Peacocks and Dragonflies

What have I been up to?

2011-06-21T20:13:00.003-04:00

Hello, if anyone still has me on their blog list you may have wondered where I have been. Well here is your answer, I am happy to tell you that I was pregnant and exhausted with Twins and I am now extremely busy with 2 beautiful baby girls!

My art work has taken a bit of a back seat as you might imagine! My Dad designed this beautiful birth announcement card for us!

I have now given up work and am a happy stay at home Mummy!

Taggie Blanket

2010-05-31T20:29:00.004-04:00

These pictures have been hanging out on my camera for a while - just a little Taggie blanket that I made for my Niece which matches the hanging that I gave her.

2 months later...

2010-04-20T13:51:00.002-04:00

I finally finished the wall hanging that I was making for my Elena's nursery. I made bunting to go with it only I included some blue because the curtains in the room are blue. I am really pleased with the way it turned out and hope that my brother and his wife like it. I hurriedly took some pictures outside because after taking this long to finish it I wanted to ship it off right away!

I trimmed the edges of the kaleidoscope panels with ric rac (my favourite) and added covered buttons. some mini hexagons made from the striped fabric (they look a little like beach umbrellas) and some braided ribbon.

Having fun with chalk & photo collage

2010-03-25T11:18:00.008-04:00

I was just reminding myself that not every little piece of art work that you do has to be for a purpose - sometimes you can just sit down and do something for the sake of it. I was thinking about a project that I did with one of my art classes once. The technique is using chalk on wet sugar paper (construction paper). So I went out and bought myself some chalk yesterday and sat down to doodle. I did several sheets it is a very quick and easy technique. When you get the pressure right the chalk just glides on the paper. It is very fun and relaxing.

The most successful piece I did was this red one. I was thinking back to the original project where I had the kids look at painting of mud huts in Africa (wish I knew the source but I can't find what I am looking for on google) They used very simple designs but the overall effect was very dramatic.

Then being me I scanned my picture and played around with the pattern variations that I could make just by flipping and rotating the picture in different collages.

Above :- Simply rotating the image creates a nice diagonal effect.

Left :- Basic repeat. I amazed that the double line I drew across the page is so even from one side to the other.

Right:- The best for last, rotating and flipping the image makes for a very interesting pattern. Far more dramatic than the original. I might buy this as a rug in Ikea!

Breeze driftin' on by you know how I feel

2010-03-19T15:48:00.007-04:00

What beautiful weather we are having! I just had to go for a walk and I took my camera with me! Look at that gorgeous blue sky.

There was a wonderful breeze blowing everything about but it was still very warm and I just started humming Nina Simone - Feeling Good . So the sort of day that makes you hum that song has to be good!

Our tree in the back garden is the local hang out for the squirrels of the neighborhood. There isn't actually a drey in either of our trees but they love to hang out there.

Here is a squirrel basking in the sun - who knew that squirrels basked!

Who could blame him, I might have been up for a little basking myself -if we'd have had any of our patio set out of the shed.

I wasn't even upset by what the breeze did to my hair - it gave me Einstein hair - you get to see a shadow!

Spring has sprung...

2010-03-15T12:44:00.004-04:00

Well not really! But our clocks have sprung forward! And the snow has melted, it has actually been a little rainy which reminds me of home and I like it. The rain cleared up so much the other day that I thought I would go for a little run - that soon turned into a walk (I am really not one for running). Shortly after my walk began I circled back to the house to get my camera to take picture of some rusty water mains covers. I love rust! I am sure I could do some work based of these pictures. I am thinking rubbings and rusting process.

I must apologise for not being around that much lately. I have had some personal issues taking over my life in the last 2 months and much as I wish that it hadn't affected my art-work or my blog, I have to admit that it rather took over my entire life. So hopefully I can put that behind me for the mean time and get back into the swing of things. I hope that some of you that used to read my blog will come back and read it again. I have been keeping up to date with a lot of you and how you have been getting on. There are some extremely productive people out there and I aim to emulate you.

The promise of nice weather on the horizon always makes me a little happier, at least I don't feel so cooped up inside the house.

And so I will end with another picture from my walk which I am sure will become much more routine than the running will. I should remember to take my camera out with me whenever I go. When you leave without it you are bound to need it at some point.

This view made me happy, I like that the tree was there first and so they built the footpath around it! It just made me smile!

Unfortunately just after this there is a car park and then the footpath does not continue, there is a lovely golf course and not foot path to walk around it - not even on the other side of the road. I would have walked on the grass bank but it was a bit wet!

A.W.O.L.

2010-01-24T07:52:00.004-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted much recently. I have had a lot of things going on which are distracting me. I will try to get back on track. The first thing I need to do is to finish this quilt. I started it back in November, for the nursery wall of my Niece. At the time she was not born but I am proud to say that I am now and Auntie and I couldn't be more excited about it! However the quilt has not progressed much since November. My plan is to get it finished in the next week and send it off to my Brothers home so that when my parents are visiting in February they can hang it up. (My Brother and Sister in Law are not big decorators and leave that kind of stuff to my parents when they come - I can't believe we are related sometimes)

Anyway, I saw a Kaleidoscope Quilt online one day and decided I would make one. It is really fun actually. The first thing you need is a fabric with a nice big print. You need to get enough yardage so that you can find the repeat at least six times. Then you need to cut equilateral triangles out of it making sure that you get the exact repeat six times. You can use a view finder or you can cut a block of triangles out and then lay them over the matching area. At the end of the day I did not have enough fabric to make every Kaleidoscope block 6 matching triangles so I mixed it up and made some of them 3 of one pattern three of another. I also Included some polka dot fabric in matching green and pink colour ways.

The next thing to do was to lay them out on the floor and arrange the pattern - this stage took a long time. What was great is that all the kaleidoscopes look so different from each other, one is almost entirely pink while another is mostly yellow.

Once you have decided the order of the blocks you sew the triangles together in strips, this is so much easier than sewing the blocks together. In the picture above the strips on the right have been sewn but those on the left have not. I have to admit I made a few mistakes at this stage with a triangle turned the wrong way as I sewed it etc. After 1 or 2 unpickings I got the basic quilt made and there it has stayed until this week when I will finish it. Watch this space.

Oh and because I am posting - I was commissioned to make this tiny pom pom heart garland from my Etsy site.

Wonderful Chrimbo!

2009-12-27T19:35:00.007-05:00

Justin and I had our first just the 2 of us Christmas. This was due to the fact that he had to go into work at 9pm and do the night shift at the hospital. So it was an interesting day - he slept in and then had to take another nap later so that he was able to be somewhat alert for work. Anyhoo, we had our Christmas slap bang in the middle of the day. I made a nice roast chicken and all the usual trimmings that one generally has with Turkey (except the Brussel sprouts).

I got some lovely presentsI finally got my Blue Morpho Butterfly necklace from neile's shop. I had wanted to buy it for my birthday but never could get round to spending the money on myself - Justin bought it for me. My luggage broke this summer and I had to sew it shut just to make it back home, Aunt Julie bought me a lovely Purple set of luggage. I got an overlocker from Justin's parents ( I actually got it at Thanksgiving but it was a Christmas gift.) Finally I got this lovely Pom-Pom scarf rom my Secret Santa. I got some other lovely gifts too!

