We Shall NEVER FORGET

My blog has been left alone so long- I am sorry but my life has just been one crazy mess and my blog has had to suffer the consequences but as it is September 11th here in Australia I feel I need to repost a POEM I posted last year- I wrote it as a  dedication to ALL those involved wherever they lived in the horrible events of that day in the United States of America. 

Please read the poem I wrote way back then as I felt such despair when I awoke on the morning of September 12th (Australia time) to hear the shocking news and watch the terrible footage  on the TV over and over. As a volunteer member of the emergency services myself as are others in my family my heart went out to all those who were involved in some way- those who were at the devastation  - their families- those who wished they could be there to help in some small way and all those innocent families that were involved in such an horrific event. 

We in Australia still keep you all in our thoughts continuously and we have learned to appreciate each and every beautiful day we have been given .

America Attacked

“America attacked” that’s what they said

ALL the papers when they were read

A plane, no two have hit a building in New York

Both full of innocent passengers and civilians at work

Not just any building it was discovered

But the World Trade Centre, the Twin Towers,

No goodbyes or I love you

So unexpected for all involved

Except the ones who planned this deed

Fire everywhere – the heat intense it’s melting steel all around

Even more news comes across

The Pentagon has been hit too - another plane

More people dead

Confusion is all around

Not only for Americans but for the world

WHY?

Who would do this terrible thing?

What is going to happen now?

Questions lots of them to be answered

Who will solve this puzzle?

Another plane has gone down

This time the passengers have reported to say goodbye

Or I love you knowing they were going to die

It’s crashed into a forest all on board dead

Reports keep coming back of despair

Of Death Destruction EVERYWHERE

People try to help, some in vain

No one believes or gives up hope

Police, Fire fighters, Paramedics too

All do their job and march straight in

Get people out their only thought

Help as many as you can

Then more Despair the buildings just crumble

Like a pack of cards

Get out, Get out

We can’t leave them there

We have to help it’s what we do

Regardless of what WE are going through

HOPE is what keeps us going

We pray and work and keep on trying

Just one more trip and one more life

But no it’s too late – we are gone – goodbye

The dust it settles, the people stare

Tears and words just don’t come

We can’t believe it, it can’t be true

It’s some bad movie – it’s just not real

But yes it’s true – we must go on.

We hope the world will stay at peace

No more attacks – no more devastation

We just need to get on, clean up the mess

Maybe someone is still alive

We must check, we hope, we pray

We’ll never forget this tragic day

World war 3 – is this start?

Somewhere down inside our hearts

We hope it’s not - we try to think

Another’s life - we must care

Find out who has done this thing

And punish him / her - and only them

Families, friends we must unite

Think of all those who died - they must help us too

Keep positive and hope the best

Don’t let them all have died in vain

Thousands of innocent lives gone .

Women, children, men all are parts of families

Genes may not relate us

But we are part of the human race

Think of the survivors - those who have lost

We may not want to but we must

Are they to die too- for Revenge

It can’t happen – not again

Remember Gallipoli

Remember France and London

DON’T let Evil win

Give GOOD a winning chance

Peace is what it has to be

But How?

A week has gone by – still no answers

No one else found alive – we can’t give up

People offering – insisting on helping

Clear the rubble – search, search

Dogs, Police, Fire-fighters hard at work

The heat still there- we must go on we cannot rest

Maybe the next piece of rubble may uncover a friend

A loved one – We all hope and pray

Masks must be worn there may be asbestos or worse

We can’t rest

On the other side of the world

We watch this on TV

Our brothers’, sisters’ in the emergency services

Have died or disappeared doing their jobs

We bow our heads and hold our hands

We hug and pray for their families

For them

And all the ones they were trying to save

It could be us we‘re volunteers

Just like some of those who died.

We see a problem we go to help

We know what it’s all about

Our families know it’s what we train to do

But things like this bring the reality home, a family all together

Disaster, Sadness Everywhere – we can’t believe it

We see it over and over again

That plane- those crumbling towers

People running – trying to escape

Those fire trucks, ambulances

Police cars, Buildings – all crumbled like toys

Cranes are lifting; trucks are carrying it all away

To be sifted through in hope to find the answers

None are coming – only more questions

News time comes and goes- more tragedy

Australia, the World is in mourning

Will the world ever be right again?

Children cannot understand- we’re saying sorry

But why? - We did nothing wrong

Explanations just can’t justify any reason

Hope is coming it has to be

We can’t live in fear and sadness

We will remember September 11^th 2001

FOREVER.

By Kathleen Smullen 2001

If you would like to read my entry for last year please use this link- or look up my entry for September 2010- there is only one- the one dedicated to September 11

http://glittergluetoo.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-tribute-and-feelings-for-9-11.html

 

Thanks for visiting and hopefully soon I will be able to start normal posts again- when I have got my world back into some order.

Thankyou     Catch you Later

Regards

Kathy S

Once In a While

Good morning- or afternoon wherever you may be - Today is going to be a beautiful Autumn day here in Victoria Australia- the sun hopefully will be shining (at the moment we have a blanket of thick fog)which is the promise of a beautiful day,the air is fresh but nice and there is no rain or wind- we have had weeks of cold miserable weather here lately it has felt more like Winter than Autumn. 

Todays card is one I mad when I saw the Just Rite challenge colours JustRite Friday Challenge 055- Color - I new I had to use this paper-it has all three colours in it and it is so beautiful-I cut out the white butterfly from another piece of paper and added some Kindy Glitz to its wings to give it a bit of sparkle. The sentiment could be used for so many occasions but would be perfect for a wedding or engagement I think. I have used a small piece of May Arts ribbon I received in a bundle of off cuts I won earlier this year- they are just the right length for cards with very no wastage-love that.            here is a closer view of the sentiment, butterfly and ribbon               

Card Info- Card base Cream cardstock; Papers-Grace Taylor, bits from stash; Stamp- JustRite Garden Fairy Wishes cling Stamp set; Ink- Staz on Timber Brown; Spellbinders Petite ovals and scalloped petite ovals; Ribbon May Arts and stash; Lace –stash;Punch-Fiskars sunburst border punch; Kindy Glitz-Crystalina; foam mounting tape; Double sided tape-X-press IT.

Hope you like it- comments greatly appreciated

Thanks for visiting, Catch you later

Regards

Kathy S

“Creating from the Heart” Giveaway

Have just been catching up on some of the blogs I follow and at “Creating from the Heart” Melissa has a great giveaway – there are a few conditions but they aren’t too hard to comply with so go check it out-http://keepsakesbymelissa.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-giveaway-time.html by clicking this link it will take you straight to the correct entry but while your there check out all her work it’s amazing- she is one talented girl. The prizes up for grabs are a Martha Stewart all around the page Punch and a $100. gift voucher for Michaels Arts and crafts- wow how generous is that.

Go on over now and check it out but thanks for visiting my blog and hopefully you’ll call again

Thanks

Regards

Kathy S

All For Love

Just for your information this challenge has been extended until the 15th of May due to Blogger problems – Thanks Julie- she has extended the link options as well as the comments.

I think this may be too late for the challenge now- I have been trying to upload this post for two days and have not had any luck with blogger GRHHHHH this morning I tried and yey it loaded so here it is anyway- I hope you enjoy.

Flourishes stamps are releasing their new stamp sets this week and have a few fun things to enter for the chance to win them- one was a sort of bingo  called Let’s get 3 in a Row!where you picked a line and made a card using the three objects in that line on your card. Well I had a hard time choosing which line to use and finally settled on the centre row going down- pink,flower and lace and now looking at the grid it could also fall into the bottom left to top right grid of die cut,flower and scallop I think the only things missing from this card that are on the grid are ribbon and buttons- I actually had them out to include but it just didn’t look right where i wanted to put them so I ended leaving them off. I didn’t have any proper flourishes in pearls so I made my own with the pearl strips they look a bit wonky but that just adds to the handmade look right, and the lace is actually stuff I bought years and years ago and have in my stash- I think I paid $1 for the lot and there is metres of it some in short lengths others in longer lengths- it was all tangled up (that was why it was so cheap I think) and I carefully untangled it and wound it on a card- I have used a heap and still have so much left

                         If you want to enter this competition you only have until this evening to do so as it finishes at 4.00pm on 13th-  follow the link above to find out the rules.

The new releases are so great – a wedding one and a fishing themed one so far and I think the other for this release is Labels and borders

Details of my card are - card stock –white cut down to 5 1/2’’ square (finished size) ; papers Grace Taylor- not sure of the name of the collection; Stamp- Flourishes  Hearts and Flowers set;Ink -Versa mark watermark , Staz-on Jet Black; Colours- Lyra Aquacolor water colour crayons, deluxe chalks-I’ve had these for years; Rhinestones- Kaiser, Pearls- Basics strips – Kaisercraft, Flower brad-heidi grace love blossoms; Dies- Spellbinders Blossom Nestabilities set, Lattice Borderabilities petite, fancy Tags- one of my U3A ladies has this die set and cut me several of each of them- thanks Doreen; Other- Lace- from my stash, X-press IT double sided adhesive, foam mounting tape.

Thanks for visiting, Catch you Later

Regards

Kathy S

Happy Birthday Monkey style

 

I made this card early last week for the  Whimsie Wednesday Challenge 77 - Fun Flock -http://whimsiedoodles.blogspot.com/2011/04/whimsie-wednesday-challenge-77-fun.html as soon as I saw the challenge I knew what I wanted to do, but I think it is closed now but I’ll post it anyway it is such a fun image to use flock with that I actually had a hard time stopping. I was going to flock the red heart but thought I’d emboss it instead so the sock monkey would stand out a bit more.

