I'm still in....

The lovely and very talented Kate Crane of the Kathryn Wheel blog - see side bar -suggested keeping a 365 day challenge diary at the end of last year and several of us took up the challenge. Here's my July page all done and dusted but I can't show the August page as it only has a coat of paint on and no spaces for the entries as yet and as I have left the Big Shot at the shop it looks very likely that it will remain unfinished until Monday now. so watch this space for August's page.....

Bye for now

Sue

Some lovely people making some lovely art...

My side step card....

and Eileen, Jean, Margaret, Lorraine, me and Mu yesterday with our beautiful cards..

I was so proud of the lovelies that came to today's class as they made this complicated tri-shutter card. I taught the mechanics of making the card and then they changed tables where Yaa was waiting to help them stamp, distress, cut out and paint the various elements on it. Here's Yaa helping the girls and Mario... and these lovely girls - Sophie, Becky and Lauren are here on holiday from Oban in Scotland

Two great mornings work and some happy people

Bye for now

Sue

another busy day...

.....in paradise.

This morning between 10am and 2pm

I washed 32 very dirty blending foam pads
made a card
made a scrapbook page
checked around the shop for missing items of stock
wrote out orders for several suppliers
de-glued a couple of tables used by the kids last night
and served a lot of customers.

Then lunch in one of the bars behind the shop followed by a 20 minute trip to the nearby shopping centre at Ondara where I bought a new unit to hopefully organise the classroom - then back to the shop to assemble it, home, feed the dogs and cat, get the washing off the line, sort and fold it, grab a bowl of cereals as can't be bothered to make tea, check e-mails, dig out 5 credit notes which I keep forgetting to use!!! water the plants - ask Colin why I have so many - load today's photos onto computer and then blog.....and it's now 23.43 - aaagghh!!!! where did the day go?????


On Saturday evening at friends Maggie and John's barbecue, Maggie who is a very talented quilter, showed me some of her beautiful quilts saying one in particular was a favourite of hers.
It was blue and brown with shabby edges (deliberate) so I made this card as a thank you. I distressed the edges of the brown squares with my Tim's distresser tool and also the lollipop flower. I have been doing a lot more doodling lately so thought I would add some to a scrapbook page for a change and am quite pleased with the way it turned out.....and yesterday I had the back windows etched so that people know what the shop is and what we do and sell. Almost three months after moving here we are still getting people in thinking we are new.
The back windows over look two bar/cafes - the shop door is only onto the main road - so we have been getting people peering in while waiting for their coffees or egg and chips.

I still feel wide awake but I have another long day tomorrow with a big kids class between 5.30 and 7.30 and you always have to be one step ahead of them so better go to bed so

Bye for now

Sue

Recipe for happy children

A notebook made from marbled card, a title cut with my squeaky and tired Big Shot and bound with my trusty and well loved Bind-It-All....RECIPE

Take six cans of shaving foam.... add 6 bottles of Distress re-inker... Throw in some hard work... Plus a pair of mucky hands....or two...that's my assistant... Equals

Nine happy children...After all the clearing up was done I sent Yaa to the Bakers for two of anything with icing on - we needed the sugar hit after that!!!

Off for a siesta as Colin and I are going to a bbq tonight.

Bye for now

Sue

Boy, are we motoring now!!!

I have been in work, work, work mode for the past few days and today made a couple of cards for tomorrow's class.

Last Friday Mu asked if I could show them how to make a sidestep and a triple shutter card so tomorrow that is what we are making.

A sneak peek of two more completed projects for Autumn workshops but the light is too bad to photograph them tonight so they will have to wait till tomorrow. Just look at the Distressing technique with the blending tools and the concentration shown by the girls.... and here's Marta and friends showing their cards Sven here on holiday from Germany...Somehow Bad Blogger deleted the photos of Beni and Celine so they will have to go on another post. It is so frustrating not to be able to move photos around any more if you forget one or accidently delete or if blogger does it for you.
If anyone out there in blogland knows how to get around this problem please let me know - thanks.

Bye for now

Sue

Wooden house

WooHoo!!! I finished a project in just two days....
I decided I was going to do something other than a project for classes and I have had a blank wooden house in my craft room for quite some time so yesterday I painted it with Pebble Dabber and stamped a few images onto card and tissue to play around with.
Today I went to the shop half an hour early, assessed the bits from yesterday and then Distressed and Dabbered and Stickled between customers, went home late for lunch (a Crunchie ice cream - well its too hot to eat!) left the house early on the pretence of having to buy a new clip to put my hair up and dashed back to the shop. Did some more, helped the Wednesday youngsters with assorted projects - catch up day for them - and then having told Colin I would be home for dinner about 9ish - well it was 9ish - well 10.30ish really! So that's it then....the black flourishes are painted on the wall and not part of the house... just look at the mess I created making it...but worth it I think.

