Friday 24 December 2021

Happy Christmas!

 

Well here we are, It's Christmas Eve, and by now if I've not got everything needed, too bad, lol.

It's a lovely bright day here but very cold, quite a difference form yesterday, when it was foggy drizzle all day. Planning a wee walk later.

I just wanted to thank all my lovely followers for  all the visits and lovely comments that you leave throughout the year, I do appreciate your time and the encouragement you give. Thank you too for the beautiful Christmas cards that we've received from Blogging Friends, Lots of beautiful creations.

One of the things I enjoy about Christmas is the various films of  Dicken's A Christmas Carol, and right now I'm watching one that I've never seen before, with Albert Finney as Scrooge, it's a musical so  quite a bit different, and I have to say that Albert Finney makes a brilliant Scrooge, I could never see past Alistair Sim in the part, but maybe this one is my favourite.

Hopefully, this Christmas folks will be able to be with their loved ones, it was very difficult last year for many folks. I was reminded by my lovely friend Rita who sent a picture via Instagram of the soldiers in the trenches in the 1914 war, with the caption of This was Their Christmas Day, a stark reminder that for many Christmas can be a right off. The awful destruction in many countries by natural disasters where people are left homeless at best and dead loved ones at worst, will be no Christmas for them.  For many people Christmas is a sad and lonely time, so I always try to keep things in perspective and celebrate the fact that I can indeed spend time with my family, we have all we need, by comparison to others.

You know we haven't come that far along the road from Dicken's time, just a thought.

Have a wonderful Christmas, however you celebrate it, and let's hope that 2022 will be a much better year for all with Health and Happiness, and a light at the end of the tunnel regarding this pandemic. Take care of yourselves, keep safe and see you all in the New Year, I'm going to have a bit of a break from Blogger,



Monday 20 December 2021

Last Birthday of 2021!

Hello Everyone, I hope you are well and keeping yourself safe, this new Omicron is quite a worry as it's growing exponentially, and of course we all want to have Christmas with our families this year, wherever possible. So let's hope the general public behave themselves, use common sense and not follow the Clown from No. 10, but the Scientists' recommendations.

I have my final birthday card for the year to show you today, it's a male card for a friend's hubby,


 All of the stamps are from a Creative Stamping magazine earlier in the year.  I found some cogs in my stash and thought they would look good as an embellishment, I also found a stencil with cogs and coloured with DO, finishing up with some grey gem things.

Word has it the recipient was very pleased, that of course makes my happy.

Thank you once again for all the lovely comments you leave, especially taking the time at this very busy season.

That's all for today, I'll be back on Christmas Eve, to post my final card of the year, take care everyone,



Thursday 16 December 2021

Deer in the Forest!

Hello Blogging Friends and Visitors, I hope you are well and getting through your preparations for the Festive Season.  It's mainly just food that I need to concentrate on, but can't get that too early.

We are going to spend the Day with Damian and Moreen, so I don't need to do the cooking although I do make the soup, so it will be a bit of a surprise what Christmas Dinner will be as it will be vegetarian, but we have always enjoyed what was served and I have no doubts that this year will be as good. Alistair and I will have a more traditional dinner later in the week....although scaled down lol.

Thank you so much for the lovely comments from you on my last card, I really do appreciate them.

Here is my card for today,


I'm not sure where this lovely deer die is from, perhaps The Works or Hobby Craft. I've embossed a piece of blue card with a JND embossing folder and added little clear gems. Glitter card and a sentiment from Clearly Besotted, quite a simple card really.

Living quietly here, especially as my Aqua classes have now stopped till after the new year, but we drove to Ardsier this morning to have a walk by the see, it was cold though and the water was so grey and a bit wild, still the cobwebs got blown away. Anyhoo, time for some lunch now, so I'll say cheerio for now, hope you all stay safe,






Thursday 9 December 2021

Sharing Hot Chocolate!

 Hello there Blogging Friends and Visitors, I hope you are well and keeping cosy.

