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