Kool Kitty Musings

A picture is worth...

A few words at least!

I have been a bit awol from the PC of late but here's how my week has looked.

 

My blueberries started ripening at the weekend, I'm afraid I ate the best before realising I should have taken a photo! Oops.

 

Finally one of my lavender plants has flowered again - the others are still recovering from the snow we had this winter I think.

 

I have a little helper in the garden munching its way through the aphid population, I hope.

 

Saturday I was a busy baking bee - I tried out Nigella's lemon syrup loaf. It was very good indeed! But I am still after a nice crunchy tart glaze for my lemon loaves rather than syrup.

 

In case the lemon loaf wasn't enough for afternoon tea, I also made strawberry cheesecake cupcakes.

 

I needed to borrow a teapot of all things, still haven't bought one, but it was a nice spread with lots of catching up.

 

Afternoon tea also included some Razberri Stolli mixed in with my posh raspberry lemon pressé!

 

The weather was still stunning so we headed over to the park to walk off some of the calories.

 

Sunday was the day for an outing... down the coast.

 

A quick stop at Sandsend before heading onto...

 

Whitby!

Where everyone seemed to have descended. It was heaving but lovely nonetheless.

 

The weather was perfect, well perhaps a bit too hot, there wasn't much of a breeze and I ended up with quite a rosy complexion!

 

We managed to enjoy our fish and chips for lunch without too much interference from these guys. Although that was shortly after one had swooped down and taken a whole burger from someone's hands just as they were about to take their first bite!

 

We even went up to the abbey, where there was thankfully more of a breeze then hopped back in the car for the next stop.

 

Robin Hood's Bay - where I am sure we burnt off the fish and chips from the climb back to the car. We were there just as the tide was coming in but my oh my, I was actually pretty surprised that I made it back up the steep hill considering the trek down seemed so long. LOL

Alas no pics of the sheep on the drive home through the moors but it was a lovely day out, and I just needed a few days to recover! LOL Here's hoping the weather of last weekend makes another appearance - who knows Sunday could be bbq day!?

52 Cards Challenge: Week 26

Morning everyone!

Here we are with another prompt for the challenge, I have no idea where last week flew to and I really could do with another weekend to recover from the activities of thr weekend that just went!

Also I have acquired a rather lovely shade of lobster red despite the amount of sunscreen applied!

But anyway, here's the prompt for this week - my card will follow once I get a moment to sit down and get the trimmer out. ;o)

 

Should be a very versatile one, right? :o)

ETA: Here's the card I made for this week - go here for the deets.

 

Happy creating!

Hopefully the end to a manic week

It has definitely been one of those weeks for me - won't bore you with the details but I have been wondering if I've been living my own life at times! LOL

And another example of how manic it's been is the fact I had to take my photo for this week's DCM dare as soon as I got up this morning... in fact I need to hurry or I'll be late for work.

So this week's theme set by Lythan as "Something old, something new..." and here's my interpretation:

 

Papers: Crate Paper
Stickers: Crate Paper
Dies: Spellbinders, PTI
Sticker: Crate Paper
Ribbon: The Ribbon Girl
Rub-on: Basic Grey
Metal frame: Ranger
Rose: Wild Orchid Crafts
Pearls and bling: Kaisercraft
Other: 3D foam, Distress Stickles, Crackle Glaze, Distress Ink

 

And my elements for the challenge?

Something old... Basic Grey Rub-on and that little frame
Something new... Crate Paper products
Something borrowed... The black thread was from a clothing label, I find them very useful to hang onto!
Something blue... Well, aqua blue, ribbon and paper details

And now, I need to get dressed and get to work!

Here's hoping 5 p.m. today marks the start of less manic times. ;o)

52 Cards Challenge: Week 25

Welcome to another week and another prompt!

 

Sounds nice and friendly doesn't it? Lots of scope for various themes.

