What's Rocking My World Friday :)

Can it really be Friday again? Evidently it can so that means...Well first of all Lucy is home, well and almost fully recovered. It's amazing to see her now you wouldn't believe she was the same doggy that, if I'm honest, I thought was knocking on Deaths door last Friday. I've said it before and I'll say it again. The PDSA ROCK! We will be taking out insurance for both our doggies with their insurance company because they get some sort of percentage if we do. They've been amazing.

Secondly - another thing I seem to say every week but that's not a bad thing right? My family and friends. Not because I've been grumpy and down this week - I've been a happy bunny and really... you lot are in part responsible for that and I loves you all because you ARE here both when I'm happy and when I'm a moody mare.

Next we have all three of my girls getting their hands dirty with their art this week. Their Mum may have a sparkly clean desk still but they've been busy, busy, busy.

This was Devvie's entry on a Facebook competition to win a giant Andrex puppy. She didn't win but she is getting a runners up mini puppy which she is very happy about. The comp criteria was to draw a picture of yourself with the Andrex puppy. I love it!Below is Phoebe's work in progress. She's altering a teabag box. So far she has covered it in tissue and glue and lots of acrylic paint. Loving the way it's going. She's talking about more paint and rub-ons next.And this picture shows the latest page in Ruby's book. I love the colours she's used this time. If you would like to see more pages from Ruby's book you can click here. I absolutely love it.And finally, I'm hoping to be signed up to a Suzi Blu class by this weekend. I've got my eye on the Goddess and Poet class which amongst others has $10 off at the moment. (Be quick - only till the first of August!) I've wanted to do one of her classes for a long long time but am such a ditherer. However Donna of Doone's infectious enthusiasm for the classes has finally given me the push I needed. I am so excited. Not just about this class but about so many creative doors that seem to be opening lately. I don't want to sound cheesy but there has been a definite shift in my attitude the past few weeks and it feels like I am finding out who I am not just creatively but in all aspects and I'm lovin' it, lovin' it, lovin' it!

Oh wait...I can't not mention my world record breaking (in terms of my Blog's lifetime) 79 comments this WOYWW Wednesday. The comments received have had me in stitches. I am just a tad worried what I'll have to do to top that next week. AND I visited every blog on the list by 9am on Thursday! Whoooo yeah! Go me!

Thank you as always for stopping by you lovely people. If you'd like to play along with the positiveness that is Rocking Friday - be sure and link up with Virginia here :)

Oh and hold on again... Gauche Alchemy is sponsoring a very cool contest on These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things at the moment to win the last GA ACME kit before they move to subs only. The challenge is to create something about your favourite bands. Why not pop over for a peek.

Oh I say! WOYWW?

Morning WOYWWers - I thought rather than just tell you what little is on my desk today... I'd show you. I had a deep clean of my craft area over the weekend and haven't had a chance to play since. It's so clean my desk has space for... ME!Just be glad I didn't go for the nekked or bikini clad car modelling type shot and saved your souls from being scarred for life by just doing this. Well... I did want you to come back after all!

Thanks for stopping by and if you want to play along with more desk hijinks be sure to link up with Julia . She who leads us poor innocent crafters astray like this :)

Rocking My World Friday :)

It's Friday already! So that means it's time for...Again this week the PDSA has to come top of my list. They have done so much for Lucy our dog throughout the week. Unfortunately she had to be rushed back in last night because she was struggling to breathe. After an x-ray this morning they confirmed she's got advanced pneumonia. She's in a lot of pain but they've heavily sedated her so that at least she can get some sleep. We have to ring in the morning to see how she weathered the night. She's a fighter my girl - I'll give her that. The bill is now nearing 4 figures - the PDSA runs on donations and we have been leaving one each time we've had to go up this week and will be leaving a bigger one at the end of the month. Had we taken her to a normal vets there is absolutely no way we could have paid the bill... I don't know what would have happened. So I got very angry, so, SO angry when the receptionist told us (after the girls had made them 'thank you' cards) that it was a nice change and that quite often they got no donation or no donation and moaned at. I can't understand humans sometimes. So the PDSA really have rocked my world again this week and I'll be donating and buying pet food for them whenever I can from now on.

Also again, my friends. You have played a huge factor in my tenuous grip on sanity this week - a couple of times I've teetered and whether you know it or not you've caught my shirt tails and hauled me back to my senses... however odd they may be - I'm starting to kinda like being me. And for having you lot as mates, I will be forever grateful.

