I had my Ranger Melt Pot out last week, aka: The Cauldron., and made a few pretties with it but … well, one thing turned to another and a little memory crept into my mind of a card I remembered seeing about four or five years ago. Once the memory had taken shape inside my mind (in other words, I remembered enough to give it a good old bash) I thought I’d have try at making the beautiful leaf I remembered.
The leaf itself is a stamped leaf, but, after cutting it out, I turned it over and using bottles of re-inkers, I set about colouring the leaf up. The first one I made didn’t give off the feeling I was trying for. The colours were too deep and kind of flat. So I scrapped that one, (my motto: If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you ever tried!)… and began again, this time using different colours. I knew what I was after: A leaf coloured for all the seasons. And this was the result:-
I was quite pleased with how it turned out. It went from a brighter summer green, into a deep, rich, dark green, which then changed into rust and orange, which in turn changed into that fabulous autumn yellow.
I took LOADS of photographs of the leaf … and couldn’t for the life of me, get it to show the ultra thick embossing which I’d toiled over until it was perfection. I wanted to catch the shine on the leaf so that you could see that this was something really pretty. It looked like the most beautiful leaf captured inside glass. [sigh] Sadly, I failed. Nothing I did would catch the shine of what looked like glass. So you’ll have to imagine that it’s there.
The sentiment– is partly something I read a while back, but I changed it round a little, added a line and changed a few words, and so made it more what I wanted the card to say.
In case you can’t read it, it says:
Whispering winds which scatter leaves at the end of Summer; A gentle stroll on an Autumn Day; The chill in the air on a Winters morning; The chirrup of bird song which Spring brings. Somethings in life are always beautiful.
I really enjoyed putting this card together and love the leaf. In fact I loved making it so much that I think I’m going to make it again, only next time a little different. If it works, I’ll share it with you. If it doesn’t … you may never hear another word about it. But .. I might share it if it fails miserably – just so that you and I can have a laugh. LOL.
On the day I made this card, I made some other things too – only this time with my Cauldron (Ranger Melt Pot), and I’ll share those things with you next time.
Anyhoo . . .HAPPY MONDAY!
Just to get the week off to a grrrrrreat start, I give you a joke in the hope of making your heart smile….
I just watched a wildlife documentary about beavers. — Best dam programme I’ve seen in a long time! 😀
Pass the smile around. Share the joke. Let’s see if we can get the whole world smiling. We could use a little amusement now and again.
Have a truly lovely Monday. May today be a good one. Sending you squidges from my corner to yours….
We first met Anne and Malcolm a few weeks ago (if you missed the first post you can find it HERE), and now they’re back again for another visit, to share with us all their unique observations on Life living with a Crafter via the use of photographs.
For those who haven’t ‘met’ Anne and Malcolm, then . . . Crafters, Ladies and Gentlemen …May I introduce you to Malcolm and Anne. A glimpse into the exciting world of Crafters and their spouses.
(Anne and Malcolm exist solely inside my imagination and for the purpose of…) . . . .
THE COBWEB CATALOGUE
of a Living (in my imagination) Crafter & Spouse
Malcolm loved that Anne was so happy in the craft room he’d ‘built’ for her, but one thing didn’t go down well with him at all. The Voodoo Dolly strapped to the big star. He wished with all his heart that she’d part company with that, because it gave him the heebie-jeebies and he didn’t like to go into the craftroom to get any of his cooking spices which Anne insisted should be in her craft room. It made him wonder exactly what sort of ‘craft’ Anne was practising!
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Anne had dropped (very) heavy hints to Malcolm, and even left brochures around the house in the hope he’d get the idea about what she dearly wanted as a Birthday gift this year. But on her Birthday, all he’d bought her was a wall mounted thingy-ma-jiggy-me-bob on which to store all her cotton reels, and he still hadn’t noticed the lack of a sewing machine in her Sewing Room!
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Anne was far happier now that she’d finally got a ‘Naughty Basket’ for the fabrics which were misbehaving, and two Glass Jail Jars for those really BAD fabrics who were the real trouble makers in the bunch! She was determined to teach them a lesson!
