Twinkle Twinkle......practical things....

This is a slightly off tangent post but hey, it's important.

I have three camping trips organised for me and kids this year, one at the end of June, then another the week after and then we're off to WOMAD at the end of July.  I love camping.  The kids love camping even though one of them has no memories of doing it when he was a year old.  And the most important thing you can do when camping is be warm at night. You don't need to be grumpy when camping.  You need to be warm....

So even though I have most of the practical things like a tent (natch) and airbeds (must test them for leaks this week) pump for said airbeds and a huge box of stuff that one needs when camping (for food prep and eating) I don't have any sleeping bags.  Don't ask me why, I'll start ranting about people I shouldn't rant about....

But thanks to a forum I love I am now all prepped to go shopping tomorrow and pick up some sleeping bags at half price.  Rest assured though I shall make sure we all have warm pyjamas (don't ask me how when the shops are now full of summer stuff, I'll work that out in the next couple of weeks), duvets, quilts and WARM sleeping bags.

So tomorrow I have buy sleeping bags.  Bizarrely this fills me with a great sense of satisfaction........

I shall also need to remember to put my Etsy shop on vacation on those weekends in order to ensure that my customers don't think I'm a klutz that can't organise myself.

Streamlining

I'm currently making some changes to my main costuming website. For a while now I feel as though I've been balancing far too many plates, not always managing to keep all of them up and spinning.

So I'm streamlining and trying to make sure that just about everything is in one place.  Now, to be sure, this will take some time, and I'm not SuperMum.  I wish I was....  I've watched Britain's Got Talent, watched a fashion show, taken the tyres off of a truck, given cuddles, supper and sympathy, listened to the tired crying of a 2 and a half year old, and done motherly chores before being able to sit down and get on with some of this stuff. 

BUT.

Ultimately, I hope that it will streamline my online existence.

And because I want to expand what I already have on the website I'm opening up an offer....if you want a tutorial on how to do something, what do you want to see?  What do you want more information about?  What would make your browsing experience with me more enjoyable?  Do you just want more pictures?  Do you want something you can afford to buy?  Do you want to know how you can make the best of what you've got?  Let me know, I'll try and oblige and try to offer more too.....

Sneak Peek

Here's a couple of necklaces....

Feeling a bit crook

Bleurgh...... that's how I feel.......

Both me and the littlest of the little ones has been ill since Saturday. I think I did fantastically well at pulling off a party for my daughter on Sunday, and her brother was a star because he managed not to throw up (proper projectile Family Guy style) until everyone had gone. 

Luckily the birthday girl hasn't been ill, so one of us at least feels the full ticket - it's just a shame I can't get her to cook an evening meal; well, 7 is a little young for that although I'm sure she could manage to get us a bowl of cereal each if pushed.

The milestone 7th birthday has inspired me to offer her pocket money too, but I'm sure that's just a passing idea brought on by lack of food and a fuddled brain.  She'll have to do chores for it of course and luckily she got a new money box for her birthday so I shall encourage her to save half of the magnificent sum of £2 I am offering.  We'll see how that goes.

Tonight should be dance practice night but I feel a bit weak and shivery so that may not happen - I shall miss the company and the laughing, won't miss the lunges, sit-ups, press-ups and associated pain that will no doubt linger in my achey limbs. 

And as today is the night we have to trot off to a dodgy pet-shop in order to buy two goldfish for the classy Ariel tank that now adorns the kitchen I might just sit at home and watch them go round and round in the tank until the queasiness wears off - or will that just add to it?

Finishing up with house stuff

We moved exactly a month ago and although everything was pretty much sorted quite quickly I have now *officially* finished getting things sorted out.  I've been sleeping in a single bed which was fine, but being a grown up I quite like having the sprawl of a double.  And when the kids get in with me in the mornings it's easier to have a group cuddle in a big bed.

Today I picked up a bargain double bed and mattress, all taken apart for me by the chap selling it.  I managed to get it all into the car all out again although the mattress was a bit of a struggle.  Even I was surprised that it only took an hour to take apart the single bed, get that all upstairs into the attic room and put together again and made up as a *day bed* in the rooms the kids use as an extra play-room.

Then it was onto the double - again, pretty fast to get it put together and then came the task of heaving the heavy double mattress up-stairs.  I hate asking for help if I think I can manage something alone, so I pulled and heaved and got the thing up the stairs.  So all is done!  Marvellous.

My next big task is to sort my calendar of upcoming events, try and make a proper schedule of when I shall do what as my head has really not been in proper dance practice/research/sewing/Etsying/promoting and pimping mode for the last month, but now that I've done a few physical tasks today and made some phone-calls that were required my head-space has returned.

Three custom orders require my attention, there are more items to get listed on Etsy and the Blackwillow Tribal website and I've got to get everything ready for the Mira Betz hafla I'm going to this saturday.

OH!  And I keep forgetting, it's my daughter's 7th birthday this Sunday.  I'm such a bad mother!  I really do need to remember that I have party prep to do, cakes to make, pressies to buy and myriad other things to sort out in town this week.

Best of all though?  I'm loving it.  Loving living here, loving being unencumbered by negative emotions, loving life and feeling happy.

I much like Mucha

My next little project this week is to make myself some new page icons for the blackwillowtribal.co.uk site.  I recently purchased a CD of images from www.lunagirl.com and amongst them are some lovely Mucha images that I shall play with - maybe this evening?

 Image courtesy of Lunagirl.com

It's that beautiful, flowing, organic movement that I and many others love.  His use of colour is just sublime.  I think that Mucha paintings and drawings are always flavouring the things I make when it's appropriate, and so I'm very much looking forward to adding the new icons to my website when they're done.

More importantly though, I have custom orders to get started on.  Icons or sewing?  Maybe I'll toss a coin or do a bit of both once the children are in bed.

New beginnings

So last night I managed to get some pics up for your sneak peek and later tonight they'll I shall be sorting out the listings for them.  I was multi-tasking last night - talking on the phone as I was uploading the pics and it was just a multi-task too far to try and type at the same time.

I'm all moved to a new home.  It's lovely - the garden is a great place to take picture and as you may notice there's a great wall of ivy to use as a back-drop for some items, particularly the headdresses.  As I now have a tripod to use there should be fewer wobbly pictures too....

Inspiration is flowing.  Next on the list to do is to get some pictures of the lovely vintage brooches I have - all of them would make great additions to dance costumes and as usual some of them you won't see until I incorporate them into new designs. 

And fabulous feather accessories are forming in my mind and should soon become reality....watch this space....

Sneak Peek