How lucky am I?

Right, pour yourself a glass of wine, this could be a long one! First of all, August has been and gone - where did that go? It just goes to show how much I function on routines, because I have been rubbish at keeping up with my journal this month. However, it has been a GOOD month! First of all for all those that know, my husband was made redundant earlier this year, and yesterday he started a new job, which so far, he is loving! (Huge sigh of relief, loving having an empty house...)

Secondly, it was my birthday, and just look at all the lovely presents I got!



My Mum bought me these little beauties:



My in-laws bought me this little stash - oh yeh! Should keep me busy for a bit...



My lovely (now employed!!) husband bought me these - pan pastels. The picture doesn't do the vibrant colours justice, and I can't wait to really get going with them.



And what about this: a card made for my birthday by my friend Anna, who insists that she isn't the least bit arty, but in all the years I have known her, has never just given me an off the shelf card. She is one of the girls that I open water swim with. We have had many fantastic wild swimming experiences, and she has used the faces of the two of us and our friend Karen to make us into Sylvis's sirens. Sylvia is our seventy-something year old swimming teacher, and we love her to bits. Not only has she helped us all become better, fitter swimmers, but she has helped to form a fantastic, supportive band of friends without whom my life would be so much the poorer.



And finally, my sister-in-law turned forty today, and this is the card I made for her. She texted me first thing this morning to thank me and to say it was 'a keeper'. Bless.



Phew! Right, back to work tomorrow - only seven and a bit weeks until half term!

More Dina Stuff

So I was just reading this morning that even Dina Wakley has down days where she questions her art and finds it hard to motivate herself. That makes me feel a whole lot better, because I feel like I have just let this whole holiday pass me by without really taking advantage of it artistically. Can it be that I haven't completed a single thing since the Dina course? Hence why I am still blogging it.
So on the second day of the course, we had to 'do' texture. 20 layers was the target, but I have to day I was enjoying myself so much, I never managed to keep count of how many I used.





One thing that Dina taught us was that sometimes pages just don't work, and that's ok. But, just because they don't work as a whole doesn't mean that they can't work at all. So we made a page, folded it into a booklet and hey presto - a little journal to work in...





Afterwards we went out for dinner with Dina and her future heartbreaker of a son. Also in the picture are Christine, Kate and Jude



The next day was something of a challenge. Portrait painting. Hmm. It's easy, just like painting by numbers apparently! You just highlight the lightest areas, add black to the darkest and then build up layers of colour in tones. Easy. Ha Ha. Well, here are the two pictures of my kids that I am prepared to show. The one of myself looking like Mrs Doubtfire is going to the same place as that picture of Kate....




Right, well it's raining here today, so for the first time in weeks, I am going to focus on some housework instead of the garden, then next week when I am home alone ALL WEEK (yee-ha!)I can create to my hearts content. Ooh and I need to blog my birthday presents - prepare to be green with envy!

Dina Wakley Weekend

Can't believe that this time last week, I was in the first of three fantastic days of Dina Wakley classes at Art from the Heart. It was a fabulous experience, not least because not only did I get the opportunity to have three days of guilt free art (no thinking about whether the kids are hungry, thirsty, watching too much tv etc.)but I got to meet some of the people I have previously only met online! It's hard to know where to start, but I guess the pictures can do most of the talking!


Dina, of course makes it all look so easy, her style is so effortless and even when she just throws something together to illustrate a technique, it looks way cooler than I could achieve with hours of deliberation. But these pics are the results of the first day of spraying and daubing and generally playing!



Special mention should also go to Dyan, as her altered originals inks were a key part of the creations we made!



More next time, although I am not allowed to publish one particular picture of Kate when we shared a room....

Cake and candles

In case it isn't obvious, it's my birthday this month. Hence the cakes. As a child my Mum always used to make the most amazing cakes - decorated to illustrate the current passion in my life. If she were to make one this year, it would have to have big inky splodges on it, because tomorrow I am off to Art from the Heart for three days of inky painty fun with Kate for Dina Wakley's three day workshop. How lucky am I!

I am not particularly taken with this page, but I think I have used up all my energy this week on digging a big hole in the garden for a patio and then shovelling 2 tons of hardcore into it. Right, off to paint my toenails now...

July done!

Ooh, that snuck up quickly. One minute I was happily filling in a petal or two (on the days when I remembered I hadn't done an entry for a week!) and then I read Kate's blog briefly whilst I was waiting for some dinner guests to arrive last night(love the tea towel Nicky - sorry couldn't face trying the wine today for some reason!) and for some reason I was surprised to find that the month had ended. This in itself wasn't a problem as I only had two days left to fill in, but doing a page for August? Doh! I shall have to think up something quickly, as I am already behind.....

Bird Brain

At last - the holidays are here! Not before time either - if we hadn't broken up when we did, I fear for what may have happened - my brain was just a nano-byte away from meltdown...Hence the journal page above. The borders are a mixture of collage sheets I have collected over time from Collage Anonymous and Crowabout and the figure is from Collage Anonymous with the owl head from Tumblefish. The background is made from Sir Tim's new distress inks.

We have just spent a few days in that most tacky and British of seaside resorts - Blackpool. My Grandmother lives there and we went to see her. The kids love the miles and miles of slot machines there and we spent several happy hours shoving 2p coins into the penny fall type machines. These little critters were some of the prizes we won - how cool are they? Before the kids could attach them to anything, I said I had to photograph them so I could use them on a journal page, which is what I am off to do now.....

Loo Blues

When I was a kid, loo bloo was a strange thing that hung over the edge of the toilet bowl and made the water all blue, and I suppose probably did some kind of cleaning job. Now I am a big girl, loo blues is more appropriate! I am now coming down from my huge strop about how much I do at home and just how disgusting a bathroom/kitchen/carpet has to be before anyone will even consider wiping a cloth round/getting the loo cleaner out/hoovering up the dog hair (oops, think I might be on the verge of another tantrum.....1..2..3..calm...). I think all this comes mainly from the fact that I am overtired, probably more stressed than I am admitting and just plain sick of doing everyone's thinking for them (oops, there I go again...).

Anyway, this started out as an ATC for Marsha's blue challenge, but went a bit wrong, so I re-did it as a journal page to perfect the technique. The floorboards are these strange chinese visiting cards that are made of wood, which I painted and distress inked and stuck on. I added the fish for a little humour (I needed it!) not that any self-respecting fish would live in any of the toilets in our house!