Monday 30 April 2012

This time last year.............

How time flies...................


This time last year I was barely sleeping, I was rushing around worrying about whether I was going to have enough of everything, how I was going to show it, would it be good enough.......................


What on earth am I rambling on about?????


My Degree show of course!!!!


I'm sure it will be the same for this years students, and I can certainly emphasize with them.  My advice to the many talented new designers that are having their show at the end of May is..........


Take a deep breath...... it will all come together! Pace yourself and make a list of things you need to get done, cross each item off your list as you complete it, and don't panic!!!!


As soon as I find out the dates, I will post them!  If you can make it please go along and see the fabulous work that will be on display.... I am fortunate in that I am in contact with a few people graduating this year, and I have seen snippets of their work, which is why I am definitely going to have a look, as some of it is absolutely mind blowingly (is there such a word????) brilliant! 


Keep your eyes open for the dates and Good Luck to everyone on your show.


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Friday 27 April 2012

New Cushions

Following on from yesterdays post, I thought I would drop you a short post about our New Cushions......


Now as you know from this post, my old cushion covers started to fall to pieces....


M wanted some new ones and whilst I am slowly making new covers, he decided he wanted new cushions as well........


So, I have scooped up the old cushions and taken them to my studio, to work on when I can, and we went and got these...................



I absolutely love them!!! M does not like fussy things and like things quite plain and simple, which I also like, but I do like lots of other things,  so our choices this time were completely opposite......

I liked the cream one, but refrained from choosing them (we got 3 of each cushion), as they are something he would not normally go for, so I chose the brown one.  M chose the cream one, as he thought I would find the brown ones a bit boring!!!

We met in the middle of the shop and laughed at each others choice, as it just goes to show............ I may be turning him................. seriously though, we know each other well and can compromise :-)

Have a good weekend!

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Thursday 26 April 2012

Peanut's Creation

Helloooooo!


I just had to show you a creation made by Peanut!!!


It was a project she was given for D&T, where they were required to design and make a cushion.


Peanut decided she was going to make a cupcake cushion, which could lay on her bed and hold her iPod, so she drew some pictures and planned everything and collected her fabric and bits she needed and got busy.


It was quite a challenge for her, as she had never sewn anything like this before, so she asked me for some help, which I agreed to, on the understanding that it was down to her to do it and I would take on the role of guide and counselor only!


She had three pieces of material - Red for the back of the cushion, Cream for the cupcake icing and Pink for the cupcake itself.  She stared by sewing buttons onto the cream piece of material for smarties, and then she struggled to put the pocket on, so I told her what she would need to do, so she folded over the upper edge of the pocket and then did a running stitch.  she then pinned the pocket into position and then sewed it in place, after which she wanted to do some blanket stitch.


The good thing about this all, was she knew exactly what she wanted to do....... she just struggled with technique, so I started her off, completed a stitch and explained how it was done and she then completed it, I also assisted her with the corners, but in general I was sitting watching her progress!!  (I admit, I felt useless and unnecessary, but extremely proud! Hehehe.) 


She then pinned the pink to the cream and sewed them together using my sewing machine. (now I could have easily done the sewing together for her..... but I felt she had to learn to master it herself, so I stood behind her, whilst she slowly and painstakingly sewed her cushion together.) 


She asked me if we could add some "sprinkles" to the icing around her "smarties". This was again an easy process as she wanted long sprinkles and dot sprinkles.


I showed her how to do a Bullion stitch, for the long sprinkles and a French knot, for the dot sprinkles. (I've added links in case you want to try these yourselves) She then happily did them and placed them where she wanted them.


After she had completed her sprinkles, she pinned and sewed the rest of her cushion together, leaving a gap to turn it the right way and stuff it, then she stitched it together using a Slip stitch.


This is the end result....................................







I forgot to mention that she also added the crochet flower to the pocket and a button for a cherry on the top.


 The completed cushion, with iPod in place!  


I must say that I am extremely proud of her for making this, as it is the first real bit of sewing that she has done almost completely by herself!!!  Isn't it fabulous!!!


Until next time.........


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Wednesday 25 April 2012

Wales

Hello Everyone!

How has your week been so far?????

Up here in the Northern Hemisphere, the weather has been abysmal to say the least!!!  It has been overcast and raining every day so far and really quite cold!!!  So much for the start of Summer!!

