About Me

I'm a freelance artist, designer and demonstrator and have been involved in arts and craft my whole life in one way or another. I design stamps for top British company Personal Impressions, under the "Lindsay Mason Designs" brand, as well as papers, templates and other crafting products. I'm a certified Ranger Educator and my first book,"Stamping", was published in 2009. I also design regular projects for Crafts Beautiful magazine and have made guest appearances from time to time on QVC. I've recently joined You Tube under the name of LindsayMason1000 where I'm posting short technique videos and you can buy my paintings and hand crafted pieces from my Etsy shop. My work takes me all around the country demonstrating stamping, papercrafts and general inkiness! When I'm not working, I love gardening, church & community activities, nature watching, journalling, music and theatre and just relaxing at home. Email me at: ljm.design1@virginmedia.com

Friday 30 July 2010

A sweet reminder...

...don't forget that my Blog Candy ends this weekend, so if you haven't already left a comment there are just a couple of days to do so to be in with a chance to win. You can see details of the candy on the sidebar to the left. David will draw the winner's name on Monday, so, if you don't win, you know who to shout at!
Well, I've been drawing all day and tired my eyes a bit now, so am going to relax for the rest of the evening now ahead of the busy weekend at Topaz. Looking forward to sharing some techniques with everyone and bring ATC's if you'd like to swap...I don't have oodles of them at the moment, but I know there will be other keen swappers there too. Hope to see you there, but have a great weekend whatever you are up to. Lindsay

Monday 26 July 2010

Upcoming weekend

Hello all, and welcome to new readers of my blog who I have met these last few weekends. I've had so much positive feedback from people lately that it has really warmed my heart. Many thanks.
On Saturday I was demonstrating at Craftzone, in Pontefract. I felt like I was on the stage as there were so many chairs set out for everyone in front of me, a lady from DoCrafts (whose name I never got chance to ask!) and Wendy, the owner of the store. I was demonstrating a mix of things including my new clear Christmas sets, Nit Wit cardstock, Hero Arts stamps, MS punches and, of course, my favourite Ranger products. So, I had plenty to keep me busy...just as well because everyone there was so keen to see technique after technique! I was also trying to show that it's possible to combine whimsical images with more inky and distressy techniques. This first card features Vanilla and his snowman which I coloured with ProMarkers and decoupaged. The background is simply made using Versamagic Dewdrop ink pads sponged over a white card which I've masked with a punched out circle (stuck down with repositionable adhesive) and a piece of torn paper. I like to use three colours to get that slightly "aurora borealis" look to the sky. Once the top area is inked I move the paper down, and angle it differently, before stroking a very light amount of ink just above it. This gives a nice snowdrift impression. I also like to sponge light colour where I'm going to place the image and maybe another area to the side to give some depth to the snowy look. A simple greeting from one of my Christmas Words sets, the decoupaged image and a ribbon finish this simple card. Here are just a few of the cards that I had on a display board - bit of a mix as you can see! The tag features a snowman that is made using a Martha Stewart punch - really cute, as you get the arms, hat, scarf etc, as well as the snowman himself, in the one punch.This next card actually looked much better than it does in this picture! I made the tree using Best Creations Christmas paper, combined with one from the Nit Wit range. The torn strips are overlaid onto a triangle of card and I then decorated it with Suze Weinberg Beadazzles (Tango...I think!) applied over Glossy Accents. The card was distressed with Shabby Shutters and Brushed Corduroy Distress ink pads as they really toned in with the papers. I then cut out one corner of the BC 12" x 12" paper and applied it to the card. The greeting is one from my Christmas sets.The last picture uses my favourite Distress inks to create the landscape - the trees, snowman etc created by painting with water to bleach the ink out. I matted it onto BC paper, and added Vanilla dressed as Santa and another of my greetings. This is what I mean about combining distressy with whimsical! Hope you like them as much as the ladies (and gents!!) at Pontefract did. On Sunday, David and I went to the car boot sale - my first time this year as I get so few free weekend days. We spent three hours looking around as there are hundreds of stalls to look at. So, did we get any exciting things....poor David didn't find the elusive tool he was after for a job that he needs to do, but we did pick up a few bits and pieces. A few tubes of assorted glues and sealants (how exciting!), some clips for sealing bags with, a full box of incense sticks that were a real bargain until I lit one and discovered that they just don't work! They were the boring things but I also got some Mac eyeliner, two metal boxes to decorate, a cat sticker book, a lovely teal glass, silver lined bead for my new bracelet and two watches to make Grungeboard straps with. Well, that was the plan, but when David got them both working for me we decided that one was too good to take the bracelt off, so I am keeping that one as it is. The other one has a lovely face but the casing is very tatty, so I'll tickle it up with some alcohol inks! So, I think I definitely did better than David! It was great fun and I got to stretch my legs too, which I always enjoy after spending so much time seated.
So, onto next weekend now! There is a really fun and interesting weekend planned at Topaz Crafts (DB Design Studio) over the Saturday and Sunday. I'll be there on both days and Amy will be demonstrating too....sorry folks, I got that bit wrong, Amy won't be there! There will be lots of other demonstrations from Brenda, Jo, Jane etc but don't quote me on who exactly is doing what! It is going to be a tips and techniques weekend, so a good chance to come along and get some great ideas to spark your creativity. There will be some bargains to be had as well and refreshments of course. I'll be doing all sorts of incredibly messy things (just for a change) including Beeswaxing, using Colourwash dyes, maska, paint dabbers, stamping, inking as if it was going out of fashion etc etc! You'll easily spot me...I'll be the one with the purple, green, pink and blue hands (and possbly face!)! So, hope to see you there on one or other of the days. Lindsay

