Happy Christmas x

Yesterday I took Sky to see The Nutcracker Ballet at the Grand, Leeds as a pre birthday treat!

It was my first ever ballet and it was beautiful, it felt such a wonderful Christmassy thing to do and we loved it!!!

HAVE A HAPPY FUN CHRISTMAS WITH LOTS OF LAUGHS

AND A VERY HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR X

7 sleeps to go....

... and I've actually completed a job on my very own 'to do' list!

yes, can you believe it!

It's going to be on News at 10 tonight,

...." and this just in, Lisa Stubbs has actually completed one of her 'fun' jobs on her 5,000 jobs to do before you pop your clogs list, Lisa, mother of 3, has recently been caught in the tidal wave of crazy Christmas frenzy, treading water through this she has actually managed to blow up her emergency float, pour a Christmas tipple put on her trusty 'Now that's what I call Christmas' CD and complete an ongoing personal project. Her Royal highness the Queen shall be awarding Lisa an OBE and knighthood for completing the challenge against all odds, along with a blessing from the Pope and it's rumoured Barry Garlow shall be writing a ballad celebrating the triumph, now over to Wincy Willis for the weather..."

Honest!

I tore out a picture from a housey mag a million years ago (above)

then bought an old notice board from a working mans club on Ebay for a tenner,

then sorted out all my fave photo's of immediate family

then put them all together and this is the result waiting to be hung on the wall!

( granted this little project has taken over a year to complete )

A Christmas pressy to myself!

You know when you never get round to those lovely jobs that seem to lie on the back burner while life and domestic bliss takes over, well this was one of those!

fab!

right lets roll them sleeves up and tackle lovely job no 2!

but first I must buy sprouts, deliver presents, order flea powder for Cas, buy pepperoni pizza for year two's class party, post my Christmas cards.....

8 sleeps to Christmas...

... and my true love said to me,

lets make an Ikea flat pack ginger bread house!

remember last years!!

festive spectator at the window,

Jamie O eat your heart out! just look at those icicles!

perfect!

Hope your having fun on the build up to Christmas :)

11 sleeps to Christmas...

... and my true love said to me,

" Go careful out there it's like an ice rink!"

wrap up warm and go careful on the ice x

12 sleeps to Christmas...

... and my true love said to me,

"There is no room at the Inn"

In his bestest loudest Yorkshire accent with a pot-towel on his head,

so proud x

13 sleeps to Christmas...

( Rimma by Tush Tush )

.... and my true love said to me,

" What do you want from Santa?"

and I said " All I want for Christmas is yooooooo x" ( well you've got to butter 'em up a bit and get in their good books this time of year)

but if any of these items were to be found in my stocking Christmas morning that would be very lovely too!

Anything from this fabulous shop whose work I have admired for a long time and would love to own an artwork of my own!...

this interesting book by another uber talented artist

...Anything from the lovely Jane Foster for the girls room,

this very lovely looking reference book and

this very lovely looking reference book too! ( I love my books)

and also anything from the stylish Skinnylaminx

or

the brilliant Flora from The round window!

WOOO hoooo it's going to have to be a big stocking!!

What's on your wish list? 

( apart from happiness, good health for all and the odd mince pie .... with Cointreau cream?)

14 sleeps to Christmas...

...and my true love said to me,

"I'll have the day off work and we'll go for a wintry sunny walk at YSP to see the Miro exhibition"

( I'm liking the theme I'm building up here ... 

and my true Love's not bad either with his fab suggestions!) 

So we did,

It was wonderful to walk amongst Miro's creations,

It's such an inspiring environment, one of my fave places in the world with loads of fab memories and constantly changing, every time we go there's something different to see, so lovely to share with fab friends x

Also there is a Mark Herald exhibition on at YSP which is amazing! 

His work is wonderful to see close up and he has created a flock of painted wooden birds flying along the gallery, beautiful! well worth a visit and fantastic for a spot of Christmas shopping.

I wanted to go home and start printing and creating collages straight away, but instead I had to make an Inn keepers outfit, it's amazing what you can do with a pot towel an old shirt and a cut up Rudolf suit...... did Inn keepers really wear Ben 10 sandals?

15 sleeps to Christmas...

