Rocking Your World Friday - 43rd of 2018

Good Morning lovely people 

Tis Friday time for 

So first up, was last Friday night, me and hubby had our usual Ikea jaunt and stopped for a cuppa on the way around.  It's always lovely to break the working week and I love how colourful the lamps are swinging above us. 

The weekend was glorious, cold but blue skies and sunshine, which in my books is always good for the soul. 

Saturday was the continuation of deep cleaning and we sorted the dining room (it's nearly almost done).  Leaving the kitchen, utility and TV room to sort, but we are definitely getting there.  The house is feeling much cleaner tidier and happier and I actually know what we've got and where to find it.  So this is definitely a big grateful for me. 

We also managed an autumn tidy up of the garden, it wasn't intentional but our local council are swapping bins around and as such we had one final 'green' bin collection for garden waste before they charge us for the privilege.  To be honest, since we hard landscaped the garden two years ago we rarely use the green bin, except twice a year, we cut the conifer hedge our side that belongs to next door.  So we thought we'd make the most of the last collection and sort the hedge, so whilst hubby did that (also managing to cut through the wire, which led to an hour of dismantling, rewiring and putting it back together), I emptied out the summer bedding plants and put some violas in for over winter.  I also scrubbed down one of the decks and did some weeding.  Overall the garden is looking so much better for it.  It was a joy to be outside and the garden as I've looked out from the kitchen has made me smile all week! 

Sunday we ventured to the local dam and a circular walk, we haven't been for ages but really enjoyed it! 

I loved how the trees above framed the picture. 

The water was running quite quick under the bridge

And the sunshine makes my hair look almost white, I am very much an out of the bottle blonde! 

The blue skies reflecting in the water made me happy

As did the sunshine on the large expanse of water

I also managed a day off not only on Monday but Tuesday too and I spent it making Christmas presents, which unfortunately I can't share at the moment as people might see, but lets just say I enjoyed time on my sewing machine and got four items completed and ticked off my list. 

Work has been busy busy I captured this photo of the bosses dog, he made himself most comfortable on the sofa, note the additional cushion underneath him. 

Said 18 year old is busy busy busy on with his current brief.  He even had a visit to Wentworth Woodhouse this week as he's been given a mini-shared brief with some others.  He took a couple of photos whilst he was exploring the house

It really is a stunning property

And Thursday morning we were treated to a glorious sunrise, I couldn't capture a photo as I was driving, but hubby sent this when he got in the office - look at those beautiful rays. 

Thursday night (despite the fact I kept forgetting all week), me and hubby had date night, we went to the local theatre and saw yet another Shakespeare play, this time Much Ado About Nothing.  It was fast paced, over the top. flamboyant with lots of music including a take on an Arctic Monkeys track, but we loved it! 

Which brings you full circle to this morning, which started with a much needed catch up with my cousin on the phone.  She hasn't been very well and is due for more tests today but we chatted about moving things forward and she seemed more upbeat when we'd finished the call.  We are very similar in so many ways including our parenting style and its good to be able to support each other when things are tough. 

I hope you have had an awesome week, if you fancy joining in pop a post together, come back link up and we can come and visit.  If you can mention the post in your blog that would be awesome, you never know we might get a few others joining in, I've been doing Rocking posts now for almost ten years and it really does have a benefit on your mental health - don't believe me give it a whirl! 

Rocking Your World Friday - 42nd of 2018

Good morning lovely people

tis Friday time for 

Well time marches along at a merry old pace.  As those that blog read will know the deep clean of the house is thoroughly underway.  As part of the craft room sort, I sifted the 'made mini books never filled' category into a box labeled 'must give to people to enjoy'.  

As well as that I had a box of alterable items (fellow crafters will know of what I speak).  So this week I managed to paint up one of the 'alterable' boxes, added papers and elements to it, to match a mini book I've made but not yet given away.  So now I have a box and a book to send to someone rather than just a book.  I'm not sure if that's mission accomplished - I suppose it will be once the book and the box are with a new home and not in my 'must give away' box. 

Anyway here is a picture of the finished item, with the book in the box peeking out. 

This in turn left me with some papers to 'use up' my intentions (currently and liable to change) is to use up papers as I go rather than storing them on a 'may use in the future basis'.  Here are the cards I made with the leftovers from the aforementioned box. 

And just because I was sat at my desk and there was a pile of Gelli plate prints waving at me, I also created these cards too. 

Next up a lovely lunch last week, I had some ready cooked Mediterranean vegetables I'd done in my acti-fry and this turned into a super easy and quick omelette for lunch. 

Next up said 18 year old, with his new hair cut and get this clean shaven!   It didn't last but he looked mighty smart when he went to work the other night!

