ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY !!!!

Good Morning my beautiful Rockettes and how are you this morning?  Well I've had the strangest of weeks, I don't suppose it was going to be a 'good' one but I wasn't imagining strange if I'm honest, I seem to have had to 'schedule' grief - how on earth do you do that - I mean how do you put that sort of thing to one side whilst you get on with normal work life and then pull it out to have a good rummage around in when time pressures aren't so great?  I'm not sure that it's a healthy thing to do or a sensible thing to do but it is something that I've done, so I'm now feeling a little numb?  No idea what I'll be like over the next 24 hours but that really really isn't why you are here is it, so in an effort to remember the essence of the Rocking post let's celebrate what is Rocking my world this week

Blue skies and milky coffees
Moments of quiet in the back garden
Loud music and headphones
Scrapping time and mojo (when it reappeared briefly)
Husband - he still amazes me how he just goes with the flow of our lives and keeps me mentally with it even when I seem to be losing the plot
Said 10 year old for just being him, for giving me hugs when I've needed them
For my amazing sister who when things were starting to crack on Wednesday let me arrive at her house, completely break down into tears and give me the biggest hug, before feeding me copious cups of coffee and letting me rant whilst joining in - thank goodness for sisters!
For my brother who despite being poorly kept dragging himself into work at the beginning of the week despite the combination of illness and grief
For Dara O'Briain DVD's when you need a giggle his take on 'gamers' and the 'escalator' sketch - laughed til I cried

For my boss offering to buy my husband a pork pie - honestly the conversations you have sometimes, it went something along the lines of appreciating that I'm still going that extra length to get things done which means that my family life suffers, to him asking if Craig likes sweet things when I said I'd have to bribe him when I got home - then I said - no Craig doesn't like sweet stuff so he said "ah a savoury man" I said "yes he likes pork pie" to which my boss said to tell him that he owed him a pork pie - yes I think we are losing the plot!

Hairdressers sorting said 10 year olds hair out last night and fingers crossed sorting my hair today.

New patio doors that give us a better view of our postage stamp garden

Boxes of memories with sentimental letters and paraphernalia in them

Finding the box of missing photos that I've spent 7 years trying to find

Yep I think that's about it I'm afraid but it's a longer list than I expected!

Now crafting creations for you lovely people using yet again the Shimelle layout mentioned in the last post!

Up close - border punches and layers

A little art journaling in my A5 journal from when we went to York I enjoyed playing with the colours of this one!

So there you have it you lovely people

if you fancy joining in, put yourself a post together and then pop along here leave a comment and put a link in.  If you don't have time to do a post yourself or don't have a blog just remember to think of those little glimpses of fun you've had this week, those little parts of your life where you've had a smile on your face!

May you all have a beautiful and blessed weekend!

THANK YOU AND A LITTLE CRAFTING

Just wanted to say thank you to you all for your kind words they are very much appreciated at the moment, given how difficult this week is proving to be add into that the news that the funeral will be Friday night into church and Saturday morning actual funeral you can imagine that this is not getting much easier.  Whilst not wanting to dwell on yesterday's post what it does remind me of is how amazing you all are, I didn't want to put anything too lengthy on my facebook page as there are many of us going through this grieving process.  I did want to document it here as it felt like a more 'permanent' home, so thank you for listening even though it wasn't a cheery post, my blog friends you are simply awesome! 

Talking of facebook - my brother's status yesterday brought a smile and a tear and before it gets lost into the depths of facebook I thought I'd put it here as well - he's always been fabulous with words

"thinks somewhere a very feisty old lady is being met by a very giddy Jesus in a party hat.  Goodnight Grandma, another beautiful star learns to shine in the nightsky" - like I said beautiful words

Anyway at times like this you start to appreciate how fabulous crafting is - basically because when life is hard it's something to 'throw yourself into' completely to allow your brain some download time.  I'm not coping particularly well and have spent two days moving paper around my desk at work - (worrying when you consider that I should be running payroll LOL!)

Anyway some recent crafting came from a link on someone's blog (apologies cannot recall whose) indicating that Shimelle does a sketch every Wednesday - well not one to shirk a sketch I discover one that required 4 squares on the sketch and it meant I could drag out all those value packs of 6" x 6" (I never understand why I buy them - think they are value for money then realise I can't really use them on a 12 x 12 layout) and generate some great layouts - this one

which I loved doing and loved it so much I did this one (excuse hubbies warped sense of humour LOL)

and then this one which I love the colour combinations on - I did the journaling around the edge on the latter two because it worked! 

So I'm off to do some more crafting tonight in the hope it's not just paper rearrangement!

IT'S BEEN A HARD WEEKEND BE WARNED THIS IS A HARD POST

I've been dragging myself through the weekend, it's been a hard one.  After posting my Rocking post on Friday I found out when dropping my little one at school that my Grandma had passed away, she was an awesome lady, a feisty amazing individual who never ceased to amaze me, her strength her love her warmth all of it utterly amazing.  She was mother to 11 children which is no mean feat, she lost my Grandad when he was only in his fifties and continued to work tirelessly, she was also an amazing and devout Roman Catholic remembering each and every one of her children, grand-children and great grandchildren in her prayers every night.  The hole she has left is cavernous and will never be filled and in all honesty I thought hospitals and Doctors would continue to rebuild her forever.  This however, has not been the case and I sit now reflecting on a long and amazing life with a heavy heart. 

However, in the spirit of Rocking my World Friday, I wonder sometimes if little glimpses of her are still shining this week unbeknown to me on Thursday evening when she left this life to start a new one I was at home surrounded by my Mum and my sister and my brother amongst others and I was art journaling albeit badly - these are the two pages I completed on the night - both pages were works in progress, both in different journals both documenting a flying person and both lots of journaling done on Thursday evening.

