The best laid plans..

Hello, and welcome!

You may recall that, in my last post, I was super-excited about attending OnStage local in Solihull.  I had my bagful of swaps and was looking forward to showing you all what I'd got in exchange.

Well - it didn't quite go as planned.

I never got there.

What follows  is the whole sad story - you might want to skip ahead to the YouTube video.

To be absolutely honest, something had been telling me "not this time" for a while.  The event sold out really quickly and I only just booked about 15 minutes before it reached capacity.  If I'd arrived home from work half an hour later, I would have missed it.

Never mind, I had my spot and started making my swaps in good time.

Then I hurt my back.  I have no idea how - I just sat down and pain shot up my spine and down my right leg.  It was the first day of my two weeks holiday, as well, and I spent most of the time trying to find a position to sit/stand/lie down that didn't cause sheer agony when my back went into spasm.  

It got better - I was well enough to return to work at the end of my leave - but I couldn't drive without pain until about a week ago and was seriously considering cancelling until about a fortnight ago as I wasn't confident that I'd be able to drive the 2 1/2 hours it would take.

There were other things that were going to make it difficult to go away - the cat needing a operation on her eye, for example - but nevertheless I was determined to go and looking forward to it.  So on Friday afternoon, I set out.

I got as far as Cardiff - about 45 minutes from home - when my 3-month-old car, with fewer than 1,300 miles on the clock, began showing a Tyre Pressure warning light - which wouldn't go out even after I'd put more air in the tyres.  By now it was dark and my nerves were in shreds.   I thought that the problem was probably the monitor system, but couldn't be sure - and really didn't want to be stuck at the wrong end of the motorway (and yes, I do have roadside assistance/recovery cover but if there really was a problem if I wanted to be at home!)

So - I went home.  And the following day, in daylight, it turned out that the monitoring system needed to be reset and all was well.  Except that I was in Swansea, not Solihull.  I thought about going anyway but would have got there at lunchtime and wasn't sure they'd let me in.


I did some colouring instead.  I'm not the greatest colourer-innerer but decided to experiment with the three kinds of colouring media that SU carries - the Stampin' Write markers, the Watercolour Pencils and the new Stampin' Blends.

So anyway - no swaps to share ( I have about 40 mini fans to dispose of - anybody want one? Email me if you do!) 

 So today's video wasn't what I'd planned!  

As a thank you for putting up with my one-woman pity party, I've posted a bonus video, which shows you the out-of-the frame technique I used on the sample above.  

This is just for you, my blog/Facebook friends.  I'm planning on including a few (exclusive) extras from time to time (out-takes, bits of technique I've covered before or don't really go into on the main YouTube video) - let me know if you think you'd like it.  

Thanks for staying with me up to now!

Crafty Hugs,

Keren

PS - There was quite a nasty accident on the motorway at about the time I would have been passing on my way back home and I might well have been caught in it - so perhaps my guardian spirit was looking after me!  xxx
Product List

Country Livin' Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[141925]

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

Shimmery White A4 Card Stock

[121717]

Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad

[140931]

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

[132708]

Stampin' Blends Markers Collection

[147475]

Many Marvelous Markers

[131264]

Watercolor Pencils

[141709]