Rocking your world friday

Hello! Its that time of the week again to think about all your positives and link them up with Virginia

 So, this week....

* The wonderful sunshine. I have been able to hang my washing on the line instead of putting it on the radiators and turning my heating on, even when it's not cold. I hate to waste money on the heating just to dry the clothes so the last couple of weeks have been great and I always love the smell of sun dried clothes!

* Making Tiffin with Shelby last Saturday morning. I have not made this in forever and forgotton how good it is.

* Sitting on the back door step drinking my morning cup of tea. Watching the birds in the garden and watching my dogs trying to get the bread for the birds off the table.

* Sitting with Bella on my lap, stroking her huge puppy belly. She is just nearly 7 weeks now and her belly is huge and round with her's and Oakleys babies. P told me yesterday that they are moving around now so I can't wait to feel that! And I am really looking forward to being at the birth, even though P has scared me with some yucky things I may have to do!!!

* I have been asking my hubby for 2 months to find a song for me, that makes him think of me-weird? Maybe, but I love music, love the way a song can take you back to a certain point in time or stir up the emotions and really make you feel something. Other couples have songs and we don't really, so I wanted a special song from him. He finally chose one (he said he'd taken so long as he wanted it to be perfect! Aw!) and that has made my week.

*Drive by cake drop offs! What a wonderful idea and I am sure P could make a fortune with this one! P had made cakes and posted that fact on FB! So everybody was asking her for cake and at 3pm there was a knock at the door and a foil package was handed to my hubby. When he brought it in it was 4 slices of chocolate cake, one for each of us! Thank you P!!!

* Shelby had her Hip Hop exam on Thursday. She was really nervous as were Dawns kids, Mara and Lucy who were doing it as well. While they were in their exam Dawn and me went for coffee, browsed the charity shop for books and then went and bought pizza and ice cream as a treat tea for the girls which we then took back to mine and cooked. It was lovely to spend quality time with Dawn, we have been friends since we were 10 yrs old and our kids are great friends as well.But we never seem to get much time together what with work and everything, so an afternoon off together was great. The girls will have to wait 6 weeks for their results so fingers crossed.

* Shelby got a 'postcard' home from the science department at school saying how great she's done this term and what an outstanding result she got in her assesment...sort of made her feel better about Caleb beating her on just dance now it turns out shes a science nerd too!

* Caleb got an A* on his french oral GCSE-go Caleb!

* I am grateful for antibiotics this week as I have got an infection in my tooth, more trips to the dentist!

* I finally spent the last of my Xmas money (I can't believe I have managed to keep hold of it until the end of March!) on this book from Amazon. I have read great reviews about it and have been waiting patiently for it to come out. Hopefully it will be here this week.

* I am looking forward to two weeks spent with the kids. It will probably just involve time in the garden or walking the dogs as it costs so much to do anything over here, but if the weather holds it should be a nice break.

Well, thats my positives for another week. I am sure there were loads more but I keep forgetting to write them down in the week. I have still been a bad blogger this week as I have had so much work to do that I just have not found the time for anything computer related. I still need to do Lauries Five for Friday, 2 weeks worth now-I am keeping track of them laurie and I WILL catch up!

Thanks for looking

Sami x

Rocking your world Friday and Five for Friday

Hello! Late again for this post, I know! I just have not been able to keep up these last weeks and I have no idea why!

Anyway, just a short rocking post as I am off to the dentist again in a minute!

This week I am grateful/thankful for...

* Mothers day and my wonderful children. Mothers day did not get off to a great start in our house, the kids forgot they were going to make me breakfast in bed and then both forgot to say happy mothers day when I got up!! Never mind, they made up for it by baking me a wonderful cake!

And they bought me this beautiful chalkboard and a dragonfly paperweight.

Hubby bought me a bunch of flowers and cooked the dinner in the evening! All in all, a wonderful day!

* It was the spring equinox this week, or as we call it-Ostara. I got together with my Pagan friends to celebrate the return of the light. We blessed our spirit dolls and planted seeds for each with a wish for the coming year. As our seeds grow so will our wishes manifest.

* At the friendship group this week we made things with silk flowers. My volunteer had bought 16 bunches of silk flowers in a closing down sale so we made headbands, candle rings and decorations with them. We all had a great time and nobody wanted to pack up when the session was over so we are going to carry on this week!

* Watching my daughter Bea practise for her hip hop exam! She has come on in leaps and bounds the last few months and I was really impressed with her. We spent an hour going over all her moves for the exam as she is quite nervous about it, I know she will do great, this is her level 3 so shes done it twice before.

*Watching Bea and Caleb have a dance off on the Wii and Caleb beating Bea! She was not impressed with this as she said 'I am the dancer in the family Caleb!'. But Caleb has been sneakily practising in breakfast club at school and we were all quite shocked when he won! He normally looks like some sort of demented octopus when he plays 'Just dance'!

*I have been re reading the Twilight series this week and thoroughly enjoying it! It may not be great literature but I definately class it as one of my all time favourites.

