Rocking your world friday

 It's that time of the week again to list all your positives and gratefuls in RYWF. If you don't know what I am talking about pop over to Virginia's blog and have a look.

* On Saturday my sister, Paige and I spent the day making wedding invites for my sisters wedding next year. We had sort of a production line going and managed to get all of them made by 4pm.

* On Sunday my sister invited us to spend the day with them at the beach. We went to sea grove bay which is normally quite quiet as its out of the way of the tourist path. It was packed though, with everybody arriving on their boats and wading with all their beach and BBQ stuff through the sea! I had my nephew with us as well and we had a great day swimming in the sea and making sandcastles. I even went in the sea after some clothes swapping with my sister as I had not taken a swim suit.

 Caleb, Zoe, Shelby

 Caleb, me, Zoe, Shelby and my sisters fiance Alan

 Caleb, Stewart and Tristan. I took this photo to show how tall the boys have got.

 Tristan's finished sandcastle which got loads of people stopping and commenting!

* On Monday we finally got our hedges cut. This has been an ongoing saga for the last year with our housing association. When we had to move out last year the hedges got so huge that when we moved back we couldn't manage to cut them our selves. They came and cut one side for us and then found a wasps nest and never returned to do the other side. I kept ringing and they kept saying they were coming and never did. I started ringing them again in April and its taken till now to get something done. They cut 8 foot off the top of the hedges on Monday so now I have sunlight in my garden again. It's up to us to keep them cut now but as we can actually reach them now that won't be a problem....that's if Stu doesn't cut through the cable of the hedge trimmer again!

* Because we had lots of cuttings to burn, on Tuesday evening we decided to light the new fire pit I had bought a few weeks ago at Tesco (half price £12.50...bargain!). We bought marshmallows and made an evening of it. Shelby had her friend round and we invited Zoe and Alan up. Caleb kept telling the girls to be careful of the fire as they were dancing round so we made him fire marshal and made him wear a high vis jacket! It is true that the yellow jacket makes the power go to your head!

It was a simple but really enjoyable evening and once everyone had gone Caleb and me just sat and watched the mesmerising flames.

 My bargain firepit

 Caleb

 Shelby

 Caleb in fire marshal mode

* I have spent several evenings carrying on with my fairy costume for the big secret fairy party next weekend and then all day yesterday making my sisters costume for her as she can't sew! I did get her making some silk flowers with a needle and thread though.

*I bought a new crystal on Friday, a lovely huge rose quartz point.

* Uniform shopping on Friday as well. I hate doing this, it stresses me out and costs so much money but luckily Paige came with me and we had the kids all sorted out in a couple of hours...thanks Lady P!

* Double coupons at Tesco gave me £20 off the uniform shop so I am extremely grateful for that.

*Great GCSE results for my nephew...well done Rhys! Great half GCSE results for Caleb as well. Caleb is in his final GCSE year this year but as they are taken in stages now he has done parts of them and got his marks..A*'s and B's for Physics, history and English. All the 'parts' get put together at the end for his overall results next year.

*I managed to get some art work done this week, inspired by Flora Bowley's new book which happened to fall into my Amazon shopping basket a few weeks ago.

 I really enjoyed doing this, just being really free and not caring how it turned out and am pleased with the finished result.

* I have just finished reading this book which I bought in Glastonbury a couple of weeks ago.

It's a wonderful true story of how the author went searching for the existence of faeries in England, Ireland and Scotland and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I then found her website with all the photos she took while exploring so it was lovely to see the images I had only imagined while reading the book.

Well that's it for me this week folks, thanks for popping by,

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

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

Five for Friday and a new canvas

It is week 6 of Five for Friday, run by Laurie over at her blog.

This week it was to record five times in your past that were worthy of the word AMAZING.

 I sat and did this page in front of the TV the other night. It is just coloured pen as I can't paint from my sofa!

It was suppossed to be our crop on saturday but people had to work or had other plans so I just stayed at home, told the kids to ignore me as I wasn't here and got on and did a mixed media painting on canvas. I used texture paste through a couple of crafters workshop stencils and then used Dylusions inks and sprays over the top. I also used stickles and glimmer mist and silver acrylic paint. I did the chakras just in silver instead of the colours they are supposed to be as I didn't want them to clash! The painting represents the earth energies drawn up through the body reaching up to the cosmic energies.

TFL

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

Back Home and some art!

Hello! I have been a bad blogger the last few weeks. Firstly, I am still having major issues with blogger. I have to log on through internet explorer if I want to post anything, but log on with firefox if I want to comment on anyones blog. I have tried everything anyones suggested to me but to no avail. As you can imagine it's peeing me off so I have just been avoiding it!

Secondly, we moved back home two weeks ago, so I have been unpacking and settling us back in. I did manage to find some time this week to do a little art.

This is an art journal page inspired by a canvas I saw on Pinterest (yes, I am addicted to that site now!) The original canvas I saw is pictured on this blog She had used rolled up pieces of paper and covered the canvas with them. I liked the idea so used it on the bottom of art journal page. I also used stamps, stencils and rubons and a little dragonfly transparency, and of course TH tissue tape which I love.

Also on Pinterest, my sister had pinned a quote I thought was really nice so I decided to do a canvas with the quote on. This was a canvas I had started for something else and didn't like so I first gessoed over it before layering with paint, stencils, spray ink, stamps, more tissue tape and white pen. I wanted to use thickers for the journaling but of course, I didn't have enough e's!! Thats why I bought a Cricut so used that instead for the wording. The other words were stamped onto old book paper and cut out.

I really enjoyed doing this and I am going to hang it in the porch as a daily reminder to my family!

It is so nice to be back home. We spent 18 weeks in a tempory 2 bedroom house. The kids had to share a room which meant that they argued on a daily (hourly!) basis. 70 % of our stuff was in storage all that time and it just didn't feel like home. I know we are a lot luckier than some people, we did have a roof over our heads, but I am just so glad to be home. The house looks lovely as because the damp was so extensive the whole of the downstairs had to be replastered after the damp work which meant that it is now all freshly decorated. We have new flooring, which we paid for ourselves which looks lovely (our old carpet was ruined by the damp). The housing association also put a new kitchen in, we were due this over two years ago but they wouldn't do it until the damp had been done. We have also decorated all the bedrooms so the house looks all new and shiny! I don't know how long it will stay that way with 2 kids and 2 dogs, but hopefully at least a few weeks!

Here are a couple of photos.

New kitchen

Front room

Craft room

Craft room.

The best bit about being home is I have my craft room back! Its freshly painted, I have lovely vinyl on the floor that looks like laminate but its a washed out blue colour that looks like beach huts. I have a blind at the window instead of an old curtain that was stuck to the ceiling with drawing pins! I have space to create again so hopefully my mojo will return!!

TFL

Sami x