Rocking Your World Friday and Pair Journal

 It's rocking time again, the time of the week to dig deep and find all those positives and gratefuls. I am linking this up with our wonderful host Virginia.

* My Dad was 60 in April and on Saturday night him and three of his friends from school, who all turned 60 this year had a huge birthday bash. It was great to see him enjoying himself, fit and well after his cancer two years ago. They had live music from a very well known band on the Island and they were fantastic. (Unfortunately after the party when they were loading their van back up with their equipment, some little moron jumped in the van and drove off with it. One of the band members who was in the back got thrown out into the road and had to go to hospital. The police later found the van burned out with the equipment still inside-a 1970's original drum kit and amps. But that's enough of the down side as I am supposed to be concentrating on the positive!)

*My DS, Caleb, got a letter from the headteacher to say that he has been accepted as a prefect. It also said that staff were asked to comment on his suitability for a senior role (head boy or house captain) and could he attend an interview for a senior role and do a 3 minute presentation on Thursday for the headteacher and head of year! He spent all of Wednesday night preparing his presentation on what he could bring to the role and he was really nervous Thursday morning when he got up! When he got home from school i asked how it went and he thought he did well. The teachers commented on how well prepared he was and what a good presentation it was. He went through what questions they had asked him and what his responses were and they impressed me! He should hear next week so fingers crossed!

* I have a job interview next week, on the same day that I have a family funeral to go to. Fingers crossed for me as well, that the interview goes well and I get out in enough time to attend the funeral.

*I had a little trip to the crystal shop on Wednesday with Paige. I only spent £4 though so am in no trouble this time from my hubby!

*Paige's Hubby photographed all my paintings this week for me, as the shop that is going to take two of them wanted photos first. The photos look great and I will be able to make prints as well from them. Thanks Trav, I owe you some beer!

*Watching Avengers Assemble with Stu and the kids. We never made it to the cinema to watch this so we bought it on special from Tesco. I really enjoyed it and I didn't realise until I saw the credits that it was written by Joss Whedon!

*Autumn is on it's way, the sun is still shining but theres a chill in the air. This is my Fave season, nice walks in the woods with the leaves falling, hot chocolate, cosy jumpers and boots!

Well, that's it for my list of positives this week. Check out the other rockettes to see what lifted them up this week!

 I have finally managed to get some work done in my pair journal. I didn't even pick it up throughout the school holidays so it was hard to get back into it. I am doing this pair journal with Sue over on the collabor-art blog. I was working in my journal this time and the theme is round and round.

I  added the freaky skull like drawing to this page with Indian ink and a few more words

 Some doodling of seed and pod heads

 Sue had done this page with the fab googly eyes. I added the speech bubbles and some red circles in the background

 I loved this magazine image, I thought she looked like a giant sea anemone

 Sue had started this page with the yellow background and the journalling spots with black stems. I added the word flower (which I am not to pleased with, I may have to paint over that!) and the little leaves to the stem, some washi tape 'grass' and darkened the background with ink and a flower stencil.

 Another of Sue's started pages. I added the clock hands, the stamped clock and 'time flies' image on tissue paper and the words.

 I had done the background on this page with paint left over from another project and then added a spider web and dandelions and some journalling.

 I used printed scrapbook paper for the background on this page, covered with paint and stencilling then added the balloon from an old book page and a compass and the letter stickers

 Sue had started this page off with some yellow cogs so I just continued on that theme, layering up with masks and ink and stamps on tissue paper and then outlined the cogs to make them stand out.

 Another of Sue's pages. I added the ruler stamp, tape measure washi tape and gave it a very light wash of watercolour.

These are the two paintings that I am taking to the shop in Cowes. Trav took the professional photos for me!

 This is a small mixed media canvas and I have used beeswax over the top of it.

This abstract one I did, influenced by Flora Bowleys 'Brave intuitive painting' book.

Thanks for popping by!

Sami x

Rocking your world Friday

It's that time of the week again for Rocking your world Friday. A chance to list all the positives and gratefuls of the last week (or three!). Pop over to our host Virginia's blog and check it out.

It's been a hard few weeks this end, but I have pulled myself together enough to list some of my gratefuls. Loads probably got lost along the way but I will do my best to remember them.

* First up, a huge thank you to the Wednesday Whine group. You ladies are fantastic! I can't tell you how much your support and kind words mean to me. You Rock!!

*My DD was pictured twice in her school newsletter this week, enjoying the end of term festivities.

*Helping my son write his formal letter to the head teacher to apply to be a prefect. He didn't want to 'big' himself up in the letter so I did, that's what proud mums do isn't it?! He has heard he's made the list and also got a couple of ticks for the head boy position. Fingers crossed, he should hear next week.



*My DD, Shelby, took part in the IOW scooter rally a couple of weeks ago with her Grandad. She bought herself a scooter tshirt and wore my very old cherry red DM's to look the part. She had a great time and made it there and back in one piece. It's a standing family joke that I worry so much when one of the kids does the rideout with my Dad, so I got a text from her that said 'I'm alive!!!' when they arrived at their destination.

*The kids going back to school! I love my kids dearly, I love spending time with them in the holidays, I love the lack of routine for 6 weeks, but the silence in my house on the first day back to school was wonderful!!!

*Watching the Hunger games on DVD and then reading the books. I enjoyed the film, I thought it was well done, but I didn't realise how much it would upset me. Kids killing kids, very disturbing. The books I really loved (weird as its still the same as the film), I suppose because you got to read more of how they felt and the back story.

*Getting ready for the big secret fairy party a few weeks ago. We went to a friends house to get ready and made a day of it. We finished the last details on our costumes, had a BBQ and the wonderful Menna did all our face painting. Unfortunately the party was not as expected, but the least said about that the better!

 Paige, me and Teresa

 Me

 Paige and Zoe being really cheeky faeries

 Paige, Menna, Zoe, Me and Teresa

We all had beautiful fairy wings as well but we had already packed them in the car when these photos were taken.

*Getting tickets for Park of the Dead at Halloween. This looks to be an amazing interactive zombie experience and I can't wait! Tickets went on sale at 8.30am the other Saturday and when we got there at 9am to buy ours they were already half sold out.

*Meeting up with the friendship group ladies after our 6 week break. We can't use our normal hall at the moment as the roof is being re-done so we met at one of the ladies houses and were treated to a full on BBQ and curry delight!

*My friend arranged for me to take some of my paintings and prints to a shop in Cowes this week. She is always asking in shops if they would be interested in seeing my stuff..I am just not brave enough to ask myself! Anyway, I took my stuff over and when we walked in it was more like a gallery than a shop with the most amazing art work on display. I thought I would be laughed right out the door but the lady was very complimentary about my work. She said some of the work was not really them (the pagan/goddess inspired pieces) but she loved two of my paintings, a small mixed media one and a bigger abstract one, and she wants them for the shop but I have to get them framed first. She also wants all my prints, my affirmation cards and my sea glass mobiles for Christmas! I was totally gobsmacked!!! Paige's hubby is going to photograph everything this weekend and then I shall take the stuff back over to her. I hope it sells!

*As a thank you to my friend for pushing me into taking my work over to the shop, I did some painting lessons with her. She has been asking for ages for me to teach her some techniques so on Saturday she came over for the day and we had a play.

 This was her first one. She had already drawn the mushroom and wanted some techniques for the background.

This is her second piece. I had her just make marks on the canvas, dribble paint and use water spray to create an abstract piece. She was over the moon with the results.

Well, I think that's it for this week. Thanks for stopping by.

Sami x