Sunday 29 July 2012

Still Going (Just!)

I seem to have spent much of the last week and most of this weekend dealing with a seemingly never-ending stream of technical problems, but thanks to Himself and a couple of hugely long phone calls to IT-type people, all seems to be behaving itself AT THE MOMENT!!!! *crosses fingers, toes, eyes, ears, etc* I've even got myself a shiny new printer which I haven't done much playing with yet. 

At least during the lull in technology-useage I was able to keep making things and I have now added round tags and oval embellishments to the Crafty Mushroom line:





I plan to spend the next few weeks restocking my Etsy shop, which has been sadly neglected.  And I'm even considering bringing in *whisper* Christmas products, but I'll wait until the beginning of August for that!

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend. Poor Himself has gone for a lie-down in a darkened room after all the technology stress.  I'm going to get as much work done as I can while it's all behaving!!!

Monday 23 July 2012

More Technology Tantrums!

Thank you for the kind comments on my last post; I'm pleased to report that the Cat is, for the moment, feeling better.  Less so the technology.  In fact, who would have thought that if you disconnect a dead printer your wireless broadband stops working?? It's enough to make one tear one's hair out in frustration! Anyway, enough of my moaning! Life goes on, as does crafting!



Handy notepads, in which to make lists of things needing fixed, etc!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend (mine involved a night out at a 30th birthday party and watching the Golf Open on telly!) and that you have a happy crafty week ahead :)

Friday 20 July 2012

Aborted Craft Afternoon

It never rains but it pours, doesn't it? (Probably not the best useage of a cliched saying at the mo!!) Yesterday I was all set for an afternoon of crafting, and, in particular, a commissioned card.  I put some new ink cartridges in my printer, pressed the button to print, the paper churned through - and came out blank.  I muttered under my breath and tried again.  And again.  Still nothing. I muttered more loudly and decided to fall back on the usually-failsafe-huffing-technology remedy of switch it off, wait a moment, then switch it back on again. The result? Nowt. Zilch. Nada. Unresponsive.  Not even a power light.  My printer had peacefully died.  Then the cat was sick.  Several times.  I wanted to cry.  There wasn't even any chocolate in the house with which to console myself. My crafting afternoon turned into a farce.

I shouldn't really complain.  The printer was given to me at no cost by a kind crafty friend and it's provided me with a few years of  loyal service.  I just hate being without it because I rely on it so much in my cardmaking.  Ho hum.  At least I don't need a printer in order to make things like these notecards:


or these little post-it books:


Today I've been determined not to let things get me down.  I've taken the sick, grumpy cat to the vets, ordered a copy of  "Fifty Shades..." to see what all the fuss is about, and bought lots of chocolate.  And NOW I'm going to have that afternoon of crafting!!

Sunday 15 July 2012

Miracles May Never Cease!

Yesterday the sun shone and there was blue sky for approx .00000025679 of a second; luckily, Himself and I were able to take advantage of this miracle by dashing to South Queensferry, where yet another phenomenon occurred - the Forth Rail Bridge didn't have any scaffolding covering and disfiguring it for about the first time since 1899!! (or thereabouts) So excited was I by these two sensational occurrences, I had to whip my camera out and capture the occasion for posterity!


We took a walk along the coast until the rain began again in earnest, and then dived into The Rail Bridge for a spot of tiffin, whereupon Himself's lip, which had been pierced by the proboscis of some pesky biting insect, swelled to fifty times the size, giving him a whopper of a trout pout! Luckily, the effect was only temporary.

Today we ventured forth like idiots into the rain once again; this time our destination was Polkemmet Country Park, where we took a very pleasant woodland walk and investigated a rather large sculpture called The Horn.


This monstrosity is visible when driving along the adjacent motorway and I've always assumed it served some important purpose.  But it doesn't.  It's just a large horn.  Note the murky sky, a downpour was just beginning.  We cut short our day of adventure to race home and eat sushi, which, as always, was a fantabulous experience!

All this gallavanting has meant a dearth of crafting, but I have managed to fulfill a commission - a baby girl card and an engagement card for a lady who only a week ago ordered a baby girl card and an engagement card! Her friends have obviously been very busy!






Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I hope a fab crafty week lies ahead for all!





Monday 9 July 2012

Blah!

Rain...blah! Tennis...blah! Mojo gone awol...blah! Yup, it's all been a bit blah around here lately and even my experiments with making stickers haven't gone well; the adhesive paper I printed my designs onto is very thin and the resulting stickers are too flimsy and it takes 100 hours and many cursings to peel the backs off, so it's back to the drawing board with that idea! Oh well, if at first you don't succeed..... It did take Edison 10000 attempts to make a lightbulb (or thereabouts) so I'm not going to let a few sticker-related hitches get me down!!

Couple of commissioned cards to show:



Hope your weekends were not filled with blah and that you have a blah-free week ahead! :)

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Greenness Galore

I think a light, fresh green is fast taking over from pink as my favourite colour.  There certainly seems to have been a lot of it in my life this week.


On a trip to Ikea I found myself purchasing a lot of bright green items, such as this cushion, a bathmat, washing-up brush and plastic storage boxes with green lids!


I've also tried my mum's trick of buying cheap plants and hoping that with a lot of TLC they will turn out wonderfully! Only problem is, I don't have my mum's green-fingers when it comes to this sort of thing!


And with a combination of damp, humid weather and the height of the weeds in the no-man's-land behind my house, I'm beginning to feel as if I'm living in a tropical rain forest (albeit quite a few degrees cooler!)

The only diversion from my new green obsession has been the addition of a bit of pink and purple in my latest batch of owl embellishments!


What is your favourite colour at the moment?