"The Next Step" LO and some awards!

Hi my blogging friends!

Let me start by showing you my entry for the May challenge over at The Next Step, "I love you as far as the moon ... and back".



Ever since the fabulous Lucy announced that she would be starting a challenge/tutorial blog - The Next Step - I decided for myself that I would try to enter every single one of their challenges. I was a bit disappointed that their very first challenge had to do with stamping: painting using stamps as a guide. Those who know me or have been following my blog know that I have a fear of stamping, and as a result I don't own all that many stamps, and I don't own any that could be used for the challenge. However, I asked if I could draw something in stead of using a stamped image, and that was fine too, so the only problem left was figuring out what to draw.

I didn't have to think long though. I've been wanting to scrap about my bedtime ritual with my youngest daughter for so long now, and this was the perfect opportunity. I used to read her a story "Guess how much I love you" by Sam McBratney. It's a lovely story about a papa rabbit and his son Hazel. Hazel keeps telling his daddy how much he loves him, for example "I love you as far as I can reach", but of course his daddy can reach higher, and that's how it goes the whole story long. Finally, Hazel thinks he has found something his daddy can't beat, and he tells him as he falls asleep: "I love you as far as the moon". His daddy softly says "That is far, that is really far". But then he cuddles next to his sleeping boy and says "I love you as far as the moon ... AND BACK". Isn't that the most wonderful story ... I hope the translation didn't diminish the loveliness of this story. Anyway, every night we have a ritual that goes like this:
Me: "I love you"
Christina: "I love you too"
Me: "as far as the moon..."
Christina: "and back"
She absolutely refuses to go to sleep without having done this, and to tell you the truth, I don't mind one bit!!!

The images that go with this story are absolutely adorable, and I copied the one where Hazel is asleep in his fathers arms who is looking to the moon. I took pics of the different steps of my LO. I used aquarelle paints.




In this last photo, you can see the original image I copied my drawing from.
I really like this LO, thank you so much to the ladies of The Next Step, I would never have started on anything like this without your challenge! And what's more important, Christina loves the LO as well, I think this one is going on the wall in her room, so she can look at it before she goes to sleep.




Okay, what else...

I received the following awards from my sweet friend Jocelyn:

The rules of the Lemonade Stand award:
Comment on this blog. Cut and paste the award logo and use it in your own blog. Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude. Link to your nominees within your blog post. Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award. Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.

And here's a little about the Friends award:
These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to five bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Thank you so much Jocelyn, I appreciate them both, especially the second one, as I'd like to think I've made some real friends here. I'd like to pass on these awards to:

Maryangella - for being the lovely person she is. I've only known her for a short time, but she touched my heart already, she's just that kind of lady.

Mandy - she is one of the first who made this beginning blogger feel right at home with her ever encouraging and enthousiastic words. She never fails to leave a comment, though it's a mistery to me how she finds the time to do so, given the amount of wonderful artsy creations that arrive on her blog on a daily basis!!!

Cathy - for encouraging me to tell more personal stuff on my blog. I haven't done much of that in the past, but I intend to in the future, and Cathy's blog is my inspiration. She shares so much of her life with us, and I so enjoy reading her stories ... she's one sweet lady who always finds the time to leave an equally sweet comment!!!

Lucy - for unselfishly sharing all of her techniques with us and always offering support and further explanations when asked. I so appreciate that, there is so much to learn and it's not always easy doing it alone, thanks Lucy!!

Julie - this incredibly talented woman caught my eye from the very beginning, and totally won me ever with her sweet personality. The fact that she wrote me a message once starting "Hey gorgeous..." didn't hurt either LOL.

Lisa - what can I say about Lisa ... we all know Lisa don't we?!!!! And if you don't, head on over to her blog, you don't want to NOT know Lisa, I tell ya!!! Love you Lisa!!!!!!!!

April - last but not least, April, my sweet and very first online scrapping friend, I love you dearly, you deserve every award possible in my eyes!

Jocelyn, if you hadn't sent these awards to me, you know you would have been on my list too!!
I have been seeing these awards regularly, so if you had already received them, I'm sorry, I didn't check beforehand...

That's it for now. I'm still working on my Song Bird Scraps LO, so I don't have any sneak peeks to show you just yet. The LO has been lying here on my desk, waiting for inspiration to hit me ... sometimes I think it would be nice to finish a LO in an hour or so ... yeah right LOL!! Keep on dreaming...

Love you all, TFL!
xxx Peggy