Stampotique!!

HERE

Gone fishing.......!!!

Enjoy xx

Come and join the fun

Well we have a bit of celebrating to do next month, we are celebrating the opening of the new shop and studio. It is heaven in there, we can see the outside world and even if it is miserable out, I still love to see it. We still can't find loads of things at the moment but I,m sure we will eventually, lol. Art from the Heart is also 9 yrs old and so we felt a big celebration was the order of the day. The big event is happening on

Sat/Sun 8/9th May

Art from the Heart's Mad Hatters Tea party

We have lots and make and takes for you to try, I will be demoing all day, there will be little competitions and of course a big raffle. All the profits from these will be, as usual, going to The Young Carers, a charity that was extremeley dear to my Mum;s heart. There will of course, as expected at a Mad Hatter's Tea Party, gorgeous cupcakes and delightful tea. (any donations will be gratefully recieved, lol).

Everyone who wears a Mad Hatter's hat will get 10% off any purchases, and the wackier the better..!!! There will be a prize for the best hat each day. two conditions:-

1. 
   
   the hat can be made from anything apart from an actual hat.
2. 
   
   you have to be wearing it.

So whos game..???

Confirmed guests:-

Me , the Maddest Hatter of all, lol

Our Ben

The Goddess

Resident bit of Glamour

Kitchen fairy Pam

Bezzi Sue

Sexy Susie

The lovely Katie

The most beautiful granddaughter in the whole world

Fabby Dabby Kirsty Wiseman

Uncle Tom Cobley

I can envision loads of laughs, much stuffing of faces, hilarious hats, a roaring raffle, marvelous make and takes, plentiful prizes and a partidge in a pear tree...!!!

So this is your official "Save the Date"

See you all there with your hats. Make up optional, lmao

Enjoy xx

Can you spot which is Emmi's mug...????

Oh yes, thats the one, lmao....

The lovely Katie has been into the studio today and spied the new felt kits that we have in. So I set her to work on one. She had life and has stashes more away to make another time. lol..

 The Merino wool

Planning the design

soaking it

rubbing it  all together

Is it under there.?

Yayy the finished piece... Neat eh..???

When we have more made they will be chopped up and adoring the studio windows as bunting..

Remember me telling you I was having a draw off with Gorgeous Georgia..??? Well she came to the studio yesterday and I taught her some doodling. Just look at the beautiful page she produced...

Heres another page she had already made for her journal

Its not finished yet but I think its absolutely fabby. Well done girly...xxx

Now for a little moan.. Have you ever found that some people can be really unhelpful..??? I experienced it at the gym this morning. Me and the girlies joined together and during the induction we were asked if we had any questions.

All I asked was if I would be back in a size 10 bikini by Thursday. He instantly replied no, just like that. Didn't try to offer me an alternative size, or an exchange, just no, you won,t. And he was laughing.  I tell you customer service is just not the same these days...!!!!! lol

Enjoy xx

this that and the other...

Ooooh bad blogger that I am, not posted for a couple of days. I just needed to keep all the Cowboys at the top of the page for as long as possible, lol...

Its really late at night/early in the morning and so I am treating you to a small pot pourri of a "normal" day in my little world...

When I get to work I make The Goddess a cup of tea and leave it on her desk for when she comes in.  I always embellish the cup, somehow, and the more over the top the better. It has then become a standing joke that,once she has stopped laughing, she always asks....."Ooooh which ones mine..?"

It suddenly occurred to me this morning that I had never shown you the delights of her morning cuppa. So I am starting a "mug watch".., lol.  I will post you her decorated mug every day to keep you amused. Sometimes she can hardly drink out of it, and we have to prize a straw through the decorations...

Had a lovely surprise at work as my lovely friend Anne surprised me by coming to the workshop unexpectedly. Anne has been extremely ill with a very very rare disease and will take a couple of years - yes I did say years..!!!, to get better. So it is very hit and miss wether she is ever well enough to attend.  But here she is, transported by the lovely Pat. Everyone in today,s workshop were fabby and we had a lovely day crafting and putting the world to rights..!!

I have been finishing off a magazine article and I am not beyond deadline (for once, lol). I tried to keep it all contained onto one desk, but it still looked as though a bomb had hit...!!

Oooh not sure how those lollipops got in there...!!!!

went round to Bezzie Su's tonight and got into a drawing challenge with her daughter , The gorgeous Georgia..Heres some of my efforts......

Can you tell what they are, lol..?  I thought they were ace and so I,ve drawn a bigger one in my black and white journal.

Sooooooo funny......

I was also measured up for a new dress, to wear at my Soulie nights. I fell in love with this fabric earlier in the week. Not your norm is it..??  But I just love it, and I am mixing it with some black, chiffony, textured rose material. I want a classic style to offset the funky fabric. I originally wanted something very 50's, but I need to be able to dance in it, and lets face it you,ve seen the videos, and I need my legs free for my nifty footwork...lmao...It also needs to be cool and to protect my assets. When you suddenly sprout mahoosive bosoms, after spending your whole life without, if you aren't careful all that energetic cavorting around can lead to unfortunate accidents...!!!!

Read this story by Suzi Blu over on Jenny Dohs, WEBSITE, Crescendoh,and found it extremely interesting.

As many of you know, I was ill for a long time and it was Art which I credit with giving me my life back, not to mention my obvious love and passion..  They were hard times, but so worth it in the end. My illness banged me on the head, turned me around and set me off in a completely different direction. without it there would be no Art from the Heart, no Blonde Moments, no 14 hr days, no married to the job, no massive overdraft..lmao. Life has many strange twists and turns, and I am a strong believer that it's not what life throws at you , its how you deal with it. we should spend less time on regret, for the things we haven,t got, and more time on feeling gratitude, for what we already have. And they are not necessarily material things..!!

