Feeling a little blue...

Blue... thats the colour theme of my very first Crafty Creative box and my most favourite colour.

For those that have never heard of Crafty Creative, its a monthly subscription and you get a box of crafty goodies of various mediums, including a craft kit and crafty samples!

So after a 48 hour wait to get to the post office to pick up and after todays craft show I finally sat down with a cuppa and my camera and a bit of excitement and apprehension to open the box.

The box

Everything comes wrapped in tissue  - blue of course this month - and this and the box will not be wasted, will use for packaging for Tinks Things goodies as I send all my goodies out in recycled boxes, though the Graze boxes are perfect for this, especially as they've always got an interesting photo printed inside.

First out is the month kit, a gorgeous mini bird mobile, with everything you need to make it, in of course blue. You get the felt, stuffing, thread, dowels, needle and sequins and the all essential instructions and pattern.  I cant wait to sit down to make this, no doubt adding my own little twist.

Next was my most favourite, paint, glitter and canvas! Unbelievably these are three  Decoart Americana colours that I haven't got so can't wait to get painting with these and with fathers day coming up these are the perfect colours. The mini canvas is just screaming to be papered, glittered, inked and glued.. oh and what else two lovely shades of textured paper...perfect for the canvas along with the two tubes of glitter and tube of gorgeous seedbeads from Stix 2.

Now the next lot of goodies are really out of my comfort zone, I needlefelt, not possibly as much as I should and really have no idea what I'm doing, just stab away, but never had a go at jewellery making, usually just use any charms or beads I have lying around to add to my wooden bits so this is really going to stretch me. The nepalese felt balls at the top of the picture are just screaming to be made into a necklace, so this is the perfect excuse to get the needle out and make some of my own. The stunning glass beads from Musha Makes in the middle I think may be a pressie for someone who would make better use of them than me and the two blue birds at the bottom may find their way into one of my Tinks Things makes. These are all sat on the most gorgeous fat quarter of flowery material - I'm thinking peg fairies. as this is the limit of my sewing.

Last but not least is this fantastic clay from Jumping Clay which I cant wait to play with as ive never used clay before so cant wait to see what I come up with, possibly something abstract (well that's my excuse). It also comes with a little step by step so really I cant go wrong.

So here's all the goodies that i received in my very first box, one thing i did miss was this gorgeous art card (top right hand corner) by Catherine Moody and for my very first box I definately wasn't disappointed and cant wait for my next one.

Sam x

Bzzzing!

Does anyone else trawl through facebook and think oh no another scam when they see posts for marketing companies. Do you also think ill sign up and ill get nothing, they advertise all these fantastic products, promise to send them out etc, yep so do i... well i did, that was until i signed up yesterday to BzzAgent  https://www.bzzagent.co.uk/index.jsp

Simply all you do is sign up, answer some surveys, usually just one question and not very taxing about various products, services, just so they can get an idea of your lifestyle etc. Then wait for an invite to an campaign based on your answers, accept the invite and hey bingo a product, services (usually for free or they send vouchers for discounts) out, you write review on facebook, twitter, blog, share with your family and friends and thats it!

As i say i only signed up yesterday, today there were some more quick surveys, answered them took all of about 4 mins and now ive got 2 boxes of Halls XS peppermint and 2 boxes of Halls XS lemon now coming my way!  Not at all glamourous but with this cold lingering im sure they're going to come in handy!  Now you might have to wait a month or so but the more surveys and talking you do the more chance you have of partaking and if youre on your laptop everyday trawling then whats 5 mins!

So as soon as they turn up, ill let you know what i think about them!

Im back...

Wow! Where has the past 5 months gone... in a blur id say.

As i mentioned in my previous post id just been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid and was starting medication, first batch seemed to be working so decided to go back to work. Well that lasted one day, symptoms kicked off again and that was me off work for the next 3 months.... and what a long 3 months that was. Over that time i went through so many emotions, tiredness, depression, anxiety, short spells of feeling somewhat 'normal' and boredom. Yep even with all my painting and craftiness to do i was still bored, or was it more the fact that i had no motivation, unfortunately that and the palpatations are possibly two of the symptoms that i am still struggling with, even 5 months down the line.

'Brain Fog' - yet another symptom

One thing i found on the internet to get me through this was the 365 project http://365project.org/ . This i found invaluable in getting my motivation going and my butt out of the house! So much that i even managed to fill one whole month! The idea behind the project is photography - to take a picture for each day of the year - unfortunately ' let it lapse as since i've gone back to work, i've also changed my job.

