Ground Control to Major Tom…

Tom was Very Brave today. 
Dave has been working in the garden, tidying up the ravages of 10 months’ building work and a wet and windy winter.  He left the back door open and called when he saw Tom in the kitchen.

Tom looked out to see where Dave was calling from….

Then he went right up to the doorway…

…and stepped out into the Great Unknown… It was a bit scary…

…but he was Very Brave Indeed. 

He spent several minutes outside, exploring a bit, before retreating to the safety of the Room.  Then I opened the big door onto the decked area.  Dave came round to see and Tom went to explore a bit more…
He was Even More Brave and went out onto the deck…

…then Right Outside into The Big World of the garden. 

Currently he is sitting at the very edge of the deck, just outside the big door, sniffing the fresh air and watching the breeze blowing the trees and the tarpaulin on the trampoline. It’s as if he’s been going in and out all his life.

A Very Brave Cat Indeed!

One Photo and Twenty Words

Most computers just have a mouse; Dave's has a cat also. Tom believes it's necessary to sit this close.

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This is part of Abi's Meme 'One Photo and Twenty Words':
"Find one photo and choose up to twenty words to tell its story. Jot it down and link back here." 
Why not join in too and leave a link in the post at Abi's blog? 
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Retro Vintage Style Notebooks

A quick post to show some work I've been doing. 

First of all, a commission book, which I finished today:

A Guestbook for a Baby Shower.  As you may have guessed, it's for twins!  The lady who ordered this had made beautiful invitations, with her own artwork, which she showed me when we were discussing the label for the cover.  I suggested that her work could be used to make the cover label too, as it was so nice.  So, the artwork here is all her own and I have just cut things out, mounted pieces on foam pads and matted the "Twins" label on the grey chevron paper.  I gave her a choice of several layouts and this was the one she chose. 

 

The kraft covers are lined with similar chevron-covered paper and the pages are a rainbow of different colours.  I think this will make the mummy-to-be very happy!

 

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I've also been making some fun little notebooks for my online shop.  The paper covers are from a range called "Happy Days", by Papermania.  I found this during the week, when I was in town and immediately thought of these notebooks. 

I filled them with some lovely white "Three Candlesticks" writing paper (anyone had some of that? It's crisp and really nice, with a "laid" texture and a watermark that's very distinctive).

The main colours common to all papers, are the green and red, so I have used thin satin ribbons in those colours, as pretty tie closures for each book.

 

There are three pairs in the shop just now, with more on the way (see below!).   If Papermania have names for these designs, I don't know them, so I used my own names for my pairs of notebooks:

 

"Cherry Pie" - with a little cut-out can on the cherry paper cover, to make it a nice set.

"Hello You" - labels with little friendly messages, plus a very '50s style floral.

"Sew Lovely" - a design of sewing tools, dresses & machines, and the second cover has a design of paper dressmaking patterns.

 

These four are "in progress" just now - waiting to be hand-stitched with nice red linen thread and to have their ribbons added.

 

 

Incidentally, if you should want to buy any of these, they're available from my Folksy and Etsy shops....

If you buy from Etsy, you can use a Coupon Code "Blogfriends10" at checkout, for a 10% discount (which applies to all purchases, not just the notebooks).

If you prefer to buy via Folksy - or just direct from me - give me a shout and I will "reserve" items for you, with the discount set up on the reserved listing. (End of shameless plug!)

This pair are not in the shop.  I have made them as a gift - they'll be in the post on Monday morning!