Serenity Workshop Sept 8th

Connie has been once before ,, her painting was very dramatic...

Carol was also painting for the second time..

Phil is one of my fellow market traders...he and his wife Pat were quite nervous...

Pat...was so tensed up her shoulders were hurting bless  her...both she and hubby Phil managed to create  great pictures despite the nerves!!

12 year old hope hard at work

Jane is a fellow artist and market trader...she does the most beautiful animal portrait's,,,and wanted to learn this technique in order to loosen up a bit..

Sylvia works at Church Stretton Leisure Centre and saw my work there on  display there...she couldn't wait to book in for today's workshop....hard to believe she hadn't painted before isn't it?

Karen was painting this for her Dads birthday....

lovely results by this 9 year old....

It was lovely to see my old Grammar School friend Karen-went for a great meal afterwards at The Bullring Tavern

Me and Karen..

Latest Exhibition

We went over to Church Stretton Leisure Centre this morning to set up my latest solo exhibition...its a great venue with lovely natural light.

I had the measurements of the available space and was able to map out on paper what was going where..

was very pleased with how it all looked...Bill measured everything accurately and got the pictures up quickly and neatly..

plenty of room fro all the information about me and the workshops as well..

From there we went on to The Plough at Shifnal...the landlady had asked me to do a solo exhibition there in Dec so we decided to go and suss it out..we had a lovely Sunday lunch there! But after seeing the space available and considering the distance from home Ive decided not to do it...I would have to paint smaller paintings to fit the space available as being an old black and white building there isn't any large areas to hang in and 99% of my art is on big canvas..so I will give this one a miss...I just don't have time to get enough smaller paintings done.....

The Plough---lovely place-full of old beams...

Centre

we had a visit off our Tommy with his daddy later when we got home....Tommy is growing so fast....getting chunkier by the minute love him!

Workshops..

Mellow Moods workshop on Sept 22nd is now full...new dates will be on the website soon for 2013

"Yesterday" workshop on Nov 3rd at our new venue in Eardisley is now full...but I still have a few spaces left for the workshop in Ludlow on Nov 24th

I have had a couple of cancellations for this Saturday 8th Sept for the "Serenity" workshop.This one is great fun to do--you will learn to use a variety of brushes and techniques..you will also have a choice of colour in which to paint it..suitable for all ages and abilities..contact me via the website for more details and to book..www.paintingmyway.co.uk

 wo

Onslow Park Steam Rally

We are back from a brilliant weekend at Onslow Park Steam rally...we were able to park in our usual place behind the craft marquee  with Bunty and the caravan...

We soon got the stands set up and the pictures hung--I use plastic covered table cloths from the £1 to cover them---very handy they are!

Then back to the caravan to prepare our evening meal...am sticking to the eating plan although we are away from home,,,,,we are hooked on sweet potato chips--they are just to die for--a touch of fry-light to help the herbs and spices stick to them and in the oven until they are cooked... a couple of lovely thick sirloin steaks and a huge salad and we both stuffed !

certainly didn't want any pudding after that lot!

We went for a walk after dinner --the atmosphere is just amazing after dark--all the steamers are lit up and the steam fairground is amazing...

after an early night and on Saturday I got on and cooked a lovely full English breakfast on Sunday Morning to set us up for the day--all allowed on the plan..all dry fried and some crusty brown granary bread to soak up the tomato juices!

The little 'pocket money' paintings went down well as usual!

I had quite a crowd standing watching me demonstrate at times,,,

Amy loved having a go at the encaustic art....

Elisha created a lovely picture using the waxes..

Daisey used some lovely colours in her wax art..

wow--that's lovely!

Thomas  did really well--and spotted loads of mysterious things happening in his picture...

as we didn't have to drive anywhere on Sunday we fell off the plan for a while and enjoyed a few glasses of PImms late afternoon,,, only thing we forgot to take with us was the mint to put in it--but the cucumber and strawberries were very good!

some of the beautiful steamers..

a real old one here...

looks like a squirrel had been in the food cupboard when I woke up Monday morning... 5 empty cereal boxes on the table.....Then Bill said "I had a hypo at 1.30am" Poor Bill had woken up sweating and feeling odd..when he did his blood count it had dropped to just 2 ...which is very very bad...We had forgotten to pack the glucose tablets as well so the only sweet stuff around for him was the variety pack of cereals--so he those 5 and 4 weetabix as well!!  Since he has been on the Slimming World plan with me-he has been able to cut back on his insulin injections quite a lot--he was down from 68 to 44 and last night cut down to 40 after having the hypo.. So it looks like the plan is working well for him being able to cut back like that.He have to check his sugar levels more often and make sure its high enough before he goes to bed in future too..I hadn't heard a thing though--when I sleep I do go out for the count..and Ive made Bill promise to wake me up if it happens again, as when the blood sugar drops low like that people can get very confused and he may not get any food....anyway--we are back home now--got lots to do-we have the little grandchildren coming to stay until Saturday--they will keep us busy!

Onslow Park Steam Rally

We are busy getting ready for this weekends big show at Onslow Park Steam Rally,,I have got some new paintings done to take with us---the one above has been created using melted wax and looks like  squid...I had great fun creating it....and also the one below which also looks like a squid....

The latest Birches painting...using a new colour scheme....doesn't show up well in the photo but its a soft sage green and cream... just a few of the 40 odd paintings I will have on display at the show. We will be taking the caravan to the show and going on Saturday to set up ready for the show on Sunday and Monday. Jeannie is coming too house-sit and look after Paddy and the fish-inside and out.There will be lots going on there-am looking forward to Saturday night when they have bands in the beer marquee--great fun,,and also tractor pulling going on till all hours! We will be taking the Pimms with us as well as a bottle or 3 of lovely white wine to enjoy during our stay...and there are some sirloin steaks with all the trimmings to take along as well....I'm hoping not to do too much damage to my diet while I'm away,....but having lost 19lb altogether from my heaviest weight I'm not going to worry too much about stepping off the wagon for a couple of days! Back to it on Tuesday like a good girl!

Little Tommy--3 months

Me and my sister Sharon went babysitting for our little Tommy on Saturday night---he was as good as gold bless him..sat in his bouncy chair laughing away for ages! He is such a contented baby-always happy and smiling.

He is always ready for his bottle as well----here he is after finishing it off---he is full as a tick!   After having his bum changed he was off to bed upstairs by 9pm--and he slept through to 8.30am again...he has got into a great routine lately and is sleeping all night for his mummy and daddy--that's really good for 12 weeks!      He is growing up so quickly--he has noticed the TV now and will stretch his head round to see it!        He is also fascinated by their clock on the wall--he sits and laughs at it--if hes crying Becki just lifts him so he can see the clock and he stops instantly and starts laughing at it---I wonder what he thinks it is?

Summer Day Workshop Aug 18th

bashing away at the sky.....

looking good...

Barry contemplating what to do next..

nearly finished...

getting down to it...

on the final stretch here...we had a mix of first timers and people who had been before just once, though you would never know to see the finished results!

beautiful results!

well done...

great results---look forward to seeing you all again!