Award and a tidy creative art room!!!

Thank you so much to lovely Jo aka twiglet for this award and her really kind comments. Jo and her sister Annie aka Wipso not only take thee time to visit me here in Montogomery regularly they take me out for coffee, and supply me with their gorgeous creations and fabulous company at craft fair(s) - They really are special people.

There are some conditions to accepting this award, i have to pass it on to 3-5 other favourite blogs, which i will do as soon as i can pick them out from the hundreds i follow! so bear with me on that one.

Thanks Jo.

TODAY

I managed to spend today in my workroom, tidying, sorting and then creating, i've been using it as a store room recentlyand could barely get through the door. It's been quite a relaxing week, the shop hasn't been too busy so i've managed to get a lot done, even some stock taking. I've been on a strict diet, working so hard at making sure i fit into my wedding dress, still got a bit of work to do though.

These are my new brooches in the shop, quite a few of which have sold already.

Gorgeous flowers from Jo and Annie last week, still going strong, daffodils are my favourite.

The shop is looking briliant at the moment. When we closed off the extra room after christmas we had to find a place for stock in the main part of the shop and the "Country Works" gave us this old card stand, which looks good and is obviously better for storing our cards on (they'd been in drawers up until then)...

...and we got rid of one of our old glass cabinets and put the vintage china cups and saucers on the the housekeepers dresser, they look fab with the teapots and milk jugs.

I have to show you this amazing clock Gav and i got from an auction last friday, we fell in love with it. It's an art deco clock garniture and so beautiful.

It has a working pendulum, keeps reasonably good time and chimes. It's for our living room when we get around to decorating it, we thought we'd go for an art deco theme, just need to find something to put it on, we don't have a mantel piece!

Mondays seem to come around really quickly these days. Gav and i are spending our day off tomorrow house clearing down in South Wales (we've sold my house down there) it'll be a messy job so i'll be up early in the morning, on with scruffy clothes and off to get that sorted. Wish me luck!

WOYWW - (First for me)

So excited, my first WOYWW. Although this is my temporary workdesk which is my kitchen table at the moment as it's easier to keep an eye on the shop from there, plus it's warmer!!! Will be back to my other desk next week hopefully. This was taken this morning at 9.00am, it's how i left it last night. I'm having fun with felt jewellery, these are needlefelted brooches ready for the shop, but i've also done some bracelets using the wet felting technique, which.....er.... needs a little working on, i need to pay more attention to the instructions, but i always feel there are other ways to do things and if you think "outside the box" so to speak, you get different and sometimes more interesting results, not sure if it's a problem or not yet!!!!.

Had a funny moment yesterday when I had hands full of soap suds and someone came into the shop, i couldn't grab a towel quickly enough to dry them off as Lizzie puppy also decided she'd run into the shop! i had to grab her quickly and ended up transferring all the soap suds on to her which was so comical but at least got them off my hands!!! I Wish i could have taken a photo, she looked so funny and confused covered in soap, but they were gone by the time i got back!

Have a great wedenesday everyone, doing Valentine cards this week, and i haven't made any cards for ages so wish me luck.

Friends and Coffee

So lovely the other day to see both Jo and Annie, they called in to the shop on Saturday afternoon with flowers and whisked me away for a coffee and a natter. I'd been on my own and busy all morning as Gavin and Nicci had gone to the auction at Bishops Castle and had just returned, a coffee with two lovely friends was just what i needed. Thanks to you both

I found these gorgeous pebbles whilst we were at Barmouth last week and also a lovely pebbly beach. Lizzie, bless her, couldn't quite manage the steps and ran along the sea breaker, Gav had to quickly grab her....those fluffy ears...sooooo darn cute!!! Funny, cutey little ducks outside our holiday cottage door

We felt so peaceful (and cold) watching the waves crash onto the beach, we left when it was too cold to stay any longer, Lizzie got frozen and Gav had to carry her back up the hill, but she enjoyed it. We talked about buying a holiday cottage of our own to escape to whenever we wanted some time out, it's only about an hour and a half to Barmouth.We did some wedding planning too:

Loving these wedding shoes...they're so pretty, but maybe a little too high!

Nicci, and I are off to Shrewshury tomorrow with Gav to do some serious looking around for wedding stuff, maybe i'll find them!

Funky, wonky wedding cake! I love this, it's like my art ones i draw.

or this? kinda vintagey.

Wedding cheese cake, Gav loves this and there's a fab cheese shop in Llangollen which we'll check out next time we're there. Perfect flowers, i love those delicate cala lillies

I found these photos i took in the summer when gav and used to go for our evening walks around Lymore (before it got too dark). We love this house, obviously it needs a lot of work, Gav and i talked about possibly buying it one day, maybe having the armoury as completely commercial and living here.

Can't believe how busy the shop has been this last week,we were expecting a really quiet time, but it's not happening, not that i'm complaining mind you. I sold another few pieces of my art this week too and have a commission for another piece. Also, i've sold about ten of the brooches i made and they only went into the shop last Tuesday! I'm having great fun with wet felting at the moment and experimenting with some bracelets which i'm quite pleased with, amazing colours. Photos to follow (when camera batteries are re-charged). Bye for now.

