Hallelujah!!!

Wey hey, Whoopie Dooh and smack me in the face with a wet kipper!!!! I am back to normality, back to feeling sane again and feeling the waves of frustration turning into calming ripples. Yes....I have managed to revert to my user friendly, comfy as a pair of old slippers blogger "interface" (whatever the heck that means). Everything is lovely once more.
I was meandering round the internet to see what others thought of the new way of doing things around here in Blogland and, no surprise to me, there are a lot of very unhappy posters out there. I chanced upon one chappie's blog who, like me, was utterly fed up...until someone explained to him how to revert to comfyland. I took a look, clicked a button or too and...shazzam!! New, scary, impossible to use bloggy man was banished into the ether!
So, if you too have furrowed brows due to this "upgrade" simply go onto the dashboard, click onto the little cog symbol (settings) which, on my dashboard, was somewhere in the upper right area and choose the option to revert to the old style (or words to that effect). I clicked it and it immediately took me back to my usual posting system - right size text, colours, layout etc. I'm going to see if I can change the font size on that last post after I complete this one.

Ooooh, it does feel good!!!

Events & a Candy reminder

Just a pictureless post tonight as there is still much gnashing of teeth here and I just don't want to spend half my evening messing about with photos that have a mind of their own.

Heather came round today and took a few pictures that she may post if she manages to do it! So check out her blog over the next few days to see what we were up to!

So, on Saturday I'll be at Samuel Taylor's in Leeds where I'll be demonstrating lots of new stamps, My Mind's Eye papers and inks.

On Sunday I'll be at Strikes Weavervale Garden Centre in Winnington, Northwich. As well as new stamps I will be using stencils, Perfect Pearl Mists, Distress ink pads and re-inkers. I'll be there from 10.30am - 4pm.

Next Friday I'll be trekking up to Aberdeen for my weekend at The Papeterie in Stoneywood Mill. On the Saturday I'll be demonstrating all day, using stamps, alcohol and Distress inks, Graphic 45 papers and more. On the Sunday I'll be teaching two workshops, which can be booked singly or at a discounted price for both sessions - they are different of course! We'll be stamping, masking, watercolouring, alcohol inking, making shaker cards and more. For more information please visit www.thepapeterie.com where you can check out dates, times and costs.

Now for the Candy reminder......Jenny R please contact me with your delivery details so I can send you your prize! If Jenny hasn't contacted me by Monday 30th April then I will draw another name, so please do check back in case you are a surprise winner. Fingers crossed that Jenny does contact me though.

Well, it's been pouring down relentlessly for the second day in a row, so let's hope it's a somewhat drier day tomorrow. One minute there are hosepipe bans and the next there are flood warnings! I saw lots of flooded fields from the train last weekend - it's all there, just in the wrong places!

Hope to see some of you over the weekend.

PS great.....now the text size has gone stupid - either too small (like this) or huuge! So, apologies for the rather small words....get your specs on!

Quiz results and winner!

Hello folks, thankfully I can put the quiz results on at last after some Windows upgrades messed up my ability to post blogs, transfer pictures from my camera and decided to get rid of Wordpad completely! Good thing David knows about these things! All I need to do now is to get rid of the spellchecker which is peppering my post as I type, with wiggly red lines to underline all my mistakes......excuse me....I am spelling them correctly (it's an American spell checker which wants me to type "color" as opposed to "colour" for instance...gggrrr!).

Well, back to the quiz. I have added the answers to the original quiz post, so look back at that to check those that gave you a headache! I must say that the majority of you got them all right, so I think I'll have to make the next one a tricksier one again!
Because there were a lot of 100% right entries, I wrote the names onto papers, folded them, and popped them into one of my famous Personal Impressions workshop slippers! For those of you who haven't seen them, the whole PI team wore pink leopard print fur slippers at the trade show last year and I now wear them at workshops where I have to stand all day - they became a bit of a talking point! So...here's David picking one from the slipper (not exactly as romantic as Cinderella's glass slipper, but they are clean - honest!).......... ..........and here's the winning name......... .........Elaine - it's you! Well done! Just send me your details and your prize will be on its way - I'll post the prize details in my next post. Not sure when the next quiz will be, but I do have a long trip this weekend, so I may have chance to whip my braincells into coming up with some more clues.
I'll be on my way to Basildon, which means going through London, where I have to troll round from Tower Hill to Fenchurch Street. I usually take a little break to eat a sandwich in the garden nearby, overlooking the Tower of London - I'd love to visit it, rather than just look, but this is where dragging bags around is a pain in the neck. Haven't been round any London sites since family holidays with mum, dad and Heather. Anyway, I digress! I'll be heading to Basildon on Friday for my demonstration at In 2 Crafting in Wickford. They have changed premises now, so I'm looking forward to my first visit to the new shop. I'll be highlighting new stamps from myself and Andy Skinner, along with some of my favourite inks, sprays and papers. Hope to see some new and familiar faces there.
Talking of new faces, this one has been looking up at me lately! Whilst feeding the birds and squirrels I have seen this pusscat under the tree, or hanging about near the fence. She wouldn't let me approach her and just ran off if she saw me. After seeing her for a few weeks now we decided that, despite having a collar, she appears to be homeless. On Sunday we had a takeaway Indian meal after a long day of teaching workshops. The portion sizes defeated us both, so I threw some Nan bread and rice out for the birds. When I next looked out there was a strange sight of a squirrel, magpie and the pusscat all tucking into the tidbits very close to each other! However, the sight of a cat munching a Nan bread convinced me of her homelessness. I threw out some of my remaining chicken and she wolfed it down.
Needless to say that in the last couple of days I have been putting food out for her, and yesterday evening I decided to have a shot at looking at her collar. I took some food down and she came nervously out of hiding, quickly scoffing the lot! Rather ungratefully, she snarled at me when I tried to touch her, but I persevered, only to be rewarded by seeing an identity free, worn and very old collar. I sat down to have a better look at her - she looked quite mature and pretty mucky too - and she suddenly began to purr, before coming over to me and butting her head against me. She went from grizzly to friendly in a matter of moments!
Needless to say she came inside, visibly shaking with nerves still, and settled herself in for the night! She had obviously been missing human company and affection and was determined to make up for it. So, she stayed all night - snoring very loudly amidst the purring! This morning I took her out again after a good breakfast, but she howled so loudly that, after an hour or so, I couldn't take any more and she has been inside all day.
In typical cat fashion, she has been insisting upon lap sitting, whether the said lap is empty or not, and is purring loudly beside me as I type this! So, she is definitely deciding to adopt us. I will put out some feelers as to whether she has an owner who is missing her. Having to be away from home quite a bit is not really compatible with having a pet, so I am hoping that she does have a pining owner, but, somehow, I think not. Oh, and by the way, she is a he! Lol! I will keep you posted!!!
So, congratulations to Elaine once more, and look out for the next quiz!