Acrylic Painting on Wood

Don’t you just hate throwing stuff away if you can find a use for it?

That includes pieces of wood that I can give a new lease of life to by painting on them to create mini master pieces!

I love painting on wood because you can take advantage of the texture in the wood grain, even the knots of the wood can give you a creative slant on the style of painting you’ll end up producing.

Using acrylic for painting on wood is ideal. Starting off with thin glazes of colour that soak into the wood grain, built up in layers to bring strong enough colour where you need it, without overpowering the paler shades … perfect.

They may not win a major art prize, but I do love my wood paintings.

I’ll be painting the skirting boards and door frames this summer!

What will you be painting on?

I hope you don’t go too dizzy looking at this graphic, which is being used for a web design project.

It’s not particularly doing the original image justice, and does look better in its original format and larger size.

There’s a slightly better view on the home page, if you really need larger dots in front of your eyes!

Having gone completely dotty today, not for the first time in my life that’s for sure, I can just imagine this being a great fabric for an ironing board cover!

In fact as I type, it reminds me of an ironing board cover I had some years ago, with a sort of zig zag pattern, that used to make me feel sick every time I ironed!

Hmmm… perhaps that’s not too silly an idea, this might be the perfect pattern to stop me ironing all together!

Would this pattern put you off ironing if it was to make it as an ironing board cover?

The above image is just one section of the original which is much wider as you can see in the framed picture below.

Click Here to View Sizes and Framing Options

Chester is a few minutes from the Welsh border so you don’t have to go far to enjoy the pleasures of a Welsh Landscape.

We’re lucky enough to be able to see the Welsh hills from the kitchen window which makes the whole pot washing up process a lot more pleasant, when I decide there aren’t enough pots to stack the dishwasher!

My little nephew was as safe as he could possibly be whilst having fun at the local park the other day.

Here he is getting plastered after falling off a swing and suffering a bit of nasty break!

Well, playing is all about learning that life is full of risks and that you have to take risks even when enjoying yourself on the swings.

This is his first plaster, he’s had a replacement plaster fitted to set his break at a particular angle.

Thankfully it’s not put him off playing on the swings, he’s just a little upset that he can’t go to his swimming classes for a few weeks.

We’ll be delivering his ‘bravery award’ soon.

Do you have a “Getting Plastered” story to share? Tell us below…

UPDATE:
My little nephew, he’s nearly 7, was very brave last night when his plaster fell off!

We took him to A&E last night where he had another fitted and another x-ray, which showed that his break was not setting correctly! Poor love had to go again this morning, he was very brave and rather excitedly looking forward to his ‘operation’ tomorrow morning.

I have a sneaky feeling he won’t be quite so enthusiastic after the event tomorrow. Brave little thing though.

I don’t know if this applies to you, but I do know it’s a question I get asked a lot by our Art Hobby & Craft members.

“How Do I Get A Website Online for My Craft Business?”

If you’re an art and crafts person in need of a powerful solution to selling your arts and crafts online, or you just want to blog about your favourite hobbies.

And if you have asked that question, here’s the…

Answer:

Craft Business Website Solution

The quickest and easiest, not to mention most affordable, way to get your art, hobby, or craft business online is to use the open source content management solution, called WordPress.

Now, if you really haven’t heard of WP, then don’t confuse it with WordPress.com – that’s where they host a free blog for you, no, no, no!

I’m talking about WordPress.org, which is still free (open source) – but don’t go downloading it whatever you do!

There’s a much easier way to get WordPress installed so you can start blogging about your arts and crafts, or start selling your craft work online.

WordPress Basics for Artisans

I’ve put a couple of videos together to show you exactly how to do this in under five minutes!

• Click Here: Craft Business Website Course (no signup, no cost)

I’ll be adding a few other videos soon that will help you even further along, I’m just testing and monitoring the WP 3.0 upgrade effects that may need to be pointed out to you.

Bookmark the page so you know where to return to check for new video uploads.

WordPress is much easier to use than most people think until they try it for themselves.

9 times out of 10, this is exactly what my team and I use to create client websites. Granted, we completely re-design the look and functionality so the client has a bespoke website design. Which is why a website design, even on WordPress, can cost upwards of £997

BUT

… if you have some time to DIY and are happy with the WordPress free themes, or can even budget for an affordable Premium WordPress Theme, it’s a breeze.

There you go, I’ve just helped you to get started with your craft business website online and saved you over £900 to boot!!

Do You Think You Can Do It?

If you believe you can, you will … believe you can’t, you won’t … who was it who said that?

I know you CAN do it!

Go watch the videos and get into creative action!

Do You Ask Yourself : Am I living My Best Life?

If you’re like most work at home mums, you’ll no doubt ask yourself that question from time to time.

And, if you’re a single mum, or single parent for that matter, juggling work life balance, you probably ask yourself that question on a fairly frequent basis.

and…

sometimes the answer is NO!

