Mixed Up Saturday

 

You have all made it so far,  so just keep swimming!! 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

We made it home around 8.30 ish last night,  all totally exhausted,   but some lovely memories made, the girls thoroughly enjoyed their birthday treat.  On Thursday night I literally couldn't keep my eyes open when we got back, I think the busy atmosphere of London is exhausting, especially when you are on the busy underground,  I still find myself looking round and checking on the girls constantly as I did when they were little.   

Kew gardens was amazing,   so many plants that the girls were familiar with and some they have on their wishlists!   There was so much to see and I'd love to go back in mid spring or summer.    The trip also made Paul and I a lot more confident when it comes to using the Underground,  which will make our future trips much easier.   I will add some of the highlights of our Kew gardens visit....

Beautiful Snowdrops 

Spring Star flower

These are called 'Tree Dahlias '

They were right up in the roof of the glass house.

They look a bit like Clematis I think

Paul & Lucy did a roof top walk way and got 

Some lovely photos. Everything looked so ornate,  I believe this is the largest Victorian Glasshouse in the world. 

The fragrance from this Narcissi was incredible 

The girls both fell in love with this beautiful 

Bird of Paradise plant, a new addition to their wishlists!  

We were at Kew for around 4 hours,  it would take even longer if the gardens were in full bloom.  The Princess of Wales Conservatory was closed too as they are preparing for an Orchid exhibition,  which I would love to see. 

I hope that you all have a great Saturday, 

Love and hugs to all  

Sandra xxx 

Sonia's Journal page

 

You all matter!!!

Good Friday Morning Ladies 

We had a lovely day in London,  the girls thoroughly enjoyed the museums,  I wanted to do V &A but after the Natural History Museum and Science museum it was 6pm so it had closed,  Paul and I will come back on our own and do it.   After that we went into Leicester Square for the evening,  the girls wanted to try a new food market, it has lots of different food vendors under one roof, so Lucy had a 'Poke' bowl wish Salmon suchi, over steamed rice with avocado,  edamame beans, kimchi and a few other bits,   Soph and I had Thai food, Paul had a 'Yorkshire ' wrap,  which was a large Yorkshire pudding filled with loads of roast beef, mash, cabbage and a pot of gravy,  he loved it.  We were full and exhausted!!  Lucy's step counter said she had done 21, 748 steps!  

Today we are off to Kew Gardens,  I am so pleased I bought a new 'big coat'  as it was really cold all day.  

Today I am sharing this absolutely incredible page that our Sonia made,  the sentiment looks like it had always been there!  Everything works so beautifully!  

Sonia's Description 

I have used Stamperia’s Dewdrop collection. I cut the hills from another piece from the collection and adhered to the main piece. I inked the edges of paper and sentiments with Vintage Photo distress ink. I fussy cut the lady and gently inked around her to hide any imperfections. The sentiment is an Inkylicious stamp, and I added a strip of snowflake Pet tape down the one side. Snowflakes are Memory Box.

Oh Sonia this is a stunning journal page, thank you so much for sharing it with us XXX

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love and hugs to all  

Sandra xxx

A bit of Steampunk for a change..

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

We have an early start today as we heading off to London today,  the girls are looking forward to going to the museums,  we haven't been for years,  in fact I think the last time we went it was for the girls birthday when they were in primary school. 

Life certainly can feel like you are on a rough sea, so many ups and downs,  sometimes it definitely feels like there are more lows!  It is important to keep battling through,  those highs will come!! 

I had fun creating a grungy steanpunk journal page yesterday.  

I was so absorbed in creating that I forgot to take photos of each stage.  

I started by Spritzing the page with Faded Jeans & Vintage Photo Distress Oxide sprays,  the Spritzed with water and let everything mingle,  I then added water to me gold Gansai paints and splattered that over the dried background,   then I Spritzed with waterband absorbed it away with kitchen roll.  I used Black embossing paste through  Tim Holtz mini stencil and allowed to dry.  I added a few more gold splats.   I then picked out some die cuts and started by adding the tag to the background at an angle, trimmed off the excess and then added the other die cuts,  inking each piece as I went.  The final touches were adding the clouds and some white splatters.  

