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

 What a rocking week it has been!

I am linking this up with Virgina for rocking your world Friday.

* First up, we went to the beach Friday night for a BBQ with my sister, her partner and my nephew. We walked out on the sand banks collecting shells, the kids ran around playing and we cooked some burgers. Simple pleasures but we had a great time.

 Caleb, Shelby and Rhys

 Caleb, Rhys and Zoe

Rhys looks impressed with his new boobs!

* On Monday it was my darling girls 12th birthday. We bought her clothes as that was what she asked for, Caleb bought her some mini hair straighteners and a hairdryer and she had lots of other bits and pieces.

We took the kids out to lunch to celebrate and then had family round for tea and birthday cake in the afternoon. Shelby had a sleepover spa party on the Saturday night before her birthday. Me and my friend Dawn painted all the kids nails, they had face packs, watched movies and ate popcorn and birthday muffins that Dawn had made.

 Pleased with her prezzies

Out to lunch at the Dairymans

Birthday cookies and cakes made by my sister

 Blowing out the candles on her birthday cake, made by Paige

*On Tuesday me and Paige were up at 2.30am to get ready and catch the 4.30am boat to the mainland for our Glastonbury trip. I had been so excited about this trip, three days away in Jenni the camper van, no kids, no hubby, no dogs and pennies to spend on whatever I wanted!

We drove off the ferry at 5am and started on our way through the new forest. We had two near misses with Bambi's trying to jump in front of Jenni which was scary, but Paige managed to swerve and miss them both times.

We arrived in Glastonbury by 7.30am and waited for our fave cafe, Heaphys to open so we could have breakfast.When it finally opened at 9am it had changed hands and gone all up market-no more veggie breakfast but I could have had scrambled egg on a paneni(sp?) for six quid?!! Whats that about? We found another cafe, had breakfast then started our shopping.

So many beautiful things to look at!

The three days were spent shopping, chillin at the campsite, more shopping and relaxing at the Chalice well. We wanted to go and find Brigid's well and the two old oak trees Gog and Magog but it pored with rain for the first two days so we didn't get a chance.

We got accosted by Gypsy's in the high st and between us ended up paying £7 for some plastic flowers and a whole load of gypsy luck!

We left Glasto on the Thursday afternoon and headed to Avebury ring. We wandered around the stones, leaving little blessings in the nooks and crannies of the stones. We went back to Jenni at six to move her to another car park as the one we were in shut at 6.30 and we were meeting our friend Sarah at 7pm. And Jenni would not start! Paige kept turning the key and there was nothing, not even a protesting whine-so much for £7 worth of Gypsy luck! Paige rang her hubby and he didn't know what could be wrong with her so we had to ring the AA who said they would be with us by 7.15. We made a coffee and waited. We spoke to the woman who came to lock the gates of the car park and she said she would leave them open for us so if the AA got us going we would be able to get out.We had to cancel our meet up with Sarah as we didn't know what would happen with the AA, we both expected to be towed home. Sorry again Sarah! By 7.15 there was no sign of the AA and Paige said she was going to try and start her again-and she started first time. We rang the AA back and they said if she was running then get moving and they would cancel the garage they had coming out to us.

We took it really slow on the way home and when we reached the ferry we were really worried about turning the engine off in case she wouldn't start again. We were an hour early for our ferry though and couldn't risk her overheating so had to turn her off. Luckily she started for us when the ferry came in! We got home around 11.30pm, tired but full of the spiritual energy from our travels.

 Goddess display at Starchild

 The Chalice well

 The Vesica Piscis pool at the Chalice well

 The stones and clay pieces I made to leave as little blessings around Glastonbury

One of the little Goddess figures left at the Chalice well

We filled our new offering bowls with all our new crystals and water from the well and then sat and charged them up. The energy at the Chalice well is incredible.

 Me at the chalice well

Inside of Jenni, enjoying a glass of wine and some cakes

Paige at Avebury

Paige looking all witchy with a crow flying in front of her at Avebury

My feets at Avebury

I will leave it there for this week.

Thanks for stopping 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

Rocking your world friday!

Hello Friday rockers!

 I have had a great week, loads of things rocking my world at the moment!