Friday 23 July 2010

Quick reminder...

Evening all! Just a fairly quick post to say that I'll be at Craftzone, in Pontefract, tomorrow, for their Christmas in July event. I'm hoping that all the snowy, icy images will keep me cool if it's as warm as it was today! I have my new Christmas stamp designs with me (as seen on QVC last month) as well as new papers from Best Creations, some Hero Arts stamps, Christmassy Martha Stewart punches etc etc. Should be enough there to keep me busy with a few alcohol and Distress inks thrown it too for good measure! There will be other demonstration on too, so it will be a good day all in all.
Below are a couple of pictures from Saturday's workshop at Topaz Crafts. Well, they are and they aren't really.....it was just too busy to take any of the actual class! However, here are some of the girls drooling over pages made by Joanne and Sheila for Heather's Chunky Book swap. Gorgeous pages they were too - wait till you see them on Heather's blog after the swap deadline.Oh, and David snapped this next one of "Pot Arm", "Peg Leg", Terry, doing his usual sneaking off with my goodies....this time, my new Tim Holtz paper pads! What a nerve!!! (For new readers of my blog, Terry is Joanne's hubbie and it is a standing joke that he pretends to sneak off with things...he isn't a shoplifter!)
Well, David will take more photos tomorrow I'm sure and I'll also take some of my sample cards to show you next week. I'm off to bed now as I hardly slept at all last night. One of those silly nights when the brain just won't switch off, and I was coming up with ideas and designs instead of getting my much needed sleep. Annoyingly, the ideas that seemed so amazing last night had mostly vanished by this morning! So, feeling very tired now and may fall asl..................ooops, see what I mean! Night everyone and have a great weekend. Lindsay

