Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! 
I want to be clear, I do not make New Years Resolutions, so I feel no shame in it already being January 3rd, and me already playing catch up :) I have spent the day, trying to get bits and pieces in order, so I can sit down and write my first blog post of the year. 


How are you all, did you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year? Fubby and I stayed at home for Christmas this year, which meant Christmas for us, started even earlier. I know, that makes no sense, but it is true. It meant we had to get all gift buying, and wrapping, for our families done, well in advance, as we saw them in the two weekends before Christmas. Christmas day for us was very relaxed though :) 
Look how lucky we were! 

I also want to highlight a couple of the presents in there, from my Folksy Secret Santa, I think I know who it was, but I still need to find out if I have guessed right :) Sorry it is small, I will have to take a photo of them alone at some point. In front of the orange box there are some cute little lavender cushions, and a crochet corsage brooch, and to the right of those, just passed the pink diary, is an adorable embroidered "Dreams" pillow, also with Lavender. They are such sweet gifts, and I love them all the more, as they are things that I know I wouldn't be able to make, I am pretty bad at sewing, and I can't crochet! I have also been sleeping brilliantly since I have had the Dreams pillow by my head at night - maybe a little too well, if the time that I woke up this morning was anything to go by ;)

Another wonderful little treat that occurred just before Christmas, was that I was runner up in a blog competition run by the very talented illustrator Mary Kilvert. I won this rather wonderful lavender cushion, that is illustrated with Mary's gorgeous little sheep, and Mary was good enough to post it straight away, just so I would have it in time for Christmas. This one is sitting in my living room! 

Now! Onto the New Year! I am going to set myself a challenge, lets call it Doodle Olympics 2012, maybe, you know to keep it topical, or Doodleathon etc. I will doodle/draw/paint/illustrate an image/images, by hand, or digitally, each day for the whole of 2012. I don't draw enough, I used to be quite good at it, and now I am not, so I need to make the time to practice. As you will see from the first two images, it hasn't exactly got of to a good start. After getting up late on January 1st, I'm not too sure where the day went, then I tried to develop the same little images on the 2nd, but I had picked up the only pencil lying around, which happened to be a big soft pencil that I didn't really want to use... there was a point to these little scrappy doodles, they are initial ideas for our wedding invitations... they will improve... well they had better! :/

Day 1 of the Doodle Olympics

Day 2 of the Doodle Olympics

Hello 30s - Day 39 - 43

The one where dawn has actually made things :)

Day 39:Is this a bit of a cheat? I am not sure, today I was taking images of goodies that were going into my Folksy shop, so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone :)

Day 40:
Some festive looking scribbles and plans.

Day 41:
Things start to get a little bit tidier, as the plan develops.

Day 42:
Here it all starts to make a bit more sense, I have been making christmas cards for my friends and family.

Day 43:
There are four different designs at the minute, but this is my santa card.

Folksy Friday Special - Scape

Following on from the Nat's Nest Folksy Friday last week, this week I am featuring Scape. Caroline makes the most adorable tiny stacking rings from silver and semi precious stones, as well as a variety of other jewellery pieces. She is also super helpful for those of us incapable of measuring their finger (ahem - me), and is happy to take it back and adjust it for free and at super quick speed, which is great value, considering last time I took a ring to the jewellers we were looking at £15 and a 2 week wait :). I could not recommend her more, these little rings would make great little christmas presents :)

Click on an image to be taken to the Scape shop on Folksy :)

Folksy Friday Special - Nat's Nest

It has been a while since I have managed to complete a Folksy Friday, but after buying myself some birthday treats I have been inspired. If anyone saw my last post, I bought a wonderful White Rabbit from Nat's Nest on Folksy, so this week my Folksy Friday is all about the wonderful Nat's Nest. Nat makes adorable, and beautifully made BriesBerry Mice and Carrotby Bunnies (plus the ocassional fox). They aren't intended to be toys for children, they more ornamental, but they do make adorable gifts for those who are that bit older, but still a kid at heart :)





Click on an image to be taken to the shop :)

Folksy Friday - Is that you Santy Claus?

I know, I know we are still in August, but with listings lasting 6 months, christmas goodies are popping up on Folksy all over the place. This week I have been sitting thinking about what creative christmas treats I could create, so it was nice to have a browse, and get into the festive spirit :)

Feel free to click on an image, it will take you right to the appropriate Folksy shop :)

Folksy Friday - Photography

This week's Folksy Friday is all about photography. I have spent most of this week working on the incredibly exciting task of taking product shots for my up and coming web site. I also spent Wednesday evening browsing through our friend's wedding and honeymoon photos, so needless to say I have photography on the brain :) .

As always please click on one of the images to be taken to each photographers shop, there are plenty of other lovely photographs to peruse :)

Folksy Friday - Home Sweet Home

As some of you may have noticed, I have been super happy to return home this week, therefore my folksy friday theme this week, as with my previous blog posts, is 'home sweet home'. As always, clicking on the image will take you to the folksy shop :)

Folksy Friday - Potential

This week I am giving a shout out to the Folksy sellers who sell materials. I sell materials rather than gifts myself at the minute, and I sometimes feel a bit lost on the site, surrounded by all the wonderful gifts and treats, and why not, we all love gifts, treats and pretty things, but more of that next week, this week it is all about some of the folk, who sell products, that have the potential to be pretty things :)









As always, images are clickable, and will take you directly to the product. :)

Folksy Friday - Sweet Treats

On Wednesday I went to see Sex and the City 2 with one of my best friends, I quite enjoyed it, but then again I used to watch the T.V show too. Now obviously it isn't everyone's cup of tea, so inspired by my cinema visit, my topic for Folksy Friday this week is Sweet Treats, showing some homage to the superb pick n mix that I gobbled up while I watched the film :)