My Day in Pictures - Today's Class Assignment !

A normal working day in April - 6am up, shower, dress & make-up on. Pop out to the garden & open up the mini greenhouse so it doesn't over heat. Leave at 6.50 - five minute drive to work. Through the turnstile, up to the office - all day between the office, the NPD Kitchen & the factory. Presentations to get ready - sign off the new products, finish all the paperwork - leave for home- usually anywhere between 6.00pm & 7.30pm. Make a quick Thai noodle soup for tea- on a tray in front of the telly.

Maybe a quick trawl through my e-mails, catch up on some favourite blogs. Watch something I have taped for an hour - then to bed by 10pm latest.

Next day - same trip round the hamster wheel !!

WOYWW - Life Getting In The Way !!

How come "real life" seems to crowd in all at once & crafting & blogging just falls by the wayside ! ! A combination of a fortnight of unseasonally stunning sunny weather - meaning that I have wanted to spend every moment possible working in the garden ! Rich's birthday last weekend meant a fun trip to our favourite fish restaurant The Shed in Porthgain down in Pembrokeshire - and then this weekend we had a trip to North Wales for a great couple of days catching up with my in-laws - plus a 4 hour drive each way through the breathtaking scenery in gorgeous Spring sunshine - good to be alive kind of days !!

So here we are with a desk with not much action !

I have my Configurations printers tray - with hardly anything done on it .. just plans for a nature themed project !

On the left is today's prompt from Shimelle on the Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers course - I am just about managing to read the prompts each day but not having much luck in doing the projects yet - hoping to have a major weekend catch up session !

On the left is my confirmation of my place on next month's Artsy Crafty Weekend - so something to look forward to in all this busy madness at work !!

Hoping to get some crafting done this coming weekend & to have a bit more to report next week ! How do YOU juggle making time for crafting with "real life" ?? Any tips to share ??

Ally Pally Roadtrip !

Stunning weekend of warm sunny weather ... more like mid-Summer than April !

Theresa, Gill & I set off early & headed up to Alexander Palace arriving about half ten - we hadn't expected it to be such an attractive building & location looking out over the whole city. And free parking - how much better than the NEC!! In fact we found the whole event better than the NEC show - perhaps because it was focussed on stamping & scrapbooking rather than a whole host of crafts that aren't really our thing !

Happily we all prefer to split up to look around & shop - so much easier to squeeze through the crowds & get into to see the things that you want to see !

There were loads of goodies to buy & great demo's going on - we shopped 'til 12.30, took our sandwiches out onto the lawns then headed back in for some more shopping before heading off home about 3 o'clock - just as our feet were telling us they had had enough walking around. Traffic free journeys in the the sunshine & good conversation made the 3 hours each way seem much quicker than when I drive it on my own !

I found most of the things that I had on my shopping list .. a couple of new Martha Stewart punches, some stamps, a Resist ink pad that I have been reading about & wanted to experiment with, 3 new background embossing folders, a die cutting set for cutting square photos for scrapping & the Tim Holtz Vintage Market alphabet die I have had my eye on.

Lin from LB Crafts was demo-ing the new Fresco paints & Distress Stains & I had a happy half hour watching this - they look lovely worked together & the chalky colours seem very shabby chic ! I also met Hels Sheridan who was demo-ing too on the Artistic Stamper stand - it was funny to finally meet someone who's blog I read most days !!

I also got lured by the Configurations Printers tray which will be great fun to use to work up small pieces of art - I have all these lovely stamps & I not being a card maker I am never sure quite what to do with them when I have made them !!

Oh & I saw Tim's resist papers pad - images embossed onto brown papers for you to ink up in any colours that you like - it seems a great idea & it should be fun to have a go !

After a long day on Saturday - Sunday dawned bright & sunny & after our weekly swim we headed back into the garden for a grand tidy up, more clearing of the dreaded oak leaves - how I detest them !! And a good sweep of the paving, cleaning the pots, trying to mend the crack in the water feature with sealant then our weekly trip to the tip with the old BBQ we never used since we moved down here ! In the afternoon, I used the new Fresco paint to re-paint a large pot & then gave all the trays on my printer's tray a covering of chalky emulsion - it will be a base to work colour onto each little box - and avoids the blank page syndrome !!

