Posts
Hello all, and apologies for being sooo long in posting! Our Scottish trip was almost a fortnight ago now, but when we got back I had to hit the ground running with my tightest deadlines to date. I got the vital work done and then got on with the merely important things! Lol!
Anyway, what a wonderful time we had in Scotland. We drove up to Dundee, stopping off at Gretna where we called at the nearest place to get a coffee which turned out to be an outlet centre. It was a lovely sunny day so we spent an hour strolling around and I bought a much needed pair of shoes (half price!) before we set off again. It's about a five hour'ish journey but the Sat Nav added an extra forty five minutes by refusing to acknowledge the road our hotel was on and sending us miles out of our way! As David said, we knew we had gone too far when we asked for directions and were answered in Norwegian!!! Lol! We eventually arrived and, after a quick change and a coffee we went out to find the sea - we knew it was nearby, but it was very hard to get to. Along the way we stopped to take a few pictures of this amazing phenomenon in the sky. I had only been looking at similar pictures on the tv a few days before...it isn't a rainbow but something similar caused by ice crystals in the sky being hit by sunlight at a particular angle. I think that is right anyway! It was incredibly beautiful and the camera just couldn't capture the full effect.
We finally reached the sea, and strolled along the shoreline looking into rock pools (nothing seemed to be living in them!) and me paddling in the freezing water. As you can see, the light here was incredible with a beautiful clarity and dramatic depth. I was so pleased with this photograph - one of the best I've ever taken I think, even though I more or less pointed and clicked. 
As you can tell, I was enjoying myself and it was especially good to have David with me to share all the wonderful scenery. I've been up to Kitty Krafts in Broughty Ferry several times but always by train so have never had the chance to have a good look around the area before.
We finally reached the sea, and strolled along the shoreline looking into rock pools (nothing seemed to be living in them!) and me paddling in the freezing water. As you can see, the light here was incredible with a beautiful clarity and dramatic depth. I was so pleased with this photograph - one of the best I've ever taken I think, even though I more or less pointed and clicked. As you can tell, I was enjoying myself and it was especially good to have David with me to share all the wonderful scenery. I've been up to Kitty Krafts in Broughty Ferry several times but always by train so have never had the chance to have a good look around the area before.
Although you can't really tell, this is us! I was taking a shot of the sea when I saw our shadows, so I switched my attention to those instead - wish I really did have long legs like that (well, maybe not quite that long!) . 
Next day I was at Kitty Krafts run by Louise and Ross. It was a busy old day meeting familiar people and new customers alike. Hazel had texted me to say that she couldn't come along after all as she had hurt her foot, so that was the only downside of the day. However, a big hello to everyone who did come along - Punum, I haven't forgotten your request and Personal Impressions are sorting out postcards as I write, so I shall send you one as soon as I have them. As soon as the demonstration had finished we set off again, this time driving down to Jedburgh on the Scottish Borders. We stayed at the Spread Eagle, a 500 year old family run hotel. Next morning we drove about twelve miles to Kelso where I was demonstrating at Mayfield Garden centre. What a busy day this turned out to be! I met some wonderful, enthusiastic ladies as well as some very patient men! I'd hardly time to take pictures on either day, but here is a very simple card using my Men's Silhouette stamp set (PICS061). I stamped the image onto white card using a Versamark Watermark pad and also swiped a bit of the ink below the man to ground him. I had mixed a scoop of gold Perfect Pearls with some black embossing powder and used this on the image. Once embossed and cooled, I simply swooshed some Distress ink from the image outwards to create the misty look behind him - a mix of Weathered Wood and Old Paper.
This card features a background made using Ink Potion no 9 and Impress re-inkers over Personal Impressions coated gloss card which I then overstamped with the fairy and the dandelions from my Flower Silhouette set (PICS057) using a black Archival ink pad. I restamped the fairy using a Watermark pad and applied Pearl Shimmer embossing powder. The scroll on the left was made using an EK Success punch: Scroll and Dots.
Not sure what I was doing in this picture but it looks a bit scary! As you can see, I had an enormous area to work on, but I still managed to make a mess!
We left Kelso feeling very uplifted and made the long journey home. We saw lots of wildlife on all the various legs of our trip....unfortunately, apart from the birds, it was all dead! We had never seen so many creatures killed on the roads, including, very sadly, two deer on the central reservation just a few yards apart. Must have been a nasty shock for the drivers too.
