WOYWW 111

See I'm looking at that number up there and thinking it should be auspicious in some way, 111, seems important somehow.  Maybe I am just feeling the vibe!

Anyway, my desk is one huge pile of mess that desperately needs a sort out and I keep thinking "I'll just do this little project and then I'll have a good clear up" but with so much going on right now I am thinking it may be like this for a while!

Let's see... starting over at the left is the post crop sediment including leftovers and 7 and a half layouts, yes indeed!  The Asda notebooks STILL awaiting being given the pretty treatment for the teachers, one of the lovely tins that my friend gave me as a thank you for the pirates (it now comes to my crops with a small selection of ribbons in...).  Most of the other bits, including the pile of prettiness at the centre front is my "under construction" playbook for Shimelle's Explore class.  I will be sharing the finished thing and hopefully at least yesterdays prompt too later on today, I do hope you'll join me again.

For those who were deliberating with me about the furniture, I know it is gorgeous and this is what makes it so hard.  The problem is that the cabinets are large and heavy but not very deep and there is no flexibility in the shelves, it is made as it is.  We're thinking of moving them definitely rather than getting rid of them and I'd love something a bit more white and shabby and feminine, definitely more practical though!  Thanks for all your comments last week.  We will continue to think...

For now though, its time to peruse a whole other load of crafty spaces.  Ideas, inspiration, even laughing at someone else's mess, or those who think they have mess and just don't know the darn meaning of the word!  You can find the list on Julia's Blog as usual.  Now, time for a cuppa... :-)

Bye for now xx

A new class!

I know, I know, I haven't even started the MIMM class yet but I am just totally addicted to on-line classes.  This one will suit me down to the ground right about now as I start to Explore my life a bit deeper as I make my way out of the blackness of depression.  Of course, this class is with the lovely Shimelle.



For the first prompt we have to give an indication of where we are now really, starting with a self portrait...

This turned out to be trickier than I thought as I have never taken a picture of me with my camera intentionally in the photo before.  I made various mistakes such as leaving the flash on giving just glare, squinting into the camera because it was in front of my face, holding the camera in front of my face, and then a few where I looked shocked and surprised because my specs kept cutting across my eyes making them look wide open.

Anyway, with that done, there was a bit of journalling to do:

Note to Self

My Creativity - I've done more crafting in the past couple of months than ever before and I am loving it.  I don't consider myself naturally creative, most of what I do is based on an idea from someone else, but nothing makes me happier than cutting, sticking and getting messy with paints and inks.  I'd love to have more ideas of my own, and I'd love to love the end product but often I can only find fault.  Like any crafter, I wish I had more time to indulge my passions but it makes it very precious when I do get time. 

My window - There is so much potential outside my window, in my garden, in my town, in my world.  I wish I could grasp it fully but it seems to slip past like a greasy fish.  The garden is so symbolic of my life right now - aspects of it are great but there are toys everywhere and the rain prevents us taking full advantage.

My Exploration - This journey for me is about taking stock.  What are the great parts that I can develop more and what are the more negative parts that I can try and change.  I hope that by the end, I will be a little step closer to moving forwards instead of chasing around, knowing that some things need to change but not being sure of what or how.  

This is just the start of a much longer journey to calmness, confidence and ultimately self-fulfilment.  Want to come for a ride?

Bye for now

xx

Sharing some cake (well virtually anyway...)

I've been meaning to share some pics of a cake I made for about 6 weeks now!  It was for this little guy's 5th birthday and we celebrated by heading over to the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth and having lunch at a Yo Sushi! (On his request!)

The boat ride and lunch was far more exciting than the tower in the end but it was a clear day and we could see for miles.  Please excuse B's hair - she refused to keep her scarf on and couldn't see where she was going!

Then he had a party at a play centre and I made this cake for him.  Its meant to be a kind of tumbledown castle and you can just about see the cannon and cannon balls on the top but I was rushing to take the photos!

You can also just about see the gargoyles above the drawbridge door there too.  They take soooo blooming long to do that even if they were good enough to sell, I would never make any money!  And I get very stressed by any art work I do for anyone else.

The pirates I did recently were actually very well received.  I only asked for the cost of the canvasses but this morning the mum gave the money and a lovely card, a beautiful notebook and pen, and some gorgeous shabby chic tins to keep some of my crafting stuff in.  I was really pleased as I have been having a really bad couple of days and this got through that wall of doubt and sense of failure that I carry at those times.

I've been really enjoying my running on the Couch to 5k programme but as suspected, I will have to take it much slower and repeat some weeks.  I walked a fair bit this week and the steep inclines where we live have aggravated my SPD.  I did however go for a gait analysis this week and got some new trainers that suit my running style and should hopefully prevent some of the problems getting worse.  It was made a lot more enjoyable by the lovely fit young man who served me, so much so that when my husband asked how much my new runners were, I didn't have a clue!

Well I had better finish packing my bag for tomorrow's 12 hour crop.  I've made 8 page kits plus I have 3 in there already from last time, which is obviously a tad ambitious but I don't want to run out of things to do and it allows me to decide which ones I want to do at the time.  Expect some new layouts in the coming days :-)

In the meantime, have a great weekend.

