SHARING THE LOVE...

Quick post from me, just wanted to let you know that Ann of Flutterby Crafter fame is having a blog giveaway as she's having a sort of her craft room so thought I'd spread the word, Ann's blog is great and she often does altered art pieces as well as cards etc which are gorgeous!  Head over to see what I mean, - this is her link http://flutterbycrafter.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-giveaway.html

Hope you're all have a great Saturday - ruglet is on so I'm heading to craft now (well in a minute anyway)

Layout to share seen as I have so many at the minute, this little guy is a stoat at Center Parcs having the most fun ever running all over the place and we all loved him!

Up close you can see faux stitching as well as the real deal

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY

Good morning my beautiful Rockettes how are you this morning?  I know Friday - what's that all about - time to step back, look back, clock the positives, don't think you have any then dig deep because they are there I promise!

First up for me - I'm alive - I know that sounds mad and no before you go jumping to conclusions I'm great I just think sometimes it's far too easy to take for granted being alive - don't you think it's awesome.  To interact with others, to see a member of your family or a friendly face, chat on the phone with someone, whatever it is, it is only possible because we are all alive.

I'm also grateful for my eye sight even though it's pretty poor without these glasses, I love being able to enjoy the world around me for all it's beauty, a blue sky, a cluster of purple crocuses, a photo of snowdrops, a smile from my hubby, seeing my son laughing, all awesome and beautiful moments captured through my eyes.

Talking of said 11 year old - one of his classic verbal statements had me rolling with laughter yesterday - another massive grateful, I picked him up from school and he was chatting about a school friend who had been given her homework early, I asked why and he said "because she's going sky diving".  Mmm I think perhaps she's gone to one of those indoor things with the blowers, but then I thought well they don't normally get homework until Friday so why has she got it so early, I was mighty confused so I said "Are you sure about that, because it would only be a day away to do one of those experience days and I'm not convinced that she's old enough" he said "no Mum I'm sure because Miss said so, she said that my school friend was skiving, you know sky diving"  "Skiving" I said - "doesn't mean she's gone sky diving" laughed til I cried - love it!

Onwards with the list - grateful for the Doctor, I like no nonsense doctors, where you say this is the problem - checks me out, concludes he knows what's what - provides recommended medication - phew, sometimes I just keep going when it's easier to stop and get things sorted.  So big grateful for straight forward advice - now that I can handle!

Crafting at night having time to chill and relax at my table of an evening and scrapbook, such fun and I'm loving every minute of it.

Grateful for the neighbours finally removing a fairly horrendous hedge at the back of the house, mind it looks mighty odd now, but thinking that the extra light is nice, that I can live with.

Grateful for MTV unplugged - a 30 minutes set of 30 Seconds to Mars who do an awesome version of U2's Streets Have No Name track as well as their awesome tracks in an acoustic set.

Grateful for my beautiful and amazing blogging friends, I love to read about where you are with your crafts and life's adventures and to see a post this week by Sarah of my Linkin Park CJ (Click this to see what I'm talking about) out there - wow is all I can say - awesome stuff can't wait to get it back to see it in all it's glory!

So there you go my main gratefuls for this week, if you fancy joining in - write yourself a blog entry and come back and link up so we can come and visit and see how your weeks been!

Before I go - another layout to share (as I have quite a few to share as you know from yesterday's post LOL).  This one is my sister doing the gladiator challenge at Center Parcs last year - yes she is that mad!  I loved the fact she was wearing pink!

Up close the journalling has a ripped paper concertina behind it to set it off.

So there you go Rocking post for this week Mr Linky below hope you all have a beautiful and blessed weekend

this may be getting a little silly and DARCY'S 52 WORDS - GROWTH

Morning all - how are you this morning - Yes I know a thursday post from me - what's going on with the world.

Well my question is do you think this is getting a bit silly?

What is it I hear you cry - that is the pile of scrapbook layouts that I've done since the beginning of this month - I kid you not!  I spent yesterday evening moving them into albums (and rearranging them again as I insist on doing them in chronological order - I know I know completely insane).  Anyway hubby asked how many I'd done recently because he knew I'd not long since done this job at a weekend taking 4 hours, so to be sat doing it again so soon he was curious, gulp 39 layouts in the month so far - let's say it raised an eyebrow!  Does anyone else scrap at this speed or is it just me LOL - we're running out of photos from day trips out!

Anyway seen as I have so many of these to share, here's one I prepared earlier, its difficult to see on this page, but Shimelle did a layout recently where she took a page with a gorgeous outer border, and cut it into four pieces, trimming slightly so you could see the background paper, and moved the outer borders to the middle swapping around the paper as it were.  This works really well with pages with a border that have that 'almost done' feeling to them which make you run in the opposite direction because you want to scrapbook and not just stick photos to paper.  I found the technique worked with papers that didn't have that border feeling to them just as well. The photo is of said 11 year old and niece feeding the cygnets at Center Parcs

 Up close, these little gems are stickers matted onto card stock and scraps of paper.

And finally... Darcy's 52 words - growth

It didn't matter what I did to this page it did not want to be photographed, usually it's red pages that I fight with but this one is so dark but shiny it was a nightmare to photograph, nevertheless I've shared the rest of the pages with you - it would seem a shame not to share this one.  

The title on this one isn't as strong as some I've done but I like it nevertheless. 

