The lone stranger returns!

Apologies that I haven't blogged for over a week but I've been caught up with family things and haven't really felt chatty enough to post anything. You know how it can be sometimes, when you just want to batten down the hatches for a while. Anyway, I thought I'd pop on here before bed time, so am sitting here at just gone 11pm with windows open and the fan on, it's still so muggy!
Hello to new readers and followers that I met last weekend, or do I mean the weekend before?! A week last Saturday I was at Crafty Addicts in Chorley where I had a really fun day as everyone who comes to this shop seems to have a great sense of humour! The day just flew by and I didn't even get chance to take any snaps.
Next day was spent at Stamper's Gallery in Tarleton where I had another very busy day. This time David took a few piccies and here's one with some very concentrating faces...and David's finger too! It was another scorcher of a day, so it was lovely to see so many people choosing to come along rather than stretching out in the garden with a long cool drink! Actually, I think that everyone here was just wishing that I'd spritz them with cold water instead of my card! Last weekend I had a trip down to Farnham, in Surrey which turned out to be a very pretty town full of lots of lovely buildings and little nicky nacky noo lanes....he he, my sister Heather laughed so much when I described the roads like that, that she told me to include it on my blog! I had a nice journey down on the train and had a good look at a teeny fox cub staring up at me from the verge along the railway line. He was quite bold! I spent a good few hours wandering round Farnham in the afternoon and evening, including the very pretty park where there were lots of children in the water with those colourful fishing nets...a really nostalgic sight that made me feel like joining in! I did take pictures of a large family of downy ducklings with their mum and dad, lots of fish in the stream (yes, the water was so clean that I could see them) and my first ever real life sighting of a beautiful Grey Wagtail, which is much more colourful than its name suggests, being a lovely lemon yellow beneath a soft grey head and back. Unfortunately, the photos are too blurry to be worth sharing!
Next day I was at Squires Garden centre as part of their Craft Live event. This was held in a large marquee - great fun! Here's a shot of my table with a huge display of Idealogy goodies to the side. Hello to everyone that I met there and hope to see you again next time I'm down that way. Here's one of the cards that I made on the day....I don't always finish cards on the day, but this was one that I worked on with a few different techniques and then put together bit by bit. The rosette is made using Tissue Tape of course...I've found that the rosettes take some practice but the results are worth the effort I think. A bit of talc behind the frills really does help to keep the shape and stop the tape going flat. Sorry about the rather dodgy backdrop! I've been working from home all this week and have done a little bit more journalling, though nothing's completed yet. I've gessoed a few pages and coloured some backgrounds so am now seeing what develops. I don't often have an idea until I start - I like to just let my hand, complete with pencil, start wandering over the pages and surprise myself! This background really pleased me, though you can't see the colours and textures too well here. What started to emerge was a watery feel and this Mermaid soon followed. I am still in the process of colouring, with pencil crayons this time, and then will add some more details, though not too many as I want the page to have a dreamy quality. I may well add some gilding at a later stage. I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished page.
Today was nice as I saw my new Christmas stamp sets for the first time. I'll be sure to give you some sneaky peeks as soon as I'm allowed to!
Well, I had better sign off as a refreshing shower and then bed are calling. Hope to see some of you at Card-io, in Wigan on Saturday!