Talking of friends - the filthy bunch that lurk on Facebook... it started off so innocently. My wanting to provide my lovely chums with some proper crumpet to counterbalance all the Twilight boys malarkey that's around at the moment... and what happens? It descends into googling pictures of nekked Wolverine! I don't know. Very funny though.

Ooh I say! I may have to start reading comics.

Oh... one small thing. I may not have mentioned it being as I'm quite shy and all that... just in case I haven't told you... tiny little thing... I'm part of the GAUCHE ALCHEMY DESIGN TEAM!!!
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Whoop!

*ahem* So now you know. That rocked my world that did I can tell you. So being the recognised artiste that I am now, I will have to start signing everything... except cheques... Still no materialisation of my demands from the entourage. No peanut M&M's, no sour cola bottles.... no ice cold Diet Cokes... if they weren't my family I'd sack them you know. Disgraceful. I even had to make dinner. Me. Sullying my artistic hands on menial tasks. If I hadn't been starverous I'd have laid down the law!

So once again I end this post smiling. It really is worth having a go at Virginia's feel good exercise - no matter how bad a week you think you've had there is always something you can pluck out that made you laugh or smile. If you fancy joining in, link up here.

Thank you as always for stopping by :)

TOOT TOOT!

Fanfare Maestro please!

I have been wanting to shout this news from the rooftops since I found out - might've had a job getting up there mind you but the urge has been there! And today... TODAY I finally get to un-glue my lips and shout...

I, yes me, this person here - is a Gauche Alchemy design team member!!! (Excessive use of exclamation marks is indeed warranted in this case!!!!!!!!) Check here if you don't believe me! 'tis true I tell you!

Oh the endurance and patience my family have had to put up with since I found out. GA have no idea of the monster they have created. I have used this to officially declare myself an artiste. No, not just an artiste... a RECOGNISED artiste. Sadly another word has been tagged on to the front of that which I wont repeat but the guilty offenders will be punished at my leisure. I am now on the hunt for an appropriate beret and smock to paint spatter. I have demanded bowls of sour cola bottles and peanut M&M's to be placed around my work area along with ice cold Diet Cokes... these are yet to materialise but I'm sure they will. At some point. Even if I have to bliddy do it myself!

I may not have put across just how UBER excited I am. But I am. Just an iddy bit. I SO love Gauche Alchemy in all it's vintagey, retro, grungy, geeky, unique, individual gauchiness. I hope you can put up with my spouting chocolate covered words of joy for a good while yet.

Thanks for stopping by. You may leave the peanut M&M's in the bowl on your way out :)

WOYWW?

Hello WOYWWers - You catch me in the middle of a sort out. I have mess everywhere.
That is the dreaded scan disk running on my PC again. I don't know what's going on with it. If I'm lucky it just crashes once an hour but it's usually more. Have tried cleaning it, defragging, running virus checks you name it. Have been frantically backing up my photos and documents in case the dreaded final crash happens any time soon. I usually save £1 a day towards the Ally Pally show, however I've talked it over with Craig and we've decided that I will miss the September Ally Pally, continue saving and then come Christmas we will see how much I have and he'll put the rest of the money towards a new PC for Christmas. In effect he's bought the whole thing - it's his pockets I raid for change each day. It's easier to save this way than find a big lump in one go.

I am still trying to get round all the desks from last week so if you find a random question totally unrelated to your desk this week it's because I'm still nosing at last week

For my regular readers I have some good news. Lucy is HOME! She is still a little wheezy, shaky and a bit spaced out, the vets still don't know what actually happened but over the last couple of days she has been eating and drinking more and today she is a lot steadier and faster on her feet. Fingers crossed she is on the mend. Thank you for all your well wishes.

Why not come and play along with WOYWW? Link up with Julia for more desk/table/sofa... floor voyeurism here. Thanks as always for stopping by :)

Rocking My World Friday :)

It's been hard to think of some positives this week - for the most part we've all been sick with worry about the oldest four legged member of our family. Lucy was taken ill Wednesday afternoon when she started shaking and violently being sick. Through the night she became progressively worse and by Thursday was struggling even to breathe let alone be sick. She was drooling foam and just generally out of it. Craig and I were secretly thinking the worst.

