Am I feeling guilty?

Am I feeling guilty that I've not posted recently? No, not really - life has a habit of getting in the way of stuff like this, and that's just the way it is.

I wish I could report great progress on the the crafty front but alas! It's not to be. By the time I've been to work / walked the dogs / fed the cats / washed up / done the housework / been to choir practice / been shopping etc etc there never seems to be any time left.

Does this sound familiar? Please tell me it's not just me that life happens to!

I have been taking some photos, though, and I do like this one of a lovely, sun-lit fern.

Hope you have been lucky enough to have some first-hand experience of the beautiful weather I've been enjoying (even from inside my office - at least I can see blue sky!).

Time for a birthday card

Managed to grab a little time in the craft room yesterday - ably (??!!) assisted by Oscar, our big, black, fluffy cat who could decide if he wanted to sit on my chair or on the desk. As you can imagine, neither was particularly convenient!

Still, I managed to create something without (I hope) too much cat fur attached to it, although pink and black are a pretty cool combination!

The card is for a friend whose party we'll be attending later in the month, and although the photo is pretty poor, I'm quite pleased with the results!

RIP, big ginge!

Bit of a sad, non-crafty post today. We had to have one of our four-legged friends put to sleep this morning.

Nielsen, a lovely, affable big ginger and white tom, was getting on for 18, and had been living with an ever-growing tumour on his chin for some time. We always said that as long as he was happy, healthy, and enjoying a 'proper' cat's life (eating, sleeping, purring and generally being in charge!), that was fine. But recently, he had lost more and more weight, was getting increasingly bedraggled as he struggled to wash, and his chin was clearly getting sore.

So today we took the sad decision that we knew was inevitable at some point, and made arrangements with our very supportive vets practice. And Mr Mole was with him when he went through the big cat flap in the sky ....

Although I'm crying as I type this, I know that he had a long and happy life, gave lots of pleasure (and received lots of love, fuss and tuna!), and that we've done the right thing by him.

So raise your metaphorical glasses and drink a toast with me to Neely Squealy!

A Passion for Promarkers entry!

Just as the title says, really! I have finally managed to make a card using an image coloured in with my new Promarker pens, and followed the sketch template on the A Passion for Promarkers challenge site.
I've looked at this site quite often and frequently thought that I'd like to give one of the challenges a try .... and now, at last, I have!
This particular challenge not only provided a sketch to use as a springboard for inspiration, but also stipulated that you had to make your own blooms. My flowers are quite simple to make - I just use a series of roughly torn circles, distress and ink the edges, crumple, and paint the edges with gesso to give them a bit more rigidity and longevity.
Not sure where the image came from - may be from my own huuuuge stamp collection, or it may have been one I received in a stamped image swap many years ago!