What I’ve learned this week . . .

Dear Diary . . . (and fabulous readers)

I’ve learned a few life lessons this week.  Not all of them useful in any major sort of way, but all of them are probably important in one form or another.  Let me elaborate:

I’ve learned (yet again) that there are some adverts on the Television that make my skin crawl and infuriate me.  This is the current one: (turn sound up a little so that you can enjoy it) …

That    TV advertisement drives me insane.  And … it’s not just me.  Mr. Cobs admitted today that he  “. . . cannot abide this  &*%£*)@  advert!” – as he dived across the room to grab the remote and turn on ‘mute’.

I’ve learned this week. . .  that I really don’t much like my neighbours cat, Missy.  She’s an antagonist of the first degree.

Alfie (aka Alf Capone our HUGE great, black cat with a white diamond on his chest (looks like he’s wearing a tuxedo – in the style of James Bond) – is absolutely a lover, not a fighter.

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Alf Capone.   Used Furniture Dealer 

Where-as Maisie Dotes, our teeny weeny, little wittle,  butter wouldn’t melt, wide-eyed, elegant looking, princess tippy toes, DIVA – is an out-and-out fighter of huge proportions.

IMG_20160330_100158 copy

Two unknown cats visited our garden a couple of days ago, when both Alf and Maisie were in the conservatory.  Alf looked up from his feed bowl (breakfast no. 4)  looked at them both, then sat down by the window, with a very soft body pose, not bothered at all that these two intruders were in our garden.  He was only interested in what the entertainment was going to be.

Where-as . . .   Maisie … oh…. my …  goodness!!!  She had been fast asleep, but had obviously heard the hiss and spit which began at a low-level.  So low that we couldn’t hear it, but she could.  Her head spun around like a possessed thing.  She glared out of the conservatory windows and took on an indignation like no other cat could have achieved with their posturing.

She was out of that bed, and at the door within seconds, demanding that she be let out.  “Ohhh ho ho ho… not on your nelly Miss Maisie.  You can fuss all you like, you are absolutely not going out there!”  I told her.

“But … but …. they’re in  our  my garden!!!”   She said, over her shoulder, but not taking her eyes off these two shocking, alien invaders.

Then ….  a third cat appeared.  Ohhh My Stars!!!  This was the one which got Maisie scratching and banging her paws on the glass door, demanding that it be opened because she had to kill that cat!

This cat we knew.   She was called Missy

Missy lives in the cottage to the back of ours.  In the next road along.  She’s a brazen thing and cares nothing for boundaries or correct, polite behaviour.  NOR does she care that we have a dog.  Her belief is that our dog is fair game and she’ll take it on if it dares to challenge her.

One of the ‘new’ intruders had obviously come across Missy before, and when she appeared on the top of her owners shed, right at the bottom of their garden, the one intruder turned slowly, and made its way carefully along the fence and away from any trouble.   Missy smirked.

The other cat obviously didn’t know Missy at all,  for he, the daft thing,  walked along the top of the fence and towards her.

Mr. Cobs and I were both now trying to talk to the cat and tell it to  ‘RUN AWAY… RUN AWAY!!!”  …  but it either didn’t hear us, or it just decided that it felt he could take this stroppy individual on single-handedly.

There followed a long drawn out period of BIG hissing, spitting, and meeooaawwl  growling, before I could take no more and walked to the conservatory door, and opened it and closed it again, fast and loudly.  The intruder cat jumped down and ran off …  but  Missy … well she sat there and told me to  “Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough!”.

After 5 minutes of everything being quiet, I finally opened the door and let Maisie out … thinking that Missy would have got bored by now and gone home.  Nope.  Wrong.  Maisie jumped to the top of the fence and began a hunched over, “get ready, I’m going to box your brains out!”  warning sound, and started moving REALLY fast down the fence.

…  “Cobs!  Cobs!!! come and get her she’s going for it!”   Mr.Cobs had to rush out of the house, and grab her off the fence.  Now … she didn’t take kindly to this.  She didn’t want to come in.

