ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY

Good morning all - how do I find you this fair morning - tis Friday once again - a time to settle back and use the grey matter to identify the positives and grateful moments that you had in the week, it doesn't matter how small or insignificant they may seem if they made you happy then they are true moments to include in a Rocking post.  The list doesn't have to be long - so without further ado

Half term week - time off - always an amazing blessing, to enjoy family time (which we have) or to down tools from work for a while (which I have) or to have a major clean of said 11 year old's room (which we did) it's definitely something to be grateful for.

Half term week has also brought a mighty large birthday celebration for DH - this year we both celebrate big birthdays mine is my 40th in September and DH was his 50th on Valentine's day.  We've had a few days celebrating, nothing major, just our style if I'm honest, days out at Castleton, visiting two different caves at Castleton, bowling on his birthday and a trip to the cinema to see Man on a Ledge - all was good.  February is a difficult month to celebrate a birthday I've found, so might have some more celebrations on his half birthday in August LOL - it might have warmed up a bit by then.

Valentine's Day brought me gifts and flowers even though I said the flowers were more than enough - he wasn't having any of it and he bought me a small bag of my favourite Thornton chocolate, and two beautiful heart decorations from Next - I was thoroughly spoilt and it was his birthday - go figure!

Drinking hot chocolate outside in Bakewell, wrapped up in warm coats and blankets this is the offending beastie!

 and this is how nice they were!

Finding quaint courtyards in Bakewell - how pretty does this look!

 Next up Speedwell Cavern at Castleton an underground boat ride through an old Lead mine with Dominic as our guide, it was great apart from having to duck down quite frequently for fear of banging our heads - they must have been significantly shorter back then is all I can say!

 The Peak Cavern was also fabulous, we saw how rope was traditionally made as well as getting to explore the mine, although the Lumbago walk (I kid you not) was a killer on the back - quite literally!

Finding a lovely cafe, there is nothing nicer than finding somewhere nice to stop and grab a drink or a bite to eat and that's exactly what we did in Castleton - the Three Roofs was gorgeous inside and really busy, waited on tables, tea served in a proper tea pot, great sandwich selection and chips for said 11 year old - what more can I say!

Finding a jewelllers that not only stocks some pretty awesome pieces of jewellery but also makes them!  In particular one stone took our fancy and it looks like we might have found a joint birthday present for us both - just need to save now.

Half term science experiments, as said 11 years old's school are this year going to be doing a Science SAT exam hubby and said 11 year old decided to do some practical experiments, these are the coca cola cleaning money experiment, the coloured sugar experiment and the wobbly egg experiment which have all adorned my kitchen worktops all week.  In particular the wobbly egg is verging on gruesome, a raw egg sat in a glass of vinegar for 7 days leads to a wobbly egg that you can manipulate with your hand - urgh - is all I can think that and the fact it's been foaming all week - not nice but it's kept said 11 year old amused.

Then there was the bath bomb experiment, I got a bath bomb kit for Christmas and thought because it's all science looking that said 11 year old might like to make some.  Here he is hard at work.  The first one was perfect, the second not quite so much, in fact I was on the phone to my Mum when hubby and said 11 year old were trying to get the second one to work, it kept foaming up out of the top of the mould - only later did we discover that he'd added more citric acid to the mix when trying to get it to form into clumps rather than starch - honestly!!!!

Another grateful watching a good film at the cinema that we could all watch - Man on a Ledge turned out to be far better than I expected and provided they don't see fit to do Man on a Ledge 2 (how many ledges can a man stand on LOL) I can honestly say it was a good watch!

So there you go my rather lengthy list of gratefuls this week.  How was your week, I hope it was good, if you want to join in, throw yourself a blog post together and pop back here to link with Mr Linky so we can come and visit.  If you don't have a blog you can always just leave a comment telling me what made your week this week!

I hope you all have a truly blessed week ahead

Now before Mr Linky a little crafting, the huge lion at the Sotheby's sale at Chatsworth's Beyond Limits exhibition last year, made from tyres - one of our favourites.

