Straying from the line...

I am venturing onto pastures new in the form of a new blog. Now it's early days, well hours to be more precise as I've only got it set up this afternoon and there isn't a lot on it at the moment.

You'll be able to find me now over on Wordpress at www.strayfromtheline.wordpress.com.

In time I'll be looking to bring over some of my old content from here to the new blog, obviously updated and more in keeping with the new format. This isn't a return to me stitching and selling, that chapter has closed. I just actually have found myself missing blogging and I wanted to give it another go. I did consider revamping this blog but its time for a fresh start. In time I'll likely delete this one.

Hopefully catch you over on Wordpress!

Calling Time...

Yesterday I finally made a decision.

Rather than feeling sad, disappointed or anxious about having made it and publically declaring it to friends, loved ones and on Facebook (ah, the joys of social media outings) I am actually feeling a sense of relief and just a smidge of proudness that I finally made the leap.

So, in a nutshell I am calling time on Mason Bee, well the side that I attempt to make something that someone else might want to buy side of Mason Bee. I can't exactly cut out that part of me that makes or designs that is, after all, a rather big chunk of who I am. I am just done with dealing with the stress of not having made anything for an age, that my social media platforms (aside from Instagram) are gathering virtual dust because I have zero motivation or inspiration to post. I am tired of beating myself up over something that....I just don't think I am ever going to push to the next level. Not out of fear, but more that the passion for making is diminishing.

That's not right, not for me.

I don't appear to be doodling like I used to, excited about being surrounded by wonderful things in my study, even being in my cozy study doesn't interest me any more. Because every time I am in it, I sense of guilt would set in as my desire to make along with my interest has gone.

I want the interest to come back, and I know it will, but I have really got to cut out the side of things that no longer feel me with joy.

So, here goes it...

• Facebook 'company' page will be closing by the end of the month
• All my remaining made items will go back on sale, again, in my Etsy store till either they sell or the listings expire (whatever comes first) and then the store will close.
• My Twitter and Instagram accounts will remain but the focus will switch to my lifestyle, and personal interests.
• Website will be closing soon.
• As for my blog well its between changing direction slightly, to closing but I'll keep you posted on that.

Seems like such a small list of things but they meant a lot to me at one stage or another, but as they say all good things must come to an end, and I'd much rather do it with conviction rather than letting all simply fall by the wayside which is where it was heading.

Needless to say, a little weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

Thank you to all that have followed me on my strange little journey either from the beginnings as LAMdesigns through to Mason Bee as it stands today. It's been fun, but let's do this again some other time.

xxx

Edit: Facebook and website has now been deleted.

In Which I Stitched a Flower...

I'm going to skip with a usual opening of..my its been a while, as it is fairly obvious with the last post being back in October. I'll simply say I took a step back and let myself get on with other things. To be truthful I am not entirely sure if I'll ever get back to regularly blogging and making again, but I'm not going to let myself get caught up in feeling any guilt. It's funny how not doing any of these things can leave you with that sense of...'what if' or 'if I don't do anything people will forget...' in a nutshell, this has only ever done to keep me happy, and if your not happy with what your doing why let the guilt bog you down? Not worth it.

Anyway, enough of the introspection...I've actually made myself do some stitching, and it's been rather nice to do. What the hell I am going to do with the thing I've done, I'm not entirely sure, suggestions on a postcard??

Where did I begin?

As with most things I make, I started with a doodle. This one was inspired by a rather snazzy calendar I picked up during a visit to the States last year from Paper Source (WHEN WILL YOU EVER COME TO THE UK??). I think it was a Rifle Press design, but bugger me if I can find the makers mark on it. Anyway, a doodle and a play about with colours. I began the process of turning it into a piece of embroidery...cue some soft swearing and a 'why am I doing this' moment(s).

Looks so organised...stays like that for about ten minutes before each project.

I started with a single thread of floss, and split stitched around the outside of the shape, or in this case petals. Note, I didn't separate each of the petals, this was for a reason...well I had an idea and just went ahead with it. Once the split stitching was complete, I marked the order of the petals with some thought (ish). 

Each petal was then padded out in the middle with long stitches using two /three threads of cotton stranded. Now I know what your thinking, cream padding when your going to do satin stitch in bright pink over it?? Yes, I am a nutter, has been said many a time. I did because I had loads of cream thread, I wanted a challenge and lastly, I knew I cover of it (so modest).

