"Sketch Saturday" challenge

Click on the logo for the site that this challenge comes from- see lots of examples both on the latest post and by following the links in the comments there.

Here is this week's layout sketch:
And here is my interpretation:
I like the cute House Mouse stamp. And given the soppy pose I cut some hearts out of the brown glitter paper too :)
Sources:

Image: House Mouse stamp, coloured with water colour pencils and water brush.
Glittery bits cut from an A4 sheet of brown glitter paper, 99p from my local craft shop, no brand name on it, sorry.
Faux stitches with a white Sakura Souffle pen.
Papers all from DCWV 2007 Xmas Scrap Pack.
Red fibre sheet from a pack of 5 mixed A4 sheets from Tesco £2.50
Ribbon, from a local haberdashery, 50p for 10m.
Sentiment typed and printed out onto card.
Circles cut by hand- drew around a plate, a cup and the outside of the sellotape roll :)

*** *** *** *** ***

Now! Here's another card, this one just for fun :)

I love this stamp from Little Clare. I haven't used it enough so far!
I stamped it onto beige card and coloured with water-colour pencils and a water brush. Then I cut it out and stuck it on to some paper that looks like a picture of a night sky. The original sheet is enormous and made by Craft Creations- called Wintery Sky. I think I got that from Little Clare, too.
The swirls round the edges are drawn with a glue pen, then I've sprinkled & heated embossing powder on it, one called "Tinsel", which is a mixture of white and glitter. The writing is done with a glue pen and then some glitter that came free with a magazine :) I glittered the star and halo too. So I shall be washing glitter off my skin, carpet and clothes for the next 10 days.

TAGGED!

I have several tags to catch up on and now I have another one! OK, I'll do this latest one first, then go back and find the others :) This one is from Thread Bare. THANKS!

Here is how this one works.......
Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog. Answer the five sets of five (this is the easy part) Tag 5 people in the last section by leaving their names as well as links to their blog. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

Things I love -
1. My partner, Luvbug.
2. Birdsong, especially first thing in the morning when it's the only sound.
3. Cats, and anything with a cat on it, in it or by it.
4. Feeding squirrels in the park, especially when they take the hazelnuts from my hand :)
5. Bright days and blue skies- don't care how cold so long as it's bright :)

Things I don't love -
1. Getting out of bed when it's cold. Our central heating has been dead about 3 1/2 years now... :(
2. Mess, disorganisation, untidiness.... I'm not a housework nazi, far from it, sometimes I wish I were because mess makes my head worse! And I am rubbish at keeping on top of everything round here. No matter how often I clear up, it goes back the way it was. I want a Mary Poppins.
3. Cleaning the bird tables, feeders and dishes, especially in cold weather.
4. Feeling tired.
5. Sending presents and not getting a note or a phone call to say it got there ok, let alone to say thank you- I have a few family members and one friend that this always applies to!! Grrr...

Music on IPOD or play list
I cannot find my MP3 Player.
It had some Crowded House on it, and...erm.. nope, it's gone.

Favourite Foods/drinks -
1. Carrot cake & tea
2. My own mushroom & garlic tart followed by tea
3. Chicken Caesar Salad followed by tea
4. Indian curries with green or jasmine tea
5. Peanut KitKats (my current favourite) DUNKED in tea! LOL!

Here are the people I am tagging......

Not going to! I couldn't get it down to 5! If you want to take part, put it on your blog, and leave a comment to say that you've done it!!!


2 posts today... for news on Xray and updates on cards, scroll down... ;)

Bad news, good news...

... I have four bits of good news and two of bad.... which shall I do first?

Bad, I think is traditional... so I'll get these ones over with quickly!

BAD NEWS-

1. the other card shop in Colchester said no to my cards. Actually, I don't think they really looked at them, as they were still done up the same way as when I handed them in. SO unless they fold paper and tie ribbon EXACTLY the same wayI do, they didn't look. And that would be a mean feat, as even I can't tie a bow the same way twice :)
2. have only just found out that I shouldn't take Ibuprofen with Duloxetine (antidepressant). The mixture can interfere with your blood clotting. WOW thanks for telling me, doc! (She didn't, I had to read it somewhere.) Hmmm..... now, wasn't the doc who prescribed the Duloxetine the very same doc who precribed me Ibuprofen for joint pain??? Good job I can read!

OK.

GOOD NEWS-

1. when my partner was in Ireland he talked to his brother about my cards. His brother is a pharmacist (hmmm.....maybe I should quiz him on the above!) and knows the people in the next shop along.... an art shop! SO he passed my blog address on to them... now I've had an email asking for a couple of dozen cards for their shop. HURRAY!
   