I won this delightful stamp and some very cute others last year on one of the blog hops and shame on me I haven’t actually made any of them into cards until now but I seem to have got the bug and you will be seeing a few other little Whimsy critters appear on some of my projects in the future.

Here is a picture of my card and a close up of this cute little sock monkey  

I stamped him on some scrap white cardstock and the coloured him with my brush markers- blending with a paintbrush then I coloured in all the other bits and used a red sakura pen for the cherry to give it a bit of shine but it’s a bit hard to see in the pictures. Then I painted the background with a very light wash of grey,purple and blue luminarte paints to take the starkness from the white. Then I covered the monkey with white glue and poured on my flock- It stuck ok but i wanted him a bit furrier so I painted some more white glue over him and repeated the process- much furrier. When the monkey was dry I decided to emboss his balloon and used glitter embossing powder but again I wanted a thicker cover so I actually used a clear embossing powder over the glitter powder and embossed again- I repeated this process a couple of times to give the balloon better dimension. Then I assembled the card as you see it with the other balloons cut from scraps from my stash and attached them with foam tape.- I thought I’d use some velvet Christmas ribbon to acentuate  the flocking a bit more and made a bow to attach on top. Hope you like my card

Card Info:- Cardstock Red finished size approx. 5 1/2 “ square; Papers- bits and pieces from stash;Stamps- Whimsie Doodles; Ink- Archival Ink-jet black; Colours-Whispers Brush markers, Luminarte water paints, Sakura Aqualip Red pen; Other- Embossing powder- Alisonellisdesigns- firecracker Red, Zing clear; Flock-brown; Ribbon-Santa’s Christmas Wonderland; Doublesided tape-X Press-It;  Helmar Super Tacky Glue; Foam mounting Tape.

 Thanks For  Visiting,   Catch You later

Regards

Kathy S

Forever Friends

 

This card has been so sweet to make as I love my Beatrix Potter stamps and don’t use them anywhere near as much as they deserve but I think I’m losing my mojo because I just can’t get things to look the way I want them too. I wanted a card that looked vintage but not completely so I added some splotches on various parts of the card and dyed the lace with Distress Ink -vintage photo but on looking at it I think I should have ‘aged’ the ribbon as well. I had this card made a while ago but wasn’t completely sure it was finished and then today I thought I’d get out some of my ribbon flowers that were in my stash and added those then I thought –if you have flowers you need butterflies so after trying several I settled for a die cut larger one-I bought this die and several others about four years ago when Big W decided to reduce them, they were the first dies that I had and haven’t used them enough and then attached the brass charm on top- thought it still looked wrong so grabbed my Martha Stewart punch and did a couple of those- it added just that bit more but I feel it doesn’t really jell together- please let me know what you think.

 

I just found this blog called    “Let’s get Shabby”  earlier this month and they had a cool challenge http://letsgetshabby.blogspot.com/2011/03/challenge-22.html to create a Beatrix Potter item in the style of her books- while this probably isn’t in line with her books it does use one of her images so maybe I’m allowed with that.     The blog is  based in Sydney so it’s sort of local to me so I thought I would enter.

Card info:- Card stock- Viza Blue impress woodgrain texture cut to finished size 5 1/2”x 5”; Papers- Grace Taylor and various scraps from my stash; Stamp- Beatrix Potter and sentiment i’ve had for a while and can’t remember where it came from;Other:- Punch-Fiskars Victorian circle punch, Fiskars lace border punch, corner punch from a set from Big W, Martha Stewart Butterflies; Die- Butterfly from Accu-cut; Ink- Distress Ink Vintage Photo, Versamark watermark;Embossing Powder Zing gold;Whispers Brushmarkers; Liquid Pearls Bisque; Flowers and Brass butterfly from stash, Helmar –tacky glue, X Press It double sided tape and Foam mounting tape.

Thanks for visiting, Catch you later.

Regards

Kathy S

Love and Happiness

 

I have been playing around with some of the challenges from various blogs  over the past few weeks but just haven’t been able to find the time to photo and write them up in time for the challenges so they are in my stash until something comes up that they may happen to fit in with.  I bought a sample pack of artist papers in A2 size a while back and decided I wanted to try out various colouring mediums on them these are coloured with watercolour based mediums and at a later date I will try others out on them.

 

But when I saw this weeks challenge at Just Rite JustRite Friday Challenge 053- Technique, Sponsored by Spellbinders! I just knew I had to participate- I only received my “Stitched with love” stamp set in an order last week and was just itching to get it inky and then wow it’s as though the Just Rite team knew I would want to use it.   I also got my “Lacey circle” dies in the same order so what more of a reason to make a card did I need.

