Life update and art journal share: How meditation works for me

Hey guys. Ive been super busy lately. June is a very busy month for our family. We have my father-in-laws birthday, my fathers birthday, Steve's birthday, my birthday, fathers day, and our wedding anniversary. This is the card I made as copper is the traditional 7th wedding  anniversary gift.

We purposely kept all of the days pretty low key. On my birthday I binge watched criminal minds episodes, Steve did the school run for me, I had a NAP, and went out for a great meal. The perfect day for me. Here are a few cards from my lovely friends at card club:

 and out for dinner:

Now we are back to normality for a few weeks. I want to get the garden tidied up before my MOM COMES BACK FOR A VISIT! That's right, my mama is coming.  I'm really exited if you haven't noticed by my dramatic use of ALL CAPS. She will be here for the last week of school for Scarlett, and her last week we have booked a week in the Isle of Wight. None of us have been there and everyone tells us its beautiful. We booked a cottage about a 1/4 of a mile from a sandy beach. You better believe I will be blogging all about it.

Ive also been playing in my art journal. This has been a difficult page for me. By that I mean I really liked it, then I didn't, then I was annoyed with myself for overworking it, and then I fixed it. It has been a great learning experience though. That's the amazing part of art and art journalling. All those emotions over some paint on a page.  It can take you through a range of emotions and you come out the other side learning something about yourself.

I started by putting a few stencils down, and then completely white washed the back round using gesso. Then I just continued stencilling and layering. Paying attention to what colours are over what and keeping in mind the overall composition.

I put a prima stencil down and used a distress tool with a victorian velvet distress ink to outline a
flower towards the center of the page. I then just used a mixture of gelatos, white and black posca pens and even a red sharpie to get the flower how I wanted. Now, I'm not in anyway a professional and I dont claim to be with my colouring. Meaning, im not going for realism.

Then I coloured in a stamped image of a Prima bloom girls stamp with prismacolour pencils. I cut it out with scissors and a cutting blade for the fiddly bits. I pasted it down using studio multi medium.

Then.....I ruined it. I put some awful lettering right above the flower and it looked..bad. I was mad at myself for an entire afternoon. I even mentioned it to my husband about the page screw up over dinner. Of course he said it looked great. He always does, bless him. I had a mini temper tantrum within myself saying how much I suck and I should just give up on art journalling right before I went to bed.

I woke up the next morning and it was a Saturday. I had no rush so I like to start my day with some meditation. Whilst I was meditating I completely cleared my mind. It allowed me to shed all of my insecurities and get over my hurt ego.

When I was finished I approached my journal in a new way. I fixed it. I pulled some sheet music pages apart, and pasted it using white gesso giving a whitewash coat over it.  I took a script stencil and used some yellow distress ink over it, and stamped a Dina Wakely stamp using blue archival.  I used the archival ink as it stamps a more sharp image then the distress ink.

Ta-Da! I like it again. I mean I know its not perfect but I like the composition and I fixed it. That means something. I like the journey I went down with this page.  That's what its all about.. the journey.

speak soon lovelies!!

                                                                         Always, -Kass

DIY wedding on a budget featuring the wedding from Kippers and Curtains

Ive been to some beautiful weddings before. Bride looks beautiful, food is good, and venue looks posh. Im sorry maybe im a pessimist but all I can usually think at those weddings is " it should be nice, considering how much this all cost." Then its over, just like that.  You have to leave the venue, take off the dress and all your left with is photos and memories. All relatively "normal".

My friends Sarah and Lee's wedding was not your "normal" wedding. Which is a good thing as they are not a normal couple.  In a good way, I swear.  Most days when Sarah isn't working she is planning projects, wandering in the woods collecting bits, or daydreaming of a wild and free biker life. If you want to find lee just look for the children. He is most likely spinning around with one or more hanging off him.We joke that he could be a childrens party entertainer. So when these to [finally] united in marriage you just knew it was gonna be a good time.

So I  had an idea of what the wedding was going to be like. Sarah has been bouncing ideas off me the past year.  Seeing it all come together has been amazing.

The actual ceremony was at the leatherhead registry office in Surrey, England. It was so lovely! When I arrived Sarah was in the back of her brothers vintage taxi with their 3 children so Lee could not see them before the vows.

  We all went in and sat down and a beautiful ceremony followed with Sarah walking down the isle to the song from "last of the Mohicans". I cried so much! I don't know why, I'm just a big baby I guess. Its always when the father gives his daughter away that I tend to lose it. Then that's me crying for the rest of the ceremony.

It was beautiful and after we went out through the conservatory to the back where the newly united family stood for us and we blew bubbles and took pictures.

The wedding party got into a vintage fairway taxi and headed to the reception.

 Okay so we were lucky as this is just up around the corner from our house, so we could park at home and walk over.  When we walked through the field there were signs directing us where to go that sarah made and Lee put up.

The first thing we stumbled upon was a tree swing made from a palette with ribbons hanging all around it. I knew the kids were going to love this when they all got there and they definitely did.

The main area for the festivities was a extra large circus style marquee with a dance floor and tables set up inside. It had a  pick and mix sweets bar for the kids , a gorgeous rustic cake set up, lemonade pitchers, all with handmade signs and quirky upcycled curios lying about.

The tables all had centerpieces of painted bottles with wildflowers we had picked the day before at bloomin green in maidstone, kent.

The second area was uncovered with a croquet set up to play, a 3 metre tall tee pee "chill out" area, and her brothers awesome vintage taxi with a photo booth set up in the back. It had props inside and printed photos for you there! So much fun was had in that! ( To check out his website Anarchy photography Click Here.)

                                           ( The bride and her brother/photographer)

At one point an ice cream truck pulled into the field and the children went running after it. It pulled up to the party and handed out  ice cream for about an hour. Seriously, an ice cream truck, in the middle of an empty field. The bride and groom got inside the truck and handed out ice cream which resulted in some great photos!

We feasted on hog roast, laughed, and danced .

(My selfies with the bride and groom)

 Sarah wore the most gorgeous vintage style dress with lace embellishments.

She had a crown of wildflowers throughout the day and in the evening darned a  handmade Native American headdress that was gifted to her that day.

                                 (The couples eldest daughter Keira shouting a battle cry in mums headdress)

  Her shoes were a mint green . The flowers girls (her daughters) wore white sundresses with sleeveless jean jackets and cowboy boots. The "boys" wore beige linen suits with mint ties to match the brides shoes.

We had such a great time the whole day. Scarlett was not happy to be going home.

 Sarah has been blogging all about how she put this day together on her blog Kippers and Curtains. There you will find how she made her flower crown, what she used for her table decorations , and how she made the rustic signs that lead us around their whimsical celebration of love. Sarah has shown brides-to-be everywhere with some shopping around, and a little elbow grease, you can have a dream wedding without breaking the bank.

Thanks so much Stockleys for sharing you special day with us! We wish you many wonderful years together. x


That's all for now, see ya soon.    -Always, -Kass