 Up close, punched tags, on foam pads with assorted stars on

 hand stamped stars coloured in and the stamped title.

WEEK DISAPPEARING, BEHIND ON BLOGS AND A CLASS OR TWO FROM SHIMELLE

Morning all, plan for this week was to keep up with blogs and craft to retain sanity chip - not happening on all counts, so I need a mass blog read catch up and some down time to do more crafting, however, I did decide to do a few layouts following Shimelle's cybercrop over the weekend, which gave us a whole week to create the layouts, which I love, I've often wanted to do the cybercrops on UKScrappers but my crafting fits into my family life and a whole weekend creating is not something I can 'afford' so I often sit on the sidelines looking at the fabulous creations as they happen.

The first challenge Shimelle set was to create a layout using a 'sketch' that she had produced (actually she'd produced the basic page layout she shared before adding photos, title, journaling etc) so this is my interpretation of said layout! Now this isn't my normal 'colour' scheme because you just don't get the opportunity to mix purple and yellow very often - but it went with the picture so as you can see I was 'digging' deep into the paper pile to do the photo justice which meant using up some very very old papers - so a plus on many counts, first joining in a cybercrop, the second actually creating a layout and the third using up old paper!  What could be better!

Right off to mow the back garden and try and entice said 10 year old to get himself in the shower, something he promised hours ago!  Then off to work this afternoon - the statement - DON'T ASK!  Comes to mind and where is said 10 year old being abandoned today - well DH has come to the rescue - guess whose going to be top of the Rocking list this week!  Ah well must dash - promise to have a read of your beautiful blogs later (might be much later like tomorrow but you never know). 

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY YOU'LL NEED A CUPPA - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

Good morning and what does this fine day greet you with - well for me it's a grey and dreary Friday morning and it's 6.40am and I'm at the computer so both of those statements are all kinds of wrong but hey lets deal with it, accept it and move on

It is most definitely time for

Well this week has gone a little slower which is nice and I seem to have kept up to date on blog postings recently which is always a good thing and to be honest it really has kept me sane over the last week, so my very first grateful this week is you lot - you keep me sane, I love reading about your lives whether it's jaunts on holidays, new scrapping layouts, beautiful cards, challenge blogs that you're involved in, hubby spending far to long at work or days out enjoying artwork I love it all - so the biggest cyber hug to you all ((((((((((HUG)))))))))))))))) just for being you!

Next up is going to be hubby who despite my protestations claimed he could 'repipe' the utility room to 'fit' despite my reservations (and believe you and me it's usually the other way around, you know when your adamant that the piece of furniture isn't too big only to get it home to be proved wrong!) he spent most of the weekend drilling and re piping and mending, which has unfortunately meant the utility has been out of action all week (no dishwasher or washer) but means that once its done its done - so a big whoop for hubby all I need now is for him to finish it off which I know means relaying the floor etc but he's good I'm sure he can do it and before I hear you cry "what did you do" I papered and painted it which is no mean feat given the tiny proportions of the room and my rather over sized derrier working around the remaining two pieces of household kit still in there.  And as for helping with the flooring - well I'll be at work, have decided the only way to retain my sanity chip is to go into work tomorrow - yes I am that mad but I have to keep that sanity chip firmly in place, which means work - but we're not going to mention that today now are we!

My mum for having said 10 year old for a couple of days at the beginning of the week and taking him into town for a wander around the shops and to purchase some items, including those awful rubbery aliens - for those of you who are completely bewildered by these items, they are small plastic eggs that come apart that are see-through, inside is a jelly type slime (I kid you not) and two tiny rubbery items in this case one that is a silvery pearly white colour and the other a dark obsidian black colour that look like tiny alien foetuses and these are bought to 'play with'.  Because I find them soooooooo repulsive I've always banned the purchase of them, however my Mum isn't quite as strict and these were her special "treat" for him because I had offered to buy him £10 worth of stuff (guilty mother syndrome) whilst they were out shopping, so he bought two 'used' games for his old xbox and a book (to appease his long suffering mother who pleads to him to read all the time) and the aliens took him over the ten pound so my mum bought them!  Up to now the clear gloop they come in has ended up spread all over my coffee table twice and as soon as those rubbery little aliens have any signs of excessive dust or dirt accumulation I'll be none too pleased believe you and me, however Jo informs me quite candidly that they don't get any better as she's got a 6 week wait for a foaming lobster!  The mind boggles Jo and you tell me your son is 16 almost 17 - what you're telling me is that there is no hope I'm just going to have to accept this!

