Friday Smiles - the last of 2016

Hello Everyone,

Joining in with Annie's Friday Smile post has been one of the weekly highlights of the past year. Even when there didn't seem to be much to smile about just looking for the happy moments in a week could lift the spirits. Happily, this week has been a smiley week with visits to and from family and friends.

My daughter and son-in-law joined us for a post-Christmas lunch on Wednesday.

Because of a late change to our plans - due to the winter bug - we found ourselves with a fridge full of far too much festive fare so we called for their help ... they were pleased to oblige :)

What else made me smile? Ah, yes, gift cards! I spent an indecisive, but thoroughly enjoyable, hour or so in our local Waterstones .

So many books to choose from.

And then there's the stack of movies - some gifted to us, others we treated ourselves to.










And finally, the garden. Each year I make a point of going out into the garden on Christmas Day to see what if anything is in flower. This year Storm Barbara, or was that Storm Connor, made it impossible so it was the 27th of December before I was able to get out but it was certainly worth it.

Here's just a couple of shots of the more unusually late/early bloomers taken then. Who would have thought to see Marigolds in flower on Christmas day!

Then there's the Christmas Rose, a flower that always makes me smile, especially if it arrives, as this one has, right on time for the big day.

I began this post thinking it would be a very brief one but found so much to smile about I've surprised myself ... it's been a very smiley week :)

I wish you all a very Happy New Year and here's to many more smiley posts in 2017.

Christmas Baubles - Snippet Makes

Morning Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, whether it was filled with family fun or, like ours, quiet and nowhere near as busy as originally planned ..  but no less enjoyable for all that.

I have a quick share of the baubles I made to send to UKPC friends for Christmas this year.

I found the inspiration for these on Jennifer Jangles Happy Designs blog. They are easy to make though I simplified the pattern even more by omitting the felt caps ... time was running out fast! I also used a die to cut out a paper circle pattern rather than print out and cut one using Jennifer's pattern. They are a great make for stash busting! A rummage through my fabric and trimming stash produced two fat quarters, designs suitably Christmas, and various snippets of lace, ribbon, ric rac and pompom trim. Toy stuffing was used to fill them - not too much to keep them slim enough for posting purposes.

Because of the many snippets used in the making I'm popping over to Pixie's Snippets Playground challenge with these. They're different, definitely not made from paper, but I hope they still qualify for joining in the fun.

We are enjoying an unseasonably warm day today - 9°C - and the sun is shining ... very strange! All our hopes for a white Christmas came to nothing. I can't tell you how disappointed my daughter was not to waken up to a white-out on Christmas Day. I would just like a few weeks of frosty weather to kill of the army of slugs and snails that have taken over my garden ... surely not a lot to ask!!!

Take care and have a lovely day everyone.

WOYWW - The Last One of 2016

Hi Everyone,

I'd have been here earlier but we have had visitors ... and had a truly lovely time with them too. However, I really did not want to miss the last What's On Your Desk Wednesday of 2016, especially when I haven't been around for so many recently.

Here's what my desk looked like earlier today - so much tidier than of late. The mess, seen in previous WOYWW posts, just had to go ... it was shameful and too much of a disgrace to leave it like that to bring in the New Year. My dear mother, if she was still with us, would be black affronted (embarrassed) to have a desk/craft room looking so messy!

She was a great one for keeping to the Hogmanay tradition that the house had to be cleaned thoroughly before midnight on New Year's Eve, 31st December ... thus washing out all the old year's dirt. Anything less would lead to bad luck!  

On my desk now is the start of a layout which is intended to be the front page of my 69/70th year album ... using one of the few up-to-date photos of me I could find. As chief photographer (strictly amateur of course) in the family I'm not often the subject, but I did manage to snap a selfie the time I had a splash of pink put through my hair! I've pulled out a few sheets of patterned paper that look nice together. It's a start.
All that talk of Hogmanay and the New Year reminds me that I'd like to wish all you wonderful WOYWWers everywhere a very happy and healthy 2017.

Take care and stay safe.

Merry Christmas!

The EM and I would like to wish you and yours a 

Very Merry Christmas! 

We hope you have a wonderful day,
wherever you are and
whatever you are doing.

. 

Blogging Update - Interrupted Again

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick line, before the EM catches me, to say that I came down with the vomiting bug on Thursday and today's the first I've felt anything like human again.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - WOYWW Week 393

Evening Everyone,

It's a very late WOYWW post from me this week. That's because I've had two very important visitors today, my grandson and great-grandson. I did think I'd find time earlier to share this pic of my desk with Julia over at the Stamping Ground  showing what's on my desk today but it was not to be. What you see is my desk as it was Tuesday evening - it's still the same now and nothing will have changed by tomorrow morning!