By the way, that shiny thing at the top of the picture is my stainless steel mellor, or laying tool, normally I use it for gold work but it works a treat for threads using it so that they lay flat. Also it's shiny...*_* I have a sterling silver one too.

With each petal I used a different number of padding layers, between 3 - 5 to give it a bit of a my realistic finish. By the fifth petal I had hit my my stride, which is typical.

So shiny...I do love a spot of silk thread.

Time for the middle section, I started it one way and then started it again. Yeah, I had thought to use chain stitch padding for the middle but when I tried it out it wasn't giving me the height and frankly it looked rubbish. So well over an hour later, with copious amounts of swearing, I unpicked the chain stitch.

Once calm again, I opted for a simple approach...couching the padding, using around 12 threads of cotton thread, in a long length I couched it round and round the middle, so it looked like a doughnut. Once I was happy with the height and the filling, I started to satin stitch over the top.

Then the question of what to do next? I had a small idea that the flower needed stamens, and after a brief reminder how to do it, I used a thicker weight yellow silk thread, and pistol stitched the stamens.

And now it's complete....

Now do I add more flowers, leave it be...make it up into something.

I have some pondering to do!

Meet Snow Bee..

I had a sudden realisation yesterday that I hadn't designed my now annual Christmas bee bauble! For Since 2012, I've been coming up with a seasonal bee design...and I almost forgot!!

A quick doodle and the Snow Bee was born....

Isn't it cute?? 

Can't decide if its the carrot nose or the little coal buttons (antique glass beads) I love more. I even found a use for my white Swarovski crystals, which I hadn't got round to using.

Snow Bee baubles are made to order and come with its own calico pouch to keep out the dust when in storage. The are priced at £15 + Postage.

Past Christmas Bee bauble designs include:

Merry Santa Bee - 2012

Royal Bee - 2013

Merry Bee - 2014

I still have a few of last year's design available to purchase (originally £15 each, now £7.50 plus free postage within the UK).

A Little Dragon

Taking a break from the quilt project I started over the summer, though its not far away (on the table behind me...) I have started on a small embroidery project. Now some time I go I did doodle a design of a medieval inspired piece of a dragon, looking at illuminated manuscripts, but I never finished it largely because I didn't like where it was going. Now move forward several months, I find myself doodling another dragon. This one I am pleased to say showed early signs of potential and thus it will get finished!

As with anything it started with a little spot of preparation, in the form of little satin spikes, and several layers of felt padding.  

Over top of which I then placed a layer of silk dupion, without any soft/ light-weight vilene I had to settle for bondaweb (wasn't about to stop and wait till I could get some...I wanted to get on with it!). With that stab stitch down, I then set about cutting out the head with the help of the bondaweb again, now this was the third attempt as I kept drawing the head in the wrong direction. Got the reverse wrong....

A spot of silver passing couched down...

With the body couching down I heat applied the head to the body, you can't really see in this shot but one of the dragon's ears was stitched, as was the chain stitched tongue, before I properly applied the head, which was then stabbed stitch down. 

I toyed with leaving the teeth as they were, just green silk but I opted to do a spot of padded satin stitch instead, and I am rather happy with the outcome.

Once all the teeth are complete, there will be further work to do...including working out how I am going to do his eye. Now, I have an idea involving a Swarosvki crystal, and some stitching...but you'll have to wait and see the outcome!

Goldwork A Look Back

Getting back into the rhythm of things of late sees me first taking a look back at past projects. Seemingly have a raft of work in progress or completely abandoned pieces of work. Recently whilst having a check at what pieces I have that I want to sell, I came across this piece of gold work, (see above) a Tudor Rose sampler, stitched in the first year of my apprenticeship at the Royal School of Needlework (sadly, they dropped the apprenticeship in favour of going the University route). 

To be honest it slipped my mind that I had even done it. To be fair it was 12/13 years ago. I do recall the first year being a bit tricky for me, the whole doing pre-scripted designs didn't really appeal to me. Still I did each of the projects. 

If you wondering it's purposely left unfinished, some in my year did go on to finish it but I quite liked the fact you can see the layers, which was the purpose of the piece. Goldwork looks really tricky but with practice you can get the basics down pretty quickly. Most of  the problems come from when you don't do the prep work properly, from the padding layers to working out the order of work. For instance you wouldn't necessarily start with the gold that is more delicate and liable to crack (i.e. in the case of the image above, the stem which is cut work), in an area that you also need to do a lot of other embroidery. Also simply taking your time with it.

It's been nice to look back at this piece, and perhaps it's about time I got it framed. For the time being though its time to look ahead.

