Altered Things

To be fair I do mostly *alter* things when I'm making something - mostly old bits of jewellery that come into my possession that get taken apart and then made into something new.

But I've felt the need to try some new techniques and decided to have a go at making some domino pendants.  Did I have any dominoes in the house?  Nope and one day a couple of weeks ago it took me two hours to find some in town - all of the shops I thought would have some didn't and in the end I got some little black wooden ones and a box of cream plastic ones from a bookshop of all places.

I think I'm going to add a tutorial about these little babies soon so for now here's a pic of some of them under a bowl so that their coating of Glossy Accents doesn't pick up dust.

All of the vintage images I used were free and I played around with all of them in Pixlr to get some different effects.  They look a little cloudy here but that's due to the wet Glossy Accents.  I discovered the little hand tool I have isn't powerful enough to drill into the plastic dominoes so I shall have to stick a bail on them, but my smallest drill bit goes easily into the wooden dominoes and that's much more exciting as it means I can drill holes into the bottoms and add eye-pins and dangly bits for extra interest.  Once they're completely finished I shall definitely post some pics cos I'm really loving these.

Next up are some pics of two jars I *altered* over the weekend using stuff from my stash.  Once the base papers are on and dry it's just a case of imagination and glue-gun so they're a fast make.  Well, kind of fast!  The first one is light shades as I was going for a shabby chic look:

Again I used a free vintage image and stuff from my stash.  It's decorated all the way around but I'll save further pics for a tutorial...

And last of all is a Ganesha inspired jar as I like darker colours:

Again there are pics and some stamping all the way around this one.  

I love making these - it's my new favourite way to be creative and I shall be playing with these some more.  In fact I have some little bottles that I'm going to make into poison bottles....(not literally of course!)

And with that I shall leave you with lots more creativity - make sure to mosey on over to Handmade Monday and check out the lovely things people make. xx

Growing Things

At last!  The  sun is shining!  Hopefully it'll help some of the seedlings I have growing to have a spurt.  Today has been a great day for getting a few things planted out at last and now I have a large planter full of runner bean sprouts with some Black Eyed Susan plants and some pea sprouts that'll be tarted up by the sweet peas I put in the middle.

Unfortunately I've now run out of pots so I'm scratching my head about what to do with my tomato seedlings....I've got one tomato tumbler plant growing in a hanging basket but I've at least another 8 plants with no homes to go to.  Last year I grew some tomato plants in hessian bags but this year I don't have any so I really don't know what to do.

I've a couple of pepper plants that may or may not bear fruit at some point and I recall reading that they do better in smaller pots but again, I don't actually have anything to put them into at the moment.

I had some flower seedlings too that were potless and then after weeding my front garden I decided this evening to put the growing seedlings into the soil in the front garden in between the shrubs that are there.  And as I had a few bean seedlings left over with no-where to go I've stuck them into the front garden too.  If they take hold properly I'll put some sticks in next to them for them to grow up and they'll probably find themselves growing up the iron railings too.

So now I have potatoes, chard, carrots, spring onions, radishes, peas, beans, peppers, tomatoes and herbs growing in the back garden with edible flowers violas and nasturtiums growing too.  I've a couple of recycled containers ready to sow some salad seeds into as well tomorrow.

At the allotment I've planted potatoes, onions, carrots, chard, beetroot, radish, courgettes and some flowers.  And I've some space for a few other things so might do some secondary sowing and put some peas in up there as there are plenty of tree trimmings to use to protect them from the deer and to give them something to grow up.  As this is the first week for about a month that it hasn't rained for 72 hours a trip to the allotment is on the cards tomorrow afternoon.

Crafty Catch-Up

Well, I think it's been a good three weeks since I last blogged and I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get back here.  No, that's a fib - I do know why, it's because I have been feeling over-whelmed by something and the urge to write about it was very very strong but I couldn't at the time.

This week I shall be mostly applying for a job.  Before anyone jumps to an assumption about what I do at the moment I should make it clear that I do work, in a self-employed capacity teaching belly dance and selling the things I make, and I have been able to work around my young family without incurring child-care costs.  As my family all live about 100 miles away I can't call on my mum to help out and my son, although now three and a half, isn't due to go to school full-time until September 2013 (as his birthday is mid-September and they now only do one intake per year).  So my plan was to continue to struggle along self-employed until then, and then once he was at school look for some extra work.  The children have had a lot to deal with in the last 18 months since their dad and I split up and their emotional well-being has been top of my list of priorities.

Then three weeks ago a friend threw me a curve ball.  A potential job, back in the field I used to work in before becoming a full-time parent eight years ago.  It was finally advertised last week and between her telling me about it (with the instruction to apply once it was advertised) and today I have been hunting out childcare. Childcare that I feel happy with, with someone the children are comfortable with.  I think I've got that one as sorted as I can now and so I can focus on something else for a little while.

