the good news is...

the crochet blanket is finished. I haven't photographed it yet, but will do soon. I'm now starting one for my mum. ideally for Mother's Day but I think that is a tad ambitious!

The bad news is - blogging failures yet again. Sigh.
I think the best thing to do is just not apologise and pretend I mean to be this lazy elusive.

Two weeks ago the Daring challenge was Fool's Gold. I aimed to use rose gold but I think it is a bit more peach than that, to be honest

I used some of the My Minds Eye Fancy That paper pad. The dots are my attempt to create a rose gold backing by combining reddish pink and gold acrylics.
The letters are Technique Tuesday Tall Timbers which I haven't used in YEARS. Despite them costing quite a bit at the time. But I still like the font! I made a frame with some dies and added a vellum backing. A bit fiddly but I  am pleased with the effect
The stars are from a new pack of stickers so  it is all a great old and new combo.

I hope my brother felt that it was all suitably manly. To be fair he is always happy to get a card at all...

Last Friday the theme was balloons
I had recently spotted a balloon sticker in a Maggie Holmes set and had idly wondered what to do with it. Problem solved.

I also used the die that my oh so clever son bought me for Christmas (from my Christmas list)
I chose some papers that I thought would tone together with each other and the balloon. The blue one is actually a little more green in real life. I die cut the whole plate from all the colours and felt very clever as I thought I would then make up some more cards with the other colourways.
I should have sorted all of that out at the same time and put them into little bags as something went a bit wrong and in the end the others were all (gasp!) thrown away.

The sentiment is also from Maggie Holmes. I might add "birthday" at some point but was just too tired when I finished the card. I was in a bit of a rush as I was away from Thursday afternoon to Saturday last week catching up with friends from University, some of whom I haven't seen for 15 years. It is one of the downsides of living a calling that takes up most of your Sundays and quite a few Saturdays as well. I wouldn't change it, but keeping up relationships does take a lot of work. It was brilliant to meet up with some lovely, lovely people and I do hope it won't be another 15 years (especially as one of us will be almost 70 by then and the rest not that far off). Because some of them are uber successful, they are talking about retiring in the not to distant future. My retirement date is 30th June 2033....

But I have had a lesson in not being resentful this week. My church is one of 7 in Torquay who are hosting a winter night shelter for the month of February. I "volunteered" to do the overnights (to show a good example, not because I was keen). I took a mat, a sleeping bag and 2 duvets. I moaned about the floor and how I kept getting woken up by people/noises. I felt like a wet lettuce most of the rest of the day and had a nap (quite fancied two)
And today I am appalled with myself....
I was INSIDE
(and I know this makes a big difference to how cold you get, a former rough sleeper described it to me in detail once)
I was pretty WARM
and last night, I slept in my own comfy bed again. I didn't have to sleep another night on the floor.
Unlike those people that I met on Monday night who, at best, will be in the night shelter again.
I'm wondering whether next week i ought to take less bedding so that I can be more authentic
I'm certainly counting my blessings and seeing all I have to thank God for today.