*My dogs. They are so loving and enjoy nothing better than curling up on the sofa with me for cuddles. Willow has been poorly this week and we had to take her to the vets, I was quite worried about her but it's only a urinary tract infection. She has got some tablets and is looking better already. I don't know what I would do without my dogs if anything happened to one of them, they are a part of the family. They both have such different personalities- Willow is a princess, she always has an air about her, so prim and proper and Oakley is such a nutcase, whizzing around, unable to sit still for five minutes and always walking into things and banging his head! I am also grateful for the vets this week for squeezing Willow in on saturday when they were full.

I am sure I have lots of other gratefuls but as I was so busy in the week I didn't write them down as I normally do and can't remember, and the dentist is calling me...urgh!

I am linking this up with Virginia and will catch up with your posts after the dreaded dentist.

Also, here is my Five for Friday post for the challenge over at Lauries Blog. Last week it was your favorite five green things. This was alittle harder than I thought But I found my five!



I used scrapbooking paper, washi tape, alphas and a flower and then sprayed the whole thing with some Dylusions ink sprays.

TFL

Sami x

Rocking your world friday

I am a few days late with posting this...sorry! I just have not had any free time this week for blogging or reading other peoples blogs, I will try and catch up as I hate to miss all the wonderful things you have been creating!

This week I am grateful for...

* My wonderful family. It's so easy to get bogged down in day to day stuff and not appreciate all the things your family does for you. I have a wonderful hubby and 2 fantastic kids and I thank my lucky stars everyday for them, I don't know what I would do without them. 

* Fantastic friends. I know lots of people but only have a few good friends, but they are definately the best friends a girl could have! It's so great to know that you have people that will always be there for you, to cheer you up when you are sad, make you laugh and who you can always be yourself with.

* On monday Miss LL (Paige) and Tee and myself got together to make spirit dolls. I found the original idea here and then adapted it to suit us, making my own doll pattern in the iconic shape of the Goddess. I painted the fabric for all of us first and then we cut out the pattern, added some messages and symbols to the inside of the dolls, added herbs and crystals and stuffed them and embellished them. Although they all have the same embellishments-spirals, stars, hearts, I love how differently they have all turned out and how they each reflect our personalities. (mine is on the left, Miss LL's is in the middle and Tee's on the right). We had a lovely evening together creating these dolls, surrounded by pretty beads, threads and charms!

*On wednesday I went to crochet club which Miss LL has just set up. I can crochet but I am very slow and don't get much done so it was lovely to just go and sit with friends and get some more done on my meditation cushion cover which I am making in ripple stitch. Thanks P!

* Breaking Dawn part 1 came out on monday and I was straight up tesco to buy it at the bargin price of £9! I have watched it twice already this week and then gone back and watched all of them in order. Gotta love Rob Pat..I think it is the intensity in his eyes that pulls me in...ok I've snapped out of it!

*I am grateful for voltorol and co-codamol this week as my tennis elbow flared up again rendering me useless. I am also grateful that thats all it is, I know people suffer with much worse things on a daily basis.

* My daughter came home really pleased with herself on Thursday. She has been doing her mock dance exams as she has her level 3 hiphop exam soon. Her dance teacher told her that she could be a proffessional dancer when she grows up, which really put a smile on Shelby's face. My Bea is such a wonderful little girl but she really suffers with a lack of confidence so I think this gave her a major boost and also made my heart so glad for her.

*My Faith. I don't follow one of the usual faith paths and people can be so judgemental and critical because my faith is something they don't understand...ignorance can be a dangerous and hurtful thing. But my faith brings me great comfort and strength. My life started falling into place once I had chosen my path and I definately became a better person. I know that my actions are my responsibility and that makes me more aware of how I act. Making the spirit dolls on monday with 'my family' brought me such joy, combining my faith and my creative abilities.

* I had a great Reiki share session on wednesday. The lady that runs it took us right back to basics again and I was ashamed at how many things I had forgotton. We did some one on one Reiki wich was amazingly powerful and left me de stressed and relaxed.

* The sunshine has been about this week making it a little warmer, although we still had a ground frost last night. The buds on the Hawthorn hedges are emerging and I caught the robins in my garden 'doing it' yesterday so spring is definately on its way!

I am linking this up with Virginia so why not pop over and see whats been rocking everybodys week?

TFL

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

Rocking your world friday and Five for friday

Hello Friday rockers!

Its that time of the week again to find all the positive stuff that rocked your week!

If you don't know what I am talking about pop over to Virginia's blog and check it out!

 *On Saturday I went to my sister's for waffles!She has just bought a waffle maker after the ladies at our retreat brought one with them and treated us to a huge pile of waffles! My sister made waffles with whipped cream, maple syrup and fresh strawberries-delish! She also announced some pretty big news to me...her and her partner are getting married next year! Biggest rocking news of the month! She proposed to him as it was a leap year which I think is so sweet!

