RIP my friend, Big Al

Sadly, I was in need of another sympathy card - a very dear friend passed away after having serious health issues for quite some time.

His wife's favourite colour is purple, so that is where I took my inspiration.

RIP Big Al, you will be missed!

I hope you are up there with Sue (left) - you look after her!

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

A Bittersweet Day ..................

............ as yesterday, we celebrated the life of my Dad with a very small but moving memorial service.  It was so lovely to see some long time family friends and to be able to spend some quality time with them, even if the reason for it was such a sad one.

The previous two weeks have been a bit of a blur with funeral arrangements and such, but I was able to spend some 'creative' time when making up Dad's memorial cards.

It was a kind of theraputic release :)

The beautiful flowers from Mr Fixit's side of the family :)  ........ they lasted more than a week!

I have received some lovely cards from friends :)

from two of my 'crafty' friends Kaye & Mandy

from my friend Paula, and family friend Maureen

I leave you with this message (part of a comment left on Facebook for me, by a very dear long-time family friend)

Hold your loved ones tight, and tell them you love them, it's so important; you never know what could be around the corner. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

RIP Dad :(

.... my father passed away most unexpectedly on Monday night - he was 81 years of age.

RIP Dad - 5 June 1933 - 21 July 2014

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

haven't been around much ................

Mr Fixit has been taking up my time - a partial explanation is HERE

but today I am a bit sad, the actress Wendy Hughes, I posted about HERE has passed away  :)

read about it HERE


Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

RIP my dear friend

I am a little sad today ................ an old friend has passed away.  Sue had battled cancer for many years and had such a great positive attitude, but 52 is far too young.

Sue & Cathy

Sue, Alan & Cathy

Our old 'gang'

We were quite the gang in our younger years.  I first met Sue in about '74 and we shared a flat in '78 - then as adults, we went our separate ways.   We caught up again in 2006 for another friend's birthday and kept in touch for a little while, but then life got in the way again.

I have so many fond memories of our teenage years together and I am so sad that I didn't keep in touch more often and give her a quick call when I thought about her - which was often - just to say hello  :(

It was really strange, as I was thinking about her on Wednesday ...... I was tidying up my sewing room and came across the "Bean Bag Pal' she gave me for my 18th birthday

Note to self :  make that phone call when you think about it, don't put it off!

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

15 years ago ...........

Today marks 15 years since Diana, Princess of Wales died. 

We were watching television, when they interrupted the show with a news report.

Where were you when you heard?

I thought it was fitting that I came across this photo whilst sorting out my craft room. I was going through a box of stuff I haven't touched for many years and came across this .....

I think it deserves to be put in a photo frame ;-)

Rest In Peace

Am quite sad this morning ;-(

heard of two deaths of artists that were part of my life growing up

Mary Tamm, the actress who played Romana in Doctor Who

http://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/doctor-whos-mary-tamm-dies-aged-62/

Daryl Cotton, a singer very popular in Australia during the 70's

http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2012/07/vale-darryl-cotton.html

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day. 

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-) 

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

RIP Davy Jones

Davy Jones, from The Monkees, has passed away.

I grew up watching The Monkees and still enjoy their music today - I have most of their songs on my iPod

Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day. 

Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-) 

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

For Madam Lunchalot - I think of you often

RIP Julie Lydiard - September 2009

EDITED:  GO the Power!  They won today Julie, I am sure it was just for you ;-)

FNSI & Create & Chat :-(

My plans for FNSI, which actually started at lunchtime so that I could participate in Create and Chat a bit later, were put on hold with the news from UK that my Uncle Frank had passed away.


Uncle Frank came to Australia for a visit in 1993 and he stayed with us for a short time, as well as spending some time with my sister.

We had a ball and have some great photos to look back on.  I am so glad to have had the opportunity to meet him and spend time with him.

We kept in touch when he went back to Wales, using the internet, but he had to disconnect due to the high costs.  

Here are a few pics of Francis and myself in 1993.

Here we are in Rundle Mall, Adelaide.

here we are at Victor Harbor - I had his camera, and he had my handbag ;-)

RIP Uncle Frank - 1933 - 2011

RIP - Elisabeth Sladen aka Sarah Jane Smith

I was very saddened to hear of Elisabeth Sladen's death.

I grew up with Doctor Who, and my favourite was Tom Baker.

