It's that time of year...

...and I'm feeling tired out! 

Just did a successful craft fair at Bedfords Park in Havering.  There is always something going on there, so if you're the Essex side of London, you really ought to take time to go and visit.

I am very behind with blogging at the moment so this is really a means of touching base to let my followers know I am still very much alive and kicking.  I've been very busy with college work but we have our festive break coming up very soon so I'll have a few days respite before getting the house in shape for guests.

At the moment I am busy writing cards, and getting gifts in.  And reading other peoples blogs.  Check out the ones I follow.

Back soon with a proper update, and photos from the craft fair.

The wheel turns...

So as it's Samhain I thought I'd post about where I've been so far this year, and where I'm headed - all with a heavy nod towards crafting things.

Generally...

I've not done as many fairs and things this year, on account of a certain little lady who came into our lives in January; but I have done my best to keep up with things.  You may know that I am a final-year degree student, so I have been slaving away at various assignments in the few spare moments I have.   The first piece is due for hand-in in around four weeks and it is already half-done, so I am feeling fairly happy.  Unfortunately in the last month or so, we seem to have succumbed to a number of lurgies.  Most recent one is a cold with a hideously hacking cough.  Hearing poor little 'un wheezing and coughing is no fun.  Thankfully we are not far from a doctor and were able to get some antibiotics which have really helped.  I can't begin to imagine how awful it must be for people who don't have access to such simple things as healthcare and medication.  It makes me want to cry.  I feel especially bad about this at the moment as owing to financial problems (we don't qualify for any childcare funding help...it's a long story), I have had to stop all my charitable donations in order to be able to contribute towards mortgage payments.  Hopefully this will be a short-term thing; once I have finished my college course, I might be able to pick up some part-time work which will then allow me to reinstate these.

Craftily...

I recently had a stall at an "Apple Day" event.  The idea is that people come in to try some of the many varieties of English apples on offer, buy some, buy some apple juice, and have a look round at the craft stalls that are there.  There were five of us with stalls, selling things from cakes to encaustic art, home-made scented pomanders to cards, and all raising some money for the wildlife trust whose visitor centre we were in.

I had some new items this time - I was 'winding down' my stocks of jewellery and similar, as I haven't had time to make much new stuff (other than commissons and gifts for birthdays, etc.).  But I thought I would try my hand at decorative items.

I bought some pre-cut wooden shapes, and then simply painted them, and made hanging loops from twine.  I was quite pleased with them, and am intending to make some more festive ones shortly.

Here are a few pictures of my stall:

Painting on the window is by a friend who is a talented artist.  Bits and bobs on the table are by me!

Improvised 'tree' from found branches to show off decorations

I was quite pleased with the way they turned out.  I stuck to pastel shades with white polka dots, just in acrylics.  The edges of each shape were painted in a slightly darker shade of the base colour.  As and when the 'festive' shapes arrive, I am intending to paint those white/cream and just cover in crystal glitter.  Pictures to follow, naturally...

The Apple Day went well, and I turned a reasonable profit - enough to make a small donation to the wildlife trust and to buy the materials for the next lot of decorations.

I feel as though I should be making more jewellery but at the moment, with four assignments to hand in over the next six weeks, any free time really needs to be ploughed into research.

And finally...

As little lady is currently asleep I have been able to get this update in.  Now it's time to step away from the 'fun' side of the computer (which incidentally is only now in working order having been out of action for three weeks), and get on with some work relating to climate change and biodiversity.  Wish me luck!

Back to the daily grind

So...last time I blogged, we'd had our friend from Hungary staying with us and we were getting ready to go to a festival.  Did I mention that the new car had got 'pranged'?  We had hoped to go off up to Leicestershire in that, but as it was, it was stuck in the repair shop.  Initially we thought about hiring a car, but when we looked at the cost, it was pretty prohibitive.  Thankfully my sister-in-law (who was also coming to the festival) was not using her car, which has a roofbox.  A few grovelly phonecalls allowed us to borrow her car for the weekend. In fact, there was a whole troupe of us tat the festival: us three, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, niece, three friends from bellydance, and two of their friends too. We ended up with our own little 'village'.

Our 'village' at Barefoot.  Yes all those tents in a circle.

The pirate flag was courtesy of Debra, a fellow blogger & bellydancer.  You can't see our tent - it is behind the gazebo, which is where we stashed our cooking stuff,and the pram, and where we sat when the sun got too hot.

All in all it was a great weekend, although I didn't get to do as many workshops as I would have liked. Oh well, it's on again next year - we'll be back, with the village, and hopefully even more friends & family.