 I photographed my 2 kids in their Big Bang Theory t-shirts on Saturday so I could do a little page in my journal.I love my little N.E.R.D's (not even remotely dorky!) so much!!!

 Also on Saturday I went with my sister while she got her tattoo done. She wanted a dandelion clock but couldn't find one she liked so I drew this one for her as part of her birthday present. It looks really good!

* On Sunday hubby and me went to the cinema to watch This means war. We have not been out together in sooooo long so we had a lovely evening and the film was really funny.

* On Monday I had to buy a new office chair as two wheels fell off my other one. I also bought a bright pink filing cabinet for all my work files and spent a happy 2 hours filing everything, sad but true!

* Tuesday afternoon was spent with my sister discussing wedding plans. We both could not believe the cost of getting married in this day and age! They don't want a big fancy wedding as they have both done that before, they just want to go to the registry office and then have a BBQ and a party, but the price of hiring somewhere to hold a party and BBQ left us reeling. Its a challenge now to come up with a beautiful day for them as cheap as we can!!!

* Wednesday was a horrible day, work rubbish still going on and driving me insane..I hate politics and petty behaviour! The only positive I found for today was watching my little robin in the garden eating the fruit cake crumbs I put out for him! I tried to get a photo but every time I reached for my camera he flew away.

* Thursday started off bad when I got a phone call from the school to say my son had had an accident in PE and could I go and collect him and take him to A&E as he'd split his chin open and they thought it needed stitching. I rang my friend Tee who is head nurse at A&E to see if she was at work, she was at home but she came and picked me up, collected my son and then glued and steri stripped his wound! What an amazing friend she is, thanks so much Tee! My son is fine, just another scar to add to the collection!

Then we had parents evening that night. Isn't it so nice to hear wonderful things about your children?! His teachers are all so impressed with him, his natural abilities, his hardworking ethics, his A* grades in all his subjects, it was so lovely for him that his teachers recognise all his hard work and effort and lovely for me to hear great stuff about him. His science teachers said they know they are going to be seeing his name all over the scientific world in about ten years time!!! (I know, I'm boasting now but I am such a proud mummy so please forgive me!)

* And today, I have just been given a really generous donation of gardening equipment for my ladies group so they can start their allotment. My next door neighbour and my father in law between them have given us, forks, spades, hoes, rakes, shears, seeds, twine, plant feeder, trowels and much more! It is so wonderful to encounter such generosity when the news is always so full of doom and gloom.

Also this week, Paige is fairly certain that The union of Bella and Oakley has been fruitful and that Bella is going to have puppies! Way to go Bella and Oak's, especially as Paige outed Oak's on Facebook when he didn't get straight to business!!!!

So that was my rocking week, and a really good one it was too!

Here are a couple of AJ pages I have done over the last 2 weeks...can you tell that work was peeing me off!

 My graffiti on this one leaves a lot to be desired, maybe I need to ask Sarah (Flo) for lessons!!!

 Really enjoyed layering up loads of circles for this one. Doing art in my journal always manages to calm me down and help take some of the stress out of the situation for me!

And this is last weeks Five for Friday challenge over at Lauries blog

The challenge was list your five favourite books, and that was way to hard for me to list just five so I did five books in three different categories so I could list more!!!

I will come and have a looky at all your rocking posts over the weekend as I have to go out to a meeting now.

TFL

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

Blog award!

Hello!

I have been given a

Award!!

Kimberly from Let your heart fly has awarded me this. I found Kimberlys blog through Kate Cranes calendar challenge. Please pop over and check her blog out, she is an awesome art journaller, book alterer (take a look at her 1941 recipe book!), and does beautiful bird sketches.

Thank you Kimberly!

The Liebster blog award:

The idea is to highlight 5 blogs with less than 200 followers that you visit on a regular basis and you find inspiring.

There are 5 rules:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them

2. Reveal your 5 picks and let them know

3. Post the award on your blog

4. Bask in the love from the most supportive on the blog-share (other bloggers)

5. Finally and the best is to have fun and spread the love!

So my five picks I am passing the award onto are:

Paige over at Ladybird Ladybird. -Amazing scrapbooker and the fastest crocheter I know! Lots of inspiration on her blog for scrapbookers and some great crochet tutorials.

Laurie over at Lone Blackbird. Creator of Five for Friday and a wonderful art journaller. Her blog was one of the first I found on art journalling.

Virginia over at Celtic House. Creator of Rocking your world friday. Great inspirational rocking posts and lots of wonderful scrapbook layouts.

Joanna over at Fiddlesnips. I found Joanna's blog as she was my secret santa for Carmens swap last year. There is so much inspirational goodness on her blog and she is also a designer for Gauche Academy.

Sarah over at Are you flowin. I was Sarah's secret santa for the same swap. Sarah does fantastic art journals and I love her style, and theres also a great book binding tutorial on her blog that's really worth checking out.

So, there's my five! Please take the time to check out their blogs, you wont be disappointed! It was so hard to choose just five as I visit some amazing blogs!

TFL

Sami x