!

Take care and stay safe.

Happy Gardening,

Flower Photo Cards

Good morning to all my lovely friends and followers,

I hope you have all enjoyed the weekend and that Monday isn't proving too bad either. What started as a damp, dreich day here in Ayr has freshened up to dry and windy. Typical Scottish weather then ... give it an hour or so and it will have changed again :)

I have what I think is the last of the cards from last year to share with you. You might have spotted the makings of these cards on one of my WOYWW posts around October but I don't believe I showed the finished results.

The photos are close-ups taken of flowers that featured in one of my In A Vase On Monday posts some time last summer. I remember thinking they were so pretty they would look lovely as a toppers so I dug around in my odds and ends and unearthed lots of pretty stash with which to make these two cards.

Materials and method used:

• cardstock: Aqua - Papermill Direct - A4 folded in half to create tent fold card blanks measuring 8½" x 5¾"
• and snippets of Teal cardstock trimmed to 8½" x 1½" to form base of central band
• ribbon trim: scraps of aqua grosgrain with white stitched finish ribbon and white silk seam binding - both wrapped around the teal band which was then fixed to the centre of the card front
• punched trim: 4 border strips, daisy pattern, bought back in the early days of cardmaking when I had no paper punches of my own - used to edge the top and bottom of the teal band
• embellishments: aqua dew drops and white bows made from the seam binding to finish off 

I'm submitting this to Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 213 - two snippet cards in as many days has got to be a recent record!

The cat is howling for some reason so I better go see what's bothering her before I do anything more ... when The Boss calls you have to hop to it :)

I'll be back later with this week's In A Vase On Monday - I know some of you look forward to seeing whatever I can find in my garden even at this time of the year!

Take care and have a great day.

Happy Crafting,

Snippet Sunday - Forever Friends

Evening All

I hope your weekend has been a good one and to those of you who have just endured the US Eastern Seaboard blizzard I trust you've managed to stay inside safe and cosy ... two feet deep - that's an awful lot of snow!!!

A very quick snippet post today ... well, there's not a lot to say about this little card except it was a quick make involving a decoupaged topper I'd made up sometime last year together with some matching embellishments, a snippet of pretty paper and a scrap of pink card.

Materials used:

• a 4"x6" white card blank
• cardstock scrap - Papermania Textured 
• patterned paper snippet - LOTV Nitwit Collections, Bonnets & Bowties pack
• ink - Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Picked Raspberry
• pen - Kuretake Vellum Writer, Brown
• topper, sentiment & corner embellishments - Docrafts Decoupage pack, For You - Kraft Notes

My health has taken a dive again ... it must be the month of January that does it! However, saw my GP on Friday, a course of stronger tablets to take (8 every morning, yikes!) and asthma management advice to follow ... I'm getting to be an expert in the field ... and a chest x-ray scheduled for Tuesday. Normal service will be resumed just as soon as my dicky lungs allow :)

Many thanks, as usual, to you all for your lovely comments ... they cheer me up no end and are all much appreciated :)

Take care all,

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - WOYWW Week 364

Afternoon WOYWWers and All,

I hope all is well and good with you today. Once again, thank you so much for all your lovely comments, I enjoy reading them, of course, and appreciate you taking the time to leave them.

Wednesday again! Time for me to join in with Head Desker, Julia, over at Stamping Ground for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.

It's been another busy week and I'd like to say that it's been a productive one craftwise, but, no, it just has not. The Christmas album is still a work in progress, as is the giant crochet square and the miniscule bit of embroidery I'm working on. But today I have other irons in the fire, so to speak. I'm almost overdue on the project you can see in it's various parts on my craft desk: stamps, inks, marker pens, and a sheet of Clarity coated postcard. The brayer is getting an airing today; it's many months since that has happened. I just hope I remember how to use it! The notepaper with instructions on how to make a mini book, from a 12"x12" sheet of cardstock, is nothing to do with the proposed project ... but I just might get around to making it up one day ... it's all one day with me at the moment!!! 

The fluffy stuff is out again and, in answer to LLJ's question of last week, this is a puff paint that, when gently heated, puffs up. It's available in various colours though I only have the white. Depending where it is used, it can give the appearance of snow, white fur, clouds, or anything else you can think of that looks fluffy and puffy.

