Beach day

Today, we ended up having an entirely different day than we expected.

Hemsby beach

Firstly hubby and I slept in late after having a very late Friday night due to an Xbox and a sewing kit. I know right what does that even mean? Well hubby had his Xbox and was playing some fancy spaceahip game that seemed to involve lots of waiting around. For me, I chose to do my day 3 blog post, catch up on blogs and then at 11pm decided to do my #sewtember day 3 piece, which meant not going to bed till close to 2am oopsie!?

So after a slow start we all agreed that we would like to go to the beach. So we packed up for an overnight stay at our chalet and we have had a lovely day just relaxing on the beach, chatting playing, making sandcastles and stone pictures. It was so nice after the miserable weather of the last week, finally that golden ball thing appears in the sky and everyone feels warm and smiles.

Me smiling and just happy to be outside
@owlsowner has built a village
Hubby spent a LOT of time making pretty stone patterns

We are now in the chalet children settling quietly for bed, hubby is watching the F1 qualifier on his phone and I’m working out how to use wordpress on my phone app so I don’t miss day 4 blog. You’ll have to let me know how well it goes! Later I will try to do the day 4 #sewtember piece, if I can stay awake.

Day 3 #sewtember Mangata. Language: Swedish. Meaning: The glimmering, road-like reflection that the moon creates on the water.

Mangata

I hope you can see my idea, I had to learn how to do the stitches and I got properly frustrated by the gold thread, which at 130am I wasn’t so surprised by.

So, that’s about it for today. I’m happily sitting here listening to the arcade man call his bingo numbers. There is nothing quite like a British seaside arcade.

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Faffing Friday

Today is day 3 of the September blog-along, and well its been another reasonably quiet day today. Weather is warm (ish) for September in Britain but its been dull and gloomy again. Of course they are predicting a heatwave for next week – just as kids return to school so that’s about typical for us.

Hubby and I had a short walk today as I needed to go to the pharmacy, so just under 2 miles today, with a stop at the bakery for some Rocky Road for our evening meal dessert. A nice treat for everyone.

As for art, well I haven’t had as much time to art as I would like because for some reason I decided my art time was the right time to “organise and tidy” the art room. Of course what really happened was a shift of things from place A to place B, which is great right up until I need any of it. But the idea is that its all in a better location for use.

On the back of the tidying I have done a couple of journal pages, all with my own head, ideas and stash, no input from anyone, so I guess today this means I became a creative?

Here are my two pages, what do you think?

This page came together from an existing journal page I had started with a couple of collage pieces. and then I just randomly picked up various snippets from the scrap pile, Theme of “Holey” from the September prompt from The Ugly Art Club. This is a new club, and I’m trying them out to see how/what its all about, it should appeal to my “throw it together” kind of journal art I like.

The point of this page was to fill the blank page as I want to complete the book, I think I have finished it now and I may well do a flip through and post it on my Youtube channel as that seems to be what people do. Ultimately this page was blank, I added so burnt umber then a little turquoise and neon pink acrylic paints, then just played with some pink stickers from my PeriPage printer that went wrong earlier, added some strips from the fodder pot from another project, some washi and some Posca marks then finished with the most appropriate words I could find “Imperfection is a form of freedom”, they felt the most appropriate today.

Well that’s about it for today, Its Friday Wine Day and its been a long time since I’ve had a glass, so I have a nice Red opened and ready to drink, I haven’t managed #sewtember today but I have ideas and that’s the main thing right? As hubby is gaming whilst I’m doing this I may go and get the sewing kit and see what I can achieve, I shall let you know how that goes tomorrow 🙂

Bye for now xx

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

September Blog-along day 2

Today has been another “meh” day, I just in one of those “cant be bothered” slumps, I think its probably the weather causing it – typical British person has to talk about / complain about the weather right 🙂 But Its so grey and gloomy here and its only September!