Well, the Christmas decorations are are all going up in our little caul de sac, so I've warned Alistair that he's on outside light duty on Saturday. We have a sort of tree/bush in the front garden and it gets lights wrapped around it each year. One household had there fabulous icicle lights around their house before December, mind you they has two children, but one by one other house hold are putting their trees and lights up. I love it, and it goes back to when my Mum was dying and I travelled back and forth from hospice to her home where I was staying at the time, feeling devastated and with tears streaming down my face, but I was noticing all these outside decorations of Santa stuck down chimneys, reindeers, gnomes whatever all lit up, and I have to say it got me through such a sad time, so ever since I've just loved all these houses that light up like Blackpool Illuminations, and if I could I would have more outside, but I just enjoy whatever the neighbours do. I know they are not everyone's cup of tea, but I think when thing aren't so good we need some magical lights. 

This was all back in 2004, but it still feels like yesterday, and it's coming up to both my Mum and Alistair's brother Jim's Anniversary, so it's a thoughtful time for us.

Anyhoo, here with another Christmas card,


This comes from a pad of decoupage papers that I bought from The Range, the brand is Deco Time, cute, whimsical characters in it. A simple wee card, and I just added some gold card and gems, with a little glitter.

I've had a day indoors trying to get some Christmas knitting done, and thankfully it's been quite a bright day so the light was fine, some days it's so dark, hopefully I'll get things finished to get them wrapped up for gifts.

Just to say before I sign off thank you for the lovely comments on my previous post, I really do appreciate them.

Cheerio for now, keep yourselves safe, and see you again,



Sunday 5 December 2021

Christmas Cheer for the CCC!

 Hello Everyone, I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the weekend. Is everyone on top of the Christmas prep? I'm pretty well sorted, well thankfully I've not that much to do. All cards are made, written and stamped.....what a price postage is now and I think it's making quite a few folks rethink sending card now, don't blame them at all. I was wrapping some of the gifts this afternoon, so only the family ones to do now.

Anyhoo, it's the final Christmas Card Club challenge  for this year, and this time our Sylvia has chosen the theme with is Anything goes, so I've chosen a couple of fabulous digital images from Beccy's Place,



  These images are from the Christmas Cheer collection and are already coloured, so I only added paper, card, sparkle and Glossy Accents. There is something about hot chocolate that just cheers the soul I think. Occasionally I treat myself to a Costa's Gingerbread Latte when I'm out at the shops, and the cream is topped with a little gingerbread man biscuit, delicious!!, though it shoots my blood sugar up, but you have to live, lol'

Anyway Sylvie I hope these will do, and thank you for the challenge, I really enjoyed creating these cards.

Well, that's me for now, I'm going to schedule my post to go live tomorrow when the challenge is up.

Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post, I very much appreciate them.

Take care of yourselves as this now variation of the virus is taking hold, I hope you are triple jabbed by now,


   


Sunday 28 November 2021

Home for the Holidays!

 Hello Everyone, I hope your weekend is going well whatever you're doing. Fairly quiet one for us, just catching up on bits and pieces. I've been trying to look up recipes for pickling beetroot, simply. There's loads of recipes with lots of ingredients, like juniper berries, various herbs, not my usual cupboard stock, so that's mission for today.

We have started getting an organic veg box delivered and the produce is wonderful, it's a pot-luck box, and of course what's in season, so you never know just what you're going to get. So I'm learning about now veggies for us and how to cook them, hence the beetroot. What a difference in taste compared to the supermarket bought stuff.

Anyway, I have a card today;


This is a fabulous image from Beccy's Place called Home for the Holidays digital sheet. , As it's already coloured I just added Glossy Accents, glitter and  enamelled dots. I just love these little gingerbread men.
Thank you so much for the lovely comments on my last post, I always appreciated you taking the time to pop in and leave your comment.
Well we had some snow last night, not much but very cold, and thankfully Inverness escaped the awful high winds, we seem to be sheltered because of the mountains, but some areas were really badly hit, with power loss for hours, so we are lucky here. I hope you were all okay and no damage done.
That's me for now, remember to keep yourself safe especially as there is now another Covid variant reached our shores, really very worrying, Cheerio for now,

 


Wednesday 24 November 2021

Girl with Roses!