• My homemade meal plan is working very well. I have done weekly menus for the next month, one to save us money on shopping and two, because my daughter and husband are such fussy eaters and I am fed up with cooking 3/4 different meals a night. On the 1st Jan I told my daughter that these were the meals I was cooking, if she didn't eat them she would go hungry and also that there would be no sweets or crisps during the week. There was moaning and much huffing and sighing but She has eaten every meal I have cooked even things such as cottage pie and spag bol. We have always had problems with her eating (learnt behaviour from her Dad and his fussy ways I think!) and it got to the point where all she would eat is frozen proccessed c**p like sausages, burgers or pizza. A couple of months ago I swapped her onto veggie sausages and veggie chicken pieces as I felt that was a healthier option and for the last two weeks she has done amazingly well with her eating, I am so proud of her!

 And here she is in her new Big Bang Theory T-shirt which she bought with her xmas money. She wanted to be like her brother who has several Big Bang t-shirts! (we are huge Big Bang fans!)

• My Somerset studio art journal magazine finally showing up and the hour or so peace and quiet I had last night to pour over it!
• My lovely friend Paige who spent all of sunday afternoon and monday evening helping me to design my positive affirmation cards on the computer. I had spent a while trying to do it but couldn't get them quite right so whizz that she is on the technical side of things, she sorted them out in no time! They looked great but printing them at home wasn't giving me the results I wanted so Paige suggested that I get them printed from moo.com so she also uploaded them to there for me. So Big hugs and thanks to Paige this week! They have just arrived today and I am so pleased with them.

 Affirmation cards

• Seeing the Logo I was commissioned to design in print on my friends buisness cards has really rocked my world! They have had some really positive comments about it as well which is great. They were really specific with what they wanted the design to look like ( a person in the yoga 'tree' pose emerging from a lotus flowers with branches around it!) so I am glad I managed to achieve that for them.

They are having a launch party next week to officially open their buisness. It is called The Lotus Tree and it is a yoga studio and healing room where you can have all sorts of holistic treatments. They have also agreed to sell my affirmation cards and have enquired about some of my art for their treatment room!

As a gift for them I kept the original drawing I did of the logo and I have mounted and framed it for them, I really hope they like it!

• My Son Caleb who is 14, getting an A* in his GCSE chemistry exam! He came home with the result yesterday so then I spent an hour phoning all my family and close friends to brag about it!!!! I am so proud of him, he is an absolute star at school and works so hard to get good grades.
• Just being thankful for what I have. Joining rocking your world has really encouraged me to be more positive and to remember the little things that have made my week great. I do thank my deities daily for the blessings I have been given but its so nice to write them down somewhere as well in a list so I can look back and say' my Goddess, I have had a good week havn't I?'

If you want to join up with other rockers head over to Virginias blog.

I hope you all have had a good week too!

TFL

Sami x


*Edited to say...Blogger won't let me comment on some blogs :(
Is it blogger or is it me again? My blog has finally been sorted out and working properly for the last couple of weeks and now there are blogs that I can't comment on.
Virginia, it wont let me comment on yours to say great rocking post, crafty womble I cant even access your blog and bad penny I can read your blog but again it wont let me comment the page just goes blank when I click the comment box. I did manage to comment on Joannas blog this morning though so I don't know whats going on???!!! I will keep trying but wanted to just say I am not being rude by not leaving comments for the other rockers.When blogger lets me I will be back to comment!!

Scrap with us #18

Its week 18 on Scrap with us and this weeks challenge was

Girl power and rule of threes

This is mostly October Afternoon PP. The other PP is so old I can't remember what it is! I have stolen Ladybugs bunting idea for this one, to duplicate the bunting in the photos.

TFL

Sami x

These papers are from the Basic Grey Sultry collection. I ordered some matching rub-ons so when they arrived i just had to use them straight away! These photos are of my daughter Shelby, taken at the Botanical Gardens in Ventnor a couple of years ago. As i had done a LO about Caleb and his personality I thought it only fair to do one on Shelby! I handcut the journalling paper, used the rub-ons all over, used a Basic Grey swirl stamp on the corner, the title letters are also Basic Grey from the paper pack.