Friday faves

indigo dream photo set by LupenGrainne

Feeling a bit low-key today, so here are some soothing finds from my faves on etsy.

french foliage notebook by Made by Rori

silver ring with iolite by JuliansModernJewelry

ceramic plate by karanote

asymmetric cardigan by Rebeccas Art Closet

Please leave a thoughtful comment if you would like to enter this week's giveaway.
You can leave a comment on any of my posts.

There are more blogtoberfest giveaways happening over on Ms Curlypops blog.

Want to find out what blogtoberfest is all about? Head on over here.

Multi-tasking - 3 things in one day - my creative space

Are you the sort of crafty peep who does lots and lots of things?
I am!
Sometimes I wonder if I am the jack of all trades...and master of none.

My main business is jewellery designing (as you probably know) and I have a rampant love of handmade glass beads.
Now I know that making glass lampwork beads is a skill that takes time to learn, and I have been learning for a few years - but not on a regular or frequent basis. Which is what it takes to get proficient at something like this.

So the other day I dipped my rods in bead release ready for a stint of lampworking - and today it happenend!
Crikey! I had forgotten how and had to look up the instructions in a book, but, you know - you have to start (or restart) somewhere.

I set myself the goal of making 10 beads.

While they were cooling down I picked up some beadweaving that I've had on the go for a couple of weeks and have unfortunately had to use the frog stitch* too many times.
I thought I'd finished but then realised that I had done one row too many - so more frog stitch : (

I needed a break before I threw the wretched beadwork through the window - so it was off to my sewing room (yes, I have 2 workrooms - that's what happens when you become an empty-nester),
as I remembered that I needed to restock some tshirts for my Boos Tees shop.

Then I got my new-born beads out of their vermiculite womb (vermiculite stops them cooling down too quickly and cracking)
Here they are - a pretty motley crew if you ask me.

 

But if I set myself a goal of 10 beads a day - or most days, I'm sure I will improve.

Now I also have to get them off the rods, which is always fun and sometimes a non-event.

I'll show you when/if I get them off and cleaned up,

What have you been up to?

I'm joining in with My Creative Space over on Village Voices - come on over - it's fun!

 

 *frog stitch is when you have to "ripit - rip-it"! ie undo it

Growing in India - Wordless Wednesday

I'm joining in with Wordless Wednesday over at My Little Drummer Boys, come and have a look.

And remember to leave a meaningful comment if you'd like to enter this week's giveaway.

And the winner is....

The winner of the necklace giveaway is AC of Anastasia Drawing and Dreaming!

Congrats Anastasia.

The next giveaway will be a grab bag of a ring, a keyring and a brooch!
The brooch will be a fabric brooch from my Boos Tees shop something like this one.

Please leave a thoughtful comment on any post to go into the draw to win the grab bag.

You can find more blogtoberfest participants on I saw you dancing's blog.
And you can find more giveaways over at Ms Curly Pop's page.

3 things I learned from calligaphy

Many years ago I did a calligraphy class, over a couple of years, just at the local adult education community college.
We had a wonderful teacher, one of those special people who can teach a class of mixed experience and ability and make everyone feel like they had done something great, but also suggested ways to extend yourself.
She also had a whole grab bag of projects on which to apply our calligraphy - not just plain old boring white paper, we made boxes and envelopes and little books. We used different paper, pens, inks, paint...in fact it was hard to keep up with the list of materials we had to buy.

But she also imparted lots of design tips and here are 3 that I remember -

1. Space is important. In fact the space around things is more important then the thing itself.
So we learned about the spaces between and around letters, words, clumps of text and the whole design itself.
This is as much true for your blog page as for other designs.
Have a look at your blog - is it all cramped and crowded?
Is it too sprawly and hard to follow?
Or is it pleasing to the eye? Easy to read and follow?

2. That you should only use the maximum of 2 different fonts per design.
For those of us that love fonts, this can be so hard to do - because we want to include as many of our loves in our work as possible. Using too many different fonts can make your work look like a dog's breakfast!
However a couple of appropriate, well-chosen fonts can really make your page *pop*.

3. An odd number is more pleasing to the eye than an even number.
Sometimes this doesn't fit in with the symmetry of your design, and sometimes you have to break this rule.

I also learned that calligraphy is NOT handwriting and that it is a very precise art.
You have to rule up your pages and use the right pen angle and heaps of stuff that I can't remember.

But if you'd like to learn more about calligraphy - give it a try.
Or you could just go to Dafont and download some free fonts.

Here are some other practise works that I did -

Come back later when I will draw the winner of this week's planettreasures necklace and announce the next giveaway.
You can find more blogtoberfest participants on I saw you dancing's blog.
And you can find more giveaways over at Ms Curly Pop's page.

Makin' it Monday - hummus

Hummus or is it houmous, hummous, hummus or humos?

Whatever - homemade hummus is the easiest-peasiest thing ever!
It is so much nicer than the store bought variety, thought there are probably deli brands that are pretty good - but the cost? Oo-la-la!

This dip is whizzed up quicker than you can say "chickpea"! and is cheap as chips.

I use canned organic chickpeas, but this is probably even better if you cook your own chickpeas.
Cooking your own take s abit of planning ahead because you need to soak chickpeas overnight and then cook for about an hour until they are soft.

When you have your chickpeas at hand (rinse your tinned ones in cold water first) toss them in your food processor or blender, along with 2 tablespoons of tahini, 1 teaspoon of pressed garlic and the juice of a lemon.

Whizz it all up.
If you are using a blender you might need to scrape the mixture from the sides of the goblet.

Add some chopped parsley, half a teaspoon of ground cummin, some black pepper and a pinch or more of paprika.

Whizz again.

Taste to see if it needs salt.
I find that using tinned chickpeas makes it salty enough but add a little salt if you like.

This makes a rather thick spreadable hummus, if you want a more dippable one add some water 1 tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

Traditionally this is served with a puddle of olive oil in the middle, but I serve as is with crackers or pita bread.

Do you make your own hummus?
Remember to leave a thoughtful comment if you'd like to go in the draw for one of planettreasures' necklaces here. It's drawn tomorrow evening.

Tubular Bells for 2

Hands up if you remember Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells!

Me, me, me - I do!

It takes me back....way back.

Way back when it was released in 1973 it was a very unusual piece of pop music, but Richard Branson who was just starting Virgin Records believed in it and it the first record on the crispy-new record label.
It was unusual in that it's structure is one long piece of music per "side" and Mike Oldfield played most of the 27 instruments himself and layered the recordings over each other using a home-made multi-track recorder. That sort of technique is very commonly used these days but was unheard of 40 years ago.

Anyway these 2 young guys Daniel Holdsworth and Aiden Roberts decided to create it for a live performance using just themselves and 20 instruments.
This involves them playing instruments at the same time and racing around the stage to reach other instruments.
They describe it as a cross between sport, physical theatre and musical performance.
It is totally amazing!

Here is a sneak peak from their website.

You can read more about Tubular Bells for 2 here.

and more about Tubular Bells on wikipedia.

But I recommend if you get the chance go and see it for yourself!

Remember if you would like to leave a thoughtful comment you will have a chance to win this weeks giveaway.