YO! HO! HO!

Yesterday I arrived at the shop as usual - wish this mess was over and done with thought I....and then...... a concrete mixer arrived..... and out of it came all this wet concrete!!!!! aaaahhhhh!!! I'm stranded !!! marooned!!!!



Next thought is how will my customers get in..... so open the door and say in my best Spanglish to the jefe (boss, chief) the one in the blue shirt guiding the concrete

""?que estas haciendo? what are you doing????""





hey my ladies are arriving in 10 minutes! Lots of hand gestures and.....planks are put down and



Mu and Marianna are gallantly helped into the shop...



Sadly, I missed Margaret arriving but with her dodgy hip I didn't dare ask her to replay getting in so we settled down to making Christmas cards.



Another lovely day in paradise!!!
Bye for now
Sue

Happy 3rd Birthday to you...

...yes, the shop has been open 3 years today. When I first opened the shop I hoped to make it to Christmas of that year and here we are three years on and still going strong. I have loads of lovely customers many of whom have become friends and delightful children who attend the kidz classes and who make them so much fun.



With the children in mind I made a paper bag album. The Wednesday girls have already started theirs - it helps doing projects with the older girls first as I can then foresee any problems I might encounter with the younger ones - and I shall start the Monday girls doing theirs this week.





The next door neighbour Janice and I having a tea party







My Mum used to knit my cardigans and it is interesting to see that she used the same pattern in different colours each year. She did the same when my eldest son, Lee was small - I remember him having so many v-neck cable sweaters in all colours!!!

This is me with my cousin John sitting on the running board - yes running board - of my Dad's car.





Thank goodness she abandoned putting a bow in my hair from hereon!!! (The baby is Christine - cousin John's sister.)











It's interesting that something you think is finished, when you look at it on here you can see so many opportunities for embellishments and doodling so while the girls are busy working on their albums I shall continue to add to mine.

Well, apart from classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday that is what I have been doing this week. I started another mixed media painting this morning so the image is sketched on the canvas and hopefully I might have some time and/or energy over the weekend to add some paint to it.

Colin returned from the UK on Thursday and said how cold and wet it was there. The weather has been sooo HOT here that it makes you feel sooo lethargic. I would love to be able to send some to my friends and family in the UK so they can sit in their gardens and enjoy a touch of sun that does so much to help the health and temper.

Hoping some sunshine will come your way
Sue x

Yes, they are done.

I'm back in the land of the living, thank goodness.

I mentioned in my last post -how many days ago??? that I had to finish my daughter's Wedding Invitations and I have! Whew! Yes, they are done! All 125 of them.

Many thanks must go to ..... drum roll.....

...Ems (Dyan's daughter) who speedily came to my rescue with that dark green card

...Yaa and her sister who came to the shop Thursday afternoon at such short notice and who cut ribbon lengths and attached double sided tape to the backs of sooooo many pieces of card

...Muriel who located the beautiful ribbon in England.

Stars, every one!

I still have to complete the Order of Service covers but the stamping and heat embossing is done - it just needs matting and layering and attaching. I am hoping that they will be ready to go with Colin to the UK on 27th July but if not they will go with me when I go to the Wedding in October.


*************

I am SO HAPPY because my son and his two gorgeous children Abigail (9) and Joshua (7)arrived from Scotland last night - hence the rush as I wanted time to play with them as I see them so rarely. (Sorry Tanya and Norah for the lack of communication but you can now see why)

This is them leaving Dunfermline 11.30 yesterday morning.....



...and this is them at 8.30 last night.








I was woken this morning with.....
"Granny, can you get up so we can go in the pool"

and then with Grampy gone to golf and Daddy relaxing in the hammock they came to the shop for some arty play.

Abs stamped, heat embossed and painted with the lovely Blonde Moments mica pigments.



Josh made a little house - first time heat embossing - fabby job Joshie!!



...put bugs on the roof!! and drew and stuck pictures behind fragments for door and windows.



and then Granny said "lets get messy" so out came the spray inks and we sprayed and screwed up pieces of copy paper


and added heat embossing and then stuck them to card as covers for a holiday album.





and now Grampy has taken them to the beach for "quality time".

