Becki’s Ramblings

I haven’t mentioned the wonderful ladies on the Crafts Beautiful forum yet. Such a friendly bunch, and soooooo talented too! The forum is based around all things crafty, but I tend to spend most of my time browsing and joining in with the card-making posts. I find the links to other crafters’ blogs inspirational, and find myself quite humbled by just how clever other people are with their crafts. On days when I’m lacking in “oomph” I find there’s always something on there to give me a kick into starting creating again - so, if you’re reading, girls, thank you so very much!

Here are a couple of ATCs I made for the Crafts Beautiful forum’s March swap. I have never made ATCs before, but found that I thoroughly enjoyed myself doing these. The theme was “Oriental”. The butterfly one I called “Butterfly Dreams”, and the pretty one with the blossom and the parasol is called “Cherry Blossom Breeze”.

I used an oriental script paper that I printed off from the Card Creations Plus “Platinum” CD-Rom, together with  elements from a couple of Paper Nation Decoupage Sheets. I then embellished these using Sakura Stardust and clear Glaze pens and added some iridescent flowers and gems. The butterfly had his wings curled and then raised with 3D foam pads, and the edges of the ATCs were inked with co-ordinating pigment inkpads (I have some wonderful cheap ones that are ideal for this - from Tesco, of all places!). I’m so pleased with how they turned out and am starting to understand why the craze has taken off in such a big way.

Yaay!! It snowed today! Only a flurry or two, and it only lasted for a short while, but it snowed!! Sooooo pretty..

Beautiful sunshine for the rest of the day, though it was blowing a gale and absolutely freezing. I’ve had a rotten headache for most of the day, so I tried to sit outside with a cup of tea in the hope that the fresh air would do me good. Too fresh by far - I lasted about five minutes before retreating to the warmth and shelter of my conservatory. Not hardy enough for that kind of temperature, however sunny it might have been.

Alan’s in Wales, on a course. I won’t get to see him until next week and I’m missing him like mad. To add insult to injury, the meeting he was supposed to have had this morning, which prevented him from coming over last night, was cancelled at the eleventh hour. Not impressed! Thank goodness for mobile phones and the ability to text.

Rosie’s been funny today, sitting at my bedroom door WILLING it to open so she can snuggle on my featherbed. Trying to be a magician cat, Alan said. You can just imagine her trying, “Open Sesamiaow!” She’s given up now and is asleep on the ottoman downstairs. Here’s a picture of my gorgeous little girl - in the garden, looking up at a hot air balloon that went over last summer:

Not had the time to write anything here for a few days. Alan came up on Friday afternoon - we sat and crafted together for a couple of hours, which was great. It is nice to have someone to craft with, even if I don’t have much energy to spend long.. Rosie wandered around the dining room like a little lost soul, miaowing and pawing at bits of paper we had dropped, before finally “flumping” onto the floor in disgust at not being cuddled, and going to sleep. Poor girl! She’s been so used over the last year to having me to sit with her all the time that now I am able to potter a bit more she feels abandoned. We made it up to her by sitting on the sofa later on, cuddling her. She loves Alan to bits and always seems to prefer his lap to mine. I try not to take it personally!

I’ve been doing more sorting-out of my stash. Reading through one of Alan’s “Let’s Make Cards” I came across a tip for storing ribbons. It suggested coiling the ribbons and then clipping each coil together with a tiny peg. I’ve got loads of those pegs and never have used any of them for carding, so this seemed ideal. I’d already collected all my ribbons together in a rather pretty octagonal tin, and now it’s even more organised than before. Hmmmm…. Am I a storage junkie I wonder? Ahem.. Next question!

Here’s the Mother’s Day card I finally finished for Mum last week.

I couldn’t get my head around what to do for ages, my original plans of something gilded and opulent just WOULDN’T come together. I need to spend more time just crafting for the sake of it, rather than just carding when I need to send something out. Hopefully as my energy levels increase I will be able to do more playing..

This is the card I made for Uncle Tony’s 75th birthday. I’m really pleased with it..

