Rocking your World for a month of Fridays!

Apologies, apologies, apologies! I have been a very bad blogger for not posting in a month and for not even managing to find the time to come and check out all the blogs I follow. I have been so busy with work and home life these last few weeks, anything I do for me has just slipped by the wayside.

So, catching up on Rocking your world Friday, hosted by the lovely Virginia.

In no particular order as I am just trying to remember everything...

*Park of the Dead was a fantastic experience, luckily I didn't get eaten by any of the zombies although they did scare the hell out of me! The event was put together so well, even the tiniest details were thought about to make the whole night fantastic. Will definitely be signing up for next year.

*I have taken some of my art work to a gallery on the Island, scary and I don't know if anything will sell, but the owner liked the stuff. I have another four paintings at a Christmas event at Ventnor Library, so possibly will have a little cash to buy art supplies after Xmas...I really want one of those gelli art plates!

*Helping my sister make her wedding bouquet using old brooches and flowers.

*Finishing the body and face of my fairy that I am making at fairy club and painting her face so she looks'real' now. Just have to dress her and give her some hair.

*Celebrating Samhain with friends and having our 'Ancestor' dinner afterwards.

*Going to see Breaking Dawn part 2 twice...soooooo good!

*Doing two hours of the Merenque at work on Wednesday. One of our members husbands teaches Latin dancing so he came in and gave us a class. I have not moved my hips so much in years!

*The reason for me being so neglectful of my blog-funding applications to keep my job. Have managed to secure funding for a little while longer, so the group keeps going and I get to continue working with such a wonderful bunch of women.

*Getting my  Painting back from the Collabor-art 'Pass the painting' swap. It looks fantastic and so great to see all the layers each person has added.

*Going to the book signing of a local authors new book

*Receiving a postcard from a friend

*Central heating, it has got soooo cold!

*Celebrating Diwali at the group. We all made Diwali lamps and then had a huge party with lots of food to celebrate this wonderful Hindu festival of lights.

 We each made wishes and were given a blessing each and then one of the women sang for us. It is so amazing to be able to celebrate and learn about all these different festivals and celebrations with such an amazing group of women.

*Getting tickets for Damh the Bard in January

*Completing all my Yule gifts and my Secret Santa present for Carmen's Secret Santa

*Great dinner conversations with the kids over the last few weeks, ranging from 'do we believe in the tooth fairy still' to 'being pressured into sex'- very big leap! (Shelby lost her last baby tooth and Caleb has just completed training at school to teach the younger children about peer pressure and sex in their PHSE lessons)

*Seeing Shelby perform in the annual show put on by the Dance academy school she attends. She was amazing, even if I do say so myself, doing a Hip Hop routine with the rest of her class. So proud of her! Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos during the show so had to make do with one of her afterwards.

*Seeing the first frost yesterday, always looks so beautiful

*Stu bought me a new phone as my very old one has finally died, but of course, I have no idea how to actually use it!

* Being asked to put together and a deliver an art journalling for beginners course by the Gallery that has taken some of my work. Very excited about the possibilities of this and am Just hoping that it actually happens.

* Finishing a commissioned painting for a friend this week of their handfasting.

There was obviously lots more that Rocked in the last month but I can't remember!!

I am going to link this up with Virginia and will try to get round to all the blogs I follow over the next few days.

Sami x

Rocking your world friday

 It's that time of the week again and for the second time in a row I am actually posting on a Friday! pop over to Virginias Blog to find out more and check out the other Rockette posts.

I kept a daily list this week to help me remember everything.

Saturday:

* Making wedding stuff with my sister and Teresa. My little sis is getting married next year and we are trying to make as much as possible for it. We have already made and sent out the save the dates, we have finished the invitations, discussed the alterations for the bridesmaids dresses so we sat down on Saturday to make the 'guest book'. She is not having a traditional guest book she is having a branch arrangement on each table and then we have made leaves (on the cricut) which the guests will write their messages on and hang from the branches. The leaves will also double as the named place settings for each table. We had a production line going with Teresa putting the cardstock on the cricut mats, me cutting them and Zoe punching the hole in them. Then we sat and threaded jute through each leaf so they can be hung. We also made some extra little leaves to put on the branches already for decoration. We were going to use vases to put the branches in but Zoe found these beautiful little table arrangements at Dunhelm mill that look like little nests so we are going to stick the branches in them. It should look fab!

