Rocking Your World Friday - 12th of 2020

Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

So for a change as I think life is going to be a little on the tough side over the next couple of months I'm going to be collecting my rocking moments as I go (fingers crossed I keep this up)

So first up for those that follow my blog, I'd started self isolating on Thursday as I had a cough, I was still feeling rough, but I used my time well by creating lots of layouts on Friday with Harry Potter films running in the background. 

Saturday arrived and hubby went and got some plants for me to plant out (at the moment, only the individual that is unwell is self isolating so he was good to pop out and wasn't out long). 

We then set to on the garden, I started sorting the garden store out, it's amazing what we keep in there to be honest, so it was good to thin it out.  Hubby in the meantime was powerwashing the decks. 

Here are three collages showing you before and after, there might not seem a big difference but it is and we've had a move around as hubby needs a workshop for his silversmithing and so as we rarely use the lower deck we've decided that will be the best place to pop one, it doesn't have to be big, just somewhere that he can work, we will need electric running out to it (obviously) as well, but I just wanted to see how things would look if we made space for it.

As you can see it was sunnier earlier in the day, we've moved the barbecue under the kitchen window out of the way and will move it as and when it is needed. I swapped the big round table for the small coffee table with the four chairs as it takes up less room

I've only just bought replacement hanging solar lights, but we had another set of high winds the other day and the middle one is damaged already, I'm trying to come up with a way of reusing the old ones, so I might have to do with the centre one as well. 

We had not been in long when we discovered it had started raining, so we did well to get it all done and sorted in the time we had and inside before it started. 

I made a pasta bake on Saturday night and some homemade garlic bread which was lovely. 

Said 19 year old has been in his art room for a couple of days model building for his current design brief, so we've seen him when he's headed downstairs for drinks or food. 

We sat and watched "A bunch of Amateurs" film on Saturday night, it was what I call a Sunday afternoon film and was slightly different to the play we had seen recently, but very good nonetheless. 

Sunday morning and we were awake at the crack of dawn (literally) I blame the alarm clock in the week if I'm honest, but even for us it was a bit early.  However, the positive silver lining was listening to the dawn chorus for the first time this year, just listening to all the birds chirping and singing away really did make me smile - like I said it's the little things that make such a big difference. 

Monday dawned and working from home, the world has apparently gone mad around us and people are stockpiling food, so where are the silver linings, well I managed to get plenty of work done and I managed some more scrapbook layouts, so win win for me. 

The rest of the week has faired the same, hubby and said 19 year old still going about their business, although uni has now transferred to online, he went and helped his girlfriend move all of her items from uni, she was due to finished around early April anyway, he even did an additional journey home whilst she was at work to help. 

Talking about lovely help, my Mum was stressing as she was running low on eggs, not only did said 19 year old's girlfriend drop some off (leaving them at the doorstep), but she also dropped off some other food items, my Mum was fair choked up by the beautiful gesture - we definitely need a little more of that at the moment.  

On the close where I live we have a little whatsapp group, so all the ladies checked in on each other yesterday which was lovely.  

Today being Thursday I've got an annual leave day, I don't intend on venturing far, despite me having isolated for the required days as per government advice with this cough I've had.  So I'm not sure what I will get up to at the moment.  I hope you are managing OK and able to stay safe. 

Hugs 

Rocking Your World Friday - 11th of 2020

Good morning lovely people, tis Friday time for

Well it has been a strange week, but I think that can be said throughout the world as we get a continual news feed of a not so positive nature.  But in these times it is always good to try and eek out the positives from the last seven days to rebalance the world  a little.

So first up, a blue skies (ish ) day and a decent breeze and I managed to get the bedding dried on the line, it really is the little things that make me happy and this was definitely one of them, because drying washing over winter inside the house is never a fun task.

Next up, a little ray of spring goodness

Unusually for me, last autumn I seemed to miss the window of planting out violas to last the winter round so the garden has appeared a little devoid of colours, so I thought I'd remedy this with a little bit of flowery goodness.

Last Thursday night saw the first of three date nights for me and hubby, the first at our local theatre with "An evening with Gary Lineker", a strange little play but good fun nonetheless, we also enjoyed pre-theatre dining at the local college restaurant, so it was a fun night out.

This also made me smile, he was literally burning the midnight oil this particular night as it was heading up midnight, for some strange reason he seems to work better at night (the opposite of me if I'm honest)

And this is what he was working on, an elevation drawing of his current brief. 

Friday night saw a mad dash up to Sheffield after hubby had finished work (he was on until 5pm) and the play started at 7.15pm so time was a little tight, but we managed without a problem. 

We went to see Coriolanus which is one of our favourite Shakespeare plays despite its sadness, this particular version is absolutely epic and had a couple of shocking moments that were unexpected, but it all added to the play.