2. I've set up the stall in the indoor Craft Market in town. I have cards, notelets (in photo) and notecards, handmade little notebooks, gift tags and needle-felted brooches. The woman who runs it rang me last night and said that she wanted to double the price on my notelets as she thought I had under-priced them terribly. She reckons she could get double. I told her to try for the weekend ;)
3. I made some little business cards for the stall and mentioned pet portraits on them- and immediately I have 2 commissions. One is for a picture of a border collie, and the other I don't even know what animal that one is for yet. They are willing to pay £35 per picture. (GULP!) And now I'm worried as it is so long since I drew an animal that wasn't cartoony and posing with holly or a Santa hat. Hey ho! I shall have to get practicing this weekend.
4. Last but not least- my Xray came back normal. I am still having trouble with my back but it has calmed down a lot. I suppose it is good news, yet I know that something isn't right and I'd rather have found out what it was. I know my mum's spondylolisthesis didn't come up on an Xray, only on an MRI. But I don't think I'll be able to push for one of those with a normal Xray. If the pain comes back as bad as it was, we're going to go to Emergency and lie- we're going to say I fell down the stairs or something! This way I'll get an Xray when it's at its worst, and not 5 weeks later!

Sorry for lack of posts. Didn't get to do this week's card challenges either! Been busy, and been starting to get sorted- craftwise and headwise, I hope.

An odd experience

Taken in Brockenhurst, the New Forest, April this year.

I've been doing "rapid cycling".
No, this doesn't mean I'm entering the Tour De France.
It means I had a seriously low low patch 2 weeks ago, which lasted about 5 days, then straight up into a height of energy and creativity, and now I'm levelling out....

I've never known such a fast turnaround. And I had got so low it surprised me- no matter how many years of it, you always forget what it feels like down there. Then the big burst of energy and creativity...

I'm going to record here what this was like, because I shall forget! Whenever someone mentions bi-polar, the impression is that, hey, if you're going to get depression, this is the type to get, cos at least you get the "up" side. Hmmm....


OK. It's easy to imagine the low part of the roller-coaster being bad. Everyone has off-days, so everyone can imagine bad ones. This time around I sank into a place where I had to cut my own forearm with my sharpest nails, so as to feel something. ANYTHING. Anything other than deadness and fog. It all seems perfectly logical from the inside at the time. When I realised what I was doing I showed my partner- not attention seeking- I showed him so that I'd stop. Self-harmers hide their wounds. I know that. So the first thing to do was to show him. Then I bit off the offending nails(!)

My head felt like it was in a brace, being pulled tighter and tighter. I couldn't handle anything. I just wanted to scream. The best thing was when I went to bed with only a low light and pulled the covers over me. Rest your head.... rest your head.... stay for hours, quiet, safe.

So that was the low. But how could an "Up" possibly be unenjoyable?


OK. When I was in my teens I had a (insert swearword here)boyfriend who was so tight, when he drove down hills he would turn off the engine to save fuel.
Imagine this on a grander scale. You are in a roller coaster, you are in the car at the front. The train has come off the rails and you are riding through the air at top speed with everyone screaming in your ears, faster faster faster.

If you relax you might enjoy the ride, but it's scary, isn't it? NO CONTROL. That's the point. On and on. Not knowing when it will stop.

You have 36 hours straight, no sleep, tons of energy. Then you might sleep for 4, maybe 5 hours, and then you're off again. You feel like a kid who wants to go and knock on everyone's door and shout "COME ON! COME OUT TO PLAY!". Your heartbeat is racing and you are ALWAYS aware of it. You can feel it. Even when you do try to sleep, because your body aches and you feel sick and dizzy, you can't- your heartbeat feels like a butterfly in your chest, and your head is full of ideas, tumbling over and over like multi-coloured socks in a tumble-dryer. All you can do is lie awake and watch them.

I got a lot done in my spurt of energy. But I'm glad to be levelling out again. Now I feel more like me.

The p-doc recommended a "mood stabilizer" drug. I refused lithium. But she suggested carbamazepine or sodium valproate.

Look them up! The main, most common side effects are weight gain, acne and nausea. Great! What is the point of giving someone with depression something that will make them a fat, spotty muldoon? Especially as I am already overweight and partial to the occasional spottiness.

So I've ruled them out. Till next time. Already the memory of it is fading. You can remember words and actions, even intentions and thoughts. But you can't accurately recall pain. Good thing too, really.

Madonna & Child - end result

.... scroll down to the next post to see what I found at the book fair :) ....

Here's how the Madonna & Child drawing turned out:

..... in the end I drew it again for card use, simplifying the lines even more. I got the idea of putting her inside an arched window from a design I saw somewhere in parchment craft.
I am *really* happy with this one!

Bookfair- bargains and a surprise!