Now all I have to do is make sure my CV reflects my experience and skills correctly and write a covering letter.  Harder than you'd think when you know it's going to be read by someone who knows you well, but I have to forget that and write the letter as I would for any other application.

In the meantime I've been working on some commissioned headdresses and adding at least one listing a day to my Etsy shop - I've gotten a bit behind with that so need to ramp it up and make sure I at least get all of the descriptions drafted out properly.

Oooh, and my new love is digital scrapping - why on earth it's taken me so long to get my head round using layers and masque tools and such in Pixlr is beyond me but now I do have an understanding I can't find enough time to play around with images I have and have found for free on the net.  Here's a pic to show you what I've been up to:

And on that note I shall leave you with a link to 1st Unique Gifts and the Handmade Monday blog.  If I'm a good girl and finally sort out my application letter I shall sit down this evening with a slice of cake and a cuppa and make sure to catch up with what everyone has been doing.

Crafty update

Time has this fascinating habit of slipping by doesn't it?  There have been no blog posts for the last couple of weeks as I was entertaining children (Easter holidays) and visiting family, and last Monday was a school inset day and then suddenly I was busy with lots of catch-up things.

I've been a bit unfocused of late so it's time to narrow my eyes and get on with things.  This weekend saw me playing with my huge stash of bits and bobs to see what I could come up with and I decided that Saturday night was asymmetrical earrings night.  This is not a new idea, just Google asymmetrical earrings and you'll find lots of examples, but it's something I fancied having a go at.  Because this was a new thing to try it took a little time to get the balance of colours and the aesthetic right, but I'm actually quite pleased with what I came up with.  Next job is to get some better pictures and then get them listed in my Etsy shop, Blackwillow Boho.  Here's a sneak peek:

All three are a mixture of contemporary and vintage elements and different bead types including some fresh-water pearls and little semi-precious stone beads.

Somewhere in my stash of findings is a bag of sterling silver ear-wires but can I find them?  It is most annoying that I cannot but I figure than in the meantime I'll get some silver coloured pairs made up and then attach them to the ear-wires once I've been through every box, drawer, bag and corner of the house and located them.

And once my son goes to school soon I shall settle down with a cup of tea and go and see what all of the other crafty folk have been doing on the Handmade Monday blog.  You should go and check it out too, there's lots of talented folk around!

The Websites - the light at the end of the tunnel

I'm coming to the end - well sort of.  Websites should never really be "finished" should they?  They should always be a kind of work in progress.

If you've followed my previous entries then you'll know I've been working on three websites recently.  One is my Blackwillowtribal website where I showcase things I have made and sold and directing potential shoppers to my Etsy shop.  I'd previously let this one go due to the cost of my previous hosting but when I hunted about to check where I was linked I realised that I was linked by quite a few big websites that garner a lot of traffic.  So I reinstated the website after building it with Weebly.

The second website was my belly dance site where I advertise my classes.  It needed an update and the web host (different to Blackwillowtribal) was shutting down the service and although they were offering an alternative I was going to have to rebuild the whole thing anyway so I wandered over to Weebly again.  I love the Weebly interface and think that the things I can do with it are fairly fabulous for a free website.

Third and last is the Hipnotic website.  Hipnotic is a belly dance night I run with two dance colleagues.  We've been running it for three years come July this year and to be honest although we only just about break even we love doing it.  It's a great night out for anyone who loves belly dance and for non-dancers alike and this is something we have worked hard to achieve.  Anyway, same as my dance site, I needed to rebuild the whole thing and so another Weebly site was born.

All three need some links work doing/building and all three will have extra info and articles added as I source and write them but this is part of that on-going work I talked about earlier.  If Google loves new content then new content Google will get.  But I'm happy with how they look and that's got to be good.

And so, link building begins and then I really need to get a wiggle on and start making new things, take some awesome photographs and most of all get selling.  I shall also be going over to Handmade Monday to check out what everyone else has been doing as it's always inspirational.  Have a good week all and I hope the sun will be shining where you are.

Setting The Handmade Table

A couple of weeks ago I attended a craft fair at my daughter's school, the express purpose being trying out some ideas for show-casing and displaying my items.  I kind of got the look I was aiming for, a bit shabby chic, a bit bohemian in style and although there's room for tweaking I was pleased with how it all looked.

Most of the display items were things I have at home anyway, like the cage, the platters and dishes and the head is the one I currently use to photograph my headdresses.  I had shabby chic'ed the frames a little while ago and they've been really useful too, either as display items at events or as props when I'm photographing.

  

The doilies were a quick addition as I wanted a way to show of the bracelets that made them easy to handle - they're all different and very tactile, and the cage is something that I've had in my bedroom for years.  Once it was stuffed with a scarf it was a good way to show off some of my vintage necklaces.

I've a long way to go before I'm entirely happy with everything when it's set up like this, but I'm getting there.  And now on this gloriously sunny day I'm going to hand you over to everyone at Handmade Monday.  Enjoy!