This one is in my A5 journal and says simply "Spread Your Wings and Fly"

This one says "The ripples of my life are creating strange patterns at the moment could really do with a guardian angel"

Goodnight Grandma may our loss on earth be a true celebration in heaven surrounded by your husband and five of your children, forever in my heart and my prayers.

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY !!!!

Good Morning and the Biggest of Waves to my beautiful Rockettes and Rockers out there, how does this fair Friday morning greet you - well I hope?

Yes that's right - Friday - when did that happen?  Well once again life is racing by, my sister reminded me that we are nearing the longest day of the year which means - well what it actually means is the days start getting shorter - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr but we shall not think about that yet - we shall celebrate the bright blue skies and the summery days (when we get them)

So top of my list are those blue sky days - just sitting in the garden with a cup of tea I have really enjoyed doing this recently, you forget sometimes that the little things in life give the greatest of joys.

Next was a fabulous day out to celebrate my sister's birthday at Chatsworth on Sunday which was her actual birthday.  We were blessed with a dry day and went along and had an amazing time, we also had the world's strangest picnic courtesy of my Mum - now tell who normally would purchase a plus in cool box, a gas stove, table and chairs and a windbreak for a picnic - well actually not my Mum but her husband, however it was a great success!

Once I've downloaded the pictures I'll share a few on here, it has been years since we went in the house and had forgotten how amazing and how ornate the building is inside - absolutely awesome!

Then there was the day out at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park which proved to be hot, unusual and a little costly but predominantly lots of fun!  Our favourite creatures were the Meerkat

the rescued Romanian lions

and the gorgeous mischievous ring tailed leemars, this was one of the most patient Mum's I've ever seen because these baby leemars had a whole lot of energy!

Then there is last nights craft night, Mum, Melanie Nirvana, John and Fi, John enjoyed utilising the Wi-fi he's been internet free for some time so enjoyed just surfing last night and Fi tucked into my 'card making' box of goodies to produce some cards and the rest of us were doing a bit of art journaling - I actually was fighting with mine - quite a lot - not the most productive of evenings, decided that the black paged book I bought doesn't blend easily with my art journaling pictures - I'll get there just not sure when!

E-mails from friends informing me of good reads and providing a good giggle - you know who you are!

The black dagger brotherhood book that I got the other day provides an 'insiders' guide and actually has a 'mini-book' at the beginning which tells part of the story of one of the books that you don't see!  Honestly made me cry and smile and cry and smile a bit more.  It's been a good read up to now!

Pinterest - dearest Carmen what have you got me hooked on now, up to now I've not 'joined' I've just been looking but wow there are some pretty awesome things on there - I mean seriously awesome!

Making some progress on emptying the loft - honestly how do you end up with that much stuff?  And it's currently only half emptied - crazy absolutely crazy, what it has meant is me going through boxes and find parts of my 'past life' reading the diary of me as a 17 year old is truly mesmerizing seems like I'm reading about someone else's life!  Most of it I remember but occasionally I'll find something that I simply can't and then it seems strange!

Finally Cardinal Crafts for providing a timely Internet order full to the brim of exceptionally well priced double sided tape and I do use absolutely shed loads of the stuff! 

Anyway that's the list for this week - quite a full one if I'm honest!  Here is a 12 x 12 layout that I've done in the last month, really enjoyed doing this one, it was from a sketch but can't remember whose and I really enjoyed working with the papers!

A Close up showing the bunting and the hole punch.

And a little art journal page from our visit to York!

If you join in don't forget to Linky but also put a comment so we can find you in the future too - plus I like to hear from all my amazing Rockettes

ROCK IN PEACE CJ AND I SEEM TO BE NEGLECTING YOU - SORRY!!!!

I can't quite put my finger on it but to be honest, if you add 'free time' to 'blogger issues' throw in 'family life' a whole dollop of 'work' what you get is what you got which is me missing in action for some time - so apologies on that front!

I promise I'll try and make it up to you all LOL!

Firstly it would appear that my mojo is poorly - now it is well trained and used to constant work at unsociable hours but in all honesty this time I'm unsure what to do with it!  Last night despite several challenge sketches all I did was move paper around my desk for a little over two hours and achieve zero has anyone else suffered a poorly mojo and how did you get it back on the road to recovery?

I'm not sure when it will return to normal and not sure if it's because it's wanting to spread it's wings and do something a little different but at the moment it is really struggling!

Thankfully I've got a little crafting in reserve - now let's see if blogger will let me upload it - don't hold your breath!   This is my circle journal home after it's jaunt around some amazing scrapbookers and art journallers alike - it was a Rock In Peace journal and before it even left my mitts it was supersized (not intentionally just got a little overexcited when making it!)

Unfortunately the cover has spray ink on it which seems to like to come off on my hands - if anyone knows a way of setting this spray ink can you let me know because blue avatar fingers are not always becoming at work!  And apologies to all the ladies who took part in my journal - I hope you've managed to remove the ink from your fingers!

My pages, the whole layout was an extended envelope with a difference and was something I found on you tube, allowing me to cover my Rock In Peace hero, my favourite track on the CD that accompanied the journal together with details on live gigs I'd seen and a little about myself - like I said supersized!

Other contributions from the great girls in my group look a little like this

and this

and this

and this

 and this (anyone recognise the style?)

and this

and finally this

as you can imagine I was absolutely blown away with the gorgeous work inside my journal, there is still more to see within it and it is incredibly tactile which I love!  All I can say is ladies your work is awesome thank you for looking after my journal on its journey and for your beautiful work!