Bye for now xx

WOYWW 110

Well I had a bit of a tidy up after last week but it is still a work in progress.  I'm in the process of making a decision on replacing the furniture in my craft room but I'm reluctant to let go of the furniture I have as it was very special and expensive when we bought it! (you can see one of the dressers there, they were handmade in Indonesia before all the Cargo Homestores and Argos types starting doing it much cheaper!)  Anyway, I'm preparing for a 12 hour crop on Saturday (YAY) so I have all my card and patterned paper out ready to make up some kits.

A couple of my layouts may just involve this lovely load of lushiousness which I fell in love with.

I'm in the process of ordering a LOAD of photos, which will hopefully be here in time for the crop.  The glittery pink overload may just be appearing on a layout involving this little lady here...

Butter wouldn't melt huh...

She gets totally absorbed in her ballet class and a calm aura comes over her.

It's only half an hour but she is exhausted by the concentration at the end.

B works alone, the other girls have their mum's there, in September she will be moved up to the next class.

My little Diva...

Mid strop.  She doesn't like taking her ballet shoes off.

Thanks for looking at my work for the week and please do have a browse of other work spaces and see what other crafters and workers are up to.  Julia's blog is the place to visit for the list to have a good old snoop.

I'm off to have my running style looked at so I can make sure I have the right trainers and then I will be back for a peruse a little later on.  Wish me luck!

Bye for now xx

Crazy?

I guess crazy runs in families because both my kids are totally crackers.  I used a sketch by Kirsty Wiseman from her on-line crop sessions that she holds some Wednesdays (keep an eye on her blog) for this layout about my crazy baby girl.  She must have been about 10 months or so and she used to pull this face a LOT then.  It was sort of a kissy / snorty face and she knew it made people laugh so would do it even more.  

She has stopped pulling that face but she is still completely loopy.

And talking of crazy, I started the Couch to 5k challenge Tuesday and I managed to complete the 3 sessions required for the first week.  Hurrah!  I also managed to stick pretty rigidly to my Slimming World diet too so I was expecting a fantastic loss for my weigh in this evening.  Although I am very pleased that I finally got my 2 and half stone award (that's how much I've lost... not what I weigh...) but I didn't drop enough to see a new number on the scales and only just made my award, a measly 1.5 pound off.  Ho hum, better luck this week and I am trying to be very very good again with the hope that it will combine with the efforts of this week and mean a really good loss that was worth the effort.  A chap lost 6.5lbs this week and he had a few beers.  SO unfair!

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 109 - Two spaces to share today

Good morning Wednesday!  I have 2 spaces to share with you this week

 I finally finished my pirates but I'm not totally happy with them.  I picked up the wrong pen when I was doing the outline and its too thick.  I think I've decided that doing art for other people is too stressful and I'm glad its done and I will be relieved when the little boy has them in his grasp.  If they go on the wall, fine, if not, that's fine too.  Now I can get on with my art journal from Kirsty Wiseman's MIMM class!

And as for my other space.... well let's just say that's a work in progress.  I'm hoping to do an on-line crop with Kirsty this evening so I need to have a bit of a tidy up as I don't have any space at all!

I've got lots of stuff to put away including the layout that B got hold of and ahem.. altered, here. That new stash needs to be put away too which includes my new little brayer - its so cute and it has little feet so you don't put paint on your work surface.

In other news, I started the C25k running program yesterday and I am officially being ultra good with my syns on Slimming World as I'm wasting money and time by doing it half heartedly.  I'm also trying to update my iPod with some tracks that are the right rhythm for me to run to - watch this space to see if I ever make it to the 5k mark!  Today I am feeling sore and stiff from the new release of Body Balance though so I am glad of a day off, aside from the dreaded housework!

But before I start that, I think I'll have a little peruse around some other crafty spaces listed on Julia's blog.

Have fun, bye for now!

I have a big smile!

Last week I shared this layout with you.  And I am over the moon to see it featured on Shimelle's blog this week :-)  She chooses about 12 (ish) layouts each week from the sketch from the week before so its not some great achievement like being published in a magazine or even on her workbooks for her repeat classes, but it's a big thing for me.

Especially when I still sometimes often make layouts I don't like much, like this one.  I really liked the idea I had in my head but it just didn't come out right.  I had to carry out a partial scrapectomy (I pinched that word) as the arrow patterned paper was too far down but it's still not the striking design I had in my mind.  I like all the texture and grunginess, which is what I was after to complement the photos of L larking about on the beach.  Obviously I have managed to scratch the face on one of the photos so I need to do a reprint.

And then there is this one, which I am a bit unsure of.  I like it but I really don't love it.  The photo is L when he was about 4-5 months old.  We were down at the beach and he was grumpy as a grumpy thing and wouldn't sleep and didn't even like the swing which he normally loved.  I remember the day very well although I remember very little about him at all at this time. Scrapping photos from around this time is really important to me as it helps me remember that it wasn't all floods of tears and misery on my part, and not normally on his either as he was normally such a happy baby!

And lastly I thought I would leave you with some creativity from my daughter, aged 2.  Apparently she had been watching me rather too closely and I very very stupidly left my guillotine out so had a little go.  

Thankfully this particular guillotine is a small one so she couldn't get a whole layout in, just the corner.  How she managed to do this damage (and cut up a water statement into a neat pile of scraps...) without losing a finger I will never know but I am very grateful for that.  I was torn between anger and huge guilt for leaving it out.  It normally lives in my scrap room where they don't go but I was trying to do something in front of the TV and I forgot to put it away.  Lesson firmly learn't there I think!

Have a great weekend all, bye for now.

xx