WOYWW - Cheating Again!!!

Well, that week went by  like the clappers which means I only have another and two days before mum is whisked off in a puff of smoke and lands here in her new home!!! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For those who are in the dark, please see my previous post. Yep, mum is coming to live with us... eeekkk, frightening...!!! So what do I have for your delectation this week, chez Julia at Stamping Ground...?? well it's this...

 And the cupboard was bare!!! We have stored the stuff in the boxes and the men are coming on Wednesday dinner time to take the furniture etc off to storage. The top, middle cupboard is a booze cupboard, with a dropleaf door... the booze is now relegated to the garage!!! Gulp!!

Standing in the doorway, this is the view into the room, with yet another empty cupboard... to your right, but out of shot, is the previous cupboard...  So this is my workspace this week, getting the room cleared and making room for new stuff, coming on Thursday... Those eagle eyed amongst you will spot my Misty "Fluffy" cat - the grey one of the kittens I thought would die cos of his poorly back legs... just look at him!!! Big fluffy lump!!! He thinks he is staying in here, but I am about to disabuse him!!!

Well that is it for today. Not much crafting done, I'm afraid, but I WILL get to it soon, when I have done a few more phone calls, filled in more forms and sorted more stuff!!!... please keep sending those great vibes to keep me going, I can feel them and really appreciate it...
Love and Light
Frankie
xx

A New Direction

Hi All... thanks for popping over. I won't keep you long, but just want to share with you some news.... Many of you will know that I have had issues with the care of my mum recently, and went up to sort things out last week... well, she can no longer live at home because she is too confused, so I decided to have her live here with Freddie and myself...

It's such a big step, and is quite frightening, however I can't face putting her in a home, and must try to care for her here. I am trying to get some help with that, as I am not brilliant myself, and all that begins on 2nd December!! I love her dearly, but she should not be in this position, and I managed to get her present doctor to agree that fitting a pacemaker to a lady in her condition was unwise!! I shall be following that up in the weeks to come!!

Meanwhile, I am sure I will get into a reasonable routine so that I can craft as much as I can... we are busy stripping my dining room and putting furniture into store, and getting new stuff for her. I am hoping she will be comfortable, but will not linger too long, because her life now has little of the quality one would wish for her.

So that's my news, dear readers and followers. I would love you to send us some positive vibes to start us down this path, and shortly I will share with you that card I made for the fragrant Freddie's birthday...
Love and Light
Frankie
xx

WOYWW - Oh Dear... Oh Dear

Do you remember the yellow pages ad when the girl followed the lad into his grotty flat, and said the imortal line "you don't want to see what they have done with your bathroom!!!"  ?? He was, of course, simply untidy.... well you don't want to see what they did in my craft room!!! It's been done over I think -

 OMG!!! What a dreadful slutty crafter I am... sorry you had to see this... and all courtesy of the wonderful Julia at Stamping Ground... I am truly ashamed, but it is really never far from being like this, actually!!!! I have been doing birthday cards, one for Matthew for Monday, and this one for Tim, my son, for Tuesday... so that's my sort of excuse!!! Lots of opportunity for spying though... wonder what will take your fancy?? will it be the chompers, or the TH florals. the glass mat or what??

Here is the card up closer. It is an ordinary easel card. You can just notice my punches station at top right, and lots of other stuff. I WILL get straight, I do promise, but just now life is too busy!!! As you read this on Wednesday morning (perhaps!!) I will be on my way to see my mum and have a VERY important meeting about her future... REALLY scary. Daughter is going with me, as I am bound to get upset and she can keep me straight!!! They will tell me she has to go into a home - why did they fit a pace maker for her just to sit and be demented?? Unfair... and very upsetting...

Ah well... I shall show you the Fragrant Freddie's card later in the week, and I am also late again with my TIO tag... it's Oriental this week, so I shall want to do it, but I just can't craft quickly enough at the moment!!! I am healing quite well, and Miranda is now weight bearing, so things are looking up a bit, but not for my poor old mum... please think about us!!!
Love and Light
Frankie
xx
PS just found out I was chosen at Simon Says Stamp and Show, again last week!!! Yippee, it is great news on a dismal day... I am totally chuffed!!
F xx

A Tag for TIO

Well, better late than never, is all I can say... but I have managed a tag for DragonsDream Tag It On this week, even though it should have been done by Wednesday last!!! I have been so busy and so Seasonal Ajustment Disorderly!!! as well as still not having much thumb use... and Freddie's card finally got finished and he loved it... so I shall show you that another day.

