Swinging back in for Rudolf day

Wow. It's a whole month since my last post. Did you miss me?

It has been a hectic time, starting with my cataract operation which was very successful. two more weeks and I can be tested for new glasses. I can't wait!

We were then hit by the worst storms in this area for 25 years. I know some of it was shown on TV in UK. We were just on the edge of the band that was hit the hardest, but our village was relatively unharmed, due mainly to the new flood drains installed a couple of years ago. But all around us there is debris, and devastation. We visited friends just half an hours drive from us on Tuesday, and in two places the main road had disappeared. It just stopped at a deep chasm with broken tarmac below. They have laid provisional diversions of compacted sand and gravel, but further rain is already churning these up. Even the main motorway was badly damaged so we have several stretches of contraflow in operation for some months to come. Many friends are still digging their way out of the mud and sludge that filled their homes and their cars. We were turned away four times when we tried to drive to the airport to collect our son the next day, but we did get there eventually and found him patiently drinking yet another cup of coffee in the cafe, and wondering where we were. There were no phone lines or mobile connections so we had been unable to contact him.

However, while he took care of our animals, we then had a fantastic fortnight travelling all around Ireland. It is a truly beautiful land and we met some lovely people there, enjoyed good food and loved the music. There is definitely a scrapbook waiting to happen there!

On our arrival home, way past midnight on Saturday 13th Oct, there was yet another surprise, as all five of our sons, and our eldest grandson,  had flown out to help us celebrate our birthdays, Chris's on the Monday and mine on the Wednesday. Apparently they had been planning it for eighteen months but we had no idea. We had a party already arranged for the Monday evening which was a great success, and then two boys had to go home on Tuesday, but the rest stayed until Saturday. (They are men now really but all together it was just like having a house full of kiddies again!). We had a fabulous week together, but as you can imagine there was little or no time for crafting.

Which brings us up to now. Yesterday being 25th October, it was once again Rudolf day over on Sandra's blog, and I had intended making a card for it when I got home form holiday. Of course it didn't get done, but yesterday was my monthly parchment craft class and this was our project for the day. So last night I mounted it up on red holographic card and then on a cream base card, and added a few gold brads and peel-offs, to make a simple card which I am now linking up to Sandra's Stamping for Pleasure.

It isn't that well done but at least I am getting to grips with the grid work now, and am fairly happy with the frame design. I just need to keep practising cutting the little crosses evenly. It is a very time consuming craft, but very rewarding when you get it right.

Now I have done that I will hopefully get back into the swing of crafting, as I still have quite a few Christmas cards to make.

I also have "quite a few" holiday photos to sort out. I will then be writing a post about our time in Ireland on my other blog, Kate's Adventures.  In the meantime you are welcome to pop over there to read more about the storms here,  and also about the great week we had with the boys.