Biscuits, biscuits, biscuits

A few months ago I had a little idea for a new garland. I scribbled the idea down on a piece of paper with the intention of giving it a go, but the idea stayed on the piece of paper till this week.

It's half term here in the UK, so the kids are off school for the week. Typically the weather has been rubbish this week, rain everyday, plus both myself & my youngest have been trying to shake a crappy cold which doesn't seem to want to go. So we've spent most of the week snuggled up indoors. On Tuesday, while the girls were busy drawing, I sat with a cup of tea, some felt & embroidery threads & a plate full of biscuits & transferred the idea off the paper & into felt form.

The pink Party Ring was first up.

Then a few more appeared.

I may have eaten 1 or 2 Party Rings, just to ensure that I was doing them justice!!

Then it was Bourbon time!!

I had to stop there as I was missing the right colour felt for the Jammy Dodgers & Custard Creams, but luckily I picked some up yesterday & so biscuit production shall continue this afternoon (once I've made a cheesecake with my middle daughter).

Here's hoping after all of this, the garland idea actually works!!

Happy Friday!!

Xxx

#30daydrawingchallenge Day Three

Day Three's theme was "Favourite Food".

It was hard to choose just one!! I mean come on!! How would I decide between cake, chocolate, biscuits, strawberries, roast chicken, roast potatoes, steak........... (Hungry now!!)

Then I remembered how I wanted to have a go at drawing cupcakes & the decision was made.

I decided to put a bit more time into this one. I painted one cupcake & drew the other in biro. These cupcakes were heavily inspired by Jenny & Aaron over at http://everyday-is-a-holiday.blogspot.co.uk/

My blending skills need some work but I'm happy with this for a first attempt!! If you haven't checked out Jenny & Aaron's work, you should definitely take a look! It's amazing & I cannot wait to buy some of their prints for my kitchen (& maybe a die cut or two!)

Xxx

The #30daydrawingchallenge

I've really missed drawing, as a teen I drew all the time. I did really well in Art in High School & went on to study at college. Originally I was going to do an A-Level in Art but everyone kept telling me how Art wouldn't be a career & to look into the design field. So instead of taking Art, I took Art & Design with the intention of going into Graphic Design. I passed the first year with a Merit & began the second course, but my heart was no longer in it. I no longer loved drawing, nothing I created was right in my teachers eyes, the criticism was just negative, nothing constructive to work with. I fell so behind with my work that I would have to retake the year, so I made the decision to give up college & start working. From that day, I didn't draw. My art supplies were packed away & that was that.

Until a few years ago where the drawing bug started to resurface. The first time I picked the pencil up & sketched something, it was total rubbish. In fact everything I drew was rubbish & I began to wonder if I'd lost the skills I had. But in reality, if you don't practice & keep trying, then your skills won't grow & develop, so I kept trying. Not as much as I did when I was younger but now & then.

Last week, someone I follow on Instagram posted that she was going to take part in the #30daydrawingchallenge. It was as if a lightbulb clicked on in my head!! What better way to reignite a passion?! It's simple, there's a list of 30 things, one to draw each day of the challenge. No rules, it can be as simple or as complex as you would like. Now normally I am rubbish at these challenges but I really hope I can complete this one.

So far I'm two days in lol!!

Day One - "Yourself'. It's not the best sketch, but I'm happy with it. Just a quick 10 min max drawing. I was never good at drawing people but its definitely something I'd like to improve on.

Day Two - "Favourite Animal", mine is an elephant. I just love them so much, they are so gentle yet powerful & majestic at the same time. I am really happy with this sketch, I did it right before bed last night after watching a film with my Hubby. I kept it simple (again 10 mins max), although I'm tempted to recreate it in colour!!

Day Three is "Favourite Food", which is hard as there's too many to choose from, although I've wanted to sketch & paint cupcakes for a while so maybe I will do that.

In fact yes I will. The sun is shining & the birds are singing (oooh I want to paint birds too!!), so I'm going to make myself a cup of tea (a necessity to aid the creative process, chocolate helps too but I'm out of that!) & draw some cupcakes.

Have a great day, whatever you are doing.

Xxx

The one where I've almost conquered sewing zips!!

I've been suffering from a lack of crafting mojo lately, it's not been fun & I've realised how much I enjoy creating & crafting, how much it keeps me sane. If I don't have time to spend crafting, it affects everything else, my general mood, my energy levels etc. in fact it makes me a right miserable cow!!

So I treated myself to a few pretty things to try & entice my crafting mojo out of hiding. All the fabric & the lace trim above comes from The Homemakery (cannot link when blogging via the iPad, please google, as its the most gorgeous site & you will receive amazing customer service from the lovely Kate). I decided to challenge myself & attempt to master sewing in zips. The previous times I have tried, it's been pretty disastrous!! But the crafting gods must have taken pity on me & shined down upon me on that day, because not only did I sew one almost perfect little pouch:

With an almost perfect zip,

I say almost perfect, as I did not balls it up, the lining didn't lie perfectly, but it does the trick!!

& I even managed a second pouch!!

The lining was even worse on this one, but I know what to do differently next time. 

& now I have two pretty little pouches to carry my lip balm, inhaler & glasses cleaning cloth around. I've bought more zips so I can attempt a make up bag & maybe an iPad case.

What can I say? Crafting makes me happy.

Xxx

Easter Cookies

Well I'm seemed to have failed miserably at my aim of blogging more this year. So as an apology to anyone who still reads my blog, have an Easter cookie!!

Actually, have the recipe for the Easter cookies, as my kids have eaten them all!! These cookies are very easy to make & are absolutely soft & yummy.

Easter Cookies.

125g Soft Butter

100g Light Brown Sugar

125g Caster Sugar

1 Egg, lightly beaten

1tsp Vanilla

225g Self Raising Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

200g Mini Eggs 

- Preheat oven to 180.

- Cream butter & sugars, then lightly beat egg & mix in.

- Add the vanilla

- Sift in the flour & the salt

- Mix into a dough,add the Mini Eggs & mix in,then tear off small lumps & place them on a baking sheet lined with grease proof paper. Gently flatten the lumps.

- Bake for 7 minutes.

- Leave to cool for 10 minutes, giving you plenty of time to make a cup of tea with which to enjoy your cookie when it has sufficiently cooled.

** The Mini Eggs can be substituted for choc chips or anything else that takes your fancy. I've used cooking chocolate before which melted amazingly!! **

Enjoy!!

Xxx

The one where I got a DSLR

A few months ago I finally got a DSLR, so exciting!!

But its been a definite learning experience. In fact I'm still shooting in Auto.

One of my goals for 2014** is to get it out of Auto & learn how to use it!

** You may or may not have noticed that I'm in the process of tidying up the blog & sprucing it up. Its still a work in progress, but I've started working on the Page tabs above. The 2014 Goals page has been completed if you fancy taking a look? **

For now though, here are some of my favourite photos so far:

 

I think the major obstacle I seem to be battling (apart from not having a clue about what my camera can do) is dealing with the light in my house. Its either way too dark or far too bright, almost harsh.

 

I absolutely LOVE these two photography blogs, the light, the subjects, how unposed the photos feel..........

 

Ashley Ann Photography & Karen Russell

 

 

& they both offer online photography courses, which I'm hoping to take at some point later this year.

 

So what resolutions or goals have you set for the year?

 

xxx