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

Rocking your world, Five for Friday and blog tag...catch up!

I am playing catch up this week! I am so far behind in blogland, so here is my Rocking post, 2 weeks of Five for Friday and a blog tag game I was tagged in!

So first up, whats rocked my world this week?

* Cutting the huge Hawthorn hedges in our garden. This is a mammoth task every year and one my hubby hates doing! We are all now covered in scratches but there is more lovely sunlight coming into the garden and it looks a lot better.

* I am grateful that Shelby didn't need stitches in her knee on Sunday! She fell down the back step into the garden, well, she didn't fall, Willow our dog dragged her! Shelby was trying not to let Willow into the garden as we had bits of the hawthorn hedge everywhere, so she held onto Willows collar but Willow just kept on going, dragging Shelby down the step and across the patio. From the screaming I thought she had broken something. Hubby picked her up and carried her indoors, her jeans were ripped and there was blood everywhere. When we looked she'd gouged two huge chunks out of her knee, pretty nasty and very painful. So we cleaned her up, whacked some savlon on and a huge gauze pad and let her milk it for the rest of the evening!

* On Monday P and me collected lots of the branches I had cut down, White willow, hawthorn and bay and cut them into pieces ready to do some pagan crafts with. We also collected herbs from the garden so P could dry them in her dehydrator. I loved standing in the sunshine peeling bits of bark off of the wood, knowing we are going to make something wonderful with it.

* Dashing to Tesco at 9pm to buy lots of jars of paste! We needed jars for all our herbs that we dried. We looked on line and they are so expensive and then we looked at each other and both said-paste jars-at the same time. Of course we couldn't wait so off we went and when we got there paste was on offer 3 jars for £1. God knows what the woman at the tills thought as we ended up with 40 jars between us! And I don't even like paste-I'm vegetarian! The dogs have enjoyed it though! We do come up with some hare brained ideas and have to act on them immediately, this quote comes to mind-'friends don't let friends do stupid things on their own'.

* On Wednesday the kids and me went to the allotment with the friendship group. We have just taken this on as a group project and a way to provide some of the food for our culture kitchen project. We got quite a lot of the land dug over and de weeded and then we all sat and had a picnic together. Now when I say picnic... the ladies brought a huge saucepan full of Indian rice, Nan breads, egg noodle slices, pizza, a home made sauce for the rice, pancakes...the list goes on! I don't know what the other plot owners thought when they saw this huge group of different nationality women setting out all this food and having a huge feast together!

* I have been helping Caleb this week with a project he has been working on. He has this amazing journal he writes, all about dragons. He writes it as if he is an explorer in the old days discovering all these different types of dragon. He includes drawings, samples of dragon skin (pieces of fabric and textured paper he has scrounged off me), dragon claws (the dogs claws when they have been clipped-I know a little urgh!). It is an amazing journal to read and his imagination astounds me. He bought one of those paper mache box frames which he has painted and a paper mache fake book box. He ordered some Tim Holtz silver feet and locks and keys. We have spent all week lining the box, attaching the feet, making dragon stencils to decorate the box, attaching the locks etc! I have really enjoyed helping him bring all of his ideas to life. The big box will store his journal and the little fake book will store dragon specimens.

 Caleb's project

* The return of The Big Bang Theory and the 100th episode and interviews with the cast-amazing, loved it!

* Sitting and reading The pulse of mixed media. I have enjoyed it, its opened my eyes to a lot of new artists and I enjoyed reading the stories behind some of the art work. The answers to a few of the questions made me raise my eyebrows, especially that a lot of artists thought that the Internet has been flooded with a lot of 'mediochre art' and that because of the Internet any body who creates anything can call themselves an artist and get away with it...hmm I will have to think deeper on this...takes you into the whole what is considered art question.

 * Making bracelets and spending time with friends this week.

* Spending time with my nephew last night. We don't get to see him that often as he lives on the mainland. We had a great evening, chatting about his exams, his college course he starts in September, playing bowling on the Wii and then watching him and my kids play just dance and having such a laugh. He is a typical teenager who normally just grunts one word answers to you, so having a proper chat with him and seeing him be stupid with the kids was great!

So, that was my rockin' week and I am linking this up to our host of rockin', Virginia.

Now, Five for Friday run by Laurie over at her blog.

I am 2 weeks behind in posting these, wks 8&9. I have not had much time over the last few weeks so I have had to sit and doodle these ones in the evening instead of doing a whole art journal page for each.

 Wk 9- your 5 favourite items of clothes

Wk 8- five things to do now the evenings are lighter

I just have to find time to do this weeks and then I am all caught up!

I was tagged last week in a game of Blog tag by AJ (please check out her blog, her art journal pages are beautiful!)

The Rules: You must post the rules

answer 11 questions the tagger posted for you

create 11 questions to ask the people you tag

tag 11 people

let them know you have tagged them

Now, I am going to do what Carmen did here...if you want to play along please answer the questions I have written on your blog and leave me a comment so I can come and check them out. I know how busy people are so I am not going to tag people (and I think a lot of people I follow have already been tagged!).

Here are the questions from AJ and my answers:

1.Which artist (dead or alive) would you most like to have a 1 to 1 with?

Wassily Kandinsky. I did a project on him at school and his art has fascinated me ever since

2.How do you silence your inner critic?