This week I have been a bit more organised and actually got a card to share:

 

Papers: Crate Paper
Stickers: Crate Paper
Dies: Papertrey Ink
Stamp: Papertrey Ink
Pearls: Kaisercraft
Bling: Prima
Punch: Martha Stewart
Seam binding: The Ribbon Girl
Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts
Other: 3D foam, Distress Stickles, Corner Chomper

 

Nice playing with my little pad of Emma's Shoppe papers from Crate and the matching stickers - lovely stuff!

Hope you have a creative week!

This and that...

I know I've been a bit quiet this week - well I've not had much to report. The weather has been ghastly but I have taken a few snaps of various things and have been rummaging away in my photo folder today trying to delete the naff snaps and play with the decent ones.

First up, it's Father's Day and I baked a batch of coffee and walnut cupcakes to take round:

 

They're from the Baking Magic book and will hopefully be the perfect post-Sunday-roast treat.

 

Although he professes to having no "favourite" cake, coffee and walnut is apparently on my dad's top ten list... although he seems to have liked all the cupcakes supplied to date! This recipe used glacé icing instead of buttercream so will see how that works overall as I've not made glacé since I was little.

In the garden it's been really easy to miss the changes in my roses (which I totally love).

 

Here's one of the Evelyn rosebuds opening one night, by the next evening they looked like this:

Indoors my mini peppers have finally started to turn red:

 

Wednesday night we were meant to be out and about for photography class shooting at the beach.

Well, 3 of us were there before the weather turned and it was called off and we had to return back to the classroom.

Managed to get some post-fish and chips shots though while the clouds rolled in:

 

The surf was up and a lot of folks were out enjoying the waves.

 

This is my favourite shot of the pier, it's so atmospheric and I love the little raindrops in the corner too.

 

And there are some of those mad surfers, although to be fair they were dressed for the weather better than us!

Anyway, I'd best get the cupcakes boxed up and be on my way. ;o)

Nothing like a little drama to end your day...

While I was round at next door's watering their plants the key in my front door slipped the lock and basically locked me out of my house, the one and only time I didn't take my keys with me, I thought I'd just quickly nip round to do my watering and nip back in.

Well, imagine my surprise when I went to open the door, and it didn't.

Anyway long story short, thankfully neighbour over the road (with a very handy ladder) came to my rescue when he got in and I am now happily back indoors and unlikely to ever be parted from my house keys again!

Needless to say I've not managed to get anything made for tomorrow's DCM dare so I shall be admiring their creations like everyone else this week. :o)

Here's hoping tomorrow is far less dramatic!

52 Cards Challenge: Week 24

Another Monday, another prompt.

 

• Baby (theme/colours/embellishments/words)
• Alpha (printed/stickers/stamps)
• Stitching

I've not managed to make a card yet for this week's prompt, but that won't be a problem if the rain and cold weather continues!

Hope to update this post with a sample very soon. :o)

Eta; here's my card for this week's prompts:

 

Papers: Crate Paper
Die cuts: Crate Paper
Stamps: Banana Frog
Die: Papertrey Ink
Other: 3D foam, sewing machine, twine

 

I'm kinda happy with how it turned out, I really love this Crate line with it's little owls. ;o)

Happy creating!

Sleepy Saturday...

The result of insomnia that kicked in at 3 a.m. and really dull weather has left me feeling a bit tired today. I managed to tick a few things off on my to-do list, but one of these items was catching up on all the tv stuff I'd recorded and failed to watch. So I am now up-to-date with The Chicago Code, still annoying that it got cancelled, a couple of episodes of Human Planet, some other random stuff and then I tidied up my craft space and got down to catching up with this week's 52 Cards Challenge prompt. Better late than never! ;o)

The elements were pale colours, vellum and stamping, perfect for indulging in my current obsession with peachy colours, plus I ended up having a PTI fest on this one:

Cardstock: PTI
Stamps: PTI
Dies: PTI, Spellbinders
Felt: PTI
Brads: Lasting Impressions
Other: Vellum, sewing machine, white embossing powder

 

I used a scallop circle die to make the flower - it's rather lumpy so this is one card to deliver in person I think!