Hope you are having a great Thursday - see you back here tomorrow for Rocking your World posts - ooh must remember the classic line said 11 year old came out with yesterday - completely genius I tell you.  

DARCY'S 52 WORDS - GRATITUDE

I must say this is one of my favourites, the original image has been changed quite considerably but I still like the feel of it, apparently I quite like grey pages with a splash of turquoise thrown in for good measure - who'd have thought it!  A tattooed lady as always! 

Being a weekly blogger of all things that Rock My World this page was fun to do and not at all difficult! 

I have almost finished this challenge but have spent the last month thoroughly immersed in scrapbooking and I usually find that when I'm scrapbooking I can't do art journaling and vice versa - which is weird isn't it!  Really must get back into the art journaling though - particularly when I need to download thoughts - it's a great way of working through things in my mind.  

I can't believe it's Wednesday already - where are the weeks going - hope you're all having a great week! 

RIP RESURRECTED CIRCLE JOURNAL

Morning all, just thought I'd put a quick post of Beth's page that I did on before it's time to post the next one LOL.

I enjoyed this journal probably because it was a good size which gave me lots of page to play with, I fought with tissue paper which wasn't so great and then with tracing paper but finally managed to beat it into submission to create this double page layout.

The left hand page up close 

 And the right hand page

 Close ups I wrote the lyrics over the faces with a red sharpie and allowed some of the paint to go over the page, to blend it all in

Used the LP font that I had on the PC and managed to use some grey scrapbook paper which I didn't think I ever would - just shows you - if you can't use it one way you can use it another!

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.

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY

Morning all - tis Friday again, a time to reflect on the last 7 days to find the silver linings, the things that made you smile, the things/people/places that quite simply brightened your day it's

Unlike the last couple of weeks, this one has been pulled together all at once, so it may not go on as long as usual (or then again it might - you might still need a cuppa!).  First up on my list has to be the Propellor Theatre who performed The Winter's Tale at the Sheffield Lyceum last week, they are quite simply amazing to see, an all male cast they can turn a Shakespearean play into something so definitively watchable!  We saw them last year perform Comedy of Errors and Richard III and they are touring again with The Winter's Tale and Henry V, unfortunately they didn't bring Henry with them, so we only had chance to see the one play but it was well worth it!

The Winter's Tale isn't one of the plays that I know particularly well and have certainly never seen it performed live, it was a play of thirds, the first third was the tragedy, the second was the comedy and the final was the romance.  Let's put it this way we had men pretending to be a flock of sheep, a man who got quite literally robbed of all his possessions including his clothes, a rendition of Beyonce's "should have put a ring on it" - we laughed, smiled and giggled our way through the show.  So if you get chance to see them - I can thoroughly recommend!

Then there's the gym, managed a couple of sessions this week (although snow on Sunday scuppered plans there) and I even went when hubby was unwell on Saturday - look at me aren't I good LOL.  I am actually enjoying it immensely I've found that provided we are going frequently we just go, do, then come back, it's when we used to go and it took half a day that I got frustrated with it!

Snow on Saturday and Sunday was lovely and not too much which meant the roads got cleared fairly quickly so 'normality' resumed on that one without too much hassle.  We still have piles of the stuff around us where it's still not melted mind and I'm sure hubby mentioned something about it arriving again on Friday - gulp!

6 Nations Rugby - put the flags out, now I quite enjoy watching a good rugby match (particularly in the warmth of my own home) but 6 Nations means one thing - scrapbook time - I did loads of crafting over the weekend, because hubby was watching 6 Nations - now this I can cope with!!

Mid week ironing - yes I know that's a strange one to be grateful for, but it's because I hate weekend ironing, it kind of signals the end of the weekend, so when we do it midweek it leaves the weekend free - woo hoo - now that I can cope with!

Royal Mail for getting the next circle journal to me and getting mine to Jas, now that's always something to be grateful for!

Finally counterfeit kit challenge blog, they have some great links to some pretty awesome tutorials, freebies, downloads etc and to be honest I'm feeling that I need something a bit 'different' on the embellishment front, a trawl through some of their ideas and the brain is firing in all directions just a shame I have to head out to work!

Finally after the major hiccups with the Asda delivery last week (they didn't bring any of the chilled items - milk included!) Thursday brought order number 3 and it was for want of a better word perfect arriving at 5.01pm on a 5pm to 7pm slot!

So there you have it a list of things that have lightened and brightened my week this week, if you fancy joining in, pop yourself a blog post together and link back here (Mr Linky at the bottom) so that we can all come and visit and see the positives in your week.  Don't believe you've had any positives?  Have a think - go on dig deep, you know you can - now is that you smiling - there you go told you you had some positives you just sometimes forget to appreciate them - which is what the Rocking Your World Friday post is all about!

Now can't go without sharing some crafting with you and given the quantity of scrapbooking I've done recently - a scrapbook page would seem appropriate!  A photo from Masham's art festival, outside they had all sorts of weird and wonderful contraptions, this particular one being the Dream Launcher, I used the photo of the description in my page, something I know a few of you have spotted recently as occasionally I use something like this as a title.

I discovered that the days out that said 11 year old was wearing his orange fleece have led to a whole heap of orangey related pages!  I need to find him a fleece in a different colour - I'd love it if it were pink - but the words "no chance" come to mind, which is a shame given how much pink paper I actually own!

Up close the hand stamped journalling and some brads to set off the page.