Cards and Critters Gallery

Greetings everyone!

How are you? I hope you had a great weekend and the greatness is following you into the week!

I'm slowly getting snuggled back into my routine. Today I'm showing you the fronts of some of the thank you cards I made. It's nice to have cards gracing the ol' blog again!

I used my Brusho backgrounds and Memory Box Distressed Collage dies.

For this one I used my NBUS "You're So Sweet" stamps from Simon Says Stamp.

This design I sto CASEd from my neighbor Chrissie at the Happy Little Stampers Retreat. Thank you, Chrissie!

As often happens with learning a new technique, you'll be seeing lots more Brushos ahead. I know they've been around ages already and I'm late to the scene.

~~~

England Epic Log

You might have noticed that Hammy took a back seat on my England trip. That happened so he could make a "surprise" grand entrance at each location. Ever since we've been home, however, he's been insistent that he be given his 15 minutes of FAME!

So here is the Hammy Gallery: "England From a Teacup" with his notes:

I traveled in a pretty little makeup bag, along with my very own flag of the UK. The bag was comfy and I could breath fine, but it bent my whiskers something awful!

Starting in Southampton in the foreground, you can see I had a blast at each stop along the way.

I was able to spend the entire Retreat weekend out of my hiding place and among talented friends. To show off, I learned how to balance a bottle of glue on my head.

The best part? Everywhere I went, I got lots of cuddles!

It was a pleasure being a tiny honorary member of the English society. As my friend Shirley said, it was a bit like being a tiny Olympic torch of love being passed around from friend to friend!

Me, again. Speaking of friends, when I started planning this trip almost a year ago, I made an assumption that the friends I knew in each particular county of England all knew each other, too, and were already friends because they lived nearby each other. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that a lot of them didn't know each other, so it was a wonderful bonus to sit back and watch new friendships being formed around the tables at each location. I was thrilled to be a Friendship Matchmaker everywhere I went!

Introducing Jack

It's was a busy weekend here with the boys and the granddogs.

Wait. What? Dogs with an ess? Why, yes! Allow me to introduce Jack, a German Shorthaired Pointer:

Duke's got a new playmate!

Duke loves mini-duke, but then again ...

~~~

It's hard to beat a new puppy for cuteness, but I'm leaving you with this:

Yup, Hammy has a new playmate, too, thanks to my friend Annie! I think we need to have a Naming Contest, don't you? Let me have your best ideas!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

NOTE: Anybody else having trouble with the "follow" button now that they have changed this feature (again!) to make it easier to unfollow? Being able to unfollow is all well and good, but now every time I go to follow someone I get the broken e symbol with an apology. It's been going on for several days and I'm curious if it's happening to others. Thank you!

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England Grand Tour, Leg X ~ London

Greetings! 

Finally I have returned with the last chapter in my Grand Tour across England! I took 1,677 photos on my trip, a ton of them in London, so it's taken a while to go through them all. Without further a dew, I will get right to it!

With hugs all around, and new friendships formed, we all said goodbye to a wonderful weekend Happy Little Stampers Retreat in Swindon. From there my sweet friend Val gave me a lift to London, the last stop on my tour. Since a major bike race was taking place in the city that day, we detoured north of the metropolis to Val's beautiful home (where she has the wee-est and most organized craft space ever!) to pick up her husband Jim.

[For this part of the story Jim is playing the Sherpa role normally played in my life by the Mister. Bless him. Well, bless them both for that matter.]

After a quick refresher, we embarked together on the London Tube with my worldly possessions which had grown considerably following the Retreat. As I'd never been on the Tube, it was yet another adventure! It is much like our BART system in the Bay Area. Detraining at Pimlico we found my hotel somewhat hidden like a jewel among the bushes.

Val and Jim kindly schlepped me and my schtuff up to the fourth floor. As the hotel was not air-conditioned, my room was 92-96 degrees and the window would only open three inches to stop overwrought hot and sticky guests from jumping. It was no wonder that Val and Jim declined my invitation to sit a few minutes to rest! Again, bless. And many thanks to them both for their generosity and assistance!

