Plans... and don't forget THE GIVEAWAY!!

They tend to change in a whipstitch, don’t they - plans... today was no different! Having found myself with some extra time on my hands suddenly, I got on with some orders... and in the middle of that, happily listening away to my music (visualising myself up on stage as lead vocalist with the Dandy Warhols), I suddenly got an idea for what I wanted to do for my giveaway over on Facebook...  after quickly sketching it I liked the idea of it so much I decided to make it there and then. So here it is...  inspired by the hill I live on and the seascape below it. (You won’t see me in it, I’m flaked behind a pile of grass, unable to continue up the big hill until nightfall, when an owl will carry me the rest of the way).

If you’d like to be the recipient of this mixed textile brooch - just leave a comment underneath. That’s it. Nothing complicated. No sharing necessary (unless you feel to and I won’t nudge your elbow more than twice). Simples.  Now, let me think of a date... hmm...

... ok, how about July the 4th... 151 years ago, on that auspicious day, Lewis Carroll began to tell Alice Liddell a story that would become known the world over as ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’... a book I hold dear for all sorts of reasons (and because the world IS a little crazy, dontcha think)...

So, on July 4^th I’ll print out the list of names next to the comments, put them all in my ovenglove and get one of the cats to randomly select one (failing that, my daughter), I’ll then announce the winner via my blog (which I will then advertise on Facebook to keep them happy). 

Good luck! 

And the winner of the brooch is..........

Well done Anne-Marie! 

If you could please get in touch and let me have your address I'll get it ready to post off to you.

To everyone else, I'm sorry it wasn't you this time... but there will be other giveaways :-)

I do NOT have the attention span of a ~ ooh, look at that squirrel...

After taking what, to me, seemed like an age setting up a blog I could actually navigate round (once I’d figured out what to do), it seems I’ve been rather... absent. I was going to say negligent, but I figure a blog is something that doesn’t really need looking after, it just sits there, like my black cat, Ted, waiting patiently in the hope that you might wander over to the fridge and remove the cheese.

It’s not that I haven’t been busy.... OR creative... perhaps a little too much of burning the late night candle (and I do SO want to get on with my Paulo Coelho book without the pages rapidly blurring), I guess, like all things, I wait for inspiration to strike. Actually, currently, I have rather too many things on the go. Maybe that’s not just a current thing. I have 2 paintings on the go... go being the operative word - both could go in several different directions, although I do have a general plan (though we all know what happens with plans) - having recently got back into painting I realise there are a few canvasses calling my name... but I really should also get on with the papermâché projects I started. I’m sort of sitting here typing this while waiting for the postman... although even I realise that’s an excuse as the postman round here has a big hill to negotiate and usually doesn’t get to us till early afternoon - I might have at least another hour and a half to wait yet... but you know how it is when you’re excited about something.... he might, MIGHT just have a little package for me containing gold leaf! He might not, of course, there’s always that chance – but half the fun of Christmas is Christmas Eve. I’ve not used gold leaf before... not sure why, maybe because I’ve been parenting for over 30 years and one of the children has always needed something - can’t very well answer the “what’s for tea?” question with “gold leaf on toast...?”

There’s also a series of cards I want to make – an idea I've

 had kicking round for a while now, along with various other textile projects I have dreamed up in folders. Then a new idea struck this morning, which I’m quite excited about if only because I want one! Couple all this with home-educating, ensuring my middle daughter has enough clean clothes to suit her busy social life, chasing round after two sons who seem to be operating a secondhand crockery business from their rooms and currently hosting a Spanish student, you’ll start understanding why days seem far too short and nights seem even shorter. If I just stick to one project and see it right through to the end before starting another I’m afraid the squirrels start looking far too interesting. Are there squirrels in my neighbourhood, I hear at least one person ask? None that I know of (though a neighbour has seen foxes in her garden), I was using artistic licence just because I have one. I made it.

Oh, and just to let you know, the postman’s just been... with my gold leaf... so I’m off to find a squirrel to gild...

Soul food and craft stalls...

Hmm, am I wrong to be feeling this chilled about holding my first craft stall tomorrow?!! I have plenty still to do, it's not as if I'm even ready - a fair few sewing jobs to finish off, magnets to glue on some of them, ways to display items still to work out (one to decorate first!), need to photograph the new stock I've been busy making over the past 2 weeks so I can update my website, price things up,  remember all the things I need to pack ready to take, lists lists lists all over the place (rarely seem to get ideas when in the same room as the original list) and an 'official stall helper' badge to laminate for my daughter - who's helping tomorrow!  

Despite all that I am feeling rather chilled out about it... I'm approaching from the perspective of it all being experience rather than it being about selling all my stock and getting a shed load of orders. [Could I even cope with a shed load of orders??!]

