Calendar Challenge-on time!

Hurray! I am actually posting this on time-1st May!

I was so late with my April page last month I didn't even bother to link up over at Kate's blog!

If you don't know what this challenge is about check out our host's blog, Kate Crane.

Here is my completed April page



And here is May!

I used Dylusions paints and sprays, Mr Hueys white ink spray and some stencils.

Thanks for looking

Sami x

Rocking your world friday, Five for friday and calendar challenge

Hello Friday Rockers! I am actually getting this done on time this week!

I am linking this up to Virginia, our host of Rocking.

* On Saturday it was my Dad's 60th birthday so all the family gathered at my parents house for a birthday buffet. This birthday was quite important to us all as two years ago my dad was diagnosed with cancer. When you hear that word 'cancer' you automatically think the worst-we certainly did. It scared the hell out us and we thought, this is it, we are going to lose our Dad. But he did remarkably well, he had all the chemo and was barely ill from it. He smiled his way through everything, even losing his hair. He was so strong which made us determined to be even stronger for him. He has been in remission for over a year now and so we were over the moon to be celebrating his 60th.

 (sorry for the photo, blogger wont let me put it up the right way!)

My nephew also came down for my Dad's birthday and surprised him, so it was a lovely evening spent with family and friends. So I am extremely grateful to be celebrating my Dad's 60th!

* The puppies were due this week on Wednesday or Thursday but on Monday evening I got a text from Paige saying:'Go, go, go!'. So the kids and me got our bags (already packed and ready to go) and headed off to Paige's. (for those who don't know, my dog Oakley is the puppy daddy). Bella had had her show and was very restless and P and me waited up with her. Her waters broke at 1.30am so we decided to wait up some more. Nothing happened all night (except us getting very tired)or the whole of the next day! We spent the day watching films, laying around on the sofas and waiting patiently. Tuesday night Bella was rucking up all the newspaper in the whelping box (a sure sign) but still nothing was happening so we decided to try and get some sleep on the sofas. About half an hour later P saw that Bella was contracting so we both went to sit in the kitchen with her. The first puppy was born at 1.17am, with very little fuss from Bella considering this is her first litter. I must admit to crying a little bit when I saw the first pup born as this was a new experience for me and it was wonderful!

I was worried I would be getting in P's way but I managed to be helpful, cutting cords, changing newspaper, putting puppies in the box, cleaning up and that sort of thing.

The 7th puppy was born at 4.35am.

 Beautiful Bella and her babies

 7 perfect puppies, 4 male, 3 female. 2 golds, 4 black, 1 black and tan.

We finally went to sleep at around 5.15am (after nearly 48hrs of being awake) but I had to get up at 8am as I had a work meeting. Most of Wednesday is a bit of a blur as I was so tired, but definitely worth it to see all those beautiful puppies being brought into the world!

I am grateful that the puppies came safely and were all healthy, I am grateful that Bella did an amazing job and I am grateful to P that I was allowed to be there.

*Wednesday was also P's 40th birthday (that's why Bella waited so long to give birth as she wanted them to be a birthday present for her mum!!) so after my meeting I went home, made P's birthday tiffin (she wanted tiffin, not cake!) and then managed to get an hour and half's sleep before going back to P's where she had cooked us an amazing birthday dinner. By 8.30pm we had to leave and come home as I was so exhausted I just needed to sleep!

* I have watched some good films this week while waiting for puppies- Mr Brooks with Kevin Costner, Cold mountain- Can't believe I had never seen this film, and Fragile with Calista Flockhart which was filmed on the Isle of Wight. I have also made some bracelets and P bought us both a watch face each which we turned into bracelet watches.

As the whole week has been mostly puppy related and due to sleep deprivation, that's my rocking post for this week!

Five for Friday is run by Laurie, please check out her blog for information.

 Last weeks was list five things you love about the moon. I added some facts about the moon on my page as well. I doodled this in the evening then just added some watercolour crayons to the background and some silver pen.

And here is my completed calendar page for March. I am so late with this I am not going to link up this month!

And my April page. I used Dylusions paints and inks, stencils, stamps and tissue paper.

I hope you all have a fab weekend, I am going to catch up on my sleep!

Sami x

March Calendar Challenge and Rocking your World Friday

My Rocking your world post is after the calendar challenge photos-thanks!

Hello! Its March already, how is that possible? The weeks just seem to be flying by.

Here is my completed page for February

                          

And here is my March page. I used Dylusions paints and sprays, crafters workshop stencils and stamps and I drew the girl in the corner. I am still keeping with the theme of a positive statement or affirmation for each month, that way I can read it everyday when I fill my day in! I don't know who to credit with these wise words but know they are used a lot in Reiki and yoga.

Why don't you pop over to Kates blog and have a look at everyone elses calander pages?

Hello, Friday Rockers!

Time again to find the positives for the week and I must say by doing these posts every week I am finding it easier and easier to see the positives in my life. Things I probably would have missed before in the chaos of everyday life are now easier to see and appreciate.

* On Saturday we had a film night as Blockbuster had sent us some free vouchers. My daughter was at a sleepover so Stu, Caleb and me watched Captin America and Change up and had popcorn and Jellybeans!

* On Sunday it was my sisters birthday so the whole family went to a lovely little village pub for lunch and then back to mine for birthday cake.

*On Monday I bought a new purple diary for work, I have had my eye on it for a while but couldn't really justify it but on sunday the closure strap on my old one broke so I thought what the hell! Not very interesting for anyone else but I love purple and I love stationary and I spent a happy hour re arranging the pages and filling things in! (Sad,..?probably!) 

