We Have Moved

Just to let you know after a bit of a gap from blogging on this site (5 years!) I have moved this blog to here and changed the name. If you want to read more about what we are up to go to: Life is Beautiful

I feel like I have been away from my blog for too long. I have needed to allow a little more time for family and home so my blog was the thing to go BUT I want to add things so that I can look back and see where I am at.

I have been getting inspiration from lots of places. I have beeen trying to broaden my creative vision by looking at different ways to express myself. I have been trying to mix my art with words and thoughts.....visual journalling.

This book really inspired me and the authors have a great website.

One really fun thing is I have got a little red leather book and a black pen and have started drawing my thoughts down in a mixture of pictures and words. Some things are funny others sad but it gives me a quick artisitic release each day.


My new project is designing a woodland story telling set for a Easter Kids Zone at church. Here is what I am being inspired by so far....

















Found this cute idea on a web site while re
searching set design.




















and read this fun idea there

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!!
I am in the process of thinking of my goals for this year, which is really fun. I want to make them achievable which is also a challenge.

What are your *new year* goals?

This year for me has started with sad news from various friends of mine and with all the economical doom and gloom and all my fav shops closing (how could they!!!) I was feeling a bit sad and it is only the 5th!!

Heard this great song *Soak up the Sun* today by Sheryl Crow (album £2.50 in Woolworths closing down sale...some good things)
It has this line in it which says :

It's not having what you want It's wanting what you've got

Dont you think that is so true. We need to be thankful for all the things we have and learn to pay attention to all the good things in our lives instead of worrying about what we dont have or what might happen.

So this week enjoy what you have and be thankful for it.

HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY !!!!

I am so proud of Phoebe. She is a lovely, caring, generous little girl. I cant believe I have had her for 9 years. The time has gone so quickly. I found this picture of her when she was 4! So cute!

We have been busy making her some presents. I made this little Elsie Bear doll. I had to prise it from Lucia who took an instant like to it!!

Lucia stitched the butterfly on this cushion and is very proud of it.

I am taking Phoebe and her best friend to town to go shopping and have a pizza for her birthday treat.

lovely yummy stuff

These are a few of the new lovely things I have in my shop tomorrow at Claires crop. I do have limited stock so get there quick . The shop will be open from 10am til 2pm. If there is anything you missed out on then please let me know and I can order it for you. Also if you are not at the crop and spot something you like contact me!

Sweet Christmas Paper and Chipboard

long time I know...

I have been rather busy lately and trying to fit too much in but as I have a moment I thought I would blog!

Thought I would share these. We had or photos taken by Andy Teo from Photocillin. We had such fun!

I had a string of bad school photos this year. Lucia's was the only nice one so I was delighted with these!

Yes Christmas is not far away!!!

I am doing an online craft class with the lovely Elsie as part of my birthday present. I know I can hear you say you are too busy. I have found that over the last few months I have craved some creativity. This class is lots of little projects which take very little time, so I can be creative on a tight time schedule.

I am going on a saturday crop to Burfield and taking my shop. I have quite a lot of new things so I post them up soon. If you like something then send me a message and I will arrange to post it to you.

Just realised...

that my header is very out of date! Must get an autumn one. I am looking forward to seeing Mike and Jo my brother and his wife this week end.

Also I am face painting at a party and have some lovely new brushes to play with...so nice when the equipment works well. They do all the gorgeous swirls.

Also I am in the middle of planning Ewans birthday party and have got a massive piece of cardboard to paint some power rangers on. I have just ordered these little light wands/swords for the party bags...so excited.

be the one

We were driving along in the car and this song came on Be the One by the Ting Tings and Lucia immediately was drawn to the song and started singing along (she is three) and now declares it is her favourite song. I went on their web site and love the energy and colour in how they do their videos and my space page. Very groovy.

just enjoying getting into the swing of term. I am finding that I am quite tired so there have been a few early nights, which has been frustrating bc I have wanted to do something fun. I am trying to sort out the house and keep on top of the m ounting pile of washing. I have come tho the conclusion that I need to reduce the amount of clothes we have. Another job to do!

I am very much wanting to do some sewing and keep searching for the opportunity to do something creative. So last week when I got up early there was a beautiful surprise for me. The mist had come down and covered the millions od spiders webs in our garden with little drops of water so I had great fun taking loads of pictures.

