Did you know that there’s SO little difference between Moths and Butterflies that [in the great, humongous, majority of cases] they’re actually all Butterflies?!
Yes, I know – it’s unbelievable isn’t it… however, it’s true.
You can have bright, vivid colour moths, just as you can have rather dull looking butterflies. There are heaps of day moths – that is – moths who like being around and flitting, flying during the daytime hours – in fact there are more day-time moths in the UK than there are butterflies. But there are also Butterflies who like to fly at night.
There’s heaps more I could tell you which you might not know – but instead of me blathering on, I’ll give you a link at the end of this post so that those of you who would like to know more can click and the link will open up for you.
But now … … onto the crafty reason of my post today….
I’d like to introduce you to….
The Church Moth.
Maany moons ago, I got acquainted with a moth which wore glasses. Well, not actual real glasses (or spectacles), but he had a colouring around his front end (face) which made him look like he was wearing glasses. This moth was called a ‘Spectacled Moth’. (Which I didn’t know – I had to research it to find out what the dickens it was.). I’ve found a couple of photographs on the web, so that I could share this moth with you….
The Spectacle Moth. – Photograph by Robert Thompson @ naturepl.com
The memory of that amazing moth obviously stuck with me,for when I came to designing this fabulous moth which I’m sharing with you today, I knew I wanted to make a moth which wore spectacles.
I began by choosing fabricsfrom my stash, and the beautiful fabric I chose for the main wings instantly gave me the name of the Moth I was going to create. I said it out loud as it came into my head: “The Church Moth!”. It was the perfect fabric pattern for a Church Moth for it had a sort of stained glass window effect to it. It’s a tapestry style, but soft feel fabric which I had a smallish piece of – it was so perfect!
I drew, and made a pattern, cut, and snipped, and pinned and sewed. I inked and stained some of the fabrics. Then I stitched, and hand sewed, attached and applied, then … I stopped and held up the incredible creation which I had in my hand, and looked and then said quietly but out loud, … “Ohhh, bless him! Isn’t he perfect!…..” ~ I loved him from the tips of his antennae to the end of his tail.
Then… I fiddled and made, then made again, and again, until I finally managed to produce a pair of beautiful rose gold glasses. I popped them on his nose to check the fit. I’m absolutely convinceed I heard him exclaim with delight that he would finally be able to see the words in the hymn books! He seemed terribly excited.
Can you see his rose gold spectacles?
Of course … that wasn’t the end of the Spectacled Church Moths creation … I had to finish him off with a bit of flair and fuss ….
He had to have lace on the underside of his wings, as well as the tops – because all the best dressed Men of the Cloth had special robes which had lace on them somewhere – so obviously this Church Moth simply HAD to have lace too! (He also has his Union Flag (aka Union Jack) button, which shows he was born in England!)
The gentle feathering around the edges of his wings, is a nod to the feathering which most moths (and butterflies) have on and around their wings. And …. It seemed right to have the feathers around the edges of his wings, for I felt that he would (naturally) help with the upkeep of the church in which he lived, so he would help with the dusting by fluttering his wings, which would brush away any dust which dared to lay upon any surfaces within his church.
Every church should have a church moth like this one.Don’t you agree?
Well that’s me done and dusted…. oh hang on, NO! WAIT!!!
I’m forgetting the . . .
Monday Funday Stuff.…
And finally …..
~~ ❤ ~~
This is a ‘sorry I’m later than I should be’ Monday post, bought to you by a busy inside her head female who no longer knows what day it is because every day is the blinking same as every other flippin’ fluffin’ day!!! grrrr!
I think I need a secretary who will remind me every hour, on the hour, what the date and day it is. [sigh] Applications for the job are now being taken. Please use the comment box as your application and let me know your qualifications. Oh … and tell me what you will bring to the job – such as chocolate and cake.
Thank you so much for coming, and for having a coffee moment with me. I love seeing you here.
As always. . . I love your company and adore chatting with you, so please say a few words or more, in a comment so that I know who I’m chatting to! Let me know what you think. Let me know what’s going on in your life.
I hope you had a magnificent Monday, whatever you did, and that you have a truly blessed, wonderful week. Sending much love to you along with a huge bunch of squidges.
Thank you so much to all who entered this Birthday Giveaway in mylast post. I love Giveaways any day of the week or time of the year, but this one was extra special for me because it was my Birthday, and so a chance to have some extra fun with some of my blogging friends.
