So here is a project I did using some of the techniques she showed in her first video hope you like!
Around Here
11 years ago
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Thinking Inking
Jennifer McGuire is doing a great class over at Two Peas on stamping and the first two video's have been on using Tim Holtz distress inks. I started to get a few of these inks based on some projects that Jennifer has done in the past and her new videos have been so informative and I am excited with all the possibilities. Make sure you jump over to to Two Peas to learn more about her class Thinking Inking, it is a nine week class with three video tutorials a week so 27 in all. I can't wait to see her other projects.
So here is a project I did using some of the techniques she showed in her first video hope you like!
So here is a project I did using some of the techniques she showed in her first video hope you like!
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Keep Calm and Carry On
So London is in the midst of a 48 hour Tube strike which ends tonight at 6.58pm (not making it up 6.58 not 6.57 or 7.00 exactly). Needless to say when you take away the transport that 3 million people use everyday there is some chaos.
Why are they striking? What I have been able to understand after some reading is that basically in an economic down turn the union is not happy with a two percent over inflation pay rise on an already decent wage. They also want a guarantee that there will be no compulsory redundancies and at the last minute just to make things interesting they insisted that two union member who were in the process of employment tribunals for serious misconduct be reinstated. One was fired for serious breach of health and safety issues such as opening the doors on the wrong side at a busy tube station and for failing to complete routine mandatory safety checks. The other employee’s case can not be discussed in public.
So what does Yank think? I have struggled a lot with this topic please understand I do not believe that unions are a bad thing or that strikes even though they disrupt day to day running are wrong. I feel however that in the case of this particular strike that the union is being unreasonable.
The average Tube driver make £40,000 a year, works a 35 hour work week, can not work within 12 hours of finishing a previous shift, is paid double time on bank holidays, has Christmas, Boxing day and New Years day off, and 6 weeks of annual leave.
The average salary in England is £18,000 based on a 40-48 hour work week, very few professions impose a 12 hour between shift restriction. By law you only have to pay 1.5 time on bank holidays and the average annual leave for England is 4 weeks.
I understand that there was a time when many workers were taken advantage of and working conditions were poor, in some professions this is still true and the needs for unions is strong to protect workers. I have in the past supported the idea of strike in cases such as teachers who in many instances earn little more than minimum wage, have in recent years been strip of authority to discipline in most cases, and who every year are forces to take on larger and large class sizes even though studies have shown this is at the detriment of the student.
One could argue that it is really easy for me to support a teacher’s strike when it has little impact on my day to day life. I do not have children, I don’t have to miss work to be with them when the schools close or scramble to make other arrangements for the hours that would be covered while they where in school. When I take a hard look at myself I can concede that the fact it has added on about 2 hours to my already 3 hour round trip commute has certainly made me grumpier and more sleep deprived but honestly not biased against the strike.
3 million people in England are out of work right now, of those who have a job a large number of them have had their salaries frozen or even decreased or asked to work fewer hours or days a week. I don’t know that now is the best time to be walking out on your job holding out for an above inflation pay rise and a guarantee of no mandatory redundancies. There is little public support behind this strike and of those I have spoken with at work, family members and friends I have yet to find anyone who feels this strike is justifiable. For me it was little more than a guarantee that I got my minimum of 5 miles of walking in a day as I walked the 3.15 miles back to my train station last night and will make the same journey tonight. I have been lucky in the mornings be in the right place at the right time to catch a bus all the way to work from my train station this morning and half way to work yesterday morning leaving only 1.5 miles to walk. Due to planning and an alarm clock set for 4.30 am each morning I have actually made it to work a few minutes early. My dorkiness for learning multiple bus routes and walking routes around London has insured that I was able make quick decisions when I saw buses that had room on them, while most people where trying to figure out if the bus that was approaching would get them where they wanted to go. There was definitely a Keep Calm and Carry On attitude by most Londoners as they took to the street with there printed Google maps and copies of London A-Z.
Tomorrow I will only be too glad to get on the tube and make the journey from my train station to work in 15 mins instead of an hour but maybe one day I can tell my grand kids I survived the great tube strike of 2009.
Why are they striking? What I have been able to understand after some reading is that basically in an economic down turn the union is not happy with a two percent over inflation pay rise on an already decent wage. They also want a guarantee that there will be no compulsory redundancies and at the last minute just to make things interesting they insisted that two union member who were in the process of employment tribunals for serious misconduct be reinstated. One was fired for serious breach of health and safety issues such as opening the doors on the wrong side at a busy tube station and for failing to complete routine mandatory safety checks. The other employee’s case can not be discussed in public.
So what does Yank think? I have struggled a lot with this topic please understand I do not believe that unions are a bad thing or that strikes even though they disrupt day to day running are wrong. I feel however that in the case of this particular strike that the union is being unreasonable.
The average Tube driver make £40,000 a year, works a 35 hour work week, can not work within 12 hours of finishing a previous shift, is paid double time on bank holidays, has Christmas, Boxing day and New Years day off, and 6 weeks of annual leave.
The average salary in England is £18,000 based on a 40-48 hour work week, very few professions impose a 12 hour between shift restriction. By law you only have to pay 1.5 time on bank holidays and the average annual leave for England is 4 weeks.
