Son new home card

I thought I better post these photos up in case you come over from Quirky Crafts forum to see them! I haven't actually finished this card completely and it has been on the go for days now!
I had the card blank free with a magazine a couple of years ago and thought of it for this card, which also coincided with the Quirky Crafts card challenge 2 "One for the Boys".
The card blank was very flimsy, more like paper than card, so I cut out a panel of paper to go each side of the card using Vanessa Arbuthnott designed paper by The English Paper Company, seemed perfect for this.
I then decorated each panel or pair of panels. I will add the photos of the other side once I complete them and any updated photos of the front if I add anything extra.
The birds and branches are Hero Arts stamps. I will post up the other stamp makes if you would like to know any of them.

My son got his house keys on Friday and I had planned to give this card to him them, but he isn't moving in until he has it all done up so I am not too worried that he doesn't have it yet! It will be worth waiting for.

I can't get the photos to stay in the right order, have loaded them twice!

Jewish Chicken soup to cure everything!

My problems started when we went for a family meal out last weekend, and I ended up with what I suspect is food poisoning from the Tuna, though enviromental health couldn't find anything to collaborate that as nobody else had reported being ill. It has affected me all week in that anything I ate seemed to upset me afterwards, so I decided to make Jewish Chicken Soup, which is famed for its healing properties and I am certain I read that this has been scientifically proved.

I decided I need this to make me feel better. I looked it up and there are a variety of recipes but they start with boiling a chicken with veg for about 3 hours then leaving it to cool overnight to skim off the fat. I wanted it quicker than that and I didn't want to boil the carcass, I tried that once and the result looked yucky so I threw it out!

I started with cooked chicken and some jelly from the bottom of the roasting tin, and the recipes so far that I have found online have carrots and celery (apart from one that only had carrots) and either: turnip, swede or parsnips depending which site you go to. It also has parsley which I have just about growing in a container so I can do that and the carrots and celery but not the turnip/swede/parsnips. I do have celeriac which has got to be vaguely similar though.

So I went off to make my version of Jewish chicken soup in the pressure cooker to eat that night, and I was feeling hungry thinking about it!

Oh I forgot to say you need to add onions too.

Part 2.

So in 25 mins (how long is 3 hours cooking in pressure cooking terms? I decided 25 mins should be plenty) my soup would be ready, my onions were all growing in the onion bag so were no good apart from one and another tiny one so I added some leeks, have a lot of them and haven't been eating much since Saturday so they want using.
Added Celeriac, the parsley was only 1/2 " or 2.5 cm high so didn't get much of that but found a tiny bit in a jar that was so old it was nearly colourless and added that. I could have added lots of nice fresh basil, or rosemary, sage or thyme, but I didn't think that would be the right flavour.

It was supposed to be two sticks of celery, but the organic celery I bought Saturday morning was looking past its best and I had to lop a lot off so I added 4 sticks! I was looking at the non organic celery that DH bought Sat - he gets cheapest I get organic, he eats cheapest I eat organic!

Seriously Saturday morning was a great time to go shopping in Tesco the size of a small country because there was actually food on the shelves, and being open 24 hours is not a lot of good to me if the fresh food is all gone or no longer being served! The downside is the amount of people with the same idea, pushing and shoving and queuing and I got rammed up the backside by a disabled motorised scooter thing, painful. I know they don't go very fast and I wonder if it was deliberate! I had to stop, the peeps in front of me had stopped but the scooter kept going!

Part 3.

Well whatever it ended up as it is delicious. I did add some rice flour to thicken it, like my soup thicker rather than thinner! Not only that but I really did begin to feel better half way through eating my altered Jewish Chicken soup!

Crafting - I am desperately trying to finish my DT piece for Quirky Crafts forum, which is a bit over ambitious for the time challenged one.

I am also feeling really guilty that all the family, my parents, my sons, their girlfriends and my hubby are all round at my son's new house to which he got the keys Friday, cleaning, stripping wallpaper, clearing the garden and painting, and here am I not yet dressed talking to you, going to change that now and sort out some food for their lunches. Oh and try and finish my DT project which will appear on Quirky Crafts this evening.

Whooo hoooo I won candy

This candy is so sweet, from the Little Paper Shop blog, look at these stamps:

Don't you just adore the lollypops and the sweeties?

Crafty Pad stamp giveaway

Hop on over to the Crafty Pad to find out how you can get free stamps. Yes - FREE STAMPS!