Then Saturday night we were at the Lamp Room in Barnsley, this is the first time we've visited this particular theatre, it was formerly a chapel apparently, but is now a tiny theatre and set within the walls are lots and lots of lamps donated from what were local pits (none of which exist any more).  This time we were seeing a play called "A bunch of amateurs" which whilst being done by an amateur dramatics group really was absolutely brilliant.  

Sunday saw us head up to Yorkshire Sculptur Park as the new Joana Vasconcelos exhibition, some of which we'd seen over the last couple of weeks, but this was the full exhibition. 

The mask is absolutely stunning in real life 

There was also lots on display in the underground gallery, lots of crochet work which she is famous for. 

The gun piece is quite amazing given that it is made up of telephones that are all ringing, whilst I like the added element of sound art, as the display is on until next January I can imagine that the drone of the ringing telephones and the Portugese music by the heart will prove tedious for the staff over time.  I however did enjoy the added dimension. 

Up close the sculptural work with the crochet was amazing, I'm assuming the black within the crochet is part of this traditional element or design.

The huge Valkyrie piece was epic, I love love love anything like this.

I also loved the lights on this sculpture if you look closely you can see it is hearts.

This giant knitted/crocheted piece is known as boob I believe.

A better shot of Valkyrie

The exhibition is really eclectic and different and I love it.

A couple more pieces

The stiletto is made up of saucpans and cooking pans if you look closely.

I do love a trip up to Yorkshire Sculpture Park it is always an absolute pleasure.

Now as some of you may recall said 19 year old was due to head off to Berlin, well you all know where this is heading, given the current crisis, the insurance company decided it was better to cancel the trip and refund than risk them having to self quarantine in a hotel room in foreign parts for 2 weeks.  Whilst he was sad that it wasn't going ahead, he did think it was the most sensible option and took the opportunity to head off to see his girlfriend for a few days given that he wasn't in Uni, he took plenty of work with him and they had a lovely few days working together and having time with each other.  He returned yesterday as he was working last night. 

The rest of the week has been something of a blur, work has been immensely busy and stressful if I'm honest and I've developed a cough, which I initially put down to our over zealous cleaner using a heavily perfumed anti bacterial cleaner on pretty much everything, but it is now Friday and I'm still coughing so I'm going to self isolate as they have suggested.  So why is it appearing, well that means I have evenings to spend crafting and with the arrival of a photo order that means I'm going to be kept busy for some time to come. 

And that my lovely people is the week, if you fancy joining in pop back and link up and we can come and visit. 

Rocking Your World Friday - 10th of 2020

Good morning lovely people tis Friday already so time to clock 

those silver linings, positive moments and joyous days (if you've managed any of them) for it is time for 

Well it has been a very strange week this week as we had yet another storm to deal with in the form of Storm Jorge.  

I'm not sure what happened to the letters E-I following Storm Dennis the weekend before.  This meant high winds and rain again which is always a pain we also had lots of misinformation and scary stories on the news about the coronova virus, so I decided to unlink auto news stories on my phone.  I'm not one for dwelling on negative news stories, but my phone saw fit to give me almost hourly stories, so why did this reach my rocking post - because of lovely google confirming how I could stop all these negative stories that I didn't want to hear about or read about, which in turn took my stress levels down a notch.  

Said 19 year old seems to be tucking into his current brief and has a vision for it (which is always helpful) and I can see he is making good progress so that was  a silver lining.  Sometimes these briefs and ideas can become too much as he has so many avenues he doesn't know which one to do, but with the odd conversation he starts to solidify his ideas and with some gentle coaxing he seems to be making some good progress.  He also managed to finish his group project, part of the current brief is collaborative work with other people to create a row of shops (each of them has been designated with one of the shops), the only way to create it so it looks cohesive is to work together and he sent me these couple of work in progress the scale is quite small I think he said 1:100 which limits the detail, some of the group were looking at laser cutting but that was a whole lot of complicated computer work as well as assembly, whereas said 19 year old's group just got on with a handmade model (his preferred option anyway).

We finally did a food shop, I've been running the freezer down and trying to use things up that we've had an age, I did wonder last thursday night what said 19 year old was going to have to eat when he came in from work as he tends to make himself a late night snack when he gets home, this is the photo he sent me that night that I picked up the following day 

Which used up not only the small cheese and tomato pizza that had been in there an age, but also was genius enough to put some Ikea meatballs on one side which also used some of those up - it's amazing what you can cook up when you put your mind to it!

Thankfully Sunday was a blue skies day, we still had the awful winds, but were determined for it not to affect us as we were truly fed up with the weather and needed to get out of the four walls.   So another trip up to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, we are definitely putting this membership through its paces and it is brilliant. 