On offer in this latest Giveaway were two items. A Fairy Footprints Card, and a Fairy Cottage Pot. The photographs I shared with you in the post didn’t do either of the items any justice what-so-ever.
The card is something that even I couldn’t stop looking at. It’s filled with so much magical wonderment and sparkle. Oh, and I totally forgot to say in my last post:
Those fairy footprints weren’t made using a stamp; nor an impress of feet shaped tool; nor a leather press tool or anything like that. No footprint ‘tool’ or ‘implement’ nor mould of any sort made those footprints. Cross my heart. Pinky finger truth. I truthfully state that NO FOOTPRINT TOOL OF ANY DESCRIPTION MADE THOSE FOOTPRINTS.
The tiny Fairy Cottage Pot looks way prettier in real life too – but because I tried to get close up shots of the Pot, it made it appear bigger and somehow lacking. Where-as in real life, it’s very much a cute, tiny little thing of charm and sweetness, which makes you smile when holding it between your fingers.
ANYHOO … you’re here to find out who won, and I’m here to tell you.
All entrants were allotted a number to their name, in the order of entry:
Because there are two items up for grabs, I explained in my last post:
On the day of the Random Number Generator being asked to pick the winners,the FIRSTnumber generated, will be the winner who will get the chance to choose which Fairy related give-a-way they would like to receive.
The SECOND number generatedwill receive the other Fairy give-a-way.
So, with no further ado I’m thrilled to announce that. . .
TheFIRST number chosen, and so is in the position of choosing which Fairy item she would like to choose, is:
. . . Number 3– and this number belongs toSOOZYB2013
Soozyb … because you don’t have a blog, I’ll try to contact you via the email address which is logged into the system every time you comment.
In an effort to be fair and not keep winner #2 waiting for their prize gift:-If I don’t hear from Soozyb by Friday 10th August, (next Friday) then I shall pass on the choice of item to winner No.2 so that they can choose which gift they’d like, and Soozyb will be in receipt of which ever Fairy item is left, – once I get her address to send the item to.
The SECOND winning number chosen by The Random Number Generator is:-
. . . Number 1 – and this number belongs to: BCParkison!
Who I think we all know as Bev.
Bev . . . As soon as I hear from Soozyb, I’ll drop you a note and let you know what your Winning Gift is (unless you’d rather have a surprise) – OR – if I don’t hear from Soozy by next Friday, I’ll drop you a note asking you to choose your Winning Gift from this Giveaway.
Many, many thanks to everyone for joining in. Giveaways add a little fun to everyday life, and makes days ‘glisten’ just that little bit more ~ especially when we perhaps need a bit of a glisten.
Thank you also for joining me on this beautiful (if rather too warm) Sunday. I hope your day passes brightly and that, at the end of it, you feel contentment wash over you.
A few gremlins may have grizzled into your moments – but that happens to us all, so never feel you’re alone in that. The trick with these gremlins is to never give them the power over your moods, and don’t allow them to hang around either. Kick them out. Open the door and demand they leave. My dear friends, you have no room in your life for gremlins. Don’t give them room.
Stay as awesome are you are, and – aim forcontentment. Once you have that, everything else will magically fall into place.
Heaps of love and squidges, from me in my corner, to you in yours. ~
Did I give-a-way that it’s my Birthday today? [gasp!] I did? Well shame on me. Fancy advertising that you’re a year old than your original 7.5 years older. Well.. I’m now 7.5 years old and well …. it’s very strange, but I feel the exact same age as I did yesterday. Bonus!
Talking of bonus’ . . . I come bearing a celebration of my special day, and, as we all know, a Birthday is a day associated with love and a small gift … or two. So I’m here doing a Give-a-way to celebrate, open to all my followers. However, not just one give-a-way, but TWO! My Birthday is on the 2nd so I thought that it being a 2, we should have a double Give-a-way.
BLOG POST EDITED: 5th August 2018
The ‘GIVEAWAY’ is now closed to new names being entered into the ‘hat’. Anyone adding their name from this moment forward is, I’m afraid, too late to be included in the ‘draw’.
The Winner of the Home Under the Dome will be announced later today; Sunday 5th August 2018.
What’s on offer…
Fairy Footprints on a little card, and a Fairy Cottage Pot. Each one of these Fairy goodies is included in this Birthday Giveaway!
On offer is what you see in the photograph above.
One person can win the Fairy Footprints card, –
and – another person can win the Cottage Pot.
As you might be able to see in the 2nd of the two photos (just above here) – the Cottage Pot is, in total only just over 2″(two) inches tall.
