Didn't it rain

DH and I went to see Hugh Laurie earlier this year on his "Didn't it rain" blues tour, his second one.

What a gifted man. Seriously. I grew up with a crush on him as a comedian on Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder, before falling in love with him all over again as House 20 years later. And now to see him singing and playing - and dancing - live on stage was the icing on the cake.

His manner was unexpected quiet. But the self-deprecating, apologetic awkwardness in real life only reinforces the talent behind his portrayal of the brilliant and broken American doctor. And that's another thing, that accent. I have American friends who have been gobsmacked when I proudly claimed him as a fellow Brit. "You mean he's not American?" I can't do accents. I'm in awe of people who can, and he's got it quite perfect.

OK, enough of the hero-worship. Let me show you the LO I did of the show. It was for umpteen challenges: 2 pieces of die-cut paper (SJ CoW), tickets (SJ), autumn colours, misting, book title, sketch (UKS and SoW).

Blowing him away

That gorgeous tree stamp belongs to Sue and she generously let me use it at this month's crop. The rest of the card was paper-pieced and put together using most of the stamps I brought with me, and some of Carroll's too. Thank you Sue and Carroll!

This is for Pixie's Crafty Workshop's "snippets" and Stampin' for the Weekend's "anything goes" challenges.

Old chair, new chair

It has been pointed out to me, quite correctly, that I'm slacking in updating my blog. A huge thank you to Darnell for the kick up the backside that I needed! Mwah!

Let me show you my latest project. I've been on an Annie Sloan painting class to update our furniture. Amongst other things, we learned on the course how to "age" furniture by crackling the paint and rubbing with dark wax. We also painted two layers of different coloured paints and sanded some of the top layer off so that the older colour showed through. Not that I wanted any of that, I just wanted some pretty chalky coloured paint that you can use without sanding first. 'Cos I'm lazy that way. And they taught us how to use it for that too.

I began with an old kitchen chair that was in my bedroom when I was a child, and which my Mum last painted with a colour called Frascati (I remember the colour, not the manufacturer) to match my wardrobe when I was about 8. I chose that chair because it wouldn't matter much if I got things wrong. Well ironically, when I looked at it, it was already showing two colours of paint, and had genuine dirty age crackles - I couldn't help wondering whether Juliet would actually let me paint it if she saw it!

See? Poor, tatty, grubby chair. Destined to go in our new conservatory. With its bare skirting boards. See where this is going? ;-)

Yup, I did the skirting boards too.

Pretty isn't it? It's called Duck Egg Blue. I have a chest of drawers and a wardrobe to do too, but don't hold your breath. I need a serious amount of courage to tackle those. I think the scariest part is the thought of emptying them out, finding new homes for the contents, and getting them upstairs.

Meanwhile, back to the paper-crafting. That's a lot quicker and cleaner.