GETTING MORE DONE...

I've got quite a bit of crafting done over the last few days. I've made some more polymer clay necklaces, none of which have reached my website before being sold. *grin* As I've not photographed them yet, here's one I made earlier. This one never reached the website either. I managed to get some beaded ones done too, one of which will actually get on to L.R. Designs.



I've made some cards too and played around with a Versamark resist technique for some backgrounds.





I was also asked by a fellow beader if I would make a box for a handmade silver rattle she's made for a christening. After a few false starts and some problems with my Krylon Silver Leafing pen, I finally made good progress today. It's all covered and just waiting to have the embellishments put on it. I'm hoping to get that finished tomorrow.

DONE AND DUSTED....

Well, here they are. Into a third day in the making and I definitely need more practice, but for a first attempt, I'm quite chuffed. However, Jeffrey if you read this, don't panic, lol. You're under NO threat from me. Ha, ha, ha.


Now, I have to go and finish a commission I have for a polymer pendant. Much easier to do though, thank goodness.

I went for lunch at my friends today. I go every Wednesday and thoroughly enjoy myself. I always have a couple of glasses of wine too (or port) and as I'm not a big drinker, especially at lunch times, I'm always a bit wobbley on a Wednesday afternoon, so I better be careful with my craft knife, lol.

STILL AT IT....

Whew!!!! another full day working on these pod bead things. I never realised when I started just how long they would take to make. I've only made 3 too....but one is rubbish so I'll only be using 2 in a piece of jewellery. They need multiple bakings, each of 30 mins, plus all the work in between. A couple of times I've had to bake them just for a teeny weeny bit of clay in a hole.

I thought I'd finished all the baking last night, but no...wrong!!!! Loads more had to be done today when I started putting the holes in. Jeez, they're difficult. I will finish them tomorrow, I swear I will. At the moment though, enough is enough, I need my bed.

A CLAY DAY.

As usual, I did have all my running around to do today, but got it all done quite quickly and managed to spend the rest of the day in my craft room. Yesterday was beading day but today....it was clay day. I absolutely love working with Polymer Clay. I've been using it for a couple of years now and sometimes I think I'm still not very good but other times, I'm really chuffed with what I turn out. It's a fantastic medium to work with and so versatile.
My oven has just beeped at me and I've taken some beads out. My electric bill has probably shot up today as the oven has been on for most of it, lol.
I am trying a technique for the first time pioneered by the fabulous clay artist Jeffrey Lloyd Dever. I've been doing his pod beads for hours and hours and they are... well, to say they're looking far removed from his is an understatement, lol. Still, practice makes perfect as they say. The final baking has just come out of the oven but they'll have to wait until tomorrow (well, today now) to be finished off. You never know my luck, they may just be OK.

BUSY BEADING....

Apart from a quick visit to the village, I've been beading most of the day. I made 4 necklaces including one using the fabulous lampworked bead made by Claire Doherty that I mentioned yesterday.

All I have to do now, is get round to putting them up on my website.

Well, it's Monday now. NOT my fave day of the week as I always seem to do loads of running around on a Monday, but hopefully I'll find some time to do some more crafting.

GOT IT DONE...

Well, I got my CJ pages finished, so that's another job done. Can't post piccies though 'cause it will spoil it for Bobs if she visits me here, as it's her journal.

I told you yesterday that I've been looking at snail shells the last few days and decided they're actually quite nice, so here's a couple of the pics I took.



I also found this bug that I thought was dead so took a pic and then his leg moved, lol.I popped him on a leaf and he legged it.



I got plenty of other pictures too, including one I called Suicide Pact, as it was a whole bunch of snails dead in a bucket of water. What possesses them, eh? Beer I can understand, but water!!!!!

I'm in the mood to do some jewellery now. I got a fabulous new lampworked bead today made by Claire Doherty of clasibeads, with real silver drizzles on it and it's just gorgeous so I may do that tomorrow. Or, I may get my polymer clay out and play with that instead.

OUCH!

Well, I finally got my layout finished. My grandaughter has her first 'poorly', bless her. Kids always manage to find the bit of broken glass you've missed, don't they?

