...how appropriate! Lol.

This was the last card I made the other night before I got sick - think it's a virus, it's been doing the rounds of the house. Just ill enough to not feel like making anything, but not sick enough to stay in bed. Bother.

Used my favourite stencil!! Lol. If you haven't already you must check out Country Stencils - some really neat images! This time I printed it in white ink (PapertreyInk Fresh Snow) I like how it looks on Kraft. Very simple straightforward card but sometimes crisp and clean is good. All brown stuff from PTI (except button - stash). Any questions, fire away, I'll answer them on this post. Thanks for looking. Those of you easily bored - look away now.

Waffle.

Never been one to envy anybody anything. Even as a child, never wanted anyone else's toys, just counted myself lucky I had what I had. Don't get me wrong - I'm not a goody goody, I just appreciated that the Big Guy Upstairs saw fit to bless me with a contented mind. Still do.

But.

Since I been big, I gotta say, a certain issue rears it's head now and again. Mostly in Spring/Summertime. While all you lithesome ladies are running about in your shorts and skirts I'm wondering what God was up to when he designed my body.

In the dark, last night, in bed while I couldn't sleep - the answer came to me. He didn't.

Obiously, He was busy that day and sub-contracted the design of my particular bod (along with a few others possibly) out to one of his technicians. He must have millions of them by now. The said technician obviously enjoys a penchant for Celtic Antiquity and, yes indeed, this particular, short limbed, long bodied, thick ankled and somewhat woolly little number would be right at home, crashing barefoot and half naked through the Teutonic forests of a 1000 years ago, but put it on a modern day beach in company with hundreds of scantily clad bald legs and it doesn't quite cut the mustard. Did I mention it's a very attractive shade of white - almost blue?

But I am not unhappy. Last night was the enlightenment. Quite clearly, the techinian knew what he was doing. Isn't global warming already here? and doesn't that mean for some bizarre reason that the area in which I live is getting colder and will freeze up? - and Won't I be the one enjoying the protection afforded by the extra half a degree body heat trapped under the excess body fluff? Chances are, my extremities are not as extreme as your extremities - I got shorter limbs, it stands to reason that your fingers will freeze off before mine. Hurrah!

I look forward to my future role as the Florence Nightingale of the North, skipping merrily about between rows of hospital beds filled with beautiful, cold people, dispensing hotwater bottles and sage advice such as "you shouldn't have shaved!"

Hope it tickles.

...it's not a card

My biggest girlie found a book that she 'needed' the other day - It's called 'Stray Sock Sewing' (Published by David and Charles, devised by a very creative chappie known simply as Daniel.) and it's full of adorable patterns for one of a kind critters....

...it's what we've been doing all day. No cards. Not a sausage.

Here is one of our growing brood. Lol - these are so easy to make! you have to try it!

Hope it tickles.

Look at it's eedie beedie wee feeties!! It's snout would have been better furnished with some Melon berry buttons, but I paid a fortune to have them shipped from America...Lol.

...happy Valentine's

Barry White was pleasantly rumbling something about "My first, my last..." There were roses in a vase on the table. I could see from halfway down the stairs that everywhere was tidy and clean and the kids had been farmed out to someone who's particular lifestyle precluded any sort of Valentines celebration.

I went into the kitchen and there he was. Mr Brennan, in his Homer Simpson apron, making pancakes for brunch. On Valentines day. Swoon. I could hear a slight buzzing in my ear but took no notice.

I admired the way he flipped the pancakes and I took delight in noting that the table was set for two, a card on my plate, chocolates and maple syrup - the real stuff, not the £1.49 rubbish I usually have to make do with. It was perfect.

I threw my arms around him and puckered up... the buzzing got worse, it turned into a sound - it sounded like somebody calling my name. "MUMMY!!!! MUMMY!!!! WAKE UP...WE'RE HUNGRY"

Yeah, me too kids.

Happy Valentine's Day all!! hope you had a goodie!!

...stampy stampy stampy

After seeing the awesome work of one KMW ( I know not who) during the recent GSS comp over at PTI I wanted to make wee patterns - this card uses the guidelines set together with Boxes bags and tags and also the wee star out of Silent night. Simple but I think it's a pretty wee pattern.

