WOYWW 495–Lots of Flowers

I am sorry I didn’t get to visit many desks last week but I’ve been so busy this week. We’ve had a lot on, and I’ve also been making lots of flowers for my current mystery project which has a fairly tight deadline, as well as working on other parts of it which can’t be revealed yet. My stuff arrived from Ebay so I can crack on now.

I’ve made mostly roses, and a few single-piece flowers, in three colour schemes – dark purple, turquoise, and brown. Here is the complete set so far – I am hoping to make a few single-piece turquoise ones as well.

Individual sets.

Please scroll down for posts with further details of these flowers, and more pictures.

These little embroidery frames also arrived from Ebay on Monday – I had used my last one a while back.

They are an ideal size for small cross-stitch projects for gifts.

The outer ring is rubber and clips into the inner ring, and you can work in the frame, then back it, and hang it. You can get them in lots of colours – you can see my other ones – but I like the woodgrain effect best. Smashing little frames! I like to keep a few in stock. A few months ago I got a new cross-stitch programme for the computer as my old one does not work with Windows 10.

Sourdough

Some of my best sourdough this week! Following some online advice about shaping the loaves twice at the end, instead of once, they ended up with a lot more tension and didn’t collapse. Apart from this final shaping, I have found that the less I handle the dough during the day, the better the result. Developing too much gluten makes the dough wet and sticky and causes it to collapse.

On the top photo, you can clearly see the ridges made by the bannetons. This shows up more on a white sourdough loaf.

Health Update

Partial good news on the pants front! My tirade on the phone evidently bore some fruit, because despite them telling me the second pair would not be sent out till Friday, they arrived on Thursday! What’s more, they fit. So at least I was able to put a clean pair on and I can just about manage with two pairs until they get on with the remaining ones. After the GP’s prompt response to my email, promising an instant further prescription, I am hoping to receive the third pair (and even a fourth if the GP has indeed written me a prescription for two more) sooner rather than later.

Kitties

We’ve had more problems with Ruby getting out. My hubby was out on Monday morning – fortunately only locally, and I looked out of the kitchen window to see Ruby on top of the inward-sloping mesh on top of the garden fence, which is supposed to keep them in. She was clearly distressed and couldn’t get down. I went out and called her but she wouldn’t jump, and I was terrified of her catching her paw again, as she did a couple of weeks ago. I immediately called my hubby on his mobile and he came home straight away, went into next door’s garden armed with Dreamies and enticed her down, and carried her home. She was very subdued for the rest of the day.

He had a good look along that fence to see if he could discover where she was getting out, and found that one of the fence panels is quite rotten, and she’d forced her way between the top of it and the bottom of the mesh where he hadn’t put in enough staples. I suggested he looked for forensic evidence in the form of “hair and fibre” (I watch too many detective series!) but he couldn’t find any of her fur on the fence. It was an extremely small gap and I was surprised she could get through, but my hubby said kitties are like octopuses and can squeeze through the smallest holes. They are as curious as octopuses too. Both kitties are now temporarily banned from going outside at all until he can get this fixed. He ordered a new fence panel straight away, which has been delivered, but he will have to work on it to make it fit the space.

Amazingly, each time Ruby has got out, Lily has come to tell us! She was extremely distressed that time Ruby got her paw stuck. Earlier on Monday morning, she was sitting on the windowsill outside the kitchen window, crying plaintively, and I thought she was just asking me to let her in through the window, which I refused to do. I think that Ruby was already out, and Lily had come to tell me, and I was too stupid to realise what she was saying! She gets very distressed if her sister is doing something wrong or is in trouble. She is like the responsible older sister who cares very much about her naughty little sister, and Ruby isn’t nearly as bright as Lily, and she never learns! You’d think that after she got her paw stuck, she would have learnt that she is likely to get hurt and frightened if she goes over the fence. So far the kitty defences have been very adequate, and hopefully the new fence panel will do the trick – she’s only been out that side of the garden.

Some friends of my hubby’s in the village where we used to live, who recently lost the second of their two elderly black kitties, have just got two new kittens – tabby and white this time. Next time we are over in their direction we shall call in – I can’t wait to see them! I remember when they got the other two, and I completely fell in love with the little one who has just died, and was tempted to put her in my handbag and take her home! She was always the smaller of the two and utterly adorable. I can’t believe how fast the time has gone and those two darling little black babies are now no more, having lived a good long life. It’s so devastating when they go, isn’t it. They grow up so quickly and you don’t want to miss a moment of their adorable kittenhood.

Have a great creative week, everybody.

