A Royal Wedding Treasury

I actually created this treasury a few days ago, but thought it was wholly appropriate to share it with you today; and what a fab day it was, the dress, the guests, the hymns the Abby, a wonderful wedding to celebrate the marriage of Prince William to West Berkshire's very own Kate Middleton!  I happily watched the whole thing from the comfort of my sofa enjoying some jam and toast and a  nice cup of Earl Grey, I joyfully sang along to Guide me oh thou great Redeemer" a hymn that we had at our own wedding, and the most patriotic "Jerusalem", what fun, hope you enjoy this little treasury, and congratulations to Will and Kate!

New Hair Cut!

Just quickly here are some photos of me getting my hair cut.  I was terrified, let me tell you, I hate hair dressers.  Everyone in there is so shiny with their tans and nails and nice hair, and I go in looking like a tramp with no make up and mud up my nails! However the lady who cut my hair last Thursday was absolutely lovely and very understanding, she didn't mind me photographing myself throughout the hair cut, she also didn't mind that I wanted to keep my hair after it had been cut off.  The salon also didn't mind that I had brought my own tea bags so I could have a lovely cup of Lady Grey to calm my nerves whilst having my hair cut. Needless to say I was really pleased with the result it was exactly what I wanted.  Hopefully I won;t go for two years before getting my hair cut again, and also have to confess that the last time it had been cut I had cut it myself following the viewing of a youtube video! (Not recommended)

How do you all feel about having your hair cut?  Do you like mine?

Hope you are having a great week, I will be having a stressful day at school tomorrow marking all the GCSE art work, so probably no post tomorrow.

TTFN

xxx

Winchester

As promised, here are some of my photos from our day trip to Winchester.  Winchester is a historic in the South of England, famous for its Mill, College, Cathedral and final home and resting place of Jane Austen. It has a lot of architectural and historical interest and was a very beautiful city.

Inside the Cathedral gardens.

Walls and archways surrounding the Cathedral,

 Glorious, skeletal ceilings inside the Cathedral,

Apparently this beautifully intricate stonework was painted before the reformation,

Inside the city Mill, National Trust, so free entry for us yippee!

All in all a quite wonderful day accompanied by a yummy brie and bacon sandwich at The Vine Pub and a visit to the most wonderful bookshop I have ever been to, very rickety and old with fitted, solid wood bookshelves and only one copy of each book.  I purchased two Kerry Smith books and a gardening book.  Don't you find it so much more pleasurable to buy books from a shop than from the internet?

Coming tomorrow...My new hair cut!!

Hinton Ampner

I have loads of photos to share with you from over my wonderful Easter holidays.  I can't tell you how fab it has been to have two weeks off work, it feels like a lot longer and I feel like I have used the time really well and done loads of things. I feel very refreshed and relaxed, I just hope this feeling lasts as I go back to work, I know there is going to be some stress in the coming weeks. Anyway, before I start to lament the fact that I have to return to work let me share with you some photos from a National Trust house and garden that we visited a week or so ago; Hinton Ampner:

The gardens here were absolutely glorious and the scent of the flowers was positively heavenly, I actually lay on the grass in the sun and just breathed it all in.  

The light was truly beautiful, I felt like I was in bliss at times I wished I could have walked around the garden for longer it was so peaceful and wonderful.

I will share some more photos tomorrow about out visit to Winchester. Hope you have enjoyed your bank holiday weekend (if you had one) and are having a positive and wonderful start to the week.  

In Christ Alone

Being creative with others is more fun

My friend Hannah and her husband came over on Saturday; I would have to say that she is probably my best friend, I have known her since I was a baby, we grew up together and even though we sometimes go for quite long periods of time without seeing each other, whenever we are together it is like we have never been apart. I feel like I can talk about anything with her and she won't judge, criticize me or think I am crazy, she is also full of good advice and always looks on the positive side of things.  She really is a lovely and good person and I am so glad to have her in my life, she is every thing that a good friend should be.
I was showing her my decorative letter in my bedroom and she commented on the painting above the bed, she said that she wished she could paint, and excitedly I said "You can!" and then "in fact I have a spare canvas, lets do one now!".  It was a totally spur of the moment thing and it meant we didn't end up eating dinner till about 10.00pm!
It was a really good experience for me because I have never really tutored an adult through a painting before, hopefully I was a good teacher, I thought she came up with a really lovely painting, her are some pics of the process, I made a painting along with her:

Isn't she gorgeous!

It made me think about one day doing an e-course for painting.  

Decorative Letters Tutorial

I am now blogging over at http://imperfectlynaturalmama.blogspot.co.uk/ I would love it if you came for a visit and said hello. 


I have always looked at those lovely wooden decorative letters and thought how lovely it would be to have the word "LOVE" above my headboard, (wow, how many times can I use the word "love" in one sentence?) however I have never been able to justify the cost.  So I, being both thrifty and crafty (even thought I do say so myself) decided that I could quite easily make some given a bit of time and the right materials.  So now I have these lovely words on my bed head and I wanted to share how I made them with you, I made these over several days but would say that they do take a good 6 or 7 hours to complete from start to finish:

1. First gather together your materials:

Corrugated card board,

masking tape,

gummed tape,

pencil,

ruler,

craft knife,

cutting mat,

watered down PVA glue,

tissue paper,

paint brush,

white emulsion,

2. Draw the design for your letters to the required height and width.  I used the Font Times New Roman as a guide.  If you are worried about drawing these letters free hand you could quite easily print them off and use the printout as a guide. 

3. Next cut round all your letters with a craft knife, use a ruler and cutting mat for safety and accuracy. Keep the craft knife upright so that all your edges are 90 degrees. *Health and safety - always keep your hand behind the cutting blade!*

4. Now draw out another set of letters using the first set as a template, cut them out as before, you now have two of each letter, 8 in total:

5. Next you need to cut the edge pieces for each letter, this part is a little time consuming, if you are sensible and do things systematically then you could measure all your edges and draw them out accurately before cutting them, I am not sensible so I did all my edges by rack of eye! 

6. Assemble your letters using masking tape the hold the pieces in place, if you are like me then this is where you realise you haven't done all your edges and you have to go back and make more, doh!

7. Get your gummed tape and cut it down the middle, then into lots of small pieces about 2-3 inches long,

8. Wet the paper with a damp sponge and wrap over the edges of the letters, cover the letters totally in gummed paper,

9. The "O" is the trickiest letter to do, I stacked some small pieces of card in between the front and back of the "O" to compensate for the lack of edges,

10. Split the tape in half again to make smaller strips to wrap around the edges of the "O", then cover these with another strip, carefully layering the gummed paper to create as smooth a surface as possible,

They should now look like this:

11. Now you need to cover the letters with tissue paper to give them an even surface texture.  Paste watered down PVA glue onto the letter and paste more PVA over the top, dabbing the brush so the tissue paper scrunches up a bit,

12. Leave them to dry then begin painting with white emulsion,

Leave to dry again, then enjoy the fruits of your labour:

Hope you like, send me your pics if you have a go, I would love to see them.

Have a wonderful weekend lovelies.

xxx

I am now blogging over at http://imperfectlynaturalmama.blogspot.co.uk/ I would love it if you came for a visit and said hello.