I hope that you all have a good day,  

Love and hugs to  all, 

Sandra xxx

A quick journal page

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,  

Yesterday just flew by,  I had an ok night all things considered,  the pain was more bearable thankfully.   I was tired but I think that was down to not sleeping the night before.  I had relaxed day, I made a quick journal page for today's blog, we then went to get our hair cut, which was much needed as I haven't had my hair done since before the wedding!  So my hair is now back to being evenly coloured and a bit shorter,   it feels good though. 

I feel like today's 'Reminder'  is meant for me,  its a word that people will use if they are a little bit stressed over something,  sadly it's not as simple as that,  true anxiety is so debilitating, you overthink absolutely everything,  anytime anyone is late or you don't get an answer if you call your brain just creates the worst scenarios you can imagine,  despite knowing its irrational you can't convince your brain otherwise.  Its the same when it comes to diagnosing and waiting for results,  my brain seems to wait until I am in bed,  when everyone is asleep and then it kicks in!!!  

So today's journal page was a quick one,  I used a favourite technique of Vicky P,  which is to apply paint using a wet wipe.....

I added some splatters of the darker paint too.   Next came adding some white paint with  dry brush and some stamping..

Oh then some stencilling too. 

The fun part is always picking out the diecuts and arranging them on the background,  I inked around each element,  punched a hole in the tag and added an eyelet and some twine,  I sat the lady on the tag and added some die cut leaves and flowers around them.  Lastly I added the 'plasterboard tape'  which gives some lovely texture and interest.  I sentiment and some white splatters finish the page.  

Today we have another busy day,  the girls and I need to pop into Witney,   then we are sitting to plan our 'itinerary ' for tomorrow and Friday,  then we need to go pick our car up as it has been in the garage, getting shock absorbers and something else related to that mostly due to the terrible state of our roads!  

I hope that you all have a good day,  stay warm as those temperatures seem to be a lot lower today. 

Love and hugs to all, 

Sandra xxx 

My latest Quiet life Journal page,

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

Thank you all for your lovely messages yesterday,   they mean the world 😊

The Consultant was lovely,   I do however think that they take advantage of your desperation for answers, especially when the possible outcome can be seriously life changing,  she said that I needed to have a biopsy taken,  I "could have it done under  general anesthesia " but the wait would be much longer,  the same was said at that Hysteroscopy,   anyway my anxiety wouldn't have allowed me to wait,  so through we went to the adjoining room where everything was conveniently all laid out teady.  For me the procedure was very painful and I still have a lot of pain and discomfort as I am writing this.   I did get a couple of hours sleep, curled up with a hot water bottle yesterday afternoon.  

I made today's page on Saturday,   I covered the page with rice paper that I cut up and arranged to cover,  I then swiped some white paint over the joins in the paper,  next came stencilling through a lace pattern stencil,  it dried a little pink where it absorbed the colour from the rice paper, which I don't mind.  

 I picked out the lady with the camera and fussy cut her some wings from a page in the junk journal,  tucked them behind her, then added a photo strip as a border and finished with some flowers and some doodles.  Although I had a nightmare as I am really struggling to find a white pen that really works, I've tried Posca fine tip, Gel pen, a Steadler one, Pilot one and some Acrylic paint pen then I got from Inkylicious at a show,   all if which worked a bit initially but fail after a couple of uses.  

Today's Gentle Reminder is just what I needed to read this morning!  

I hope that you all have a great day, 

Love & hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx 

Welcome to start of a new week..

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Just a quick one today as I have a busy morning, we have to drive to Gloucester to see a Gynaecology Consultant,  please keep me in your thoughts,  I am so worried about the outcome,   just a bit of advice ...if you have a history of anxiety do not read your Medical record on your NHS app!  😔                           I think I managed 45 minutes sleep after Paul got up this morning,  out of sheer exhaustion,  I also felt bad that he was getting up at 4.45am to get a head start on his work as he is taking me to my appointment,   the girls are here today but for this appointment I need Paul with me.  

Today's gentle reminder feels very apt today!! 

Today's journal page is another Vicky P inspired design using the Herbarium collection, which as I have mentioned before is my favourite,  I just love all the greens!  I painted the page with a light green paint then drybrushed some white paint over the top, followed by texture paste through a stencil.  The lady is a sticker so I popped her onto paper and ffussy cut her so that she was a bit more sturdy and didn't buckle when adhered.  I arranged some little labels and flower stickers on the left had side of the page and popped her amongst them.  I finished with some splatters and some little scribbles with my white gel pen.  

