Bad Blogger! And Rocking Friday.

Hello! It's been ages again, I know. Work is hectic and the sun is out!

Just a quick catch up on some art and a really quickie rockin post.

 I did this canvas as I wanted to practise blending my faces with my new prismacolour pencils and I wanted to try using beeswax over the finished piece. I definitely need to practise with the beeswax as I put way too much on to start with and then had to reheat it and take it off!

I have been doing some pages in my pair journal ready to send back to Sue.

My theme is round and round.

 Sue had added doilies to this page and I wanted to try and bring out the detail on them. Watercolour didn't work very well so I went over them with oil pastels. I drew the dream catcher and have left space if Sue wants to add anything.

 This page is a mix of brown wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, stencils, ink and texture paste.

 Water colours and stencils and plenty of room to add stuff.

 Sue had made these 'holey' pages which looked to me like a tunnel. I added the trees to the left hand side and some pop up elements to add more depth. On the right hand side I used a tree stencil, a leaf stencil with texture paste and have started a bit of a story which I am hoping Sue will add too!

Sue had done the text and border background on this page and I added some large texture paste circles and drizzled acrylic ink down the page.

I may get the chance to do a bit more before I send it off, but if not I'm happy with it!

Right, Rocking stuff, only 4 days late!

* The sunshine! How lovely to be able to sit in the garden reading a good book.

* Stu's birthday on Friday. We went to Newport so he could spend his birthday pennies in the sport shop. He bought me two lovely long flowing skirts and a sun hat as well. We had friends and family round in the evening and we sat in the garden enjoying the weather having a laugh-wonderful evening.

* embracing my inner hippy! I have decided I am going to embrace the true me, the pagan/tree hugging/Crystal loving hippy wanna be, including the way I dress. I always used to be a bit out there with my style before becoming a mummy and getting big. I constantly worry what I look like but now I am saying to hell with that...I want to wear the long skirts and the DM's and I don't care what I look like!!!

* Grateful to Amazon for good book prices. I have had a crystal book in my wish list for about a year, RRP £30, Amazon price £25, until last week when I checked and it had gone down to £13-yay, it fell it my basket and arrived last week...I have been engrossed ever since.

* Grateful for Reiki share and a much need chill out last week.Also that I can give reiki to my sister to calm her down ready for her op this week.

There's much more that I am grateful for, but my kids are calling me to go and sit outside with them!

Sami x

Rocking your world friday

Hello Friday Rockers! I did not manage to post last week so this is a bit of a mish mash of all my gratefuls over the last two weeks.

 So, in no particular order...

* Making dreamcatchers with friends on Monday night. I love our 'craft' evenings together, so far we have made spirit dolls, sea glass mobiles and now these beautiful dream catchers.

 * My new art book 'Mixed Media Girls' by Suzi Blu arrived last week. I have enjoyed having a good read and there are some good tips for drawing faces and how to blend the colours on the face. There are also techniques for adding texture, collage etc and there is a DVD with it which I have not had time to watch yet. Overall I am pleased I bought this book.

* My new Prismacolor pencils. Wow, these are expensive aren't they??? Suzi uses these in her book to blend the face colours together so I went on line to have a look at them and could not believe the price of the sets. The smaller sets did not have the colours I needed and I could not afford to buy a bigger set, but, YAY, I found a site that sells them individually for £1.05 a pencil-still a bit pricey but I just bought the few colours I needed for the faces. They blend beautifully so I am pleased I got them.

* This is how my fairy is progressing at fairy club, I think it's going to be a long process but I am so grateful to be included in this club with a wonderfully amazing teacher and a great group of people that I don't care if it takes forever!

 * Above are a couple of photos of a little art doll I made with the clay faces that Sherry sent me last week. Its a bit basic but I think shes sweet! I am going to add some beads to her dragonfly body. Thank you Sherry!

* I went to a new meditation group with Paige on Tuesday. Neither of us knew anyone there and didn't know what to expect but everyone was lovely and the teachers were really good. I am looking forward to going again.

* I spent last Saturday with Paige rummaging through charity shops for clothes that we can alter for a new project. I also went in the crystal shop and bought a new crystal. Had a fun day just browsing and keeping my mind off work issues.

