Birds of a Feather flock together….

A couple of days ago, here on the Emporium blog, a couple of  other bloggers and myself were chatting, via the comments thing, and wondering where one of our much-loved bloggers, PaperPuff, or, as we call her, Puff,  had disappeared to.

We knew that she was going to be having a short time away from blogging because she had to look after someone she cared about for a while.  However, that was three months ago.

I along with other bloggers have left little messages on her blog, saying hello, sending good wishes, love and …  I let myself in using the spare door key under the mat and ate a pack of biscuits …. then Flo found the key and broke into the house and found some more biscuits …  (obviously, we didn’t really break in….  we were just playing about and hoping to make our mutual blogging friend laugh if she was reading.  Flo and I are both gigglers – can I say  ‘two peas in a pod’?).

I do have her email address, and emailed her about a month ago, but haven’t heard back from her.

Sooo when SamanthaMurdoch wrote asking if I’d heard from Puff or if I had any means of communicating with her, it was this question which made me check my emails to see if I possibly might still have her address there.  I couldn’t believe it when I found I still had it.  You see, I delete all emails containing snail mail addresses after I’ve used the address for sending out ‘Giveaways’ or cards for some other reason, so to still have it was like finding a gold nugget.

I told Samantha that I had the address, and wondered if perhaps I should send her a little card or something through the snail mail post to just say hello, or something like that.

Samantha and her friend Gillyflower said yes!  Do it.  So I made her a quick, but fun card today.

Birds of a feather flock together…

Using a few different colours of watercolours, I dabbed some colours onto the card and once dried, I turned them into birds (apart from one, which I turned into a funny furry mouse), and then around the edge, beginning on the left hand side of the card I ‘wriggly wrote’ the message….  “We’ve Looked High and Low …..

and then on the inside…

…  and we can’t find YOU!

… it goes on to say …. and …  we can’t  find  YOU!  Again … with a little, long-legged, watercolour bird on the inside.  It’s all done in a fun, casual, smiley way.  In a way which I know will make Puff smile when she sees it.

I thought I’d send it to Puff, saying that Samantha Murdoch, Mrs. Craft, Gillyflower and myself were all thinking about her, and hoping she was well. (or something along those lines … perhaps a little more of a smile in the words somewhere).  If there are any other of Puffs friends reading who would like their name to be included, please say so, before the end of Friday night at 11pm UK time,  via the comments section of this post, and it shall be done.

Before signing off …

There will be no regular ‘Friday Post’ this week.  Time has run away from me this week and I’ve found myself to be plumb tuckered out trying to chase after it.  So I decided that going to bed was my greatest need over building the Friday Post, (yes, I know … I’m shocked too!  I’ve never deserted my post before!), so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.  I’m off to bed.  A bed covered in freshly washed sheets which were dried on the line outside and smell so pretty.  Ahhhhh…. I can feel that fresh cotton on my legs right nowzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Ooops.  ‘scuse me!  😳

So we’ll look on it as a little holiday.  Normal services will be resumed, when normal reappears. 🙂

In the meantime,  sending love and squidges … oh … and,  as the famous Jimmy Durante once sang:  …  make someone happy.  It’s so important to make someone happy.  Then you, will be happy, too.  And he was right you know.  It really does work like that.

 

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Things I’ve Learned This Week

Welcome, dear readers, to the Friday Postcard from the land of Cobwebs, where you learn about the lessons life has taught me in the past week.

Without further ado, I’m going to plunge you straight into the shallow pool in which I paddle…..

I’ve learnt that it’s bloomin’ annoying when they suddenly take my hair shampoo off sale and instead bring out a NEW, IMPROVED variety, without any warning.  Had they put out a notification that they were going to do this, I would have gone and bought up as many bottles as possible and kept them in storage, for use whenever I needed it.  I’m now left with yet another seek and find operation to find a shampoo which doesn’t make my hair hang like it’s suffering with a bad bout of depression, or my head itch or burn. Or any number of combinations.  Why do companies do this?  It’s most impolite!

I learnt this week (and this one surprised the heck out of me)  that (last year) the Hershey Company of the USA had British Chocolate made by Cadbury BANNED in the USA, and because of that two of the biggest importers of Cadbury Chocolate were no longer allowed import and sell the British Chocolate within the USA.