* A good friend cheering me up on Saturdayy, I have had a really down couple of months for many stupid reasons, but a good chat with her and I felt a lot better.

Sunday:

* I was a naughty girl on Sunday and used some of my art money (the money I have made from selling my artwork) to go and buy an iPod touch. I really wanted an iPad but that was way out of my price range and most of the things I wanted the iPad for I can do on the touch, like facebook and Instagram. I also bought a purple case for it. Paige came over and helped me set it up (or I should say did it for me, I am not very good with the technical stuff) and added all the apps I wanted and my music. This resulted in bursts of happy dancing all day, much to the amusement of my family! What can I say, little things make me happy!

* Watching Prometheus on Sunday night with Stu and Caleb. I didn't know if I would be able to follow this film as it's so long since I saw Alien and it wasn't really my cup of tea, but I enjoyed the prequel and thought they had done it really well.

Monday:

* Watching a huge flock of birds, hundreds of them, swooping and soaring right above my garden while having my morning cup of coffee. I don't think I have seen so many birds before and it was amazing to watch them twisting in and out of each other, creating these huge sweeping patterns in the sky.

Tuesday:

* On Tuesday the Equals Culture Kitchen Project (which I run) went to Medina House School to provide ethnic dance and cooking for the pupils there. Medina House is a school for severely disabled children and I was worried that I might find it upsetting but it was the most uplifting experience. The staff there are amazing and so dedicated and it was so wonderful to see all the children participating in this event. All the children got up to dance with the ladies and the staff twirled the children in wheelchairs around and helped them clap their hands. The dance session overran by 20 minutes as the kids were having so much fun! We had to adapt our cookery as they have no cooking facilities and the children were not allowed to use knives, but we came up with a good menu of ethnic food for them, Kimbop which is a Korean dish similar to sushi, rice and vegetables wrapped in seaweed, and Dadar Gulong which is Indonesian sweet coconut crepes. All of the kids tried the food and some were able to help put the vegetables in the Kimbop and make their own crepes. It was their harvest festival this week so we also took in a big box of exotic fruits for them such as dragon fruit, star fruit, cape gooseberries etc so the children that couldn't help make their own food got to touch and feel all these fruits. It was such an amazing day and projects like this make me really appreciate the job that I do.

Wednesday:

* I woke up Wednesday with a stinking cold and felt really lousy. This is the second cold this month, I really need to up my dose of vitamin C! I managed to package up all my affirmation cards which I am taking to the gallery/shop next week along with my paintings and prints and then I went up to bed at 2pm as I just felt so awful. Stu came home from work and cooked tea for everyone and took Shelby to Tesco to buy some things to put in her shoebox for the shoebox appeal she's doing at school. He is such a sweetheart and I don't know what I would do without him, so am grateful this week for how he looks after me!

Thursday:

* My Dad turned up a day early to put my new cabinet on the wall. I was given a lovely display cabinet for my crystals by the wonderful Menna (the fairy workshop lady!) and my Dad was going to come on Friday morning and put it up but he had some free time yesterday so turned up with his drill. After it was up, I spent a good hour arranging some of my collection of crystals in it until it looked perfect and then sat on the floor just looking at it for ten minutes with a big smile on my face! Thank you Menna, Thank you Dad!

 * Caleb and his Lego have made me smile this week. We have enough Lego in our house to build our own legoland! Caleb has been collecting Lego since he was four and he is fifteen now. I love the fact that even though he is a teenager he has not outgrown it and still sits for hours putting together the most amazing creations. This is one of his 'small' creations he designed on Thursday evening. It opens up and has computers, guns, lasers, teleporters, blast somethings etc all inside. I just love his creativity!

 * And the biggest and bestest thing to rock my world this week was hearing that Carmen had finally had her baby!! The lovely ladies of the Wednesday Whine group have all been on tenderhooks for the last few days, checking our FB page every five minutes for news and finally last night Carmen's daughter posted the first photos of Bubba. Way to go Carmen, big hugs and lots of love from us all! Considering I have never met any of the ladies from WW in real life, the support, kindness and laughs from everyone is amazing and I think we were all clucking like mother hens waiting for news of Carmen's bubba!!

