Rocking My World Friday...

Knew I couldn't maintain posting on time for long. Still, if I'm quick I'll at least scrape in at the weekend!

Lets see, what's made me smile this week? Well, a while back I won a giveaway over at Cameron's for one of her hand painted rocks. I said that I'd give it to Devvie because it was the week of her birthday. Well, it arrived this week - but that's not what made me smile (although it did.) No, selfishly - the thing that made me smile, a lot, was the teeny tiny extra rock that Cam did for me because she knew I was giving the deer away. Nestled in amongst some stash and stationary (also so very me) was a little crow on a smooth, oh so handleable, stone.  Isn't it gorgeous? Thank you Cam.

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Craig. Urban Forager extraordinaire. Sat here chuckling. I  googled earlier to see if "Skip Diver" was an actual term. It is. The UK version of Dumpster Diving! And the wiki page explained to me all about Urban Foragers. I love it - that tickles me so much! I am imagining sending Craig out on expeditions with a spear in the future - if nowt else I might have to make him a badge! But anyway - for weeks he's been telling me NO! We will not fork out for an inferior piece of wood for my desk in the shed. Give him time. He will find the perfect piece in a skip. He just needs to find the perfect skip. He, Man. He can sense where to look! (Actually my Mum had wicked "Urban Foraging" skills - ah, if only I could tell her! She would feel so redeemed! My Grandad used to just call her a scavenger.) Getting to my actual point - he came home on Friday - Victorious. He'd found that skip. Cue angels chorus and light shining upon it...

Gorgeous piece of kitchen sideboard - thicker than what we've actually got in our own kitchen. 4 foot long. Heavy as a... well, a flipping heavy thing. I can't lift it. He's carried this home, in the rain! What can I say? He was right. I'll repeat - Urban Forager Extraordinaire :) Love that man!

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Devvie gave me the birthday present she had been working on this week.  It's mixed media on a roughly A4 sized piece of ply wood. Love it, my picture doesn't show up all the little details very well. Isn't it gorgeous?

"Lucky"

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This girl. Ah, but we are butting heads at the moment. Since she turned 5 it's like she's pushing every button to see how far she can go. Teachers say she's a delight at school. A hard worker - can't do enough to help teachers, other children... an angel. Comes home and it's like a switch flips the moment she steps through the door. There are moments when I spy my baby - and I know they all go through it. I remember with her older sisters... just don't remember it this bad. I know, I know this is a phase and will pass... which is why moments like these are so precious. When she sits, totally focussed, in the zone with her paints... (Not knowing Mum is behind capturing this rare calm in the storm.)

I love too how she will sit, flip open her book, dip brush in paint and just go. No agonising over how it will look. Just paints freely. How did I lose that? How do I get it back!

She's coming back to "Lady with huge blue basket walking in the pink sun" at some point. She says it's not finished :)

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A few other little smiles...

• I won £10 on the (free to play) Birthday Lottery - that's going in the pot towards a book I'm saving for.
• An almost whole week of pretty decent weather (if we discount my getting caught in a hail stone shower - without a coat!)
• Silver crow being spotted near our house, foraging for bugs
• Tree's in our road suddenly exploding with white blossom. Looks lovely.
• Blue cheese toasties (Again, I know - but they are yum!)
• Early nights, in bed by 10pm. Craig says we're like pensioners but it's nice going up, maybe reading for a bit. Who cares eh?

It's in my head that I'm forgetting lots but will sign off now. I hope you've had lots of smiles and positives this week. If so, why not drop by Virginia's and join in?

Thanks for stopping by :)

Tutorial Try-Out: Easy Watercolour Portraits

I've been meaning to join in with Kristin's Tuesday Tutorial Try-Outs for a couple of weeks. Ever since I saw the fun that Jez and Natasha were having with them.  I thought I better get bum in gear this week, seeing as I suggested this one! I've had this tutorial pinned over on Pinterest for yonks with all good intentions of getting round to it "one day." Which is really the idea behind Kristin's Try-Outs. Making that one day today.

The tutorial we are using is Easy Watercolour Portraits over on the Grow Creative blog.
Now... who on Earth could I think of to try this out on? Hmmm. Who would give me a nice striking photo...

BOOM!

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My favourite of them all!

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Bette Davis - Baby Jane :)

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Craig's favourite!