Whilst on the sick i was in contact with work and HR and on my return had a meeting with Occ Health. It was suggested that as a post was coming up for secondment at a sister park for the post of Events/Education Officer, with no late shifts, heavy lifting etc then i should be put forward for it. Fantastic a new challenge, new environment, new life! So i've been there now for just over a month and guess what... im writing this today off on the sick.. yep seem to have overdone it last week and now thyroid symptoms alive and kicking!  Is there no end nor balance to this, if anyone's got the answer please let me know as i'm struggling to find a balance and i know i should try and slow down but if i slow down any more ill stop!

Anyway enough of my woes... lets get on to the crafty bits!

Ive been adding some new bits to Tinks Things over the past few months and seem to have finally found my style - mixed media meets whimsical primitive country folk painting, though this can also be either or!

'Twinkle Twinkle' Hanging Star

Family of Easter bunnies, some painted, some papered!

Mixed media key hook rack

'Dolly Danglies'

And my latest  favourite make.....

Mini beach hut canvas

Oh and ive also just got my first Big Shot from Stampin' Up and some lovely other pieces but more about that later! 

Food Glorious Food!

That was definately the theme to todays outing to the Durham Food Festival and what glorious food did we see, taste and bring home!

Always a fantastic outing, especially if youre anything like me and adore food (though you would'nt think it if you saw me, im a little skinny thing, but LOVE my food).

One person more excited than me was my partner Dave, after having been to Paris two years ago for my 40th at Christmas time we were lucky enough to experience their fantastic Christmas Market down the Champs Elysee.  Here it was that Dave tasted la tartiflette, potatoes, with reblochon cheese lardons and onions for the very first time and now everytime there is a food market in Durham we make it a must to visit so he can get his 'fix'.  Thankfully they didnt disappoint and Dave came away very happy.....

Even so more once we had found the cidre stalls in the Marquee up on Castle Green... he managed a taster and had a sneaky half whilst we watched the chefs demo (more on that later) and treated himself to a few bottles to bring home.



 

 

 Me, I treated myself to the most sumptuous piece of  handmade nougat, nothing like that pink and white stuff you buy in the shops that dares to call itself nougat...im only having one very small piece at a time as im sure if i ate quite a bit id be trying to detach myself from the ceiling with the amount of sugar in it, it does have rapberries in so that may cancel it out, but im sure its all good for you ;-)

 

 

 As well as the stalls up on Castle Green in the marquees (there was a small cover charge to enter) there were some stalls down in the market place.  The smells of all the gorgeous, warm food being cooked overwhelmed you as you approached and you were spoilt for choice as what to have. As previously mentioned Dave had the french potatoes, me i went for the Spanish Beef Stew, which was very heart warming and definately warmed me cockles up!

 

After walking around the stalls several times we made a decision, its a hard one when theres so much scrumptious food to choose from.

 

Sweeties...for the kids, well Dave and Brandon

 

 

 

 

Olives a plenty...

 

 

 

Beautiful Greek and Turkish delights...

 

To name but a few stalls, but we choose some tasty french rustic bread to go with possibly the best tasting  balsamic vinegar ever!  

         

 

Well that almost sums up my Sunday, was a lovely relaxing, food fuelled day which id really been looking forward to, especially as the past two weeks have been a real struggle for me, having just been diagnosed with underactive thyroid.  I know that this isnt life threatening but at the moment for me is very life changing, trying to manage the tiredness and lack of motivation especially as im always on the go and have so many projects and things to do, so much that i had to cancel a dry stone walling taster day i was due to go on last week.  Hopefully the medication that im on now will kick in and i will get back to normality, just really struggling with the tireness.

 

One last thing to make you smile this Sunday.... Jean Christophe Novelli..

 

He was demoing in the Marquee, hence i guess the cover charge, but hey it was worth it, he's demoing skills may have been a bit hectic but was nice to watch ;-), and yep definately as handsome in the flesh as on tv (i have a thing for French men).

Hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Sam x

 

 

 

 

Just vaseline the lens...

... well if its not looking too good this is what you do if you want a good pic - some advice i was given today at The Mad Hatters Tea Party at The Crafts House, you can see some pics of the lovely food over at Blueberry Heart, from the lovely Kerry from Blueberry Heart who was my Autumn Blog Swop.  As we live quite close to each other we thought it would be nice to put faces to names, meet up at a fantastic event and my favourite place and swop, we were good though and didnt open them until we got home.