The brilliant, amazing PDSA got her in on an emergency appointment Thursday afternoon and told us they thought it could be a combination of a tumour and pneumonia. Just the word 'tumour' had me breaking down and having to leave the centre through a crowded waiting room cuddling the yellow blanket we had carried her in with. Everyone must have thought she'd gone but I didn't really care by that point what they thought - believe me I don't ever publicly show my emotions. The last midwife I had when I was in labour told me to my face just to scream as I must surely be doing on the inside (boy was she right!) But I didn't. Grit my teeth and get on with it is what I did. I didn't cry at my own Mum's funeral - it all happens behind closed doors, It's like a shutter comes down that most probably makes me look like a hard faced mare to the rest of the world... so I think even Craig was surprised when I lost it.However today the news is a little better, they are keeping her in over the weekend. She is still dosed up on painkillers and anti-biotics. They still don't know what happened just that her symptoms all fit with her having ingested toxins. How that has happened I don't know - having 3 kids we are hot on things like bleach being out of the way. I am trying not to think that someone could have thrown something over the fence... but have warned my neighbours who also have a dog just in case. So I think - the PDSA must surely be one of my number one World Rocking things this week. Definitely.

I say this every week but my friends really rock my world every week. Most of you are to far away for me to give thank you hugs, most of you don't even know that you've helped me this week, not just this week in fact, but you have, even just reading your blog posts about amusing ways you've hurt yourself, offering me threesomes with Florence of Florence & The Machine (Um... if she's up for it too maybe we can talk!) Letting me waffle about nothing on Facebook... I think in a way the past couple of weeks Facebook rocks my world too. I didn't really get it for the longest time but have been able to catch up with my sister who works the oddest shifts this week, my other sister who my email is ignoring for some reason managed to contact me through there - I had the oddest and yet funniest conversation about Ewok balls with Gail and Virginia's brother John... all of it lifts my spirits and makes me laugh proper belly laughs! So thank you everyone ;)

Talking of Gail, she seems so in tune with me lately it's kind of spooky. I received this jiffy this week - what my postie thinks of all these weirdly addressed envelopes I don't know but I'm loving them and they don't half swell my head *g*Inside was this gorgeous little bee hanging, he is telling me to Bee Happy dontcha know, the keyring, again made me laugh and had my Dad look at me a bit oddly. Reminder for next time - don't open unexpected mail in front of my Dad... especially don't tell him it's from my 'should I ever go gay' back up laydeeee! The card contains the most beautiful letter, no I'm not sharing but Gail you are the most amazing person I have ever been fortunate enough to 'meet'. Can't wait to meet up properly soon.

And lastly. OK this one may sound a bit weird. Sometimes I am easily impressed and definitely easily amazed... what's Rocking My World this week. I can drive! Not only can I drive but I believe I am pretty crash hot at it... most of the time. My reversing is brilliant and my little Rover 25 has this fantastic turbo button that just flings you right back in your seat and you literally fly! There's this little stretch of road near us that goes from 30mph to 60mph quite suddenly. I'm a bit of a stickler that in 30mph zones - I drive at 30mph. Well it is the law but it also amuses me all the new words I learn from lip reading the fist shaking people in the cars that are practically humping my boot behind me. However the moment that hits 60mph and then on to the motorway, that turbo button gets pushed and the look on their faces as they eat my dust. Aaaah well you just can't buy that! 

Craig just informed me this pic is not a Rover 25... Hey, it's a Rover and it's the same colour green as mine so ner, ner, ner, ner!

I am the least co-ordinated person you will ever meet - I don't dance for that very reason. I am also one of the most accident prone people you will ever meet... I am now banned from touching both ours and my Dad's hoover...well, anything electrical of my Dads at all really. So the fact that I can manouver this big hunk of metal, not just in an OK fashion but... yes, I am pretty damn brilliant at it... well that rocks my world. I love driving, REALLY love driving. The best part of our trip to Scotland every other year is the 12 hour drive up there and the 12 hour drive back. Now I love Scotland with a passion and do consider myself more Scottish than English I pine when I am away from Scotland so for me to say the best part of the holiday is the drive... that's a major thing. I don't know what's made me more aware of this awesome magical ability that I CAN DRIVE this week, but something has, I think it might have been the motorcycle that was egging me on to race him yesterday. Silly boy. Nice bike though. What I'm most amazed about is that everyone else is not equally amazed that they can do it too. Why do people get so angry when they drive? It's such a fabulous thing to be able to do.

So what's Rocking Your World this week? See I'm smiling now having typed this up, go on think of all the positives in your week and then link up with Virginia so we can all be happy with you :)

Thanks for stopping by!