I hope that you all have a great start to your week, 

Brenda I am crossing everything hoping that they get your care package in place so that you can go home and be with John,  sending hugs XXX 

Maria  welcome home my lovely friend, its good to have you back among us XXX 😘 

Sending love and hugs to all,

Sandra xxx 

Our makes from this week

 

Good Sunday Morning Ladies,  

I hope that you are all feeling aa well as possible. 

Maria I hope that you and Rick are enjoying your holiday, this past week has flown by.  I hope you have a safe and trouble free journey home my lovely XXX 

Brenda, fingers crossed they can get your care plan sorted so you can get home and recover in your own home, there is nothing like it.  How lovely that John is being so well looked after,  your daughter is right he is definitely better of being with them and kept busy,  its one less worry for you!  Sending you gentle hugs my lovely XXX 

Lets have a look at what some of you have been making...

Karen 

Karen's Description:

Card 1:  

For this card I did a blending technique I hadn’t done before with Fossilised Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Crackling Campfire following a Jo Rice tutorial 

Large stamp for first time from a magazine OK but not very deeply etched (felt almost flat) and a printed sentiment

Card 2:  

A blues a purples version of the same card. 

2 lovely cards Karen,  both are amazing but I think I love the blue/purple version a little more. 

Thank you so much for this inspiring technique Karen XXX

Lilian 

Lilian's Description:

This is my journal page for this week.

It’s Stamperia papers, two different books.

Most of it came from 'The Garden', I’ve had it a while ,but found this idea on Pinterest. The other one is from Herbarium, just the plant pots.

Oh Lilian I love this look,  both of my girls are houseplant crazy and I've been looking for ideas for birthday cards for them,  this might work!  I haven't seen the Garden collection but I will be honest and say that Herbarium is my favourite so far!  

Thank you so much for the inspiration XXX 

Sonia 

Sonia's Description:

Card 1:  

Dad asked me to make a card for him to give Mum. Papers are from Anna Marie designs, torn edge and inked. Blue card from stash. Tim Holtz butterfly and heart dies from Stampin Up.

Cards 2 & 3:  

I used Tracey Hey papers for both of these cards, which I haven’t used before. The cake die was from Temu and flowers from Gummiapan with a tiny punched flower in centre. Sentiments from The Stamp Market.

3 stunning cards Sonia,  the one for your Dad is absolutely gorgeous, I bet both he and your Mum loved it.  

I love your design using the Tracey Hey papers,  it works so beautifully with kraft card too.  Its lovely seeing you back creating beautiful cards my lovely XXX 

****************

I hope that you all have a lovely Sunday,  

Love & hugs to all of you, 

Sandra xxx 

Mixed Up Saturday

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies,  

I'm fed up of wind and rain now,  I NEED Sunshine!! 🌞  Although we are forecast a wet and windy weekend 🙄.  

Never mind we have lots of jobs indoors to keep us busy, although Paul is itching to start moving the tonne of topsoil we had delivered yesterday!   I bet he nips out between showers 🤣😂

We also need to do a tip run as we have a huge collection of cardboard boxes that need to be recycled,  if we left it to just go out with kerbside collection every fortnight it would take a year,  it's a battle though as Paul hates going to the tip for some reason,  I love it, it feels so liberating flinging all of your clutter into those huge bins! 

Today's reminder...

 I'm not sure if I am enough if I'm honest,  but right now I am 'trying my very best ' to get through the day as if nothing is on my mind right now! 

Love you all very much,

Sandra xxx 

Another Quiet Life card

 

Good Friday Morning Ladies, 

I was relieved to read today's Gentle Reminder as today I need to rest.  I think we all now that our bodies need to take it easy ! 

My appointment was positive yesterday,  all appeared well,  she couldn't see the scan results as they hadn't been uploaded,  which she considers a positive thing,  had there been anything 'concerning' the scan would have been uploaded straight away with request for urgent referral.  So fingers crossed thats the case.  

