Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #403

It's been a strange week really, very mixed weather. Sunny and quite warm then, chilly with rain. Len went back to archery on Wednesday morning for the first time for a year and it was a shock to Dudley for sure. He, Dudley not Len, lay at the top of the stairs, watching the front door for the whole morning until the 'aching archer' returned home.

I struggled to make some upcoming Birthday cards  - lack of inspiration didn't really help either. And my exciting outing of the week was a routine dental check-up.

This current challenge's 'snippets sample' card is actually a card made by the lovely Liz of 'Crafty Sunflower'. I spotted it linked into the challenge that just closed and loved it immediately, earmarked it as a 'pick' then rushed out to buy the set of dies for a Playground prize, plus one for me of course. I then  realised this shoulder really needs more TLC so I asked Liz if I could use her card image as a sample - and she very kindly said 'Of course'. And here it is:

I'm hugely grateful to Liz for coming to the rescue - I think we might have had a challenge with just a photo of my huge concertina snippets folder otherwise!

To find out how Liz made this clever card, you can find out all about it on her blog post HERE. I do so love the design and even the sentiment has that 'paint brushed' look about it. You can rely on Liz to come up with some clever ways to use dies and this is a perfect example.

And here's the prize on offer:

It's a Sweet Dixie 'DIY Tools' set of dies needless to say, with lots of depth to the die cuts as well. The image is from the internet as still I'm waiting for delivery of the sets of dies. Absolutely perfect for male cards - it's a while since we had a 'male' themed prize and Liz's design especially is so very clever.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 29th May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

 

Please also remember that I only allow a total of nine other challenges, which makes 10 in total, when you enter a snippets make into the Playground.

 

Dudley is currently fast asleep under the desk, with his head resting on one of my feet. I'm convinced he's attached to us with invisible velcro! If I stand up, even to just get something from a cupboard in here, he's up and watching. Of course though, he's also incredibly nosy and hates to miss anything ☺

My week ahead includes a check-up at the optician's which means venturing into the centre of town for the first time in well over a year. Then the following week I have a 'hair chop' booked. With cases of the Indian variant of COVID on the rise it seems prudent to get a few appointments out of the way just in case we go into yet another lock down. I really think that would be utterly soul-destroying - certainly I'd be pretty devastated, particularly on behalf of so many people who've been apart from loved ones for so long. Let's hope for the best.

 

Stay safe and be kind. 

  

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

First slimline card for ages!

I've been seeing so many tall and slim, or wide and slim, cards lately, and finally set to the other day - when inspiration was out for a jog. It should be skinny as a rake with all the 'going out for a jog' it's doing these days!

Am really badly behind on Christmas card making so I decided to try out a new scenic paper pack from Whimsy Stamps - and this was the resulting card:

I used:

- UK size white DL card stock - 8.25" x 4" - tent style

- a sheet of paper from the Whimsy Stamps Slimline 'Frozen' scenic \9including igloo to keep the penguins warm!) designer paper pack. The really lovely background papers aren't matched to UK sizes, they're 8.5" x 3.5" - but a bit of pale blue pearlescent card as a 'frame', as well as carefully chopping off a bit from one side of the background Whimsy paper,cured that slightly 'unexpected and a bit disappointing' hiccup

- cut a piece of blue pearlescent card to 8" x 3.75" and then cut the background Whimsy paper to 7.75" wide and left the height at 3.5" so that it was even all round. BTW, the shade.colour of the card I used for framing the image panel will work with loads of the other image panels. Some of them do have mauve and pink tones so it might be that I'll resort to silver mirri or similar, if I can't find a good match

- had already chosen the stamps to use and they're from the Lawn Fawn 'Here we go A-Waddlin' set of stamps - love this set!