 Hello to You All, I hope everyone is well, but for those who are not, here's a Hug.

Very cold today and the rain was like shards of ice, through sunshine too, odd weather, even the water at my aqua class wasn't all that warm, but then I had a lovely cosy afternoon knitting and watching the new Wheel of Time drama on Amazon Prime. I indulged as Alistair was away up a hill.

Thank you so much for the lovely comments on my Angel card for the CCC, I appreciate every comment and the time it takes to visit me.

I have a coloured page today,


This lovely images is from one of Grazia Salvo's books,


I've coloured her with Prismacolor pencils, and white Posca pen for highlights. I decided not to do a background as I thought she looked just lovely on her own.

Well this is just a quick post tonight, so I'll say cheerio and see you soon,



Saturday 20 November 2021

Fairies or Angels for the CCC!

 Hello Everyone from a very icy cold and wet Inverness. Hope you are having better weather where you are.

Here we are again showing our makes for the Christmas Card Club Challenge, and this one is a rather sad one as the theme was chosen by Shaz who sadly passed away at the beginning of the year. She has been very much missed by our little group. Shaz was wonderfully creative and always ready to answer crafty questions and give help. So we will be very much remembering Shaz with this theme of Fairies or Angels.


I've only managed one card this time, Fairies and angels I'm rather short of, anyhoo, this lovely image as a LOTV  one and I've water coloured it with Altenew metallic paints. The sentiment is from Little Claire, and the paper in the background is a Crafter Companion one, them I just added a few gems and a bow.  So this one is for you Shaz.

Thank you for your lovely comments on my last post, as ever I appreciate the,

I'm having trouble loading up posts from my reading list, I can get some but not all of them. So annoying, I noticed this yesterday and thought it was my laptop, but I'm seeing that some of you are experiencing the same problem. I've sent feedback to Blogger, but I don't expect an answer any time soon if at all. So, please don't think I have stopped commenting on your blogs, it's just that I can't at them moment. Blogger has been tinkered with so much over the last few years, it's so frustration, and it's not for the better.

Perhaps blogging is getting fazed out for other platforms, I don't do FB as I like to put wee stories of our lives ,and I think FB is too open and all and sod can see what you post. I only used it for the coloured pages I do on the artists page. Anyway, we'll see what happens.

That's me for now, hope you are having a good weekend, see you soon,



Sunday 14 November 2021

Floral Mandala!

 Hello Everyone, I hope you are having a good weekend and that your weather is good. We have a beautiful day here, very sunny and warm. Alistair was laughing at me for wearing sunglasses whilst I was cleaning the blinds, but the sun was so strong through the windows that my eyes were smarting, the glasses only helped a little, still I got that chore done, it's waited a long time lol.

Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post, I do appreciate each and every one of them.

I have a  coloured page this time around, 


This page is from a Jade Summer book called Intricate Flowers and I've used Staedtler Ergosoft pencils and added a few bits of glitter.
Here's the lovely book the page is from, and it was given to me for my birthday by my friend Mrs Duck, it's the first page I've coloured up, so I must get more done.
Well, that's all from me today, just a short post, so I'll say cheerio for now and see you later in the week, keep yourselves safe, still loads of covid out there,



 

Wednesday 10 November 2021

These Boots Were Made For Walking!

 Hello to You All, I hope all is good and that everyone had a lovely weekend.

We enjoyed our weekend and our meal out at the Turkey Restaurant, but what an awful night it was weather wise, freezing cold and battering rain. Since it had been such a long time that we had been out at night, I thought I would dress up a bit and looked out good trousers and a lovely blouse. What I ended going out dressed in was a heavy jumper warm trouser, gortex bots and my big rain jacket, and I was still cold, anyway that's by  the by, it was still a lovely night.