I could write a play about what happened next ... . It's a very long story but the punch line is that I ended up eating my dinner in a nearby restaurant dressed in my pajamas under a light jacket. In London. Yes, yup, yes I did. Please don't tell the children.

~~~

In the light of the next day, I could look back and laugh at the comedy of errors from the night before and look forward to the arrival of my long-time bloggie friend Gay Peplow of Crafty Musings.

You can tell from that beautiful smile that Gay was one very fun lady to share my London adventure with! Gay lives about an hour outside the city so she had to trek in by train each day. Originally we had made plans to have lunch on one of the two days I was in London, but as the time drew closer, Gay offered to join me as I saw the highlights of London both days. She also asked me about seeing a play and made all the arrangements for that and for tickets on the bus tour. What a doll!

So you know how I've been bragging that I brought the California sunshine with me and had some sun every day of my trip for fifteen days in a row? Well, shootums, can you believe the rain decided to appear for London? It did dawn lovely, so I was caught unprepared without my rain jacket. Gay loaned me her scarf to cut down the chill as we gamely stayed on the upper deck of the bus despite the drizzle. And despite the drizzle, I got some fabulous photos of this fantastic city.

Some iconic images.

Statues.

More statues.

Jewels.

Enjoying an impromptu and delicious pub meal Monday evening.

Tuesday dawned cloudy and I wore my jacket, but the drizzles were inter mitten. We walked around the city and even went shopping for a second suitcase for me in Primark. I love the architecture of the city, both the old and the new. 

The green space and majestic ancient trees were awesome throughout the city. Most of these photos were taken in St. James Park.

Flowers were all around.

Snapshots.

Before the theatre on Tuesday night, I took a quick photo of Gay outside Pret a Manger.

When I had the film developed (haha), I couldn't help but get a kick out of the guy standing near Gay.

Ahhh, people are sometimes funny and adorable, aren't they? I can't imagine what I said to Gay in the moment that caused such a cute reaction in this guy!

All too soon, we were at the Apollo Theatre.

Windblown and rained on, we were absolutely delighted to be topping off our adventure by seeing "Wicked!"

Thank you, Gay, for the gift of YOU and more for two memorable days in London! It was a perfect ending to a truly perfect trip of a lifetime!

~~~

I hope my trip will inspire you if you ever find yourself thinking you "can't" do something that you want to do! I still have to pinch myself that I did this all by myself even with lots of planning and the help of dozens of dear friends! Believe me, if I can do this, YOU can do anything!


I'll be taking a break to continue to make and write thank you notes (showing the backs of the first batch). Plus we are going to enjoy having the grandtwins for a weekend sleepover!

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS! Life is too short! 

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England Grand Tour, Leg IX ~ Swindon Craft Retreat

Greetings, my friends!

I hope you don't mind, but I have two more posts to finish up my amazing adventure in England. Thank you to those of you who have journeyed along with me every step of the way as I write this photo diary on my blog!

You might want to grab an epic beverage as this one is especially epic in length!

The next day dawned like this:

One of the ladies attending Kylie's Happy Little Stampers Retreat in Swindon was my friend Carol. And my good fortune continued because Carol lives very near Knutsford, so she kindly gave me a ride down to Swindon for the Retreat, saving me a train ride. Thank you, Carol!

Most of the happy little stampers arrived Friday afternoon and checked in. I had made arrangements to meet with another bloggie friend Amanda that afternoon before the Retreat started. She lives nearby, but she hadn't heard about the Retreat until after it was filled. Here we are:

