Spring forward...

Oh no! one hour less sleep - that is all I need. I am an eight hour girl and then I can tackle the day and I found myself awake at twenty to seven on a day I could lie in so I got up, made a cup of fruit tea and decided to give my blog an update on my fabulous new notepad....so here goes, another long post.

a page in my journal describing what is happening at the moment...

this relates to the move to the new shop - it is amazing what you are told you are doing!!
I made a banner with my Big Shot for the new shop as I am having a small area for an office/store


here's some close ups...






I made a few atc's for a class I have in mind...

I also bought myself some Blo-pens which give an airbrushed look through a felt tip type pen and I had some fun trying them out in my journal. I cut a basic image from a piece of copier paper and played. Not too happy with the result and boy was I seriously out of breath when I finished but it was good fun.





Q had asked me if I could show her how to use chalks so this week cards were made using chalks and guess what?? who didn't make class this week but yes you've guessed it Q!!! here's my demo card that will be going to Mum for Easter - bit pretty for my style but she will love it.


Margaret and Mu's cards....


and Blaithin and Rosangela's...


they had also finished off cards from last week.

On Wednesday Benny appeared with his haircut - his parents are happy with me as they have been trying for ages and my comments to him had obviously worked!


Colin and I are now off shopping on this beautiful warm and sunny Spring day.
so Bye for now
Sue

ramblings.......

At the moment I don't know if I'm on my head or my heels. There is just so much going on in my life that I feel like I have just staggered off a very hectic, whirly fairground ride - you know that sensation...whoooosh!!!
...so I am grateful to the Spanish that their Father's Day is today and all the shops are closed (well, with the exception of cafes and bars) so today I got up late, can potter, think and just try to catch up a little - well hopefully. Also, Colin is out in this lovely bright sunshine playing golf so I have the house to myself (well with the exception of two playful dogs and one "I love lying in the sunshine on the windowsill" cat) so here goes. You might want to grab a coffee and a biscuit or two...this post isn't titled ramblings for nothing Lol!

The shop is very small and it is a shop with a table and six chairs - a very bright, sunny and welcoming little shop but little is the operative word and for some time now I have been bemoaning the fact that what I really want is a large teaching space with a small shop attached - just the opposite to what I have - don't we all want what we haven't got?? Anyway, after looking around at several empty premises - and believe me there are plenty of those here at present - we think we may have found a better place and so we are going to be on the move. The new place is not far from the old one so there should be no need for panic amongst those who come to classes and such. More details when all the paperwork is finalised and signed on the dotted line...

Colin bought me a present of a notepad laptop and has thoughtfully moved my millions of photos onto there but as I am just familiarising myself with it I am still using the home computer too and I went to post photos of my sweet little shop but I find he has removed all my millions (his term not mine) of photos onto the notepad so I may have to wait until he is home to add the photos.
edit - I have found out how to add the photos on the laptop so they are here too!! WooHoo!!!

Right - classes are full on and on Friday Q and Monica made cards

Saturday's class came and went unphotographed
on Monday the girls finished their mirrors
Dayana and Mina

luckily I photographed Sarah showing her mirror to Dayana as she went home before the others

and on Wednesday I taught a workshop making a canvas as taught to me by the lovely Tanya when she was here last November. Tanya bless her took me in hand last November and helped, guided ( well, bullied really) me into making the next three months projects that I had been prevaricating on for a long while, one of which was this lovely canvas. She made the one for display

while I sat alongside her and made one for Victoria with a beautiful photo of her and John at their wedding last October.

I gave it to her at Christmas and she was so pleased - I also made one for my youngest son's girlfriend who I always refer to as the lovely Jodie - if you saw her look at my son Jon you would know why I call her that - she absolutely adores him and thats all you can ask for your own child isn't it, that they have someone who thinks they are as wonderful as you their mother does.

Wednesday's workshop - Q, Monica and Mu

Here is the one I made - its the one of Colin's parents when they were courting in the 1930's which I showed half finished a week or two back - see I can finish projects - well sometimes Ha!ha!

and Q's which she made for her much adored husband John

and Monica's of her wedding three years ago to Phil

and Mu's of her Mother Vera (top in the photo below) who sadly died just two weeks ago - she was desperate to come to the workshop to do something normal in her world which was suddenly turned upside down with the very sudden loss of her much loved Mum.

They are all so different but all absolutely gorgeous. We sang, laughed and cried our way through Wednesday and then I had a Wednesday night class with the girls which I completely forgot to photograph probably because I was sooo tired.

During the past week I have also been making a flap album for my youngest son Jon who will be 30 on 3rd April - just where does the time go to - and yesterday morning I put the finishing touches to it. I justneed to add the photos now...




Well, if you read to the end "you're a better man than me Gunga Din" I'm bored now so I'm off to see what else I can get up to on this day off! Yay!!!so
Bye for now
Sue

1 down...

