ArtyFartyAnnie

The poor garden has been a bit confoooozed this year with the erratic weather and lack of the usual attention I would be lavishing on it, but it's finally flourishing despite all that. Here are a couple of the Stars of the Show - firstly, the strawberries YUM! We've had so many fruits and this year John has been going out morning and evening to pick them as soon as they're ripe - last year we lost over half of them to our various wildlife visitors, but this year we're getting a punnetful every single day. A new venture for me is the globe artichoke - I love to eat these, but have never grown or even cooked one - aren't they spectacular?! Need to look up when to harvest them ... The foxgloves I've been nurturing for two years were well worth the wait as well - this was taken a couple of weeks ago, before they really took off Perennial sweet peas have survived John's efforts to tidy them up last year ... And we have some more babies on th...

Last week I made Key LIme Pie from a recipe on food.com  and it was so yummy that John had to take  the leftovers in to work to stop us from eating the whole lot! The recipe calls for key limes of course, which you can't get here in the UK, so I used normal limes. Also Graham Crackers, which I had to look up to find out what they were, and the nearest we have here are Digestive Biscuits, so I used the reduced fat ones. I also substituted reduced fat condensed milk and it all seemed to work fine. This pie was SO easy to make bit tasted so luxurious - here it is just out of the oven, smelling deLISHously temptacious! The hardest part was getting it out of the tin in one piece, but here it is (with the important taster piece cut out - well you wouldnt want to offer it to friends without checking it first would you?! And here is a mouthwatering close-up - well my mouth is watering anyway! Try it for yourself - here's the link to the recipe again Enjoy! :o)xxx

It's Week Three of Summer of Color over at Twinkle Twinkle , where the lovely Kristin is giving us a new and gorgeous colour combo to play with every week for six weeks. The difference this year is that we all get to vote for the next option - can't wait to find out what is in store next but we'll have to wait until tomorrow. If you fancy having a go, it's not too late to join in. You can create anything you like as long as you use the colours and one of the best things about SOC is the variety - everything from nail art to ATCs to cupcakes to photography is fair game. Each week Kristin puts together a fabulous prize in the chosen colours and you can link up your project for a chance to win - bonus!!! Actually I'm a bit late to go in the draw for this week, but you can link up and join in anyway so that's what I'm going to do. So, without further ado, here are my Lime Green & Purple journal pages This picture doesn't show the details too...

Case File #78 over at CSI this week was full of fun ideas and colours and I thought it would be the perfect foil for a picture which always makes me smile. Here's the Case File (click on the image to enlarge) CSI Mastermind Debbi Tehrani has found another intriguing Scene for us to investigate - from this inspiration image Debbi pulls five colours, lots of ideas for design elements and plenty of journaling prompts to get us going. In order to solve the case, you have to use the following Clues All five colours from the Scheme At least two items of Evidence At least one piece of Testimony Each week there is also a new set of CSI Coordinates designed especially for the case by the talented Michele Singh . These are printable images, journaling spots and patterned papers which CSI members can download and print off or use for digi scrapping - they're FAB and they're FREE!!! Amazing! Here's how I solved the case, using a sketch by Sheena Rowlands for Sc...

... Yesterday, when all our troubles seemed so far away lalala :o) We're working through the alphabet over at Tag Tuesday and this week is the turn of the letter 'Y' - not an easy one to work with, but in the end I went for 'Yesterday' so I could go utterly vintage and use some gorgeous new bits and bobs ... I started with a scrap of smooth ivory card and then did lots of stamping with Jet Black Archival Ink by Ranger to create a vintage style background for this sweet little girl. The black lace is Delicate Lace stamp by Kaisercraft The pretty wording is Prairie Chic by Bo Bunny The other text is Dictionary Meanings by Kaisercraft The beautiful little girl stamp is Wavy Locks by Rubber Stamp Tapestry The splatters are a little clear stamp which came free on a magazine Even the word 'Yesterday' was done with a 99p set of tiny letter stamps Because Archival Ink is waterproof, it meant I could then go in with various shade of Distress Ink t...

Hello Happy WOYWWers!!!  If you have no idea what that means - pop over to Julia's blog The Stamping Ground and you can have a look at hundreds of other people's workdesks - it's FASCINATING, inspirational and very addictive! You can also link up to your own workdesk and show us all what you've been up to this week. So, welcome to my Very Busy Workdesk this week (it's also very messy and there's stuff all over the floor as well which you can't see here!) I've not actually managed to get my hands dirty yet today, but I've got lots of stuff READY :o) This main heap here is the beginnings of my Find Your Voice project - well, actually TWO projects, because in typical Piscean fashion I can't make my mind up which to do. Find Your Voice is a free 8 week storytelling workshop being run by Kristin Tweedale and it just started on Monday - very exciting! Pop over to Kristin's blog to find out all about it This week we have be...