Friday:

* I found out that the Equals Friendship group have been successful in their funding application so that means that the group can run for another year and I still have a job!! It is such a relief as I have been in panic mode the last few months, knowing that our funding is running out, hating the fact that that would mean the end of our group and my job. I can breathe easy for another year now.

* I am going to PARK OF THE DEAD  tonight and I am so excited. It is the first time they have run this event but the effort they have put into the publicising of it has been amazing It's all over FB, they had an entry in this years carnival to promote it and today we have been getting updates all morning on FB saying things like 'one of the experiments has escaped' and 'one of the park security force has been hurt in an incident'. It's really helping to set the scene for tonight! I know I will be screaming a lot and holding tight to Stu, telling myself 'it's not real' over and over again! We are not allowed to take photos on the tour but maybe Paige will manage to sneak a few with her phone and I can post them on here next week!

Well that's it for this weeks Rocking post, not a bad week all in all!

This bit of the post is for Carmen who wanted me to post the painting I did for her and it's the least I can do today as she has just given birth!!

I sent this to Carmen a few weeks ago as a gift for the Bubba. It is called ' May you always be watched over'. There is a lot of symbolism specific to Carmen in it, which I wont go into. Anyway, she said she loved it so that made me happy!!

Thanks for stopping by and wish me luck for tonight that I don't get eaten by Zombies!!

Sami x

Rocking Friday

 Hello Friday Rockers!

Well it's been a few weeks again since I posted but I have found some time this morning to Catch up!

I am linking this up with Virginia for our Rocking your world Friday posts, a weekly look at all our gratefuls.

* First up, on Saturday my Mum and Dad got handfasted (Celtic wedding) as a way of renewing their vows after 40 married years together. My sister and I performed the ceremony assisted by our other pagan friends. We held the ceremony in my sisters garden which looked wonderful after we had decorated everywhere with bunting, streamers, willow hearts and flowers and lots of lanterns. Mum and Dad had invited a few close friends and family so it was a very intimate affair. I felt very honoured to perform this with my sister, for our parents. Their vows to each other brought tears to the eyes, both to me and my sister and the guests! We had a BBQ afterwards and everyone said how wonderful and different the ceremony was.

* I am grateful that when I woke up last Wednesday morning to find my right eye was filled with blood, it was nothing serious, just the pressure from a migraine! It was pretty scary looking in the mirror and having a demon eye stare back at me! I went to the doctors and she had a trainee sitting in with her so they proceeded to discuss amongst themselves what it could be...high blood pressure, glaucoma, a brain aneurysm..OMG, I was getting seriously worried! But they cleared me of everything and said it was due to my headache. it's gradually healing up, the bloods going down and my eye is turning yellow!

*On Monday Shelby and me went to Compton bay with Paige in Jenni the big gay camper van! (Jenni is Paige's pride and joy! Her hubby has spent hours fixing her up mechanically and Paige and I made the curtains and re covered all the seats and she has made it so pretty inside.)

We drove all the way to Compton with the music blaring, parked up and Paige put the kettle on and we had lunch. We went for a walk along the beach after lunch, and I have to say, Compton is one of my fave beaches on the Island, it is visually stunning with the towering white cliffs surrounding it. Here's some photos.

 'Jenni'

 The view from the car park

 Shelby, Paige and the dogs Gracie and Suki

 Shelby wave jumping

I took loads of photos which I have not done in ages, now I don't really scrapbook I never remember to take my camera anywhere!

* Planning our trip to Glastonbury next week- what to take, what places to visit, oh I am so excited! I love Glastonbury so much, it always feels like coming home when I go there. I am going with Paige in Jenni for three days. No kids, no hubby's, no dogs...sheer spiritual bliss awaits us!!

*My Nephew is down on the Island so its been lovely to see him again.

*It was Stewart and Mine's anniversary on Wednesday. Married for 14 years, I don't know where the time has gone. I am so grateful for him and thank my lucky stars everyday that I met him.

The kids made us a beautiful card with poems in that they had written themselves, which nearly brought me to tears. We are going to celebrate our anniversary on Monday along with our daughters 12th birthday by going out to lunch somewhere nice.

* Watched Mirror Mirror with the kids last night, so funny, I really enjoyed it. I love curling up with the kids and watching something together.