The book fair was great fun. We got there at the opening, 9.30am., and joined an already quite long queue! I think we stayed about 2 hours.

We were restrained this year. In previous years we have had to go out and buy new shelves to put the books on, sort of negating the bargain effect :) Ha! This year we had 4 carrier bags' full, which I sorted into one box when we got home.

My Luvbug is away for a few days, and I've set myself the challenge of finding a new place for this lot by the time he gets back. I need to be able to see them in order to remember them and actually read them. On the other hand, I want them tidied away. Hmmm. Not. That. Easy.

If you're interested, click on the photo and you might be able to see some titles...., I think a few are missing... I have a couple next to my bed already.... anyway, I fess up to the history and art books. Luvbug chose the accounting and puzzles. We both wanted the language books and erm, guess who wanted the cat book? :)HA! Look at all the pencil sharpenings on this carpet! I promise I will vacuum, ok? I promise. Soon. Hahaha.

OK. We went through to a smaller hall to pay, and had to pass through the children's section on the way. Look what I spotted on the games table....

"Anita's Art Stamps: Rubber Stamping Starter Kit"

The box is in a bit of a state, yes? Looks ancient. So, I wasn't expecting too much on the inside. In fact, if a crowd of people coming through hadn't blocked my path I might not have stopped to investigate further.... glad I did! Look....Everything on the inside is in pristine condition! 3 unused stamps (including a cat! Hurray!), an unused stamp pad (on its own this would have cost more than the kit), stickers, pencils, cards and envelopes. All for £3. Oh! And that booklet is really good, too.

*** *** ***

I haven't heard back from the second card shop yet re the ones I handed in on Friday:

Cards batched up with some all new, singing, dancing, letter-headed paper and business card, all thanks to a free Print Shop cover CD, and a patient partner who lost me to playing on it for hours.

BUT! I have acquired a spot in a new indoor craft market in town. They have only a short lease. They will be there till Christmas, definitely, and possibly Easter.

Anyway, I've paid £10 for my spot- that's a one-off payment- and after that they take 20% of what I make.

Now I have to supply a small table, take it in there and set it all up.
It has to be only about 2ft x 2ft. Is that 2ft square or 2 square foot? I can never remember. Me and Luvbug had this conversation a few weeks ago and both confused each other. And he has A level Maths, but still couldn't remember. This is what talking to me about anything mathematical does to your brain. And I used to work in stockbroking. Aren't you glad I got out before the current problems? You think it's bad now, but you have no idea what the world escaped from at my last redundancy...

There are already quite a few cards there, but I shall put some of mine on the stall. I am also doing notecard sets and needle-felting.

I want to try out those new stamps, too, and get into the book on colour-pencil drawings. Oh! And my two weekly challenges.... and I have two appointments in town this week... and the washing is building up.... oh yes. And vacuuming. LOL!

Whilst my other half is away (till Wednesday night) I'm going to be busy busy!!!




(if you want to get a free signature like this, click on it and it should take you to the website that does them- try it! Even if you decide not to in the end, it's quite fun to see them do your name in about 100 different fonts- on screen in just a minute or two!!!)

Vogueing Madonna

Ha! Yep still about at 1.40am.... oh dear! And I have to be up and out in the morning, as we are off to an enormous book fair, one that only takes place annually- they spend the rest of the year collecting books!!!! All the funds go to the NSPCC and we usually come home with bags full......

anyway, look what I've just drawn....

I drew this, then scanned it in. I plan to trace it onto card, go over the lines in pen and ink, then watercolour it as a 'stained glass' picture for another card....

.........but while scanning and cropping, I accidently switched it to this way round: I've saved both versions and I'm going to use them both, but I think I actually prefer it the second way round, not the way I drew it! Haha!

Someone arty once told me that if you draw a picture and think that there is something wrong with it, but you just can't work out what, have a look at it in a mirror- then whatever is wrong jumps out at you. And this really works! I wonder what they would say about preferring the version in the mirror!

Do you have a preference?

btw, if you want one of these fancy signatures, click on my name and it links to the site where you can make one!

Hullo! Thanks for all your comments on my last post... wow! And it was a Post Of The Day on David McMahon's site, too. THANKYOU!! I'm very honoured :)

Please bear with me re. getting round to visit your blogs - Bob and Dilly want me to help them update their blogs this evening; I understand they each have some photo's to put up.

Also, I am busy trying to do some paperwork, a decent typed letter with a nice letterhead- as there is a place interested in looking at some of my cards to sell and I want to take them in tomorrow. I want to do it right this time, so I'm not just doing a written note with my contact details, I'm doing something a wee bit more professional. Ha! Or trying to....

