New Year's Resolution 2

Start going to Contemporary Dance classes again for fun as I love the freedom of movement in Contemporary :)

I began ballet/tap/acrobatic dance classes and performed in shows aged 4 -7 (see me below) but then stopped as it was becoming too pressurised for me as a youngster. I then returned to dance 10 years ago and gained a GCSE (B) in Contemporary Dance which included choreographing and performing my own dances. Recently I saw Contemporary making a comeback in the videos for 3 Words by Wil I Am and Cheryl Cole and Shakira's new video and this has inspired me to get back into it - looking forward to dancing again :)

Snow Snow Oh !

Hope you've all got enough food and heating if you are snowed in today!! Web reports it to be the worst winter in 100 years!!
Here are some views from my apartment - back yard, snow crystals on windowsill, sheer drop - I'm on the first floor!, view from my door - lovely fresh snow for the kids next door to play on :)

New Year's Resolution Number 1

Bake some cakes, puddings and buns - I think that's an achievable one to start off with ;) Here's my late mum's old Bero recipe book - I'm going for the fruit crumbles first to warm me up. Mmmm.

Grease Lightning!

I thought that I'd share my excitement at looking through my Grease book again with some of the old school photo's.
Click on the pic's to enlarge and see the text. I went to see Grease The Musical with my friends live in Manchester when I was training to be a teacher at Leeds Metropolitan University . Enjoy!! xx

First day of school

Hi for a lot of my teacher friends it's the first day of school today. But not for me - I'm still off work until my back is right again as it's such a physical job teaching the little ones. I found an old original Grease book that I have saved - I think that I bought it at a car boot sale about 24 years ago. The front cover has managed to work it's way off though!

As the snow is still with us - here are a few more snowy pic's to cheer you up :) From top to bottom - this is me and my friend Sam when we were youngsters and had just built a snowman. Then there's my friend's two little boys who got dressed up as a snowman and penguin this year for their Christmas card - sooo cute!! Finally 'The Snowman' picture book that I'm hoping I can read to the kids at school when I'm back. The snow is definitely for kids (and big kids ;)

Happy New Year!!

The Art here is by Selva Ganapathy

Happy New Year - especially if you are spending tonight alone like me!! My back is getting a bit better but no sooner had that started to happen did I get a virus and a cold which means that I can't go out!

Thank goodness for Robbie Williams and Shakira - the first two artists kicking off the special Top of the Pops show right now.

Love

Louise
x

Pop/Rock bands

Here is a New Year's list of all the artists/bands that I've been lucky enough to see live at arenas around the country (apart from Snow Patrol and Download Festival that I've already blogged about.)

The first one I ever saw were 90's ROCK GODS Extreme aged 14 in 1990 - this was my favourite song and I loved these guys and their hair ;)

Michael Jackson, 1997, HIStory Tour, Sheffield Don Valley Stadium Beat it . I was on the front row as I was working at the KING OF POP'S concert as a student!!

Spice Girls, 1998, Sheffield Don Valley StadiumSay you'll be there

Then I didn't see any more until my sister won tickets to see the following pop bands in competitions from 2002 - 2004.

Blue, One Love Tour 2002, Sheffield Arena -Fly by

Christina Aguilera 2003, Sheffield Arena - Here's one of her best - Genie in a bottle

Mariah Carey, 2003, Manchester Arena - Here she is in 1996 singing Fantasy Mariah's stage sets are so beautiful with butterflies and jewels. I'd like a Mariah swing like the one below. :)

Craig David 2003, Sheffield City Hall - 7 Days
We met him backstage got a kiss and his autograph on our CD!!

Sugababes 2004, Sheffield City Hall - Too lost in you from Love Actually.

Black Eyed Peas, Sheffield Arena - Where is the love?

NOW THE 00'S ROCK GODS!!