It’s a micro-sized (real) terracotta pot, in which a tiny Fairy built her home. Now left behind, after she found her mate and began a family – and I was lucky enough to be in the right place, at the right time, with my ‘finding eyes’ working so well that I found it!
The tiny little terracotta pot itself measures just three-quarters of an inch!
The Fairy Footprints card . . . well there’s quite a magical story behind that.
I rolled out two sorts of different clay and left it on my desk for just a matter of moments while I went and washed my hands.
When I came back . . . there were Fairy Footprints all over both of the clays! From very small to big (‘big’ for a Fairy), but all of them were just breathtaking. I didn’t want to destroy the clay (obviously) but couldn’t leave it all in a ‘slab’ – as that would have been too difficult to store carefully. So … I carefully cut the footprints out and set them aside for them to dry. (Hoping that nothing happened to them, nor that the footprints would disappear!)
I coloured the clay so that the footprints showed up clearly… and decided that I just couldn’t keep them for myself, and had to share. So I attached one to a little card – (just 11.6cm square, – or roughly 4.5″ inches) and here I am doing a Give-a-way in order to share and celebrate my Birthday.
Now then …. here’s the important bit so pin back your lug holes (ears). . .
The Give-a-way is open only to followers of the Cobweborium Emporium.
In order to enter your name for one of these Give-a-ways you MUST make a comment on this post, andBEGIN YOUR COMMENT WITH THE WORD: GIVEAWAY.This is really important because seeing that word right at the beginning of a comment is my way of instantly finding all the people who want to be included. If it’s not at the start of your comment, then on the day when I’m counting up how many people want to be in with a chance of winning, I just might miss anyone who has put the word in the middle or the end etc. So please begin your comment with that one word: Giveaway. (thank you!)
On the day of the Random Number Generator being asked to pick the winners, the FIRSTnumber generated, will be the winner who will get the chance to choose which Fairy related give-a-way they would like to receive.
The SECOND number generated will receive the other Fairy give-a-way.
And that’s all there is to it. 🙂
BLOG POST EDITED: 5th August 2018
The ‘GIVEAWAY’ is now closed to new names being entered into the ‘hat’. Anyone adding their name from this moment forward is, I’m afraid, too late to be included in the ‘draw’.
The Winner of the Home Under the Dome will be announced later today; Sunday 5th August 2018.
But I repeat … this Give-a-way is open only to followers of The Cobweborium Emporium. This is simply because it makes it fair.
Followers aren’t simply ‘followers’. These people (and you all know who you are) are wonderful friends who make blogging such a total joy to me.
All that’s left to say is … don’t forget: GIVEAWAY as your first word –
But you don’t have to want to be included for a Giveaway, to comment.
If your comment doesn’t include the magic word, then I will know you don’t feel the need to have another ‘thing’ to care for! Just come and have a chat in that case. (You know I love to chat with you! lol.)
Wishing you a bright, blessed Thursday. May your day be filled with peace and contentment. Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee moment with me.
Much love ~
BLOG POST EDITED: 5th August 2018
The ‘GIVEAWAY’ is now closed to new names being entered into the ‘hat’.Anyone adding their name from this moment forward is, I’m afraid, too late to be included in the ‘draw’.
The Winner of the Home Under the Dome will be announced later today; Sunday 5th August 2018.
A hundred years ago …. Ok, I might be exaggerating just slightly there. Let’s begin again.
Last month (February) I shared some Fairy Dragon Eggs that Little Cobs (my grandson) and I had made together. They were a smash hit with him and he loved them. So much so that I thought that while he was so enchanted with them, perhaps we could make just one or maybe two more, and enclose them so that they were protected, and (more importantly) they wouldn’t get lost or damaged. So I put my thinking cap on and came up with the perfect idea.
Little Cobs comes for a visit on Tuesdays. We collect him from School and he comes to Cobweb Towers for a bit of fun and his tea.
So on the previous day, (Monday), I made two tiny eggs – one around 2.5cm tall (just under an inch) and another approximately 1.25cm (which is little bit under half an inch), which I made from Hearty air dry clay, as I wanted them to be light in weight, and quick to dry.
Hearty Clay comes in a variety of colours, and they even have a super lightweight clay which would be fabulous for card adornments which have to go through the post.
The following day we went to collect him from school and, once he was safely ensconced in the car, I told him that I had got two tiny Fairy Dragons eggs in the house, and wondered if he would like to make them look amazing, since he was now considered an expert at Fairy Dragon Eggs. He was all over the idea and didn’t stop talking about it all the way home.
