A few photos and some thank you's

I've been busily working on new stamp designs since the weekend, so I'm a little late in posting these pictures I know. I have reached the stage where I have quite a few sketched designs that I am happy with and now comes the more painstaking process of drawing inked versions of them, then photocopying them and colouring the copies. As I've said before, I work better with a tight deadline, as I have this time, as it really does focus the mind!

This first photo is of part of my table at the demonstration weekend at Dawn Bibby's Studio. I was next to Jo who was using some beautiful glitters, Jane was behind her using the Melt Pot to create some very luscious cards that were just gorgeous. Back to back with me was Sarah, featuring Hero Arts and Craftwork Cards papers. In the other room, Brenda was cracker making and Mary was demonstrating how to use Dreamweaver stencils with paste. Jill was using Flower Soft to make some very tactile cards. Unfortunately both Dawn and Amy were poorly, so they weren't able to be there.
The next picture is of yours truly, looking like a real nutcase in my witches' hat! As you can see from the one after, the hat looked much better on little Aleysha who is the grandaughter of Rena (Dawn's sister). Doesn't she look cute in it, especially with the stripey tights! Well, I do try to get into the spirit of the seasonal events, even if I do make a fool of myself!

Next is a canvas that I made using Ranger paints and inks. You can see that I spent quite some time altering it and changing my mind about things as there is some brown ink coming through the paint in one area...I subsequently overpainted it to remove the odd looking spots!

Thanks to everyone who came along and especially my ATC "swappees"...yes....I actually swapped some this time! So, thanks to Joanne, Jacqui and Glen, Sheila, Suzanne, Sharon, Debs and especially to Angie, who also presented me with a lovely pin that she had made for me, as you can see here. Isn't it fabulous? Many thanks Angie, for such an unexpected and lovely gift.

On Saturday night I stayed over with Sarah and her lovely husband, Ewan, who is a chef. He made us a delicious Chicken Caesar salad and then went back in the kitchen to bake some scones - light as a feather! I also met Thumper the rabbit, who is awaiting a new name - what a cutie pie! Saffron and Poppy, Sarah's two cats, were not overly impressed by the floppy eared newcomer, but no fur flew!

On Sunday, after we had packed up and said our goodbyes to everyone, we travelled over to mum and dad's. Tara immediately hid under a low set of drawers where she could keep an eye on us all from a safe distance. She is settling in pretty quickly though and, after a while, when only David was in the rom, she came out to say hello. I managed to get a couple of snaps of her. As you can see, she is a very pretty girl and, although she looked very nervous when we picked her out at the sanctuary I can see that there is a very mischeivous look in those big eyes now!

Here she is, cheeky girl, sharing David's Choc Ice! Little minx! I'll keep you posted as to how she gets on - or how mum and dad get on I should say! I haven't met little Mia yet (my sister's teeny weeny kitten) but hope to see her soon.

I didn't realise until I was adding some tags to my older posts that Monday was the first anniversary of my blog! I can hardly believe it. As I keep saying, this year is just whizzing by. Well, I shall post again as soon as time allows and hopefully will have some more pictures to share with you again. Lindsay