Shaz
We are all devastated to hear the news that we have lost our beloved Shaz (Silverwolf) this week.
Here she is with her wonderful husband and soul-mate Doug, sitting with my hubby on the day they visited us back in February 2015 just before I was due to undergo my own cancer surgery. Our thoughts and prayers go out for comfort and peace for Doug at this time, when the other half of himself has been so cruelly taken from him by the fickle monster that is cancer, that can take one, and yet be defeated in another. So hard to understand the whys and wherefores of such a lottery.
We shall all miss her so much. With her “enabling,” her kindness and generosity, her humour and her amazing creativity, she stood at the heart of our little community which is the WOYWW family. I feel privileged to have known her.
I am so pleased that Doug has confirmed that he is keeping her blog up, to be available for us all. There is a wealth of information on there for us to draw on as a resource, and it will stand as a beautiful memorial to a very special lady. Her cancer diary will also be there to help others who are embarking on the dark and twisting path that is their own personal cancer journey – a path with many hazards and byways, and an unknown final destination. It is a difficult path to tread alone, and both Shaz and I have been blessed with amazingly supportive hubbies who were with us every step of the way – the diaries can help others, which is why I have brought my own one over onto this blog from my old blog (see tab under header). It was Shaz who encouraged me to keep it in the first place. She was the very first person to comment on it, and reading that comment again, she was so up-beat and positive, and at that time had no idea where her own path would lead. It makes poignant reading…
Our love and prayers go with Doug, and all of their family.
When they came to visit, I fell in love with Shaz’s funky coloured hair which she posed for me to photograph:
In fact she inspired me to do something similar. Here is my version, just before my first surgery – all through my treatment I kept it up and it cheered everyone on the chemo unit!
I thought you might like to see some of the cards Shaz made for me over the years, starting with the most recent Christmas card.
Last year’s Christmas card:
I couldn’t resist including this photo with Lily photobombing it!
A couple of ATCs that she made for me.
Finally, a quote I got ages ago from someone on the stoma forum (if you’ll pardon the language!) – when I looked at this again yesterday, it seemed to sum up so well the spirit that Shaz had.
What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?
I’ve actually been in my studio briefly this week, and not just to get something or to dump something to add to the chaos.
Valentine card
I have been so busy this week, and in between activities, I’ve been so tired that I have needed to crash and rest completely. The days were passing one by one in rapid succession, and I was getting anxious that I still hadn’t made my hubby a Valentine card. I spent one evening working in Inkscape to make a design for a folded heart card but it took me too long and I knew I wouldn’t have time to make it. I did a bit more Pinterest trawling and came across this.
It looked relatively simple to make, so I ran it up while my hubby was out on Sunday morning – I have never left it so late before, making the card on the actual day!!
Here is the finished card, folded.
You lift up the two sides of the heart so that they are vertical and you hold them flat together, and then you can open the top and bottom flaps.
After this the two side flaps can be opened to reveal the little accordion booklet inside.
I chose to draw our two kitties on the front of this.
You open it out to reveal your message.
Unfortunately the cutting of the slits was a bit messy on my card, possibly because my Stanley knife is getting a bit blunt. This would have been much better designed in Inkscape and then cut on the cutting machine – I may do this, because you could use alternative shapes to replace the heart on the front, for any occasion.
The card is made from a piece of 12 x 12 in card divided into 9 sections, with the corner sections cut away. It’s pretty simple to do really. I did the lettering with one of my permanent black Zentangle pens and coloured them in with a Tombow brush marker. Simple, but bold.
My hubby loved it. I was so pleased I made the effort to get a card done for him in time – on Saturday night I’d more or less resigned myself to the fact that he wasn’t going to get one!
Kitty squares
I’m really on the home stretch now, with only six more of the basic squares to do. Once they are all done, it will be time to block them, which will take a good few days even with my blocking mats, I think. Once they are all flat and dry, I shall arrange them on the floor in Mum’s bedroom in the flat, carefully locking the door after coming out so that my hubby doesn’t go blundering in!!
