New Blog

Just a quick post,
please visit a fab new blog, http://asdantheartexperience.blogspot.com

The group would love positive comments :)

The Good Life

I am shocked, stunned and just amazed!!! My first crop of potato's!!! Yes the humble spud has been around for some time but I really cannot believe that I have succeeded in the art of veg growing. In fact I had planted many seed potatoes in tubs , and the particular tub that my little stash came from are a miracle, because I thought they were diseased and dead, so it was a joyous moment when I plucked not one or two spuds , but a plentiful amount for tea!

They went down a treat, boiled with my very own home grown mint, salmon with "my home grown" dill, and a little salad (shopped locally at co-op!! , I am afraid- but i do like co-op instead of the bigger s.markets). Anyhow, salad veg is still at the growing stage.

The question is can I call myself a gardener now? Or Is that a tad to optimistic!?

Living The Magical Creative Life

Left: Colourful artists.

Right: Kay Susan's smiley happy plant (the photo really does not show the fine detail)

Sue's knitted gems and a box of delights. Above: Sue's painting.

Living the magical creative life was the intriguing title of an invite to Susie's house. Indeed such an invitation is not to be missed, as Sue is very much a creative spirit. I arrived to her sun trap, decorated with colourful sari,s , blooming colourful flowers, a fine feast, and a selection of colourful lovely creative souls!

Creative people being; musicians, artists and a wonderful story teller. As we chatted and devoured the fine food some people passed around their current art and craft work , along with beautiful angel and flower cards being passed around the circle.

Sue has been working on Knitted balls for necklaces and had a joyous moment the other week when she worked out how to knit little leaves. The pics show how jewel coloured knitted necklaces also a delightful box of knitted and felted brooches. Another fabulous Sue idea was displaying her paintings in the garden, why just hang them on the walls indoors?! It really created a sort of secret garden feel. I also met another etsy lady called Kay Susan, which is quite surprising as I thought there was only about three etsians in my area. Her work is exquisite , she produced this divine, smiling embroidered plant from her bag. The detail in her work is masterclass so take a look at her brilliant blog and etsy shop: http://www.smockerysmart.etsy.com/ and http://smockery.blogspot.com/

Anyhow a beautiful day : "a gathering of artists in an artistic setting" , so sending big thanks to Sue and Tanya.

New Vintage Lovely

Thought I would quickly blog/brag about my new 60,s silk vintage skirt. I traded this in one of the new Vintage dress shops in town.(Purfect Vintage) I had a beautiful floral 60's tailored dress, which was never, ever going to fit me. It was very small in the bottom half and It did'nt matter how much weight I could loose for the dress, as I would never fill the ample room in the bust! So rather than keep the dress just to look nice in my wardrobe, It made more sense to swap it for something that I would actually wear and hope that the dress would be actually worn rather than a beautiful object to look at!

I love the skirt and wore it to work yesterday, hence I am not at my best in the morning!

I will post my other new vintage acquisition, which will get all lovers of 40's & 50's fashion drooling!

A Summer Boy

That broody feeling has happened again. So I could'nt hold back any longer, after all I have curbed the high street shops (pat on back). Although there seems to be a rapid increase in vintage clothing shops in the nearby town, perhaps I will show you my new bargain vintage pieces another time. I think there must be 4 new vintage clothing shops just opened in the town!

Anyhow , my favourite indulgences are No1. art shops :the one in town is like an Aladdin's cave. No2. shoe shops. No3. The bakers!! (I live near to 2 which I declare are the best in the South East! and No.4 has to be Pet shops / animal sanctuary's.

So here is the new baby, a little dwarf Netherlands boy, who has yet to be named. He is 9 weeks old and super cute.

Please leave any "nice" names if you so wish. (Stewart is a no-no!)

New Shoes

New Shoes

Sad as it may be nothing gives me more joy than shoes! I am aware of my addiction and have come to terms with the fact that lots of shoes do not make you a happy person ! But, I am sorry shoes do make me happy , and this is a weak shameful and shallow side of me . For the last year I have really curbed my shoe-addiction, but I have had enough . Enough of wearing my comfy, scratched, red knee high boots because it is Spring and from a health perspective it is not good to keep your feet thermally insulated.

So I bought these little Spring/Summer lovelies in Brighton at the weekend. I adore them and they are versatile to wear at work at home and look divine. They come from a cool shop in the Northern lanes called Yoma. Lots of gorgeous clothes and shoes all designed in Brighton (unsure where they are made -hopefully of ethical practice). The clothes have a sort of 60's swing / rockabilly vibe and so do the sales assistants.


Cannot wait to go back to Brighton...........................to window shop of course.

Happiness is.........................

Happiness is................................................. neglecting your etsy shop for some time, only to find a sale! What a joyous moment ! I have been purposely avoiding my shop in order to refresh my ideas as I was losing my creativity and verging on becoming a mass (well not quite mass) production robot. I would sometimes look at the very successful shops and feel slightly despondent with my own work and consider ways to sale lots on a weekly basis. It will never happen, so I have aimed to avoid putting any work in the shop until I am good and ready!

The down side was that some of my items became redundant/ unsold and I did not feel the need to re list. However I have thrown caution to the wind and renewed some of my summery items, because they may not of sold but I think they are damn gorgeous!!!! The photos are of some of my fav dresses!

It is amazing how one sale can lift your spirits ( I am even more amazed that someone stumbled across my shop!! :))

Early Morning Art

Most people are either a lark or an owl. I fall under the nocturnal group, due to the fact that I stay up until the small hours, and find it really difficult to go to bed at a "normal" time. I wake early due to the fact that I have little people, but I am not fully awake until I have a pint of coffee!