Love this song by Paolo Nuttini, it just about sums it up for me.



Enjoy xx

Yeehah.....

Oooh another big delivery from Ranger this morning. Luckiliy, cute little UPS guy, had the help and muscles of both me and the Goddess...!!!!  ha ha - not..!!!  When we unpacked it we realised why it was soooo heavy, it was all the restocks of the Sissix dies, finally winging its way to us...
Ben has been away for the last few days in Edingburgh with the lovely Katie,  and apparantly!!! we have wrecked his shop...ooops, lol. So he set to to try and do new displays with all the new stuff, but Our Emmi was nicking it faster than he could put it out. The website had gone into overload again..I t seems that no matter how much we order in, its never enough, lol. So dont leave it too late as soon the cupboard will, once again, be bare...



 For the  Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations dies including the very popular Caged Bird and Tattered Florals!! The only ones that haven't turned up are the embossing folders, which if you've read Tim's blog you'll know that they have been re-designed by Tim, so will follow soon, look HERE

For more stock of Tim's CHA 2010 idea-ology including - Paper Stacks, Clock Faces, Vintage Buttons, Box Feet, Memo Pins, Charms, Locket Keys etc look HERE
. Paper tape, Ruler Ribbon and the Curio knobs are still to follow.

For all other Ranger, Tim Holtz and Claudine Hellmuth products including Tim's Book, Distress Pads, Ink Pads, Alcohol Inks, Grungeboard, Stickles, Paints, Tools and much more look HERE

I got my alloted amount for the studio and promptly stashed them in a secret hiding place, to ensure that he can,t whip them back if the shop runs out......Don,t say I haven' given you a fair warning of expected fast deteriorating stock levels, because I know that my first loyalty should really be to you the customer, but in this instance it really is "possession is nine tenths of the law"..lmao...

Workshops this week include alcohol ink cards. step by step stunning backgrounds, topped off with a plethora of Tim's stamps.  book HERE oops you can,t book there as the workshop seems to be missing from the workshop list, lol. You will need to ring us for that one -01423 873739.

Thursday I will be using the adorable Wendy Vecchi's range of stamps on cards, tags and Atc's. gorgeous designs and gorgeous results. Book HERE

Sunday, again Its disappeared off the screen somehow, is the Art Journaling for regulars

Now you all know I have a cowboy fixation , so I thought I would treat you to some cowboy images...

The above 3 pictures are all found on this ace cowboy website

the following are all stock pictures found HERE

Love this little boys vintage style room

I never seem to find these at the local book shop..!!

a Bonanza of boots

Ooooh nice..!!!

opposite side of the kiddies room.

Vintage fabric swatch

How fabby is this, covered in the Cath Kidston fabric..??

The following can all be found on the Cath Kidston WEBSITE

And I will leave you with this little gem from the Dixie Chicks

We have had a great weekend, learning tons of new techniques at the Mini Ranger U .  Techniques this weekend included everything you could possibly want to know about and do with an Adirondack dabber, the a - z of pigment pearls, dry, wet, spritzed, shimmered, painted, glitzed, grunged,, dyed, sprayed, and then we tripped the light fantastic with inks, Pigment, Dye, Archival, Adirondack, Distresss. In between we laughed, ate, chatted, ate, photographed, tapped toes to music, ate, drank tea, laughed some more, concentrated, sucked lollipops, ate, shopped, shopped, shopped some more, ate and generally had a whale of a time...!!!..d

The Resident bit of Glamour, made an appearance in the shop on Saturday and busied herself with interior designing the kitchen and making gorgeous bunting to hang from the windows. The Goddess has been working a lot of nights at the restaurant so was having a lie in. She did make an appearance later to save me doing major overrings on the till, lol. I am sooooo proud of them, they have turned into proper little ladies...

Full of grace and poise...

Oh okay, maybe not..!!! lol...Haven,t a clue where they get it from...!!!!!

Here we go on day 2, fully engrossed and paying attention...yeah right...!!!

What do you think is causing the queue...?

Yup, they are queing to do the ironing, lmao. How often do you get to see that..???

All too soon it is over and time to go home.

Heres, Jen, Jak, Olwen, Kirsty and Julie.

Olwen, Dee, Anne and Maureen.

Karen, Pauline and Lynette

Pam, Chris and Anne.

Thankyou ladies you were a delight to teach and your enthusiasm was brilliant. counting the days to Ranger 2 and 3.. Continue along, playing, experimenting, realising nothing is wrong, enjoying, relaxing, sucking lollipops, and just being..!!!!

Thanks again Pam for the scrummy food and the constant tidying and washing up..!!!!

I am finally starting to turn a corner and feel better. Mind you its taken 2 wks... I actually went out again this weekend to 2 soul do,s. Ooh I,m such a gaddabout now arent I.?? I love my Northern Soul music and started going to Wigan Casino from the age of 14 ish and have always tried to still go to do,s. The last couple of years I haven,t been too successful due to work commitments, but I really miss it, so my New March resolution is to  give it more importance and to free time to go. I love the music, I love the dancing, I love the atmosphere, I love being with old, old, friends, I love that it makes me feel great. Therefore I feel it is a necessity for my personal and creative growth. Well thats what I,m sticking to lmao.

Just see if you can recognise anyone on this photo...

Yup bottom right hand corner, stretching my neck to see ( was really little back then. ) This was taken at the Casino about 1977/8 I would have been 14/15 at the time. I often remember live acts but cant remember a film crew, at all. This pic was taken from a little montage video, below.

Enjoy and KTF...XX