 

Ooh, I’ve felt better today! Yesterday I had a horrible headache and the shivers - thought I was coming down with a bug of some kind - but today I feel great. Had a good night’s sleep last night, which helps.

I’ve finally finished the card I was making and I’ll post some photos of it tomorrow. Next project is Mother’s Day (can’t believe I’ve left it this late!). I feel something pink and opulent coming on.  Maybe some scrunch-embossing if I can get it to look right..

Alan and I are looking endlessly at estate agents’ websites. I rang one agent today. only to find that the house we had seen was, in fact, sold. Another amazing-looking one is so in need of modernisation it is unmortgageable - no bathroom at present. Hmph! Ah well, our dream house is out there, we’ll just have to keep looking. It’s so exciting to plan and dream….

I decided that I couldn’t keep all the wedding magazines and brochures we got from the wedding fair on Sunday. Yesterday, I spent a happy hour or so cutting out pictures that I wanted to keep, and I’ll start putting together a Wedding Ideas scrapbook. Then I can recycle the rest.

There’s an Ideal World Craft Day on tonight and tomorrow. I’m broke so decided to avoid the temptation and have been TIDYING my stash. One of my friends has very kindly donated all her - empty, sadly - chocolate and biscuit tins from Christmas. Is my obsession with storage really so obvious? I’ve been having a great time organising and reorganising various crafty bits and pieces, and finding just the right box / tin to store them in. Aren’t Chinese takeaway tubs useful? Our local one uses plastic ones, rather than the foil and cardboard that most places seem to do - amazing for putting away little bits and pieces, and see-through too. Bonus!

We went to our first wedding fair today! Got there really late ’cause I was having one of my tired days and couldn’t wake up properly this morning - so lots of the stands were closing as we went round, but there were some fantastic ideas!

I’m now brimming with ideas for flowers (do I have the confidence to try doing these myself? I want to have silk so can do them ages before the Big Day..) and for jewellery (again, I want to make my own). I tried on some gorgeous tiaras and one amazing contraption that was really more of a fascinator than a tiara, all teal feathers and twisty spirals of silver wire - just GORGEOUS!!!! Couldn’t look at the wedding dresses for ideas though, the display was at the top of some steps and there were too many for Alan to try to haul my wheelchair up so I could look. Events organisers - please remember that ladies in wheelchairs get married too!!

The rain set in this evening so Alan left to go home at about seven. He has an hour and a half’s drive home and a very early start in the morning for work. It seems really strange when he’s not here. Rosie (my cat) and I snuggled on the sofa after he’d gone and I was treated to the best of her “mummy I love you” purring. Made me feel much better..

Wow. A whole empty blog page all for me! How exciting!!!

It’s almost ten days since Alan asked me to marry him - I’ll certainly never forget my thirty-ninth birthday! No exact plans yet, but we’re thinking in terms of may next year for The Big Day. I can’t wait!! I’ve been married before, once. Briefly. And a VERY long time ago. This feels totally different and how wonderful it is knowing I’ve finally found The One.
 
I’m SO looking forward to all the planning and preparing. We’re waiting longer than we would have really liked because, with me having M.E., we never quite know how much I’m going to be able to do or cope with from day to day. This way, we should be able to get everything organised in a much more relaxed fashion. And I’ll have time to make the dress. Oooh - I can hardly sit still, I’m so excited!

Times of change all round. My house has been sold, so I don’t know how long I’ll be here for. And not a hundred percent sure where I’m going to go, which is an interesting prospect. Alan and I have been looking at estate agents’ websites but I would doubt we will be able to get anything in time to move in when this is sold. Interesting problem to solve.. Ah well. Flexibility - that’s the key.

I’m going to put up a picture of the Valentine’s Day card I made for Alan. It turned out really well and I’m very proud of it. This way I can look at it whenever I want, even when it’s no longer on the mantelpiece. The thumbnail has chopped off the top and bottom of the card, so you need to click on it to see it properly.