Well its now 23.34 and it is still sooo HOT I think I might skinny dip before going to bed so

Bye for now

Sue

Very grateful for the help...

Tanya asked could she bring me anything and I said no just yourself so while she was here she kindly made these three projects for me to use in classes....... to free me up to complete some of my unfinished projects!!! which I managed - gasp! and I will show them on here as soon as I have photographed them.....

and this is the Marie Antoinette painting Tanya made for me while she was staying here. Isn't she beautiful?
You can't see the real beauty in the photograph - the colours really glow

She also taught a couple of classes - a grunge house album which I am not allowed to show as she hasn't taught it yet in Belgium and a Utee class which was great fun and which I was so engrossed in I forgot to take photos.

On to this weeks classes of mine....

Alice,Becky,Almudena,Celine,Melissa,Beni,Marta,Mario,Itsiar,Sonia last Wednesday

Friday came and went without me taking photos, although the ladies enjoyed the ad hoc class taught by a very spaced out me - well four weeks worth of visitors in this heat does tend to have that effect - melted brain in an empty head!

Mario,Marta,Blaithin,Mariella,Yaa,Elena,Melissa on Saturday Anja,Darcy,Dayana,Sarah,Alicia last nightHave started working on more projects today - well I can't have too many finished ones now can I !!!
Bye for now

Sue

Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies...

Awarded myself a bit of journalling time in my busy morning today and had great fun painting, spraying, and doodling another couple of pages in my almost full moleskine - not to worry though I have more - some clean and fresh and some already started. I always like to have several on the go for when different moods strike.

(the images are from Lisa's altered art)

Tanya went back to Belgium yesterday - Colin took her to the airport so no more dramas there!
It was lovely having her here and having some girlie time with cocktails and loads of playtime so I am now looking forward to my visit to her in September.

I have some photos of the classes she took while she was here but Blogger is now so difficult - having to load photos from the bottom up - that I will have to put her photos on my next post.

Another 10 came to class last night....couldn't have had that many lovely people in my old shop so the move was a good one definitely...Almundena with her finished album..... and Itsiar and Sonia with theirs...

They popped into the shop this morning to bind their albums as they were too wet last night and Almudena and Itsiar return to Madrid till next July on Saturday. It is so lovely that I am having lots of Spanish girls come to class.

Mind you, the girls and boys include Spanish, German, Russian/Canadian, Irish/Venezualan, Columbian, and English of course - so a real league of Nations.

Absulutely shattered with this continuous 40 degree heat so now off for a dip in the pool and then off to bed to read my book so

Bye for now

Sue

Spain won the World Cup Final

After the match was won there was so much excitement....
there were fireworks....dancing.... flag waving....singing ...happy people...

Bye for now

Sue

even more unfinished projects...

As usual so many projects started and unfinished over the last couple of weeks but here are two I have finished.
One is a brag album of baby Louie for my good friend Lorraine's first grandchild and a canvas for Jaz, Louie's mum and Lorraine's daughter.

Saturday morning was ...well wow! Ten children turned up to class and we started a summer holiday album which will be finished next week so mine will be finished then too!!Yesterday afternoon after the class Colin, Tanya and I drove to Valencia, a lovely city - below is the basilica and cathedral - well worth a visit if you are in the area. It took us an hour to do the audio tour of the cathedral.

Colin and Tanya get on really well - they share the same sense of humour

this morning we relaxed in the pool again and again

Bob, a holistic masseur has just arrived to give Tanya a massage so

Bye for now

Sue

Hot, Hot, Hot...

Here at last is my July 365 day challenge page.

Its HOT here and the page reflects that. It has been painted, sprayed, stencilled, stamped. distressed, doodled and ticketed.

It was done a few days ago but Tanya and I have been having such a great time lazing around reading - well falling asleep a lot, swimming - well no that's too strenuous so lying chatting in the pool, playing with inks, paints and other messy stuff and there's so little time - her holiday is half over already.

Tanya is such a WUSS!!!!! its only a henna tattoo after all!!!

While the tattoo dried Tanya had sex on the beach..... and I had a brandy and Sprite...Cheers!

