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

WOYWW - Great Holiday Shame about the Fall!!!

For my story, please see the post here!! It's funny but not fun!!! So now you know...Sorry still no desk then, obviously, to show at The Stamping Ground but here is a little snippet of my snaps to whet your whistle!!!

Egypt was utterly AMAZING, especially the wondrous sky...

 Who is this woman??? Woo tis me in a daft hat!!! It was so hot to wear, but I needed it ...

 Amazing carving...

 And on the last morning, a journey into the sky, in a hot air balloon - always wanted to do this!!!!

 Lifting high into air, above the Valley of the Kings... marvellous

Sunrise over the Nile, how beautiful and how quickly it comes up!!... If you did not read what has happened to me, please look now and PLEASE leave a comment, as I love hearing from you, as always... sorry, but I can't write any more just now
Love and light
Frankie
xx

Bad Things Come in 3s!!!

Here I am on the last evening in Egypt in Luxor Temple, as the sun is falling fast... Now, speaking of that falling malarkey!!!... see the bandage on my right hand???  Well there IS a story...

My phone refused to get service when I was away, so I did not manage to contact my family all week... dodgy on-board Internet also precluded me from that too... so as I land last Wednesday, I start to get messages, as you do. They are all about my mum from the neighbour, asking me to contact her as soon as I can, so it does not sound good, eh?? When I ring her, I find out mum had collapsed earlier in the week and had been resuscitated no less than three times that very day!!!! After speaking to the hospital, I find she is comfortable and sleeping... but not out of the woods...

I finally get a text from my daughter saying all is well, she has had a little accident but not to worry.. PANIC PANIC WORRY WORRY!!!! so of course I ring her straight away and ask if she has pranged the car!! Hesitation.... deep breath... come on what has happened?? and finally a mouth full of medical stuff which mainly means she tripped and fell and broke BOTH tib and fib bones in her right leg, which pierced and popped through the skin, leaving her foot hanging off at an awful angle!!! - backwards!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARRRR!!!, terror, worry etc etc... 

Anyway, she had done that the morning after I went on holiday, and had been in hospital until late Monday, getting the swelling down then being pinned and braced etc... weeks to heal and no load bearing for a couple of weeks.. She has two young children, my boys whom you have met before if you follow regularly!! 7 and 5 and no partner... temporary measures applied until I finally came home... we both wept copiously as you can imagine - her with relief I was back and me with guilt that I was not there!!!

And what of that bandaged hand??? Well, I fell on the boat, on an uneven corridor floor, did a superman flight through the air and landed on my face and hands, and flat on my front body with such an enormous BANG, that my head bounced twice and blood shot from my nose!! I thought it was broken at first... I now have a creeping black cheek/eye!!! And the hand?? Yes, I finally was dragged to hospital by the fragrant Freddie, on Friday, and I have broken my scaphoid bone in my wrist/base of thumb!!! Heavy heavy plaster till next Friday and no crafting for six weeks!!! I shall go MAD!!

And so dear reader, that is the sorry tale. 3 rubbish  generations ... they fitted a pace maker to mum on Saturday!!! We went to see her yesterday and I did not recognise her at all... she is so diminished, rambling and vacant... NOT my mum... I am afraid I wish that her God had taken her on Wednesday, as she has been begging me for the last 3 or 4 months... bald but heartfelt believe me... Miranda is healing, and getting around with a zimmer!! Laughing about that, as you can image. Unable to do much though as she has to hop at the mo, climbing stairs on her bum... and me??? Well it has taken a couple of hours to write this, and frustration has already set in!!! NOT supposed to drive, but I am doing the short trip down to daughter's, cos I have the boys here sleeping , getting ready for and taking to school!!! Just hooking with right fingers and driving with left... hey ho!!! I am back to bed at the mo to rest... this plaster is SO darned heavy, I need a crane to lift it by the end of the day...!!

So, dear reader... PLEASE don't desert my blog.... I have been SO pleased and flattered to have your company recently, and so many wonderfully supportive comments, I would HATE it if you strike me off your list cos there will be little art to see for a while!!! I will try to  share some photos etc with you and look forward to visting you all, with perhaps a short comment or two!!!

