Folksy Friday Autumn Colours Part 2

This time is vibrant oranges, lots of these, we must be a bright lot on folksy!

If you want more details click on the shop name next to the photo.

Milana

Jumbleberries 

NOfkants Curios

VBpure Designs

ARP Glass Designs

Leisure Time Collection

 Handmade By Edwina

An Owl To The Hollow

Streets Of Beige

Designed By Linda

StitchedUp4U

JellyGiraffe

The Wooly Knitter

PurplePebble











That's it for part 2, now to work on part 3!

Diane x 

Folksy Friday, Autumn Colours Part 1

I decided it was time I did a Folksy Friday blog (can't remember the last one I did!) and chose the lovely colours of autumn leaves as my theme, I put a plea on the folksy forum for items & was inundated lots of lovely items. I've decided to split them into colour groups & I'll try to include something from everyone who replied.
As there were so many items I've decided to split them into 3 blogs so I don't bore you all silly.

If you want to see more details click on the shop name next to the photo.

I'll start with the rich browns

Funky Mosiacs 

WildRose Designs 

FlowaPowa 

FranMade 

Anna Louise Designs 

SewFlair 

PhoenixProjects 

ZouZou Designs 

 The Mucky Pup

Ann Chandler Originals 

Handcrafted By Jo

Amy Youngman Designs 

CanUKnitit











Part Two, Oranges Coming Soon :-)

Diane x

Can't believe...

.....it's nearly 2 months since I last added anything on here! where does the time go? It's been a hectic couple of months though, daughter's A-levels (results due tomorrow) sons general end of term stuff (sports day, parents evenings) as well as his high school visit & school leavers production, don't think it's sunk in yet that for the 1st time in 14 years I won't have one of my kids in the village primary school. Then we had my sons 11th birthday the day after he finished school (he's part of an small group of kids who can say they left primary school aged 10) After all that stress (daughter's exams) and emotional upheaval we were all ready for our annual visit to Cornwall (although if daughter gets into her first choice uni at Exeter we have a perfect excuse to go a bit more frequently:-)) As usual we crammed the car full of everything we could possibly need (and a few things we probably wouldn't need) and drove overnight (kids sleep all the way there & no 'are we there yet?' when we've only been on the road for a couple of hours) This year we stayed in the beautiful village of Gorran Haven, we discovered this lovely little beach many years ago but have never actually stayed there just gone for 'day visits' The following photos were taken one evening while my son was body boarding (not very successfully as the waves were a bit small)

The weather was a bit hit & miss all week but we managed to dodge the showers & got enough beach time to keep my 11yo 'surfer in training' happy

Already it seems like a distant memory (not helped by the autumnal rain outside) and in my head I'm planning next years trip (hoping for 2 weeks at least but that depends on whether I can find somone to employ me!)

Hope everyone is surviving the school holidays with their sanity intact & good luck to all those with kids getting exam results in the next couple of weeks :-)

Diane x



Olympic Torch

Now I'm not very 'sporty' (as anyone who had me in their hockey team for school PE lessons will testify!!) and not too bothered about watching the olympics (I do however hope our team do well) but today the olympic torch came through our local town and as it will probably be a once in a lifetime chance I took the kids to see it come through (correction, my dad took us all to see it). My sister lives on the edge of town & luckily the torch was coming past the end of her road so my dad parked there so we wouldn't have far to walk (unfortunatly my sister had to go to work but I think she watched a live feed of it as my other sister got a text to say we'd been spotted) The crowd were in fine voice & the kids seemed to like the tamborine drums one of the sponser vehicles were handing out to the crowd.

                                                                         One of the mascots travelling ahead of the main convoy

The first torch bearer arriving

The changeover which we weren`t expecting

If you get chance to see it then I would go just for the 'feelgood' atmosphere (and I'm sure your kids won't complain about the 'freebies' ,my son was a bit dismayed at missing a free bottle of a famous soft cola drink)

Folksy Friday- Babies!

