The Holly and the Ivy

Good morning.  Good morning and I hope you are all well.  I have to admit to feeling not so good this week because I was  diagnosed with shingles at the beginning of the week.  Fortunately I was able to have anti viral medication and am feeling much better than I was but not totally well.  Still, shouldn't be long hopefully.

Recently I spent a week at my nephew's house in north Yorkshire, near Richmond, dog sitting whilst they went off on holiday.  The weather was lovely and so it was a holiday for me too.  Originally John was coming with me but then he got engrossed in an engineering project so I decided I would go on my own.  In fact it meant I could go off and do my own thing without wondering if John would rather be doing something else.  I was able to visit and spend some time with  my brothers too.

I also visited the Crafter's Companion store in Newton Aycliffe and they had John Lockwood's Christmas collection in stock.  It would have been rude not to buy some of them wouldn't it? I hadn't intended to spend much time in the shop because I had Molly in the car and there wasn't much shade.  However, I hadn't realised they are a pet friendly store and encouraged me to bring Molly inside.  She absolutely loved it!  A huge space for her to wander and sniff (as dogs do!)  and everybody, both customers and staff, made a huge fuss of her.  She's a pretty little Yorkshire terrier who was actually my late sister's dog but Darren "adopted" her after his mum passed away last year. She was in her element and quite reluctant to leave.

My Card

Recipe

A5 base card -  green cardstock from stash
white cardstock - Anna Marie Designs
gold mirri card - Crafter's Companion
gold glitter card - Crafter's Companion
Poinsettia - JND stamps and die set.
Holly Ivy and frame - JND
Falling snow e/f - Creative Expressions

Very easily put together. Inked through the die and then added a little ink to to the leaves in the sentiment die. Unfortunately the photograph is not very good and none of the embossing shows up well.The small ivy sprays are very useful and don't overpower the card.  I have since changed the pearly centres of the poinsettias for larger ones which look much better.

We were hoping for more rain yesterday so that we could test out the new rainwater harvesting system John installed over the summer ( the project I talked about earlier) and check that all the pipes and valves were working okay and not leaking.  As soon as we know that it's okay the insulation can be added and it can be covered over ready for winter. Forecast was for rain, but we had about ten minutes of very light drizzly rain and that was it.

Well I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Take care.