Yes, I'm back!

this is a pps. at the beginning haha!! Blogger is not playing the game and I can't seem to move pictures or text!!! what IS going on!!!


my 365 day challenge for May and June - sorry Kate but April got lost about 3/4 way through.

Yes, I'm back.

It has been a bumpy few weeks but we have survived the move and are almost there. Just the air con to have fitted (hopefully next Wednesday) and then that's all the major things done. We have probably made a few mistakes along the way but heyho! what's done is done and we will just have to live with it.

The work above is mine - gasp - yes at long last I have made something. What started out as a front cover for the Ranger techniques I have been demoing on tags changed when I realised I had fastened the flower through the hole for the book ring - out of practice is my only excuse!!!Lol!...so I coloured and stamped some card and glued the tag on and I think it looks OK.

I had an amazing class today. 8 ladies came and we distressed, we diecut, we stamped, we embossed, we drank coffee, we ate ginger biscuits and generally had a fabuloso time. I managed to remember to photograph a few of the ladies work before they left ...

all different but all very beautiful - just like the ladies themselves...a few photos of the girls and their projects... It is sooo hot here at the moment - around 30 degrees and not even a little breeze to help - so from a very sticky me I'll just say

Bye for now

Sue

ps won't leave it so long before I'm back

18 days later.....

Yes its 18 days since the new shop opened and it has been a whirlwind 18 days I can tell you. Classes have continued while boxes have been unpacked and all my customers have been most helpful in stepping around things. I have gained new pupils and new customers who never went past the old shop so the move seems to have been good so far.

I had to take a trip to Benidorm on Tuesday to renew my residencia so Inga stepped in to look after the shop while I went and just a morning away seemed to re invigorate me. Its amazing how consumed you can get and it's only when you take a step back can you see things more clearly which was just as well as I had a looong day on Wednesday with a five hour workshop, a kids class followed by my first scrapbook crop - so all in all 10am to 10p and all on my own.

Here is a random selection of photos from the last three weeks - sorry no work of mine as there hasn't been any. Colin is going away to the UK tomorrow for a golfing trip so I should have some me time over the next seven days. - amend that to I shall make time for me over the next seven days.

new shop

old shop

pressies

a Wednesday class

a Saturday class

a Monday class

Melissa

so Bye for now

Sue x

ps. Kate looking forward to a playdate in August

Tanya see you in 39 sleeps

We have moved and we opened today...

We have had a frantic weekend packing up and moving products, shelving, racking....and taking it a few yards down the road on the other side to the new shop.

I must say a HUGE thank you to my lovely friends who helped to make all this possible. Inga and her daughter Dayana who came along and packed up lots of the old shop and Lorraine who spent FOUR hours cleaning the floor of the new shop as well as putting stuff back on hooks, especially the high ones!! Lorraine's son George who did the painting, cleaned windows - boy were they dirty! and generally did anything asked of him and last but certainly not least hubby Colin who masterminded it all and spent hours there painting, putting up racking and putting together bookcases from Ikea...I had a two hour drive each way to Ikea yesterday when we realised we weren't going to be able to buy them locally as we had thought.

We had some thrills and spills along the way - mainly spills involving paint I may add. I had decided on charcoal grey paint for the outside and Colin goes off to buy it and comes back with battleship grey - yuk! looked awful so I put the tin in my car and drove home ok but on the way to the paint shop the next morning going round a roundabout the tin tipped over spilling grey paint over the carpeted floor of my car. Oh boy what a sticky mess! think thick grey custard. Colin cleans my car out and then buys colouriser and painstakingly mixes it till we agree its charcoal. OK so far.

Colin is then painting the shop front and Lorraine and I both hear a noise and look up to find him on the pavement entangled in the ladder platform. As he is 6foot 3 he looked like Bambi - all legs and arms. We rushed outside thinking he had fallen off and would be hurt but no he had leant against it and it collapsed trapping him in - he was more cross that the paint which he had lovingly mixed to get just the right shade of charcoal grey was spilled all over the pavement.

Anyway, ready or not - NOT!!! we opened and had a lovely (and profitable) morning. Friends old and new popped in with good wishes and we laughed as we couldn't find things we knew were there...but they'll turn up soon - maybe!!!...

No photos of the studio area yet as it looks like a bomb site. There is stuff everywhere still - products to be put out and equipment for the classes and workshops for when we get storage, ladders, tools, cardboard boxes both empty and full... you get the picture.

I will try to post more pictures later in the week when hopefully we will be more organised -

So that's where we are at so far.

Bye for now

Sue

Its official - the move is on

Woohoo!!! I signed the contract for the new shop today so its now official. We're moving.

The current shop is lovely and bright but very space limited - in other words small but it does have a good atmosphere. Messy work is not possible due to the likelihood of products getting damaged so the new shop having a dedicated shop area and a separate studio space is really exciting. Dabber splattering here we come!!!

However along with the excitement comes a very scary feeling - bigger premises equals more responsibility. I do have two very good friends who help me and we had a brainstorming session last Thursday to create a to do list - loads of things on there.

So if I'm absent from here for a while as I have been for the last couple of weeks hopefully you'll understand why. We are hoping to be relocated and up and running mid May there is sooo much to do.

I have loads of photos from the last couple of weeks ..... the pages I did on Dina Wakley's online class, my own classes and such like but they will have to wait for another day.

Bye for now
Sue

ps for locals we are relocating to the former Chip y Chop on Ctra Cabo Nao.

Spring has sprung!!!

Here is my 365 day challenge.

I know it's late but things are still hectic.....

The weather is glorious here. The sky is blue, the sun is shining and I have abandoned my boots and long trousers for cut offs and flipflops...mmmm Bliss!!! Spring has well and truly sprung.

Colin has gone to the UK for a week leaving me home alone - well if you can call alone being left with two dogs and a cat....and that means PLAYTIME!!! especially as the shop is closed now until Tuesday!! I am open six days a week for 50 weeks so I award myself the days between Christmas and New Year and the Easter break off. He left me some chili con carne and loads of bowls of homemade soup in the freezer so I shan't starve.

I am going to tackle my unfinished projects basket - at least that's the plan.

I intend to take Mum to Pedregeur market on Sunday and then lunch so she doesn't feel neglected while Colin is away. He is amazingly patient with her - she is so stress making - always has been unfortunately, it's nothing to do with her advanced years.

I'll carry on playing and maybe there will be something for me to put on here laater or tomorrow so

Bye for now

Sue

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