He bounced into the house, hung his coat up, and was waiting at the table before I’d even managed to take my own coat off!
I stupidly didn’t bother taking photo’s of the undecorated eggs, because I thought “everyone knows what a white egg looks like” – but am now wishing that I’d have taken a photo of them, next to a real [chicken] egg – so that you could see the size difference. They looked exactly like eggs from the smallest chicken in the world! Even the little chap said over and over how cute they were. Bless him.
I put out all the ‘Fairy Colours’ of Pinflair Buff-It, and told him to choose the ones he wanted to use. He wanted them all. (Thankfully I’d left the pots of ‘duller’ colours in the drawer).
I got out a selection of [cheap – pound shop] cosmetic sponges and put one on top of each of the Buff-it colours and he went to town. He needed no reminder of how to apply the colours, and was so delicate and gentle. Finally, when every last bit of both eggs was covered in the magical colours, he took a tissue and gently ‘polished’ them and made them shine and glow.
The Magical Eggs shone,and his eyes shone and twinkled as he gazed at them.
I then produced something which caused him to gasp. A tiny miniature ‘cake’ stand and matching dome. I told him that we were going to put these eggs inside the dome and then seal the dome so that no one else could ever touch them, and, even better, they would never get lost! “They’ll be sealed inside the dome for alllll eternity. For ever and ever and ever!” I said. (trying to sell him the idea because I thought he might not ‘see’ my vision). He saw. He loved the thought that he would be the only person who knew what these eggs felt like in his hand.
By the time we were ready to put the eggs into the dome it was almost time for him to go home, so I said that I could do that bit, he just had to show me where to put the Fairy Dragon Eggs inside the dome so that I got it perfectly right. He put them on the stand, and then carefully put the dome on top. He sat at the table and looked . . . then gave me a whole new set of instructions of exactly how he wanted things done:
“Grammy – they need petals. Flower petals. On the bottom, and the eggs on the top of the petals. Like in a nest. You put petals on there and then the eggs on the petals”.
He looked deep into my eyes to see if I understood. I smiled at him and repeated what he’d said, pointing to the cake stand top, to show I knew where he meant the petals to be. He seemed satisfied that I understood.
Daddy arrived to collect him, and the last thing Little Cobs whispered to me was: “Don’t forget the PETALS, Grammy!”. Bless his beautiful heart. He melts me every time I see him.
I did exactly as I was instructed to do. I didn’t forget the petals:
It was stupidly difficult to photograph the Fairy Eggs when they were sealed inside their dome home, as the light kept bouncing off the curves. But I did manage one which isn’t great – it’s a bit dull and flat, but it gives a slightly clearer view:
That’s a penny in the picture, for reference
As you can see . . . I didn’t forget the petals. 😀 lol.
In the end, I loved the look of these so much that I’ve decided that I’m going to make some for myself. They look so impressive in real life that I just HAVE TO!
When he came on the Saturday, he fell in love with his Fairy Dragon Eggs all over again. He took them home at the end of the day, and his mummy (daughter No.2) told me a couple of days later, that the Fairy Eggs had barely left his side since he’d taken them home. He was carrying them around with him everywhere he played.
I promised, in the title of this post, that you could meet the maker . . . and you shall…
We’ve had snow here in Dorset in the last few days, and obviously, like all children do – Little Cobs wanted to play in it … and his mummy took photo’s. She sent me some in a text message … and although I’m extra mega careful of sharing photographs of children on-line, I asked, for the first time ever, if mummy would mind if I shared one of the photographs on my blog, so that you could see the little chap who I’m totally nuts about … and mummy said yes!
So here, with an enormous amount of pride [which bursts out of me like rays of the brightest sun, shining through every pore on my body], is my fabulous Grandson – Little Cobs…
photograph not for reproduction – altered or otherwise.
… I’m totally dotty about this child. He’s an incredibly handsome little chap. The product of a very pretty mommy (daughter No.2) and a very handsome daddy (son-in-law, husband of D.No.2). But … he has my eyes – the same colour of Hazel, with the same flashes of gold dotted randomly around the iris, which really show up when he’s happily excited about something.
This isn’t the end of the crafty creations that he and I have made together over the past couple of weeks. I still have one final thing to share – but that will wait for another day.
Thank you for coming and sharing a coffee with me. Wishing you a happy rest of your day.