The event itself is a private function. I don't normally do stalls - just doesn't fit in with the rest of life or the fact that I don't drive... getting myself and my daughter to these events via public transport - with all the stock and paraphenalia and a lot of walking to do in-between - is not an option that leaves me feeling very relaxed! Most of my selling is done online or via word of mouth (so do give me a shout out if you feel to!). I know a lot of the people attending the event tomorrow live on low income ~ and in that sense my work is quite suited, since I well understand the restrictions that can impose on anything non-essential and deliberately try to keep prices down to make it more affordable to those in a similar low income situation. I don't belong to the school of valuing one's art a little too preciously. I do, however, believe in the inspiration behind the old Chinese proverb: When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.

I live in a world that nourishes me through my eyes, through my sense of smell, touch, hearing (bird song in a quiet place, or after rain - divine!) ~ these things are important for our sense of inner-connectedness, our soul-food, as much as actual food is to our physical being. Which reminds me of another favourite saying: “We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a physical experience.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Whilst we need to nurture our physical bodies, we also need to remember that our souls need some nourishment too, or life can get a little overwhelming. 

Many of those going have self-esteem issues, something I battled with in the past ~ my stall will be bright, colourful, cheerful, affordable... people will be greeted with genuine smiles and no desire to push a sale onto them. I'd like people to leave my stall feeling somehow uplifted... and that's the energy I love to work with, that's what I consider to be my *real* work. 

Anyway, on that note - I have a biscuit tin to cover with strips of glued on tissue paper! Have a fabulous weekend! <3

Hindsight, it's a wonderful thing.

I've sat moreorless all day today [in between other stuff, and actually mostly I stood, following the best light around], decorating felt hearts, sewing tiny glass beads in all colours and shades, sequins and teeny tiny buttons with holes so small it takes, on average, 6 or 7 'stabbings round in the dark' before I actually get the thin beading needle to find the buttonhole through the back of the fabric each time. 

I realise, too - the more I go on - how silly of me it was to mix together all the giant bags of assorted sequins I bought several years ago - how much simpler had I kept them all colour coded and not been so overcome with the colour rush that in a heady daze I mixed them all in one enormous container. Now if I want to decorate, say, a green heart in shades of green I have millions of different coloured sequins to search through for the right ones. 

I'm also wishing I hadn't bought mixed colour bags of beads. I have this thing, you see, about colour. I think it goes to my head quite quickly - like a glass of strong wine mixed with lemonade, drunk through a straw. Seems like a good idea at the time, but there comes a time you regret it...

I briefly had an image of Cinderella flash by, going through the sequin box - sorting colours one by one, but reason tells me I may have to start again, buy individual colours and shades and store them in individual containers that are easy to rifle through and don't cost HOURS!

Anyway, I managed to decorate 11 hearts today, 8 more to go...

Work with what you've got

We moved into a house last September a lot smaller than the one we'd lived in for 17 years. Our front room here houses our fridge freezer (since the kitchen is also a lot smaller and allows only room for a small under counter fridge - not much good with 5 of us here) and doubles as my workspace. There is no room anywhere for a table. It took time and effort to fuse that room together so it felt less 'confused'.

I don't look back with regret - that was then, this is now... you have to stay focused on what you have now, don't you, but I may have what could be termed 'workspace envy'. I sigh inwardly, inaudibly, sometimes when I see pictures of proper work spaces... you know - a table large enough to spread your work out on, SHELVES for all your boxes of paints, materials, buttons, beads, threads and jars of scissors and pencils - decent overhead lighting.

Anyhow, no point bemoaning what you haven't got, it can terribly affect your ability to be creative and my directive has always been 'work with what you've got'.

A friend recently gave me a lovely wooden computer desk which I managed to make a bit of space for and now has my old Singer sewing machine sat on top - how lovely to be able to just take the lid off and begin sewing straight away, rather than the rigmarole of having to lift the machine out from its hidey-hole, balance it on top of an old blackboard that I had to lay flat on top of the ottoman that holds all our towels (also in the front room, since the airing cupboard I had to have built into the boiler cupboard and is only large enough to hold bedding), then kneel down on the floor to sew! Not very kind on my knees! Yesterday I was able to STAND at the sewing machine to do my bits and pieces ~ what bliss!

Last night I was up late sewing for this craft fair in under 2 weeks - I moved all my sewing paraphenalia into the kitchen for that since the strip light casts less shadows and I can actually differentiate between cerise and crimson in there! How lovely to spread all my boxes of beads, buttons and sequins across the worktop knowing, at that time of night, there was no-one needing to disturb me to get food!

Only problem with being sat up half the night (as so often happens!) is that the following day I feel really tired! Anyway.... this is is a picture of the scene in my kitchen late last night... point being, I suppose, where there's a will, there's a way! :-)

Busy busy busy.

I've been invited to do my first craft stall in just under 2 weeks... well, the first craft stall where I'll be setting it up and running it anyway. I've mostly been selling online so I'm more used to making up some new stock, photographing it, sticking it up on my web and Facebook page and if anyone wants more than I've got made up, I make it to order. Or I make it up in a different colour of their choice, but with a craft stall you need to have the stock ready and on display - so that's what I'm doing... making up a lot of stock! There's lots of stuff like this kicking around at the moment...