All in all a great trip with mostly wonderful weather and always beautiful surroundings. Now I must get on to my second post with pictures of last weekend! By the way, I still can't get the yellow off my last post....I was using the spellchecker which I had not used before, and no matter what I do it will not convert the background back to white. I shan't be using it again! Lindsay
This card features a background made using Ink Potion no 9 and Impress re-inkers over Personal Impressions coated gloss card which I then overstamped with the fairy and the dandelions from my Flower Silhouette set (PICS057) using a black Archival ink pad. I restamped the fairy using a Watermark pad and applied Pearl Shimmer embossing powder. The scroll on the left was made using an EK Success punch: Scroll and Dots.
Not sure what I was doing in this picture but it looks a bit scary! As you can see, I had an enormous area to work on, but I still managed to make a mess! 
We left Kelso feeling very uplifted and made the long journey home. We saw lots of wildlife on all the various legs of our trip....unfortunately, apart from the birds, it was all dead! We had never seen so many creatures killed on the roads, including, very sadly, two deer on the central reservation just a few yards apart. Must have been a nasty shock for the drivers too.All in all a great trip with mostly wonderful weather and always beautiful surroundings. Now I must get on to my second post with pictures of last weekend! By the way, I still can't get the yellow off my last post....I was using the spellchecker which I had not used before, and no matter what I do it will not convert the background back to white. I shan't be using it again! Lindsay
Heather also included a teeny tiny bag with these little beauties inside (below) which she had made for everyone who took part in her swap...I'll be using these and taking all the credit for her work....no, not really Heather!!!! But I will incorporate them somewhere along the line. Heather has a great eye for design and if you fancy getting involved in swaps then do take a look at her blog (in my blog list) as Heather's swaps don't involve having to join a group or anything, so it's simple and fun to join in. Now I need to apologise to Sheila, as I was intending to post a picture of the three wonderful ATC's that she swapped with me and I did indeed take a photo of them. However, it has now vamooshed off the wretched computer into some sort of black hole, or worm hole or whatever, so I will need to retake the picture and add it next time. They are worth waiting for though!
The art part of my title is also appropriate for my WOYWW picture - though I did cheat a bit and removed what I was actually working on (if I put it on here I'd be in big trouble!). This could have been taken on Tuesday or today as well as I have been drawing all week after getting this weekend's workshop sorted on Monday. 
I liked this picture which came out rather well and showed the lovely evening sunlight.
After the long journey, I was very happy to see how close my hotel was to the station! Couldn't get much nearer than that! It was a very grand old hotel with a magnificent staircase which, apparently, was the inspiration for the staircase on the ship Titanic.
It's an awesome sight and very evocative of course. So, next thing was a four hour train journey to York which was lovely in the sunshine and with more gorgeous scenery. I had about half an hour at York station to grab a sandwich for dinner and then onto Manchester. This was when the lovely weekend beagan to go into meltdown unfortunately! The train carriage was invaded by football "fans" who made the rest of the journey (nearly two hours) a complete nightmare. Apart from the incredible amount of noise they were making in general, they were also shouting out foul chants and generally being totally obnoxious. I changed seats three times but there was no avoiding them. The one train guard on board was evidently highly embarrassed but too intimidated to do anything about it. One girl was right in the midst of them all and she did have a go at them but was given lots of abuse in return - when I spoke out for her I was also subjected to the abuse. When we were nearing my station I had to run the gauntlet of their stupidity and, when I stood my ground and told them just what a lot of disrespectful idiots they were, I was called every filthy name one could imagine. As I left the train I was showered in beer! Completely soaked and smelling like a brewery, I called the platform staff and complained bitterly that these yobs are even allowed onto the trains and that there are no security staff on the trains to deal with them. Myself and the other woman were the only two people who were not prepared to put up with the situation. I've been given a form to make a formal complaint and I certainly shall. It's unbelievable the way that football "fans" (I use the word reservedly, as these are just thugs) are allowed to run riot. It was scary to note that, unlike one time where if a lady complained about bad language or behaviour, a group of men would say "oh, sorry sweetheart" - these "men" had no such attitude. In fact, one of them stood up as if he was going to have a physical go at me. Well, it was a very unpleasant end to to my weekend, but I would rather go home covered in beer knowing that I hadn't just accepted the situation but had made a stand against such yobbish behaviour, than just say nothing.