Rocking Your World Friday - week 9

Happy Friday everyone!  I do love me a Friday.  I'm usually a TGIF girl, but I've had a bit of a tough one this week, so I'm upgrading it to a TFIF!! :)

Not such a toughie that I don't have tons of positives to report though - so, let's see what's been rockin' my world :

Last weekend first off - and that WEATHER!  wow!

Isn't February supposed to be cold???

We went out walking on both Saturday and Sunday in short sleeves, it was so warm and sunny and wonderful.

And those walks relate to my second Rockin' thing - this weekend we really rediscovered our love for Geocaching.

Not that we had lost the love completely, but what with less than perfect outdoor weather in recent months, coupled with the feeling that we have already picked off a lot of the most interesting caches in the area (and we don't care much for a lot of the 'just for the numbers' caches and series that have been put out in the past couple of years), we had slowed right down.

But it was perfect walking weather this weekend - plus one of my caching buddies (who despite being a Bruins fan seems like a nice chap ;) ) had recently hidden a Wherigo cache in Swindon's Lydiard Park - and we have always wanted to try one of those.  So out we headed.

Wherigo caches are like a cross between a computer game and a treasure hunt - the whole thing has a story, and you interact with characters in the story on the screen of your GPS or phone, and get clues, solve puzzles etc.  But you can only meet the characters, or find "items" you need, in very specific locations, so you have to physically go to those places so that the GPS will confirm you are there and unlock the next part of the story.

Does that make any sense???

And at the end, there is a real treasure box to find, but you need to complete the adventure first.

It was a whole pile of fun, anyway :D

This one was based on the adventures of Tom Sawyer and it took us all over Lydiard Park - about a 3 mile round trip in all - very cleverly tying in real landmarks in the grounds to places in the story.  It was brilliant!

Here are some pics from our way around the park (that sundial was perfectly on time, by the way, it really was 2pm when I took the photo)

So that was on Saturday afternoon, and then the next day the weather was even MORE glorious!

So we went out geocaching again, this time out near Devizes, we did a 4 mile circuit taking in 10 geocaches around the Cherhill white horse:

A perfect Sunday afternoon stroll - good company, good weather, good scenery, good music (from my phone tucked in the pocket of my backpack :) ) - I had a bit of a "how wonderful it is to be alive" epiphany half way around -  THIS is what geocaching (and life in general) is supposed to be about.

Another plus point on this particular walk is that I found lots of letters for my photographic alphabet that I am in the process of collecting - I was particularly pleased with the D-shaped stick and the hoofprint C :

On Monday, my hairdresser rocked my world because she cut my fringe so I can see again - yay!!

I don't have any after shots, but here's a before, showing how desperately I needed that cut :)









On Tuesday, it was Waitrose's turn to put a huge smile on my face - because they have started stocking Heidi Pies!!!  Result!  These are the most delicious (if not desperately healthy :) ) veggie pies you will EVER taste in your life.  Sweet potato and goats cheese, heavenly.  My Tesco used to sell them but stopped around a year ago, and I've been pining for them ever since :(

But not only do Waitrose now sell them, they are currently on special offer.  So I bought two :)


Wednesday was Leap Day of course, and knowing that there was a special Geocaching souvenir available for people who found a cache on this special day, we were determined not to miss out.

--------> It's basically just this little virtual badge that goes onto your profile - so nothing too exciting - but it's nice to collect them nevertheless

What I hadn't thought through was the fact that by the time I was home from work and had collected Connor, and we had got the GPS, and headed back out, the light would be fading fast.  So we ended up finding our leap day cache in the dark.  But luckily I had a torch and it was actually tremendous fun rummaging through the trees at night time, it was a real adventure :)

There's the cache up in the tree, illuminated by our torch, it took us quite a while to spot it.

And the last thing to rock my socks off this week was my 9 year old Connor, who made this FAB robot costume for World Book Day almost completely by himself.  I think he did a great job!

The design was all his, and he did 99% of the work, all I did was spraypaint the head (it just looks cardboard colour in this photo but it was shiny gold), and also the stencilled circuits on the t shirt.