My Mum and Dad left me a lovely parcel with lots of gorgeous items inside including these lovely pieces from Eden Pottery. I love the pottery and it is one of my favourite places to go when I am home, the owners are lovely and let my dad paint his own pieces and fire them for him, I have some great plates and bowls that he has made there. Of course we are great customers and regularly buy items in their annual "seconds "sale as well as eating the enormous cinnamon scones that they sell in the cafe. You can buy pieces from the website and I highly recommend them, my favourite current pattern is Cottage Garden after the sadly discontinued Sweet Pea series. A good friend of the family commissioned 2 sweet pea mugs for me a few years ago - a great gift.

It was a different Christmas but a good one!

Polka Dot Christmasy Swap

2009-12-07T13:47:00.004-05:00

I went out for lunch with the hubby today and when I got home I found a delightful Christmas package on the door step. It was my polka dot gift for the Christmas Polka Dot Swap from my swap partner Bec Lewis of Little Brown Dog blog.

The rules for the swap were

At least three small items - these can be absolutely anything you want! But...
One item must be something handmade and Christmasy (i.e. a Christmas apron, decoration, stocking, etc) and must include some polka dot fabric
You must make the decoration including the colours your swap partner requests (this is because I know some of you will be like me, and have theme colours for Christmas)

I am delighted at what I have received. Firstly and polka dotty was my stocking. It is perfect! this is our first Christmas just the 2 of us so I was planning on making a stocking us both. Now I just have to make one for Justin. The bell on the toe is also great bells are somewhat of a Christmas theme for me. nicely wrapped in the stocking was a little birdy ornament which is now hanging on the tree. Thirdly all rolled up was a lovely cushion cover made from and Irish linen tea towel, perfect for me really - I love Irish Linen and the cushion is just so quirky!

Thank you so much Bec! I love all my items. I hope yours arrive soon!

I decided to experiment with Photovisi on this post. A way to make collages - anyone know of any other free programs - I am envious of those beautifully collaged posts which succesful bloggers put together.

Better Late than never...

2009-12-01T21:10:00.004-05:00

I finally got around to updating my Etsy Shop today.

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade
AshleyAmandaDesigns.etsy.com

Hopefully I haven't totally missed the boat and maybe I will get at least one holiday sale! Anyway - check it out and spread the news!

The joy of saving....

2009-11-14T09:11:00.004-05:00

Giving, Saving and Spending Tags from mamaroots's shop

We have some pretty major expenses coming up next year and therefore have been under extreme save mode for some time. I have been keeping my money in a saving account and it is fun to watch that amount grow as we add to it each pay period.

We are fast approaching that time of year when we end up shelling out all of our hard earned cash on gifts for others. I love giving presents but all to often in the past couple of years I feel like we have given quite expensive gifts that were not necessarily wanted by the recipient, not that they were not thankful for the gift but they never really used it or wanted it in the first place. This year the extended family (on my side) have decided to do a secret Santa, I love this as Christmas has become increasingly more expensive as cousins have added spouses and children into the mix. Now all the adults are put into a hat and only have to buy 1 gift each. Children will still get gifts from everyone.

Fifteens from google images.

Today at my work my team are having a bake sale for our "Adopt a Family" I have made Fifteens and Hollywood Cakes, 2 recipes that my Nana gave me. Fifteens are a Northern Ireland favourite and Hollywood Cakes I have never heard of outside my family but they are yummy!

My husbands family were not up for the Secret Santa so we have to figure out something different. Inspired by the bake sale I am making the men in the family a tin of homemade tray bakes each. I ran this idea past the hubby yesterday and he is all for it. Now I just have to figure out what to get/make the women! Oh yeah, since we will not be visiting them at Christmas time this year we will do all of this at Thanksgiving (under 2 weeks).

Piggy Bank with Ladybug from lindaneubauer's shop

Flea Market Finds

2009-11-09T15:39:00.003-05:00

While my parents were here I took them to the Royal Oak Flea Market. It is on every Sunday at the Royal Oak Farmers Market. we went both Sundays that they were here and we found some treats. I found this huge plastic peacock, which is painted to look like metal. The crest from his head is missing but i love him anyway. I wonder what he was originally used for.

Close up of the peacocks neck, you can tell he is plastic from this view point and you can see that there used to be some sort of crest on his head. He is now hanging in my sewing room.

The second major find was this fantastic piece of embroidery it is a very large panel made up of three lengths of cloth sewn together and hand embroidered. This was priced way over my budget but my Dad haggled and talked the vendor down to $90 this is still way more than I could have afforded but I think it is worth more - you would have to pay me a lot more than that for so much work.

Detail shot, the flash on the camera makes the red look a bit florescent it is a deeper shade in reality. The most lovely thing about this is that my Dad gave it to me to hang in my guest room, I guess they were tired at looking at nothing.

So I know nothing about the origins of this piece - if you have any idea about where this could be from I would be very interested to find out.

A quick google image search this evening has brought me these pictures of the big plastic peacock with intact crest from design boner blog. Look at that delicious bling! It completely makes sense that this piece is missing, I wonder if it became necklace or a brooch?

I also wonder since this particular peacock is all gold whether my crystals may have been green. I am interested to know. Also by by the 2 comments on the blog I found this it seems to be a particular favourite of grandmas for hanging over their bed (a fact that made me chuckle).

Detroit Eastern Market

2009-11-05T14:34:00.004-05:00

I had a great time with my parents while they were here. I had no time to blog so I felt a bit like I had abandoned it . I am back now. My Mum and Dad are fantastic and helped me get so much done around the house, including revamping my sewing room/studio I will post pictures of that soon.

One of the things we did when they were here was take a trip to the Eastern Market in Detroit. I had never been before and wanted someone to go with me and my parents happily obliged.

An amazing pile of gourds .

Indian corn.
Indian corn on top of gourds.

Beautifully displayed Chrysanthemums as I was taking this shot the market vendor posed for the pic and I felt obliged to take one of him as well.

Sunflower heads, I imagine people use these for displays? They were huge like great big pillows.

We came away with a load of veggies at extremely reasonable prices. I will definitely be going again.

Too Early?

2009-10-14T19:18:00.002-04:00

I bought supplies to make Christmas cards last year and never got round to it, so friends and family got boring old shop bought cards (if i even sent out any - I can't remember!) I had the cards and a quick trip to the dollar store found some cheapo snowflake ornaments in the right colours and voila! Christmas cards.

This is actually good timing because now I can send my U.K. cards home with my parents when they come to visit next week, which will save on international postage!

BTW - Yay! my parents are visiting next week! I am very excited and am madly trying to clean up the house a bit and finish up a few art projects.

Day 30 OADCC

2009-09-30T21:20:00.003-04:00

Today is day 30, the official last day of my one a day craft challenge. I am ashamed to admit that even though I made this challenge I haven't quite been able to keep up with it. I had a very hard week at work, 4 5am starts, that led to lots of falling asleep on the couch in the afternoon, my most productive time of day usually (because I have the house to myself). The mistake was not blogging every day, when I did that it was essential that I have a complete item to photograph. When I let that slip it was easy to fall behind. :(

With that said I am determined to get 30 items done, even if they are mostly brooches.
I went to take some pictures of some of the items I have made and the battery in my camrea was not charged.
I couldn't let this post go by without 1 picture so here are the postcards that I sent off for my postcard swap. Of course the scribble heart is my favourite. So much so that I have made it my new icon. I promise some pictures of more One A Day Challenge items tomorrow.