* I am very grateful to Paige's wonderful Hubby Trav who spent all of Sunday sorting my computer out. My computer has been on death watch for a while and Trav managed to get me a reconditioned one (just the tower) for £45 and then spent all day transferring stuff from the old one to the new one. Also on Sunday I used my 'pimping' money (the stud fee I got for Oakley) to buy a netbook so that I can actually sit in the frontroom with the kids and be online instead of always being shut away in my craft room. The kids can use it aswell if I am working on the main computer and they want to browse or do homework. It was a bit of a luxury and I am not sure if I really needed it but I wanted to spend the pimping money on a treat rather than putting it away and then it getting spent on bills. So Travis also sorted the netbook out for me because I had to be able to use it straight away!!

* I had my pair journal back from Sue and I love what shes done with it. I am really enjoying taking part in this now I have got over my nerves about working in someone else's book and adding to their work. I am also loving reading all the posts and seeing all the amazing art on the Collabor-ART blog.

* On Wednesday at the friendship group we had a lady in from 'Get Sorted' which deals with drug and alcohol abuse, mainly in young people. She gave us a really good talk about the dangers, signs to look out for and that sort of thing. It prompted to me to have a really good chat with my kids about the dangers of drugs. I know my kids are good kids, they are sensible, responsible etc but even I was surprised at HOW responsible their views were on drugs. They seemed to know a lot more than I thought and both were really adamant that they would never touch them. We talked about peer pressure and the confidence to say no and I was really impressed with their grown up attitudes.

* And finally I will leave you with a couple of photos from the friendship groups new project-Culture Kitchen-which helps spread cultural awareness through ethnic cooking. Some of the ladies went and provided a session of the culture kitchen to staff at the IW College on their staff training day. Feedback from the staff was excellent and we have been asked when we can do it again! I am so proud of these ladies!

Well, that's it for me, I'm off to link this up with our host of rocking Friday's, Virginia over on her blog.

Sami x

Rocking your world friday-on monday

Hello Friday Rockers. Well it's Monday so I am late posting and will have to make it a quick post.

Apologies for lateness, I am just so rushed for time at the moment, I don't know whats going on! I have not caught up with any ones blogs all week so apologies there as well.

* Last Saturday my Mum, Sister, Daughter and me went over to Southampton to watch Dirty Dancing at the Mayflower theatre. We had a girly day-shopping in primark, having lunch at Bella Pasta and my Mum bought me a lovely new bag! The show was fantastic and the atmosphere in the theatre was great-everybody singing along! We had to move seats during the interval as when we got up to go to the loo someone behind us had obviously spilt their drinks and it was all flooded around our feet, our bags were soaked and my daughters programme was ruined. I went and spoke to a member of staff and asked for a mop but when they came and looked they said they would move us instead. They replaced my daughters programme for her and then moved us downstairs to better seats! Bonus for us!

We had a fantastic day-I think it was one of the best shows I have seen-for entertainment value, atmosphere and just sheer feel good factor!

* Our May Day celebrations were cancelled last week due to the bad weather but on the plus side I managed to spend the day getting my art calendar done for the calendar challenge.

*I had a wonderful gift arrive in the post this week from Sherry. (check out her blog) She had sent me some of her clay faces that she makes for her art dolls and some hair for them. I happened to mention to her that I had looked at the moulds on ebay and was umming about them and she kindly sent me some to play with to help me make up my mind! Thank you so much Sherry, they are wonderful, I just have to find time to have a play now!

* Also this week I received Sue's journal in the post. This is the pair journal I signed up for. I have never seen anyone Else's art journal 'in the flesh' so it was wonderful just to stroke it! Sue's journal theme is Alphabetika.

The idea with this pair journal is that you can add to each others pages as well.

 Sue had started this page and I just added some red ink spray some washi tape and coloured in the little stamps. I was quite scared at first to touch/alter someone Else's work but after a good talking to from Sue I just got on with it and really enjoyed myself!

 This is the page I added in her journal...I wanted to think outside the box a little on her theme!

* This is a photo of me sculpting the head of my fairy at fairy club on Friday night. The very wonderful lady who runs it has allowed me to tag along with Paige as I was so Jealous-I have been a Froud fan for many many years!