I shall take a photo of the layout, which will be as random an arrangement of the different squares as I can manage, and then open the photo in my desk top publisher and add labels to each square, telling me which embellishment is going where, and what colour it should be. When this is done, I shall pick up one row of squares at a time and crochet them together into strips. I can then finish making the embellishments (I’ve only made a few) and add them to the strips according to my pattern. My hubby goes to bed much earlier than I do (and he is often out during the day) so I should be able to work on these when he is not around.
Once the strips are completed, I can crochet them together. The final step will be to work on some sort of border and then the blanket will be complete. Still quite a bit of work to do.
Hebrew cross stitch charts
This week I was approached by someone who had spotted one of my embroideries on my Pinterest album, asking if she could have the pattern as she wanted to make it for a birthday present. I was very happy to oblige, and spent a bit of time rummaging in my studio before I found the design which I made back in the 1990s. I made this little piece and framed it as a gift for my singing teacher at the Dartington Summer School of Music where I usually sang a Hebrew song in her masterclass.
The text is “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad” – “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” The chart seems to have been done on various small pieces of graph paper glued together – I can’t remember why I did that! Anyway, I think she will be able to follow it OK.
In the folder where I found the design, I also found some of my others, mostly small pieces designed to fit in those little rubber clip frames. Most of these designs were made using a fabulous cross stitch design programme called EasyCross which was discontinued with the advent of Windows 10, with which it was not compatible. I was very sorry when this happened, because none of the cross stitch programmes available today can hold a candle to EasyCross, so I am now having to go back to the trusted old graph paper and coloured pencil method (as I did for my recent Tiny Carpets project). I wish someone would design another programme as good – I’d buy it like a shot.
Here are some of my other designs.
The letters on this one are “Aleph” and “Tav” (right to left, of course) – the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, symbolising Jesus the Alpha and Omega (first and last letters of the Greek alphabet), the beginning and the end, and the Author and Finisher of our faith. I also made an oval version of this design (the smaller inset) – I don’t seem to have a photograph of the finished version of this one.
Another menorah (seven-branched lampstand) formed from the word “Shalom” (“peace”). Again, I don’t seem to have a photo of the finished piece. Unfortunately the lines of the graph paper have come out a bit weird on this one!
The individual photo, as opposed to the montage, does seem to display better.
Finally, another “Shalom,” this time worked in rainbow colours. I love this particular design, and I have made it several times as gifts for people, the last time being for a wonderful Jewish lady celebrating her 100th birthday.
I was very pleased with this design, because the central letter “lamed” in the Hebrew, being the tallest letter in the alphabet, extends up into the English letters to form the “l” of “Shalom.”
I have uploaded all these designs onto my OneDrive page here.
Here is another small piece I made many years ago. It was taken from a little book of exquisite Hebrew calligraphy lent to me by a friend, and I fell in love with the design, so I charted it on graph paper.
There are gold stitches in the upper letters, which unfortunately don’t show up very well in the photo. The text is from Proverbs 17:17: “B’chol-et ohev hareia v’ach l’tzara yivaled” – “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” I have got the chart somewhere and will eventually scan and upload that one as well.
Hebrew letters are so beautiful, and lend themselves so well to artwork.
One of my longest-standing UFOs is my Hebrew alphabet sampler which I will finish… one day!
Blender “Whoas”!
We’ve had some woes and some wows, and now, finally, a “Whoa”! A final cessation, a halt, a rest.
At last… I think the blender issue is now resolved! They eventually agreed to supply me with a new jug complete with blade assembly, free of charge, after having wanted to charge me an arm and a leg for a new blade assembly and saying it was my fault it was damaged, and that being a user component it wasn’t covered by the guarantee. (How ridiculous is this? A blender needs blades in order to function at all – they are as much an essential component, surely, as the motor!)
