Friday Smile

Morning Everyone,

Once again it's Friday Smile day over at Annie's A Stitch In Time and though I was unable to participate last week - due to circumstances out of my control - I can join in today :) 

There's been a lot to smile about this last week, the most important of which is the change in weather - we're enjoying wall-to-wall sunshine! We had friends visit (no photo), we visited our niece's new home (no photo again!) and I've spent hours out in the garden potting up and planting out the hundreds (well, it feels like hundreds) of plants grown from seed. And Bonnie has been my constant companion in the garden too.

Here she is sitting on her little platform on the lawn, begging for me to pick her up for a cuddle. She's recovered well from the ear infection that was making her so miserable last month. She's not doing badly for her 16 years but she does have an inoperable cyst deep down inside her left ear which is causing recurring infections. The last was so bad it made her really ill and out of condition but after a couple of antibiotic and steroid injections for the pain she is back to her beautiful self. 

Now on to my joke of the day:

In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand. 

He approached her and asked, 'Mrs Jones, do you know me?' 

She responded, 'Why, yes, I do know you, Mr Williams. I've known you since you were a boy, and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realise you'll never amount to anything more than a two bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.'

The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, 'Mrs Jones, do you know the defence attorney?'

She again replied, 'Why, yes, I do. I've known Mr Bradley since he was a youngster too. He's lazy, bigoted and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire State. Not to mention he cheated on three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes I know him.'

The defence attorney nearly died.

The judge asked both counsellors to approach the bench and in a lowered voice said, 'If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I'll send you both to the electric chair.'

I suspect that lady may be the Miss Marple of her small town :)

That's my smiles today - hope they gave you reason to smile too.

I also hope you are all having a wonderful day and that you have a very enjoyable weekend. 

Keep Smiling,

CHNC Challenge - Use Some Blue

Evening Folks

I trust you are having a very good Thursday. It's been 21°C in our back garden today so after a good few hours gardening, and a spell of sitting just taking in the rays, of course, I had to come indoors to cool down. Such a lovely change from the recent horrible weather we've had. All that sun and I have a Christmas card to share with you!!! However, I did make it especially for Hazel's CHNC Challenge the remit for which is that we use some blue this week.

The topper with it's lovely winter scene and greeting, is recycled from a card received last year. It's not too obvious in the photo but there's glitter on some of the branches and the snowflakes are glittery too.

Materials used:

- white A5 deckle-edged base card
- cardstock in three shades of blue
- an 8"x8" textured embossing folder - Textures Artist Collection Distress by Crafter's Companion - used on the lightest shade of blue cardstock 
- the topper matted and layered on to the mid and darker shades of blue cardstock
- blue satin ribbon
- a snowflake die from X-cut (Docrafts) and a snippet of silver mirror card - the snowflake was cut in half and tucked under the topper top left and lower right to create embellishments

Couldn't have been simpler to make but I love the combination of blues. And, it used up a couple of leftover scraps of cardstock (the mid and darker shades of blue) and that snippet of silver mirror card, not to mention that I got to recycle a very pretty winter scene ... I live to recycle :)

As well as CHNC Challenge 232 , I'm submitting this card to Hazel's other challenge:
CHNC Challenge Extra for June 2015 - where, as always, anything goes as long as it's Christmas
and also:
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 180 - where anything goes as long as a snippet or two has been used in the making.

That's me done for today. I'm off to do a bit of blog hopping now :)

Happy Crafting,

Snippet Cards On Monday - Brusho Backgrounds

Evening Everyone,

I hope you've had a happy Monday ... if not, hope your evening is going rather better. We've had a good day, still chilly but at least the sun came out to brighten it. I have a couple of snippet cards for Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 180.

Some time ago I had a session playing experimenting with Brushos. I thought at the time that the results were a bit much - I'd been a tad heavy-handed when sprinkling the powder and/or spritzing with water. It was tempting to just toss them in the bin but I held my hand and stashed the pieces away to give me some thinking time. And having thought about it for a month or two, here's what I did with a couple of the pieces.

 The background on this card was made using a mixture of yellow, green and purple Brushos.

This one was made with green and turquoise Brushos.

Materials used:

- White square card bases, 4¾"x4¾"
- Smooth white card for colouring with Brushos
- Brushos Yellow, Leaf Green, Purple for first piece; Leaf Green and Turquoise for the second.
- Stamps - Lavinia stamps, Floral Spray, Fairy Pods; greetings from Stampin' Up and Ladybug Crafts
- Inks - VersaMark; Memento Tuxedo Black
- Embossing powders - Docrafts Papermania Seafoam White; Stampendous Midnight Black
- Snippets of cardstock for matting - lilac and black
- Punch - tiny butterfly from Woodware 

After cutting the toppers there was enough trimmings left over to decorate the inside and back of the cards.

Today was the estimated day of arrival for my third great-grandchild but so far no news. Maybe tomorrow :)

Watched the first part of the adaptation of Iain Banks novel, Stonehouse, this evening, mainly because it was filmed in Macduff, a town I used to know very well. Macduff, and neighbouring Banff, was where I learned to drive more than thirty years ago ... the ideal location for learning hill stops and starts as I recall!

Thanks for popping by. Have a good day tomorrow.

Happy Crafting,