Dolly's Dreamings

Wet Friday but who needs sunshine

OK so it is wet again - and it had been officially announced that it has been the wettest January in 100 years.

You bet it has. They showed a map in the paper today and the darkest blue areas were the wettest and yes, we were in a darker blue area. But heck - we are counting our blessings. We may have had a lot of rain and the ground is soaked, but we are lucky - we are not flooded and so many poor people are really badly flooded. And not with nice clear spring water - with dirty water, unclean in every sense. It must be devastating.

Just look at these pictures .. they are heartbreaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not only hard on people butt he wildlife suffer terribly

 

 

 

I can't imagine what it must be like to have your home flooded and be faced with things like this

 

 

 

 

So - it is pouring with rain again but I for one am NOT going to moan. We are safe and dry and our home is safe and our cats are safe. There are many many people who can't say that. And it looks like it isn't ending any time soon and no doubt they will live in fear and dread of it happening again.

 

 I have another page to share now made with Dawn's new Good Fortune collection, although it is ironic talking about Good Fortune after those pictures.

I wanted to scrap something Chinese and so Epcot China it was.

 

 Today I am thankful for

• Being dry and safe
• Friday - always
• Chinese take-away ... about to be delivered.

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese New Year and a little prayer

Today is Thursday and Thursday means release day - Dawn's new releases for the week.

And this week - wow - such gorgeous lushness

 

She has a brand new collection out called Good Fortune and I couldn't wait to use it.

 

 

 

When I saw that there was a tiger I knew what I wanted to make.

 

We have been blessed over the years to have some pretty special big cat experiences and have loved them. Our visits to Wildlife Heritage Foundation have always been special and I wanted to record how lucky we have been. This layout does that.

I also have a prayer/poem to share today.

Having been on a two day abuse course today is an appropriate day to share this. I may have shared it before, but even if I have, it bears sharing more than once

 

 

We pray for the children who sneak Popsicles before supper, who erase holes in math workbooks, who can never find their shoes. And we pray for those who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire, who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers, who never "counted potatoes," who never go to the circus, who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions, who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money. And we pray for those who never get dessert, who have no safe blanket to drag behind them, who watch their parents watch them die, who can't find any bread to steal, who don't have any rooms to clean up, whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser, whose monsters are real. 

We pray for children who spend all their allowance before Tuesday, who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food, who like ghost stories, who shove dirty clothes under the bed, who never rinse out the tub, who get visits from the tooth fairy, who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool, who squirm in church and scream in the phone, whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry. 

And we pray for those whose nightmares come in the daytime, who will eat anything, who have never seen a dentist, who aren't spoiled by anybody, who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep, who live and move, but have no being. We pray for children who want to be carried and for those who must, who we never give up on and for those who don't get a second chance. For those we smother and...for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

 

 

It moved me

I hope you like it too.

 

 

 

A different day

Today has been a very different day to my usual Wednesday.

I am on a two day course which is challenging, thought-provoking, difficult emotionally and .... and we have been given homework.

Obviously I still have my usual homework - work to cathc up on - but I also have homework!

Crickey - now I know how it feels.

So I had better keep this brief so I can turn in my assignments on time!

 

The page I have to share today was made a while ago as part of my design team work for Karen at Charmed Cards and Crafts. It is such a priviledge to create for her and this uses the gorgeous Graphic 45 Typology papers and embellishments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love type and text and so this range was a real joy to work with.

 Now if you want a real treat and you are a facebook user, go and check out Dawn Inskip's facebook page. You get to see all her designs as they come out, all her CT's creations ... including mine and she has a wonderful freebie

 

Today I am thankful for

• having had a wonderfully safe and happy childhood
• having a pretty charmed life altogether really - and I promise I don't take it for granted
• being in a position where I can hopefully make a difference, protect others and generally be supportive

 

 

Busy days bit productive

Some days are busy, some days are productive and some days are even both

 

And that feels good.

 

Today was such a day.

 

I have a new page to share which I made at the weekend as a CT page fro AnnaBV at Pickleberrypop.

 

 

There are lots of kits celebrating love at this time of year but it is lovely to have one in such different colours. And the little people were just way too cute not to us.

 

Today I am thankful for

• Having a check and finding out the back issue is likely to be a trapped nerve. Still painful but nothing sinister

 

Ouch

Struggling with really bad back pains that seem very odd. They are not muscular but were so bad int he night we thought something serious was wrong.

They come and go and are intense - doctors tomorrow then!

I haven't scrapped today, obviously, but did do some at the weekend and this is one of the pages I made = again for a UKS challenge.

Every so often I make a page I really like - largely because it just seems to 'work' tob=gether.

This was a page I tinkered with for a long time and I am pleased how it finally came out. It had the feel I was after but couldn't get at first.

It is another for the 2013 UK tour alum - this time of Whitby

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful

• that there were times today - albeit brief - when I was not in pain

 

 

 

A tall order for me

I did something I have beend reading today.

Not something that would bother many people, but it terrifies me.

But i did it.

What on earth have you don? I hear you ask. Some impossible task? Some dating feat? Some mammoth hurdle?

I went to the optician to get new glasses!!!