My son is most definitely a lark, he happily goes to sleep early and bounces out of bed at the crack of dawn.

Last night I was far too tired to put away my crafty materials and left them safely on my craft table. This morning I was not awaken by the demand for breakfast , but presented with a "embellished sock" from my little boy. Obviously the array of my craft bits n bobs , created a burst of creative inspiration for my sons abstract sock art! I told him he is a very clever little artist (but I did not question his use of all of my yellow bows- it was for the sake of art).

The Little Herberts

Many Thanks to Tali.


Tushtush.etsy.com

Sooo happy

For some time I have been scouring etsy for an artist of my liking to paint or draw a portrait of my little herberts. Someone with good colour sense, energy and originality and finally I discovered Tali from Jerusalem. Not only is she a fabulous artist but super speedy, she worked from one of a few photographs I had sent. Every pic had one of my little darlings pulling a silly face, Tali liked this and certainly captured there "lively characters". She created the painting in less than a day of receiving the pics and offers a no obligation to buy if you are unhappy.
But I am super impressed and will more than likely will be a patron to her brilliant art work again in the near future.

I cannot wait to have this fabulous work framed and on display.

R, R & R

No, not rest and relaxation. Thou fellow bloggers may think that is the case, unfortunately I have become shamefully neglecting my blog.

R.R.R as in recycle, reduce and reuse, I am trying very hard to live a more Eco-friendly lifestyle. Gone are the days when I would plan a whole day excursion to Ikea, and be a complete sucker for the seemingly cheap prices and quirky designs. I still love the designs, however many things I have purchased are no longer, due to the fact that most things did not survive the test of time.

One item I did purchase, which is still going strong is a wooden high chair, it must be about 5 years old now (vintage Ikea!!!). About 2 years ago I spilt something unpleasant on it like turps or nail varnish remover which removed the varnish ., and left a rather ugly looking splodge mark.

Last weekend eldest daughter and myself did a spot of decoupage/ covering the chair with some

vintage map/ globe wrapping paper and voila :1 up cycled desk chair for my sons bedroom.

I gave the chair another coat of satin varnish, so maybe it could last another 5 years!!

Tag ! You have been tagged!

The RULES of this Blog Tag Game are simple: Choose the sixth image out of your sixth picture folder from your computer and blog about it. Then tag six more people to do the same!
As I've never seen this version of tag, I decided to play along. Here's photo number six from file six. And a side- ways number seven, just for luck! ( I really cannot work out how to delete it!!!

Theresa J , tagged me,at first I thought oh no, but when I nipped across to her blog I loved her pics and thought it was an innovative game of tag!

Also the photos, from file No 6 , bring back some good memories of when I took my daughter on a short break to Amsterdam, (Easter 2006). I have three children , so it was nice to spend some 1-1 time with my middle child. The photos are the just outside the Van Gogh museum. I remember we both enjoyed a lovely marshmallow and cream topped hot chocolate after I took the photographs.

The blogs I have tagged are:

http://threadsofmagique.blogspot.com/

http://colorofdawncreations.blogspot.com/

http://mopeycantswim.blogspot.com/

http://tiltcreationstoo.blogspot.com/

http://blossomingtree.blogspot.com/

Http://michelleburnett.blogspot.com

The Boudoir

Thought I would post a few pics of my little bedroom, one of my many works in progress! I really wanted to give the room a Bloomsbury feel and paint every inch of the walls with designs like Vanessa Bell, however I was too gutless (or perhaps not!?). Once all of the walls were immaculately painted I really was far too inhibited to go wild with my set of paints. However, I sanded , primed and painted an old chest of draws and painted Poppies on one side, I still feel that my poppies are slightly restrained! Anyhow the chest of draws looks far better than it,s former self. I have also started on the wardrobes,(which I thrift ed very cheaply from a second hand shop- solid wood too!). You can see one is prepared for a design and the other needs sanding and about 3 coats of undercoat.
The colour scheme is whites, creams, linen and poppy reds, it is quite a small room so it needs light and I need a little bit of serenity!
I also have a patchwork in the colour scheme, I might post some pics at a later date. I started making different panels, but I think I might use the panels as cushion covers and use some of the same fabrics for a Grandmas rose garden quilt, as I tend to like the antique style of quilts rather than the contemporary.
Oh yes, the mustard carpet may be vintage but I am afraid it is going! I will use it on the top of my compost- does that count as recycling?

A Happy St.Valentines Day

Here is wishing you a smoochy lovey-dovey St.Valentines. I should of really looked into who St.Valentine is....? But, a very good Saint he/she is,such a sweet time of year seeing all types of people treating there loved ones...arghh!
A long time ago... I used to work opposite an inter-floras, and sigh every Valentine's at the mountains of red roses which would be wrapped and ribboned... but never for me...

Next chapter (of my life) now I am treated on St.Valentines by my beloved. Not roses, no! no! - he likes to surprise me with something different, however I really don't think he knows the Latin meaning of the beautiful orchid!!!!Must eat my lovely raspberry liqueur truffles, wish I could share my chocs with you bloggers, but alas......

Is love , making your partner fat????

Narnia

OMG! No school, No work , some thing magical has happened! We have found Narnia!

January 2009

A belated Happy New Year to you all! January is the month of preparation for the year and a little bit of hibernation, hence my lack of blogging. Here are a some photos of a refreshing winters walk!