29 April 2013

Bloggers of Note #2

Hello to you my bloggy friends!

I thought that today I would update you on some relatively new (to me) blogs that I discovered and just LOVE, as well as some old favorites. I read all of my blogs through Bloglovin' and you can follow this blog there as well, by clicking here!


Hook, Line & Sink Her - Katie's writing style is fantastic. I don't know what it is exactly, but quite often I will find myself spitting my cup of tea all over my pc/phone when reading her blog. So it is thanks to her that I don't drink blogs with a cuppa anymore!

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Once Upon a Time They Lived Happily Ever After - Danielle's blog is like no other blog! Her weekly Inked and Awesome posts are inspiring - making me what more tattoos! As well as having a lovely blog, she is also a lovely human being, super helpful and super nice.

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Bugs & Fishes by Lupin - I have followed Laura's blog for many years now, and have always found her work to be so inspirational. Laura has been dropping hints that big things are afoot for her and her business, so I am waiting with bated breath to see what treats she has in store!!

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Ohnorachio - I found Rachel's blog through Etsy, I spotted her gorgeous hand lettered notebooks and plates on there, and followed the trail to her blog. I adore her blog, it is filled with all the things I like most - crafting, baking, and looking round people's houses!

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Tilly and the Buttons - Tilly makes the most gorgeous clothes and even drafts, makes and sells her own patterns, such as the Mathilde Blouse. You may have seen her recently on the Great British Sewing Bee, where she went much too early if you ask me! Her blog is really instructional for sewing beginners and those with experience too.

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Thanks for reading
Ax

P.S. There will be a few new items going up in the shop later today - yay!!

27 April 2013

Versatile Blogger Award - Thank You

Good morning lovely bloggy people!

Today I have popped on here for a reason! And it is not to blather on about a load of rubbish for once!

I would like to say a ma-hoo-sive Thank You to the very lovely Danielle at Once Upon a Time... for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award! I hadn't hears of this award, so I did a google, and there is a blog dedicated to it. So now I know that the rules are:

The first rule of the VBA is you don't talk about the VBA... no wait, sorry, that's not right.

Rule the first:
If you are nominated, you have been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award.
Yay! Go me!

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Rule the Second:
Thank the person who gave you this award and include a link to their blog. 
Thank you Danielle!!!! - I have linked to your blog up there /\ and there is a link over there in my blog love sidebar too >

Rule the Third:
Nominate 15 blogs/bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award.
Rule the Fourth:
Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.
Oh I'm not very good at this, but here we go:
  •  I am obsessed with Doctor Who (you might have already noticed)
  • Our cat is named after Genghis Khan (who was totally awesome, thank you very much)
  • I have a tattoo on my back of a squiggly thing that I got done when I was 18 - I forget it's there most of the time. I would like more tattoos...
  • When I'm concentrating I stick my tongue out of the side of my mouth. So does my Mum. And so does Zoe.
  • I am seriously not good with house plants. I just have to look at them and they shrivel up and die.
  • I sometimes regret that I got ill halfway through my first year of uni and didn't finish my degree in fashion design. I don't have a degree at all. I have an HND though. In Business. Bit of a change there.
  • I hoard cookery books, but rarely (if ever) cook anything out of them.
Thanks for reading
Ax

26 April 2013

Etsy Finds Friday #16 - Geek Alert #2

Hello and good day to you my lovely readers - what a glorious morning! The sun is out, the birds are singing, and Zoe won't eat her breakfast! Gah!

How did you like my geeky theme last week? From the comments everyone seemed to like it! This week I have been obsessing over Game of Thrones, so I decided that would be this week's geeky theme! I read an article over on the IGGPPC forums about the languages created for the show, you can go and read it here (spoilers if you haven't seen the latest episode).

This is Etsy Finds Friday number sixteen - all of the previous Etsy Finds Friday posts can be found here. Please come back next week or subscribe so you don't miss out on next week's list!

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Crochet: Matching Khal and Khaleesi mug warmers from Tiny Leviathan! Martin and I need these for our morning coffees!


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Knitting: I have so many WIPs and this bag from Kelly Connor Designs would be perfect to keep them all together.


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Art: Ooh I am really tempted to get this print of the Houses of Westeros for Martin's birthday - Bensmind has lots of tempting geeky prints!


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Fashion: Ahh! I need this skirt from Nerd Alert Creations!! What is better than map + skirt + Game of Thrones?!?!


