Norwegian Cruise

We have just spent almost two weeks on a Norwegian cruise, sailing along the coadt up to the Russian border and then back down to Bergen.  Well, almost back to Bergen, but that s another story.

We had lots of sunshine and snow showers but the views from our cabin at the back of the ship were stupendous.

Then, we were just manouvering into port above the arctic circle, doing a sort of winding movement.  We were stood at the front of the boat in the saloon when I said to David that we were not going to make it.  (I've been stood on the front of our boat while doing that manouvre and I know when it's not going to work).

Anyway, the next thing, there is a crunch!

After about an hour of discussions etc we were all called into the cinema for a briefing and told that we would have to evacuate the ship to be taken by bus to the nearest airport and flown back to Bergen

In a way it wasn't such a bad plan, we got to see views that we would not have seen had be stayed on the boat.

And we got to do a smaller fiord cruise and a trip on the Flom Railway which was pretty spectacular.

So, I know it's not Christmas, but the scenery is similar.

This is a tri-shutter card and came as a kit, so all I had to do was stick the pieces in the right places.

Gas Street Basin, BCN

 A full moon at 0530 when we set off.  We arrived at the Aston bottom lock at 0745 and were finished at the top lock by 0930.  Then, on the the bottom of Farmer's lock at 0945 and found the pound full this time.  We got to the top at 1115 and were safely on the moorings by 1130 with the electic on and the washing machine going. 

A lovely short trip out, beautiful weather and great to be out on the cut again.

Now for a special Christmas card.  Marigold's new back doors on a birthday card!!!  Lucky Kim.

I matted the photo onto some silver glittered paper and then onto a white, square card blank.

Inside I matted a square of white card onto silver glitter card, then patterned paper and more glitter card.  I printed out the sentiment on the computer and matted that onto more patterned paper and spelt out Kim with peel-off letters.  Finally I added the Christmas roses.

 Merry Christmas everyone.

And a happy New Year!

Gas Street Basin. BCN

I  don't know how the Trust has the cheek to publish this poster.  Just remind me.  Who closed more canals than anyone else?  Who put concrete into locks?  Who sold off reservoirs?  Who tried their best to stop local associations from re-opening their canal?  Who let canals fall into decay and stagnation?  

Oh! Just call me a sad old git.

"To my beautiful wife on our 1st Christmas"  A lovely decoupaged card with lots of glitter.

 

And "To my wonderful husband on our 1st Christmas.  Decoupaged and lots of glitter.

Gas Street Basin, BCN

 I must walk over this bridge at least once a week and it wasn't until yesterday that I noticed the rope marks in the stone coping.  The bridge goes over the entrance to Regency Wharf.

Then, blow me, as I was walking by the Malt Shovel there were more.  This bridge is over the entrance to that tiny wharf with the little boat and reed bed.

And the moral - keep your eyes open!

 Fifty Christmas cards for Susan who runs a "spa" service.  I made 50 of a lady having a massage in the summer.

I cheated slightly by using the stamp digitally and colouring it on the computer to save time.

Every one is slightly different.





Here are some close-ups. 




This one has a glittery snowflake with two smaller paper ones.















A couple of die-cut holly branches.  The berries are made with glitter glue.










Notice some of the fairies have brown hair and others are blonde.


This card has holly leaves and gold berries (they were "retrieved" from crackers one Christmas).

I used holly leaves and glitter glue for this card too.

Gas Street, BCN

I love the bull in the Bullring.  He is now Rudolf with a red nose and antlers.

We have been frozen in for a couple of days, but it is has rained again and is a bit milder.  Fingers crossed.










A Christmas card using a photo of a young chef making chocolate cake!

I matted the card onto silver card and then onto a die-cut label at an angle.  Two "ribbons" of Christmas papers were stuck down vertically and horizontally on blue card blanks and iridescent stars were added to the bottom right hand corners of the photos.

12 cards were needed, and each one had a different colour combination and star configuration.

Gas Street Moorings, Birmingham

 Ice in the water!  First time this winter.

We are having trouble getting our TV to work.  The satellite dish, which worked perfectly in the old mooring, will not pick up a signal from the new one.  So we bought a huge great big super duper thing which got Freeserve no problem. 

