Sunday tidings

It's a beautifully warm and sunny Sunday here, so I hope that everyone's been able to enjoy some balmy weather after the rather dismal few days that went before. I was up early to get to church in time to fold up the service and news sheets which are handed out as people come in......I was told that they were expecting some fancy origami folds from me! This morning was my second time as a Sidesperson, so I felt much more confident in what I was doing today...not that it's very complicated, but one does like to get things right nonetheless.

I could have probably managed a little longer in bed after getting back at 9.30pm after a long day at Dainty Supplies on Saturday. It's a four and a half hour journey, but only one change which is always a bonus. Everyone loved the background effects I was showing using the Dylusions ink sprays and quite a few people went home with lighter pockets after being tempted...well, the colours really are difficult to choose between! For anyone who was wanting the Doo Lally Pip sets that were out of stock, or sold out on the day, I have mentioned them to the management at Dainty's, so they will be getting them in as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone who came along for the lovely feedback and don't forget to email me if you get stuck with anything.

Speaking of getting stuck.....I had a little Ice Resin left over from filling bezels yesterday and so I scooped it onto some decorative paper - it's a great way to use up small amounts if you've mixed a little too much for a project. When the resin is dry you can tear away the excess paper and you're left with a gorgeously glassy effect which can even be curved without snapping, so great for adhering to 3d projects. Anyway, I had, sensibly, put said piece of paper onto a piece of stiff card and placed it behind me on top of a set of drawers. On packing away, I reached for my jacket, my black velvet jacket and found that the ultra sticky, resin coated paper had managed to leap off the flat surface and onto the sleeve - aaaarrrggghhhh! Sue did her best to get the worst of it off using hot soapy water, but, by the time I'd got home it was a bit late to get the rest off with nail polish remover. Never mind - at least I knew it was there so I managed to keep my hair from getting stuck to my sleeve on the return journey. I hate sticky - love inky - hate sticky! 

Well, after that little tale, time for me to share some more new stamp designs. I'm often asked how I keep coming up with ideas when I start working on new collections and I've been known to ask the same question myself when I'm having artist's block! Sometimes I have a fairly good idea of something that I want to draw, but, at other times, I just gaze at the blank paper for a while and then find my fingers start moving the pencil around, doodling lines here and there, till something begins to take shape. Often one image can spark an idea for another, and sometimes I even dream up my designs quite literally, so I have to scribble them down when I wake up before they fade away as dreams do.

Anyway, through whatever means I came up with these ideas, here are some more of them! A sketchy set first, which is called "Christmas Circles" (CICSA6084).......

......the swirly elements can be used at any time of year obviously, as can the circle border. I think I'll be using various means of decorating the modern tree...adhesive gems of differing sizes, Liquid Pearls and Stickles glitter glue as well as just highlighting with good old Glossy Accents. This set is in the Crafty Impressions general Christmas collection.

More snowmen now...I know....I know....but I can't help myself....I just find myself drawing them! I love them though. Unlike Santa, you can have as many snowmen as you like on a card. Some of you may have seen examples of the over the top snowmen pop up card that I taught in workshops quite a few years ago now. In fact, it was one such card that was my very first published magazine project! Well, I like them, so hope you are a snowpeople fan too......

 ......the hat that the top left character is wearing was based on the one that I bought earlier this year when my ears were frozen on one of my long trips! This quartet of chilly chaps (chapesses?) are called "Snowtime Snowmen" (CICSA6089) and are also from the Crafty Impressions collection. The snowman face will be handy for using on teeny tiny cards, as well as peeping over snow mounds (torn white card to you and me) on larger cards. 

Doo Lally Pip next, and a set called "Elfy Christmas" (CICSA6104).....

...... I'll enjoy colouring this character and building a little elfy village behind him. He's got feet that are at least a size 22 I reckon! And check out the knobbly knees!

To complete today's preview, here's another Doo Lally Pip set, but not Christmas. I hope you'll find this set of hats really useful - I love putting hats on characters, the less appropriate the better in many cases! So, this set is "If you want to get ahead..." (CICSA6018)......

 

 ......just lots of assorted headwear for all kinds of characters. Of course, as soon as I'd filled the paper with hats, I immediately thought of others that I should have included. So, I think there could well be a sequel to this set at some point. My favourite here though, is the jester's hat - I'm going to have fun with that one.

That's all the sneaky peeks for today, but I'll pop back tomorrow with a few more. I'm going into the conservatory now to pick some green beans to go with my dinner. My first crop....I'll take a photo and share that tomorrow too. You'll be very underwhelmed by the quantity I'm sure, but I can't wait to taste the first of my home grown produce and I bet they do taste good too!

