Want to win a place on Life book 2014.??

As many of you will know I have been invited to teach on this years Life book, more info HERE, organised by the lovely Tam of Willowing arts.

Tam is joined by 22 incredible art teachers who are all gearing up to share their mixed media techniques, tips and tricks with YOU! Themed around self-development and healing, you’ll be creating several loose mixed media art journal pages per month which by the end of the year you will bind into a glorious journal (a Life Book)! You will have a wonderful keepsake that you can treasure for the rest of your life! 

Registration starts on 7th Oct and to celebrate Life Book is holding a blog hop and today is my day...Yayyyyy

Would you like to win a free place on this course?

Go on you know you want to...

All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post and some time next week I will pick a winner.

Simples.

If you want a chance of winning every day follow all the other fabulous tutors on the blog hop.


12th Sept 2013 - Tamara Laporte - www.willowing.org
13th Sept 2013 - Tascha Parkinson – www.timewithtascha.blogspot.ca
14th Sept 2013 - Lesley Riley – www.lesleyriley.com
15th Sept 2013 - Alena Hennessy - www.alenahennessy.com
16th Sept2013 - Kat McBride – www.KatCanPaint.com
17th Sept 2013 - Carla Sonheim – www.carlasonheim.com
18th Sept 2013 - Jane Davenport – www.janedavenport.com
19th Sept 2013 - Danielle Daniel – www.danielledaniel.com
20th Sept 2013 - Jennibellie – www.jennibelliestudio.blogspot.com
23rd Sept2013 - Kelly Hoernig – www.kellyhoernig.webs.com24th Sept 2013 - Micki Wilde – www.thesecrethermit.blogspot.co.uk
25th Sept 2013 - Kate Thompson – www.fracturedangelics.blogspot.com
26th Sept 2013 - Flora Bowley – www.florabowley.com
27th Sept2013 - Anna Dabrowska – www.tworzysko.blogspot.co.uk
28th Sept 2013 - Steven Speight – www.speightoftheart.com
29th Sept 2013 - Mika Diaz – www.mikadiazmixedmedia.com
30th Sept 2013 - Serena Bridgeman – www.serenarty.com
1st Oct 2013 - Dyan Reaveley – www.dyan-reaveley.blogspot.co.uk
2nd Oct 2013 - Effy Wild – www.effythewild.com
3rd Oct 2013 - Carissa Paige – www.carissapaige.com
4th Oct 2013 - Marieke Blokland – www.bloknote.nl
5th Oct 2013 - Christy Tomlinson – www.christytomlinson.com
6th Oct 2013 - Traci Bautista – www.treicdesigns.com

Enjoy xx

Fun day teaching....

So here we are ready for another days teaching at The Collins Show in Houston Texas. Here is one of my classes hard at work.

I was my usual shy and retiring self...

I even had Rangers head of sales hard at work.

Also teaching at the event is my Ranger pal Wendy Vecchi...

Of course there is always time for a round of Margharitas...

and freshly made guacamole....yum

And I will leave you with some more journal pages from the plane journey.

Enjoy xx

The week that was...

Last Friday the gorgeous Kaz Hall was teaching at the studio and gracing me with her presence at Reaveley Towers. Those of you who know her will know she isn't renowned for her culinary skills, but I have to say she makes a mean fish finger butty.

She is also rather good at providing early Christmas presses...Clock this fabulous bible from the 1800's which I will treasure for ever.

Monday came with the realisation that it was time for a trim lol.

 And also the day to celebrate number 2 son's 29th birthday. And unbelievably it looks as though I was wearing the same outfit in all the photos. I wasn't but it does look it. lol.

After a hectic couple of days it was time to fly back over the pond for my next stint in the States. To be honest I was quite looking forward to getting away from home. Things are a bit tough at the mo, with memories thrust at me right left and centre!

As usual I love my long flights and layovers and use them to catch up with my journaling. Heres a few I did on the plane.

I am currently in Houston Texas at a retailer show, Its great to see so many familiar faces in my class tonight. I have two more classes tomorrow and then demo time on Sunday.

Enjoy xx

todays pages...

Enjoy xx

One step forward...

...three steps back.!!

                                                                The voices are quiet...

Taking time...

Stand your ground...

Tears of the soul...

Come and get it...

Too strong to sink...

Enjoy xx

Exciting news...

Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my last post. It took me a while to press publish and I am so glad that I did. The next morning the first thing I saw on fb was this...

Unfortunately I have no idea who to give credit to for the artwork (please let me know if you do )

But it just meant so much to me. No matter what we look like on the outside we are all fighting demons on the inside that no one else can see.

We can either choose to keep silent about this raging battle, to save face in front of others, or we can open up, lay ourselves bare and start to heal!

"When you stand and share your story

in an empowering way,

your story will heal you

and your story will heal someone else..."

