WOYWW 383 - a new toy (or several)

Hi there, deskers and it's Wednesday again already.. time to meet up with Julia and the Gang at the Stamping Ground
Some of you have already seen the review of the Happy Stampers show (here)  the walk round Port Sunlight village (here)  and Liverpool Waterfront (here)  the latter of which just blew me away (helped in no small part by a gorgeous day, warm sunshine and the bluest of blue skies you could imagine for England in October.  follow the links if you haven't and if you want to!

But I will include a quick snap or two here for those of you in a hurry!

 Shaz and Neet - I've been blogging since 2009 (golly, THAT long?!) and have known Neet 'virtually' probably for most of that time.  Saturday was the first time we've met... So pleased you were able to make it Neet, and hope you feel a lot better!

It was wonderful to meet this lovely lady at last, and it's always great to catch up with Shaz and Doug.



Sarah Anderson (friend of Chris's), Neet, Shaz and Chris (PearshapeChris)   - everyone kept congregating at Paperartsy's stand... wonder why?!








Stash from Happy Stampers... see, I CAN do minimal - shopping anyway!

and ahem. the desk from Tuesday... I am off work this week (I think I may have mentioned!)  and went into Kingston to the art shop as my bottle of gesso is getting low... I like the Liquitex one and the art shop had a giant bottle that is best part of 1 litre , so it made sense to get the biggest they had!  the price was good too.

  A few other pieces "may" have fallen into my basket - some hot press watercolour paper (two for one in the pack, so obviously that was a bargain!) some more micron pens, and a small pad of 'natural' colour card - a pale Kraft.. it's nice!  and er... a new lens for the camera...

 I've had my eye on a really wide angle for some time (wanted a Macro as well for all the flowers, but they were a bit lot more pricey... next on the list though!)

 this one is 10 mm to 18mm focal length and this is it set at it's widest 10mm... you can see quite a lot more  of my "stuff"...  as I will demonstrate...

 this is my "standard" zoom which is 18 mm to 55 mm and it is set at 18mm so this is the most you'd normally be able to see... can't wait to get it out and about to play

(by the time you read this, unless you are very early, I will be out and about with it, in London!)

and this is the view of the room at it's widest 10mm again, back from the doorway towards the window.  oh my...  think I need a radical sort out!!

Hope you all have a good Wednesday, I'll do my catching up with your desks this evening!

and if you want to see London it'll be on "photosbyh" later today!! (click the fountain at the top right)

Trip to Liverpool - part three - the Happy Stampers show!

So, Saturday dawned damp... turned much wetter

After a cooked breakfast to set us up for the day, we walked the short distance from our Hotel, the Bridge Inn, to the Hulme Hall where the show is held.  in the drizzle... stood and queued for a few minutes...  I was hoping to meet some PAtwits and some WOYWW deskers...

 First up, deskers...

I have known Neet as long as I have been blogging, but Saturday was  the first time I have ever got to meet her in the flesh... here she is with Shaz.

 Neet hasn't been too well lately, so I was thrilled she was able to come, and it is always lovely to see Shaz (and Doug, who carries the shopping so well... he seems to have evaded the photo...)

 Leandra demonstrating...

 Sam, Chris and Lin

 Alison, ready to demo... much better pose than some I've got of you lately, Alison, eh?!

 Sarah Anderson, Neet and Shaz again, and Chris.

Leandra busy demoing

 and Sam, looking at some Seth stamps, trying to work out if they were what she wanted..

 Chris Sam and Sarah

 Alison in action..

 time for tea and cake again... Chris came too this time!  Had Victoria sponge this time, with fresh cream..  oh yummy yummy again!

back to the show, got soaking wet on the way... Sam  and Emma, watching Alison, and Claire watching Leandra... as I decided I'd cut Sam in half with the stand supports...

we decided to prove it!

don't have any more pictures but Sam has a lovely review here too




and some stash... well, I wasn't going to come all this way without buying something...



but not as much as usual!

After a freshen up we headed down to dinner in the pub restaurant, and whilst we were waiting for our meals to come, I happened to see Alison posting on facebook that she was in the bar of the hotel waiting for her husband to pick her up, so Sam went and got her and she joined us.   In the end, when Graham arrived he came in too and they ended up having dinner with us.
so, by being anti social and checking my phone at dinner, we ended up having a good evening with them.

the blog title says part three -  parts one and two are here and here 

WOYWW 382

Yo, deskers!  It'll be a quick trip today, there isn't much going on!
Head Desker Julia will be delighted at how short and sweet it will be today

I have realised as I am typing this up that you can't see what the stamps are!

they were designed by a lovely friend of mine Debs who won a competition to design some stamps and got given a few sets to give away, I was lucky enough to get a set, which arrived today (Tuesday) - I am hoping to have time to play soon, they are small doodly-flowers and will be great on journals and atcs etc.  I'll be sure to show you what I do.
So I am getting mega-excited about the weekend and my trip to Port Sunlight for Happy Stampers, with some good friends and hoping to meet up lots of deskers as well as Paperartsy 'PAtwits' too.  - see you there!
Not only that, I have next week off work too!  I'll leave you (not so short and sweet after all!) in Julia's care at Stamping Ground