My brother in law, Graham, has been for a test at the hospital, so we are now waiting for the results of that to come back to give us an idea of where we are with things. Unfortunately, my sister's neighbour lit a bonfire yesterday and the smoke did nothing to help poor Graham's breathing. They did put it out when Heather went round to explain, but not before there had been a lot of discomfort caused. Again, thank you for everyone's good wishes and prayers which are really appreciated.

From ice to snow....

The ice in question refers to my previous post from yesterday where I was talking about Ice Resin (did I mention how much I have enjoyed using that stuff?!?) and the snow, well, all will be revealed further down. Neither snow nor ice seem very seasonal to be mentioning in June, although it's another damp and overcast day here, so not very Summery really.

Anyway, as mentioned yesterday, Personal Impressions have "unveiled" the new Christmas designs for this year and they should be available by early to mid July. As promised, I will be showcasing my festive stamp sets here, though there are a lot, so it may well take quite a few posts! Hard to know which ones to share with you first, so I'll just go quite randomly I think. 

By the way, you can see all of our new designs on the PI website by clicking "products"....then choose either "Crafty Impressions" where you can find all our clear stamps, or "designed by Lindsay Mason" where you can find my Doo Lally Pip range as well as some of my other designs. I have designs in both sections - just to be greedy! Although the PI website is a trade only one of course, you can make a note of the reference number of any item and ask your local retailer to order it for you if they stock our products.

Well, without further ado, let's get into the Christmas spirit for a while! I'll start with some sets from my Doo Lally Pip collection and this first one is called "Steampunk Snowmen" (CICSA6091).....

 .....you know how I love snowmen, and I also love the whole Steampunk genre, so combining the two was a must! There is a Steampunk Santa face included too for good measure. I was obviously thinking of Abraham Lincoln when I added their stovepipe hats...they just kept getting taller as I drew!

Next is another slightly Steampunky set, this time featuring Father Christmas himself.....

......this one is entitled "Here Comes Santa" (CICSA6086). I'll be doing some masking with this set so I can have a few reindeer flying along in front of the sleigh. You'll notice that Santa isn't actually holding any reins but has his mitts out as if he is.....so, once all the images are stamped in place it's then a simple task of drawing a couple of lines to connect him up to his reindeer. This means you can play around with positioning much more. I think the starry burst will prove useful too.

Third up is another set of Doo Lally Pip snowmen (as I always say, you can't have too many snowmen stamps!) .........

........more Steampunk too as you can see. This set is called "Nicicles as Icicles" (CICSA6111) and if we do get snow later this year I am definitely going to try and re create one of these characters on my lawn! The icicle border is going to prove useful and, of course, individual icicles could double as carroty noses. I'm going to enjoy using this set a lot.

So, a few from my general range of Christmas stamps now. This first set is called "Winter Silhouettes" (CICSA6093) and would be suitable for December/January birthdays etc as well as Christmas cards.....

  .....I can feel my alcohol inks being used rather a lot as well as some Dylusions ink backgrounds! I do love silhouette images and can't wait to get started on this set. The bare tree can easily be used throughout the year with a few well placed leaves, or, of course, it can just be stamped in from the edge of a card to create branches and twigs for birds to sit on.

A useful border set next......

 ......this one is called "Sketchy Christmas Borders" (CICSA6088) and I know I'll be making good use of this one in all sorts of ways. The holly can be stamped and cut out individually of course, to make up into dimensional wreaths, swags or nice additions to the corner of a card.

Finally for this morning, this set is called "Be Still for the Glory..." (CICSA6083).....

 ......the words are from the opening verse of one of my favourite hymns of the same name. It always brings a tear to my eye when we sing it in church. The images on this set are ideal for making quite small cards which I know I, for one, often make when I have to send them to a lot of people. 

Well, that's my first preview! There are lots more to show you though so I will be posting them over the next week. Today I'm not working as such, but just getting everything packed up and ready for my demo tomorrow at Dainty Supplies in Washington, Tyne and Wear. I'm going to be on pins all day as Heather and Graham are going to see the consultant at the hospital to find out more about where we are with Graham's illness and what treatments he may be able to have. Any prayers for them would be much appreciated.

On a lighter note, and to show that it really isn't winter yet, here are a couple of snaps that I took yesterday. This first one is the view from my Doo Lally workroom.....

 .....just don't look too closely at all the weeds that have come through again after all the rain! The dreaded Horsetail is back with a vengeance too...ggggggrrrr. My workroom is at the front of the house (I'm on a corner) so I get to see what's going on and wave to all the neighbours while I'm working! I was standing up taking the picture so it looks as if my workroom is upstairs - but I'm in a bungalow, so I'm downstairs! The back of the house looks across the fields and up to the nearby wood, so I have the best of both worlds really - the difference between the front and back views is quite dramatic!

