My Next House...

Oh, please!... Me and Speedy live in a huge flat. The rent has been obscenely low for 14 years. The landlords ( rich solicitors) have never reviewed the rent because we pay on time, but recently retired and engaged an agent. Get the picture? The agent came to look at the flat and you could see the pound signs in her eyes. We thought " that's it, the rent will be going up". The weeks passed and nothing. Until last Friday. We had a letter to say we've got two months to get out. They want to turn the flat into three separate bedsits. OMG!  All my stash! and my 5 slow cookers, about 150 cookery books! It's like being told to choose between your children. Because this place is so big it took a lot of stuff to fill it. So now starts the hurried process of cutting it down to fit into normal sized accommodation, which we are yet to find. Hence the card..

The image and sentiment are both from TLC Creations. xx

Another spice box.

Well, here we go again, back to trying to take decent photos in electric light. This is the best I can get these to their true colours.

I know I've posted this type of box before but I'm showing you this one because the spices are on special offer at Tesco, 2 for £2.50 at the moment so it makes an even cheaper stocking filler.The links for the free image is on this post along with some slightly better photos.

I've got quite a few of them made ready as they come in handy for work mates and little extras for people who are hard to buy for.

Remember me telling you about my boss with his packet of oats last week? Well, speedy has had to go one better. He fancied nachos with a bit of chilli last night so I decided to have chilli with rice for myself. He wanted to watch the end of the film so I dished mine up and left his chilli in a dish and grated some cheese for him. I told him the chilli was under the grill on low keeping warm and all he needed to do was put half of the cheese on top, grill it for a couple of minutes, put the nachos and the rest of the cheese on top and grill it again. Easy??? No!! He goes into the kitchen and comes back with a plate with a layer of grated cheese on it, lol. nothing else, just cheese. He said "do I put it under the grill like this then?" He hadn't listened to a word I'd said. What he was planning to do with the plate of grilled cheese, I just don't know. As you've guessed, I normally do all the cooking. Useless men!

An emotional occasion.

Well, what a week I've had. Speedy had his third Hepatitis B injection last week as part of prep for a possible kidney transplant. He had a really bad reaction, partly because they gave him a flu injection at the same time. Sickness, trots, stomach pains, you name it he had it. On Monday he went to the doctor's and collapsed when trying to convince the receptionist that he needed to be seen.He doesn't usually go to the doctors without me hounding him, so he must have felt bad. He rang me to say he was on his way to A&E in an ambulance!! I managed to get there about an hour later ( on the train as I don't drive), and was taken to an isolation room.He looked so pale, he had his eyes closed, and for all the world he looked dead.I just stood there rooted to the spot. Then he woke up and saw me and he cried his eyes out. We both thought his kidneys were packing up. He was on a drip as he was dehydrated and there was also a paracetamol drip. He had been waiting for a doctor to see him. To cut a long story short it was the jabs that did it and blood tests showed his kidneys hadn't been made worse. It was very scary. He's OK now though, 9lb lighter but starting to eat again.

But that's not the emotional occasion that this post is about. We've been invited to an anniversary party on Saturday, which we will go to for an hour or so as it's only a short walk away. Sometimes I go to Google images/ line drawings and type in things such as fruit, cookies, toys etc and save free images for future use.This card uses one of them.

It was from a colouring page HERE.  The caption which came along just in time is from Create with TLC. The backing paper is Papermania. The little hearts were from the Papermill Shop before it closed down and the little tag is from the bowels of my stash. I used liquid pearls on the icing and decided I'll never make a confectioner, lol. Sorry about the photo, it's a bit blurred.

As a result of speedy not eating much, I've been taking advantage of not having to cook renal friendly food and made a big vat of bolognese ( tomatoes are a big no no) and have been scoffing it all week, so.....
Target weight 9st 2lb. Today, 9st 3lb. I did expect it to be worse.....................it will probably hit me tomorrow.

Naff Christmas Gifts, lol.

Let's face it, I'd be gutted if someone gave me tea towels for Christmas but some one's going to get one of these jokey gifts in their stocking this year.

I found a pack of 4 micro fibre tea towels for £1.79 while browsing at B&M and I thought they would be perfect for this image and caption from Create with TLC. The link to both is at the bottom of THIS POST.  Lesson learned here is to use strong glue in vertical stripes then it will be easier to curve the image around. I used glue all over and it set quite hard so it was a bit tricky not to end up creasing it up. I think double sided tape might not stay put with it being curved unless you've got super strong stuff.