Thanks for popoing over and reading this tome!!!
Love and light
Frankie
xx

WOYWW #121 - Not a Desk, but A GREAT Day!!

 Well, I am just getting back today, and have no desk yet, so the lovely Helen has linked me here and THANKS to her again... This is my younger grandson, starting a GREAT day of red rosettes for the family!!! he does Best Turned Out Pony, Tack and Rider Lead Rein and the judge was MOST impressed with the way Rosie looked... well done Fred, with tack and Miranda with horse!! Also Matthew for being just SO cute!!

 Fred took her in the ring, in hand, and won... she trotted so nicely... see how beautiful her white socks are?? Jayden washed and washed them till they shone!!

 Jayden carried on the day with Best Rider Lead Rein and I think you can see just HOW PLEASED he is!!
His new jacket matches Fred's and he is very proud!!

 Then this is the Fragrant Freddie on Jade... I am about to buy her, as her present owner needs to sell and has given me a great price... Miranda and I LOVE her and could not think of letting her go!! Miranda is learning to ride her. Fred had no pressure then, us having won 3 reds so far, but you can see, he DID win Senior Best Rider!! Woo Hoo...

So here we are back in the lorry with our haul of 4 first places!!!! Best day ever. Miranda is holding the set of reds, and me??? I am taking the photos, I am chef d'equip, and picnic maker, and I pay to enter the classes!!! But we have a good time together.

Hope you did not mind me having a bit of a brag??!! No art, just my lovely family chez Julia this week, so thanks for looking and I shall pop and see YOU when I get home
Love and Light
Frankie
xx

WOYWW #120 and Second Art Journal Pages + Birthday 66

Well, officially I don't  have a desk today folks, even though it has rolled round inexorably to that mid-week day where we all go a-spying courtesy of Julia at Stamping Ground. That is because I am from home... and off to cruise down the Nile!!!  I feel a Laura Denison vintage suitcase coming on, with an ickle scrappy book of photos and LOTS of  Egyptian stamping going on, when I get back!!! I have the pattern all ready to start!!!

So what can I show you today? Well, I have been playing again - only for a little time, as I have had another awful week with mum, and could not settle to much at all... even TIO has taken a back seat, but the team has done good stuff as ever!! so here goes with my Time to Make Art pages...

 This is the double spread then... lots of clocks and stuff... I MUST get a couple of large alphabets for the lettering... anyone any suggestions at a reasonable price!!??

 Here's how I started, with gessoed page and blue acrylics... great fun splashing and smooching on the paint... VERY theraputic... did this background a couple of weeks ago...

 Then some copper, and afterwards, some blue and pewter Viva paste, through a mask... it was doing this that gave me the idea for the VERY red tag on TIO a couple of weeks ago... that's when I realized the FULL import of this stuff!!

 Left hand...

 Right hand

 and now for some detail... a TH dotty stamp and some gesso and mica smooched  across the page behind the writing, printed on my inkjet, and distressed...

 OOO, I LOVE all this great texture - well you know me folks, it's one of my fave things that is!!! and a TH clock stamp for good measure.

Here is a wonderful conglomeration of all those pastes and stamps and clocks, etc ... I am lovin it!!! WHY did I dally and refuse to try out this lark?? I am not into the diary side of the journalling, but want to do pithy sayings and phrases to inspire and remind myself of stuff...

By the time some of you read this, I should be sunning myself, I hope. We have just looked up the weather and it is VERY hot, so I shall be in my element... a whole week where my arthritic aches and pains (and my poor old mum!!) will take a back seat!!! Thanks for looking and please do comment... I am hoping for some internet time to visit you back...

OH yes... and it's my 66th Birthday today, so Huppy Burpday to ME!!! (equinox baby, and it's all downhill to crimble now!!! boo...)
Love and light
Frankie
xx
PS if you have not linked your birdcage on the appropriate linky thingie... would you please do it, so they are all there together like a gallery for us all to see... taa
xx