Off to the Post Office

Well its all done and after giving it a good while to dry the October giveaway painting has been packed and wrapped.

I couldn't post a photo even if I wanted to as I had almost completely wrapped it before I realised I hadn't taken one

It will be winging its way to

Cake makes the world a better place

today via special delivery and I hope it is everything you wished for April

Cheers for now gotta get off to the post office now

Cheers Alex

A place to call my own......

Mr P has absolutly stunned me, he came back from walking the dog yesterday to anounce that the house was not big enough for me to do everything in (PTA, Art, Sewing, glass painting,etc etc)
I wondered to myself
"Oh dear, where is this going!"
I am seriously in the dog house now!



With me looking glum he suddenly announced

"you need a studio!"
Do you want to rent one or build a cabin in the garden?



After picking myself up off the floor and dusting myself off
I agreed that a studio would be a fantastic idea.



If I could find something to rent locally I could go there while Daniel is at playgroup, but the easiness of having something at home would be good!

But would it be nice to get away from home and go to my studio, would I be less likely to seep arty stuff into the house?

A studio somewhere else would be usable as soon as I have located it,
A log cabin would be a while being built.......

What would you choose?



Better go and try and light the fire, it is quite chilly today!

I look forward to hearing your thoughts

x Alex

An award and a tag.....

Thank you Notes from my days for this award and the 7 things tag that came with it, ......


7 Things to do before I die

Loose weight (lots)
Get Married to Mr P
Grow old with Mr P and watch our Children grow up
Win the Lottery
Buy an old farm with a quadrant of buildings
Set up a Crafters workshop center with a salesroom in the quadrant
Become a recognised Artist

7 things I do now

Clear up after Children, Partner and dog
Christmas shopping including my own gifts
Clean out Jamie's guinea pigs and feed them
Gardening
Sewing
Crochet
Drawing and painting....and day dreaming!

7 things I can't do

Keep my mouth shut, I am always dropping myself in it!
Help being helpful, even if it means me going without....
Eat snotty eggs... you know when the white around the yolk hasn't been cooked properly
Handle heights... I even feel queesy playing tomb raider when Lara has to look down...
Put a book down when I start reading it....
Save money!

7 things that I find attractive in the opposite sex

Being spontaneous
Smelling gorgeous (musky aftershave)
Broad shoulders
Intelligence
Making me laugh
Generous
Being a considerate lover, my soul mate and my friend!


7 things I say most often

Jamie are you up yet?
Get a move on or your going to miss the bus...
Please pick that up and put it away
Teas ready
I am sooo tired.....yyaaaawn!
Juice or moo...?
Night night, love you!


7 celebrities that I admire (in no particular order)

Jamie Oliver
Ray Mears
Nigella Lawson
Jackie Chan
Jason Statham
Jean Kelly
Angelina Jolie


7 favourite foods

Chinese take-away
Roast Dinners
Beef Casserole with dumplings
Mums liver and onions
Ice cream
Custard
Rice pudding

7 People to join in this fun:

Joannes little patch of heaven
Karens play time
Buffys charms
cake makes the world a better place
marmaladekiss
marmaladerose
Mollycupcakes

Christmas Fayre preparations.... Oh My!

Well its that time of year again and I am sourcing and buying prizes for the raffles, Santa's grotto and all the other stalls that require a prize........


I realise that PTA is considered a dirty word by many but the amount of work involved to organise one of these events is horrendous...... I am paying for everything out of my own pocket and I hope I will eventually get the money back when I hand in the receipts.

For santas grotto I am trying to get prizes for the value of 75p, we will only charge £1 a visit and if we get 200 visits we will make £50, which is not a huge amount but evey little helps, we are however struggling to find a santa!

Childrens Raffle - We have asked parents for gift/prize donations but obviously you cannot risk sitting back thinking that it will all be donated so you have to have a fairly good display and any donations are a bonus....

I have asked several shops and companies for donations and the only one happy to donate a prize (the spider man web blaster) was the Entertainer... THANK YOU! I could hug and cuddle them for being so wonderfully generous!

The school only has just over 100 students, and I would imagine half will attend, so we are struggling to begin with really.