Nothing much to say for myself yet today (I say that now lets see how it goes), We are still in school summer holiday time, and hubby is off work too, but due to the weather we are not doing much. So we had a late morning, I had forgotten to buy cereals, so it was a treat breakfast of crumpets and pancakes. Kids didn’t mind that – apparently they are much better than cereals anyway and they would take them any day 🙂 I guess the loaded sugar in the morning is always a good start when you are 12 & 15 right 🙂

Hubby and I went out for our daily walk, we managed 4 miles today in just over 1 hour, pretty much normal timing for us. We bumped into our wedding photographer, which was nice to actually speak to someone different.

Art today .. hmm haven’t done much, but I have joined #sewtember with Mixed Media & Beyond I do have to ask myself WHY I put myself under this sort of pressure. I don’t sew by hand, so why do a 30 day challenge… I am not sure what the final outcome will be, but each day we receive a daily prompt and get to make our own piece of mixed media art, using a piece of 10cm x 5cm natural fabric. I have assumed that will be my base and anything I do will be put onto that. So I have actually done both days today. What do you think? I had to teach myself how to chain stitch, satin stitch and french knot to do these! they probably took me around 3 hours to plan, colour, sew and photograph! I think i need to choose something a bit quicker for tomorrow.

  • sewtember day 1
    sewtember day 1 “Ikigai”
  • sewtember day 2
    sewtember day 2 “Hyppytyynytyydytys”

Hubby cooked a lovely evening meal, I’m writing this post listening to the evening Simon Mayo drive time show on Greatest Hits Radio, he does play some awesome music.

I’ve been making some decisions on the number of paid subscriptions I have and to that end I’ve cancelled a few, mainly because although I like them I’m not making the best of them, and given my art course it will only get worse, so decisions had to be made and well it will save the purse a little right?

Until tomorrow ……

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

September Blog-along with Effy – Day 1

Season Tree
Season Tree – created as part of a paid class with “Mixed Media & Beyond“

The lovely Effy Wild has launched another month long blog along, and I’ve decided it would be great to join in again.

The challenge is to blog every day in September, and read and comment on at least 3 other blogs in the group.

I shall do my best to be chatty, interesting and mildy appropriate.

So here is day one, happy September, I hope its a good one for you all.

Today has been a dull grey and gloomy day here in Norfolk, I’ve tried to get stuff done, I popped to the supermarket and the post office, prepared food for the family, and tried for some arting time, but its just been one of those “meh” days and I’ve spent the afternoon trying to make space in my Google account by deleting emails, not at all productive for my art!

However, this month I am looking forward to creating lots of art, sending the kids back to school and starting my own year long art college course to learn to be an actual Artist, whoop whoop.

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Good news thread

This is just a quick hello, to share some good news with you all.

In early July I saw an advertisement for a local art college, Art Academy East in Norwich.

I checked out the details, found all the possible options for courses and spent some time talking it through with Hubby. A decision was made which one would be best suited for me and so I applied for the University of the Arts London Level 2 Diploma – Art & Design course.

They offered me a taster day which I attended a couple of weeks ago. I had such a great time! We painted a rocky sea shore scene, A3 in size and using acrylic paint, with a palette knife for the majority of the painting so it added texture. That was new to me.

rocky sea shore scene

After the taster day I just knew I wanted to be a part of the college. The setup is great, it’s reasonably close to home, in a large well ventilated room and they take COVID precautions really seriously. Yes I’m double jabbed, yes we have come out of lockdown and restrictions are lifted but I’m still super worried about it, and they didn’t scrimp on their precautions and I felt safe.

And yesterday I was finally told that I had received a placement! I needed to confirm within 24 hours otherwise I would lose my slot as they are over subscribed. So I have confirmed! I have been accepted! I am going to college one day a week starting September! It follows an academic year, so Fridays for the next school year I too will be a student. @owlsowner is super excited that he is going to be able to nag me for a change to make sure I’ve been doing my homework!

I couldn’t have applied if it hadn’t been for the love and support of my amazing husband all the way in my journey. He completely has my back, he is my biggest advocate and supporter. The children are both excited for me, and are always telling me how good I am. Equally if hubby hadn’t encouraged me to find a face to face class then I wouldn’t have found Sarah at StART_Studio and the confidence that gave me to do more than “just” post online, but actually turn up to a class.

So bring on September and the start of a new journey!