Rain, ribbon, cake, cards and chicken!

Hello all, it's been like the sunniest of Spring days here....quite cold but bright and uplifting. Hard to think it was Christmas a few weeks ago and it does make one look forward to lighter evenings and more clement weather. A little different to last week's torrential downpours....

.....goodness, that was a wet day!

The next day I was in Scunthorpe at Trent Valley Crafts where I had the honour of cutting the ribbon to officially open the shop......

.....if you look closely you'll see that most of the customers were inside the shop - keeping warm! Theresa and Linda have done a great job of getting the shop ship shape and have lots of demos and workshops planned. Judging by this beautiful cake that was given to them by their customers (and made and decorated by one of them) I think they will be getting a lot of support in their venture....

....stunning isn't it? It was a shame to cut into it! And I must say that I haven't ever sat at my demonstration table and seen this sight in front of me....

.....there was quite a lot of sparkling wine flowing!
I wasn't doing my usual inky, messy stuff  - a cleaner look was the order of the day, with lots of dies and a few stamps. I used a couple of my old favourites plus some gorgeous flower silhouettes from Inkadinkadoo.

I haven't used my Swirly Birds Owl for a while! Aren't those wildflowers great - really useful designs.

And I really like these Spellbinders curved edge dies that created just the right shape to sit my fairy silhouette oval stamp into.

I'm now working with a whole host of things to create lots of samples for forthcoming events. February is going to be ultra busy! It's Stitches time again of course - my favourite work event of the year - but I'm also going to be at two three day retail shows. Gosh, there's a lot to get done in the next few weeks! I'll be posting details of lots of forthcoming events very soon, once everything is finalised. 

Tara is driving me nuts at the moment! I roasted a chicken at the weekend and, being like a bloodhound where that particular item is concerned, she will not cease pestering me until every last morsel has gone. How she knows that there is still some in the fridge I have no idea, but she does! I've had a roast dinner (I have discovered that I'm very good at roast potatoes!), a chicken salad, a sandwich and, tonight, I made my version of special fried rice with the addition of a little chopped bacon and a few prawns. T & T have had two meals from it so far and tomorrow will see the remnants used in a final sandwich for me and supper time treats for those two! Pretty good going and I reckon I could have probably stretched it to make a soup as well if I'd really tried!

It's an early start for me in the morning. I don't have to go anywhere, but I need to be "up and at it" to get all these show samples made! TTFN

From ice to snow....

The ice in question refers to my previous post from yesterday where I was talking about Ice Resin (did I mention how much I have enjoyed using that stuff?!?) and the snow, well, all will be revealed further down. Neither snow nor ice seem very seasonal to be mentioning in June, although it's another damp and overcast day here, so not very Summery really.

Anyway, as mentioned yesterday, Personal Impressions have "unveiled" the new Christmas designs for this year and they should be available by early to mid July. As promised, I will be showcasing my festive stamp sets here, though there are a lot, so it may well take quite a few posts! Hard to know which ones to share with you first, so I'll just go quite randomly I think. 

By the way, you can see all of our new designs on the PI website by clicking "products"....then choose either "Crafty Impressions" where you can find all our clear stamps, or "designed by Lindsay Mason" where you can find my Doo Lally Pip range as well as some of my other designs. I have designs in both sections - just to be greedy! Although the PI website is a trade only one of course, you can make a note of the reference number of any item and ask your local retailer to order it for you if they stock our products.

Well, without further ado, let's get into the Christmas spirit for a while! I'll start with some sets from my Doo Lally Pip collection and this first one is called "Steampunk Snowmen" (CICSA6091).....

 .....you know how I love snowmen, and I also love the whole Steampunk genre, so combining the two was a must! There is a Steampunk Santa face included too for good measure. I was obviously thinking of Abraham Lincoln when I added their stovepipe hats...they just kept getting taller as I drew!

Next is another slightly Steampunky set, this time featuring Father Christmas himself.....

......this one is entitled "Here Comes Santa" (CICSA6086). I'll be doing some masking with this set so I can have a few reindeer flying along in front of the sleigh. You'll notice that Santa isn't actually holding any reins but has his mitts out as if he is.....so, once all the images are stamped in place it's then a simple task of drawing a couple of lines to connect him up to his reindeer. This means you can play around with positioning much more. I think the starry burst will prove useful too.

Third up is another set of Doo Lally Pip snowmen (as I always say, you can't have too many snowmen stamps!) .........

