SwirlyThoughts

Craft review of 2009

2010-01-01T06:11:00.001Z

A quick review of some of the crafts made in 2009! Lets hope 2010 will be just as crafty :)

2009 was busy!

2009-12-31T09:12:00.004Z

Ok so I have totally stolen Curly Pops idea of a 2009 recap (it's ok - she said we could!) I thought 2009 wasn't too busy but reading back over my blog it certainly was!

January

We went to France and did a whole lot of nothing, we made a start on getting rid of crap, I finally tackled the Craft Room and made it work for me, we settled into our new bathroom, I made a pact not to go to the scrapstore (hahahahahahaha!), I made my first toy for The Toy Society and then dropped it and at the end of the month I celebrated turning 31.

February

I made a few things, found the alternate use for peel offs, made a crafty gift for a little girl and entered a fabulous mug swap.

March

Was a very busy month! I was in a book, had a sampler made for the kitchen that is very true, I went to a fabulous jumble sale and to some great charity shops, I got a (very dodgy) fringe, I resolved not to go to the scrapstore again, I went to the scrapstore and wrote a feature about them, the girls told me they loved me, some artwork went up in the craft room and I wrote a tutorial about making your own padded envelopes.

April

April was use what you have month (for me anyway!), I made a curtain for the bathroom, made a cute squid called Sidney, did another Toy Society drop, filled a wholesale order, played in my Mum and Dads garden, left a chicken alone in my craft room which was a bad idea, had a commission from Anya and made a slug.

May

The girls turned into butterflies, I sorted some buttons to be sold, I introduced Phillis to the world, I went to my first Fuse Craft Collective meeting, we discovered some pencil monsters, I listed some notebooks, listed even more notebooks and made some elephant costumes.

June

I showed off the goodies I got from the Brocante in France in May, I tided my porch, WE GOT BUMBLE!!!!!!!!!, My husband was fab, Bumble went for his first trip, I did a quick refashion for Tara, Tara turned 3 and I started a mad project (which still isn't finished!)

July

I had a teeny-tiny piece of cake, things jumped into my arms whilst shopping, I love my mum, Bozo needed some TLC, the girls made some teacher presents, Anya dressed up as a Native American, we went thrift shopping in America, I was creative at the airport and my dad is a superstar.

August

I got some new glasses, we went to Skipton Castle, Matt and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, we saw cock man in Paris (just waiting for the hits that brings in!), we went to a VW festival and I finished my first quilt!

September

The price of my gift tags went up and I'm pleased to see they are still as popular as ever, we laughed at the incompetence of the people who lived here before us, I developed a new obsession with a magazine, I opened a Misi shop, we put the door on the bathroom finally (yes the one that was finished in January!), Tara had her first day at nursery, we made jam again, I made a book bag for Tara and developed a new range of cards.

October

Anya had her portrait painted, I made a nappy cake, I went to my first Ilkley Arts Market, two friends went to Australia for a good cause, I wrote a tutorial about how to use Craft Juice and I designed yet another range of cards.

November

I made some Christmas trees, Tara was a rainbow girl, some chicken cards were made, Anya turned 6, all the artwork made it up onto the craft room wall, Anya had a fab party, I made some new chickens I love and I was featured seller on Folksy!

December

I went to the scrapstore again, the girls cooked tea for us, Woody got a little too friendly with the Barbies, I had a couple of great fairs, the girls opened a shop, we got scissor happy with paper, Gramps had a birthday, we had fun in the snow and I had a sort out in my shops!

Phew, what a busy year!!

Christmas day

2009-12-30T13:23:00.003Z

I just realised I didn't show you what I wore on Christmas day.

The pink sequinned top was teamed with a plain black skirt at first but it lacked pazazz so I opted to wear it with this turquoise skirt instead. I had to tuck the top in rather than have it out as it didn't look right. I liked it anyway! Here are some more pics from the big day.

The girls unwrapping their favourite things - books!

Santa was very good to them (he brings the stocking presents in our house) and the girls got these fab ballet tiles from Leigh Shepherd. They were very impressed that Santa knew they had seen the tiles at a craft fair and that they had liked them! Santa also brought them some fabulous crocheted hair bobbles from Jennyflower and some cute rainbow cats from Quernus.