Which gave me and hubby time to have a candlelit meal 

We are watching our weight currently (well I've been watching mine for some time but the scales only ever increase), so we decided to do something about it.  Having tried every diet on the market I'm back to my good old fashioned Weight Watchers, this was a breakfast I had this week, I have a slight weakness for fresh raspberries, so you can imagine how much I enjoyed this! 

Monday night saw said 18 year old and his girlfriend at a gig, so we were on Taxi duty as it was in the middle of the city.  They had a brilliant night and really enjoyed it, but it meant a late night for all of us. 

Tuesday night and a family trip out to the theatre to see a Midsummer Night's Dream.

This was the evening sky we were treated to as we headed to the tram station. 

And this was the closing set of the production, the production in itself was fantastic and we were highly amused with the glam rock scene at the end where the 'play' by the players was performed as a glam rock musical. 

We loved the moon design on the set, it was stunning.  

Wednesday saw a work day at home whilst I sorted out some numbers, the office environment when you need to get on, isn't always conducive to a good working environment, so a day sorting at home was welcomed as I got the numbers bottomed out.  The only downside is that they literally took me all day to sort, but they are done now, just waiting on a response from the Accountants. 

So my lovely people that was my week, lots of work, but some play time too.  I hope you had a grand week, if you fancy joining in pop a post together pop back and link up so we can some and visit. 

Rocking Your World Friday - 41st of 2018

Good Morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

Well it's been a quiet week on the photo front so I'll apologise in advance, however I've had a mighty busy work week and my phased return seems to have fizzled out.  Fear not my trustee rockers and rockettes I now have a cunning plan whereby rather than trying to leave early every day, I'm actually going to take whole days off - genius plan - what do you think?  It's not perfect but it does at least give me some time to do nothing - stop it - I can hear you all laughing as you read this. 

So positives, the house deep clean marches on - or rather stumbles along, but I've managed to rope hubby and said 18 year old into helping which is making life a little easier and I've finally finished the craft room - hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week hall stairs and landing, which in real terms means just mopping up the jobs we didn't get done in the other weeks, so this one has been quite restful in comparison.

We had a lovely brunch on Saturday morning, hubby is on with Christmas presents and we ended up with ample left over peeled oranges, so a stack of pancakes seemed in order.  A little bit naughty but so very worth it! 

The weekend included making a start on Christmas gifts.  In line with the Martin Lewis money saving show, the Mindful Christmas magazine that I picked up and the slightly emptier pay packet at the end of the month (who knew only having one job rather than two would do that to a girl), I find myself having a slightly more frugal Christmas - I know I know I keep mentioning that word, but when you are making gifts you have to start earlier! 

So Saturday was spent with needle felting machine at the ready, I can't share (yet) as it is a gift but I had fun making.  It isn't finished so I'm planning on completing that this weekend. 

Next up said 18 year old making strides in his next steps.  He has been over the years incredibly undecided about post college and what it will look like, but with less than 12 months until that becomes reality it has been a case of stepping out and making choices and decisions.  Which meant we spent the majority of Sunday trudging around different lecture theatres and classrooms to listen to tutors discussing their courses at the fairly local university. 

Surprisingly for me, he came home with a pretty firm idea of next step and ruled out elements he genuinely wasn't interested in.  Which means he has commenced uni applications this week and he is discussing finances and halls of residence (she runs for the hills with her hands over her ears - moving out - ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH) but apparently I have just less than 12 months to get used to it. 

Said 18 year old's girlfriend who was very much in the don't want the debt not going to uni camp, is now wavering having identified a similarly interesting course for herself.  Watch this space on the next installments to see where they head next. 

We are definitely having some odd weather at the moment, today is warm and very windy and it is likely to remain that way tomorrow too - I don't like it windy so I'll be glad of the calmer day forecast for Sunday even if it is a lot cooler!

We've also had a few beautiful sunrises recently, unfortunately I'm driving when I get to see them, but hubby captured this one this week from his work building and sent it to me, definitely worthy of a share don't you think! 

And that my lovely people is about that this week - like I said short on photos, short on fun stuff, long on busy work days.  Here's to a more productive less stressful weekend! 

Have a great day

If you fancy joining in pop a post together, come back and link up so we can come and visit. 

Rocking Your World Friday - 40th of 2018

Good morning lovely people it is Friday and time for

So I mentioned last week that I'd been to an art journal weekend at my local craft shop with Kate Crane but I didn't share what we created over the weekend, so I thought I would share them now.  The first picture uses the gelli plate which is one of my favourite craft items, we created lots of different backgrounds using texture plates which I've never used before they reminded me of unmounted rubber stamps and very versatile at lifting paint off a gelli plate.  We also used some of Kate's new stamps cutting the items out and then sticking them onto the pages, the three below will appear in my art journal when I find a roll of red tape.  

