Monday 21 May 2012

It's been a funny old week!!!

Hey everyone, I have been somewhat elusive over that past 10 days or so, I took a weekend off last week to go and spend some time with my friend in Taunton, she's another "creative" and has been working on some jewellery to sell with me at "Volksfest" and wanted to do a photo shoot for promotion and her soon to be set up Folksy shop, I love her jewellery, she's very much a cool up-cycler so her newest collection is made up of old t-shirts, charms and bit's and bob's from broken jewellery....Very cool!
I came home on the Sunday and had intended to join in with the fabulous Handmade Monday folks but didn't get around to it, instead, on Monday, I had a complete melt down, not for any reason that I can actually explain, other than I am diagnosed Bi Polar and sometimes weird and unexplainable moods just seem to cover me like a nasty old rain cloud.  Not always low moods, sometimes I can get a little hysterical although the latter happens less and the former is normally accompanied by a complete inability to sleep, which after a few days can really feel like mental and physical torture!

Anyhow I'm not one to go on about such issues but after a trip to the doctors and a few extra magic pills to sedate and calm me down for a few days it lead on to me doing what I am going to show you for this weeks Handmade Monday.  I figured I would do some painting as I find working away at a canvas really relaxes me, I decided I didn't want to do a work related painting, just a bit of "Art".
Then it struck me that one of my friends had mentioned wanting a painting for his office, he had literally been promoted a few days before so I figured I would do him a painting as a way to congratulate him, I knew he had mentioned wanting a painting of an Eagle which is part of the Company name for who he works, so there I had it, an idea, a bit of personal therapy and a nice gift idea...................................

Yeah, whatever!

Honest to god I've never cursed, re-painted or stressed out over a canvas as much as I did with this one in my whole life, there were more than a few occasions where I gave serious thought to just putting my foot through it, but me being me, and refusing to admit defeat I finally came to a point where I stood back and thought ok, it's not great but it's not complete rubbish either.........I know declare it finished

I think (actually I know) that sometimes half my problem is, thanks to my dad, I was born a perfectionist, which is, for me, a double edged sword.
I think it's good to have a standard of quality, but sometimes I get silly about it, I guess it's because I know where I maybe went wrong a bit or where I couldn't get the perfect colour match, or whatever the case may be, but I stress myself out about it, get nervous about presenting the end product and then almost feel a bit dazed and confused when I get nothing but positive feedback, I've learnt to hold my tongue at this point too and just nod and thank people for their compliments, I used to go into one and say well it could be better or I messed that bit up...........But that never gets you anywhere apart from the odd stop being modest comment which goes on to make me feel even sillier than I did about panicking over handing the item over!

Anyhow, I'm going to stop rabbiting on and show you the painting, I'm making no comment as to where or what or how anything went wrong, and I will gladly take on any idea's for improvement to my technique or anything you can think of, I will simply say that my friend was more than happy with it and it now hangs on his office wall............................

The Eagle

That's about it for today, I'm off to nose about at some other great blogs on Handmade Monday as I always do, thanks for having a gander at what I've been up to, pop over and nose at other blogs too!

Monday 7 May 2012

You'll Never Guess What I made!!!

Would you believe it....................
Of all the things I could have made today, I made a cushion, yes, a cushion!!!

That totals 318 cushions made in the last 3 weeks or so, anyone would think I was sick of cushions, I for one certainly was, however, my cushion idea was a cute little 12inch square designed to go along with my camper van and beetle cushions which you will all remember seeing in an earlier blog post.

It didn't take long at all and I actually enjoyed making it as opposed to my previous "not another cushion" mind set!!



For those of you who haven't checked in to find out the winner of the "Guess My Time" competition the winner was announced in my previous blog: And The Winner Is..................

I did a bit of baking over the weekend, I set out to make a nice Coffee and Walnut Cake, the house has seen a lot of comings and goings over the last 4 days, and some of the goings seemed to involve taking slices of my cake along with them, an unattended cake never lasts long in this house, I had thought of taking a nice picture of a scrummy cake to show for Handmade Monday so I got the camera out, went to the kitchen and opened the tin........................



Hang on a minute! I don't remember making a "Half Circle" cake!!! The missing pieces have been blamed on the "Fairy Cake" eaters, members of the family who I don't recall seeing over the last few days, and the newly available "it was the dog" excuse, which has been used for all intents and purposes since Dougie arrived!

Talking of Dougie, what a little character he is turning into already, I'd said in a previous post in the first few days of having him what a sleepy head he was and how he was quite timid and shy.........

Not any more!!!

He woke up Saturday and had obviously decided he wasn't the shy retiring type and came out of his crate somewhat deranged haha! Since then there has been no stopping him!

Here's a few updated pictures I've managed to snap in his calm state:

What A cutie!!

This is enough to make anyone's heart melt!

And here he is in full loony toon glory!



It was really nice to see him wake up full of fun and yap, we somewhat have to tread carefully at the moment as he is non stop around your feet asking you to play, I've already tripped over a few times trying to avoid stepping on him the little tyke!

Anyhow, there will no doubt be more pictures of Dougie as I continue to blog to my hearts content, I have a few Patchwork Square Tutorials to add which I hope to find the time to do tomorrow, so if you're sewing along with me, make sure you check back in soon!

For now I'm going to link up with Wendy for her brilliantly hosted Handmade Monday feature, if you have the time to pop over there you will find a whole host of interesting bits to read and other blogs to visit, I would also recommend a visit to Wendy's other Blog Handmade Harbour, where you will find some really interesting articles based around craft businesses along with tutorials and interviews with a whole host of brilliantly talented Artisans!

Friday 4 May 2012

And The Winner Is...................

Mrs pink!!

Mrs Pink guessed at 58hours and 36minutes, which was the closest guess to my finished time of:

56hours and 38minutes!!!

I'm pretty pleased with that time, I had allowed myself 65 hours so am pleased that I finished with plenty of time to spare!!

So Mrs pink if you would care to email me your details and choice of animal and finish, I shall endeavour to post your Tea Cosy asap!!
My address is: nina@youloveityoudo.co.uk

A big thank you to everyone who took the time to read my post and have a guess, it's nice to know my blogs actually get a little attention!

On another positive note, as you all know I attended a hair show on Monday in which my niece was entered in the 1st year category with the theme being history, The Title an aptly named Hairstorical.

I had helped Jessica make a crown out of cardboard which she then covered in plaited hair and some gold netting, my other niece Josefa was her model and I did her makeup, using Union Jack colours and patterns, Jessica wanted to concentrate on keeping it "British" being that this year is the Queens Diamond Jubilee, this is the hair creation that Josefa ended up waltzing down the catwalk to show off:


And this is the creation that won Jessica 1st Prize for the category!!  Yipeeeee!!

So all in all it's been a good week and I am one proud Aunty!!
I'm going to take the weekend off to spend some time with my nephew, he's come to stay and has asked me to do some baking with him................Good choice!! Fun and edible, always a good combination!!

I can foresee and edible Handmade Monday for me next week!!

Until then I wish you all a good weekend, and once again would like to say well done to Mrs Pink!

xx