I am enjoying it so much but it is very difficult!

*Some other little gratefuls- I bought some more beads and made my mum a bracelet as a thank you for buying my bag, Making worry beads with a friend, snuggling up in bed with Shelby when we both had sore throats, amazing volunteers that I work with and amazing women in the group, good friends and wonderful family, amazing kids and a great hubby!

That's it for this week. I will link up with our host virginia tomorrow and try and get round every ones posts- have to dash now, I am supposed to be somewhere in 15 mins and I'm still in my PJ's!

Have a great bank holiday!

Sami x

Calendar Challenge-on time!

Hurray! I am actually posting this on time-1st May!

I was so late with my April page last month I didn't even bother to link up over at Kate's blog!

If you don't know what this challenge is about check out our host's blog, Kate Crane.

Here is my completed April page



And here is May!

I used Dylusions paints and sprays, Mr Hueys white ink spray and some stencils.

Thanks for looking

Sami x

Rocking your world Friday

Hello Friday rockers!

I didn't get a chance to post last week and this post may be quite short..I am failing at time management the last few weeks!

Anyhow, if you are wondering what this is all about, check out our host, Virginia's blog.

Its the time of the week to list all your gratefuls.

* Spending the afternoon on Sunday hunting the beaches for sea glass so we could make these mobiles on Monday. It was cold, raining, but the joy of finding all the beautiful sea glass was worth it!

 We found the inspiration over on pinterest here.

I was really pleased with how it turned out.

* Photos of my kids. I have loads of photos going up my stairs of the kids and family members. Sometimes I just pause on the stairs and really look at them! I found myself doing that this week and it made me smile!

*My Hubby. I am in my moody/stroppy/tired week and the stress with my job has been really getting me down the last few weeks, but as always he is there. He is not a man of  many words but his actions are normally spot on! So a big thank you to him for understanding my stroppiness, cooking the dinner last night as I just couldn't be bothered and for not going bowling so I could go and help a friend. You are amazing.

*Taking part in my first ever pair journal. I am very excited about this.

 This is the front cover of the journal I made for it.

 The first page

 The second page.

I am hoping that this journal gets my mojo going again.

* I am grateful for some exciting opportunities that may be coming my way. I am grateful that I recognised the signs that I was sent and that my thoughts and hopes were answered. I now just need to act on them.

* Caleb got an A* in his biology exam, so proud of him.

 * At group this week, Luz's husband came in and showed us how to make traditional Paella. It took 2 1/2 hrs but he was a total pro and the results were amazing! Big thank you to John for doing this for us!

(there's always one photo that blogger flips around and wont let me put back the right way!)

* Grateful for my health, my family, my wonderful kids and great friends. Grateful for what I have in my life right now and the fact that even though things sometimes pull me down I have the ability to recognise exactly what I have in my life.

That's it for this week as I have to rush out the door now. I will catch up with everyones rocking post on Monday as I am out and about all weekend.

Thanks for looking,

Sam x

Five for Friday and some drawings-Warning, one a bit naughty!

Hi! Just catching up with a few things here in blogland. I have been really pushed for time lately and have not spent much time on blogs at all so sorry if I have not visited your blog as often as I normally do!

Just a little warning if you are of a sensitive nature-one of my drawings below is a little on the naughty side-but totally in context-so I hope I don't offend anyone!

This is my week 11 Five for Friday page. The challenge is run by Laurie over at her blog. This week was list five things you consider lucky.

Now, I am a bit OCD so I really pay attention to signs and things that pop up in my life, especially the number 5-that's my lucky number.

 Other lucky signs for me are the robin that appears in my garden, dragonflies, white feathers and as I couldn't really think of another personal one I included the four leaf clover. I tried to do 2 image transfers on this page but they didn't come out very well! I used Dylusions paints and sprays, stencils and a white tippex pen.

I have been doing some Faerie drawings over the last few days (as I am hoping to take part in classes to make a faerie doll).

I have really enjoyed sitting in the evenings just doodling away at these drawings while watching the TV with the kids.

Yesterday I was thinking about our May Day celebrations this year which I am organising and as I sat doodling in the evening this came out! The poem is one I wrote last year for May Day and is about the sacred union of the God and Goddess which brings the summer back to the earth. I know it's a bit 'naughty' but i love how its turned out and may see if I can turn it into a painting.