I have Alistair's birthday card tonight,


Using the boots stamp from the same Creative Stamping magazine as my previous cards, this time I heat embossed in WOW gold powder and coloured with DI and embossed boot prints in gold on to red card. Alistair loved it as he likes bright colours. I've certainly had mileage out of these stamps.

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my posts, they are always so appreciated.

That's me for now, take care everyone and see you soon,



Sunday 7 November 2021

Christmas Wreath or Anything Goes for the CCC!

Hello Blogging Friends and Visitors, I hope everyone is well. Here we are at another weekend, and another Christmas Card Club Challenge, the two weeks since our last one has flown by. 

This time Christine has chosen Christmas Wreaths, or if you can't manage that, there is always Anything Goes. A lovely theme Christine, here is what I've managed;


 This lovely card is made with die cuts from a book of die cut sheets from The Works and I've added a bit of sparkle, black card and LOTV kraft paper.


This card was made with some very old stash. Do you remember Anita products, well this was one of those die cute sheets, decoupaged up, a few gems and black card and glitter. The sentiment if from Creative Stamping magazine.


Card-io stamps are used on this card. I hadn't used Card-io stamps for ages, but after seeing the beautiful cards Marianne Fisher made using similar stamps I had a boost of inspiration, so thank you Marianne. I've added a few gems and glitter.

Thank you Christine for your challenge, I really enjoyed it.

Well, we've had some very heavy sleet showers today, and it was so dark, it was good to be indoors. I hope your weather is better where ever you are. I hope it all settles down before we go out tonight.

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my last card, and birthday wishes for Alistair, he had a good birthday, enjoyed all the gifts, cards and sweeties. I'll post his card another day.

That's me for now, going to schedule this post for tomorrow for when the CCC goes live. Keep safe everyone and see you soon,


 

Wednesday 3 November 2021

Anniversary Card!

Hello Everyone, can you believe it's mid week already??? Anyhoo, I hope your week's going well for you. We are much colder up here and it's to be down to zero tonight, and there seems to be snow on the way for some Scottish areas over the next few days. Mind you we don't get the same amount of snow that we got when I was a child, which lasted for days and that was down in Central Scotland, goodness knows what it was like in the Highlands.

I've spent the afternoon making an Anniversary card for Alistair, we will be 26years married tomorrow.


I've used another stamp from Creative Stamping Magazine, the same set that the image for Derek's card came from. I wanted to keep the card quite simple, so only coloured the water with coloured pencils, black and silver card, and a sentiment from Inkylicious. I think this is such a lovely sentiment and so true.

We are going out for a lunch tomorrow to a lovely hotel that we like very much, so no cooking in the evening for me yeah!! Then on Friday it's Hubby's birthday, but not going out for that, but on Saturday we hare having a Turkish meal with a bunch of friends. We have a lovely Turkish restaurant here in Inverness, and it will be just lovely to do something like this after so long not going anywhere at night.  

Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post. Alistair gave Derek his card and socks today, but he didn't open them, well his birthday isn't till tomorrow.

So, that's me for now, time for a cuppa and an apple turnover and settle down for Shetland. Take care for yourselves and I hope to be back soon,


 

Sunday 31 October 2021

About the Journey an the Socks!

Hello Everyone, I hope your weekend has been a good one and your weather has been better than ours. Rain and more rain. Even Teallach is fed up with it, a quick dash our for business and back in. 

Alistair has had is flu and covid jabs on Saturday, and apart from two painful arms, all is well, he was awfully tired though and kept dropping off to sleep, He's fine today though.

 I've a birthday card for Alistair's friend Derek which is later on in the week, a day before Alistair's birthday in fact,

Derek is a walker so the stamps from a Creative Stamping magazine the other year were just perfect for his card. A simple design which was inspired by the magazine. A DI background and a bit of masked stamping.