I loved this technique and spent a few hours happily filling up my watercolour Moleskine that I've been afraid to use lest I ruin it. I can see me playing with this and expanding on it with other bits and pieces some more. Lots more actually.

If you'd like to play along, you still have till this coming Tuesday to link up with Kristin. Then the next tutorial choice goes live - I'll be playing again. It's abstract faces! Yay!

 I'll be back tomorrow with Rocking Friday - Thanks for stopping by.

Rocking My World Friday...

Oh what a good week! On Sunday Devvie and I travelled up by train to Alexandra Palace in London for the BSSBS show.. Craig had helped me save some spending money as my birthday present this year. It was good on so many levels. Firstly - Devvie and I got a day out on our own - that doesn't happen very often. It was also my first time leaving Logan all day - he couldn't have cared less. Which I was a tad insulted by - even more so that he saved his poopy nappy for when I got back!

Our main reason for going was to meet up with  good friends and fellow Rockettes...

L-R Sarah, Jo, Sue and me :)

Jo's daughter was there too and it was really lovely to finally meet everyone after chatting and being Facebook friends for so long. Some of our little group, Virginia, Mel and Sam, couldn't make it but they were certainly there in spirit and in our thoughts throughout the day. We'll hopefully all meet up again later in the year. I was so nervous the night before - imagining all kinds of scenario's. We all made and swapped tags (will show in a later post when I've scanned them all) and it was actually sitting down and doing these the night before (Last minute Cam as always) that got rid of the raging headache I'd had for two days leading up to the show. All over nothing of course. Brilliant day. Brilliant girls. Felt like meeting up with old friends - which of course, we are now :)

And  I came home with bags of loveliness too. It's called The Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show which I do think is a bit misleading - I hadn't been for a couple of years and since my last visit there was a definite downturn in Scrapbooking items. This didn't bother me personally as I can't remember the last time I did that. I was on a hunt for paint and mists and was pleasantly surprised at how much there was. I do think the name should be changed and this might also encourage other stalls and shoppers... Anyway, I digress. 

Look! Look! Look!

The card and paint were my bargains of the day. The A4 packs of card are 100 sheets of 320 GSM and were £9.99 with the second pack being just 1p. I didn't know if this was a bargain, sounded it and people around me were snapping them up so I did my best sheep impression and copied them. I've since found out it probably was a bargain. 

I restocked my seriously depleted and much loved Kaiser paints at £2.95 each or 5 for £10 - well, would've been rude to not get two lots wouldn't it? The Eco paints were also in that offer so I got 9 Kaiser's and one Eco to try. 

And I've wanted to try gilding flakes for ages and ages and ages. The lady on the Indigo Blu stand did a demo for me, the ATC below is what she did and she let me keep it. I ended up getting the starter kit, some flakes in the colour she used (they are the ones that were on my wishlist) and - after umming and ahhing over the stamp she used - I later went back and they'd all gone. So saved the money and ordered that when I got home.

Devvie and I went home exhausted. We much preferred going up on the Sunday. Although some stuff was sold out, we did well getting the card on the last day and the Underground was much quieter too.

Such a good day!

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During the week this little beauty arrived. It's by Donna who was offering 15 baby journlets in exchange for junk to celebrate the collaborART blog reaching one year old. 

So cute and dinky. I've named mine Hyacinth because there is part of a dictionary page inside with Hyacinth on and it made me laugh and remember my Mum who we used to call Hyacinth Bucket.

Unfortunately the gorgeous envelope didn't fair so well going through the post but I am going to try and carefully glue it into one of my sketchbooks to save it - just glad my "baby" got here in one piece.

I'll have to have a rummage and get some junk in the post over the weekend. Thank you Donna - I love my Hyacinth :)

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Devvie came home yesterday with a C in maths. She was waiting at the front door for me, all excited, as I got back from collecting Ruby. This is very big indeed - she's like me. We really don't grasp maths - it's like a foreign language - I swear if there is a dyslexia type thing for just maths - we probably have it. So to get her C - which she needs to keep her place in the 6th form she wants. Is great, great news indeed. Well done Devvie. Plus - she had already agreed to do re-sits, thinking she had failed. She's still going to do them to see if she can bump up to a B. Yep - very proud Mum. She said her maths teacher screamed when she heard the news and another gave her a kind of awkward man hug, he was so pleased for her. 