Well...we're back from our little holiday break fully relaxed and ready to get going again! I have a thousand and one things that i have to do, not to mention a stock take of everything in the shop - hmmmmm!!!! But needs must, you can start out with all the good intentions in the world, we have a fabulous computerised till system that Gavin set up when the shop opened, every item was coded and put on the system, but then things leapt forward and we found ourselves struggling now and again to remember a code if the price label has fallen off etc...so a "sundry item" code was set up and thats what gets used if we can't find a product now, or if we're busy. Add to that the fact that we had so many deliveries before Christmas and were so busy that a lot of new items never got entered on the system before they sold so we have no idea where we are with things.

These are some wooden brooches i made whilst away, they're not finished yet, but the last ones i made sold in the shop within a month so i thought i'd do some more. They should be in the shop next week i've done a bit more since taking this photo and i just need to find some nice packaging for them.

Awwww....so cute....butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.......hmmmmmm...don't be fooled, i know better, she is the devil in disguise! Ha! well just as far as naughty little puppies go anyway, you need eyes in the back of your head, she's an absolute food hound, causes hours of havoc and then flakes out and sleeps for an hour, recharging her batteries to do it all again!!!!

She loves kitchen roll, leave it anywhere she can get it at your peril. She got this whilst we were at the cottage, it was all over the place, around the table legs, strewn across the room, she'd ripped bits of itt to shreds, perhaps she thinks she an Andrex puppy!!! i've told her she's a Retriever and not a Lab! She's growing so fast, is practically toilet trained now and loves going out for a walk when both of us are with her, but somehow doesn't much like it when one of us take her, i had to drag her to the end of the street yesterday.

This was her favourite past time on holiday and it was so funny to watch her. We stayed on a small holding and the chickens were rescue chickens and were allowed to roam free, they like to hang around the cottages for food. Every day they congegated around the kitchen door hoping for scraps of food (and wrecking the bin), Lizzie was totally fascinated by them, she'd watch them for ages through the door, there'd be little growls, sometimes she barked at them, but mostly she just sat watching. She'd sit in the middle of the door if there was only one, but sometime a few would turn up and she'd move slightly to the side, sometimes they came right up to the window and she'd give a bark and run off around the corner.

My first experiment at wet felting!! Karen (my sister) bought me a gorgeous book for my birthday (actually she bought me loads of books) and brought them up when she visited the other week. so i took them and some supplies away with me and thought i'd have a go, i was amazed, i've not tried felting this way before, i usually do needle felting, but i can see there's a world of opportunities there. I've ordered some nice pale pinks and blue colours to make some brooches for the Spring/Summer, the needle felted ones i did a few weeks ago have nearly all gone.

There was a fabulous antique shop in Barmouth, it's only open a few days a week out of season, and i picked up these gorgeous pictures for less than £2 each. There are nine altogether and they depict "Cambrian Costumes by Lady Llanover". Lady Llanover (1802-96) was an important sponsor for Welsh folk culture in the nineteenth century. the Cambrian Costumes were published as a volume and consist of 17 watercolours by A Cadwaladr, the original volume is in the National Library of Wales. These are for the house and i can't wait to see them up on the wall.

I sold another collage yesterday, it was one of my "Simplicity" series that will be published in March (although not this particular one). It was one of the more expensive ones and i still feel overwhelmed when someone likes my art enough to pay for it and take it home. I want to set up my Etsy shop before the article is published (Help!!!!!) and i desperately need to get on with finishing artwork to put in there. The house is so cold at the moment, we're looking for another small gas fire to go in my work room so i can spend more time in there, you need antarctic clothing as it is. Someone asked me the other day if i'd picked up any of the flu/cold bugs going around, but i can safely say that no germs would survive in this house, so thats one good thing about it!! The main thing is that the shop, living room, bedroom and kitchen are all warm so it'll do for now.

My lovely nicci is off to London at the end of the month to go to a Trade show with her college friends. It's the make up show at Alexandra Palace and she has to catch trains and tubes there. She amazes me that she's so confident so young, it would frighten me doing that on my own now, let alone when i was barely 18 years old. She loves it though, she has bags of confidence, and i'm pleased and worried for her at the same time. Pleased that she's living her life and doing the things she wants to do, and worried because my baby is all grown up...selfish aren't i? But i bet most mothers feel the same. Anyway, i've had my counselling from Gavin and my lovely sister, Karen, and i'm just getting excited for her now.

"Making the Decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body" - Elizabeth Stone

Happy Thoughts...

Gavin and i have decided to shut the shop and have booked a cottage on the beach at Barmouth for a week. We're off tomorrow but will be back next Saturday to open up again. It's a good time to take a well earned break, it's been so quiet this last week, although we've been busy again today. We expected a quiet time and initially planned to go at the end of January, but the cottage we wanted wasn't available. It's right on the beach, Lizzie will love it, long walks, plenty of fresh air and loads of relaxation, it has a bath so we're taking loads of bath bombs from the shopOther things we're doing while away is planning the wedding and making some decisions on how to decorate our house. I have loads of magazines and a pen and notebook to make notes of our ideas and what we want.

Here are some images i found whilst browsing the net for ideas, I just thought i'd share them with you. You know that feeling when you look at something and the visual effect just makes you smile and feel happy, whether it's the design or the colours, all of these make me feel happy when i look at them, and OMG I just love this amazing bed so much, i might have to enquire on where to get it.Similar but made of metal

I love these..."just a little boudoir mirror" by Pamela Angus

First room to decorate is the bathroom... we love this cupboard

I've been doing some creating too, just have things to finish off and will post when i get back.

Bye for now