Living in the country does sometimes make for an interesting day. I was working at home most of this week and on Wednesday lunchtime I decided to hang the washing outside, something I don't think I have been able to do for about two years thanks to our wet summers. While I was out there, I could hear the lambs bleating in the field next to the house, but after a few minutes it dawned on me that one of them sounded awfully close.
I looked out of the gate and sure enough, there was a lamb on the drive, yelling its little heart out for it's ma-a-a-a-a-a-a-am. As I approached her, she headed straight for the road, so I stopped. Her mother was calling from the other side of the hedge and there was no way I could get past the lamb without spooking her and making her run straight out onto the road.
In the absence of a shepherd's crook, I went and fetched a walking stick - the aluminium hospital type with a straight handle - I had no clear plan, but figured it might just allow me to get the handle round it's neck and stop it running onto the road.
However as I tried to creep around her, she ran straight into the hedge, so couldn't see me. I skipped past her and finally got between her and the road. We have a cattle grid just at the entrance to our garden, placed there by the previous owners who presumably had some interesting episodes like this before they put it in.
Now this might all sound like I'm farm bred and have some kind of clue, but trust me, despite living in a rural backwater for ten years, I have no experience of this kind of thing and was making it all up as I went along. The closest I get is a subscription to Country Living!
She kept up the bleating, eyeing me distrustfully and obviously in sheep-speak she was telling her mum that there was a human threatening her with a stick. I couldn't for the life of me work out how she had got out of the field, but the gate into the field opens up wide enough to form a barrier to the road, so I thought if I could get the gate open, I might be able to herd her through it before her mum (and the rest of the field of sheep) came charging through.
So, I managed to disentangle about four feet of chain that was holding the gate shut and opened it just a little. I then politely suggested to the lamb that she might care to "come by" (see, I was paying attention to One Man and his Dog), but she equally politely declined. I then insulted her intelligence and told her in no uncertain terms to get through the gate and into the field. She took instant exception to being spoken to like that and charged straight into the hedge again.
The hedge is leylandii, planted up against a wire mesh fence. I don't know how she did it, but this little lamb managed to squeeze through into the space between the leylandii trunks and the wire mesh and what did she do then, but run all the way down the hedge. I thought she was trapped, but all the while she was bleating and her mother was bleating back and their cries were getting further and further away - much further than the bottom of the garden. Phew, I thought, she's found the gap she got through and made it back to her mum.
I realised at this point I'd left the gate to the field open, so I had visions of sheep swarming all over the drive, but they were all safe and sound. I went through into the field so that I could see if she'd made it and to my horror, I realised that she'd found a gap alright -
into a different field!There was mum and little sister pressed up against the fence and on the far side in the field behind our garden (rather than the one to the side) was my little lamb pressed up against the other.
Well at least she was away from the road and I suspected that she wouldn't be heading near our hedge again for a while, so I decided to leave well alone and pop round later to see the farmer who owned the back field.
So I headed back in and got back to work and thought no more of it. Little did I know that the story wasn't quite finished.
When Adrian got in I told him all about it and mentioned popping round to the farm. We both went out to get the washing in before we went, and blow me, there's the same little lamb on the drive again, in exactly the same place, still crying for ma-a-a-a-a-a-am!
Well surely the two of us could herd one little lamb back through the gate where it needed to be? At least this time I knew not to do anything to drive it into the hedge, so we carefully inched ourselves into position, got the gate open and once again attempted to drive our poor little lamb towards the gate.
On our side of the cattle grid the hedge is all leylandii, but outside it is a scrubby hawthorn hedge that has grown around a wooden fence. So what does she do? Bolt into the hawthorn hedge! As we saw her wriggle under the rickety wooden fence, we realised how she must have got out. Just about to sigh with relief that she'd made it back through, I saw that she had managed to get herself trapped again. Because the wooden fence is a bit old and wobbly, the farmer has tied an old metal gate against it on the inside of the field. We can't see it from our side, but I was in the field at this point and couldn't believe she was so close to freedom, but had got herself into a dead end.
The old tied on gate was at an angle so I could reach down and I hooked the walking stick handle around her neck to stop her bolting back out again. She stopped bleating and struggling and looked completely calm. I was just congratulating myself on my shepherding skills when I found myself on the receiving end of a large disgruntled mama sheep bellowing at me to unhand her baby immediately while the lamb's sibling bleated an alarm from a distance.
As fast as we could manage, Adrian reached down, grabbed hold of the lamb and hauled her over the gate. The minute her feet touched the ground the whole family were off. Our little lamb (who had been separated from mum all day) made a brave attempt to feed immediately, but you could see that mum wanted to get as far away from us as possible. The sibling lamb was skipping around and I swear she was saying, "you are SO grounded".
Well, I guess it beats television - we both felt quite good about reuniting our little sheep family - it's one way to get to know the neighbours, though they are rather hard to distinguish in the mass of sheep suburbia that surrounds us.