Today's weight. 9st 2lb. ( still at target ).

Cookie tin gifts.

I think it's time I got my skates on with my Christmas gift making while there's still a fairly decent amount of daylight left. I was mooching around what I call the naughty aisle ( biscuits and sweets ) in Tesco and came across these tins of cookies.

There were 5 or 6 different types and all were priced at between £1.60 and £1.99. Not a bargain for a few cookies by any means but with a bit of paper and ribbon, I made them into nice little stocking fillers.

The main background paper was already there so all they needed was a contrasting band.

Here's the double chocolate version. I got the free image from Arthur's Clip Art HERE. There are a few more useful images in the "food" pages. The caption is from Create with TLC HERE.

I didn't like the sticker on the top with the scruffy black tape so I cut around the circle and stuck it onto a punched scalloped circle.
I learned a couple of things when making these so I'll pass them on. First of all make sure there are no dents in the tins. Secondly apply all layers separately. With the tin being a curved surface the papers crinkle if you mat them up and then apply.

I cheated and drafted this post last night as it is a fairly longish one. So all i need to do then is...................

Today's weight 9st 2lb ( target weight ). Going out for a big scoff tonight for stepsons 30th birthday so that will soon change.

An older cutting and sticking habit.

I was sorting through my enormous cookery book collection the other day trying to decide which ones to give away and which ones to keep. I had far too many and my shelves were bursting at the seems. I ended up wondering which one i would keep if I was only allowed to keep one. No contest. It was one I started compiling 14 years ago. It started life as a hardback " day to a page " diary. I decided to give it the respect it deserved and here's how it turned out.

12 x 12 paper wasn't wide enough to fold inside at the top and bottom but that's OK as I'm going to cover it with some clear adhesive plastic. It took 2 sheets, one for the front and one for the back.

I've spent years cutting recipes out of magazines and copying ones from library books.

I've used each month for a different category eg chicken, beef, cheese , desserts, food gifts, preserving, etc.

And another page. I'm looking at it now and wondering how on earth chicken soup ended up in the fish chapter, lol.

And if you're not drooling enough already here's a page from the desserts chapter. Unlike the rest of my cookery books, there is nothing in this book that I wouldn't like to make and eat.
If I've inspired you to start one of these yourself make sure you buy a decent quality diary and reinforce the spine with tape before covering it as it will end up bulging quite a bit.

I'll hit the publish button now but I'll find the links to the images which were freebies and add them later.

LINKS. CHEF by TLC. HERE
              VENDING MACHINES CAPTION by TLC  HERE
              LADY BAKING by TLC    HERE
              LADY WASHING UP by TLC  HERE.
              BON APPETITE by TLC  HERE.

Ride like the wind.

I was having a little look at Free Digital Stamps last week and came across a page of free images at Operation Write Home. I couldn't resist this little gem as it's perfect for younger men. It's my stepson's birthday next week so it came just in time.

I got the gingham card from Payperbox a couple of years ago when i was on holiday and I'm really tight with it because there isn't a Payperbox anywhere near me. So, Simon, consider yourself honoured!

I got the caption from TLC Creations HERE. It goes really well with the image.
Off to work now but I'll be back tonight to link up to any suitable challenges.

Challenges. Southern girls, Anything goes
                   Anything goes challenge. Anything goes.
                   Digital tuesday. People images.
                   Papertake weekly. Creature comforts
                   Top tip tuesday. Kids/teenagers.

Target weight 9st 2lb. Today, still a slightly naughty 9st 3lb.

Glamour.

Still not really in the mood for this card making lark but my craft room is slowly getting tidier. I hope I kick in again soon as I need to get on with all the Christmas stuff I've started. I haven't had much time this week though as I went with Speedy to Liverpool hospital for his tests on Monday and Tuesday.  Two nuclear heart scans, one after exercising on Monday and one resting on Tuesday. Both appointments took 4 hours !!      15 minutes to do the actual test and the rest was spent hanging around waiting for the Chemical injections to take effect. On both days it didn't work first time so had to be redone. Still, that's over with now.

Here's a card I made a few weeks ago using an image and caption from TLC Creations.

It was one of those days when I didn't make a note of the page addy. I've just realised the paper matches the box in my last post  so I will give these both to the same person with some chocs in the box.

