Splash!

SPLASH!

That is the noise of me falling into the water of the lilypond as I sink in shock & shame:  I missed the blog hop!! (why is February so short!!! The end of Feb rushes up doesn't it!)

So I'm really very sorry I don't have anything pretty, inspiring and Banana Froggy for you like the other members of the DT team - nothing interesting to see here I'm afraid   :o(  but if you hop on over to the talented Katy's blog you'll find a very lovely project.

Next month I will have dragged myself out of the pond & I'll be sat on a lilypad proudly waving a superduper project at you!!

Quite a lot going on...

...so apologies for being a slightly bad blogger - must do better!

Here's a list of random stuff:

Counting down - oh yes - to the ArtsyCrafts & Tim Holtz weekend!!! - 2 more days peeps - count them - 2 more days!! (and if you can't wait for your Tim Fix switch on QVC today and he'll be popping up and showing all manner of lovely things!)(but don't get them from QVC - they'll be in your sticky little mitts quicker when you buy at ArtsyCrafts & we've got all the good stuff - trust me - I've seen it!)

We've put our flat (the one we live in) on the market...very exciting (and slightly scary) - hit the market on Friday and had a viewer on Saturday! eeek.  We are now living in a permanent state of tidyness - and thats hard for me! (I have to keep trying to remember where i've stashed things! lol)..
So just in case you're in the market for a 2 bed flat (ahem, apartment! lol ...its what the estate agents are calling flats these days!) here's a picture of our lounge:

lots of natural light floods through (oops this pic taken at night, use your imagination) the west facing 4m wide fully double glazed bay window.. please note the high ceiling of this Edwardian Terrace property.. blah blah blah
aw come on - don't laugh - I've got to take all opportunities to advertise it! lol  its not going to sell itself is it! lol

I stopped at a zebra crossing earlier in the week and the elderly gentleman I stopped for raised his hat to me in thanks!  Made my day - it was so 'old school' and gentlemanly!  more men should do that.  The two women who crossed after him didn't even acknowldge that the traffic had stopped for them to cross safely - though in their defense they were talking on their mobile phones and pushing buggies so..... lol

Started teaching a new course at the college - lovely group of students - real beginners which is great!

I've been fighting a cold that never seems to go away - the coughing was the worst bit! I'm over the worst of it but my poor nose! Thanks goodness for Kleenex Balm tissues! Sniff... cough... Hubby says its like living with Steptoe Snr!  Charming!
I've been on two GNOs which were very different - on one I laughed so much I could quite easily have fallen off my chair but I held it together long enough to realise that one of the people sat opposite me was someone i went to college with and haven't seen for (ahem) 20 years.. very strange to be reminded of my 18 year old self - apparently she remembers that I had 'folders, dividers and nice pens'. !!  Which just backed up T's theory that I'm v organised (?!)(or just a little bit ocd.. which isn't a bad thing is it?)

I think thats enough of my random waffling - things to do, people to see, flat to make 'viewer ready'

OMG - 2 DAYS TO ARTSYCRAFTS - BRING ON THE GOOD TIMES!!!!!

All dressed up for Banana Frog day!

For me this year is about trying to 'reduce, reuse & recycle', destashing (ok thats not going quite so well 'cos there are some reeeeaally nice (and frankly irresistable) paper & stamp collections coming out, but I'm doing my best!) and generally working with a less is more approach...
My project over on the Banana Frog blog this month is along those lines, and you can take a look HERE!

A good read & excuse to get painty ......

... like I need an excuse to get painty! lol

I love it when a flat brown parcel arrives on the doorstep with the word 'amazon' on it!! Always exciting - aw come on - its nicer than a bill!! (anything is nicer than a bill! lol)
Yesterdays parcel contained this book - LOVE IT!!   'How to..' ideas on adding / drawing faces & other images onto mixed media backgrounds... .....lot of mixed media painty stuff too

I don't really 'draw' but this book made me feel that it wouldn't be too scary to have a go at drawing a face on a canvas or the like... .
Lots of nice samples too.... good for journaling techniques 
Liked it a lot.... so if you don't hear from me for a few days/weeks its because I'm reading/working through the book! (& also 'cos I'll be up to my ears catching up on 'stuff' I couldn't do between Christmas and last week... )

The PaperArtsy play day that wasn't!

I tried/planned to spend a day over the weekend with PaperArtsy stamps but the plan was hijacked slightly by M, but in a good way - a hallway destash/clearout was in order to get ready to pull up carpets so that new carpets could be laid - and one job seemed to have a knock-on effect to another...
so here's one of the pieces I made - keeping them simple was the aim of the day! oh, and flat!

(These stamps are from the 'Nature' plates of Urban Snapshots)... Simple & Flat! (well, simple-ish - distress inks, acrylic paint, stamping, embossing, colouring...)

PS - carpet is in (and looks really nice.... ) ..now to get the Estate Agents in for a valuation - and then the 'for sale' sign goes up....

Things that make you go 'hhmmmm'

Another 'something' where I was just playing with 'stuff'.... acrylic paint resist, stamping & resist, cuttlebug embossing, die cuts, shimmer sprays, perfect pearls sprays - you name it I used it - layer on layer, on layer, on layer...
Sometimes you have to get inky, and random, and Embrace the Inks!

Twinkie goes to School!

I've been toying with the idea of Stampotique images for a while and bought Twinkie to get me started. I like their battered look and that they're just a little bit 'wrong' .. like they have attitude and shouldn't really be messed with.. but at the same time seem slightly vulnerable...
I might be overthinking this obviously..

So here's Twinkie, on a school themed tag...

the tag's actually purple & dark in reality (dusty concord) - I might be embracing my inner Goth!

Adapting a kit..

Sometimes I buy an on-sale items as a bit of a challenge... and a WeRMemoryKeepers card making kit from TKMaxx was such an item... it has 'everything' you need to create the cards, I thought it'd be a quick way to make a few cards - but I think these can end up looking a bit flat and a bit generic (duh! obviously! lol - like painting by numbers) and so I decided to challenge myself to add some bits a pieces of my own (& change the designs, lol)... make them a bit more 'me'...
In the end it wasn't such a quick way to make a few cards ... lol ... but I had fun!  It was about working with what I had (attacking the stash)
(though sshhh... don't tell anyone... but I may have bought the co-ordinating plain card stock... but ssshhh... thats just between you and me OK?!)

 
 
To make them 'a bit more me' I sewed, I stamped, I added buttons & gems & flowers (oh my!)

VW: Genius, Funny & Cute Advertising...

If you don't smile at this then the Force is not with you......