In A Vase On Monday - Anniversary Roses

Late as it is, at the time of writing Monday's almost yesterday, I'm determined to participate in Cathy's meme In A Vase On Monday over at Rambling in The Garden. 

The photo was taken, as you can see, on one of the few sunny days we've had in the last couple of weeks and I have to admit that wasn't today. I actually put this arrangement together  to celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary on 20th July but this is the first opportunity I've had to share it here. It's a very simple combination of red roses, Faithful and Pride of England, hypericum Magical Red Flame and a couple of fronds of fennel. 

Rosa Pride of England, a classic hybrid tea that provides us with these huge stunning blood-red blooms right through the summer. The petals look like velvet. This rose was planted for my husband who is from Manchester in the North West of England - just a little reminder of home.

Rosa Faithful. This is a very floriferous floribunda rose - that's just one stem you can see in this photo. It also has a lovely fragrance.

Hypericum Magical Red Flame and Fennel.  The striking colour of the seed heads on this hypericum cheers up what could be a very dull corner. I preferred the green fennel to the bronze variety for this arrangement. 

The little brown and white vase is another charity shop find - picked up whilst we were holidaying in the Highlands of Scotland in June. I haunt charity shops wherever I am. It's a piece of studio pottery - the signature is difficult to read but it looks something like Genny Pottery. 

I hope you all will forgive me for sharing this arrangement even though it's from a couple of weeks ago. Though I should say it's still going strong - I've been replacing the blooms as they go over just to keep it as a reminder of a very lovely day. 

Rudolph Day Card - Christmas Corner

Evening Folks

This has got to be the quickest post in the history of this blog because time is running out to participate in July's Rudolph Day Challenge over at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo!

I made this card very quickly using a bought base, a scrap of card that I'd already embossed, a recycled greeting and a few enamel dots

Here's a close up of the embossed detail.

Supplies used were:
- scalloped edge white card base - Make & Create, The Works
- snippet of red card - American Crafts Bazzill Basics, Tomato
- embossing folder - Nellie Snellen Christmas Corner
- greeting cut from a card received Christmas 2016, trimmed and corners rounded
- corner rounder punch - Woodware
- silver enamel dots - Simple Stories, The Story of Us
- inside the card is stamped with the Merry Christmas stamp from Penny Black Wonder Collection using a ColorBox Cranberry ink pad.

Here's a pic of the embossing folder to give a better idea of what the embossed design looks like - it's very pretty.

I hope my brother and his wife will like this card as much as I do come the time.

I'm also entering this card into Pixie's Snippets Playground  - anything as long it a snippet or three were used in the making.

Friday Smiles

Morning Everyone,

I'm joining in again with Annie and the Smilers over at A Stitch In Time to share just a couple of the pics that have put a smile on my face this week.

First up is this one of great-grandaughter Lacie looking very glum after being woken up early to go to the hospital to see the eye specialist. She is a real sleepyhead and can still be asleep well into the middle of the morning!

Next up is this photo of great-grandson Callum looking very grown up. He's had his hair cut and it does make him look less like a baby and more like the toddler he now is. He's also incredibly like his daddy at that age too.

And here's two youngsters you rarely see here. They are DH's great-great niece Freya and great-great nephew Josh who live in the south of England. They're showing us that they'd both received the little Scottish rag doll, with hair the same colour as Freya's, and bagpipe playing teddy we found on our travels. And yes, it does make us feel old to have great-greats but they are such a joy too.

Finally, a photo from the garden of a bee on our cotoneaster tree. The flowers may not look much but the bees find them irresistible and all I hear when I stand under the tree is the busy buzz as they gather the nectar. This tree is absolutely smothered in flowers this year which means there are going to be plenty berries for the birds this coming winter.

As you can see, even though in many ways this has been a difficult week or so I haven't had to look far for things that made me smile this week. I hope you've had as much to make you smile too.

Take care and have a wonderful weekend.