31 days and now it's over!!

MY EXPERIENCE OF THE 31 DAY BLOG PROMPT

Docrafts 31 day blog prompt ........Day 31

The end!!!

or

IS IT?

My experience of this 31 day blog prompt has made me realise just how many interesting people there are in craft-land! I have really enjoyed trying to rise to the challenge and hopefully posting stuff that people enjoyed reading.

I don't want it to end.........and being given something to blog about really helps for when you can't think of something yourself!!!!!

This exercise has sharpened my brain, made me think, I've even had to use a dictionary at times!! (I'm not the sharpest knife in the block!!)

Thank you Emma, for thinking up the things you have asked us to do, for finding the time in your busy life to pop in every day and please can we have some more? PRETTY PLEASE!!!

PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE!!!!

Okay, I know I'm pushing the boundaries, so I will stop now!

I have made new blogging friends, seen things from a different perspective, made things I never knew I could, and, now I am off to sulk!!

See you later

Love and hugs

Annie xxx

5 Things I Love

FIVE THINGS I LOVE

Docrafts 31 Day Blog Prompt ........Day 30

We were asked to day to write about '5 things I love!'

I want to count the following as 1 thing:

Let me introduce you to Jazz (the big one) and Bess (the dainty one) our border collies.  Here on one of our many beaches about to run around with a stick!!

Here Jazz is saying, "Do I look distinguished enough for you?" 

And here they are running with yet another stick!

Here, Bess is waiting to run down the cliffs towards the sea.


Okay now for the reality of living by the sea:

Yes I love my border collies.  They are always full of love and fun and they never argue with me because they are always right!!!!!  

I love all animals and thought I would share this information with you all:

So that is the first thing I love.

The second thing I love is the area where I live:

In particular, I love our sunsets:

More of the same area:

Here is the village where I grew up.  It's called Findochty, but pronounced Finechtie...........

And here it is looking from over the cliffs:

So that's the second thing I love.

The third thing I love is crafting.....making cards, composing verses, personalising cards, trying new techniques.  I love everything I know and will love everything I don't yet know about crafting!

All things crafty ta da te dum tra la!  (Imagine I'm signing it  to you.......or perhaps not?!)

The fourth thing I love is my friends and family:

These are two lovely friends who came from Middlewich to help me celebrate my 60th Birthday.

And the entertainment for the evening was provided by my niece's twin daughters and my fiddle tutor:

If you want to here them, then go to chloe and charlotte on YouTube.

I have been married for 30 years come this September (if all goes well) to Philip, whom I blogged about in an earlier post.  I have 2 sons and 4 grandsons and am thoroughly blessed in my life.  


I was gong to talk about my faith as the 5th thing, but I did that yesterday, so today the 5th thing I love is:


All the fabby people in the forums to which I subscribe.  There are people out in the wide world that I have met up with, that have had profound impact on my life and they don't even know it! Crafty people are the most friendly, helpful bunch of people, outside my friends and family, that I love so very much.  Crafty people share their ideas openly and enjoy seeing what others can do.  we learn from each other.  We support each other through hard times and good times.  I know I only belong to card making type forums, so I can only talk about them, and on the whole I have found no nastiness, no snobbery, no back biting (or maybe I have just been lucky or ignored it!)


I have met up with a few up and down the country on my travels and they will always be special to me.  Some have visited me at my home, which I really appreciated and enjoyed.


Here I am with lovely Liz from Bonnybridge......... we met in the car park and went and had a chat and coffee ....I will explain the maltesers if you really want me too!!!  But not today.  I met Liz through her ebay crafty group.

This is Angela, from Gourock, who visited up my way last year and we met up at Duff House.

Here are Angela and Anne from craft creations forum......Anne is from Falkirk. They met up with me at a hotel on my journey to England:  Both Angela and Anne are in the Craft Creations forum.

My favourite forums are:


Docrafts (although I don't contribute a lot ....sorry!)


Craft Creations...........I contribute a lot there.....or at least have a lot of fun there.


CraftsUprint...........I am not regular in posting there, but I love the friendliness of everyone and the helpfulness of the designers.


Crafts Beautiful:  I pop in there as it is one of the first forums I ever belonged to and the people there are very friendly and caring too.


And then of course there are the people who have blogs that I read and follow, far too numerous to mention here.


Every person has been uplifting in one way or another, and I am grateful for their input.  I love my crafty friends.


Each forum has a different feel, and different ways of working, but the people involved are all wonderful.


So there you have it.


Love and hugs


Annie xxx

Ten Things About Me ...........

TEN THINGS ABOUT ME.......

Docrafts 31 Day Blog Prompt

Let's see now.....where to start?..........


First of all I am a child of God.  I don't want you to think I am preaching, because I am not, but I am saying that without God in my life I wouldn't be who I am today. I am loved just as I am, I am beautiful and I am completely sold out  to Jesus.


Here is why I am loved:

Here is how I know I am beautiful:

I am completely sold out to Jesus, because my faith is based on His Word, and it says:

and

So there you have it.  This is the first thing I will say about myself, because it makes up all of who I am.

Secondly, I am someone who sees what needs doing and if I can't do it I am good at organising people to get whatever it is done.  Details are important to me, because the bigger picture is only made from a lot of details!! 

Can you imagine this beautiful jigsaw if all the pieces were not there.  Collectively (the bigger picture) it is beautiful, but without the right pieces or if one were missing there would be no 'bigger picture'.  I see beauty in details.