- stamped the three carolling penguins onto white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- coloured them using Faber-Castell Polychromos - mostly as right now I can't reach up to my Pro Markers without asking for help and Len was busy installing a new printer in his own 'den'

- then die cut the 'penguin choir' using the co-ordinating set of Lawn Fawn dies

- at that point I knew how the scene would fit together, so I was very brave/reckless and stamped the sentiment directly onto the background, using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink - admittedly having first checked for 'smudge-ability' on a small piece I'd trimmed from the background Whimsy panel

- then I got even braver and re-positioned the 'still not stuck down' penguin trio and worked out where some 'notes' would go - thank goodness for the Misti!

- stamped the notes using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' again

- then glued the pearlescent baby blue panel on to the card blank

- followed that with the Whimsy back ground panel

- finally, added the die cut penguin trio, using a glue pen!

It made sense to make two cards the same whilst everything was on my desk, particularly as the background images come in twos.

As the paper pack is having its first outing, I'm linking this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #26 HERE. It's ages since I played along, despite blithely using unused goodies as much as possible these days. Slaps own wrist.

I finally bit the bullet and switched over to using my new Canon camera that Santa brought - shame on me for taking so long! I hate change yet it's so similar, albeit much upgraded, that I kicked myself for taking so long to do the switchover. Basically I tend to use things until they're not working right and only then will I consider a change/upgrade. Err, although craft goodies are always an exception of course!

I also tried (following in the footsteps of others, as always) using some SU 'In Good Taste' wood effect background paper when I took the photo, with the card placed deliberately 'on the wonk'. A lovely friend sent me some to try out and then I plumped for buying a whole pack of varied effect patterns. My 'in-house critic' very much approved, so I may even advance to adding in an envelope behind the card, which possibly is more balanced as I've subsequently noticed a few of you doing this. And who knows - in time - perhaps the odd prop or two ☺ 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #401 - results

Hello and welcome to the Playground once again - another week just flew by. A week of pretty grey and miserable weather - always the same when it's a Bank Holiday in Great Britain.

Let's get straight on with the picks:

Here's a great idea for using up snippet strips - brought to share with us by Lesley G. I love the 'parquet floor' effect and just by changing the colours and sentiment you could make a great card for male, female, adults and children alike. Very versatile design! 

Val shared this wonderful card with us - and another great way to use up snippets. It's called 'Bargello' and is made by creating strips of snippets and then offsetting the colours/patterns to create a lovely and interesting background. It's also a tapestry technique that I've used in the past. Great card Val!

Here's a card I made back in 2013 for the Playground - just to show how versatile the technique is:

Whilst we're on the subject of using up small snippets to create backgrounds - here's a really great tip from Mandy. The card you see above has a very pretty pink background - and Mandy made it by using the front cover (aka contact sheet) from a paper pad. Here it is before being cut up, so you can get the idea - very clever:

That's three picks but I have two more which I just can't leave out:

 

I really love the elegance of Kath's card. The patterned paper is a snippet and how clever to die cut the curve then add it to the corner of the card front, after die cutting the sentiment, then adding it back into the patterned part of the card using the 'camouflage' technique. 

And finally, I picked this card - made by Karen (Ladd) - it's so restful to look at and also uses a few snippets. Who would think that the beige background is an upcycled piece from an old envelope - good thinking there and such a lovely card. 

That's my picks from Challenge #401 in the Playground. We had 47 entries and no new Playmates. But some folk are returning after long absences, which is really nice to see.

So lets move right onto the draw which is for a Woodware stamp set, designed by Jane Gill, and called 'Bold Blooms - Isabella'. And the winner is:

Pat

Congratulations Pat! I know how clever you are with your colouring and am sure you will have fun using this gorgeous floral stamp. The way our weather is right now I can see a happy afternoon or two spent with your watercolours!

Please send me your address, even if you know that I know it already, with your full name at the top as well so it can be can be copied and pasted for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course.  Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost one more week to run on the current 'Ruby's Memory' Challenge #402 HERE. The prize is being donated by Vicky and it's two stamp sets, Clearly Besotted's 'Dog Years' and W plus 9's 'Strictly Sentiments 2'. We've had a good few entries so far so if you haven't joined in yet, have a dig through your snippets and come and join in! 

