Rocking Your World Friday weeks 32 & 33

Oops I missed a week again – it seems like “Rockin Your World Every Other Friday” is more my natural rhythm

There’s plenty to catch up on as lots of things have put a smile on my face this fortnight, so I’d best get cracking!

First of all – I’m happy that we finally gave up waiting for the weather to improve before heading out into the countryside, and instead we just put our raincoats on and went for it

We started our walk around Avebury the Sunday before last in the pouring rain, but it was still thoroughly enjoyable.  And by the time we were done, the sun was shining, it was lovely and warm, and we had made a fantastic discovery - a huuuuuge crop circle!

I've never seen one in the flesh before - it made my day!

Here's what it looks like from the air (not that we had a light aircraft handy, this photo comes to you courtesy of Mr Google :) )

A few days later I had a day off work to spend with my 10 year old son.  I try to take at least one day off per week during the school holidays so we can do things together.  They are our "mummy-Connor days" and they absolutely do rock my world :)

We were up bright and early and drove up to Warwickshire to the art gallery at Compton Verney.  In fact we were so bright and early the place wasn't open yet and we had to sit on a bench outside for 20 minutes.

It's a gorgeous place, an 18th century mansion set in Capability Brown-designed grounds.  We spent a couple of hours exploring the gardens before we went into the gallery.  There are all sorts of organic artworks throughout the grounds, this one was my favourite, like a web, or a cocoon.

Inside the gallery we had a delicious (if rather pricey!) lunch, and then they gave Connor a backpack full of activities to do in all of the gallery sections, which kept him amused while I checked out the art.

And we also found dress up clothes, always fun :)

and Connor made some bat wings in the arts/crafts room while I made a Jacob's Ladder

After Compton Verney we went to visit my best friend Alison and her hubby Malc, I don't get to see them anywhere near enough, but as usual we picked up where we left off like it had only been 5 minutes....

BFFs :)

And she gave me a "punk princess" manicure, which was rather fabulous :D

And there was much Olympic themed fun all round :)

We didn't get home that night until gone midnight, having left the house before 8am, a long day but such a good one!






The next weekend we were back out in the countryside again, not in the rain this time as it was a nice dry day.  We went geocaching out near Broad Hinton, battling the nettles, and woohoo, we found our 500th cache!!!!  Go us!!  That's a milestone that's been over 4 years in the making, I knew we'd get there in the end :)

Here's Jay celebrating our achievement












And here are the kids doing an excellent impression of the children of the corn :)

Another ace day followed - it started with an unexpected photo opportunity at Tesco of all places - Connor and I popped in there to pick up some bits for lunch, and there were two of Swindon's Olympic torch bearers complete with torches.  It was so cool to get our piccies taken holding the torches!

Then in the afternoon we went to a little festival at the local skate park, which was fantastic.  There were BMXers, skateboarders, jugglers, slackliners, graffiti artists, all doing their thing, all very inspiring to watch in action, and fun to photograph too:

And if all that wasn't fab enough, in the evening my local roller derby girls put on a demonstration bout for the  assembled skaters and BMXers, and I got to take photos of that too.  My camera had a busy day!

And that brings us neatly to this week, which rocked more than usual as I only had to work for 4 days of it :)

Today (Friday) I had a day off so that I could head over to Bristol to visit my middle son, always a treat.

First we headed to the Royal West of England Academy in Clifton to see their current exhibition "Unnatural Natural History", which was excellent.  Some of our favourites from the show:

Loved these cow heads, like space hoppers :)  it's rare to see unusual taxidermy like this

Childish, moi? :D

He had a nice bum too :)  And I like the writing on the wall.

Next we had lunch at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen - not cheap but worth every penny - so delicious!

And then we headed over to the See No Evil street art festival, to see this year's artists in action and all the amazing artwork already completed.  And we got interviewed for local radio too which was fun :)

by Conor Harrington

Nick Walker in front, can't remember who did the one in the back

Pixel Pancho

Roa

Nychos and Flying fortress

Phew, that wraps up another busy fortnight, and next week will be even more so as we're off to Cornwall for our family holiday - woohoo!!  I'll catch up with you lot when I get back

In the meantime, keep on rockin'!

Finally some creativity to share

I had a little time off from making stuff in the first half of this month, I think I was a little burnt out by the Index Card A Day thing - I don't think I have the energy for daily creativity.  Not if I still have to go to work every day anyway :)

I'm back on it now though, fully rested, and have completed a couple of pages in Shirley's "one word" pair journal this week, ready to post back to her before I trot off on my hols.

The "sing" page above I'm actually quite pleased with, I think it is the first face I have ever drawn/painted that I don't hate.  And I love the way Shirley's collaged background looks underneath

And here's my page for "reflect"

The only other things I have done in the book on this round are a new background for Shirley to work on:

And I added some bubbles to Shirley's diver:

Rocking Your World Friday weeks 30 & 31

Oooops I did it again - somehow I have managed to miss a week. Not sure how, I've just been a tad busy both at work and at home and blogging kind of slipped my mind for a while there....

