:: work in progress ::

Hand painted stars £9.95 from dotcomgiftshop

shooting star cage unbrella £22 Cath Kidson

Karen Walker Inuit Star Print Shirt £69 from Urban Outfitters



silver scatter stars £20 from Cox & Cox

This post was inspired by my wanting for a new jolly brolly. This bright and cheerful umbrella from Cath Kidson would do just the trick. There is something magical about stars, the way they glisten like diamonds, the fact the are so far away and to me the = bedtime.

I have been a quiet busy bee working on new designs and other commissions and mulling over some festive ideas. I have my plans all sorted now, so I'll be able to keep you all up to date now that I have something to share! I have 3 "Festive Frolics" planned so far for this year and I am looking forward to being orginized well in advance. I should have flyers to share very soon.

I have been doing these festive frolics for the last 5 years. They are a great way of getting lots of girls together for chocolate, mulled wine and shopping. I host one in my flat, one at my Mum's house and go to others girls' houses too!

I have my dates set... I just need to design a little flyer now and let folks know the when, where & what of it all. I have written out a list of all the girlies I think might like to come, and am gong to do a flyer drop round my neighbourhood. I am always agast at the thought of thinking of Christmas so early, but you know what happened to that early bird.....

stage 1 ~ plan what I am gong to make/ sell at ff parties
stage 2 ~ design and send out flyer - email, post, flickr, facebook
stage 3 ~ start working on festive delights mmmm....
stage 4 ~ package everything up
stage 5 ~ write up stock sheets and price lists
stage 6 ~ plan set up
stage 7 ~ host a festive frolic!

So this is where I am at! I'll keep you posted with all my goings on and progress.

Resolutions and plans

I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to the beginning of a new year, new beginnings.

I am so sorry that I didn't get a chance to share all the tutorials with you that I had planned, but time just seemed to slip through my fingers and little chores kept getting added to my list of things to do. I have finally taken a few days just to be, to relax and start to focus on my hope and dreams for 2010, and feel like I need a couple more days in hibernation to help them become clear.

The weather here has been snowey, cold and fresh, which I love. I sit here surrounded by twinkling stars, fairy lights and scented candles, with fluffy boots and thich PJ bottoms on. This is definately my season.

I would like to use this time to say thank you to all my old and new blog friends. Over the past 2 years I have been so inspired by you all. You bring me new artists to enjoy, bands to listen to, crafters to admire and knowledge to grow with, and I want to say thank you. And hope we can continue to grow together in 2010.

xox Laura xox

Festive Crafting

1. first christmas decoration, 2. Christmas Trees, 3. Snowflake Curtain, 4. Linen Bird Ornaments

My little head is buzzing with ideas, I have had to bring a new note book to bed to scribble down all my ideas. I dreampt about working in a Christmas decoration shop last night where people would come in and commission us to decorate their rooms for the festive season. So today I have been so distracted by all the things I want to make!

It all started on Sunday when we got a snug new carpet for our living room. In order for MrLB to lay it we moved everything out of the room and I got to dust, declutter and clean all the skirtings. One of the things we moved out was our beautiful thrift find cabinate,(I'll post a photo soon) but I had to empty it first!

I made about 40 trips to the studio with piles of books and magazines and re discovered all my past issues of Ideal Home magazine. I decided that I wasn't going to put them all back and forget about them, and that I would go throught them all and tare out all the pages that inspired me.

Well this turned into a mamouth task, and I decided to be ruthless. Going through the pages I found so many fantastic ideas for Christmas decorations and handmade gifts. I always try and make at least 50% of our presents, but this year it will be more and all the gifts we give will be hand made. So today I set myself a budget and set out a plan for all the things I'm going to make and time scales (easier said than done I might add!) So over the new few weeks I'll be sharing little tutorials with you on what I've been making.

So here are my plans:

2 x Christmas card designs

biscuits

chocolates

tree decorations

ornaments

garlands

gift bags/ boxes

terrariums x 2

Are you having a handmade Christmas? What are you going to make?

New Jewellery

Cream, Gold and Topaz Brooch

Copper and Topaz Wire Wrapped Ring

Some new designs inspired by my "Golden" post the other day.

The sun is shining today so everything on my desk looks sooo shiney and bright. I'm going to spend the rest of today working on some more brooch designs and some new bracelets with new supplies which arrived this morning. Oh, I love it when the postie rings the bell, I know then that he is holding a package from foreign lands with shiney things inside!

Everything's Blue

"Some rain must fall"

Firstly, hi to all the new friends I have made through One World, One Thanks so much for all your entries, keep posting in this post to be part of the giveaway.

This is the 3rd mixed media painting from this series and this is my favourite. I love working on these pieces of hardboard and the textured almost sandy surface. I am thinking of making these into prints for my papery shop, but have some jewellery orders to complete first, then I can show the 2nd shop some love!

This block was inspired by my life over the last few years, days of rain flooding in, and my brolly being too small. Then my life now, where there is less rain, just the occassional drizzelley day. I know that sometimes things have to be a bit dull, we grow and learn with every droplet that falls in our lives. So lets celebrate the rain in our lives!

I am planning to spend some time this weekend with the paints out, in between dinner with friends, a catch up with my little bro and watching "masterchef" on iplayer.

What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Oh, what's this?

I have had another busy week making up some new goodies for my jewellery shop with all these beautiful new bits and pieces I got through the post on Monday.

This week has been a combination of making and planning so next week is make, make, making all the way! And some list list listing too, (loving 3's at the moment!). So I have had a lovely weekend, meeting friends and chillin and have come through to my den to get sorted for all my new schemes and plans and complete a couple of commissions so that I am on a roll next week.

What are you doing today to prepare for the week ahead?