First Christmas card and a day out in Bath

Hello and another Wednesday has come round in the blink of an eye!
I have made another little card from the dies shown last week.

Remember the cute little houses? Sorry it's a C..........s card. Can't say that word just yet. 

We had friends to stay over the weekend and then on Monday Ali and I spent a great day together in beautiful Bath. I'll share some photos with you, I'm sure she won't mind!

First we went to the famous Cresent where many a period drama has been filmed. Stunning. 

Then a round circle of Georgian houses called The Circus...

We then visited the Fashion Museum... which told the story of fashion from about 1750 until the present day. Loads to look at and read so it took us a while! 

We had fun dressing up but the skirts on the dresses were very heavy. How did women wear those all day long! And you couldn't get dressed by yourself, you needed someone to do all the ribbons up at the back... Not to mention those awful stays/corset thingys that you were laced so tightly into. 

Lunch ..

A tasty Italian platter to share and we even sat outside..

But what about the SHOPPING I hear you cry! Have no fear, plenty of retail therapy to be had in the afternoon... 

And cake....

What a brilliant day! Best day of the holidays so far... thank you Ali for your great company and driving all that way. 

Well..... I hope you can spend some time with a friend... nothing like it! 

Have a happy week

Lynda B X

Summer challenge

Hi and welcome back to my little corner of WOYWW.
I haven't blogged for a while but I have enjoyed reading what you have been busy doing.
Well we had the last club night onWednesday before our short summer break and decided to set ourselves a challenge. We each bought in some dies and swopped them and now we have to get busy and make some cards...

Quite an assortment you'll agree. Some more challenging than others.....what to do with the feathers ?  I liked the heart so I started with that one. Just got to put the greeting on. Sorry about the photos.

One of my other hobbies is gardening and I'd like to share with you some photos of the beautiful poppies I sowed and then forgot all about them!

Have a happy week

Lynda B

Cards and a very talented lady.

Hello and welcome to WOYWW.
This week I do actually have a few cards to share.. first to my desk..

The large piece of wallpaper to the left is the result of the pupils randomly stamping potato stamps cut into tulip shapes when they made cards for Mothers Day. It was too pretty to waste so I bought it home to do something with. 

I stamped some of my favourite stamps on it from Kay Carley / Paper Artsy and cut them out. Quite pleased with the result so will make more. 

Another card made with a Stamping Bella stamp. 

The last card was made with a copy of a hand drawn sketch by my late MIL who sadly passed away at Christmas. She had a gorgeous art/craft room and we had the huge task of going through all of her wonderful paintings and sketch books. It was truly a life's work and so interesting. I came across a little sketch book with many drawings of wildlife which she loved. So here's to you Mary for leaving us such a wonderful collection of paintings, drawings and anecdotes about your art and your life to read and enjoy.

Well that's it for this week. I am looking forward to visiting you at your desks! 

Have a happy week

Lynda B 

New puppy = not much crafting!

Hello everyone,
I haven't been around for a few months because a certain little lady has kept us very busy.

Introducing Isla our gorgeous Cockapoo puppy.

The idea of sitting down and playing with my stash has been a distant dream!  At 8 months she's settling down a bit now so fingers crossed. It's been like having a new baby. We've been obsessed with poo, wee, how much she's eating, sleeping etc... she's so funny and has been a real tonic for us and I've lost nearly a stone in weight!
 I have enjoyed reading all your blogs however and love looking at all your projects.

I did make a card for a colleague so I'll share that!

I also met up with the lovely LLJ today who has come to live just 20 mins away from me, how brilliant is that and I thought it was time to join the wonderful world of WOYWW again!  

Have a happy week 

Lynda B

WOYWW- Piano card and Venice!

Welcome everyone to this week's offering for WOYWW hosted by the lovely Julia at the Stamping Ground.
Two cards to share with you that I made for colleagues at work. The first was for our music teacher…. what better than a piano card!

I was so pleased with the way this turned out.(Complete with a little music book!)  Perfect for someone who plays the piano superbly, loves bling and she'll be the first to admit. a total musical DIVA!

The second was a birthday card, using my favourite Tim Holtz stamps again shown on the left and 2 smaller cards for friends who were leaving work at the end of term. 