I think it’s the only Just Rite stamp I own that I could incorporate into a flower and initially it was going to be a Christmas card-hence the colours but then I decided it would look better with this sentiment so it could be used for anytime. I stamped the patchwork flower six times- two on each different type of paper and embossed them -then coloured each with the markers and Luminatre paints- they have a bit of a shimmer IRL  but not overpowering.  Once the paint was dry I cut each out and cut in between each petal then curled one of each colour around my finger to give dimension- looking through my stash I found 2 brads the right colours with dots but didn’t have a black one so  took a plain yellow one and coloured it with a black permanent marker and added dots with a white out pen.  I placed them on a piece of silver cardstock scrap I had and then put the rest together- I tried other ribbons on the card but none of them looked just right so I settled for the black- This isn’t one of my most favourite cards but I like the way it has turned out – I hope you enjoy it too. There are some closer pics of the three flowers and the greeting- I am sorry about the quality – I think I will have to get some photography lessons and the silver didn’t help as it kept flaring and creating a blur or maybe it was just the photographer.

 

Card info- Card –Red cardstock (A5); Papers-Heidi Grace day dreamer dots with pocket,Various artist papers from a sample pack of booklets,stash scraps; Stamps-Just rite Stitched with love set, Wedding stamp ensemble;Ink Versamark watermark; Other- Whispers silver embossing powder,Spellbinders-Standard circles,Classic scalloped circles, Lacey Circles; Fiskars 2” squeese punch;Ribbon-Vintage nylon Satin; Colours- Whispers Brush markers, Luminarte paints-Sage,Jasper Red,Irish Mist;Double sided tape-Xpress It, Foam mounting tape.

Thanks for Visiting, Catch you Later

Regards

Kathy S

Craft Stamper E-zine

Just found out about this through Craft Gossip- Craft Stamper are giving away a e-zine ( downloadable magazine) of some of their projects for 2010 – you do have to give them your email address so be aware of that - the link is http://www.craftstamper.blogspot.com/

Craft Stamper ezine    FREE Best of 2010 e-zine  

 

They are also giving you the chance to win some candy so you may want to check it out- Not sure if it’s only for the UK though but worth a try- it has some great techniques in this mag and although we get it later than the UK it is and enjoyable mag for reference. Go check it out it may be worth it.

Thanks for visiting,  Regards

Catch you later

Kathy S

Rose

This card is for my Granddaughter we went to her naming day last weekend and I made this card to hopefully look like her- we had a beautiful time in the local park with all the family there and a few friends as well- she is one and a half years old and they have been trying to give her a day for some time but each time it is organized one of the children gets sick- Rose is the youngest of three and usually when one gets sick they all get sick so it has had to be postponed a couple of times- they all had colds again but they thought they had better go ahead with it this time. As you can hopefully tell by the picture Rose has red hair- and is affectionately called “the ginger ninja” by her dad,  she has even started saying “ginger” if anyone says it now. Quite a difference from her older brother and sister- they have taken their mothers Italian side and are both quite dark in colouring in comparison but her mothers’ sister also has a red head- so it must be in both families- my husbands family have red in their heritage – at the moment she hasn’t got the renowned temper of a red head in fact she is quite the opposite and is very passive with most things but doesn’t  let anyone get away with upsetting her. Both girls in the family do have quite loud and very high pitched screams if and when they are upset and cry.

This is  for the   Forgotten Stamp Friday-Week 15 at “Can you say “ Addicted” to stamps” blog- this is such a great blog sight and so appropriately named for me at least.  This Flowersoft  “Moments in Time” stamp was one I bought a while ago and have only used it a couple of times because I was never sure about colouring but I’ve been practicing and I think it looks ok. The tag with the title was given to me by one of the members  of my U3A card class who has this set of dies and she kindly cut several of each of the labels for me- Thanks Doreen

           

Card Information: Cardstock- green cut to finished size of 5 3/4 “ square; Paper Fiskars Heidi Grace –love of my life mini dots and bits from my stash, Stamp- Flowersoft Moments in Time –“Just For You”;Ink- Stazon Jet Black, generic yellow ;Other- Colour- Lyra Aquacolor crayons;Ribbon- Exquisite Premium ribbon (roses)and bit from stash; Spellbinders-Petite Ovals, Petite scalloped Ovals, Tag, Quickutz “Heidi Swapp handwriting”; Flowersoft-vintage Christmas; Kind glitz-Crystalina; Gems –stash; Fiskars scalloped scissors; Helmar- SuperTac Glue, X Press it Double sided tape, Xyron “create a sticker” permanent.