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Jewellery: I spotted this dragon tooth necklace on Daenerys (my favorite character!) and wanted it straight away - It will be mine! (from Lann)


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Home: I love these little stacking cups from abirdinthehand. I would have the Targaryen one, obviously!

P.S. I made a treasury as there was so much awesome Game of Thrones stuff - go and have a little look here.

Thanks for reading
Ax

24 April 2013

What's Been Occurring Wednesday #15

Howdy! What a rubbish morning it is here in rainy Carlisle!

We had another busy weekend. Well, a busy Saturday at least. Martin and his BFF Tony went for a loooong walk on Saturday, starting at High Street, and finishing up on Hallin Fell. As tempting as that sounded (ha!), I thought it might be better for Zoe and I to do something else. So after dropping the boys off at the south point of Haweswater, we pootled off into Penrith town centre (stopping for a Maccy D's on the way, obviously!).

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We had a few hours of mooching about in Penrith town centre, wandering about looking at the church and the 'castle' to get Zoe off to sleep (took ages).

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Then I looked in all the little crafty and handmade shops, and had a dig about in the charity shops (Martin and I love the Penrith shops - last time we went we got an awesome haul!). I was very well behaved, and only bought some Ladybird books for Zoe (and Martin and Me haha!).

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I also found the cutest little children's bookshop in the Arcade: Hedgehog Books (website)  (Facebook page) - a proper old-school bookshop, just like I remember from when I was little. It is such a shame that Zoe may grow up without bookshops. I remember when there were loads in every town - now, with online retailers offering such large discounts, it seems that these shops are becoming rarer. I am guilty myself of looking in bookshops, then ordering online, but the price difference is so massive. And I do feel bad that I am not supporting local businesses, but when you are on a budget, and have a book addiction, it's just not possible to pay full price for books. 

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Crafting: My second Etsy order! A lovely lady from Glasgow ordered two of my phone cases in the cutest colurs - I might make one for myself :)


Watching: Broadchurch! Who watched the finale? I guessed it was Tom's Dad, but totally did not see the whole 'meeting up to hug' thing coming. I am not sure where they can go with a second series to be honest. I saw the suggestion that it may be a prequel, focusing on the last case that Alec Hardy investigated. Hm, what to watch on a Monday night now?

Eating: I had a bit of a dinner fail on Monday. Gene & Diane looked after Zoe on Monday afternoon, then they came back here and had dinner. But I forgot to put the gammon joint in the oven to roast. So.. I had to 'hack' the joint to bits (I was attemptng to slice it into gammon steaks - fail!) and we eneded up having gammon egga nd chips instead of the lovely roast dinner we had planned. Silly Me!

Reading: Shameless self-promotion alert! I feel pretty famous at the moment! The lovely AnneeApple blogged about my little Etsy shop here in her Smitten Saturday post, and Suzanne blogged about my wedding mood boards on her blog here. Oh, I have also been given another award - blog post coming soon!! 

Listening: When I had a few hours to myself on Monday afternoon, I spent some of it with itunes blaring out random music, mostly Lady Gaga , Eurythmics and Fleetwood Mac. (Amazon affiliate links)

Lusting after:  I discovered the very wonderful kaeliya on instagram - she sends the cutest kawaii stationery, which led me to the amazing Kawaii Shop Japan. I wanted everything, but limited myself to three cute items - I will of course share when they arrive. The prices are very cheap, ad the postage is not too bad considering they come all the way from Japan! I rally want to write more letters. I am enjoying #PostCircle so much!!

Thanks for reading
Ax

22 April 2013

Zoe's Mobile

Hello everyone! Hope you are all well.

I haven't blogged about this mobile that I made for my little girl Zoe yet have I? I started to make it when I found out I was pregnant, and worked on it (on and off) until she was born really. My skills got better as I went along, so I am really not very happy with the first thing I made (the squirrel).  Zoe doesn't seem to mind though! Sorry if the photos are a bit fuzzy - it's quite hard to photograph a mobile - I took a lot of pictures and these are the best!

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I wanted to do a woodland theme, with owls and squirrels and mushrooms, so I made a list of all the items I could have, and sketched out lots  of ideas for how to put it together. 

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I decided that I wanted some big animals surrounding one long string with little things on it (like the toadstool, a butterfly etc).  As you can see from the sketches, my original idea involved sticks, but it became way to complicated to get everything balanced!! So I decided on a hoop with one long string in the centre.

I made loads of sketches in my notebook of different animals but decided on a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a squirrel, a fox and a rabbit. Other animals considered included a pine martin, a woodpecker, a deer and a magpie.

I sketched each animal and produced final patterns for each, which I cut out of felt and stitched up. 

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Butterfly and Badger - you can buy a butterfly brooch based on this design here in the shop.

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Squirrel and Ladybird - you can buy a ladybird brooch based on this design here in the shop.

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Hedgehog and Owl

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Fox and Bunny - the fox is adapted from one of Lupin's badges which you can see here - I had so much trouble getting the pattern right!!

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Toadstool (the brooch is available here) and the finished mobile

I plan on adapting the rest of the patterns to make them into brooches to sell in my shop when I get the chance (but not the fox, obviously!).

Which animal is your favorite? Let me know in the comments!

 Thanks for reading
Ax

19 April 2013

Etsy Finds Friday #15 - Geek Alert #1

Happy Friday peeps - I bet that those of you who don't work weekends are getting all happy right about now?

This week I joined the International Geek Girl's Pen Pals Club (IGGPPC), go and have a little browse. Welcome back! It's not just a pen pal link up efforty-bob, but a whole community of girls sharing the geeky love! Over the next few weeks my Etsy Finds Fridays will have a bit of a geeky theme - now, I've already done a Doctor Who themed EFF, so really that one should be number 1, but anyway... So each Friday I will bring you a collection of Etsy bits and pieces centered around one of my geeky loves. This week it's Harry Potter!

This is Etsy Finds Friday number fifteen - all of the previous Etsy Finds Friday posts can be found here. Please come back next week or subscribe so you don't miss out on next week's list!

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Crochet: How cute is this little Dobby doll? I would love to try making this, but if you can't crochet, you can buy a ready made one from Himawari Land


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Knitting: I love anything with the Deathly Hallows on it - these little hand warmer mitts make me want to learn knitting - they are from thingsthatclareknit. I just couldn't resist this photo - poor chap looks like he has been coerced into modelling - and his wand is a wooden spoon! What a dood!


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Art: I really want one of these pieces of art that look like an old bus blind - and this harry potter one is awesome - but I'm not sure if Martin would let me have it! From Entropy Trading Co


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Fashion: I really wish the Three Broomsticks existed in real life. And Butterbeer! This t-shirt from waycooltshirts is as close as I will get I suppose :)


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Jewellery: I've wanted a golden snitch piece of jewellery for sooo long! This one from caishenbeads is so classy!


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Home: A spell AND a grim! It's like a HP bonus item!! This Accio Coffee cup from My Crafty Momma is just the things to cheer up my mornings!

What is your geeky love?

Thanks for reading
Ax

17 April 2013

What's Been Occurring Wednesday #14

Happy Wednesday gorgeous! Is that a new top?

Well what a busy week I've had! On Friday I took Zoe to Busy Babies so she could have some messy play - and did she ever!! We got her hand and foot print done as well, it's a really sweet reminder of how small she is now, I only wish I had done the same when she was first born! Ah well!

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On Saturday we met with the wedding planner from the hotel, Charlie. He basically said that we can have whatever we want - which is always a good thing in my opinion!! I put together a couple of mood boards to show him what look we want (well, what look I want - Martin is letting me have full rein! Yay!). What do you think?

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After we did a little bit of shopping, we headed off to meet Gene and Diane for a walk up Sale Fell. It was so windy! I thought Zoe might not like the windy-ness, but she absolutely loved it, and chattered all the way up and all the way down again! Martin carried her up, and I carried her down (I think I got the better deal ha!). We also managed to collect a whole pile of sticks and cones to decorate the wedding with. We pootled back to Gene and Diane's for a yummy tea of chilli - a Saturday night tradition that has continued with Martin in our house!

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Sunday my Dad and Kath popped round for a bit, with the little girl they look after, and brought some bunting that she had made us for the wedding - it is so cute! She made some pink fabric bunting, and then loads of paper bunting decorated with paper hearts, sequins and collage - it's so cute! No photos yet - you will have to wait for the wedding!!

Sunday afternoon was the #CumbrianBloggers meet up, which I did a separate post about here. Needless to say, it was a fantastic afternoon, and I can't wait for the next one!

A brief summary of other events:

Watching: Broadchurch - who dunnit?? I can't wait for next week when we finally find out who the killer is - I'm sure Tom and his Dad have something to do with it!! Game of Thrones - I love Tyrion Lannister, even through he's supposed to be a 'baddie' - he is just so funny! Martin and I were in fits last night watching the latest episode, where he drags the chair around.

Reading: Still trying to get through book one of A Song of Ice and Fire - now that Zoe is moving into her own room it should be easier to read in bed at night!

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Martin is on book 2 and I am still on book 1.  Genghis is not reading any books at the moment.

Fave Blog Posts: Anna's post on her blog Miss Beatrix all about #PostCircle, featuring stationery created by the wonderful AnneeApple (blog) (facebook) - you will soon be able to buy it from her Etsy shop. This post by Caroline Rose Art that shows her process from first sketches to 'ready to colour' stage. She is amazing - I wish I had even 1% of her talent!

Crafting: I'm still working on my patchwork cross-stitch picture, I got some books out of the library as well, so I am hoping to create my own sampler to stitch as well.

Eating: Still ploughing through the Easter chocolate - I'm quite impressed with myself that its lasted this long actually!

Thinking about: Future blog posts - anything you want to see? What to cook for tea tonight - in fact, what to cook for tea any night - I think I will start meal planning. What to get Martin for his 30th Birthday in July - any suggestions?

Thanks for reading!
Ax

#CumbriaBloggers Meet Up

Hi there my lovely readers!

I had a lovely weekend - on Sunday I met up with a group of Cumbrian Bloggers at the I Love Cafe in Carlisle. It is a lovely cosy little cafe, with a fantastic selection of drinks and the most divine cakes and tray bakes!

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Photo from Jo's blog post about the meet up

We all met through a group on Facebook - when it started there were about seven of us, now there are more than 20! This was the second time people from the group had met up, I missed the first meet as I was in Whitby.  There were ten of us at this meet:

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From bottom left in a clockwise fashion in the photo above:
Jen from Jenny and the Magic Feather Jo from The Perfect Hiding Place, Sally from Sallytangle, Amanda from Amanda Uniquely, Alice from Tea and Lead, Caroline from All About the Girl, Ann from Prattle and Froth, Cat from Outside Beauty Inside Health. I am not in the photo as I am taking the picture, and Sue from Sooz In The Shed  is not in the photo above as she had gone home!

I had a lovely cup of tea, followed by a slab of very sweet rocky road cake, and a glass of sloe and raspberry cordial. The cupcakes and Victoria sponge looked so yummy as well. I was so excited (and hungry) that I forgot to take any photos of the food and drink! But I did take some of the cafe:

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Again, these two are from Jo's blog post about the meet up
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Buttons (yay!) Stuck to a table (think someone's already been pilfering them!)

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I loved this table covered in old photos and postcards.

After we had finished eating (and chatting!!) we took some photos of the cafe, paid the bill, and moved on the the King's Head pub around the corner (one of my fave pubs in fact). The chatting continued, although we lost a couple of bloggers along the way, who had to go home, catch trains etc. I had a very nice fruity beer. Yum!

We talked about having another meet up, possibly in May, for the whole of the North, not just Cumbria. Some of the girls have already started planning. If you are interested, just let me know!

I will be back later with my What's Been Occurring Wednesday post!

Thanks for reading
Ax

15 April 2013

PostCircle and Stationery Haul

Greetings to you!

I've spoken about #PostCircle before, here and here and here. I am enjoying it so much - I love coming in and finding a pretty decorated envelope or little package waiting for me on the mat. #PostCircle is groups of six people, put together by Anna from Miss Beatrix - I am in the Red Deer group (each group is named after an animal) and so I'm getting to know some lovely people as well, including:

Serena
Twitter: @serenab_
Instagram: @thisis_serena

Megan
Twitter: @megsweetpea
Instagram: @peggysweetpea

Anna
Twitter: @annaphi

Emma
Twitter: @oh_gosh
Instagram: @ohgoshem
Blog: ohgoshem.blogspot.co.uk

Helen
Twitter: @timewasting 
Instagram: @helahic


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First letter - exciting!!

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Second Letter - exciting too!

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 Third letter - well, card - exciting as well!

With all this lovely post coming my way I decided that I should perhaps stock up on some stationery, so I scoured ebay and (using a nice discount code) Paperchase and bought:

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Cath Kidston set from ebay

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Letter writing packs from Paperchase (and a pen too!)

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Washi Tapes and twine from Wilko (blogged about here)

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Stickers from Paperchase

I also did an Etsy Finds Friday post filled with stationery the other week (obsessed much?!)

Thanks for reading
Ax

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