The bestest weekend

This weekend has been one of the best. The lovely Karen offered to work in the shop on Saturday so that I could have a weekend off and what a wonderful weekend it has been.

It started bright and early on Saturday morning with a touch of retail therapy. I was on a mission to buy new jeans which proved to be more problematic than anyone would believe. One of my lovely customers owns a beautiful store in Stony Stratford so I thought I would pay her a little visit. I did warn her that it could be a challenge to find jeans to fit me as I am kind of between sizes. She certainly rose to the challenge and with the help of her gorgeous daughter Sarah, I tried on about 30 pairs of jeans.....well maybe 15 but it felt like 30 and I can't thank them enough for their patience.

Whilst in Stony Stratford, I followed a hand painted sign advertising a vintage craft fair. Well, it would have been rude not to go in wouldn't it??? Oooo, it was full of all sorts of scrummyness. Look at these beautiful handmade buttons....just gorgeous. The lady that made them told me that the Venice one is one of her own sketches of the Rialto Bridge which she drew when she was in Venice. I could have bought everything on her table, I loved it all.

Then I stumbled across another lady selling the most beautiful hand dyed fabric and lace. Not only did I love the fabric but I loved the simplicity of the packaging that Sally presented her fabric in. It turns out that she actually knew me, she had been in the shop on many occasions....what a small world.
Then I got an unexpected dinner invitation to my daughter Kelly's for dinner. The weather was wonderful, so we had a BBQ in the garden. Jimmy her husband makes the best BBQ'd steak sandwich and to spend a fun afternoon with all the grand children is truly special. Lots of baby cuddles with Sebastian and Isla and fun and games with Ronnie and Amillie who just wants to do everything for her new baby sister.....just too cute for words!!!

I also got to spend some creative time working in my journal. I got some of the most beautiful printed tissue paper during my trip to Paris and thought I would use some in my journal. Together with some dictionary pages, it made a fabulous background to journal on.

In fact, I liked the effect so much that I used some in my small mole skin journal that a very special friend gave me recently. Still working on this one though.

I also had an idea in my head that I wanted to try. I used a whole sheet of Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas. Some of her foam stamps and paint along with some Fresco Finish paint.
This is how I like to mix my colours. I always use a craft sheet and lots of water. I apply the paint to the foam stamps with a small paintbrush, I like the coverage that I get when applying the paint this way.It also allows me to blend colours on the stamp.
Here's a closer view for you. As you can see, I've got a few small pieces of book page stuck in there for interest.

I used a fine tipped Pitt pen to draw sketchy outlines around the images.
After all the images were outlined, I made a really watery wash of colour to fill in any white areas of canvas.
So that was a few hours of fun but the best was yet to come.........

.........Mark announced that my studio is finished, well nearly, the outside needs painting, but I get the go ahead to move in. Excited or what!!!! He has worked so hard on this for me and I love it. So now I have back ache from all the cleaning. I have never seen so much saw dust in all my life but it's definitely worth the back ache from hell. I feel a trip to IKEA is on the agenda tomorrow night to purchase my storage boxes....then I get to move in. Photographs will follow very soon I promise.