Rocking Your World Friday double helpings - weeks 22 & 23

This is going to be a rather hurried post I am afraid as I've got two weeks to catch up on and about 25 minutes to do it in

How did my life get so insanely busy all of a sudden??

(and spending half of today making pom poms
didn't help :) )

So yes, sorry for the lack of a Rocking Your World post last week - things are so hectic at home that I usually write most of my blog posts at work in my lunch breaks. Trouble is, the last fortnight has been crazy at work too and lunch breaks appear to no longer exist.

So where were we.....?

When my last RYWF post left off we were in the middle of a heatwave

So my first grateful is for sufficiently hot weather that I actually wore an honest to goodness skirt!  For the first time since my holiday to Florida in 2010.  And for the first time in maybe 5 years on English soil.  So that's a pretty big deal :)

It was so hot that first weekend that on the Sunday we had to wait until about 4pm before it had cooled down enough to go out for a family geocaching expedition.  But that walk - by the canal near Marlborough - turned out to be fantastic and was well worth the wait, we didn't come home until almost 9pm.  We took the boys bikes and they had a great time too:

I didn't do an awful lot during the week as it was all work work work and sleep sleep sleep (with a bit of vegging in front of the TV in between....)

On the Friday I was grateful for having the office virtually to myself so I was able to listen to music while I worked - a very rare treat and it was wonderful - it makes the day go so much quicker!

Also on the Friday, as it was June 1st, I started Daisy Yellow's Index Card A Day - and I've been really enjoying it so far (see my blog post about my first week here), as it gives me the nudge to be creative every day, even when I don't necessarily feel like it, plus I get to spend some quality time with Connor as he is joining in too.  Here's one of his cards:

So that brings us to the second weekend - which of course was a bumper one as, thanks to her maj we all got an extra two days off work - wooohooooooooo!!!!!

On the Saturday we popped over to Stroud (or as I call it, Super Stroud Wonder Town because it's full of cool artistic hippies AND it's the world's first bee guardian town.  apparently) to meet up with my sis in law Annie, who lives in Barcelona, as she was making a brief visit back home.

It was lovely to see her and also to visit the Stroud farmers' market where they sell THE best doughnuts in the world.  I should have taken a photo.  Although to be fair they just look like doughnuts, so here's a googled photo of a different doughnut that looks very similar :) ---->

On the Sunday we went to Bristol for Upfest - the annual graffiti and street art festival.  We had the BEST time.  My middle son Darby, who is at Uni in Bristol, joined us too so that was an added bonus.

Here is just some of the amazing, inspiring artwork we saw that day:

There was so much more - loads more piccies here

And the highlight of the day for the boys was the kids graffiti workshop - they got to spend an hour learning how to use spray paints and working on their own masterpieces:

The only problem was that Connor managed to spray himself full in the face while changing a cap - oops!!! :D  I'm glad he had his specs on!!!

The next day we went down to Dorset for the day to see Jay's mum - as always we had a great day down there, and enjoyed taking Reg the dog for a walk along the beach.  Lulworth Cove is so beautiful, my ma in law is SO lucky to live there!

And the highlight of the visit for me was being let loose behind the till of Jay's ma's shop for a whole hour - I have ALWAYS wanted to work in a shop! :)  It was SO much fun (especially when it got really busy).  I want to work there every weekend!

in position behind my shop counter :)

And that's about all I have to report - we had a pretty chilled bank holiday Tuesday, and then it was back to work, so nothing much to write about for the rest of the week.

Phew!  That's me caught up :)

I'm off now to link this up over at head Rockette Virginia's blog, before she sends out a search party....

Keep on rockin' in the free world, people!

is it that time of year again???

I woke up this morning to the news, via Facebook, that today is International Yarn Bombing Day.

Blimey, that's come around quick!  It seems like only yesterday that we gave some local statues nose jobs.

I had hoped to do something big and exciting this year, but given I'd entirely forgotten it was today, I clearly hadn't done any prep - so I had to do something quick again.

And the only thing I can do quickly with wool is make pom poms - so it's pom poms again this year - maybe that can become my "thing" :)

So I made 9 big shaggy pom poms from my fancy yarn, and took them to the local park to hang them in a tree by the pond:

They aren't immediately obvious up there - for example there are three in this photo with me, but they don't leap out at you:

But I hope a few people will notice them as they stroll through the park, and that they will make them smile

I added a tag to the lowest hanging pom pom, just in case anyone was wondering why....

And here's a nice arty shot that Jay took to finish off :)

Maybe I'll be more prepared next year.....or maybe it will be pom poms again :)

an Index Card a day keeps the doctor away

About this time last year, I began to see people all over blogland taking part in a daily art project called ICAD - index card a day:

It does exactly what it says on the can - the challenge is to do SOMETHING on a plain old office-supplies index card every day - write / draw / paint / collage - SOMETHING.  There are optional prompts to use if you want to, other days you can just do something of your own devising.  The challenge lasts two months and I think the plan is to ease people into daily creativity.

So, like I said, last year I watched other people playing, but I didn't join in as I thought 'every day' sounded a tad scary.

But this year I must be braver because I am playing along :)  And so is Connor which is super cool, it's great sitting down with him every evening to do something creative.

We're now at the end of week one, so without further ado, here are my first 7 cards:

prompt: doodle your name

prompt: fish, collage

prompts: grid, testing new pens

prompts: dictionary, draw your camera(s)

prompts: yellow, dragonfly

Connor and I are making a display of all our cards on the "tatty wall" in the front room.  So called because that's the wall where our (sadly no longer with us) pet rats ate the wallpaper!

It's already looking pretty cool - and there are still another 7 weeks to go:

Tatty wall - week 1

Anyone else out there ICAD-ing?

