Brummie Blogger

April Cottage preview

Today I was planning to go to the NEC to the Sewing for pleasure show. I also had big plans for Tuesday. I should know better than to make plans though as on Tuesday morning I woke up with a migraine which didn't go until late last night and I feel much too wibbly today to go to the NEC. Luckily I can still go tomorrow but I'm upset about missing my afternoon out on Tuesday. As I say though, I should have known better.

Still, I've consoled myself today with buying some music from itunes that I've had my eye on for a while -  Foo Fighters, Linkin Park and Muse. I've also put the stash for April's Cottage all together as the last bits of it arrived from the Patchwork Rabbit yesterday.

There are quite a lot of colours used in this one, but some of them are starting to repeat from previous months so I haven't had to buy that many of them. I actually had most of the DMC so I only needed to buy two shades plus the three overdyed, which I feel need a close up to show off their loveliness.

One each from Gentle Arts, Crescent Colours and Weeks Dye Works. Yum. You can't tell from the photo as the sun was washing it out a bit, but that Artichoke is absolutely gorgeous with some beautiful shading in it.

I was a bit dubious about the Cottage as I thought the colours were a bit too purple at first, but when I saw it in real life with the threads, I could see how lovely it's going to be.

I love that rabbit with the carrots! And the bluebirds on the roof and the tree. Oh, and those clouds too. It's all so pretty that it was hard to put it away until April but I really must get on with March's Cottage and finish that first.

Success!

Oh my goodness - it worked. And it was surprisingly easy. Actually not that surprising considering I spent most of the morning preparing for it. When I wasn't procrastinating, that is. I even went and did housework to avoid turning the iron on as I was so nervous that it might not work but it seems like lots of preparation and reading the online instructions twenty times does, in fact, pay off.

So, pictures. This is the Mylar sheet in the process of having the rhinestones applied to it. As you can see, the stones are face down and the design is mirror image. You print out your design and then tape the corners of the Mylar on top of the design. It would no doubt be easier if the stones weren't quite so close to each other...

The design is The Killers official logo and most conveniently comes already dotted like that so was the perfect choice for a first attempt. Plus they're my favourite band, obviously.

Once the stones were all applied, the backing sheet went back on for protection while I got everything else ready. Looks much better right side up, eh? And what a lovely sludge coloured t-shirt I have to go with it. You know, I've just sorted out all my t-shirts and I must really like this colour as I have seven just like it with various designs on them.

I needed something between the two layers of t-shirt so the glue didn't seep through and stick the t-shirt together. Unlikely, but vaguely possible apparently, so I put a table mat on top of a tea towel between the layers with some PTFE sheet on top as added heat protection. (It needed to be a hard surface.)

Then the bling had to be carefully positioned so it would sit in the right place when the t-shirt was being worn. This required me to try on several similar t-shirts, compare arm-hole and neck-line positioning etc, make copious notes and use several rulers in order to get the placement 'just so'. In other words, more procrastinating.

A sheet of PTFE goes on top of the Mylar to give a more even heat and to protect the Mylar and the garment from the heat. Ok, deep breath, and turn the iron on. Let it heat up. Another deep breath and apply heat to the PTFE and hold for 20 seconds. Lift and reapply to another area. Repeat until all the stones have been heated. Use the tip of the iron on the 2mm stones. Walk away for five minutes to let the plastic cool down and cross fingers.

And at this point, you're supposed to gently lift the Mylar and if some stones are not adhered, you  just repeat the process. There's lots that may have gone wrong and lots I was prepared for. Uh huh. No, I just carefully, slowly and gently peeled off the Mylar in one go and every single last stone stayed put. And twinkled at me. Easy peasy. Amazed, delighted and rather gobsmacked. That was me!

Meet my new favourite t-shirt. It is so incredibly blingy! I love it.

TK on JR

I don't normally watch Jonathan Ross. I'm not that keen on him. Plus, he's on way past my bedtime. But, last night I made an exception and was sat down in front of the TV five minutes before he came on. The reason for my eagerness was one of his guests, or to be more precise, four of them - The Killers. Oh yes, The Killers were on JR.

I did think it was a shame that only Brandon got to sit on the sofa, and the rest of the lads were on the screen, especially as Brandon is the one that least likes being interviewed but he didn't do a bad job even if he did look somewhat relieved when he escaped at the end of his chat.