Please check out some of my friends who have been very good about joining me in this challenge

juanitatortilla
sara at soap rehab
TiLT
topknots
Julie of Musings of a Northern Girl
Anjeanette of Roots and Wings Co

Juliann of The Sick Chick

Jen D of The Silver Lining

I am going to have to declare TiLT the absolute champion of this challenge she definitely rose to the occasion and produced some wonderful items.

Big thanks to everyone who participated. Look out for the rest of my items to appear here in the next few days!

Day 21 (OADCC)

2009-09-21T21:45:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone, I know I haven't blogged for a few days but it doesn't mean that I haven't been making. Day 17, 18 and 19 I made more flower brooches, I decided it wasn't really necessary to write about each one of these as you have seen the idea a few times now. The flower is easy for me to do on those very rushed days and I still feel like I am getting something done. Anyway today is another day and I made a different kind of flower necklace. I made 3 rosettes out over layers of silvery fabric. and then sewed them onto a ruched length of ribbon. The sheer fabric is actually a silver check on a black background which makes a great pattern when layered over each other (detail below).

On Day 20 (yesterday) I quickly sewed up some cushions. I have had this fabric for years. Another great thing about this challenge, it has got me completing those little projects which I have been meaning to do for the longest time.

And due to Floss' suggestion I took a picture of one of my butterflies in amongst the flowers to see what that would be like. I think he looks quite charming perched on the Hydrangea.

Day 16 (OADCC)

2009-09-16T22:32:00.003-04:00

Today I made this little fellow. It is a french beaded butterfly. I love french beading but it takes a long long time. In addition to this guy I also made the bodies to all of the little ones below. I have had the wings done for a long time now just waiting to get put together. Funny enough the wings are by far the easier part. Anyway It was good to get a production line of bodies going.

You can still see the wires behind the butterflies, I will need these to attach the butterflies to their final destination.

I was originally going to make these into hair sticks like the one below, I made him earlier in the year, I have modified the wing shape and the body since then. I am now thinking that I will make some hair clips/barrettes too! Any other suggestions of things I could do with my butterflies! The big problem with them is that they takes so much time to make If I charged by the hour they would cost a fortune.

Why are my butterflies fellows and hims ??

Day 14 & 15 (OADCC)

2009-09-15T20:05:00.003-04:00

The observant among you, may have noticed that i was off by 1 day on my count. I had worked very late on projects 2 nights running so just posted about them the next day. Yesterday however was the day of the baby shower for my friend, at my house. I live in a state of chaos and so I spent most of the day cooking, cleaning and generally preparing my house for guests. The most crafty thing I did was a bit of flower arranging.

Anyway to make up for that I planed to do 2 things today. I actually needed to do 2 things today. I agreed to be part of whosies postcard swap over at Whosies.blogspot.com
I had 2 swap partners and the postcards had to be mailed out today! So I got to making 2 postcards - I carefully measured and cut and after making the first one I discovered I had made it an inch to wide, oops. I loved it so much that I sent it anyway ( actually that would have been a good excuse to keep it). I made the second one to the correct size. I am sorry to say that 1 is better than the other, but I did like them both. I don't want to show you them yet but I will when I think they may have received them.

Here they are sitting in my mail box, after which I took them out and took them to the post office to be mailed.

P.S. My friend loved her Bunting that I made on Day 4!

Day 13 (OADCC)

2009-09-14T08:46:00.003-04:00

I decided I wanted to make a more casual brooch. What better material to use than T-shirt. I embroidered some simple flower shapes on t-shirt (with peltex backing) I layered some more t-shirt on top and cut petal shapes.

I cut the whole shape out and added some more petals. This whole piece went into the washer and dryer so the edges could curl.

I then added some beads and voila - this is how we dress up a plain white T!

Day 12 (OADCC)

2009-09-13T11:35:00.002-04:00

For Day 12 I made this .....
A lovely little square cushion, or a massive pincushion! It measures 7 inches square. As I was doing this One a Day craft challenge I became increasingly aware that I did not have a pin cushion! Amazing, right? You would think that everyone who had a sewing room would have a pincushion. I used to have one of those tiny tomato ones but I have no idea where it is. I have been using lids to hold my pins and often nothing at all. Anyway I needed a big pin cushion and I used the basic idea from kootoyoo but having no cute handkerchiefs I made a cute square of my favourite fabrics.
It felt like I put so much stuffing in this thing. Then when I came to put the button in the center I didn't have a big long needle, so I had to clamp my cushion and use pliers to pull the embroidery thread through! Necessity is the mother of invention!

Here it is in use with the very needle I used to make it. Pin cushion tip, Always keep a short strand of thread in your needle it makes them much easier to find in amongst the pins. I just have to pick all of the pins and needles of the floor now!

Day 11 (OADCC)

2009-09-11T16:53:00.004-04:00

Hello, I did not make any brooches today. I did however make this lovely necklace. I made some smaller flowers using the brooch technique and attatched them to twisted ribbon tubes. I have not embellished it yet with beads - do you think it would be better with or without?

Close up of the 2 flowers on the right side. I am really happy with this one. I am going to have to bribe someone to do a photo shoot of me wearing some of this stuff for my shop.

Day 10 (OADCC) Another Brooch

2009-09-10T23:29:00.003-04:00

I am so sorry everyone, I just didn't have it in me today after getting home at 10pm, and having a fiasco filled morning, to make anything other than another brooch. Same shape, just different fabrics and beads. I do like this fabric it is a beige colour with a metallic purple/blue top weave. Shot fabrics or multi toned ones are perfect for these wrinkly flowers.

Again with and without flash above and a nice detail below.

Day 9 (OADCC)

2009-09-09T22:39:00.003-04:00

Well it was coming to the end of day 9 and the bigger project was not looking anywhere near done so....... yes another flower brooch. This is the exact same size as the one 2 days ago, just in a much more sophisticated gunmetal and black colour scheme. You can see it above without flash and below with. I am happy because any other day I would have gone to bed with a 1/2 finished project but today i am going to bed with a a 1/2 finished project plus a pretty flower brooch!
I am getting quite good at making these, what kind of price would you be willing to pay for one (if you couldn't make it yourself that is) I am definitely producing a few of these for my Etsy shop.

I love this detail shot of the center, pretty.

Day 8 (OADCC)

2009-09-08T22:27:00.003-04:00

Little purse/pouch. Just the thing for carrying your jewelry when you get tired of wearing it. I made a similar one for my pay it forward this is a bit different though with some ribbon knots to finish it and mitered corners (sort of, good practice anyhow). The main piece of fabric is gunmetal quilted with black thread in random spiral patterns. I admit that I had a little help, I cut one of the ribbon ends far to short and my hubby had to help me tie it with a pair of tweezers.

The back of the purse you can see the quilting pattern much more clearly here.