This actually took place at the end of September but its been a bit hectic and ive also been away since to my very first UK Facepainting Convention...but more of that later. Now back to my swop...

This was the first blog swop id ever done and was quite nervous about what and how much to put in, but as anyone who knows me, knows i always get carried away, but how nice is it to give pressie... i love it!

The theme was autumn and reading through Kerry's blog i managed to get a few ideas of what she liked...it was a bit like a scavenger hunt, trawling through crafty bits to see what i could make or the shops to see what i could include.

I forgot to take pics of a couple of things so i will try and describe as best as.

Firstly the basket of goodies that i put together.

The first thing i got was a piece of blue agate whilst we were away on holiday in Scotland from the Gem Rock Museum in Dumfries.  Kerry loves the Tiffany blue and when its held up to the light the colour is stunning.

Ive also been making a line of gifts for crafters over at Tinks Things so for inspiration i put a little heart in with the quote 'Do something creative every day'

I also put in a mini needlefelt kit, including a needle, some felt and some bits to get started as well as a piece of sponge (i couldnt fit this in!) along with some needlefelted acorns that i made to give some inspiration....

As you can see i made gift tags for each item...told you i always go overboard...but i do really love just making and giving!

Just one of the needlefelted acorns in amongst lovely felted flowers and butterflys in autumn colours

Thankfully Blueberry Heart took some better pics of the acorns...

I also had some small frames from Primark that i bought a while back and was wondering what to with them, this was the perfect opportunity to try something new... a button pumpkin!





I also put in some Cath Kidston bath crystals for a little spoiling along with some Yankee Candles in autumnal scents, some paper tissues with '"I've shopped all my life and still I have nothing to wear..." quote on, perfect for decoupage!  pair of warm soft socks covered in little hearts, a edible crystal skull from Hotel Chocolat (my favourite sweetie shop) along with a selection of flavoured hot chocolates for those cold and long autumn evenings.. and possibly the most simplest gift, one id seen elsewhere on the internet, a Autumn Photo List, this one i just changed (was American so not always compatible with us) to suit, designed all the artwork and printed off!

Think i might have to do one myself and put the results on here!

As mentioned i also did gift tags for all the pressie...heres a few of the ones i did take photos of but please pop over to Blueberry Heart to see the ones i didnt.

Phew...well thats the things i sent now to the gorgeous gifts that i received.

Im sat there like a little girl at Christmas with lots of surprises and camera at hand...oh and i had to call Dave in to share it as well :-))

All the gifts were wrapped in lovely stripey colourful paper...and smelling stunning...

with these gorgeous little pumpkins scattered in..i love these soooo much, need to get me some!

So on with the goodies...

Im quite sad really i laid them all out and went down the line, very controlled i must say!

The first i opened was this gorgeous hand cross stitched acorn cushion smelling divine and even better with sparkly thread!

Then this lovely hand made bracelet in gorgeous autumnal colours in a sweet little bag.

These sparkly gloves and if you know me you will know how i love my gloves, suffering from Raynauds i even carry them in my bag in the summer! I also received a handcovered notebook which i took with me to the UK Face an Body Painting Convention where i doodled and noted throughout the week!

Yummy hand made lemon biscuits and scrumption hot chocolate.

A beautiful handmade pumpkin wreath with bay leaves which is now adorning my light and fits right in with my colour scheme as we have predominantly oranges in the living room!  This will be staying up all year round. A lovely seasonal scented tealight.

The most stunning garland ever, lots of detail, glitter  and colour and looks gorgeous hung on my door!

Again thanks to Kerry for a fantastic swop, it definately made me think out of the box and delve into that craft stash of mine. Hope to meet up with you again soon, no doubt at The Crafts House.

Sam x

A little bit excited...

Yep a little bit excited as tomorrow we're off to Scotland for a well deserved weeks holiday.

We've hired this little cottage just on the edge of the Galloway Forest, theres myself, my partner Dave and my son Brandon going and we've lots to look forward too!  Dave works in Dumfries & Galloway so has been reccying lots for us to do, including visiting Kagyu Samye Ling - a Tibetan Buddhist Centre.