Both herding operations were supervised by Sesame who found a convenient gatepost vantage point.
I got some great photos of him up there - up on a pedestal, looking down at the humans, yes, this is the camera angle that he will happily pose for.
Basil meanwhile just has no dignity
here he is in a Graphicus shopping basket. I think we may have a new "Add to Cart" button on the website soon!
Good thing he's cute!
If you have found your way here from the PSP CD, then let me thank you for purchasing a CD which is helping contribute valuable funds to PSP research.
There's a little housewarming gift for you over there ...
Many of you spotted that the peacock stamps had sold out on the Create and Craft website, almost in the first day. Well yesterday there were several conversations back and forth about whether we could send a top up order to them. Of course we can I said. It's not as if we're busy with trade orders from last week's retreat, glimmer mist orders from the launch of the Glimmer with Glenda show, stampbord orders from the Stampbord Sensations show, Filigree and Floral stamps from Monday's show or getting the PSP CDs out which just arrived. (All CD pre-orders have now been shipped, by the way.)
On the left is the Rustic Journey book which is more like a folder with envelopes inside. Each envelope contains a decorated tag. The E on the other book stands for "Everything about Me", but mine might end up being an "Everything about Us" book so I can put pictures of Adrian and the boys in it.
This is looking inside the Rustic Journey book. Yes, I think I'll have to get some photos on my way to and from work to put in here as I genuinely do have a very rustic journey every day.
So leave me a comment if you want to go in the draw to win a set of Fantasy Floral or Filigree Fusion stamps. I'll draw two names out of the hat on Friday (11th July). If you can't resist and have to buy them sooner than that, then you can pick your own themeplate from the Elusive Images range. They are shipping to retailers right now and of course they are available from Graphicus.
Hey Basil, you forgot to put your tongue away again. Dude, seriously. Put it away!
Would you like a cup of tea? Well here I am on the way home again after filming a lovely show with Nigel. It flew by and I had hoped to get more demonstrations in, but I have a plan to get some step by step stuff done here on the blog with the demos that didn't get shown.
I think the one on the top left probably sums up how he's been feeling a lot of the time lately, but it will be good to get him home again.
Hey this is so cool. Here I am on the East Coast mainline, on my way to Peterborough to film the Peacock show this afternoon. I think I could get used to train travel in this kind of style.
Lovely, isn't it? Yeah, right, I wish! This is Headlam Hall Hotel where I have just spent the last two days running an intense two day event for our Elusive Images retailers. There was a lot of preparation went into the event, but it was all worth it, I think everyone had a fantastic time.
With 8 one and a half our classes in two days, the pace was fast, but we figured they could take it! They got to see all the new stamps I've been working on - Christmas stamps, Bridal Bouquets, Fantasy Floral, Filigree Fusion and a new set which is so new it doesn't even have a name yet. They also got to play with Glimmer Mists, Stampbord and the new Peacock CD. All this stuff will be coming your way, but you might want to check out one of the retailers who came to the event, they will all be keen to show off this new stock to you in their shops very soon.
Abercardabra
Isn't that gorgeous!
If you take a close look, you will see the typical patterns that form on ordinary card. Click on the image to zoom in.
Lesley's mum was here for the crop and she sat patiently while we oohed and ahhed at the results before telling us all we were like kids in a sweet shop. She's absolutely right of course, but what fun it was to just watch ink dry!
but with my super dooper long lens, I managed to get a photo before he belatedly realised the road was a dangerous place to be. 
mmm, nice warm sunshine, I bet I could get up there ...
it looks interesting out there
ooh it's slippy there's nothing for my claws to grip!
ha! I made it
I meant to do that
Hey Sky Cat? Ceiling cat here, could you cover for me while I take a break
Everyone cool in here? Right, I'm going out.
I can handle it, I'm ok.
Jeesh, that's a long way down!
I was Puss-in-Boots' stunt double on Shrek, you know...
Stamps from Arboretum. You can see me building up this tree step by step on the TV show.
Another Glimmer Screen forms the background to the flower. I'll share a little boo boo I made here ... the patterned paper (from Damask Delights) was supposed to be at the bottom of the card, not the top, but I realised that I had the card upside down and if I left it like that, the opening would be on the wrong side! It was supposed to form a grassy green backdrop to the flower, not a green sky!
I'm planning a bit of a crafting fest this weekend. I have some new stamps to play with (from Inkadinkadoo), a couple of new inkpads in colours I don't have, the complete Ranger pigment inkpad range to try out and I am looking forward to some "me" crafting time. And yes, of course you'll get to see the results!
Thank you Deby, I shall treasure it!
