Gas Street Moorings, Birmingham

The ice had almost gone by this evening and now it is snowing again. And really heavily. So back to square one. This is definitely the time of year I do not begrudge paying for the mooring and the umbilical cord to the electricity stanchion.

The Liverpool football team walked down the Worcester Bar today and I missed it! Out shopping in Solihull. As I write they are playing Villa in the snow and it is still 0-0.


This is a pre-snow and ice picture of the Ferris wheel in Centenary Square that went up in November. I reflections in the Hyatt Hotel and Symphony Hall are a photographer's paradise.

I was asked to make a card with lots of bling for a Brazillian lady. This is what a came up with. An A5 easel card.

I started with a sheet of hammered white A4 card and folded it in half and then folded the top half in half again. I cut a piece of yellow pearlescent card just smaller than A5 and stuck it to another piece of A5 hammered card. A length of gold ribbon and another white and gold one were wound around the bottom edge and it was then stuck to the outside edge of the top half of the folded piece so that the front of the card stands up, but sits on top of the bottom of the back of the card like a normal fold.

A lovely yellow and gold feather butterfly was stuck down in the right hand corner and three creamy yellow roses with green foliage stuck down behind them on the left hand side. Finally 5 gold gems were added on the top right and bottom left corners.

The inside of the card is in two sections. The back piece is hidden when the card is set up and only the panel in front of the little butterfly shows. I printed out the sentiment and name in a pretty font called Blossom which has hibiscus flowers on some of the letters. (I wish I could find a way to colour them before printing.) This I matted onto pearlescent yellow card and then onto the white hammered card and again onto the yellow pearlescent card and fixed it to the inside back of the card. Then I added two butterflies which look as though they have just landed onto the card and some more yellow gems.

The front panel was matted in the same way, adding another butterfly and yellow gems. The little yellow butterfly in the middle holds the card up when it is set up. It stops the card slipping closed. It came from some old jewellery.

Finally, the box. I added a panel of the yellow pearlescent card, some silver peel-offs, three yellow gems and another fluttery butterfly.

The guy who was buying it was overjoyed and insisted on giving me £20 for it. Wish I could sell all my cards for that sum.

Gas Street Moorings, Birmingham

I know, I know! But I've just got out of the habit of blogging. AND. What with thebig freeze and nothing much happening, there hasn't been much to blog about anyway.

On the bus going to Harborne the other day I noticed these posters. On looking more closely I saw Mr David is in one of the pictures






See a close-up here

We have been more-or-less frozen in over a week now. One or two boats have been moving and breaking up the ice on the main line,and we managed to break out for a pumpout before Sherborne wharf closed for Christmas and the New Year. But we have been firmly stuck in the basin most of the time. So we have tended to hibernate on the boat and making short forays for coal and sustenance.

David and I celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary on the 20th December (longest night of the year!!!) and had another wonderful dinner in Edmunds with Caroline and Curtis.

Christmas Day was spent on the boat, with another visit from Caroline and Curtis (twice in 4 days - must be a record!) They came for "starters" as they always have to have their Christmas dinner with Curtis' parents. So it was 18 huge oysters between them and duck pate for me. Then on Boxing Day I braved the sales in the afternoon, though not for long. Today I was hoping to go the Solihull, but it's too cold - so another day on the boat.

Pete (from Aquamora) needed a card for his daughter's 50th birthday. This is what I came up with. I Cuttlebugged a piece of pearlescent pink card and stuck it onto silver card and then onto a black A5 card. The dress, bag and boxes were a set of toppers which I arranged on the card and her name I made from black peel-offs onto white card and matted onto silver card. I added two grey roses and bows to the name and three pink pearls in the bottom right hand corner.




Inside I made a white panel which I scalloped the edges with scissors, matted it onto pink pearlescent and then silver card. I then made a pink banner and added the black peel-offs and fixed it down with two pink brads before sticking it all down onto the inside of the card.

Pete went off to her birthday party. Unfortunately, he is getting a bit forgetful. He was 1 week late!

Gas Street Basin, Birmingham

And another day when I have hardly got off the boat.

We were iced in this morning, though the sun was shining.

Just before lunch Ariel went through the lock and broke up the ice so we took the opportunity to take Mr David for a pumpout and we took the opportunity to pick up the latest Canals and Rivers to see David's articles (2 this month plus the picture on the front page!)

