Where has this week gone?

This has been a frantic week from start to finish, but, at least, I do have something to show for it.  So I don't feel too bad about the vanishing of the time.

As many of you know, I have had some problems over this past year or so with getting the caravan nto a condition that I can manage.  Each one of those problems has been sorted with the help of Broad Lane Caravans.  I did manage to get away once this year with the dogs and the caravan and proved to myself that I could do it.  It was within my capabilities.  Then came the decision that, yes, I could do it, but, do I still want to do it?  That was the question.

I finally made the decision at the end of last week.  My life has changed so much in the past 18 months and I need to follow through with a totally different life style, which no longer includes the hard work of taking the caravan away.  So, it is on its way to the dealers, who will sell it on my behalf, saving me the hassle.  Apart from the money for the van itself, it also will save me the cost of insurance, servicing etc, which will pay for quite a decent holiday each year or even for the Clarity Retreat.

So this week was partly clearing the caravan out, removing everything personal and things I wanted to keep.  Needless to say, the house is now a wreck until all the things have been found a new home.  I have enough paracetamol and ibuprofen to stock a chemist and as I have reduced my intake of painkillers since starting with honey and cinnamon, they will last me a long time.

Thursday was still chaotic with a dental appointment in the morning and my first visit to a painting club.  I am not sure about it yet.  They were very friendly and welcoming but they were all into fine art which, at the moment, is definitely not my strong point.  They were all doing beautiful paintings on large canvases or sheets of watercolour paper, and looked at me as something of an oddity with my gelli plate, brayer and stencils.  How they would have coped with Sam Crowe, who is so brilliant with the gelli plate, but known for her talent along the grunge lines.  I think that might have been a step too far for these ladies at the moment.  I shall go back, but I think that next time I will take ink pads, stencils and stencil brushes as being less confrontational for them

Friday was busy too as I had booked myself into a crafting club down at Pink Tulip Creations at Studley in the morning.  That was more comfortable with lots of ladies, all at different levels, but very friendly and helpful, keen to show what they had mastered and what everyone else had done.   The class was led by Angela Crompton, an old friend, the mother of two of our competition swimmers from when we were so involved with the swimming club.   A couple of ladies took the projected design and did it their way, with lovely results.  As it was my first visit, I went with the original, but being too busy chatting, I realised after I got home that I had made the classic mistake and created an Australian card, ie I had mounted it upside down.  Oops!

The original design was all blue and white, but after I had destructed it at home, I decided to mount it on a larger card, as that pack was right next to me.  Also, one of the other ladies had added pink flowers with tiny pink pearls,which was so pretty, and I decided to follow her example and used one of the small flowers from the Clarity Florabundance stamp.  The first generation stamp was far too bright as it was a very juicy ink pads, so all the pink flowers are second, third and fourth generation.  I also used a stencil brush and Stormy Skies (again because it was next to me) around the edges.  I edged it with  a Reef Blue Promarker.  Then I brushed the base card with the same Stormy Skies to soften the stark whiteness.

By then, I was deep into playing so I painted the birds and the flowers with a blue Wink of Stella  and used the pink one for the flower centres.

I shall definitely be going back to this club again, which gives me another view to add to the workshops with Barbara Gray, Maria Simms and Sally-Ann Haines.  All good fun.