Cat Tree–Unboxing and Assembly

It looks very much as if we have found two kittens, who will be ready to leave their mum in about a month’s time. To prepare for their arrival, we have been ordering a few things, and my hubby has begun work on some better defences to keep them in the garden.

Today the kitty tree I bought from Ebay arrived, in a heavy box.

Unboxing

All the parts laid out in order.

They had provided everything exactly as set out in the instructions with the exact number of screws etc. They also provided an Allen key to screw it all together. I separated the different sized screws into containers before I began, to make the assembly easier.

Assembling

When attaching the brackets onto the back of the ladder, I made the mistake of tightening the screws too much. I had to loosen them when assembling the ladder to the tree in order to make it easier to line it up correctly. It was a simple matter to tighten them up again once the ladder was in the correct position.

At this point I realised that I had inadvertently used the single medium-length screw instead of one of the long ones, so I had to start removing screws until I found it! Fortunately this didn’t take long. Using a longer one in its place would not have worked, because it would have poked through the bottom of the upper box.

The completed cat tree

I can’t believe this whole thing came out of that cardboard box! My hubby is going to make the box into a base for a kitty castle for them to play in. He has made one of these for each generation of kittens we have had – a series of cardboard boxes glued and taped together, with lots of holes cut in them so the kittens can chase each other through the different levels, and poke their paws through. This provides endless hours of entertainment for kitties and humans alike!

The construction of the kitty tree is heavy and substantial and the quality excellent. If anyone is thinking of getting a tree for their kitties I would recommend getting one from Ebay as I paid about half what I would have done had I bought one of this size from a pet shop. This particular one is by Purlove, and they also make a beige-coloured one. The assembly wasn’t difficult and the whole thing took me about 1 1/2 hours to complete – I made one or two mistakes but these were quickly remedied.

I am pleased that it looks quite stylish and will fit in any room. The fur fabric covering the pieces is extremely soft and luxurious, and we both like the dark grey colour, which will also co-ordinate very nicely with our kittens who will be silver tabby! I can’t wait to see them playing on it.

The kitty tree is taller than I am! It is heavy and not likely to get tipped over when being played on. It has lots of interesting things for kitties – different levels, lots of scratching posts – these pillars are wrapped with rough rope – places to hide, and platforms to sit on, nice and high up, where all kitties like to be, and three hanging toy mice for them to play with. There’s also a little ladder to take them between two of the levels, and there are plenty of convenient and interesting features to enable them to play well together on it. At the bottom is an arch made of stuff like bottle brush – they will enjoy going through this and getting an automatic grooming! The tree is also large enough to accommodate them when they are fully grown. I am hoping that having this nice tall tree will discourage them from constantly leaping up on things we don’t want them on.

Now the only thing missing is a pair of kittens to play on it!

My New Buggy

 

Shortly after the move to our new house, my hubby went up to the Midlands to collect my buggy. My uncle, who died two years ago, acquired this buggy to enable him to get out and about when he got Parkinson’s Disease, but eventually he became house-bound, and then bedridden, and the buggy remained in the garage. My aunt was more than happy for me to have it as she had no use for it, as long as we arranged for its removal.

After sitting idle for so long, the batteries were as dead as a doornail. Our local battery centre tried to revive them for us, but without success, so we had to buy new ones. They were expensive, but considering we got the buggy for nothing, we feel it was a very good price to pay!

Once my hubby’s Man Cave was completed, we had somewhere to keep it, and he could go and collect it for me. There is a power point for its charger by the electric door to the Man Cave, and it’s easy for me to drive it out, and go to the shops and out and about.

My hubby found an excellent bag on Ebay, that straps around the back of the seat, to put shopping and things in. Each side of the main bag is a tall narrow bag for my crutches, and it has reflective strips on it. There is a rather pathetic little basket on the front that could probably be improved upon, but it will do for now. I have also got a drink holder from Ebay which my hubby put on for me, and a license holder for when I get the road tax disc I shall need when I am super-confident and want to go on the road, at which time I will be permitted to flip the magic switch and up the maximum speed from 4 mph (fastest allowed for pavement use) to a blistering 8 mph!

I haven’t used it very much lately, mostly because the weather has been so atrocious, and also we have been very busy, and then very exhausted, after my dad’s death and organising the funeral. To start with, I was terrified of it and was sure I was either going to crash it, or fall off, or drive into someone’s car or worse… but the more times I use it, the more confident I am becoming. I am beginning to enjoy it, rather than having kittens every time I go out!

