Harry Hill....

My sister phoned me up last week asking if I could make my Nephew the Harry Hill Kitted Character off the TV show Harry Hill (which is actually crocheted). I've only really made a couple of crochet soft toys and a blanket so I wouldn't consider myself a confident crocheter but reluctantly agreed to try and make one with no pattern to follow. To be honest I didn't have a clue what the Harry Hill Knitted Character was as I don't watch Harry Hill, but my 8 year old Nephew is mad on him. I had to do a search on Google images to get an idea of what it looked like and then went from there...

Above is the character from the Harry Hill TV show.

Heres the one I made. Considering I had no pattern and my inexperience I think I done a good job.

Im really pleased with the outcome and it only took me a couple of days to make it.

New items in my shop...

I have recently been busy making new items for my patchouli Memories boutique on Etsy. I have also bought a new camera recently and have been updating the jewellery photos in the shop too which I feel is a great improvement. I have added below a few of the new items for you all to see. Please, let me know what you think :) Thanks.

P.S I have also added an extra page to my blog titled My Handmade Cards which contains photos of all my handmade greetings cards I make for myself that I thought I would share with you. Take a peek, just click on 'My Handmade Cards' at the top of the page.

Sterling Silver Purple and Lime Furnace Glass Necklace.

Sterling Silver Aqua and Pink Furnace Glass Necklace.

Adjustable Red Hemp Bracelet with Multi-colour Beads.

Adjustable Purple Hemp Bracelet with Multi-colour Beads.

Adjustable Hemp Bracelet with Multi-colour Beads.

My painting has arrived! :)

Ok so as promised here is the painting I bought from Whitby last Wednesday, isn't it beautiful!  Its by an artist called Chris Carbro and the painting is called 'Wild wind swept sea' and its an original oil painting on canvas.

Sunny day at the seaside

On Wednesday the weather was beautiful, sunny and hot, so I took my friend Michelle out for the day. She works in a school and they had a week off this week so we thought we would go to Whitby. We parked at Sandsend then walked along the beach to Whitby which is about a mile or so, bought some cockles and muscles off the seafood stall which were really tasty and then had a walk around all the lovely shops there. There is an artist I really love called Chris Geall who has a shop in Whitby called Trattles and Geall so we took a look inside. Chris was in the back of the shop working on one of his oil paintings which was interesting to see. I wasn't actually looking to buy a painting there and then but an oil painting of the sea caught my eye by a different artist and I just had to have it. It cost me £180 but its really beautiful and will be my first ever original art I have ever bought, its exciting! They are posting it out to me so when I receive it I will take a pic and post it on here for you all to see. After buying a few bits and bobs and enjoying a delicious ice cream we headed for the chip shop and bought some chips to eat while walking back along the shore to Sandsend. We were both exhausted by the time we got back to the car from the sun and all the walking we did (we must have walked at least 5 or 6 miles) but we had a really lovely day.

Whitby Harbour.

Looking back at where we had just walked from. In the distance is Sandsend where we started our walk, we were only half way to Whitby.

This wasn't my kite but I loved it. I will have to have a look out for one like this to buy.

The little huts you can rent out. I love them.

Michelle.

Whitby Harbour.

Sia Furler and Krispy Kreme :)

Well Thursday was the day Me and Dave went to see Sia Furler live at Roundhouse in London and it was absolutely amazing! We got the train down to London and headed straight for Krispy Kreme. I've been obsessed about going to Krispy Kreme ever since I seen a picture of someone I know on Facebook with a box of doughnuts from there. We got a box of 12 assorted doughnuts, headed for our hotel in Islington and tucked in. They are the best doughnuts I have ever had and they were like doughnut heaven! Anyway back to telling you about Sia. The doors opened at 8pm and we were almost at the front of the que at 5.30 as I wanted to make sure we were right at the front of the stage (I had actually had a nightmare about not being able to see the stage the previous night, as mad as it sounds lol). Anyway to my relief we were right on the front railing and had an amazing view. The stage was beautiful, covered in crochet and knitted blankets and on the back wall was quite a large crochet blanket with her name Sia made up of pom poms. Sia came out in a dress that was made of red and white barrier tape that was half crocheted which was gorgeous. When she came on for the encore at the end she was wearing a set of "bubble wings" on her back that spun while she sang with an air fan behind her which blew masses of bubbles above the crowd. I expected the gig to be good but it was even better and we had a great time. Once we got back home the next day I was on the internet and noticed that she is playing another gig in October in London again but this time at The Troxy, needless to say I quickly booked 2 tickets to see her again :)

Sia's dress was crocheted with red and white barrier tape.