Hello and a very Happy Friday to you where ever you are! Well Autumn arrived here and before it had chance to draw breath, it would seem that Winter is trying to push it out-of-the-way and get settled in. It’s very cold here. I went shopping today and was dithering inside the shop. I even asked the lady on the till if they’d had something go wrong with their heating system. She said no, and told me that she too was freezing cold. It was good to know … it confirmed that it wasn’t me having a ‘moment’. 😉
Anyhoo … you haven’t come to hear about the weather in the UK, you’ve come to gain that expensive edumacation that your parents pay for … oh, wait! No … I forgot to send the invoices out. You’re getting this for free. Darn and Dash it! I need someone to take care of the books. Application forms are available from my secretary. Please apply asap.
On This Day in History
1619 – René Descartes has the dreams that inspire his Meditations on First Philosophy. Meditations on First Philosophy (subtitled ‘In which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated’) is a philosophical treatise written by René Descartes first published in Latin in 1641.
1775 – The United States Marine Corps was founded.
1847 – The passenger ship Stephen Whitney is wrecked in thick fog off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 92 of the 110 on board.The disaster results in the construction the Fastnet Rock lighthouse.
Fastnet Rock (Irish: An Charraig Aonair, meaning Rock of Solitude or Lonesome Rock) is a small clay-slate island with quartz veins and the most southerly point of Ireland, 6.5 km southwest of Cape Clear Island (Oileán Chléire) in County Cork, which is itself 13 km (8 miles) from the mainland. It lies in the Atlantic Ocean 11.3 km south of mainland County Cork, at latitude 51.37°N. It rises to about 30 m above low water mark. Study of the documentary record suggests that the name is from Old Norse Hvastann-ey ‘sharp tooth island’.
Fastnet Rock Lighthouse
Divided into Fastnet Rock proper and the much smaller Little Fastnet to the south by a 10 m (30 ft) wide channel, it also had the nickname ‘Ireland’s Teardrop’ as it was the last part of the country seen by Irish emigrants to the United States in the 19th century as they sailed past it.
1865 – Major Henry Wirz,the superintendent of a prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia, is hanged, becoming the only American Civil War soldier executed for war crimes. 1871 – Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorerand missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika saying those well-known, world famous words; “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
1918 – The Western Union Cable Officein North Sydney, NS received a top-secret coded message from Europe (that would be sent to Ottawa, ON and Washington, DC) that said on November 11, 1918 all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air, which marked the end of the First World War on the Western Front.
1924 – Dion O’Banion, leader of the North Side Gang is assassinated in his flower shop by members of Johnny Torrio’s gang, sparking the bloody gang war of the 1920s in Chicago. Charles Dean O’Banion (8 July 1892 – 10 November 1924) was an Irish-American mobster who was the main rival of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone during the brutal Chicago bootlegging wars of the 1920s. O’Banion never went by “Dion”.
With the advent of Prohibition in 1920, O’Banion started a bootlegging operation. He made arrangements for beer suppliers in Canada to start shipments immediately, and also struck deals with whiskey and gin distributors. O’Banion pioneered Chicago’s first liquor hijacking on December 19, 1921. He and the “lads of Kilgubbin” quickly eliminated all their competition. The O’Banion mob, known as the North Side Gang, now ruled the North Side and the Gold Coast, the wealthy area of Chicago situated on the northern lakefront. As O’Banion’s name grew in the underworld, he attracted more followers, including Samuel “Nails” Morton, Louis “Three Gun” Alterie, and “Handsome” Dan McCarthy.
At the height of his power, O’Banion was supposedly making about $1 million a year on booze. During one famous caper, O’Banion and his men stole over $100,000 worth of Canadian whiskey from the West Side railroad yards. In another famous robbery, O’Banion looted the padlocked Sibly Distillery and walked off with 1,750 barrels of bonded whiskey.
In 1921, O’Banion married Viola Kaniff and bought an interest in William Schofield’s Flower Shop on North State Street. He needed a legitimate front for his criminal operations; in addition, he was fond of flowers and was an excellent arranger. Schofield’s became the florist of choice for mob funerals. Schofield’s happened to be across the street from Holy Name Cathedral, where he and Weiss attended Mass. The rooms above Schofield’s were used as the headquarters for the North Side Gang.
In May, 1924, O’Banion learned that the police were planning to raid the brewery on a particular night. Before the raid, O’Banion approached Torrio and told him he wanted to sell his share in the brewery, claiming that the Gennas scared him and he wanted to leave the rackets. Torrio agreed to buy O’Banion’s share and gave him half a million dollars. On the night of O’Banion’s last shipment, the police swept into the brewery. O’Banion, Torrio, and numerous South Side gangsters were arrested. O’Banion got off easily because, unlike Torrio, he had no previous prohibition related arrests. Torrio had to bail out himself and six associates, plus face later court charges with the possibility of jail time. O’Banion also refused to return the money Torrio had given him in the deal.
