This week I have mainly been....

Making pictures!

I have made a lot of pictures this week!  Ben has helped me out when he has felt well enough, I thought I would do a little step by step of the process.

This is getting the right size frame for the canvas.  If it is too big you will see the white unprinted canvas on the sides and that looks really unprofessional.  I did a couple like that when I started and boy do they look bad! 

Ok so I now have the picture all lined up so it is straight in the frame with one staple on each side.  It is so worth taking an extra five minutes to make sure that everything is straight, it saves time in the long run!

Forgot to show you some of my tools.  I love my electric stapler and my orange hammer for making frames!

Here is the picture all stapled and ready to trim the excess canvas off.  To start with I wasn't sure how much to take off, but now I'm more confident it is much easier.  Oh and I can staple in a straight line as well now!

So now I am ready to do the corners with all the excess canvas gone.  You need to trim the canvas back so it is not on the edge of the frame or you won't get a nice finish at the end.

Ok so here is a corner.  I watch a million and one videos on Youtube to learn how to do corners and still couldn't do them.  Then I found one that worked!  I didn't have to practice a lot to do it, it just made sense! 

Here is the back all finished with tape and taps in place.  The tape makes a nice professional finish and covers up the staples and edges of the canvas.  Always include a sticker of who made the canvas!

A close up of the label on the back.  John designed them, the picture is of the front of our shop on a sunny day!  A little bit of shameless self promotion!

The finished picture, it is a Lake District scene.

And here's one I made earlier!  Hmmm Ben is a lot taller than me now!

Good luck Smudge

This is Smudge and Danny competing in the 2* at Blair Castle a couple of years ago.  Well it is Blair this weekend and Wills is riding Smudge in the 3*  He rode him in the 3* last year and did well so fingers crossed!  Wills has some more rides in the 1* as well so he is going to have a busy weekend!  Good luck Smudge!  (and Wills of course!)

Poorly Ben

This is the "mug shot" of Ben for KC INKS blog, for introducing everyone to the world!  Poor Ben has been poorly with a horrible cold for a couple of weeks and was really struggling to shift it.  In the end he went to the doctors and he had developed a secondary chest infection.  So off to hospital and lots of chest xrays, then antibiotics and steroids for his asthma as well.  He is nearly back to his old self now, managed to help his Dad with the digger last night and isn't deathly pale any more.  Bless him he really has soldiered on through it all, I'm so pleased he is feeling better!

Say hello to my tootsie cat

This is my Sam cat, he is my little old man.  We were given him by my brother in law Arthur, Sam was responsible for terrorising the dogs in Windermere!  We have had dogs visiting the house and leaving truamatised by the cat!  Now he is a bit older (20!) he has mellowed a bit and actually will have a cuddle with Kara.  Poor Sam has no front teeth, he had to have the four big front teeth out when he was 15 as they were going bad.  I thought that would finish him off but he has adapted very well.  He has an exceptionally good singing voice and uses it at every opportunity.  You can have a good long conversation with him if you want to!  There is no carpet in the hall at the moment and Sam has discovered that if he sits in there and sings opera at 4am there is a good echo and he gets a very quick response!  I love that I am his favourite person in the whole world and if you go out he will come with you like a dog.  He loves coming down to the stables and helping and is the best hot water bottle on your knee in the winter!

Practicing with my camera

I have been practicing with my camera!  It has got to the point that everyone runs away from me - humans and animals alive, so I am reduced to taking pretty pictures of the flowers in the garden.  I am realising I have to pay more attention to what is in front of me - I was really happy with the top picture here until I was resizing and I noticed the dead flower right in the middle!  At least I am getting better at focusing.  It is helping with keeping my mind of missing Danny who is now on his stopover in Kuala Lumpur, he is halfway there and in a different time zone, just one more day of travelling for him!

A sad day for me, the start of a big adventure for Danny....

This is Danny ten minutes before we set off for the train station, the start of his big adventure to New Zealand.  He has a huge journey ahead of him, train to London (Euston) set off 12.43 (Wednesday), then flying from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur for a four hour stop over, then on the Aukland landing 12 noon on Friday.  The racehorse trainer is picking him up from the airport in the wagon with the horses on the back as they are racing in Aukland on Friday!  Is this a first?  Then Dan has a two hour drive before he is finally there.