The stage was covered in crochet and knitted blankets and pom poms spelling out Sia on the back wall.

Not a great photo but you can see the wings on her back. They had bubble discs in them and a motor on her back pumped bubble solution onto them with the fan behind blowing through the wings as they spun around. Amazing!!

Our delicious Krispy Kreme doughnuts! mmm

Summer is here! Yay :)

Well its very warm today here in the UK (reading 24 deg/75f on the house thermometer), so much in fact that I have stored away all of my winter clothes and swapped them for my summer stuff and I'm now wearing my shorts and vest top and have applied my fake tan :) I dug out all my summer skirts from a storage box under my bed and tried them all on just to make sure they still fit. I was convinced they wouldn't fit and crossed my fingers in hope as I tried each one on and very luckily they all do, Phew! So I headed for the bathroom scales thinking I can't have put much weight on over the winter if my skirts still fit me but I was wrong! :( I've put on 10 pounds (4.5 kg) since last summer!!! Im really going to have to get back into my exercise regime but I just can never find the time to fit it in. I have just bought a Nikon D90 DSLR camera and I'm trying to learn how to use it to retake all of my jewellery pics and then theres painting the hallway to be done, which I'm planning on doing at the weekend.

Thursday 27th May me and my husband Dave are off to London and staying over for the night as I have got us tickets to see Sia Furler which Im really excited about and I really hope the weather stays as nice as it is today. Friday 28th the next day is the anniversary of when we first started seeing each other and will be 17 years, only feels like yesterday though, time flies so quickly doesn't it? So when we get back I will let you know how it went and post some pics too.

Spring flowers and fruit pie!

I think polymer artists are amazing and I came across this Etsy seller today Zuleykha who makes jewellery from her handmade polymer clay. I absolutely love the flower bracelets she makes, the colours are wonderful and as for the fruit pies and cupcake pendants they look so delicious! I really love polymer canes, it fascinates me how they are made and she makes beautiful ones for her jewellery. Take a look at a few of my favourites below and check out her shop.

Tasty Easter goodies :)

This week I thought I would feature a seller on Esty and a blogger I follow known as Marmalady. Shes from Derbyshire here in the UK and she sells in her shop all sorts of traditional homemade tasty treats that look fabulous. Take a look at the Easter cakes below that she has just recently added to her shop along with a few other treats that will make you drool :)
Check out her blog too http://marmalady1.blogspot.com/

A beautiful selection of Simnel and Easter cakes above.

These cookies look so good!

Oh how I love Lemon Curd.

 I've tried a few attempts to make fudge but it never works, good job I suppose otherwise I would make it all the time. This chocolate fudge looks delicious.

Slow times on Etsy...

Well my sales in my shop on Etsy have been almost non existent this year which is a bit disheartening. I had my friend Michelle round my house for Sushi last night and I showed her the jewellery I have made. She said that the women she works with would love my designs and I should let them see them. I packed a few things up for her to take into work today. To be honest because of the slow sales on Etsy I wasn't too sure that she would sell anything, then this morning she contacted me to say that as soon as she had got out the jewellery at work they had swarmed round and were fighting over the pieces! Well she has ended up selling 3 things so far for me with 2 requests for a necklace to go with a pair of earrings someone has their eye on and another charm bracelet which one of the women had bought. So all in all its been quite a success and I'm over the moon!

Honeytree Photography

Ok so this is the first time I have featured anyone on my blog and it makes me slightly nervous. There is so many wonderful talented artists out ther that I feel like I need to start sharing with you all the ones I've came across on Etsy.com.