When we got back it struck me that we had a week until the wedding.  Panic stations!  Keeping in touch with the bride regularly I discovered there were a few changes to guests...and this continued right up to the last minute.  Fortunately I had printed out the bulk of things before I went camping so in between getting the washing from the weekend done, I was able to work my way through the various tasks.  

In all I made around 40 save the date cards, 88 invitations, 82 place cards, 41 menus, 41 Orders of service, 60 or so papers to go in with the table favours, 28 bars of soap, 8 table name cards, 2 pairs of earrings, one post box, one table plan, and one guest book.  Oh, and wrote the speech for the Father of the Bride as he had a sudden attack of nerves and realised (four days before the wedding) that he hadn't written anything and couldn't "wing it".

Here's a "during" picture.  I was in the middle of 'ribboning' the menus, placecards and Orders of Service.

And here are some pictures of some of the finished articles.

Outside of Menu

Inside of Menu

Placecard

One of the favour bags containing home-made soap.

Table plan

I was really pleased with the way the items turned out.  The invitations were made slightly differently by printing onto mulberry paper, but I found that because it was so thin, it got stuck in the rollers on the printer quite a lot, so although I did get finished items without too many problems, there was quite a bit of wastage.  For the remainder of the stationery I used the same pearlised card that the 'Save the date' and invites had been printed on, but used pearlised vellum cut & stuck on.  This made it much easier as the vellum happily went through the printer. The menus were constructed slightly differently - I was going to print directly onto the cards but then realised that would entail lots of sitting around waiting for ink to dry so I used pearlised paper printed and stuck in, meaning I could construct the front and hole punch them ready for ribbon whilst the ink dried on the paper.  It also meant I could print four 'middles' at once.  I used the same paper for the favour bag inserts, and on the post box and guest book.

The Orders of Service were again in a similar style but to make them easier on the eye for the actual ceremony I used ivory matt paper to print out the details for the inner, and stapled them.  They were constructed in such a way that one sheet of A4 paper held all the information, printed front & back.  Again this meant that I could have the covers ready whilst the 'inners' were being printed.

The only 'tool' I am lacking at the moment is a paper guillotine - ours has been loaned out.  I had to get some help from hubby to cut papers as I don't have a particularly steady hand.  He also helped out with some of the hole punching late into the night.

Overall, I was really pleased with how everything turned out.  I am trying to locate some pictures of the other items, so I'll post those asap.  I'll leave you with a shot of one of the pairs of earrings, and a couple of wedding photos.

Purple/lilac earrings with Swarovski crystals

Wedding hair - and it's all my own!

Bridesmaid with other pair of handmade earrings in a different colourway

Very handsome pageboy

The Bride & Groom

Me & baby

Cutting the cake

Hen Night over - onto the wedding...

Actually it has been incredibly busy since my last blog.   I won't bore any readers with the hell that is dealing with the insurance claim other than to say that although the inspection was carried out and an assessment of damage sent to our insurance company, the assessment was in the form of a report and not an instruction to pay.  Once everything has been sorted out - that is to say, once we have the money from the insurance company AND the new carpet, I will be complaining.  And claiming for 'phone calls.  And sending them a diagram which distinguishes between the thing you sit on and the thing that helps your arm bend in the middle.

But enough of that.  After the flood we had more fun...the loft hatch fell off; thankfully at 6am so no humans or cats were under it.  And after that there was a car accident.  This is the new car - the one that we got to replace the one that was stolen earlier this year.  Hmmm - have I upset someone somewhere do you think?

On the plus side, I am as 'all set' as I am going to be with going back to college.  Got lots to do, but hopefully I can ask my former classmates for guidance as I work my way through assignments.

So... the hen night.  Well, it went really well.  I was 'in charge of arrangements' being maid of honour for the forthcoming wedding. I knew that the bride-to-be wanted something leaning toward civilised and sophisticated, but I knew we had to have fun!  I picked up the purple theme from the invitations I'd made and ordered some small gift bags.  Each 'chick' had a bag with her name on, filled with a variety of goodies - each with a saucy sounding slogan on.  Here are a few examples.

Everyone got to wear a tiara, a personalised sash (I had asked the girls to send me 5 words or less to describe themselves), a bracelet and a badge with the bride-to-be's picture on, and the date.  

The hen also had a bag with her name on, but it was a bit bigger, and had a few more goodies.  Needless to say, it couldn't be a hen night without willies - so we identified some famous ones!

The night started with drinks at a bar on the South Bank, we then took a 'flight' on the London Eye where we drank champagne, and then had a lovely Turkish meal.  A friend of my sister put us both up for the night so there was no need to run home.  It was a late night, my first full night away from the baby, and a very successful night.

