Art Jounalling Weekend - the verdict...

Phew! That was one amazing weekend! We arrived in Harrogate late on Thursday evening and collapsed into bed...woke up to a wet and rainy day but it didn't matter cos we were off to explore and shop...and shop we did! Found an fantastic vintage shop which was stacked with gorgeous things...fell in love with a refurbished pink dresser but at £695 it was slightly over budget! Settled on getting some old Enid Blyton books for Ellie, some vintage buttons, a french children's magazine (the pictures were cute) and a 1950's map of England (I liked the colour). The store is called Space and it's worth a visit if you love a good rake around - I could have stayed there for hours! Paid a visit to Cath Kidston too where the lovely staff helped me find lots of lovely things! Then it was off to Betty's for some lunch...

Betty's is a traditional tearoom that has been in Harrogate forever by the sounds of things! We had gorgeous open sandwiches and tea from a silver teapot - it was all very civilised! We also had one of there famous Fat Rascal's - a fruity sconey type cake that was so good! I have to say though, the thing that amazed me most was the toilets...took a sneaky photo of the seating area in the ladies loos complete with beautiful fireplace...

All public toilets should look like this!

Went for a wander after lunch round the Montpellier Quarter which is really nice - quaint little shops and cobbled streets...

After a bit more retail therapy (and a quick afternoon cocktail) we headed for home. Passing Cath Kidston, Paul ran in and came back out with a little bag...

...containing the button necklace that I had noticed in the window earlier - how sweet?!? Thank-you - I love it!

The course kicked off at 7pm and it started like it meant to continue - lots of talking, laughing, eating and getting messy...

I sort of tucked myself out of the way up at the back but I needn't have bothered...I was sat next to Mel and that meant that I was always in the midst of the action! She is like a force of nature and makes no apology for it...she was there with her sister Virginia and their Mum, Valencia and it turned out they were at the same hotel as us, staying right across the corridor! I had such a laugh with them...really nice girls.

Also got to meet the very pretty Sandra and her friend Shelley who were sat opposite. Sandra is one of my small band of Followers (one day, I WILL reach 20!?!) and it was a real pleasure to meet her in person.

She seems to be a lot like me in that she gets upset by other people's upsets...over the course of the weekend some of the ladies there shared stories about themselves that were very personal and painful which caused the tears to flow but it was fine...we were all experiencing it together and the whole point of journalling is to express honestly how you are feeling and let that help you grow, learn and maybe even move on. If there's a place where all that can happen then it's Art From the Heart and the reason behind that is Dyan.

On Saturday, we made our journal pages from scratch, explored colours and their associations (Mel SO does not like yellow...!), answered some really difficult questions honestly (then shredded the answers if we wanted), drank copious amounts of tea, ate like queens (thanks to the very lovely Pam) and (to quote Dyan) pratted about and had a fab time.

Mel Oh! Yellow...

Dyan explaining the wavy line principle...

...Shelley not getting the wavy line principle...

...and Sandra celebrating when she finally cracked it!

My 1st ever art Journal page!

And the 2nd one (image chosen by Mel)

On Sunday we did the anatomy of a page, our journal covers and then there was time to do what we wanted. As we were messing around I said to Mel that it was a pity there wasn't a degree in just, well playing with paint and cutting out pretty pictures - pratting about. She agreed (neither of us have degrees) and we decided we would make each other certificates - mine in Prattology and hers in Handwritingology (she hates her writing but actually there's nothing wrong with it at all). We mentioned this to Dyan and next we know she's off designing Prattology Certificates for us all to take home and colour in...here are the highlights of the award ceremony...

I will be proudly hanging mine in my study once it's all properly coloured in! So proud that I have an Ology!

All too soon it was time to pack up and say goodbye. Here are photos of all the ladies...

Anne, Carole and Steph

Michelle and Bee

Emma and Janet

Sandra and Shelley

Me!

Got my picture taken with the Rotherham lot too but don't have a copy - could someone please send me one?!? So, after spending a small fortune in the shop and signing up for the Intermediate course in May, we said goodbye...

Me and Dy with our socks out...

Dyan's beautiful painting for the new studio that I sat nearby the whole weekend - how cute?!?

We arrived home sweet home at around 11pm. When I went to check on the kids, Molly was snoring peacefully, Ellie woke up and on seeing me burst into tears and said "Mummy! My Mummy!" then promptly fell back asleep. The boys were soundo but James wandered through to our room a while later and said "I missed you and Daddy really much, Mummy." Harry made a surprise appearance at 5am when I discovered him cuddled into my back...

This morning Mum let me lie in a while and when I came downstairs, there was the smell of springtime in the hall thanks to the lovely purple Hyacinth she had bought me...

We spent the morning in Turriff visiting Sean and Justine and seeing baby Georgia for the first time. Couldn't help but take lots of photos - she is just so lovely...

And on that note, I'm off to bed. Still shattered from the weekend but still buzzing from the experience!