We had another trip to the Chapel again, to look at the Paradise exhibition, it is still one of my favourites over recent years. 

The level of detail is beautiful 

We also got to see this piece of artwork in all its glory, because for the first time as we approached it it was in full glorious sunshine, the light refracting off it was absolutely stunning

I loved this photo looking up, it appears to go on forever

Now this photo below was the week before - windy as you can tell

But nowhere near as windy as last Sunday when it was blowing an absolute gale as we tried to get this selfie

There is a new exhibition due to open this weekend, although I'm unsure if we will get out to see it (I'm hoping so)

We've already seen a number of the outdoor sculptures but there is a whole exhibition in the underground gallery that we haven't seen yet.

You can imagine the slightly naughty conversation we had as we turned into the park to see this as it is huge. 

The ring is made from car wheel centres if you look closely and we think it is kilner jars for the stone at the top.

I love the wrought iron work of the flagon 

and the teapot

So we had a fabulous walk and saw some new artwork definitely a win win.

We went a slightly diverse route through the park (which turned out to be a crazy idea as we kept ending up in significantly muddy areas) which took in the skyspace which we haven't visited for a while, it was nice to sit back, look up and take in the changing picture.

Sunday saw us making a very quick roast dinner, we've done this two weeks running and it has been a great success but it isn't very weight watcher friendly so alas I don't think we will be having it for a while as I attempt to get back on a healthy eating plan, it was nice whilst it lasted but these few pounds I've put on are seriously causing my back issues so they must go.

The rest of the week has also included

A trip to the Works to find some cheap as chips scrapbook papers, I love the paper pads that are ridiculously low in prices because it means that I can afford to just use them, when I buy expensive collections I often overthink using them and it takes me an age, this way I just rip through the pads, mixing them with current papers I've got and achieving lots of lovely layouts.

I've also finished sorting (and this was a monumental task) all our photos, my old method was to download the camera and then at regular intervals do a photo order, however, I haven't done one since around July 2017, so you can imagine how many photos there were to sort (literally thousands), I started by putting them into folders and then went into each folder and selected photos I can use to scrapbook.

Receiving a 40% off code for ordering online prints, which meant a healthy reduction of over £20 when I came to order.

And that my lovely people is the week that was, I hope you've had a grand week if you fancy joining in pop a post together come back and link up so we can some and visit. 

Rocking Your World Friday - 9th of 2020

Good morning lovely people tis Friday and time for 

Well last Friday we had my Mum's 70th birthday party planned and what a lovely evening it was with family and friends travelling from far and wide to come and celebrate

Here is the birthday girl chatting with her brother on the left and a family friend in the centre

One of my Uncle's and two Aunty's in this photo

Then a fab group shot with lots and lots of cousins and family members. 

Just cousins on this one, we weren't all there but it was fab to have a fair few that could pose for a photo

The rest of the weekend was relatively normal.  We had a catch up with my Mum on the Saturday and brought home cake (which was nom). 

We watched Six Nations Rugby and just chilled for the rest of Saturday.

Sunday we managed a trip to YSP (always a favourite) and popped for more cake from my Mums, (it was two layers and each layer was a different flavour, chocolate orange on the top and Victoria sponge at the bottom). 

And made a super speedy roast dinner.

All together a really lovely weekend and much needed with the essential walk in the middle as I've really missed them. 

The rest of the week has been mighty busy and a little on the quiet side of an evening, my iron reserves are low (again) and I'm finding that I'm dosing earlier in the evening because I'm so tired, but its been a good week.  Said 19 year old visited his girlfriend for a few days at her uni.

I've also officially finished 2017 scrapbook layouts (so many) 

So am now frantically sorting photos so I can sort the next lot that need scrapping. 

And that my lovely people was my week. 

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

Rocking Your world Friday - 8th of 2020

Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for

Well it has been a very very quiet week overall, we went from the craziness of Storm Ciara to the equally awful Storm Dennis, I'm not so sure about naming these storm as they really aren't nice, high winds lots and lots of rain and to be honest we really didn't want to move much.

Hubby took last Friday off given that it was Valentine's day, but more so that it was his birthday (and my Mums).  We had arranged an impromptu breakfast catch up at Ikea to start the day off right.

So photo of the birthday girl with lil bro, as she reached a milestone birthday

We had a lovely catch up and my sister had kept it a surprise so my Mum was a little overwhelmed and teary at first, there was a present exchange given that we had two birthday people around the table and we had a thoroughly good catch up. 

At home hubby had treated me to the most exquisite flowers and I used them in a red vase to make a change. 

They really are beautiful and are still going strong at the moment.  

The rest of the weekend was quiet, we shared a meal from the Chinese takeaway on hubby's birthday and had a meal deal for two on Saturday night rather than going out. 