You may recall this post, where I said I would sort out my photo's and post a couple for you to look at... here goes............

Upon arrival at our accommodation, it was getting late, and the light was fading fast, so we barely had time to unpack and explore the complex, so unfortunately I was unable to take many pictures of the arrival.

We stayed in a static caravan, which was very nice and quite homely, it had a main bedroom, a guest room, a shower and toilet and a combined lounge, dining room and kitchen area.  We had two glorious days there, and both mornings, we were woken by seagulls and glorious sunshine....

The alarm clocks sitting on top of the neighboring caravan.  These two were rather comical, as the girls were talking to them and they appeared to reply...... had us in stitches!


Our breakfast visitors, who came each morning for a bit of bread.

The complex was huge!!! With various restaurants, chill areas, coffee houses, little shops to explore, as well as stages and water parks.



Scattered all around the place were these wooden sheep, with sheep dogs.  They were seats for kids to play on and enjoy.

Day one was spent exploring the beach.....


this was the view of the approach to the beach walkway.


A Picture from the walkway



From the other side of the wooden poles, whilst walking along the beach and looking back


The view from the beach looking back towards the complex


Further up the beach, exploring rock pools


Looking across the sea.  The views were so picturesque.  I loved the way the mountains in the distance were topped by the recent snowfall, which we had experienced ourselves.

There were a few things of interest on the beach during our explorations........


We found this sand shark, with absolutely gorgeous markings..... we had a good look at it, as it was perfect and we thought it was still alive, so M (my hubby) prodded it, and finally picked it up to discover that it was dead.  It was a shame, but we found numerous ones along the way, and realised that they must have got trapped when the tide went out.


I found this seaweed and loved the fat puffy bits, which reminded me of little oddly shaped hearts!


I loved the way that the various bunches of seaweed we found along the way lay..... all fanned out and relaxed.  The one thing that I thought was odd, was that the seaweed here all lay towards the beach, rather than away towards the sea, as I would have expected it to lay towards the sea because of the tide going out....(if that makes sense!)


We discovered quite a few rocks with lots of sea snails hanging on.  Bean did want to take them off and look at them, but we explained why she should just let them be.



We also found lots of these holes and wiggly sand worms all over the place, but none of us knew what they were made by.  We were tempted to try and dig one of the holes up, but decided against it!!

 We completed the day, by going to see one of the shows and having some food.




On Day two, we were again greeted by a beautiful day with clear sky's, so we started off by doing some light exercise and enjoying the local wild birds.....

We hired a paddle boat and went on the mini lake,  It had been created in a way where most of the birds visit it to breed and bring up their little broods...


If you look carefully in this picture there is a mother duck with her ducklings.  I counted 12 of them and they were all so cute and fluffy!!  There were another two mother ducks, both with 3 and 2 ducklings.  Whilst we were paddling around a swan tried to swallow one of the ducklings from the brood of 12, so we chased it away, and the little duckling managed to make it safely to Mum.


This Mum kept her eyes on us whilst we paddled gently past..... I think she was worried we would try and steal the eggs she was incubating!  She did not move at all from her nest, and quite frankly I don't blame her!!


These seagulls had some young gulls with them, and I did wonder if they would be aggressive, but they were very chilled and calm (I have experienced more aggressive seagulls - you know the kind that roll their feathers up like sleeves and then attack you - not very pleasant!!)


and these were the gorgeous swans..... one of which did try eating the duckling...... but still.... They are gorgeous creatures.

Upon disembarking our paddle boat, the assistant thanked us for chasing the swan, and then proceeded to tell us that a Heron had swooped down the day before and taken 5 ducklings from the broods of 3 and 2.  It was quite sad to think about it.

From here, we took Peanut to the climbing area, as we had booked her an instructor, and bean was going onto a play center.


Peanut was here for 2 hours, climbing, abseiling, swinging, sliding  and attempting the leap of faith!


M and I got to relax and watch her and Bean burning off a lot of energy!  The both cam back totally shattered and Peanut was pleased to have done the leap of faith without hesitation (she had previously done it on a school trip).

so we had a fairly early night and chilled out.

Day three we awoke to a very overcast day...... but that was okay, as we had to pack and vacate the caravan by 10.

The girls had an activity planned in the water park, so we spent the day swimming, sliding and relaxing by the pool whilst Peanut did some aqua jetting and Bean did some aqua gliding.  Unfortunately for policy reasons, we could not take any photos, but they had a fabulous time and it seemed like a good ending to a short break.

