Holiday (Phase 2)

Back to work this morning after a lovely fortnight off - and as promised, here are a few snaps from the second part of our camping trip - this time in beautiful Herefordshire.
Steve and I did some canoeing here about 12 years ago - and wanted to return to do it with the boys.
We arrived early at Symonds Yat, and were greeted with this fantastic view...

Even Herbie seemed impressed!

We went during the week- as it gets pretty busy at weekends.

We took a lovely stroll in the Forest of Dean...

And (a highlight for me) as we were so close to Ross on Wye, we had to pay a visit to Baileys Home and Garden! What an inspiration! Unfortunately photography was prohibited which is such a shame: the website is nice, but it doesn't compare to seeing everything together in one amazing place!

I found time to do a bit of work at the weekend. This driftwood and slate piece - as yet unfinished, as I think it will look better in a box frame.

Another beach hut picture...ever popular!

And a primitive driftwood boat - the two bits of wood were already nailed together when I found it, so I just needed to add a few decorative touches!!

And finally, we had a freelance photographer here for the day on Friday! He took lots of pictures of the house, some of my work, and some of us - including some shots down the beach collecting driftwood! Hoping that we might get a bit of press! We had a good tidy-up in preparation - and re-arranged the shelves in the lounge. The old sewing machine had been hidden away in the loft, but we decided it was handsome enough to display: what do you think? (This is one of my photos - his were much better. I promise to share them once we get copies!!)

Have a great week folks!

Hello Campers!

We're back (albeit temporarily) from the first part of our little camping holiday.... and where better to stay than right here in Cornwall? I'm not going to bore you with zillions of holiday snaps, but I've put a few in collage form - just in case you'd like to have a little nosey!

This one is of the scenery - just check out the colour of the sea...just like being abroad!!

And this one is a few colourful snippets which for me sums up our stay...

We actually stayed at Sennen which is near Land's End. One morning we glimpsed a yacht race from our campsite - with the Scilly Isles in the distance - and it provided the inspiration for my dad's birthday card which I made this morning...inbetween about a dozen loads of washing!

Next we're off up to Herefordshire to do a bit of family canoeing on the River Wye...so if you don't mind, I'll share some more photos on our return!
Have a fine weekend folks!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

The title just about sums up how things have been over the last couple of weeks - and that's how I like it (I'm easily bored!) I'll share some images of the things I've been working on, shall I?

2 'secret' collages. This one was commissioned by a friend - for his wife's birthday (it's their beautiful house in Cambridgeshire).

The second one was a gift for my mother-in-law's birthday. It's a small collage of Kastro on Skiathos where we all went on holiday last year.

I was delighted to be asked by Lucy of Attic 24 to make a driftwood sculpture for her (click on the image and you'll notice the number on the door.) Her blog is an absolute joy - if you are not familiar with it, firstly where have you been? and secondly get over there right away!! (unless you wish to finish reading this post first!)

I've also been making some brooches! It started off with this owl which I made for Herbie's pre-school teacher...

Then some foxes...

And a peacock on request!

We all went to a little girl's birthday party yesterday so I made her a matching card and brooch set!

I love making these stitched cards: last week I had fun creating this one...

and I was looking at it and had an idea - which led to this!

Quite pleased with this cheerful design - I'd like to see how it looks as a print, but I think it will work really well as a printed greeting card. What do you think?

Phew! Well I think that's quite enough for one post! The weather has been glorious here for the first week of the school holidays - long may it last! Guess where we're off to today?

Yup - to 61A of course!! Have a fab weekend folks!

Handmade cards

click on image to enlarge

I was a naughty girl yesterday! Despite having outstanding orders, I fancied making a couple of new children's cards - and once I started, I couldn't stop! I showed them on my Facebook page, and an interesting discussion ensued: the old dilemma about how much to charge! Always a tricky one... and I'm not going to get into it again here! No-one will ever get rich making cards! BUT, let's just say I had a fabulous day, it was fun to create some new designs and use some scraps from my ever-growing fabric collection!
Most of these have been snapped up already, but I've put a framed a few and popped them in my Folksy shop. Which one is your favourite?

