Where is it hiding?

Ok, where is it hiding then?  What, I hear you ask?  The time between my last post and this one!!!!  Missed last weeks WOYWW altogether and it is almost time for another one ...just need to actually remember now on Wednesday and make time to post ... note to self!
No news on the Vagabond other than it was collected by courier last Monday and I have yet to hear when I will be getting my new one.  Am delaying next card making session until it comes as I want to use my new heart and butterfly dies and no Vagabond means no way of using them.
So Vagabond or not, come Wednesday I WILL have to go to Plan B and make a start on February's cards as I am away in a log cabin in Scotland for the first week of February and need those cards ready to post.
Do actually have a Plan B for a change so all is not at panic mode just yet!

Progress ... of sorts!

Well, the company from whom I purchased my Vagabond have been brilliant and it is being replaced without hesitation and I spoke to their representative from Sissix today and they are arranging for it to be collected on Monday and when I asked if anything had been done to modify the obvious fault I didn't really get the answer I wanted but was assured the same problem wouldn't occur.  So here's hoping!  
At least I have found out that the dies I have bought for the Vagabond are compatible with the Big Shot and the company I dealt with have said they could arrange for me to have a Big Shot as a replacement instead of another Vagabond but I have decided to give the Vagabond another go and if I have further trouble then I will most likely swop.
Annoyingly the new dies I ordered yesterday arrived bright and early this morning so all I could do was open the packet and stroke them lovingly ... typical though, isn't it!
Progress of sorts has been made with Plan B for the cards for January and whilst not completely happy with the results they will have to do.  Trouble is, I am not a "to-doer" and half of me want to bin the lot but the other half of me says nobody knew what I had planned in my head (I don't know myself half the time anyway!!!!) so might find these acceptable.
As soon as I find the cable thingy to link my mobile to the laptop I will post photo's (I put it somewhere safe after WOYWW'ing yesterday!!)

Smoke!

What a morning!  Finally got going with the cards and nipped out to use my beloved Vagabond machine only to have thick black smoke pour from it the moment I plugged it in!  Didn't even use it ... can still taste the smoke now and I feel very sick.
Have contacted the company I bought it from and heard back almost immediately ... evidentally they will send a courier out to collect it and bring me a new one but it won't be for one or two weeks!
So now I have had to go to Plan B and re-think my cards entirely and I'm not quite sure yet what Plan B actually is.
Time for a cup of coffee and a chocolate biscuit I think ... far too much excitement for one morning.

WOYWW 135

Well, first WOYWW of the new year and I've made it!!!!  Alas, not much yet to show on my workdesk as I am a bit slow getting going today but it is going to be a Tim Holtz / Cosmo Cricket day with stamping and embossing and inky fingers and string and ... well, Wednesdays don't get much better than this really!
You can just about see my "list of cards for 2012" under my scissors and can report that for the first time in a VERY long time the first cards of January were posted in good time to arrive on time and not with an "oops forgot to post" message scribbled on the back so now I just need to get going and get cards done for the rest of January.  Easier said than done because the idea I had in my head for this year's cards has yet to work out quite as I'd hoped and I had to send the first four cards of this year without me being entirely happy with them.  A day of tweaking then and hopefully improving the design so it turns out more like I imagined.  IF I am more happy with the results I will post finished cards later ... if not then you will get a photo' of a blank table or a pile of torn up failures!

 I knew I wanted to use "calendar blanks" on the cards for this year but did not fancy using shop-bought ones and knew if I printed them myself I would have trouble inking them as inkjet ink always smudges so I printed them onto acetate and the date of each person's birthday is in red and there is a little Happy Birthday message  personalised for each person along the bottom ... at least this way I can utilise the colour of the paper showing through the acetate and not have to worry about inking my calendars!  I love using string although it horrifies most people I know so have used that to "tie" the acetate to the backing.

Well, blogging away here is not getting those cards made so am off to see if I can tweak my ideas into something I am happy with.  Not holding out too much hope as my mojo has not yet fully returned and it feels a bit of an uphill battle at the moment.