And here is Matt opening his Star Wars cats from Kirsten at Quernus too. He was very impressed :)

So I went shopping yesterday.......

2009-12-29T06:36:00.000Z

......and bought a few things :D We were heading into Manchester anyway to have lunch with some friends who have come 'up north' to visit friends and family. We were some of those friends :) We had to call in at Paperchase as they were having a huge sale and I'd spotted some decorations in the window.

I couldn't resist these glasses! They are just perfect for me! And they were down to £2 so a bargain :)

These bauble also called to me - too cute!

And a new notebook for me - I couldn't resist the birds! We also went into Primark and we all got a few things. I only took photo's of a few items though - all of my things!

A new top! I like a bit of bling, it's my inner Bet Lynch coming through :)

And some new hair things - these are staying away from the girls!

Treasury

2009-12-28T06:14:00.000Z

I've made a treasury featuring lots of lovely birds!

Go see!

Bah Humbug!

2009-12-27T09:45:00.004Z

This has been the view from my front door for the past week or so.

Very pretty and white but I am glad to say that it has been raining steadily in Burnley for the past couple of days and the snow has nearly all gone - yeah! It means we might be able to get the car out of the bottom road at last (it has been stuck there since Monday!)

A change around!

2009-12-26T18:49:00.003Z

I am in the process of moving all my mixed media artwork and Aceo's out of my Swirlyarts shop and into my Anya's Attic shop. When I asked for comments about my Swirlyarts shop most people said that the artwork didn't really fit in with the recycled/repurposed nature of the main shop and that I should open up another shop just for them. Instead of that I decided to move them to Anya's Attic where they fit in much better! And just as a reminder, here are some of the pieces that will move or have been moved so far.

I will be discontinuing my 'normal' drawn Aceo's and have reduced them to $1 each and you can find them here in my clearance section. There aren't many left now so hurry if you want one. Some I have already taken out of my shop and they may form part of a giveaway soon :)

I am having a big clear out in terms of stash and of made things so keep an eye out - I will let you know here of course first!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T06:49:00.000Z

May your day be jolly and bright!

With plenty of fabulously decorated Christmas cake just like this one!

Merry Christmas to one and all :)

Christmas eve 2009

2009-12-24T19:34:00.003Z

1. Lots of frantic early morning tidying and sorting ready for tomorrow.

2. Picnic lunch with Matt's delicious salmon rolls (we know it's Christmas when they are made!)

3. Snuggling on the sofa with hot choc, Quality Street and some Disney Christmas films.

4. The lighting of candles and sitting in near darkness watching the tree lights

5. Excited girls carefully choosing the right plates and bowls for Santa and Rudolph's snacks.

6. The thoughtful writing of a note to Santa.

7. Lots of giggling and excited smiles as we tracked Santa via Norad.

8. Finally hanging up the stockings in their bedrooms (near the door so Santa can find them easily!)

9. Some snuggling on the sofa for Mummy and Daddy - perfect!

I hope your Christmas Eve has been good :)

Winter wonderland

2009-12-23T07:56:00.004Z

Lots of pictures of my in-laws garden!

The bridge next to the pond

The frozen pond

The view across the pond and back up the garden

The very bottom of the garden. I wasn't taking pretty photographs all the time though.

First there was the obligatory foot shot (I do these all the time!)

Then there was some sledging to do (whilst getting wet through!)

Some footprint making in the fresh snow

And some chasing of Grandad as he whizzed down the slope! I didn't get a photograph of him bumping into the wheelbarrow ;)

Gramp's birthday

2009-12-22T19:05:00.003Z

Matt's Granddad (Gramps to the girls) had his 96th birthday on Sunday.

Here he is looking happy to see his family.

The girls were very eager to give him his presents - they helped him open them too :)

And he seemed to have a good day which is always nice. The girls were thrilled to see Gramps too and Tara danced and sang for him! Always the showoff! Anya was a bit shy :)

Whooo hooooo - some evidence of craft activity!