There is a lovely article written about her HERE

A sad moment for this Great Aunt

Shaun, one of the premature twins of my nephew passed away yesterday.   He died peacefuly in his mother's arms. He needed emergency surgery, and seemed to improve for a while, but deteriorated rapidly over the last 48 hours.

It breaks my heart to see my nephew and his wife go through this. 

I don't know about you, but when I am upset, I clean.  So I have cleaned the kitchen, the pantry and was about to start on the oven when I got the urge to cook.  So I proceeded to make up a batch of butter chicken and divided it up into single serves just for me ;-)  Of course, the kitchen was messy again so I cleaned again!

I came into the craft room to make a few sympathy cards - this was very hard to do.

After several attempts, I came up with this one - for Robert & Jade

I am still working on one for my sister.

I wasn't really in the right frame of mind to make cards, so I turned to my computer for something to do. 

I had been asked by a friend to make a card for her husband with a farm theme and decided to use an image from http://www.craftsuprint.com/. 

I printed on some gloss cardstock, but the ink would not dry and kept bleeding.  I then printed it out on some photo paper and that turned out lovely, but was not thick enough to make a card.  It took about 30 mins to hand cut the barn and all the animals out of the photo paper, then about another 15 mins layering. 

The front looks OK

then stuck it on some cardstock using JAC paper and hand cut the thick cardstock

YUK!   my cardstock edges were terrible and while I was putting it all together,

some of the ink rubbed off the photo paper! - one ruined card ;-(

Then I had a bright idea ;-)  how about using my CraftROBO - it can print and cut!  This 'print and cut' feature was the deciding factor in my CraftROBO vs Cricut debate.

Those of you who have used the auto trace software with the CraftROBO know that it is not as easy as it sounds.  Long story short, several thousand clicks & drags and 8 hours later, I have produced a card that I am reasonably happy with ;-)

I ended up having to make two GSD files for the print and cut to work - one for the animals and one for the barn.  If you look closely, there is still some work to do and I will fine tune my GSD file in the future so that I can use it again.

This exercise was a real challenge and I was glad of the diversion for a few hours ;-)

It really helps when you have some nice graphics to start with and this file from http://www.craftsuprint.com/ was a real pleasure to work with. 

I just hope I have not infringed any copyright laws by making a GSD file so that I could save a whole lot of hurt using scissor to cut out all the layers ;-)
I will be sending this picture to the CraftsUprint website so that they can see what I have made with one of their files.

RIP Shaun Robert Gibbens - you were on this world for such a very short time, you will not be forgotten.

Sympathy Cards

Sadly, I have had the need for several sympathy cards this week :-(

My Sister-in-Law's uncle passed away after having a stoke a short time ago.  He was a nice man - we had chatted with him many times at various family gatherings over the years.  He will be greatly missed by his family.

Here are the cards I have made:

Supplies used:  SU Elegant Eggplant, white cardstock embossed with cuttlebug, spellbinders square dies, paper flowers, silk ribbon.

Supplies used:   Dark Green Leathergrain cardstock, gold heat embossed handstamped, handcut 3D layered gladiolis stamped on pearl paper, gold sticker embellishments.

Supplies used:   Textured white cardstock base, bazzil bling, white cardstock through cuttlebug, white organza ribbon, silver sticker sentiment, Carl corner punch.

Supplies Used:  Textured white cardstock base, hand stamped hand coloured image on white cardstock, layered on pink cardstock, bling & embellishments added.  Sentiment stamped.

My friend and former work colleague, Julie Lydiard (nee Chapman), passed away after a long battle with cancer.  Two years ago, they told her to go home and put her affairs in order.  Julie had different ideas, so she went about her life as fully as she could.  She tackled everything with good spirits and always had a smile on her face.  Julie will be missed.

Here is a card I sent to Julie just 3 months ago ............  after she had broken her leg ;-(

The iris is a handcut layered 3D image, placed on a cuttlebug background, then placed on a C6 card.

I am working on a card for Julie's husband and daughter this afternoon - it is proving difficult to get started - time for a glass of wine, pity I don't have any sparkling red!

The iris is Julie's favourite flower, and her favourite dessert is Tiramisu, and as you can most probably tell, she is never far from my thoughts - everytime I see irises, I think of her.

Farewell Madam Lunchalot, I miss your smiley face!  Go the Power!