It's been a busy few weeks with birthdays, meeting my first nephew and trying to get ready for spring! I turned...older (27) in January and had a little get together with some friends. You know those people who bring out the you that dances......at 3 pm to Just Dance on the Wii....sober. I love those friends I become more fun instantly, well fun/loud/please Emma go and sit quietly for a minute - anyways good times were had by all. Though most importantly I won at Articulate, I become mildly competitive with that game and I'll admit some people got shouted at!
I have also decided in my old age to get fit(ter) and have bought a couple of exercise dvds, this is a great idea because now the only witness to my lack of fitness is my hamster, gerbil and when the bus passes the upper deck! I can now sweat and jump with the co-ordination of a headless chicken in privacy :) Also I can swear at the instructor which I find helpful, 'You can do it, go faster! Isn't this fun!' 'Fuzunschnuzun fun I'll show you fun and I am going as goddamn fast as I can woman!!'
March has also arrived....pretty sneakily I think as I'm sure it was January a minute ago, though judging by my walk yesterday the weather still thinks its January. I'm trying to get the shop all ready for Spring time and have been busy lino printing t-shirts with designs I created - so far pigeons, foxes, cats and Monsieur Miaow! I'm thinking a rabbit next as in theory Spring is here - or at least on its way! What do you think?
Anyhoo please check out my new designs (and older ones!) and thank you for your continued support and patronage in 2013 :) Much Spring time joy to you all - and I'd love to hear any 2013 exercise joys/woes from you all!! Till next time :)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BostonStClair
Also free UK postage on jewellery, tshirts and tote bags this March :) and a cool Mother's Day necklace is up if you haven't got that special prezzie yet!
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all other good wishes to you all! :)
I have survived another festive season, tree was amazing (ok mainly because I decorated it and there is not such a thing as too many decorations), presents were ace (new boots, books and mittens why yes I will thank you) and new hobbies begun!
The main problem with this time of year (apart from near family disasters, an almost missing Grandma and too many hours in the car) is that me and my boyfriend have our anniversary in November, then its Christmas and then its both our birthdays in January! So not only are we at this point broke we are also fresh out of ideas...do you think he'd notice if I re-wrapped his anniversary gift?! Or maybe he really would like the stereotypical bottle opening belt calculator in the 'gifts for men' sections on websites....actually maybe he would....internet here I come!
As well as fabalous new boots I also received two 'hobby' items for Christmas. The first was new brushes and water colour book to improve my painting, so far so different from the ones in the book...not helped by the fact he says I need 25 specific paint colours (including such excitements as new gamboge, burnt umber and french ultramarine) which I don't have all of and so I guess. This sometimes leaves me with a mud brown bush instead of a pale green one and a lemon yellow haze in the sky. But progress is being made slowly but surely, and I'm sure art is meant to have a personal touch :)
However progress in painting makes me look like a wunderkind compared to my Christmas knitting set. Wow. I mean really wow. Five hours in and I had the original loop I had tied to the needle. I mean it's a children's set for starters and everyone seems to be knitting....how could I not follow the little pictures?! When I finally got about 4 casting ons on they then somehow fell off the needle and left me with that goddamn loop again ahhhh!....Anyway I have persevered and with a mere input of about 9 hours I now have two lines of ten bobbly, baggy stitches and I've never been so proud! Knitters on Etsy you truly have nothing to fear!
Right off to continue my water colour painting and I have set the afternoon aside for the next five stitches :) Happy New Year and I would love to hear from you in the comments!
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My official mini flat Christmas tree is up and if I say so myself it's pretty awesome! I mean for a start it has a polar bear on the top (already onto a winning formula) and also has homemade baubles and in front of it a light up polar bear and the cutest ever fuzzy polar bear....yes I do like polar bears! Photos will follow when I can work out how to use this smart phone...