The Hershey Company banned (yes banned) Cadbury Chocolate from the USA!  No I couldn’t believe this either so went in search of the truth.  Turned out … it was true….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcVpp0fGETM

Now I have a handful of friends who were born and bred in the USA and they all love British Chocolate.    So I hope that they will continue to be able to find what they desire.  However … a certain blogger – Chicken Grandma – will (next week) get her first taste of Walnut Whips which I’ve posted to her.  If she loves them … I want her to be able to seek and find them so that she can keep up her supply.  😉

I’ve learned that  when I’m not feeling too well,  I really, really should stop what I’m doing and just let my body heal itself in its own time, and not push my luck.  Because pushing my luck ends up costing me more days of not being too well.  So give in, give up and go to bed.  That’s the rule I’m going to go by from now on.

I learned the hard way that when I see some crafty item or another, and I fall in lurve with it, I should think carefully about whether I should buy two or three packs at the time …  because that store where you bought your item from, might just put the price up to double the price you paid just two days earlier, once it finds out that crafters really, really like this item and want it on their Christmas cards!  DOUBLE THE PRICE IN JUST A COUPLE OF DAYS!  What a liberty!  Grrrr!  😦

I realised (so I guess I learned this about myself this week) that I no longer take myself as seriously as I did when I was younger.  I’ve found that I’m far more relaxed and more chilled now.  Things don’t bother me like they used to.  Appointments being cancelled … [shrugs] that’s ok.  Just make another one.  The store being out of stock of the item I travelled there just to buy ….  ah nevermind.  Find something else, or wait till they get it back in.  Nothing really gets me angry or mad any more.  I’m just the chilled out person I always knew I could be if I tried.  Thing is … I’m not trying.  It just seemed to happen!

I’ve learned that no matter how serious your own life is,  everyone needs a friend to be silly with.  Someone you can just be silly with.  Harmlessly so.  Innocent fun.  Just regular silly stuff.  Someone to have a laugh or a giggle with.

I’ve learned that my 5-year-old Grandson, Little Cobs, is apparently  the Worlds Chief Fingernail  Superintendent, and if he feels that my nails are too long for any Grammy of his, then he’s going to tell me about it over and over until I get my nail scissors out and cut that nail to a length he finds acceptable.  (yes … this really did happen.  I josh you not!).

I’ve learnt that Mr. Cobs and I are going to have to resort to trickery to get Little Cobs out of the house when he comes every Saturday for the day.  His daddy drops him off with us, and the moment that front door closes, we cannot get him to come out with us in the car at all.  He just doesn’t want to leave the house, not for weeks on end now – he’ll take his bike out into the garden and race around that, but that’s as far as it goes.

And … we think we may have figured out why.  He knows that if he goes out in Grammys car, it could be that we’re taking him home.  Soooo he might think that we’ll take him home if we go out, soooo …  we’re going to swap things around.  We’re going to pack a winter picnic in the car, then instead of Daddy dropping him off, we’ll instead go there and collect him from daughter and son-in-law’s home….  then we’ll go take him somewhere for this picnic (if it’s too cold to eat outdoors, then we’ll sit in the car and eat it).  Then afterwards we can do something outside.  Something fun.  Even just kicking a ball around the park with Grandad or even something like a hunt for treasure on the beach (if the sun is out).  Anything, just to get him outside having a bit of fun.

And finally ….

I’ve learned that the obnoxious smell which my dog can emit – particularly and only when her bottom is facing my way – be it in our bedroom, the living room or any other room – including my Craft Room (how very dare she)  …. might turn me green;  make me fall off my chair;  go into debt to buy sprays and expensive scented candles which will disguise the smell enough to stop me vomiting ….  but I’ve learned that I can actually live through them …. even when holding my breath and trying to make a hasty retreat to some other room where she can’t follow me!

Mr. Cobs let her eat what was left in one of our cats food dishes today which has caused her a windy pops problem  … and if he EVER does that again I’m going to either:-

A)  D.I.V.O.R.C.E him.  

B)  Cut his ‘pom poms’ off (yes we really do call them that ever since our youngest daughter asked us, when she was knee-high to an ant,  “Why does Daddy have pom poms and I don’t?”.   They’ve been ‘pom poms ever since.      … or 

C)  Shave all his hair off while he’s blissfully snoring the night away.

Be Warned, Cobs The Bogey Man!  Be Warned!.

Well … that’s a list of all the lessons life has taught me in the last seven days.  Or rather … it’s the ones I can remember.   So what about you?  Have you learned anything this week?  Has life taught you the secrets of how to stay forever young?  Win the lottery?  Be forever as beautiful as you are right now?  What?  C’mon, share what lessons you’ve learned this week.

If they’re tough lessons which require us all to gather around you and hug you … then we will.

If they’re lessons which require us to laugh  … then we’ll do that easily.

But if they’re lessons that we can learn from, then we’ll willingly all sit in silence as you tell us what we need to know so that we don’t make that same mistake.