We were home before 9am but I felt really odd,  I went up to get my laptop but my heart went into a super fast rhythm and I had to lie down, I felt so cold, my feet were purple!  I didn't have the strength to hold my phone,  I must have fallen asleep,  as it was 11am, Lucy bought me a cup of tea and within an hour I felt alright.   In the afternoon we had a Riley girls (well and Harris) trip to Hobbycraft which was a bit disappointing,   I was hoping that they might have more craft stuff in with them having a tv channel,  but no, there was a couple of Sizzix stamps , a load of Crafters Companion stuff, including that pink plastic 'Ultimate'  thing, that was around when I started crafting!! Crazy!!  They had lots of machines,  wedding preparation stuff and cake making stuff, oh and jigsaw puzzles. 

Today I am sharing another card that I made using my Stamperia Quiet Life collection, everything on the card was from the Junk Journal. 

I hope that you all have a good end to your week, 

Love & hugs 

Sandra xxx

Today's reminder goes without saying!!

Good Morning Ladies,  

Another early start for me as I have an appointment with the nurse at 08 30am 😲🙄.  All jokes aside I am hoping for some reassurance 🤞 because my inner anxiety has me in bits with worry. 😔

As I am writing this we are driving over to Matt's,  the weather is terrible. The driving rain makes those cars with super white bright lights even worse!  Flipping things are blinding, should be illegal!!  Paul notices more now he has had his lenses replaced after cataracts.  

Today aibam sharing a 'grungy ' style journal page, I started by stamping the mixed media style stamp in opposite corners,  I added clear embossing powder and heat set,   next came Distress Oxide spray Peeled Paint and Kitsch Flamingo, then spritz with water and place kitchen roll over,  it makes the colours more subtle. I blended around the edges with Black Soot Oxide ink.  Stamping next, first the lovely flower from my new Visible Image stamp set, I used black ink and added clear embossing powder and heat set.  I masked off the leaf of the first flower and stamped the second flower and embossed again.  I used Harvest Moon Mica stain to colour the second flower and then added some splatters of it to background,  the sparkle is lovely!  

I added some background stamping with the little dotted circle stamp thats in the Visible Image stamp set.   Now the flower head of the first flower was mostly in the background embossing so I stamped another, fussy cut it and added it.  

The final touches were some white splatters and the sentiment,  which I stamped and then edged with black Posca pen.  

I might do another thats less 'grungy' next.  

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs,  

Sandra xxx

Cyanotype Journal page

 

Good Wednesday Morning Ladies,  

Wet & windy here in Gloucestershire,  yesterday the wind was really strong, the rain started late afternoon and the two combined caused havoc, fingers crossed things are calmer today.  Not that it matters, we don't have any plans today,  other than Paul & I are going over to Matt's for fish & chips,  he often raves about how good it is and we needed to drop some parcels off so we thought we'd kill two birds with one stone!!  To be honest I am just looking forward to seeing my boy,  I haven't seen him since way before Christmas, he and Alex work long shifts that often clash, which makes it hard for them to have more than 1 day together.  He seemed genuinely excited that we are going over 😊

Today's reminder can sometimes be hard to do, something that I have definitely struggled with.  I hope it's something you all do though.  😘

Brenda it sounds like you are making great progress,  I am pleased you have your own room, they are usually a bit more lenient with visiting times etc when you are in your own room, visiting is much more relaxed too.  You also have a better night sleep when you aren't on a ward,  I have had some bizarre situations including one where we were in a 4 bed ward, the lady next to me was lovely and we got on really well,  her husband moved the chair round to sit in between us like he was visiting us both,  Paul was juggling looking after the children with work and visiting me, I found being on my own really hard, so it was lovely to share their visiting time.  We had a lady move into our ward and sadly she suffered with dimentia,  she really struggled at night and consequently we all did, I remember vividly nodding off and waking suddenly, opening my eyes and finding her face about 4 inches away from mine!  from that night on for a week we used to take turns at keeping watch! 🤣😂  We felt awful for the nurses though as she had them really busy,  ringing the bell every few minutes.                              Its lovely that John is staying with your daughter as it's one less worry for you my lovely.   Sending you lots if love and gentle hugs XXX