On the sewing table I have stuff sorted out to applique tartan flowers and butterflies on to a plain tote bag. Now that folks in England have to pay for carrier bags, I thought I'd make this for my youngest sister who lives in London. The shapes have been cut out of Bondaweb using the dies that can just about be seen sitting on top of the little black drawer set in the first photo. Next step is to iron them on to the fabric and cut them out ready to apply to the front of the bag. 

The giant granny square throw in my favourite autumnal shades.

Reviving a long forgotten skill - that is, long forgotten by me!

I haven't embroidered for something like 50 years. I'm planning to incorporate this little piece into a patchwork needle case - that'll be one day when it's finished, of course!

I'ts lunchtime now so I'm off to have a bite to eat before settling down to do a bit of desk-hopping. I'd like to say that I managed to visit everyone last week but it wouldn't be true. Sorry! Time just ran away from me and life got in the way. Hopefully, I'll do better this week.

Happy Crafting,

In A Vase On Monday - Signs of Spring

Hello Everyone,

I'm a bit late in joining in with Cathy's In A Vase On Monday meme, over at Rambling in the Garden, today. It's been raining all day so it was afternoon before it stopped long enough for me to nip out to see what has survived the snowfall we had two days ago.

Surprisingly, there was quite a lot that really shouldn't be in flower right now ... clearly my garden hasn't got the message that it's winter, instead it's showing signs of spring. I managed to pick some yellow and red wallflowers in bud, three more Simply the Best rosebuds - that rose just does not want to stop flowering - and even a couple of stems of  honeysuckle. I think this one is Gold Flame but it is looking very much paler than it would in summer.

I even found some escallonia in blossom. The other foliage I included in the vase is eucalyptus gunnii, a small leaved ivy grown from a cutting from an unknown variety, myrtus apiculata Glanleam Gold and osmanthus x burkwoodii - that's the shrub I keep mistaking for sarcococca!

I thought the little ornament of the boy milking a cow was perfect to team with the Jersey Pottery cream jug. It is of huge sentimental value - a very long time ago one of my children saved up his hard-earned pocket money to buy it for me.

Now that we've had snow here, twice, and can say winter has finally arrived what, I wonder, are weather conditions like for other the flower arrangers who participate in Cathy's meme ... and I'm very curious to see what everyone else is finding to fill their vases with.

Happy Gardening,

Friday Smiles

Hi Smilers Everywhere,

It's been a busy day here at Casa Worthington and I'm a tad late but I'm here at last and joining Annie over at A Stitch In Time with just a few of the reasons I had to to smile this week.

The first has to be this little one. Bonnie, as you may know, is a very elderly cat ... over 16 years old, that's about 82 in human years ... and sometimes she shows it. She certainly did over Christmas. She became a loner, ignoring proffered knees and cuddles, and retiring to this corner by the DVD stacker - a virtual recluse. Apart from visiting her food dish and the occasional trip out for a constitutional, there she stayed from about the 15th December. Needless to say I began to fear the worst, could it be that she was ill, she was so clearly miserable. The vet didn't seem to think so. What could be wrong we wondered. Surprise, surprise! As soon as the tree and the decorations came down she started to perk up again. Bonnie hates Christmas! Who would have thought it! She's much happier now that she has got back to the old routine and so am I - it's so nice to have her snuggle up to me again.

And now two funnies that caught my eye.

Isn't that the truth!

I so nearly did this on one trip out! Fortunately, common sense told me that I'd better not :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'm off now to do a bit of blog-hopping before I go downstairs to watch Mr Selfridge at 9pm.

Take care and keep smiling,

Snowy Birthday

Afternoon Everyone,

I hope you are having a lovely day. Many thanks to you all for your lovely comments, I so enjoy reading them and they are all much appreciated.

Today I have the card that I was working on yesterday to share - scroll down to spot the early stages on my desk. I'm not one to make resolutions but, instead, I do start the year with aims. This card fits into one of my primary aims - to make flatter cards, that is with less bulk and embellishments, so that I don't need to take out a mortgage every time I visit the Post Office! This card is the first of 2016.

It's also a practice piece. I was trying to get a certain look using this gorgeous Penny Black stamp and failed miserably so it will be back to the drawing board to try again. In the meantime, not wanting to waste my efforts entirely, I just had to  make a card with it anyway and I don't think it looks too bad after all. 