Recycled paper helmet

Morning folks! As everybody knows, the school holidays are fast approaching (I don't like this time of year, it makes me realise how quickly time is flying by, now another school year has passed!) I thought I'd share a very easy project with you (especially those of you with boys). Disclaimer: whilst I'd love to say this is my own clever design, it was actually published in the (now sadly defunct) Comic section of the Saturday guardian.

To start, tape together two sheets of a newspaper (along the long side).

Fold the lower right corner to the vertical centre crease.

Repeat with the top right corner. Rotate so that the triangle is pointing downwards.

The fold the triangular section upwards.


Turn the paper over. Fold both bottom corners to the centre line.

Fold the top flap over.

Fold this piece in half again. Your paper should look like this! Still with me?! Now turn the paper over from top to bottom.

Fold the outer flaaps towards each other, opening the helmet. Tuck one flap into the other and secure with sticky tape.

We added some strips of newspaper to the crown for a bit of decoration....
...and ta-da! Your helmet is ready for action!

Model: Herbie

My poor neglected blog

Dear dear readers, I hope you don't feel totally abandoned....it's been almost a whole month since my last confession, I mean post - and I feel rotten about it! Even the last few posts I wrote were rushed ones, mostly apologising for my absence in the blogisphere. I fully expected things to calm down after the big show in June - but to be honest I'm busier than ever! There have been a few times when I've felt completely overwhelmed with work, family, life in general....and I have considered even doing away with SixtyOneA as it would be one less ball to juggle. But then I look at you all on the right there, and I think about the good friends I've made through doing this - some of you have been followers since the beginning - and I just can't bear to let it go! The thing I feel bad about really is not having visited your pages, when you are so loyal to me! I don't want it to feel like a one-sided relationship after all! But (pause for breath!) I've come to the conclusion that it probably doesn't matter if sometimes my ramblings are very irregular (I mean, it's unlikely that I'll be this busy constantly) - I'll just have to make up for it when things are quieter! And I will, I promise!
Well, that's that said....and I hope you're still here?! I've had a little bit of press in the last couple of weeks! First off, a great feature in Making magazine....


Then my blog had a mention in Handmade Living, alongside Julia Crossland and Nina (Tabiboo). Whilst they had been informed, it was a complete surprise to me - until I saw my images on Julia's site!On the creative side, I've had what feels like millions of driftwood cards to make for shops and galleries which has taken up loads of my time, but I have managed to squeeze in a collage commission for my friend, who has bought this for her husband's birthday....

You may recognise it, it's Derwent Water in the Lake District.
Well, I gotta go and make some dinner now. I hope you are all welll and I'll see you again soon xx

Royal Cornwall Show 2011

Well, it's all over and to be honest, I'm absolutely shattered! Such a big build up over the past few weeks, then setting up, followed by 3 long days (8.30am - 6.30) - I feel like I could sleep for a week!
I really wasn't sure what to expect sales-wise and actually I would have hoped to have done better: there were ALOT of people who walked straight past my stand and that can be very disheartening! But I gave out over 200 business cards, so I suppose there may be leads from them at a later date. Plus I met some fab people - fellow stallholders, craftspeople, and some very lovely customers. Apparently Kirstie Allsopp was there on the first day with her crew, but unfortunately she didn't come to our tent - much to our disgust! (Although her photographer did take a photo of me and my stand - I keep checking my e-mails to see if Kirstie has messaged me!!) And not wishing to name-drop, but my best sale was to this well-known chap! He bought one of my collages and some other pieces!
Though I would dearly love to take a few days off, I have about 250 driftwood cards to make for shops and galleries, so I've got a bit of catching up to do!

BTW, cards and prints of my collages are now available in my Folksy shop!