 So, the theme is romance because the film title is "Letters To Juliet"... lots of scope there for people to go to town on all aspects of the theme... My DreamTeam did a splendid job, all round, and I love what they have made. I really wanted to join in, so kept to the romantic face images and the letters/postal idea... the TH nibs are always a winner!!

 I used the bricks folder with brown coredinations and sanded back for texture. I cut a hole in the bricks and stuck in it a ickle postcard stamped piece... it's just SO dinky!!

 Time is involved quite heavily in the story, so a TH clock sets the scene, trimmed with a ickle flower, aww!!
Below is the whole thing...

 I used my new postage stamp punch to make the shape with the enigmatic lady on... most of the stamps used are by Artemio, but that one is on a cube from StampAddicts... it is an oldie but a goodie, and so useful...

I am loving the colours, which are mainly the new twigs - I LOVE LOVE LOVE it as a colour - and milled lavender, which is echoed in the ribbon through the top.. I stamped in sepia and black archival, and the background to my tag is from the Tattered Time stack by DCWV, which is my new FAVE, being clocks, and a bit steampunk and definitely from the decade I was born!!!!. My Laura Denison kit using that paper, has not come yet, but I will give you a stash haul when it arrives!!

So, off to bed now as I still have to go take the boys to school in the morning, but they are both back living at home now, so that lets me off a couple of hooks!!!... Thanks for coming over, hope you enjoyed my newest tag... and thanks for your lovely comments, which I crave, quite frankly, tee hee!!!
Love and light
Frankie
xx

I shall also enter this for the following challenge(s)
Simon Says Stamp and Show - women only
Fashionable Stamping Challenge - Times Gone By
Rileyand Co - an oldie but a goodie (an old stamp)
Its All About the Vintage - dreams, brown, cream, pink

WOYWW - Crafty Work... Hurrah!!

Finally managing to do a little bit more with my wrist... still not up to full on regular stuff, but happy to be making again... just wish I had the time!!! STILL looking after the grandsons and feeding 5 each night... my day finishes at 3.10pm so I can pick them up from school - normally I am just in full swing making mode at that time!!! Anyhoo, time to share the altered piece I started at the weekend, in a class with the lovely Linda Elbourne!!! Been trying to get to meet her for ages...

Well, the class was really interesting and VERY challenging - not because of the art and craft, but because we had to deface a book!!! I have NEVER done that before, but am getting into the swing of it... It started out a most LURID lime green, under it's dust jacket, when I paid £1.50 at the charity shop... it's not a very interesting book, so I sort feel justfied in altering and up-cycling it... Not yet finished but here is what it looks like now -

 I painted it in London Nights paint from PaperArtsy, then distressed it with vintage lace paint, vintage photo distress ink and some of the wonderful Inca Gold in bronze, put on with my fingers... I stamped with a script stamp, off the block, so I could get only partial prints...

 Here you can see the steampunk charm I was given. I cut out the large clock to go round it and then made a rosette when I got home, to mount it on... The lovely Linda cut minute pieces of foam for me to make the TH clock stand off the page - patience of Job that girl!!! Anyway, it worked...

 We stuck many many many pages down, and I have begun painting one lot here. I am going to make some Laura Denison pockets for some tags on the first 5 sets of pages, and then...

 We cut an aperture from the middle!!! This really WAS difficult to start, hurting the book so badly!! but I shall LURVE it when it's finished... I shall put time type stuff in my little niche... well they can't touch you for it!!! Tee hee

 And here are my signature roses!!! Made from grunge paper as ever... they look really grungy and vintage IRL... The rest are die cut and painted with distress inks...

I am loving this project and look forward to finishing it... but crafting is only bit at a time at the mo, and I am madly working on a masterpiece for the fragrant Freddie's birthday Thursday!!! Show you that after the event!!! Can't get back to DT stuff yet a while... then there's crimble cards to do/finish etc... it's all go!!!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed your little sojourn... if you don't know about WOYWW, pop over to the Stamping Ground and see our lovely Julia, whose wondrous idea this spying sharing all is!!!Thanks for the visit and I hope to see you chez vous very soon
Love and Light
Frankie
xx
I shall enter this into the following challenge(s)
Simon Says Stamp and Show - some up/re-cycling

Back in the Crafty'oom again

Yey!!! I have managed to get back to do some stuff this week, in my crafty'oom, and have done a tag for DragonsDream Tag It On... it's STEAMPUNK, so on trend just now, so why not have a go at getting inky and sticky... I might find a ickle prize if we get enough entries!!...deets over there...

Anyhoo... I really enjoyed myself, using some of my new stash... I have spent WAY too much recently, but I don't care, cos I am worth it... so get a cuppa and have a look at the photos...