Thirdly, I am an encourager.  I love encouraging people to achieve what they think they couldn't and seeing the pleasure on their faces when they do!

There is no-one who should feel they are not worth something.  We all go through times when we think we are nothing, but the truth is we are needed by our friends and families just as much as we need them.  Remember, even when you think there is nothing you can do for someone:

Fourthly, I am someone who loves deeply.  I love the fact that I am here at all.  I love my family and my friends, for whom I would do anything.  I love where I live and every time I go out of my door and see the wonderful view around my home I am so grateful that I live here and I love everything about it.  There is nothing romantic about where I live, it is all raw nature and I connect to that very deeply.


Here are some of the things I love:

The fifth thing I will say about myself is that I really love crafting......anything to do with paper and card and I am there (at least in my head!!)  When I get new paper or card I sometimes just look at it and appreciate the design or texture or colour.  I may not use it straight away, because I want to keep it............(oh my:  Hello, my name is Anne and I am a craftaholic!!!)

The sixth thing I will say about myself is that I am truthful at all times and unfortunately that is not always appreciated by everyone.  I hate lies and deceit will challenge someone if needs be. Being truthful means you don't have to make up things to cover your tracks.  I don't say this very lightly because I know some people will not like it, but it is a fair description of me.  Having worked with very challenging people, who have been and some still are criminals, addicts, violent and sometimes abusers, I have learned a lot about human behaviour and the tactics people use to try and explain things away. It doesn't wash with me anymore and I am too old to negotiate as I don't have as many years left as I used to have!!!!!

and

The seventh thing about me is that I have a sense of humour.  You only have to read number six to realise that you can't get through life without one.

Number eight has to be inquisitive (not nosey, just interested!!)  I love learning things, and asking questions ...unfortunately I might keep asking the same questions over and over again until I get either the truth! or the right answer (lol)  or I actually understand the answer....then I will stop asking.  I must have been the original ......'Are we nearly there yet?  Why?  Why? Why?' child!!!

Number nine is that I play the fiddle and have a lesson every Thursday morning. I used to play classical but now I am learning Scottish Traditional...........it's like learning another language......and YES I am always asking the tutor, 'why do it that way?' etc etc Anyhow, I just love all kinds of music.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnyOqAiFyKc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR4CCLnmf1Q

and this is my all time favourite worship song:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPBmFwBSGb0




Number 10....I am long suffering!


All of the above are things about me.  This final one is not last because it's the least, it's because we were not asked for 11..............lol


I am waiting for a set of operations that will finally mean that I can stand and walk and maybe eventually run again.  At the moment I am in constant pain because it has taken the medical profession 9 years to find out that I had actually broken two bones in my leg (just under the knee) and have a crushed knee cap.  Because if the long term effect of this I have put on weight, which they want me to lose before they operate.  I am not telling you this for sympathy.....it's just another fact about me.  The major surgery will involve (at some point) a gastric band to help me to lose the weight as I am not supposed to weight bear at the moment (that's a joke in itself, as my loo is upstairs!!) Then I will have bone removed and bone grafts put in as well as an artificial knee and a steel rod to keep it all in place!!  When is all this going to happen?  No idea!! I keep praying for a miracle and believe that everything will eventually work out right.


I know this is not as major as life threatening diseases, and I am fully aware that there are people out there far worse off than I am, but on saying all of that, I have been living with chronic constant pain for over 9 years and I am now 60 and it sometimes feels as if I have always been like this, even though I know that's not true.  I will never give in, no matter how low I get and I know that one day I will be much healthier than I am at the present time.


So I wil finish with this song:




www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo


You see?  I do have a sense of humour after all!!!!


Love and hugs


Annie xxx

My Other Doggie!

WORD ART WEDNESDAY 28th May 2012

MY OTHER DOGGIE!

Something different to share with you all.

A few weeks ago a dear friend came up from devon and we shared a really crafty weekend together.  We exchanged ideas and tips and my friend brought me a template of a doggie!  You must all know by now that I can't resist doggie tails, so today I set about using the template and made my own version.

I take part in a challenge called Word Art Wednesday.  What happens is that you get given a scripture and you can use it or something else uplifting and make a card.  So I thought, what can I do that's different this time?

As I thought that I turned and caught sight of our wee Bess:

She was looking straight at me and I could almost read her mind.  She was saying "I need to be loved.....can I trust you to always love me?"  Okay then! that was maybe a bit romantic of me but you get the drift!

So then, I'm sorry if I went a bit off topic there as I know this is supposed to be about crafty stuff:

Our pets, whatever kind we have, trust us for everything..food, shelter, affection, health care, exercise and grooming.  We have domesticated our pets to expect this and they lap it up.  Just occasionally they will look at you with very doleful eyes and seem to pick up when we are sad, need an ear to listen or to just keep us company in certain situations.  Animals are really sensitive to our moods, health etc and if you let them, they will help to pick you up.  That's why there are 'pet a dog' schemes who visit people in hospital or in homes.

So, today, my new doggie is going to share a word from the lord with you:  (NO, I HAVE NOT GONE MAD!!)

Here is my entry for Word Art Wednesday this week!

This was taken with the flash on.  I made it from double sided good quality paper and drew the eyes, nose and toes.  I put a collar on it and it is holding the scripture for us all to read!

And here are some more photos of him/her/it with no flash and with flash!

And now he is tired so has laid down.

Thank you for visiting me today.

Many Blessings

Annie xxx