We have just returned from a lovely 2 week holiday taking in 5 countries, Greece, Slovenia, Montenegro, Italy and Croatia, thanks to the Thomson Dream cruise ship. I have severe memory overload at the moment as we visited so many beautiful and amazing places. My favourite memory has to be sailing down the Grand Canal at sunrise into Venice, passing St Mark's Square and the Bridge of Sighs. It was so beautiful and different from anywhere I had ever been before that I admit I had a lump in my throat. I never thought that little 'ol me would ever be able to visit such places. I took over 400 photos over the 2 weeks but will just share a couple of Venice with you this week so you needn't panic and run off screaming!

St Mark's Bell tower and the Bridge of Sighs just down to the right on the water front.

A Gondolier and a typical street in Venice!

Rialto Bridge.

Well, I'll share some more holiday pics next week if that's ok. I doubt I'll have any crafting to share as I have my parents staying and my dear Dad is celebrating his 90th birthday this Friday. I have an afternoon tea party to prepare….. 

Have a happy week

Lynda B X

WOYWW - Mini albums, hearts and running.

Hi Everyone!

I am so glad to be back with you all this week. I have been very busy with school stuff, putting together portfolios of the children's work ready for an inspection which we are still waiting to hear about and will not happen now until after the summer!   GGrrr….

So I have put those away and have been making mini albums instead. This one on my desk is for our holiday. I have been inspired by Shellie Giegle on You tube who makes the most wonderful books. (I'm not quite up to her standard yet) 

I am using papers from Kaisercraft called 'Sandy Toes' just right for holidays!  I love adding all the little flaps, tags and surprise pages in these albums. 

I have also been busy making invitations for my Dad's 90th birthday party. I plan to have an afternoon tea for him with our family, nothing too energetic, just lots of little sandwiches, cakes, trifle and strawberries and cream. I am ordering the sunshine too! 

Yes that little boy enjoying a ride with Teddy in his car is my Dad. This photo was taken in 1928 and he was two! 

May also saw the 10th anniversary of loosing our beautiful daughter Katy and I made this little heart to hang near me in my craft room. 

So it's been a mixed old time, hard work, tears and celebration, but isn't that the same for everyone. 

My heart goes out to MP Jo Cox's family after the awful events of last week. She died because she was busy doing what she loved and believed in. Senseless.

Finally to challenge myself and to get away from the endless hours of football that's on in our house (Come on Wales!)  I have downloaded the nhs Couch25K podcasts on my iPod (Don't know how I did that tho) and for the last 2 weeks have been pounding the streets of Llanelli / Water Park along with my colleagues from work. It's so much better to have some running buddies! I'll keep you posted if I haven't collapsed and been taken away on a stretcher! Must remember to BREATHE and run at the same time  Ha Ha…..

Glad to be back in blogland and sharing with you all.

Have a happy week

Lynda X

WOYWW - Beazley to Monet!

Hi Everyone and welcome,

Wednesday again and this week has flown by.
My desk is a mess and not too much to show you, more to tell you if truth be told!

A selection of stamps, inks and paints and a small watercolour paper postcard. I'm trying my hand at painting! I'm not kidding myself tho' I'm rubbish so I thought I would paint a stamp instead… cheating right but I spent a happy hour or two anyway! I have been inspired... SO INSPIRED.. by a trip to the Royal Academy in London on Saturday with Alison and my other friend Nikki. We went to see the 'Painting the Modern Garden' exhibition.

A long day but really worth it. If you are a garden lover/art lover then this is for you. We were surrouded by beautiful famous works by many Impressionist artists who used the garden and flowers as their inspiration. The various studies by Claude Monet of his water garden at Giverny and the famous Waterliy paintings were just amazing. I had a lump in my throat several times! We couldn't take photographs inside the exhibition unfortunately.  We also...

Did a little sight seeing - infront of the statue of Eros. 

And like any civilised woman, went for afternoon tea… this mixed berry tart was huge!

and so was this lemon masterpiece!

Wonderful friends and a wonderful day!

My favourite painting tho' wasn't by Monet, Manet or Matisse but by John Singer Sargent called simply 'Poppies' painted in 1886. 

This is a photo from a postcard I bought and I love the vibrant colours. There is something very evocative now about a field full of poppies, but of course they wouldn't have had the same meaning in 1886 as they do for us today. 

Well… I'm off to produce another masterpiece, or master any piece come to think of it (ha ha) but before I do I want to blog hop around all your wonderful desks.

Do what makes you happy this week!

Lynda X