 This first pic shows one of my new stamps from sets by Creative Impressions... great steam engine (NOT "train", cos this is only the locomotive... my dad drove them for YEARS and he hated it when peeps called the engine the train... so back to the plot!!) I used my fab distress inks - mainly pumice stone, black soot and a smidgin of vintage photo...

 Wonderful Wendy Vecchi art parts watch here, left completely untouched, as the colour is just right for my scheme. Inside is a cog from a set from C&C and the lock is from Sir Tim, of course.

 Here is the whole tag, in all it's glory... I am LOVIN the colour, which is not really much colour, but so subtley yumminess...

 A detail shot here of the TH bulbs and a Vintaj dragonfly... the bronzy cogs are from a strip of the Kanban sticky vellum - is it vellacitate?? - from their steampunk set... I love it and wil use it more and more, now I have tried it... but perhaps I will cut into it a bit more, cos the straight line does show up a bit!!

 New clock hands here and one of my new, ickle metal butterflies, and a TH clock from his paper stash... all so grungy and attic-looking. Hope it fits with the emporium, Wanda??!!

 The three fellas are from a set by TH, obviously, it's a well known image now, and I love how they just fit at the end of a tag, as if by magic???!! ... I did have a go with a couple of my Pan Pastels that I bought when I went to do a session with Lin, at LB Crafts, last week.. It is a wonderfully soft grey colour and I pressed through a new floral stencil, as you can spy by the long key...

 And this shot??? Well, it's NOT my tag extended, it is a wonderful page from the DCWV Tattered Time stack... I LOVE it... it's a fantastic set of images. I am expecting a kit - my first - from the incomparable Laura Denison, of  The Paper Trail. It's a mini book full of space for tags, journalling and piccies, using this fabulous paper, and I will have some to use and some to stroke!!!! Tee hee... So I will be making that when it comes. I am also about to start the Vintage Suitcase I had the pattern for, some time ago, to store a mini of piccies of Egypt I want to make... So much to do, so little time!!! But lots to keep me going, and getting back into gear.

So there we are, finally some craft to share with you!! been a long time eh.?? Not yet ready to take up my DT duties yet, because there are many things I can't do well at the mo, but I am keen to get on with making stuff. So please leave me a comment and I look forward to visiting you too...
Love and Light
Frankie
xx
I have had a scout round and would like to add my tag to the following challenges:-
Divas by Design - Use Metal
Ruby's Rainbow - Use Metal
PanPastelUK Challenge blog - Distress it
Take a Word - Time

WOYWW - A Desk At LAST!!!!!

Hurrah... I am back into my crafty'oom, albeit in a limited edition!!! However, I AM back and I have got lots of lovely new stash... I have also made a tag for TIO... it's a great theme, so why not pop over and join in!!?? also fly off on the wings of a steampunk heart and visit the Stamping Ground, to see the lovely Julia, whose blog that is...

 On Friday last week, I went to do a class with the wonderful Lin of LB Crafts (well for now anyway!!!) We did Pan Pastels and I just had to buy a few with some tools and a few more stencils... I have built up quite a few of the latter for use in my art journal... I bought a new one of those too, which you can just spy beneath those WONDERFUL new stamps...

 I am expecting a kit soon from the incomparable Laura Denison, and she uses this Tatterted Time paper from DCWV... it's WONDERFUL too!!!

 I could not resisit adding to my dies and here are my latest ... think the deer will be my crimble cards...

You do spy the old jalopy and the ickle pine cone... So there you are... I have some great stuff ready to use, so I shall be working up to try to get to full speed in the weeks to come... still not back to DTs except my own, cos I don't think it's fair when I am not yet fit... but the wrist is improving, and I am hoping it will let me do twist stuff and scissors really soon...

Thanks for hopping over... I really appreciate you spending your time... and love reading your comments... and look out for me visiting you this week!!
Love and Light
Frankie
xx

WOYWW - Still no Desk, but Art to Share!!

The art I am sharing this week is, again, not my own, sadly!! And why am I sharing anything??? well, if you have had your head in the sand for many moons, you won't know about the wonderment that is The Stamping Ground... And what am I sharing??? It's the art of the chap who was our cabin steward on board the Orchid, on the Nile...

 He started, simply, with a lotus flower, and he added a ickle vase to the centre... very beautiful, eh??

 Next was an elephant... my fave of the week, actually. He was quite large, and his trunk was very clever. My stick was incorporated into the design, as was a toilet roll for the ickle man on top!!

 Actually, he was not just towels, but had an added pillow... the cover was the throw, folded up. The eyes in all the animals were made from the lids of the bottles of water that we were given each trip...

