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 *

Happy Halloween!

For everyone not holding or attending a Halloween party,
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The car became a ghost car,
I ran out of time but I was going to cover it all with tormented souls!

The wheelie bin was covered and the giant pumpkin my cousin grew was duly carved and displayed at the feet of the bin bag spiders perch....

The bin bag made up the body and I had strips of netting for the legs!

The bat from last night was stuck to the door and the hanging witch flew beneath.....

OOOOOOooohhhhhhh Happy Halloween to all !!!!!!

Halloween craft party......

I was up to 1am Wednesday night preparing templates cut out of lino squares and getting the bags of scraps into cardboard bins and plastic tubs ready for the big event........and sorting out my crafting paraphernalia, I managed to get plastic table coverings from the Scrapstore.

I decided to make witches out of old Costa coffee cups from the Scrapstore, I made a template to cover the cup and photocopied a reflected witches head that could be coloured in and stuck on top... I then drew witches arms and photo copied them ready to be coloured....
once she was assembled a blob of glue gun on the top of the cup and her cape could be attached.

A black flappy bat made out of card was my next creation, I also cut the templates out of lino squares (they are easy to draw around and are almost indestructible) and stuck on eyes using sticky back plastic, the wings were cut out of another piece of card and they can be stuck to the wall, or hung on a piece of string from the end of a bamboo stick.....

The whizzy witch was coloured in and stuck onto a circle of card that I then glue gunned onto a silver dish, I cut out a couple of stars.....

Unfortunately I completely forgot to take a photo of the hall after I had set up, and before I knew it people were arriving, children clamouring to make and do, and Danny man seemed to have this inane habit of not looking where he was going and walking into tables.....

we started at 3pm and (some arrived at 2:30) and everyone had snacks and drinks at 4pm and then we carried on making till 5pm, which really became 5:30 as the children did not want to leave and the 5 parents that stayed seemed to be having tons of fun too.......

The witches were very popular, a couple of the boys made daleks, and some of the girls made pots and pumpkins and their were even a couple of finger puppets, the bats were very popular.

I was astounded by how many of the children that wanted everything done for them and looked at me with disbelief when I said they needed to go and cut it out or draw round something or even colour something in.... is this due to to many gadgets to play with and they have never learnt how to make and do things?

All the children were year 5 and above, apart from one little sister that came, and they all had a wonderful evening and even though it cost me to hire the hall and to purchase the scrap it was well worth it. I would do it differently next time in the fact that I would ask for a donation to go towards the cost of the hall. One of the parents that stayed to help did ask parents collecting children for a donation but most had no money on them but some had a pound so I did get £7 towards the £25 cost.

All in all it was a lot of preparation and hard work but the end result was worth it, they all had a great time and made some thing for Halloween and hopefully learnt something new.

6 days to go.....

Well its been a dull chilly afternoon so the fire has been lit, and smudge our springador is a happy lad, being a cross between a liver and white springer spaniel and a chocolate labrador he has plenty of bounce but not a lot going on between his ears!



The 12 days of Christmas continued........

The 4 calling birds have been joined by their 2 missing friends, one is slightly larger scale than the other 3 but I am sure the Brownies won't mind....

5 golden rings are nestled in their own sprigs of holly....

6 Geese "a" laying, actually 3 are "a" snoring...!

and 2 swans "a" swimming..... the other 5 should be swimming soon, but I need to cut up some more brown cardboard to mount them on......

so I only have 6 more days of Christmas to complete, unfortunately that is still 55 pictures so I had better get tea on the go and get cutting some board..... plus Daniel has just woken up so he will want to get his toys out again.... its a bit of a struggle when you only have the lounge and the kitchen to accommodate everything but no doubt I will manage....

Hi Ho, its off to work I go!!!!!

Mad as cheese and as busy as can be!

12 Days of Christmas

I have asked to draw the outline images of the 12 days of Christmas, and it is something I have always wanted to do as the images are so fun.... I have 78 pictures to do in total as she would like them individually drawn.

I have drawn the partridge in a pear tree...

The 2 turtle doves are done too......

3 French hens are busy laying......

and 2 of the 4 calling birds are singing their little heads off.....

70 more to go and I am afraid I will probably show you them all!

sorry, I am a very sad muppet!

Granny squares
Well I think they qualify as granny squares, I have learnt to read crochet patterns and I am feeling very chuffed with myself...... this is the second making of this square as when I got the end last time I hadn't counted enough stitches in the middle and it left me with a strange end result that looked as naff as it was.... I still have a couple of bits that I went wrong on but I think for my second attempt it isn't too bad.

Jewellery making

I made 3 necklaces Thursday night, I am getting better at the fiddly bits and after purchasing some Gold plated clasps and findings that have tarnished I am sticking to Stirling silver only.

Beaded Crochet gift bags
I pre-threaded some thin crochet yarn and made up a pattern for some little bags with a double crochet frill around the top. When ever you want a bead, you pull it up the thread and place it in the stitch and bobs your uncle fanny's your aunt...... I could probably get a less random effect if I planned it and counted stitches but I haven't gotten that far yet.