And we rounded off the unseasonally gorgeous day with a 5pm BBQ to catch the last of the sun - sitting out on our deck, a glass of Cava, home reared meat from the Farm shop & baked pineapple with rum for dessert !! End of a lovely "Summer in Spring" weekend !!

A few projects & some new stash !

I was lured by some new stamps this week & with the miracles of Internet shopping & mail-order by phone - and first class post I could order on Friday & be crafting by Saturday !

The Pod's caught my eye on the Artistic Stamper's website & I had fun making some stamp board panels to decorate this papier mache bag.

I finally finished this spring greens & yellows tick tack toe board that I had started months ago - it was supposed to be like a sampler of techniques - all brought together by the common colour way.

I have finished my canvas - spring Jack in the Green - Summer slumbering & waiting her turn to arrive.

I have been playing in my art journal as well - trying to follow techniques of how to draw faces .. but more of that another time !

I'm off to play with a couple of lovely stamps from Earth Art International - based on Pacific Northwest Animal Totem art - I remember seeing similar when we were in British Colombia on holiday - the designs are fabulously intricate & I am now mulling over how I could use the stamps.

I was interested to read what the animals symbolise - the owl is obviously wisdom but also the guardian of souls & the dragonfly symbolises thoughts - all those restless thoughts that skitter through the brain - like the dragonfly over the ripples of the water - but also aware of the depths of the water & the deeper thoughts & hopes beneath ...

WOYWW - All sorts going on this week !

Lots happening on the desk this week ! Running from the left - lovely, yummy My Mind's Eye "Lost & Found" papers - all cream, eau de nil, soft pinks & chocolate - with a bit of glittery chocolate thrown in - think it's going to be one of those paper collections that you have to take a deep breath to cut into & use - rather than just admiring & stroking them !!

Then some pages in my art journal drying ready to journal on & a page I made about how I look forward to a lie in all week & then at the weekend I can never lie in because my mind keeps running over & over & over "stuff" - work, family, hopes & worries, random tunes ... just stuff that won't let me be !!

Then I have a canvas I am working on .. I saw these Art doll Sculpy moulds in Hobbycrafts on Saturday & really thought they would be fun .. I felt the large pointy face would make a great basis for a "Jack In The Green" - the symbol of Spring & the moon type face with her eyes shut made me think of Summer, slumbering - waiting for her time to arrive .. it'll be interesting to see if I can get what's in my head to come out onto the canvas.

And then on the right the mini-book I have made about my Tim Holtz class ...

Scrapping The Day Prolongs the Fun !

So today I have done a fair bit of scrapping - around our weekly Sunday Swim & an hour getting some very breezy fresh air having a walk round the Botanic Gardens - I wanted to save the ticket Tim signed & his biography card as well as the souvenir page he gave us for the project .. so now they are all safely scrapped with my photos .. I've decided to do a double page spread and then maybe a mini-book with all the other bits & bobs left over .. but that's for later !

Tim Holtz Artsy Crafty Day

I met up with Jo - who I'd got to know on the weekend back in October for supper at the Magic Wok & then an early-ish night before the day of our class duly dawned ! It was an early start as we registered at 7.30am & then found ourselves a seat in the classroom. No colour choices to worry about as we all had the same fab personal kits & Configurations boxes already laid out.

the first part of the class was an introduction to the concept of the boxes & then the lining of the compartments with (thankfully pre-cut & pre-scored !!) papers and then an introduction to tissue tape as we used this to cover the frame edges & give them a neat yet aged look.

After a well earned coffee break we were allowed to dive into a little calico bag full of notions & embellishments & enjoy ooo-ing & arhh-ing over the Ideology goodies before we spent a contented couple of hours being creative & decorating our boxes.

It all flew past & suddenly it was lunch - the obligatory browse around the shop for our own stash of goodies (got some of the metal embellishments & a couple of stamp sets plus a couple more configurations boxes!!) - then into Lin & Leandra's class to get gloriously painty & inky making a frame with metal work etc.

Tim was a good & approachable teacher & I really did enjoy it - but I think that Lin & Leandra's classes are equally as good & they have always given such us such great weekends which are so brilliantly organised with their great kits !

I had a convivial Friday evening chatting with like-minded crafters & was very glad that I'd decided to stay the extra night & not drag home in the Friday traffic .. by leaving when I woke on Saturday morning & getting on the road by 6.15am I was home by 10.30am. A much better idea !