We have at least two, probably more, hedgies coming to visit every night. Dudley loves to stop to say hello to them when he goes out for his last mooch around the garden just before bed as there's invariably one or two in the garden at that time. Len managed to take a photo of a smallish one having a drink, beside the feeding station, The water dish was scrubbed totally clean earlier, but the little scamps have a habit of standing in the water like a little foot bath!

On Friday, I heard Len return home laughing after Dudley's lunchtime walk. With lock down and distancing, Dudley has only seen his very best doggie pal from over the road - called Arnie - from afar. However, today they made up for lost time although neither Arnie's Mum nor Len managed to take a phone photo of the pair of them. I did a quick search on t'internet and found exactly what they apparently looked like when they greeted one another - by hugging - after so long apart:

Please remember this isn't actually Dudley and Arnie hugging hello - but Len says it could so easily be them - Arnie is black and curly, Dudley is white with peach coloured ears, both have plumes for tails and they're both about the same size as one another. Talk about cute - just wish I'd seen it for myself - who knows, it might happen again and phones will be at the ready to take photos!

 

Love from Parsnip, myself and the usual happy 'high-five' and woof from Dudley,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #402 - Ruby's Memory

So, it's a holiday tomorrow here in the UK - and many other places as well - to celebrate May Day, which is the return of Spring. Ha, after some lovely weather recently it's forecast to be not so good - typical! According to folklore, the dew on 1 May has magical properties and anyone who washes their face in it will have a flawless complexion for the entire year. Nice thought but highly unlikely here.

It's time for another Ruby's Memory Challenge challenge and this time we have a two part prize kindly donated by Vicky. I've known Vicky (via blogging and Stamping Up for a good while now) and was delighted when she sent me two sets of stamps for Ruby's Challenge. Over the years I've had at least four Stamping Up Demos, including April, Vicky and Lesley all of whom play here. Some of you will have had more - and I do think they're all innoculated with kindness and generous hearts.

This runs very much like my usual challenges and the rules are exactly the same. The main difference you will notice is that I won't make sample card as the prize has been donated and I don't have a duplicate. Instead, I'm donating what I would have spent  to the rescue charity who saved little Ruby as a wee puppy. 

BTW, the Toy Box is full to overflowing right now after another lovely package of goodies arrived, so unless you feel a burning need to send any unused goodies in order to clear your own craft space, for now I do have enough prizes to last for some considerable time. Your generosity is amazing - thank you all so much as by donating those prizes you have effectively donated to the rescue charity as well. Please read the end of this post for some more information about donated goodies.

So, here's an image of a gorgeous card that Vicky made using a sentiment from her own duplicate of one of the stamp sets:

And here's the prize itself - slight difference in quality between Vicky's photography and mine though. I do envy crafters who stage their work so beautifully, I just never seem to have the time, let alone the skill:

 

See what I mean?! Anyhow - first of all there's a lovely set of Clearly Besotted stamps called 'Dog Years' with lots of adorable pooches (a couple of the upside down ones remind me of Dudley), plenty of sentiments for different occasions as well as some sweet little 'accessories' such as a Santa hat. There's also a set of great sentiments by W plus 9 called 'Strictly Sentiments 2', one was used on Vickys card above.'.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 15th May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list. And I won't be splitting the prize of course.

 

Please also remember that I only allow a total of nine other challenges, which makes 10 in total, when you enter a snippets make into the Playground.

I'm typing this on Friday as we have a bath scheduled for Dudley on Saturday after his midday walk - sssh, don't tell him. I might add a little 'pupdate' here afterwards, we shall see.

 

Edit: So funny, Dudley escaped from the big 'burrito' bath towel I'd rolled him in and went right for a bedroom where we'd forgotten to close the door. The clip of him drying himself on the bed is massive and I can't seem to be able to embed it on this post but it can be found on my Facebook account as well as YouTube - under 'Dudley the Havanese' - HERE.

