Update and New Blog to Visit!

Good Afternoon my lovely followers.

So, how are you all? I'm sorry for being M.I.A for a while but it's been a very busy week or so. Firstly, I was asked to exhibit at the work's wedding fair (which was yesterday) 9 days before! Which is fine but I was in dire need of new samples, after I damaged a pile and then never got some others back after I loaned them to a friend, to show her future daughter in law. Never mind. So it's been a week of making many new samples and a few new concept cards too.

Alongside that, I decided it was time to kick myself into gear and actually have a site which is dedicated to custom orders and sales of some of my crafting outcomes. So that's been taking up hours of my life too and the link can be found on the 'Made in Love' page listed under the header.

Finally, Choir has also started back, so we're in full swing heading on that slippery path to the 'C' word (that's Christmas for anyone whose not sure), I've also taken over running of the Parish Magazine - a far more daunting task then I first thought and then to top it all off, I decided to rejoin my local fencing group after 3 years of them not having space free. Phew. It's been tiring!

But enough of all that. I promise I have new cards to show you soon and please go see the new blog and let me know what you think but mainly, I would love if you all went to say hi and showed the love to an old colleague of mine over at her little part of the web here. She's insanely multi-talented and always seems to be far more productive then me even though she's on the home stretch to submitting her PhD! Go see what I mean and share the love.

Until next time, happy crafting!

New Home

Good Morning all,

Just a quick post today as I'm up to my eyes in paper trying to get ready for a stall works wedding fair on Sunday. It's a chance for the historic properties I work at to show off the venues, price lists etc and have local companies come in and show their wares. I was asked last Thursday if I wanted a stand! (last minute organisation or what?!) but I said yes, even though I had no samples at hand and nothing to put on a stand, so i'm in full wedding mode at the moment making stationary, as well as one of two little pieces that I'll share in due course.

But enough about all that, i'm rambling, and all I really wanted to do was to share a card I made for Mina for her new house!

It's an old Tiddly Inks image called, fittingly, New Home, which I printed several times on to different papers from the Boho Chic collection. I paper pieced the image and then ran some plain white card through my embossing folder; spots and dots, and I free hand cut some clouds, edged them in stickles (it always has to be done). I used a chalk ink on the base card to give it this fab blue colour, added a couple of butterflies from my MS punch, gems in their centres and then a quick sentiment printed off the computer onto a scrap of paper from the same pad and a couple of flowers punched out from the same scraps to finish.

I do hope you like it.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts - Layers
Dream Valley - Something Old, Something New (Old- image, embossing folder, stickles; New - papers)
Joanna Sheen - Going Dotty (Clouds and paper on which New Home was printed)

Until next time, happy crafting!

Hell in Helsinki

Monday of the second week of our cruise saw us in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, it is renowned  for its Neo-classical architecture. We had settled on an excursion which took us both into the heart of Helsinki but also out to one of the old fishing villages that supplied the wealth (and food) to the capital, the charming Medieval town of Porvoo.

It was a reasonable start time of 9am so after the usual morning routine and a quick check on the weather, after the night before's little storm at sea, we were up and heading for breakfast by 8. We sat with a lovely older couple that morning who were exploring the city by themselves as they had been to Finland a couple of times before and done much of the tourist destinations in the past. We spoke of meaningless things and wished them a good day.

The day was grey and overcast, although it was not due to rain and it wasn't really even that cold, but after the heat of Russia, it felt colder than it probably was. But we are British and thus, we complain about everything weather related but deal with it nonetheless.

We departed the ship and made our way to the designated coach and waited for the arrival of the rest of the party. There were only another 4 after us and the coach was less than half full. As the driver pulled off our guide introduced himself and the coach driver and then said little else for the 50 minute transfer out to Porvoo...hmmm, not a good start. As we pulled up in the little village he jumped off the coach and before he checked to see if everyone was off, he started making his way up to the church at the top of the village, talking very softly - and without the audio assistance that we'd had in Russia, it was nearly impossible to hear what he was saying.

He set a fast pace and many of our party struggled to keep up with him and by the time the last members of the group had caught up, he had already finished telling us anything he thought was important about the site (which wasn't a lot I hasten to add) and told us to explore inside the building alone and to be back outside in 15 minutes. Well! to be honest, if this was how it was going to be, it's a wonder they bothered to give us a guide at all. Claire and I took ourselves off into the church and because we don't mind doing some digging around and research by ourselves, we simply took note of anything we wanted to clarify, to check out on our return home.