He's found a new best friend! Bagpuss was a birthday present from Judith last year, but he was never intended to be a cat cushion, so Ses was gently plucked off him and moved to his own cushion, where he promptly jumped down and stalked off in a huff. Bagpuss has been de-fluffed and looks none the worse for his adventure. Glad it wasn't raining this morning or we'd have a brown and pink Bagpuss!
These stamps allow you to create some stunning effects. Stamp the bare tree first, then decorate it with leaves, flowers, berries, etc. The more abstract dots and fan shaped leaves are also great little stamps for making small repeat backgrounds and brilliant for direct to paper techniques.
Beautiful sentiments and useful phrases too. There's more to come in the "Words of" range.
The flower on this one is from our Oriental Floral range and was painted with Tinkabella inks over the top of the Glimmer Mist background. The inks are transparent and soak into the card, letting the glimmery bits shine.
This uses one of the Graphicus Guild papers and Hambly rub ons. The tag was crumpled after misting (when dry) and Pitch black Distress ink was patted onto my non stick craft sheet and misted with water. The crumpled tag was rubbed into the distress ink, as was the smaller tag. The sentiment was gently dabbed onto the ink to pick up just a few spots and to darken the edges.
Selset Resevoir
With a new camera round my neck, I went snap crazy and took over 300 photos, but don't worry, I don't intend putting them all up here. There's only about 250 are ok .... I am wondering about starting a photo blog though because I really do love photography and I have a feeling I'm going to be doing a whole lot more now.
I have a thing about doorways, gates, arches, etc
there's a K & Co paper in just these colours, I have it round here somewhere ...
the zoom on this camera is amazing
Do you see the bee? I chased him round this plant for ages!
gateways again
this little fella was warbling his heart out
I didn't realise I'd got this newt in the pond until I downloaded the photos
He's had us quite worried as we got home tonight to find him trying to be sick, but racked by hiccoughing spasms and foaming at the mouth. We put their food down and they both started eating, then Sesame was sick, oh joy. I'll spare you any further details.
Thanks for all the lovely comments, both about my studio and the tags. I am definitely going to do some Glimmer Mist tutorials here on the blog - as anyone who did my GM class knows, there is SO much that you can do with them.
are these chive flowers?
lichen on a terracotta tile, hmm background paper ...
in the apple orchard
raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, oh sorry, wrong blog - raindrops on ivy
And that's it for now. I would have shared these earlier, but we have a hit and miss internet connection tonight, so I shall go do some more playing. Give me a shout if you want to know how any of these are made. They pretty much all feature Glimmer Mists for the backgrounds - just LERVE that stuff.
Kitchen cupboards usually stand out from the wall a bit to allow for pipes, but here they were designed to go right back to the wall so that they form under-bench storage. Two tall larder cupboards on either side house pull out drawers and shelving. One set of pull out drawers contains paper and the other has all my wood mounted stamps. 
Lots of clever lighting means that even on the darkest winter evening, there is plenty of bright light to see what I'm doing.
In the bay window I have a table and a set of Ikea drawers which I painted in a rainbow of colours. I keep card blanks and envelopes in here mainly. On the table you can see my clip it up which is brilliant for anything that is too long to go in the A4 boxes. I have some stickers and rub ons for scrapbooking which are 12 inches long, plus the packaging, so they don't fit anywhere else. You can also see my wonderful carousel which holds an amazing amount of stuff and has enabled me to do away with several large pen pots that I used to have on the table.
The open shelf has my A4 cardstock then a display area with prima flowers and ribbons in jars and pieces of my own artwork that I'm particularly pleased with.
There's the book I made in Italy last year and a postcard I painted on a whale watching trip round the Scottish coast a few years ago.
Look! Even the insides are organised now! This is my prep cupboard. Most of the A4 boxes contain prep for TV shows.
Then there's the comfy seat next to my gorgeous antique book press. Barnard Castle is well known for having a lot of antique/junk shops and the book press was a lucky find just after I started getting into bookbinding about six or seven years ago.
The drawers are ceramic and each one is unique. A considerable part of my organising was working out what I access frequently and what I don't. I decided to use this set for all my little embellishments like brads, charms, ribbon slides, etc.
Yes, there are two new sets in there and no, they're not quite released yet, but it won't be long, honest. Well you told me to slow down ...
Basil meanwhile just has no dignity
here he is in a Graphicus shopping basket. I think we may have a new "Add to Cart" button on the website soon!
Good thing he's cute!
We had a great time at our crop on Saturday and celebrated the big five-oh for one of our croppers, Sue. She had brought in a cake decorated by a friend and it was absolutely stunning with beautiful sugarcraft flowers on it. And in typical scrapper's tradition, I didn't have a camera with me! I think Lynn got some pics, but I know she's been having terrible problems with her computer and Blogger. I then spent most of Sunday in bed feeling rather unwell (wasn't the cake, I resisted), but I'm fine now and getting my craft room licked into shape after the great computer exodus last week.