Materials used:

• cardstock - snippets of white for stamping, and dark brown and silver for matting and layering
• stamps - Penny Black Berry Red, Snow White for main image; Scenic Stamps Woodland Cottage for the greeting
• inks. - Tim Holtz Crushed Olive; VersaMark
• embossing - white Woodware Fluffy Stuff - a paint that puffs up when heated to give the effect of snow; Papermania Seafoam White powder for greeting
• glue - Liquid Pearls Rouge for the berries
• a white card blank measuring 4" x 6" trimmed to suit the size of the topper

To make the topper I stamped the image in the olive green and dotted the berries with the red liquid glue for added dimension. When this was dry I used the fluffy stuff to create undulating lines, creating what I hope looks something like snowdrifts. Once complete, the topper was trimmed, then matted and layered before attaching it to the card blank which also had to be trimmed down. The greeting was stamped with VersaMark on to a tiny snippet of brown card, embossed with the white powder and then matted on to another scrap of the silver card.   

I love the Snowy Birthday greeting ... it's perfect for winter birthday cards. So many people I know have birthdays at this time of the year and it is so nice to be able to create cards with wintry scenes specially for them. 

I'm submitting the card to the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 211 - where the challenge is to always use snippets.

Winter Wonderland Challenge 175 - Week 2

That's me done for this evening. It's an hour or two on the sofa, in front of the telly, with my crochet this evening, keeping my DH company. I hope your evening is just as pleasant.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - WOYWW Week 345

Afternoon WOYWWers and All,

Hello Everyone, I hope all is well and good with you today. Thank you all so much for your lovely comments, I do enjoy reading them and appreciate the time taken to leave them.

Another Wednesday. That day again. The one where an awful lot of us join in with Head Desker, Julia, over at Stamping Ground for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.

I've been stamping! It seems like ages since any of my stamps have been inked up though in reality it is only a few weeks ... just before Christmas actually, but that was last year! I did make a winter birthday card yesterday using the Penny Black Snowy Park stamp, that's the one next to the tin of Stick & Spray, but I was in such a hurry to pass it on to the birthday boy - 35 today - that I forgot to take a photo to show you! Another card that got away :) The stuff in the white bottle is fluffy stuff and that's red Liquid Pearls next to it. The large stamp is another Penny Black one, Berry Red, Snow White - one of my favourites for winter cards. As you can see I'm working in a tiny space. Stuff has just been pushed back temporarily ... the Christmas album is still there ... advances have been made but it is still a work in progress. You don't believe me ...

... well, here's the cluttery mess in all it's glory! Of course, all that stuff is absolutely essential :)

I'm off now to do a bit of desk-hopping. I did visit everyone last week and thoroughly enjoyed peeking at all your desks and reading your posts. However, I didn't always find time to leave a comment. Hopefully, I'll do better this week.

Enjoy the rest of the day and have a great week.

Upcycled Birthday Card

Afternoon to you all.

Still catching up on makes not shared yet, this card is one for Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 211.

I kept the original, shop bought, get well card received last year because the image of the flowers in a dazzling yellow vase cheered a sick me up back then ... just looking the bright sunny colours were a pick-me-up ... so with the horrible weather and dark winter's days we've been having I thought it might cheer you up too.

What I used and did to make it:

• a white card blank measuring 4" x 6"
• the upcylced card front, trimmed to form a topper, was matted and layered on to snippets of orange  (Papermania Textured) and yellow (very, very old Create & Craft cardstock printed with a linen look pattern)  
• another panel, large enough to cover the card front, was made with two more of the, admittedly large, orange and yellow scraps of cardstock
•  after positioning the topper, a yellow polka-dot die-cut flower (The Works) and amber dew drops were used to embellish the card.

Of course, this was a really quick and easy card to make ... I admit it's quite some time since I made a time-consuming and complex card.

Oops! Just realised the time. Pointless will have started so I'm off now but will be back later.

Take care and have a lovely evening,

Pyjama Bears

Afternoon Everyone

I hope you had an enjoyable weekend and that Monday hasn't been so bad either. I haven't been very well, picked up a bug somewhere which has had me feeling way under par for the last week or so. However, I'm feeling a bit perkier today so hopefully that's me on the mend.

All that means is that there will be no vase today - haven't been out of doors yet. Besides, after the recent snow - which, as predicted, didn't last long - and the never ending rain, there's not much worth picking at the moment.

Instead, I have an overdue share ... I think they may have appeared as works in progress some time last year but not the finished twosome.

I made these little pyjama bears for the two great-grand babies that were born last year. They are soft and cuddly, and intended to taken to bed by the babies, so made only from fleece and cotton fabrics with felt features. There's nothing in the construction that would harm baby's delicate skin, like buttons for example, or that could cause any injury. The blue one is for a boy so he has a felt collar and the white one is for a girl so has a little pinked detail with felt 'buttons'.