From the Church we were led down to the waterfront where he mumbled on about it being the main waterway and the source of all village income but, again, he was so quiet and hadn't waited for half the group that most of missed out on what he had said. He then led us back to the main street and said we had 20 minutes to shop before the coach left to return to Helsinki. Hardly any time really to explore such an incredible place - I could have happily spent half a day in Porvoo and still not seen it all. As it was we rushed round a couple of shops but weren't inspired to buy anything as we really didn't have time to look properly and headed back to the coach. Hmmm.

Once we were all loaded back up and the driver started on his way our 'guide' once again didn't speak. It was incredible the difference we were witnessing! Every guide we'd had to date would rabbit on and on and on (how they didn't loose their voice was beyond me) but here, this guide was being mute. We weren't being told any of the countries history, politics, social development. If we wanted to know anything about anything we were going to have to search for ourselves.

As we made it back into the city, he finally began to speak, but for the lack of anything useful or informative to tell us, he may as well have not bothered. We passed the City Hall, where we were given a couple of minutes to take photos and then on and passed the Parliament building, Opera House, Sibelius Park (I think, nothing was said if we did) and down the Esplanade to the Temppeliaukio Church (better known as the Rock Church).

The church was designed by architects and brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen and opened in 1969. The interior was excavated and built into the rock but is bathed in natural light entering through the glazed dome. It is truly breathtaking and our guide had given us 15 minutes to explore at our leisure. However, after 10 minutes Claire and I had made our way back out to the meeting place and there was no one in sight! the guide and the rest of our group and left without us and we had no idea where we were!

After checking that the group wasn't were the coach had dropped us off, Claire and I headed back up to the church to see if we could spot anyone from the ship and make our next move. We couldn't see anyone we recognised and with no mobile to call the ship and explain the situation we were on our own to make our way back to the port. HELP!

We found a map of the city centre but couldn't locate the church and we weren't entirely sure if we were in the East or West Port so we were little better off. Things were looking less than hopeful. Trying to recall any information - such as well as the cruise shuttle was dropping off etc we spotted a guide for a Holland America cruise ship - they were docked opposite us! Heading over to the guide we explained our situation and after looking suitably horrified that our guide (and group) had left us stranded offered to give us directions back to the ship using the local transport systems. She was brilliant; taking our map she marked up where the church was, where the bus stop we needed was and where to get off or the equivalents on the tram and then, pointing us in the right direction and apologising that there wasn't room on their coach to take us back, wished us farewell.

As it turned out the port was in walking distance - well an OK distance for Claire and I to walk, if it had been many on our ship it would have been impossible. So, map in hand and having been reassured that all the locals spoke English we set off, best foot forward and all that. About 50 minutes of walking at a reasonable pace later and we were back in the port area and another 10 minutes saw us safely back on board ship. By which point, I was fuming!

We headed straight to the excursions desk, but it was closed for the afternoon, although we could hear them inside, so we made our way back to reception to ask if they could call the office and see if someone could spare us a couple of minutes so we could explain what had happened. Reception were less then helpful, telling us we would have to wait to speak to the like everyone else, even after we explained that we'd been left behind they didn't budge! urgh! someone really was out to cause us as much of a headache as possible. I was not a happy bunny.

Giving up, too worn out to kick up a fuss we finally went back to the cabin and dropped our bags off, washed up and went in search of some food and a much needed cup of tea. We ate on the lido deck but the ship was busy and I wasn't in the mood for making polite conversation, so said I was going to watch to afternoon movie in the cabin and redo my nails. Claire said she was up for that too and we got a fresh cup of tea and made our way back to the cabin. Just as we were coming down the stairs we passed Dan with the new show team member, Kym,  who had just come on board.

As we rounded the corner of the stairs for the final run, Claire almost ran into Alistair (nearly covering him) and I almost went into both of them. Thankfully, all accidents were averted and he asked how our trip had been - bad question. We gave him the short version of the story and said we were going to hide in the cabin for the afternoon for some much needed space and chill out time and we'd see him later. After an afternoon of chilling, painting nails, doing some much needed repair work on an outfit (not one of ours I hasten to add) and watching a truly awful movie, W./E., we were in a better frame of mind for the evening ahead.

Yes the day had been less than stellar and no, I didn't appreciate the attitude we'd received at reception but it wasn't worth holding onto the upset, the evening ahead was shaping up to be a great laugh and frankly, high blood pressure just isn't worth it. We got ready for dinner slightly earlier than normal and headed up to excursion for 6pm to put in our complaint. Ten minutes later, rant completed for, what we hoped was the last time, we went in search of dinner and a much needed glass of wine.

