Afternoon all. How are you? Sorry that I haven't been visiting you much over the past couple of weeks. Blame the roadworks.
Ipswich received a European grant of £21.5m to spend on improvements for the roads but one of the caveats was that it had to be spent within a certain time. So, since last August, Ipswich has become the home of chaos. One of the busiest roundabouts in town was taken out and replaced with traffic lights, pavements have been dug up and replaced with paving stones at such a ridiculous angle that when we get the first ice every pedestrian is going to slide into the road, every major junction in town is being revamped, both bus stations are being rebuilt (at the same time), all the traffic lights in town centre are being replaced with "intelligent" lights - and the result has been bedlam. The delays have doubled my journey time to and from work, and that means I am losing my precious 40 mins blogging time in the mornings. The really depressing thing is that although the authorities have promised that all current jobs will be finished by mid November so as not to hinder the Christmas trade (stuff anyone else trying to get to work for the rest of the time), once Christmas is over they will be starting again on the next batch of projects. Two years of hell. And they haven't filled one pothole yet. The town centre roads will be all nice and sparkly but the rest of the place is sinking without trace. Bah! Oh, and the "intelligent" traffic lights haven't been switched on yet.
Anyhoo, before I got on my roadworks soapbox I made a card. I would like to thank my blogging pal Nic of Coops Cluttered Corner for leading me astray with this one (and how easily I am lead to rubber temptation).
This is Jumbo Top Hat Snowman from Stampendous (and he is jumbo)
Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)
Papers are a new Nitwits pad from LOTV called Winter Wishes
MFT Die-namics Chicken Wire die
Pink Gem Christmas Rounds sentiment
X-Cut medium snowflake punch
I hope you are having a good weekend, and thank you for coming to see me even when I've not returned the visit, but I will, and soon I hope.
I will be back tomorrow with a Wild Rose Studio card for you featuring the cute new fawn called Bluebell. And I blame Kate for that one!
Hugs, Squirrel xx
Gorgeous card Squirrel, that's some snowman alright :D I hate roadworks as well, they're such a pain! Some nightmare. Hopefully once this bath is over the next batch will be less hasslesome.
ReplyDeleteTags xx
gorgeous xx
ReplyDeleteFabulous, I love this image too and she led me astray with the train stamp. Bad news re the roadworks, we are coming to a concert in Feb, good job we have booked an overnight stay methinks.
ReplyDeletefab card and what a cuddly looking snowman, road works are the same everywhere I think we are having 'improvements to the A57 near where I live that has been ongoing for a year we now have a roundabout instead of traffic lights and tailbacks are as you say twice as bad at least with queues in both directions to the M1 no matter what time of day. The roundabout will be fun when they open all 3 lanes to it as there are only 2 lanes on the roundabout, lol. have a fun weekend
ReplyDeleteFabulous card Squirrel. I can see why you just had to have that image - it's wonderful and your colouring is so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the road works, it must be so frustrating for you.
I hope you are having a good weekend
hugs Sue xx
This is just gorgeous,love the fab image and papers.xxx
ReplyDeleteOH no, your council sound like they've not really planned that out very well.
ReplyDeleteYour card is lovely. Love the honeycomb backing die.
Hugs
Annette
xx
Oh what a cute card again! Love it! I must admit that I love visiting you on your blog, you always have so nice cards and stuff :) Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Mickymunchkin
Gorgeous Squirrel, love that snowman.
ReplyDeleteI sympathise with your roads chaos. If you think Ipswich is bad you should try Aberdeen. Before we came to live in Aberdeenshire I had never seen roundabouts with pedestrian lights on every road just at the roundabout. Who ever thought up that one?!!! And yes it does cause chaos!
Kat xx
Fabulous card Squirrel love your quirky snowman and your chicken wire background
ReplyDeleteAnne
What a fab image and card AND colouring, love the die cut.
ReplyDeleteAS for road works know what you mean, they are putting new lights and gas mains on the estate hear, chaos is not the word and we have barely a car width to get in or out of the estate and holes outside everyones house, UGH!, maybe they mean to keep me in to craft LOL.
He is just a wonderful snowman Squirrel..fabulous colouring and I can sympathise with all the road works..Over here the idiots do all that plus tar sealing in the middle of Summer, so roads are sticky and gooey and you get tar all over your car and dont get me started on stinkin' traffic lights..lol..
ReplyDeleteluv CHRISSYxx
I saw this on Nic blog too....have resisted temptation so far....only because I have no money! lol
ReplyDeleteLove what you've done with him.
Have a lovely weekend
Lorraine x
Oooh, I'm loving this snowman. I need one of those hats!! Gorgeous hun - Love that chicken wire die. Mway, Jayne xxxx
ReplyDelete.....and no toilets at the new bus station !!! Great planning!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous card, love that cute image.
Pam x
Fab snowman and love these papers too... I bought all 3 of the new pads, very naughty!! Hugs, Lisa x
ReplyDeleteGorgeous as always Squirrel, love the adorable snowman.
ReplyDeleteDonna x
Hi, remember me? Sorry, time just runs away from me at the mo. What a great card this is, I just love your layout, your fussy cutting's perfect and the image is super cool ;)
ReplyDeleteHave to say too, I'm loving your cute little kitty! Have a great weekend, Julie.x
Cute card hunny LOVE it!
ReplyDeleteI am just as bad as you for visiting! a heavy loaded plate this end too! hugs me x
Love this! The snowman is so adorable with the huge hat and the bird's nest on top! Your colouring is amazing and what a fab idea with the chicken wire in the background! I don't always comment but receive your update emails and Love your work!
ReplyDeleteAdorable creation sweetie. So sorry you are suffering road work problems, it is things like this that rule our lives.
ReplyDeleteHugs
Cathy
xxxxxx
Wow he is wonderful, Squirrel,I love blue and white cards ;)
ReplyDeletehugs Dorte
ooops sorry for making your spend squirrel :S
ReplyDeletelove this tophat snowman, he is fabulous and your design and colours are gorgeous.
xx coops xx
What a fun background die you've used there. Sorry to hear about all the roadworks. They seem to always wait to the last minute to do their projects, don't they?
ReplyDeleteYour card is just awesome, Shirley! Thanks so much for sharing it with us. I've pinned it and will also share on Facebook, etc! Sympathize about the roadwork, we've had every single north/south route near our offices blocked for over a year now (putting in a train bridge). It's a total pain! Thanks for using our products!!!
ReplyDelete