 So here is the Nile crocodile, the only one we saw the whole week, cos they can't get down to the other half of the river since the building of the dam... what a fantastic creature to be made out of towels...

 Think this was the Fragrant Freddie having a nap!!!  Cool dude with those sun glasses... no not really, just a towel man on his bed!! But I bet you guessed that, eh??

And finally, a scorpion. What a talented chap our steward was. He gave us a demo on the last but one morning, and he did a lot more animals and people, but I did not have my camera with me, so I missed taking photos of those...

And finally for this week, I want to introduce you to my latest fur baby -  Bella The Beautiful Belladonna... She is one of my daughter's cat's second litter!!! NO it was not meant to happen but that cat is totally SHAMELESS!!

 So sweet, and tired out!!

 See the markings on her tum?? She is a calico tortoiseshell and SOOOO cute!!

 She has many lovely ickle bits of ginger stripes... and she is so cuddly.

This ickle face is so sweet, with this lovely ickle white nose and a patch of ginger stripes over her left eye. I know!!! I have too many cats, but she really IS beautiful, and her big brother (a ginger from the previous litter) loves to play with her - hope he does not think she is food!!!!

Thanks for coming to look and commenting... I should be able to get to more of you this week as my plaster is off - I persuaded the doc to let me wear my braces, and have to go back in 4 weeks to check on the healing... still not sure it was broken, but just SO arthritic, they could not tell!!! No wonder I have so many probs, eh?? Still hurts like h--l though!!!

Love and Light

Frankie

xx

WOYWW - Howard Carter's Place!!

STILL no desk!! Why is that important you may ask... well see here at the Stamping Ground... However, my wrist is feeling a bit better and I am so yearning to get back into my craft room!!! Perhaps next week... Meanwhile I thought it might be interesting for you to see some of Howard Carter's stuff... some of my photos are not as clear as I would like, but they were taken indoors and we were not allowed to use flash... so here goes...

 Obviously, a typewriter, upon which he wrote his notes and letters...

 This was beside his bed, with little bottles and razors etc... I LOVE this sort of thing, old cases and boxes with jars, bottles etc.

 A wireless, a fan and a lamp... how beautiful they are...

 This is his actual easel!! I was so overjoyed seeing this, as I felt I could paint really well using it...

 Not really sure what this was... but how beautiful all those wires bits and boxes...

 His cooker in the kitchen - but I expect he never used it himself!! Wonder if he could cook??

 No idea what this was but I love it's design... any ideas??

Yours truly sitting on a bed in the house!!! I WAS invited to do so and my photo was taken by the chappie in charge of the room... they all wore white gallibayas- traditional dress... well, the man in charge of this room said I could sit there and he offered to take my picture... it was very soft but was probably not very comfortable.

Tee hee!!! here is the very fragrant Freddie, standing outside Howard Carter's study, and pretending to be the man himself... well, the hat fits the bill as you see below...

These are the great man's actual hats... Howard Carter, not Freddie!!! It was a fascinating place and remarkably cool, as the design helped greatly, with lots of doors and windows, so that what breeze there was could come in and waft round...

Well, thanks for popping by and commenting. I am very grateful for your visit. I will try to write a few more comments myself this week, instead of just peeking!!!
Love and Light
Frankie
xx

WOYWW - No Desk Yet but New Pot!!!

 Nice new, lightweight pot/plaster... now-a-days made from polyester...

 Corrr!!! look at 'em poor ole swollen fingers eh??!!

Not much movement for that thumb!!!

Hi all... thanks for your visits last week. I really appreciated them... I am STILL up at the crack of doom to get the boys to school then collapse for a while before trying to do a few jobs... then it's off to get my daughter, make lunch, get the boys, cook for 5 people, and stagger to bed!!! Miranda's letter from clinic last week anticipates her having no load bearing for another 9 to 12 weeks, as apparently, she has damaged a ligament which attaches her leg to her foot, and they take longer to heal than bones... her xray was awful!!!

So we are both locked into this dreadful cycle for the forseeable!!! I might not get to Gran Canaria as I had hoped with Freddie, to see his family, after crimble... don't see how I can leave her and the boys... my mum continues with her pace maker!!! I worry ALL the time about all those indignities she is suffering, that she NEVER wanted or looked to have - so unkind...

Well, that took forever, but I am hoping to do a bit more commenting next week... I have visited many of you but just looked for now - please forgive my voyerism!!!  Thanks for coming over...Thank goodness for the place which allows us to share like this.. good old Stamping Ground!!!
Love and Light
Frankie
xx