Anyway, the new jug arrived on Monday. As usual, they were doing the absolute minimum – it didn’t have a lid!! At least I’ve still got the lid from the old jug which fits. They had told me that the manufacturer had said the motor was fine, and the only reason it had been grinding away and getting hot and making a smell, was that the blade assembly was jammed, and that the brown deposit was coming from the bottom of the jug and not the motor. I brought the base unit back into the kitchen from the flat and we plugged it in. I ran it with clean water and a drop of washing up liquid to give the jug its initial clean before use, and we started it on the slow speed. It appeared to be running OK, so we tried it for a bit longer on the fastest speed. All seemed to be well.
I have emailed them and attached a video of us doing this initial trial run, and also reporting that I had discovered, when moving the base unit, that there was something loose inside that rattled when shaken, which I wasn’t too happy about, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting the running of it. When they replied, they said this was nothing to worry about.They also told me not to shake it! I think it would probably endure a much worse shaking in transit when being delivered, but there was no arguing with these people! I also told them that I hadn’t yet given it a run for its money and would be trying it out with something a bit tougher than water to get its teeth into. I have used the blender several times since then with no problems.
I also told them that I was far from happy with how I had been dealt with, and that I had been without my blender for about six weeks. They could have resolved the situation very much more quickly than they did, and every step of the way it was like trying to extract blood out of a stone. I told them that I would never again consider buying one of their products, and suggested that if they wanted to keep their customers, they should review how they dealt with such problems.
I also suggested that they contacted the manufacturer and asked them to redesign the jug so that it could be immersed in water. I told them that Vitamix jugs are fully immersible and even dishwasher safe, which proves that this is possible, and that it was very difficult to clean the jug properly if you couldn’t get the whole thing wet. When they replied, they just said that their jugs were NOT dishwasher safe and said (again…) that I mustn’t get the bottom wet – yada yada… They also boasted that their blender was x watts more powerful than the Vitamix, to which I replied that Vitamix say that it isn’t the power of the horses that counts, but how those horses are trained!!
I think the reason they finally capitulated (well, partially – I didn’t end up with the complete replacement blender I had hoped for but if the thing works, I’m not complaining) was my threat to involve Trading Standards! Thank you, Sarah, for suggesting that – it seems to have done the trick.
Let’s hope this is the end of an era, and that the blender as it now stands, with the new jug and blade assembly, will function as it should. I shall keep it as a spare against the unlikelihood of my Vitamix breaking down – I use a high speed blender several times every day and could not be without one.
I’m always embarrassing my hubby who thinks I make far too much of a fuss about things, and I should just let them go – he’s very much an anything-for-a-quiet-life merchant who loathes any form of confrontation – but I said it was a matter of principle and how they’d been carrying on was not right. (That’s a polite way of saying I’m a stroppy so-and-so!) Also, it’s all very well him thinking that, but it’s not his money that was spent on this – it was mine!!
Food
My Vitamix, needless to say, is working like a trooper and doing what I want it to do – I’ve made another couple of smoothie bowls, again looking like chocolate pudding instead of the rich berry red of the recipe, because I have added kale and spinach! This is Blending with Henry’s Expression Smoothie Breakfast Bowl with the added greens. It may look like chocolate pudding but it tastes deliciously of berries! There’s no bitter taste from the kale, either.
Here it is, ready to eat with its toppings.
I also made another batch of one of my favourite salads, Quinoa Green Goddess Bowls. This is a recipe I got from a subscription site (Forks Over Knives) so I can’t share it with you, but it contains quinoa (obviously), and kale, peppers, sweet potatoes and other vegetables. Here it is without the dressing – all those glorious colours! Eat the rainbow!
With the dressing. This is made with quite a lot of fresh parsley and basil put in the blender with the rest of the dressing ingredients – it is absolutely delicious.
On the left of the photo you can see my favourite mug with fun cats on it. Nobody else is allowed to drink out of this!!