The week after we had a visitor from Hungary staying with us.  Had a lovely time although I don't think she enjoyed the Chelmsford Beer Festival as much as she could have as hubby doesn't drink, and I couldn't have more than one on account of still breastfeeding.  We also managed to fit in a visit to Mountfitchet Castle, and take in Dylan Moran's tour.  Our friend got a (rather disorganised and noisy) place to stay, and we got some wine and Hungarian chocolate into the bargain!

Now the wedding is just over a week away and there is still plenty to do.  I have yet to make earrings for myself and the other bridesmaid, although I may be able to do that tonight.  I am halfway through decorating the guest book and postbox (for cards & gifts) and I have printed out all the names to put on the placecards.  The menu is sorted, and is sitting in photoshop waiting for me to finalise the layout, and the order of service is laid out ready to print off.

The only other thing to do is make the soaps as wedding favours. However, I am waiting on some essential oils... one I thought I had, I didn't.  I recall having terrible trouble with one particular supplier; they didn't tell me when I placed the order (back in October) that some things were out of stock...and then they were unreachable by phone or website, and when I got through they were not terribly helpful.  Eventually it transpired that one oil I had wanted they had returned to their supplier as they were not satisfied with the quality, and another oil got lost in the post.  I have just had word that the NEW supplier has everything I wanted AND has despatched it, so soaps are not far off.

We're off camping this weekend at the Barefoot Festival. I have been twice before, but it will be the first visit for hubby and for the little one.  Needless to say, this week I am mainly making lists of clothes to take, items for the tent, 'kitchen' items, baby items, food, things to do when we get back; that sort of thing.

More from me next week when we're back from camping, and hopefully when we're all sorted with wedding things.  If you're really lucky you may see a picture of me in my posh frock.  Now, to find the printout of the reading I am doing.....

My Fantasy!

I am sitting at the dining table looking out at the oak trees that edge the allotments at the end of our road, listening to a chaffinch "pinking" away somewhere, his call somewhat undermined by the melodious warbling of a blackbird.

It all sounds very idealistic but I actually live on a busy road almost opposite an industrial estate - there is a constant flow of through-traffic and a plane overhead about every 2 minutes.  The dining table is shoved in the far end of the lounge, and is currently occupied by one of my cats, who thinks it is a superb sprawl spot. It is also a great vantage point when he feels the need (quite frequently) to regurgitate his food, as it allows for maximum splatter range.

Why am I blogging today?  Well, I was on facebook earlier, looking at a post by TalkAboutCreative, which asked how neat one's work area was.  It struck me that I don't really have a work area!  We live in a one-bedroomed first floor maisonette, which has a garden (yay) that is the size of a postage stamp (boo).  The bedroom houses a whole wealth of junk, including college books, folders, bellydance clothes, craft bits n bobs (four boxes of assorted papers, ribbons, adhesives etc. under the bed), old vinyl waiting to be sorted for charity, baby clothes that are too big, baby clothes that are too small (waiting to see if a friend is having a boy or a girl so I can determine whether to send clothes on, or charity shop them), baby toys, baby, cot and random crap that seems to have accumulated.  Oh, and half the contents of the bathroom following our flood last week*.  

The lounge is mainly filled with books.  Lots of books. Three bookcases and three shelves.  And they're overflowing....  the lounge is also housing two boxes of other crafty stuff (one box for soap/bathbomb type things that I make as gifts for friends & family, one box for jewellery-making bits and bobs), hubby's guitars, amplifiers and associated equipment, cat toys, baby toys, baby bouncing chair and other random bathroom equipment.  You get the picture.

I got to fantasizing about my ideal house/workspace as I have been sitting around for the last 90 minutes waiting for an independent insurance assessor to come out and evaluate the carpet that has been taken off the stairs post-flood.

My ideal house would be detached, and in some accessible but quiet countryside, preferably not too 'agriculturally improved'.  It would have a cellar, which we could convert into a soundproofed music studio with storage for aforementioned amps, guitars and other accessories. There would be a decent-sized hallway, from which the stairs led up to three bedrooms and family bathroom. From that landing, there'd be another staircase up to the loft, nestled under the eaves.  Here I'd do my crafting, and try not to get distracted by the views.

On the ground floor would be a kitchen that would house a dining table (alas, I don't think ours is for the world too much longer, it belonged to my grandparents and was bought in 1923), and have plenty of cupboard space, plus an adjacent utility/boot room.  It would have a door with garden access, outside which herbs and vegetables would be within easy reach.  A study cum-library would take care of the books, and the laminate floor in the lounge would give me space to practice dancing or for the baby to play safely.