 

Thanks for Visiting Catch you later

Regards

Kathy S

Happy Birthday

 

Here is another card I had the chance to make this week hope you enjoy. While I was running around in the past couple of weeks I had to wait for various doctors with my MIL and as she didn’t want me with her all the time I took the opportunity to pop into a nearby scrapbook shop –”Little Bits”- and saw and picked up this cute die for cup cakes from Do Crafts while I was waiting for her to finish – the middle cupcake is the die cut the other two were from a stamp set of the same series I had purchased two days before when on my way home from another run around and wanted needed some quick stress relief I popped into another LSS “Scrappers Wharehouse” I happened to be passing (sort of-it was only 5 minutes out of my way -really) on my way home- this was just a had to be find both within two days and such great finds. I love cup cake images

   This is for the “Get Sketchy” GS #79  sketch for this week 

    Card Details- Cardstock- cream; Papers- Papercraft –not sure of the name of the collection but they are yummy and bits from my stash;Stamps- Do Crafts “Cupcakes” and Do Crafts “Scrolls and sentiments”;Ink- Stazon Jet Black;Other –Do CraftsBuild a cupcake layered die; Micro beads, Kindy glitz-Crystalina; Gem is from my stash; Aqualip –Black; X-press it double sided tape; Helmar –super tacky glue.

Here’s another picture a little bit closer so you can see the shimmer of the papers- it’s also on a black background so it stands out a bit more.     

 

Thanks for visiting,   Catch you later

regards

Kathy S

Seasons Greetings

   This is another that I have made- It feels so good to actually post something. I won’t go on this time so here’s my card- this one is for the Week #147 - 19th March - Sponsored by Bunny Zoe's Crafts 

the images are both stamped on vellum- the one with the darling little girl is quite thick and has a pearlescent finish but it was in a pack –with various colours- I bought ages ago classified as vellum – so I’m sticking to that.  You can sort of see the glimmer in the close up of the image-it was the best I could get. This is the first time I’ve used liquid pearls and when I was putting it on the front it actually went through to the back but I liked the finish –aren’t you happy when mistakes turn out to be  good     

and it also can be included in the CSAYL challenge    - I CAN SEE RIGHT THROUGH THAT!- the middle image is of the inside of the card.

 

Card Details- Green cardstock finished size-5 3/4” square; Paper- most of these are from my stash- but there are small bits of Chromatics Heritage set; stamps-Crafty Secrets-Clear Arts-“seasons Greetings”; Inks- Staz on Gold,Distress Ink Vintage Photo; Other- ‘Zing’ Embossing Powder metallic Finish gold, Ribbon-Creative Corner; Doiley -a cheap set I’ve had in my stash for quite some time; Dies-Spellbinders Labels Four;Liquid pearls-Bisque; Lyra Aqua color crayons; Fiskars border punch; Xpress-it double sided tape.

Hope you like it

Thanks for visiting,

Catch you Later

Regards

Kathy S

Just Because

Even though I haven’t posted in a while I have been making a few cards for different challenges when I’ve had the energy and time– I just haven’t had the time to photo and write them up but I did that today so here come  a few entries for the next day or two(I hope)  -I know most of you didn’t realise I haven’t posted for a while but I have had a lot going on in my life-running around after various members of my family for various reasons and for the last three weeks I have had this horrible cold that started with my nose dripping like a tap then went to my head and chest and I just can’t shake it- I am low in energy and have spent the little time I can afford to sleep- trying to fight it off- If anyone has any ideas I would be glad to hear them. When I have had time I have had to catch up with housework and gardening(our yards front and back look like a deserted house yard)- we have actually had a couple of weeks without constant rain- oh so nice- (the start of Autumn(fall) is better weather wise than our summer was so far) and I mowed the back lawn yesterday –which really knocked me but I feel better that it’s done.

This card is for the  Card Patterns Sketch 107 challenge and the JustRite Friday Challenge 051- An Act of Kindness tell someone how much you appreciate them – I like to have this sort of card handy so when I know someone is feeling a bit low I give them one and a small gift- usually either chocolate,flowers or something a bit more personal-depending on the reason for giving it.

 

 

 Card details- cream cardstock ; Papers- Hunters watercolour paper, Impress Woodgrain- viza blue,  the background paper is the last piece I had in my stash and the purple was a piece I was experimenting with when I made some homemade glimmer spray stuff- you can’t tell in this picture but it does glimmer quite a bit; Stamps-Just Rite 3 1/4 “ set   Harmony Classic Circle III Stamp Ensemble  and the border is from the Monogram Self- inking  stamper kit ; Ink- Generic Dye ink and Versamark Watermark; Embossing Powder-Celebration of Australia- White, Light blue- from stash;Ribbon-stash.

 

 

Catch You Later

Thanks for visiting,

Regards

Kathy S

Crafting in Croatia Blogaversary giveaway

Crafting in Croatia -  Celebrating my 2nd Anniversary Giveaway -(this is not my giveaway I am only advertising Nina’s)

Nina at Crafting in Croatia blog is celebrating her blogaversary  weekly for the MONTH of March and is giving an opportunity to win in a couple of ways – if you comment you get a chance and if you are a subscriber/follower you get a chance as well as other chances as well- head on over to Nina’s blog to check it out and while your there check out all her inspirational work as well below are some of the candy up for grabs this week.

 

Thanks for visiting

Regards

Kathy S

Good bye Sabar we all miss you.

 

Sabar –1998- 2011

I am sorry if I seem to ramble and please don’t feel obliged to read this but I have to write how I feel about my companion.