2009-12-18T06:48:00.000Z

Can you believe it? I was so tired this week after the manic panic of the past few weeks with fairs and orders and madness that I haven't been creating much. And admittedly these items were made during that period of madness but have actually been listed rather than languishing in the 'to put onto Etsy/Folksy/Misi shop' folder I have on Flickr!

Some cute Hippo recycled gift tags - they are cuter in person! I also have the covers from this book turned into a small notebook if you know someone who likes hippos! No photograph of the notebook though yet.

Around the House gift tags (set 1) These are great and came from a vintage word book. There are some great illustrations :)

And Around the House set 2 gift tags - from the same word book as above.

That's all so far although there are many items to be listed yet - hopefully next week when I cut back on the Cuteable posts for a little while! 3 a day this week has been tiring me out!

Teacher presents

2009-12-17T06:27:00.001Z

The teacher presents are bagged up and ready to go.

The bags are from Ikea and match the lights on the tree.

And the tags are recycled from the fronts of last years Christmas cards and the presents are some of my recycled Christmas trees :) Hope the teachers like them!

The goose is getting fat!

2009-12-16T06:51:00.000Z

Following on from yesterdays blog title! The other day the girls got a little scissor happy with some white paper and made a mountain of snowflakes - and I mean a mountain!! I decided to use some of them to create a display on our front window - hopefully it will give the postman something to smile about :)

Here are some of my favourite ones :)

Simple but effective!

Christmas is coming!

2009-12-15T14:34:00.004Z

And here is the big tree in the front room :)

No tree is complete without a Santa

Or a snowman - Tara has a personalised one too.

You need a handmade Rudolph.

And of course in this house you need a chicken!

I tried to get some photographs of the other special decorations but the camera/lighting situation just wasn't working!

Katies Little Kitty

2009-12-13T10:25:00.004Z

Is the name Anya has given her shop where she is selling handmade items. It's the name of her blog too apparently!

Here she is in her shop - it's beautifully set out!

She has original artwork for sale (right hand side) along with some craft supplies - she felt it was important to diversify!

Original playdough models - abstract of course.

Handmade business cards - don't know where she gets that from :)

She has also rented some of her shop space to her little sister.

Here is Tara's rainbow rock.

And her handmade business cards :)

Can I just say that I love my girls very much!!! And yes, the shop is open for business and no, they don't mind if you turn up in your nightie!

Busy busy!

2009-12-12T20:11:00.004Z

Phew - what a couple of days! Yesterday (Friday) I was the offices of The Environment Agency in Warrington for their Green Fair. It was a small fair this year (as it was the first) but it was very well organised and attended too by the staff there. It was done to coincide with an initiative they were launching to reduce the waste they send to landfil and as a keen recycler they wanted to get me in to ensure it wasn't to 'worky' for the people attending. I also got lunch thrown in and was very good and managed to stay away from the two chocolate fountains!

Today I was back in Ilkley with the Keighley Arts Factory gang and Jo who did a grand job of organising and stall sitting when needed. So I am a little tired now and need to go and see what sold so I can re-open my shops :)

I was planning on putting these fabulous three language (English, German and French) Thomas the Tank Engine envelopes up into my shops this week but both sets sold at the fairs and there were only enough non-damaged pages to make two sets! I'm hoping to get round to turning the covers into a notebook soon.

My Creative Space

2009-12-10T17:45:00.003Z

Is quite boring (in terms of creativity) today.

I spent 2 hours making 89 business cards from some scraps of fabric from the scrapstore and plain boring business cards.

They are for an event I have tomorrow and a fair on Saturday. The event could be quite interesting as I haven't done anything like this before so I have no idea if stock will sell or whether I need quite that many cards (I have more already made) However the event is free, I am getting lunch and it is all about recycling/eco things so I think I will fit in quite well! Kind of hoping I don't sell out of things/run out of business cards as I have a fair on Saturday too :)

And this is what my cards look like after they have had the 'Swirly' treatment - eye catching and memorable!

Bit of a poo day but oooooooh sparkly!