If you’ve learnt nothing at all this week … then for goodness sake tell us your favourite joke!  We all need to laugh far more than we do.  So come on…  share your best joke with us!

Sending oodles of squidges from my corner to yours. ~

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Tea or Coffee, my Fabulous Friend?

Personally, I’m a coffee drinker.  But I’m more than happy to make you tea…  or  –  we could go out to that lovely little tea room, here in town, where everything feels like it belongs in the 1940’s and 1950’s?  There’s even a good old-fashioned Globe of the World in the window which has paled with time, and harsh sunshine.  They have cakes under domes, and table cloths, and it looks kind of kitsch and is painted all lemony.

Remember those carnival type ornaments which we were told were precious (when we were little), but they were actually made of a chalk like substance and if they got chipped, you could see the white chalky ‘stuff’ inside.  They have some of those there too, decorating the walls or placed around the tea shop in strategic places.  (I’m not sure if they really were worth something – a genuine ‘collectible’  type of thing, – or if they were just precious because of the memories attached to them).

Or, we could go round the corner to that much-loved cottage tea room, which has a courtyard garden.  It’s very lovely in there and just a little bit ‘vintage swish’ too – and we can sit in the garden if the weather is good, or inside if it’s a little chilly!

OK.. so I’ve got mine,  . . .   what are you going to order for yourself?

Anyhoo . . .

I made a card asking my fabulous friend if you’d like to share a coffee, or a tea, with me… while you peruse this latest offering from the Cobweb.

The paper in the background is just so lovely.  Just the right blue, with little circles made from pearly white dots,  and perfect for what I needed, but I don’t know who’s paper it actually is.  It was still in it’s ‘book’ – but the front cover has disappeared  –  leaving me without even a note!  tsk tsk.  The cup and saucer are Tilda.  Yes indeedly doodly!  None of those cheap market stall cups and saucers for you!  However, I fussy cut into parts of it in order to make it what I needed it to be, then covered the original ‘picture’ of a glittered star (in the saucer) with proper glitter, in two colours to give it a little more depth.

The doilies, flowers, cotton muslin (behind the flowers) and the hat pins all came from my stash.  The Pearl Strand of small, medium and large pearls which trails around the card, is by Anna-Marie Designs.

soft little fabric roses all sewn onto a ribbon of net.

The little fabric roses (shown above) – which run along the top and the bottom of the card, actually came from The Range.  I’m hoping that The Range still has these in stock (I doubt it) because I absolutely love them.  They’re so soft, so pretty and so light weight.  They go into envelopes easily but then pop back up again upon opening, and they don’t add any weight to posting a card either.

And that, as all the very best Magicians say, is all there was to it!

Happy Wednesday all!  Monday and Tuesday just flew past and I now find myself in the middle of the week with what feels like a gazillion things which I need to do, and not enough days left in this week in which to do them!  Honestly, I swear to Dog that since we moved to the seaside, someone is taking whole chunks of hours, days and sometimes even getting very cheeky and stealing a whole week out of my time, for time, apparently, flies past like it’s on the wings of a jumbo jet!  Aw, enough moaning Cobs!

So … what about you..  what are you up to today?  Going anywhere?  Doing anything?  Supposed to be doing something but want to do something else instead?  Go on, tell me all about it.  It’s just you and me (and a few others), and I’m not going to tell anyone!

Wishing you a truly Wonderful Wednesday.  May the sun shine, if the wind blows, may it blow softly, and may you end the day with a gentle smile and the knowledge that life, even if a bit tough sometimes, is still good.

Sending you my love, and a special Cobs squidge!

 

 

Friday Post:- Things I’ve learned this week!

I’m hoping to begin a ‘Friday Post’, as each Friday comes around (and boy do they come around quicker the older I get!).  Each week I find I’m learning something(s) new and hoping to share these with you  …  if my one remaining brain cell remembers to do this, of course.

Before I branch out into this weeks life’s lessons can I just take a moment to say  ….

Hello and Welcome to a handful of new followers who have joined us.  It’s fabulous to have you joining the team here and so lovely to see and meet new folks.  Please don’t be shy.  Chat to me and the rest of the great team in a comment, so that we can get to know each other.  Talking in blog land is something I heartily encourage as otherwise it’s just like another Facebook – and we don’t need another one of those.  So … in the words of someone famous though sadly not here with us anymore...  Can we talk?