It was rather hilarious that the 'four poufs and a piano' were wearing Brandon t-shirts and kept singing bits of Killers' songs. I wasn't particularly interested in the other guests so I flicked through a magazine while they were being interviewed but perked up again when The Killers came out to perform.

Apparently most bands get to perform one song, and often get the credits rolled over that. The Killers were due to perform two so that was excellent. As the show is recorded the day before I'd heard that they'd actually performed four but it was very unlikely that we'd hear more than one and a half.

So, they played Human which was good. Then The world we live in - the current single and the third from Day and Age. That was excellent and was played in it's entirety. Fantastic!

Then - straight into Mr. Brightside - which spookily has just started playing on my ipod - and that was amazing. Brandon walked out towards the audience, you saw shots of the audience and of JR having a boogie on his desk and apparently you just don't normally get this.

And then - they started playing When you were young! And then the credits started rolling but I guess we can't really complain at three and a half songs when most bands only get to play one. It really was excellent. Great interview, great performance. Maybe JR isn't as bad as I thought.

Day and Age

I am seriously obsessed with Day and Age, the new album by The Killers.

I can't stop listening to it!

It's playing at the moment. A Dustland fairytale is the track that's on right now. It's so very, very good. I have it playing on Itunes on the PC, on my ipod in the car, and I find myself singing it when I can't play it. It's an obsession, I tell you.

I've had a couple of good post days, yesterday and today. Yesterday the post brought me a parcel from Tree, my copy of Perfume coming home and a new book to read which was on my BookCrossing wishlist, Outcast. Another parcel contained The God of small things by Arundhati Roy sent to me by Soffitta1. It's a 1001-library book so I shall read that asap and get it moving again.

Today, I had another parcel from Tree, this time containing a Dorothy L Sayers from the 1001 list that Tree has made into a Bookray. That one has gone to the top of my To Be Read pile and will be started just as soon as I finish the Maya Angelou.

I had another parcel today, that I have now hidden from myself. Problem is, I know where I've hidden it. Hmmm. It's the Hotel Chocolate Christmas selection and is in a huge box. I haven't even cracked the cellophane on it as that would be just too tempting and it's thirteen days to go before I can have cow's milk again. Monday 21st December is the date. I intend to have a latte at work. Possibly two. Or three. Who knows. Then I'll come home and open those chocolates. I'll attempt to ration them, but having been without chocolate for so long, I can't promise...

Oh listen. Goodnight, travel well has just started to play. I think that may be my favourite track on the album. Just sublime...

Finished!

I just attached the last brad to the last Vegas layout. Finally the album is finished. Just have to photograph the last couple of layouts so they can go in the album. I've really enjoyed doing this album. It was good to have some different subjects to scrap and as it was an action-filled trip, I've done loads of journalling. Luckily I'd blogged each day in a fair bit of detail so I was able to cut and paste a lot of the journalling. It's so much easier to remember what you did when you record it on the same or next day.

I've been so organised with my Christmas cards this year. The international ones, for the BookCrossing card exchange, were all posted over a week ago and family and friends cards have been posted today. All were handmade ones. I've never made so many! Just have to write out some for the neighbours now, but I'm not making any more so I'll be digging into the never-ending stash from the Homebase sale about eight years ago.

As I've spent most of the day in my office/craftroom I've had some music on. Today's choice was The Killers. All four albums on shuffle. Nice and loud so I can sing along. I'm really loving the new album, Day and Age, but my favourite is still Sawdust.

I've been tinkering with my book lists over the past few days. I've joined a few reading challenges for next year so I needed to work out which books I need to read for the challenges. I've also been reading my way through the books that my young neighbour loaned me and have nearly finished them. I'm sure she'll be glad to get them back - I've had them for ages. I've also read two books that Charlieboots RABCKd me a while back, the two Abarat books by Clive Barker. I do love his books, he's so imaginative. And twisted, but in a good way. I think I'll finish off the books on loan, and then I hope to have one of the bookrings/rays here. I'm next up for three so it's possible.

Talking of Bookrays/rings. I really must stop signing up for them. I'm currently in 24 plus a spiral of six books. If ever they all come at once I'll be in deep doo-doo. They shouldn't, but I really must not sign up for any more until I've got that number down.

Ok, to celebrate the end of the Vegas layouts:

Photos taken at The Luxor, Costco paper, Fancy Pants stamps, rugbons are AC & Bo Bunny. TFL.

Day and age - It's here!

The new Killers CD arrived in the post today. I'm listening to it now and it's very good indeedy. I shall no doubt be playing it rather a lot for a few days. I've loaded it onto my ipod so it can accompany me to work and back this week.