What this has amounted to so far is playing about in Print Shop and printing out free backing sheets from various crafty websites- simply beacuse my ink cartridge keeps telling its empty and wants changing, and I refuse to until it has spat out its last drop of every colour ;)

Oh Look! Roz of Rozie's Mumblings has given me an award!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I have to pass it on to 7 others. It's going to be tough to choose but I shall work on it and do another post for it soon.

Right! Imust get on and do some work- and then cook dinner..... chicken in cream and chorizo sauce, I think.... mmmmm....

And NOW I have SAND in my pants.

Note to USA readers: by pants, I mean underpants, shorts or panties, ok? ;) (LOL)

***

A few years ago I was listening to a Saturday morning show on Radio 4, one headed up by the late John Peel. A theme had been forming over the previous weeks, on family sayings.

It had started out as different names for the remote control. For example, I call it the bodger, as did all my family. My partner calls it the yolk, which meant remote in his family. You get the idea. (What do you call yours?)

OK. This particular morning produced the weirdest saying of all: "And NOW I have sand in my pants."

The listener who had written in with this one explained that, as a youth, he had been dragged off to a Venture-Scout Outward-bound weekend. Everything went wrong, starting with having to go against his will in the first place.

When they went for a run, he tripped. When they climbed, he fell over. He forgot to pack his lunch. When they went canoeing, and had to tip over upsidedown, his glasses fell off. He followed them down and crawled about trying to find them. Crawling up the riverbank, spluttering while his friends all laughed, he said, with complete seriousness and utter venom, "And NOW I have SAND in my pants!"

And so, among his family and friends, from that day on, this was the phrase people used when they meant that they had met the very last straw. The final insult. The cherry on the cake of blah.

Good, isn't it?

Anyway. That news I got yesterday was the sand in my pants. I've had a bad week or so and the effect on my brain has been to shift into a lower gear. Those out there who've been there will know what I mean. If you don't, imagine when your computer goes wrong and will only open up in safe mode. This means only the very essential processes will function. (Oh, and they throw it into black and white, too. You never thought you'd long to see that microsoft blue did you? But in safe mode it's like when you've missed a period- Oh God, please, no, I promise to be good from now on, just make it come back, pleeeeeeease!)

Sheez I just remembered my partner's mum visits here. Ooops. Hullo!

Where was I. Oh yes. Here's another saying: I used to know someone who would call the week I'm having "a week to throw sh*t at". And she wouldn't have used the star.

But maybe things are changing. I checked my email and my little brother (little as in 10 inches taller but 9 years younger) has got a job. Horray! He had been looking for a few months and was getting sooooo depressed.

I think it may have been a desperate call from him last week that started all this actually. He sounded so low, I was seriously worried about him and begged him to see a doctor. He said, "What for? Pills? No! That's YOUR way of dealing with it. Not MINE." It knocked me back, it really did. Antidepressants have been a necessity round here for a long long time. I won't accept any stigma about it. If I had diabetes I'd have meds. If I had a heart condition I'd have meds. I have depression, I have meds. Big deal. Move along please, nothing to see here....

I went to bed earlier but my head was too busy. So I'm up sipping tea and eating crunchy nut bars and watching Law & Order with the subtitles on. I wonder who does those? Maybe I could get a job doing that. Maybe I wouldn't have to leave the house then, and I could lessen the danger of getting sand in my pants ;)

Update on The Art Cafe....

After a week and a half and still no feedback on the cards I handed in, I rang them just now-

basically the answer is no-
after the "we don't seem to have any space for them at the moment" (Hmmm... that's odd, with all that empty space upstairs....!!! Besides, if this were the case, why offer to look at any?)
she said that "it was thought that the images used weren't all your own" ....so I explained about rubber stamps and water-colouring, and pictures/images/materials/papers etc. sold specially for craft purposes. Seems they have never heard of the Angel Policy used by craft companies, meaning that you can use their rubber stamps/papers/images etc for reselling. Seems the idea was completely new to them! Hey ho! Pity they didn't think to contact me and let me know. Perhaps then I could have explained to them about the materials used. Besides, I didn't use rubber stamps on them all....

Obviously it would be better to sell a piece of cardboard that someone has stuck one piece of paper and wire on and charge £3 for it. (That seems to be the standard of handmade cards sold round here....!)

What riles me is the way no one answered my emails or rang to let me have a decision.
BUT WHAT REALLY GETS TO ME is the patronising implication that I don't know what I'm doing -when they are ones who don't know what they're talking about! Instead of giving the cards a quick look and deciding, "oh, these aren't original!" why not contact me and ask me whether they are or not?

Take a look round the other blogs that do crafts- start with the ones on my link list. No two cards look the same. Unoriginal? I think not! There are dozens of crafts companies designing and selling products for us to use in our projects- all with an Angel Policy that states we may resell them. Get yourselves informed before you judge, please!!!!