He picked her up one-handed (she’s really very tiny, more like a kitten than a cat)but she was having none of it.  She shouted  Noooooooo”  –  and reached out with one paw and Velcro’d that paw to one of our big Pine trees.

Cobs Snr. tugged and tugged and couldn’t get her to let go of that tree.  His left hand was around her tummy and body, so with his right hand he reached up and unhooked her claws from the tree – only for her to reach out her other paw and grab the tree with her claws on that paw.  No one was going anywhere.

I glanced at Missy …. and I could actually see that cat smirking at our cats situation.

Mr.Cobs eventually won, and,  despite her best efforts to make him let her go,  Maisie was brought back into the house and the door was firmly shut behind her.

She was as mad as a box of frogs!  She whined and moaned for England.  Had it been a moaning contest, she would have won a Gold Medal.

So … although I learned that I don’t much like the neighbours cat, Missy, . . . 

I also learned that I have more dedication to the safety of our little cat Maisie than she appears to have herself.  Had there been a punch up – Maisie would have had her ears  well and truly boxed by Missy,  for Missy is a big, bold as brass, killer cat, with evil intent.  She runs this neighbourhood with an iron paw!

Well … that’s pretty much the major lessons I’ve learned this week … oh … apart from … …  why is it, when you’re having a great day and everything is going right … why does something – a letter, a phone call, someone or something ….  always come along just to be the fly in the ointment?  [insert grumpy face]. Yeah … I learnt that this week too.

Other than that … it’s been a truly grand week!

So … what have you learned this week?  Do tell!

Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee with me.  I love having your company.  Wishing you a wonderful Friday and an even better Weekend!

Coffee Sig

 

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Is there a Birthday celebrated with Chocolate? If not … there should be!

It was recently a male relatives Birthday, and pretty much like most ‘made by hand’ card makers, I  don’t like making cards for men.  They all seem so twee or predictable – so …  ‘forgive me Crafter for I have sinned’  …  I will normally buy the men in my life a card for their birthday.  And …  this is the story of how this card came to be.

I knew I’d bought a card for this particular relatives Birthday.

Mr. Cobs knew I’d bought a card for this particular relatives Birthday.

Could I find said card?

Not on your nelly!  (I have no idea where that saying came from – but it’s most definitely a saying here in the UK, and has been since dirt was invented.  It means:  ‘Not on your life’!).

So, with very little time left before a card had to be delivered by hand, I got my thinking cap on and came up with a card which, I have to admit, looks better in real life than in the photo.  But … and this is the important bit …  it practically made itself.

It began with a cut and scored white card.  I chose the cafe latte coloured, striped with cream stripes card for the top part of the card, and the rich chocolate-brown Happy Birthday card, in different font styles for the bottom. (You can buy both these cards in a huge variety of different colours – so check out the options if you visit the website).  Both of these cards are from the Anna Marie Designs range.

I cut these different cards to size, then layered them onto some black card stock, then fixed them to the white card.

Then cut the tag from some white card stock, using a Tattered Lace Peach Sorbet Torn Edge Tags die.  I don’t think Tattered Lace make these anymore, but I’ve had a look round and found some on Amazon  here.

D Bday 2018

The ‘Birthday Wishes’ was stamped using a stamp from the Wishes and Vines by Silhouette Stamps.  I’ve had these stamps for a while, but you can still buy them in one or two places, both in the US an in the UK – so ask Google to be your friend and I’m sure he’ll help.

I stamped and then layered the tag onto some black card, which I then carefully cut around, attempting to match the wiggly outside of the tag itself.

Then I added a ribbon made from some wide silk ribbon in my stash and …. That’s all there was to it!

I would have posted this a couple of days ago …  but I couldn’t find the place I’d saved it to on my computer!  {sigh} …  It would seem that Birthdays are going to be a nightmare when card giving this year.  First Birthday of the new year and I’m already ‘fudging it up’!

I know I don’t normally do Jokes on any day but Friday … but I heard this one and I need to share it with you ….