........more Steampunk too as you can see. This set is called "Nicicles as Icicles" (CICSA6111) and if we do get snow later this year I am definitely going to try and re create one of these characters on my lawn! The icicle border is going to prove useful and, of course, individual icicles could double as carroty noses. I'm going to enjoy using this set a lot.

So, a few from my general range of Christmas stamps now. This first set is called "Winter Silhouettes" (CICSA6093) and would be suitable for December/January birthdays etc as well as Christmas cards.....

  .....I can feel my alcohol inks being used rather a lot as well as some Dylusions ink backgrounds! I do love silhouette images and can't wait to get started on this set. The bare tree can easily be used throughout the year with a few well placed leaves, or, of course, it can just be stamped in from the edge of a card to create branches and twigs for birds to sit on.

A useful border set next......

 ......this one is called "Sketchy Christmas Borders" (CICSA6088) and I know I'll be making good use of this one in all sorts of ways. The holly can be stamped and cut out individually of course, to make up into dimensional wreaths, swags or nice additions to the corner of a card.

Finally for this morning, this set is called "Be Still for the Glory..." (CICSA6083).....

 ......the words are from the opening verse of one of my favourite hymns of the same name. It always brings a tear to my eye when we sing it in church. The images on this set are ideal for making quite small cards which I know I, for one, often make when I have to send them to a lot of people. 

Well, that's my first preview! There are lots more to show you though so I will be posting them over the next week. Today I'm not working as such, but just getting everything packed up and ready for my demo tomorrow at Dainty Supplies in Washington, Tyne and Wear. I'm going to be on pins all day as Heather and Graham are going to see the consultant at the hospital to find out more about where we are with Graham's illness and what treatments he may be able to have. Any prayers for them would be much appreciated.

On a lighter note, and to show that it really isn't winter yet, here are a couple of snaps that I took yesterday. This first one is the view from my Doo Lally workroom.....

 .....just don't look too closely at all the weeds that have come through again after all the rain! The dreaded Horsetail is back with a vengeance too...ggggggrrrr. My workroom is at the front of the house (I'm on a corner) so I get to see what's going on and wave to all the neighbours while I'm working! I was standing up taking the picture so it looks as if my workroom is upstairs - but I'm in a bungalow, so I'm downstairs! The back of the house looks across the fields and up to the nearby wood, so I have the best of both worlds really - the difference between the front and back views is quite dramatic!

And, to finish, I couldn't resist taking a picture of fatso...er...sorry..Tara...as she was so chilled out yesterday in the conservatory on her (very hairy!) chair....

 .....no dignity at all! She really is a little porker but it's so tricky when you have one pusscat who likes to pick at their food and go back to it and the other who guzzles everything down and then goes off in search of any further morsels to be had! 

That's my cherry tomato plant intruding on Tara's space. There are the first signs of crops now too....quite a few tiny tomatoes are appearing and the green bean has several very thin legumes sprouting. The courgette is now flowering too, so I'm looking forward to some home grown food very soon.

Right, I'd better make a move or tomorrow's demo won't be happening! More stamp previews very soon. Have a great weekend everyone and thank you for all the lovely comments and the good wishes for Heather and Graham which we really appreciate.

A quiet time - except for the music!

The Easter break is almost over and, as I heard someone say, the reason that Bank Holidays are so good is that we can really enjoy having some sheer relaxation without feeling guilty because we're all off work! Well, not quite all I realise, but I agree with the sentiment. Hope everyone's been able to have a good break.

So, the last couple of days have been spent at home and very quietly, partly due to the horrid bug that grabbed me on Friday but seems to be on its way now thank goodness. Partly due to the fact that it's been raining all day, so the gardening had to be shelved except for planting out a few things that I've been growing indoors. Not that this is craft related, but I hope that this piccie of Tara helping me to gen up on some plant knowledge will be acceptable for Joanne's Crafting Buddies ......yes, I know it's really meant to show our furry friends helping us to craft, but seeing as I wasn't either, I think it will count! I think Tara was looking for the section on Catnip! I did say it had been a quiet couple of days, but this afternoon was anything but really. David happened upon Channel 5 where they were showing the 25th Anniversary production of The Phantom of the Opera from the Royal Albert Hall. Unfortunately it had been on for an hour or so, and I completely forgot about Channel 5 plus one! However, it was just fantastic and I enjoyed every second. The tenor in the Phantom role was Ramin Karimloo who, coincidentally, was on Songs of Praise last night and who we first saw in the anniversary concert of Les Mis that Heather got us at Christmas. At the end of the opera Andrew Lloyd Webber came onto the stage and welcomed the original cast. Sarah Brightman sang along with four Phantoms as well as the current one. I get so caught up in musicals/operas that I was in tears most of the way through, even during the curtain calls! If you get chance to see this then do......if you don't like the music, watch it with the sound off because the stage sets and costumes were out of this world....quite staggering really.