Now, hang on - can't you actually buy birthday and anniversary cards from shops?  You know, all ready made and just needing signing ... might just be the better option!  ;)  

WOYWW 133

Nothing on my workdesk YET ... fully plan on starting on my list of cards for 2012 and as the first birthday is on 3rd Jan I need to get going!
So all I can post for today's WOYWW is hubby's Christmas card.  The pine-cone die for my Vagabond finally arrived (shame on you Royal Mail!!!) but, of course, simply "running it through the Vagabond" does not necessarily mean I could then make the bloomin' things!  Severely burnt fingers from the glue-gun and a few missing "petals" from the cones but I managed to make three that were kinda, sorta ok and not too bad once covered in brown sparkles!  Is it called  Sparkles?  I don't think it is ... oh, silly Debbie - it's Stickles!

WOYWW131 ... but they were made on Thursday!

At last I can post a photo' of this weeks WOYWW!!!!  Not quite finished but getting there!!!!

Better late ...

What is it they say about the best laid plans of mice and men ... or, in my case, a crafter-sewer-quizzer??? Just ran out of time yesterday to craft but did manage to get the last little bit of sewing done ...well, apart from now having - NO! - wanting - to sew one final little item for my sister.  She saw the stuff I'd done and announced "I want one of those" pointing to something ear-marked for someone else!!!! So, now I want to sew her one of course.  I will but not until I've done this crafting.
Am still battling with Royal Mail & the craft company I ordered the Tim Holtz pine-cone die from ... spent 20 mins yesterday listening to a robot on a recording telling me to "press 1", "press 2" etc., and wasn't able to actually get hold of a human but I just Emailed the craft company to say it pretty much looks like the recorded delivery item is lost and I NEED another one sending out URGENTLY.  
Well, here is my WOWYY photo ... a day late but perhaps better than never at all.  It shows a complete and utter mess as I just dragged my stuff into the dining room as it is far too cold to craft out in the conservatory which is where I prefer to work.  Now bear in mind I am a "neat-crafter" so this is currently "doing-my-head-in" ... need to get it sorted and organised before I can start!
So got my Michael Buble CD playing, have had my porridge, the heating just came on so I am set to spend the day with the FaNtAsTiC Mr. Holtz and will have stained and inky fingers by tonight ... bliss!!!!!!!

And if my pine-cone die never turns up then it will all have been a waste of time because I can't think what to do instead!

WOYWW 131

Er, so where did last week go then?  It was Thursday before I realised I'd missed Wednesday so whilst I have no photo' to post YET at least I know what day of the week it is and am getting ready to WOYWW!!!!!
At least that's the plan.  I PROMISE I will post a photo' later as I fully plan on Tim Holtz'ing today just as soon as the postman brings my parcel!!!!!  It was sent recorded delivery on Thursday from a company and I am still waiting!  I was ordering stuff from the regular company that I use but they were out of stock of the gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous pine cone die for the Vagabond so after much searching I found one company that had some in stock.  Needless to say the parcel from my regular company (Country View Crafts) arrived the next day but the one sent recorded delivery remains in residence with our delightful Royal Mail service (who are, quite, quite hopeless at times!)
Sooooo, I shall make a start on hubby's card in anticipation of the die arriving ... might have to go to Plan B should it prove to be lost but am not moving from here until I have finished some sewing and, if all else fails, then I shall post a photo' of that!

WOYWW

Well the papercrafting mojo is still firmly shut in the box so I've utilised the time to sew, sew, sew and I think I've just about won Round One!!!!!
I make loads of these each year and sew the Cash's embroidered labels on the back which are always the same so no matter what designs I do the date labels are always the same! 
Am just starting on Round Two but am feeling much less stressed ... do need to still tackle a couple of cards for family but I'll get there eventually.
So this is not really my worktable today but the produce of what has been my worktable this past week or so!

This last one will be framed and sent to Australia to match one of *s*n*o*w*f*l*a*k*e*s* I did last year for my neice (I'm not really her Auntie but she does insist on calling herself my neice ... but that's just fine by me!!!!!)

Progress of sorts

OK ... so those five little tree-hanging-thingies ARE finished and nestling in the box with a few others I managed to sew whilst having our annual Autumnal Highland Adventure ... and have now started on another batch of five ... really cute little polar bears for the nephew's girlfriends (well, four of them are and I forget for whom I have ear-marked the other one!) but the papers and bits'n'bobs for the "special" family and friends cards have started to go psssst to me.  Having said that nephew-number-four's girlfriends card has been going psssst to me for a couple of weeks now and time is running out so must, must, MUST get that one done as a priority.
Will post photo's of the finished tree-hanging-thingies but they have yet to be cut out, backed with felt onto which I have sewn a "Christmas 2011" embroidered label (which I buy each year from Cash's) and have a ribbon hanging loop attached.
Goodness knows where all this psssst'ing will take me in the morning but I am hopeful I will achieve something or other.
Watch this space!