We arrived back home at about 10pm and were totally shattered, but had thoroughly enjoyed our break!

I hope you all enjoyed the photos!

Hugs

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Wednesday 18 April 2012

Lucky me!

Hellooooooo!!!


I am truly spoilt and feel like a big kid!!!!!

Why?????????????

Because of this........................................................



Yip..... it's a colouring book!!!!!

Call me sad for getting this, but I really do like Caroline's work, it is all lovely and bright, and I really wished that I could have a piece of it to sort out and colour for myself.......

but now that I have it...... I don't want to spoil it or mess it up!! 

I will sit and do it though, just so I can grin and be like a big kid colouring in!!!!

I will show you the results of my efforts when I have done some colouring in......

Sorry..... got to dash....... the crayons are calling!!!

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Tuesday 17 April 2012

Flowers, flowers, lots of flowers.

Welcome back!


You may remember from this post that whilst I was unable to do much creatively, I decided to test my photography skills and take some pictures of various plants and flowers around the garden........


Here are a selection of some of the flowers I took .........







I really do love it when flowers start to blossom, as I know spring is well and truly here...... although judging from the awful weather we have been having here in the northern hemisphere it is difficult to believe!!!

It's a good thing that some of these beauties are in a greenhouse!!!

I hope you have a really "Springy" day!

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Monday 16 April 2012

Surprise Break

Well hello there......


Some of you may remember from This post that we were off for a little surprise break for a few days.......


We woke up to this on the day of departure ...........................





Yip...... SNOW!!!!  and lots of it!!!!!

So we packed the 4x4 rather than the comfy car, and set about trying to get out of our village!!!  This was not to happen....... after two and a half hours of trying every exit route from our village, we came home for a cup of coffee and to plan a strategy on getting out, as we had paid to be other places and were not about to disappoint Bean and Peanut!!    

At 3pm, we realized that the snow had melted...... but ever so slightly, so we thought we'd chance it.......... we jumped in the 4x4, and headed out.

We were fortunate that a tractor plough happened to be going the route we wanted to take, so we followed him until he pulled off the road, due to the rest of the road ahead being snow free, and continued on our merry way.

Half an hours drive from our village we were greeted by this sight...........


Not a drop of SNOW in sight!!!  It did not seem possible...... and when we almost got to our destination, this was the sight that greeted us.........
 

SUN!!!! and lots of it!!

We were so happy that we had taken the chance and the girls were very excited that we could at least enjoy our short break, which I sadly feel is a distant memory already........but more on that soon!

Oh, and in case you were wondering where we ended up......... 

Pwllheli in Wales :-).

it was awesome!

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Sunday 8 April 2012

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

HAPPY EASTER  everyone!!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday and enjoy spending time with your families and friends.


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Thursday 5 April 2012

Easter Baking

Helloooooooo!!!


Before we departed on our surprise trip, Bean and Peanut begged me to do some Easter Baking.


So we looked inside a few of our favorite baking books and decided to make Chocolate Easter cakes, and white chocolate corn flake cakes........






and...... we had to make some heart cakes, which didn't make it to the icing stages, as they were removed from the baking tray and promptly devoured!!!!


The Girls decorated the corn flake cakes and the three of us ended up in a production line sort of thing when it came to icing the cupcakes, with me doing the icing, Peanut adding the chocolate egg and Bean doing the sprinkles.


There was a request to try the delicious looking goodies out, but I made them refrain, on the basis that we could have something nice on our trip.....where ever it may take us!!!


There is a lot of excitement around the place........ I will report back upon our return!!!


I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!


Hugs 




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Tuesday 3 April 2012

A Little Hooky

Welcome Back.......


I have been busy trying to catch up on various bits and pieces this week, following my absence, but I am happy to say that I managed to be a bit creative!


Just a simple granny stripe.................................................



I've done it in cotton and wool.  I just needed to do something that does not take a lot of energy to think about, and it has been therapeutic so far, and helped me to start and focus on what I want to do.



Bean and Peanut treated me to some tea towels that they knew I would adore.........


They are very bright and summery and the birds are just so adorable!!!!

Well, I must go, as I have more packing to do..... yes, packing!  It is a surprise trip, that has been planned by my DH, so I don't know where or what I'll be doing.

So until next time, keep creating!

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