Myself and Dave have been to before and loved the place, so   Im not regligious and dont really follow a faith but this place seems magical, there just seems a tranquil, peaceful feel about it, really can't explain i think its something that you have to go and see for yourself.

 

 

Were also going to hopefully go and see some Red Kites feeding, as part of a breeding programme for these stunning birds, definately a perfect photo opportunity as well as having a go at the UK's longest zip slide, at 820meteres i cant wait, yep im some sort of  height freak!  Ive done quite a few aerial courses including the 100ft high one at the Climbing Centre in Edinburgh and a zip slide of the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough, at 225ft high over the River Tees the vertical climb, well it felt like one was the worst part,  though i found this one a bit slow!

 

So the cars all loaded, just need to put my paints and some of my new brushes in that i received today from the amazing Kyla over at Limelight Co, Australia. She held a competition on facebook that i entered along with a lot of over facepainters and as usual you think youve not got a chance of winning so you can guess the surprise at winning this set of fantastic brushes, especially as theyve just more or less hit our shores here in UK.  So ive decided to split them, the more petite, finer brushes i will use with my acrylic painting for Tinks Things and the rest for my face painting with Tinks Faces.

 



 

Sorry its not a great pic, taken on Blackberry with very shaky hand, think it was the excitement :-))

 

Ooh and one more for today.  Dont know if you remember but ive been following Blueberry Heart blog and decided that id join the Autumn/Halloween swap, well today i found out my partner for whom im to swap a box of goodies with, and its none other than the lovely Blueberry Heart lady herself, Kerry!  So im now off on a hunt for some gorgeous bits and got lots of ideas of lovely things to make! But sorry im not going to tell as i know she follows my blog and would hate to spoil the surprise.

 

So hope you all have a fantastic Bank Holiday weekend whatever youre doing and ill pop back soon!

 

Sam x 

Not a bad day considering....

Well after a bit of a let down  this afternoon my day has ended off with the most gorgeous sunset but more about that later.

I was booked in this evening to face paint at a wedding at Brancepeth Castle. So had spent all day ensuring kit was clean and everything was shipshape for the gig.  For some reason id had a funny feeling about this one, dont ask what it was there was just something. Anyway waved bye to Dave with the promise of supper when i came in (was due in about 10) and headed off, thankfully Brancepeth is only about a 15 minute drive from where i live.

Drove down the drive to the Castle and was starting to get a bit alarmed about the lack of cars in the car park, maybe they're parked somewhere else i thought. Walked through the grounds to the main entrance were the silence was deafining, maybe theyre in marquee out the back i was thinking or maybe not! Anyway a yound lad answered the door, i explained i was booked for a wedding party giving the brides name, nope no wedding tonight, though we did have one last week but he couldnt recall the name, really, right, just that ive been booked for the 18th August!

Mmmm maybe id got the date wrong, nope my booking process is one that sends them the date that they asked for, leaving blanks in for them to fill additional details so they have to read the date to get to the next item. Maybe the wedding didnt go ahead, in which case it would have been nice to have been notified, especially as id turned down several bookings for todays date, knowing that i was out most of the evening.

Anyway lets not dwell on that as i wont be chasing it up! 

But one thing is that i was able to spend much more needed time with Dave (my partner) as he works away Monday to Friday in Scotland.

So one phone call later, quick change of clothes, camera in bag and off to take photos.

As you may i know i became the proud owner of a Canon EOS 550D, a gift from Dave, and neither of us have any camera knowledge at all, well not the technical stuff.

Where to?  Luckily we live in the most gorgeous part of the North East, Durham...theres so many places to explore that we are spoilt for choice, so much gorgeous landscape that you cant always take it all in... so we popped up to Waskerley, for those that dont know the area, just imagine vast heather moorlands as far as the eye can see and the most amazing views.

Theres a little reservoir that weve been to before and is stunning!

Lovely friendly residents....

No one around for miles...bliss!

Except some crazy blonde, ahh that be me then.

After a lovely afternoon playing with camera we then stopped off at Stanhope for fish and chips, felt like a real tourist sat on bench in square eating them in the sun.

 Yep we do get the sun up here in the North.

And to top it off the first stunning sunset, now i know the summer is coming to an end and that the amazing autumn colours, sunsets and rises are around the corner.

Oh yeah we managed to find an extra to pose in our pics, one of the neighbours cats sat on the fence post waiting for supper in the fields where we live

Hope you too have a nice, chilled weekend

Sam x