Goodbye Dear Friend

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
May the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,  

the Lord hold you in the palm of His hand.

Irish Blessing

Geoff quietly passed away yesterday morning at 05.35 am. Stuart has lost his very dear friend and his 'model railway' partner in crime. This gentle, sweet man will be deeply and sadly missed.

Shopping, Birthdays and Books

Life is incredibly busy at the moment, both at home and on the work front.

At home we have friends who need friends at the moment. My husband has two exceptionally good friends who mean everything to him, one he owes his life too, the other is fighting for his life being in the final stage of lung cancer. It's hard to see such a lovely man loosing his battle, it's also hard to believe that only five months ago he was fit and healthy.

And don't they say 'it never rains but it pours'? On Monday we were told that my husbands oldest sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer and Parkinson's Disease and she's in hospital at the moment. We don't know any more at this time as they are now doing more tests so we're keeping fingers and toes crossed that Joyce will have a good outcome.

At work we're really busy with a mountain of things going on and events in the planning and preparation stage. I taught a Bind It All workshop today and have another on Saturday which I'm really looking forward to... it's a canvas journal containing both canvas pages and watercolour paper. We're going to get lovely and painty and very creative - I'll try really hard to get some pictures of every ones creations that I can share with you all.

Glenda's brand new CD ROM 'Essence of Nature' arrived in the building today and they were  promptly re-packed and despatched to everyone who had placed advanced orders. This one's a beauty with gorgeous colours, inspirational designs and some lovely arty elements designed by Lesley. The class today got to work with some papers from the CD and the colour combinations they put together were fantastic.Thank you for a lovely day ladies, the art work you brought for me to see was totally stunning! Thank you for sharing.

Since my last post I have acquired a few new things as a result of a visit to York and  another trip out to the Metro Centre. I'm sure those of you who have visited Graphicus on our Open Days will have realised that I have quite a penchant for wire mannequins. Well, my collection has grown by four..... I have two that are designed to hang from the top of a door, a free standing one and a little beauty that Jill found for me to alter.

Here's one of the door hanging variety, I bought two (different designs) because one will be perfect for displaying some of my larger, articulated tag art and the other one will hang inside my studio for me to hang up my pinny's.

This one has a centre hook at the waist and several more hooks around the hem line. It looks a bit grey in this photo but it's ivory really.

I'm really pleased with this one.... it was another TK Maxx find..... love that shop! I also got a fab cream wire book stand that is perfect for displaying art canvases.

Another brill find that I must share with you is this....

I found this at my local Pound Store and yes.... it was £1.00. Brilliant for degunking my scissors and that little scraper is now in my tool kit as it is ideal for spreading texture paste and other such mediums.

My visit to the Metro Centre yielded this.... an amazing 'glittered' lap top skin. I actually bought two, the other is black and silver and features roses, a skull combined with a butterfly and sumptuous scroll work. So ME! I couldn't decide which one to put on first. It's getting a bit much when my lap top has a fashion wardrobe better than mine.

It was my Sister In Law Susan's 60th birthday a couple of weeks ago and she loves butterflies, so guess what her card featured?

These butterflies have been stamped onto acetate with StazOn and gilded with Abalone Metal Leaf.

I used a Tim Holtz Sizzix Die for the mount which is covered with Artylicious paper then stamped and embossed the beautiful corners with a glittering white embossing powder (all stamps by Elusive Images). I also made a matching box to house the card and she loved it (thank goodness).

And finally for this evening, I'll leave you with a little taster of a Piano Hinge Skewer Book that I taught on a recent workshop at Graphicus.

It's now getting seriously late and I'm always ready for some sleep after teaching for the day so I'll show you some more pictures of this and another one I've made, next time. For now......

Have fun, Happy Crafting .......create Beauty!