Monday 30 June 2008

It ain't much if it ain't Dutch




What a difference a day makes! Granted a few items have been shifted to another corner that desperately needs tidying up but I will not bore you with another picture of a sad looking corner in my house. I was so pleased with the result that I finished my distressed orange frame and found my little vintage Dutch flag to which I added  little collage of newspaper letters.  You've got to pat yourself on the back from time to time. I hope it will make Mr Betsy smile when he comes back tonight after a year of working many miles away (don't worry we had frequent visits so we will still recognise each other!)




As I had some orange paint left boy monkey and I did some stamping. As they are now school age and a bit big for doing foam puzzles on the floor I suggested a while back that we should get rid of the tattered animal foam box puzzle but obviously they didn't want to hear any of it. As I am very keen on recycling, reusing, customising, refurbishing I did feel I needed to give the object a longer life in our household. Mind you hardly ever will an object leave this house without it having been reinvented at least once. So our stamping exercise started out well. No doubt the shapes will find their way in a Kantha cushion at some point. I do hope to be able to get an image of it in the right place because I am still struggling with moving them around. Any tips anyone? This all feels very new but so much fun..... 






Sunday 29 June 2008

OOPS

OK so I haven't worked out how to move images but I am ready for bed now, will sort that one out later!

Busy Betsy starts blogging

After a lot of persuasion I am finally starting a blog!! I am very excited about this and hope to share a lot of fun things with you all. Just to let you know what I might be blogging about: my crafts, my hundreds of ideas that never get put into practice, my WIPs and UFOs, plenty of those but I am hoping this blog will help me getting my act together. There might be some news regarding the little monkeys (a boy and a girl), the absent but soon to return husband (working crazy hours, many miles away, bless him), books I am reading, things that caught my eye, life in the north and the odd recipe.

It is getting a little late and dark to put toget
her black bead-ball necklaces but I just managed to make one for my artist friend Rosana. She is a fabulous painter of women and I am thrilled that she really liked my necklaces. Here are some in other colours that I sell (my Etsy shop should be up and running soon too, I am getting there in cyberspace!).

Admire the works on her website www.rosanaibarrola.co.uk. I won't make any more today but will have to tomorrow. I have a long list of things to make and take to the stall I booked on Thursday. I did finish a wall hanging though today. The theme is Under the Sea (photo to follow) and was created for an exhibition organised by the Embroiderers Guild earlier this year. My girl monkey made the design and gave me a list of objects she wanted in the hanging. As I was misinformed about the required measurements it ended up as a 4 panel piece but I have now finally mounted them on a backing. I hope she'll be pleased. 

Another reason to start this blog is that I need a tidy house. Many blogging friends show lovely pictures of their homes and I always feel rather embarrassed. There is too much stuffer everywhere. EVERYWHERE! Though I have never had a problem with living in organised chaos now that I am nearly hitting the big FOUR O I am fed up with the mess everywhere. The monkeys are big helpers at the moment. A few days ago a friend came round to buy some cards and told me about the Housefairy. Apparently she comes and checks the children's rooms and if they are tidy she leaves a surprise and if not just some fairy dust. Apart from the fact that the monkeys wake up very early every morning to see if she has been I am thrilled with this recommendation. You can find this fairy of fairies on www.thehousefairy.org. Obviously I need to so some work as well to keep up with the kids so my task for tomorrow will be to tidy this up: 



In case you are wondering what this is it is the kitchen cabinets. On it are my useful paper shredder (just out of sight), a retired bread making machine, an unused 'pass the parcel' from my boy monkey's pirate party about a month ago, some monkey drawings an other art work, a picture frame in progress, diva lights from a wedding we went to about 6 weeks ago and a bottle of Moet & Chandon (don't ask!). I hope to show you the difference soon. However I have to hand in my final assignment for a "Working with children - arts & crafts" course tomorrow, crazy-craft for the stall this week and take the monkeys swimming. Luckily I will be able to keep them entertained when we get home with cornflour paste. I made this today as a little science project for them and they liked it so much they want to play with this again tomorrow. I didn't measure what I used but it was about a cup of cornflour, a couple of table spoons water and some food colouring, it should be a pva like consistency. Mix it in a low container (baby plate, tray) and it makes a fabulous paste that feels really sticky but the good thing is it isn't. If it drops on the floor it dries immediately and you are able to brush it up. The monkeys loved creating patterns that disappeared immediately.