 

Here's the final still from the video after his mad frenzy - what a pickle he is! Then, he was beautifully fluffy and white with those beautiful peach ears after a good brush and blow dry, within less than half an hour.

 

The 2nd COVID jabs went well for both of us, Len sailed through it and I just had a short reaction that evening (very cold and shivering for a while) but thankfully was right as rain after an early night and a long sleep. 

Back to the subject of donated goodies and prizes. Most of you will recall our lovely Playmate Mary McMillan in the USA, who lost her home and all of her craft goodies in a terrible California fire some while ago. When I finally found out about what had happened I put out an appeal on here and many of you responded so generously. If you didn't, then no need to wade though what follows.

Most of you opted to send items directly to Mary but some of you sent them to me to add into my own parcel, as I was going to be sending my own stuff as well ........................ and then along came COVID! Any thoughts of posting that parcel went out of the window and in fact it was likely to need a courier service rather than Royal Mail.

 

So, I still have a box of goodies from myself, and a few of you, waiting to be sent to Mary. A while ago I picked up vibes that she really had been quite overwhelmed by people's generosity, potentially had more stamps than she would ever get round to using (I know that feeling well!) and was almost struggling with storage etc. So, I emailed Mary the other day for a 'catch up chat' and also to ask about the donated goodies. I heard back from her today and whilst she's so very grateful for your kindness she really isn't managing to do much card making. Richard, her husband, is virtually blind and Mary is having to care for him and also the house - with very little time for card making or blogging. She would prefer that the items go to people who have more time on their hands to play and I do understand this. I also understand that some of you might be disappointed that your donated items never went to Mary, but we really had no idea of the impact COVID would have and life has moved on for so many of us.

I have a solution though. How about I make up bigger bundles of items for Ruby's challenge every so often? Some of them will be pre-loved but they're either new or in excellent condition. And of course I would still send a donation to the rescue centre as always. Or we could have a bumper draw on one/some of my own snippets weeks with several prize bundles and you saying what you're playing for. Trickier to administer but 'doable' nonetheless. Thoughts or any other ideas please.

I haven't dug right through the box but each item sent to me for onward posting to Mary is identifiable by sender - so if you feel 'Hey, this isn't on and it's not why I sent my stuff' - then I would happily package up and return your donated items to you of course. And that would remain purely between us - just email me if you want me to do that.

 

And apologies once again for a wordy post and also the fact that I haven't caught up on commenting as well as I should.

 

Stay safe and be kind.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Rudolph Days Challenge - April 2021

Wow, squeaking into Scrappy Mo's monthly Rudolph Days Challenge at the last minute here! It's one challenge I make a point of never missing - no matter what.

I've still been battling a painful and lately 'scrunchy shoulder' - sounds a bit like a bean bag (remember those from school?). So I decided to go through my box of saved 'shop bought' Christmas cards, kept to upcycle, and cull some of the older ones whilst also looking for the makings of a Rudolph Days card. I ended up being quite ruthless - styles have changed and many looked very dated since I began saving ones with possibilities (found one with a message in dated Xmas 2011!). Now I just have what I think could be 'useable pieces' with the backs cut away - ready for future transformation. Eventually I combined elements from two cards - and came up with this:

The light was weird here so the red sparkle on the sentiment and the poinsettias  - along with the lovely shimmering gold touches on the wreath - doesn't show up as well as in real life. But it's all there, I promise - and I love how two very different upcycled cards offered such a good match of toppers as well.

I used:

- 6.75" white square card blank, side opening

- sheet of kraft card trimmed to 6.5" square and glued onto the card front

- sheet of Christmas red card trimmed to 6.25" square and glued onto the kraft layer

- the wreath was so tricky to carefully remove from the original card front as it was popped up on sticky pads - once it was off I carefully scraped every bit of the sticky pads away so I could glue it totally flat onto the card front

- wreath in place so all that was left was the sentiment - which is exactly as I removed it from a different shop bought card

- the already red-glittered sentiment was stuck on with a long sticky pad and, rather than risk crumpling it, I very carefully snipped the background of the card away from the added sentiment before trimming the left 'attached' piece of the background to the same size as the sticky pads - those babies were not going to part company!

