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

Wow, I hear you exclaim, two rocking posts in one week! That's to make up for all the weeks I have missed!

If you don't know what RYWF is all about (why not?) then pop over to our hosts blog and check it out.

* What has rocked my world the most this week was taking part in Ryde Arts Parade with the fabulous Equals Friendship Group. (photos and video should be on the Equals website next week, worth a look if only to giggle at me dancing!)

Although a hell of a lot of hard work and stress to make the costumes and organise everything it was well worth it on the day. This years theme was cultural celebrations throughout the calendar year and we were given Guy Fawkes as our celebration.

We had a special mix of music put together for us by my volunteers son and it was a mix of Fire by Arthur Brown, fire starter by the prodigy and fireworks by Katy Perry. Unfortunately the carnival centre gave us a dead battery on our sound system so we didn't have our music on the way round, but we made up for it when we performed in the Gala afterwards on stage!

 My Daughter Shelby

 My Husband, Stewart on the left, Arums Husband and my brother in law, being our stewards for the day, carrying all our water bottles and first aid kit and pushing the dead sound system all the way round the streets of Ryde!

 Before we set off

 Lining up ready to set off

 Performing our dance moves, without the music at the top of Union Street in Ryde

 The back of our costumes as we head along the seafront.

(All photos taken by the fab Travis Lumpkin!)

We all had so much fun and we won a trophy for third place for costume design.

* Fresh potato's and peas from my sons allotment

*Making baby shower banners at work yesterday for our first Equals baby!

* Finishing the shades of grey trilogy..oh my!

*Two broke girls on E4...this does make me laugh.

* Reiki share group this week. We had our auras photographed this week by a lovely lady called Charlotte. She took before photos that showed our auras and chakras and then we gave each other Reiki and had our photos taken again. Amazing results and her analysis of our personalities based on our aura colours was fantastic and spot on!

* The Wednesday Whine group. I know I don't get on their as often as I'd like, but all you ladies are fab! You can have a whine about anything and there's always a listening ear and a laugh to be had. Thank you ladies x

* And as always, I am grateful for my wonderful kids and hubby, who can always put a smile on my face.

Not a long list this week, and I am sure there were more moments, but these were my highlights!

I have managed to finish some pages in Sue's pair journal, as part of the swap on Collabor-art. The theme of Sue's journal is 'alphabetika'. We add to each others pages and start new ones for each other to play with.

 I just added the stamped trees to this page

 This page was book pages and gesso, paint and ink, a printed image which I drew over and then added the poem

 Paint, ink, tissue paper and handcarved stamps and a bit of deciphering that Sue needs to do!

 I added the parrot with the skull on this page and did the title with washi tape

 I used a magazine image as a mask on this page and then covered the page with gesso.

 This was Sue's braille page which I loved. I added chalk ink to highlight the Braille, some stamps and a cut up postcard.

 I used newspaper headlines as the background then gessoed over it, added red paint, a text stamp and an image from a magazine.

 I loved this page of Sue's so I only added the handcarved 'confidential' and raven stamp and the little dancing skeletons around the outside.

Sue had made this mini journal to go in the pocket on the left. I added some Morse code for her to decipher.

I am really enjoying working on this pair journal, although am still struggling a bit with adding stuff to Sue's pages in case she doesn't like them!

Thanks for looking

Sami x

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-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

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