A couple of weeks ago I also made this this little leather journal for Paige for her birthday. I used my wood burning pen to draw the pentacle on the front cover and then I roughed up the edges of the pages and inked them so they looked old.

Well, that's it for today, thanks for dropping by,

Sami x

Rocking your world friday, Five for friday and calendar challenge

Hello Friday Rockers! I am actually getting this done on time this week!

I am linking this up to Virginia, our host of Rocking.

* On Saturday it was my Dad's 60th birthday so all the family gathered at my parents house for a birthday buffet. This birthday was quite important to us all as two years ago my dad was diagnosed with cancer. When you hear that word 'cancer' you automatically think the worst-we certainly did. It scared the hell out us and we thought, this is it, we are going to lose our Dad. But he did remarkably well, he had all the chemo and was barely ill from it. He smiled his way through everything, even losing his hair. He was so strong which made us determined to be even stronger for him. He has been in remission for over a year now and so we were over the moon to be celebrating his 60th.

 (sorry for the photo, blogger wont let me put it up the right way!)

My nephew also came down for my Dad's birthday and surprised him, so it was a lovely evening spent with family and friends. So I am extremely grateful to be celebrating my Dad's 60th!

* The puppies were due this week on Wednesday or Thursday but on Monday evening I got a text from Paige saying:'Go, go, go!'. So the kids and me got our bags (already packed and ready to go) and headed off to Paige's. (for those who don't know, my dog Oakley is the puppy daddy). Bella had had her show and was very restless and P and me waited up with her. Her waters broke at 1.30am so we decided to wait up some more. Nothing happened all night (except us getting very tired)or the whole of the next day! We spent the day watching films, laying around on the sofas and waiting patiently. Tuesday night Bella was rucking up all the newspaper in the whelping box (a sure sign) but still nothing was happening so we decided to try and get some sleep on the sofas. About half an hour later P saw that Bella was contracting so we both went to sit in the kitchen with her. The first puppy was born at 1.17am, with very little fuss from Bella considering this is her first litter. I must admit to crying a little bit when I saw the first pup born as this was a new experience for me and it was wonderful!

I was worried I would be getting in P's way but I managed to be helpful, cutting cords, changing newspaper, putting puppies in the box, cleaning up and that sort of thing.

The 7th puppy was born at 4.35am.

 Beautiful Bella and her babies

 7 perfect puppies, 4 male, 3 female. 2 golds, 4 black, 1 black and tan.

We finally went to sleep at around 5.15am (after nearly 48hrs of being awake) but I had to get up at 8am as I had a work meeting. Most of Wednesday is a bit of a blur as I was so tired, but definitely worth it to see all those beautiful puppies being brought into the world!

I am grateful that the puppies came safely and were all healthy, I am grateful that Bella did an amazing job and I am grateful to P that I was allowed to be there.

*Wednesday was also P's 40th birthday (that's why Bella waited so long to give birth as she wanted them to be a birthday present for her mum!!) so after my meeting I went home, made P's birthday tiffin (she wanted tiffin, not cake!) and then managed to get an hour and half's sleep before going back to P's where she had cooked us an amazing birthday dinner. By 8.30pm we had to leave and come home as I was so exhausted I just needed to sleep!

* I have watched some good films this week while waiting for puppies- Mr Brooks with Kevin Costner, Cold mountain- Can't believe I had never seen this film, and Fragile with Calista Flockhart which was filmed on the Isle of Wight. I have also made some bracelets and P bought us both a watch face each which we turned into bracelet watches.

As the whole week has been mostly puppy related and due to sleep deprivation, that's my rocking post for this week!

Five for Friday is run by Laurie, please check out her blog for information.

 Last weeks was list five things you love about the moon. I added some facts about the moon on my page as well. I doodled this in the evening then just added some watercolour crayons to the background and some silver pen.

And here is my completed calendar page for March. I am so late with this I am not going to link up this month!

And my April page. I used Dylusions paints and inks, stencils, stamps and tissue paper.

I hope you all have a fab weekend, I am going to catch up on my sleep!

Sami x