Pinocchio(2)

Its...... OPENING NIGHT! Dress rehearsal went much better last night so am feeling fairly confident about it. The main difficulty is keeping the girls quiet backstage as its a small theatre... the words "don't forget you've got to keep quiet because you can be heard from the audience" mean nothing to a group of over-excited 8 year olds!

Pinocchio!

Well our first dress rehearsal was last night, it was fairly chaotic - as well as being in it (two dances and various bits of general milling about on stage!) I'm a registered Chaperone for the children so when I'm not on stage I'm making sure the girls (all aged about 8 or 9) are in the right costumes, ready to go on in the right places etc. Discovered as well that although the stage is OK in tap shoes its very slippery in jazz shoes! We've got another dress rehearsal tonight and then three performances - a couple of friends from work are coming to the one on Friday night and Del and his Parents, my Brother-in-law, and a couple of other friends are coming on Saturday night. I didn't actually think Bel would be there last night, she was ill all over Easter with a nasty virus (amazing to see her Easter eggs virtually untouched until yesterday!). She's still got a cough but was much better by yesterday evening so she was able to be there :)

Cardmakers United Challenge

The current Cardmakers United Challenge is to make a baby card in non-traditional colours - here's mine, it looks a bit pink in the photo but its brown - honestly!

Funky Fairys Challenge

A little while ago the Funky Fairys Challenge was to used ripped/torn edges, this week its the opposite - here's the challenge:-

OK...not so long ago we had our scissors confiscated, life was tough! ...now you need them for sure! This weeks challenge is to 'Cut up Your Cards' ... literally!!! *.*Anyway you want to, just so long as it's been cut! Oh but...please be careful with those scissors in all the excitement! ^.^

Here's my card :-)

While I was there checking out this week's challenge I found a link to the Funky Fairys Inspiration Blog (which I previously didn't know existed) here with some great papers and other bits to download free. If you didn't already know about it (don't tell me I'm the last to know!) go take a look :-)

Caarvarks Challenge

Yay! I've made cards lol. Here's mine for the Caardvarks Challenge this week which is "Homegrown" - fruit and vegetables. I enjoyed this one, it was certainly different!

Hastings Music Festival

Well I'm not getting a lot of crafting done at the moment which is a bit frustrating, but I take the view its not worth knocking yourself out trying to fit in something which is supposed to be fun... I might get a bit done later or if not, over the weekend, but if I don't bear with me, normal service will hopefully be resumed shortly! Anyway, this is a proud mummy post rather than a crafting post so you'll have to indulge me for a bit! We've spent the afternoon at the Hastings Music Festival where the Dance and Drama Studio that Bel (and I) attend was performing in the "Mime telling a story - all ages" catagory. This one was children only (they range from about 7 to 13 or so) and I hadn't even seen it so I wasn't sure what to expect (Bel's never been one of these children who is always showing off bits at home!) They were actually the only entrants in that catagory but that didn't mean an automatic win (a good thing I think), they had to get at least 85 points for a first place. Well we sat in the balcony at the White Rock Theatre (bearing in mind it is considerably bigger than The Stables theatre where we have our show each year) not knowing quite what to expect - then they were announced.... and it was brilliant! It was entitled "Shipwreck" and showed exactly that, a group getting shipwrecked, ending up on an island and finally trying to hail a passing ship and failing.... very dramatic! I've known some of the children in it since they were 4 or so and I have to say they surprised me, they really were impressive and Bel who has struggled at times at dancing because of the concentration problems linked to her dyslexia was as good as any of them :-) They were followed by a School group also doing a mime in the 10-14 years catagory and I have to say I thought they weren't as good. I think you could tell our group were dancers as well as the choreography was excellent.

Then it was time for the Adjudicator to announce the results, she was extremely complimentary about our group and gave them.... 87 points! A first place with honours! She criticised the school group (in the nicest possible way) that some of their movements (pretending to drink etc) weren't clear which is something she had complimented our group on. They got 84, so no first place for them. All in all a very good day :-)

Relaxing... well vegetating really lol

Well its Sunday, I haven't had much to do today apart from a bit of tidying round earlier, I should be crafting but I'm enjoying the rather wicked feeling that I should be doing it, but I'm not! My cold has almost gone, I spent yesterday either shopping (mostly for things needed for the dance show in a fortnight's time and for the mime that Bel and the others in her drama class at the dance school are performing for the Hastings Music Festival on Wednesday) or altering dance costumes (sewing not being something I do regularly it took me about three times as long as it should have done),its dull and rainy outside....... and I have my laptop back! Del talked to a nice man on the Gateway website only to find that the power lead which we'd assumed wasn't covered by the guarantee is! So a new one winged its way from Germany and took just two days to arrive, so I'm happily reunited with a computer which has all my favourites in the right place, my photos and digital scrapbooking bits neatly organised into folders and my Frank Iero wallpaper! lol. You know that little bunny that Bel drew that I used on two cards recently? Well I look much happier than that!!

