I'm in love with...

...these cute little boats and lanterns by Jurianne Matter. Her paperwork is available on notonthehighstreet.com. What's not to love, the colours, pattern, styling and vintage maps to boot!

This weekend, right after the crafters meet up at the design centre cafe, I'm going apple picking! The idea is that volunteers (me) pick excess fruit from garden trees and take them to people who need them such as refuges and hostels. I absolutely LOVE helping people so this is a win win situation, plus I get to spend an afternoon climbing trees - yay!

Here's something appley to celebrate:
Apple broaches by Kat Boon Design - very autumnal!

I feel a little autumn shop coming on...

Rather than grumbling about my canceled camping trip this weekend (rain stopped play), I decided to enjoy the autumnal weather by going for a country walk and a big pub lunch. It's blinking freezing!!! But the upside is, I don't have to wait for the first leaf to fall before I hit the shops.

I'm already sporting a cute pair of grey slouchy ankle boots instead of my standard issue gladiators. I've planned a few autumn outfits and some disco eyelashes to help me grieve over the loss of summer.

I love the changing of the seasons - I get a massive design hit from all the new patterns and textures in both the shops and great outdoors. I've been designing my new collection so I'm like a sponge at the moment. I'm thinking about checks, autumn colours, berries, tweed, preppy styles and I love this red satchel. I organised a jumble sale a couple of weekends ago and amongst my vintage bargains (first picks) I got an old leather satchel - it's so cool!

I brought a pair of leopard print tights this week and they now feature on one of my new card designs! Well, that's my excuse for buying them - hmmmm, I wonder if that makes them tax deductible??

Little Vintage Dresser of Joy..

I picked this little beauty up off ebay today! I've been having a massive sort out, and needed a nice storage/display cabinet for the boudoir. I had a moment of madness and just bought it - it was one of those gut reaction things.

Just think...you pay £100 for a solid wood vintage darling like this but if you bought new you'd have a super flimsy, rattly bit of rubbish. It's a win win - quality craftsmanship, environmentally sound and something I'll still have when I'm 90 as it won't date!

It looks a little Ye Olde Inn at the mo but I have big plans for it. I'm going to paint it a nice grungy neutral then wallpaper the back of the display shelves in a fab wall paper, or I'll paint a nice pattern or illustration to work with the displayed items. I love natural shades with patterns and colours that pop. A bit like my cards I guess. I'll show you the after when it's done.

A little gift to you all...

Hmm, I've had such a nice day I'm feeling in a generous mood! Here's a little book label for you to print and keep, if you print them 8 up they'll fit snugly on a sheet of A4. Either print them on to a sticky label sheet or just plain paper and stick them on with good old pritt stick.

Now you can get busy with a cute book labeling project and pretend you're back at school.

Enjoy, but remember people: this is for personal use only....and have a good weekend. Yay!

China Town colour blast!

We went for the legendary Thai buffet in Pacific (go starving - there's a lot to fit in). After wards I had a mooch over to the mental craft shop in China town, it certainly blows out the cobwebs with the bright colours and mega kitsch merchandise! These are my colour inspiration pics from the Chinese Craft market.

I had to buy a lantern for the garden. I bought tons one year and hung them along the washing line for a bbq, only trouble was it was windy so I popped in to the kitchen to get some bbq fodder, when I returned the whole lot was on fire! A bit of a fire hazard with candles inside but they do look pretty.

UPDATE:

I'm putting on my heels and I'm off for a summery drink and an Indi film at the cornerhouse. I can get my fix of hustle and bustle down Oxford street.

Yay for a bit of fun!

On days like these...

...when the kids are driving me mad, the house is a tip etc etc, I dream of packing a suitcase and traveling back in time to my old job in The Big Apple. Sigh, I walked past this button every day. I used to get up pootle to work walking alongside huge skyscrapers, grab a cup of joe en route and take in the blue skies , abusive New Yorkers, and lovely hustle and bustle - it really made me feel ALIVE!


Weekends I used to spend rollerblading around Central Park, checking out the weekly roller disco. I'd look a bit of a sad div doing that round Old Trafford! but I think I need to inject a bit of glamour back in my life, it's all got a bit kitchen sink drama.

I can't afford a trip to NYC so I'll have to have a think and come up with some glamorous ideas. Help me have a think about cheap/free glamour??

I'm thinking, a gallery, some shopping, a night out, haircut, new make up?? HELP

One day, my ambition is for my business to be successful enough to be able to do the stationary show at Surtex, NY. Then I have a legitimate excuse to go! Watch this space (although you'll have a long wait!)

Answers on a postcard please.

Head in a spin

This is how my head feels at the mo! Only it's really not cool like this guy. Busy is not the word. I think I'm stuck on fast forward and I don't know how it creeps up on me. I think my enthusiasm for life doesn't tally with the amount of hours in the day.