Tesco Woes
I’ve got a bit of a gripe with Tesco at the moment – not because of substitutions this time, but because they keep removing items from their list. Up till a fortnight ago they did their own brand of unsweetened natural soya yoghurt which was absolutely delicious. I do make my own but it’s quite a hassle to make, involving several stages, and I only eat this with my breakfast, but for other meals when we are both wanting yoghurt, and for adding to various recipes, I’ve been using the Tesco one. Mine has more of a “beany” taste which I don’t object to, but my hubby is more fussy.
The only alternative on their list (apart from a lot of non-dairy alternatives containing fruit and loads of sugar) is an Alpro one which is called “plain” but which in fact contains added sugar. I bought some last week and we both agreed it tasted really sweet. I shall definitely not be buying this again. Alpro do another one with the words “No Sugars” on the label but of course Tesco doesn’t stock it. Sainsbury’s didn’t have it last week, but this week they have it on their list, and my hubby was able to pick some up for me with the other stuff that Tesco didn’t have. It is much better, but it isn’t as nice as Tesco’s own.
I wrote a review under the sweet “plain” Alpro one and said it was wrong for Tesco to remove their own brand if they were not going to provide a suitable alternative. I have also emailed them about it. I cannot use a sweet yogurt in my cooking and it tastes revolting on its own! I like the slightly sour tartness of a genuine plain natural yoghurt, and adding sugar just makes it cloying and sickly. I also feel sorry for diabetics or lactose-intolerant folks as well as vegans, who now have no sugar-free alternative. I am hoping the loss of Tesco’s own brand of plain soya yoghurt is only a temporary setback and that it will soon be back on the shelves. There seems little rhyme or reason behind its omission, and I hope it’s not because “there’s no demand for it” – actually there is! From me!
I had bought several tubs of the sweetened Alpro, and was on the point of throwing it away (which I absolutely hate doing), when I thought I could blend it up with some stewed fruit. I had the second half of a batch of stewed rhubarb left over from the day before, and it made a really good dessert. I am going to use up the rest of it in similar fashion, and I think frozen cherries would work really well, too.
Kitties
Quite a bit of sleepy (in)activity this week – they love to get comfy on our best furniture when the weather is cold. I can’t sit down for five minutes without Lily demanding to come up – she doesn’t actually love me very much and won’t let me cuddle her – she is definitely my hubby’s baby and can’t get enough of him!! – to her, I am merely a warming platform that she considers should be available for her comfort on demand. She likes to go on my lower legs on the recliner and tends to squash my feet which can get rather uncomfortable after a while, and when I lower the recliner, she won’t jump off until the last possible moment when she is finally defeated by gravity.
This is what happened the other evening after I’d turfed her off because I wanted to get up. Ruby was already asleep in the nest my hubby had provided in his chair, and she just jumped up and plonked herself right on top of her sister. Poor Ruby actually got a taste of her own medicine because she’s the one who’s usually on top!
This is where Lily likes to be. She jumps up on my hubby and demands cuddles. She also likes to get between him and his book.
I got really worried last week, after our huuuuge snow fall (!) on Wednesday. On Thursday, it was even worse! Definitely time for an airlift.
We haven’t had any more since, and it’s actually turned much milder. We’ve had quite a bit of rain so the kitties haven’t been out to play very much.
So glad you finally got some resolution with the blender Shoshi. I too am really pleased that Doug is leaving Shaz’s blog up for all to read. A special crafter and we will all miss her indeed. Love your Hebrew cross stitch designs especially Shalom. Meow to the kitties. Stay safe. Sarah #6
I love that needlepoint design! Clever, the extended letter, working in both bits. Nice to hear the kitty blanket moving on, closer and closer to being done. And the card is lovely. Well done on the blender – squeaky wheels and grease comes to mind, and not as it relates to the blender itself LOL! Oh and Grrrrrr to the whole added sugar thing. I once ordered a delivery from Tesco (one and only time) and they tried to substitute some kind of pork chops that were about 80% pork and the rest was added water and sugar! Shocking.
Love the Shaz photos – her hair was legendary!
Hugs to all on a sad WOYWW day.