Then Brent came along and said we didn't need such a big one, and that a small one with a booster, like his, would be fine.  David decided we should get the smaller one so that we can take it with us when we cruise and if the satellite doesn't work we can use the smaller one.

The new aerial worked fine all day until about 5pm and suddenly it isn't working very well.  David has gone off to bed to read his book.  Not a happy bunny!

 
Earle, from Sherborne Wharf asked me to make some Christmas cards using this photo which was taken while he was being filmed for a video about the Titanic.  He is wearing his Father Christmas beard so it sort of fitted in for Christmas.

Well, his wife, Toni, wouldn't let him send them as it was only him in the picture so he asked me if I could change them into Moving House cards.

 
So this is what I came up with.  I took of the "Happy Christmas" sentiments off  and covered the damaged bit with the new sentiment.  Inside I added a new insert with the new address on.  And voila!  New cards.

For the card; I die cut the photo with an oval Nestability and then cut out silver or gold scalloped ones for the frame.  The poinsettias were cut out with another die (not sure whose) and  they were stuck on randomly.  The Christmas sentiment was bought.

For the new sentiment I made word boxes in Word on the computer and added the sentiment, then I made a thick red border before printing them onto card and cutting them out.

I have also made my own templates for the inserts, in Word again, so I just have to chose the size of the insert and just fill in the details.  Easy Peasy!

Gas Street Moorings, Birmingham

 Guess what my New Year's resolution is?  And it's not as if nothing has been going on in the last three months either.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are not too overhung this morning.

No fireworks last night, Birmingham Council, in their wisdom, moved the show to Victoria Square and had a "low-level pyrotechnic display" ie: didn't want to spend any money.

We have finally moved onto our new mooring.  It has only taken a year and we still have not got an electricity card reader, so are still plugged in to the old box.

Moving across the Worcester Bar three weeks ago, we were surprised at how much quieter it is here and there is so much more light and the views are much better.  From the bedroom window I can see Broad Street Tunnel and the lights at night are very pretty.  In the other direction I can see right down towards the Cube.

Here is a late Christmas card (must have got stuck in the Post!).  A picture of Mike's chimney and Buckby cans cut into circles with Nesties and inverted (outside on the top and smallest one at the back).  I also cut a circle into the front of the white card blank and stuck the photo behind the hole. 

To finish off I added sparkly blue and holographic snowflakes and a peel-off sentiment.

Gas Street Moorings

Customer Services?

I started swimming again two weeks ago and am absolutely knackered when I get back, so that's the excuse for not blogging this time.

Lots of things have been going on too, so I'll have to catch up.  Last weekend it was the LibDem Conference - the policemen are to protect us from a demonstration.  At one stage there were about 40 on or around the bridge.

 

 My first Christmas Cards.  As they were playing Carols in Harvey Nicks on Tuesday I think it's OK to show them.  They are for Richard, the engineer at Sherborne Wharf.  Not a very happy Elf.

I matted the photographs onto silver card, then onto patterned backing paper and then onto red card before sticking it onto the white card blank.  The only extra decoration was the snowflake punched from white card and a gold dot of glitter glue.  Of course the punch I had kept sticking and I had to buy a new one and could only get a larger size which is a bit too big for what I wanted.

 

Gas Street Moorings, Birmingham

Well, the ice has almost gone. This picture was taken a few days ago. Originally the chair and stool had just been thrown onto the ice, then the next night someone went out onto the ice and stood them up!

We managed to get water by using the tap in the sanitary shed, passing the hose across the lock and using lots of connections and hoses then having to set the water flowing before the hoses froze again. The proper tap has now defrosted and there doesn't seem to be any damage to the pipes.


Then at midnight, last night, the fireworks. There can't be many moorings where you can get a sight like this every New Year.

Now we have a new cruising season to look forward to. The plan is to go up to Liverpool for the boat show there, and maybe the Grand National. Then to Leeds and back in time to meet up with Wildflower for a trip down the Nene and up the Ouse and Cam. And somewhere in there, two weeks in Spain with Caroline and Curtis! And what with a new mooring, a busy year ahead.








Two cards. The last Christmas Card this winter. This one was for Bruno. I used the photographs from the other ones I made for him this year, matting them onto silver, red and blue card.