It also brought to mind something that I seem to come across more and more these days. So many "comedians", or guests on panel shows etc seem to find it clever and funny to make so called jokes and jibes about people purely on their looks. I'm sometimes surprised at the people who are guilty of this as they are often those who I'd thought of as quite intelligent. No matter how talented the target may be, if they happen to be less than handsome or beautiful then they become "fair game". I was reminded by the Phantom story of course, and then when Andrew Lloyd Webber appeared who must be one of the most picked upon people in this way, despite his tremendous talent. Camilla Parker Bowles is forever being compared to a horse (I think she's very attractive), Susan Boyle will, apparently, never be appreciated for her voice alone, but will always find herself being sniggered at on comedic quiz shows. The list goes on. It's a horrible side to people that I really hate. The fact that everyone looks different (remarkable when you think how few features we have!) should be accepted and celebrated, not made into the subject for cruel "humour". Why do people do it? What do you think?
Anyway, having just watched the last half hour of Phantom again, on plus one, it is time to settle down for the evening now! The rain has stopped but it's a bit late to go outside now really. I had better go as I can hear lots of hissing coming from behind the door and may need to seperate two fur balls if I don't break things up now!

A few photos and some thank you's

I've been busily working on new stamp designs since the weekend, so I'm a little late in posting these pictures I know. I have reached the stage where I have quite a few sketched designs that I am happy with and now comes the more painstaking process of drawing inked versions of them, then photocopying them and colouring the copies. As I've said before, I work better with a tight deadline, as I have this time, as it really does focus the mind!

This first photo is of part of my table at the demonstration weekend at Dawn Bibby's Studio. I was next to Jo who was using some beautiful glitters, Jane was behind her using the Melt Pot to create some very luscious cards that were just gorgeous. Back to back with me was Sarah, featuring Hero Arts and Craftwork Cards papers. In the other room, Brenda was cracker making and Mary was demonstrating how to use Dreamweaver stencils with paste. Jill was using Flower Soft to make some very tactile cards. Unfortunately both Dawn and Amy were poorly, so they weren't able to be there.
The next picture is of yours truly, looking like a real nutcase in my witches' hat! As you can see from the one after, the hat looked much better on little Aleysha who is the grandaughter of Rena (Dawn's sister). Doesn't she look cute in it, especially with the stripey tights! Well, I do try to get into the spirit of the seasonal events, even if I do make a fool of myself!

Next is a canvas that I made using Ranger paints and inks. You can see that I spent quite some time altering it and changing my mind about things as there is some brown ink coming through the paint in one area...I subsequently overpainted it to remove the odd looking spots!

Thanks to everyone who came along and especially my ATC "swappees"...yes....I actually swapped some this time! So, thanks to Joanne, Jacqui and Glen, Sheila, Suzanne, Sharon, Debs and especially to Angie, who also presented me with a lovely pin that she had made for me, as you can see here. Isn't it fabulous? Many thanks Angie, for such an unexpected and lovely gift.

On Saturday night I stayed over with Sarah and her lovely husband, Ewan, who is a chef. He made us a delicious Chicken Caesar salad and then went back in the kitchen to bake some scones - light as a feather! I also met Thumper the rabbit, who is awaiting a new name - what a cutie pie! Saffron and Poppy, Sarah's two cats, were not overly impressed by the floppy eared newcomer, but no fur flew!

On Sunday, after we had packed up and said our goodbyes to everyone, we travelled over to mum and dad's. Tara immediately hid under a low set of drawers where she could keep an eye on us all from a safe distance. She is settling in pretty quickly though and, after a while, when only David was in the rom, she came out to say hello. I managed to get a couple of snaps of her. As you can see, she is a very pretty girl and, although she looked very nervous when we picked her out at the sanctuary I can see that there is a very mischeivous look in those big eyes now!

Here she is, cheeky girl, sharing David's Choc Ice! Little minx! I'll keep you posted as to how she gets on - or how mum and dad get on I should say! I haven't met little Mia yet (my sister's teeny weeny kitten) but hope to see her soon.

I didn't realise until I was adding some tags to my older posts that Monday was the first anniversary of my blog! I can hardly believe it. As I keep saying, this year is just whizzing by. Well, I shall post again as soon as time allows and hopefully will have some more pictures to share with you again. Lindsay