Too the next post. 

Summer Holiday Unwind

Cor, blimey. 

It's been a while since I posted!

I am very much here, and stitching but the blog is pretty much in its summer hibernation mode as is my website and Etsy store. That being said I thought I would give an update...

I've working on the new quilt project, called 'Gossip in the Garden' it's by Hatched & Patched. It was tea related and had bees on it, so I had to do it. This weekend I managed to get all the appliqué completed for block A, I just need to finish the small patchwork block detailing before I move onto the next block. 

What's been nice about this project is the opportunity to use up scraps, and that it's forcing me to start making some sort of dent into the rest of my fabric stash. It's also been nice to do as it's making me stop and think about colour and print combinations too. Getting the old noggin working!

Lots of fiddly needle turned appliqué. 

When I haven't been playing with fabric, I've also been making a bit of a dent on my jewellery making stash. It was high-time I broke out the Swarovski Crystals. A made a rainbow inspired bracelet, see below, a long chain necklace and updated another long chain I picked up recently in the summer sales. 

Also celebrated Hamish the Hamster's 2nd Birthday. Still going strong my little ginger furball. He's currently on vacation with my Best Friend. 

And I've taken a small break from eyelets but it's coming along rather nicely. I can't quite decide whether to go all the way round or keep it to one side of the oval shape, a crescent of eyelets. But post my break I'm sure I'd have made my decision. 

And that my friends, is where I am currently at. I'll be back in proper blogging mode in September!

A Little Hope and Wanderlust

With one project now properly concluded, finally sewn on the backing fabric, I can now really start to concentrate on the new piece, 'Hope'. There was a bit of a stumble with getting the pace and flow of this piece, but I am starting to get somewhere with it now. Two letters are near complete and the shapes, and curves of the letters are working better, though I say that, and looking at the shot below I am still a bit iffy about the top part of the 'H' but we'll leave it for now and see how the other letters look before I start messing with it any more. It is yet more split stitching, and two colours merging into one another. 

Once all the lettering is complete then I'll start to look at the border, which I envisage to be made up of oodles of little eyelets, and star-bursts in various shades of purples, lilacs, and pinks. 

This week I even made my way back to the Royal Academy, one evening after work, to check out the newest exhibitions, 'Wanderlust' on the works of Joseph Cornell. One thing I would say, if you are planning on visiting it does involve walking  up several flights of stairs, frosted glass stairs...which for me wasn't the best thing to be walking down (not a fan of any glass stairs, frosted or not *shudder*). 

Now onto his work. I'll admit I had never heard of the man nor seen any of his work before. This I feel is somewhat of an oversight on my part as his works are extraordinary. In more than one ways. Fantastical and whimsical. Makes you wish you could lay your hands on just a fraction of his paper ephemera collection. The lengths he went to construct some of his works are amazing. I was especially drawn to 'The Crystal Cage (Portrait of Berenice), 1943, not least for the work itself but it was the layers of back story that he constructed around the story of the girl called Berenice. 

I also rather liked the astronomy based works as they pull me back to my love of maps and navigation.

If you get the chance, perhaps combine it with going to see the Summer Exhibition at the RA, go and take an hour out of your time to view. Oh, and take a minute to watch the video of a man boxing with a Kangeroo...

Additional links

• Peabody Essex Museum
• Wanderlust Exhibition

Flowering Love Completed

Not bad for just around 4 weeks worth of work! (Not 24hrs a day mind you!)

If you have been following me on Instagram feed then you will already seen that I have completed a rather lush piece of embroidery. Which I have since decided to call 'Flowering Love' a little smushy perhaps but I think it rather suits it. 

The pictures don't entirely do it justice as the colours are so rich and bright, which is why I have decided to have this piece professionally scanned so that I can turn the finished design into Giclée prints. A new area I am venturing in but one that I think, or at least hope, will turn out rather well. It will be good to at least get professional shot taken, there only so much you can do with an iPod Touch and a Nikon camera without the knowledge, and some additional assistance to make it work.

 Sometimes, sometimes it pays to get someone who knows what they are doing...to do it. 

I am in the process of mounting the piece up so once that is done I am going to get the printing sorted out. Which will in time include set of greetings cards and I think that it's high time I had some new mirrors made up. If you are interested in knowing more then do sign up to the newsletter (which I've not done one in a rather loooong time, but it's time to reinvent it and make use of it again). Also the original piece will, eventually, be available to purchase.