It's a mess. This is getting to be the usual. All that stuff at the back has been there for weeks now. What's different is the stamp set, circle die set and the guillotine. The card blank and the topper are just waiting to be stuck to each other. It's a recycling job as the topper is a trimmed down card front saved from last year ... it's one of those snowy winter scenes that I really like so too nice to toss.

Because it's so late, this is a very brief post. Julia will be pleased ... well, probably not pleased that I'm late but pleased with the brevity. I'll leave you with a photo of the reason - Callum cuddling his great-grandad.

Happy belated WOYWW and have a great week.

Sunday Snippets On Monday

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and that Monday hasn't been so bad either.

I'm way behind and hoping to find an extra day, or two, in this week for all I still have to do ... help! I love Christmas but there never seems to be enough hours in the day for all I want/need to do!

And that's my long-winded way of explaining why I wasn't able to pop over to Pixie's Snippets Playground yesterday. I know we have a week to play but I really do prefer to post my snippet make on Sunday ... makes the day even more special. Anyway, here's my make for this week.

I've been rummaging through old stash looking for inspiration and this is what I've come up with this time. The background is stamped with a a lovely flourish stamp, a NBUS, that I'm ashamed to say I've had for eons, and the labels are cut from an old but really useful set of dies. I should rummage more often!

Here's what I used:

• black card bases, 5" square
• smooth white card cut to measure just a bit smaller than the 5" card fronts - to leave a narrow margin all round
• this was then stamped with Impression Obsession Cover-A-Card stamp, Flourishes, with Tim Holtz distress ink, Festive Berries. 
• snippets of white cardstock for the greeting topper stamped, in Festive Berries, with the Warm Winter Wishes stamp from the Winter Wonderland stamp set which was a freebie with Creative Stamping Issue 36.
• Spellbinders Labels Set Nine for cutting out the greeting and matting
• Black cardstock for matting the greeting

 I liked this card so much I made a few more.

And like the cards say, I'm sending you all warm winter wishes. I hope that even though it is bound to be hectic you have a fun week ahead.

Friday Smiles

Hello Everyone,

Once again we've had a week with less to smile about than usual. We've had a very sudden and unexpected death in the family which has left us in a state of shock.

However, we did have a lovely day on Wednesday when my daughter and son-in-law took us on a trip to Greenock - a belated birthday treat for me. Here's just a few of the photos taken.

It was chilly but we still enjoyed ourselves.

Me and my girl.

Me and my guy outside Santa's place (Cardwell's Garden Centre)

I hope you have all had a lovely smiley week.

Sunday Snippets - Winter Themed Thanks Card

Afternoon Everyone,

It's Sunday again! I hope you have had a wonderful weekend. I'm back to share a snippet card. 

The EM was looking for a card to say 'thank you' to a neighbour who has been very kind to him over the last year. A rummage through my box of cards revealed a sad lack of anything appropriate so I set to and made this very simple card.  

To make it I used the following:

• a 4¼" x 5¾ white card base
• a piece of white cardstock from the snippet box, stamped with Penny Black's 'berry red, snow white' stamp which, as luck would have it, was sitting out on my desk just waiting to be used, and the 'thanks' word stamp from Stampin' Up's 'So Happy for You' stamp set. I used black Archival Ink 
• a scrap of black cardstock for matting and layering
• black and white baker's twine long enough to wrap round the topper before adhering it to the front of the card base. I had to use dimensional tape for this as the baker's twine was too think to lie down flat. 

That was all I had to do and the EM was delighted - can you tell he's easy pleased? 

I'm off now to Pixie's Snippets Playground where Di might be found checking out the duck pond for ice. Not that she plans to don ice skates, not with her back!!!

Enjoy your Sunday evening and have a great week.

Friday Smiles

Morning Everyone,

Friday, again. time to look back on the last week, specifically at what made us smile, and share with the host of Friday Smiles, Annie at A Stitch In Time.

This week I celebrated my birthday and it was, for me, a momentous one. Not one with a zero at the end of it but my 69th. Help!!! That means I have one more year to enjoy before I enter the dreaded seventies. But then, have I really got one more year? Am I not now living my 70th year now? Doing the maths I think I must be!

At university, a lot of years ago, I read a series May Sarton's writings including her journal entitled At Seventy ... I think I need to read it again.  I can't recall if this quote is from At Seventy, if it isn't it ought to be,

In an earlier post I mentioned a trip to the Christmas Shop at Dalry.

There's something really magical about Christmas shops - the inside of this one was like a magical cavern. Here's me cosying up to a giant nutcracker - as you do!

Not the best lighting for a photo.

Finally, my lovely niece, Louise, got engaged this week - we're all delighted for her and her fiance, Kenny.

Kenny is, in his spare time, a boxing coach. I think this is a fun photo of  Arihanna wearing a pair of over large gloves. I hope she never has to throw a punch, or take one either :)

Hope your week has been as smiley as mine. If not, I hope the coming week will be a very happy one for you.