...and my true love said to me,

lets go to The Picturedrome ans see The south!

so we did, and they were great!

It's amazing how many hits they had,

and here they are back in the day known as the Beautiful south with Paul Heaton

enjoy!

The first cut

(wonder forest by Manabu Hangai)

On Friday I took Lil to see the first cut exhibition, at the Manchester City Art Gallery.

wow

If you ever get chance to see this exhibition you must! it's so wonderful and inspiring...

Fotoecken by Sarah Bridgland

Map of my entire life by Rob Ryan

Exodus by Andrea Mastrovito

Stellar spire in the Eagle Nebula by Andrew Singleton

The Harbingers by Claire Brewster

Twist Angel 6 by Long-Bin Chen

Sequel by Nicole Dale

Lil said the exhibition was 'Amence!'

such a wonderful and fascinating exhibition, I want to go back and look again!

It's fabulous you must go see it! I was so inspired, makes me want to draw with my scalpel and put aside my pencils!

just for fun...

:)

sonny day

Happy Birthday toooo yoooo

my 'bubs' is growing up,

quick call the gorgeous birthday people police and arrest this boy at once!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON X

free as a bird...

... this Monday afternoon!

I'm enjoying playing with textures and experimenting a bit with my screen printing, 

it's hard to find time to experiment and make mistakes 

but how am I going progress and get better If I don't?!

So, 

I'm going back to my drawing board and my sketch books the rest of this year so I can sketch, brain storm and plan a creative a fresh start to next year!

woooooo! get me trying to be all organised and profesh! 

( don't be fooled!!)

It's Christmas....

.... and so it begins

love this ad, 

"don't forget Debbie and Derek from the holiday in Corfu..."

I love the build up to Christmas,

the chaos, the hard work, the lists,

the magic!

Bring it on!

have a fab weekend

it's starting to look a lot lot like ....

Christmas!

I've listed all my Christmas cards in my Etsy & Folksy,

eeee I'm starting to get excited! 

I'm one of those annoying people who loves Christmas!

we've already watched the Polar express and the Grinch!!

The Art Market

I did it !

I had a lovely time at the Art Market this weekend,

it was a fab opportunity to meet lots of lovely people and chat,

If you came along to say hallo! thank you! 

it was great to meet you, thanks for your kind words and support x

As I said before, I was out of my comfort zone quite a bit, 

I like being at the other side of the stall with my purse! but it all went very well and I enjoyed the lovely atmosphere and chatting to customers.

 I sold my framed piece of Lil, Sonny & Sky rock pooling at Runswick Bay to a lovely lady who was decorating a house in Runswick Bay! how amazing is that! so perfect!
I was so pleased the print was going to he hung in the place where the inspiration had originally come from (go here to see pictures) just lovely!

I was very lucky to share a stall with Helaina Sharpley 

who creates such gorgeous artworks from wire,
not only is she a very talented wire work artist but a very lovely person too!
and we danced behind the stall to help keep our feet warm (despite wearing 3 pairs of socks!!) ...

The stall behind us was Vinegar & brown paper, who etch ideas onto glass,

which were highly desirable! such fabulous ideas!...

There was also gorgeous bags from Geraldine at Greenview

lovely ceramics by Charlotte Morrison

( I bought the gorgeous gent brooch with a pipe as a treat to myself! ... well it would be rude not to!)

The ultra talented Claire Caulfield who taught me how to screen print a couple of years ago, her work is so unique and wonderful.

There was so much creative talent that I'd be here all day so here's just a one more,

Amy Stubbs (no relation!) Amy creates the most gorgeous scarves, I wish I'd known when I was going through my chemo! I found it so hard to find unusual head scarves, 

Amy's are so beautiful with black and white images of her grandma incorporated into the designs,

gorgeous!

To see more artists work from the Art Market look here,

lovely jubbley,

right off to sort my studio out now which is in total chaos! 

It looks like we've been robbed! 

Our house wouldn't get burgled, ( I'm no domestic goddess ) the buglers would break in and shout

(to be said in rough gritty 40 Captson full strength a day voice)

 "Ah lads someones beaten us to it! this place has already been done over" 

and off they'd go in their stripey jumpers and balaclavas with an empty swag bag over their shoulders!

Happy days!