My motto : sometimes we are focussing so much on the big issues of life that we forget the beauty of live that comes in the small insignificant places.

autumn days

Well it really feels like autumn has set in doesnt it? When it is slightly cold and especially when it is wet outside I just want to snuggle up inside with some lovely warm home cooking....so today we had a lovely meaty cottage pie with a blackberry and apple crumble. So yummy!

At the moment I am enjoying getting into the rhythm of school and the routine which comes from that. I did have a tidy house but over the weekend I had to attend to a tree in our garden and well nothing else got done!!!

I will take a picture tomorrow. I was one of those situations which Colin hates. He was mowing the lawn and I say I think I need to cut some brances off the tree as one of them has come a little loose. Colin was not so sure but said he would help. so armed with a somewhat blunt saw I started tackling the lower brances....It took awhile bc the saw was very blunt but once started I had to carry on. The first branch came down quite easily and then the next branch was more of a challenge!

Colin comes out of the house to find me halfway up the tree sawing the larger branch! all I can say is he is a very patient man!!!)

It ended up with a broken saw and the branch hanging precariously in the tree! So I borrowed a much better saw and a tree lopper the next day and fininshed the job...the pile of branches is taller than I am!

school days

dont they look smart!

changes

Today was Jamies first day at the Junior school. He looked so hansome in his uniform and so little. His back pack was nearly as big as him which was quite funny. We had to go in slightly later and he lined up on the playground by his new teacher and went in with out a care in the world....not a backward glance.

What was really lovely...I was in work today but not teaching, so I had little peeps of him all through out the day. Every time I saw him he was smiling and seemed to be enjoying himself. Jamie is like that when everything is going well he is very contented and happy, when it is not he is a bit of a rain cloud!

I will try to get a picture tomorrow as I was trying to get to work today I didnt have time for a photo...very unlike me!:)

Phoebe loves her two new teachers and was full of it today....just a few weeks and Ewan will be at school too. Looking forward to him starting but for now I need to start tidying the house for the home visit on Friday (thank goodness it was friday not monday!!!)

Just to give you some thing to look at I love this....soo cute!

and these...

I need to go and make something.....

girls night out

Worked very hard on saturday (and all week tidying up) so it was such fun to go out to see a girly flick with Vanessa, Roey and Emma. It was such fun and the kind of flim you could make comments through out and sing if you wanted too. I love ABBA songs and the whole styling of things in the film....and there was a bit of sunshine which we have not seen all summer.

I loved this bit where mother and daughter get ready...I hope that is what my relationship ies like with Phoebe and Lucia.....so lovely! Have a great week it is back to school soon so I am busy getting the uniforms ready.

topsy turvy

each summer holiday the children choose the theme for a day where we do thinngs a bit differently. This year the theme is "backwards and topsy turvy". The ideas behind this was to have a bit of fun and allow the children freedom to be creative.

We began the day with dinner....pudding first of course! We drank our yoghurts with a straw (that kept them very quiet!!!) then cake and after that sausage and beans...which they were all too full too finish.

Then it was bath time and getting dressed. I laughed and so did the children. Jamie took it literally and put his PJ's on his legs (which kept falling down) and his trousers on his arms and an extra pair of pants on his head. Ewan did the same and they were running around clutching their "trousers" until Jamie had a brain wave....put another pair of pants on top and hey presto the new trousers stay up!!

We have a few more things to do today ....so I will update later.

just popping in...

Cousins annual photo shoot!

Phoebe and Callum

Andy and Pippa

Lucia peeping through a hole

Phoebe posing

The new cast of Dr Who!

I was looking back over my photos for the summer and found a few which I thought were fun. We have been clearing the hard disc on the computer so I have had very little time to blog. Also every time I come to use the computer one of the children is playing games on it, so I had to give up on blogging for a while.

I have been sorting the house out and making VERY slow progress. There is so much that needs sorting out after ths children have been home all summer!!

One little thing I did with them this year was make them each a little art bag (and one for me) I stocked it with a sketch book , pencils, paints and a coloured pencil roll. My bag has other things like pastels, charcoal, inks and different size brushes. It was lovely to see what they produced when given really nice equipment. We took the bags out on holiday and if they got board in the museums we sat down and drew things we saw.

Phoebe is away on camp this week so I am taking the opportunity of having a "spare " room and using her room to sort things out. Better get on!!