I knitted him some socks too, though they won't do for walking,


 I hope he'll like them, they'll certainly be cosy.

Thank you for your continued visits and lovely comments, I appreciate you all so much for the time you take.

That's me for now, time to get the kettle on and my feet up, take care of yourselves and see you soon,



 

Wednesday 27 October 2021

The Snowman and the Snow Dog!

 Hello Everyone, I hope you're all well and having a good week. I can hardly believe that we are mid week already, the time is sure flying by.

Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my Christmas cards, I always appreciate them.

I've got another Christmas card today, and for those who have been following me for quite some time will know that I always make  a "The Snowman" card for my friend Fiona, here's this years creation,


A long time ago, before I even knew Fiona, I'd bought a whole collection of the Snowman from Crafter's Companion , with lots of papers, die cuts, cards and stamps, it must have been fate nudging Fiona and I to meet up, lol. She frames all of the cards, which is just lovely, anyhoo I hope she likes this one as much as the others. Sorry not the best of photos.

I had my covid booster on Monday and boy what a sore arm I've had since, I can hardly lift my arm up, however I'm sure it will lessen off soon, just glad to have got it. Alistair is going for both the flu and covid jab on Saturday, so that will be us all sorted. I never did get the results of my PRC  test, just as well I was okay.

Well, that's me for tonight, and getting settled down to watch Shetland, just love Douglas Henshall and of course the lovely scenery of the Shetland Isles. Take care and keep safe,



Sunday 24 October 2021

Santa's Little Helpers or Anything Goes for the CCC!

Hello to You All, I hope you are having a good weekend whatever your plans are.

Alistair has been away sailing for a couple of days, so it been quiet here, it's been lovely.

Well it's time once again for the Christmas Card Club to show their cards and this time it's been Margaret's choice which is Santa's Little Helpers or Anything Goes.

I opted for Anything Goes as I ha no elves, I did have Gnomes, but they are not the same and I think Gnomes just do their own thing. Anyhoo, here's what I've come up with, first is Santa,


This is a very old Papermania topper, so Santa is checking his list and hopefully his little helpers have got everything in his sack, next up,


This little topper is by Geko Galz, it's cutie and I've teamed it with pretty paper and black and gold card, Now we have,


Another Geko Galz topper. I love this one with the two elderly Gnomes sitting chewin the fat have a smoke of their pipes and chillin out in the equivalent of a man shed, in Gnome terms, I've just matted and layered and added a few gems.  I hope they will do Margaret, I enjoyed making them.

Finally, here's a cheeky wee face looking in the window,


This is Meg from next door, sitting on Teallach's chair and having a nosey in. She is always around and if the door is open she comes in and makes a beeline for Teallach's toys, she's a wee sweetie but a vicious hunter. Teallach keeps a wide berth of her.

So, that's me for now, remember to check out the other CCC girls cards. Thank you for all your lovely comments, Cheerio for now,





Tuesday 19 October 2021

Jellyfish Birthday!

Hello Everyone, I hope all goes well with you. October is fairly settled in now, up here anyway, and unfortunately today is a damp dreich day, having to put lights on, not desperately cold though. However, according to the Daily Record, a Scottish newspaper, Scotland has to be plummeted in temperature and with snow. Not, that anything this particular paper can ever be believed, but we'll see. 

I have a birthday card for a young man, 

I've used a stamp from the Creative Stamping magazine, I liked the jellyfish image and stamped and heat embossed it with WOW opaque white powder, and then added Pixi Powders and spritzed them with water. Added some similar gel pens to parts of the image and a dash line along the edge. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

Not much on the news front, been living quietly, getting on with my knitting, trying to get socks done for Alistair's two friends. Awaiting needles to arrive, I thought I had every size of knitting needles, until I went in search of No. 5, I have 5.5,4.5, but no 5, and they are difficult to find. This is for a hat for a friend for Christmas, so I hope I can find them, as I'm a slow knitter.

