WOYWW #338

Hello again, and here we are, all linking up with Julia at The Stamping Ground, to continue our weekly round of desk surfing around the world. As we are almost at the end of November, I think it is now acceptable to talk about Christmas cards in polite company. At the NEC a few weeks ago, I saw a great card, made with the stamp on the right of this picture, called Pear Square.
It was heat embossed in gold on black card, then matted onto white, then black, and finally onto a white card base. Looked lovely. So hence I bought the stamp. And beloved Hubby liked the other one, so got that as well.

So out came the black card I ordered last week. Along with a Gold Encore Pigment pad,last used back at the dawn of time, and amazingly, still nice and juicy, although I do have a re-inker, it wasn't needed. Gold detail embossing powder, and a little anti static thingy supposed to help the EP to only stick where its supposed to.

I've only got one stamped, as I wanted to make sure it was going to stamp and emboss nice and clearly, especially the script detail. But it's looking good, so tomorrow I will matt it all up, and see if I still like it.I hope I do, as I haven't actually got a plan B organised yet.
 So, fairly short and sweet for once- have I been swapped by body snatchers, I wonder. Unlikely, nobody would want this particular body, I'm pretty sure, lol. Have a lovely Wednesday everyone, I'll be round to visit in a while.

WOYWW #337

Hi folks, and we're back again, meeting up at Julias place, The Stamping Ground, for our regular snoop around the worlds best, and worst, kept desks.And here's my entry for the week:

As you can tell from the dark outside my window, this was taken late yesterday evening, but looks much the same this morning. From the bottom right, the blue folder contains the images I started on for my Christmas cards last year, which never got made, so at least I have a head start (In November, I call that a head start, lol). Beneath them is some black and white card I ordered, and in a few minutes I'll show you why I always order online from PDA Card & Paper. I did look round the NEC for black card, but why is a 'true' black so hard to find? Next is three of the new Distress re-inkers waiting to go away, some little pots that were used to hand us pills in the hospital that I thought might come in useful, lol.Baby wipes, every crafters staple item, rolls of DST, and low tack masking tape on the holders. The Spa tub was from a Christmas pressie a few years ago, contained bath stuff, now holds cotton wool balls,a Stix To layering ruler, a bit further on are Wilkinsons glasses wipes, a wooden IKEA holder with pens in, a couple of those egg shaped sponges I've yet to try, and a mountain of the NEC stuff to put away.Behind that, a couple of houseplants,and so many odds and sods I'm not going to list them! I've spent most of the week storing the images in Evernote- its a free app that works on PC, tablet and phone, and syncs between all of them. You can use it for keeping track of anything, I'm using mine to gradually store all my craft stuff, to stop me buying duplicates.

This is what was in the blue folder, they were done with stencil paste which was glittered before it dried. I need to matt them up, then find the card blanks I bought last year to fit them. They are in my craft room, which is about 15 foot square- how hard can it be?









I said I was going to show you why I order from PDA Card & Paper, apart from price and choice.

The parcel comes wrapped in a waterproof poly bag, which when opened reveals a corrugated cardboard box.

Open the box to find the contents wrapped in bubble wrap.

Remove the bubble wrap, and your purchase is wrapped in brown paper.

Remove that, and the top and bottom of your stack of cardstock is protected by a sheet of 'scrap' card, which is perfect for using as chipboard.

Now while I'm not normally a fan of what could be called excess packaging, when I'm ordering cardstock, I want it to arrive without damaged corners, or indeed any sort of damage at all, so love the fact that the company goes to great lengths to ensure your order arrives as perfect as it left them.
So that's my offering this week, just leaving you with the results of my check up with my surgeon at the QE last Thursday. He's absolutely delighted with how everything has healed, and with my progress since he last saw me. He was especially pleased that I no longer have the weakness in my left knee & ankle, and that I have no pain, only that my butt tends to ache and get numb if I've been sitting a lot.The numbness in my thigh, and tingling in my left foot will subside as the nerves heal, and were all expected. Nothing that isn't kept at bay by Paracetemol, so you can tell.
I still have a catheter, and saw a specialist in Urology today. Everything functions properly, I just have no sensation in my bladder at all, he said the sensation should return, but could take up to 12 months. To be truthful, it's a small inconvenience, compared to some of the possible after effects of the surgery we were advised of- I could have had permanent weakness in my left leg, leaving me with mobility problems, I could have had chronic pain from the removal of the tailbone, I may have had the opposite bladder problem of incontinence, so all in all I do feel I've got off lightly.  So that's me for today, I'll be round to visit shortly.