Torrio soon realized he had been double-crossed. He had lost the brewery and $500,000 in cash, been indicted, and been humiliated. Following this incident, Torrio finally agreed to the Gennas’ demand to kill O’Banion.
Heretofore, Mike Merlo and the Unione Siciliane had refused to sanction a hit on O’Banion. However, Merlo had terminal cancer and died on November 8, 1924. With Merlo gone, the Gennas and South Siders were free to move on O’Banion.
Using the Merlo funeral as a cover story, over the next few days the Unione national director from New York City, Frankie Yale, and other gangsters visited Schofield’s, O’Banion’s flower shop, to discuss floral arrangements. However, the real purpose of these visits was to memorize the store layout for the hit on O’Banion.
On the morning of November 10, 1924, O’Banion was clipping chrysanthemums in Schofield’s back room. Yale entered the shop with Torrio/Capone gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. When O’Banion attempted to greet Yale with a handshake, Yale clasped O’Banion’s hand in a death grip. At the same time, Scalise and Anselmi fired two bullets into O’Banion’s chest, two in his cheeks, and two in his throat. Dean O’Banion died instantly.
Since O’Banion was a major crime figure, the Catholic Church denied him burial on consecrated ground; however, the Lord’s Prayer and three Hail Mary’s were recited in his honor by a priest O’Banion had known from his youth. Despite this restriction, O’Banion received a lavish funeral, much larger than the Merlo funeral the day before. O’Banion was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. Due to the opposition from church officials, O’Banion was originally interred in unconsecrated ground. However, his family was eventually allowed to re-bury him on consecrated ground elsewhere in the cemetery.
The O’Banion killing would spark a brutal five-year gang war between the North Side Gang and the Chicago Outfit that culminated in the killing of seven North Side gang members in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929.
1938 – Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin’s“God Bless America” on network radio.
1940 – Walt Disney begins serving as an informerfor the Los Angeles office of the FBI; his job is to report back information on Hollywood subversives. 1942 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, discussing the recent British Commonwealth victory over Rommel at El Alamein, Egypt, said “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
1951 – Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States. 1958 – The Hope Diamond was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by New York diamond merchant Harry Winston.
1969 – National Educational Television(the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service) in the United States debuts the children’s television program Sesame Street.
1970 – Vietnam War: Vietnamization – For the first time in five years, an entire week ends with no reports of American combat fatalities in Southeast Asia. 1972 – Southern Airways Flight 49from Birmingham, Alabama is hijacked and, at one point, is threatened with crashing into the nuclear installation at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After two days, the plane lands in Havana, Cuba, where the hijackers are jailed by Fidel Castro.
1995 – In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) are hanged by government forces. BBC News complete with Video Footage 1997 – WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a $37 billion merger (the largest merger in US history at the time). MCI, Inc. is an American telecommunications company that is headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia. 1997 – British au pair freed after appeal. British au pair Louise Woodward was freed from jail in the United States after her conviction for murdering a baby was reduced to manslaughter. BBC New complete with video footage
Born on this Day
1683 – George IIof Great Britain (d. 1760)
1728 – Oliver Goldsmith, English playwright (d. 1774)
1925 – Richard Burton, Welsh actor (d. 1984)
1932 – Roy Scheider, American actor (d. 2008) best known for his role as police chief Martin Brody in the 1975 blockbuster Jaws
1940 – Screaming Lord Sutch, English musician and politician (d. 1999) was famed for founding the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. Despite his seemingly light-hearted antics, Screaming Lord Sutch in reality suffered from periods of depression and committed suicide by hanging on June 16, 1999, following the death of his mother the previous year.
1944 – Sir Tim Rice, English lyricist
1956 – Sinbad, American actor
1963 – Hugh Bonneville, English actor
Thought for the Day
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – in 1918, the Guns fell silent across the Western Front. 99 years ago, tomorrow, at precisely 11am, on the 11th of November 1918, ended what was then called the “War to end all Wars.”.
During the four months to November 1918 Allied troops launched a sequence of successful offensives against the Germans, forcing them to retreat and surrender.
In a railway carriage in France’s Compiegne Forest, during the early hours of November 11, 1918, an armistice was signed and six hours later the ‘War to end all Wars’ was finally over.