I popped into town again after work today. I had a couple of parcels to post, books for Bookcrossing members, but mostly I needed to get these glasses sorted out once and for all.

I've had them for nine weeks now and haven't been able to wear them much at all. It's not so much the new lenses that are giving me trouble, it's the fit of the frames. After the last adjustment I've hardly been able to wear them at all.

I have to give credit to Vision Express though. The manager looked at them today and decided that as I'd had such a problem with them, perhaps the frame wasn't right for me. They were quite a lot thicker and heavier than my other glasses. So, she spent quite a lot of time with me, picking out a replacement pair, and she's ordering them for me.

That was such a relief. I did love those glasses, but they were so uncomfortable. I loved three pairs once we'd narrowed it down, but in the end I've gone for some that have a very similar frame to my current pair so I'm fairly sure they'll be comfortable. They're rimless, with thin wiry arms so they're very light. They just don't look as nice as the ones I've had to give up on.

Just need to wait for them to be made now. Should be about two weeks.

Yesterday I finally photographed the growing pile of layouts on my desk and got them put away in albums. I now have rather a lot waiting to be uploaded so I'll make a start...

Photos of The Strip in Las Vegas. Costco paper, AC thickers. I used a Pagemaps sketch, and just look at all the journalling! TFL

Vertigo

Yesterday I had the urge to change my screen wallpaper. I use favourite photos for both that and my screensaver, especially those from holidays. Let's face it, I certainly take enough of them! Previously I had Niagara falls sloshing about on my screen. It's a 19inch so fairly large, and most decent photos look nicely impressive on it.

So, yesterday I decided I fancied a change, and thought something desert-ish would suit. I had a quick scroll through some Grand Canyon photos and chose this one.

It's the canyon as seen from the aircraft as we approached the airport, so we were quite high up. At the time that didn't bother me at all. I like flying and it doesn't seem to trigger my fear of heights. Having the photo on my screen, though, is causing a problem. Every time I close a window so that it suddenly appears in front of me, I feel as if I'm falling into it and I get that feeling of vertigo that I usually get when on a bridge or balcony. How bizarre that being in a position to take the photo didn't trigger the vertigo, but having it on my screen almost does. 

Ah ha! Finally! As I was typing an email arrived from Photobox. They're usually so quick to dispatch orders but yesterday's order, which was placed early afternoon, was still showing as printing when I checked twenty minutes ago. The email to let me know it's now been dispatched has just arrived. That's very unlikely to arrive tomorrow then. Good job I'm not in a hurry, eh? I suppose it'll still be quick by most standards, but Photobox have just got me used to next day delivery.

I'm still reading Mansfield Park and am still very much enjoying it. I only have fifty pages to go so am going to attempt to finish it tonight if I don't fall asleep first. All these tablets I'm taking for my back are making me sleep much more than I usually do. Eight hours is usually plenty but I've been sleeping ten or eleven hours a night. Still, the back is easing up gradually so the tablets are worth the inconvenience.

I got Stephen to carry all the CD boxes down to my craftroom last night so I could go through them to tidy them and see what still needed to be loaded onto the computer to be added to Itunes. There were quite a lot of older ones that I needed to add, mostly rock compilations. They've been really slow to import and have finally ground to a halt. I think I've worn out my CD drive. I'm hoping that an overnight rest will cure it. Good job I didn't use the DVD/RW drive as I need that for backing up.

Cirque is coming to town!

Oh yes indeedy! Cirque de Soleil are bringing Quidam to Birmingham in March and I have just booked tickets. I'm sitting here with the biggest grin on my face! They're at the NIA again which is good as it's so easy to get to and to park, bad because you have to remortgage the house to afford the parking. Cirque is worth it though, and especially Quidam as it has been running for thirteen years, I think, and is rated very highly. Whoo hoo!

I'm still reading Mansfield Park. It's taking longer to read than I expected, especially with not being at work, but I have been doing a LOT of Sudoku, and have spent a fair bit of time doing photo editing as I had 266 photo credits at Photobox that needed to be used up by the 25th. I've just ordered 236 photos, so I can relax a bit now. I think I'll have enough scrapping material to last me for the rest of the decade by the time I've finished. I still have loads of 5x7 and 8x6 to order with the final 30 4x6s once I've got them ready.

