Sunday 31 August 2014

Last bits of holiday news...

 
Hi,
 
 
I am back from all of my holidays now, so I thought I would bring you my last few bits of news and pictures :)
 
 
First up- In the IOW there is a HUGGGGEEEEE Tesco Extra (I mean really huge! It looks like an airport hanger from the outside!). When me and my family were wandering around it I spotted some really cool biscuit spreads down the jam and spreads aisle; Bourbon biscuit, cookie, custard cream and cookies and cream :D I got sooo excited when I saw them- My parents treated me and my brother to the whole set to try (and also a pot of caramel biscuit spread which was on sale in Sainsbury's too :P). I can whole heartedly recommended all of them, they are so delicious (not very healthy though, so be warned if you do buy some- you will eat it all!). Me and my brother have been dipping everything in them :P:
 
 
Hehehe, did you spot the little bunny in the middle of all the jars? He is my latest little friend :) He is called Mr bunny and he is a hand needle felted little character made by a lady on the IOW. He was displayed in chocolate apothecary (along with some of his needle felted friends also available for sale). I have decided he is going to come with me lots of places as he can fit in my pocket and is quite an adventurous chap (as long as he gets his regular chocolate boost! :P).
 
Some other cool things I got in the Isle of Wight were these cool fashion plates- they are actually from the era so they are real fashion relics!!!:

 
They are so interesting to me- especially after completing costume history this year. They are the kind of things I see on slide shows so to own some is amazing! :) There were a pile in an antiques shop and they were only about £4 each- a really good price. I am going to frame them and hang them in my room to make it even more like a couture house :-)
 
And I also got these 3 little guys:

 
To add to my hamster collection! They were also handmade on the IOW (at the Arreton barns craft cabin)
 
My friend Eleanor recently visited the IOW as part of her holidays and she sent me lots of postcards from all the places she had visited which were lovely to receive and learn what she had been up to in the place I love :)
 
Hehehe, now I have finished being an Isle of Wight  promoter I will move on!
 
This is the last thing I have to share with all you lovely people. Not anything about holidays- I promise- because you are all probably sick of my holiday updates by now :oP As most of you will probably already know, my dad teaches maths at a primary school. He tries to make the lessons really fun and engaging and one of his aids is a little monkey toy which when it is tossed to you you answer a question :) Up until now the monkey just had a little badge on the front which said 'I LOVE MATHS' but my dad asked me if I could make him a new little shirt. I was happy to accept this fun challenge (definitely the first time I have made anything for a monkey :P)  and this is what I created for the little dude:


 
I also gave him a little pencil so he can write down all his clever maths calculations!
 
I really hope the kids like his t-shirt :-) My dad gave me a big hug- from both him and Nev (the monkeys name)
 
I better go now as Big brother is on (my guilty pleasure!) and then I have to get to bed ready to start my Wedding Dress sewing course tomorrow! Wooooooooooo! I am soo excited :D I will of course post pictures of my make :)
 
Keep an eye out as the giveaway I mentioned is coming soon also as I have collected all the bits for it now :)
 
I hope you are all well, speak to you again soon,
 
Byeeeee XxXxXxX
 
P.s. all the new makes I posted a teaser of in my last post are up in my shop now so please do check them out :)
 
Byeeee Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox


Tuesday 26 August 2014

Better connection :)

Hi,

I'm glad to say that the Internet connection here in the IOW is much better so I can now come and give you all some updates!

Me and my family had a good time in Lyme Regis but the highlight of the trip would definitely have to be Rolys Fudge! It was absolutely delicious and melt in the mouth sugary goodness!


There were lots of different flavours from chocolate and honeycomb to lemon meringue and chilli (which was pretty hot actually!). They also had a range of fudge sauces which are yummy too (I have been eating them on ice cream warmed up! Mmmm):


And the good news is they have on online shop so I can order more fudge for special occasions at home! If you like fudge (or even if you dont- my dad doesn't but he did like rolys fudge :p) it is well worth treating yourself I would say: https://rolysfudge.co.uk/

Me abd my family have  also been having a good time in the IOW.

I have been collecting bits for a giveaway when I get back- so keep your eyes peeled! :-)

I have also had some time to get working on my next items for my shop.... using some cool fabric I got on my holiday travels. :) here is a teaser pic:


If you are intrigued keep an eye on my shop as my new items will be up within a week!

Today we went shopping in Newport and I think tomorrow we are going to play bowling and then head on to the chocolate apothecary for lunch- I can't wait! 

I will leave you with this picture of stone henge I took from the car while stuck in traffic when on my holiday travels... It really is fascinating stone henge, isn't it? :)


Ooh, and also this pretty picture of some pink seaweed I think, that  I took on the beach at lyme regis when fossil hunting, it has given me some inspiration for some textile art/felting projects as I thought it was very pretty in a way:


Hehe, see you all again soon.I hope you are well,

Bye xoxoxo



Saturday 23 August 2014

Not much Internet ...