Karen such great news that you have a date already,  you must be so relieved, Paul had to wait about 4 weeks between his cataract surgeries,  the Consultant wanted to do both at once to make it cheaper for Paul as it would have been 1 theatre hire cost, 1 charge for all of the other theatre staff etc,  but the private hospital decided the day before the surgery that it was too much of a risk to do both eyes at once.  With hindsight it would have been fine and would have saved us a good 2 thousand pounds, but at the end of the day he had his sight back which was worth every penny.  He said it wasn't painful at all, the used numbing drops before anything else so he really didn't feel anything,  he was obviously nervous but other than that he was fine.   One thing I would make sure of is making sure they give you the hard plastic eye patch,   I only say that because Becca wasn't given one until I asked, they then bought her one and told her to wear it at night to protect from rubbing subconsciously if it itches while you are asleep.  So pleased that you will be all sorted for the summer my lovely.  XXX

Tiday I am sharing the larger Cyanotype piece that I made using the exact same Blueprint Sketch oxide ink white ink pad, this time I used Tracy Evan’s Seed pod stamp to create the 'bleached out' effect.  I think the larger piece looks more effective.  

I hope that you all have a good Wednesday,  

Love and hugs to all of you,  

Sandra xxx

Pretty Quiet Life card

 

Good Morning Ladies,  

I am having a slower start to my day today,  I was up and dressed at 7.30am yesterday,  ready to drink 1.5 litres of water,  which isn't fun a) first thing in the morning  b) when you have an over sensitive bladder !   The journey should only take 25 mins but there are road works which add a good 20 minutes to half an hour on,  my goodness me, I felt every pot hole like a punch to my bladder with it being so full.  When we got there we had plenty of time, which was a good job as finding the Radiography department was a mission,  there was no space in main carpark so we had to trek to get into the hospital,  then find someone to direct us, thr problem is it's a very old building, that they have joined to other old buildings with covered walkways!  We got there in time,  she then scanned for about 3 minutes then said my goodness you have a really full bladder (which I thought was the point) then said "actually I am going to have to do internal scan so can you go empty your bladder !!  🙄🙄😔  Anyway she found Merena,  she hasn't disappeared,   she did struggle to find my right ovary though,  so I said 'I could have coped with losing Merena but not an ovary! ' she laughed 😅  She said she couldn't measure lining because of coil and that GP should follow protocol and refer me to Gynaecology!  So not the reassurance that I hoped for.  

I am dedicating today's affirmation to ALL of you,   my life would be unbearable without you lovely ladies in it ❤️ 

Today's card I made last week, using Stamperia Quiet Life collection,   I will be honest and say that it took a lot for me to pull that cute little girl out and use her,  I wanted to leave her where she was and admire her.  I layered some of the papers from the Junk journal,  then added the frame and flowers,  so everything was from the Junk journal,   adding the distressed edging to the layers makes them stand out a bit more.  

I hope that you all have a good day, 

Love and hugs to all,  

Sandra xxx 

Clean & Simple Card

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies, 

Welcome to the start of a new week,  we are off to a busy start as I have urgent scan this morning in Cheltenham,  to see if they can see a reason for the symptoms I was having last week and to see if they can spot my Merena Coil 🤣😂  In all seriousness please keep your fingers crossed for a positive outcome. 🤞🤞🤞

We had a very relaxing Sunday,  we had an hour or so in the garden,  there are so many bulbs peeking through,   giving us the exciting feeling that Spring isn't too far away.  We discussed what we were putting where and even ordered a different growing system for strawberries as we haven't had much success with them in the beds that they are in.  Fingers crossed a change will increase their yield.   Moving them also frees up to more raised beds for vegetables. 

Today's Gentle Reminder is so incredibly true,  I think we have all been at that point of just wanting to throw the towel in and give up, despite thinking that we have no more to give we can push ourselves to achieve something that we thought was impossible.  

Brenda, I hope that your physiotherapy is going well and that you are preparing to go home,  I bet John can't wait to have you back home with him. Sending you gentle hugs my lovely XXX 😘

Today I am excited to share a card I made on Friday,  I was so excited to have a play with my new Visible Image stamp set,  I went for a super simple style that I saw on Pinterest.  I stamped and heat embossed the flower and sentiment, I used a yellow Ecoline pen to add a little colour to the flower and green for the leaves.  

I hope that you all have a great start to your week, 

Love and hugs to all,

Sandra xxx