I didn’t post about it earlier because I wanted my hubby to take a photo of me on it, and today was the first opportunity we had! This afternoon he suggested that we went for a “walk” – he would do the walking and I’d drive the buggy. I suggested we went down to our nearest shopping centre of any size – we have a little street of local shops, but for the bank etc., I would need to go further afield. My hubby originally thought it would be too far for me, and I said I wanted to try it the first time with him beside me, in case I needed rescuing!!

It took us about 40 minutes to get there, and I reckon I could do it in much less time once I’m more confident and can go faster, and when I know the route so well that I don’t have to keep stopping to check! We went down one way, and returned another way, which was much less satisfactory because the pavements weren’t nearly as suitable – some were too narrow, necessitating my having to drive on the road. You have to try it out for yourself to see what is best, and although my hubby said the second route was shorter, when you are in the car, you are not aware of any buggy-related hazards, so I shall stick to the safer, longer route.

The only trouble with today’s outing was that it was so cold!! By the time we got back, my hands were freezing. The trouble is, since we moved, one of the things that I can’t immediately find is the bag of scarves, hats and gloves!

I am very impressed indeed that my beautiful buggy managed the whole trip, there and back, with no problem at all, and it didn’t even make a dent in the full battery charge that I set out with. It was also extremely comfortable and I didn’t feel any discomfort, sitting in it for so long.

I love the compactness of my gorgeous little personal car and the independence it gives me!

When the spring weather comes, I plan to go down one morning and do some shopping, have lunch and then return, making a day of it. There is a lovely little pedestrianised area with lots of characterful shops and a pleasant old-fashioned atmosphere. There are lots of little cafes with tables for eating outside. I even found a whole food shop where I can buy seeds for my bread making!

My hubby, who has a bus pass, is often out and about on the local bus these days – he has joined the local library and is always popping into town. He has discovered that a bus runs from near our local shops, to this shopping centre and beyond – stopping on its circuit at various places I would be interested in visiting. Now I am 60 I am also eligible for a bus pass, and as the local buses are wheelchair accessible, I could manage, but I couldn’t take the buggy. I need to see if I can make it on my own to and from the bus stop with the wheelchair – I think it may be too far. If I can manage it, the world will be my oyster, and I’ll be more independent than I’ve ever been since becoming disabled! My hubby says he will come with me to see how I get on, and push me home if I run out of steam!

Everything about our new home is working out so well. It’s a lovely neighbourhood – OK, a lot more built-up than we’ve been used to, but everything is so close at hand, with easy access to the shops etc. Having lived in the house for over three months now (I cannot believe it’s been that long! Time absolutely flies…) I am enjoying the renovations and adaptations to the full, and loving the fact that I can now do so much more for myself, without having to bother my hubby all the time. He has more pressures on his time these days, with all the extra driving he has to do now, and a lot of running around after Mum, and I want to try and guard what time he does have for himself, so that he can go off metal detecting, or boating with his buddies, without having me to worry about! The house is so easy to live in, and we love its somewhat quirky character, and the fact that so many original features are still present. Andy and his pals certainly did a most sympathetic restoration for us. I still can’t get over just how much we did last year, and how radically our circumstances have changed during that time. I just wish Dad were alive to see it all.

My New ARTHaven–Wall Units!

This is the second of two posts for today. The first deals with work being done on the house in general.

When we arrived at the new house today, I wanted to go straight up to my ARTHaven to see what progress had been made! I was thrilled to see that Andy had completed the worktop all around, with the second curve in place.

Across this second corner is where my sewing machine will be. The old shelves above will remain for extra storage.

I love the way the worktop continues around the blocked-off fireplace. Underneath, I am having the electric fire from our present sitting room – it exactly resembles a small coal-burning stove and will fit the space beautifully. It has an efficient fan heater, and real coal in the “stove,” with glass doors, and the most realistic flame effect I’ve ever seen! We don’t need it in the new sitting room because there’s a nice living flame gas fire in there.

Above the fireplace, which is my display area, I am having a decorative shabby chic shelf unit which I got from Ebay. I spent a lot of time choosing the right one, for shape and size. This one was perfect except for the paint effect – the colour was a rather dirty yellowish cream painted over black, and artificial distressing had been added, but in the most unlikely places randomly over its surface, which just made it look rather a mess, in my opinion. Artificial distressing should be done in places that wear would naturally take place – on corners and exposed edges, and not on flat surfaces.

I started repainting it white today. After I started, I realised I hadn’t photographed it, so this is the Ebay photo:

See what I mean about the distressing? In this photo, the colour at least looks better than in real life…

Here it is being painted with the first coat.