Talking of said 10 year old which we were, a big shout out for him because unfortunately our lovely Wednesday plan of opticians, hour in work and home to create all kinds of magical things from Alice creations to cushions didn't quite go according to plan - why you may ask - work - the one hour jaunt in was 4 hours and bring some home and I took said 10 year old with me and he was an absolute star!  so a big whoop for said 10 year old - thank you hun you are amazing!

Then there is my sister for coming along with us yesterday afternoon I decided I needed to take said 10 year old out and have some fun and I invited her along so she came, always good company, we put the world to rights, I'm still immensely worried about her because she has always been some fragile but she knows we are here for her whenever she needs us and we know that no matter how much we want to fix everything for her it really is down to her and she will do it in her own good time.

Talking of afternoons out - we headed to Karmaclay at the Elsecar Heritage Centre, set up fairly recently it's a paint a pot shop, strangely enough there used to be a paint a pot shop in the exact shop some time ago so it's awesome to see it used again for the same reason.  We had a blissful couple of hours letting said 10 year old paint a 'cauldron pot' with its removable lid and drinking absolutely divine coffees - honestly best couple of hours I've spent in quite some time so if you are anywhere near Elsecar and fancy doing something with the kids and have a few spare pennies then I thoroughly recommend it!  Studio fees are £2.50 and cover the usage of paints and the firing of the item and costs for items range from tiny little plaque like hearts starting at about £3.50 going up to much larger items, the cauldron said 10 year old was painting is £14 just to give you an idea.  Apparently they also hold childrens parties and last week had a whole host of female adults down one evening last week at 6pm painting vases through the evening and drinking wine - they didn't leave til midnight and it sounds like they had a fabulous time!  So here is to new business may they succeed and flourish and continue to rock peoples weeks!

Then a wander around the corner found us at the Hive Art Gallery, a small privately owned gallery showing the pen and ink works of several local artists, this was sheer heaven to me, beautiful artwork in a simple setting allowing you to explore artwork, another great time was had.  In particular the work of Jade Morris (if you click on her name you go to her blog and get to see the artwork we admired yesterday), took our breath away, the attention to detail was absolutely phenomenal, very hard subjects dealt with to be honest her artwork felt like art journaling without the literal words using a different medium, she put down her emotions and feelings into these pen and ink pictures and although sometimes the subject matter was hard, or the artwork felt aggressive and cruel it was also incredibly honest which gave it an innocent quality. 

The other work we absolutely adored was the work of John Ledger who it turned out was the guy wandering around greeting us into the exhibition - we had no idea only realised when I was wandering the internet last night! Click his name to get to his work, this work was incredibly thought provoking as the views of the individual indicate that the ways of capitalism aren't working (his interpretation not necessarily mine, I don't think I'm well read enough to give my view point on this, however the artwork did make me think and I always think that that is enough, to create a thought that then filters down and affects the way you are and your being and that of other people) he had four pieces of artwork visible, the first completely blue, the second red, the third predominantly black and the last one a mix including green, what made them completely awesome was that they were created with bic biro pens - I kid you not!  The work was intricate and detailed and must have taken hours and hours and hours!  Some of the work was marking the year 2045 - 100 years after the second world war and the fall of facism and questioning how far (if at all) we had come.  His take on this wasn't a positive one but it was one that helped me question lots of things and for this aspect alone I am grateful to explore the thoughts in my head!  If you fancy heading over to their blogs bear in mind that there subject matter or their take on it isn't the usual 'happy gratefuls' we deal with on a Friday but I did love the fact that they challenge who we think we are and why!