And, to finish, I couldn't resist taking a picture of fatso...er...sorry..Tara...as she was so chilled out yesterday in the conservatory on her (very hairy!) chair....

 .....no dignity at all! She really is a little porker but it's so tricky when you have one pusscat who likes to pick at their food and go back to it and the other who guzzles everything down and then goes off in search of any further morsels to be had! 

That's my cherry tomato plant intruding on Tara's space. There are the first signs of crops now too....quite a few tiny tomatoes are appearing and the green bean has several very thin legumes sprouting. The courgette is now flowering too, so I'm looking forward to some home grown food very soon.

Right, I'd better make a move or tomorrow's demo won't be happening! More stamp previews very soon. Have a great weekend everyone and thank you for all the lovely comments and the good wishes for Heather and Graham which we really appreciate.

Painting progress

Thanks everyone, for the lovely emails that I received over the last couple of days. They were filled with warm wishes and I just want to assure you that I'm doing okay in general, getting on with everything and becoming involved with new things. The love that David and I shared runs through me like the words in a stick of rock, so, that will never change or wane. It's as much a part of me as the blood in my veins.

Yesterday was my time for contemplation and today was a fresh page of course. No gardening - it was cold and rainy here, although now the sun is blazing down again! I've been doing some more work on the painting that I showed you the start of a few posts ago....

....still a long way to go on this, but she is beginning to take shape now. I know exactly where this image is going, so it's just a case of getting the pictures in my head onto the canvas. One tricky aspect of working on a boxy canvas is working on the areas near the edges, so I find it helps to put something of a similar thickness on my table to rest my hand on. I've never liked working with an easel, even with large paintings. I prefer to work at a table, hunched over and close up!

Once this canvas is completed it will be going onto my Etsy site and I hope to have a few more items listed on there over the next few days.

Tomorrow I'll be spending the day with Heather and Graham and will pass on everyone's good wishes to them.

Memories...

Thank you for all the good wishes that have been sent my way as I commemorate the first anniversary of losing David. It's so uplifting to know that people have been thinking about me today. Thank you also for the kind wishes that have been sent to us as a family and to Heather and Graham in particular.

I spent yesterday evening painting a small memorial slate which I placed beside David's rose in the garden this morning. I spent a few hours in the garden as it was beautifully sunny here. Planting and watching things growing has become a very precious thing to me, so it was a lovely way to spend the morning.

 This afternoon I opened my memory box with lots of special mementos inside as well as all the cards that we received when David was ill and after he passed away. I spent quite some time going through everything and remembering all the events that unfolded last year and this evening I lit candles in the garden and sat beside his resting place for a while.

 I've been remembering lots of wonderful things from our life together....funny things that made me smile, moments when we battled through things together, times when my "Superdave" came to my rescue on more than one occasion.....lots of memories.

I've also been considering all the ups and downs of the last twelve months, the roller coaster ride that has made me a much stronger, wiser person. I've discovered hidden strengths, taken on new roles, made new, supportive friends and also become much healthier and fitter. I think (I know) that David would approve of everything...and I also know that he is still with me, guiding me through it all - helping me to know when to follow a particular path or when to cut off something negative that would drag me down.

I've been listening to lots of music today, as well as "singing" some songs that were, are relevent to us. I thought I'd share this hymn which is one that we played at David's funeral as we were leaving the church. Then it was a choral piece, but I found this version today, by a singer I've never heard of, which I like because the beautiful words are really clear.

I hope you enjoy listening to it, it's a very contemplative and comforting hymn.

Thank you again for the good wishes that I've received - I'll pass on those for Heather and Graham of course.

Rallying round

Apologies to anyone who was booked onto my Masterclass at the Craft Barn Extravaganza event this coming weekend, or expected to see my demonstrations, but I have had to cancel my trip at the last minute. Thank you to Sandy for being so understanding.

My family has, once again, been struck by the awful disease of cancer, this time my brother in law Graham. Needless to say we are all feeling numb, especially given the fact that it's a year since we were going through the same thing with David, which makes it seem even more unreal. We feel we're being given more than our fair share of trials to be honest.

Of course, I need to be with my family, especially to give support to Heather. She was such a tower of strength to me throughout David's illness and now it's my turn to be strong for her

Tomorrow is, unbelievably, the first anniversary of David's death, and I'm just going to have a quiet day at home to contemplate and reflect on the life we shared and the last twelve months.