Mary Anne (1)
You have been a busy bee since last week and I must say your collection of cross stitch are delightful. Kitties and your husband look super comfortable together. Have a lovely week and I hope the weather keeps improving so you can get outside in your lovely garden.
Sandra de @28
What a lovely tribute to Shaz, she was an amazing crafter and friend and just a wonderful person all round, goodness I shall miss her. Loved your hair tribute to her, I don’t think I ever saw her with ‘normal’ hair, it was so part of her. At least she didn’t lose it throughout her treatments. Your Valentines card is very sweet and I loved the surprise on the inside!
Hugs LLJ 9 xxx
Hi Shoshi, what a lovely memory to have, of Shaz supporting your own treatment.
Sorry to read you’ve felt off this week and I hope you feel better now. I’m glad the blender issue is sorted. It’s very stressful taking on a company like that but it’s galling if they think they can get away with it.
I loved your fold out Valentine and the Hebrew cards are beautiful.
We get our shopping delivered from Sainsbury’s. They often run out of odd stuff at present. If it’s not Brexit it’s the snow. On Friday night we got a call to say we wouldn’t get a delivery at all as the van was stuck about 4 miles away in a hamlet on top of the Downs. We said we’d come and get it. It was scary how much more snow had drifted up there and we had to try a few routes before we got there. The van was stuck at the bottom of a little lane so we stopped at the top and he brought the shopping to us. We’re only a couple of hundred feet ASL but it’s happened a lot this past week. He had to wait for a traction unity to pull him out. No one has hessian sacks to put under the wheels these days!
Anyway stay safe and take care
Hugs
Lynnecrafts 30
Loved the photo of the kitties with your hubby the one where Ruby is squashed really made me smile. Staying with the kitties the Valentine card you made was lovely and what a beautiful picture of the two of them for him to find inside the heart. Perfect.
I too have a grouse with the delivery supermarket, living herbs are far from it when they arrive so we won’t try to buy them any more. We isolators are a captive audience with the supermarkets in so many cases.
I am so cross at the moment.
I loved seeing all of your Hebrew stitching, what beautiful work you do ‘Shoshi. and the nice thing about it all is that you design it yourself. I’ll never get over the ‘tangling you did. Fantastic.
Hugs, Neet 17 xx
So glad you shared that photo of yourself with your Shaz style hair, it’s a great look I can imagine it cheered many of the staff up back then. Such sad news about Shaz but she will be keeping the angels hands busy with crafty to do’s now. Our thoughts go out to Doug and the family now.
Happy to see you made time to get in the craft room your Valentines card is fab, we don’t do the Valentine’s card thing anymore to know and hear those three little words every day is more than enough.
I hope you get better luck with your groceries next shop, it seems to be an issue with many who have deliveries right now unfortunate for those that depend on it.
I wonder if the kitties will want to venture from hubbies lap now the weather heated up a tad..?
Best wishes to you this woyww and take care Hugs Tracey #3 xx
I hope managed to dig yourself out after that blizzard of a century! That photo with your husband and the two kitties is just adorable. I can sympathise with your Tesco woes on the availability front. There are dozens of items we used to buy but can’t get them from Tesco’s now – sometime they come back in stock but then become unavailable again. We used to get the Tesco Ultra clumping cat litter, which was excellent and cheap – it hasn’t been available for years and I still haven’t found a replacement that would match the quality and value. Very annoying. But hey, ho, first world problems. Glad you’re back in your studio, if only to make a valentine’s card. It looks lovely – very good painting of the kitties. We tend to forget about Valentine’s and anniversaries, but we do keep birthdays – though I will have to remind my husband that mine is coming up LOL! The Hebrew cross stich looks very complicated, but I guess, you’re in it for the challenge! You seem to have elevated cross stich to a scientific level! Lovely tribute to Shaz – we’ll all miss her. Sad how these things happen. She’s left us all a lasting legacy with her blog – I’m glad Doug decided to keep it on, so we can visit whenever we feel like it. I’m sure I will bump into her posts on Google as well life I have done a few times before. Hope you’re well Shoshi xx zsuzsa #31
Hi Shoshi. A fabulous photo of Shaz’s hair, and a great one of your hubby with Doug and Shaz.