I have bid on several items on ebay in the job lot section, bubble blowing sets, clicky cameras and girls body art kit bags I have been succesful in getting them for good prices and one was a little too dear so I bartered with him and secured the price I am willing to pay.... yeah for persistent cheek!

I have also bought a very large inflatable snow dome, its only 6ft tall and I will use outside the hall to try and entice children and their parents in.... this is however mine and I will get Mr P to install it on our drive.... I am a sad lady indeed, and in all its tacky gaudyness it will do what it is designed to do and entertain the kiddy winks, it blows polystrene balls around and has 3 snowmen inside it and lights up!

Oh well onward and upward!
Tata for now....

Busy weekend and a kitchen makeover

Mr P foolishly came home Friday and asked me "is their anything you would like me to do this weekend" and I laughingly asked him to fit a breakfast bar 2 cupboards and a work station for my painting gear (I don't have room for a work room or studio) and love him to bits he slogged his guts out and did it for me!

He even fitted a glass fronted cupboard and wine rack....
It has to be said that I have never seen 6 bottles of red wine last this long in our house, he doesn't want to drink any as it will ruin the display.....

The original kitchen was the brown doors and the previous owner fitted black worktops and tiles, now I am not a great lover of black tiles and worktops but I realise that we cannot afford new everything so I decided to stick with the same colour worktop and I am going to purchase replacement doors from now until Christmas and turn the whole kitchen white, it looks so much bigger with lighter colour doors. I have been promised an Aga in the spring so next winter my kitchen will be warm and inviting too! Its surprising how cold the tiled floor makes it plus apart from the open fire in the lounge we have no heating in the house whatsoever....

I am also going to recolour the tiles with some tile paint, but Mr P is not too keen on this idea...

My workstation is very compact, but I am so chuffed that I now have an area that I can call my own. Once I have sorted out the lounge I will take some snaps of that too, and you will have visited our whole downstairs..... apart from the bathroom but that is a nasty little hole and needs gutting and complete refit.... I am not sure if the previous owner was plastering the walls with his fingers or icing a Christmas cake, it is seriously nasty!

I have to finish of the edge of the worktop but I didn't have time today as I took my mum to Haskins at Shepton Mallet so that she could buy a new 3 piece suite I have never been to a shop with so many stairs and with little nooks and corridors everywhere how Daniel lasted the day bless him...I will never know, he did get a new nee neer (fire engine) for his wonderful behaviour, I would have taken a picture but he had to take it to bed with him. I also need to buy 2 bar stools but I am really struggling to decide which ones to get...

So for all his hard work I have gotten the coffee ready and shoved a chicken in the rotisserie and the spuds are baking in the oven, Mr P won't be home till gone 8pm as he is trying to cram in as many hours as possible to cover the time off he'll be taking over Christmas as he won't get paid holiday being a contractor!

I must admit I love my rotisserie, I can cook a chicken in 90 minutes and I don't have to baste it once, and it is so moist and tender....

Dearest Mr P thank you for being such a wonderful friend, partner and dad, I don't know what I would do without you!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend too!

*Alex*

Ho Ho Ho.....

Thank you to everyone who pops in to visit, I do so enjoy reading all your comments and I hope I don't bore you too much with my average antics and boring life.......

The craft fayre on Wednesday was a successful evening in that they raised £150 for charity, but I would estimate that during the hole evening 12 people came in...... I and many others from the estimated 23 stalls didn't sell a jot!

It was however a fun evening meeting a lot of like minded people and a couple of friends I haven't seen in a while.....I think I need to get out more!

I have decided that I am never doing one again. I really don't have the time or energy to get into it and I absolutely hate selling my own art work and crafts. I find it incredibly uncomfortable selling items that I have created. Hence the reason I generally give them away!

I spent 12 hours painting a Christmas design with acrylics on a canvas I found on a shelf in the shed, I started it 5pm Tuesday evening and finished around 2:30 in the morning and then resumed finishing touches Wednesday morning and then dashed out the door to drop Daniel at Mums so that I could help Joanne pack cakes and wash up while she baked and then legged it home via mums to collect Danny man, to finish off the painting and pack the car for the craft fair!

what a pa lava!