Monday 19 July 2010

Apologies and thank you's

Apologies firstly to anyone who came to see my demonstration at Topaz yesterday, only to find that I wasn't there. Unfortunately, on Saturday night, I came down with something that made me really sick and dizzy. Think it must have been one of those 24 hour bugs that seem to be rampant these days. So, very unlike me, I had to make the decision to go home on Sunday morning...think I've only ever had to cancel a demonstration three times in....well, more years than I care to remember! Anyway, once David got me home I lay on the sofa and slept for hours, and slept all last night too, and, as I always think sleep is nature's great healer, I was okay this morning apart from the feeling of having been trampled by a horse! Back to normal now, so I'm glad that's all out of the way, but I did feel bad about not being in the shop of course. I will be there the weekend after next however, on both Saturday and Sunday.
The thank you's are for all the lovely cards and gifts which I received for my birthday - I was so touched, because I hadn't even mentioned it to anyone! Special thanks to Joanne and Terry, Gez, Jenny, Martin, Sandra, Gill and Paul (whose card for me is pictured on his Artsiders blog! That's the only reason I mentioned you last Paul...so I could add that!). All so much appreciated I can't tell you. Heather (my sister) didn't make my card (shock horror!) as she doesn't like making cards, so she included one of her brilliant ATC's inside a bought, and very pretty, card instead - I'll let her off!!!
Well, no photos to post as yet, as I am just typing this whilst David is slaving over a hot stove cooking steaks (birthday treat!) so I have to be a bit quick. I'll post the photos from Saturday's workshop tomorrow. It was a really hectic three....er...make that four hours! Yes, we over ran again I'm afraid as everyone wanted to try to fit in as many techniques as we could. David sends his apologies for leaving without saying cheerio, but he had not been too well himself last week and was feeling drained. He didn't want to interrupt our flow so he just snuck away - he'll catch up with everyone next time. Anyway, the afternoon was all about Ranger and we covered all sorts of techniques, including Alcohol ink monoprints, Paint Dabbers Shabby Chic, Nostalgic Batik, Dabbers Acetate transparencies etc. Great fun and we did get messy, though not as messy as I'd feared we might! Sheila and Gez finally got to meet after being swap and blog buddies, which was lovely. Joanne and Terry were back from their holiday too, so there was lots of catching up to do. Hope you all enjoyed the workshop as much as I did teaching it. Oh yes, there were several requests for me to repeat two of my previous workshops - Fairy Doors and the Ranger techniques Mirror. If anyone is interested in either of these, do leave a comment or drop me an email, as I'd like to know if there would be enough people to run them again. Ta!
David and I went out for a drive and had lunch in a pub in Holmes Chapel before carrying on to Trentham Gardens, near to Stoke. It was a very sunny, hot day so we had an ice cream each as a treat! We had a good look around all the little, interesting shops there and David bought me a bracelet...don't know quite what they are called, but it's a silver snake chain that you add beads and charms to. I like the idea of collecting little memories of places we've been to. David also got me a bead and a charm to start me off - really lovely....the bracelet and David! On the way home it began to rain which was perfect to cool down the hot day. So it's just a relaxing evening ahead after a lovely meal. A really happy day.
I'll be back tomorrow with photos, but wanted to do the apologies and thank you's tonight. Don't forget that there's still time to leave a comment for the blog candy. And Heather, it's okay, you can leave a comment if you want...you just won't win anything! (Well, it would look like a fix wouldn't it?!?! Lindsay

Friday 16 July 2010

Quickie!

Hello all, just a quickie post. I've just packed everything up ready for tomorrow's Ranger techniques workshop tomorrow at Dawn's Design Studio. It's going to get dirty....in an inky, painty way of course! I'll be at the studio all day on Sunday as well to give a demonstration...bit of all sorts really, so hope to see some of you there.
Not a great deal to report really...I've been head down, preparing the workshop and samples for the last couple of days - just for a change! Lol! So, just wanted to sign in to wish everyone a lovely weekend and I'll be back with pictures from mine next week. Lindsay

