WOYWW - A Blogless Month !

Just when you thought I had disappeared off the face of the Earth, here I am back like a bad penny !
The past month has been something of a whirl with lots of travelling for work & a weekend away too. It seems I have been away from home every Wednesday for the last month - and hence no report from my trusty work-desk. Even this week I am blogging early as I will be back in Dublin on Wednesday !

So a bit about my travels !
Earlier in the month, I had to go to Girona in Northern Spain to review some machinery - that bit was interesting if not glamorous ! - but we did get to walk around in the evening we were there and it was a most beautiful, atmospheric ancient city. 

And the views over the Pyrenees were gorgeous !

Much Beloved & I went up to Hampshire to see his Mum and had a lovely weekend - despite the endless mizzling rain - and took in a local National Trust House - with beautiful swathes of snowdrops in the grounds - and had a lovely meal out at a local pub.

Last week I was away on business, first at a packaging exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham - not as much fun as as Hobbycrafts of course !          Then onto Llandudno for a Welsh Government "Food For the Future" conference where we had a number of interesting speakers.                           And onto Nottingham for a meeting on Friday .... it was good to get home Friday night !

I did get to keep up with my Art Journalling for Wanderlust we have had two challenges ..

One was "Fill Your Page With Writing" ...

And one about "Your Bravest Moment" - but I don't think I am a brave person - so I did my page pondering on whether I could be brave if I needed to be !

For Journal 52 we had "Journal About What you Love Most" ...

"What Your heart Know Rather Than Your Head" 

 And this week was "One Of Your Pet Hates"

And I made my Mum a card for Mother's Day on Sunday too .. these are using the new Kay Carley stamps from Paperartsy - with a couple of their stencils in the background. 

The agapanthus & cosmos stamps are gorgeous !

Hope everyone is enjoying life ! 

Have a great crafty week !

Ali xx

WOYWW - From Sashimi & Shrines to Acrobatics !

I have been missing from the Blogasphere for a few weeks as my work has been taking me on a few travels !

Dublin overnight for a training course, then a very memorable trip to Tokyo !











 
Given it was a 12 hour flight there & 13 hours back, it was a lot of travelling for 4 days there but we packed a lot in !


The purpose of the trip included eating & seeing lots of the unique foods of Japan - and I got to try lots of amazing new dishes & flavours !


The perks of working in the food industry !







And I managed to squeeze in a couple of cultural sights too - a Buddhist Temple & Shinto Shrine.
It was all so very different & fascinating !












Back home & refusing to give in to jetlag, we set back off for London to The Royal Albert Hall to see Cirque Du Soleil - what an amazing show !





The acrobatic acts, the costumes & lighting were all brilliant and absorbed our attention so that the evening just  flew by !
As did the acrobats !

So It was Sunday before I got to play in my Journal - I am trying to do Journal 52 this year.
Here are the past 3 weeks challenges

This was week 3 - done before I went away.
Iin the week that he passed away, we were challenged to create a page inspired by David Bowie's lyrics.











Week 4 was inspired by the Full Moon.

This image came into my head on the long flight home - I was in Tokyo for the full moon - so this image of a shrine against the full moon seemed apt !
And I created a little verse to go with it ...







And week 5 was Monochrome and it seemed a good way to express how I feel about the long grey winter !









On my desk this week are a mountain of photos printed & ready for a scrapathon of my Tokyo trip !

Have a great crafty week !
Ali x