Mellow Moods Workshop Sept 22nd

It was lovely to see Barry again--3rd time for him--he said he was really ready for a session with me! Poor Barry is waiting for an operation and was in quite a lot of pain bless him...hope its all over and done with next time we see him...

Keith was painting for the 2nd time...

Paul had no idea what he was going to be doing until Judith bought him along...

They both created lovely paintings...its something they have wanted to do for a long time...

It was lovely to see Kaitlin again--she hasn't been for a couple of years but she obviously hasn't lost the knack...cant believe she is now 12 years old!

Looking good...lovely colours..

First time -and just look at those trees--wow!

Taylor came along with Rhianna...and what lovely results they achieved...

Rhianna hard at work...

Jenny has painted with me many times-she painted this one for a friend of hers...

Its amazing to see how each tree the first timers paint gets better each time--it really is practise makes perfect!

Irene was with me for the 8th time...she loves to come and have her fix-- she stays over night on the Friday as its quite a distance for her...we will join her for a meal next time shes over as she usually stay at the Travel Lodge up the road from us....

the colour wash is starting to go on here...amazing how it transforms the paintings..

Angela loved her day and wants us to go to Worcester and take a workshop thereat some point...will be more than happy to !

just starting to add some colour with the oils on top of the acrylic

well done everyone...

beautiful results...

well done,,looks like Ive missed 4 or 5 of the students out of these pics--ooops.

here are the 14 happy artists...we had a great day and look forward to seeing you again!

1 stone Off

Im back on track again now...holidays and christenings out of the way and Ive lost 3 lb this week,,.making a stone since I started at slimming world and 23lb since I started losing weight at home... so well pleased with it--steady wight loss should stay off easier as well!

Food Glorious Food!

Its lovely to go out into the garden and pick fresh fruit and veg...they taste so much better than shop bought--and we know there are no horrible sprays been near them as well....The blackberries are ripening quickly now..and the apples-what few there are -cookers and eating-- will be ready soon. Apple and blackberry crumble is springing to mind--is there a Slimming World recipe I wonder?

Didn't have much of a crop of tomatoes this year--the wet weather earlier on spoiled them...but the new 'yellow stuffers' are looking good. Never tried these before..and there was a nice lot of 'sungold' mini tomatoes as well.

I have never tryed the 'yellow stuffers' before so it was a bit of an experiment really...I used the tiniest of the sungold tomatoes and some of our favourite ''Low Low'' cheese spread ,with  a sprinkle of rainbow pepper and garlic flakes to fill them with before putting them into a hottish oven

yummmm

Bill spatcocks and skins a chicken several times a week, then I cover it in dried onion or garlic and some paprika and dry roast until cooked.Its delish..and the dry onion etc forms a skin so it doesn't feel as if you are missing out -if like me you cant resist the skin off a roast chicken! And Its all free on SW plan....as much as you like as often as you like...

with a huge salad and a jacket spud-topped with more Low Low cheese spread it was to die for...and we were both too stuffed to eat pudding......

Tommy's Christening Sept 16th

Poor little Tommy had to be woken up when he got to the church....

proud Mummy and Daddy outside the church

getting everyone organised around the font!

Anne Barge the vicar taking the service always involves the children ..

she certainly knew she had Tommy in her arms..

Shell, Graham, Kirsty, Nicky and Richard--all of the godparents.

He looked lovely in his suit...proper bobby dazzler bless him....he was good as gold-as usual.

beautiful cake...

my beautiful niece Nat and  Mum holding Tommy

he went back to sleep after being changed out of his suit...

My lovely nephew Charlie --he is very good with little Tommy-loves him to bits !

love this pic of Nat

With Uncle Rich who is also his godfather

always laughing--never known such a happy baby..

with Nicky-one of his 3 godmothers!

well my hair started off down but ended up being put up before the day was out......we all had as lovely day.. and it was over too quickly...

Becky called by with Tommy today...Grandad Bill still has the touch and Tommy went to sleep pretty quickly-followed by Grandad as well!

isn't he bloody beautiful---OK--I'm just a little biased I suppose!

could munch him to bits..and he is as good as gold too--he goes to bed every night by 8pm and sleeps right through til 8am each morning bless him,,,how  good is that? He is 16 weeks old nearly and is being christened this Sunday..We are really looking forward to it--cant wait to see him in his outfit--he will look scrummy!

OOOOOPS...

Bill cleaned out the external filter today and found these baby guppies in there...they must get sucked up from inside the tank...must be 3 or 4 weeks since the filter was cleaned before so poor little buggers could have been in the dark since then..

Break Away

After a busy workshop on Saturday it was lovely for us to be able to get away from it all on Sunday with a trip to Derby...we had a great deal from Groupon at the Smart Aston Hotel which is near enough in the centre of Derby.We had a lovely room at the back of the hotel..with a huge bed and what looked like a new bathroom.

The TV was one of the biggest we have had in a hotel room which was great--but the gap under the door made us laugh--it was big enough for the paper to be shoved under in the mornings lol...

We chose not to eat at the hotel in the evenings--when we heard there was a Harvester just across the way we decided to use that as its much cheaper! We both love the salad bars they have there..and all the meals are calorie counted and shown on the menus which is helpful

this may be the reason I gained 1lb this week though! I didn't eat the chips but we did consume quite a lot of wine!

This was the view from the landing outside our room...the hotel is very well kept, loved the staircase! The time went sooo fast there...after we left the hotel on Tuesday we went on to see where the room is that we are going to be using to do the Birthday Workshop on Nov 10th...and then on to see where the Premier Inn is from there-so we could time the journey...then on back to Cannock as we will be stopping off there on the way home so we can go to the huge Featherstone car boot sale on the Sunday---so we know where we are going and when now...am really looking forward to it--roll on Nov!