Day 7 (OADCC)

2009-09-07T22:05:00.002-04:00

Today I decided to make another flower brooch, this time its a little different. I used a thinner interfacing which actually shrivels under heat. This can be used to make a great texture in the flower petals.
I used fabric from a friends bridesmaid dress. I love to get old bridesmaids dresses, they are rarely something a person would wear again and often have great fabrics for bags and brooches etc. Let me know if you want to get rid of any (and you live in Michigan).

Since I was making something smaller today I made 2 brooches instead of 1. I will try to get some better detail shots up here tomorrow.

Day 6 (OADCC)

2009-09-06T11:38:00.003-04:00

A short and sweet project today. Remember the A wall that I am making? Well I bought a large wooden letter A at a garage sale so I wanted to paint it, I did a base coat of white and then little vines and flowers over it. I am not thrilled with it at the moment, but it looks better than the plain wood A that has been hanging up there for a few months now.

Day 5 (OADCC)

2009-09-05T20:29:00.004-04:00

Today I decided to make myself a little travel bag for my undies, I always end up carrying them in a plastic bag and have been meaning to make one of these for quite sometime.

The lettering took forever because it was done the hard way (free machining) and not with one of those fancy embroidery cards (I have a suitable machine but do not have the letter card to put in it!)
In the end the hardest part was the cord, I decided to be clever and do french seams which totally ruined the pull through on the cord tie. I need to sleep on it.

Day 4 (OADCC)

2009-09-04T20:52:00.003-04:00

Today's challenge, Bunting! I am hosting a mini Blue baby shower for my friend - she doesn't know about it, unless she reads this blog in which case now she does (Surprise!).
I am trying to save the more time intensive projects (like this one) for my Days off work. I managed to do this whole thing today, including going to the fabric store and battling the labor day sales event and registers that weren't working. I must have spent 2 hrs there and they were not fun! Unfortunately I still ended up working on it this evening because of the length of time I spent in the store.

Left side of the bunting. I made a pink set for the same friend when her daughter turned 1 and she loved it, I am sure she will be very pleased with a blue set. Once again I am very pleased with my work today, this would normally have taken me forever to do - because of the dreaded procrastination!

Day 3 (OADCC)

2009-09-03T20:54:00.002-04:00

Day 3. After I got home from work I fell asleep on the couch while watching the baseball, oops. So we had take out for dinner and I made this little squiggle heart (5" sq). I actually had the idea to do this over a year ago when I made my big red stripey linen quilt of the same fabric. It has been sitting in my to do piles for a long time. I thought this was a good opportunity to do it. I now would just like to mount it (mat it for you Americans ) and frame it in a little square frame. This is for our bedroom, but maybe I could make some others for my shop, what do you think? Just the one picture, the in action ones I took came out a little blurry.

Day 2 (OADCC)

2009-09-02T22:11:00.004-04:00

Day 2, I need to go to bed 10 mins ago because I have to be at work by 5am, yuck. I will post this really quickly and then I am off.

You should never try to take pictures at 10 pm, the light quality isn't very good.

I recently bought some lovely hard back notebooks with the express purpose of recovering them, for creative people (like my Mum) to carry around in their handbags. You can see the after and before above and below.

The back must have a little something.

And the inside cover is pretty too.

I actually have a lot more to say on this, like how hard it is to do corners and how frustrating this was, because I started by using the wrong glue. But I will settle for being pretty happy and quoting my Art teacher - "A person who never made a mistake never made anything!"
And I think it turned out pretty well in the end .

Ok Nighty Night!

others Up for the challenge.

Day 1 (OADCC)

2009-09-01T20:42:00.003-04:00

After deciding to do this craft challenge and getting a good response I looked at my work schedule in horror last week as I saw that Day 1 was going to be a pretty hectic work day. As I was working hard all day and then had to buy groceries and make dinner, I decided I better do something quite small and achievable for my first day. I know, (I thought) a small little fabric brooch!

How about a lovely little purple flower.

Little! LITTLE, little (I said). Well I made a fairly large purple flower brooch.

Detail of the clown size flower brooch!

Despite its size I am quite pleased with the fruits of my labor on day 1 of my One A Day Craft Challenge. To see other participants check out who else is Up for the challenge! at the end of my first post.

If you want to join in at any time let me know and I will add you to my list.

One A Day Craft Challenge

2009-08-24T12:51:00.011-04:00

Hello Everyone! I cordially invite you to join me in my One A Day Craft Challenge for the month of September.

Here is how it goes...
Create 1 item per day in September. These items can then go into your Etsy Shop, Craft fairs, used for Christmas prezzies or just for your personal enjoyment. This means at the end of September you should have 30 separate handcrafted items. They can be as small as you like or as ambitious as you please...... just make sure that you can do it in a day!
Post pictures! At the end of the day post pictures of your handcrafted items.

This is my personal challenge but I invite you all to join me and keep me to my word. If you are interested in doing this with me please let me know and I will add a link to your blog at the bottom of this post. Feel free to use my image (above) on your blog if you like!

Up for the Challenge

juanitatortilla
sara at soap rehab
TiLT
topknots
Julie of Musings of a Northern Girl
Anjeanette of Roots and Wings Co

Juliann of The Sick Chick

Jen D of The Silver Lining

Colour

2009-08-21T15:35:00.003-04:00

GP105 Red Kaffe Fassett

I took my first ever trip to the Guildcrafters Quilt Shop in Berkley Mi, Not allowed to take photos inside but you can see some on their website. I was hoping to find some Anna Maria Horner Good Folks fabric, which I adore but I did not. They did have some of her other ranges though. It is a lovely shop and filled with the most glorious selection of fabrics unlike Joanne fabrics, also unlike Joanne fabrics, the price Yikes! I mean it is great fabric and you get what you pay for it is just that I am a cheapskate. Having said that I couldn't leave without buying something and I came home with a 1/4 yd of this lovely Kaffe Fassett fabric. They didn't use a ruler to cut and I was a little worried until I got home and realised that they are a little generous to compensate for the lack of a straight edge. In Joanne Fabrics they will trim off an uneven edge and throw it away rather than give that little extra bit to the quilter. That really offends my sensibilities.

Just as I sat down to write this post the most wonderful rainbow appeared across my studio, I took it as a sign that I should post more often. Or maybe that I should clean up as it came from a CD that was lying on my desk in the sun.

5 Years

2009-08-10T10:32:00.005-04:00

5 Years ago Today I got married to my lovely Husband. Since I have never posted pictures of my wedding on this blog before today seems an appropriate day to do it. We had a handmade wedding, I made my wedding dress, very non-traditional as you can see.

My Dad drove us to the wedding in his vintage Hilman.

Here is a shot of me in my wedding dress, It is an off white dress, with cut work, hand painted roses and lilies in aquas and pinks over a fuschia silk underdress, which gives the whole dress a light pink feel.Detail of the shoulder piece, my alternative to a veil. You can see the hand painting and cut work.
The drop waist seam of the dress had tiny little cut work lilies and roses on it.

Here is the beaded hair clip I made to match my dress. I also carried Stargazer Lilies.

My Mum and I made the bridesmaid dresses and My Mum and helpers did the flowers on the wedding day!
My Nana baked the wedding cake and my fantastic Mum decorated it.