Oh my. We also had Easy Cross – a brilliant programme. We designed many pieces using it over the years. nearly there with the squares… “just” the rest of the embellishment and the sewing together… Lovely Hebrew pieces.
Take care. God bless.
Margaret #29
Lovely to see pictures of Shaz around woyww this week. Although I never met her I felt she was a friend to us all
Lynn xx
Great tribute to Shaz ; she will be much missed especially her hair! Great valentine card! I am pleased that your blender situation is (kind of) satisfactorily resolved.. just the hospital now then…. and Tesco! life’s never straightforward…. take care and stay safe. Helen #2
Shoshi, such sweetness you shared about Shaz! Love the photo of she and her hubby! I know that she must have been a great comfort to you in your time of need right before surgery!! I believe God instigates everything and I believe He placed her in your life at just the right time. Whatever she may have seemed to some, it’s so apparent that she was such a loving, kind, caring and most of all GIVING person. Giving of her time and all that caring to others. That is a life worth celebrating! I know that Doug will sorely miss her in days to come and I’m just prayerful that God will comfort him in these hours. I love that he is going to keep the site up for all of us to continue to enjoy! She was quite the lady and wish I could have met her.
Love your rendition of the Pinterest card. Theirs was cute, but yours is FABULOUS! I love, love the kitty drawing and I KNOW hubby did too! You are such a talented lady! 🙂 I hope you were able to enjoy a lovely Valentines evening together.
Can’t wait to see the throw. It sounds like it is on the home stretch for sure! You sure do have it down to a science with the finishing touches! I wish I were as organized and dedicated about making it right as you are! I’m afraid it would get thrown together for me! LOL Which is why mine wouldn NOT look like how yours will most assuredly look! LOL I have a knitted throw that I need to finish. It has sat in its bag in my sitting room for almost a year unfinished!!! What is wrong with that picture? To many other projects, that’s what! I do intend on finishing it. I just hope I’ve taken good notes about where I left off! LOLOLOL
GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS stitching pieces Shoshi!!! Of course I also love that they are Hebrew pieces. My family lineage on my mother’s side are Sephardic Jews, so these pieces really speak to me on that level. Both of my daughters’ I made sure to pick Hebrew names for because I wanted to pay homage to my grandfather. I am only the second generation in this country, so it felt right to do this for him. They never met him as he died when I was a teen. And in the true spirit of Shaz, lovely that you have shared and made these available to people. So, so sweet!
Ok, I’m about to hop a plane and come across that long pond to have a swift talking to those blender folks!! I truly cannot believe the absurdity of these people. They almost sound snarky and rude on their replies to you! There is no way you can tell me that the jug isn’t allowed to be submerged. How the heck do you wash it???? Mind you, I don’t put my Vitamix jug in the dishwasher, but it has been submerged since day one and NEVER had a problem!! I’ve had that machine for over ten years I know!! I think they are pulling your chain and as you have suspected, just not wanting to do anything for you on that score! The straw was indeed you backing them into the corner. Oh well, whatever it takes. I feel like you do on that score as well. Listen you paid for that device, IT SHOULD WORK!!! Lord knows I need to stop! I get on my soapbox for sure!! Well carry on my friend with at least a new topless jug! Thank goodness you had another one! LOLOL
The Quinoa Green Goddess Bowl looks devine! I have probably made something similar to just that. I actually have the Forks Over Knives book and cookbook! You should so get it Shoshi, you would LOVE it!!
What a sweet pix of hubby and kitties! What a gentleman to let them have their way with him!! Why is it that animals seem to rule the roost in most of our homes??? LOL I know ours did when we had them!! We love them so completely, I think!