Going postal!

I've been getting back into Mail Art recently so I thought it would be fun to make some "Flo Post" artistamps to use on my  postcards....

These are fun to make, here's a little step by step if you fancy making a batch of your own:

Draw up an even grid on a plain sheet of printer paper

Use a sewing machine with no thread in the needle to sew along the lines you have drawn to perforate them

The sewn sheet will look like this

Draw up the same grid as before on a second sheet of paper, and then draw a line a short distance to the left and right / top and bottom of each line in the grid

Use a craft knife to cut out all the small interior squares

This sheet becomes your mask

Align the mask over your sewn sheet precisely.

Sponge ink through the mask

Stamp or draw a focal image

Cut masks for the stamped images from post it notes and cover them up

Spray or stamp a background design 

Continue to stamp or otherwise embellish until you are happy with the design

Peeling the masks off for the big reveal is the most fun part:

Look out for these on my mail art over the next couple of months :)

A couple of new pages in my pair journal....

The first two pages are fairly finished (although my pair journal partner, Shirley, may well choose to add to them):

And these two are works in progress, am passing the ball to Shirley on these ones:

Can't wait to see how they end up :)

Rocking Your World Friday week 21

This is shocking, I’m on time two weeks in a row!

It’s only because work is a little calmer than usual at the moment and so I have actually been able to take lunch breaks – so that’s definitely the first thing for me to be grateful for this week :) Much as I do occasionally enjoy the adrenaline buzz of rushing around trying to meet impossible deadlines, it is also nice from time to time to take the foot off the gas a bit and take things at a more healthy pace.

On Saturday I spent the morning being Swindon’s answer to Banksy – ha ha!  Well, as it was stickers I was putting up, probably closer to Swindon’s answer to a young Shepard Fairey....but anyway – you can read all about it here – and don’t worry, they are only temporary, officer :)

 And then in the afternoon, we may well have got into the Guinness Book of Records!  We won’t find out for another three months if the adjudicators are going to let our new record into the book – but even if not, we did have a lot of fun taking part in a world record attempt for the world’s biggest lightsaber battle:

It all kicked off at the local railway museum, which is currently hosting a Sci Fi exhibition (without a train in sight).  There were tons of Star Wars characters in attendance (mainly just peeps in costume, but there were also two minor actors from the original movies there), and also, rather randomly, a Sylvester McCoy era  Dr Who lookalike, and Judge Dredd and Spiderman, all of whom looked rather out of place with lightsabers :)

We all got a cool certificate and badge for taking part, plus the boys got their photos taken with the whole cast for an extra fiver to charideeee.

It was ace!

....with our certificates

On Sunday, we had a nice lazy morning. Then in the afternoon we went geocaching along the Thames Path near Lechlade.  We started at the spot where Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire meet, which was cool.  You kind of need three legs so you can stand with a foot in all three counties :)

giant ducks?  or little houses?

"does not wash" more like :)

We found two multi caches (the type where you have to decipher a number of clues around the area before you can find the actual cache – our favourite type) and one traditional (where you get given the cache co-ordinates straight away).  It was a really nice day for a walk along the river – not too hot not too cold, and not raining.  We all enjoyed it lots.

Old Father Thames

On Monday night I had a fun chat with my bessie mate Alison, mainly about how hunky (using that word totally gives away my age, doesn’t it :) I doubt anyone under the age of 40 ever says it) two certain actors are, and how “my vampire is better looking than your vampire”.  She has been poorly and out of contact for a while and I always miss her loads when she goes onto radio silence.  She’s the only person I ever have silly girlie chats with and they are always a riot :D  Luvs ya, bww!

(paraphrasing the bessie mate: "a middle aged lech????  I might be a lech, but if anyone calls me middle aged I'm going to cut them!" hee hee)



So - a very important straw poll.... - ladies, or indeed gents with an opinion, which dude is hotter, the brunette or the blonde??

On Tuesday the weather really picked up - it was gloriously sunny and so I went for a nice walk in the sunshine in my lunchbreak.

This gorgeous park is about 10 minutes walk from my office - I should go here more often!

The weather has been stunning ever since, fingers crossed it lasts, it really cheers everyone up, doesn't it :)

In the afternoon poor old Connor had a nasty fall off his scooter while attempting a trick – ouch!  He got a big graze all down one side of his face and a few other lumps and bumps :(  That clearly didn’t rock my world, but the fact that he wasn’t seriously hurt, and is being a super brave little soldier, does.

On Wednesday morning, I got an email saying that my lovely Berlin apartment booking had been cancelled.  Grrrrr.  But never mind, I have found an equally nice place to book instead, and in fact it’s even more handy for where we are planning to go while we are there.  So I guess they did me a favour really :) Only 40 days to go – sooooo excited!!!!  I’ve been busy this week planning our itinerary and it’s going to be a frantic couple of days – we will return home utterly exhausted I reckon :)

In the afternoon the Olympics came to Cirencester!

Well the torch did anyway, and the atmosphere in the town was fantastic.  Our boss was really nice to us and shut the office for an hour so we could all go outside to watch.

Our torch bearer was a very fit and healthy 73 year old, who was coping really well with running along in the heat.  In fact I think he was handling the sunshine better than me, and I was just standing there :)

On Thursday morning I woke to a funny photo on my Facebook wall that really made me smile.....I had sent some jubilee and olympics goodies over to Canada for my Anglophile pal Carol, and it looks like she had got her hubby to model some of it ...... Mike is a good sport :)

And that's a wrap for this week

I'm over now to Virginia's blog to link up with the other Rockettes - why don't you join us?

Have a great week everyone :)