Another catch up...and some Christmas cards...

Life is hectic as ever. 

With the arrival of Ben and putting arrangements in place for the shop to be looked after while I am away in the UK having cuddles..... and chasing up orders that have yet to arrive????? grrr!......  and then to add to all that, since the weekend we have had some very heavy rain.....the photo shows one of the roads on my drive home - like driving up a river...

and don't you know it the shop roof leaked again but luckily Inga was on hand to mop up yesterday and this was the scene that greeted me this morning - puddles on plastic bags covering the till, credit card machine, etcetc.....

 After all that doom and gloom here are just a few of the Christmas cards from this years classes.....I always challenge the ladies and this year colour was the challenge.  How many of you use non-traditional Christmas colours on your cards. Talking to my customers it seems that cardmakers can be very "safe" when it comes down to it. I used red with brown...

 and brown and cream.....

 and Halloween papers from Echo Park - aaahhhh!!! orange and charcoal.....how daring !!! 
more cards tomorrow...

Now for my lovely girlies... these are some of my class girls with their finished canvases... loads of spraying, stencilling, painting, diecutting and fun...

and these two photos are from Birthday parties that we have held at the shop during October...

this was Izzy's 10th birthday party - all girls...

 and below is Vivi's 10th birthday party - 9 girls and 4 boys...

 The feedback was excellent from the parties and we plan on hosting more in the New Year...
the canvas was based on one Tanya made in July when she was here on holiday - thanks sweetie - and here's the version that I made on a pre-party trial run..... just needs a photo and its good to go...pity the photo doesn't show all that menacing sparkle and drippy black drips!!! thought the boys would prefer something a bit less girly...

above is Tanya's canvas after a couple of weeks in the sunny shop window - a totally different colour to the one below - how it was when Tanya made it - just shows how quickly things fade here...

.....and I'll leave you with another photo of Ben...

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

Noisy night!!!

Whew!!! what a noisy class the girls were tonight....but they achieved a whole lot so that's OK. First they painted the canvases that they had gessoed last week and while they were drying they made a Christmas card and after a short break for juice and ginger biccies they decorated their canvases. Not bad for their age I reckon.
Emily 6 Lauren 7 and Dayana 8.



Beautiful work girls and equally on a par with the canvases the older girls made last week.

and on Saturday morning Blaithin finished her canvas and a Christmas card.



Busy, busy, busy...so am now off to have some dinner and collapse on the sofa and watch TV. No idea what's on but who cares.

Bye for now
Sue

Wednesday 15th was a hectic day...

...I opened the shop as usual at 10am and then at 12 noon the five hour monthly workshop kicked off with 4 lovely ladies and Tanya and myself. We made a black and white star book with atc's to go inside the pockets. Unfortunately we were so involved I forgot to take photos during the day but will put photos of the atc's on here as soon as I can. Photos are here now








Before all the ladies had left the girls were there for a 5.30 start to finish the canvases they have been working on





Ellen returned with a friend so they learnt to draw doll faces under the tutelage of Tanya while I helped the other girls to add the finishing touches. I think they are all so fabulous...and they went home pleased too. Megan has returned to the UK with hers in bubble wrap - see you in July Megan.

I made Tanya smile/pull a face as I said "say sausages" as I took the photo!! Shan't say sorry for that as I shall get another bruise!!!!!

Gotta go - shop to open and two more classes today so
Bye for now
Sue x