I should have taken a photo from the side really as he made all these cool knobs and dials for the sides of the head.  Plus you can't see the antennae all that clearly here.  But you get the jist.

I'm not entirely sure why his interpretation of my request to do "robot arms" for the photo resulted in "I'm a little teapot" though :D

That's my little roundup done, I'm off to link this up on Virginia's blog now, and see what all the other Rockettes have been up to.  Please feel free to come and join us there if you would like to share what’s been rockin’ your own little corner of the planet.  We all spend too much time in our lives worrying about the rubbish things like work, health (or lack of), money (ditto) etc – spending a few minutes every Friday focussing on the positives really does help to put everything in perspective.

Pollyanna, over and out ;) 

Starry starry night

It's Artistic Licence Circle Journal time again - and this time our given muse is Van Gogh.

We were each issued a blank canvas board, and asked to pay homage to any Van Gogh painting using a technique of our choice

I chose this painting:

Starry Night Over The Rhone, painted in 1888

and made my own needle felted version  (above).

It seems, that if you start needle felting during your lunch break at work, everyone thinks you are a little bit odd.  I think it's the repeated stabbing motions.

Cue the music from the Psycho shower scene ;)

Hoorah, the postcards are done!

OK, so actually, that’s a fib.  SOME of the postcards are done.  But the rest are at least part assembled and almost there.

I have five finished ones to share, you can imagine the rest as they will look just like these ones, just with different quotes…

(they aren't double matted by the way - the postcards have a white border, the dark brown is just what they were sitting on when I took their picture)

I decided in the end to go with a fairly simple design - just one image and a line or two of text - so as not to cover up too much of that busy busy background

I used this heart image from The Graphics Fairy, and had fun researching a lot of different heart-related quotes to go with it, so each postcard could be unique.

Here are all the quotes I used (and a couple that I liked but didn’t use in the end), and where they came from.  See if you can work out who said what :)

(answers are in the comments)

Quotes:

1) Wherever you go, go with all your heart
2) There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart….pursue those
3) The heart forgets its sorrow and ache
4) Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.  You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
5) Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year
6) Only do what your heart tells you
7) Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this
8) Your heart is full of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout
9) I have a different constitution.  I have a different brain; I have a different heart; I got tiger blood, man.
10) Be careful what you set your heart upon – for it will surely be yours
11) Let your heart guide you.  It whispers, so listen closely
12) The heart has reasons that reason does not understand
13) Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go
14) There are two tragedies in life.  One is to lose your heart’s desire.  The other is to gain it.
15) Above all be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it
16) The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.
17) It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye
18) The head thinks, the hands labour, but it’s the heart that laughs
19) We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures

Sources:

A) George Bernard Shaw
B) Jacques Benigne Bossuel
C) Ralph Waldo Emerson
D) Liz Curtis Higgs
E) James Russell Lowell
F) Homer
G) Confucius
H) Thornton Wilder
I) Steve Jobs
J) Hardy D Jackson
K) Antoine De Saint-Exupery
L) Buddha
M) Michael Nolan
N) Charlie Sheen
O) Princess Diana
P) the movie Land Before Time
Q) Louise Driscoll
R) James A Baldwin
S) Morihei Ueshiba

How many did you get right?

Postcards in progress

This weekend, I've made a start on my postcards for iHanna's annual swap

They are a long way from finished yet, but I thought I'd share how I'm getting along so far

I am working on all the backgrounds at once, on 4 large sheets of watercolour paper.

Later I will chop them down to size, attach to postcard blanks, and add a focal image / some words...  I think .... to be honest I haven't really decided yet how I am going to finish these off :)

I should make about 16 postcards from this lot, which gives me the 10 I need for the swap, and some spares for if anyone on Postcrossing requests a handmade card.

I started with a pale underpainting in pastel pink and baby blue - not really my colours, but it'll all be covered up soon enough :)

Used my favourite varitone square dots stencil on top with a dark purple spray paint

Brushed gesso randomly over the top in places

Added a wash all over of lilac Ecoline watercolour, and then added red Ecoline in  places.  Love how it settles  differently on the gesso to the rest of the sheet.  That red Ecoline dried paler than that, more like a dark pink.