* And finally, seeing Virginia's crystal collection photos rocked my world this week! So beautiful, thank you for sharing  Virginia!

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I have had some fun with painting this week, inspired by this Lady's work, Erin Faith Allen. I stumbled across her blog the other day and the first painting I saw was called 'the returning' and it really called to me like nothing has in a long time. I in no way hoped to capture the spiritual feeling I got from her paintings but I loved her free style.I am still quite reserved with my painting, unable to really let go (I am getting there in my art journal but give me a canvas and I freak that I am going to mess it up!)

I decided to just go for it and see what happened and this was the result.

(For some reason Blogger will not put them up the right way so you will have to lean your head to the right and imagine them upright!)

Finished piece-Cerridwen



Another one I did-Hekate

I loved the process of creating these but not entirely sure I love the end result!

Thanks for popping by,

Sami x

Catch up!

Well hello there!It's been way to long since I posted, over a month now. Work has been so hectic with three culture kitchen events, Ryde Arts Parade and funding applications to contend with, which has not left me with a minute to catch up on here or on other peoples blogs. Add in the Jubilee celebrations, 3 weekends working on my friends camper van with her and a whole host of other 'life' things and lets just say I fallen way behind with everything. Apologies to those I regularly visit, I am trying to catch up with all your posts!

Anyway, I have about 5 weeks worth of catching up to do with my Rockin posts...which ain't gonna happen as I haven't written anything down...but here's what I do remember!

* Getting the bullying sorted out with the school for my daughter. It took a few attempts before anyone took me seriously, but it seems to be all settled now and Shelby is back to being her usual delightful self.

* My son being awarded an IW festival ticket in recognition of all his hard work throughout the year. Now the recognition is fab, but he had to decline the ticket as a) he didn't want to go, b) He knew I would not let him go on his own and c) the school had actually sent home a letter to parents asking them not to let their kids attend the festival if they had exams on the Monday!! Why then was this his prize!!!

* My sister coming safely out of her operation and making a good recovery

* A new meditation group that I joined. Wonderful people, very spiritually enlightening and a great Me time treat.

* Celebrating the summer solstice with wonderful friends and family at the beautiful piece of land me use, and the fact that although the day started off wet the sun did make an appearance by lunchtime allowing us to carry out our celebration and have a BBQ.

* Fairy club. I am still so thankful that I was allowed to join and that I am making my own OOAK fairy under direction from one of the most talented women I have ever met! She is coming along nicely, I really struggled with the eyes (which I am still not happy with) but managed to do perfect boobs straight away...what does this say?!

 * Managing to find a couple of hours to start my third painting of my Maiden, Mother, Crone set. It's been about 10 months since I finished the first two and my mojo for them has waned slightly! Also for remembering to get my 'pass the painting' canvas done in time and sent off to the next person (part of the pass the painting swap on Collabor-art)

 * Making this bag about 6 weeks ago...the intention was to make a whole load to sell but I have not had time so I am now using this one myself. I used one of my prints and added some lovely wave fabric to the bottom.

 * The Jubilee celebrations. Well, the extra time off work anyway! Shelby and I did go down to the seafront with my sister, mum, dad and brother in law to watch the torch being lit and to see the fireworks though. We had a lovely time and laughed our socks off at the family next to us.... a group of older women, one of them celebrating their 91st birthday, drinking Jack Daniels and getting more and more drunk and outrageous as the evening wore on...I hope I am still enjoying life that much at that age!

* Being able to call on friends for help. How nice it is to pick up the phone and ask for help and have people who are happy to oblige. What wonderful friends I have that when I need them the most they are always there. I hope I always return the favour.

Well, I am sure there were many more rockin moments over the last few weeks, but my work addles brain is having trouble remembering them!

Thanks for stopping by after my long absence, normal service should resume shortly!

Sami x

New painting and a new class

I have just finished a commissioned painting for someone.

Mixed media on 12x12" canvas

I used watercolour crayons, acrylics, ink sprays and stamping. The pentacle, raven and triple swirl are my own stamps that I have made stamped onto vintage book paper. I used flocking powder on the flower and the black part of the corset to make it look like velvet (which you can't really see from the photo).

I don't have a name for her yet though.