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Back from their shopping trip, Malcolm took Anne’s new blue basket, filled with all the ribbons she’d bought that morning, down to her basement craft room. That’s when he noticed the hastily packed suitcases under her fabric cutting desk. The neighbours could hear that trouble was brewing in ‘Chez Malcanne’, as Malcolm climbed the stairs from the basement, two at a time, shouting: “Anne! ANNE!!”with a rather cross tone to his voice.
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While Anne was away visiting her mother for a couple of days, Malcolm had planned to clean up her crafting room as a surprise for her upon her return. He thought she’d love how clean and tidy it was now, and also thought she’d adore all the storage boxes with all their little drawers which he’d sorted her things into, and then spent four hours writing little sticky labels out for each drawer. Sadly, we crafters among us know exactly what was going to happen the minute she stepped inside that door. She would look around that room with horror mounting and registering on her face. It was going to take her years to find all her lovely things – which despite what he might have thought, were all in their correct places (for her) and she prided herself on knowing that she could put her hand on ANYTHINGshe required because she’d known exactly where it all was! But not any longer! Malcolm was going to be TOAST!
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One corner of Anne’s Stitch, Knit and Sew Crafting Room was dedicated to what Anne affectionately called her ‘woolly life‘. However, Malcolm suspected that this corner had nothing to do with crafting, and instead believed it was a secret Breeding Programme. The mound seemed to increase weekly, and yet Anne always laughed and denied it when he suggested to her that she’d been out buying more wool again.
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Well, we’ve turned over few more pages of the ‘COBWEB CATALOGUEof life with a Crafter & Spouse’, for a bit of Wednesday afternoon fun. I hope they’ve raised a few smiles, a smattering of gentle laughs, or even modicum of cheer.
Have a truly blessed rest of your day.
The photos chosen for this post are randomly chosen and found on the internet, so publicly available. I sadly don’t know who the photos belong to, so if you are the owner of any of them, please drop me a comment detailing which photo is yours, and giving me a link to the original posting of it, and I’ll be thrilled to credit you to the photo.
Welcome to the Friday Postcard from Cobwebs, where I share with you all the stuff I’ve learned this week.
Life teaches us all some lessons and ‘stuff’ it believes we need to learn or know about. Some of these things might be painful. Some of them may give you a heartache. Some may touch you so deeply that you can almost feel this ‘thing’ slowly sinking into your soul. Some things may make you cry. But then there are some things which will make you smile. Or laugh. Or just set up your day with a base of a good mood which carries you through your day. I’m hoping that this Friday Postcard, from me to you, will be one which starts your day off with at least one smile. Shall we dive in?
What I’ve learned this week . . .
I’ve learned that when I leave the house, clamber into my car, put my seatbelt on, start-up the car and put it into reverse in order to get off my drive …. I’ve learned that around the point I’ve backed out of my drive and driven just a little way down the road, it’s usually at this point that I realise that the reason my eyes are so blurry isn’t because I didn’t get enough sleep, but because I’ve forgotten to put my darn glasses on! [sigh] Why do I keep doing this?Why haven’t I actually learned this lesson yet. You’d think that at my age (of over 21 plus a lot of tax), it would be as natural to put my glasses on as it is to pick up my car keys.
I’ve learned that the world has more information than a brain can surely hold, but not enough inspiration.
We live in a computerised/technological world. Everything is run by computers. With more and more things being computerised, daily. I watched TV a couple of days ago and saw how a short black cylinder with a blue light halo around the top can now turn on lights or the kettle or the washing machine or .. well just about anything while you’re not even in the house! It can make a shopping list for you by you just talking to it and asking it to add (eg) a loaf of bread to the list. It sits in the corner, or on the table, or … well just about anywhere it seems, and it’s ALWAYS on. You never turn it off. It’s just there. Listening to you and waiting for you to say it’s name – Alexa.