Greenday 2005 - loved the p*ssed rabbit, Milton Keynes (actual video)

Razorlight, Sheffield Arena 2007 - Somewhere Else (Here in Birmingham)

New Year 2010

New Year's Eve is a bitter sweet time for me as 30th December is the day that my brother passed away a few years ago but it is also a time of celebration. I know it's like that for a lot of people too as we celebrate with our loved ones and remember the family and friends that are no longer with us. Here's to an enjoyable evening tomorrow and a peaceful & encouraging New Year in 2010!!

This song came on the TV today when my dad phoned me about my bro'. "I'm your brother I'm your brother don't you know. She's my sister She's my sister don't you know". You might recognise the lead singer as Paul Heaton who then became one of the lead singers of Beautiful South and also Norman Cook - who became Fatboy Slim and is now married to Zoe Ball.


My brother was a great artist and had studied graphic design at college. He also taught himself to play the guitar - which is something that I wouldn't mind doing myself. Some of the happy times for us as children (photo') were watching films together like ET and Star Wars and he had all the Star Wars figures and a Millenium Falcon. Two of his favourite bands were Manic Street Preachers and R.E.M

What's on display around my house this Christmas?

Yes the snow came - I was so happy - here is the snow on my dad's garden :)






From top to bottom - my painting/embroidery, my deer collage, ruby heart lights, a little birdy, a present and card wrapped for my friend :D Enjoy!!

Merry Christmas to everyone - have a magical day !!

Yes I got my smile back over the period of my birthday and Christmas!! I had a lovely Christmas dinner with family yesterday and a nice morning today at Meadowhall (What was I doing there on Boxing Day? ) - I was spending my Christmas vouchers and I wasn't there long. I spent 20 minutes weaving through the crowds and then I treated myself to a 10 minute Chinese acupressure back massage followed by a trip to good old McDonalds with my dad and sis' !!



Thanks to everyone who has supported me this year! I love all of you :D

x

Get Crafty with Christmas presents!!

Here is a copy (below) of the fantastic Christmas Crafts article that Jo Davison has written which appears in The Sheffield Star tonight!! See www.thestar.co.uk for the newspaper's website.



Wow - it was really pleasurable to read the anticipated article and find out more about our Craft Candy member's lives.

The article is centred around helping and encouraging you to try your hand at creating your own Christmas presents and decorations with examples from our 2 lovely members Julia Crossland and Lucia Kempsey. I'm sure that a lot of people will agree that it is very beneficial to do that in our current economic climate :)

Please do click on the article to enlarge it and leave your comments about the piece. x

Snow in London

So it's snowed in London today - ooh I hope that it travels up here!! I have this little book 'The field guide to snowflakes' which has some beautiful pictures of real snowflakes magnified and I used it to draw from to help me design my Christmas card.



My dad took these 2 pic's below the last time it snowed for a day :)







At the bottom is a stag in Richmond Park London yesterday (copyright Times Online 2009)


It's not good for the homeless though and at 33 my personal view of life is that it is possible for anything to happen to anyone at any time. A lot of these people need the mental, social and emotional support to get back on their feet and meet their basic needs for food, clothes and shelter - so I am saying a prayer that they get it.

x

The Star Newspaper - Christmas Craft Article

Whilst I have been off work and not able to do my teaching work for the past 6.5 weeks I have been sending e-mails/making phone calls as a publicity/marketing volunteer alongside Sarah Waterhouse and Kati Palin who are the group founders of Craft Candy.

We have liased with The Sheffield Star Women's Editor Jo Davison and our members to work towards an article celebrating Christmas Crafts.

The Star is bringing out a book about Jo ( pictured below - copyright The Star 15th December) - see Jo Davison - My thoughts



Jo has chosen 2 of our members to interview and written a feature article about Christmas Crafts that will appear in The Sheffield Star newspaper centre pages this Thursday 17th December. So get down to the news agents and buy a copy to support us!! I haven't seen the article yet so it's exciting to know how it will appear :)

The article should also feature some of our upcoming workshops featured on the Craft Candy website for 2010.