R.I.P Circle Journal

...that's ROCK In Peace ;) A friend, Marie, messaged me on Facebook about a circle journal she was setting up on UKS to commemorate rockers no longer with us, would I be interested? Um, let me think...HYUH!

So if you are involved in this journal in any way and want a surprise, look away, look away now.

I decided to have a go at an altered book as the basis for my circle journal. A few days into prepping it and painting and ripping and splodging, generally getting messy and tralala-ing away to my hearts content...something made me check the criteria page again. Books were to be 6"x6"... Oh. Hmm. Mine was A4. Oops.So a couple of days later. A 'new' book freshly rescued from the charity shop and off we go cutting and slashing and splodging and tralala-ing again.

The cover still worked out bigger - I think it was 8x8 or something like that but my pages inside were near enough the right size, I made them a little bit longer than 6" so I've got something to bind to when it all comes home.
My intro page and CD page - the heart on the ribbon pulls out to reveal my CD playlist. Each CJ will contain a CD and playlist to do with each persons specific theme.
Roy Orbison is my rocker because I firmly believe that listening to his music when growing up had a real influence on the music I love now. You can really hear it in the likes of Chris Isaak and Jace Everett. And yes, I was banned, BANNED from doing my CJ about Alice because of the small technicality that he's still alive. Pfft! So he does feature quite a lot on my CD... yep it's very easy to go from Roy Orbison to Alice in a few quick steps.I decided to do a book of rememberance as my sign in pages at the back...I've sent all the original cardboard pages that were in the book and have chopped up the paper pages from the *ahem* first book that was slightly to big. I'm hoping this way people can make their entries as big, small, thick or thin as they like ;)So my baby has started it's journey and I've received the next one in the chain. This CJ has already been so much fun... and OK I will admit a little stressful because my own daftness had me running late from the get go. But it's had such an influence already. I've been playing my music so much more, I've already discovered some 'new' music from the book I've just received which has set me off googling and You-Tubing other artists. Can't wait to see what my book looks like when it comes home.

Thanks for stopping by, be sure to check back in... oooh, lets say, a years time to see my finished book return home :)

WOYWW?

Quickie from me today to show you my shambles of a desk. Wouldn't mind if it was creative mess but no - it's just mess.Yes Alice, it makes me feel like that too, just looking at it! Ahahaha!

Actually I am pretty pleased with some things on it. See that green bucket thing there? That was my bargain of the week in Aldi. It's actually a children's gardening set but it was minus the trowel and spade so was reduced to £1.99 - it still had a little metal bucket and some gloves inside. I've wanted one of those desk tidy tote bags for ages to store all my glues etc - wont this be just perfect?

The jiffy contains a lovely card and present from my gorgeous Gail, it's staying in the jiffy till I get a bit more sorted so that it doesn't get ruined. The little pile of postcards underneath the jiffy and journal were nabbed from the cinema this week. Am always looking for little note-cards to slip in with the things I send off and these were really cool ones. Some Lion King, Avenue Q (very funny ones spoofing Michael Jackson & Dirty Dancing) and those top ones are advertising Linger - a new book with a gorgeous cover. I'll be definitely checking out the postcard stand again the next time I go to the cinema... went on a girly trip with my eldest to see Eclipse if you are interested. She loved it - well, she loved the near nekked Jacob anyway! Me? Exploding crystal vampires, not much blood, wooden acting... lovey shmoveyness... meh! *ducks for cover and hides* It certainly was lacking a tall broody Bill that's for sure. Am afraid I just don't get the Robert Pattinson/Taylor Lautner thing at all... at all.

Apologies for my grainy photo this week folks. Didn't want to miss another WOYWW so have taken this Tuesday night and am scheduling it to post. Hopefully if all has gone to plan then today Craig's deliveries will arrive on time, we'll deliver it all and hopefully be catching what's left of the Hobbycraft sale (need paint brushes) and releasing the pidgies this afternoon. I'll catch up with you all later today!

Have a good 'un and if you fancy a nose at some more deskeramas then elbow your way through the melee at Julia's and slap your name on Mr Linkies backside so we can all find you... and I've seen other people ask so am going to be cheeky and say, if I'm not linked up when you drop by,  please would someone link me up with Julia? I wouldn't ask but... well, you know - have been on a stash ban since April and for OH to agree straight away to a trip to Hobbycraft (his idea of all forms of torture)... well, what can you say but "where's the car keys?" ;) Thank you!