Also love my Memento New Sprout ink pad, it's a lovely shade of light green.

Also have some other pics to share from last weekend when I made the Hummingbird Grasshopper pie from Cake Days for my brother's birthday:

 

I added almost twice as much green food colouring than directed in the recipe as it just didn't look green enough to me, plus next time I will definitely reduce the amount of butter in the biscuit base as it was too solid for my taste and I prefer it a bit more crunchy and crumbly. Oh and probably will add a few more drops of peppermint too as we like it minty fresh in our family!

But the birthday boy was happy and my John Lewis pie dish finally got an outing!

 

There was even champers to go with it. However birthday boy didn't want any photos taking of him... sigh

Next time I make grasshopper pie I will probably halve the recipe too, it was a big hit, but there certainly was a lot of it! ;o)

 

It was yummy mind!

Also the garden has been looking nice - lots more roses to enjoy from my old-timers that were planted last year, and now waiting for the new roses planted after Christmas to bloom.

But I am rather liking this allium:

 

And in a rare bit of dusky sunlight:

 

Well, here's hoping tomorrow brings some actual sunshine. ;o)

No your eyes do not deceive you...

 

It's a Christmas card.

And why is there a Christmas card being featured on my blog today?

Well it's Friday, so that means it's another DCM dare! And my fellow Christmas-stash-lover-in-crime DT teamie Jo has set a challenge to feature Father Christmas on a card. Go check out all the fab cards on the DCM blog, even if you don't fancy contemplating Christmas cards there is one cool card that's definitely going to make you smile. ;o)

Anyway for my card I used:
Card blank: DCWV
Paper: Echo Park, American Crafts
Stamps: Papertrey Ink
Sticker: Echo Park
Dies: Spellbinders, Papertrey Ink
Felt: Papertrey Ink
Bling: Prima
Other: Striped ribbon, Frosted Lace and Platinum Stickles, 3D foam, Copics, Sanding file

 

It doesn't really show up so well in the photo but I used Frosted Lace Stickles all round the tag and to accent the lines inside.

So there you have it, possibly my only Christmas card of the summer. ;o)

Pinning like there's no tomorrow...

Yes, I have disappeared into the inspirational vortex that is Pinterest, where I can happily pin everything and anything I see that sets my heart aflutter...

It's only been a week or so and already I have amassed quite a lot of eye candy... in a number of categories.

Colours

 

Photography

 

Baking

 

The home 

And that's just a small sample...

Must say though it is almost as good as retail therapy in a way, much less depressing than window shopping and much cheaper than online shopping! ;o)

52 Cards Challenge: Week 23

Welcome to another week and a new prompt.

This week's three elements are...

Stamping, Pale colours, and Vellum... hm this will be an interesting one, I will need to dig out my vellum!

No card project from me today, but hope to upload one for this prompt soon. :o)

Happy creating!

ETA the card I made for this prompt:

 

Cardstock: PTI
Stamps: PTI
Dies: PTI, Spellbinders
Felt: PTI
Brads: Lasting Impressions
Other: Vellum, sewing machine, white embossing powder

 

June flowers

Hard to believe that we're at the start of a new month - where on earth did May go?

Well, the nice thing about a new month is that it's another flower of the month dare over on the DCM blog - and June's flowers are roses and Honeysuckle. I would love to see what honeysuckle creations are out there as I went for a delve in my mulberry rose basket... ;o)

 

Papers: Fancy Pants
Roses: Wild Orchid Crafts
Dies: Spellbinders, Papertrey Ink
Stamp: Papertrey Ink
Pearls: Kaisercraft
Punch: Martha Stewart
Ribbon: The Ribbon Reel
Other: Liquid Pearls, 3D foam 

 

I used a blush pink cardstock to make the card blank and tinted it with chamomile ink from PTI just to give it a more aged look - I also did this over the cream silk ribbon I threaded through my punched border.

Well, I have plenty more roses in my little Ikea basket, so no doubt they'll be appearing on another card soon!