Why did the cow cross the road?

It wanted to go to the mooovies.

Yup … still finding it funny and still laughing out loud.  lol

Have a really great rest of your day, and thank you so much for coming and having a coffee with me!

Sending you lots of squidges in a huuuuge bucket  ~  

Sig coffee copy

 

 

Happy Birthday Mr.Cobs!

Making ANYTHING for Mr. Cobs has always been a logistical nightmare. He’s got a sixth sense when something is going on which relates to him.  A cake.  A meal.  A gift.  A plan. A surprise,  etc etc.   But making a card for him probably the worst because he pops in and out of the Craft Room  all the time.  He comes to bring me a surprise ice cream from the ice cream man.  To bring me a coffee.  To collect empty coffee cups.  To look for the dog, or one of our cats.  He’ll come bearing any packages which might have arrived for me, or even to tell me something funny which he’s read in the newspaper, heard on the radio, seen, or thought of.

I love him dropping in.  Except .. when I’m trying to make him a card.  I rarely make cards for him as I find it just too difficult to work on one in secret.  But I managed this time, Yay!

In my panic about him creeping up behind me, (always a nightmare at anytime)  I forgot to take photographs of each step, but I did remember at around the ‘quarter into it’ mark, so at least have one ‘in the middle making photo’  to share :

Happy Birthday Mr. Cobs 2

It’s meant to represent his shed.  A total mess, and no rhyme or reason to it … but he seems to know what’s there, and I guess that’s all that matters.  (Doesn’t stop me from wanting to get in there and label everything and put them all in some sort of understandable order though! lol).

Anyhoo

The card was made using Card-io Stamps, –  and the notes saying ‘Happy Birthday’ were made on the computer (I wanted to use a particular font, in the right size – so stamps wouldn’t do it … but stamps could be used),  liquid pearls (for the drips of paint and the paint drips on the pots) and  Anita’s 3D Clear Gloss.  The stamp pads I used were by Memento and Papermania,  dye ink pads.

Happy Birthday Mr. Cobs

Each of the little pinned notes were first curled up a little at the bottom, then glued to the card front.  The two different types of bulldog clips were then stamped into place – in oder to ‘anchor’ the notes to the wriggly (hand drawn) string which stretches across the card – again these bulldog clips are Card-io Stamps. And the cupboard (with opening doors!) was again made using Cardio Stamps, and a bit of careful cutting with a scalpel and metal rule.

And that’s all there was to it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. COBS!  (erm ….  how old will you be next year, sweetheart? [snigger])

Happy Saturday all.   ~

Sig coffee copy

 

Suits You Sir!

Hello all.  It’s great to see you here.  Before I get into talking about this card I’d like to take a moment to say a very warm welcome to new followers.  I’m absolutely thrilled to pieces that you’ve signed up here, – so a big thank you!

I actually made this card about two weeks ago and I’ve been struggling ever since to get the photographs loaded, sort out the clearest ones, (most of them look like I was joggimg while operating the camera),  resize them (to make them smaller than the size of an Olympic swimming pool!) and then load them onto the blog here.  Time seems to have flown and before I could blink, every day came to its end about 12 hours before I needed it to.  But … better late than never….

Suits You Sir 4The idea behind this card came from looking at cards which had been made for men for all sorts of occasions: Birthdays, Anniversary, Fathers Day,  ‘Congratulations’ cards, and also cards sent to celebrate Civil Partnerships. I always struggled finding a decent shop bought card for men, but making one is even worse!  So I thought I’d give myself a challenge to come up with a design which would be a little different.  Something  which had a bit of style (and a spoonful of humour),  but instead of it being for a specific occasion, I wanted to make a ‘multi-functional’ type of card, which would be great as a card sent on or for any occasion.  I especially wanted to include a Civil Partnership suitable card as I’ve grown so tired of seeing two cut outs of grooms in wedding attire on the front of a card.  They’re great, and they state what the cards for, but I wanted something different. I began by fixing two 6″x6″ cards together and cutting the flap to the left hand side of the fold in a diagonal from inner crease top, to the outer corner bottom.