* On Tuesday I had the dentist for root canal treatment...you are probably wondering why this is on my rocking list?! Well, only a few months ago I was so terrified of going to the dentist. My husband had to have time off work to take me as I just couldn't get the courage to actually get there by myself,  I would hyperventilate in the waiting room and then when I actually got in the chair I would just start crying and my whole body would just shake, so much so that my legs would not hold me up when I got out of the chair! Then my sister started working as a receptionist at a new dentist's in town and I managed to get on their books. I was put with a lovely woman dentist and my sister explained to her how terrified I was when I went for my first check up. My sister was allowed to come in with me and hold my hand and the dentist was so understanding. She told me she wouldn't do anything that day but look in my mouth and before she did any treatment I could just come in every week and sit in the dentist chair to get used to it. I have had several appointments now and each time she has been so gentle. I managed to get to the dentists on my own on tuesday and even though my sister still came in and held my hand I didn't cry this time. The dentist managed to complete the root canal treatment and although I was still quite shaky in the chair and had to sit down in the waiting room for 10 minutes afterwards to calm down,I didn't feel anything and have had no pain afterwards. This is a huge achievment for me, so my lovely dentist (that is not a phrase I ever thought I'd say!) has rocked my world this week.

*On wednesday we had a really lively womens health session at the friendship group. I invited sexual health in to talk to the women aout the importance of smear teats and breast screening amongst other things. Because of some of the womens cultures this can be a sensitive subject and many women don't attend for their smear tests. The two women that came to talk were great fun and the big blue penis in the contraception kit ensured lots of hilarity and left everyone feeling relaxed about talking about sensitive issues!

*On thursday we spent some time at the friendship groups new allotment. We have just taken this on as part of our culture kitchen project and are looking forward to growing our own food to use in cooking sessions with different groups around the Island. The sun was shining yesterday and it was really warm and just so nice to be able to see the possibilities of what we can achieve with this allotment.

So, that was my week. Not very interesting but lots of lovely positive moments. Why dont you pop over to Virginias blog and check out everyones rocking posts?

TFL

Sami x

Calendar challenge and Rocking your world friday

Hello! Its February already, time just seems to be flying by!

Here are my pages for the calendar challenge over at Kates blog. Why don't you pop over and see what everyones been up to?

 Completed Jan page

 Feb page. I used Dylusions paints and ink sprays, crafters workshop stencils and texture paste and some stamps. I am keeping with the positive affirmation/quotes for this years calendars. I wanted to put little birds on this month as there have been so many birds in my garden this month, singing away as if spring is on its way!

Right, on to Rocking my world.

My Daughter has perked up a bit this week but still has such a hacking cough, and the full on cold hit me this week so I have felt quite poorly. So I am thankful for Sudafed spray so that I could actually breath and Meltus cough medicine for helping to relieve the chesty cough!

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I am thankful to my wonderful Pagan family this week and for being part of a beautiful Imbolc celebration on Wednesday....even if our sky lanterns would not fly because it was to cold and windy!

These people really are my second family, people I can always count on and turn to.

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I am thankful for Stu winning at his bowling league this week. We had a bit of a row over the cost of his new bowling balls that he HAD to have and I told him he better win every week now to make them worth it!

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I was really proud of my son Caleb this week when he came home with a student of the week certificate. He had been nominated by his french teacher for getting an A* in his french oral GCSE just weeks into his course. He won a WHSmith gift card and had to go and tell the headteacher all about his work.

***

Thankful to my sisters partner for ringing me yesterday to let me know that Morrisons had PS3's on offer for £150. It is Calebs Birthday today (15th) and he has been saving up since before xmas for a PS3. He asked everyone for money for his B-day and was hoping to have reached his £249 goal so he could go and buy one. I let him open a couple of his cards last night so that he enough money to go and buy one before they sold out!

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I am grateful that we have a roof over our heads and a good central heating system...it is soooo cold here! When I hear of people dying from the cold weather it makes me so thankful for what we have. I still have to sit in my craft room with my dressing gown on over my clothes, a scarf and gloves on as there is no heating out there, but the rest of the house is warm!

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I have finally packaged up all my affirmation cards and taken them over to Tracy at The Lotus Tree to sell. She has also taken my prints and a couple of original canvas's.

 These are the cards, all ready to go

 I made little clay charms to hang on the bags, popped an instruction card inside and a few sparkles in each pack.

I put them in a wooden tray and wood burnt on the front of it with my name and logo.

Well, quite a few weeks that rocked this week, I am really enjoying looking for all the positives in my week! Pop over to Virginia's blog to find out what rocked everyone elses week.

Sami x

Calendar challenge 2012

Hello 2012!

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years eve and I wish you all health, happiness and creative abundance for 2012!

Here is my January calendar page for the calendar challenge over at Kates blog. This is a year long challenge to create a calendar page for each month and fill it in with your daily activities! I managed to complete last years and thought I would play along again this year.

For this page I used Dylusions paints and sprays, a crafters workshop template, a piece of Lego (guesse who got Kates art journalling DVD for xmas!) and old book paper which I doodled circles and flowers on. I drew the girly myself and her wings are stamps that I made last year.

For last years pages I used the Pagan celebrations and the seasons as inspiration for each month so this year to try and make it a bit different I am going to use positive affirmations each month.

I am looking forward to seeing everyones pages again.The post below this one shows all 12 of my pages from last year and I am so proud that I managed to keep up!

TFL

Sami x