Treasury on Etsy

I enjoyed making a treasury today, haven't made on for a while, but it took me a loooong time, plus I accidentally pressed back space halfway through, lost the whole things and had to start again!  Hope you like it.

'Can the magic in my heart fly across an ocean of love' by serendipitychild

Beautiful things

Elvish Twine ring, sterling ... redsofa $70.00	Wonderland Art Print 8x10. ... donnageissler $30.00	Moonrise, Charmed Meadow sol... 88editions $258.00
I Heart Bubbles - Floating i... WhimsicalMinim... $25.00	Antique Apothecary Bottle Co... JennasBeachRet... $44.99	original drawing - combined ... restlessthings $75.00
Fall Sale: visit shop for co... amylgieschen $20.00	Stillness - 8 x 10 paper pri... maechevrette $20.00	summer field nature photogra... shannonpix $28.00
FLAGS orginal oil painting o... BrookeWandall $35.00	Leafy Garden Platter: Large ... IllyriaPottery $78.00	30 Place Cards, Wine Glass D... MamaTita $60.00
Glass Reflections- daisy flo... leapinggazelle $25.00	Buy 1 Get 1 Free This Week -... ChelseaVictori... $30.00	5" dish be you. mbartstudios $22.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Some things that made me happy today

A beautiful sunny day so the hubby and I set of for an afternoon at The Vyne, a nearby National Trust house and gardens.  We took their woodland walk and thoroughly enjoyed the sun through the leaves and the wind in the pine needles followed by a cream tea. Here are some things that made me smile:

Beautiful red leaves

Last butterfly of the season?

Tasty cream tea and carrot cake,

The sun shining through the leaves,

This bench with it's inspirational message "Reach for the stars"...

So I did!

What has made you smile so far this weekend?

What are you reading?

I am always reading.  I literally always have at least one book on the go; I read before I go to sleep, it helps me relax and sometimes, if the book is really good I will read while I am having my breakfast.  If I am ever out in the car for a long journey and my husband is driving, I read then too.  But recently I haven't been able to really settle into a book.  I have partially read an Alison Weir novel, then I started to read a book called "Last Child in the Woods"  I couldn't really get into either of them, not because they aren't good books but it just wasn't what I wanted or needed to read at this moment in time.  So I picked up a book off the shelf that I have read before called "Living the Good Life".  If you have read this blog a long time you will know that I am really into self-sufficiency, I have my own allotment and like to fantasise about having a smallholding, giving up work and doing it ourselves.  This book by Linda Cockburn is about her life of self-sufficiency in Australia and it is really great (like reading while I eat breakfast great).  I am in full on fantasy mode when it comes to self-sufficiency,  watched a couple of episodes of the Good Life this week and went to the allotment today to plant some broad beans.  All because of a couple of chapters of this fab book.

So what have you been reading recently, anything get you really inspired?


op.s. if you are interested Linda Cockburn has a blog about her life of self-sufficiency in Australia, read about it here.

Another new thing in the shop and a moan

I have a bit of a moan today but first I will just show you this new item in my shop:  It's a hanging decoration made from vintage maps, do you like it?  I haven't made any of my paper wares into 3D forms before so I enjoyed using embroidery and wadding to make this home accessory into a stuffed shape.

I have made a small and large one, only the large one is in the shop at the moment, I will be listing the small one tomorrow. Do you like?

So here is my moan.  I was driving on the motorway this afternoon and was overtaking in the central lane at 70mph (the speed limit)  Suddenly a car from behind me indicated into the middle lane the undertook me and sped off make a ride gesture with his hand/arm (something I am pretty sure a woman CAN'T be).  What a cheek!!  I saw no reason for him gesticulating at me like this, I had done nothing wrong , I don't know about you but I am definitely finding that people are becoming more aggressive on the roads.  When other drivers annoy me I just let it go over my head because I know it isn't worth getting angry about, I tend to think that being rude and aggressive towards others just adds negativity to the world, and really I want more love and peace not more anger and aggression. Having said that, I did leave this status update on Facebook to vent some of my miffedness:

"To the man on the M4 travelling West from Bracknell who gave me the wanker sign; the speed limit on the motorway is 70mph regardless of which lane you are in. Idiot."


However, he will never hear this so at least he won't know that he upset me with his unnecessary rudeness.   Some people...tsh.

How do you deal with rude and aggressive drivers?

new item in the shop

I have been longing to make a doily bowl for ages and I finally got round to making on last week Wednesday.  I am really pleased with the results and will make more with some white doilies which I think might be more sell-able, assuming I can sell this one.  I got it up into the shop this morning and would love you to take a look and let me know what you think of it, I am not 100% on the photos I think the contrast might be too high. Do you like the little tag I made for it?