There are certainly many challenges to face if you’re a single or work at home mum. If that’s you too then you’ll understand just how many hurdles there really are!

For me personally, it’s not just the single parent challenges and sole responsibility aspects, but the added complications of living with Crohn’s disease (it really is torture when you love food), which can be more than trying and, well, just darned inconvenient and [.. bleep ..] frustrating. Thanks to the tablets, there are now fewer not so great days.

Yet, on one of those not so great days, I can find myself asking if I’m living my best life!

What Brightens Your Day?

Whatever your challenges might be, if you take time to notice, there’s always something that comes along just at the right time to brighten your day!

And along came Gigi when I was having a not so great day.

There was I, indulging my moment of self pity, as well as arguing with myself over whether I should or shouldn’t eat some ‘real food’ for breakfast, when thankfully, Gigi’s newsletter arrived in my inbox and would you believe it, the title was..

… “What is Your Best Life?

She must be a mind reader! It read…

“I want to share with you a few thoughts on what I think it means to live your best life regardless of whatever circumstances you are currently facing as a person, a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a friend, etc. – and to offer 3 tips you can start doing now that will help move you towards living the best life you possibly can.”

To begin, what does it mean to ‘live your best life?

Gigi’s newsletter was far too long to add here.

So, if you’re asking yourself Am I living My Best Life? and you need someone to help you brighten up your day, you can read Gigi’s full article here : What is Your Best Life

Gigi, who provides support and coaching for parents of premature babies, is just such a delightful person, she’d brighten anyone’s day up!

May you have more great days, than not so great days.

Women Bloom with Lynne Franks

This has to be an ‘absolutely fabulous’ opportunity to gain some work life balance, perspective and creative insight into yourself, as well as have a week of sunshine, great food and fun companionship.

Lynne, as she does every year, is opening her home in Deia Mallorca to an intimate group of like-minded women for a transformational week in the sun.

I can’t make it this time myself, but it’s not too late for you…

Women’s Creative Leadership Retreat

The BLOOM retreat will release the fears and barriers that have been holding you back from being the incredible woman you were born to be. You’ll uncover your core strengths, discover your true identity and bring about a personal and professional transformation that will change your life forever.

Enjoy a joyful, inspirational and deeply transformational week with an intimate circle of like-minded women.

Lynne will take you on a journey of fun, laughter and well-being while handing you the practical tools to realise your full potential, create your life’s vision and return home experiencing a profound and enduring sense of strength and possibility.

“BLOOM” Dates for Your Diary
Sunday 20th June – Saturday 26th June

There’s not long to go, so if you fancy joining Lynne for a very special transformational week in the sun, you can contact Lynne here.

Lynne Says

“If you have the time free – and believe you deserve to give yourself a well-deserved gift – write to me to discuss our last minute special offers like the great deal if you want to come with a friend and are willing to share a twin room.”

At the BLOOM Retreat

• You will learn how to create daily practices to feed your feminine core and create a juicier, more joyful kind of leadership in your life.
• You will connect with your passions and learn how to use them to make a difference with our Seed coaching and visioning exercises and tools.
• We will work with your creative energies and gifts to manifest unlimited possibilities personally and professionally.
• You will practice meditation, yoga, art and poetry to connect you to the source of your creativity and inspiration.

And if that’s not enough to entice you, then how about…

1. eating delicious home-cooked meals
2. enjoying the use of two swimming pools
3. dipping into the hot tubs

and soaking in some of the best views in the Mediterranean – just a short, 20 minute walk to the sea!

can’t you just visualise it?
sigh…..

For FULL DETAILS DIRECT from Lynne – Click Here

There are only a few places left, so if you do manage to secure your place… enjoy every minute & let me know how ‘fab’ it was when you get back, ta.

For now, back to my work life balance for the day and the UK sunshine.

If you’ve not added a background image to your twitter profile design, or you just need a change, you can download a free copy of the above Twitter background, plus a grey version.

Free Twitter Backgrounds Download

To download immediately :

• Just click on the image above to download your zip file,
• save it to your computer
• and unzip
• Select the background image that you want to use
• Upload your chosen image to your twitter account

Enjoy

I recently sent out a selection of free background images to members. If you’d like to grab free images too, just sign up in the form on the right and you’ll also receive a variety of free graphics, at least every month.

What goes on in your household that gives you your work life balance breaks?

This short video shows you a clip of the reason for one of my work from home – work life balance breaks this week:-

Isn’t he a cutie!

Pretty good drumming practice Jay

You can probably guess that music is important to everyone in the household.

Now that the kids are on school holiday and study leave, I’m expecting many more musical work life balance breaks over the next few weeks.

Great fun though .

What goes on in your household that gives you your work life balance breaks?

Work Life Balance Articles