Dinner was a quiet affair as neither of us were very chatty and it seemed no one else was the kind to keep light conversation going. We finished dinner quickly that night and taking the rest of the wine with us, went up to chill out in High Spirits. As time passed on and the wine was drunk we caught up with some a few of the couples that we had spent a number of trips with and talked about how are days had been. We kept the story short but everyone was suitably horrified. Nevertheless, we were safe and that, after everything, really was all that mattered.

We made a move just gone 8 to the Broadway show lounge for that nights special performance - Spirit's got Talent. It's a tradition, at least on Thomson ships, for the crew to get a night to take to the stage and show off their wide array of talents. It was, as every one we had seen before, great. The staff on board are real gems and so talented. The show was exactly what we needed to lift our spirits.

After the show we wandered to the shops to take a last look at all the Amber, Faberge and Lacquer that the guest lecturer had brought with him. We behaved and didn't buy anything (though it was a close run thing I promise). We popped back to the cabin, grabbed a glass of whiskey and headed back up to high spirits to listen to the Beats and while away the time until Alistair's second cabaret of the cruise. We knew, from conversation the night before, that he wasn't due to sing but with various members of the show team out due to injury, not replaced or not ready to perform their own cabaret's, he'd picked up the slack.

Not that we were going to complain, especially not me, after he told us it was going to be country music! I love country music, it is one of my all time favourite genres of music. You can keep you top 20's and manufactured pop thank you very much. Alistair sang songs from all my favourite artists and one of my all time favourite tracks from Brad Paisley (seriously, you could almost have copied his song list straight off my MP3 player!) It was a great cabaret and the show team all came up (including Rob) and were the loudest support of anyone in the room!

As the evening drew to a close we moved out onto the deck for our usual round of nightcaps and conversation and everyone stopped off to tell Alistair how great they thought the set was. The funniest was Robyn though, who was to do her first cabaret the following evening and was getting seriously stressed out and was making some exceptionally funny, but totally unrepeatable comments to describe how she was feeling.

The last of the evening past in its usual fashion and we discussed upcoming shows, ports of call and post cruise/job contracts as well as asking after the newest show team girl that we'd almost run over on the stairs. The day finished as it had started out, happy and content - it was just a shame about the vast majority of hours in between.

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Spread your wings and fly!

Good Morning all,

Just a really quick card to share with you all today. A good friend of mine has just got a promotion and I wanted to make her a congratulations card. Not sure what to do, as I've made her so many congrats cards for various things through the years, I finally settled on a really simple design:

Using Kraft cardstock, I then embossed a cream card with my cuttlebug script folder (although you can hardly see it on the photos!) I used mahogony ink to edge both the base and cream card, added some dark brown brads in the corners and then layered on a strip of aged sheet music, a cream ribbon and button went over that and some peel off butterflies I've had lying around for an age finished it all off.

It was so quick to make, that I did a second one to keep in reserve, as I think it makes a 'good for anything' design.

I would like to enter this into Creative Inspiration's - Case It - Challenge

You always make my day a little brighter

Good evening everyone.

How are we all today? is everyone already counting down to the weekend again?! I know I'm counting down to my day off next monday. 6 day working weeks suck, but then again, unemployment sucks more and that's what's looming in 8 weeks unless someone actually feels like hiring me *not to self: build time machine, go back and change degree and career plan* oh well, enough with my moaning!

Tonight's card is something totally different for me but I was inspired by a project I saw on Pinterest and after a couple of weeks of feeling rather blue and down about the future, I had to make a little thank you card for a friend of mine who is my 'urban sister'. We met when I studied at Cardiff and we've been as thick as thieves ever since. She never fails to put a smile on my face and pick me up, dust me off and get me ready to face the world again and I wanted to let her know how much I truly appreciate her for it. So this is what I sent her:

Sorry for the shadow, this is what happens when you have no where decent to photograph of an evening. I really need to get a light box!

 

The papers are from Stampin Up and My minds eye. I found a couple of different cloud templates online, resized them and printed them on to the grey paper and white card. I cut the sun using my circle die and then drew around the inside edge with a black marker to match the edging on the clouds. I simple hand cut the rays and again edged them with black marker. Layered on to blue spotty paper, added stickles to the white cloud and then printed the inner with the sentiment 'You always make my days a little bit brighter'

 

Really simple and so much fun to do. I hope you like it as much as I do. I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

 

Cupcake Craft Challenge - Photo Inspiration - yellow and blue

The Pink Elephant - Use Patterned Paper

Dasvidania

Sunday morning came and we succeeded in sleeping in until a little after 8, when our natural body clocks forced both of us up. We settled into the morning routine in a lazy fashion and made it to breakfast just as they were closing up the Compass Rose restaurant, so we made for the Lido instead, where the glory of pancakes and maple syrup awaited us!