Hubby got some new films for his birthday and with no six nation's rugby being played he had time to watch Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Ad Astra, I used the time to scrapbook, still ploughing through 2017 photos I'm now up to around July, so I'm doing well all things considered, I am going to have to consider the next photo order at this rate which will be hard work because the photo folders are quite honestly in a mess, but it's of my own doing, so I'll just keep on plodding with them.  I therefore sort of half watched the films, both very strange and very thought provoking if truth be told.

Work has been technically quiet due to half term but that has just meant more intensive days which means I come home feeling very tired albeit mental tiredness. 

I am enjoying scrapbooking again but I am irritated that the weather is scuppering plans to go out and do things at weekends and we have another front of high winds for this weekend.  

And that my lovely people is the week that was, if you fancy joining in pop a post together come back and link up so we can come and visit.  

Rocking Your world Friday - 7th of 2020

Crikey the weeks are fair tripping along and with storm Ciara I have to be brutally honest and tell you that my photo taking this last week has been none existant as we battened the hatches at what feels like a curious time of year for storms, added to which we have the delight of Storm Dennis this weekend, why do these storms always pick the weekends to be problematic anyway without further ado it's time for

On a positive, we haven't suffered any damage and neither have our neighbours and we haven't had any snow unlike others slightly further south and slightly further north of us. 

So what have we been doing this last week, well Friday and Saturday were monumental days spent clearing my mother in laws house, hubby had managed to get a skip ordered and so we headed over there first thing Friday and set too.  We were methodical, he had already cleared the loft, so we started in the first bedroom and worked our way through the house  To say it was so tiny there was so much stuff to sort through and it wasn't just a matter of getting rid of everything, we needed to check to make sure there wasn't anything sentimental that hubby or said 19 year old wanted to keep and I can tell you we were at it all day Friday and by tea time, the skip (which was huge) was full and the upstairs was completely cleared - no mean feat.  We could not have done it without my sister, my Mum and said 19 year old's help, so I am immensely grateful for such an awesome family. 

Saturday we returned, a brand new empty skip on the drive and set too on the downstairs, working our way through the porch and then the living room before finally sorting the kitchen.  Along the way said 19 year old mowed the front and back lawns, sorted out some borders and cleared the path and driveway, so not only was the house completely empty (and clean) but so was the external part of the property.  The next task is to put it on the market, but it marked a turning point for us as a family and hubby heaved a sigh of relief when it was done.  Thankfully the return journey on Saturday meant that we weren't there all day and managed to get home, showered and changed in time for the six nations rugby. 

Six nations always means scrapbooking time and for those that have been following my blog you will know I'm on a mission to try and get up to date with my scrapbooking, no mean feat when you realise that my last filed scrapbook layouts were 2015.  Thankfully I'm now up to the summer of 2017 so I'm making great progress.  Thankfully I've had a few inspirations when it has come to putting kits together recently which makes a big difference.  I put huge kits together and then work through them until I'm left with only enough to create either embellishments to use in the future or birthday cards.  So I had a lovely afternoon working through the papers and making some serious headway.  I'm hoping to complete what I've done within the next couple of weeks and then believe it or not I'll be looking at my next photo order and I'm going to be ruthless because I always have printed far too many prints to use and then because I hate disposing of photos I keep the spares which obviously take up room.

A few of the layouts I've done recently 

Sunday was definitely a day of rest on the whole, we bought some food but once home we settled into TV/film watching, rugby and scrapbooking and it was thoroughly lovely, particularly given how awful it was outside. 

I've caught up with said 19 year old's girlfriend this week as well so that's another positive, as you know she is away at university but her sister has just had a baby and she had a family birthday so came back for a few days, her and said 19 year old have spent as much time as possible together which has been lovely for them and I've enjoyed catching up, she is just so very lovely.

Work has been hard work but I'm making some good solid progress, I had a bit of a wobble on Tuesday which I think was mainly down to being unwell with a cold from hell that I can't shake off, if I'm honest by the time I got home I was very teary and maxed out and ended up having a good bawl and curling up on the sofa feeling sorry for myself, however, I dusted myself off on Wednesday and had a focus and a much better day.  I caught up with said 19 year old as his girlfriend had headed back to uni and hubby went to silversmithing class and hubby bought me a bar of chocolate to cheer me up so that was naughty but also very nice, sometimes I think you need a down in the dumps day to then come back up if that makes sense, don't get me wrong the cold is still here but my focus shifted slightly which improved things. 

And then we find ourselves at thursday, a thursday where I will be attempting (and possibly failing) to sort some birthday gifts out for said hubby, I've sorted main present but there isn't anything to open per se, so I'm off for a venture around the local shopping centre - wish me luck because I'm not one for shopping centre's at the best of times!

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