This post is one of the hardest I will ever write.We had to say goodbye to one of our family members last Thursday evening for the last time in this lifetime of ours.

We got Sabar by default really- we had lost our previous dog “Casey” a Rottweiler cross in January 1999- we found her collapsed in our back yard and rushed her to an emergency centre but unfortunately whatever was wrong with her couldn’t be helped and we said a sad goodbye. We weren’t ready to get another dog for the time being and so we just went on- it was hard for our youngest because she was his guardian angel and protector he was 8 at the time.

A girlfriend of a friend was studying veterinary science at a place in Werribee in Victoria and new we all missed our Casey so when she heard they were going to be putting some puppies to sleep she thought she would try and find them homes-Apparently Sabars’ mother had been inseminated and they had wanted female puppies but out of the litter of about thirteen they only got three or four females- the rest were males and only four of them survived out of a litter, they kept the “dogs” and trained vets in vaccinations and goodness knows what on them they then decided they didn’t need them any more and so this is where the girlfriend stepped in-she told us it was a rottweiler puppy but when we saw him we new it was a mixed breed of some sort- but we also fell in love with him and couldn’t let him get put down- so home he came- when we first saw him he was six months old and looked a bit like a dachshund but with a roly poly dog skin- he was so scared and just wanted to be loved- which we did.- we took him in and even though he didn’t like human contact we all held him to get him used to being touched without the pain, my daughter and I spent most of the day for the first few weeks doing this and eventually we got him used to us he would shy away from most males he came in contact with for several years but eventually most people were ok.  Our daughter got seriously ill with meningococcal in the July of that year and he played a big part of her therapy and rehab - we were allowed to take him to the rehab clinic for visits and when she was allowed home for weekends he stuck by her side most of the time. I am human so I can sit on the furniture.

From then things went reasonably smooth except for arthritis when he was about three onward which we effectively treated with glucosamine and about four or five years ago when he had to have his spleen removed because of a tumour- cost us thousands but we felt he was worth the expense for what he had given us.

Then because I  have been working full time for the past three weeks and a week ago when I came home I noticed he hadn’t eaten his breakfast- this was totally out of character for him- he may look slim in the photos but man could he eat –at first I thought he may have been protesting because I was not at home with him but then somehow I just knew something was wrong.I took him to the vet last Saturday and they took some blood and the results were inconclusive so they recommended an ultra sound which we had done on Wednesday- this also didn’t show positive results of any sort but that there was something either on his pancreas or around his intestines and liver- the options- put him through surgery with the high likely hood of it being a tumour and having to euthanize him or let him die in pain in a month or two because they thought with his history and the other results that was about as long as he had- I chose to bring him home so everyone that wanted to could say goodbye and then let him rest peacefully- both the vets we dealt with were nothing but compassionate and they dosed him up with pain killers and sent him home for his last good byes. My daughter and I were with him when he went- very quickly and very peacefully and he is now buried near our other dog out on a friends farm in their orchard.                              When we first got him he ate nearly everything he could get his teeth into but over the years he only ate what he was told to eat- except for when the grandkids were around and then anything they dropped or put on the floor was fair game- He NEVER took from them unless he was told he could “have it” and he was very gentle and patient with them all- we have 7 grandchildren four years and under and they have all been around him since they were born –even though he was getting older then - admittedly we did watch carefully for any sign he may snap- but he never did, if he had enough of them he just got up and went somewhere else- he was so patient he put up with babies and toddlers pulling at him and just about squashing him trying to get a cuddle but he just took it all. He thought he was human and would back onto a chair or the couch with his hind legs up on the seat and his front legs supporting him on the floor – or he thought he was a lap dog because we used to cuddle him when he was little as he grew he continued to think that but he was very bony.

He also made a companion to our cat and they used to play chase around our back yard- taking in turns who would be the chaser- our cat “Rambo” is totally lost at the moment.

Here are a few picture of Sabar in varying degrees- some have dates but most don’t

He thought he would pay the cat back – this is an old picnic basket I got for the cat to sleep in in my craft room but Sabar decided he would take possession of it no matter how uncomfortable it was.  

   

making themselvess comfortable on our bed while I stepped out for a short time.

enjoying a brief burst of sunshine

     This is Rambo getting ready to take off after Sabar- who happened to run behind me for protection- it was nothing for the cat to bite the dog without any retaliation and Rambo new he could get away with it if I was not on the scene- then he would get growled at.

This has been an effort to write and I thank any of you if you have read it. We will get another dog one day- when one chooses to take us as it’s family or within the next few years- which ever comes first.

Thanks to Ida –http://faithartistry.blogspot.com/ who suffered a similar loss this past week and has been a great help in coming to terms with it all.

Regards

Thanks for visiting

Kathy S

Did you know?