We had deliberately chosen to do a half day, afternoon excursion on our second day in Russia, knowing full well that after our itinerary the day before, we would be exhausted and therefore would have really not enjoyed anything we did on the second day if we'd booked another full day - napping on coaches is all well and good but it doesn't make up for proper rest. So with the morning to laze about the ship and the sun high in the sky with another scorching day lined up, there was only one option..... sunbathing! yep. I haven't spent so much time sun bathing in my whole life - seriously! I hate being inactive normally and whilst I looooooooooove the sun, I'd normally rather be out doing something in it, but it was testimony to how run down I was prior to the holiday that I was up for doing as little as possible when the opportunity arose.

So as we settled down to soak up the rays, read and generally chill we looked back on the first half of the holiday and what the week ahead still had in store. It was weird that on any other cruise we'd be on our way home at that point, having done 5 or 6 manic days of sightseeing with 1 sea day to chill. This time, we felt we were just getting into the swing of things - clearly, two week cruising is the way to go (I just need to find a job where that is going to be possible and then find a secret stash of money to pay for it all....)

The morning past in a leisurely fashion and at midday we rolled ourselves off the sunbeds and headed back to the cabin to wash, change and get ready for our afternoon excursions around some of St Petersburg's most impressive cathedrals. We grabbed a quick lunch, double checked we had all the tickets, passports, cameras and headed back out to do battle with the port authorities at passport control!

It took less time to get through, although they still gave us suspicious looks - I did think for a heartbeat I had Claire's passport and visa verse but no, they just seemed to be wary of anyone coming off a cruise ship lol! Freed into the country once more, we located our coach and took our seats for our three and half hour tour of three of the most significant cathedrals in the city.

We started out at St Isaac's Cathedral, the largest Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the city, which was built between 1818 and 1853 and has a huge dome covered in about 100kg of pure gold. Breathtakingly beautiful, it reminded me in style a bit of St Paul's in London - although I think it could just be the size of dome.... sadly, I don't think the gold would stay on for long if this cathedral was in Britain. The church was ordered by Alexander the 1st to replace the church that was there before and is the 4th cathedral to stand on this spot in St Petersburg!

From here we went across the river to the fortress of St Peter and Paul where the Cathedral inside has a spire which is 400 feet high (yeah, guess why I struggled to get a decent picture of it!) and is topped with by an angel holding a cross. It was built between 1713 and 1732 and is one the most well known sights in St Petersburg and it really was a sight to behold, but first a little shopping stop just outside the fort:

Aaah, I love the name of this shop - it makes me giggle. Anyway, from the shop to the fort and into the Cathedral. It wasn't as visually striking as that of St Isaac's, but it held more gravitas as it is the final resting place of almost all the Tsar's of Russia and is said to also house the remains of Tsar Nicholas II and his family in St Catherine's chapel. The bones were interred in July 1998 after the 'discovery' of the family's final resting place and genetic testing determined that what remained of the skeletons was indeed that of the royal family who were murdered.

Our final stop of the afternoon was the Cathedral which replaced St Peter and Paul as the primary Orthodox Church of St Petersburg; the Kazan Cathedral. As it is a site of worship and not a museum, unlike the previous two, we were restricted on taking photo's inside; which was fair enough. A mammoth building, it is a tribute to early 19th-century Russian architecture. Based on the Basilica in Rome, although there was some argument within the orthodox church about building a cathedral based on a catholic place of worship - got to love how religious denominations of the same faith argue over something as simple as bricks and mortar! Anyway, you'll have to take me word for it that the Cathedral is stunning - like everything else we'd seen in Russia there was gold and decoration as far as the eye could see. How anyway can stay focused through a service in one of their churches or cathedrals is beyond me, my mind would be wandering within seconds and I'd spend more time staring at the ceiling then paying attention to a voice droning from the front (though I'll own to doing that most sunday's anyway - naughty me!)

By the time we'd finished at the cathedrals and battled the ever rising temperatures, we psyched ourselves up to face the port authorities one last time. After 5 rounds with them, I was ready to deal with anything they could throw at us; slow service, evil glares, suspicious double checking of the passport! but what we got was a passing glance at the passports and the distinct impression that they didn't care now that we were leaving the country! lol!