Today I've resolved to get my life back to a manageable pace. Currently I run my card business, look after my 2 children plus 2 more, am studying a night course at college. I'm the president of a charity, I'm on the committee for our centenary garden who are organising a mini festival in 2 weeks, a member of a choir, I run the craft biz manchester meet ups, and somewhere in there I have to squeeze in friends, family and time out.

When I write it all down it's no wonder i feel like i'm spinning plates. I need to calm it down a bit, i'm coming undone at the seams.



Talking of break dancing, there's a wicked exhibition at the Lowry at the mo. It's an interactive dance type thing called Express Yourself - there's all sorts of costumes you can try on. My personal favorite was the hip hop bit, you can put on some gear and throw a few shapes in the disco room - perfect for forgetting about all those other jobs I should be doing!

Wild Swimming

The weather has just been too amazing for blogging!!! I've become lazy and haven't checked in for over a week. Hopefully you've all been outside too.

After my last post of Proper Camping, this week I have been mostly Wild Swimming. Heat in the city makes it really vibrant: HUGE afros, cool shades and t's, base pumping from cars, everybody out chatting, kids playing out on the street, hedge trimmers, ice-cream vans, the yout hanging out in the park. The cocophany of an urban summer. But when it all get's too noisy, it's time to escape the hot urban sprawl and go Wild Swimming.

That first dive in is totally FREEZING, but after your skin goes numb and you get your breath back you're fine. Having lived here for 15 years now I have my secret spots but there will be a place near you to swim outdoors so go on the wild swimming website and find one!

There's nothing more amazing! Just remember not to wear body lotion, hair products or anything toxic that will wash off in the water - remember living things share these waters with you.

Proper camping

We abandoned the festival we were meant to go to, for all it's noise, people and sensory overload (get enough of that with my busy life) and instead found a farm in the peaks to pitch up.

Our only neighbours were sheep (and a lot of sheep poo!). The facilities included a tap and a porta loo. The views were just stunning and I had a proper feel of nature and being at one with the land. I saw herons, swallows, rabbits and voles.

I also got a bit Ray Mears and went Ferral. I think I missed my vocation and should have been in the SAS. I come from generations of forces families and I only realised this weekend that it must be in my blood!

Top 5 Proper Camping activities:

Fire building
Setting up camp
Cloud spotting
Drinking round the campfire with good friends
Wittling sticks with your knife - pointless but fun.

I have an ambition to try Hardcore Camping where you build your own shelter in a wood and live off the land. One day.

One thing it did make me is a green warrior - you realise how much crap you create as a human. I made a vow to cut down on plastic, packaging, chemicals and unneccessary 'stuff'. When you live that basically you realise what you actually need and it really isn't that much. I'm also going to use biodegradable cello wrappers and vegetable inks for my cards in future.

In the meantime here's the view I woke up to every morning.

Take it easy Monday...

After another successful, and exhaustively busy sale at Chorlton Arts Festival. I decided, after all my hard work, I needed to kick back and relax with my little one this morning.

We painted our nails, had coffee (well I did), took a long walk round the park with the mutt and decided what to bake.

Here's my recipe for Wicked Flapjack (for normal sandwich box flapjack, or for those with heart conditions halve the butter and sugar)

Everything you need is written here on my HUGE floor to ceiling chalk board (very useful!)

Mix up the oats and Muesli in a bowl.

Look away now if you have a heart condition. Here's a massive wedge of butter, a good gloopy blob of golden syrup and a good dredge of golden caster sugar. There's no measurements just mix up equal amounts of each, the more you add the more wicked and delicious your flapjack.

Mix it all up together.

Find a good flat vessel. Something like this:

Squash the wet mix down with the back of your spoon(s).This is the point where if baking with toddlers you need to monitor the intake and spread of buttery flapjack mix!

Bung in the oven till golden brown on top.

Whilst cooling score into portion sizes. Take out when cold, this requires patience if you're as greedy as me.

Put on a cake stand, gobble it up and wash down with a cup of tea!

For even more wickedness add ground ginger to the mix and spread 1/2 an inch of melted choc on top. MMMMmmmmm.

Fun on the farm

After all that hard work it's lovely to get some green grass and big blue Somerset skies at my parent's. Not many Grandmas have a quad bike but this one does!

It's just idyllic, birds singing, chickens clucking, the smell of hay and curious horses nuzzling you.

And have you ever seen a madder hair do on a chook?? I actually laughed out loud at this funny character, he was all bossy and noisy as well! They're polish and totally bonkers.

We're very lucky that my Mum is horse and animal mad. A quick audit of animals they own:

10 Chickens
9 Shetlands
6 Full size horses
6 Cats
3 Dogs
10 Koi Carp
30+ Birds in a huge aviary
1 Parott

I've never added them up before, my God, that's mental!