ME ON MONDAY - HAPPY ENDINGS!

There's been a lot going on this weekend so it seems a good idea to give Sian a wave.  When she wrote her first 'ME ON MONDAY' post she never intended that others would join in, but some liked the idea and now she has a following. I've only just started joining in and may not be here every Monday but I enjoy visiting others who are. Right now it fits well with my 30 day Blogging Challenge so I am here today looking back on my weekend....

And as always it started Friday for me. It was a day for food shopping, tidying, and packing. An increasing pile for a Steampunk event that was planned for Sunday, in readiness for 2 short workshops. So it was a list making, card cutting, preparation and
packing kind-of-day. 

And a sinking heart kind-of-day when I couldn't find the rust powder which was an integral part of my design. A keep-calm don't-panic kind-of-day, and trust that it would all work out okay.

It was also another challenged-by-technology kind-of-day. There have been plenty of these in recent months when a simple task can take hours.... when my computer fails to start, or shuts down mid-way. A take-a-deep-breathe and carry-on kind-of-day. I won't bore you with all the details!  Suffice to say it seems I need to replace it and sort out other technical glitches too. 

It's a test of my patience and perseverence that I have managed to post every one of my 30 day Blogging Challenge. 

It was also 'hello son' kind-of-day, with roast dinner and catch up chats. More searching for rust powder, blogging, and late to bed... get up early next morning kind-of-day.

Because Saturday was fun filled! I finally met online friend Deb Wainwright, and we found we had even more in common than we thought. We were both booked on Mark Gould's workshop at That's Crafty and I made other new friends there too. And what a great time we all had!

Then it was a dash-home dash-out-again kind-of-day. A friend had invited us over for fireworks and we stood on her balcony overlooking the grand spectical, with mugs of hot soup and great company. A perfect end, late-to-bed, early get-up-next-morning again kind-of-day. 

Because the computer problems had persisted and I still needed print outs for the Steampunk event. And to find the rust powder! It was a
breathe slow, keep calm kind-of-day. A grateful for calm support and help from my husband and son kind-of-day. They carried bags, did what they could, and gave 'so what's new?' looks, as I dashed around and screamed with joy when I found the rust powder. It was a surreal kind-of-day in company of Steampunks, machinery, and excitement of running book making workshops. A pulling everything together even when things worked against me kind-of-day, and feeling relief, satisfaction and sheer joy as we packed the car homeward bound. 

And before the day ended there were hair cuts, curry cooking, and on-line seaches for computer solutions. A 'good-night, what a great weekend, thanks for your help', write a blog post before midnight, and go to bed happy-happy kind-of-day. 
            
                           ............... You can find out more about the Steampunk event here, and I'll be posting tomorrow about the Mark Gould workshop so I hope to see you again soon.  Thanks for popping by and I hope your own weekend was fun filled, relaxing, or what ever made you happy....

UMBRELLA DUELLING AND STEAMPUNK BOOKS

Today we were transported into the world of Steampunk and the Mueseum of Power was the perfect setting.  

People dressed for the occasion...

and there was tea duelling, and another that involved umbrellas.

There was also interestings stands,

and other events, which I missed as I was running two book making workshops.  

There was rust effect, stitching of pages, and college. Here is my sample book:

And here are books that other people made....

Didn't they do well!

The two workshops were only an hour long because there were lots of other events happening through the day. So I designed a book that would suit the occasion; simple in design but with some fun techniques. I made a sample and was feeling relaxed and organised, until I started to pack, and couldn't fine rust powder!

No worry, I would simply buy more.

Except that when I went to the shop they didn't have any!

To me this effect was integral to the design. I could improvise but it wouldn't look the same, and other ways of producing this effect
could not be achieved in the time scale. What to do?

I have learned that getting stressed does not help. I experimented with salt and paint, salt and glue, but there was a chemical reaction and it didn't produce the effect I hoped for. So I resigned myself to managing without.

But I didn't give up hope, and five minutes before we were about to leave I decided to look in a bag. I had taken it on a retreat and I don't remember taking the rust powder with me. But I must have. Because there it was, tucked at the bottom! What a relief! I would have done a happy dance if I'd time but a shriek of joy sufficed!

There was a lot to fit in during the workshop but it went well and I loved that some men came along to join in. It felt quite surreal seeing everyone sitting around the table wearing Steampunk costumes, but they looked amazing. I had a great time and everyone seemed relaxed and to enjoy making a book to take home.
 
And I hope you had a fun filled weekend too, what ever you were doing. I'll be back again tomorrow as part of my 30 day challenge. Bye for now.

Unfortuantly I forgot to charge the battery in my camera. I don't often use my mobile to take photos so the quality of these is lacking. I need to check the settings because I know it can do better than this, but at least I have a few photos to remember my day!