Anyhoo, bored you enough, so it's lunch time so off to find food, take care and keep safe, and see you soon,



  
 

Wednesday 13 October 2021

Fairy House!

 Hello to Everyone, mid week already, I don't know where the last few days have gone.

I hope everyone is well and still managing to keep safe.

Would you believe I still have had no test results!!, I've even phoned to find out why and was told that they would resend my details and hurry it along.....I can only conclude that the test has been lost.

Really not good enough, if I had still been working, I would have needed the results to show to my employer, and the thought of a perhaps covid swab roaming around is just frightening. However, I've used a Lateral Flow test and I'm negative, which I was pretty sure I was anyway, So I,m going out tomorrow, I've been in for 10 days, well I did go into the garden, so Alistair is treating me to a lunch.Yeah!!

Thanks to everyone who commented on my CCC cards, and a warm welcome to Alison who has clicked my follow button, I hope you will continue to pop in when you can.

I have a Fairy House today;


From Johanna Basford's World of Flowers and coloured with Prismacolours, and a bubbles stencil in the background, with DI.


Well, that's me for now, take care of yourselves and see you soon,




Sunday 10 October 2021

Snowmen/Snow Families or Anything Goes for the CCC!

 Hello Everyone, I hope you are having a good weekend.

Autumn is really settling in now up here, my favourite season, the colours are just stunning and I'm always happier in winter clothing, so I've pulled out all the warm gear and put the summer togs away.

I've had plenty of time to do this is I was pinged on Wednesday by the Scottish Protect and Trace app. so I'm half way through the isolation period and have had my PCR test, though no result yet. I've been wracking my brain to think where I could have been in close contact with anyone for more than 15 minutes, I can only come up with my Aqua class. I feel absolutely fine, no symptoms, so hopefully the test will be negative. 

Alistair has been doing the shopping armed with a carefully written out list, Teallach was concerned that Alistair would come back with Chum rather than Felix lol.

Anyway, it's giving me time to catch up with chores, well both of us really, as although Alistair doesn't need to isolate, he decided not to go walking or sailing, just in case he compromised his friends.I was quite shocked to be pinged after having kept myself safe for so long.

Anyhoo, it's time for the Christmas Card Club to show off their latest cards and it's been yours' truly who has chosen the theme. Snowmen and or Snow Families, of course there's always Anything Goes as well.

Here is what I've made;




Everyone will recognise these LOTV digital prints, I've just added gems and sparkle.


Another LOTV image but this time coloured with Prismacolours, lots of sparkle and Glossy Accents on the little hearts. Last one;


Crafty Individuals this time and I've coloured it with Gel Pens of various makes, added gems and a few Christmas Floral die cuts in gold glitter paper. I have to say I enjoyed using the gel pens,

Well, that's my little lot, remember to look out for the other CCC girls makes, their cards are always fabulous.

Sorry I'm late in getting this posted, should have been up first thing this morning, but I was still making the cards, anyway better late than never.

Alistair is now back with the shopping, brilliant job done, everything on the list, and Teallach was happy as his favourite Felix Doubly Delicious Fish was purchased lol.

That's me for now, keep safe and hope I'll see you soon,




Monday 4 October 2021

Sleepy Fox!

 Hello Everyone, I hope your weekend was a good one and that you are well.

We are fairly settling into October up here, much colder, although today is sunny, and I should be out planting the rest of my bulbs, but after my aqua class I'm really tired. I've already had forty winks on the sofa lol. Must ge cracking on with the chores tomorrow.

Thank you for your kind words on my last post, they are much appreciated.

I have a Christine Karran page today,


I thought this picture was so cute I just had to buy the PDF on Christine's Etsy store. Coloured with Prismacolours with a bit of glitter on the moon.

I am a bit disappointed with the night sky, should have been darker, or perhaps I should have used a different medium, never mind I still like it.

Just a short post today, so I'll say cheerio for now, keep yourselves safe,