You had me chuckling again over the airlift!! Tooooo funny!! Love your dusting. It makes for your beautiful back yard!! Have an awesome week Shoshi and many, many blessings to you! Felicia #34
Hi Shoshi, some lovely words and photos of Shaz. I’m loving your photo of your chemo hair. I think I might add purple hair to the new image I have planned for retirement – although I might just buy a purple wig first and see if it would suit me! Your cross stitching is very intricate and very lovely. One day I will go back to cross stitching! Sorry to hear of your problems with Tesco yoghurt – I too have been annoyed when they suddenly stop stocking items, no idea why they do it. Good news on the progress with the kitty throw – I did smile when I read – ‘as random an arrangement’. I did randomly ‘arrange’ the secondary squares for the children’s quilts. When I first put them down truly random, there was too much red in one corner, or too many stripes in one place.
Don’t worry – I have alerted the coast guard, mountain rescue and the Army to be on standby if you get another heavy snowfall like that. I’m glad it hasn’t been sticking around for days. I love the sight of fresh snow, but don’t like it when it turns to slush, or if I have to go out in it. Take care and stay safe and well, Heather xx #19
Congrats on the resolution of your blender issues! It goes without saying that I enjoyed looking at your embroidery featuring the Alef-Bet!
Also congrats on being able to silence the “voice” of kale! :D)
Thanks for another fabulous read!
I have the recipe I promised. Since you don’t have an email widget, I am unsure how to get it to you!
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Hugz,
Chana Malkah, #36
Loving your kitty card, it’s so sweet. You are right we will miss Shaz lots but it wont be the last time I pop over to her blog that’s for sure. Take care and happy woyww, Angela x18x
Goodness I remember that cross stitch programme! I had visions of making Harry Potter cross stitch patterns to approach JK Rowling with. Such dreams! Seeing lots of lovely designs on here has got me wanting to pick up a needle again. I adore that rainbow Shalom! Sending much love on this difficult day, Lisa-Jane #7
I love that comment about it’s not the power of the horses, but how well they are trained! Your kitties have trained your husband very well, they look so comfortable! Your painted kitties are beautiful too. You are multi talented x Angela #21
A lovely tribute to Shaz!
And as always a good read…
Susan #5
Lovely words about our lovely Shaz, I know she was a great support to you and she spoke of you with great fondness. Our local Tesco branch has severely cut back on its variety of yoghurt choices. Have you tried the Skyr brand? Probably twice the price of the Tesco own brand, but they won’t stock it unless loads of it is sold. Am afraid that you wanting a tub once a week is not going to change their big fat corporate mind! Love the Valentine you made, what a nice idea. There are gift box patterns with the same closure so it wouldn’t take much to adapt those patterns.
I didn’t blog this week. My life has been partially taken over by making money online – and I simply hadn’t done any crafting. I do have new stash, which I will show off this week. Shaz would have loved it – she always liked to see any new crafty tools I bought. She left this world on my 50th Birthday – and it felt right that I was opening up crafty pressies (and eating cake!). I will have to go in my storage box and find the cards/ATCs that I received from her. Thank you for sharing your memories. Ali x
Good Morning Shoshi, want to say “thank you’ for the 2 visits on my blog. I’m late making rounds, but our week went fast. I’ve enjoyed all the posts on Shaz, She will be missed but we do have memories and her blog always had ideas. Loving your post today, so many great photos. Cute Valentine. The photo of your hubby with the 2 cats could be a duplicate of ones I’ve taken a few years back. Bailey is 11 lbs and his brother Baxter was 20 (gone 3 yrs already) seems like yesterday. Best of pals and napped the same way.
We are due for more snow today. It’s been a beautiful winter in our area, we didn’t have the hardship so many went thru. With the below zero temps our town had broken water pipes and quite the mess, but here in the country (knock on wood) we’ve been good. For sanity sake we went to the city 50 miles east to have lunch, catch up on some shopping. Masks and all we enjoyed the time. I am missing my 6 grand kids, it’s been since June for 3 in southern Iowa and 2years for the ones in New Jersey. They are coming here this spring, on vacation. Hopefully COVID is calmed down. Enjoy a lovely week