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all doing very well. There was not much Internet available where I was in lyme regis so it was a struggle to try and post :( hopefully I will have a better connection in the Isle of Wight so I can do some posting and check all the lovely blogs I like to read :)

Just wanted to let you all know I am still alive (I am posting using the wifi on the ferry) :p

Hopefully speak to you again soon!,

Jordan.


Friday 15 August 2014

I am very happy!

Hi everyone,

I am very happy for many reasons :) Firstly because of the wonderful surprise I got yesterday! I was 'sneak attacked' on etsy (which is actually a good thing) my shop was chosen and promoted on the sneak attack blog by the wonderful sneak attack etsy team (as my shop is fairly undiscovered by most)- and guess what- because of this promotion I made my first sale!!! I also found out about the whole scheme and joined the team do I can find out about other cool small shops and help get them noticed like they helped me :) here is the blog: http://handmademovement.blogspot.co.uk they were promoting lots of good shops so check it out for some good etsy gift ideas!

Secondly I got my papers yesterday to confirm that I definitely passed my first year of uni. Both my friends got into uni too! So good news all round and a huge congrats to my friends :-)

Thirdly I have made more progress on the red dress 1/2 scale I have had as a long term project at home.  Here is how the gathering of the skirt is going, it was kind up a made up process of pinching and twisting the larger petticoat to gather it up to be the same size as the lining :) It is just like I wanted though and I think it is quite effective:



Fourthly (if fourthly is even a thing you can say? :p)  I am enjoying spending lots of time with my lovely family! We walked over the 02 the other day. That was a cool experience.  Here are some of the shots of the view. Walking up was actually quite hard it was quite steep (the walkway):




And I am off with my family to Lyme Regis tomorrow so that should be fun to explore together! :) 

I hope you are all happy as well :-)

I will be back to chat with Al of you my lovely readers super soon,

Byeee xxx


Sunday 10 August 2014

FLASH SUMMER SALE!

Hi everyone,

I am back from Inverness now. It is not actually long till I go away again though- to Lyme Regis :-)

Seeing as it is now the middle of the summer I wanted to do something to celebrate the sunshine- A flash summer sale!

I am giving 15% off anything and everything in my Etsy store with code: summer15

Also keep an eye out for new listings now I am back at home :-)

But.... The coupon code only lasts until the 15th of August so get in and grab yourself a bargain before then :p

I hope you are all happy and healthy my lovely readers. Speak to you all again soon,

Bye XxXxXx



Thursday 7 August 2014

Inverness update


Hi,

I hope you are all doing really well :-) I have got some updates from my holiday to share with you now :)

First up some loch Ness monster related pics (or Nessie as she/he is sometimes called :p)
This is the centre me and my family visited. I learnt lots of cool facts and information such as the loch Ness is big enough to submerge everyone in the whole world 3 times over!!!! And at one point it is deeper than the BT tower is tall!


Here is a shot of the huge loch I took while staring out looking for Nessie :p:


Next, just a quick flash of some more tartan, this time from some Vivienne Westwood designs using Scottish tartan displayed at kiltmakers:


And this the the tartan for the Macbeth name, quite colourful I thought compared to Shakespeare dark tale:


And here are the kiltmakers hard at work:


I might try and visit 1 more kiltmakers before the holiday is up, I love seeing the 100s of varieties of tartan it fascinates me, but my family may get bored of me staring for hours! Which I easily could do :p

I have almost got you up to date now, almost! Yesterday me and my family went on a walk along all the little islands on the water (you cross little bridges to get to them) and then walked around Inverness botanic gardens.

The waterfront:


The wild flowers at the botanic gardens, they were a combo of daisies and poppies just like on my dress I made:


Then they had a tropical greenhouse, it was so lush!  It was landscaped wonderfully and they had so many amazing tropical plants I had never even seen before! Very impressive considering the Scottish climate,  which doesn't gave the best reputation for being warm and sunny :p Have you seen any of the crazy plants before?.....:




Last but not least on my catch up, me and my family went dolphin watching at the Moray of Firth. When we went in the morning there were no dolphins but the lady told us to come back later about 3 (because the tides would be right that day at that time) and sure enough we did see some. Two Bottlenose dolphins in fact! We had to use our binoculars to see them clearly but I did also manage to get some snaps of fins and tails in the distance. It is a bit like Where's Wallly but is you look closely you can see little fins and splashes in the water :):


It was quite exciting as I hadn't got my hopes up that we would see anything because nature is fickle and you never really know for sure :)

I better go and get ready for whatever we are doing today... I am not quite sure exactly what that is though yet :p

See you again soon,

Bye xoxoxo

Sunday 3 August 2014

First day in Inverness

Hi,
Just a quick post really as as the title of this post suggests I have only recently arrived in Scotland! (My second holiday of the summer :) I have never been to Scotland before so it is quite interesting seeing what is around to explore. I will keep you all updated on my findings but as I haven't been here long I only gave a couple of photos to show you all- of just a small selection of the tons of tartan vairietys:


There are so so many! One for every clan :) I saw the huge weaving machines which weave the tartan too- that was super cool and gas inspired me to try a bit of simple weaving on my frame loom when I get home!

See you all again soon,

Bye xxx