Ok so now you're going to be seriously impressed - after making an eejit of myself earlier and rushing to finish two pages two days too late to enter the June challenge at Sketch365  (scroll down a couple of inches to my previous post earlier this evening) I decided to quickly do another one for the July challenge at Sketch 365 and here it is, done and dusted in less than an hour This time the sketch was created by Sheena Rowland s and I'll be using it again and again I think - thanks Sheena! I'm also going to link this to Jennifer's Projccts That Wow! weekly participation prize. This week it's been all about shapes, colours and patterns. Check out Jennifer's blog here  - you'll find loads of ideas and inspiration on there. Thanks for popping in, see you again soon Annie xxx

Well I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself - not only had I finished my page for the Sketch365 June challenge, but I did an extra one to go with it in less than an hour (and anyone who knows me will know just how impressive that is for me!) So, I've just gone to link it up on Sketch365 (the sketch challenge blog for Scrap365 magazine) and it turns out that the closing date was TWO DAYS AGO!!! Not so clever now huh?! Here are the pages anyway - the sketch was by Birgit Koopsen  (worth a visit just to look at the gorgeous picture of mini albums at the top of the page - wow!) Bless - Rich is nearly 31 now - but he's still cool! :o) xxx

... and Kristin over at Twinkle Twinkle has given us another deLISHous combination of colours to play with - this week was all about orange and hot pink ! Yum! Here's my effort - the second page in my fledgling art journal I had lots of fun with gesso, texture pastes, inks, acrylic paint, pens, stamps and very mucky fingers!!! Did a bit more work on last week's page as well (which was citron green and turquoise ) A lot more painting and pasting and I'm quite enjoying cutting the words from spare pages of the book instead of handwriting, so I may carry that idea through along with the black inking, to pull them all together a bit. Not sure ... never done this before - how exciting!!! :o) Check out all the amazing and varied works of art at Twinkle Twinkle - you'll be inspired! Thanks for visiting - see you again soon! Annie x

Hi everyone, Case File #77 over at CSI this week is all lush green leafiness and full of inspiration from nature - absolutely perfect for this picture of my dear friend Maggie looking so beautiful on her wedding day. Here's the Case File (click on the image to enlarge it)  As always, the wonderful Debbi Tehrani has found us an intriguing Scene to investigate this week - from this inspiration image, Debbi takes the five colours for the Scheme, design elements for Evidence and journaling prompts for Testimony - (CSI = Color, Stories, Inspiration). In order to solve the case, we have to use All five colours in the Scheme At least two items of Evidence At least one piece of testimony To help find these clues, CSI members can download a new set of CSI Coordinates for each Case - these are gorgeous printable papers, images and journaling spots designed by talented artist Michele Singh and they are all archived for CSI members to use any time and they're f...

... it's probably not what you're thinking, although it did arrive in a plain brown package ;o) This month, John and I have been mostly eating experiments in Cajun Cuisine, because I have been practising for his upcoming birthday party in July. We decided that a Cajun them would be fun, because we love the music and we love the food - think "Jambalaya, Crawfish Pie, File Gumbo"! Of course, I love to cook and (beingOCD me) I want to make it as authentic as possible - hence lots of research and all the experiments. One of the first things I discovered was that Gumbo can be made with any meat or fish you can catch and put in the pot - rabbit, fish, chicken, squirrel for example. What is really important is how you thicken your Gumbo - with roux, okra or file powder - and apparently everyone has their favourite method. So, I've tried it with okra and with roux - Cajun roux is very different from the roux I would normally make say for a cheese sauce, becaus...

Happy What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday everyone! If you have no idea what I'm on about, check it out on Julia's blog here - you can link to your own workdesk and you get to nosey at other people's workdesks all over the world - brilliant fun!  Well, this is my workdesk as I left it in the wee small hours of this morning ... Just look at all that DST!!! Whatever did we do before they invented DST?! Anyway ... you know that thing where someone asks you to make something for them, because they know you do crafty stuff? You have reservations about taking it on, but you're pleased to be asked and they say there's no hurry and you find yourself saying, "yes, of course, I'd love to!" ... and then months later you still haven't even made a start and it's become this HUGE thing hanging over your head and you still don't know where to begin ...? Or is it just me??? This was one of those situations - my new sister-in-law had asked me...