Two steps forward ...

... and then several backwards.  Or at least that is how it feels.  STILL have five half-finished projects in front of me despite several promises of "not going to bed tonight until these are finished" etc., or "these WILL be done before hubby gets home".  Unfortunately this is not taking into account the many distractions of blogging, Facebooking, quizzing, Christmas shopping, calls of nature and having to eat lunch, needing a mid-afternoon nap because you were up too late sewing, daddy calling with jam tarts and needing coffee to go with them.
SOooooo am moving the goal-posts again and saying right here, right now that these five little tree-hanging-thingies WILL be done before I go to bed tonight.  Really they will. Honest.

WOYWW 127

SLR = Stress Levels Rising!!!!!

Oh the joy of having too much time on your hands is you never have enough time to do all you want. 

The box on my worktable contains all my Christmas crafting inspiration and mojo ... well, it must be in there because it sure as heck isn't in me right now!  To be fair I have been sewing, sewing, sewing into the wee small hours but really do need to teach my hands how to do different things at the same time ... thought us women were supposed to be able to multi-task - Oh, that doesn't mean sewing with my left hand whilst crafting with my right then? 

Am planning on spending today getting as far as I can with the old sewing ... I changed tack and instead of completing one little tree-hanging-thingy and then doing another I have five on the go stitching all the red on each one and then all the green and then all the purple etc., but that could well just mean I have five half-finished three-hanging-thingies rather than one or two complete ones ... time will tell, I guess.

Speaking of time, must crack on ... think I have just managed to put Julia's blog on my list so I don't have to access it through MAGGIEC's blog each time and now need to see if I can add myself to the WOYWW page for this week ... failed miserably last week and Maggie did it for me!  Here's hoping!  X

I did my best!

Well, I did my best yesterday popping along to as many blogs as I could but soon ran out of time and was struggling a bit.  I will do some more today and hope for the best.  I even got up an hour early this morning to try and catch up a bit. 
Fascinating seeing where everyone does their crafting ... what an excuse to be nosey!

WOYWW 126

Ok ... if all goes to plan this should be my first WOYWW!!!! Am following MaggieC's instructions to the letter so here goes ...

Okay, so they have posted in the wrong order but never mind! 

Was really excited when I saw the Christmas stuff from Bo Bunny but have not yet really been inspired to do this year's family cards ... am hoping something will fall into place today ... once I am done with blogging, of course!                                                                     

I have a wonderful huge table in our conservatory (except we don't call it a conservatory but "The Hut") and on the one wall I have two floor to ceiling cupboards ... one for crafting and the other for sewing except, er, my crafting stuff has kinda spilled over into my sewing cupboard!

I need more TIME!!!!

You know, considering I am a "lady of leisure" I have been rushed off my feet with no time to blog!  Even my darling little Farmville (Facebook) farm suffered and I lost an entire crop of jalopeno peppers!
I am absolutely determined to keep up my blog if only to act as a record of my crafting ... posting those rather old melting pot card photo's I realised how few photo's I have taken of stuff I have made and how your work changes and evolves over the years ... I certainly wouldn't make cards like that now - well, the melting pot bits would be pretty much the same but, oh dear, those backgrounds are simply awful!!!
I'm starting to get very stressed about everything I'd like to get done for Christmas ... I ran out of time last year to do all I wanted and this year looks like going the same way ... there are simply not enough hours in the day during which I can managed to keep my eyes open long enough to produce everything I have planned.  Am on point of having a rethink and deciding what I can "let-go" without beating myself up too much and feeling a complete failure.
Am hoping to make my first WOYWW post later ... once I understand what I should be posting where and what I should be doing!

Below are some of my most favourite Christmas cards I ever made ... they were made from "greyboard" and covered in Wassail papers (I think from Basic Grey) and I used heavy cotton lace and garden string and I enjoyed every moment spent making them.  If people would not get bored receiving the same style of card again I'd happily make more like this.