Colours are Spring moss and the purply colour the name of which escapes me just at the moment. Oh yes, Plum pudding.

Simple but suitable for a wee thank you note.

By the way, I do hope you are following the celebrations at PTI - some awesome giveaways so far!!

In case you are still reading I am mindfull of the fact that I promised a how to for my tower boxes, I will try to be really good and get this done in the next day or two.

 

Waffle

If you are really bored it may interest you to know that I have the sort of eyebrows that any self respecting neanderthal would have been proud of. My mother used to say, in all sincerity, and with a straight face, "You have good strong hair." Any of you who have been a teenager will know that this was not the sentiment required.

It thus followed that the over-sensitive teenager became convinced that unless the head hair was grown long, passers by might just mistake same teenager for a male of the species. This seemed all the more likely at the time given that the said teenager was greatly under-upholstered, indeed the attractive term 'scrawny' was often used.

And so my hair has been long for what feels like forever. Today I got it cut as short as it has been in 20 years and I can't decide whether I like it or not. DH thinks it's lovely, or else has been taking tips on lying from the interrogation section of my daugher's "Famous Five handbook". Larger daughter said it was 'cute' but then wanted chocolate biscuits immediately. Smaller daughter said it was horrible, but then everything was horrible today because the snow didn't lie and we couldn't make snowmen.

It seems the only truth to be had was when the hairdresser turned to my two year old and asked him what he thought of mummy's hair. The big green eyes looked up into mine and as the smile spread across his face he said "Mummy pretty." Yep, it has been a very good day.

...seasonally reminded

A million years ago when I was eight, I went with my father to visit a kindly old lady that I'd always known as Aunt Ruth. She was no relation of ours but she treated us like beloved grandchildren all the same, taking an interest in our little happenings and always smiling.

I was used to seeing Aunt Ruth in the company of others - she was always at the homes of the other hunt members when we called to see them. ( My dad and the others raised pheasants and other game for 'the shoot' as it was called. I think she may have bean the 'real' aunt of two of the men in the hunt.) That particular day was the first time I had ever gone to visit her at her home - I believe she lived with her brother Davy, another kindly soul.

Aunt Ruth lived in a large rambling remote country house that was known to us as 'The Manse' and on the day that I visited it seemed to me that she and Davy occcupied only a very small part of the building. We spent the afternoon in cosy comfort infront of the range in the kitchen while my Dad chatted to Aunt Ruth and Davy. Milk and biscuits were abundant and as I sat munching I contemplated a pink potted begonia on the windowsill. Looking out, the day was mizzly damp with the kind of fine spray rain you get at this time of year, much like it was this morning when I was reminded of this story. The sky was grey and low and I was happy to be exactly where I was.

When it was time to go I gave Aunt Ruth a hug and smiled shyly at Davy and then we made our way out to the car. As anyone who has ever tried to leave a hospitable house will know, nearly as much talking goes on during the leaving as does during the visit, and being the good child that I was, I stood uncomplaining at the car.

I studied the windows of the house which seemed ancient to me, and I waved up at the two children who were looking down at me. The boy was about 10 or 12 and had dark hair and eyes and the little red haired girl looked about the same age as myself. They were smiling at me and then left the window and moved to the next one along that was a little bigger, I suppose they wanted a better view of the nosey little visitor. Aunt Ruth was always surrounded by children and it was no surprise to me that she was minding these two. It was no surprise at all that she was minding two sick children, as these two seemed, because they had on those long white sort of bed gowns that i saw illustrated in my copy of Peter Pan. Somewhere in the back of my head was the knowledge that Aunt Ruth had been a sort of nurse.

So I waved back and smiled and turned to Aunt Ruth who, for a moment, was not engaged in conversation. I asked her why she hadn't mentioned that there were children in the house and could I go and play with them for a moment.

I was a little offended when she laughed and said that there were no children in the house. I turned and pointed to them to show her where they were but of course. . . they were gone.

Hope it tingles!!

ED - the spookiest thing about this for me was finding out at a later date that Aunt Ruth was red before she was grey!!