It was my wedding anniversary on wednesday so we went out for a big scoff to our local, The Mill Hotel. One of the lads who works behind the bar had paid for a bottle of champagne for us. He's such a nice lad. As another bonus the kitchen staff knew we were there so we had larger than average portions. I had a trio of fish, salmon, cod and sea bass and it was no way supposed to be that big. I was really stuffed at the end of the night.
So guess what?  Target weight 9st 2lb.  Today.............9st 4lb.  Worth every ounce though.

Vintage gift box.

While I'm not in the mood for making cards as such, I thought I'd start decorating my pile of blank boxes. Most of these boxes are a result of mis-measuring and getting sizes wrong for the stuff that I want to put in them. Others are from when I've forgotten to cut the card for the lids bigger ( always 3mm to get a good fit ) than the bottom and having loads of half boxes waiting for other halves to be made.

This one is about 6" square. The pic makes the lid far too big but it isn't in real life. The paper I've used is from a big K & Company stack.

The image and sentiment are both from TLC Creations. If you look up TLC in my labels in my side bar there is a link in one of the posts to both images.

Here's a close up. The flowers were made with punches using a You Tube tutorial. There's loads of different ones available.

Challenges.Craft your days away. Make your own flowers.
                 Di's digi designs. Anything goes.
                 Secret crafter. Inspired by a song ( Lady in red ).
                 Critter sketch. Anything but a card.
                 Anything goes challenge. Vintage.
                 Charisma cards. Inspired by a song ( Lady in red ).

Speedy's hospital check up was fine. He's waiting for the go ahead for a kidney transplant ( hopefully mine or his sister's will match ) but as they messed up his heart medication there has been a delay while they get that sorted. He's got to have a nuclear scan ( not as scary as it sounds ) tomorrow and another on Tuesday but the doc is more than confident that there will be a good result and we will be able to get things moving again. He has kidney damage, caused by a virus rather than kidney disease so he doesn't actually feel ill. In fact he says he's never felt better.

Variations.

 Another sunny day here in Chester. The first two weeks in September usually are nice though. It's like last chance saloon before the autumn sets in. I don't mind it getting cooler but I can't stand dark mornings. I like to be awake early and the lack of daylight fools me into sleeping for longer. I hate waking up on my day off and realising it's 8 o'clock. I love the summer when i can be awake at 5 o'clock. I'ts hard to believe I used to lie in bed all morning in my teens. What a waste of life.

On to today's card share. I needed a couple of men's cards so I went down the easy road and made 2 similar ones.

The stamp is from a set called "Ethel and Murray" which I got from Create and Craft a few years ago.

The caption is from Gingers House. The patterned paper is from Papermania Henbury Lane and the main paper is an unidentified scrap.

Another TLC caption and again the main backing paper is an unidentified scrap. The striped paper is by Summer Driggs. Both card bases are 6" x6".

Challenges. Allsorts challenge blog.  Green and blue.
                  Challenge up your life, Something for a man.
                  Creative stamp friends.  For a man

40p Christmas Gift.

And a snack to eat while you're making it. Can't be bad. I saw these canisters of bread sticks at Morrisons and as they were on special offer i thought I'd buy a couple.

Not because I wanted the bread sticks though. Oh, no, it was the canister I was after. The bread sticks were just an added bonus. The main attraction was the clear lid. I know the pringles have clear lids but they're three times the price and three times as fattening ( i mean you couldn't just throw them away could you, lol.) So here's today's crafty make.

I wanted my first one to be quite " grown up" so I used THIS  little tree image from Create with TLC.  I got the caption from there too. The papers are K&CO.  I cut a circle of matching paper to cover the top of the lid then used a gallon of Stickles around the lid and the front layers. Makes it look so expensive, lol.

Not bad for 40p. It's about 10" high so will take lots of choccie type things , trial size toiletries or perhaps a rolled up scarf or even a T shirt. The list is endless.  Well what are you waiting for ? Morrisons is open............

Challenges.  My Time o Craft. The Letter G  ( glitter glue )
                   Creative challenges, Anything but a card.
                   Try it on Tuesdays. Anything goes
                   Craft Your Passion. Anything but a card.
                   Make it Monday. Anything goes.

Yummy Cookies.

Another dull day in Chester. There's a big black cloud just sitting there ready to burst. Not moving much, just sitting waiting for enough people to be out without an umbrella. Well, it won't get me as I'm not going anywhere this afternoon. I'm just going to stay in and relax, maybe do a bit of colouring while thinking about chocolate cookies.

I found the image from Arthur's Free Clipart  HERE. It prints out really well considering it's only a colouring page. There are quite a lot of  unusual images on the site. I got the caption from Create with TLC.