Tuesday 13 July 2010

What a great weekend

There was much fun and laughter this weekend at the three demonstrations that I gave. On Friday I was at C J Cardcrafts in Stockport, and saw some familiar faces there, including Paul (Artsiders)...we keep bumping into each other lately, sometimes by accident and sometimes more deliberately! It was a very humid day and I was right in the front window, so pretty uncomfortable but very rewarding. I'll be back there on Saturday 13th November.
On Saturday I was at Handmade Heaven in Chorley and it was a busy old day. It was also one of the most fun days I've had for some time...Linda will know why!!! We all, mainly due to Linda (!) got the giggles and David, who was outside the shop, waiting in the car, could hear all the laughing from there. All good fun and this little chap below was one of the causes for the laughter. This is one of Sue Dix's designs from a PI stamp set called "Thank You Owl" and here I made a Distress inky background for him and mounted the piece onto a paper from Tim Holtz's new paper pad (Retro Grunge). I then had an idea, which I'll work on and then post a picture of, to make the owl more dimensional bacause of the spread of his wings. I made a quick mock up of my idea as I thought of it during my demonstration, and it was this that set off some of the giggles! Anyway, just to say that I had a lot of fun and so did all the ladies in the shop - hello to you all. I also used Tim's pad for this card along with a large butterfly MS punch and the leaves which were stamped from another PI set.On Sunday I was at Garners Garden Centre in Newcastle Under Lyme, near Stoke. It was another roasting hot day but there was a fan blowing away to keep me a little cooler which was much appreciated. Unfortunately I was bitten within an inch of my life by who knows what little perishers, so have rather a lot of red, itchy bumps now...it's a really attractive look! Funny that they never seem to bite David, or, more likely, he doesn't have a reaction to them. It was another very busy day, which is just what I like, and everyone was so enthusiastic that the day went by very quickly. We came home with two new additions to the family as well - Fred and George (almost everything gets called "Fred" here!). Not new pets, but two very cute cacti who have joined Bertie and Donald (don't ask!) in their clay trough in the bathroom!
It's been a really jolly few days which gave me a real boost. Not that I was feeling down, but we all like a boost now and then! Coupled with some of the very positive, kind comments that have been left on here, it makes all of the hard work seem worthwhile.
Now, one or two people have emailed me to say they had a few problems with recreating the alcohol ink technique that they saw me doing - making rainbow lines and checked patterns. If you go back to my 1st May 2009 post there is a step by step guide that, hopefully, will help. Key things to remember are to use the right cardstock (coated gloss), the felt applicator tool (not foam) and to apply sufficient ink and blending solution. Also be sure to work on a non stick craft sheet. Hope that helps!
I'll be at Topaz Crafts all this weekend, with my workshop on Saturday and a demonstration on Sunday. The workshop is all about Ranger techniques, so, if you are booked on this one, you may wish to bring an apron and wear your old clothes as we're bound to get a bit messy! We'll be inking, waxing, embossing, stamping, spritzing and everything in between and making ATC sized samples of each technique. The workshop is full, but I'll be sure to post some pictures next week.
Well, that's about it for now. Don't forget to leave a comment (however brief) if you want a chance to win my Blog Candy which is running until the end of July. Lindsay