The statistics of the war, which lasted from 1914 to 1918 and surpassed all previous wars in the enormity of its destruction, are mind-boggling: 65 million men mobilized by the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey) and the Allied Powers (Britain, France, Belgium, Russia, Italy and the United States).
An estimated 10 million killed and 20 million wounded on the battlefield.
It was, as I’ve said, the war to end all wars, and, of course, it did nothing of the kind.
Our World is still ‘at war’. As we sit here, right now, reading this, there are guns being fired, families living in fear, men and women being put into unenviable positions of trying to stay alive, and men and women losing their lives, in a war, somewhere in this World of ours.
Will there ever be an end to war? I would love to think so. But in reality, I fear there won’t. For we don’t seem to know at what point we should stand up to evil.
How can you distinguish good and evil from nationalistic ranting and posturing? Those questions and all the associated questions remain with us. All are unresolved and perhaps will never be resolved.
Did The Great War teach us nothing? Does it not now stand as a great warning? In the days of mass terrorism and nuclear proliferation, shouldn’t the Great War, and all wars since, be a reminder of what can happen when two causes collide, each armed with technologies of mass destruction and each driven by a blind faith in its own righteousness?
Until we understand fully that violence begets violence and move beyond justifying war, beyond nationalism, beyond belief of what we ‘think’ may be, beyond blind belief of ‘jingoism’ and the self-righteousness of ‘my faith is the only right path’, until we learn to treat all, even the stranger, as a brother and sister, as someone we are related to, we will not stop war. We HAVE to believe it’s possible; and we have to work, tirelessly, to prevent the seeds of war from flourishing.
Will the 21st Century be the century in which we finally choose between human and ecological suicide and peace? I hope so, for all our sakes. For what would happen, if another country, practising another faith and another way of life, invaded our own country demanding that we do things their way, and killing anyone who disagreed?
Today, I am wearing my Poppy with the greatest degree of pride that is possible. I wear it to show that I remember all those men and women who have lost their lives in the name of war. I wear it to say ‘thank you’ to them, in the only way I know how.
I wear it, and each time I touch it, or look down at it, I am aware of the lump in my throat, signalling the holding back of tears which spring all too readily to my eyes, for the loss of not one, not one hundred, not one thousand … but thousands upon thousands of people who didn’t choose to die. But did.
Tomorrow (11th day of the 11th month) is not only a chance to remember those brave men and women who were victims of conflict past, but also victims of current wars.
I have chosen to place a song here which is normally associated with Great Britain, but I feel that now, more than ever, a strong bond holds us all together, and I feel that the true meaning of the song can be shared by us all.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
To those who gave everything so that we may be
free to live in peace.
We shall remember them.
Thank you so much for visiting and having a coffee moment or two with me. I so enjoy your company.
May your day be peaceful, bright and calm. May joy reach you and love find you. And, where ever you go … may your God go with you.
On October 26th I shared with you a card I’d made which had a coffee theme about it, (Clickable Link—> Let’s have coffee. . . . )and turned the card into a Giveaway!. Well… I closed the entries a short while ago and gave each person who entered a number, so that I could get the Google Random Number Generator to select a number for me, in order to choose a winner. The numbers were given in the order that people added their name:
Chicken Grandma
Crafty Boutique by Tam
Quiet Water Craft
Lil Goodacre(Lil, I can’t find your blog could you give me a link please? Thanks!) 🤗
Ruthie’s Crafting Corner
BC Parkinson
Soozyb2013
Rabbitpatchdiary
Nancee56
Watching the Daisies
AuntBeulah
I’m thrilled to be able to announce that we have a winner (thank you Google Random Number Indicator) …
And the winner is: Number 10 (Ten) – Watching the Daisies!
Many Congratulations Daisies. Could you please email me and let me know both your snail mail address so that I can post the card to you …. AND … tell me if you would like me to dedicate the card to you, and write inside it, OR … if you would like to have the card sent to you without any writing inside it, so that you can send the card to someone else.
A BIG THANK YOU to all who entered. It’s all just a little bit of brightness and sunshine which makes blogging land a smidgen nicer because of it.
There will no doubt be another giveaway soon, so please do enter again. I have no control over the number generator I just click and it chooses… so it might just be your turn next time!
Wishing you a happy week, filled with pockets of fun and smiles.
I found this idea on Pinterest about … oh, I dunno, … a gazillion years ago? – maybe. And although I thought it was a good(ish) idea at the time I found it, I put it into that category folder inside my brain of: “Good looking Pinterest ideas which probably don’t actually work in reality”.