Then a wander around the corner into the craft shop on site, honestly I didn't 'need' anything, I'd seen Sir Tim's video on distress stains and thought - should I? but thought they might end up like my alcohol inks gathering dust!  So I refrained but oooh I must buy something, surely, after endless wandering I got stuck next to the sale table (again) and found 'goody bags' these are when Lynn (bless her) is bored with all the sale stuff and needs to get shut, so she chucks a load of things in a bag and puts them out at £4.99 a piece so I bought one for me and one for little sis - it was like Christmas when I got home oohing and ahhhing over it's contents, even though they are in see through bags you can't really tell what you've got til you get home - lets put it this way might be jaunting back for a second look today if I get my way!

Finally grateful for the cinemas keeping Harry Potter on for a bit longer, it meant we got chance to drag my lil bro and his girlfriend along last night, Fi only watched all the other Harry Potters in the last couple of weeks can you believe and they thought they might have to wait for the DVD so were well up for coming out when we offered and a thoroughly good film was had by all and DH has now finally seen the film all the way through! 

So there you go I've run out - you still here?  Wow that's awesome, might change my title - currently saying Rocking Your World - might indicate a cuppa might be in order if you're in for the long haul - getting to the end of the post. 


So a bit of crafting for you really am going to have to start 'creating' again because haven't done enough recently and I'm running out of things to share!  This particular layout taken earlier in the year after a trip to the theatre shows me, hubby, sister, niece and son sat on amazing carved bench in the entrance to the Crucible theatre and the reason we had our 'feet up' was because the bench was so long in the leg, to actually use the back rest, the rest of your legs were laid out - hence the picture!

Up close me trying to change the 'almost done' aspect of the page, with punched hearts, hand stitching and extra lettering!

and art journaling gives you this little delight done at Center Parcs questioning the meaning of wine (not life just wine)

So if you are joining in here is Mr Linky, please leave a comment as well as I'm a cheapskate and haven't upgraded Mr Linky so he disappears after a week, even if you don't join in leave a comment - I know there are some people lurking out there - nod now if you're on your lunch hour and can't actually comment because you're not allowed but enjoy the read anyway - yes I thought so - hope your world is rocking also!

THURSDAY POST - ANOTHER ONE THAT NEEDS TO BE ULTRA QUICK

Morning all she says yawning and stretching her arms!  Late night last night making last minute teacher gifts, I know I know should be more organised, had every intention to be more organised it just didn't happen.  Then teacher goes off long term sick, then numerous supply teachers before said 10 year old ends up with one over the last few weeks who has been pretty awesome (said 10 year olds words not mine) and then teaching assistant says she'll see long term sick teacher and before you know it I'm sat at my desk, scratching my head thinking what on earth am I going to make - I promise to share this one over the weekend - anyway three writing sets made complete with notelets and writing paper in one evening - not bad going even by my standard and the instructions were fabulous (out of a magazine) and made complete sense. 

Whilst pursuing the above activity we had "Unknown" on DVD on the TV hubby obsessed with buying DVD's at the moment - think he's trying to fill the next one we've bought to prove a point if I'm honest!  Anyway had that on in the background, what a mighty strange film, I think it was quite good just a bit weird and they indicated it was like "taken" and well it wasn't - not at all! 

Anyway waffling for this morning done with (I think), very excited that the RIP CJ is being resurrected again with a new host, just got to think of a new theme now!  Got tomorrow off again (but shhhhh don't tell anyone), assistant still off so I'm tearing my hair out but determined not to be in work tomorrow - trying to get this balance back!

Bit of crafting for you, this is a Christmas layout from two years ago and I used my brothers jumper colour of red to really set this one off and I love it!  It also has some gorgeous little red leather corners that I was given as a present *blush* that work so well on this layout!  The papers I bought in a sale a while ago - hurray!

Quick art journal page from when I was away at Center Parcs, managed to find some awesome adverts in the Sunday papers which resulted in this little one which I love and on the opposite page in the magazine was a 'blue version' of the advert so I'll share that later.  Don't you just love adverts in magazines when they are this inventive!

OK putting off the inevitable - work time!