I haven't found a way yet. Any ideas????

3.If you could only use three colours which would you choose?

Purple, Turquoise and Teal

4.If you could own any one piece of art in the world (money no object) what would it be?

The Kiss by Klimt, maybe a bit cliched but I love the depth of colour and passion in the piece

5.What is your most treasured inanimate possession?

A wooden box that used to belong to my Grandad

6.Given the choice of fruit or chocolate which would you pick?

CHOCOLATE-every time!

7.Where in the world would you most like to visit?

The Temples of Humankind, Damahur in Northern Italy. What an amazing experience that would be, seeing all the beautiful art and creations in the underground temples, soaking up the peace and spirituality of the place, check out the link.

8. Is your art room tidy or messy?

Tidy...ish with a bit of mess here and there!

9.What gets you up in the morning?

My alarm clock!...on a deeper level, My kids and my hubby

10.What makes you laugh out loud?

The things my kids come out with, The big bang theory series

11.If you could time travel which period or event in history would you like to experience?

I would have loved to have been there when the Titanic was discovered, to see those first images appearing on the screen. Since I was a little girl I have been fascinated by the Titanic. My dad bought me a book one Christmas by Robert Ballard which tells all about how they found her and has loads of photos in..I still have this book and was reading it with the kids the other day as it is coming up to 100 yrs since she went down.

Here are the 11 questions I have written. Feel free to play along if you want to by answering these questions on your blog ansd leaving me a comment so I can come and have a nosy at your answers!

1. What started you on your art/creative journey?

2. If you were a flower, what flower would you be?

3.What is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?

4. If you were priminister for the day, whats the first thing you would change?

5. Tell us one quirk you have

6. If you could take a class with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

7. What art technique would you love to try and why?

8. What is the best piece of art you have created and why?

9. List one thing from your 'bucket list'.

10. What place or monument would you most like to see in person?

11. If you could be any animal what would you be and why?

Whew! That was a long post. If you are still with me, thanks!

I am nearly all caught up now, I just have to find time to get my calendar page done this month!

TFL

Sami x

Rocking your world friday

Hello! Its that time of the week again to think about all your positives and link them up with Virginia

 So, this week....

* The wonderful sunshine. I have been able to hang my washing on the line instead of putting it on the radiators and turning my heating on, even when it's not cold. I hate to waste money on the heating just to dry the clothes so the last couple of weeks have been great and I always love the smell of sun dried clothes!

* Making Tiffin with Shelby last Saturday morning. I have not made this in forever and forgotton how good it is.

* Sitting on the back door step drinking my morning cup of tea. Watching the birds in the garden and watching my dogs trying to get the bread for the birds off the table.

* Sitting with Bella on my lap, stroking her huge puppy belly. She is just nearly 7 weeks now and her belly is huge and round with her's and Oakleys babies. P told me yesterday that they are moving around now so I can't wait to feel that! And I am really looking forward to being at the birth, even though P has scared me with some yucky things I may have to do!!!

* I have been asking my hubby for 2 months to find a song for me, that makes him think of me-weird? Maybe, but I love music, love the way a song can take you back to a certain point in time or stir up the emotions and really make you feel something. Other couples have songs and we don't really, so I wanted a special song from him. He finally chose one (he said he'd taken so long as he wanted it to be perfect! Aw!) and that has made my week.

*Drive by cake drop offs! What a wonderful idea and I am sure P could make a fortune with this one! P had made cakes and posted that fact on FB! So everybody was asking her for cake and at 3pm there was a knock at the door and a foil package was handed to my hubby. When he brought it in it was 4 slices of chocolate cake, one for each of us! Thank you P!!!

* Shelby had her Hip Hop exam on Thursday. She was really nervous as were Dawns kids, Mara and Lucy who were doing it as well. While they were in their exam Dawn and me went for coffee, browsed the charity shop for books and then went and bought pizza and ice cream as a treat tea for the girls which we then took back to mine and cooked. It was lovely to spend quality time with Dawn, we have been friends since we were 10 yrs old and our kids are great friends as well.But we never seem to get much time together what with work and everything, so an afternoon off together was great. The girls will have to wait 6 weeks for their results so fingers crossed.

* Shelby got a 'postcard' home from the science department at school saying how great she's done this term and what an outstanding result she got in her assesment...sort of made her feel better about Caleb beating her on just dance now it turns out shes a science nerd too!

* Caleb got an A* on his french oral GCSE-go Caleb!

* I am grateful for antibiotics this week as I have got an infection in my tooth, more trips to the dentist!

* I finally spent the last of my Xmas money (I can't believe I have managed to keep hold of it until the end of March!) on this book from Amazon. I have read great reviews about it and have been waiting patiently for it to come out. Hopefully it will be here this week.

* I am looking forward to two weeks spent with the kids. It will probably just involve time in the garden or walking the dogs as it costs so much to do anything over here, but if the weather holds it should be a nice break.

Well, thats my positives for another week. I am sure there were loads more but I keep forgetting to write them down in the week. I have still been a bad blogger this week as I have had so much work to do that I just have not found the time for anything computer related. I still need to do Lauries Five for Friday, 2 weeks worth now-I am keeping track of them laurie and I WILL catch up!

Thanks for looking

Sami x