I added two pieces of red card and a blue strip for a "background" adding holographic peel-off corners and strips for some bling and a silver ribbon tied in a knot and wrapped around the blue card. The pictures were then added. To finish off I used some "merry Christmas" peel-off strips.



The second card is a "Thank You" to Hannah (Cubie). She spent hours sweeping away the snow off the pontoons. It was almost a full-time job.

I matted a piece of "winter" paper onto some silver card, wrapping some silver ribbon around it, tied in a knot, before sticking onto the white card blank. I used one of my new Nestabilities to cut out a frame in silver card and fixed the photograph of her behind it. To finish, I printed out a "Thank You" on the computer and matted that onto more silver card before adding it below the ribbon.

Gas Street Moorings, Birmingham

Still iced in. Managed to get the water tank filled today, so David got a shower. I've been using the ones in the Hyatt after my swim every day - so that saved some water.

We had our Moorers' Christmas Party on Frederick on Tuesday night. Jenny made the boat very warm and comfortable and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. It certainly didn't finish until the early hours. But without us. Getting past partying late now.

At the moment the sun is shining and the icicles are beginning to melt. Supposed to be rain on Wednesday, let's hope this cold weather will be over for good this winter.

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and thank you for taking the time to read this blog.



And just to make you feel even colder. A Christmas card made from a photo of the boats in Gas Street Basin in the snow.

Just matted it several times, shaping the corners on the last two mats and adding a silk, gold ivy leaf in one corner and a banner in the other.

Gas Sttreet Moorings, Birmingham

We were sitting in the boat today and David suddenly caught a glimpse of a grey head going past the window.

The heron had walked down the whole length of the mooring and had obviously seen something it fancied in the water as it stood at the end for ages.

There is also a young white swan around at the moment and today it was chasing all the geese, with luck it will frighten them all away; 'cause what with the goose s***, pigeon s*** and seagull s*** around at the moment we could do with some respite.






I just adore poinsettias - even though I read today they harbour lots of bad bugs - so here are a few Christmas cars I have made.

For this one I used some woven and corrugated brown card behind a large red flower.












For this one I began with a large white card blank and covered the front in some red backing paper which I embossed with the Cuttlebug and matted onto green card. I added a a green band across the front and decorated it with gold peel-off borders and one corner. The leaves were punched from green paper and I made the name with gold peel-offs and matted it onto gold card.






With this green card I wrapped some silver edged red organza ribbon around the card and then wrapped silver string around that. Then I added the flower.















Again, I used a green card blank and added a strip of patterned paper, edging it with gold peel-offs.

The flower was stuck with a glue-Dot and I added three small gold dots to the bottom right hand corner.









For this card I used a tall white card blank and die-cut a label out of some thick patterned gold card before adding the poinsettia.

Then I added a strip of green sequin ribbon and sparkly red ric-rac across the bottom before adding the sentiment which was matted onto more of the gold card.













Using a square white card I made a strip of patterned paper to which I added a strip of gold peel-off as well.

Then the white poinsettia was added.











I matted a piece of gold card onto some stripy paper, wrapping some gold organza ribbon around it before sticking it onto a long white card. Then I added some more ribbon, and the flowers. I made the sentiment with gold peel-offs onto gold card and matted them onto stripy paper.

I edged this black and white patterned paper with black ink and stuck it onto a white card blank. I then wrapped some gold edged, red organza ribbon around the bottom. I cut a Nestability Label from gold and white card and added that over the ribbon. The leaves were punched from green paper and the poinsettia flower added with a gold brad. Finally, the sparkly red star was added.







This last card is an easel shaped card. I made a strip cut from red patterned paper, matted onto silver holographic paper and a green scalloped border on the top.

The large poinsettia was added and three red gem stars on the bottom right hand corner.








This is the inside. I made a large panel from the red patterned paper, matting it as before and then edging it with green scallop edged card.

I added a piece of white card for any salutation and a peel-off sentiment and finally a brad to the centre above the sentiment to make the card stand up.




This is a picture of the card with box that I made to go with it.

I made a green box and added a silver peel-off strip around the edge. I covered the top with silver miri card and then more green card before adding a couple of silver peel-off poinsettias in two of the corners.