There are three steps here as I forgot to take pics, metallic copper and blue acrylic paints brushed randomly, followed by circle designs stencilled using bright red spray paint

Next I sprayed metallic gold paint through a circular dot stencil - it's much shinier than it looks in these pics

A few brush strokes with a darker blue/violet paint, and that's the backgrounds all done

I know they look a mess at the moment, but hopefully once they are cut down, matted, and finished off, they will look ok.  Fingers crossed :)

Rocking Your World Friday - week 8

It's that time of the week again - time to round up all the big and little things that have made me grin like a loon since last Friday, and share them with the world :)

If you would like to do the same, then feel free to hop over to Virginia's blog and join in!

Saturday, we had planned a day trip to Brighton, but the weather forecast was pretty pants so we scratched that idea in favour of a return trip to Oxford to do all the things we ran out of time to do last weekend.

Highlights were the History of Science museum where I got up close and personal with Einstein's blackboard, the Graham Sutherland exhibition at the Oxford gallery of Modern Art, and buying a metric ton of postcards in Blackwells book shop and the Bodelian library

Devastation, East End Street, 1941 by Graham Sutherland

We had a bit of a rest on Sunday but the next day it was back into action because my youngest had a teacher training day and I booked the day off work so we could have a Mummy-Connor day.

We decided to pay my Dad a visit in London, as we haven't been down to see him for a while (Boxing Day was the last time I think? BAD daughter!). Connor was really excited mainly because he loves his grandad, of course! But also because grandad lives almost next door to a Hungry Horse pub :) so that's where we went for lunch.

After our food had gone down Connor and I headed up into the city proper on the tube - the plan being to head straight for the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. But then on a whim we hopped out at Bethnal Green on the way, and went to the toy museum (nowadays called the V&A Museum of Childhood)

Wow, this place has changed so much since I last visited (which may have been when I was a child myself....). I remember it being a bit dingy, and with one room just full of creepy Victorian dolls. Shudder! But now it's all open plan and light and airy, and there are tons of interactive and dress up areas. It was so much fun! At one point I was convinced that we were going to get kicked out as we both got a total fit of the giggles (more like shrieks of laughter!), and I was getting some properly disapproving looks from some of the other parents. Oh well, if you can't have fun in a huge building full of toys, then the world is in a sorry state :)

Evil pirate bandits!!!  pow pow pow pow!!


We did make it to the National Gallery next (where I can assure you we were much better behaved ;)

There was a giant countdown clock in front of it, for some sporting event of some sort ;)

I always assumed that I'd been to the Nat Gallery before as a kiddie, but it didn't look familiar, so this must have been my first time.  Wow what an experience!  I saw original masterpieces, up close, not even behind glass, by - deep breath - Constable, Rembrandt, Rubens, Turner, Picasso, Pissarro, Monet, Manet, Degas, Van Gogh, Bosch, Holbein, Seurat, Renoir, Gaugin, Cezanne, Rousseau, Canaletto, Titian, and LOADS more!  So much eye candy!

Some of our favourites from the day:

Holbein - with the cool perspective skull that looks perfect from the right hand side of the painting, but all squished when you look head on

Van Gogh

Rembrandt

the Ugly Duchess by Matsys - apparently this painting from  1456 was the inspiration for the  Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland

I could have stayed in there all night but they rather selfishly wanted to close up for the day, so I bought some postcards (yes, MORE postcards!) and then we walked up the road to Chinatown.

The sun was just going down when we got there, it looks even prettier in the blue hour.  And we found a shop selling proper, actual MOUNTAIN DEW!!  woohoo!  not that nasty energy drink version they sell over here.

All in all a brilliant day

And the rest of the week to date has been pretty good too - pancakes on Tuesday - yum yum!

A gorgeous necklace in the post on Wednesday from my bessie mate Alison - a "just because" pressie - thank you so much bwwoo!

Freebies!

And yesterday, a day out of the office in the glorious sunshine, down to Surrey to do some training at Unliver, where they have FREE Ben & Jerry's in reception (oh god if I worked there I would be 40 stone :) ), and they gave us each a goodie bag of all sorts of product samples from haircare products to Hellmans mayonnaise :)  An unexpected treat.