- then just glued the sentiment piece, on the back of the 'card covered and not going anywhere' sticky pad, onto the middle of the wreath

To be honest, the planning and measuring for this card took way longer than the actual assembly stage. I had quite a few options in mind believe me! I used kraft card as the outer layer rather than gold (which I did hold up as an option) just because it seemed to detract from the wreath itself and also would have left the sentiment on kraft perhaps looking a bit out of place and not tied in. Am very much into 'tied in' these days! Sort of 'crafting bondage' really - I wonder if anyone will notice what I just wrote there? Also debated about adding some ornate corners to the red layer - but in the end decided it was more striking as it was. Len spotted it and said 'Wow, I would buy that one in a shop!'. Which is good enough for me.

Hope & Chances Charity Kits

I had a blitz on some outstanding Hope and Chances Charity Kits recently, whilst trying to rest this flipping shoulder. And here are the results:

November 2020

In aid of Action for Stammering Children 

A lovely card to make - possibly my favourite one out of this session, but probably more suited to Thanksgiving 2021 now! I did a boo-boo and only went and added the front panels to the kraft card blank so that it opened as a V shape, with the apex at the bottom, duh. Quick bit of trimming of the whole front of the card and then popped it onto a side opening white card blank. Everything in this kit was supplied - just some gentle TH inking of the elements to do.

February 2021 

In aid of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust

And the inside:

Everything was supplied, I coloured the 'ruler' pieces with TH Distress inks then just added Josy Rose Hot Fix Nail Heads to the centre of the flowers.

March 2021

In aid of the British Lung Foundation

I bought two of these kits as they're so pretty - and all the cutting has been done already. All it needed was to gently Tim Holtz ink up the flowers and add little diamante centres to them - everything else was provided.

In fact, shame on me, I have two different NBUS die sets to make swing cards which I bought a while ago after making a similar card using a previous Hope & Chances kit. Writes that on 'must do' list.

And last, but not least:

April 2021

In aid of Tiggywinkles - British wildlife rescue hospital

I know someone who has a Springtime Birthday and thought this would be a nice change from a straightforward 'Birthday' card. Once again, everything came with the kit, I just added the diamante centres to the already coloured flowers. It looks better in real life, the layers are clearer - honestly!

I buy at least one of Christine's kits each month, but don't always make them up in the right order. Christine will be publishing her latest Charity Kit this coming Sunday morning over on her blog HERE. It's a great way to support a variety of charities in the UK - as well as having a fun kit to play with!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #400 - results

Hola! Touch of Spanish there as I'm re-reading Chris Stewart's brilliant' Driving Over Lemons' book series about life in Spain, living on a ramshackle farm. It's very funny, literally laugh out loud at times, and he writes so well. He was the original drummer with Genesis - but 'retired gracefully' after a year and Phil Collins took over - the rest is history of course.

First of all, the picks:

Love this gorgeous tag, made by Jackie T - and correctly predicted as a pick by SaRn as well! So much gorgeous colour and 'prettiness' - I love it. Super use of snippets of course - with the gorgeous dragonfly as a finishing touch.. 

Gnomes are so popular right now and I do so love this card, made by Carol L. Detailed dies are such fun to play with and a great way to use up snippets and Carol linked the colours so well with the background strips as well. Super card.

And it wouldn't be right to not include this fabulous card, made by our 'Founder' Jules! Absolutely lovely card and a wonderful selection of snippets used as well. Once again, it's wonderful how the background colours are echoed in the main image. Just beautiful.

And we have one new Playmate as well:

Christa

Welcome to the Playground Christa - please come back and play with us again.

That's my picks from our celebration Challenge #400 in the Playground. I struggled to limit my picks to three but, despite starting this post during the week, am now up against time as today is Saturday! We had 59 entries and one new Playmate. Really lovely to see so many entries - and also so many people (unsurprisingly) throwing their hats into the ring for the bumper prize as well.