Julia Crossland has wrote about her exciting interview with Jo on her blog at
http://juliacrossland.blogspot.com/

Below is one of Julia's crocheted Christmas robins :)





Lucia Kempsey has also been interviewed by Jo and really enjoyed the experience - see her blog at www.bettyjoy.blogspot.com

See Lucia's corsages below :)





x

Christmas Fundraising

I am raising money for Sheffield Hospitals Charitable Trust, Sheffield, England, UK. Sheffield Hospitals have helped my family a lot over the last few years :D

Below are 3 copies of a Mini Christmas Card that I have designed - which would also be an ideal size for Christmas gift tags. It is easy for you to print copies of the cards by double clicking on the image below which will make it full size. Then drag the image onto your desktop where the file will become a size that you can print out onto A4 card as many times as you like.



Each A4 sheet of card you print will have 3 x A7 copies of my Mini Christmas Card designs on it. You will need to cut around the cards to size.

In return for printing the cards I have raised £15 for Sheffield Hospitals Trust - thanks Sarah and Joey.

Love

Louise
xx

Pugs not drugs!!

I bought this very creative and cute 'Pugs not drugs' greetings card from Gemma Correll (shown on top of Tricia Guild's Pattern Book) and a few trinkets. A lighthearted design with a poignant message. 'Just Say No' as they said in the 80's!!

Musical Roll

While I'm on a musical roll - you've got to listen to this!! Cheryl Cole dueting with Snow patrol for Children In Need this year. I love it! x

Lynzie

Thought that you might appreciate this acoustic of Lady Gaga's 'Paparazzi' by Lynzie Kent - it blows my mind. Enjoy!

I love December

Mmmm December is the month of my birthday and I have always loved this time of year. If it snows on my birthday then it's even better!! Cosy evenings by the fire wrapped up warm with a mug of hot chocolate - that's me sorted ;)

I've got lots of good Winter memories going right back to laughing and sledging as children with my dad, brothers and sister at the local ski slope and making snowmen. Here is a snowflake taken from part of the design of my Christmas cards which will be available on my blog in the near future :)



As a Saggitarius my lucky colours are purple, blue and red plus my gemstone is turquoise - that's funny as these are also my favourite colours that I use in my designs. I'd also like to try these colours in my hair!!

Below is a print relating to my birth sign by one of our talented Craft Candy members - Vyctoria (Alter-ego Phantoms-Siren.)
I have blogged about Vyctoria's enchanting work before - she gained The History of Art BA Hons from The University of York and is a Photoshop specialist. You can buy some of her prints at phantoms-siren.deviantart.com

Baby it's cold outside

Hi - you know I like Momiji - well here is my favourite Winter Momiji 'Blushes' whose picture has cheered me up today. She loves chocolate-covered brazil nuts & Barbra Streisand and if it gets chilly she'll lend you her ear muffs.

Holding the baby :)

Hi Lynsey popped round with her new baby Harvey today who is 6 weeks old and I just had to show you this picture of me loving holding him :D

x

Resting :)

I have been resting at home after my accident and getting support from my lovely friends and family. One thing that i have been doing is burning candles to relax - including this lovely one below - which has turned into a pool of blue melted wax :) I had designed some Christmas cards prior to my accident and hopefully they will be ready to buy in my Etsy shop in a couple of weeks.




I still can't lift or push anything with a weight to it and if I bend over for more than a small amount of time my back is very painful. So I'm taking the painkillers and having some physiotherapy on Wednesday. .



I'm just packing some business cards, greetings cards and embroidery samples ready for the goody bags that will be given out at the Candy Cane craft fair. Four people will be lucky to receive small samples of my embroideries - one of which is this machine embroidered Kingfisher

Candy Cane Christmas Craft Fair!!

Craft Candy are proud to present their first annual Candy Cane Christmas Craft Fair!



Unfortunately I am sad to say that as I am still off work with my whiplash injuries I have had to withdraw my stall from the fair and will not be there :(

On November 28th and 29th, the crème de la crème of local crafting talent converge on Sheffield’s Workstation for a veritable feast of Christmas delights! A delicious array of treats will be on offer from over 35 stallholders each day; from jewellery, toys and textiles to original art and photography, it’s sure to be an event you can’t afford to miss. Charley Dreams will be there will her Angel Fairies (below) on the Sunday.