At the end of the month I may get some "quality time" to do something for myself but in the meantime I will just enjoy these delightful little people.

so Bye for now
Sue

a little more of the same

The lovely Margaret who comes to Friday class had a new hip in March and was doing so well with her recovery but she phoned today to say she has an infection in it so
Get Well Soon Margaret we miss you.

On Tuesday the ladies enjoyed the challenge that I set for them and so I repeated it today. Same sketch, same basic ingredients and off they go...



This is mine from today


I had stuck it all down before I realised that I had forgotten to stamp the flourishes - oh well never mind!!

and Muriel's



and Fizz's



and Linda's



Janet took her card home to finish so I will post it when I have the photo.

.....and all very different from each other and from those made on Tuesday. It is such a pity that the sparkle of the glitter card on a couple of these doesn't show up.

-amile please-



More happy ladies = happy me!

Bye for now
Sue

PS Janet's card is here...

What a way to spend a day!!!

Yesterday for the class I set them a challenge - they could only use what I had put out for them and they had to make a card based on the sketch I had drawn. It was interesting to see what different ideas and slants they put on them.
I gave them loads of different colour pieces of card and paper, both patterned and plain, every Distress ink pad, a pot of clear embossing powder and a selection of Paper Artsy and Blonde Moments stamps and that was it.

The sketch was fairly simple - they could use reels of tape or ribbon or pots to draw the circles out with and then just add their own imagination.

This was the sketch and my card





and Christine's


So there I am with my new Cannon IXUS801S (which is fantastic after my old cheapo camera expired) taking photos of the cards when up popped a message - Charge battery - and it promptly switched off!!! so no way of taking photos of the other cards.

As Norah lives in an apartment above the shop ahe popped in with her card today and I was able to photograph it with my now recharged camera but as Erica lives miles away unless I can get her to email it to me you will have to make do with seeing her discuss with the others how/where to embellish her card.





After class I planned to drive to Ikea which happens to be almost 2 hours drive away to buy some new chairs for the shop and a couple of other bits for myself and Norah had offered to accompany me so off we go. Two hours later after an uneventful journey down the motorway we pull into the Ikea car park to realise it was very quiet, eerily quiet in fact!!! so we park up and get out, walk to the front doors and lo and behold there is a large notice proclaiming they were closed for Murcia Regional Day - how much of a b....r is that!!!

Not only were Ikea closed but so were all the other shops so no visit to Primark or anywhere else. We decided we needed to eat so dropped into Pizza Hut and had a really lovely meal of spinach and three cheese tortellini - the service was diabolical and the music worth listening to but SO LOUD!!! it made your ears hurt!!! and then another two hour journey home. What a way to spend a day - a very HOT day at that so thank goodness for air con in the car.

Bye for now
Sue x

PS Erica has now emailed me a copy of her card so here it is

I am going to eat cake...

... at the birthday party of my friend's grandson this afternoon. He is two years old today. 2 years - where has the time gone. He is a beautiful little boy - a real boy who loves cars and boy things. This morning between customers I made an exploding box instead of a card - I know his mum Kerry will appreciate it! I'll take loads of photos and she/we can finish decorating it tomorrow.

I also made a necklace for my friend Norah who has just returned from over-wintering in the UK. She was absolutely delighted with it when she saw "Dear Norah" spelt how her name is spelt in the picture from Crafty Individuals complete with the hand of love charm. She pops into the shop most days when she is in Spain and I really miss her when she's not. She was my first ever student. She popped her head round the door when I first opened and said I'm not creative or arty but I need to make a 100th birthday card - do you think you could help me - I said pop in Friday morning - she did - she skipped out like a 5 year old with the 100th birthday card and another one she had made and hasn't looked back since - she has blossomed so beautifully and I am so proud of her. She has just made 52 Wedding invitations for her niece's wedding and they are absolutely so professional. If I can persuade her to lend the sample to me I will photograph it and put it on here.

Just time to have a quick look at the newspaper (yesterdays and not even opened!!) , a comb through the hair, an hour at the party then off to the shop for the older girls class - more of the faces - drawing, painting, etc and by 8.30 tonight I shall be just about ready for bed!!

