Yoohoo!

Well I've only gone and got myself an iphone at last... my faithful old Samsung is no more. Of course I've got lots to learn so I can use it to its full potential - posting to blogger from my iphone? well not just yet but one day!

And I have managed to have a little play in my art journal...

This is a page my A5 moleskin - its the first journal I ever bought in 2008 and I haven't worked in since 2010 (last year I made three Teesha Moore style journals and have been working in them) I enjoyed looking back on the pages I had done when my journaling was in its infancy.

Hopefully I'll get to do this more often :D

After a month away we are back home at last to a very cold house in the North east of England!

Just sharing a few photo's of Laura-Beth and Jim's wedding to get me back into the world of blogging....

This snap was taken in our hotel room on what we called 'wedding eve' - we were all in our PJ's having a glass of wine - she suddenly blurted out "I'm getting married in the morning" ... of course we all replied in our best sing songy voices "ding dong the bells are gonna chime"!

We have gained an adorable step grandson, Charlie ....

This was the morning of the wedding - how happy and relaxed does she look... she was talking to Jim and Charlie on the 'phone...

Andy popped in to her room to say lots of Dad things to our baby.... who of course is no baby but a beautiful and accomplished young woman....

She wore her hair up to show the detail of the dress...

And a fur wrap (fake of course) was needed to keep out the December chill

This is my new son-in-law!

I didn't get to take many photos - too busy enjoying the moment but the official photo's were taken by Stan and his loverlee wife, Shelley (who just happen to be our best friends) and they look amazing, they are both artists in their own right using light and the environment with great style - can't wait to see the finished album :D

So, 2011 was the year that our two daughter's got married (the bank balance doesn't look too healthy at the moment!) next up is our son and his lovely Irish lassie, Niamh...

A few more years yet they said - they are just too busy enjoying their skiing holidays to buy a house and settle down!

I'm feeling the need to get some art journaling done - its been over a month since I did any, except for filling in the daily snippets for my 365 Calendar.... tomorrow is going to be a paint filled play day!

Happy Christmas!

Just signing out with a few photos of end of term stuff for Andy and I.. here he is singing carols in his newly bought outfit for the Alpine Christmas do at Cranmer Hall...

... but nobody could top Russ's lederhosen outfit!

..a mulled wine toast...

... o oh... these three guys are sneaking off for a tot of the real stuff... love Mike's guilty look!

we had exercise in the form of a fantastic Ceilidh band...

Andy got straight to it :D

Next up - the one and only Dyan Reaveley at yesterday's AFTH preview day for forthcoming workshops in the New Year...

There seems to be some sort of 'coronation' going on here! Andy wore his Christmas jumper again in support of....

... Our Ben, looking magnificent in his daily Christmas jumper... Katie said "..smile Ben" ...Ben said "..this is me smiling!"

Go on line to check out the workshops - A BIG tip... if you are able, do try to come along to the preview days as there is a 10% discount for classes booked and paid for on the day! You will get to meet lovely Kate Crane and me - (I'm nice too :) plus you get first choice and you can join in the fun and activities.. and there are always fun and activities when Dy is around!

... the activities in question... taster sessions....

No preview day is complete without number 1 special lady Su (provider of refreshments extraordinaire!)

and Teresa and Amelia's fabulous cup cakes

We will be having a fun filled and VERY happy but busy holiday season this year, our daughter, Laura-Beth gets married on the 30th December and then we are going to on to Cambridge for the New Year to visit our very dear and long time friends Cliff and Jane. Then its back to Yorkshire to celebrate my parents Diamond Wedding Anniversary before coming home to Durham (for a well earned rest before the start of the new term)

So have a wonderfully happy and blessed Christmas, remember the reason for the season.

I'll see you in the New Year - ooooh, the excitement, what new adventures will it bring!

The End is Nigh.... of the year, that is!

Quick post as I'm on my way up town to the Christmas market :)

November finished...

Here's how December started out,

and the detail... a little bit of masking, technique a la Dyan

Gave the trees a snowy look with my sharpie pen

Decided the page looked a bit stark so added some colour with these house stamps from Teesha Moore
End result (so far anyway - might add to it as the month goes on)

So that's it for now except to remind you of the preview day at AFTH next Saturday (1oth December) I shall be doing a one hour taster workshop, along with Kate and of course Dyan... hope to see you there!