Suits You Sir 1
2 6×6″ white cards glued to each other, then the centre panel lined with black card.

The right hand side of the card was firstly cut in the same way, but then cut again, as you can see in the photo above.  This was in order for it to become the folded over side of the suit jacket. 

Adding the 'fabric pattern' of the suit
Adding the ‘fabric pattern’ of the suit

I originally began this idea thinking I was going to make a striped suit, but instead I chose a more fun, spotty card – black with white dots. I added two silver buttons, and made a jacket breast pocket – with faux stitching, to make it look like it was stitched to the front of the card.  I made the stitch holes using a sewers marker tool:

the white card shows the little holes made by the tool.
the white card shows the little holes made by the tool.

The collar to the jacket was an easy make.  Two strips of cardstock, cut to the correct length and scored (with a 1cm fold which would be used to fix the collar to the inside edge), then cut and shaped, with a ‘v’ cut out at just the right point, to represent a collar on a jacket, and then fixed to the card. Then it needed a shirt.  I simply measured the width of the inner card, then took off around a centimetre and cut some white card to that width.  I scored the card across the width at the depth I wanted the collar to be, and then cut down the centre of the card just enough to make it look like the shirt was unbuttoned a the top.  I then rounded the corners of the collar with my Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.  Next: came the tie. Suits you 5a Aww, now this proved to be a big pain in the rear end – because the only time I’ve ever tied a tie was when I was in my Secondary School, and it was around my neck.  I can tie ties around my neck … but doing it around this card was something of a skill that was lost on me.  It took me roughly seven or eight go’s before I got even close.  <sigh>  But .. in the end I managed it and gave myself a well deserved  ‘FINALLY!!!’  – out loud and very exhaustingly proud. The shirt was fixed into place.  The tie was fixed so that the knot would hang free, but that the body of the tie would kind of bunch a little over the jacket closure. and finally, the jacket was fixed into place and ‘closed’. Then came the tags for tucking into the ‘pocket’ which I’d just made within the card, inside the shirt. Suits You Sir 6The larger of the two tags is for the ‘dedication’ of the card (to/from etc):-  I think I found that frame on the Graphics Fairy – but wherever it was, I changed it so that it matched the purple of the tie.  The long slim tag was stamped with an empty clock face – the idea being that the time could be filled by the sender drawing on the hands to mark the time appropriate.  It could be the time he was born;  Time the child sending the card was born;  Time of the Civil Partnership;  etc etc.  And above the clock face – details of what the time meant/means;  date of birth etc, or maybe: details of where the receiver of the card is meant to meet you (say for a meal) – etc etc.  Or even maybe a photograph(s) of children or of the receiver themself. Suits You Sir 7The backs of the tags  … the larger one is a vintage image which I coloured to match the tie;  and the long slim tag is a copy of an original vintage postcard of the same length and width as you see in the photograph. I added a paper rose and some metal filigree leaves.  (Metal for the more masculine feel of them), and a fob watch on a chain, which I draped up to the breast pocket, and fixed in place with a ring.  (The chain hangs free, and gives movement to the card.) I made a tag for the breast pocket too and added some folded and stitched ribbon to the end of it, to make the handkerchief popping out of the pocket. Suits You Sir 9And finally …  I made a matching box for the card. The tiny shirt fixed to the front of the box is actually one piece of folded paper (sort or origami style folding), and I made a tie out of two pieces of card which was closest in colour to the tie on the card as I could possibly get.  I added a blank tag to the front of the box so that the recipient’s name could be added, just as you would do on an envelope.

The whole set!
The whole set!

I have to admit that there were times, as I was making this card, that I began to wish I’d never started – it seemed to be taking me forever to do the smallest things.  However, once it was finished and I sat back and looked at it, I loved it. Thank you so much for coming today and having a look at this card.  Hope you like it.

Have a wonderful rest of your day.  May the weather be kind and may life treat you well.

Lots of love ~

Cobs siggy sml

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