As we're heading into Spring and Summer I couldn't think of a better artist than Lupen Grainne of Honeytree Photography to share with you. Her fine art photography captures nature and life at its best, the pictures draw you in with their warmth, dreamy lazy Summer feel and charm as Im sure you would agree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wonderland and afternoon tea

Yesterday my husband Dave had the day off work so we thought we would make the most of it by going out for some lunch and then to the cinema.
For our lunch we went to Betty's Cafe Tea Room in Northallerton in North Yorkshire. I have been here a few times now and I love it so much. Its a dainty traditional English tea room that makes you feel like you have stepped back in time to the 1920's. They have a little shop in the front of the building selling a range of cakes, biscuits, chocolates and pastries to take away, then in the back is the tea room with its domed glass roof and a huge palm plant set in the 'palm room'. The food here is amazing from the warm seasonal quiche to the simplest dish of egg mayonnaise and cress sandwich, Ive never had a dish that I didn't enjoy, even my Mam and Dad thought it was delicious when I took them for a treat. The desserts and cakes are what Betty's are famous for, a selection of mouthwatering cakes you can choose from off the cake trolley they bring to your table for you to browse. Its called a cafe tea room but the prices are restaurant prices, I find the food and service is better than restaurant standards so I think the prices are reasonable. If you are ever in Yorkshire look this tea room up and take a visit as you won't be disappointed but it is quite expensive.
We had a lovely time yesterday there, I ordered a warm spinach and leek tartlet with salad and chips and Dave had fried fillet of haddock with pea puree and chipped potatoes which was basically fish and chips but was the best I've ever tried. For dessert we both had chocolate torte served with double cream. We were so full up for the rest of the day :)

Betty's cafe tea room in Northallerton.

After finishing off at Betty's we headed to the cinema to see the new Alice in Wonderland in 3D.  Unfortunately we missed the 3D showing, I've never seen a 3D film and presumed that all of the showings would be 3D, but no not at the cinema we went to. I wasn't really disappointed that it wasn't in 3D to be honest, I can imagine the 3D making me feel motion sick. I thought the film was a remake until Dave pointed out that he had read somewhere that it was a sequel where she returns back to wonderland 13 years later. I really love the original Alice in Wonderland with all the colourfulness and surrealism but the new one has more of a darker feel, I suppose that's because its a Tim Burton film. It includes a good cast, the favorite and funniest for me were Tweedledee and Tweedledum which were played by Matt Lucas. The film was good and I did enjoy it but in my opinion it wasn't as good as the original, it might have been better if it had been a remake. Has anyone else seen this film yet? What did you think of it?

All in all we had a really lovely day :)

Don't get scammed like I did

My husband and I enjoy buying DVD box sets for things we're really into watching. About a year ago we got into watching the American sitcom King of Queens on the Comedy Central channel and decided to buy the box set so we could start from the beginning and work our way through. We're really loving it but we're 2 seasons away from the end so I thought I would get us a box set for something else to watch when King of Queens has ended. We both really love American sitcoms and another one we have enjoyed a few episodes of is Everybody Loves Raymond. So a couple of weeks ago I searched the Internet for the complete box set for it and came across a site called www.supremedvds.co.uk (DO NOT BUY FROM HERE) which was the cheapest I could find, £60. If you have ever bought a complete DVD box set you will know that they don't come cheap (the King of Queens one we bought was about £100). So anyway the website had good prices and seemed genuine so I made my order through Paypal. 2 weeks later they arrived from China and because of the cheap price and it being shipped from China we started to have a few doubts as to the DVDs being genuine. Once unpacked the box that contained the DVDs looked how I expected until I opened it up to look at the discs which were in plastic envelopes, which didn't seem right. I also tried playing the discs, we have a multi regional DVD player that can play discs from any country, but only about 8 out of 44 would play! Quite a few of the discs were also scratched. I realised that the box set we had been sent was a pirate copy so I contacted Paypal about this and luckily the seller refunded our money within about an hour of complaining! I found the genuine box set on Amazon for £111 and ordered it and was very happy when it arrived, no fakes this time. Has anyone else had problems like this before?

This is the first box set that arrived. Its slightly smaller than the real one and has different pictures in the windows and door. Other than that you wouldn't be able to tell.

^ This is the genuine one .^

The fake one once opened. Discs in plastic pockets in 2 boxes labeled box 1 and box 2.

Inside the genuine one with the discs inside season folders and a booklet of the finale script.

I've bought quite a lot off the Internet in the past and have never been scammed until now. I will definitely be more cautious of websites that are selling things with prices that are 'too good to be true'. I just wanted to share this experience with everyone to make people aware of things like this.