Sand Castles in the Air: Rejoining the....

Sand Castles in the Air: Rejoining the....: ... world of blog! Next time we go to Dover Castle: Memo to self: 'TAXIS BOTH WAYS AND FLEECES!!!' Sittingbourne Station: Tickets ...

Rejoining the....

... world of blog!
Next time we go to Dover Castle: Memo to self: 'TAXIS BOTH WAYS AND FLEECES!!!'
Sittingbourne Station: Tickets ordered on-line, collected! Sitting in the sun - lovely and warm and sunny

Get to Dover Priory: lovely! Warm and sunny
Taxi up - Fine and only £6:40!
Up there: blowing a hooley and cold to boot!

Nick decided to wear armour to keep warm!

 And added a shield for protection against the wind!

Liam added a waterproof to stop the chilling wind! (so did I, but there's no photos! I had the camera!!)

They both loved grinding corn the Roman way!

We watched two displays - one by the Horrible Histories guys with gladiators which was brilliant (Liam complained 'there were only 2 globs of blood!') then 'The Ermine Street Guard' with their display of the Roman Army and how it worked. Some pics from the displays...............

No stirrups! Very impressed!

The mighty 'Testudo'

This machine fired melons way over the castle walls in the background!!

And to finish.....Well of course....it's our own little roman soldier!

On the day we......

 Managed to eat packed lunch (which was lovely thanks to me! Although the pork pies and sandwiches were frozen, the drinks were perfectly chilled)
Walked down - that's a lot of steps and a very steep slope when you do the direct route. Got serious cramp in my left thigh and was thinking Nick would need to flag down a passing motorist for assistance! Did make it in the end!

Monday: Never again. Unless it's by train and taxi both ways!
Monday Addendum: still can't walk normal because of cramp in left thigh

Tuesday Addendum: Would definitely recommend this as a day out! (But I'm still walking funny)

I've been away.............

wayyyyyy too long!!  Holidays tend to stop me from doing normal things for way longer than the actual holiday!  It's been totally manic at work too since I got back and also very hot (not complaining about the hot!!!) so crafting has taken a leisurely break too! Anyway, thought it was about time I got back to my blog! Yesterday was spent at the Artistic Stamper doing a workshop with Georgina and very productive it was too!  We made 4 cards but I'm only going to show you one!!

This went to my gorgeous friend Christine for her birthday...She loved it! (Phew!).  And then I spotted all the other sea-side themed stuff in her house! It must have got through to me subliminally!!

And this is our garden table earlier! I've been mounting stamps!! The book is the Cambridge Biographical Encyclopaedia which Nick was browsing (as you do)

Now for some of my holiday sketches...

My favourite!

One of the bars around the Piazza

 Mountains from the Hotel

 The Duomo, Ravello

 Planter and beer - I decided to concentrate on small stuff!!

 Looking at Scala from the Piazza....

And my favourite

This only exists in my mind although all the elements can be found in reality!

I hope you have enjoyed this post! I definitely enjoyed the holiday and it was certainly the most successful as far as creating is concerned in a lonnnnnnnngggggg time!

Bye bye for now xxx

WOYWW 213....

From Italy! Another quick blog this week as I'm on my phone. Just wanted to share some photo's of my holiday journal. My sketches this year are totally different and I'm very pleased with them!
Bye bye for now peeps (I'm going to try to link up!).......


And I'm back! Using the hotel laptop for some last minute editing!

This is the view from the Hotel Parsifal Terrace looking towards the mountains.  Work in progress as I need to add lots more of the houses that form Torello, the village on the way down to Minori on the coast.

Another work in progress but this time the page on the right needs to be viewed 90 degrees to the left!  It is from my favourite bar and is a sketch of a wrought iron gate and lovely old stone wall.  The next picture is my actual desk for tonight (well, my lap was used a lot so I put everything on the table!)  This is my journal.  The front cover was done before the holiday, the back I've done whilst here - yes. I took my stamps and ink pads (carefully selected mind) with me!  The colours are Derwent Watercolour pencils with Pentel aquabrushes (why have I only just discovered water brushes?????)

A close up of the back cover:

One of the quick sketches (about 90 seconds -  I wanted to just catch the shapes of the guys while they watched Italy play Spain in the semi-finals of the Confderations Cup (the other half of the watch seemed perfect to hide Raffaele who was moving about so much I couldn't capture him!!)

I'm so  pleased with these as it is something completely different for me! I used to be a watercolour/pen and ink, quite classic stuff, but thanks to various lovely tutors at craft classes, I've discovered a whole new artistic mojo!!

He he! So much for a short blog!  Till next week, Happy crafting fellow WOYWW'ers!   

WOYWW 212

Not really my work desk! On hols in Italy! Not sure if this will work as it's from my phone! So just a very short post this week if I can find out how to link! Bye for now peeps!

WOYWW 211

Is it just me or do the days between WOYWW get shorter and shorter? Maybe not as my desk looks slightly different this week!

 Colouring pages in my Moleskine in preparation for my holiday

 Torn page so taped up (happy face!)

 Blotty page ( I have an idea for this one)

Yep! I've been well and truly Dyan'ed!

That's all for now Peeps!

Thanks for looking xx

Sunday Special #1111228597

Yep! Lost count so from now on random numbers will be allocated!!  What a lovely Saturday!  I had a card for a parcel to collect from the post office!!  I knew what was in it but still excited.com!! And here is part of the contents:

 I also got three white pens of various thicknesses and happened to have my pack of 5 black pens in my handbag so there was no way I wasn't going to play!!  Half an hour later in the pub.......

 The long line of 'splats' was the first mark made!  Trying to get the ink to flow in the Posca pen!!  The ink trail went right across the book and onto my leg, foot and the pub floor.  I know have really cool purple converse with white spots!"

Developing nicely!

 

And I think the front is done! This book is going on my holiday with me.  I'm going to do some backgrounds on the pages and leave some blank.  I can then get my daily craft fix filling it in with sketches and doodles!!

 Later in the afternoon we had our 5 year old grandson over for a sleep-over.  He was playing with his PlayDoh so I thought I'd introduce him to Martha Stewart Crafters' Clay so we could make something permanent!  Here he is mixing up his favourite colour, purple!

Look at the concentration!

And the moulds - mix of Karantha and Martha Stewart.  And here's what Liam made:

Pretty good for a first go!! I showed him how to gild them this morning but didn't get any photos.  He used Cerise Gleam for the little face and Silver Treasure Gold for the others.  Hoping I've created another crafter!  I only needed to show him what to do once and he got it straight away!!

And Finally...

My Father's Day Card!

For once I have something that fits with a couple of challenges!  I would like to enter this into:

 Hels' Sunday Stampers  Week 262 'Guys'

and also

The Artistic Stamper Monthly Challenge June - Makes for Men

Matches my OH's little occasional table perfectly!!

Thanks for looking!

Ta ta from me!