This is us all together for one last picture as a family.  Danny is going for a year I can't quite believe that after all the planning over the summer that today is the day.  I also don't think it is quite fair that he is going out to their summer when all we have had for our summer is rain and then our winter oh that would be more rain then.  He better think of us when he is sunbathing!

John at Oxenholme waiting for the train, it is horrible waiting for trains counting down the minutes.  John only had to walk about ten steps out of the car to the platform, Ben helped carry the bags, it was difficult packing because Danny needed all his racing stuff and then it was a case of how much more can you fit in around it?

Danny and Ben just before the train arrived.  I had to lighten it a little so it was a bit dark but the only one I took!  Just time for a hug and lots of good luck and then a huge flurry of getting on the train and suddenly it was gone.  Watching Danny walking down the platform and disappearing onto the train was heartbreaking and trying to keep the tears back impossible.  Good luck Danny, have the best time you have all the talent in the world and you know we all have faith in you.  Make the most of the time you have there, we miss you.  
We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again.......

A sneaky picture of John

John with his glasses on at work!  I don't think he knew I took this picture, you can see the edge of my computer screen I was hiding behind!  Bless him he is full of the cold just now (as well as Danny and Ben) so lots of coughing all round.  Get well soon honey! 

Where I work

This is our shop, we moved in last November (only from across the yard!) I painted the white gloss front, don't think I did too badly! The window is by my desk, Belle and Kara like to look out the window at the people walking past.  The building is very old, it used to be where Kendal Mint Cake was made.  I love my work it is different every day and one of the reasons I started this blog, because I was put in charge of Social Media, and was taught how to do all this sort of thing so I started doing it for myself as well.  Oh and in case you can't work it out I work at KC INKS we sell printer cartridges.  So if you ever need some ink talk to me!  Have a happy day Sally x

Chillifest!

Yesterday John and I went the the annual chilli festival at Levens Hall, which is the most beautiful setting.  You might recognize it from "The Hound of the Baskervilles" it was used in the film.  The sun shone better than it has all year and because we went early there was room to move around!  There was a street entertainer "Maynard Flip Flop" who was amazing his show was a good half hour and was hysterical!  Then we went through to the topiary garden (they are famous but I didn't get many pictures)There was a steel band playing on the lawn and croquet but John had walked far enough by that point!As we walked along we saw this secret door, Levens Hall is just beautiful, surrounded by stunning park land, we had a lovely day, and at last a bit of sunshine!

My beautiful Belle

I couldn't really do much more without mentioning my ever faithful, always by my side best friend Belle.  She is an eight year old Belgian Shepherd (a Groenendael).  I have had her for seven years (got her the year I got married!) she is a rescue, they can be slightly difficult to own if you are not used to such an inquiring mind.  Luckily Belle gets lots of exercise from going out riding with the horses and helps in the school with jumping practice too. She constantly amazes me with her capacity for learning, in fact you have to be a bit careful what you show her!  One time at my Mum's house we left her in the kitchen while we went to look at a horse, Belle had opened the window and jumped out before we had got ten yards from the door!  This was through a window with a catch completely different to what we have at home! And yes the window was closed beforehand!  She is ALWAYS ready to playfight with teenage boys and is gentle as a lamb with small children.  She will play for hours with my nieces when we go and visit.  You can look between her toes for hayseeds as she willingly holds her paw out for you.  We have two other dogs Kara and Jess, I would definitely be lost without my dogs!

Happy work!

I am feeling pleased with myself because I am finally starting to feel a little more confident with the computer side of things.  John bought me the most fantastic camera to take much better pictures ( Finepix S9500) he got it for £100 of ebay, retails for about £400 and it came in a really fancy case with three memory cards!  I think even the cat is sick of me taking pictures now!  I just have to work out how to do a banner for the top of the page.... pic of Lindsey in the meantime

A picture to start...

My two best boys!

My wonderful husband John and Iain my Highland pony last summer.  Trust me you will see more pics of horses than of John!  Well that is the awkward first post out of the way, many more to follow!