Here's a close up of the yummy cookies. Have you ever wanted to eat one of your cards?  The paper is a scrap of Papermania Henbury Lane and the card base is 5" square. I'm off to get myself a biscuit before i do eat the card..................

Challenges,  Crazy 4 Challenges. Monochromatic.
                   Inspire me fridays.  Anything goes.
                   Totally Papercrafts.  Food and drink.
                   Catered Crop.  Recipe FTR18 ( promarkers.). Oops sorry didn't read the info properly. It should have been back to school/ garden theme. Don't know how to delete my entry.
                   Stamps & fun.  Monochrome.
                   Paper Playtime. Anything goes.

Goodbye.............

...............Summer, lol.  What a horrible windy wet day. I was looking through my images for something to make today and this one is perfect.

It's from TLC Creations, but I didn't make a note of the page addy. I usually copy and paste the URL into the "add caption" bit under my pics in picasa but now and again I forget. The caption is on THIS page. I hope it's still available as most designs are now only up for 48 hours before going into the shop.

The papers are by Summer Driggs. We owe such a lot to these generous providers of freebies. I know they have helped me a lot with my paper crafting. Sometimes I just don't want to do something cutesy and these images and papers are such a Godsend. I thought the card looked a bit bare around the edges so the old peel offs came out of hiding.
I'm off now to do a terrible thing...............................HOUSEWORK !!

Challenges,  One Stitch at a Time. Use a digi.
                    I did it Creations, Children.
                    Birthday Sundaes, Birthday.
                    Make it Monday, Anything goes.
                    KB Cute Monday. Digi
                    Shopping our Stash. Dogs/ digi.

Spice Box.

My sister has just had a new kitchen put in so I've made her a little, "happy new kitchen" pressie. I've been making loads of blank boxes lately so this one just needed decorating.

I got the image from TLC Creations HERE. Paulette has (quite rightly) made the decision to only keep her designs as freebies for 48 hours as a result of too many people just snagging and going without so much as a thank you. After 48 hours the designs will be up for sale in her shop.Become a follower so as not to miss out. Fortunately this little chef is still available, so is the caption HERE.

The box is just the right size for 2 jars of Schwartz seasonings. Nice little stocking filler for "awkward" people, lol. The paper is by K& Company.
Not sure if I'll be able to find any suitable challenges for this one but I'm off to have a look.

Found a few.  Challenges. Sisterhood of Crafters.  Simply Handmade.
                                        Allsorts challenge. Red
                                        Stamp Something. Use a digi

Dumb Animals.

Another card with a TLC digi. This one was e,mailed to all blog followers to celebrate Paulette having got to a grand total of 1280.

I love the image and although i couldn't wait to make a card, it took me a few days to come up with a caption. The dotty paper is from an 8"x8" stack by First Edition Paper. It's called Desert Blooms and has 48 sheets, half double sided and half glittered. It's a good weight for making box lids too and only £9.99 from WHS.

I printed the caption in Orange font size 24.

Challenges. Make it Monday. Anything goes.
                  My Creative Moments. Wild Animals.
                  Stampin' For The Weekend. Paws for thought.
                  Totally Papercrafts, One for the boys
                  I love Promarkers. Anything goes.
                  ABC Challenge, Z is for Zoo.

Speedy has gone to Nantwich show today with a mate. I'm glad it went a bit dull as it was quite hot this morning and there's no escape from the sun in the wide open fields.At least he won't come back with a sunburned head. Oh......last year he came home with 2 carrier bags of cheese. I asked him why the hell he'd bought so much and he said they were giving it away at the end of the day. So guess what we'll probably be living off for the next 6 weeks, lol.

More TLC.

Here's a card i made with another brilliant image from TLC which can be found HERE.

The darker red paper is from a Papemania Christmas pad. The other one is from my pile of unidentifiable scraps. 

The sentiment is also by TLC and can be found HERE. Both digis are freebies, how good can it get? I've added some pewter stickles around the circle and the leaves are done with an X Cut botanicals punch which also embosses.

Challenges.  Fashionista friday. July birthstone, Ruby.
                   Sweet stampin'.  Fashion.

                   Stamp something. Embellish it.
                   Our Creative Corner. Black, bling , buttons, bows.

The dreaded F1 has just started so I think I'll have something to eat and sneek away into town to see if there's anything worth having in the sales. Speedy can of course meet me later to treat me to a couple of drinks and a bar snack. Lucky him...........

Mummy's Drank all the Gin.