I am glad I didn't sell the painting as I want to add some gold leaf to the star and sleigh bells so I have time to add finishing touches....... Mum wants me to get it copied and make it into Christmas Cards or a poster so that she can put it on her lounge door at Christmas so I will have to look into printing costs. I have to admit I am dubious about posting images of my Art work as I have been ripped off on numerous occasions, which is probably the main reason I have given up designing wallpapers and furnishing fabrics, it is soul destroying to have your ideas and designs stolen, I don't mind people borrowing it as long as my name is attached to it, and it is not being used for financial gain by others.

Unfortunately that is not the world we live in and greedy unscrupulous people will always rip off the trusting, kind people of the world.


I also love to draw fantasy pictures, I blame my brothers as most of my youth was spent listening to them play role playing games and I am a sucker for a good myth or legend. I have always drawn horses, I was mad on them as a child, I don't ride any more as I am way to fat and I would pity the poor horse that had me on their back, but the feeling of freedom and exhilaration as you cantered across fields and felt alive was amazing....


I found a picture of a horse in one of my many reference books and I made up the rest of the image from my imagination.... I love the sea and through many hours of life drawing at college I am not to bad at drawing a figure, but if you are ever in doubt cover as much as possible with cloaks and clothes....

I hope you enjoy looking at my images and by all means use them for our own personal pleasure but please do not use them for financial gain.

Bye for now and I will be starting my next painting which will be "Cakes make the world a better place" October give away prize!

XX Alex

Oh dear...where is all the time going?

I am seriously running out of time, I was talked into doing a craft fayre on the 12th of November and I am progressing into panic mode as I start to doubt the quality of some items I have made and wonder if I will have anything finished for the evening in question.... Joanne from her little patch of heaven is sharing the stall with me so I am popping around tomorrow to draw up a battle plan.......

I have drawn up the layout for Cakes make the world a better place's painting and she has had a look and given me the go ahead with one alteration, well a painting wouldn't be complete with a cake stand, I think I will have to fill it with fairy cakes too........mmmm yummy! and I will be onto that project after the 12th is out of the way......


I have been crocheting a sampler blanket testing out all different types of crochet styles, I am not sure where I am going with it next as I have reached that self doubting stage, plus I could easily sit and crochet all day, but unfortunately my house pixies have not been taking on the slack of me not doing the housework, however I must thank my wonderful mum for doing a stack of washing up on Tuesday night when she baby sat so that Mr P and I could go to the PTA meeting, thank you Mum!

The PTA meeting was a scary event as I realised that the Christmas Fayre is only 4 weeks away and I have a ton of prizes to source...... (4th Decemeber)
the Christmas concert in the Church with Sherborne Town band is only 6 weeks away (18th December) and the Santa's Grotto is the following day (19th December), and I will need to get 200 presents for that and wrap them!

I also have a 4 page PTA newsletter to do and advertising for all of the above.....

Oh dear, Oh dear!

I think I am definitely going to arrange a wrapping evening and get a few parents to lend a hand!

Crochet and craft...arty things!

I have been crocheting with metallic thread which is quite stiff and I made a panel box, I think I will embellish it with some dangly beads...... the first thing I crochet which wasn't planned it just ended up being a weird bag, and a pair of granny gloves, I have 3 panels for another box.

I have 16 hours of 12 days of Christmas to do based on the fact that I got 15 pictures done yesterday in 5 hours, I have just realised that I am a swan short so I will knock up another one this afternoon......My friend (the Brownie pack leader) is so pleased with them that she is colouring them in herself, I think the brownies will be adding glitter and sparkly things and then using them for a parent production.

The maids a milking were fun and when I put them all together I realise that some of them look familiar and some are quite buxom.

I like the one below she looks like Britney Spears!

I have completed 3 of the ladies dancing they are quite fun too.....

Well I had better get a wriggle on I have the village cafe this morning and I had better get the little man ready, I think I might take some crochet with me.... I am so hooked it is untrue and I have 3 bags of wool from the Scrapstore, which a local shop donated, some are half balls others are new and I feel so much more alive with all these lovely colours around me.....

must go toodle loo!

* Alex *