So in the interests of catching up, rather than the day by day account I usually do in these posts, here's a combined list of everything that's been rocking my world over this last fortnight

• First up - money

Not that I've got any - that would be nice :)  But nope - the fortnight started off with a visit to my bank and a long, detailed chat with them about how I can consolidate my debts so they are easier to repay, and how I can cut down in some areas of my outgoings to save expenditure. It could have been depressing but actually it was pretty empowering, I've now got a MUCH better handle on what I'm spending and if I can stick to my new regime I should be totally debt free in a couple of years which will be amazing having had money worries hanging over me for years now.

And then a couple of days ago, out of the blue, I got called in by the boss (always scary as I automatically think I have done something wrong and am going to get a telling off :) ) and given a small but helpful payrise - yay!  Things are looking up :)

• Firefly!!!

For years I've been making excuses not to watch this little bit of television genius - I knew it had been cancelled after just one season and I knew the chances are I would absolutely fall head over heels in love with it.  A Joss Whedon produced space western - what's not to like??

So I figured I would spare myself the pain of loving something then immediately losing it, by not watching it at all.

But my willpower finally crumbled last week, and I'm so glad it did!  I'm now 9 episodes into the 14, and I don't want it ever to end.

• Health

Last year the docs put me on blood pressure tablets which I wasn't too chuffed about as they made me really sleepy - my life pretty much became "work, dinner, sleep" for a while with no energy for anything else.

So about 4 months ago I stopped picking up my repeat prescriptions and took myself of the tablets - which I know is really naughty!  

I finally went back to the docs last week ready for a telling off and a new prescription, but when she took my blood pressure she declared that I am now below the worrisome level and no longer need the meds - hooray!  I have to go back and get checked regularly for the next few months, but here's hoping it stays out of the danger zone.

• Index Card A Day

The ICAD project came to an end on July 31st and I am over the moon that I made it to the end of the 61 days without missing a single card.  And I even like some of them! (some of my favourites above).  Daily creativity is hard work - but I managed it, and enjoyed it too.  For two months anyway (must admit I haven't done a thing since and am enjoying the rest :)  )

• The Olympics

Now I must disclose up front that we have barely watched any of the actual SPORT (the Winter games are more my thing, so our olympics comes in 2 years time) -  but we have enjoyed the general Olympics buzz so far.

We watched the whole of the bonkers but brilliant opening ceremony last week (loved the Industrial Revolution bit especially), we have cheered whenever we heard word of another Team GB medal, and when we were in Lee Valley Park earlier this week we walked past the Canoe Slalom event and heard all the whoops and cheers which was exciting.

And it's just great to see the whole country united in their excitement over our local games.  Fab.

• Geocaching

Now that the weather is finally picking up a bit (well, mostly, it's been peeing it down again today), we are geocaching a bit more regularly again.  We have been out for nice long caching walks over both the past two weekends - lapping up the sunshine and the scenery and generally having a wonderful time.  And with me watching the pennies especially carefully at the moment it's the perfect hobby as, apart from a bit of petrol getting to the start point of our walk, it's free!

The kids were particularly pleased this weekend to find their 300th geocache - next milestone will be for myself and Jay as we are just 6 short of our 500th

• Seeing my dad

I don't get to see my dad anywhere near as often as I'd like, so it's a real treat when I do get down to London for a visit.  Connor and I popped down the motorway to see him a few days ago.  and annoyingly I've just realised I didn't take a single photo - so here's one of him on an elephant in Sri Lanka about 40 years ago instead :)









and last but not least

• Fun days out

On the way to my dad's, we always pass signs for the "Royal Gunpowder Mills" at Waltham Abbey, but we've never been.  So as it was a nice sunny day, and we had a few hours spare, we thought we would go and see what it was like.

And it was fantastic!  Such an interesting place, and so much to see and do.  Despite it being the summer holidays we almost had the run of the place, maybe everyone else was at the Olympics?   

We saw a cool film about the history of gunpowder, joined in with the interactive science experiments, shot airsoft rifles, went for a ride on a military truck, made a cola fountain, saw deer in the grounds, tried archery, and played with the guns and the dress up clothes in the armoury

Definitely a recommended day out for anyone with boys (or gun crazy girls :) )

So that's a fortnight's worth of positives from me, it's not been a bad couple of weeks! :)

I'll be linking this up at Rocking Central (otherwise known as Virginia's blog), why don't you join us?  

Index Card A Day - it's all over!

the Tatty Wall - all done!

Phew!  I made it!  2 months and 61 cards later :)

This ICAD project has been tremendous fun, for the whole family, but I must admit I'm REALLY looking forward to doing nothing even remotely creative tomorrow evening :)  Every day is a big ask for me!

So here are the last few ..... thanks to everyone who has encouraged me along the way with comments here and on Flickr .....

Day 50 - 20th July - EDM prompt #3 draw a purse or a bag

Day 51 - 21st July - prompt: dice

Day 52 - 22nd July - the truth is out there!