 

Back on ship we headed for a cup of tea and checked the daily newsletter for that evenings entertainment. Tonight was due to have a deck party as we sailed away from Russia and on to Helsinki but first, dinner and the show; Concerto Goes Pop. Our evening prep followed in the usual fashion and although it was the only night I didn't wear a dress - shocking, I know! the wardrobe choices were, as always strategic so we didn't clash. Whilst I was going to be fairly covered up in dress trousers and a top, Claire was taking the opposite route and wearing one of her shortest dresses in the collection! lol!

 

Dinner was beautiful, but I can't recall the conversation being anything special and before too long we were up in the show lounge ready to listen to the team perform a little bit of everything from pop  to film classics and everything in between. With Rob still out with an injury and the team two other members short - having flown home that day for different reasons, it was incredible that the stage didn't seem empty or that anything was out of place. Hats off for the hard work that they had put in to re-arrange the show and cover all the parts. The show over, we made our usual route upstairs and were just ordering in a round of drinks when Lauren informed Richard that it was raining outside - the deck party, it appeared, was not going to happen. Well, not on deck anyway.

 

With the decision made to move the deck party in to High Spirits, the evening went on as planned and we sat listening to the band and laughing at the game show, Name that tune. We were both officially useless at it! The game show finished and Claire volunteered to go and get whisky from the cabin whilst I kept the seats. When she returned it was with bizarre news. Apparently there had been a letter put in the cabin apologising for the ballet and the port authorities the night before. It turned out that the excursions team had been lied to and the ballet was never due to be Swan Lake, but Sleeping Beauty all along and by the time the company had realised the mistake - an hour before we were due to leave for the performance, they decided to concoct their own fairy story and spin us a tale rather then own up to their mistake. Due credit to the excursions team, they felt it only right to tell us the truth, once they knew it and part of the cost had been reimbursed to our account. Blimey. My opinion of the ballet company sank a little lower. Oh well.

 

11:30 rolled round soon enough and the entertainment's team were ready to go with the indoor 'deck' party, and ladies and gentlemen - 'I know, it's only rock and roll, but I like it!' Thirty minutes of classic rock and roll anthems, and yes, we danced! Brilliant!

 

Hot and tired, we escaped out on to the deck to cool down and claim a seat under the canopy which we hoped would be dry. The rain had stopped but there was water all over the deck and it was fairly lethal underfoot. We claimed the first table on the right as we stepped out and I quickly discarded my shoes and curled up on the seat to save my trousers for soaking up the standing water! We settled into the chairs and looked out over the sea, which was properly dark for the first time since we'd headed this far north and watched the most incredible lightening show. We had calm seas, no rain, no thunder, but bolts of lightening crackling across the sky, lighting the sea up with a surreal sort of silver light. Breath-taking!

 

Alistair joined us and was one of the few that braved the deck with us, although he did have to dry a chair off, as the two on the opposing side of the table we had claimed were open to the elements and had been drenched when the rain hit. Oops! well, we were dry at least. hehe :) We passed an hour or so in our usual fashion and asked him if he wanted to join us again for dinner in the upcoming week, which he said he would. I can't recall exactly what we discussed that night other than one of the show teams' replacements arriving the next day in Helsinki and I have a funny feeling we talked religion too - well, with all those cathedrals we'd seen, it was a fairly natural progression of topic. But whatever we talked about, the end of our day past in comfortable companionship and we parted company fairly early (well about 1am-ish) as we had a moderately early start the next day and were in need of sleep!

 

Russia had been much like a fairy-tale, although probably one written by the Brothers Grimm. For the most part, it had been magical, mesmerising and unforgettable; but there was a sour note that left a bitter taste about it all too. Nevertheless, St Petersburg has me hooked and I will go back one day - until then, dasvidania!

 

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Button Up!

Good Morning one and all,

 

Just a flying visit as I'm on my way out to work - I meant to upload these last night, but I was still waiting for the backs to dry and couldn't move them, so you got a card instead!

These are my latest round of button badges that I've mad for sale. I've done a couple of Christmas designs this time too. I do hope they sell! :S

 

Anyway, I would like to add these to Allsorts challenge this week of anything but a card. Nothing quiet like leaving it until the last minute, I know - oops.

 

Really must dash, but I'll be back over the weekend with another update from my cruising adventure!Until then, thanks for stopping by and happy crafting.