Anyhoo … here’s what I’ve learned this week:

1.  As I’m sat here right now, in my favourite grey t.shirt which is all wet down the left hand side (visibly wet), I’ve learned that I should ensure I put the cap  PROPERLY  on my plastic see through squash tumbler/flask before I tuck it into the crook of my arm and hold it firmly against my body (left br3@st) so that when I bend slightly to pick up the crafting freebies which came with my magazine this morning, the said ‘orange squash’ doesn’t leak all over my t.shirt,  causing me to look for all intents and purposes like a heavily lactating new mother!  (*Dear God, it’s me again.  Can you make sure no one comes the door right now because I look a total mess.  thank you God ~ me. x).

2.  I’ve learned this week not to put my glasses (spectacles) down on my crafting surface, anywhere near where I’ve dropped a small bit of the opaque, removable Scotch tape which I use to keep my dies in place during the cutting process in the machine.  Because … if  that tiny bit sticks to a lens of my glasses, I instantly think I’ve gone ‘wonky’ in one eye and a tiny bit of panic steps in.  (Hey, so much  is going wrong with me over the past .. what?  Donkeys years??  –  yeah, that will do, – that a wonky eye just seemed like another laugh which my body was having at my expense).

3. I’ve learned to stop checking if air dry clay is  …  dry yet?.  . . .  And now?  . . .   Is it ready Now?  . . .  And NOW? [sigh]  Leave the darn thing alone over-night, woman! [double sigh]

4. I’ve learned that there are some of the most incredibly wonderful people in blog land, who turn from blogging pals, into blogging friends,  into incredible blessings in my life.

Mentioning no names   (The Artisan Duck).  . . .  I had a lightbulb moment a few weeks ago when perusing a blogging pals blog, and I mentioned the idea in a comment to her.

She took that idea and had a play around and improved on it, and from that initial play, she produced the most incredible, darling Hat Pins,  which the scrapbookers and card makers amongst us like to use in our crafting.  But .. Hannah’s  whoops I almost forgot I wasn’t mentioning any names – these Hat Pins are different and so wonderful for card makers/scrapbookers because …

• instead of the mile long hat pins (which Hat pins are normally made in), Han  … ‘Miss Maker & Amazing Talented Artist’ makes her hat pins on shorter, lighter weight, pins, so that we crafters don’t face either having to try to cut pins down (a dangerous affair as I know to my cost)
• or trying to work out a way of covering up a huge stem of a hat pin in ways which we really don’t want to. 
• Neither do they weight a card in such a way that they cost more to post,
• nor drag the front of a card forward or even make it fall down because of the weight. 
• Neither are we faced with trying to ‘hide’ the sharp points of the pins so that the receiver or someone in their family doesn’t get stabbed by the point of a hat pin.

In photographs the pins look great.  But in real life …  the pins are little stunners.  The beads and pearls on the pins twinkle and shine and sparkle beautifully, and the length is totally perfect.  More than perfect.  And on cards – they are the perfect length.

How do I know this?  –  My blogging friend sent me the selection of pins to say thank you for the idea . . .

. . .  and a handmade card, made by her herself with two of her pins added as embellishments. 

See the two handmade hat pins?  Aren’t they pretty!

I’ve had ideas popping out of my head and fingers for donkey’s years and I’ve shared them with the folks who I thought might like the idea(s), but this is the first time anyone has ever made me feel like Hannah has. She validated my suggestion, and let’s be honest here, we all need validation sometimes in our lives.  I had ‘an idea‘. Nothing else. Just an idea which I shared with her.  Hannah liked the idea, ran with it, (not while holding scissors) and then thanked me and is thinking of making them and putting them for sale.  (I hope she does because I’d buy these.)

 I know I simply won’t be able to give these particular pins up by using them on cards because … well to me, they’re not a ‘for crafting’ item, these are a special gift, handmade and given to me from a special blogging friend.  No, I cannot part with these, not for all the tea in China.  They’re mine. 

So … I’m wiser (and older) this Friday, but not just for the 4 points mentioned above.

What about you?  Have you learned anything this week?  Do share!  If it’s something funny then you’ll make us laugh.  If it’s something you’ve cried over, we’ll hold your hand and cry with you.  If it’s something which has made you wiser .. tell us and share the wisdom.

[Looks down at her t.shirt]  …..  ooo goody!… it’s dry now!   (Hello God, it’s me again.  You can cancel that last request and let folk come to the door.  The t.shirt is dry now.  Thank you.  ~ me. x)

Wishing you a truly great Friday and promising that normal service (of crafting and making a beautiful mess with scraps and glittery things) will be resumed on Monday.  In the meantime … I’m cleaning my craftroom.  It looks like someone had a right old paddy in there at the moment.  I swear I don’t make THAT much mess when I’m crafting – so it certainly can’t be me! (I bet it’s that cat of mine!) lol.  We also have our own little star coming to stay over the weekend, and although we love, love, love to have him – but we both feel twice our age by the time he’s gone. 🙂

Have a truly wonderful weekend all.