Thursday 8 July 2010

A packed weekend

Thank you for all the comments about the Blog Candy and the paintings that I chose as some of my favourites...a special thank you to Emma -Jayne for helping me to find this image of "Off" which is, as she rightly said, by Edward Blair Leighton. Would you believe, even though I thought I knew every inch of the picture, the lady is not looking at the ring at all! Funny how our imagination can play tricks on us. The picture, when viewed in the gallery, is small and much more detailed and bright than it looks here, the dress being particularly well painted. Anyway, hope you like it too! Joanne, you mustn't worry about me and trains...I usually really enjoy the journeys and, when it's more practical, David drives me. I normally have a lovely time spotting the wildlife - it's just sometimes the wildlife is on the train as well!
I've been busy preparing samples for a busy weekend that starts a day early for me, as I'll be at C. J. Crafts in Edgeley, Stockport tomorrow. Here are just a few of the cards I've been making. This one features a Personal Impressions stamp set called "Elf's Christmas" and I've combined it with one of my own papers and one from Nit Wit as well as snowflakes that were the confetti from my MS Aspen punch. You can't tell here, but I alcohol inked the peel off...don't often use peel offs, but I've been using them at demonstrations recently to show various ways to alter them. It was quite nice doing something clean for a change....mind you, there are one or two strategically placed snowflakes on there!This next card was made using a Tim Holtz mask on white card and then blending Distress inks over the top, moving the mask around as I went. I brayered the background mat using a Big n Juicy ink pad and cut up the masked card, changing the quarters around for a more abstract look. The large flower is made up of three Petaloo Colour Me Crazy layers which I dyed with alcohol inks.If you've been following Tim's blog then you will have seen this next technique for creating the centrepiece of this next card. Very simply, it is a grungeboard heart, stuck to card, covered with a dictionary page and then smoothed over to reveal the details. I then grunged it up with Distress inks and highlighted the Romance definitions with a lilac pen. The background was achieved with one of Tim's very useful stamps which I applied several times using Victorian Velvet Distress ink before embossing with clear powder. Then I went over the whole card with Frayed Burlap and a little Walnut Stain around the edges. The ribbon was dyed with alcohol inks and tied twice around. An Adage ticket was pinned to the ribbon after being inked and water spattered. Oh, I also distressed the edges of the card and centrepiece using the TH paper distressing tool!

Hope you like the cards and, if you fancy a day out then pop along to Edgeley tomorrow. On Saturday I'll be back at Handmade Heaven in Chorley, which I know is always going to be a very busy day! I'll be combining Ranger products with Personal Impressions stamps for a mix of artsy and whimsical. The new Tim Holtz paper pads may well be featuring too! Then on Sunday, I'll be at Garners Garden Centre, Cemetery Rd, Stoke on Trent, where I'll be using Tim Holtz stamps and a wide range of Ranger products. Should be a fun filled few days, so hope to see some of you at one or other of the shops.

Tonight is now about relaxing, so it's a Chinese takaway - David has been decorating the kitchen, so it's all a bit topsy turvy at the moment, but looking lovely and fresh too! We've both been working hard today too, so the cooking is being done by someone else tonight! Have a great weekend everyone. Lindsay

Tuesday 6 July 2010

20,000 mark Blog Candy

Hello everyone and, as promised, as soon as my visitor counter hit 20,000 I added some Blog Candy, details of which will stay up on the left until 1st August when I'll write everyone's name onto pieces of paper and David will randomly pick the winner. Just leave a comment before 1st August to be in with a chance, and, if you are able to, please add a link on your own blog. There are two of my clear stamp sets: Zoo Animals and Count My Blessings, two of my unmounted rubber stamp sets: Christmas Season and Christmas Days and one of my wooden stamps: Special Delivery. Also some Magic Mesh in pink, a fabulous Just Glitter pen in gold, a Versafine ink cube in Deep Lagoon, a Ranger Antiquities Frosted Crystal embossing powder, a pack of Wacky Tac repositionable adhesive dots, twenty assorted 12" x 12" papers and (no idea where this came from!) a decoupage kit of a Pansy Basket.
This morning I woke up, always a good start (!) and, bizarrely, an image of a painting that I love came into my head. I was going to share it with you on here, but I cannot find it anywhere on the web. It is simply called "Off!" and it's a Victorian painting depicting a young woman on a park bench looking down at her discarded ring as her young man walks away. It's a small picture which hangs in Manchester City art gallery, but I can't recall the artist's name - which is shocking! I love the fact that there is so much detail and you can look into it and imagine the story behind the painting. If anyone finds an image of it, please email it to me!
It made me think that it would be quite interesting to recall some paintings and drawings that have made an impact on me down the years. The picture on the left is by Alphonse Mucha and posters and cards of his work adorned my teenage bedroom! I've always adored the sinuous lines of Art Nouveau in it's various forms, whether in advertising posters, vases, frames or whatever.

