4 Cats and an awful lot of mess

Sunday 29 November 2009

Finally recovered

Juliwan November 29, 2009 1 Comments

Last weekends class at Art from the heart was awesome (sorry Kath I lied). 8 hours of inking, stamping, new techniques (alcohol inks and beeswax) was hard work but fantastic. Dyan was great and very patient and we got a good look at her journals and a quick peek at her new downloads (available soon). I came away with 6 'Tim' style tags and loads of inspiration .........

Tag 1 - stamping, masking, inking using Tim Holtz Christmas stamps, inks and rock candy paint. Has a hidden pocket for small tag.

Tag 2 - Inking and stamping with a tile to highlight Santa's face.

Tag 3 - Inking with arondak inks, TH stamps, stamped grungeboard and embossed tile.

Tag 4 - paint dabbers, pigment pearls and masks, alcohol inks and TH's stamps again (not finished yet)

Tag 5 - TH stamps, inks, grungeboard and metal work.

Tag 6 - Paint dabbers, TH stamps, downloadable cut outs, beeswax (needs finishing)

Incredible aren't they?

The downloadable cutouts in Tag 6 are from Lisa's altered arts and so gorgeous I just had to pop a few in my basket :o) Pop along and have a look, you won't be disappointed.

So, inspired by Dyan's bright coloured journals and with Lisa's downloads in hand I had to have a go at something, and here it is ..........

My first attempt at altered 'art'.

My colleagues at work like to ridicule my crafting. They joke about me changing into my crinoline when I get home and sitting sewing by candlelight. If only they knew!! We are rather prone to power cuts up here!! Anyway, I took the fruits of my labours (the tags) to work to show them and they were suitably impressed and now look at me in a whole new light, candlelight lol. I did get asked if I took orders, which was quite flattering, so what I decided to do was to make each of them a tag that they can use as a bookmark or whatever. This is the first one and is for my mate Carolyn. The quote ' Work is the curse of the drinking classes' Oscar Wilde is most apt because a) she's not very happy with her job at the moment and b) she drinks like a fish!! So 1 down, 8 to go!

For tag/bookmark number 2 (Fiona's) I'm going to use Dyan's new digital downloads so I will post up as soon as its done. I am also hoping to use this one as an entry to Dyan's competition to win some goodies, so if you fancy a go, pop on over to her blog for more info.

Finally, last month I mentioned I had won an altered art journal from the immensely talented Heather Robinson, well it finally arrived and boy was it worth the wait.

Thank you very much Heather, it's fabulous.

Well enough for one entry and time to get ready for work. Early start tomorrow as we'll need time to get the ark out!

Thanks for reading x

Friday 20 November 2009

Staying in doors

Juliwan November 20, 2009 0 Comments

It has been officially horrible this week. 60mph winds and flooding, what more could anyone ask for!! Drove myself to work Wednesday and there were alot of 'puddles' and lots of surface water. Now the Trevi fountain coming out of the middle of the road should have made me question my actions but oh no. I thought 'it can't be that bad, MP is in front of me somewhere and he'd either stop or text me if it's bad, so don't be a wuss and carry on'.

I did have second thoughts when I drove towards a car flashing it's lights at me, to realise as I got nearer, that he was stuck in the middle of the road with water half way up his doors and wheelie bins and black binliners of rubbish floating by but oh no, MP had obviously got through, so down into second gear, steady revs and through the pool I went. I continued and got to work to text MP amazed at the amount of water, only to get the response that it was the worst he'd ever seen!!

No surprises then that 1/2 hr later the road was closed!

Worse still, they closed my only other route home and I was 'trapped' at work!! Not a pleasant prospect. Late afternoon they opened the roads again and I have never seen the rivers as high, unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, missed opportunity.

Last weekend was a busy one. Golborne crop on Saturday and Whittle on Sunday. Saturday I spent the day doing Christmas ATC's for a UKS swap run by my pal Kathb and Sunday doing some slightly larger ATC's to fill a 7 gypsies ATC frame I recently bought. It has 12 compartments so, inspired by my trip to Art from the Heart and the fabulous Linda's blog I am trying to alter them Tim Holtz style, one for each month of the year. 3 done, 9 to go. I will post photos as soon as MP takes them!

Tomorrow I am off to Art from the Heart again to do a Tim style '12 tags of Christmas' class. Can't wait, should be a good day and I will remember to take my camera with me.