This one is my favourite because Kate showed us a technique using the gelli plate with paint and alcohol inks.  I have copious amounts of alcohol inks from when they first appeared on the market but other than being shown how to use alcohol inks on photo paper I've never use them subsequently.

I finished this last one at home after the weekend using some pre stamped pages that I've made I really enjoyed the weekend I enjoyed spending time with my mum, said 18 year old and his girlfriend!

This was one of the Sunday projects, a gelli plated house which was originally flat packing and we created the house and gelli plated a butterfly.  We left part of the house open so we could pop the booklet below that you can see into it (the down side is there's no base of the house obviously the book falls out but I still like it).

Below is one of the little books that we did on the Sunday and we gelli plated the covers and created blank signatures inside which I sewed in some people just stapled the signatures together, again this was a treat to make and it was fun working small for a change. 

We also made on the Sunday another book this time with gelli plate pages I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the books, but I thoroughly enjoyed making them. 

Two paper cones gelli plated not sure what I'm going to do with these but they were fun to play with

Here is a picture of the little house box for the book

This week, said 18 year old came home with a project from his previous college year, it was an Alice in Wonderland inspired coil pot which is significantly bigger than I had imagined and is incredibly well made he has done an awesome job

It was my brother's birthday on Saturday and we met up for brunch needless to say too much talking not enough photo taking.  Afterwards we walked down to the Holt to look at the photos from the photo marathon event that said 18 year old and hubby took part in earlier in the month we really enjoyed trying to find their photos and look at other people's interpretations. 

Here they are in front of one of the photos all happy this was when we found hubby's 'go green' one (which was the prompt) hubbies photo is the fourth on the left going down

Me and hubby went to Yorkshire Sculpture Park on Sunday and had a significant walk soaking up all the artwork as well as enjoying the fresh air this particular piece is a Penone piece that we'd only seen from afar when we visited last.

Which looks like a tree with a box in it

Down through the park we could see the first of the Sean Scully exhibition pieces which is absolutely huge

Up close the colour of the rusting metal and the enormity of the piece is breathtaking

We found another piece Off the Beaten Track called the Coffin jump, but I didn't get the artist's name. 

At the top of the 71 steps we had to have a sit to catch our breath

Andy Goldsworthy piece is fully enclosed which drives hubby insane there was a piece of wood propped against it so he could have a look inside

Outside the long gallery is another large Sean Scully piece. 

Inside we were treated too lots of abstract art, mainly oil paint on the canvases and apparently still wet

 I quite liked the sculptures in the room this one known as blue stack

It's weird but the camera didn't capture the actual colours that we could see in person they were much more muted and mingled however this is what the camera lens shows

This metal piece was my favourite called coin stack and was reminiscent of Sean Scully's childhood when his father used to stack coins on the kitchen table

I grabbed this shot of a young lady just sat soaking up the art it's a shame sometimes that there isn't easier ways of doing this

Some of the sketches which had been framed

Outside we walked down the cow field which was full of cows to the third outdoor sculpture, I loved all the chisel marks on the stack of stone and the natural changes in pattern

Final piece 1000 tonnes of rock, stacked and reminiscent of dry stone Walling but on an epic scale

 

as you can see from the size of the people next to the sculpture

A beautiful autumn leaf on the floor I had to take a photo there is usually one leaf that speaks to me at this time of year I couldn't believe how vibrant it was and no I didn't use a filter

The final sculpture that was new to us on the day, reminiscent of some of the seeds work we've seen  before.  I did like this one because the shape looks like love hearts

A very very busy week at work meant that Monday Tuesday and Wednesday were something of a blur however on Thursday I managed a catch up with my sister at IKEA so I could re-balance the world we had a brief wander around the Market Hall and spotted some of the Christmas elements they have set up this one made me smile

And finally Thursday night we ventured out to a theatre we haven't visited before to see the English Touring Theatre perform Othello I've only seen Othello live twice before the first time it made me cry.  I was really hoping said 18 year old's girlfriend would enjoy it as she hadn't seen this before.  I was not disappointed absolutely breathtaking and yes it made me cry the only downside we discovered was

When you spend this much on the architecture it means they've forsaken the budget in other areas, in this particular instance the other areas were comfy seats we all had to get up and make the most of the interval as we were all struggling!

The set was fantastic minimal and atmospheric a fantastic family night out

so that was my week, I hope yours was good, if you fancy joining in pop back link and we can caome and visit.