Christmas Greetings

Hereabouts we are not dreaming of a white Christmas...we've got it already...we're actually dreaming about a thaw....please, pretty please....but seriously there is something particularly wonderful about our landcape at the moment and we are enjoying sparkling sunshine most days for a few hours. Generally our Christmas is very mild and we can get about with no problems...this has not been the case for a while now but we are learning to cope with these unexperienced conditions. Our homes are not geared up for sub-zero temperatures and lots of folks have no water and frozen pipes which will make for a miserable time over the holidays. Plumbers are working long, long hours to try and cope with the amount of call-outs. Given that the night time temperatures have reached -18.5 the roads are treacherous and we have only been driving when necessary..on our motorways we have only one lane open in each direction!!
Despite all this it almost Christmas and I wish you and yours the best time possible and everything you would wish yourself for the New Year. Particularly in our thoughts are those who live alone, and those who for various reasons Christmastime will not bring health or happiness. We commit them to Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - the Babe of Bethlehem who showed us what true love really is.

Snow is falling, snow on snow......

Hello everyone! We are experiencing the title of this blog post well and truly...having had 2 weeks of snow and then a little window of thaw and opportunity to do the Christmas shopping and now we are back to more snow again. As I've said before this is not a large amount of snow in comparison to what some of you have in the U.S. and Canada but it is a lot for us....and it is good snow...lovely and powdery (before it freezes) and not wet and heavy. It also froze last night - about an hour away temperatures of -15 degrees were recorded...that is low for us folks. Over here life grinds to a halt when we get this amount of the white stuff. The retailers are feeling the pinch as people are not shopping as they would normally be at this time of the year. Accordingly there are sales everywhere and the shops are very quiet indeed. Here are a few photos of our area...the gritter does not come up our avenue at all and the children love it as they can sleigh to their hearts content. One of the photos show our porch in which I hang Ikea lanterns...I usually light them up (just a tea-light which lasts about 5 hours) around 7 p.m. - thinking I could do with some greenery somewhere around here too. It is truly a beautiful morning here...the sun is out and everything is sparkling....nature gives us some wonderful things to look at and enjoy!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well folks I'm sorry I'm so lax at posting but it's that time of year again.
At this point I am glad to say that my card orders are up to date. I'm sure this is because we have had a lot of snow in Northern Ireland (can't get out much) followed by freezing nights - we even had -15 degrees last night which is VERY cold for this part of the world. (I can hear you laughing in the U.S. and Canada.) Needless to say we are never prepared for the snow...transport wise anyhow.....traffic just grinds to a halt. We haven't been much further than our supermarket and that was only when it was absolutely necessary. There have been lots of accidents, lots of folks falling and breaking limbs and indeed we had at least 3 deaths of elderly folks falling in their gardens and dying of hypothermia....very sad. At the moment there is an ongoing dispute between governing bodies as to who should be responsible for gritting the pavements (sidewalk)....they cannot agree and while they are arguing people are falling. Even in town it is not now politically correct for businesses to clean their own footpath outside their premises...apparently they can be liable if anyone should claim....the world has gone mad, hasn't it!
Sorry I haven't any pictures for you....it seems that when I completed cards recently they were collected before I could get bright enough daylight to photograph them. Glad to say I have all my own cards posted today...what a long visit to the Post Office squelching through the slush at the side of the road.
Hope you are all well on with your Christmas arrangements! Take care.

I'm back in the melting pot again!!!

Needed a horsey card for a 17 year old and thought I'd have a go with this again. Mind you I did have to re-do the head only image 3 times before I got it correct....the great thing is that the UTEE can be thrown back in the pot again when you are not happy with the result. Apologies for the poor photos....it was too late in the day for good daylight...on a bad day here we can have the lights on at 3 00 p.m. The wallet was made out of a sample of high end wallpaper which I lined inside with good watercolour paper stamped with yet more horses!

WMS Christmas Blog Waltz

Here is my offering for the Waltz.....
Base cardstock is from the Papermill and the green cardstock layer is also from the same source and it is the leather type of card. The cream layer is The Papermill linen and I've stamped the Merry Christmas stamp from that Secret Set. Attached a length of ribbon down the centre of the top layer and then stamped the star from the same set into gold UTEE...the impression came out well. As UTEE can be sort of dull I took the Krylon pen and put on 2 layers of gold to brighten it up. When still warm I cut around the outline and discovered the shape was close to the Spellbinders Hexagon! Made another red layer and edged it with a gold Krylon pen....a little bit of red bling in the centre...pop dotted the UTEE layer to the red layer....the edges needed to be streamlined a bit so a little bit of wired gold cord did the trick...just used double-sided tape around the edge and pressed the gold cord unto it. Then added the little knot of ribbon to cover the joining of the cord. Apart from the 'Stars' set this was the only WMS Christmas set I had to work with!

Waltzing Mouse Tag It Challenge

Here is my entry for the Tag It challenge.....the base is Spellbinders Mega Curved Rectangles (three layers). The bottom layer is cut from a sample book of wallpapers and this one is like gold sprayed hessian....wish I had it on my walls....the second layer is glossy bright red and the last layer is a sort of stardream type of card.
The little red 'trumpet' thingies are made from satin ribbon - a sort of boat shape glued and rolled to form the shape - more lace ruffled down the side and a little fan of lace to cover the mechanics of the 'trumpets'....a couple of red glossy hearts to sort of balance the tag and then some more on the lace fan...just to make the sentiment more meaningful...and then some bling....apologies for the photo - as you know I'm not so good at that.

A couple of cards and a challenge

First is a Retirement card for a fireman....my first thought was red and black...also used the Waltzingmouse chevron for a dramatic effect and to joint the two hexagons together as it were. The second card also uses a Waltzingmouse stamp - Victorian Frippery - and yet again I've CASED this from Claire for the second time.