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How could I have forgotten that I loved Anna?

I wanted to make a special card for someone who is such a really lovely person, but I wanted to make it in a way that perhaps she hadn’t seen from me before so I sat and I puzzled over it until my brain got sore and then ….  I spotted a box on a shelf in my craft room and DING!  A big exclamation mark appeared over my head!

I’ve had some Anna Griffin die cuts in a box for quite some time, and, well, you know how it is, you make something, and then another thing, then another, and then you decide that you want a change so you pop things back on the shelf and, over time, they kind of get forgotten.  Well that’s what happened with the Anna Griffin die-cuts.

I sat in my craft room chair and opened the box (feeling a little like Pandora), and it was right at that moment a light inside my brain shone like a Christmas Angel.  “Ohhh dearest die cuts, how could I have forgotten about you, my darlings?  You are perfection” I said lovingly to the die cuts – like some weirdo.

So … I made a card with them!  Other than this (wordy) introduction, there’s not much to say about this card because it kind of tells its own story as you look at the photos, so without further ado …  may I present …  Flowers for my Friend …. [round of applause can be heard as the curtain goes up  …   stops halfway,  . . .  a whirring, grinding noise can be heard,  but then   . . .   with a bit of fiddling,  up it finally rises] . .

I had to hold the card in one of those big peg things,   that’s what you can just see at the bottom there.  It’s not my fingers, ’cause those are fatter than that peg. {snigger}

The outside of the card is a pretty card but it’s also pretty ‘normal’.  However … it’s the inside where the action is, for this card is meant to be displayed open.

When you open the card there’s a lot more going on than you might think from the outside.  {kind of like my good self … only in my case there’s a lot less going on than you hope for}

As you move the card around you get to see different things which you might not have noticed before .

Ta daaaah!  Like magic!  You can now see how the individual layers of how the card works.

Looking from the other side

Slightly blurry in places.  The camera has a self focusing thing and wanted to focus on those pansies.  In the end I gave up fighting with it and let it do whatever it darn well liked, because it wasn’t going to let me win.

And a final look at the front again, just incase you’ve forgotten what it looked like …

See … told you it wasn’t my fingers holding the card! {pulls out tongue and waggles it}

And that’s all there is to it!

Ok … let’s get down and dirty now …

The HEAT.  The TEMPERATURE HERE IS ALL WRONG.  IT’S TOO,  TOOOOOOOO  HOT!!  I feel dirty all the time and I don’t like dirty.   Mr. Cobs thinks I’ve developed one of those OCD things  … I keep washing my hands, and arms, right up to the elbows, because it’s such horrid, sticky weather.

Now don’t get me wrong…  I’m not complaining about the Summer, nor the fabulous Sunshine. But surely there is no need to roast a Cobweb in this unseemly fashion?

I’m sat here with the ceiling fan on at full throttle.  I have a large desk top fan on the coffee table, doing its gentle wave, back and forth, like the Queen waving from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.  And … I have a large air coolant machine, (which is darned noisy but worth the noise) in the hallway, facing into the living room, so that all my fur pals can keep cool.

Our living room, and leading halfway into the hallway, looks like the aftermath of a murder scene right now.  Four bodies are waiting for forensic Science to come and put white tape around them,  take swabs, and hairs and … whatever else they do in those white J-Cloth suits which they wear.  

Three Cats and one rather rotund Dog,  who has a big, chubby pink belly which I like to blow raspberries on because it makes her wriggle and snuff,  (but enough of my peccadilloes),  are all  looking, for all intents and purposes, like dead things.  I’d love to take a photo, but the minute I turn the darn thing on these four all know that little noise which the camera makes and they all sit up to see what the divil I’m up to now.  So I won’t photograph them, I’ll leave them to rest, because they need it.  If I’m too hot and I only have three items of clothing on, then these wonderful creatures are way hotter because they’re all wearing fur coats!

Oh look at me rambling on.  It’s the heat.  It’s addled that one last remaining brain cell.  I shall shut up – except to say …  Have a wonderful Wednesday.  Do something nice for someone else today.  Give them one of your smiles.  Tell someone you’ve never met before, that they look pretty/handsome/striking/attractive   .. anything nice. Lovely.  Anything to bring them joy.  By doing so, I promise you’ll get far more joy in return.  Go on.  Do something nice for someone else today.  I dares ya!

Have a  blessed day my friends.  Thank you for coming to share a coffee with me round the kitchen table.    Heaps of love  to you and yours ~

 

 

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