The next painting is called "Shadow of Death" by Holman Hunt, and is also in Manchester Gallery which houses a wonderful collection of Pre Raphaelite work, another of my favourite genres with the incredible colours and detail. This painting always fascinated me. It's a huge painting which has a heart stopping impact when seen in "real life". It shows Mary's horror at seeing Jesus's shadow against the carpentery workshop wall. A wonderful painting.


This beautiful picture is by one of my all time favourite artists named John Atkinson Grimshaw. His atmospheric street scenes, landscapes and townscapes are bursting with mystery and untold stories and just fire the imagination. Gorgeous!


The drawing on the right is one of the many brilliant works by M.C. Escher who totally fascinated me when I was a little girl! He specialised in impossible perspective and optical tricks within his works, which really appeal to my love of cryptic puzzles.


My last choice is a painting called "Flight of Fancy" by a modern Polish artist called Bohuslav Barlow, whose work I first saw at a Manchester Academy exhibition. Here is a modern artist whose work I would collect if I had the money and the space!! He uses lots of strange imagery of puppets, dogs, figures, scarecrows etc, all painted with great skill and imagination. The dreamlike quality of his paintings is what appeals to me. By the way, I should say that the word across the picture is not part of the painting, but it has a copyright over it! Well, I hope that you enjoyed looking at a small selection of my favourite paintings - I'd be interested to know which have made an impression on you down the years.

Meanwhile, don't forget to "be in it to win it" by leaving a comment! Lindsay

Monday 5 July 2010

Back in the North

Hello all, after a week of being in and near London, I'm home again and looking forward to a few weeks being in the North of England and not so much travelling. Having said that, I had a really fabulous time last week! On Wednesday I travelled down to the Capital and had an hour or so people watching in the sunshine outside Euston station while I was waiting to meet Amy, whose train was delayed for an hour. It was quite good fun imagining where people were going, who they were waiting to meet and so on, and the time went by quickly until lovely Amy arrived and we set off for our hotel. I was bunking on the sofa in Dawn's room that night! We had a trip to Harrods but, with prices like £7.95 for a pomegranate, £5.50 for a cabbage and £3.50 for half a pound of butter, you may guess that I didn't buy anything! I haven't been there since I was a little girl so it all looked very different and quite magnificent of course, but definitely only for window shopping! We went for a delicious Italian meal and then headed back for a good night's sleep as we had some very busy days ahead.
Next morning we drove to the Queen Elizabeth conference centre in Westminster where the QVC customer event was being held. I was hosting one of the make n take tables whilst, this time, Kanban were hosting the workshops. Below are Dawn and the very popular QVC presenter, Craig, who welcomed everyone and outlined the day's events. Then it was all systems go and it didn't stop until almost 6pm! I was featuring my new Christmas clear stamp sets along with Distress ink pads...showing that you can combine whimsical with more distressy techniques. This is my table before we got started...looks pretty messy already! I had eight or nine people (not all ladies!) at my table per sessions and each lasted around half an hour with more people standing behind chairs waiting to come on the next sessions, so the the pressure was on both for me and those who were trying to finish their cards! Great fun though, but very tiring as you may imagine.