I've been out taking photographs today too. I'm in a Circle Journal and the book I'm doing at the mo is about where people live, so I had to go and get some pics of my village for it. I have to say, I quite enjoyed myself.
Snails grabbed my attention today too. Dead ones, lol. So, pics of those too and I used my macro lens for some close-ups of the shells. Have you ever studied a snail shell? They're quite beautiful, you know.

GETTING NOTHING DONE....

I've been trying to do a scrapbook layout this evening and I'm getting nowhere fast with it. I have my pics and I have my design but just can't choose the papers. Grrrrrrrr!!!! It's so annoying.

I've also paid a visit to my photography site. Sometimes I like to look at my own photos and it's ages since I've put any new ones up. Something else I need to do.

My jewellery site is sadly lacking in new pieces too, lol.

It's not as if I'm short of time. Not really. Certainly not compared to many other people I know, and yet, I still get nothing done.

Mind you, one thing I DID get done was to go away last weekend. I met up with all my lovely friends from The Canny Crafters (or Lou's Loonies as we're also called) and we had a great time. We chatted, laughed, drank, ate and...oh, yeah - got a bit of crafting done too.

A VERY GOOD CAUSE

This post is for my friend Kerrie Slade who on August 11th has an Awareness Pins project available on Beading Daily and as you can see from the picture they are fantastic, there's 2 sides to this project- a charity fundraiser and a contest.
Please check out her blog for further details as she's put a lot of time and effort into this and is a lovely and very special person who deserves everyone's support in this. Please click on Kerrie's name and help if you can.

BUSY, BUSY....

Had a very busy week this week. Mind you, it's not over yet. I've done shed loads of housework and still more to do. I've let it get into a dreadful mess. Too busy crafting, see. I've neglected everything else.

I'm going on a craftweekend this weekend and I'm teaching 3 classes so there's quite a bit of prep for that. Most of it is finished but still a bit more to do.

I've not been feeling too well lately either, but I'll not bore you with all that. It doesn't help when you've loads to do though. Anyway, still no piccies to show you. I could put the weekend projects up, but don't want to spoil it for anybody coming to the weekend if they happen to pop over here.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE....

Well, I figured it was time I updated my blog. I've changed to this new easy edit template finally, so I'm now playing around and seeing what's what.

I'm a lousy blogger, lol, but I will make an effort to update more regularly. I may even put some piccies up of some of my crafting as well as my photography and photoshop stuff.

WE'RE HONOURED...

I feel very honoured today. Photoshop guru, David Rowley (davrodigital) asked me if he could use my pic of Mia (the one below) for a video tutorial on doing High Key in Photoshop. It's on his web site and this months Digital Photography magazine (issue 67) have picked it up and it's on the disc that comes with the mag.

How cool is that???

To make things better, my son is coming home tomorrow. I've not seen him for ages as he works in Dubai now and doesn't get back very often.

I'm going to have lunch with my friends tomorrow, which is brill, as I don't have to cook, lol.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all you mums out there (well, any of you that read this, that is).

STAINED GLASS MASKS.

I was a little bored tonight so started playing around in CS3. First proper bit of digital work I've done for ages.

MIA

My granddaughter is 7 months old tomorrow. Honestly, where does time go, eh? There are other things going on in my life, but I'm not sure they're worth writing about. Anyway, here's another pic of Mia. I will get round to scrapping it sometime, I'm sure.

A COUPLE MORE....

LO's of my granddaughter. I'm trying to catch up to date with her album. I've just got all my papers to do her Christening pages, so hopefully will get cracking on them soon. I've got a CJ to do this week ready for posting on Thursday too. I can't believe she's 3 months old already. She smiles all the time and has started laughing now too. Sooooooooooo cute.

My leg is still sore and I've had to put a plaster over my knee this morning. As I wear trousers all the time, they're rubbing it and it's not helping it to heal. Oh well, should have done that days ago.

BLUE EYES!