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This fella. He's teething like mad. You can see his two front ones now, very defined beneath the gum. Just waiting to burst through. Apart from an occasional 5 minute startled cry here and there, he's still as chilled out and loveable as ever. 

Snoozing with his new friend Ninja, from his Aunty Sue :) That orange bit he's holding is all soggy where he keeps nomming on it.

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Some quickies before I go on to long...

• Warm weather and sun - finally!
• Devvie's Lemon Drizzle cakes
• My gorgeous family
• Blogland & Pinterest inspiring more Arting
• Tea and catch up with my friend Caroline

And that'll do me. Fancy looking back at your week and sorting all the positives - no matter how small or large? Pop over to Virginia's and link up so we can all find you.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Rocking My World Friday...

Two  Three weeks worth! So, what's made me smile over the past couple of three weeks? (I started writing this last Thursday and time got away from me again! Whoops!)

Let's start with the birds. I've seen Silver Crow around quite a lot. Usually in the fields and at a distance. He/she seems to have paired up so maybe I'll be reporting signs of little bubby silver crows soon. Wouldn't that be fab?  

The other birdy smile... Driving along, I had to stop at a red light. Watched as two pigeons waiting at the kerb, walked across  the road in front of me, correctly using the crossing - going about their business. And then the light goes green again. Just made me chuckle - imagining two pigeons beaking the button, getting the lights to change. Maybe you had to be there but it had Ruby and I giggling.

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Managing to 'play' nearly every day during these Easter Holidays. It might be for 10 minutes, might be for half hour but I'm getting into a routine. Sometimes it's the Gelli Plate, past week it's been working on the Exquisite Corpse project through the collaborART blog - can't show that till it's done the rounds and come home. That in itself has me loving drawing again. Have been a little scared to put pencil to paper and find out just how rusty I am... not as bad as feared, it turns out. Love the beginnings of my "monster." Which has re-ignited an interest in drawing... something.  I'll show you the sketchbooks (if you're interested) when my monster comes back as it would give away my part of the beast if I showed now.

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Sunshiiiiiiiiiine!

(Still had to scrape the car off some mornings - but grateful for the sun and blue sky at least!)
(And I jinxed myself writing that as we've had rain the past couple of days!)

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My Mothers Day present arrived. Craig had said that's what they were going to get me but were waiting for a good price. Thanks to the Cowling & Willcox sale (£16.30 for this set) it arrived on Friday. Woohoo! Already opened and played with - I can assure you.

Purty!

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Devvie, going in to school nearly every day during these holidays. Doing revision and work towards her exams. She's really impressed me with how hard she's studying, she's getting the laptop out and working of an evening as well. It's her birthday next week  It was her birthday yesterday. - she hit 16! (How? How? How do I have a 16 year old?) She's still went in on that day too. Will make up for it when we go to Ally Pally on Sunday.

She's been talking about saving for a guitar for ages - so we surprised her (Well, it's a special birthday isn't it?) And she's been so good and patient letting her sisters strum it... and even Craig parade around thinking he looks like a rock star strumming it... badly. He doesn't. But it's fun to watch.

Guess what she wants for her birthday now? 

Monkey cake for the Monkey mad girl

My baby!

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Eating out twice this week. Blimey - we're almost sociable! An all you can eat buffet at our local Brewers Fayre pub. It was pie night - we've been meaning to pop along and try it for ages... it was lush. Will definitely do that again. And Pizza Hut for Devvies birthday - we turned up, quite by accident, when they had an all you can eat buffet too. I sense a theme - we usually eat quite healthily of late so, as you can imagine, are like little weebels this week. 

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Then Ally Pally on Sunday which usually means Devvie and I succumbing to a pasty on the way home at Victoria Station. Mmmmm. We'll be wibbling and wobbling all right!

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Now - I think I've talked enough for one post. I'll maybe just mention a couple of quick bits: 

• The baking the girls are still doing every week. Yum. 
• Toffee popcorn and Netflix updating with some good TV series/films. 
• Devvie and Pheebs seriously impressing me with how well they're getting on recently (knock on wood, knock on wood) Hardly any bickering for these Easter holidays... it's eerie, in a good way!
• Getting out in 10 minute bursts to tidy my shed - Craig has started talking about getting out there to fix me a desk up.
• Making paper butterflies with Ruby
• Logan eating more solids
• Craig - just always :)

Thank you for stopping by - if you feel in the mood to count your positives why not stop by Virginia's and link up?