Ivanla Vanzant

My teaching is all based upon healing and empowering oneself through art and so I was thrilled to be asked to teach in next years Life Book 2014.

“Life Book, a celebration and honouring of YOU”is a year-long mixed media art classorganised by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts.

Tam is joined by 22 incredible art teachers who are all gearing up to share their mixed media techniques, tips and tricks with YOU! Themed around self-development and healing, you’ll be creating several loose mixed media art journal pages per month which by the end of the year you will bind into a glorious journal (a Life Book)! You will have a wonderful keepsake that you can treasure for the rest of your life! 

You can find more information HERE

Registration doesn't start until Oct 7th but I wanted you to know all about it now.

I am joining some fabulous tutors on this course, some new and some returning from Life Book 2013.

Check them out ...

Alena Hennessy – www.alenahennessy.com

Anna Dabrowska - www.tworzysko.blogspot.co.uk

Carissa Paige – www.carissapaige.com

Carla Sonheim – www.carlasonheim.com

Christy Tomlinson – www.christytomlinson.com

Danielle Daniel – www.danielledaniel.com

Effy Wild – www.effythewild.com

Flora Bowley – www.florabowley.com

Jane Davenport – www.janedavenport.com

Jennibellie – www.jennibelliestudio.blogspot.com

Kate Thompson – www.fracturedangelics.blogspot.com

Kelly Hoernig – www.kellyhoernig.webs.com

Kat McBride – www.KatCanPaint.com

Lesley Riley – www.lesleyriley.com

Marieke Blokland – www.bloknote.nl

Micki Wilde – www.thesecrethermit.blogspot.co.uk

Mika Diaz – www.mikadiazmixedmedia.com

Serena Bridgeman – www.serenarty.com

Steven Speight – www.speightoftheart.com

Tascha Parkinson – www.timewithtascha.blogspot.ca

Traci Bautista – www.treicdesigns.com

You can see everyones bio HERE

We will all be participating in a mahoosive blog hop which starts on 12th Sept with Tamara Laporte - www.willowing.org and I hope you will join us.

I will be giving away a free place on the Life Book 2014 on my turn of the blog hop so stay tuned.

enjoy xx

Pondering and remembering....

Amidst all the chaos that is my life I found the time to pop round to Bezzie Su's for a cuppa and a grouch. Somehow we got to talking about old journal pages and it got me thinking.

I fell into art journaling by accident, in fact I never knew I was an art journaler till the label stuck lol. I just pratted around, playing with paints and inks and generally having a blast. Adding magazine images here and a few words there.

And then my world fell apart.

After losing my Dad 13 yrs ago I lost my Mum very unexpectedly 4yrs ago. One day she was there, the next she was gone leaving me with a gaping hole where my heart should have been. I nearly fell apart and the only thing that kept me going was my journals. Simple and raw, full of emotion and torment. I had never been one for getting things out but By God I soon learnt. It was like opening the floodgates. Words just poured from my heart and my very inner core and they didn't seem to have an end.

But, oh the relief that came after page and page of, nothing really, just me. My art journaling today is nothing like it was back then and funnily enough I miss it. I journaled for me, no one else. I didn't care what I wrote, what it looked like, whether it was any good or not. I just did it...and I miss that.

My life is so different now, so busy, so chaotic, so demanding and so fun, and I wouldn't change it for anything, but I miss the old me as well.

This blog post from 2009 explains a lot of my journey.

I blogged frequently, with a passion, from the heart, forgetting that people would read it and might judge me, lol. There wasn't really that many people reading it so I wasn't too bothered. I am not sure if I could be as open now as I was then.

But my blog became a record, a journal of my journey and it helped me to see how I had changed, how far I had come in facing my issues and it helped me to see that I wasn't alone.

I'm an odd one

I have ADHD

I have rapid cycling bi-polar

I am extremely strong minded

I have a very low attention span

I have OCD

I have put on 60 lbs

I have impostor syndrome

I can be a hermit

I can be manic

I have self esteem issues

I am full on

I have a very addictive type personality

I'm too independent

I am a recovering bulimic

I am a survivor, 

I AM ME!!!

5 yrs ago no one would have known any of this, no one scratched beneath the surface, and to be honest I would have been mortified if you had known just one of these things about me.

But now loads of you know most of them. They emerged through my journaling, my blogging, my growing, my becoming me.

Has it damaged me??? Has it heck. I feel more at peace with myself than ever. I am full of flaws, as are so many of you and we need to celebrate our individuality and our uniqueness instead of hiding it.

One of my favourite quotes to describe this metamorphosis is by Anais Nin

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom"

Looking back over my blog, there is plenty of art, records of teaching, where I am , where I have been, but I have realised there is not a lot of ME anymore. I miss that. I miss looking back, so maybe it's time to get back to the heart of me now and again lol.

Here's some of those very early pages for you to see.

So do I press publish or delete...??

Enjoy xx