Oh I do like to be beside the seaside....

...oh I do like to be beside the seeeeeeaaaaaaa...  the sea in question this weekend was Deal in Kent where I had a fun day teaching a workshop at the Swanstitch shop....

... to a lovely group of ladies- Anita and her customers made me welcome and we spent the day creating a canvas and a couple of cards...

We laughed, painted, stamped, glued, sang 'happy birthday' to Kate, laughed a bit more and were creative all day.  Here are Anita's photos of the projects, now on display in the shop in among all the lovely paint and mixed media products:

Thanks for having me, and thanks to everyone who came along- hope to see you all again soon (well, November actually, if you're around and in the mood for a bit of Christmas themed creating!)

For the first time Matt came with me on a teaching trip (thats him peering through the window of Swanstitch in the top photo) - he stayed at our very lovely b&b in Deal while I went to teach.  We stayed at NumberOne B&B run by the lovely Nicky & Mark, who made us very welcome. I'd definitely recommend this b&b if you ever need somewhere to stay in the area - its lovely and close to the seafront, and a short walk to the high street with all its interesting shops, pubs and 'bits and pieces' to see.
Deal is a lovely relaxed town - I really enjoyed our weekend..

We drove down on Friday.. got settled at the b&B then went for a walk along the High Street..

(I love hollyhocks - so quintessentially 'English cottage garden'.. I just wish I could grow them like this in my garden!)

(worn flagstones at the information centre - how lovely is the texture!!)

.. we had a lovely meal and walked home- just as the wind changed and it got a 'little bit' stormy! (not as much as it had been in Essex the night before when we had an AMAZING storm!).

After 'work' on Saturday (too enjoyable to be called work, surely!) we walked along the seafront... a lovely relaxing way to end the day... I couldn't not take photos so here's a few:

the weather worn look of these railings on a building facing the sea caught my eye, I preferred these to the recently painted ones on the adjacent balcony - I like how it accents the detail.

We made it home on Sunday afternoon before the rain arrived, in what can only be described as torrential amounts, accompanied by thunder and lightning, so we were at home to bail out the patio and garage which were quickly ankle deep in water...  I hope you were all ok and relatively unaffected by this crazy weather we're experiencing at the moment here in the UK.... and now we have sunshine again! lol

gotta love the English summertime!

x