It is going to need several coats to cover the black distressing.

Back to my ARTHaven. At the end of the curving worktop, Andy has made an upright supporting panel, with a moveable unit underneath. The space beyond, and the whole of the remaining wall, will be taken up with free-standing storage units. These won’t look as nice as the fitted set-up, but they will not be visible from the door. Over the top of them, Andy is going to make a nice deep shelf the full length of that wall, on which I shall be able to store all my large flat things like mount board, my cutting machine mats, etc. These things are always a problem to store so that they stay flat.

Here’s a lovely view of the room from the doorway – without a wide-angle lens, I couldn’t quite get in all the curves, but you get the idea!

Andy and I discussed how to seal and finish the worktop. He is all for an oil-based polyurethane matt varnish as it is the hardest-wearing. He got an offcut and painted half of it to compare the before and after colour, and it made the MDF several shades darker, to a shade that was unacceptably dark to me. He is now thinking about other ways to seal it – including my original suggestion of an acrylic varnish, which was initially dismissed as not being hard-wearing enough because it is water-based. I am sure he will come up with the right solution. As it stands now, the colour is perfect – a nice restful, neutral shade which tones well with the floor, and I certainly don’t want it to be too dark!

The next time I went upstairs, he had started installing the wall units.

These all have two shelves, which are adjustable for height. Andy is going to get me a few more shelves for the base units so that I’ve got the choice of one or two shelves, to be tailored to my storage needs. He has laid an offcut of the worktop over the units on the further wall to give an impression of the top shelf. This will be the same depth as the units, and made of the worktop material. I am hoping also for some extra white shelving to go between the units, adjustable to suit my needs. Andy says he can always come back and sort out any final shelving requirements – this also applies to the office area. I will have the freedom to have wall-mounted things like Ikea rails, pegboards, dowels for ribbons etc. etc. between the wall units if I want. With the wall units as fixed reference points, I’ve got plenty of choice.

I am very pleased with the double-width unit just inside the door – it fits the space well. This area will probably be used in conjunction with the sink area beyond, for painting and mixed media.

We discussed the microwave which I am having mounted on a shelf above and to the right of the sink. We have got Mum’s old microwave, but Andy said it is too big and I wouldn’t be able to have another wall unit over the sink. He pointed out that you can get small microwaves for around £40, which would do much better (I might get a second hand one even cheaper); Mum’s is a combination one and I will have no need for the convection oven facility anyway, so I am going to have a look around for one.

Indian Textiles and a Fascinating Parcel

Today I received two parcels from Ebay, both Indian textiles for our new house. The first was a set of organza panels with gold and shi-sha embroidery to create new drapes for our bed, and the second was a toran (decorative embellishment for a doorway) to go over the doorway from my office to my new ARTHaven.

The panels came in the most unusual parcel I’ve ever received. Unlike our parcels in the west, this one wasn’t wrapped in paper, but in fabric!

The customs label is stitched onto the parcel!

The name and address are handwritten with permanent marker onto the fabric of the parcel, and in such beautiful script too.

These are the labels on the back of the parcel.

Finally, when did you last receive a parcel with sealing wax? Three great blobs of ochre-coloured sealing wax had been added to the sewn closure of the parcel. The whole parcel took a lot longer to open than the average western one, but it was so enjoyable doing it!

This is what was inside. I have 3 panels like this, but have not unfolded the other two. They are absolutely gorgeous… The gold braid is much more gold in real life.

Detail of the gold braid.

Detail of the gold embroidery. In the centre of each motif is a shi-sha mirror. Shi-sha embroidery is one of my favourites – the little mirrors flash in the light and add so much richness! It’s maybe not the easiest technique, but once mastered, is such fun to do. I have done a great deal of it over the years, including on my wedding dress.

The other parcel was much more conventionally wrapped, in the usual grey polybag that you get stuff from Ebay sent in. However, what was inside certainly wasn’t conventional! This is a pink and faded pale red toran for my ARTHaven doorway. I just love the subtle colours.

Here’s a detail of one of the fringe pieces, and you can see that this piece is also embellished with shi-sha.

This is a detail of the top border, which you can see is embellished with numerous shi-sha mirrors.

Finally, a detail of the little embroidered elephant.

I photographed all this on our elephants duvet cover. We bought this bedding when we first came to our present house and it’s getting a bit faded now, particularly on this side as it gets the sun, but I love it so much, and will be heartbroken when it’s worn out!