OK no biggie for most people but I have a horrible perscription, a phobia of eye tests and new glasses since things went wrong a few years ago and when I had my eyes tested in August I was so stressed I fainted. Goodness me, that sound pathertic even to me. But sadly it is true.

My eyesight is truly shocking and apart fromt he normal short-sightdness I have scarred corneas from a serious infection in my twenties that mean I will never see really well, no matter what the prescription. My biggest fear is going blind. For some people it's the fear of being disabled. My mother lived in dread of ever being in a wheelchair  for me it is the loss of sight. So as I realise my eyes are the most precious thing I have I am just in such a state about them.

However, new glasses are ordered. It doesn't bode well that they said it would probably take a week to get used to them and not tow orry if they were not right they would re-make them. It didn't fill me with confidence but they were very kind and very helpful. And as my last pair are falling apart and I can't see well out of them, let's hope the new ones are good.

Today's page was made for a challenge at Pickleberrypop. They have amazing challenges over there - you really should check them out.

This was a challenge to use things from the designer Feli. Not much of a challenge for me as I love her work. So here is my page using one of her collections

THIS is the link to her store

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• braving my totally irrational fears

 

 

and when doing ANYTHING difficult it helps to remember ....

 

Shabby Chic Saturday Fun

I have had such fun this afternoon, working so far out of my comfort zone

 

I bought a little set of drawers a while ago - dead cheap and I figured they would be useful to keep craft stuff in. I have a great love of all things that have drawers and compartments.

They were very plain so today I decided to pretty them up a bit.

I have always loved shabby chic stuff but have never ever made anything that is that sort of style. Today was the day then I guess.

 

Because I have no patience at all the photos are rubbish as it was getting dark and of course I couldb't wait for tomorrow.

But you get the idea.

 

I threw a mess of flowers and pearls and lace at it, and it is actually all a very soft pink and cream.

 

 

The two little love birds were from a K and Co rub on set I must have had for 8 years easy.  The butterfly was die cut from funky foam which I am loving at the moment.

 

 

 

This is drawer 1

 

 

 

Drawer 2 with the pearl bead flower I made a couple of months ago and had no idea what to use it for.

 

 

and finally drawer 3. It was a fun fun project

Barb you asked how I store my digital stuff.

I store kits as kits but have folders for things that are not kits like flowers, journalling, word art, fabric etc.

My kits are stored in folders that are either Dawn (as I CT for her I have loads of her lush collections and I keep them in tact in my Dawn folder) PBP (same thing as I am on the Pickleberrypop store creative team I have lots of their products by all of the different designers) and then other kits not Dawn or PBP by colour or by theme.

 

Most important - I back everything up every month. Nigel lost his hard drive once and it scared me rigid. I am meticulous in my back ups.

 

Today I am thankful for

• fun with crafting stuff
• my glue gun - only the second time I have ever used it
• the Daily Mail on my Ipad - I love it

 

 

 

What a day

Thankfully I am home - what a day

I thought I was going to need the phone surgically removed from my ear today.

But all is well that ends well.

I have a new page to share - again made for a UKS challenge and this time a very special Boo page.

I did a digital page but she deserved a page in my album to mark her last day and so the photo is one that was taken on her last day. She looks so much better in the picture than she did in reality as thankfully you cannot see how thin she was.

 

 

What a truly adorable gorgeous little girl

 

 

Barb you ask about 'pants' used as a phrase. It just means rubbish, rotten, not good etc. So sometimes my day can be 'pants'. In the UK it also means knickers/underwear unlike in the US where it is trousers.

 

Today I am thankful for

• Friday
• My little boy greeting me  ... and my big one too

 

 

Twas the night before

There was a challenge on UKS this month to scrap a page based on Twas the night before ...

It could be the night before anything and I really didn't fancy doing Christmas

So I did the night before our holiday ended and used a photo taken at celebration the night before one of our Florida holidays ended.

 

 

I used a whole mess of supplies and, unusual for me as it was nothing to do with a CT page, I used things from loads of different designers and collections and melded it all together.

I quite liked the finished product.

If you are into your digital scrapping - or even your hybrid scrapping - then this is news you may be keen to hear

 

Too good to miss - Just click HERE

 

Today I am thankful for

• deep heat and ipuprofen gel
• learning the hard way that zentangles usually done with a very fine black pen DON'T work well on unfired pottery - looks pants!

 

Challenges challenges challenges

I am loving the challenges running at the moment on UKS and am trying to do as many as possible at the weekends.

This was one I did last weekend and is another paper page for our 2013 tour album

 

 

The photo was one of our favourites fromt he trip - taken on the canal at the top of the Falkirk Wheel. You can see the top of the wheel - the arch - int he background.

The barge that had just gone through was just so pretty and the perfect splash of colour.

 

 

I cut the circle using the Martha Stewart punch system which I think is very clever.

 

 

It isn't often I do a page and am pleased with it - but I was really pleased with this one.

 

There was no thankfulness yesterday as I posted in advance as I was away on a course for the day. The course was brilliant but it is always nice to be home and back in work as normal.

Today I am thankful for

• a safe trip yesterday
• time well spent
• a jolly good laugh and people with a sense of humour
• Nigel massaging my back which has eased the pain a little. No idea what I have done but I am in agony! Right under my shoulder blade. I am sure it is a pulled muscle or something