The canvas, table top easel, acrylics and brushes are poised to get started with April's painting but I think I would be a pushing my luck if I took over the rest of the kitchen with a painting project at the moment......
I think I have been bottling up all my artistic needs for so long that as soon as I took the lid of and let my fingers free and gave my mind permission to have creative thoughts again I just can't stop it ...... and to be honest I don't want to....

Thank you for reading my insane ramblings and feel free to leave me a comment...

tara for now

Alex xx

Crafty Halloween and Scrapstore Heaven

I Think I must have had a sudden rush of blood to the head as I have organised a crafty Halloween afternoon for 18 children.....

I had loads of fun designing the invites

and even wrote a poem, I named her Ardnaxela as that's my name backwards

To cater for this many children, which incidentally seems to be growing as Jamie added two more today, I had to do a run the Scrapstore, I use to work at the Scrapstore and I loved it.
I actually got paid to fetch the scrap from companies, sort it, display it and sell it per basket or trolley and I even got to make projects and run workshops to teach adults how to make stuff. so that they could teach it to others, how cool is that!

It was a fantastic job but I couldn't stay as the stress involved dealing with company ideals was too much and the true potential of the business was not being utilized fully and I had to quit for my own sanity's sake.

It is chocker block with all manner of clean re-usable scrap be it fabric, paper, wood, plastics, carpet etc etc....

There is even an art shop.... it is a crafters paradise!

Some items are sold individually, while the bulk of items can be bought by the trolley load or basket full

a trolley of scrap is £14.50 and a basket is £4.75
Scrapstores can be found all over the country there is a really big one in Portsmouth, some have membership others like ours can be used by anyone for a membership of 50p

Daniel loves it down there, but obviously as its a warehouse environment children must be supervised

I bought a collection of items for Halloween and for my own stock, I managed to get 5 metres of baby blue windjammer fabric and 2 meters of petrol green windjammer for £1 a meter, the baby blue was going to become curtains for my landing but as it hangs so nicely I may use it for a table cloth, as I have been invited to a craft fayre in November.

I picked up ticking, scrap green and black fabric, paper cups and cardboard ice cream tubs, black paper, wool (50p per ball) red cord (40p per Meter) Swiss tulle netting and some small screw top pots for button and bead storage.

I only wish I had somewhere to make all my lovely creations where I could feel inspired without knowing that at tea time I will have to pack it all away so that I can dish up on the table I am working on, but alas the garage leaks like a sieve (plus Mr P's motorbike and tools are in their, I have another shed that has no doors and the elusive rat frequents, and my only watertight building is the old outside privy that has all my scapstore goodies in it and is the size of a .....outside privy to be honest!

Oh how I dream of a little space of my own, but preferably a little bigger than a toilet!

Once I have designed my witches, black cats and pumpkins I will cut all my templates out of lino squares from a sample book (also from the scrapstore) as they are very resilient and last for an age without getting damaged.

I will show you all my creations as soon as I have made them.

why not google scrapstore to see if their is one in your area!
you never know!

**Alex**

Crafty Halloween

I must have had a sudden rush of blood to the headm but I am arranging a Halloween craft afternoon for 18 Chidren..... by the time the event happens it may have grown as jamie came home from school today and added 2 more...

I had lots of fun designing the invites last night

Mr P has installed publisher for me and its really fun to design with

The back page ended up with a poem I wrote


Arnexela is me..... but a bit backwards, if you get what I mean.....

I have visited

Give a bunch of Children gloss paint.........

What would happen if you gave some under 11 year old's a selection of gloss paint and told them to decorate a playground wall?.......well unsupervised it would probably look like an explosion in a paint factory but with the guidance of 2 fab teachers (Jenny, and Terri) the end result was amazing.


The children really loved it and got very creative indeed, the end wall was drawn by me and painted by the children, I will pop back sometime this week and black out line the insects to show their features.


Whenever requested I would conjure up whatever insect they required, bee or a worm or a dragonfly to join the garden of beautiful flowers that were completely their own creations.

The children see the wall every playtime and get great satisfaction in talking about their artistry with their friends, perhaps next year we can add too it and end up with a wall chocka block with flowers and mini beasts.....

This is Jamie's school


and straight opposite the school is St Barnabas Church.......

I am not really a church goer but I can appreciate the workmanship involved with these structures especially as my grandpa Tucker use to build leaded lights (windows). My brother use to go to my grandpa's workshop when he was about 15 and help him, when he left school he went and worked with grandpa full time and has become a very gifted craftsman himself.

The PTA are organising a Christmas concert with Sherborne Town Band and we are holding it in the church this year, I think it will be a wonderful evening in a beautiful setting. Mum (the retired florist) has agreed to come and do a beautiful pedestal arrangement with a Christmas feel, so I will start coveting anyone owning a holly tree with some berry on it!

These are the thatched cottages next to the church, we live 2 villages away from Queen Camel as house prices in this particular village are a little out of our league and personally if I were to spend that amount of money on a house I would want land and a private driveway.

I hope you enjoyed a look around my local area...

**Alex**