When I get my ARTHaven sorted, I’ll attach the toran over the doorway from the office into the ARTHaven proper:

More photos will follow, I promise! Lots to do, but we’ll get there in the end.

Tattered Time Mini-Album Part 1–Planning

Yesterday evening I started a very exciting new project – my very first mini-album! This is something I have been planning for such a long time, and although I am in the middle of the Card Factory (which is actually more of a chore than a delight…) I really felt the time had come to make a start. I shall be slotting other things in between, so this will be an ongoing project, like my Fine Art Album and my art journal, and other things that I pick up as the mood takes me.

Let me backtrack to the beginning. It was in September 2011, over a year ago, at the Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts Exhibition, that I saw, and fell in love with, the DCWV “Tattered Time” paper stack and just had to buy it. Ever since then, I have wanted to use it for something but was terrified of messing it up, and every now and then I would get it out and go through it, and stroke it, and put it back on the shelf again! I also did a bit of Youtube research to see what other people did with it, and so the germ of an idea began, to make a mini-album with it, but this has been very much on the back burner since then.

More recently, and particularly since my dad has been deteriorating, I have been thinking about his life, and all the things he did and loved, and looking at the Tattered Time papers again, realised that they expressed so much about him. He has always had a passion for clocks, and has collected and repaired them most of his life. He and I have always been very close, and have shared so much fun over his various interests, and I used to “help” him in the workshop when I was small, watching him work, holding things for him, and learning so much. We shared an interest in typewriters when I began my secretarial course – there are pages relating to this – and of course his major passion for music, which is also represented. These are just a few of the things which will be included in the album.

Since I bought the Tattered Time papers, I have also acquired the Tim Holtz “Lost and Found” and “Crowded Attic” stacks – I have used a few small elements from these, but for the most part, they are intact. There are some elements in these collections which will mix and match quite nicely with the Tattered Time papers.

As I have thought about this, the ideas have been coming in leaps and bounds. Just recently, going through lots of old family photos, I’ve come across so many of Dad in his young days etc. My plan is to make a paper bag album, and to add lots of photos and journaling, and also to make some “mechanical” interactive elements to reflect his love of engineering and all things mechanical.

It’s just my personal opinion, but I have never been a great lover of scrapbooking layouts which incorporate photos and papercrafting – somehow to me the elements don’t mix that well, and if one isn’t careful, it can end up looking rather bitty and messy – there are glorious exceptions, of course, but for the most part it leaves me cold. The Tattered Time papers are so glorious that I really don’t want to cover them up with photos, so my plan is to celebrate the papers, and showcase them to the best of my ability, and to hide the photos and journaling on tags and inserts etc., and make it an interactive experience to look at them.

Over the past few days I’ve been doing some intensive research on Youtube into how to construct these albums, and there are some superb tutorials – also on bindings and closures, and I have now more or less decided on what I want to do. Unfortunately most of these tutorials come from the USA, where they have access to a lot of stuff we just can’t get here in the UK – in particular the bags. I have managed to source some, but of course they are a different size, so I cannot follow the tutorials exactly, as regards measurements, and will have to improvise, but this will make the project that much more my own.

Last year, I made some bag skirts for Christmas gift bags. I ordered several sizes of these bags from Ebay, and the seller made a mistake and sent me far too many. When I contacted him about it, he said it would be more hassle if I sent them back, and told me to keep them, and I have often wondered what I was going to do with them. This evening I decided to use some of the medium sized ones to make this album.

These bags are fairly thick, so I hope they are going to work OK for the album. I had to remove the handles, which are made of twisted paper, and quite attractive, so I thought I would save them, maybe to use as embellishments in other projects.

(They are lying on my new scratch paper – not much on it yet so it looks a bit strange!)

I am not going to give a tutorial on how to make up these bags into an album, because it has already been done very adequately on Youtube. I have decided to follow Kathy Orta’s first-class multi-part Youtube tutorial which she made, using the Tim Holtz “Lost and Found” stack, as she makes full use of the bags and their gussets for an album full of pockets for tags. The first part shows how to deconstruct the bags for the album.

Here are my bags with the gussets prepared:

and showing how the gussets fold up to form pockets.

Most paper bags come with a serrated top edge. In this picture, I am trimming this off, so that the bag measures 11 1/4 in from the bottom, with the gusset folded up. This means the finished dimension of each page will be 11 1/4 in wide and 10 3/16 in high.

I have prepared six bags in this way, which should be sufficient to complete my album.

Watch this space to see how this project progresses. Depending on what else I have to do, and how I am feeling, it may not progress very fast! However, once I get going, there may be no stopping me…