Everyone got a little package of sweet Pea seeds as a wedding favour.

Finally my lovely Hubby, It has been a very Happy 5 years!

Quick tour - London

2009-08-09T18:20:00.003-04:00

Hello, I am back from my holidays, where I was mostly away from a computer for any length of time. Actually I have been back for over a week but it was kind of hard to get back into being connected all the time. My holiday comprised of three parts, first a quick weekend with my best mate Jenny in London. I love London and haven't been there in years so I really enjoyed spending time with Jen and soaking up the atmosphere of London Town . I love the tube and especially the old tile down in the tunnels.

Jenny although she lives there, being a tourist in Camden.

We stopped here and shared a lovely bun and pot of Tea in primrose hill, some actress came in when we were there ( I don't know who she was -I am so out of the loop). After she left Jenny couldn't remember her name either but knew that she had seen her naked in something.

Jenny and me posing in Camden
Down at Camden Lock

This was a great stall at Camden Market everything was such good value, I bought a little purse for my camera. I would have bought more probably but I had no cash and my atm card wasn't working.

That was a whistle stop tour of London, I also went home to Bangor for 5 days and then to Italy for a week. I have so many photos from Italy - I don't really know how I will pare them down.

Showing Dad how to use Blogger

2009-07-21T18:16:00.002-04:00

One of my Dad's illustrations from his sketchbook. I am showing my blog off while at home and trying to teach my Dad about it.

What happened to that play day?

2009-07-13T11:15:00.006-04:00

If you were wondering what I did with all those papers I dyed on my play day last month well here it is. First I ripped up those papers to make them a little smaller and to make the lettering not so obvious. I arranged them to make a rectangle. Then I took each piece of paper and used a watery mix of metallic paint on each. Some pieces I used more paint than others.

After the paint dried I arranged the pieces on Iron on vilene and made one big sheet out of all the papers. In the picture below you can see the metallic paint reflecting in the sunlight.

Above you can see some copper leaves which I am going to verdigris to match some other leaves that will eventually be used on this piece.

This is how the piece looks today, I have done a lot of free machine embroidery and embellished with fancy yarns and threads.

Close up of free machining triangles and leaf outlines.

Embellished with ladder yarn and stitched spirals.

If you look at the back of this piece you can see all the stitching I have done.

This piece still has a lot of work to go, so stay posted to see how it turns out. I am planning on adding my verdigris leaves and doing some hand stitching and beading.

Teeth

2009-07-09T08:57:00.003-04:00

I am dreading today, I have to get my wisdom teeth pulled out. I haven't heard any good stories about wisdom teeth removal. Maybe I should have ordered this tooth fairy pillow from smoxcreations (Sleepy Sammy the Vampire - tooth fairy pillow) What is the going rate for wisdom teeth - I have to make sure the Hubs knows (so he can help out the tooth fairy, tough economic times ya know)

4th of July

2009-07-04T22:50:00.002-04:00

Marilyn Rose Journal Quilt: Fireworks, originally uploaded by Penny Sanford Porcelains.

Since it is July fourth, I have been hearing fireworks for a couple of hours now. We just got home from camping so we aren't heading out tonight to see them. I was just thinking about how you could use embroidery thread and stitching to represent fireworks, as with most things that come to you someone else has already done it so... I did a google image search for firework embroidery and this beautiful image popped up. It is by Mississippi Quilt Association member Marylin rose.

Decorating with letters

2009-06-27T19:15:00.011-04:00

As you may or may not know my initals are A A A. I have been wanting to create a letter wall for quite some time and any time I am at the flea market I have been looking for A (or a) lettering. Unfortunately I have yet to find any there yet, I will go again tomorrow and look.

I have a hook letter A similar to the one above from Anthropologie

I bought this little letter A from CLUTTEREDmind on Etsy last week.

This should be arriving shortly I just bought it on ebay. I was in 2 other auctions today but I missed out because I had to go to work and my maximum was outbid. I probably should have put in a higher bid.

I am really going for a wall like this one created by Erin of house on hill road. Or the one below from Country Living Magazine.

P.S. I just bought this (below) from smallstudio on Etsy.

6 Unimportant Things

2009-06-25T19:46:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I was tagged Olga of Where Are You... to come up with 6 unimportant things so that you can all get to know me better. I just started adding images as i thought of them, so here in reverse order of the way my brain worked ....

Chicken Tikka Masala. My absolute favourite meal, they don't really have great Indian restaurants here - unlike the U.K. - at least not as common. Take away from the Bokkarah when i get back to Bangor!

Barcelona, I spent 3 days here with my husband before we got married, we stayed outside the city though and took the train in. One day I would love to go back and stay in Hotel Gaudi.

Embroidery, I did Textile Art in College and I love all kinds of embroidery! it makes me ooh and Ahh. I don't have the patience for hand work although I have done it and know what it takes, I usually machine embroider.

The sea. I miss not living beside the sea. The sound of the waves crashing on the shore (or lapping depending on its mood) is a very calming sound to me. Also the sea air is just so much fresher than anything else. Sea, you and I have a date when I get home.

Art Nouveau. I am in love with this art movement, a lot of my personal work has its roots in this style. My parents have a beautiful mirror with the above Mucha Print on it (the one on the left) so I grew up appreciating it.

Toblerone. I love chocolate, I love Cadburys, Hersheys sucks! but if you could only have one piece of chocolate it would have to be a triangle of Tobelerone.

Well I probably have a lot more unimportant things that I could add, but that is 6 things off the top of my head. Now I am hungry and I have no Chicken Tikka Masala, but I do have Toblerone!

Floss' Birthday Garden Party

2009-06-19T19:09:00.007-04:00

A little while ago i recieved this lovely invitation from Floss over at Troc, Broc and Recup' to attend her virtual Garden Party. The idea is we post what we will wear - and what we imagine the party is like so without further ado....
Seeing as the part is virtual I thought I would shell out the big bucks and go in this beautiful Tuleh dress. The design reminds me of silk scarves.

In my hair I will wear this gorgeous flower from Mandizzle's shop along with some beautiful vintage teal clips from kitchentablestudios's shop (below)

I imagine that for those of us who do not have hats Lace Parasols such as these will be provided for us.

I am sure there will be beautiful Hydrangea arrangements surrounded by tea lights - just like these ones (photo taken by me at my friends Morgan and Sara's wedding).

There will be fabulos multi-coloured floral bunting strung up all around the garden just like this set found at giggleberry's shop. (Bunting / Flags / Pennant Strings - Good Folks (cream)Floss is sure to serve some good old english tea in these fantastic flower teacups (found with google images) and then we might use these Garden Party Porcelain Spoons from Elizabeths embellishments (below).

We will probably pass around some flower cupcakes, the recipe is at jellybelly.com

To top it all off we get to the cake - in this case being a Garden Party Dirt Cake is the only way to go. I make this all the time, even for my brothers wedding rehearsal dinner. Unfortunately I have no pictures of mine, (I don't know how that happened) so I found a nice image here Edible Antics - Having Fun With Food.

I am looking forward to meeting all the other ladies who will be attending the party this weekend - I haven't peeked yet so now I am off to see who has posted their garden parties...