Day 53 - 23rd July 

Day 54 - 24th July

Day 55 - 25th July

Day 56 - 26th July - for song lyrics Thursday - People Are Strange by the Doors

Day 57 - 27th July - a bit of a cop out of a card tonight as I was glued to the opening ceremony  instead of my art table :)

Day 58 - 28th July - EDM prompt #4 - draw a cup or a mug

Day 59 - 29th July - playing with salt/watercolour backgrounds, and Serj :) 

Day 60 - 30th July - a collaged tribute to one of the best TV shows ever cancelled

Day 61 - 31st July - the end of an era :)

Seems like ages since I last did a Circle Journal entry....

... and it certainly makes a nice change from Index Cards :)

This is my entry in Liz's Rock CJ - her theme was "your ultimate feel-good rock song" or the song that makes you feel like a total bad ass

Now, I'm not convinced I ever get particularly bad ass, but I can do the feel-good bit :)

There is one song on earth that is guaranteed to make me sing along and smile, and that's Tribute by Tenacious D.  Connor has it on his phone ready to play to me if I'm ever in a sad or bad mood, works like a charm every single time :)

And it's the "we are but men, ROCK!!!" bit that really works the magic

So that's what I went with:

Liz's book is a kiddies board book, which was fun to work in, but that did mean that all our entries had to be pretty flat, no embellishments, and in addition she asked for us to draw/paint our own entries as much as possible

So instead of collaging in Mr Grohl as the Devil, I drew him and coloured him in with watercolours.

It was tough!! and I don't think the result looks much like him :)  But I'm still pleased I gave it a go.  I hope Liz likes it.

This almost concludes my participation in this CJ - but I have one entry to re-do, as Clare's colours journal (the one I did this for)  has sadly gone walkies.... I think I'll pick a different colour this time around rather than just reproduce what I did before .  After that, I'm all done and dusted.

Rocking Your World Friday week 29

For once, this is going to be a fairly short and sweet post as, well, not a lot has really happened this week

It's not been a bad week by any means, perfectly pleasant, just a bumbling along doing not much out of the ordinary week....so I've not so much had my world rocked, more like gently swayed :)

Although it did start off with a little bit of excitement as one of my favourite authors (the one I mentioned in my last RYWF post) came to Swindon to do a book signing - and I was at the front of the queue :)

I made a right prat of myself, as I got all fan girl stupid and ran my mouth off, shades of every other time I have met any of my 'idols', I never know how to rein it in :)

So yes, here is Jasper Fforde being very understanding of the crazy woman and signing my book - it says "for Sarah from Swindon, who would love to be the next Thursday Next" - squeeee!

And I got a postcard too (to add to my other Nextian universe postcards - yes I have a few, shoot me - and no, I won't be postcrossing them any time soon :) )

The rest of the weekend was pretty chilled, the weather was pants so we mainly stayed indoors, watched TV, played with the cat, did arty stuffs.  That was nice.  We usually dash about a lot at the weekends which is great fun but it's so nice to have some relaxing down time once in a while.

We did finally leave the house on Sunday afternoon, to head to the local bowling alley with some of our Tesco Clubcard vouchers.  As ever, they saved us a fortune - two short games for the 4 of us would have cost £36 if we were paying cash - ouch!  So thanks yet again Mr Tesco!

True to form I was fairly rubbish at bowling, didn't get a single strike, and the only half decent shots I did get had bounced off the guardrail so didn't really count as they should have been in the gutter :) but it was still a lot of fun.

Jay huffed and puffed when I made the whole family pose for this pic:
He doesn't appreciate that I used to scrapbook, and an ex-scrapbooker can't resist that kind of photo opportunity! :)

And then fast forward to Wednesday, a day for celebrating as it was Connor's 10th birthday!  Poor kid still had to go to school as unlike some parts of the UK, Swindon hasn't broken up yet, but he did have a fun party in the evening.

Along with four of his incredibly hyper and noisy pals we first went to the pictures to see The Amazing Spider-Man (yup, I've seen it before, but they hadn't - at least I got my ticket free via Orange Wednesday :) ) - and then on to Pizza Hut where the kids were so noisy and cheeky that I am amazed we didn't get kicked out :)  Especially when they somehow managed to break the ice cream machine and spray it everywhere.  And I mean EVERYWHERE!  I swear some of it went in the salad :)  (the nice waiter did assure me, as I apologised profusely, that it has been known to do that before and he didn't think that the kids fighting over who got to use the ice cream tap first was to blame!)

It was pretty late by the time the cake came out for happy birthday singing and candle blowing - which is why the kids all look exhausted in this photo - I promise they were really having fun despite appearances! honest :)

And that's about it for this week.  The rest of the week has been the normal work, home, ICAD, sleep routine.

So my last grateful this week is for the occasional quiet week that means my RYWF post is manageable in size and I can actually get it done on a Friday morning for once! :)

I'm off to link this up at Rockette Central, and give Virginia a shock when she sees my name so far up the list :)