akingslow

I am a mother of 3, DS 36yrs, DS 19yrs and DD 17yrs and grandmother of 2 girls, 5 and 3yrs. I have been married to my second husband for nearly 28yrs, My first husband died very young when we were in our early twenties. I still work about 45 hrs a week in 4-5 different jobs, depending on the week, I mainly do bookkeeping/office administration, but I taught accounting and IT full time for approx 30yrs and I still do that one day a week. I have been doing art and craft in some way since I could walk, I helped my mother knit aran sweaters to sell in the touriest shops before I started school. I could also sew and dabbled in lots of crafts throughout my life, including the making of scrapbooks. I took up scrapbooking as we now know it about 8 years ago, but found the CM type of thing very boring very quickly and drifted off back to my old roots of scrapbooking very quickly. I found a way to combine the old with the new. In the last couple of years I have discovered ATCs, Altered Journals and the like and I am loving the trading and swapping via groups like yahoo and Flickr. I still don't think of myself as an artist, but I love playing around with bits and pieces and perhaps one day I will have enough confidence in myself to call myself one.

I like vintage and shabby chic styles, but I also like individual types of art and prefer items made from found and recycle objects rather than specifically commercially made items. I am rather classic in my colours and whilst I enjoy other's work which involves bright colours I tend to be more subdued in my own work. Whilst I have only submitted art to publications a few times, each time they have been take up. I have been published in the Premier issue of AlteredArts Magazine, also Scrapbooking Creations, and a couple of Australian mags. I have also had worked displayed in a couple of Online magazines and sites.
I collect old lace, buttons, sewing items, braid etc. I have also collected material for some years. And I have for a long time collected Childrens old Annuals and school readers. I am a bit of a horder and a frequent vistor to Antique and opportunity shops to see what I can pick up. I buy far more that I ever get time to use, so half of my house is given over to storage of my (S)crap as it is affectionally called by my family. I like the 40's and 50's styles of fashion, and so does my daughter who now has a large collection of vintage clothes and accessoris. I like all kinds of music, but my preference is for country and western, r & B and rock. I like reading and seeing a good movie that makes me laught, cry and feel entertained at the end of it. I like tall men, who can hold a conversation without getting stired up or boring. I like intellegent women who don't need a man to exist, but who can exist with a men without controlling his every moment. I love good food and good conversation. I love warm weather and good friends to enjoy it with. I love the silence of my own company when everyone else has gone to bed. I love seeing other peoples art I live experimenting with my own art

I dislike been taken for a fool. I dislike men who think all women have a place and that they should stay in that place. I dislike people who promise and fail to deliver. I dislike trashy movies, I dislike spending good money on shoddy items. I dislike having to pay a fortune for a boring plain bra, just because I have big boobs. I dislike been treated like a has been, just because my hair is going gray. I love that I am still alive and kicking LOL