I just downloaded the latest version of Itunes and I love the new Genius feature on it. It recommends music based on what you already have in your library, but what I really love is if you click on a song, it'll let you know what songs you are missing by that artist. I found out that there is a new album by The Music and I don't have it. How on earth did that happen? It's now on its way from Play.com though, so all is well. I also found a few b-sides by Garbage and The Tears that I was missing so they have been purchased from Itunes. 

While I was on Play.com I did a search for one of my missing Genesis albums. I know it's not available, but every now and then I have a little look just in case. To my great delight, I found a second hand copy for sale on there! The seller has a good rating and says it's as new. I'll soon find out anyway, as I've ordered that too. The Lamb lies down on Broadway will soon be back in my collection :)

This is another recent layout using photos from Red Rock Canyon in Nevada. Please note the amount of journalling on there. Ok, so it's not handwriting, but at least that means it's readable. The journalling just waffles on, much like I do on here, about my little climb down some rocks to get into the best position to photograph some more rocks. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Paper is more from my Costco stash, title is a Cuttlebug alpha - You're not the boss of me. Based on a PageMaps sketch. I think I maybe need to add an arrow or something to point out where I'm standing in the far right photo. I might have a rummage in my chipboard collection...

A download frenzy

In the last Lovefilm DVD there was a leaflet for some free downloads at Emusic. I'd hate to pass up some freebies so I've been searching for anything I recognised on there in order to make use of it. They have an awful lot of stuff that I've never heard of, but I did manage to use up the freebies. Problem is, I kept thinking of old favourites that I wanted but they weren't on there. Most of them were on Itunes though so I've grabbed them off there while I remembered them. I'm currently listening to Close (to the edit) by The Art of Noise. I also got their Peter Gunn. What else? Umm, some Fairground Attraction, All about Eve, Robbie Robertson, Men without hats and Men at work. Oh yes, and the 'so bad it's brilliant' Star Trekkin' by The Firm. Klingons on the starboard bow, you know. Classic stuff!

In between sessions of music-surfing, I finished Something Rotten and can now start the new book. That should occupy me for a good part of tomorrow. Something Rotten was superb. If you've never read Jasper Fforde you are seriously missing out. He is a genius!

I also managed to finish something else today, namely my Niagara album. I started it at the Gibside crop last October and took it to several crops after that. It's just needed the last three pages doing and a photo inserted into the cover but has been sitting under my desk, waiting to be finished for months. Sigh. Still, now it's done and is sitting in the album cupboard. I used a Bazzill 8.5 x 11 landscape album for it and quite liked working in that size. I might get another one for a future project.

I had a revelation this morning. You know, one of those DOH! moments. I've been complaining for a while that every time I photograph the two halves of a double layout, the colours look different when I stitch them together. It suddenly occurred to me that if I photographed the two sides together, not only would they match, but I wouldn't even need to stitch them. DOH! I can be incredibly dense sometimes...

Huge thanks to Ang and Intempo

I mentioned yesterday that I was impressed with the customer service from Intempo as they'd offered to send me the adaptor, that I needed for my speaker dock, free of charge. I'm even more impressed with them now, as it arrived this  morning and it works a treat. No longer does my tiny wee Nano wobble on the connector. To celebrate this, I've been having another Genesis day with some older albums being played this time. I've just played Foxtrot and am now enjoying Nursery Cryme. Bostin'!

I have finally got around to photographing some more layouts from the last PaperArts crop. This one uses Disney Photopass photos and amazingly it doesn't use Basic Grey. I think it's the first layout in the album that doesn't. And it's all down to my Brummie mate Ang. She had this gorgeous paper by Fancy Pants which had Disney written all over it. (Not literally, you understand.) Fiona had the range in stock, but not the one sheet of paper that was perfect. What did Ang do? She made me have her sheet. So, ta very much Ang :)

Fancy Pants papers, the strip in the middle is from the sheet that Ang gave me. Fancy Pants stamps, and the title is a Cuttlebug alpha called Curls and Swirls. Ha, looking at it now, I've just thought of a title for it. Bit late now, but I could have called it 'Sluuurp' as that's what Stitch is doing in my ear in that photo.

My Photopass album has quite a few layouts in it now, and as the latest lot of photos is on its way (Yay!), I'll have loads more to scrap for it soon.

I didn't manage to get any scrapping time in today. Not yet, anyway, but my scraproom is looking a little tidier. Why does it always look like a bomb's hit it when we get back from our hols, and after a crop? I'll just get it perfect in time for the next crop, I suppose...