Especially for Jude...

Oops, maybe I should have straightened things up first...!!!!

Enjoy xx

Bestest bestest day....

I have just spent the bestest day ever and it went like this.

watching cartoons
eating Cheerios
colouring in
blowing bubbles
giggling
digging for worms
riding on the digger
chasing spiders
meeting Jay and Emmi for lunch
buffet at Pizza Hut
choosing new Snap cards
chasing pigeons
browsing around Paperchase
pressie shopping at James Brindleys
feeding the birds with cake
looking around toy shops
buying a mahoosive Union Jack cushion
skipping back to the car
singing silly songs
playing the plastic guitar and pretending to be a pop star
eating the legs off a gingerbread man
seeing who could swing the highest
snuggly sticky kisses
waving bye bye
collapsing on sofa

Yes you guessed it....Maisie has been for the day, and she was mine, all mine,...heaven...

Now I need you all to hop over to Virginias BLOG . She was on the Art Journaling 2 weekend and has written the most fabulous ode. I don,t know how she remembered it all in the order it happened. Be warned, she is known as Little Miss War and Peace, so get yourself a cuppa, grab a seat, make yourself comfy and enjoy what she has written.

Enjoy xx

Ps Jude...thanks for the photos, your cardi is on its way with the umbrella stand. And just wait till you see the cushion I have just bought, its fabulous. I just know you're going to make me go get you one, lmao... Get your blog updated so that I can link you.!!!! xx

This way, thataway...!!!

It's half term next week and so the kids have been really busy finishing off their projects, ready to start new projects next term. Heres some of them. Their projects are real cool, aren't they..?? And how proud do the kids look..???

I love this tag that Georgina made, and handpainted her vines on.

For once they were quiet as the concentration took over, lol.

Now, are you ready for a right laugh..?? I started a page in the next Art Journal in the circle journal challenge. I did all the inking, spraying and masking. Doodled the border and stuck a few images on. When I got home after the evening class I decided to continue with it. That was when I discovered that the book had been upside down...!! Wtf..??? lmao. So what do you do, Panic, cry , have a melt down..??? No, you pretend that it is what you intended all along, lol. So I made it into a reversible page...Ta daaaaaaaaah...!!!

This way....

That way...

Ha ha , hows that then..?? I love it. What do you think...???

It pays to look at things from a different angle sometimes.

Enjoy xx

Miracle cure..!! " + EDIT "

* EDIT * Forgot to tell you all to go over to the Creschendo site and read the story of one of my ladies, the lovely Olive.


Busy, busy few days, with loads going on. I fell up the stairs the other day, yes I did say up!! I ended up with carpet burns on my knees..Now no sniggering, I can hear you..!!! Well I also cricked my back quite badly and struggled on Saturday at the class. I was doped up with painkillers, but we had a fabulous day.

Here we have a whole family. Vanessa, Valencia, Virginia and Mel.

Emma, Bee the birthday girl, Anne and Steff

Val, Virginia, Mel, Jude and Carole.

Ronnie, Anne Marie, and Sandra

Chris, Liz and Janet.

There was also Michelle, missing from the photos.

Janet baked some lovely buns (eaten before chance of pic, lol). These gorgeous muffins were made by Virginias hubby. Big thanks for that.

Look at the state of the tables...lol

Sat night is usually a Northern Soul night, and this was no exception. I didnt really want to go as I was in agony, but I was the designated driver and didnt want to let them down, so I dosed myself up with painkillers and took the plunge. I painfully lowered myself into a chair and prepared to spend a miserable night without being able to dance to the music I love, Eventually I had to stand up and tentativley have a go. Amazingly I could dance with no pain, it was the sitting down and getting up that hurt. I was worried what I would be like the next day, but it had really eased. So there you go, just proves how good Northern Soul is it even helps cure bad backs..lmao

Another fab and completely messy day was had by all. We painted, sprayed, spritzed, stenciled, inked, masked, flicked, splattered, stamped amongst a background of laughing, eating, gossiping, eating, singing, eating, giggling and yes you,ve guessed it, more eating..!!! They were a fabulous crowd and a pleasure to have back to teach. Big thanks, of course, to Pam, Katie and Jay for all their help over the weekend.

We have just had probably the hottest weekend of the century, and we all struggled with it, so how come The Goddess and The Resident Bit of Glamour manage to look so effortlessly cool..???

The most gorgeous granddaughter in the world, ever, ever, ever...wasn,t very well today, so she stayed home with me, Yayy...!! She perked up as the day went on and we did some colouring.

I then made her do some chores, lol. You need to train them young these days..!!!

And then we went grocery shopping. She was quiet in the car and when I turned around the little monkey had my glasses on, lol.

Heres another journal page to show you from my ink only book. This is the background I showed you last week.

And this is the result.

The background is a combination of Distress inks and Adirondack colourwashes, embellished with doodling and Tim's butterfly.I added a Stampotique girly and finished it all off with my downloads

Theres a download class going on tomorrow, can't wait..woop woop..!!

Enjoy xx

oh you lucky, lucky lady....!!!