Just before we had our party on Anson on Thursday night we had a firework display. Don't know what it was for, but seem to be coming from Brindleyplace.




Two cards that I made for Alan (Capt Nemo). The two photographs were taken by Garry Corbett and I found them on Flikr. He very kindly sent me the photos so that I could make the cards.

This one was from Alan to Pete, one of the moorers here

I cut the picture with a Nestabilities die plus a mat in silver and added some holly to the top right hand corner. The sentiment is a peel-off and the words stand up away from the card. The "Pops" is peel-offs and the little robin was stamped and coloured in.





This one was from us to Alan. I stamped the background and sentiment and cut out the photograph and mat with Nestabilities. To finish off, I added a little felt Santa hat to brighten it up a bit.

Gas Street Moorings, Birmingham

Whoops! Almost two months since I last blogged. Where does the time go? The longer it went on, the harder it was to start up again. Just got out of the routine I suppose.

Not much has happened since we have been back in the basin, so I really have not had anything to witter on about.

But yesterday it snowed! Only for about 5 minutes, but it was enough to cover everything. And of course, it was the night of our moorers' Christmas gathering on "Anson". Graham very kindly let us use the boat for the evening and a nice little party was held.

I will try and catch up on the last few days of our Autumn cruise at some time.



This is the family Christmas card for 2009. A picture of "Woodie", stamped out with an oval Nestibility and matted onto a larger gold oval; a strip of green card stamped with holly leaves and berries (the berries were coloured in with a glittery, red pen and a gold "slider" cut out with a Nestability. The sentiment was printed on the computer and, once again, cut out with a Nestability oval. Nice and simple.

Church Minshull, Middlewich Branch, Shropshire Union Canal

These hawthorn berries look almost good enough to eat.

An uneventful day. We started early as the weather was forecast to turn.

We were through Middlewich by 10 and then it began to drizzle so we tied up after the first lock for a couple of hours and then came on here in glorious sunshine and strong winds.

There was a historic boat gathering going on in Middlewich. I think "hysteric" boat owners are even more sullen and unfriendly than fishermen. Not one acknowledged David as he went past - on tickover! I know we are not worthy only having a modern (although now ten year old) boat but a smile or waive would be nice and friendly.

A pretty romantic card. It began with a turquoise card blank. I found some yellow, orange and turquoise patterned paper which I used to cover the middle of the card adding a strip of gold peel-off along the join at the top and a strip of gold patterned peel-off along the bottom and a scalloped border made from gold card.

The two hearts are a sort of gel peel-off bubble thingies, as is the "I Love You" sentiment.

Higginstone Farm Flash, Trent and Mersey Canal

I have been trying to get a photograph of the "pumpout" boat at Anderton Marina for a few years now. And I still have not got it. The boat is called Two Loos Lautrec. How do they think of these names?

We managed to dodge the odd showers today and after stopping at the shop in Moore for some essentials we got to Preston Brook tunnel to find 3 hire boats waiting for the time slot. By the time we entered the tunnel there was another boat behind us.

Dutton Stop Lock was slow going and it wasn't until the first boat was almost through that people from other boats began to help out. Then, when it was our turn, there was a boat coming in the opposite direction. While we got that boat through, two more turned up behind him. It was now "on the hour" so they only had 10 minutes to get to the lock for their time slot. But, as the crew of both boats declined to come up to the lock to help out I went on a go slow and did everything extra slowly. Hope they missed the tunnel.

Then it was "on! on!" until the helmsman mutinied and we stopped for the night.

Here is a recycled Christmas card. I cut out the front of an old card and matted it onto gold mirror card, cream card and more gold mirror card before fixing it to a card blank with sticky fixers.

I matted another piece of cream card onto mirror card and added a gold peel-off sentiment.

Oughtrighton, Bridgewater Canal

Eating up the miles on the way back to Birmingham. David is doing marathon times on the back.

Normally we do about 4 hours a day, but we have been putting in 7-8 hour days since leaving Liverpool.

The Barton Swing Bridge was closed (but open for us!), so no excitement there. That was the only obstacle for us today.

We managed to get here just before it started raining - so all in all, a good day's cruising.

Summer is over, but there are still a few wasps around. All right, I know it's a bee on the card, but what with seeing the hives at Litherland, I looked this card out.

I think the card is shown sideways as it is supposed to be a flower box made from brown hessian on a background of orange hessian with the bee and flowers. I matted the whole thing onto some blue vellum and then onto a white card blank.