You can ask it virtually anything, and it will give you an answer within seconds. How far away is the Sun? It knows. Is there a particular store in your city? It knows. How to spell a word? It knows. Watch the little video below, but beware … you might end up thinking you should have one. lol
Then the presenter on the TVshowed me how I could get a tiny circular vacuum cleaner to clean my carpets and floors while I was out at work, by setting a timer on it. Then, before I came home from work, the carpets would all be super clean. However, if the machine began to run out of charge, it would return itself to the docking station and would re-charge itself, then set off again, back to where it left off, and continue cleaning the floors for you!
Then they turned to a fridgeand showed us how a computerised ‘thing’ on the door, would take note of what was inside the fridge, and if someone opened the door and took out (say) the Melon. Then this computerised gadget would know that it had been taken and would register this on the door. It even had another little gadget installed in it which, at the press of a button, you could actually see what was in the fridge instead of opening the door. Oh.. and it even took note of ‘eat by’ due dates, and would flash this information for you when that due date got near so that you could make sure to include that item in your menu.
See … this is all very clever but … and here’s the thing … What the divil is wrong with picking up a pen and making a shopping list? What’s the problem with YOU vacuuming your carpet? Is turning the kettle on so hard labour that we need a gadget to do it for us? Why do we need a ‘Hive’ to control our heating at home, when we can cope perfectly well with getting our bottoms out of our chair and change the setting if we need to?
As for not opening the door of the fridge to see what’s inside … is ANYONE REALLY THAT LAZY that they need this screen on the outside of the fridge door so that they can simply look at the fridge for the information???
Like I said … the world has more information than you can shake a stick at, and if you don’t know something, then a few taps on a keypad connected to the internet will get you the information you need to find out what you need to know. But stop right there for a moment. Computers are a recent invention. Most homes didn’t have a home computer until around mid 1980’s. So if you were born before around 1985-1990, then the question is … what did you do before then if you wanted to know something? And what if we wanted to remember to buy a joint of meat and some apples from the shops – what on earth did all us numbskulls do then?? We must have done something because we all know quite a bit of stuff and none of it was learned from or via a computer!
We now focus so much on the outside ‘stuff’ that there’s a deficit on the inside ‘stuff’. Where are the things which are going to help with that? Where is The Balance?Where is the Inspiration?What exactly is Inspirational about these gadgets?
Are we actually going to end up like the dystopia scene, (nearing the end) of the movie Wall-E?
I’ve learned this week (and this surprised me) that half the human beings who’ve ever lived are reckoned to have been killed by the mosquito.
3,000 people die of malaria every day (malaria caused by a mosquito bite). That’s 45 billion human beings in our history. Mosquitoes carry more than a hundred potentially fatal diseases including malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, encephalitis, filariasis and elephantiasis. Even today, they kill one person every twelve seconds. Which leads me to thinking that if the super intelligent guys who are designing and making the gadgets which I’ve just talked about, instead put their minds to solving this mosquito problem, then perhaps that problem solving thing would REALLY be something to celebrate. (instead of seeing inside the fridge with the door closed. huh!)
I’ve learned that Mr. Cobs idea of putting super duper new over-head lights in the ‘Executive Art Annexe’ to replace the old ones (craft room to you and me) was one of the best ideas he’s ever had (obviously the best was marrying me. lol). These new lights are BRILLIANT! It’s like having natural light in there allthetime. So much better for crafting by and I LOVE THEM!
I’ve learned that who ever’s in charge of turning Autumn into Winter is obviously new to the job this year, and that the previous person must have retired, because – on November the 1st, it didn’t just get cooler, it turned into frost on my windscreen and me into a dithering woman who began the day wearing a v-neck long sleeve top, and had to get a scarf out to cover up that v-neck bit because it was icy cold! Someone needs to have a word with this obviously new employee whose joy of getting the job has gone to his/her head (I feel it’s a chap to be honest – not sure why) – and ‘he’ is enjoying the power he’s now got. I wonder if he was a Traffic Warden in a previous existence?
And finally … I learned some new (to me) jokes … and I just HAVE TO share them with you….
Why do the Teletubbies go to the toilet together? …. because they’ve only got one tinky winky!
Why is 6 afraid of 7? . . . Because 7 8 9
How do you make a band stand? . . . Take away their chairs
What’s white and can’t climb trees? . . . A fridge!
