Cant Wait!

My lovely daughter Becki is getting married next Friday--so excited! We had a second hen night in town last night to celebrate! After loads of painkillers I was able to get my boots on and the wine is a brilliant painkiller! Its been very frustrating lately because I've been so poorly-have not been able to do everything I wanted to--but hopefully will catch up with all the odd bits and pieces over next couple of days..

was lovely to spend some time with my sister and nieces etc ..

Fun in The Queens

one of the things that has taken quite a lot of time has been making the button bouquet-- I have loved every minute of it-- vintage buttons,brooches and beads -will show the entire bouquet after the event!!!

Its very special....I have made all the men's buttonholes as well as mine and the grooms mums corsages...very happy with them--Ive done a bit to my fascinator as well..

Becki and Wayne are getting married on their 10th anniversary 6th March...I can honestly say I couldn't wish for a better son in law than Wayne...he is a star..xx

This little star Tommy will be suited and booted to be pageboy --what a little star he is ....

We are all keeping our fingers crossed that my son Jim will be there to see his sister married in Ludlow Castle-- he is a third of his way through his chemo at the moment and is due his 5th treatment the day before the wedding..hopefully he will be there...we have lists everywhere of things to do and get...it has come round so quickly now--but am sure it will be a wonderful day-- will be posting all the photos on here next weekend!

Abby's Hen Party

We went over to Stourbridge on Saturday to do Abby's painting hen party--she didn't have a clue what was going to happen and the girls had been pulling her leg for ages and winding her up--telling her she had to do a sky dive among other things--it must have been a relief to find it was a painting workshop! She was blindfolded and lead into the room....

Jaye had organised the party and chose the subject-and as Abby loves bunnies we added some to the finished painting...

Everyone was a bit sceptical as to whether they could paint a picture...but as you can see from the finished results everyone did really well...

Lop eared  rabbits!

We used some pretty metallic paints to add detail at the end--it does not show up well in the photos but in 'real' life looked stunning!

the fact that the grasses turned into big beautiful flowers in the end didn't matter one bit!

Abby's Nan did this lovely one---bright and bold!

Amazing how different they all turned out--we had loads of laughs all day long!

We used twinkly glitter paint to add stars at the end--and left the girls with some varnish so they can give all the pictures a coat to bring out the colours and protect the paintings...

the metallic red paint looked stunning on this one...

love the grasses this one..

metallic purple for these grasses looked great too,

beautiful dramatic sky...

nearing the end now...

what a great spread of food the girls put on.....

love the willy shaped dishes..

Abby's mum, about to do the bunnies..

The happy artists,,all enjoyed their day-some beautiful results from them all--hope they didn't have very sore heads the next day--they were all going out for a drink after the workshop!

Lucy's Hen Party

We travelled over to Wolverhampton yesterday to do Lucy's hen party...18 lovely ladies met at the room--most of them came armed with bottles of bubbly and wine! Lucy and her Mum had attended one of my workshops here in Ludlow and decided on the day she would like a painting hen party! All the other ladies were new to painting and as usual they doubted that they could create anything like the ones put up as examples!

Everyone soon settled down to paint-glasses of wine to hand,   lots of giggles about using bashing and tickling brushes---but they all used them easily-as if they had done so for years!

all hard at work..

Rekha arrived in high heels thinking she would be painting sitting down, so off came the shoes-only for her feet to get really cold---so she wrapped them up in a tartan rug! How she didn't fall over I do not know!

There were loads of lovely goodies to eat--I was very good and didn't have a cake ,,though I couldn't resist some cheese and biscuits! Someone had worked really hard making these beautiful cupcakes!

YUMMY...

Lucy -stood on the left of the photo said that they all enjoyed the day very much,,and they will be coming over to do some workshops maybe!

Didn't they do well?

Wonderful results..

18 very happy ladies...

It was pretty amazing but we actually finished earlier than expected so I got Bill to fetch the encaustic kits off the van so we could have a little play with it...the girls loved it...

It wouldn't a hen party without the appearance of some willies would it? I showed them how to do some in the wax using the special tool ;-) the finished picture was for her MUM!!! I hope she liked it lol... well the day went by so quickly it was unreal..we didn't stop laughing all day.. we have another hen party to do in Stourbridge next month and also a birthday party too...so busy times coming up..We are over in Kidderminster tomorrow evening doing a demo for the Young At Art group-some of the members have been over to Ludlow to do a couple of workshops already-so it will be lovely to meet the rest of the group..

Birches Workshop

Adrian and \dawn were painting for the 3rd time today..they always creat a diptych on 2 canvas--always get brilliant results ,,

hard to believe that the splodges on every ones canvas could ever be transformed into beautiful foliage in such a short time--and I'm sure that in the beginning of the class-nobody believes it either!

There was a  wide range of choices for the students today-both in colour and canvas size,,,one of the reasons we allow an extra hour for this workshop!

it takes no time at all before the canvas are transformed,,

its always very interesting to watch everyone get their confidence as the time goes by,,

at times you could hear a pin drop--at others all you could hear was laughter!

Claire was painting for the first time--she chose the lovely soft sage green and cream combination--

Sarah and her Mum chose the lovely autumn colours and the huge 40in canvas

I love the monochrome tones--I think they are my favourite!

Jane adding her trees..

Jackie received her artist brooch from me today for attending 6 workshops--

adding the detail to the birches..

looking good--nearly finished now!

love the big bold trees!

you have to be quite brave to start covering over the first trees you do...

it always amazes me how they can get the finished painting to look like just one person has painted it-quite an achievement!

looking good Margaret..

Jane is nearly finished here..

just a few more to do!

I love the way the birches stand out against the autumn colours-very vibrant!

Margaret adding the final few trees..

a few more layers of trees yet..

its great when everyone gets photos of the progress they are making..

Well done everyone-will look forward to seeing you all again!

The Shrewsbury 5 !!!

Wonderful!

Shirley and Margaret

Dawn and Adrian...