The garden would have space for chickens to scratch out a living, a wildlife pond, and be full of native trees, shrubs and flowers, making it a haven for butteflies, bees, slow-worms, hedghogs and other creatures.  A small water feature could tinkle away on the patio, where we could sit out on warm summer evenings, under the shade of clematis, wisteria, honeysuckle and jasmine.  Tucked away in a corner would be a play area...

I would spend my days making cards, baking, making jam, making jewellery and being a domestic goddess.  In my ultimate fantasy, we'd have a small cottage close by that we hired out on occasion, and it would be filled with beautifully handcrafted soft furnishings.  Friends and family would be able to drop in as and when they were passing, and we could even have a little outhouse in the garden which could serve as a self-contained annex for those needing to stay longer.

So, as I move the cat for the umpteenth time, bumble into the bathroom (trying not to knock over the bath panel propped up on the landing) to have a quick wash, and try to work out what the hell we're having for dinner, I'll just dream that dream...

Perhaps one day, that long-lost (so long-lost that I don't know about them) eccentric relative will think of me and put a few pennies this way!

*The flood is a whole other can of worms and you'll have to wait for the next installment for that.  The insurance assessor has now turned up and is playing with his bluetooth electronic tape measure.  Any minute now the baby will wake up and start yelling, the cat with throw up and normality will be resumed with a vengeance.

Gearing up

Yes, it's getting busy again....

I may have mentioned that my sister is getting married later this year.  I am commissioned to 'do' the stationery and trimmings, which is really exciting, although a little nerve-wracking.
The invitations are all completed and sent out now, both for daytime and evening.  Hen night invites have also gone out. As you will appreciate, in the pictures below I have had to remove personal details for the purposes of posting here.

I am now working on the design for the Order of Service cards (although whether it will be called that or not is debatable as it is a secular ceremony), the hen night 'bits', and the post box for cards/gifts at the reception.  Oh yes, and trying to source lavender sprigs for the placecards.

Got to run, baby's grizzling.  Oh the joys of teething!  Hopefully back later to post some more pictures.

Not much happening...

The wedding invites are all done now - evening invites too, and we have a good idea of what we're doing for the table plans and place cards.  Can't get stuck into the Order of Service yet as

a) it's a civil ceremony and may not be called that

b) we don't quite know what music/readings etc. are being used

I have a few ideas of how we could make these up though -  I don't want to use the mulberry paper to print on if we don't have to - I think vellum would work better.  Could back the cards with the fancy paper and then print onto vellum and attach with ribbon.  Obviously I need to check with my client. 

I posted some pictures of what I had done so far on my facebook page, in case you want to check them out.

Other than that I've had a couple of craft events.  Both sadly went really badly - and sales were as minimal as they possibly could be.  It's a shame, as I spent a lot of time thinking up new recipe ideas for bath things.  As everything is hand-made and wrapped it's time-consuming too. 

As you can see, I had quite a lot of stuff to take.  Both events were for good causes and had more people come along and bought stuff, the charities would have benefitted, but c'est la vie as they say...

I suppose the good side of it is that for the next few events, I don't need to make anything really - may get back to the jewellery and the cards, but people just don't seem to want to spend money.  At least, not on craft items.  Just ipads, iphones and flat screen tellies! :-)

Apart from killing time at craft events I've been making a few cards for people.  Didn't photograph them all unfortunately but those that I did are visible through the facebook link above.  Partly made cards out of necessity as I need to budget, but also because they were for close friends and family. 

Not sure how busy things'll get later in the year as I am due to go back to college in September so I really need to get started on getting my brain back in gear for some academia, reading some papers and drafting some of my dissertation.   I guess just watch this space!

Ding Dong

That's the sound of forthcoming Wedding bells. 

I've been working on creating invitations for my sister's wedding over the last few months.  There were three different styles of things I had to produce:

1. "Save the date" cards
2. Wedding Invitations (for the 'whole' event)
3. Evening Invitations

The first ones were relatively easy to get done - we agreed on wording, design and colour and they were simply printed onto postcard sized card, and sent out.  The second ones have just been finished.  These were a bit more fiddly, but not impossible.

We had a lot of discussion on the appearance and it was felt that torn mulberry paper was a strong theme.  However, I didn't reckon on our printer playing up with regard to ink colours, or on the paper being so thin and fabric-like that it would fold up on several occasions.  Thankfully there were not loads and loads to produce.  I ordered all my materials off ebay and was really pleased with what I received.

The pearlised card and postcards came from THE PAPERBOX, the mulberry paper came from THE WEDDING SUPPLIER ONLINE and the ribbon came from PACKAGING WORLD. Additionally I already had some handmade paper which I incorporated into the mix.

