Making Memories

In the midst of a busy life, we took a day off to spend some time with Andy's sister, Marilyn today.... and there is nothing more precious than simply being with those you love. We spent the whole day doing nothing in particular, just chit chatting. I rubbed cream on her sore legs, made us a light lunch and plenty of drinks, you know, just normal stuff. It was lovely - she said she felt like the Queen of Sheba....



Yesterday I was teaching a class at AFTH, we made a vintage style nature box using the gorgeous 7Gypsies Botanical range of papers...



They were a very quiet bunch ... kinda freaked me out a little, even Ben asked what I'd done.... said he'd never known a class so quiet! but they said it was because they were concentrating on enjoying themselves so I think thats OK.



We used lots of nature quotes - the title in fact is the well known classic quote from Aristotle... "In all things of nature there is something of the marvellous" which is of course so very true...



Unfortunately, as the day wore on, I forgot to take any more photo's so I don't have any of the finished projects which turned out so wonderfully.

Right, I'm going to do a little prep on the March page for my art calendar - yes, can you believe its March next week - is it only when you get to the half century mark that time rushes by faster than the speed of light.....

An award...for me? Well it is Oscar season!

Ann very kindly passed on this blog award, thank you Ann...



What I need to do now is reveal something unusual about myself and pass it on to eight others...

Well don't get your hopes up, I'm not going to reveal too much because my grown up children read this blog and I don't want to give them any reason to think that their mother is some strange 'other' person!.... So I'm keeping it 'heroine' style...

I'm a strong swimmer, I once had to swim out to sea (off the gulf coast in Florida) to rescue our son and two friends, who had been leaning over the side of their dinghy 'snorkelling' not realising that they were drifting too far out to sea....their dinghy had caught the current and they couldn't get back to shore because they hadn't taken the oars. Once we realised the danger, I ran into the water and swam out to them, hooked the dinghy rope over my shoulder and pulled them all safely back to shore. But when we looked back out to sea, there, just about where we had been, were three dorsal finned dolphins - but to me, they looked like sharks! Someone told us that the dolphins would have sensed distress in the water and had perhaps come to help.... but when you see those fins in the water, you think SHARK don't you... My legs were like jelly - and not from the exertion!

Now you are wondering why Andy didn't do the hero bit aren't you? Well he did swim along with me for part of the way but I outstripped him - that was my son in that dinghy and there's nothing like a mother's protective instinct concerning her children!

I pass the award on to

Carmen

Rosie

Donna

Sarah

Chris

Cath

Tracey

Chris

Great project, great company!

At last the day had dawned for my Christmas prezzie from my offspring... it was a wonderful day at AFTH because you know who was there teaching a fabby workshop. So have a look at these piccies for a flavour of what we got up to...

Jude was the lucky winner of the FREE golden ticket that Dyan offered and travelled from the far reaches of Scotland braving high winds and lashing rain and snow and hurricanes and....naw I'm kidding, she did have to do a bit of juggling to get childcare, but it was so worth it...and it was great to catch up with my bloggy friend.



A piccie of the kit...



That's Emma's hand holding that book clip in position... I've got to get me some of these...well I have ordered them and if you want some you'd better get 'phoning Ben up and get your name on the list...



Emma and I sat with Ali and her Mum Pat,



Those three were troublesome - it wasn't me - I was a good girl, but Tim kept his eye on our table...



...and then Dyan had to step in and get them under control... hehehe (don't you love that face)



This is my ever growing pile of inner pages for my journal...



And this is the extra surprise that Tim pulled out of his hat...er bag for us - stuff - NEW stuff from CHA - not even stocked here in the UK yet - and we got to play with it, along with the new pearl mister's the new style dabber paints and oooh lots of cool stuff - yummy!



Bits from my - what Tim called "Lose-ables" bag - made me smile every time he said "in your lose-ables bag you'll find a ...."



This is my journal coming together...



And this is mine and Emma's - we all had the same kits but got to choose different colours and how we chose to embellished the pages inside... gorgeous eh?



Course after that workshop, I had a list as long as my arm of goodies that I wanted to buy.... kraft resist paper stack, glassine, stamps, stamps, stamps, more yummy stamps, art parts, book clips etc etc etc....

Oh and Tim had a give away during the class too...six packs of his new release stamps - I didn't win but my buddy Christine did and there were five other very happy ladies who did too. Bernice also won a Tim Holtz designer hold all - apparently, a much sought after item!

Ah, look at Our Ben, uncomplainingly worked hard kerchinging that till ALL day :D



Click on this piccie for a close up of my (nearly) finished journal - I chose one of my fave quotes from Hippocrates for my title - "Life is short, ART eternal" Pretty apt don't you think?

Soul Satisfaction!

It's been a tough few weeks for Andy and I and there have been a more than a few tears of sadness for us, so we took some time out and went Soul Dancing on Saturday night with friends.....



Recognise Dyan?....bet you didn't know she was a mover though did ya?



We danced a lot and it did us all good - I really can't describe how soul music gets into your heart and lifts you to places like no other music...it really did us a power of good :)

And then today, I had a 'Ladies Who Lunch' session with Ann, Pat, Jill, Margaret and Jane




I took along my Dylusions inks and stamps and we had mucho fun making a little book of friendship quotes.





Three of the ladies had the pleasure of using these fabulous inks for the first time and they were hooked from the get go! (Can't blame 'em can you?)





So I can definitely say I've had a bit of much needed 'soul satisfaction' this week
and there's more to come...I'm going to my fave place in Harrogate on Thursday for the Tim Holtz workshop AND my buddy Jude was the winner of the golden ticket that Dyan offered up for grabs, so I get to see her too!

A Painful Post!

Happy February everyone...although its not so happy for me...we had some sad news that my sister-in-law is seriously ill and we had to travel back home to Yorkshire to see her and while we were here my back went - I am suffering from a prolapsed disc and struggling to move. So I hate to say this but I am behind with the 365 challenge already! (See Kate's blog)

Here is January filled in but I still haven't titivated it yet....



Luckily, I had painted my February page early on in January...



...so all I have to do is 'art it up' and finish the journal blocks...don't know when I'll be able to do that - I need to keep moving but its painful to move - takes my breath away sometimes! So I don't feel able to put my mind to anything :(



But let me show you these lovely pages, given to me by Donna (who received a very big Sandy hug in return!) She had this large ledger style book bought to use as a journal - she was removing some of the pages to make space and I was one of the lucky recipients (Dyan was the other)



It's a lady's newspaper, lovely and old and the images are just gorgeous!





I just love reading the snippets of news held on these pages - if it was mine, I don't think I would be able to use it... I shall scan these pages before using them -I know they won't have the texture and feel of the originals but they are so precious - a real glimpse of the days of yore!



so Donna, THANKYOU again, They are fantabulous!!!!