What do you call an alligator with GPS? . . . A navigator.
What do you call an alligator in a vest? . . . An investigator.
I’ve just put my friend Richard on speed dial on the phone. . . . it’s my Get-Rich-Quick scheme.
Ok I’ll stop. … you’ve suffered enough. 🙂 lol
Wishing you a truly Fabulous Friday, filled with a balance of innocent fun, smiles, love, care, and friendliness. May any gremlins which get into your day be shooed off and not hang around long. Have a wonderful day. But … remember to stop and make a memory at some point today!
Play safe, be good to each other, and may your God go with you.
Some of you may be familiar with a website which has some great photographs taken from catalogues, to which they put their own spin on what you’re looking at and end up with the funniest things which make me hoot with laughter.
Well, I have a confession… when I look at pictures craft rooms, on the inter webby, I have that same thing go on inside my head. I will fall in love with craft rooms, and gaze at them longingly – wishing that my craft room was *that* big, or *that* colour or *that* clean – but I know it’s never going to happen. However .. after I’ve fallen in lurve with the craft room … I will then spot a little something which begins to tickle me. From that tickle comes a bubbling feeling, like fizzing champagne bubbles going crazy around my solar plexus, and from that point on, all heck breaks loose and the laughter pops out. Not normal laughing … noooo.. the type of laughing which has tears running down my face laughing.
So, since it’s Monday, and Monday can be … very ‘Mondayish’ … I thought we’d get the week off to a slightly better start than ‘Mondayish’. So team … Get your chuckle muscles ready . . .(I’ll start you off gently with just five pictures, . . . so that none of you break your chuckle muscle) …
Crafters, Ladies and Gentlemen … May I introduce you to Malcolm and Anne. (who exist solely inside my imagination and for the purpose of…) . . . .
THE COBWEB CATALOGUE ~ of a Living (in my imagination) Crafter
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Happy Monday! I hope that your chuckle muscle is in good repair, and that you’ve just given it a little work out. Hopefully there will be more to smile about in your coming week.
Have a truly beautiful day my friends. Let’s do it to them before they do it to us. (be kind that is).
Sending much love to you there in your corner, from me in mine.
Did you ‘get’ it? Did you? eh? If you didn’t then it’s probably because you don’t remember the school lessons in basic French. Don’t worry, you’re not alone, … I don’t remember that much about those lessons either. Although I do remember: ‘La plume de ma tante est dans le jardin’. What a useless bit of French was that? How on earth was I going to use that in every day talking? My aunt would never have left her pen in the garden, because if she had, one of her three children would have squirreled it away and produced it in a quiet moment when she wasn’t looking, and the hall walls were ready for a hand drawn masterpiece on them.
I’m really honoured, very flattered, and, I admit, a little bit embarrassed, about receiving 3 awards in 3 weeks. And I’m so sorry if I’m boring everyone to pieces with little snippets of ‘me’ all over the place, but I promise that this is the final of the three awards, – so after this you’ll be so full of ‘Cobs’ you won’t want to hear from me for weeks-on-end until you’ve finally filtered all the ‘Cobs’ through your system, past your kidneys and … well you know how your internal system works, so we’ll leave it right there shall we? [nod & a wink].
A blogger who I just adore,The Chicken Grandma nominated me for the Black Cat Blue Sea award. I apparently one of the people who, she said (and I quote) “made me think, they have made me laugh out loud, they have inspired me but most of all they have made me wish I could meet them in person” … Now I have to say that she might have been suffering a moment of ‘delusion’ when it came to nominating me, but she can’t take it away now ’cause I have it in writing! [nods firmly as if to seal the deal]. Thank you Chicken for honouring me in this way. Bless your beautiful heart.