So lets move right onto the draw which is for a set of MFT 'Tall Tag Duo' dies, Clearly Besotted's 'All booked up' and 'Wise Owl' sets of stamps, plus a Lawn Fawn 'Really Rainbow' 6" x 6" petite paper pack. And the winner is:

Linby (Lynn)

Congratulations Lynn and I have to admit that I literally burst out laughing when your number popped out! The first entry picked was a recent winner who didn't wish to be in the draw - and then out you popped! Lynn is my 'reading material guru' so how fun is that - and was absolutely the luck of the draw. Smiling still abut a total bookworm winning all the goodies to make some bookmarks  ☺

Please send me your address, even if you know that I know it already, with your full name at the top as well so it can be can be copied and pasted for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course.  Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost one more week to run on the current Challenge #401 HERE. It's a super stamp set made by Woodware, designed by Jane Gill, and called 'Bold Blooms - Isabella'.Do please see if you can share your inspiration and ideas for using up snippets, with them being the focus of the card if possible.

Len is fine so far after his COVID jab on Tuesday - a couple more days and he'll be past the time when the side effects hit him last time. Fingers firmly crossed! I have mine this coming Tuesday but haven't had a reminder - whereas Len had three of the perishers! If there's any problem I swear I'll throw myself on the floor and throw a tantrum - complete with toddler style drumming of heels and screaming blue murder☺

 

Dudley is still making himself a little nest at night, surrounded by his favourite toys. And his spinning/whirling round for treats is coming along really well - perhaps we ought to change his name to The Dervish. He's loving the current sunny days and would happily spend most of his time out in the back garden, bless him. 

 

Almost forgot - it's Rudolph Days once again from today until the end of the month over at ScrappyMo's blog! 

 

Love from Parsnip, myself and the usual happy 'high-five' and woof from Dudley.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #401

Hello again! Glad you could drop into the Snippets Playground. Once again, we've had a week of mixed weather and more snow flurries interspersed with some lovely sunshine.

Time for another snippets challenge:

It takes a certain kind of mindset to painstakingly tear up small snippets of paper and then even more painstakingly layer them back together to create a pink 'decoupatch' style background to show off the floral bouquet!

Here's a photo of the prize for this fortnight:

 

A super stamp set made by Woodware, designed by Jane Gill, and called 'Bold Blooms - Isabella'. I love it and also think the sentiment is so perfect for a host of occasions.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 1st May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

 

Please also remember that I only allow a total of nine other challenges, which makes 10 in total, when you enter a snippets make into the Playground.

 

Dudley loves his walks - once he has his harness on and accepts that there's no way he's not going for one! We have a routine when he gets back home - he always has a particular doggy treat that's his very favourite. Just this past week or two he's learned a new trick whereby if you hold the treat above him and sweep your arm round in a circular motion - he does a joyful 360 degree spin around on the spot! He's done three consecutive spins for one treat so far ☺ Today the spins, next week Crufts agility! I suspect not - he has too much of a mind of his own.

The other day Len brought a tray with mugs of coffee on up from the kitchen and deposited it on a furniture unit. When we looked, there was Dudley up on his hind legs - casually leaning with one front paw against the side of the unit whilst his other front paw hung limply in front of him - he really did look like a foppish 'dandy' from the Regency era! Of course he was just checking there wasn't a treat on the tray - it looked so funny but I couldn't grab my camera in time to take a photo. Priceless though.

This coming week, Len is going for his second Pfizer COVID vaccination, I follow him a week later. Here's hoping he fares better than he did first time round, my reaction wasn't good but nowhere near as bad as his.

We watched the funeral of HRH Prince Philip on Saturday, on TV. Very moving and our Queen looked so tiny and alone. Dudley couldn't understand why I spent a lot of the afternoon in tears - bless his little heart. Extra cuddles had to be given :)

What a lot of entries from people joining in the 400th celebrations - even a good few who haven't played for some while - great stuff!

Stay safe and be kind.

 

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me.