Happy Valentine's Day!

Sorry for the missing blog posts over the last month.  Work kindof took over, but it's half term this week so I'm planning on some playing, in between decorating (that's what teachers do in the holidays you know!).

This is the card I made for my daughter for Valentine's Day.  I used to make all three of my children cards and heart related gifts but the boys, at 15 years and 17 years, aren't too impressed with the "Valentine from Mum" anymore ;)

I've already got some decorating under my belt this week.  This wall in my craft room was pink (the room was my daughter's bedroom for a few years) but now boasts this bargain wallpaper I found in John Lewis.  I LoVe house images and this paper also features two of my favourite colours (and I managed to make the one roll cover the whole wall :) )

Hopefully my next blog post won't be so long coming!  Enjoy the rest of your day of lurrrrrrrrrrrrrve :)

seed journal day 3 - s words

A bit of a doodle page, thinking about what being a seed meant after Milliande's prompt here.

Am thinking about adding some colour, maybe around the outside of the acorn, maybe just the leaves, ....

Had a couple of things to post out this week so decorated a couple of envelopes as notecards to send with them...

I just love my scraps of bits n pieces :)  And these days I can't do without my sewing machine - it would definitely be a chosen item if I was sent to a desert island!

Once upon a time there lived

...two little pigs!

We're doing the story of the three little pigs at school so decided to make some sock pigs for the story over the weekend.    There are a couple of sock pig designs out there but I just devised my own sock monkey style one as they need arms and legs to be able to build their houses, and run away from the wolf of course!

I added little curly tails made from fleece, and buttons for noses, eyes and a tummy button each!

The best bit about the socks I bought from Poundland (from a teacher's point of view anyway) is that they were animal socks and had a pig head on each sock :)  I'll be putting them in my counting box :)

And why only two pigs?  Because Quality Save had a whole pig soft toy for 99p and these two make great pig twin brothers for him :)

Happy New Year!

Each January Milliande starts a new series of art journaling prompts, but it wasn't until the email popped into my inbox that I remembered!  Last year the theme started with 'z for zebra'.

This year's theme is 'Seed Journals: growing a seed versus being a seed .....  a curious journey begins'.

This is such a perfect project, and has come at just the right time for me.  My journal pages have always been 'time to play', but I had begun to feel that I needed a bit more of something.  This theme is really making me think through the medium of my art journal...

I'm also really enjoying the organic nature of this January's prompts - they may be daily, they may be weekly, perfect for someone who was finding she ended up playing catch up all the time when prompts were every day!  Feel this is a project for you?  Join the gang over at www.milliande.com.

a flurry of Christmas making

Last week I got quite a few last minute Christmas presents made, but since then I've been on a re-organising spree for some reason!  That's in between 'playing' with my Christmas presents and visiting family etc!!!  I hope you had a fantastic Christmas, we had a fabulous one in our house :)

This jar contains the ingredients of snowman soup.  The head took a fair bit of fixing to the lid but I got there in the end and was pleased with the result!

Some of my friends and I decided to give handmade gifts this year (hence the snowman jar!).  The teacup cakes felt a little like cheating as I'd bought the teacup silicone cases, but I still added the cake, and a collaged spoon!

I'm always behind with my cards, so I was still making these on Christmas Day!

These two little books didn't take long though; one of the girls at work asked me to make them for her children.  I hope they liked them!

Best get back to the 'holiday jobs' - am trying to get my eldest son's room decorated, then there's the New Year party to organise - am planning on lots of star themed baking!  Happy New Year!!!

a splash of watercolour = some funky, weird creatures

This is kindof a bit of a late WOYWW as I visited my artist friend Graham on Wednesday, and took my watercolours with me.  He's done some more work on his studio since I last visited...

It's such a warm and welcoming place...

... full of inspiring art...

I, meanwhile, just splashed some watercolour around on a couple of pages in my sketchbook.

Then hunted for some 'beings' amongst the paint splashes aka Carla Sonheim (Drawing Lab).

My favourite is the little 'thing' leaning up against the central spine of the book.

It was this large bunny I found first though.  I just LoVe this technique, there's no way I'd be able to invent these imaginative characters any other way!

a happy owl!

I think this owl might actually have a bit of a smile!

I'm not sure how, it must be something to do with his eyes!  But it does answer my question - is it possible to make a happy owl?  Not that that was the intention, I just had the design in my head and off to the sewing machine I went!  I've also managed a couple of Christmas cards this week...

But most of my time has been spent teaching, and practising the Christmas play.  I take classes in school whilst the teacher has her planning and preparation time.  On Monday I was a wise man in the play, Tuesday a shepherd and by Wednesday I'd been 'demoted' to a cow lol!

I have the privilege of working in two schools and they both put on stunning Christmas performances.  I helped with the dress rehearsal on Thursday in one and was a guest at the second on Friday.  The schools, and therefore the performances, are both very different, but the creative talents of the staff, and the hard work of the pupils in both produced amazing results.