Elizabethd from French Village Life (France)
Jayne of Country Cottage Chic (England)
Sal of Sal's Snippets (England)
Carol of Katherine's Dream (England)
Melanie of A Country Dream (England)
Valerie of Dotty Dotty (England)
Lululiz of Lalaland (England and France!)
Bekimarie from The ramblings of an everyday mummy (England)
Olga of Where are you... (Poland)
Sarah from Red Gingham (New Zealand)
Lace Hearts (England)
Ashley from Peacocks and Dragonflies (USA)
Kris of Vintage Window (USA)
Isabel de la Maison Douce (USA)
Mel from Country in the Town (England)
Josie-Mary (England)
A Thrifty Mrs (England)
Betty G, from Betty G's Doublewide Cottage (USA)
Sonia of Vintage Rose Designs (USA)
Marie Reed of Cpaphil Vintage Postcards (France)
Louise, at The Whispering Poppies (USA)
Juanitatortilla (Switzerland)
Sarah, from A Beach Cottage (Australia)
Alexandra, Domestic Novice (Scotland)
Lissy Lou and the two little boys (England)
Sharon, of Clover Cottage (England)
Della, of Della Grace's Life (USA)
Fleur, at Marble Rose (England)

Play Day

2009-06-12T20:05:00.006-04:00

The day was nice, I was off work and I didn't feel sick, Yay! I have a lot more free time on my hands now as the kids Art class I teach in the afternoons is over for the term. What better way to spend the day than do some experimenting.

In the most recent issue of Quilting Arts magazine there is an article titled "Florabundance" by Jill A. Kennedy which takes you through her step by step process to creating her pieces. I was intrigued and unlike a lot of articles in similar magazines - I had the majority of materials on hand. I did things a little differently though the basic idea came from that article.

The first thing I did was take my box of crayons to a variety of papers, I took this opportunity to recycle some paper bags, a catalog cover, envelope , grocery list as well as some old construction paper. I put my doodling hands to work and scribbled away over my papers.

Detail of the lovely urban outfitters brown paper bag, scribbled all over. I really want to create a teal piece for a project that I have in mind - so I went with greens, blues and browns as my colour palate.

Next thing I did was paint a weak teal dye over all the papers, I did a couple of coats because some of the papers were not as absorbent as others.

At this stage (after they dried) I took the papers back inside and ironed them between sheets of parchment paper, the paper absorbed the wax and they became sheets of batiked paper.

I then took out my crayons again and waxed different doodles all over the top of the previous ones. I wasn't as careful with the colour of the crayons I chose at this point and I added some pinks and purples into the mix.

The papers then got a coat of brown dye over the top.

After they dried I scrumpled them all up. The orange is the inside of the Urban Outfitters paper bag.

Then I ironed them all out, making my room smell like wax and making me yearn for my wax pot and tjanting. Detail below, I am impressed with how this technique looks - I will probably chop up the pieces and rearrange them next so that the urban outfitters lettering isn't so obvious. My favourite pice of paper is the top left of the image below.

Sick Bed Post

2009-06-03T21:51:00.004-04:00

I have been sick since Sunday and have been unable to do much of anything really, I went to the Doctor today and I just have a virus that for some reason has hit me very hard. So I am trying to cheer myself up with a virtual look into items that ight make me feel better. First the Estrella Bedding set from Anthropologie - if you have to spend most of your day sleeping, why not snuggle up under that.

Second a nice pair of PJs these ones are from Victoria's Secret - actually it was kind of hard to find a pair of pajamas everything at this time of the year is short, but this is more like what I need right now.
Third these Yummy hot water bottle covers from Garnet Hill. I alternate between running temperature and shivering all over - this would be perfect for the shivery cold moments.

Pay it forward - Thank you

2009-05-18T18:30:00.004-04:00

When I arrived home from my holiday in Florida, I had a lovely mailbox stuffed full of things and in amongst them was my Pay it forward prize from Floss over at Troc, Broc and Recup' . It is a handmade little purse/pouch made from beautiful vintage fabrics from Europe and China. Yipee! I am so excited it is beautiful and I really appreciate all the time and care that she put into making it.

Front view of the purse, beautiful lace or possibly woven thread work of a blue background.

Back view of the purse. A beautiful circular piece of embroidery with part folded over to cleverly make the flap at the front.

Detail of the front of purse and a French millinery flower from the first half of the 20th century.

Detail of the embroidered fabric. Stunning!

Birthday Present for me.....

2009-05-14T09:07:00.003-04:00

I just had a big birthday yesterday. My Nana gave me some money and the rule is that I have to spend it on something for myself, I was browsing my favourites on Etsy yesterday and I came across a beautiful butterfly necklace made by neile's shop that necklace is long since sold of course, but I started looking at her shop, and then her sold items. I think I am going to comission a Blue Morpho butterfly necklace for myself. I think it is just beautiful.

The question now is do I need to get a whole set made (above) which would require me to add some money or would the neccklace be enough for me. Will I always be looking for earrings that match?

Postcard of Daytona Beach c. 1960

2009-05-10T10:01:00.001-04:00

Postcard of Daytona Beach c. 1960, originally uploaded by StevenM_61.

I am on my Holiday in Daytona Beach, Florida. This is the first real day here having flown in yesterday. The condo we are in overlooks the beach, and I watched Dolphins out in the ocean as I ate my breakfast.. Here is a postcard circa 1960 of the beach, the skyline has changed quite a bit since then, they do still drive on the beach though.

Amazing plant

2009-04-29T08:51:00.003-04:00

This is a lovely plant that lives in the butterfly house in the Detroit Zoo. I love the geometric type of shape they really remind me of origami. I have had these photos for a while now and they really need to become something.

Look at how they blossom it is like a little alien pod coming out.

Pay it forward - giveaway

2009-04-15T11:14:00.002-04:00

The first three people to leave a comment on my post will receive a surprise handmade gift from me. All you have to do to take part is to carry on the gift giving to three people. As soon as the comment is made, do a 'Pay it Forward' post on your blog, and carry on the giving. Of course you will need to request the address details of the first three people replying, so you can forward on their gift!!

I was one of the first three to comment on Troc, Broc and Recup's blog - so I should receive a little package from her. I am excited to do a little giveaway of my own and have been working on just the thing, just got to make 2 more!

Interview over on MICE

2009-04-11T08:40:00.003-04:00

As a member of MICE - Michigan Indie Crafters of Etsy I volunteered to do some interviews with our members for the blog. The best part of this is I get to pick who I want to interview. I chose Kristin Perkins of kpglassjewelry1 for my first interview. Check out the interview here at Miceetsy. I am pretty pleased with how it looks.

Crocus in the snow

2009-04-07T12:30:00.002-04:00

Just when it looked like things were warming up around here we got hit with a snowfall. It does make the crocus ring around my little tree look beautiful though.

Yellow Crocus poking out from under the snow.

A lovely line of verigated Purple and lilac crocus. Have I mentioned how much I love the Macro option on my camera.

I had to get my snow boots out again so I could get nice close up shots.

Resolved circle T

2009-03-28T15:29:00.003-04:00

I added 3 more circles to the right side of the T-shirt to cover the hole that I had made. It is possible that the t-shirt fabric is just not strong enough when the stabilizer is removed. We will just have to see. Normally if I had done an a-symmetric piece the detail on the bottom would be on the opposite side - but since this was a fix it situation Needs Must!