Well, after the horrendous day I had yesterday and with some very painful legs today, I thought I'd disappear into my craft room where I could be left alone. I decided to scrap one of the photo's I took the other day. I used Crate Baby Bee papers and BG rubons. The title was cut with my Craft Robo.

WHAT A DAY!!!!!!!

What a blurdy day - and it's not even over yet.

I was up all night again, just can't shut my brain down, so I'm mega tired. Had visitors this morning, then had to take Mum for her Monday cuppa with a friend, then take her to docs for blood tests, rush home, get her lunch and pick DD up to take her to Boston. OK, that doesn't sound so bad, I hear you say, except for the fact that, that is a lot for me to do in my less than busy life.

So, we get to Boston and it's peeing it down. The Citizens Advice Bureau is closed, so we had to walk to the other end of town in the rain to the Estate Agents. Apparently DD had promised them some money today, which I hadn't realised, so I sent her to empty my bank account.

Still peeing it down, my hair is sticking to the back of my neck, my glasses are falling off my head, my shoes are killing me and my very long leather coat was flapping round my legs upsetting me.

Off we pop to the supermarket, where being a beginner with a pushchair, I promptly get the wheels caught up in a display cage and drag it down the isle with me. Of course, I was getting admiring glances from all around, NOT....gets to the till and muggins here forgets the pin number for the credit card. Not having enough cash with me, and Nic already emptying my paltry current account - stands back, takes 50 deep breaths, remembers number and pays for shopping. Whew!!!!!

Mia, by this time is hungry and tired and screaming. Deep joy.

Crosses car park, and some pillock decides to reverse his car without looking. Screams and frantic gesticulations get him to hit his brakes before he sent us all flying.

OK...nearly done. We get home, thankfully in one piece and then my piece de resistance....I fall over just outside Nic's house. My ankle just turned. The worst of this is I had Mia in her car seat in my arms. I had no way of stopping my fall, and my priority was getting Mia to the deck in one piece, which I did, but with quite a jolt. She's OK though. As for me, I have a very painful ankle and 2 very sore knees one of them very, very sore. It's grazed and swollen too.

So, I'm thinking nothing else could happen...WRONG....I burnt the bloody toad in the hole for tea.

I always wonder how you can scrape and bloody your knees without getting a mark on your jeans too. That's always puzzled me.

LOOK AT THOSE EYES!!!!!

This is our Mia. 12 weeks old and gorgeous. Well, I would say that, wouldn't I?..but she is, isn't she? lol.

Somehow, I've got to force myself not to take quite so many photo's of her. No way will I use them all. I did think about doing just a couple a month now, at least for her scrapbook, but I've got loads to catch up on. I want to do more than one LO of her Christening, 'cause she looked so lovely and there was lots of people there. Still, plenty of time I suppose, eh?

The weather is turning very cold here now, same as the rest of the country I suppose, but my old car really struggles in the winter. I'm not even sure if it'll get through another MOT next month, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyways, that'll do for now, I'm off up for a shower.

HAS IT REALLY BEEN...

over two months since I wrote anything?

Hmmm, I always thought I was quite chatty but apparently not, eh? I've been busy staring at my grandchild and taking hundreds of photo's, making my jewellery and paper crafting.

I also think that what I'd have to say isn't really that interesting and I'd hate to bore you all.

Still, you don't have to read it, do you - so maybe I'll come on and witter a bit more often. Maybe I need to join one of those prompt things somewhere.

MIA ELIZABETH

Yipppeeeeeee!!!! I have finally got my long awaited grandchild. My daughter gave birth to our beautiful Mia last Friday afternoon. She is just sooooooooo precious.

I haven't actually got much else to say - well, there isn't anything is there?

BLUE A****

Ever wondered where the expression "running around like a blue arsed fly" came from? Now you know.

BUSY DAY

I've had quite a busy day today. I'm afraid I've been so busy crafting and reading that my housework has suffered. Ooooeerrr!!! Anyway, I did quite a bit of it today. I also washed some baby stuff ready for new baby in a few weeks, did some ebay shopping (more baby stuff, lol) and did some scrapbooking too. These two LO's are of me as a baby with my parents and one of my daughter at 1 day old - 25 years ago and now she's having a baby of her own.