I have started a new class over at Wild Precious Studio called 'To see us through the long dark'. We are using the book 'life is a verb' by Patti Digh as the inspiration for the class. The book was written because the authors step father died just 37 days after being diagnoised with cancer, which made her examine her own life-'37 days to wake up, be mindful and live intentionally'. It is a wonderful book full of art, challenges to help you live a better life and to examine your own life. Effy Wild is running the class and asked us lots of questions after the first chapter, one of them being-'if your story was a house what would it look like?' We were then asked to do a collage journal page on this particular question.

 So, this is my house. Not a great work of art but I wanted to concentrate more on the meaning of it and answering the question rather than create a piece of art work. Some of the images I chose because they are symbolic, others just because I liked them.My family influence the house greatly, my kids and my hubby (who is my hero, hence the superhero image!), my spirituality, transformation and creativity. The attic is the darker area where skeletons lurk, innocence has been put away, people of the past reside, caged birds (thoughts and dreams) are held and that scared little girl still sometimes wanders. The clock has no time on it to encourage me to live in the now. The white bubbles outside the house represent letting go of things.

I am really enjoying this class, the book is a wonderful read, the questions are thought provoking and everyone on the site is so supportive of each other. I was just going to follow along with this class quietly, in the background, without posting my answers or my art, because I don't really like revealing stuff about myself but I am so glad I took the plunge and fully participated, It means I am 'inhabiting my own story'.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend,

TFL

Sami x

New painting

Just a quick post to show you a new painting.

This is acrylic, waterolour crayon, felt pen and glitter glue on an 11 1/2 inch canvas.

She is called

'Luna Faerie'

I have been thinking to myself for a while that I should have an etsy shop. I have had a couple of people who own shops say that they might sell my paintings and prints. I have had photographs taken of my paintings to turn them into prints, I have even rung the printers to find out about sizes and prices. Then my friend asked me the other day 'so when are you actually going to do it?'

When indeed? I have made small steps over the last few months, getting the paintings photographed, ringing the printers, buying the mountboard for the prints but just can't seem to push myself in making that final step. The fear is holding me back...thats a positive step though right? Knowing the fear is holding me back??!

Fear that I am not a 'real' artist, fear that my stuff is in no way good enough for people to buy, fear that I will fail at this, fear that people will think 'who does she think she is trying to sell that stuff?' Oh yes, the fear is surrounding me people and I just don't know how to get past it. How do you get past your fears and take that next step, how do you put yourself out there and take the risk? Answers on a postcard please!!!!!(or in my comments box!)

Sorry, this turned into a bit of a depressive moan didn't it?! I am not fishing for compliments on my work I would just like some advice on facing my fear and maybe your helpful hints on how you got started selling your crafts.

Thanks for listening,

sami x

A mothers wish

Here is the painting I did for my daughter at the weekend. She has been asking me forever to do her a painting for her bedroom. She wanted a fairy painting (probably more flower fairy than this!) so here is the result.

'a mothers wish' (subtitled 'Mummy and Shelby')

Mixed media on canvas

I used water colour crayons, acrylic paints, twinkling H2O's, stamps, Tim Holtz tissue tape and a mix of music and text sheets.

TFL

Sami x

Maiden, Mother and Crone

This is what I have been doing today.

It started as a sketch last night and I was pleased with how it turned out so decided to paint it today.

' Maiden, Mother, Crone'

I used Caran D'ache watercolour crayons and acrylic paints.

I just wanted to say thank you for all the lovely comments about my son. He has spoken to his year head and has to fill in a form from student services and then the year head will deal with it. Hopefully it will get sorted, if it doesn't I will go to the school. I want to give him the chance to sort it out himself before I step in!

TFL

Sami x

A Painting

I have been busy the last three days doing a painting for a friend.

I did a painting 5 years ago that I copied from a card I bought on my first trip to Glastonbury. The artist is called Tiana and you can find her work on www.slipperyjacks.com and the painting is called 'Binding of souls'.

The painting I copied is the only art work of mine I have ever displayed. My friend saw it the other day and asked if I would do the same one for her. I have not done a painting on canvas in those 5 years so I was a bit worried in case I messed it up!

I think it turned out all right.

I have now bought another canvas and thought I would have a go at doing my own painting, something I havn't copied this time! I will let you know how it turns out!

TFL

Sami x