I understand that there was a time when many workers were taken advantage of and working conditions were poor, in some professions this is still true and the needs for unions is strong to protect workers. I have in the past supported the idea of strike in cases such as teachers who in many instances earn little more than minimum wage, have in recent years been strip of authority to discipline in most cases, and who every year are forces to take on larger and large class sizes even though studies have shown this is at the detriment of the student.
One could argue that it is really easy for me to support a teacher’s strike when it has little impact on my day to day life. I do not have children, I don’t have to miss work to be with them when the schools close or scramble to make other arrangements for the hours that would be covered while they where in school. When I take a hard look at myself I can concede that the fact it has added on about 2 hours to my already 3 hour round trip commute has certainly made me grumpier and more sleep deprived but honestly not biased against the strike.
3 million people in England are out of work right now, of those who have a job a large number of them have had their salaries frozen or even decreased or asked to work fewer hours or days a week. I don’t know that now is the best time to be walking out on your job holding out for an above inflation pay rise and a guarantee of no mandatory redundancies. There is little public support behind this strike and of those I have spoken with at work, family members and friends I have yet to find anyone who feels this strike is justifiable. For me it was little more than a guarantee that I got my minimum of 5 miles of walking in a day as I walked the 3.15 miles back to my train station last night and will make the same journey tonight. I have been lucky in the mornings be in the right place at the right time to catch a bus all the way to work from my train station this morning and half way to work yesterday morning leaving only 1.5 miles to walk. Due to planning and an alarm clock set for 4.30 am each morning I have actually made it to work a few minutes early. My dorkiness for learning multiple bus routes and walking routes around London has insured that I was able make quick decisions when I saw buses that had room on them, while most people where trying to figure out if the bus that was approaching would get them where they wanted to go. There was definitely a Keep Calm and Carry On attitude by most Londoners as they took to the street with there printed Google maps and copies of London A-Z.
Tomorrow I will only be too glad to get on the tube and make the journey from my train station to work in 15 mins instead of an hour but maybe one day I can tell my grand kids I survived the great tube strike of 2009.
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
No work today!
I needed to go to the doctor today and because of my appointment time and travel time to London it was easier just to take a holiday day. As I was not sure I would be able to take a holiday day until yesterday I was left with the afternoon off after my doctors appointment. So with lack of much else to be doing I have been doing some crafting. I am in the process of covering an AC 12x12 album little irritated at the moment as the person producing the album was not very precise with the binding part so it is not even which means I am having to add little bits onto the sides to make it look right. Oh well there is my rant for the day.
On to more fun things, this is one of my favorite photo's of kitty the look on his face makes me crack up every time I look at it!
On to more fun things, this is one of my favorite photo's of kitty the look on his face makes me crack up every time I look at it!
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Happpy Fathers Day
Stamp with us had a wonderful colour inspiration and as I needed some inspiration to make a Fathers day card it was perfect timing. I seem to have a thing with sewing on cards and scrapbook pages right not and since I had a threaded needle I thought I would do some stitching on this card as well. It was nice to make a card again as I have been so busy with scrapbook pages lately!
Supplies:
Paper:Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Summer Picnic DS paper
Ink: Ballet Blue
Punch: SU Scallop
Other: Red Embroidery Thread
Friday, 8 May 2009
Wisley Gardens
So let it be said I never Use K&Co paper. I find their paper beautiful but I also find it very busy, I like plain simple graphic stuff. But since I kind of crafted this page in reverse order I found I needed some 12x12 background paper and the green suited the Que Sera Sera paper very well. I got the idea for this page from the lovely Carol who runs the monthly crop I attend. She had done a similar layout except her squares were about 1inch by 1inch I did not have the patience to work with that many square so I did mine larger. I love the fact that now I can display all of the 12million photos I took when I visited Wisley Gardens last month!
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
No Stabilizers
So my DH has this annoying habit of looking at a layout and saying "You spelled ( insert any word here) wrong." I fell for this many a times as my spelling skills leave something to be desired. Now I spell check all the titles for layout and any journaling I am doing. When I am at crops I have someone check before I put a layout together. Last night was no exception I had my last page out on the craft table and my husband walked by stopped to have a look and said "You spelled stabilizers wrong" with out looking up I calmly replied "nice try I spell checked it before I laid it out" guess he won't get tired of trying.
Monday, 4 May 2009
Back again
I think I am just going to have to realize I go through spurts of creativity. I seem to blog non stop for a while and then I don't create for a couple of weeks, then I do 7 layouts in two days. Feast or Famine here at Casa de la Yank. So anyways here is one of the layouts I did yesterday, I do promise I use paper other than Bloom and Grow from My Minds Eyes, it just happens that the layout I have photo's for I used Bloom and Grow.
Sorry about the crap picture, who ever decided it was best to take pictures in natural light never lived in England. It seems to be forever clouded over which means I have to use the flash and I get glare of the photo's. You will be proud to learn that I did not use a single bit of Bloom and Grow paper in the other 6 layouts I did, just to prove I can survive with out it and the world will not stop rotating and all that.
Hannah over at Sparkly Pink Star nominated me for the Lemonade Stand Award, thanks Hannah. Here is the low down:
The Lemonade Stand Award is for being a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude.
To pick up the Lemonade Stand Award:
- Comment on this blog.
- Cut and paste the award logo and use it in your own blog.
- Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude.
- Link to your nominees within your blog post.
- Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award.
- Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.
I would like to nominate the following bloggers for this award:
I just looked at the list and you would think I only like people who's names start with J K or L. I promise it just happened to be the first 5 favorite blogs I thought of!
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