Crafts and weekend break

Hello.
At last I crafted! :-D Friend was going to be helping out at a Halloween event. He was dressing up as an undertaker, so I thought he'd need a coffin! I cut this on the Cricut, using an SVG made by the very talented Bird. Here is the Link to her site. Check out the rest of her stuff though. I do have a go at my own SVG's but Bird is very talented and has some great ideas, that I will look at properly and use, soon. These coffins were really easy to make up after the Cricut had cut them out. Bird had even added fold lines so you don't have to guess.
Here are the photo's. Sorry about the colour - taken in the morning with bad light because of the rain.



















We managed to get away last weekend. In the caravan, just North of York. I can really recommend using the Park & Ride. I'd have hated driving into the city and trying to find somewhere to park. The journey on the bus took about 20 minutes, so comparable to our local service from the village into town. In York it cost us £2.30 each. At home the journey is now £3.50!
We went to the Railway Museum. Sorry! But there it is! I love steam trains. And the older diesel/electrics did seem to have something about them. Especially when I found one that I'm sure must have been running on the line which, when we were little, we used to stand on a bridge and wave to the driver and guard.... and call them very rude (well, rude for 7 and 8 year olds at the time) names if they didn't wave back! :-D
This steam train was built at the works in the town we used to live in.
 This is the left side - do they have terms, like boating, with trains? You know - Port and Starboard? No idea! Anyway, this is still the left side of the train. lol. (Photo's of trains were taken by R not me by the way.)

And the right hand side has been cut away, so that you can see all the workings; how the water is heated to produce the steam, to make the train run. See. I knew all that (Dad and two brothers - what did you expect?), but to see it like this is amazing.

Spent most of the day here. Aching feet and a need to eat took us into town to find a meal, supermarket and bus back to the Car/Park & Ride.
Following day we went back because I wanted to go to the Minster. Didn't realise it was going to cost that much to get in though, so I didn't.

I knew R wouldn't want to go in anyway, so it would have only been me, but this was supposed to be a cheap weekend away. I did go inside and have a look around the entrance area. I was also disappointed that I couldn't just go and find a place to sit quietly.
I haven't been here since I was very little either. We were surprised at it's size and location. We used to live near to Winchester Cathedral, and years ago not far from Salisbury and it's Cathedral. They both have grassed areas around them, where you can sit and picnic, or whatever. York just has paving and seemed very close to the shops. Winchester and Salisbury Cathedrals both seemed to be bigger too? Maybe it's just my memory playing tricks? Anyway. It is still a beautiful building regardless.
It was nice to get away in the caravan and just relax away from everything, for a few days - dogs, kids and stress! :-D
Found a Paperchase in York too! Bonus!!! Treated myself to a diary and a journal for my birthday. Then shopping in Asda I found some leather look journals and bought a couple. Tonight someone on UKScrappers mentioned "Wreck a Journal". I have so got to have a try at that. Don't want an original one because no way could I splatter food into any book, or take it into the shower, but when I googled it there are other ideas out there, so one of the Asda journals is going to (hopefully) become a Wreck.... Watch this space.....
Have the rest of the week off work now so hoping to relax and play at crafts; and maybe wreck a journal. :-)
Speak soon. Thanks for reading this far.
Jude.x

Good times at last?

The good news is that R's work has been constant. :-D He's been doing silly hours (3am starts silly!) but he's loving it...... Barmy, but there you go! I checked up today and it's been one year and one week since he got paid from his last job, so we've spent exactly one year trying to survive on just my wage. Phew! It's been hard, but we made it!
I did make the mistake of going shopping today. lol. "Please don't make me go shopping on a Saturday! You won't like me when I get angry". Yup! I apparently got a bit aggressive because I was queuing at the Paper/Tobacco/Lottery tills and one girl was trying to run three tills, with more than a dozen people not knowing which till to queue at. I got bored of waiting but as we were leaving there were 7 members of staff stood around the main tills. (I'd gone straight through the main till - there were no queues at those tills!) so I felt obliged to say something.... DS1 wandered off and pretended he didn't know me..... hehehe!
The other good news is that R has sent off his licence for his HGV, so that could be back soon. It might not - he could have to go back to the Consultant to get his Blood Glucose readings confirmed; but after 8 years without it we can at least see the light at the end of that very long tunnel. Common sense finally happens in the UK!
DS2 is very happy too because it looks like it's all systems go for him to go out to Los Angeles for Christmas to see the "lovely American Daughter". If R's licence comes back in the next couple of weeks we could even afford to help with getting his ticket earlier and he could be out for Thanksgiving too.
And of course a list of crafting goodies for him to get while he's out there. Now do I need a "Smash" book or not? Or maybe two? I think I need to watch some of the video's out there before I decide if I need any at all? :-) I think the new Project Life will be on the list - I've had the idea that my genealogy stuff could work with Project Life.
I am feeling a need to really get back into crafting - at long last. I thought crafting was what helped me stay happy, whereas what has happened is that I've discovered I need to be happy to craft. Odd. I can't say that the depression has gone, but it is certainly easing. So who knows what I'll manage tomorrow and Monday?

Finally some photo's: First three are the new lock gates going in.  £20,000 worth! Another set is needed further up the canal really, but one set at a time. These are for the lock where the canal trust have their new base, so a bit of PR here I think?
Here are the one's that were taken out:

The top gate is in. The guys are just making final adjustments before they unhook it from the crane...... If the hinges aren't connected properly you're not just going to be able to get in the lock chamber and lift this thing back into place. :-)

The bottom gates in place:

And finally, along with the rest of the country we've been enjoying the late summer heat wave. Or not enjoying in my case (I hate heat and sun; the early morning temperatures were plenty enough for me). I took this first photo at about 7am, and the temperature was already over 16 degrees C (61F) by the time I'd finished work this particular day it had reached well over 30 degrees in our sheltered little spot on the canal.

But the advantage of the weather is that the insects seem to have had a second chance and the result is this next photo.... getting good at this now! :-D

It is raining at last. Very little, in this area at least, this year. The boat crew had to cancel the trips last week, and when we told people it was because of lack of rain they look at you as though you've been living in the Sahara desert for the last 6 months. Seriously - we've had very little rain this year. Sad as I am, after 9 years of working alongside the canal I've started to judge the amount of rain we get by the water levels in the canal. Haha!
Any more good news? Oh, yes! I've just booked up for us to go away in the caravan in a couple of weeks. Not the site I would have liked (CAN anyone tell me how to get a booking for the CC Rowntree site?) but not too far out of York. Not been there for years, it's going to be my birthday weekend, so I thought - what the heck, I really need a holiday, even if it's only a long weekend. So I booked. Need more practice with the manual camera settings before I go though.
Well that's it for now. Wish me luck with the crafting. If I manage to actually do anything I'll post again soon.
Thanks for dropping by - especially if you managed to get this far........ :-) Speak soon.
J.x