Once in a lifetime....

We've just got back from a brilliant 4 day trip to Euro Disney.
It was quite an adventure- the first time on a plane for Joe and Maisie and the first flight I've taken in almost 12 years.
We stayed at a hotel at the resort, Newport Bay- which even had it's own lighthouse!


Disney was wonderful fun and truly magical. Infact pretty surreal at times- in a good way.

It cost a lot of money, but I've stopped fretting about that now, and don't regret a penny of it.
I was really impressed by how spotlessly clean the whole park was and the friendliness of all the staff.The shows and parades were amazing.
And Joe and Maisie loved collecting the character's autographs.I've got to admit i was a bit overwhelmed when we first arrived, by the amount of shops on site and blatant commercialism, but then I got past that and realised that just because it's there doesn't mean you have to get sucked in. We gave Joe and Maisie their spending money and explained to them the could buy what they wanted but when it was gone there would be no more, and that worked really well.We all had a brilliant time, there was so much to do, glad we packed our thermals though as it was very cold- not that that stopped us at all! Maisie was in tears when it was time to go, neither of them wanted to leave. I think this holiday will remain in their memories, and ours , for a very long time.

"boy drawings"

The sketchbook/ art journal bug seems to have biten Joe too!
Some pages from his sketchbook.
He loves working with fine black pen just like me.He likes to draw pictures that tell a story, in a sort of comic book way.They are definitely "boy drawings".

Destash along project 2- remains of the day journal

This turned out to be a perfect project for the destash-along challenge. I enrolled in an online class to learn how to make the remains of the day journal here. It costs $60 which was £34, there's lots of step by step videos to watch (27 i think?), and pdfs to download and or print out to follow as well. You also get access to the flickr group so you can get inspiration from what everyone else has been up to. I think it was well worth the money and will count it as my "one day creative course" on my 101 list. ( tick!)

It was great fun to do and didn't cost me a penny in materials as I used 100% stash!

I started off thinking I didn't want it to look too scrappy ( sort of defeating the whole point of the project), but quickly realised that when i tried to plan the layout of the pages and make them neat it just didn't work. So I took the plunge and started to work really quickly combining random bits and bobs and that was much more exciting- both as a process and in terms of the end result.The book has now been all put together, but the fun's not over now i get to journal in it! i think I will use it to record gratitude lists, special text messages, funny things Joe and Maisie say, and interesting/ inspirational quotes. I guess I want to try and capture special moments that otherwise get forgotten.

OMG!!!

I'm thinking perhaps it's time to clear my desk...Funnily enough it doesn't look so bad on the screen as it does in real life, probably because the rest of the dining room is fairly tidy, and then there's this explosion going on in the corner. I will have to do something about it though as it's really bugging me. Housework the flylady way has sort of gone out the window- I just can't keep it up , how do people keep up the enthusiasm for keeping their homes spotless? I like the house to look nice but then I want to be doing more interesting stuff, so I guess it's about balance. I'm not going to give up on the flylady regime entirely I'm just going to lower my standards a little, and not be chasing that level 3 gold star all the time.

Art journal pages inspired by Teesha Moore

A while ago i discovered the art journal pages of Teesha Moore, and just couldn't stop looking at them.They are a riot of colour, pattern, altered images,creatively written text, and quirkyness. You can view them on her blog. I was fascinated but thought that trying to make something in a similar vein would be pretty impossible, then I stumbled across her videos on youtube. They show Teesha working on each stage involved in a journal page and are easy to follow and really interesting to watch. So I decided to be brave and give it a go...
This is my first finished page
and these 2 are works in progress.

A de-stash project

My first fabric de-stash project of the year, a jar cover to put my creative prompts in to help guide me when making my textile or art journal pages if I need them.

assembling all the elements

Stitched together


The finished cover.I'm going to make another one when I get chance to cover the plastic pot my pens are currently in. It's not going to make much of a dent in the fabric stash, but it's a step in the right direction.

Art journal

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A few of my first pages from my art journal. I found starting this to be quite a scary project and wasn't sure whether I was going to share it or not.Already I can see my attempts progressing so i'm going to keep going. Doing it in a book which can be shut and put away is good, it's not like you have to get it right. I'm learning to play, and concentrate on process not outcome.
I discovered "zentangles" in December and find them really absorbing and quite meditative to do- it's basically a form of doodling.
Then because I found "inchies" I had to have a go at combining inchies and zentangles- I think these might be interesting to try and stitch- could be too fiddly though.
This is my first collage piece.
I've been working on more collage pages which have evolved quite a lot since this one and will share them in another post.