First challenge on Quirky Crafts forum

The first card making challenge has been posted on Quirky Crafts the new forum on the block. There are also scrapbooking and ATC challenges, and an altered art challenge so something for everyone.
This is my DT card using the sketch,. I made a card blank from corrugated card, added a piece of map from an old road atlas, two arrow brads, a length of road with ribbon white lines, and stamped a motorbiker. I cut the motorbike out again to decoupage and give it a bit more 3d. Foil greeting from some stash I won on having a card published. Sorry I can't remember who makes the stamp but it is with some by Clearly Different who no longer seem to exist. Lisa has informed me that the stamp is by Dimensions Forth, thanks Lisa! I suspected that it was but I couldn't find it on their website so wasn't sure.
I also decorated the inside with Rossi, and more motorbikes, he is getting a MCN subscription for his birthday (the card is for Mr Cazzy).

Stamp in aid of Cancer Research charity

The talented Debbie Moore has designed a special stamp called June and every stamp sold will raise money for the Cancer Research charity.
What a great stamp to congratulate your friends or family who are taking part in Race for Life, or just sports day or other races.
You can buy June over on the Crafty Pad, see logo and link in my side bar.

Dottie's World is having a party

Wow, Dottie's world is having a party, lots to do and win.

Party on until 31st March, be there or be square.

Blog award

I received a lovely blog award from Spyder, thanks so much Lyn. I wasn't sure which one so I picked this one.
This is so sweet.

I need to find someone to award it to, but I am so tired after a really stressful weekend and not sleeping well at all so rather than name you all individually I will just say this is to all my lovely followers.

Lets hope I get more sleep tonight so I will be feeling up to catching up, crafting and the candy I promised.

Tidying up, clearing out

I haven't posted the blog candy yet as I am sure you have noticed, and not a lot else but I wasn't well for a couple of days and just couldn't and before that I was totally wrapped up in some geneology and a wonderful but sad story written by Mr Cazzy's gran when she was 80, she is long dead but we only recently got all these precious papers when her last surviving child died, Aunty M and we have helped with the house clearance and picking over the possessions - isn't that awful? I used to find it really awful but now I am older it doesn't bother me quite as much.

Tonight I am full of beans, and trying to clear the craft mag mountain - note to me: must cancel some of the subs, I really don't use all these mags or even read them all properly!

Tomorrow - who knows, I could be suffering for this burst of energy, or maybe it will continue and let me do all that I need and maybe some crafting too and finish unfinished cards, make needed birthday cards for next week, and a new home card for the week after.

I bought myself that Bind it All, not the Ebay one but a new one that I got for less than the Ebay one with a discount code in one of my magazines - so sometimes they come in useful!

Blog candy coming soon

I have found some little blog candies, and will be putting them up later hopefully if I get time between walking the dogs, popping to MILs and trying to do some crafting, and cooking my tea and enough for lunch tomorrow.

(I wish I had a week off but I don't).

Normal service resumed

Most of the washing is done, my son is doing some of his now. Thank goodness for that! I am sorting out stuff for my Mum's birthday in a couple of weeks but I need to make her a card, and Mr Cazzy 3 days later! Also need to do a new home card for my son for the same time. I haven't finished, or got very far in fact on the good luck cards and sorry you're leaving that I was told would be good sellers.

As well as sorting the washing I have cleaned the cooker, and pruned the two fruit trees as much as I can reach, and dug up some weeds so I have been a busy bee.

A big bumble flew into my craft room earlier - talking of busy bees - I had to rescue it but it seemed a bit drunk. It managed to make it out of the open door again, I was trying to dry the carpet.

Sorted? I don't think so!

Fe hoped Mr Cazzy had sorted my washing machine problem, I thought he had - he said he had.

So I put the washing on, left it, thought it was going a long time but didn't take too much notice and didn't check it when I went to bed.

This morning Mr Cazzy said "the washing machine is still on", took a look and it was still on main wash. Fearing something else had gone wrong, and not looking at the coin trap I got it to rinse and spin and got that lot of washing out. Then noticed there was even more water on the floor, and everything was very soggy. Looked at the coin trap and saw Mr Cazzy didn't have a clue and had it on wrong still.

I tried again, got him to try again, rang Dyson (they are great by the way and there every day, other companies take note - this is great customer service). The lady I spoke to advised me how to do it, and to use washing up liquid if it was a bit hard to turn, so Mr Cazzy did but got it everywhere so now the thing is too slippery to turn and I ended up rinsing it off.

Was imagining an engineer visit where the engineer would come in and easily do this silly task causing much embarassment all round by wimpy Cazzy and Mr Cazzy, but I asked my son if he could have a go and while I was in the shower he managed it - hooray but by then I had realised that the first load hadn't actually washed properly so would have to be done again, and then all the soggy stuff.

Then realised that Mr Cazzy had taken the dirty sheet pile as being clean and put it back on the bed, so he had to strip the bed again. He did manage to save a bit of face by getting the washing line to stay up, it is faulty and won't stay up on the first two notches, I can't get it any higher. So at least the washing is on the line. Now where is the invoice for the line? It has a 5 year warranty, surely we haven't had it 5 years, maybe Lakeland will have it on record.

