Home sweet home.....

Just a short post today to say that I am happy to be back home after being in hospital last week to have various parts of my interior operatively removed. The staff in the *Florence Nightingale* hospital here were all very friendly and caring, and I always had the feeling that I was in competent hands. I will not describe any details of the Op or the pains and discomfort afterwards, suffice to say that it all went without complications, and it's a good feeling to be back in my own four walls. Came home with a taxi yesterday, and the driver was very grumbly that it was such a short drive - about one mile - and dumped me and my case unceremoniously in front of the door, and refused to carry my case up the stairs. So I dragged it up to the second floor with my last vestige of strength and draped myself on the couch to recover! Hope to be able to get back to doing some crafting in the course of the week when I can sit and move with less discomfort and fatigue, but just now it's rest that I need. The picture of Florence Nightingale - who did her nursing training here at the hospital in Kaiserswerth - visiting her patients does NOT show the ward I was on; I had a large, quiet room just for me. But hats off to a great lady who revolutionised caring for the sick in her day.
Thanks to all my friends, especially Sue B,Gina, Alma, Maria & Netty, who sent me encouraging texts and mails containing lots of healing sparkles. So, here's hoping we all stay healthy.
Have a good week you all!

Some owl tags for the LIIU Challenge No.3

Decided to make myself a lazy day today after a few very stressful days with too little sleep, a lot of work and no time for crafting! So I declared today to bath and craft day, and up till now it has been very relaxing. Been playing with some new TH embossing folders, and made 2 tags and a card inspired by the LIIU challenge, which involves using your favourite stamp and a charm. My favourite tag at the moment is the owl, which I have used here. The small tag has been embossed with the TH notebook folder, distressed, and then embellished with some black netting, half a lace doily, an owl which has been stamped, embossed, brushed with perfect pearls and then cut out and mounted onto the tag. The eyes have been enhanced with soot black stickles, and the owl is holding a key-charm in his beak and some flowers in his claws. The card has been stamped with a script stamp using resist ink, then distressed, and a silver moon and the owl stamped over it. The owl has been embossed and brushed with perfect pearls, and the card has been completed with some hand doodling, a prima vine and a TH *On the edge* die cut, for which I used cardboard which has been embossed with bronze and silver. The third tag has been stamped and embossed as before, and then placed behind a frame, which has also been stamped, embossed and cut out by hand. Added some flowers, a bow with a rose charm and a white down feather as decoration.

Which Witch lives in Which Witch House?

One of my favourite songs when I was at school was *The hag’s astride* from Robert Herrick, an English poet who lived from 1591 to 1674. While I was making the Halloween tags, the melody was going round in my head, a fitting background for spooky pictures. The tag has been cut from some cardboard packaging, distressed with TH inks in blue, grey, yellow and green tones, and stamped with some flowery scrolls. The haunted house is a Sizzix die-cut, as are the bats and the skeleton. The other decorations were bought from a local stationery shop last year; the skull badge was on my sneakers and the other skull part of a bracelet. The frog prince has been sitting on my desk waiting to be used for a long time. BTW, I never tried to kiss him, I don’t believe in fairy tales….


The Hag.
THe Hag is astride,
This night for to ride;
The Devill and shee together:
Through thick, and through thin,
Now out, and then in,
Though ne'r so foule be the weather.
2. A Thorn or a Burr
She takes for a Spurre:
With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,
Through Brakes and through Bryars,
O're Ditches, and Mires,
She followes the Spirit that guides now.
3. No Beast, for his food,
Dares now range the wood;
But husht in his laire he lies lurking:
While mischeifs, by these,
On Land and on Seas,
At noone of Night are working,
4. The storme will arise,
And trouble the skies;
This night, and more for the wonder,
The ghost from the Tomb
Affrighted shall come,
Cal'd out by the clap of the Thunder.

Tombstone City Revisited....

I love making things for autumn and Halloween, and today I just needed a bit of fun….The *tombstones* have been cut by hand from white cardstock, and distressed with TH inks in pumice stone, weathered wood and forest green. The die cuts are from Sizzix, the owls stamps are from Hero Arts, and the foliage stamp is from LaBlanche. Added some numbers, a Prima flower, a skull, a text stamp *By the pricking of my thumbs….* and some hand doodling. The tags were great fun to make, and just something different. The small *graves* on 2 of the tags open up to reveal Halloween surprises….

Nostalgic tags for the *let's ink it up* challenge

I don't usually enter many challenges, but decided to do one for a change...Made 2 tags using ceramic paper, the background has been stamped first with resist ink, then distressed with TH inks, and stamped using archival ink for the face and stazon for the owl and skull. The images have then been clear embossed. The owl and the skull have been powdered with perfect pearls. The tags have then been embellished with lace, flowers, buttons and some hand doodling. Thanks for looking!

A-Z of me

I made this A-Z of me last year, I think in October or November, worked a whole week non- stop to get it done. Once I started I couldn't stop, so I just kept going till it was finished. And my flat looked like I had been crafting more or less non-stop for weeks, chaos as far as the eye could see, and even more where it couldn't. (Well, actually, nothing unusual, is it?) And as I have been crafting a lot this week, too, doing nice, messy things with ink and embossing powders, it looks pretty awful.... But next week I really am going to clear up. (Well, I have to, because my friend Inge is coming to stay with me for a few days....) Reminds me of one of the sayings of St. Augustine, *Lord, make me holy, but not yet*. And for some reason I didn't blog it, so here it is now; enjoy, and have a nice weekend, whatever you have planned!

The last of the cardboard box tags - for this week!

OK, I am sure I will be back in business as soon as I have dug the rest of the cardboard out of my bottomless hall closet. But it's the last one for today, anyway!



Have a nice day!