I've Been Good today - Well kind of !

Hello number 2 ......... As a cautionary note I do have tendencies to go off on tangents so don't be surprised if I start talking about one thing and end up on a totally different subject.

OK so lets start off with me and what I do and what my passions are.

I'm a Northerner and proud of it, married to a wonderful husband who seems to put up with my crazy ideas - he's my true sole mate x
I have two great kids, both grown up ( or so they seem to think ! )

Along with my husband for the last 20 years we have manufactured and retailed hand made furniture in solid timbers, Oak, Pine etc , you can't beat real timber - but try telling my daughter that - she prefers scaffolding in her bedroom for a wardrobe !!! Running a business is not as easy as people seem to think it is - where does all the time go ?

I'm trying to get my accounts finalised ready for the Taxman - my own fault as I've left everything till the last minute ! But hey I'm a Virgo - I'm supposed to be organised LOL

In the spare time that I can muster I love crafting .... crafting to me is a total release from all the stresses of work, I just get so embroiled on what I'm doing that the hours just whizz past. I've been known to get an idea in my head at gone midnight and then I'm down in the kitchen till dawn trying it out. I must pop a note book handy somewhere as I've thought of a couple of card styles just before dropping off to sleep but by the time I've woken up they've gone :-( Do we start loosing our memory at 40 ? OK so I've lost a couple of years there hehehehe
I love designing my own papers and themes either by hand or on the PC and I'm going to start a new theme this January either based loosely on the William Morris styles or the Art Nouveau styles. I hope to use this blog to keep you all informed of my progress along the way and show you the finished results.

I have a real appreciation of Glenda Waterworths' designs, and for those who don't know who I'm on about please go see her Blog and her website http://www.graphicus.co.uk/ , Glendas' CDs are a must have for any crafter, the colourways make your mouth water just by looking at them. I've started using a type of pearlescent paper for printing the CD images, I got a good deal from a local paper company and thought what the heck I'll use it for something hey at 10p for an A2 sheet I wasn't going to pass it up. I must say the results are fantastic, the paper is white but has a soft gold effect pearl to it, so any colour comes out as normal but with this great gold pearl tint, I suppose it's similar to painting with H2O's or Mica's but a darn lot quicker with the printer.

I must have inherited my arty streak from my late Mum, she was always doing something to anything - we used to joke that if we stood still long enough she'd stencil us. My Mum passed away last Christmas through illness, she was only in her early sixties and had suffered a lot though her life and I'm so glad that during her last few years she came to live with us which in turn gave us the opportunity to look after her.

Mum lived in France in the Loire region for 12 years and hoped to run craft courses out there but unfortunately illness got the better of her. Mum had a love of animals as we all do in my family, she would take in injured and unwanted pets, she had 9 cats, 2 dogs, the ducks, chickens ( oh and Isabella the duck who thought she was a chicken and wouldn't go in the pond ! ) oh and the rabbit she rescued from the farmers next door before they ate it.

The manor house is still out there, still stencilled, marbled and sponged but we haven't had chance to get over to France for a while. Mum was a painter, embroiderer, stenciller, seamstress, you name it in crafting she did it. I'd love to think that wherever she is now is a much more colourful place - knowing mum she would have marbled the pearly gates ! white was always too bland for her. I miss her dearly x

OK back to me .....
So in true Virgo style I've started to sort out my office today, my office is part office and part craft room. My husband says I'm expanding slowly in to the showroom ! Lately with Christmas just gone it was more craft room and I really need to sort out the Christmas bits and pack them away until later this year when it will all come out again ready for the next one.
I've had a good sort out of most of my rubber stamp collection, the ones which were rarely used and I definitely know I'm not going to use them again have gone to a friend who has just started crafting. I've finally got round to laminating the design sheets for my newer unmounted stamps so have now filled those away - anyone who has the Ez mounted or Klingon backed stamps this is a great tip for storing them: TIP: Laminate your index sheets - If you don't have an index sheet then stamp your images first on to a piece of paper ( remember to allow a little room between each image ) then put your index sheet in an A4 laminate pouch and run through your laminater - hot is best. Punch the side to suit the file type you are using, I prefer the 4 hole but that's only because it's all I've got in the office but I also find it holds the laminated card better with the stamps on. Now you can put your stamps away nice and neatly and you can use tabbed dividers so you can arrange them by style etc !

Now I don't know if I'm supposed to do this but I've also remounted some of my previously wooden mounted stamps. I found that with some of my older ones I could easily & gently peel them away from the original foam mount and remount them on to EZ mount, but being me and not quite content with that I grabbed my new Anna Griffin wood mounted background stamps and thought Hmmmm and guess what I remounted those too, so tomorrow will be another index making and filling session. Next comes sorting out the paper and card Argghhhhhh

I'll pop a photo on tomorrow to show you the results.

Well that's enough for tonight .... I have emails to answer and an Acanthus leaf to draw !