Recent artwork

I am finally feeling like I can be creative again, the artistic juices are flowing and rather than giving up when things don't turn out perfect, or not even starting out to begin with, as I have done in the past, I am just having a go anyway, making art for myself and not even thinking about selling and not worrying that some of it is quite bad.
So here are some recent artworks that I have created just in my small journals, I drew ideas from how I was feeling at the time of paintings them.  They are certainly not the best things I have ever done, but they are "something"; paint to paper, creativity, and something of my spirit on paper.  I would love to know what you think.

The most revolting looking soup ever

So today we went for a lovely walk in some woods near us, the weather was glorious, so warm and bright, there was not a cloud in the sky, I always find walking in the woods like healing, I feel totally refreshed and revived after getting fresh air and sun on my skin.

Along the way we gathered lots of sweet chestnuts from their spikey jackets, it was bliss shuffling through the autumn leaves picking up and admiring the shiny smooth skins of the chestnuts in the glorious sun, some had fine silken hairs on them, like these:

When we got home I chopped some onions, garlic, celery and squash, added a stock cube and water, then boiled up the sweet chestnuts.  After cooling the chestnuts I spent about 45 minuted peeling the flaming things and I now have a very sore thumb.  The result was this absolutely disgusting looking soup, my husband names it spooky soup because it looks like something you might serve on Halloween!

Yes folks, your eyes are not deceiving you, you do not need to adjust your screens, that is in fact grey soup!

It was tasty though!

Versatile Blogger Award

I am pleased to say that I have been tagged with the versatile blogger award from my blogger friend Fran over at SkullsandPonies.

The idea of the award is to basically share a blog you admire, respect and like!  So I am thrilled to be awarded!

When you are tagged with this award you are given the opportunity to share with your readers some information about you.  So here are 7 things about me that you may not know:

1. I am a massive fan of the BBC TV series The Good Life, and would love to be self-sufficient myself.  I grow my own veg at my allotment and try to make as much as I can from scratch.

2. I believe I have some kind of magnetic field in me because electronic equipment often breaks or malfunctions when I use it and i can't wear a watch because they always stop.

3. I have a kind of split personality, I can never commit to one thing I always like a bit of this and a bit of that. I like Mori girl style, but also 1940's, I like shabby chic, but also mid century modern, I want to be self-sufficient, but I love convenience, the list goes on.  Although I don't believe is star signs, I do seem to match up with my symbol of the twins!

4. I wish I could sing, I like to think I can, but really I know I am terrible!  I would love to sing like Vera Lynn and tour round old peoples homes singing songs that won the war!

5. I have two guinea pigs, Florence and Matilda, they are a naughty, cute pair and I love them.

6. I am allergic to cats, some people think that I don't like cats, but that's not the case at all, they are so pretty and look so soft to stroke, but I just can;t stand to be around them for more than a few hours without sneezing, having an itchy throat, coughing and wheezing.

7. I used to love dance and gymnastics, I did tap, ballet, theatre craft and gymnastics and loved it so so much. Now I don;t do any dance, for some reason I don;t miss it, but it brought me a lot of happiness at the time.

I am passing this award on to:


Two Shades of Pink

Take Courage

Ruffles and Stuff

Mori Girl Levitation

Hi folks,

I came across this wonderful photographer the other day and thought you would like to see her beautiful photographs.  The images of yowayowa "levitating"  are beautiful in their own right but in my mind some of her photographs have a Mori feel to them which just makes me love them even more:

I could just keep on posting her images, they are so wonderful.  Click on the image to visit her website to see more.

Mannequin update

You may remember some time ago my sister and I made a mannequin of my own body and I posted up photos of the process.  After posting about it on a forum I visit, I realised I never shared with you the photos of the finished object, so thought I would do so today!

I made the mannequin by putting on a black plastic bin bag then getting my sister to wrap my in gummed parcel tape.  When I was all wrapped up my sister cut up the back and removed the form.  I then taped up the cut and the head hole and stuffed it with plastic bags.

Next I took an old Christmas tree and cut off all the branches, I wrapped the tree in some tough white cotton and secured it around the trunk with some co-ordinating herringbone tape.  I then secured the trunk in a Christmas tree stand.  I placed my mannequin form on top and covered the bottom of the form with more gummed tape to keep it attached to the tree trunk.

Here is the finished thing: