One Lovely Blog Award - Thank You!

What's this? Two blog posts in a row? Goodness me! I wanted to dedicate a whole post to this as a thank you to Melissa of Hand Made Me for passing on a One Lovely Blog Award to me...thank youuu!


Melissa has a beautiful crafty blog filled with her own lovely creations, inspiring photo-posts and pretty colour-themed 'found' collections - go visit her blog and Folksy shop now and find yourself in a lovely sea of calm (oh, and whilst I was writing this, Melissa, the Glee version of 'Jump' came on...I thought you'd appreciate that knowledge haha!)!




As part of the award, I think I have to tell you seven interesting things about me, so here we go...!

1. I used to swim for Leeds when I was younger, and I still adore swimming more than any other type of exercise...I love, love, love it! When I haven't been for a few days, I actually long for the feeling of swimming (and beating all the men in the pool who are convinced they are faster than me...yes, I am competitive!)...aaaah!


2. I love the colour green more than any other colour...I would have a green house if I could!


3. I really really want to learn sign language, and one day I will - I can finger spell and tell the weather...but that's it so far!


4. I obtained my goldfish Mr Fish by accident, and he is apparently fifteen years old (I'm not sure if this is true, but he definitely looks pretty wise to me!) - he is also no longer gold, but white!


5. I'm a qualified tap dancer, and although I haven't danced for a couple of years, I do still love a good shuffle-hop-step in the kitchen when I'm making a cup of tea! The other members of my family are not so impressed with this fact...


6. I love pretty much all animals, except killer whales...I do not like killer whales at all.


7. My favourite films are the Indiana Jones films (well, hey, there, Harrison the Ford!)...I even love the second one with the Most Irritating Woman In The World! I wanted to be an archaeologist from being about six years old, and very nearly took archaeology at university...I look good in a fedora! Spot the difference!



I'm not sure how interesting those were haha but I'm going to pass this on to seven new Lovely Bloggers I've found recently!

1. MessyCarla for her inspiringly bright outfits, awesome hair and very readable posts!


2. crumbs for dinner for consistently posting mouthwateringly delicious recipes - including a VERY generous helping of veggie-friendly posts!


3. But Then Feminism Happened for making me giggle with every post!


4. Color Me Katie for simply being a delight to look at!


5. elevatormusik for her beautiful outfits and jealousy-inducing accessories!


6. Pearls, lace and ruffles for her smiley photos, pretty dresses and...really nice eyelashes! What?!


7. Herbs and Dragonflies Diary for tirelessly promoting conservation in our local area (and for occasionally featuring amusing photos of me taking part!)!


Congratulations, lovelies!

Well Hello!

Hey everyone! Apologies for the impromptu hiatus - I don't really have much of an excuse besides being pretty busy recently for lots of different reasons! I'm back now and full of things to ramble on at you about, so fear not, friends!

Firstly, Oliver celebrated passing his driving test by buying a car (of course!) - he's a Ford Focus that I have named Harrison (Ford - get it? ha!)...Oliver does not entirely approve of his name, but he doesn't really have a choice! Anyway, we had a little camping trip up to Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay over the weekend (so this week's missing Sound of Sunday was seagulls and sheep!) to test Harrison out!







Oh, hey there, camping hair...!

Secondly, following the craft stall, I've been trying to make as much as possible to keep my stocks up, which is not easy with an almost-full-time job and busy busy weekends, but I'm getting there! Check out these new sets of pretties:



What do you think?

This ties in with a thirdly, which is me finally setting up my Zibbet shop (what's that? you'd like to visit it? oh go on then!) - hurrah! It shouldn't have taken me nearly three months from signing up to setting up, but it's up now! Have a peek at the two new ranges I've just added over there (click images for Zibbet links)!

This one is based around locally-sourced dried flowers:



And this one nautical colours and ladybirds (aw!):




I feel a lot happier having a stock of cards rather than one-off versions - I do love my one-off ones, but it's costly to add them to both Etsy and Folksy when there's actually only one! It's nice having the back-up stock for when work and weekends become busy all of a sudden!

So although I've been a bit quiet recently, I'm definitely still here and I've been keeping up with all your lovely blogs - I've just been trying to get as much done as possible! Does anyone have any time management tips? I know a lot of you have jobs, crafty shops, kids, pets, hobbies and a million other responsibilities - how do you do it?!

Folksy Friday - Stars!

Hey everyone! Gosh this has been a busy busy week - plenty to do, and plenty I've just not had chance to do! This Folksy Friday theme is inspired by my doodles...when I'm trying to get a pen to work, or sitting on the phone, or writing a list, stars are what I doodle! There have been many stars drawn this week...and here are some more!












What do you doodle?

Clothes Swish and Craft Stall!

Hello there! I hope you've all had a pleasant start to the week! I spent a lot of yesterday making new things to fill up my shops with, and hopefully if I get time this week I'll be setting up a new online shop on Zibbet (does anyone else have one - what do you think to it?) - I'll keep you updated!


The Farsley Clothes Swish was a great success - both for the stallholders and the bargain hunters...and I was one of each!


That's me and my mum hunting for bargains (with my arms full of clothes, of course!)

My stall looked something like this (hello, stupid photo of me!):




This was the first time I'd had a stall, and I came away with lots of things to improve on next time:
- I'll have a plain table cloth to stop it looking too busy!
- I'll divide what I have for sale into 'types' - cards, brooches, decorations etc so that people can see exactly what I have
- I'll put prices on my table! I know I get uncomfortable asking for prices at craft fairs, so goodness knows how I managed to forget to make price signs, oops!
- I'll make a sign with my name on, to help people remember me! I quite fancy crocheting the letters, but I've not quite got that level of crochet skill yet, so maybe just a printed sign first!
- I'll colour-match my business cards with the table cloth - there was rather a lot going on haha

The other stallholders included Silverglaze Jewellery:


Zed-Designs:


and Clarise Designer Jewellery:


There were more, but these are the ones I think have websites - everyone had beautiful things on offer, which required spending some of my profits, obviously!

All proceeds from the swish went to Arthritis Research UK, so it was an evening well spent all round! Have you been to any good events recently?

Sounds of Sunday - Cara Dillon

Hello! I hope you're having a very relaxed weekend...we certainly are (plus plenty of crafting!), and we're relaxing listening to lots ofCara Dillon (thank you to my friend Amy at work for introducing me to today's choice!)!

















The clothes swish / craft stall went really well on Friday - I got some great bargains and made a few pennies, too! I'll tell you all about it on Tuesday :)