Anyhoo .. the rules are as follows:
Ok .. that seems simple enough, even for a person of little brain and bad headache like me. We’ll begin with the questions that The Chicken Grandma asked me to answer:
1. How do you find your inspiration for a blog post?
Well, the obvious answer is my crafting. Whatever I make will inspire the blog post. However … I don’t just blog about crafts, so, in truth, it’s my life which gives me the inspiration. Things happen, good and not so good, and when they happen I tend to try to look for the either the silver lining, or the humour in the situation, and from that comes the inspiration. I love fun. Not to the exclusion of anything else you understand. But I love the fun which lightens the days. Fun which is harmless to anyone else. You’ll never find me having fun at someone elses expense for example. If there is to be someone who is the brunt of my fun then it’s me. But I’m in my element when I can share the fun with someone else. I have a little handful of bloggers (yes YOU know who YOU are) who have that same little streak of naughtiness running through them. A kind of gentle rascal naughtiness. Something like two girls giggling in the corner of the playground, and no one really knows what they’re giggling about, but everyone DOES know that it’s totally harmless, not offensive or rude and just simply two minds going on a carnival ride together.
2. What do you enjoy most about where you call home?
Oh, well that ones easy! ... Mr Cobs, my dog, my cats, my rabbit, and my chickens are all there. Oh … and my craft room is in the garden. umm… Did I mention my craft room?Or as my friend calls it: The ‘executive art annexe’. (Posh friend with just a hint of crazy and an extremely large dash of fun. lol).
3. What is your favourite thing to do?
Oh heck … I have lots of things I love to do .. but I have to tie it down to one … lemme think for a moment ….. hmm.. It seems to be the simple pleasures that I enjoy the most – so I’ll choose ….. Visiting the sea. The sea is just a few minutes away from our home, and I love to visit just to sit and look and watch it. To feel it’s power and yet it’s gentleness. The sound of the sea is a music like no other.
Sitting with the sea cleanses my mind and my soul and seems to slow down my pulse and heart rate. It allows me to stop thinking and instead, let another power take control.
Right – that’s the questions answered, …. now I need to name 7 blogs I want to pass this award onto,and set them three questions of my own … here goes…
And my 3 questions for these people to answer are as follows:
If you won a prize for a crafty item or craft related ‘goody’ … what would you really want that prize to be … and why?
If you were asked to demonstrate how you made a particular thing … for one of the main Craft channels on TV … would you say yes? and .. what item would you demonstrate that you’ve already made? (Give us all a link to that too, so that we can share the enjoyment).
You’re going to be stranded on an island all by yourself, for one week. What 5 (only FIVE) crafty items would you take with you? Or ... would you take none and just enjoy the total peace and quiet?
And that, as they say, is all there is to it. BUT … if any of the people I’ve named for nomination of this award choose not to accept the award then that’s absolutely fine and groovy. No one is under any obligation to accept the award or to answer the questions.
Thank you again to my fabulous Chicken Grandma for nominating me for this award. I’m honoured, and so blessed to know her. Please go and check out her blog (see the link towards the head of this post), and get to know her. She’s an absolute delight and makes me smile so very much. Her blog posts are such an enjoyment to read. Go check her out.
Well today is Monday… So let’s get this week off to a great start, shall we? Could you, do you think, do just one act of random kindness today? Could you perhaps buy a little bunch of flowers and give them to a neighbour, just to make them smile? Perhaps give a sweet card to someone to bring cheer into their life? How about making a cake for someone? Or even buying a pack of biscuits? One of my most favourite things to do where I used to live was something I called ‘Get your neighbour fat day’ … while out shopping I’d buy a couple of cakes from the bakery department and have them packed singularly so that I could take one to one of my lady neighbours, and the other cake to another. I’d sometimes stand on their doorstep singing: “A very happy UnBirthday to you . . . “ (from Alice in Wonderland). Which made them hoot.
Go on, give it a go. Do a random act of kindness for someone. You don’t have to spend any money if you can’t… you could pray for the next person who passes you in the street. Or you could simply share a smile. Sometimes it takes the smallest act of kindness to change a persons day, or even their whole life.
You really are the greatest bunch of folks, y’know, and if I could give you one thing in life it would be to see yourself through my eyes. Only then would you know how incredibly special you are to me.
So .. come on Team! Let’s do it to them before they do it to us! (a kindness that is).
Sending you a wish for a truly magnificent Monday.