Sue xx

what a change!

Well, what a change in the weather. Today woke up to grey skies and chilly and it has rained and been generally miserable all day. Put a sweater back on....

and, checked the blogs of those I had tagged and Dyan took up the challenge so go and visit her on her blog -click on websites to visit under Dylan's blog - well worth a visit...

and they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so here's a photo of some of the projects I have taught with Dyan's inspiration and Blonde Moments products. I hope you approve Dyan!

Off to have a shower now as I am going out to celebrate a friend's birthday with a meal at the restaurant my lovely Wednesday girl Ellen's parents own. You will find Ellen on this blog several times if you look! She is the one in the grey tracksuit doing some stamping.

Bye for now

hugs Sue xx

HI, I'm back!!!

and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to you. Better late than never.

Well I've been a long time away. Classes, the shop, working on projects for 2009 workshops and classes, Christmas and New Year with family visiting and quarter and year end books to get done - whew! but I have survived. I know how a single Mum feels!!! my shop = my kids!!! Colin did have a pretty BIG moan "do you ever talk/think about anything but the shop"..... and now my best friend Ros who lives in Jeddah is here for a couple of weeks. She loves to play cards (hearts, spades sort) and as she is here for such a short time we play 51 most evenings. I pleaded a headache tonight.



I photographed the Christmas album the kidz have been working on but the colours are not very true. They are the Ranger broken china/worn lipstick colours and turquoise and pink of the Blonde Moments papers.


Front cover stamped with Paper Artsy stamps and coloured with Ranger Distress inks



Stippled over and through Grungeboard - I love this stuff - it reminds me of the smell of new handbags!!!


Spritz and flick technique behind the lovely Bobby snowman by the artistic stamper and he is sitting on Crystal stickles snow - loadsa glitter!



Front and back covers with Blonde Moment parcels glittered (the kidz just love glitter!!!)



more glitter on the stocking tops ..... and my Santa page was hole punched with the Bind It All on the wrong side!!!!! I'm more dangerous than the kidz!!!!


I was given a blog award by the talented Kate of the Kathryn Wheel in December but sorry Kate, I didn't catch it. Hopefully you will forgive me and I will redeem myself this year and really earn it.
Visit her website at http://thekathrynwheel.blogspot.com/ to see her wonderfully inspiring work. There is a give away on there until next Friday - which of course I am going to win Ha!ha!



My Ranger best buddy, the lovely Tanya Watts has tagged me. I have to share with you 5 addictions so here goes.....


The first has definitely got to be chocolate. I enjoy the British sort, the Cadbury's, Mars, Galaxy type and not the special Belgian or truffle sort. Sorry to all you chocolate purists out there but I am a Philistine when it comes to chocolate.

Second has to be my dog Bailey and my cat Tia. I just love these littlies to death. They are always so pleased to see you when you came home. I spent a very pleasant girly afternoon with Bailey's girlfriend and two of their puppies, Teddy and Kitty (oh, and their Mum's of course)

Third addiction has to be living in Spain. I cannot bear the cold and the thought of returning to scraping ice off the car and a 12 minute journey to work taking the best part of half an hour in heavy traffic when I can be at work in 7 minutes, park right outside the shop even though it is on the Main Road through Javea and be home in 7 minutes and walk the dog through the forest outside the house can't be beaten.


view of the forest from the balcony off my bedroom - not taken this morning

going to the shop this morning - Bailey thinks he is coming too!!..and the oranges are so sweet

Addiction 4 is crafting - especially with Ranger products. The colour palette is so easy to use and suits my style of work perfectly. I also love the funkiness (is that a word??) of Paper Artsy and Blonde Moment stamps.

Addiction 5 has to be looking at other people's blogs! I spend so long usually (not in the last 2 weeks or so) that it leaves me with my head spinning with ideas and so little time to actually do my own work!
So that's me then.....now all I have to do is think of the 5 people I am going to tag. I think I'll leave that till tomorrow as its almost midnight and I was supposed to be having an early night!

I'll be back tomorrow, bye for now Sue x