And last night I booked the cottage for our summer holiday - Cornwall, batten down the hatches, we're coming!

Once again - not a bad week at all!  (apart from toothache and a cold sore, but hey, you can't have everything :) )

The face inside is right beneath your skin...

Another day, another dollar - or in my case, another week, another CJ

This is my entry in Virginia's journal - which is all about Linkin Park

The pages are folded, so this (above) is what mine looks like closed

And here it is open :

I've gone with the song "Paper Cut" - and as that's about paranoia I had this idea of making Chester's eyes kind of pop out of his head to suggest eyes darting all over the place looking out for the bad guys, that kind of thing.

Not convinced it worked but never mind :) 

The flash is really bouncing off the metallic sprays and inks on that photo above, this close up gives a truer idea of what the background looks like:

So, yes, that's the main entry in the book.

Virginia also asked us to share our recommendations for new music.

Trouble is, I mainly listen to stuff that was recorded 20 years ago :)  So this bit was a bit tricky!

I ended up sharing bands that aren't necessarily new (Polar Bear Club are, not so much the others), but who have released GOOD material recently. In other words they're not just sitting on their laurels living off past glories.  Like some bands I could mention.

Sorry, the flash has rendered that one pretty much illegible.  I really ought to take my photos in the daytime!  (trouble is, I'm at work in the daytime)

and then last but not least, we were asked to make a sign in page, featuring a logo or symbol that represents us or is important to us.  How could I choose anything other than my orca?

So that's it for this month.  I have Sian's song lyrics themed journal next time around, looking forward to that one.

I've just signed up....

...for Hanna's annual mail art swap.  Excited :)

The deadline's soooon, I'd better get cracking on my postcards!

anyone else playing?

Let's all pretend it's Friday....

... because I'm a tad tardy with my Rockin' post this week.

Oh if only it was Friday, we'd still have the whole weekend ahead of us - rewindable weekends and fast-forwardable weeks really would rock my world :)

So what were the high points of last week?  I'm going to race through these as life's got very busy all of a sudden!

On the Friday evening after I posted my last RYWF, I finally found some time to work in my art journal for the first time this year.  I've missed it loads!

On Saturday we got to watch our ice hockey team play, and more importantly, win - hooray!

On Sunday we had a fantastic day out in Oxford - three museums, two art galleries and a lovely all you can eat Chinese lunch.

The highlights were the Egyptian exhibit at the Ashmolean, finding a real (albeit stuffed) Perry the Platypus at the Natural History museum, the crazy brilliance that is the Pitt Rivers, and the first Oxford Rhino at the old prison:

the Pitt Rivers museum - this place is wonderful - it's dingy, so they give you little wind up torches to use - but  it is packed full of the most eclectic and seemingly random stuff from all over the world - like Ripleys Believe It Or Not but less tacky :)

Where's Perry?

later this year Oxford will be hosting a rhino trail like London's elephants and Bristol's gorillas - looking forward to it!

On Monday I finally finished (at silly o'clock in the morning and within moments of the deadline) all the page samples for my next tutorial for the Art Journey course over at UKScrappers.  Remind me not to leave it so close to the due date next time!

Tuesday I had an early night, bliss!! I was in bed and fast asleep by 8:30, lovely

Wednesday night brought an extra hockey game, mid week games are rare and they mean I get to see my fella Jay in the week, always a treat, plus we won, against one of the top teams in the league - go Wildcats go!!

On Thursday I discovered I have an unexpected day off!  Our holiday year at work ends on March 31st, and the lady who does our admin is nagging everyone to book their remaining hols.  I thought I had either 1 or 2 days left (I always try and save at least one for childcare emergencies etc), turns out I have THREE :) I've booked them in a block towards the end of March.  No idea yet what I'll do with them - I might just have 3 consecutive pyjama days :)

And on Friday I got my DOWNLOAD tickets!!!  We're going to see the mighty Soundgarden! and Five Finger Death Punch! and Rise Against! and, fingers crossed, Black Sabbath!!!  can't WAIT.

 So there you have it, a good thing happened every single day last week, that'll do me nicely :)

Now I'm heading off to Virginia's blog to see what the other Rockettes have been up to....