At the moment I can't post pictures of any of the items because I've just handed over the invites for mailing.  I've got the evening invites all printed up and am just about to thread ribbon through them.  The only other things I'll be making - at a later date - are placecards, the table plan and the order of service cards.  They'll all be in a similar theme.  I already have the card to use, just need to determine which ribbon, and whether to use mulberry paper or print straight onto card.

Watch this space for updates!

Long Pause

Yes, it's been a while... again! 

Whilst I can comfortably sit at the PC/laptop now, it's a question of having the time to.  As our little girl is growing fast (she'll be 10 weeks old on Thursday) she is eating, needing changing, and interacting lots.  So a lot of my time is taken up with changing nappies, pulling faces, cuddling, kissing and generally spoiling her.

However, by way of a change, as you can see if you've visited Ravenstar before, I have changed the appearance of the blog - I came across these new templates today at Cute n Cool Blog Stuff and they're much better than the one I've been using.  Go take a look and check them out for yourself, there's bound to be one to suit you.

Apart from updating the cosmetic appearance of the blog, things have been fairly quiet.  I did an event a few weeks back - teaching a group of 12 year olds how to make bath bombs for their own use.  We made Rose & Lavender ones and Chocolate Orange ones, the latter smelled especially yummy as they contained some real chocolate.  Thankfully nobody tried to eat them!  I have a couple of other events lined up now too, so will have to get making stuff all over again. 

I've just got a big batch of stuff in from Bathbomb.biz so I'm really looking forward to trying out all the goodies I just bought.  Although all the ingredients I use are certified, and although the people I have 'done' events for are happy with that, I'm concerned about the long term legality of doing these so I'm looking into getting an approval certificate for myself.  It will initially be a bit of a financial outlay but it will permit me to sell a wide range of products legally, rather than having to give them away as a free gift with purchased items, or give solely to the family.  Plus, being legally approved to make & sell products should avoid any potential issues with concerns over ingredient safety, if you see what I mean.  Anyway, I ramble too much...

Business-wise things have been relatively quiet.  Unfortunately Jac's Path, a pagan/wiccan shop in Colchester where I was retailing my jewellery has closed.  Great shame as it was a wonderful little place.  But hopefully the owners will move on to bigger and better things.  It does mean that I have some jewellery available for sale - I have to sort it out and photograph it to post up on the web.

My most exciting new of late is that I have a commisison to make wedding stationery for my sister.  We've been discussing ideas, colour themes, styles, paper weight & texture for a few weeks now, and we finally have the 'right' proofs all approved.  So the next few days will see me frantically printing, paper cutting/tearing and assembling things. 

I'm also working on getting my website up and running.  It's been dormant far too long, waiting for me to do something, and if I don't press on, I'll be back at college, swotting away for my final year, and won't have any time to do anything.  At the moment, you can see examples of my work on facebook in the various albums.

Well, I think that's enough for now.  Enjoy the spring, now it's finally here.  :-)

She's here!

As you can see from the date of my last post, I've been absent a fair while.  Towards the end of my pregnancy I was finding every chair uncomfortable to sit on, so I wasn't able to spend any time at the PC updating anything that took more than 5 minutes.

Just blogging today to let you know that we had a baby daughter on 20th January.  She was due on 16th, decided to start emerging on 18th and then changed her mind!  50 hours later (I'll skip the details) with the help of a caesarian, she finally arrived.
Like any parent, I think she's gorgeous!  We're beginning to settle into a routine, but at the moment, I'm limited in what I can do, which is terribly frustrating.  Having said that, I have managed to get out to the shops, thanks to my wonderful husband, who has been an absolute gem. 
We hit the charity shops in Billericay on Tuesday, after registering our new arrival at the Registry office (makes her official!).  I got tons of bargains!  New boots, two dresses and three scarves.  She got loads of little sleepsuits - and a few bits for when she's older because they were quality items.
Today we nipped over to Chelmsford.  Bumped into a whole hoard of people we knew so got inundated with hugs/kisses/handshakes and baby adoration.  There were still some sales on so I managed to get myself some nice new PJs (only one pair fit at the mo) plus yet more baby clothes.  Oh yes, and I bought a CD and a book that weren't in the sale at all.  Oops!
Really need to find something suitable for a superman/superdad now - he deserves something really special.

I'm taking a bit of time out from crafting at the moment as it's still a bit difficult sitting in one position for any great length of time, but hopefully in a few more weeks, we'll be more settled at home, and I'll be more comfortable.
In the meantime, I may just randomly blog about stuff!