I am quite happy and will wear it at least once before it goes into the wash and then we will see what happens. Hope for success.

Circles T-Shirt

2009-03-28T14:28:00.005-04:00

I bought this top at Anthropologie Yesterday. It is so pretty and purple and hey it wouldn't be that hard to make.....

I stopped at Old Navy on the way home and picked up a blue T-shirt ($12.50), I cut out various sizes of blue circles and appliqued them onto the neckline and side and cut away the excess t-shirt.

Hey Presto - Blue bubble Tshirt. I just wonder how it will survive my cavalier style of washing clothing, ie. not treating my clothes that well.

Detail of the neckline.
Oh oh - I actually found a little hole which I obviously made when I was cutting off the interfacing, i am going to put some more circles up the right side to cover my error - grr ( I will post another picture once fixed..)

Detail of the bottom.

The question remains - do I still need the purple t-shirt?? It was on sale but Anthropologie sale = still not cheap enough.

2009-03-26T09:47:00.003-04:00

Award

2009-03-21T21:52:00.005-04:00

I received a lovely award from my new friend Floss over at Troc, Broc and Recup' . I am honestly thrilled that she decided to give me an award. It is nice and gives me a little glowing feeling!

So now that I have been given the award, I am supposed to list 7 things that I love and then give the award to 7 more creative bloggers.

7 Things I love
Like the previous winners of this award I am assuming that you all know that top of my list would be my hubby and my family so I will not be including them in my top 7.

1. The Sea - I love the sea and miss living beside it
2. The changing of the seasons, I love the start of a new season I am so ready for spring and it just beginning glorious, but i will love the start of summer too and Autumn and Winter.
3. Shopping with my Mum, she is my favourite person to shop with. We had a lot of fabulos shopping trips to London when I lived at home.
4. London! My favourite city, I love Camden and Spitalfields and the markets in general I also love Oxford Street.
5. The Giants Causeway, this is a fantastic natural rock formation in Northern Ireland, I try to do my bit for Northern Ireland Tourism by recommending that people visit.
6. Fabric/sewing I am a textile artist and I love fabric and textiles and embellishment.
7. Barcelona, My husband went here on holiday before our wedding and we loved it, we made up our own little tour and walked all over the city. The architecture of Gaudi is amazing and it is such an inspirational city!

7 Creative Bloggers
If someone else had given this to me I would have nominated Floss of Troc, Broc and Recup' because I have really been enjoying her Blog. Since she gave it to me I will pass it on to 7 different bloggers. As a relatively new blogger I am still exploring and finding blogs that I love to read.

1. Calamity Kim - I discovered her blog from a google image search of a paper rose, I was hooked and keep checking in - she led me to -
2. The Little Red Hen - who hosted Colour Week which I found so fun and really helped me kick start my blog.
3. HenHouse - Gorgeous pictures, she has beautiful Union Jack Cushions which has struck a chord with me as I am currently making both U.S. and U.K. Flag pillows with Floral fabrics for the hubby and I.
4. Dogdaisychains - Beautiful embroidery and I have been enjoying her recent posts about Marrakech
5. Hens Teeth - the Header of her Blog captivated me so beautiful and I a hooked
6. Geninne's Art Blog - Beautiful Illustration and handmade stamps. I am also incredibly envious of her fantastically organized and neat studio.
7. Her Library Adventures.. - My newest discovery. I particularly related to one recent post about her love for old keys coming in part from "The Secret Garden". I remember having that same exact feeling and I have a small collection of old keys and did a piece based on them when I was in college.

After compiling my list I realized that some of the above Bloggers may have received this award before - Ah well I am sure they won't mind being told how wonderful they are! Check them all out!

Mothers Day

2009-03-19T21:12:00.003-04:00

Sunday is Mothers Day back in the U.K. and my lucky Mummy is receiving this beautiful dish from me. I bought it from Prince Design U.K. a couple of weeks ago and the package is sitting waiting to be opened. My Mum is very good and is waiting for Sunday. I think she will love it and I think it will go nicely in the Pink room. Prince Design U.K. is also Etsy's Featured Seller this week.

I also got her subscription to Quilting Arts a couple of years ago for Mothers Day and that is a recurring gift

Sharpie Car

2009-03-15T15:16:00.008-04:00

aarting: Sharpie La mbo

Posted using ShareThis

So I was thinking about my Sharpie Doodle and I came across this post. I was thinking of doing some Teacups or something like that, but this is crazy!

Sharpie Doodle

2009-03-14T15:25:00.004-04:00

This is a little Doodle I did last night while watching the T.V. I think it has potential to be something else. it reminds me of a tattoo sleeve. I think I may do some embroidery from it. Or I may just let it be what it is. There is something really nice about drawing with a brand new Sharpie. For some really creative Sharpie use check this out.

Peacock Blanket

2009-03-11T11:21:00.004-04:00

Peacock Blanket, originally uploaded by Janice of NZ

This is just a fantastic photo. The feathers are so luminescent.

Ruth St. Denis in The Peacock

2009-03-09T14:04:00.007-04:00

Ruth St. Denis in The Peacock at the first Denishawn School 1915, originally uploaded by pufferfish_76.

Ruth St. Denis was one of the pioneers of American modern dance. I love the juxtaposition of her body form (including the train) and the real peacock.

Peacocks

2009-03-08T21:12:00.004-04:00

Some Peacock inspired art from Etsy.

Rainbow

2009-03-08T17:30:00.004-04:00

Yummy Peanut M&Ms - can there be a tastier rainbow?

This is a close up of a cardigan that my in-laws bought me for Christmas before I was their daughter in law - all the information that they knew about me was that I liked stripes. They did a good job and this is much worn and loved.

A Paperchase bookmark.

My Set of mixing bowls, a great housewarming gift from my good friend Jess.

I once saw a complete circle Rainbow from an Airplane, it was so beautiful. Every time I see a rainbow I look for the second one. There is often a fainter rainbow above the first but the colour way is reversed Blue at the top and Red on the inside of the arc. Next time you see a rainbow check and see if you can see another.

Thank you to The Little Red Hen for coming up with Colour Week. It has been a lot of fun and has certainly been inspiring. I will definitely take part again next year. Thanks to everyone who has posted pictures on their blog it has been fun to check them all out.

Violet

2009-03-07T14:41:00.005-05:00

The sky is grey after yesterday's bright blue one and the light isn't great for the photographs but Purple is really one of my favourite colours. Here are two large Purple hair clips on my mini dress form.

This is a detail from a kimono quilt that my Mum (Felicity Aston) made for me. Actually she made one for my Brother and his wife for their wedding because they worked and met in Japan. I loved that quilt so much that my mum made one just for me. I am so lucky!

A photo album and note card set from Paperchase

My 18th Birthday present (wow that was a long time ago) from my Mum and Dad it is a beautiful piece of kinetic jewelry from Alan Ardiff. I still love his work and hope to own more pieces one day. While taking this photo I realised my jewelry needs a really good clean.

A shameless bit of self promotion - why not. A lilac flower from a clutch made by me. You can check it out at AshleyAmandaDesigns.Etsy.com or just click on the picture at the top right of this blog!