WOYWW #336- The Nec Edition

Yes indeed, it is the NEC edition, linking up with Julia at The Stamping Ground. First thing I will say is that very early on- the second aisle to be precise,- I admitted defeat and let Hubby go and get a wheelchair to push me round in. We'd started down the first aisle, and halfway down was Inkylicious, so we stopped to shop there. By the time I was paying for what we'd chosen, I felt like I was going to faint. So we headed back to the entrance, and I sat on a chair for a while.
 When I felt ok, we resumed where we left off, and finished aisle one, and got halfway up aisle two, as far as Visible Image. Same thing happened again, and I paid for my stamps and we went back to the entrance so I could sit down. At this point I had to admit that there was no way on earth I was going to be able to walk the whole show, and let Hubby go off to get a wheelchair, as they hire them out, as well as mobility scooters.He came back with a mobility scooter, as they had no wheelchairs left. I hadn't wanted one of those, as being a non driver, I had expectations of destroying stands and displays all round the hall.It turned out to actually be very easy to use, and made the world of difference for me.So, on to the spoils of my rampage around the show:

A small selection from Inkylicious, and some from Lavinia stamps- most of the stamps bought today were a joint choice, my Enabler was very restrained this time, I have to admit. Can't remember where I got the little Gorjuss stamps from, but they were only £1.75 each.

On to Visible Image, the site of my second almost faint, sorry, Mark & Helen! I bought a few stamps that time, and went back a little later and got the others I wanted.

Some more stamps from Cardio, loved the penguins and snowmen! The two Creative Expressions stamps came from The Art of Craft, after I saw some stunning samples done with them.

Could not resist these when I spotted them, I remember reading somewhere that they were not going to be made available over here, so grabbed them while I had the chance.It's the stamp and die set of accessories for the Crazy Bird stamps. The Crazy Words stamp was Hubbies choice.

 A cardstock selection- some Lavinia Stamps scenescapes, some Lavinia Matt cardstock, a few sheets of embossed card in black, and some card blanks. I really do like the square format, I think it's my favourite base.

Some dies and stencils- Sweet Poppy metal stencils, and a variety of plastic ones.The dies were a couple of Happy Birthday ones, including the large one at the front, which will make a card on it's own, layered up. I think this pic contains most of Hubbies enabling, lol.



 

  The square Dylusions journal was a surprise to come across, I've only ever seen the A4 & A5 version. A Tim Holtz spray bottle, and a couple of sheets of chipboard letters & numbers, along with a sheet of Cut n Dry. Can never have too much of that stuff.

Finally, the odds and ends. I visited the Powertex stand, as I'd seen the Buddha heads on Kylas blog earlier in the week, and I've wanted some for ages. I also came across a lovely Green Lady, and a pack with two Native American casts in, so was very pleased.The packs of craft bottles were in a £1 bargain bin,there are two rolls of ribbon with a golden Bee on, from the same place, I spotted the box of wooden cogs on another stall, and finally, 3 rolls of masking tape!
 Thanks to having the mobility scooter, I got to really enjoy the day, and could take my time browsing. Which may account for spending so much, lol.
 But, I can now get up and down to my craft room unsupervised, which means I can spend some time crafting, instead of reading or just surfing the net. First job, however , will be to get this lot loaded into Evernote!  
I will do some extra posts showing the stamps and stuff completely, as in these pics they are lay atop each other, but that's for another day. I'll be visiting later, have a nice Wednesday everyone.

WOYWW #335

So, it's Wednesday again, which can only mean one thing- time to hook up at The Stamping Ground, under the watchful eye of our smashing leader, Julia.By now you are probably all Halloween Cropped out, but I have a few pics to share,and a lovely day was had by all.

 Some gorgeous tags were made and shared by some of those who came, and I just wish I'd been up to crafting, as Halloween tags were right up my ( spooky) alley. So thank you, to all those who gave me tags, they are awesome- do you like Kyla's 'Mummy' with the googly eyes? I think its great.

Lots of lovely cake- it's a good job we're not covered by the Trades Description Act- we'd have to rename our crop as the 'WOYWW cake eating and chatting crop',lol. A smashing lunch, provided as always by our amazing LLJ,who kept everyone supplied with tea and coffee too.

I bought a hat from Tesco especially for the occasion- and the hall was brilliantly Halloween decorated by the group who were having a quiz night on Saturday evening.

Our lovely leader, Julia, with Debbie and Marg, ( Tattered Rocks and Silvercrafter),possibly admiring the multiple shades of blue Debbie managed to get her fingers! Kyla busy quilting in the background.

Morti and Dave, with Dolores behind them. Fiona and Lisa-Jane.

Mary Anne, appearing to have been abandoned by all.


I will leave you with those, as I'm sure you will see many more shots of our day, and indeed there have been some amazing pics already on LLJ's blog, HERE.

 I surprised myself, to be honest, with how well I coped with being sat/standing up all day, so much so in fact that I said to Hubby that I thought I would go to the NEC this weekend for the Hobbycrafts show. I'd really thought I wouldn't manage it this year, but I'm getting much stronger every day, so I reckon I'll be ok. Especially as Beloved Hubby said he would go with me- just to be sure I managed without any difficulties.So me and my Enabler Extrodinaire will be going on Sunday- not sure which of us will spend the most, lol.