We had planned to go out today, but I said no chance with all this soggy washing to sort out, and the water had seeped under the wall and soaked the hall carpet, and I have just used the carpet shampooer to suck up nearly a full tank of dirty water - I am imagining all sorts of damage to the adjoining laminate floor in my craft room now.

FLOOD - HELP

Oh all right, big puddle then!

How did this occur you may ask - well it is like this:

Got up late, the menfolk had gone hunting and gathering early to South Wales so I went back to sleep. Got up, had breakfast, got online to see if won BIA (see below) didn't win BIA, chatted to other son on MSN, then thought I better get showered and dressed by which time it was midday.

Dragged the washing basket down to begin washing, filled the washing machine but then decided I wanted to empty the coin trap first.

The reason? When in Torquay a couple of weeks or so ago I bought a swimming costume with a detachable strap. Hadn't swum for years and my old cossie was at home and probably a wee bit too small. So treated myself to stylish tummy flattening one that I liked. I used it once in the hotel swimming pool, got home and the strap was missing! I rang the hotel - twice. They didn't have it. Searched the car 4 times, nothing. Searched all the bags, in the legs of trousers washed etc, nothing.

So off to M&S to enquire if I could get a replacement strap for my now useless £25 cossie, asked on lingerie, they said we have bra staps that might do but they aren't waterproof, go ask on fashion they are bound to have some that have become separated from cossies.

Asked the girl on fashion, no we don't have any you would be better asking lingerie! Explained I had, and asked if I could order a spare strap. Girl said we can only order what we sell and we don't sell spare straps, try a sports shop.

So back to lingerie where they found me some fetching clear plastic straps that might do and gave them to me free.

The point of this story is that I then became convinced I DID have the strap when we got home and had put it in the washing machine which must have eaten it, and the coin trap door was looking suspiciously black.

Now I went off to the kitchen to get a screwdriver to open the coin trap, got distracted and started brushing the floor, then decided I should eat something so cooked so rice pasta. Did I get the screwdriver, no ended up on computer again, then back to kitchen, but an hour later I got the screwdrivers and began trying to get the coin trap door off.

My washing machine is a Dyson, and is brilliant but the coin trap is not easy to get off, and I lost the special tool long ago but Dyson told me a spoon handle would do - having tried that before and ending up with bent spoons I went for the screwdriver option. First you have to get the little centre bit to come out so the water inside drains off slowly, did that. Then you have to somehow lift a catch that allows the door to be unscrewed and that proved to be very difficult. Finally I got the door off and I found:

• One large black button
• One part of a black cable clip
• Two pound coins
• Some yukky grey stuff
• A waterproof plaster

So still no strap, and after getting the door back on and starting the machine I went to make a cup of peppermint tea. Something told me to check the machine and the floor is soaking, and all the dirty clothes, and the machine is flashing up a warning message about a problem with the water coming in! I don't think I have screwed the coin trap door back on enough but I can't budge it any more so will have to wait for a strong man to arrive home! Also if I ever get the washing done my rotary line won't stay up so I have to hang it in the conservatory!

BIA story. I made an offer on a slightly used BIA, which was being listed on Ebay for the second time, seller made a counter offer which I really should have accepted but sadly when I went to do so it had expired, so stupidly I put in another best offer for £2 less than the seller's offer, but £6 more than my original and heard nothing, then the item expired unsold.
I expected the seller to contact me and offer again, as I had sent a message, but nothing.
Next thing I know the seller relisted at 99p and straight away had offers going up to £51. I thought it ended yesterday and put in an offer £2 higher than the offer the seller made to me, having worked out it was well worth it but I just missed the end, and got outbid by £2.
I am not that bothered as I know I can get all of it brand new for £10 more than I offered with postage, and if it went for £2 more than than I would have had to offer more again, so apart from the wire cutters which I don't need I can get the BIA, bag, bar, three sets or 4 of wires all for £81 with free postage, which I may well do!

Blue blooms

I recently bought some Coordinations Black Magic card and I have wanted to try this for ages. I ran the card with a blue back through the Big Shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder then sanded the raised parts to reveal the blue beneath. I have mounted it on blue card, then a black blank, punched it with a Martha Steward Lattice Arch punch, added ribbon, three blooms and 6 brads as per the ABC challenge blog list. Greeting embossed in clear ink (Papermania Stamp set from the Daisy and Dandelion range), and some pastel blue embossing powder.

Gorgeous thank you card from Bev

Thank you Bev.

Bev, Loopyloo on Crafts Beautiful forum, recently won the blog candy of red and black ribbons I was giving away. She sent me this gorgeous card made from some of the ribbon she won, isn't it wonderful!