We have new additions in our garden, on Monday I spotted a baby blackbird hiding under our hedge (I tried to get photos but couldn`t get close enough without upsetting either baby or parents) and yesterday while I was hanging out the washing I kept hearing the distinctive squeaking of baby birds that have seen Mum/Dad returning with food. So in honour of the fact spring is supposedily here I thought I`d do a folksy friday on babies. Here`s some lovely items that the crafters on Folksy have to offer:-

These 2 are my latest card listings for new babies.
http://folksy.com/shops/DeesDesigns

This lovely card is hand drawn by Helen McCartney (reminds me of my daughter as a baby!)
http://folksy.com/shops/HelenMcCartney

Shona the Knitting Fairy makes these cuddly pompom blankets.
http://folksy.com/shops/theknittingfairy

This gorgeous cardigan is from Moggles Makes
http://folksy.com/shops/Moggles

This very fashionable hat was made by Natalie Ofkants
http://folksy.com/shops/NOfkantsCurios

If you need to decorate baby`s nursery then GingerBeer Designs make lovely bunting....
http://folksy.com/shops/GingerBeer

...and Sharon from Osodinki made this cute sock bunny.
http://folksy.com/shops/osodinki

This sweet card from Nicki @ Bucket & Spade Designs is also available in blue,
http://folksy.com/shops/BucketandSpadeDesigns

This card from Fatema @Rara Avis is hand embroidered
http://folksy.com/shops/Fatema

Karen from CanUKnitit not only knits but makes beautiful cushions too!
http://folksy.com/shops/canuknitit

Emma from Clarkie Designs can personalise this card to fit your family size (so long as you`re not the Waltons!)
http://folksy.com/shops/clarkiedesigns

Helles Belles card have this card in pink for the girls too.
http://folksy.com/shops/HelleBellesCards

To see what else these crafters have on offer just click the link under the photos
Hope these cute baby items haven`t got anyone too broody :-)
Diane x

Makeshift Photo Studio!!

There have been several posts on Folksy forums recently on how people manage to take good clear photos (especially in gloomy weather conditions) this is something I`ve struggled with at times over winter, when there`s no sun the photos are dark & when the sun does come out they look washed out! I looked into pop-up photo tents but the price put me off a bit (not making enough selling cards at the moment) as did the storage problem (I know they fold flat but our house is bursting at the seams) so I tried to think of a way of utilising what we already had at home & came up with this solution which seems to be helping me .
My craft corner is in our bedroom next to a window which has a roller blind and (more importantly) a thin white (ok whitish) curtain.
The camera I use is a fairly basic point & shoot type which I`ve had for several years (Fujifilm Finepix 6.3 megapixels) it does have the ability to turn off the flash & a macro ability (which I only recently discovered)

First clear desk chair of any excess papers etc. (please excuse the messy desk in the background!)

I leave the box on the chair as it makes for less crouching down when I take the photos (it`s the one I store my folksy shop in)

Next I cover the chair & box with an old tablecloth that I inherited from my Grandma (it doesn`t fit my dining table so if I don`t find a use for it Hubby might try to send it to the charity shop!) it`s white but has a subtle texture & pattern on it.

Next I add a plate stand to support the card (my dad bought me a load at a car boot to use on craft fair stalls to display my cards)

Then I add the card & take the photos without using the flash (I find this makes the photos look washed out & if there`s any gold/silver elements on the cards the light bounces off them.) I use the macro setting on my camera (the button with a flower on) to get clearer close-ups & take lots more photos than I need. The curtain acts as a light diffuser if the sun is too bright or I can use my desk lamp behind it if the weather is too gloomy (but I haven`t had to do this much as we get quite a lot of morning light in our bedroom)

Finally I up load them onto the laptop & go into the photo editing programme that came on the computer (windows photo gallery) and crop the photos & alter the brightness if I think they need it.
Then load them onto folksy, list them in my shop http://folksy.com/shops/DeesDesigns and (hopefully!) sell them :-)

I in no way claim to be an expert at good photography & there are many people on folksy who take better photos than mine  but I thought someone who`s new to all this might get a few tips to help their photos, after all that`s all our customers have to go on they can`t pick up our wonderful creations to inspect them.

Diane x

Panto Time (Oh Yes It Is!!)

Sorry but this is an unashamed Proud Mum blog. My daughter has been a member of our village Amatuer Dramatics group for several years (auditioned for a small part in panto about 4 years ago got a lead part & was hooked)  This year the panto was Babes in the Wood (which also had Robin Hood in) and my son decided he wanted to join in so for the first time we had both kids on the stage in the same production (possibly also the last for a while as daughter will be going to uni in autumn) My daughter got the part of Robin & son was various crowd members, a ghost & additional merry man (they have a shortage of men in the group so several merry men were female chorus members) I know I`m biased but they all did a brilliant job (as usual) and the Saturday Matinee was full of kids (and adults!) shouting 'He`s behind you' & 'Oh yes he is' here`s a few photos of my 2 in costume :-)

Daughter as Robin Hood

Robin Hood in disguise

Son as a Merry Man

Son as a ghost

And finally the rarest of pictures, both kids stood next to each other & no arguing!!!