Colours of Christmas - Red

1. Little Robin Red Breast Silver Pendant - Ali Bali Jewellery
2. Santa Tea Cosy - Truly Scrumptious
3. Christmas Napkin Rings - See The Woods Designs
4. Red Button Hanging Heart - Thistledown
5. Christmas Robin Decoration - Claire Hurd Design
6. Christmas Bunting - Handmade by Sarah Howarth
7. Reindeer Rudolph Clip - Gingy Snapz
8. Felt Star Christmas Decoration - Granny Ruth's Gift Emporium
9. Little Robin Ornament - Lupin Handmade

Florence Friday

A quick snapshot from the evening we spotted more interesting graffiti. The entire shadow of the window grille had been outlined in pen on the wall! It must have taken ages!

Hair Pin Tutorial

The ladies on my course expressed an interest in making some hair decorations and this week we will be making hair pins and slides. If you fancy having a go at making one of these:

you can find the tutorial here. Enjoy!

Creative Open Workshops

Florence Friday

Following on from the tenuous links of yesterday's green post, Florence Friday features lovely Florence Mouse:

Florence is being sold in aid of Cancer Research UK along with a load of other cool items donated by Folksy sellers and if you fancy supporting the fabulous Children in Need today then go get your Christmas shopping well underway at the Crafteroo for Children in Need Shop where you can buy these:

Colours of Christmas - 'Green'

On Sunday our pastor spoke on Amos and I felt so challenged about the way I live, ashamed that my frugality seems to have sprung from not earning much rather than compassion for the world around me.

From the first musings of planning my self employment I wanted to my work to be ethical, to use re/upcycled components and that is still a determination to introduce more of that aspect into my work. Currently I use recycled packaging from Eco Craft, use found sea glass and pottery, recycled silver in the form of Art Silver Clay and I recycle a small amount of beads and buttons. I really want to go further. I need to go further.
Folksy is packed full of ideas and clever upcycling with the Upcycle Christmas Competition in aid of Sue Ryder and even this morning I spotted a forum post encouraging the exchange of unwanted household items which others use in their work. The selection below is a tiny speck of the re/upcylced gorgeousness you can find there.

So, whilst today's selection isn't all green in colour, it certainly is in ethos, as all the items have been upcycled into gorgeous new pieces allowing you to continue and enjoy the tradition of gift giving in a more environmentally friendly way.

1. Christmas Recycled Envelopes, Swirly Arts2. Recycled Christmas Wreath, Garbage2Gifts
3. Recycled Envelope Christmas Gift Tags, Wrapped Up With String
4. Vinyl Record Angel Christmas Card, Sisily Love
5. Snowflake Lantern, Blossom Fair
6. Driftwood Reindeer Christmas Card, Kirsty Elson Designs
7. Red Father Christmas Furoshiki (fabric wrap - reusable alternative to wrapping paper), Myfuroshiki
8. Yellow Love Heart Brooch, Once Upon a Tin
9. Winter Girl, Through the Round Window

I know not everyone has the time to make their own decorations and gifts but I urge you to think about the environmental and social impact of what you buy this Christmas. Make it a happier Christmas for everyone!

Thank you.

Tweaking & Things That Make Me Laugh #3

I can't seem to leave my blog alone, tweaking bits and bobs around, I know what I want but do not have the coding skills to do it! Thanks to many fabulous tutorials I'm having a go and learning as I go, my computer whizz brother would be so proud - or shamed that I'm so rubbish!

So, I've gone back to the white template, I really liked the notebook style but whilst having a go at the wonderfully helpful Haptree's link bar tutorial I messed up and needed to upload my saved code. There were a few from previous changes and seeing the white again I thought I'd stick with it and explore potential tweaks. I couldn't work out how to adapt the notebook template so it's gone, for now.

The changes are few but I like them:

Link Bar - at the top, hopefully handy and an effort to save trawling through page after page of bloggage. I've kept the label link bar on the right hand side for the more curious browser! I've added new 'about' and 'shops' posts and buried them with a 2008 date.