Back soon x

Saturday 7 November 2009

Repeat Performance

Juliwan November 07, 2009 0 Comments

Having had a fantastic time at the Greenday concert last Saturday, their first lot in the UK in 5 years, how suprised was I that on Monday they announced plans to do 2 UK Stadium concerts in 2010, with tickets going on sale yesterday (6th November) at 9am?

So keen to go see them again I dutifully penciled out 9 - 9.30 in my diary at work, told the team I was busy on important business and couldn't be disturbed, prayed the temperamental IT system wouldn't crash and logged onto the Ticketmaster website.

I got the page up and it started to load the tickets sales and what seemed like ages later it finally offered me some tickets which I grabbed. Then it came to making the payment. By this time I was sweating. Ticketmaster has this little countdown clock that tells you how long you have to complete the transaction before your tickets go back into the pot and mine was going down as I struggled to get my card details in. Then, due to the stupid security system on the card, I had to put in a password. Now I can never remember the damn thing at the best of times, let alone under countdown pressure, so needless to say I got it wrong, 3 times and the card got blocked!!! So I had to go back into the payment and change the password to something that again I'll forget. Eventually, with seconds to spare I got in and secured my tickets, so

June 16th 2010 I am going to see Greenday at Lancashire cricket ground :o)

which I am overjoyed about :o)

Now back to more mundane things ..........

MP has become a statistic. This week he has been suffering with FLU and had to take time off work. It was that or go to work in his PJ's, sweaty and horrible (him and the PJ's) so for only the second time in the 11 years we have been together MP had time off sick.

Being the kind wife (really more nursey background kicking in) I kept him supplied with fluids, Daynurse, etc and even offered to be his Flu buddy when the online test identified he probably had swineflu and prescribed his pig pills but being a 'man', he declined the Tamoxifen and decided to 'tough it out'.

He's feeling a little better now but the slightest thing tires him out. Good job he isnt prone to doing much then! He should be back to 'normal' again soon.

Dan, MP's middle brother, sent me a message on facebook this week to let me know that he isn't seeing Lesley anymore. She seemed nice even when I tried to poison her (see earlier posts). So Dan is on the prowl again - beware Chicago.

I have managed some scrapping lately, dipping in and out of Shimelle's Scrap like you mean it, stress free scrapping and some other DIY LO's:

Stress free scrapping

Stress free scrapping -Old Friend - Susan

Stress free scrapping - New Friend - Kath

My attempt at the True Friend challenge - Harley in my sink, playing with the running tap

Based on the monthly sketch from Sarah's cards - 10 years

So, onwards and upwards. Time to get dressed and go do the shopping or the furbabies will have nothing for lunch.

Thanks for looking.

Sunday 1 November 2009

Oh what a night ..........

Juliwan November 01, 2009 0 Comments

Halloween couldn't come quickly enough for me. April I managed to book tickets to see Greenday at MEN Arena and finally the big night arrived :o)

MP and I had a lazy day including a 3 hour siesta in preparation for a late night. Late afternoon we got ourselves ready for a trip up to Manchester. I as usual wore black and MP looked quite trendy in a t-shirt, jeans and jacket (he didn't want to look like an old man lol). We drove to Manchester and parked up in Victoria Station and then walked to Deansgate for a pre show dinner at La Tasca.

Now I am not really a big fan of La Tasca as I find it a bit dark and noisy in there but the food is ok and the service is quick, so thats why we went. Being good, no Sangria was consumed :o( but plenty of food, despite the fact MP wasn't really that hungry!

Then the short walk to MEN Arena. First stop the booth selling the tour t-shirts. Desperate to stop MP wearing his hideous 'biker' t-shirt I suggested he buy a Greenday shirt, which was bound to impress the other bikers and improve his street cred. So MP's picked, just me to sort out. I couldn't decide so MP suggested I buy both of the t-shirts I liked and who am I to disagree! So shirts paid for and into the arena to catch the 15 minutes of the second support act The Foxboro Hot tubs, fronted by Billy Joe himself.

Then the lights go down, the cheers erupt and on bounce ........... GREENDAY.

2 1/2 hours well spent. Fantastic concert. Great mix of the new album with some old classics and hits from the American Idiot album. Never seen a band engage with the audience so much and pulling people out of the crowd. At one point they replaced the 3 band members with 3 teenagers from the crowd - really great and the girl who played the drums was brilliant.

To my great pleasure they played Basket case. This is the song that reminds me of MP and the one I have on my mobile that plays when he calls!!

Saving the best till last. Billy Joe sang an acoustic version of When September Ends and my all time favorite song, the one I am having at my funeral, Good Riddance - Time of your life.

Finally, couldn't not post up some of the photos taken. Thanks for reading