...and still loads of unfinished projects to go!!!
This morning in between serving customers and chatting to Inga who popped in to mull over a project she is currently working on, I managed to finish one of my own projects. Sorry, Lin its not the mica powder one - that is next on my to-do list. In November I saw a case for sending CD's Tanya had decorated. We tried to buy some of these cases but they were discontinued so when I got home I altered the sizing and made a template to fit a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock.

I used Delish designs papers and Tim Holtz stamps, a bit of inking here and a bit of stamping there and am really pleased with the way it has turned out.
I made a conscious decision not to bring Tanya's home so mine would not just be a copy of hers and I added pockets, tags, tickets and flowers.




Hope you like this as much as I do. It will be a workshop in the near future. Let me know what you think - I just love comments - the more the merrier.
Bye for now
Sue

I have added some writing to my Dina page... her course isn't until the 22nd of March so I am itching for it to start. I'm told it is all about layers so I am doing that bit right - I keep going back and adding another layer. Oh well, only 11 more sleeps until I can find out whether I am doing the rest right or not - impatient - who me? - yes haha!
This was the page before I added the writing...it had gone through 4 layers at this stage


I made a card this morning for my Mum for Sunday and thought it would be a good card for them to make tonight as we haven't made a card in class since before Christmas as we have been too busy with other projects. As ever the mica powders I had planned to paint the flowers with were at home so I had a mooch and came up with the Wet look markers - they worked just fine and the kids always love them.

Tonight came...

Well, you know the saying when you wish a big hole would swallow you up. I fell into that proverbial hole tonight. Celine brought along her sibling and I asked after her sister - goof!!! its her brother. Shoulder length white blonde hair and a dimple - well I thought a girl! but then what do I know!!! take a look at the photo below and hopefully you will see what I saw. Anyway, Benny was delightful and after the initial confusion we got on just fine. Here's Benny, Celine and Melissa showing off the cards they made for their Mums.


On Monday three of the girls finished their Spring albums which are full of things like knots and bows and paper weaving. Complicated stuff when you are 6 years old but they learned it and should be very proud of themselves. The three others have still to complete theirs.
Dayana 9, Mina 6 and Sarah 6


It's getting late so I'll hop off to make my hot choccy and take it to bed.
Bye for now
Sue

Hi Melva,

...when you were in the shop this morning you said how you followed my blog and loved my 365 Challenge - I couldn't get you to join us in the challenge but I have immortalised you in mine.

You also saw Blaithin and Rosangela start to make their mirrors -
here they are stippling over Tim's mask...

and here they are with them finished. Are they not just brilliant - the girls not the mirrors!! - well the mirrors are pretty good too. Painted, triple embossed, stippled, stamped and cropadiled and distressed flowers. Well done girls.


Right, I am off to do some blog hopping and send a few catch up e-mails to friends and then an early night. Day off tomorrow Yay!!
Bye for now
Sue
ps Q - can you see the new Q tray. Look at the photo of the girls stippling.(for those not in the know we used to use an old apple polytray for rubbish but it took up too much table space) so sorry Dyan but copied your idea for rubbish bin. Hope you don't mind.

A bag, a box and happy ladies...

I decided to do a class making alcohol inked boxes with roses and got everything prepared and ready but the ladies had other ideas.



They decided they would like to make a gift bag with tag instead so that was what I showed them and then when only an hour into the class they were finished we moved onto my original plan...so they went home very happy with two projects today...
Here's Monica, Margaret, me and Q


I was blog hopping and read on Dylan's blog that she had Dina Wakley to do a couple of classes at her studio. Envious me...flings hair back Miss Piggy style - Moi!! No - of course I am!!! Lol!
So yesterday afternoon I decided to have a try at Dina style (I have actually signed up to do one of her online classes starting soon) and here is the result - so far pretty pleased even though I say so myself but whether I will be once I have taken her class who knows - but I am at the moment!!!



Right, that's it for today - now off to have some much-needed lunch and a collapse in front of the TV for a bit.
Bye for now
Sue

Thought I would show you what I transformed the dull, boring black front cover of my 365 challenge journal into.



I used my two favourite colours - purple and lime green with just a hint of muted gold - and just had fun Dabbering, inking and stickling the grungeboard bits and pieces.

Tonight, the older girls class made the mirror. They painted, triple embossed and stamped into, stippled over masks, more stamping, distressed and cropadiled flowers and generally enjoyed themselves. We put my i-pod in the dock and sang along...Pink. Lady Gaga, Keane, Crowded House, Boyzone - you name it, its on there!

Here's Melissa...



and here are the rest of the girls...Maria, Celine, Yaa and Melissa -

The green mirror on the table saying hope is mine... every time I look in the mirror I hope that the reflection will say that I look better than I do - "hope"less I know but a girls gotta try.....!! Lol!

Anyway, another night when I am tired but happy so I'm off to make my hot choccy and take it to bed so
Bye for now
Sue