We are having a great time. More tomorrow.

Well, we are going to play cards so

Bye for now

Sue

Journeys and ramblings.....

ps this is the offending tool that the towtruck man and the mechanics couldn't find and I didn't know what it looked like...but I do now and hope you do too.

Wow! 200th post. I couldn't have imagined that when I started my blog after returning from Ranger U in October 2008....and what a journey it has been but I've loved every step of the way and made so many friends along the way so thank you to all of you who have left comments and made my ramblings feel so valued.

Now, talking about journeys and ramblings I haven't blogged since Wednesday as it feels as though a year has passed and not just a few days. First of all, as I was leaving to fetch Tanya from the airport I had a huge nosebleed that lasted 20 minutes but as I was in plenty of time that didn't matter so off I set with a hand towel on the seat beside me just incase. So far, so good.

11.10 and an hour and twenty minutes into an hour and a half journey to the airport and with me humming along to myself and thinking tra la la the car starts juddering violently and I think OH **** and luckily the motorway was quiet and the man in the car beside me realised what had happened and slowed to let me skew onto the hard shoulder. Yes, a tyre blow out - not just a common or garden puncture but a complete shred job!!! ...so I don the lime jacket, put out red triangle and get on to asistencia and the lady asks me where I am - how the bl888y h888 do I know where I am - I am stranded on a motorway 10 minutes from Valencia airport without a road sign in sight and she asks me where I am!!!!

This is now 11.39 - I know this cos its logged on my mobile. Luckily a Gurdia Civil Trafico arrives and speaks to lady. He leaves telling me a tow truck will be with me in 10 minutes.

I then speak toTanya to tell her I have a puncture and she says OK, a man she sat next to on the plane has offered her a lift to Moraira (next town along from where we live) so I phone Colin (on the golf course where else) and he agrees to collect Tanya from unknown man so to give Colin Tanya's phone number . ....are you with me so far......I reach into the drivers door pocket to get a biro when a lorry whooshes past and blows the door so far back and it now won't close (this is the door that Colin broke last week when changing my flat battery if you remember) so not only am I stuck on a motorway I have no idea where but I now can't close the bl888y door on the road side of the car!!! Oh joy!!!

Eventually. asistncia tow truck man arrives, looks at spare tyre, tells me he doesn't have the correct tool to change the tyre and will have to take me to a garage. Its now 12.39.

12.55 we arrive at garage where being Spanish they are just closing up for lunch and garage man says yes he can mend the tyre at 4 o'clock. I can't wait till 4 I say I have a shop to open at 5 and a class of girlies coming at 5.30 so I persuade tow truck man to take me to the Honda garage. A trip round the heavily trafficed streets of Valencia and we arrive at large Honda place where tow truck man asks Honda man for loan of said tool - keep with me ladies this will benefit you in the end I promise - and Honda man says no and goes off on his scooter presumably home for lunch. By this time my mobile has run out of money so I persuade helpful lady in Honda garage to use her phone and call Colin to put money on my phone so we can keep in touch.

13.45 towtruck man decides to take me to his yard from where the tow trucks operate. This is down one trackroads through orange groves - will anyone ever find me again I think!!!

Colin collects Tanya from unknown man - she says he's cute, single, lives near her and damn she forgot to get his phone number! but hey ho we have other things to think of so Colin and son Jon (who is here on his annual holiday) drive the hour and a half to Valencia, take another half an hour finding the man who has gone to meet them to guide them through the orange grove roads and arrive at 17.00 - yes 5 o'clock by now. Tanya has been left by the pool with Jodie, Jon's girlfriend.

Colin leans into the car and between the seats he picks up a tiny gadget - ladies this is where you need to listen carefully - it is about 1 inch, silver and sort of circular and it is the tool to release the security nut on the tyre -so go and locate yours now so you don't have a whole day wasted for a 5 minute tyre change.

Colin and Jon changed the tyre pfff just like that leaving the mechanics in the yard open mouthed. Jon jumped in the car and drove home with me and we got back at quarter past 7.

Sorry, it's been such a long story but please make sure you know where the gadget is because if I had known the man could have changed the tyre at the roadside - well maybe!!!!

To keep the story short I have missed out the bit where I phoned Inga and asked her to pop to the shop and put a notice on the door, the bit where I ran out of battery so no contact for 2 hours and lots of other bits too.

Anyway yesterday was another long story and as Tanya and I didn't get to bed until just before 5am and no we were not out partying I need to go and rest my weary eyes so

Bye for now

Sue