X-rated! This was a tricky one - we've almost finished working through the alphabet at Tag Tuesday and this week we're on the letter 'X' ... well, I racked my tiny brain for an idea and this is what I came up with It gave me a great excuse to use this tiny handcuff pinched from this year's valentine, and I also used up some tiny scraps of ribbons, feather trim and tulle, finishing off with a tiny red rose to make it more romantic than rude! Hope you like it, thanks for peeking! Annie :o)xxx

... Citron Green and Turquoise (yum yum) I love this colour combo - what a mouthwateringly delicious starter to Summer of Color 2013! Every week for six weeks, Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle  is going to give us a new colour combination to play with and this year is a bit different, because we get to vote for the next set of colours. If you would like to join in with the challenge, you can create any kind of art you like using these colours - from nails to journals to bunting to cupcakes - AND as if that's not enough, you also have the chance to win a prize every week! Last year I was bowled over by all the wonderful ideas and inspiration and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with this year. So now, what about my effort for this week? Well, it might not look much, but to me this is a huge step towards finally making my first art journal -I may have to come back to it later and do a bit more, but I've made a start AT LAST so I'm well chuffed! :o) This i...

Hi Everyone, We had a fab day at the KHC yesterday - three of our regulars were away on hols, so we invited along some new faces and everyone got along famously as I knew they would. Show'n'Tell was brilliant - Kate brought along a beautiful collection of her cross stitch work; Linda showed us the gorgeous christening dress which she knitted for Kate over thirty years ago; we even had scrap pages from Karen, who is famous for forgetting her show'n'tell! It was wonderful to see all the different things people had made - what a talented bunch! photo courtesy of Karen We had all sorts going on around the table - scrappin of course, plus tag making, cross stitch, sewing and knitting. It's just the best kind of day, sitting about doing something creative whilst chatting with friends and drinking coffee. The conversation ran from work and home, children, grandchildren and men (of course) to how best to bury a dead body in the garden and various encounters with je...

...are yours and mine - Happy Days! Who else remembers the Fonz heeeeyyyyy!? I made this page for this week's case at CSI and was also inspired by Jennifer's  Projects that WOW! classes which started on Monday. Here's the CSI Case File 76 (click on the image to enlarge it) Each week, CSI Mastermind Debbi Tehrani finds a new Scene for us to look into. From this image she draws inspiration for colour combinations, journaling prompts and design elements (CSI = Color, Stories, Inspiration) In order to solve the case, you have to use the following clues All five colours in the Scheme At least two items of Evidence At least one piece of Testimony As it's the second week of the month, we also have a fab sketch from Emma Stafrace at  Page Drafts   to follow - I love Emma's sketches, they're so cool and together with these fun colours, I had a lovely time as you can probably tell! CSI members can download a new set of CSI Coordinates each w...

... WICKER! which is where this little tag for Tag Tuesday started - because this week we have reached the letter W.  My tag went off in its own direction a bit and ended up being a souvenir of a sunny day in Donegal last weekend with my Aunt and Uncle. We were told it usually rains in Ireland (especially in Donegal) but for me Ireland will always be like this - blue skies, green grass, sunshine and flowers :o) There are more details and a close-up on the Tag Tuesday blog - check it out, then you can see all the other amazing ideas people have come up with for "W". We only have X, Y and Z to go, then in July there will be a new series of prompts to inspire us ... I <3 Tags! Thanks for looking at my tag - see you again soon :o) xxx

Well we just got back from a few gorgeously sunshiney days in Ireland, so not an awful lot's been going on in my workroom this week, but here's my desk as it is today - won't be this tidy for very long! Check out lots of other much more interesting and productive desks at Stamping Ground  and why not link up and show the world What's On Your Workdesk this Wednesday too? :o) I did manage to re-assemble the mini book I was working on last week for my little niece Alice and it's all fitting together much better now I added some ribbon scraps to the rings - all the colours of the rainbow and hopefully in the right order (although I still had to say the rhyme in my head!) I've put lots of family photos in to start her off, and left some spaces for more and journaling spots for her to write in if she likes, plus pockets for storing bits and bobs she wants to keep. Next to that is a little pile of good intentions for catching up with my tags for Tag Tues...

Here's my latest boxful of goodies from Every Crafts A Pound Apart from the tapes and the 12" paper pad, everything you see here was ... guess how much?! ... £1 BARGAIN!!! The extra-strong tapes were a multi buy - 20 asstd sizes for £10 another BARGAIN!!! The Grace Taylor "Millie's Garden" 12" paper pad was £4-something and has 30 sheets of really pretty papers incl one cut-apart sheet with journaling spots. Here are some close-ups Here you can see the die cuts to match the papers - £1 The fabric covered brads are really cute - £1 Papermania journaling cards and die cuts - £1 Gorgeous pearl heart pins and S/A gems - £1 I don't know how they do it, - probably it's a case of if you see something you like, grab it whilst it's there, but things like the double sided tape multi packs always seem to be available. UK Postage is £4.95, but that seems fair enough and you can always share with a friend. Everything always arrives qui...