Thank you, Amanda, for popping in and bringing me a delish treats bag! It was a pleasure to meet you!

~~~

After cocktails, we all went to our rooms to freshen up for dinner. I came down fashionably late in order to make a proper entrance as Miss USA!

My talented American friend Kim made me the Miss USA sash! I borrowed the gloves and tiara from the Mister. Stop it now, settle down, that's a joke! I felt this attention-seeking moment had to be done as I was the only one coming all the way from the States. (As it happens, I was not literally the only American at the Retreat because Melissa is also from the USA, but she currently resides in Germany and she and her family came from there to the Retreat.) 

I couldn't resist passing my tiara around the table for photo ops and since you are all no doubt sick of seeing my mug in the photos with each lady I've met, these are sans me!

I will list each name (linked to their blog if they have one) row by row, starting in the top row left:

Anita Bowden (Neet & Crafty), Anne Ray (Stargroves), Carol Steedman (Inky Fingers), Chrissie Stokes (Simply One-of-a-Kind), Sarah Platt (Sazzle Dazzle Crafts), Debbie Morgan (Ribbon Dreams), Dianne Stewart, Julie Beech (Crafted by Jules), Kathy Kirby (Purple Princess Diaries) [you'd think, being a princess, that she'd be better at wearing a tiara!], Kylie Purtell (Kylie is Addicted to Stamps) [the Retreat Founder and Head Mistress!], Lilian Beazer (Lilian's Crafting Blog), Maree Hillery [Kylie's Mum], Melissa (Honeybee Lane) [wearing the full regalia!], Marina Mode (My Perfect Life), Monika Skinner (Tinker Cards Designs), Sue Jones, and Val Nolan (Canonbury Creations).  (Let me know if any names/blogs are incorrect or the links aren't working.)

These ladies are just as talented and sweet in real life as I imagined them to be! And don't they all look so fetching in a tiara!!

The hotel facilities, food, and grounds were sensational!

~~~

We all turned in at a reasonable hour, anxious to get up the next morning and get crafty!

We were each given generous goody bags, including Brushos, and Kylie was a marvelous teacher!

I had actually given away a set of Brushos earlier this year after having them sit on Mt. NBUS for over a year, so I was bemused by the irony of the workshop materials and lesson. In truth, I felt like I already had enough backgrounds to last my lifetime, but I have to say I really enjoyed using the Brushos and I'm glad I now have a set again! I was also surprised by how easy it is to use them in a small controlled space for CAS cards and stencil work so I know I will be using them often.

Having said that, you can see below that I couldn't wait to have a sprawled-out go at them as soon as I could yesterday!

~~~

But I digest. Back to the workshop, here we are hamstering away with the Brushos, our work laid out on the floor to dry, at lunch, cards from the Aussie Christmas card challenge, and Hammy saying hello:

Several of us made ATCs (Artist Trading Cards [like baseball cards]) to swap:

While we were swapping, we played a couple of games of Twister!

~~~

Before I left on my adventure, I thought about what I could bring as a gift to all the lovely women I was meeting along the way. Since I was making ATCs for the Retreat attendees, I decided to make one for everyone I was meeting in England.

Here you can see that "everyone" turned out to be 60 women so that's how many ATCs I made!

It wasn't much as gifts go, but it was perfect for not taking up too much room in the suitcase and everyone now has a little pimento of my visit. On the back I put the date that I "met" them online (most of them dating back to early 2012) and the date we met for reals. Here is a closeup:

(Don't tell Hammy, but the image is actually a Stamping Bella mouse stamp which I, erm, had to perform a wee operation on!)

~~~

Midafternoon Saturday, I had another bloggie friend stop by to meet me. Please met the darling Samantha Elliott of Hettiecraft, who drove all the way to Swindon from Wales!

Sam is a sweetheart and guess what she gave me? An adorable for-real hamster stamp from Deep Red, so now I'm set when I need to make ATCs for my next adventure! Thank you for driving all that way to meet me IRL, Sam! And thank you for the stamp and scarf! Kisses to my namesake henny girl!

~~~

On Sunday morning, Carol gave us all a fantastic lesson on masking. Her talent is phenomenal and we all learned so much from her! Also, we all immediately went online to purchase everything she touched in her demonstrations! (Don't tell our husbands!)

It was a fabulous Retreat and weekend! Here is a photo of the beautiful cards and Brusho art we all made:

Some little imp photo-bombed the image. More from him soon!

Thank you so much, Kylie! I am still in awe that you managed to arrange this Retreat from Australia, which went off without a hitch that I could see. If it weren't for your bravery going for it, I wouldn't have been brave enough to use the Retreat as my launching point to go on my solo adventure around England! Mwah! I can't wait to hear where next year's retreat will be!

~~~

Okay, diary-wise I'm off to London next and that will be the last installment. (Hey, I heard that huge sigh of relief back there!)

I found out we had incredibly hot days while I was away which was very hard on some of the garden. Some of the succulents, on the other hand, LOVED the heat. This one hasn't bloomed in the three years I've had it and what a showy magnificent bloom it is!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

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Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me
your email address so I can respond. Thank you!