Folksy mini - thanks to Haptree again, a linkable slideshow of work available in my Folksy shops

New Header - still working on this as I'd like it to be wider, once I get it sussed (or someone points out the obvious to me) it'll be good to have the option of changing this as and when.

That's it so far, maybe one day I'll be able to code effectively. Or maybe not. If you, like me, need lots of help with all this blog, code, web, design stuff you might find the following links useful:

http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/
A dummies guide, blog tips, tricks, help for all new bloggers on Web templates, Blog templates, designs, widgets, layout, JavaScript, HTML codes, SEO, Google AdSense, gadgets, diagnostic tools, and how to monetize Blogger or Blogspot blogs.

How to create a menu bar, from the Real Life Blog.

I'll leave you with a dramatic representation of my long suffering brother trying, again, to explain coding to me as interpreted by Fathers Crilly and Maguire.

Florence Friday

A peek at my Florence in Colour 2010 beautifully printed by redbubble and yours for just £14.95. Above is the frontpage, and below shows December 2010 and the backpage with all twelve images.
Ahhhh, Florence!

Projeto Gallery November 2009

Charm bracelets, memory wire bracelets, a memory wire necklace and some earrings now available at Projeto Gallery, Silsden.

Colours of Christmas - Naturals

Woke up to the first foggy frost of winter this morning and so I'm now allowing my thoughts to turn towards all things festive, it's on its way! Yay!

With all the beautiful colours of Christmas starting to weave around us I thought I'd bring you a few colour themed festive selections from Folksy over the next few weeks.



First up the lovely fire lit, rustic naturals:

1. Christmas Star - Prim Chick
2. Ceramic Heart Decoration - Prince Design UK
3. Heart Shaped Fire Lighters - Rainbow Fairy Dust
4. Clove Soap - Sarah Harper Simple Living
5. Christmas Gift Set of six rustic wood candle holders - The Log Basket
6. Driftwood Christmas Tree - Driftwood Designs
7. Rustic Angel - Julie Pritchard Arts and Crafts
8. Mouse - Northfield Primitives
9. Magical Christmas Heart Hanger - Helen Jane's Designs

Florence Friday

Go Handmade

This morning brought a super surprise, not only was it the first day this week of being able to get on with work at home, but I discovered my 'A Satisfied Mind' charm bracelet has been included in issue 3 of Go Handmade the online magazine showcasing UK designers. The magazine is created by the fabulous Leanne of See the Woods Designs and this issue has some excellent gift ideas, recipes, festive wrapping tutorials and much more.Check it out!

House Hunting

Last week we were both on holiday from our teaching jobs so pootled up the M6 to stay with R's parents and do a bit of house hunting. We saw some interesting properties and even though we aren't ready to make an offer through the Scottish system as we haven't sold up here yet it was a very worthwhile trip.

We got back to the Midlands on Monday, I sold two bracelets through Folksy, R had a tax rebate and a lady come to view our house today all of which made for a very positive welcome back! Yesterday and much of today though, I've been in a bit of an anxious tiz with not least because even though it was me who reported the whopping error by the county council overpaying me for my last teaching job I got a rather unpleasant letter hinting at "further action" if I didn't repay the money! It was the first response I'd had from them telling me where to send the cheque. Grr! And trying to sort out my tax self assessment and discovering that the same county council has attached me to three payroll numbers over the year for teaching and yet only provided a p60 for one, hmph. Trying to sort payslips I discovered that they had put THREE different addresses on various payslips making me wonder where on earth the personal details on the other p60s they owe me have ended up.

So this evening, after a day of dental wah (the fourth and final appointment for this treatment) and a busy jewellery teaching session I've had a pleasant evening making and eating nice food and flicking through photos from last week. One of the most fabulous days was spent at Dawyck Botanical Gardens - I cannot recommend a visit highly enough, I'm looking forward to going back again to see what the changing seasons bring, I read tales of blue poppies. . .

Autumn though was breath takingly beautiful at the gardens, plenty of photos to come but, you can tell by the dazed look on our faces (I know I look dim) that the fabulous red acers were quite something to behold!

Beautiful place, have already bookmarked for a possible visit for when the parentals get the wagon out on the road next season!