Here is the wall at the side of my table, showing some general card samples using my new stamps. And here are just one, very cheerful group of ladies at my table. And there's my coffee and a biscuit which was one of three cups that I only took one sip of during the day! All the QVC customers who had come along were able to go around the tables and to the Kanban workshop, so there were things to make with the various companies and guests that are featured on the channel. My lovely friend Paula Pascual came along to see us all too - she had a great time as she was having a day off and a busman's holiday! There are some good pictures from the event on Paula's blog. After the first day finished we left everything just as it was and I went with Kathy and Jayne, from Personal Impressions, back to Jayne's house for the night. We had a lovely Indian takeaway that was super delicious and a good night's sleep was had by all! Next day was a repeat of the previous one except that Anthony was there instead of Craig. He made one lady's day by giving her a huge hug and she turned to jelly! I did have more photos of the event, but my camera has managed to spit them out somehow! Hello to all the ladies and gents who attended the event and hope you all had as much fun as I did. On Friday evening I had to hot tail it to the station to get the train to Horley as I was demonstrating at Crafts U Love there the following day. I just caught the train and it then sat there not moving an inch until way past the departure time....a voice then announced that they were very sorry for the delay, but there was no driver! That's a new one on me! Scurrying to a new, packed, train then ensued and I got to Horley quite a bit later than I should have.
However, my mood lifted when I arrived at the hotel as this was one where I had previously stayed, and had problems...after three emails to them were ignored I was finally contacted by the manageress who urged me to stay there again, assuring me that I'd be looked after. Well, as you can see from the picture below, I was upgraded to a "presidential suite" - just me in this huuuge room with a triple sized bed! I went down for dinner and, after I had eaten and had gone to pay, I was told that there was no charge and that I could also have a complimentary breakfast. Just shows it pays to be persistent if you have had a problem! Only thing was, I didn't sleep particularly well as I felt very odd being in such an enormous room on my own and the heavy wood panelling and the drapes over the bed kept making me think of haunted houses!My day at Crafts U Love was less frenetic than the two previous days and it was nice to be able to take time with everyone to show the techniques I was using. I've lost all the photos from that day but I'll be making samples this week, so will add some pictures before the weekend.
I decided to avoid the underground for my journey home, knowing there were engineering works going on, and I've experienced them before....having to walk down out of order escalators with heavy baggage is not something I enjoy! However, it turned out to be a bad decision as my alternative route took me over seven hours! It was almost a disaster, as I was very nearly robbed of my suitcase containing all my stamps, inks, card, pens etc. Two middle aged men with bikes were on one of my trains and their body language made me a little suspicious of them - thank goodness. My case was in the train doorway, there being no luggage areas on this local train, but I could keep an eye on it if I stood up. So, at each stop, I made sure that I could still see my bag. The two bicycle guys were being quite twitchy, moving their bikes about a lot and engaging with people "sorry dear, sorry about the bike", "can you get past okay" etc, but their body language was giving out bad signals to me. When they came to get off I looked up and my bag was not in sight! I jumped up and rushed to the doorway, only to see them, with bikes and my case on the platform!!! One of them said "Oh sorry hen, is this your bag?" (unbelievable). "Yes, it is my bag, and even if it wasn't, it certainly isn't yours is it?" One of them handed me my case back, the train doors closed and we set off agin. Very frustrating as I couldn't do anything else about it and, typically, there was no guard on the train to report them to. I felt extremely fortunate as I was a split second from losing all my stuff...mind you, I could have almost enjoyed imagining their faces when they unzipped my very heavy bag and found it contained....card, inkpads, stamps etc!!!
Yesterday was just for relaxing and watching the men's Wimbledon final. It was a pretty disappointing match, over in just three sets, but there was some great tennis nonetheless and I know that Paula and I were both very happy to see Rafa Nadal reclaim the championship title. He's a great role model with his very humble attitude and the respect he shows to everyone. A worthy winner.
Today I have been remaking a magazine project because the original one which I sent, by Special Delivery, never arrived. Needless to say, I shall be filling in a complaint form for that one! I read so many comments on blogs about the poor Post Office service...think we all have problems with it sometimes.
Well, the 20,000 visitor mark has almost been reached, so, as promised, I shall be giving away some blog candy very soon. I shall gather everything together, take a photo and post details very soon, so watch this space! So, I hope everyone had a good weekend, and got chance to enjoy the sunshine. I'll be back with candy soon! Lindsay