Happy Christmas Hot & Not...

HOT

Doing a lino cutting course on Saturday, at the WYPW

it was a lot harder than I imagined, I'm so used to a pencil or paint brush so I found it quite difficult to maneuver a cutting tool around my design....I need to perfect my gouging technique! I wanted to do the above design, but decided to do something easier and more familiar...

I need loads more practice and I might try vinyl next instead of lino... it needed warming up on the radiator because it's sooooooo cold here!

Sky and Sonny being in the school nativity together, ooooo pass me the kleenex!...

...especially when a little star keeps blowing you kisses!! (ooooo he's got me round his little finger the little charmer!!)

My wonderful and talented friend Tanya making me these gorgeous cushions for our new front room, how lucky am I!

Thank you soooo much I ...

...them!!

Going to see the wild things with some tickets Sonny won in a local library art competition!

It was a beautiful film, but a bit meloncoly in places.....Skyla was in floods of tears at the end! So maybe not a film to see for a big festive cheer up!! but beautiful to watch especially if you've grown up with the book.

finishing a little Alice in Wonderland inspired craft project with the help of IKEA!

no NOT's this week, it's Christmas!

see more hot n notters at Loobylu's fab blog.

So, that's me done!

I want to concentrate on family and Christmas So,

Wishing everyone a massive magical Christmas, with fab times and belly 'laffs', and a very healthy and happy 2010!

Thank you for reading my blog, I'm still not sure if I'm doing it right or if I've found my blogging voice! but enjoying it all the same!

Have a good 'en and I'll see you next year xx

My creative space....

My creative space has been transformed into a wrapping station to help Santa out,

So the Christmas music's on loud, a cuppa and a mince pie for sustenance, and jingle bells all the way!

Ho Ho Ho

This is the last creative space of the year so catch the last ones of 2009 over at the fab Kootoyoo!!

What's hot and what's not...

I'm hotting and notting again at loobylu's....join in

HOT

we're getting there!!! from this to...

this, yay, we have our front room back! it's still got the odd bit to do but it feels like we're more or less there! yay again!

Ooooo what could we put in this space? mmmm,

only the biggest telly in the world!

Our old telly was one of those 'vintage' big backed affairs which it took two big lads and a barrow to get up the stairs... along with a lot of colourful language and sweaty stops for breath!

So we decided to get a new one, flat screen, so light you can't sneeze near it or it'll fall over.

It's a bit tooooo big really, but Charlie and the chocolate factory looks fantastic on it!

Putting new items in new room, the fun bit to decorating (still lots to do, Christmas shopping and wrapping is taking me away from the finishing touches!)

This little bird is by Deb Price, from her shop Winnies.

decorating the tree, we have two, a coordinated posh one in the room and a fab funky bright one in the kitchen with lots of lovely home made decs on.

Opening my Rob Ryan ( see his plug in paper..fantastic!!) tile to find this beautiful laser cut in the parcel along with some pin badges! fab!

All the Christmas socialising

and seeing friends.

NOT

All the Christmas socialising!

I'm cream crackered! I looked in the mirror this morning and I looked like the crypt keeper! I could hear my mate in my head saying "nip your cheeks" to pink them up and make me look a little human! ( I then looked like Aunt Sally!!)

eeeee I just can't take the pace !!

inspirational find...

We have a lovely little secondhand book shop called the Daisy lane books ( I've mentioned it before) and I called in with the girls and bought this beautifully illustrated book called The Nutcracker , stories taken from famous music, illustrated by Fumiko Hori, a Japanese illustrator from the Nihonga period, using traditional Japanese painting techniques.

It's such a beautiful book with a contemporary feel, I especially love the front cover illustration above.

I love fab finds that inspire!

one step forward...

An early birthday party for Sky, Sky's birthday is actually over Christmas and is over shadowed by all the Christmas celebrations , so we make a fuss early to make it special!

Christmas crafting on Sunday was fun...

...but by the time we had made the decorations, done the yearly tradition of walking down the road to the fur tree farm to pick our Christmas tree, go to a 10 pin bowling party, have uncle Ian for tea before he goes travelling ,

(one of his pressies was a pocket travel guide to Vietnam, I stuck pictures in of the kids saying "love you Uncle Ian & travel safely" .......Ian said, "it's lovely Lise, but I'm going to Thailand" ...mmmm, I need a holiday)

We're also trying to finish decorating the front room (we're very nearly there!)

So yeah we were still decorating the tree at 10 O'clock at night,

So this morning we were all sooooo shattered, yesterday did feel like one step forward and ten back! So I'm off now to clear yesterdays debris and do some more decorating!

These are some illustrations I did for a little ryming story my friend Tanya wrote, Called Lily Bee. We sent it out to lots of publishers, like this one, but nothing came of it.

I still love Lily Bee, and I plan to work more on her more next year mixing screen printing with photography,

I'd love to know what you think?

All the photographs in the collage were taken on walks with the kids during summer I think the colours are so vibrant! not very Christmassy I know but I thought I'd show you them and see if you liked them?!

My creative space....

I'm busy sorting my portfolio out,

what to put where,

to show innovation,

but not too much so it's too looooooong!

have a fab day in your creative space, see more at the very creative Kootoyoo