...MMmmmmm

I love shortbread - but it has to be the real, melt-in-your-mouth-type, too-crumbly to-pick-up-nearly shortbread. The prepack stuff you get in the supermarket just doesn't do it.

Here is my all time favourite recipe. This recipe is the result of my footering in the kitchen over the years trying various recipes and tinkering about till I came up with a failsafe formula. It takes less than five mins to prepare this and not much longer to cook.

I made this so's I could whip up some christmas packaging, just to see how it worked - 30mins after the shortbread was out of the oven it was all gone. There was nothing to package - you'll have to wait 'til I make some more. In the meantime - here's my recipe. - All you ladies with Nicholes recipe cards, here's something to put on one of them!!

Ingredients:

• 8oz plain flour
• 8oz unsalted butter
• 4.5 oz icing sugar (I believe the american for this is confectioners sugar - anyhow it's the real fine stuff, like sugar dust)
• 4.5oz really fine rice flour

What to do:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.
2. Pour it out into one large baking tray or two small ones - I have two 8"x 11" trays that I use for this. You want a tray that has sides but not too deep.
3. Give your tray a shake to make sure you have a fairly even layer of crumbs all over. Do not be tempted to use a wooden spoon or any thing else to smooth out the shortbread.
4. Bake at about 170 degrees centigrade/325 farenheit/gas mark 3 until the shortbread is a light brown colour. Mark/cut into squares while it is still warm but leave it in the tin to cool.
5. Eat.

Alternatively, for shortbread circles like I made above, punch out a couple of dozen circles of waxproof paper/baking paper and line the bottom of muffin tins with them - put a spoonful of mixture in each hollow and shake the tray to even it all out.

Hope it tickles.

...tips for dealing with the 'curious-non-stamping' visitor.

Recently I had a visitor, a close relative who wanted to see my stamps, and how I made cards. The praise and admiration was swelling my ego and it was with a hop skip and a jump that i went to my treasure trove and dug out the goodies. Within a quarter of an hour I was a gibbering mess, blaspheming into the sink, up to my armpits in soap suds.

I would like to share with you a few pointers:

If the 'curious-non-stamper' is arriving on a scheduled visit, be in the hall, coat on, car keys in hand and as soon as you answer the doorbell announce in a loud voice "I'm treating you to Starbucks, let's go!" Believe me, the outlay is justified.

If the 'curious-non-stamper' arrives unexpectedly, or indeed if the plain old non-stamping visitor suddenly develops a desire to play with your toys you will need a plan of action, may I suggest...

1) Decide, quickly, on the way to your stash, on your three oldest, most least-likely-to-be-used stamps. - Importantly, be sure to tell your visitor that you just got these ones and they're your favourites - at this point your laying the groundwork in the hope that your visitor will play nice with your toys.

2) Also pick out your oldest and most used up inks - two should suffice. Keep one in your pocket for when the first one lands on the baby, who will have it partially digested before you return from getting "more paper".

3) You will be going to get "more paper" because you are not stupid enough to let your visitor go to the stash and pick their own stuff...are you? Use cheap paper, back of old wrapping paper, children's homework books, anything BUT the PTI card - your 'visitor' will stamp profusely.

4) Only allow your visitor to stamp on a surface that is HIGHER than their waist height, this avoids the need to surgically remove pieces of disintegrated stamp from ink pad after the torture, sorry, visit is over - It also helps avoid cracked-ink-pad syndrome as the visitor will not be able to get their whole weight piled up on top of your favourite dark Chocolate Palette ink pad...that you had shipped all the way from America...

5) Importantly - pick up and clean each stamp just as you sense the visitor is moving on to the next image - you want to avoid the fistful of mangled sticky stamps served in a bed of tattered paper with a sauce of Palette de Stazon. However bad it looks tho' don't let them wash the stamps - they're slippy when wet and visitors seldom understand about things like plugholes.

6) Have a 'get out clause' in your head for when you can't take it no more..something like "Gosh it has been great, what a shame I have to GO RIGHT NOW and pick up my friends' kid from school on the other side of town. Ah well!"

If you sense that you're merely whetting their appetite and they're going to want to come back for more, might I suggest PTI gift certificate - so's they can get their own.

I hope you find this useful, I would've...