Lumiere Durham 2011

Wow oh Wow! That's all I can say about the Lumiere light festival .... yes it was busy and yes we had to be herded in crowds around the city, especially up the narrow streets to the Cathedral, but generally, folks were chatty and happy and patient and it was so worth it. The city has been buzzing with a real feel good factor over the last four days...

Go here to see some of what I've seen over the last three nights in Durham...

We had a fabulous weekend, our dear friends Dave and Jayne came to stay and they have just left so I thought I'd do a quick post - I haven't downloaded the photos from my camera yet so I hope I've got some images as good as these :)

Its the last night of the show and we have enjoyed it so much we are going to brave the crowds and go to see the Crown of Light show at the Cathedral again - spectacular - if you get chance to go when the event comes here again (as I'm sure it will!) don't miss it!

Chasing my tail!

I can't believe November is upon us already! Time is passing by all too quickly for me - while I was in the process of preparing November pages for my 365 journal, I flicked through earlier months - such a lot has happened this year some amazingly happy, such as the marriage of our youngest daughter :D and some desperately sad, like serious illness for family and friends :((

And I can reveal that in less than eight months we will be moving to Brighouse in West Yorkshire where Andy has been placed as Curate to St Martin's & St John's churches.

Yikes! It seems like yesterday that we moved to this lovely city of Durham and I confess to feeling more than a little sad to be leaving :(

But things are gearing up and if there is one thing I know, its that time waits for no man so my motto is "Onwards and Upwards"

I seem to have got out of the habit of blogging regularly but I do make stuff - honest - just never get round to posting what I've done! So here is a little of what I get up to in between posts....

I bought this book a year ago and love flicking through the pages.....

I thought I'd finally 'dip in' and have a go....this is my first attempt at making paper cloth, it was fun :) I shall use it to make ... something... don't know what yet but I'll let you know how it goes.

Here is the October page in my 365 journal, a challenge set up by Kate, which rolls over each year - jump in and have a go, its great fun, this is my second year and I've enjoyed looking back at my daily snippets.... quite enlightening!

And this is as far as I've got with November....

... choosing the background papers for the journal blocks...

.... and this was how I started...

I'm sure you've all read the news but I'm still giving a celebratory shout to Dyan, Ranger's new signature designer... we all know it is well deserved and now she will get to impart her wonderful quirky style further afield! Congratulations Dy!

Better late than never....

Recently, I spent a fabulous weekend at my fave place to learn all things arty, with international artist Dina Wakley

And being in the company of our good old Yorkshire home grown international artist Dyan Reaveley also made the weekend for me.... fun and laughter all round!

...they are a bit of a comedy double act!

Kate, Sarah and lovely Jude...

Emma and Ali ...

That was Day one - I got so absorbed after this, the camera was forgotten. We learned how to draw birds (the easy way with the use of tracing paper!) and paint them, feathers and all ...day two was making a mini book depicting where we have come from, where we are now and where we are heading and then binding it altogether using a Coptic stitch method. (sorry, no photo's as I'd left the camera in my other handbag! Mine isn't quite finished but I may post it here when its done) But my favourite day was day three....entitled "Intuitive Art"

We had tutorials in stages.... scribble???!!!!

....brush over the scribble lines with water....

choose colour, paint in between your scribble..... don't forget the shading.... we also removed paint by rubbing with water through stencils and added texture using modelling paste pushed through stencils...

...you will end up with something like this....

Then Dina held up our work one by one and we all said what "saw" it was quite amazing really - we all "saw" different things, people, people riding a bike, fish, windows, doors....

.... so the next stage was to "force" what you saw - go over the areas you wanted to keep, making the "person" "fish" "window" or whatever it was you "saw" then block out the surrounding area with colour and paint in as desired.... here is Dina's finished interpretation of what she "saw" - herself, with a basket full of balls - and some of them were up in the air...

So here is how I started.. scribble...

Once it was painted in - no photo of that stage! and my work was held up, Bezzie Su said it was like someone was praying over me... which is quite appropriate for me, I went with that theme and I've called it "The Blessing" My soon-to-be Vicar husband is praying over me... this is my nearly finished version....

We went on to use the same process to make a book which I LOVE.... I will post that next time... don't want to overload you all :D