Del brought home a magazine a couple of days ago that had been left on the bus called "Love it!" (complete with exclamation mark), which looked from the cover like one of those gossipy celeb type things. I went to flick through it today prior to throwing it out and spotted the words on the cover "My 12 year old only weighs two stone".... I wonder, I thought and it was - Kirsty Wiseman and her Daughter! If you haven't read her blog you really must, not only to hear about her Daughter Eleanor and Kirsty's struggle to find a cure (and indeed diagnosis) for Eleanor's condition, and her current fund raising efforts in order to take Ellie to Nevada to see Specialists there, but also just to enjoy Kirsty's wonderful writing style, it really is one of my favourite places on-line. If you're not a regular reader, go take a look here

Rainbow Lady's Challenge

Apologies for not blogging much this week, but there's been a general lack of crafting - dance rehearsals (two weeks to go!), Parents' Evening at School, plus a cold have meant a bit of a lack of time/energy. Did have a free evening yesterday though and discovered Rainbow Lady's Challenge blog here :-) The challenge on there this week is brads and eyelets and finding it coincided with the arrival of this month's Cardmaking and Papercraft (I've got a letter in it - yay!) The free gift this month is set of 9 little animal stamps, only small but quite sweet and I was dying to have a go with them (yes, me the ex-stamper lol) so here's my card

Cardmakers United Challenge...

... is Easter :-) Here's mine, you'll see its the same little bunny as my Funky Fairys Challenge card - Bel drew the original and I scanned him, I just love his little face!

Funky Fairys Challenge (last week's!)

Actually made this one on Sunday but didn't get a chance to put it on here til now... the power lead has gone wrong on my laptop and I can't afford to replace it for a week or so, so we're back to sharing one computer :-( Plus I had trouble getting the internet yesterday morning due to the awful weather! Anyway, the challenge was eyelets and ribbons so here is mine (better late than never!)

Freebie paper

I haven't made any backing papers in PSP for ages but I needed one to match something I was doing, so I made this

If its any use to anybody feel free to pop along to 4Shared here to download it.

Imag-e-nation "inspirational challenge"

Did this one for a sketch challenge on the Imag-e-nation forum - the image is another one from my Pink Petticoat download - as you can see, I'm still loving those Papermania Retro Florals!

My Time to Craft Challenge this week...

... is flowers... Here's mine :-)

Daring Cardmakers - tea bags

No, not tea bag folding - real tea bags! Here's the Daring Cardmakers' challenge this week

"The dare involves creating a card incorporating a tea bag or coffee satchel - just perfect for days when somebody may need a quiet rest and break."

I thought this was a real fun challenge - and a great excuse to get the Pink Petticoat Lola Rose "You make me feel bubbly" download! For some reason my scanner resolutely refuses to pick up that the doodled border goes all the way round, wherever I place the card, so you'll have to take my word for it that its there at the top!

The best thing is it is a ginger tea bag so the card has a lovely ginger smell!

Bit quiet....

Apologies for the lack of blogging this week, I've either been dancing, walking to dancing, coming home from dancing or have had people round so not much crafting this week yet (well I know its nearly over!)but.... no dancing on a Friday, so hopefully I'll get some playtime tomorrow :-)

Mother's Day

Well I had a nice Mother's Day, I had a lovely set of watercolour pencils from Bel which I intend to spend some time playing with this week, and we spent the day at MIL's, all of us popped out in the afternoon to visit Del's Nan who has been moved this week to Hospice - she is in a four bed ward but its so much more comfortable than hospital and they've gone out of their way to make it more homely, tea in china cups, a flower on her meal tray, she was even brought a glass of sherry the other day! The Staff seemed cheerful and kind and much less "rushed" than in Hospital so I think she'll be well looked after and as comfortable as she can possibly be.

For my Mum I made what I referred to as the "secret" last week - a scrapbook from the slides we brought home from them. A word of advice - doing a scrapbook in a week is possible, but it does completely take over your life while you're doing it. Mind you, it was well worth it as she said it was a nicest present she'd ever had. Aw....... Oh, and we came back from Del's Mum and Dad's yesterday - with their slides!!

Forum Challenges

I was in the challenge spirit yesterday! This card was for a sketch challenge on Cardmaking Friends. I actually found it quite difficult as the sketch is so simple, so I guess that makes it challenging. This was the sketch

and this is what I came up with

The Docrafts challenge this week was to create an Easter or Spring project which was a great opportunity to use the stamps I got as part of my Blog Candy from Nikki a week or so ago!

The final one I did was for another sketch challenge on the Imag-e-nation forum

Blue and green should never be seen!

Except in this week's Papertake Challenge! Here's my blue and green card

Funky Fairys Challenge

The Funky Fairys Challenge this week is "tags" - something tag shaped, or inlcuding one or more tags, and the tags can be any ahape or size. Here's mine - you'll see my magazine boxes in the background!