How wrong was I!!!
It really does actually work! I can’t believe it!
I already had one of the required perspex/acrylic certificate ‘stands’ so all I needed was some velcro.Do you think I could find this simple thing anywhere? It was rarer than Gold dust here where I live. However, a leaflet left in my mail box came at just the right time. Lidl were having packets of it in their stores, amongst the crafting specials, the following week. I couldn’t believe my luck, neither could I believe how cheap it was when I went in to buy it. They had white or black, and I could have either sticky backed self adhesive, or the unsticky type. I decided upon the self adhesive and crossed my fingers that it was the ‘self adhesive’ which actually stuck to things!
I cleaned up the certificate holder so that it was sparkling clean(to make sure that I gave the self adhesive Velcro a fighting chance), and then sat working out where I should stick the Velcro for maximum bottle storage. I’d noticed that the idea I’d seen on Pinterest had only shown three rows of bottles, but when I measured up, three seemed so very far apart, and had such a waste of space in between the rows, so I inserted a sheet of A4 into the certificate holder, but left just a smidgen of the edge sticking out along one side, so that I could make a little dot at the points as I measured them.
I worked out that on an A4 Certificate holder(which mine is – but check the size of yours or check before you buy one, as there are various sizes) – If you measured one centimetre down from the top of the paper and draw a straight line across the paper, then from that line measure 8cm down and drawn another line, and do it a further two times. You should then have four lines.
Then … cut four lengths of the hooks side of some of your Velcro, in the WIDTH of the perspex stand. (I used black but you can use any colour you like). Insert your piece of paper with the lines on it, back into the stand and lay it on your desk.
It helps to leave the ‘foot’ of the stand hanging over the front edge of your desk so that the stand lays completely flat.
Using your drawn lines on the paper as the centre marker for the middle of the Velcro tape, stick the hooks side of the Velcro to the perspex certificate holder/stand and press down firmly to make sure that it’s adhered in all the places along its strip.
I would use the hooks side of the velcro on the stand, – and the eyes side of the velcro on the bottles. (The eyes side is much softer to the touch, so it will be more comfortable for your fingers, – so put the soft side of the velcro on the bottles.)
Do that four times, so that you’ve got all your lines ready and waiting for your bottles.
Now … get all your bottles of Stickles out and count them. Cut that amount of little bits of the ‘eye’ side of the Velcro – roughly about one centimetre wide strips – and when you’ve got them all ready … lay your ruler down on your desk in a comfortable place that you can lean over and look ‘down’ on the rule. Then taking one bottle of Stickles, lay it next to your rule, with the bottom of the bottle at the 2.5 centimetre measurement. Where the beginning of the 1cm measurement sits(not quite half way on the bottle), that’s where you’re going to put the bottom of the little Velcro strip you’ve just cut. Apply it. Press it down firmly, then hang it on your new Stickles Storage System! Repeat for the rest of your bottles!
A slightly blurred, but closer up view.
VOILA! A Pinterest ‘make’ which actually works!
This works SO well for me, as I’m one of those crafters who, if I put things away in boxes or cupboards, ‘out of sight’ means ‘out of mind’, and I forget them.
I know that the detailed instructions I’ve given to make this, might make it sound complicated. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This is the most simple thing I’ve ever ‘made’ in my life. It’s so quick and easy that I really don’t feel I should be ‘pleased’ with myself for doing it. And, I’m not. I’m more ‘pleased’ to have found something on Pinterest which actually works,and I also wish I’d have had a go at this a long time ago.
Oh … and if you look closely, you’ll see that there are two bottles of Dovecraft Glitter Glue hanging on the stand too … which shows that even with slightly bigger bottles than the Ranger Stickles, the measurements I’ve given still work. I think that because the stand (and most of these types of stands) tilts back slightly, it means that the bottles actually hang just a little proud of the stand at the bottoms of the bottles (yes, the bottoms – not the upside down tops, – if you follow me), and this means that taking a bottle from the stand is easy to do.
Before I go …
I know my blog has been rather quiet for a couple of weeks … life just kind of gets in the way sometimes. But I’ve been crafting and do have a few things to share. I just have to find the time to load the photos and crop/re-size them.
Thank you so much for coming to share a bit of time with me. I’m so thrilled that you’re here, and I thank you from the heart of my bottom for coming. It reall does mean so much to me that you pop by for a visit, so: Thank You. xxx
The Art of Cobwebs 