Blue

2009-03-06T13:34:00.000-05:00

It is suddenly warming up here in Michigan and here is a beautiful Blue sky!

My Blue Salt and Pepper Mice that sit in my kitchen

A selection of Blue Air Mail stickers that line the spine of my address book.

I am very fortunate to know some very artistic people, this dish was made for my wedding present by Peter Meanley an extremely talented Potter and a close friend of my family. He works predominantly with Salt glaze and is currently producing a range of pieces inspired by Toby Jugs. He has modeled the characters for these Jugs on himself and my Dad. I saw some of the bisque when I was home at Christmas and can't wait to see the finished pieces. He had an exhibition a year ago in the Ulster Folk and transport Museum.

Green

2009-03-05T19:26:00.000-05:00

My Green cleaner

My Green cup of Tea and a tin of mint Green Tea (which is not actually the tea in my cup) in front of my Green Kitchen aid mixer.

Detail of a nice Green bag from Whole Foods.

My Experiments with copper and verdigris. I haven't quite worked out what it is going to be yet but I like it! Detail below.

sneak attack

2009-03-04T19:29:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty cool movement. I just participated and I feel all warm and fuzzy inside!
Basically every Monday, Wednesday and Friday the good folks over at handmademovement.com select an etsy store to be the victim of a sneak attack. You then head over to that shop and make a purchase. The "victim" then suddenly finds that they have had an influx of sales. This is to help shops which have not yet established a customer base! So todays shop is beaddamedesigns and I just purchased myself a little ring.

Yellow

2009-03-04T09:53:00.001-05:00

A little selection of Yellow from my work table.

A little fabric rose from my Yellow bin. I don't really have much Yellow fabric, I might have to go and hunt for some the next time I go shopping.

A little Yellow wooden heart. This is one of 4 - coasters I am sure, but they sit up on my window sill and make me happy.

I thought it would be hard to find anything Orange - no Yellow was much harder. This is the only piece of work I own that really has any Yellow that makes an impact. It is a detail of another of my Mum, Felicity Aston's pieces.

Orange

2009-03-03T12:16:00.000-05:00

Orange is not my favourite colour. The only room we painted when we moved in to our house was our living room and thats because it was Orange and I couldn't live with it. I don't even have an orange fabric bin. I have to admit it does look nice with Blue though (complementry colour and all). I thought Orange photographs would be hard but as it happens I do have some stuff.

This is a patched wall hanging that my aunt gave me when I was 13 or so. It features indian shisha work (mirrors) and beautiful embroidery, cut from vintage clothes or textiles and reassembled. It is one of the pieces of my high school bedroom that has made the journey over here. I did read somewhere that a lot of family heirlooms were being lost this way as people sold them to make some money, that makes me sad, but I really do appreciate the hard work that went into each piece.

I have a beautiful african wall hanging that my friends from Kenya gave us as a wedding gift. My wall needed a little something more to add to it. This is a basket that I bought at a discount store here. It hangs with its friends up on my wall beside the wall hanging. I have a notion to collect more in different sizes and keep adding to them.

Red

2009-03-02T09:24:00.000-05:00

This is from my Gap T-shirt made in South Africa for Project Red (label below) this t-shirt makes me feel good! I also bought one that says Bo(RED) which doesn't really have the same uplifting sentiment. Happily I wear this one a lot more, and since this blog is really supposed to inspire me I think it is a much more appropriate. You can buy lots of RED products over at http://www.joinred.com

This is my Big Red Stripey Linen Log Cabin Quilt. When we moved into our house the Master Bedroom was painted Dark Red. We didn't really want to spend a lot of time painting so we just moved ourselves in. Of course nothing we owned went with a dark Red Bedroom. I decided to make a log Cabin Quilt for Our Bed. It is my first usable Quilt and I of course decided to make it a King size (we only have a Queen) in case we upgrade any time. This took me months to make. The fabric graduates from Deep Reds and Purples on the Bottom Right side to Creams and pinks on the Top Left. I probably used around 20 fabrics all stripey linen, and then bleached and dyed to get my colour range. I couldn't say exactly how many different colours came out of it. I have better pictures somewhere but I can't seem to find them on my computer.

Finally this is my Anthropologie jumper (sweater) that I am wearing today in honour of Red Monday. I love clothes from Anthropologie but why do they have to cost so much? It really is the most interesting clothing store here in the U.S.A. Back in Ireland I am love Monsoon and Peruna, but in general the clothes are a little more interesting in the U.K.

Colour week

2009-03-01T14:44:00.000-05:00

Hello it is colour week! Who says - Little Red Hen. I thought it would be fun so I am joining in too! Here is how the week goes :-

Sunday- rainbow of colour
Monday - red
Tuesday - orange
Wednesday - yellow
Thursday - green
Friday - blue
Saturday - violet
Sunday - finish it all off with another rainbow of colour.

This picture seemed very appropriate for the Rainbow theme of the day. It is a lino print that my dad, Terry Aston hand painted for me last year. It is hanging in my kitchen and giving me a cheerful view through this long cold Michigan winter.

This is my somewhat untidy fabric stash system. Some bins are definitely more full than others that Blue one is overflowing. I should really go through and fold the fabric neatly.

Beads, Beads, Beads - this is just one of my many bead storage areas and it is rainbow so there you go.

Quilt Patch

2009-02-21T09:31:00.000-05:00

Now that the Mummy to be has received the full Quilt I can post my patch. The theme of the quilt was Up North (Michigan). I chose to depict the lake that we had our camp on. Michigania on Walloon lake, it is close to where the big heart is. I used one of my favourite fabrics for the cool blues of the lake.

Flickr Love

2009-02-09T17:18:00.000-05:00

I just found this beautiful felted piece on Flickr. It is by Caroline Inckle a talented Artist and Illustrator from Inverness, Scotland. I love to find Artists from the U.K. without meaning to. Anyway it is a beautiful piece, she has many more including lovely Polar Bear illustrations you can check out her blog http://www.secretsuperheroes.typepad.com/ or her Etsy shop secretsuperheroes.etsy.com The Etsy shop does not have as much of her Textile work but very beautiful illustrations.

I can't seem to make my links work but her blog is on my list to the right.

The Journey - Quilt

2009-02-02T11:21:00.000-05:00

This beautiful piece has been done by my Mum, Felicity Aston. She is a very talented Fiber Artist and a constant source of inspiration. She belongs to the Northern Ireland Patchwork Guild and this piece is the result of the their ''The hands across the border'' exhibition, the theme of which is ''The Journey''
It is based upon the annual epic migration of Light bellied Brent Geese from Arctic Canada to Strangford Lough where they pass the winter months. Evidently this year 26,000 arrived here out of a total world population of around 50,000.
The borders represent the snow and fir trees in the north and a greener milder environment in the south

Valentines

2009-01-23T09:14:00.000-05:00

I set up this Blog about a year ago but I haven't done anything with it until now. I am starting off by posting an image of my Valentine Ornaments which you can purchase at my Etsy shop (AshleyAmandaDesigns). I had fun taking these pictures outside in the snow. The color really popped against the white background. I should take more photos outside at this time of year.