There will also be a Christmas Raffle (accessorised with festive music and mulled wine) where a whole host of crafty prizes will be on offer!

So hotfoot it down to The Workstation, Paternoster Row (next to the Showroom Cinema!) on Saturday the 28th (10am-4pm) and Sunday the 29th (11am-4pm), the Christmas shopping event of the year!

Ace of Spades

My mum liked to dress us kids up in fancy dress in the 70's. Here I am as the Ace of Spades on a carnival float - I was feeling the love from everyone.

Wendy House

Hi - I guess I always wanted my own sweet little home to get lost in and now I've got one :) This is me as a 70's child in my well loved Wendy House where I remember feeling very safe and secure.

Colourful day!

Colour makes me a very happy person and I just found this blue scarf that my friend Vici bought for me when I was at university - so I thought I'd let you see just how it makes me feel ;)





A few weeks ago I went to the village fete on The Moor in Sheffield. Here are some beautiful pictures from the day - the Women's Institute had a stall with cakes and Craft Candy's very own Sarah Waterhouse was on hand to help out. There are also some lovely artist's displays in empty shops on The Moor in Sheffield at the moment - check them out!!

x

Why the big gap?

Hi everyone - nice to be back. I've had a crazy few weeks a bit up and down - my little doggy Cassie passed away so I was so sad. But my friends and family have been coming around to cheer me up - thanks very much. Plus someone crashed into my car on Halloween - remind me not to go out on that night next year!! So I'm still off work with my injuries. Luckily I've got MTV to sing along to which has brought me back if I've been getting a bit down. The good news is that I can still use my old e-mail account through Sky - so no phasing out of my e-mails is necessary after all :)

Here are some awaited photo's - note one of my A5 cards framed xx






I also discovered some of my old vinyl records - one of which is this cheeky Madonna L P. Just a pity I don't have a record player anymore. I was a huge Madonna fan in the 80's and I prefer her old stuff to the songs she brings out at the moment.



Here's me in a dreamy mood today :)

Update

Hi I am still alive (ha ha) but I have been doing lots of paperwork to do with moving house and organising everything at my new home hence the lack of posts. Sky are fitting my phone line on Tuesday - so up to 15 days after that I will have an internet connection which will mean more regular updating again. (Still using the internet at my dad's at the moment.) Please still currently use googlemail and my contact form to get in touch.

If you haven't received a reply to any BT macmails you have sent to me from 10th October onwards this is because it is not currently receiving all mails and I will now be phasing that e-mail out over the next 17 days. I will notify all of my current contacts of my new e-mail individually when I get my Sky internet connection.

Pic's to come soon :D

x

My new home :D

Hi everyone just a quick update to let you know that I have finally moved into my new apartment. It went pretty smoothly but I finished packing and lifted/unpacked boxes from 9am - 10pm on Sunday!! Exhausting stuff :) I'll try and take a picture of inside my new place tonight.

I've realised that the things I had squashed into my little room at my dad's house actually nearly fill my new bedroom and studio. So all I need to buy for the studio is a large table and chairs to do my work on.

If you are trying to contact me over the next few weeks it will be best to fill in my contact form or use my link to googlemail (both are in the left hand column.) I can use the internet at my dad's house to access these.

My BT macmail is not fully accessible until Sky fit my phoneline (which will take 2 weeks from me moving in)and then give me access to the internet (which could take 15 days from then.) I am told that this is standard practice.

x

Craft Candy Mini's

Craft Candy is holding a marvellous new fun craft fair (Craft Candy Minis) at Bungalows and Bears on Saturday 10th October.

Bungalows and Bears is a bar located on the bustling Division Street in Sheffield City Centre and the fair will run from 2 to 6pm. So go along and support your local crafters!!

Lucia has organised 10 stalls of fantastic contemporary handmade goodies at this fair and the event is free to the public. There will be jewellery, accessories, homewares and up-cycled goodies to get your mits on. I don't have a stall there this month but might in the future :D