So, so many stitches went into building up the border. Lazy daisy, straight stitches, beads, eyelets and so on, and so forth. Think I went a little blind to all the colours in the end.

Rather unusually I managed to mount it up with little need of adjustments, and it's so flat it's nearly a miracle! Well, perhaps just a nice surprise. 

On the back I opted for a bit of retro Liberty Tana Lawn cotton print. Just because I can. I will be making up a hand sewn label on the back in due course.

Whilst I finish of the mounting of 'Flowering Love', I've also started work on my follow up piece, 'Hope'. I hadn't expected to have the chance to do that but the materials came sooner than I had anticipated, so that was again, another nice surprise!

Studio Visit - Joumana Medlej

The internet is a bit of a strange beast, but through it I have come to make some very good friends, link up with oodles of creative souls and share their work and my own. Sometimes I have actually met some of the folks and continue to do so. Recently I had the opportunity to meet someone whose work I've followed for sometime now, years if not a decade via Deviant Art...she was the reason I ended up on Etsy too. 

That person being the super multi-talented Joumana Medlej, doing anything from illustration to digital games. The work that I have been especially drawn to is her calligraphy especially being a bit of a fan of all things typography based. Not that you would ever know.

I popped along to her open studio day last Sunday, 28th June, in London. It really was an honour to get the chance to meet her and to see her work in the flesh, honestly photographs don't always do it justice. 

Part of her London studio, lovely amount of space and light

Just some of the equipment she uses...like looking into a apothecary (you know, a word that I have always had issues with saying aloud)

Also, gave me the chance to pick up a few pieces for the flat, which was fantastic. Can't wait to get these framed and up on the wall, they will be going pride of place in my bedroom...well once I've finished decorating it (so close).

I have to admit, I am not sure how I missed it, as I do have a tendency to get distracted, but I missed the fact she was in London and had been for sometime. So I have Instagram to thanks for helping me to see she had the open studio day! Gawd love social media.

It was a lovely opportunity and I'll certainly pop along to another one of her open days, and maybe I'll get the time to do one of her calligraphy classes, that would be amazing!

You can follow Joumana's work, and travels too (she does take some cracking photographs):

• Twitter - @joumajnouna
• Instagram - joumajnouna
• DeviantArt - majnouna
• Website - http://majnouna.com/

Lecture at the RA - Conrad Shawcross RA

Last Friday evening, 19th June, I had the pleasure of accompanying my mum to a lecture at the Royal Academy. It's been a while since I had been to one, the last being a couple of years ago on Turner and was held at the National Gallery. There is always that moment of anything post work that is a tad intellectual, if you are going to a. keep awake (post a day at work, and already a long commute) and b. understand it. I admit I was a little clueless on knowing who it was we were going to listen to an Q&A session on, I had failed to do any sort of research...so I was going in a little blind. 

The talk was with Conrad Shawcross RA a name, as previously mentioned, not one I had come across and as it turned out is a bit of a pity as I came away really loving and appreciating his work. The lecture/ Q&A / interview whatever you want to call it, was a lively talk with a man whose really rather quiet and unassuming. He was a pleasure to listen too. 

I really now also have a major appreciation for anyone whose willing to come up with the concept for a large scale outdoor installation. Especially one that involved 8,000 individually welded, tetrahedrons. The sheer number alone, not even factoring in the number of man hours to construct it, then ship and construct it, is pretty spectacular and that's even before you look at the final piece itself. 

The making of Conrad Shawcross RA's 'The Dappled Light of the Sun' from Royal Academy of Arts on Vimeo.

Back to the talk which was on his installation piece 'The Dappled Light of the Sun' which can be found in the Annenberg Courtyard at the Royal Academy. Rather impressive venue, and place to have such an amazing piece of work. Now I didn't get a very good shot of the piece, that beautifully shows the dappling shadow work, which amazingly looks more like the shadows of trees and leaves, than a ton of metal. However, this shot taken by the artist himself, shows it perfectly:

#dappledlightofthesun #conradshawcross #RA

A photo posted by Conrad shawcross (@conradshawcross) on May 25, 2015 at 1:48pm PDT

Of course, the work of creating the thousands of tets, wasn't just by the artist, and what was nice about the talk was Conrad's appreciation for the expertise and skills involved in the project, from the fabricators Ken Ware Engineers in Newark, with profiling by Cutting Technologies, and with his own going work with Peter Laidler, Structure Workshop (engineering design practice). 