The easy to make pattern appeared in a copy of Love Sewing Magazine but is from Retro Mama: Scrap Happy Sewing by Kim Kruzich - details for which can be found on the Retro Mama blog.

Now, I think I may just have a bit of time to get back to working on the much neglected Christmas scrapbook album ... this could be the longest project on record!

Take care and have a lovely evening,

Friday's Smiles

Evening Smilers,

I'm joining in with Annie's Friday Smiles after an admittedly very lazy day. However, I've had a lot to make me smile today. The rain has stopped, the EM has repaired the cold frame that was damaged in the storms, and then it snowed ... gorgeous great big snowflakes too. And snow is guaranteed to make me smile.

In my opinion you can't beat a good covering of snow to make the garden look fabulous in winter!

Skimmia

Cotoneaster

The fir tree we inherited with the garden.

My very own winter wonderland. Of course it won't last long - we are too near the sea - but it's gorgeous while it lasts :)

And finally, I have been waiting for just the right occasion to show this funny.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend everyone.

Good Things Come In Small Packages

Afternoon Everyone

It's a wet and dreary day today and I feel like I'm going down with something - my throat's a bit sore, heads hurting, etc. - so I may be spending much of the day on the sofa. However, before I do, I'd like to share this layout of my beautiful great-granddaughter, Lacie. It was made it in November but somehow I've not got around to sharing until now.

It's a good thing that I had the foresight to write down a list of materials used.

• Papers: Grey/black notebook style sheet for base; Echo Park, Bubblegum, Large Dots from Dots and Stripes; Simple Stories, Hello Baby for cut aparts.
• Stickers & Alphas: Simple Stories, So Fancy; Pebbles Border Stickers; Papermania Summer Bloom Flower Epoxy Stickers
• Rub-ons: Prima Melody
• Enamel Dots: Simple Stories, So Fancy (pink); My Mind's Eye, The Sweetest Thing (yellow); Fun Fair by Heltz Cuppleditch (turquoise)

One thing I should point out is that, like an awful lot of scrappers, I'm addicted to pretty patterned paper - there I've admitted it! Which means I have a hoard of beautiful papers, held on to for years simply because I love them so much ... but no more. It's time to use them up! This does mean that the papers used for this and future layouts may be a real mix of old, not so old, newer ... they may not even sometimes be bang up to date ... but they will, for sure, have been much stroked. It also means I may not be able to credit the brand/collection/page name/date, etc. but I will wherever I can.

That pink and white dotty Bubblegum paper, hung on to for such a long time just waiting for the perfect reason to use it, was, I think, perfect for this layout. The blackboard style cut aparts provided just the right title for the page too.

There are couple of other projects hanging over from last year that, sore throat and cold permitting, I plan to share in the next day or two. Just tidying stuff up as the new year gets well under way. First though, I need to do something about the new header. It's not looking quite right. Luckily, as it was created on Serif Craft Artist I can go back and tweak it again until I'm totally happy.

Before I think of doing anything more, I'm off to have some hot soup, a couple of paracetamol and an hour or two languishing on the sofa.

Hope you are all well and enjoying your day.

Happy Crafting,

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - WOYWW Wk 344

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year to all Deskers everywhere!

That's the festivities over and done with, the tree and decorations are packed away and we have a year of WOYWW desk-hopping ... courtesy of our Head Desker, Julia, the Stamping Ground ... to look forward too - fabulous!

Not that my desk looks much different from last week. Still working on my Christmas scrapbook album. However, there has been some progress which means the desk has got a lot messier, of course. Maybe next week I'll have moved on to something new.

I have been putting my new sewing machine through its paces, testing out all the lovely decorative stitches ... apparently it's wrong to call them embroidery stitches. The alphabet stitches are a great extra to have. I'm so pleased to be able to personalise projects with names, especially as there are so many unusually spelt names in the family. This little pincushion is for my daughter who was born in August, in Germany, so named for the month of July, i.e. Juli in German ... don't ask!!!

This is my new curling up on the sofa, with a lovely hot cuppa to hand, TV watching project. Over the last couple of years I've crocheted more than a few rugs, blankets and throws for family members but, to date, I've never made one for myself so this project is going to be just for me. It's a giant granny square throw in my favourite colours :)

Right, off to do a bit of desk-hopping before dinner.

Have a great week.