FEELING ROUGH!!!!!

What do you think of my new template? I'm going to miss my fly, but I know not many other people liked it, pmsl.

I went out for a chinese meal last night. I only had a couple of voddy's and half a bottle of red, and boy, do I feel rough.

I must be getting old - can't take the pace anymore, lol.

It was a lovely meal though. We went to the Golden Dragon in Woodhall Spa and the food is lovely. I had the most gorgeous spicy mussels for starters. I'd never had them before but would defo have them again. Perhaps they were a little salty, but that's all.

I slept really badly and am really tired today. I tried doing a bit of cross stitch, but didn't get far. I kept falling asleep.

BACK TO SCRAPBOOKING

I've been so busy making jewellery and stuff, I haven't done any papercrafting for quite a while. Anyway, I'm back in scrapbooking mode and have done my first LO since November. I'm not happy with it though. I have a very linear style and I'm trying really hard to get away from it.

My daughter has 8 weeks to go now until my first grandchild is due. July 11th. I am so excited, I can't tell you. She's had a fairly rough pregnancy, bless her. Lots of headaches, sickness, scabby legs (plus other normal life problems) and she's saturated with anti-b's, but never mind, soon be over. She's off to Wales to see her Dad at the end of the month, so I'm going round to paint and do the baby's room. They've chosen a bright orange and lime green colour scheme. Lovely, it is. I suppose they had to really, as I got the cot with drapes and bedding in that colour months ago, lol.

I'll be getting some more pics up soon, too. That's also been a while since I've done any. I've probably forgotten most of what CS2 can do.

ANOTHER LONG WHILE

Jeez, it's ages since I've been here. I must make more of an effort.

What have I been up to. Well, not a lot really. How boring eh? Mind you, I have built a website. It's simple and straightforward but I did it all myself in Dreamweaver. I make handcrafted jewellery and sell it through my site. www.lrdesigns.me.uk why not pay me a visit and see if there's anything you or someone special in your life might like.

I also did my first Photoshop presentation at my local camera club. I was very nervous, but it was a great success. Having said that, I have to go back this Wednesday to show them something again. A couple didn't quite 'get it'. Hmmmm, maybe not such a success then, eh? lol. Anyway, they've invited me to join their club and I might just do it. Would give me an excuse to leave the house other than a visit to co-op.

Oooops!!!!! NOT BEEN HERE FOR A WHILE

Plenty to say actually, but can't be bothered right now so I'll come back.

Actually, I'm having trouble getting in here, so I'm seeing what all this new stuff is about.

Coooeeeee!!!!!

Hmmmm, it's been a while since I've been here. So, what's new? Well, the best news is I'm going to be a Grandma. My lovely daughter and her partner, Chris are having a baby. I am sooooooooooo chuffed about it.

I have creative block at the mo as far as my photography and Photoshopping are going. Maybe it's because I'm back in 'crafting' mode, so spend most of my time doing things in my craft room. I've made lots of jewelry, boxes, ATC's, scrapbook pages and also loads of stuff with my Craft Robo machine. That's an electronic plotter and cutting machine for those of you that don't know.

Still missing my cat, Harvey. Bailey is doing well and the lizards, Eddie and Betty are getting quite large now. They're about 12½ long and weigh about 200gms. They were 9g and 11g in the pic further down the blog.

See, I don't live an exciting life do I. A whole month and not much to tell you. Anyway, this is a pic of Eddie and Betty sleeping peacefully.

PONTE VECCHIO

When I was in Florence I took some lovely (or so I thought) pics. They were, in fact, pretty lousy, lol. Anyway, this is one I popped into Photoshop so it looks half decent now. At least, I'm quite pleased with it.

ALL BOXED IN!!!!

Another comp winner.

COMPASS

I've just won a comp over on pixeladdiction.com with this image. We had to take a pic of a street lamp, no background or anything and make something of it. This is what I came up with.

I've been out for a drink tonight with a friend from my craft forum. It was a nice, pleasant couple of hours. I don't get out much. Haven't the time, I'm too busy on my pooter, lol.