What I find amazing, is that something that is made of weathered steel, weighs over 25 tonnes can look so fluid, natural and just beautiful. Think it's easy to forget that steel isn't something ugly, or just merely for practicality (construction) that it can be something that can replicate or be inspired by nature.

So if you get the opportunity nip along to the RA, whilst no location for its permanent home has been found, as of yet, I am sure a perfect place will be found for it soon.

It will also be worth keeping an eye on the progress of the new Francis Crick Institute building that is presently being built in King's Cross, London, as Conrad Shawcross won the commission to design an installation for outside the building. To quote from the 'The Dappled Light of the Sun' book, 'where the RA installation 'maps the installation of the tetrahedron over a sprawling horizontal plane, Paradigm (2016) takes up its vertical impetus'.

I am rather looking forward to the final outcome, it won't be hard to miss, and so I will certainly be making a point next year to go and have a look for myself. 

You can also see some of his work at Dulwick Park, The Three Perpetual Chords. 

A momentary Sunday Pause

My mind has been a bit befuddled this weekend. I had planned to write a small post on my visit to the Royal Academy on Friday, but instead I am going to mull on that a bit more, in order to do it some justice, and write it up during the week.

For now I need tea, shortbread and a return to a bit of bright stitching.

Just a small reminder, there are only a few more days left to enter my mini competition.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.

Bee Happy Its a Giveaway!

How do you fancy a mini giveaway?

Whilst I am merrily stitching my latest project, I thought it would be a nice day to set up and run a raffle. So from now until the 26th June 2015, you have the chance to win a pack of my 'Bee Happy' Greeting cards, and a 'Bee Happy' mini pocket mirror.

Who can enter?

To keep this nice and simple, anyone!

How to enter?

Through the wonders that is Rafflecopter (never used this before, eep!)

Click here to Enter

Good Luck everyone!

Stitching Frustrations Out by Stitching Love

You may recall from a previous blog post of my frustrations at not being in the zone for embroidery, and in the past couple of weeks I've been endeavoring to knock that on a head. Enough, is enough. Despite whatever wibble I am in, embroidery/ stitching in general puts me in a happy place. And that, my friends is what we should do a lot more of. Feeling frustrated, do what you love, sod everything else. Unless it involves breaking the law....don't do that...stroke kittens instead.

Anyway, before I completely go off topic. I finally got over my not feeling able to come up with an embroidery project, a drawing/ concept if you will. Then I picked up the latest copy of 'The Simple Things' Magazine, the colouring in pages drew me in. Then, then I got this need to doodle and colour. I did and the above design came about. Simple. That's what I love most. 

I started working on it last week. Got the fabric all prepped, a linen mix if your wondering. It's got a bit of a slightly open weave, so to support it I placed a piece of light weight muslin behind (with a finer weave), I didn't herringbone it to the other fabric as you would do normally (properly). Sometimes, sometimes, it's okay to skip a step. Plus it's in an uber tight frame so I am not worried about it shifting about.

To get my started I roughly drew on the design, and roughly stitched various rows of running stitch in green threads round, and around on an oval shape. It not being dead on perfect was intentional,  somewhat out of my comfort zone...

I'll likely add more rows, but I wanted to try out ways of stitching the numerous leaves that will be dotting it, returned to the raised fishbone stitch, and satin for a starter for ten. Though I will probably look at lazy daisy and some other isolated stitches, just to give it some depth.

Happy with the leaves, I've moved onto starting the main bit of the project, stitching the lettering, I wanted to get this done before I put any more leaves, and long before I start the flowers. Rows, upon rows, of tiny split stitch in two colours, this is going to keep me quiet for a bit.

And its a perfect way for me to chill out on this rather glorious sunny, Sunday morning.

A Little Flower

A little flower sprouts a little bit of energy and motivation to get back into embroidery. Not done much in the way of intricate stitching for quite some time. As you will have noted that my blogging fluctuates with the posting, matching my mind set and projects. I've been working on getting myself out of the rut and looking after myself, first and forth most, and doing a little bit of what I love to do. 

To stop myself procrastinating about what I was going to stitch yesterday, I pulled out an old design, based on a Liberty fabric. Grabbed out the fabric and the colour threads I wanted to use, bright colours helping a lot to get this done, and just go on with it. 

It's tiny about an 1 1/2 in height. With padded satin leaves, back stitch stem, and a flower head incorporating trailing border, padded beadwork centre and little French Knots. I did it slowly over a course of an afternoon, maybe a few hours in total if that. I had no initial idea of what to do with it, frame it, turning into a part of a patchwork panel, or as my mind thinks about it, a wee little fabric covered box. I've not done one in an age. The mathematics to make one will certainly tick over a few grey cells.  