Creating from the heart – keepsakes by Melissa  has some great candy at the moment- but hurry if your interested as it’s only up for grabs until March 11 2011

It’s a  Sewing machine and some really cool accessories to tag along with it. if you want to check it out go to this post http://keepsakesbymelissa.blogspot.com/2011/02/candy-for-u.html  there is a

Brother CP-7500 Computerized Sewing Machine;1 Sew Easy Tool (Love these); Sew Easy Mat;Sew Easy Thread in Pinks and Blues;  here is a picture of the machine – wouldn’t it make sewing on your cards- or creating anything for that matter a dream?

 

cool huh!-

if you would like a chance to win got visit her blog now and thanks for visiting mine.

Regards

Catch you Later

Kathy S

 

Papertrey Ink Tag Download Challenge

With the weather here lately anyone would think it was winter or at least autumn not Summer- we have had a couple of days of summer earlier last week with nice warm weather but the past weekend has been nothing but rain and it has turned cool. DH and I spent all day Saturday up at out local Fire station helping coordinate and assisting the CFA and SES with evacuating various residents from surrounding areas as they became surrounded by water. It was all such a sudden downpour that there are few who were not affected in some way- Our house and our childrens' houses are fine but one of my nieces had to evacuate and when she got back has lost quite a bit including most if not all of her photos and heaps of other stuff. We all help out as we can. Hope everyone else is staying warm and dry glad we haven't got the snow a lot of you are getting.

I have to say that my posts are going to become sparse again as I have just had an emergency call to fill in at one of the schools I work at indefinitely so I will try to post as best I can but mostly will be only at night or weekends now for a while.

Papertrey Ink is celebrating their 4 year anniversary and today there is a free PTI Anniversary Tag Download  and a challenge to create a project.

Although I don't own any Papertrey ink products and have never downloaded any of their other freebies -which I will be seriously looking at now- these tags are divine. I have always admired them and been envious of those who do have them so this was very generous of them to give these away.

Here is my card using Heather Nichols tag. I basically just printed the tags from the free download and cut out - I actually used a punch first up but cut crooked-oops -so to centre the image again I used the Quickutz circle die -it's a tiny bit smaller than the original but still looks magnificent -thanks Heather. I used scraps from my stash to finish the card- I had this lotus cut out and when I was looking for paper to cut a scalloped edge for the tag found it so thought I'd use it instead. I stamped a stem to make it look like a flower and then just stuck it all down. Hope you like it. Thanks for visiting.

Card Info:- Heather Nichols Tag;Stamp-kaisecraft Lilac Avenue set; Ink-Whispers-Whispers Sage; Spellbinders- Lotus Pendants;  papers,ribbon and gems are all from my stash

Catch You Later

Regards

Kathy S

To the world

This card is for the  Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #89 (MMSC89) and came together pretty easy, thanks to the great sketch, the hardest part was finding a sentiment I wanted for the front- I had the colours in my head and just went from there-I sort of tried a shabby chic/ vintage feel because I love this style but I am not very good at them and am trying out some ideas so I hopefully get better at it. Hope it worked and you like it.  I stamped the background using the vintage farmhouse background stamp and then cut to size, the rest of the card is pretty self explanatory  so I won't prattle on this time.

                                       

I am having a real issue with my camera at the moment and am looking at getting a new one just not sure what I want so please excuse some of the pictures if they are a bit blurry I have tried a few things to fix it but I don't think anything worked.

Card Info:-Cream cardstock; Papers-pink paint sampler,green office paper from stash,Stamps-Fiskars Vintage farmhouse set and Kaiserstamp- You're the World;Ink- Archival-Jet Black, Distress Ink Vintage Photo;Spellbinders-small petite Ovals#4(1 being the smallest);Buttons-Beutron; Ribbon-exquisite & warehouse stores brand;Lace-stash; Helmar- Tacky craft Glue;Double sided tape;Gems-Smart Kraft.

When I had finished I checked out a couple of other blogs and thought it sort of went into the Crazy4Challenges C4C72 which was to make a vintage or shabby chic what do you think?

It also could possibly go in the Shabby Tea Room challenge Week #47 - 'Get Creative' but I'm not sure if it actually qualifies as I did make my own background paper- but I used buttons and ribbon etc. that where commercially produced.

Thanks for visiting

Regards

Catch you later

Kathy S.

Sweet 'n' Sassy hugs and kisses.

   Isn't this an adorable stamp- it's one of sweet 'n' sassy digital images- I won this image last year in their blog hop-whooho!

Cocoa the mouse is so sweet-pun intended- I finally got the courage to use him-I have coloured and played with him before but never felt any of them were good enough for a card-I am still a bit intimidated with digitals and colouring any images but I think the more I use digitals the better I will become - long way to go yet but give it time and I hope I'll get better at colouring.