So here we are again at the start of one of my favourite weekend workshops...art journaling.  This is the first time we have had art journaling 2, and it was lovely to see everyone back. this weekend sold out straight away back in February, lol, you need to be quick off the block with these things. The evening was spent by everyone re-acquainting themselves, showing the journals they had been working on, much oohing and aahing over the new studio and shop, copious drinking of wine and a tiny bit of work...Sounds par for the course for this lot.!! I have warned them that I will be cracking the whip tomorrow, lmao.

What I didn,t expect was to be showered with gifts. How lucky am I..??

This beautifully wrapped basket was from the lovely Jude ( notice its all wrapped in Cath Kidston paper ).

And it contained, not one, but three of these gorgous porcelain ornaments. My favourite says

"I am hoping for world peace, but I would like something shiny as well.!!"

The lovely Steff brought me some Sennelier oil pastels back from France. Thes are a gorgeous brand to work with. These are the metallics and the effects are to die for.. You get stunning results with them. She also brought me a bottle of Champagne back which I can guarantee you will not last nearly a tad of the time the pastels will, lmao..

The lovely Virginia had made me an inspiration jar

Those of you who don't kn ow, it is a jar filled with loads and loads of prompts and inspiration. The idea being, that you pull one out and work with it. Can,t wait.

And the lovely Mel gave me a gorgeous metal free wrist choker, in my colours, It was only when I got it on that I realised she had actually made it herself, especially for me.

So there we go, hence the blog post title. How lucky am I.  I get so over whelmed when I recieve gifts, that many a time I have been known to cry, lol. I feel soooo privileged to have such wonderful students, many of whom have become friends. Thankyou all of you, there is never a need, but they are soooooooo appreciated. I recieved gifts last Sunday as well and forgot to blog them, how bad is that.?? I am so sorry girlies. The lovely Olive got me the dinkiest rubber duck I have ever seen , it was green and had a D for Dyan on it, and the lovely Sue brought me  a lovely little lapel badge and a sheet of wrapping paper featuring a very rude, but extremely funny place name.  I gave everyone a piece and their challenge was to journal it ready for the next class. Somehow I don,t think I will be airing them on the blog, lmao..

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou to each and everyone of you, I salute your thoughtfulness and generosity. Heres to a fabulous weekend.

Enjoy xx

flibberdidddly doo dah...

I had a lovely surprise in the post today. A thankyou card from one of our mail order customers. We do get loads of thankyou cards and emails which are very much appreciated, but what made this one all the more special was, if you look at it closely the photograph on the front is of the parcel we sent out. How cool is that..??? Thankyou Maria, you made a great start to my day.

The next news to arrive over the internet, was news of the kidnapped dragon. He appeared to have fallen off the radar for the last few weeks, but he has reappeared.  Apparantly the jet set life style does not suit him, and so he has gone to live in Alains office at Ranger Headquarters, New Jersey. I hope Alain remembers he's there and doesn't forget to feed him, and not just on Marmite and beer..!!! Those of you going out to Ranger U ( Annaliese and Linda ), slip him a slice of pizza now and again. And don,t forget to have your photo taken with him to send to me, lmao...

Well I spent most of last night really indulgently by finishing off the pages I started. They are all in my my ink journal. Yes its a journal that contains only ink on the backgrounds, no paint..Yes you heard me correctly NO PAINT...!!!!  I can do it you know, it just doesn't happen that often, lol.

The page already had some pattern on there as I clean my inky stencils by pressing them between pages of new journals. I then started by covering the background with a heavy coat of Distress ink, applied water for a faux bleach effect and dabbed it dry. I then laid Tim's clock masks, one by one, over the top and applied more ink.

I stamped the Stampotique door in the corner and hand drew a border all round the page. I stamped Tim,s birds above the door. I coloured in the Stampotique image with the same Distress inks, chopped her legs off and reatached them at a different angle. Stuck her on the page and added a hat from my downloads. I then chose a quote from  my downloads top left. The final touch was with an oil pastel to make her pop.

Enjoy xx

background bonanza.....

Busy, busy day yesterday. It started with the exploring colour and texture workshop. The morning consisted of learning how to colour mix, applying the colour, swapping tags as in a round robin, working with others colour schemes and thinking on your feet!!  The afternoon consisted of painting, dripping, spraying, texture, collaging, sticking, writing, doodling and sucking blue lollipops..!!!!

Heres a glimpse at tomorrows workshop, using the fabby Stampotique stamps. You can make cool tags to your hearts content.  You can book here..

Then it was time for all my lovely little ones in the Tuesday kids class. This is Hope who is returning home to the USA shortly. Isn't her canvas gorgeous..??? She has made it as a leaving present for one of her friends shae has made whilst over here. How sweet is that??

The Resident bit of Glamour had a few hours spare and so I got her painting the sample wall. We decided to create a trompe L,oeil of display boards, instead of taking ours on and off all the time. I just need to do all the doodling and get the samples back up and it will look fantastic..!!!!

And then it was on to the Tues night class. Pat had been in  the day workshop and returned again at night. What we didn,t realise was it was her birthday..!!! So HAPPY BIRTHDAY Pat, and thanks for choosing to spend it at mine.....

I ahven,t had a lot of time to get really creative, for creative's sake for a while now, so I spent a few hours prepping up some backgrounds in one of my Art Journals.

I had a brill time doing them and I almost don't want to add to them, lol. But they are done ready, so watch this space..!!!

Enjoy xx