Fashion on the Ration Verdict

Yesterday, 3rd May, I headed up to London to join a good friend of mine, Laura Howard of BugsandFishes, to nip over to the Fashion on the Ration Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. A place I don't think I've been too since I was a kid, needless to say it's changed quite a bit since then. Especially given the major revamp which saw it close for a considerable amount of time to do it. 

Alas, as it was a paid for exhibition I don't have any photographs from the actual exhibit so you'll have to use your imagination, or pop over to the website to see a few snap shots. It certainly was very well laid out, and very interesting. I always was a sucker for a well tailored attire, and especially uniforms. You might recall in 2012 I went to Goodwood Revival which was an utter hoot and who doesn't love a spot of dressing up. 

Anyway, back to the exhibition. A very well curated collection of clothing and not just women's there was information on the demob suits and how men's clothing was adapted to use for the whole family. I think the only thing I found that they missed a trick on, was having live demonstrations of how clothing was adapted (there were a few videos but nothing beats seeing it in person), even the mending that was constantly talked about, how do you darn tights? I think that would have added an extra something to it, and perhaps even to entice kids into the whole make do and mend. Which I am sure some people see as just a passing fad, forgetting the realities of what people had endure during the second world war. Would we cope now? Not so sure, for one thing the clothing that many people purchase now, really wouldn't even survive to being mended or patched. 

Still, it was very interesting and easily navigated and viewed in a comfortable hour and a half. 

I also liked being able walk about the IWM again, especially the WW1 exhibition on the ground floor..or was it basement?

Been to any interesting exhibitions of late or is there one coming up you can't wait to see. 

Hexies Colouring In Pages

As you will have seen over the past couple of weeks, mostly on Instagram, I've got a Hexie project on the go. It's seemingly just happened after a very and so I really haven't a clue how its going to turn out. 

Rough doodle..

And this seemed to help get some clue as to where I was heading but the need to work out steps for further down line prompted me to whip up a quick colouring in page, and I have to say it's helping a treat. Whilst I still don't know what the outcome will be, at least with the colouring in pages it saves a whole lot of unpicking!

Want to play about with your own hexie design, or like me just love a spot of colouring in, you can download the templates here:

A3 Page

A4 Page

A for Alphabet, B for Birthday....

C for Certainly been a full on fortnight between birthday, now Easter and projects. So here is a little round up of what I've been up too. 

• You know my sneaky shots from my last blog post, well heck I finished it! I am so super happy with how this Alphabet display piece turned out. 26 individually stitched letters. Yes, in my favourite trailing stitch, think I need treatment for this addiction. Loved making it so much so that I want to do another one, and I will because I've already purchased another display rack. Thinking a different colour way and different stitch. Interested in purchasing, head over to Etsy. 

Q for...uhm...Queue? Qwerty...

Now you know your A, B, C's...next time...

• Who knew about laminating fabric could be so much fun...now have a fab new mousemat! Go on, crack out that laminator.

• What did I do for my birthday? Lots of hanging out with my family, yay! And double yay, as I went to the freakin' Harry Potter Studio. Cue feeling like a massive kid, and I was, so many small people...still it was so much fun. And totally worth the ticket price. Totally rode a broom, wore a Slytherin cloak, and bought a chocolate frog.

Sort of loving the pink ombre tiles...

Squee, Dumbledore's Office...

• Enjoying the Easter break! Not one to like keep still or anything, I've been flicking between decorating my bathroom, which I can now say is finally complete! Huzzah. I do not want to see a paintbrush for a while. Eating chocolate has been the order of the day, as has drinking copious amounts of tea (duh), and stitching. Just flitting about playing about with things half finished. Like rather large 1 1/2 inch hexie's I had the fabric cut out for an age, and I really couldn't remember what the plan was, but heck I thought do something or put it away. So out came the lovely rainbow coloured threads again. When it's spring time, you just need to bust out the colours even when it's a grey, April day. Tomorrow there will be more working on this random project, and if it looks good I'll give you more of a heads up on how you can make a totally random hexi thing too! 

• Think also get the Wonderland piece back out to see about getting that a little closer to finishing.  
• Oh! I managed to give my website a little bit of love. Updated pictures, and tweaked the little store that's on that site too.

For now my dearies, I need tea and some more chocolate! Happy Easter xx