I actually made another card with this image -coloured nearly the same and using the same papers but when I looked I had used the last sketch design instead of the current one- oh well -lol so I started again and made one for the current sketch SSS93 - January 29 and because the papers were still out and I liked how they all came together I thought I'd make another card with them. I didn't want the image to look like chocolates I wanted cup cakes so I coloured in with that in mind and added a bit of sparkle but they could be either.  I printed this image on photo paper just for something different and the problem was I was using waterbased brushmarkers which didn't want to blend if I coloured straight onto the paper and even using on a palette and brush they only blended minimally so there is not a lot of shading on the image but his cuteness helps hide that fact I hope.

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

  For the flower I was just playing with a piece of ribbon and this was the end result- The ribbon is actually stuck onto the piece of orange acetate which I had punched for something ages ago and never used and ran it through my xyron to make it sticky. I was actually making this flower with the other side as the focal and the acetate as the base but when I turned it over to check the back I ended up liking this side better so I found a greeting that fit in the circle and stamped it using Staz on ink. and added a bit of bling just because.

Hope you like it. Thanks for visiting and comments are greatly appreciated-good bad or otherwise.

CardInfo:- white card stock,Papers-Fiskars- Heidi Grace-"meadow collection" ;Images- Sweet'n'sassy -cocoa's chocolates; greeting from another stamp collection- unsure of manufacturer; Ink- Staz on Jet Black, generic orange; Distress Ink- Vintage Photo;Other- Spellbinders Small labels #4 and #5(1 being the smallest);Whispers brushmarkers, Xyron create a sticker 150 machine; Gloss paper-Aldi; Kindy Glitz-Crystaline,Glitzee-Old Gold,Multi Mix; Ribbon santa's Christmas;double sided tape,foam mounting tape.

Although it's not as pretty as some of the flowers already on their post I am also posting it for the Just Us Girls Challenge #69 - Wild Card challenge of make your own 3D flower.

Regards

Catch you Later

Kathy S

 

Rock Star wishes

This is my second post for the day- as I explained in the other post I have had limited time for my computer and I'm going away for an extended weekend with DH from tomorrow Saturday until Wednesday afternoon and I won't have my computer with me so I won't be able to check anything- so thank you all in advance for any comments you may leave.

This card is made with some more of the Grace Taylor  "Bright young things" collection- it is so sweet. The card was for the

GET SKETCHY #70       

sketch which finished yesterday I think but I am posting anyway. I will get more organised in the future to make sure they are posted on time- at least I am getting a chance to make some cards and post them eventually.

  I decided to tip the sketch upside down and make use of the "rock Star words on the paper-which I highlighted with Dimensional magic- the second picture shows this a bit better but it's really hard to take a good shot of. I used a play on words and used stars for my accents rather than the flowery shapes in the sketch and added a bit of lace and some pearls. Hope you like it.

card Recipe:- Card-White card stock finished size 53/4" square; Papers-Grace Taylor "Bright Young Things Collection';    Other: Purple Inkpad,Lace and ribbon scrap from stash, stars from stash- the smaller are actually cut from the centres of a couple of larger ones; gems from stash; Royal Coat Dimensional Magic; Homemade Glimmer Spray - I used that to colour in the word under the greeting die and in a couple of other places for a highlight;Spellbinders Labels Four; Kaisercraft Pearls Stamp Grant words collection; Double sided tape and Foam mounting tape.

I have also decided to add this to the

Challenge #39 - Sponsored by May Arts     - Use Ribbon.

 

Catch you later

Thanks for visiting

regards

Kathy S

 

Thank You

        I'm pretty sure this is a bit  late for the submission but thought I'd post it anyway. This card was so easy to put together because of the beautiful papers and the great sketch but with babysitting my darling grandchildren-they take priority over my blog and my youngest son continually hijacking my computer-that will be rectified as soon as I can organize him to get his own hopefully sooner than later- this is the first chance to type up and post this entry. Here are some pictures of the outside and the inside - I love this paper collection - it's a Grace Taylor collection and so many cute images- you'll be seeing more of  this collection in future posts I'm sure.                                    

This card is for the Card Patterns Sketch 98 which helped make the card up so so easy.

I thought I might include  it in the crazy 4 challenges challenge- not sure when that one finishes.

I think the card is pretty self explanatory so if you have any queries please email me. Hope you enjoy. Sorry if the pictures aren't too good- we finally got a sunny day and I couldn't find the right place to take any pictures and then my camera started to be temperamental so I have posted the best ones out of about twenty shots

 Card Recipe:Papers- Grace Taylor-"Bright Young Things collection, Ink: Whispers port Wine; Stamp- Grant - words collection; Other: the essential Glue Pad; Glitter- was a freebie from a British magazine a while ago but matched perfectly; Flowersoft (on the dots on the front) Polar White and Vintage Christmas; coloured flower Gems and Ribbon were from my stash, clear gems-Smart Kraft clear diamentes; Spellbinders- Classic Spellbinders Circles small and Standard Circles;  Helmar Tacky Craft Glue, Double Sided Tape, foam tape.

Catch You Later

Thank you for visiting

Regards

Kathy S