On Wednesday night Speedy asked me if i fancied a gin and tonic. You should have seen how much gin he put in it! Still, I was off work Thursday so i didn't object, lol. I went on my travels to various blogs and when I got to TLC I saw that Paulette had added a couple of free images. Well, I looked at this one and knew exactly what to add as a caption, it was just crying out for it.

I imagined the little girl being sent to ask if he's getting anything to eat tonight and mummy being too drunk to care,lol. The papers are all by K & Company.

The flowers are a Meljens digi stamp and the card base is 6"x6". I would usually do this post on Friday morning but I told Paulette I would make a card with the image today and send her a link.  I'll be back in the morning to add my weigh in,  most important or I'll go off the rails.

Challenges.  Crafts and me. Add a flower.
                    CES  humour/ funny
                   Make it Colourful.  Colour your own embellishments

Todays weight 9st 2lb ( target weight ).

Quick card.

I bought myself a new camera last week. I've already got a really good Sony one but wanted a second one just to keep in my bag. I did have one but gave it to my stepson when little Michael was born as they didn't have one. It was a little Fuji Finepix and was really good. Naturally i bought another Fuji ( AV 10) but to be honest it's rubbish. It's not bad for general pics but the macro mode is crap The pics more often than not come out blurred as there is no " steadying" facility which my other one had. I've had to fiddle on Picasa for ages trying to get this one right. I think I'll stick to using my good one for cards.

Mind you this dull weather doesn't help either. The image and sentiment for this card was from TLC HERE  and HERE.   I know red is a funny colour to photograph but even the gel pen dots on the scalloped circle don't show up very well. The photos on my last post were taken with this camera and are also very dull despite being taken in a good light. I think it may be going back to the shop soon............

Same but Different.

Sometimes when you trundle around various websites/blogs you can find yourself miles away from home and miles away from your usual style. Sometimes these sites have freebies which enable you to try a different style without spending a penny. One such site is Create with TLC. I love all the designs and sentiments on this site. So far i have only snagged the freebies but as there is a special offer of buy 5 sets get 2 free until midnight tonight I'm going shopping straight after this post. Here's 2 slightly different cards done with the same digis.

I looked at this image and didn't really think much more about it until i came across the matching sentiment. I opened them in " My Craft Studio" and put them together and printed them out, 3 sheets of them.

The image is HERE,  and the sentiment is HERE.   Big naughtiness here, i don't know where i got the ticket sentiment from. I know there was a whole page and i think i found them through Free digital Stamps but I'm going to have to go back and find them, unless anyone can help. The papers in the first card are Summer Driggs, but the second card is made with scraps so i don't know where they were from.

Challenges.  Sentimental Sundays,  Anything goes.
                   Stamps R Us.  There was a little girl.

Now then......Speedy's birthday night out at the Mill Hotel.  He had the big meat feast but it was a hot night so i opted for the sirloin steak with trimmings. Food......no problem. Wine?   OMG!!!  We had a bottle each and then, when we went to pay the bill they said that one of the lads behind the bar had paid for another. Well after the wine we already had, there was no logic, so we had the third bottle. OK we drank it slowly and we walked home with dignity.  We have a long narrow hall in our flat and there are 2 wooden chests in the hall.I sat on one of the chests to get my shoes off and the wine kicked in. I heard a bang and thought "what was that"? It was me falling off the chest after falling asleep,lol. Next morning one of my toes was blue, i vaguely remember stubbing it on the edge of the bed.  No hangover, and I'm fine ........until Saturday.............It's my birthday then......................................

So Many Books.

Good afternoon all. I don't know what it's like near you but it's a very unsettled day weather wise here in Chester. We are going out for a bit of a walk soon and i'll definitely be taking my brolly.

These two quick cards are made using images and captions from TLC Creations. I spent an odd hour here and there going through the whole blog . Usually i copy and paste the blog page in the "add a caption" bit in Picasa but on this particular session i forgot to do it so apologies for no links but i will one day go back and search for them.

The papers are again from my scrap box which is looking a lot less full than it was. I'll be joining in with the fun " sunday snippets" challenge at Jules'  "Always with a Heart"  blog which is a great way of encouraging each other to use those scraps.

Speedy is feeling better than he has done in ages, in fact he's a bit too frisky for my liking, lol. He's still in need of a new kidney though and there are a couple of us due to be tested for a match. Hopefully we'll be able to get it sorted soon so he can bypass any need for dialysis as he's not quite at that stage yet.