2009-12-09T15:35:00.003Z

In the middle of the night I woke up to the sound of an alarm going off - I went downstairs but by the time I had got to the dining room the alarm had stopped. I had a quick look at the cars (through the hedge) and couldn't see any flashing lights etc to indicate that the alarm had gone off on either vehicle. Anyway, Matt took the girls up to school this morning and came back to tell me that Bumble had been broken into and the stereo stolen. I called the police and they came to check for fingerprints/blood etc but nothing there. The annoying thing (apart from the broken window and the missing stereo!) was the fact that they pulled all the fuses out to turn the alarm off and therefore the lights, indicators, windscreen wipers didn't work! Matt has managed to to fix most of them but we don't have windscreen wipers or indicators at the moment! Tricky when we live in a very rainy part of the country.

Anyway I managed to go to the charity shops this afternoon for a quick mooch while Bumble was getting his window fixed. I bought this bright sparkly top which I thought had potential for Christmas!

It's a little old ladyish but who better to channel old lady that moi :) Oh and I have to say that the old lady who served me today was fabulous! She had turquoise eyeshadow on, a ring on every finger, bracelets, necklaces, a green sparkly jumper with a fab waistcoat over the top. She was great :)

So maybe Bumble was broken into to bring this fab pink top to me? A little drastic but you have to look on the bright side right?

It's Chriiiiiiissssstttttmaaaaaaaas!!

2009-12-08T06:28:00.000Z

And the gnome lights are on the little tree - happiness reigns :)

I did have some pics of both trees in the dark but they were so blurry that I decided not to use them. I'll try and get some today of the individual ornaments as some are very funky :)

Toys having fun!

2009-12-07T19:45:00.003Z

This is the scene that greeted me when I went to tidy some Barbies away into their basket - Woody looks a little too happy in there!

See what I mean!

I think he likes the fact that the Barbies are nearly all naked :) I did think (briefly) about posing them in different positions but this is a family friendly blog after all! ;)

Bolton Abbey Craft Fayre

2009-12-05T20:13:00.003Z

Is where I will be tomorrow with the lovely Ruth :) Details are here and we are in the village hall which is a big modern building right next to the village shop! Oh and a great big car park too! Again, the special fair offer is on - buy something and let me know you read the blog/follow me on Twitter etc then you will get a free set of gift tags :D

You may get to choose these tags as your freebies!

Friends!

2009-12-05T06:11:00.000Z

Remember these two?

Well if you look carefully you can spot Mr Apple Cat in the Meet Me At Mikes window below :)

Can't see him?

There he is!!! Next to that gorgeous big pink plush :) All of this is done by the lovely Pip over at Meet Me At Mikes for The Mirabel Foundation - she deserves an extra big cheer :) Hurrah to Pip!

Fish Triple Decker

2009-12-04T06:22:00.000Z

Tea last night was cooked by the girls :) They decided to make fish triple decker from I Can Cook which is a new cookery programme on Cbeebies (beats those two goons dancing around - you know who I mean!) The girls were very enthusiastic and enjoyed ripping the mushrooms and olives up and tearing the bread to make breadcrumbs. They didn't enjoy the tidying up but they are only 3 and 6 after all!

Here is what the food looked like.

Anya's before the oven.

Tara's before the oven.

And this is what it looked like once it had cooked - it was delicious! We had it with home made potato salad :) The girls are already thinking about what to make next - they can't decide between Savoury Hotpot, Tomato Spirals or Cheesy Chicken. I'm leaning towards the cheesy chicken myself :)

My creative space

2009-12-03T11:58:00.004Z

This morning I confirmed another event which means I have 4 fairs/events before Christmas! I'm panicking slightly as these past 2 weeks have been busy online too. Earlier in the week I turned my kitchen table into a tag making venue and it has been added to during the week - things have been coming off the table too I hasten to add :)

We can just squeeze in for meal times if I remove the big pieces of card!

I had to move some tags onto the side last night to make room for fajita's - yum!

The girls are making tea tonight -fish triple decker - so I need to clear the table for that. Tags and a 3 and 6 year old making tea do not go well together!

Visit the queen of creative spaces here.