Okay so up until today I had a thirty pound Samsung that made phone calls, sent texts and survived life in my pocket but from today I have a 'smart' phone....now one of us is not smart ( I fear it's me). This smart phone is two years old already and I am still acting like a panda with a smart phone, pawing the screen and growling at it. So far I sent a text to Virgin that was meant for my boyfriend...so now they know I can't find the internet but I love them. Not a great start. I have managed to type in all my contacts....not quite contact anyone though...and I want angry birds star wars...but where are they?!? They have obviously gone back to Tatooine.
As well as technological troubles I went to a two day craft show at the weekend and talk about slow. On the Saturday there were more traders than customers! Most disheartening but I did sell a little and got to watch my dear father chat to all the lady stall holders....I think he enjoyed himself! Picked up on the Sunday but I still think I could have had a naked dancing Brittany Spears holding armfuls of puppies and kittens and not got many more sales...but profits were made in the end thank god! Right off to attack some lino and try and charm my phone...maybe if I talk nicely to it through the microphone bit? I think I may have a lot to learn...where are you angry birds???
Come say hi on facebook and visit online! :)
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Another beautiful frosty morning, all crimson leaves, watercolour sky and iced lawns. Of course this means I am suffering from November lurgy and am on the sofa sniffling looking forlornly out the window. Maybe I'll get the paints out and cheer myself up by creating my own bit of watercolour sky...
Have had a busy few weeks with craft shows left right and centre, not much work I hear you cry but I do have to transport my shop life in the car about twice a week at the moment, on the plus I'm getting Arnie style biceps (in my mind) from all the crates lifting and calves of a cyclist with regular 8 hour standing sessions! Things are going pretty well but some of the shows don't seem to have many people...a distinct disadvantage when you are trying to sell things! So fingers crossed and come on internet don't let me down! (unlike most of university first year when the internet let me down repeatedly...don't have 18 year old boys as friends is the moral message.)
On a much more exciting note I went to see Skyfall and my favourite Bond girl ever Judi Dench, she is just so damn good! So for at least 2 hours (or 3 with adverts) I had a roller coaster life of running, guns and more running...I don't think I'd be cut out for that 7 days a week....maybe driving, slap fight, walking...
The highlight of the whole cinema experience though happened before the movie had even begun...dark cinema, film trailers playing, The End of Watch trailer is playing (gritty, loud, cop drama with Jake Gyllenhall lots of shouting and shooting) the credits for that film come up and a lady of about 65 shouts at the top of her lungs 'BORING!' and her husband next to her just turns and snaps 'Not now Judith!'
Popcorn stops being crunched, quiet advert chattering stops and my boyfriend is having to hide his face in his jumper to contain his laughter...he almost choked on said overpriced popcorn. The moral of this story is you're never to old to make a bit of a disgrace....or to be told off for it!
This Sunday is the start of 'show season' which sadly is not Broadway or circus related but is the start of 6 weeks of craft shows round the country (ok Ross on Wye, Keynsham, Monmouth and Chepstow) but still in my mind it's similar to being a rock star except with more gluing and sewing and less being awesome. Anyways with the prospect of 'showtime' and hopefully a good few weeks online I have been busy making jewellery, cushions, Christmas cards/stockings and clay animals (Yes I know its early to be thinking about Christmas but from what I've read I should have been thinking about it in May!)
Also a recent business plus has been my moving from fledgling enterprise to international worldwide business enterprise. Ok I may mean I've had a sale to Berlin and one to Australia but in my mind I have translated this to Boston StClair airlines, hotels, record stores (not trains that looks tricky). Still it is pretty cool to imagine someone in Oz wearing my earrings and another in Germany reclining on a pillow I sewed...maybe I'll need a headquarters...I'm pondering the merits of a hollowed out volcano (pluses: no need for gas bills, good defenses; minuses: high risk of lava related death, probable remote location for a good postal service). Talking of hollowed out volcanoes I must go see the new Bond.
Ok I will return to my volcano/living room lair of glazing, sewing and gluing...though people near me be warned I am starting a stupid wheat and lactose and fun free diet so am on rice cakes, rice milk, rice and a potato for 2 weeks (not optional diet I hasten to point out.) I imagine 4 hours in I will begin a fortnight of being a jerk...or committing a spree of burglaries of other peoples kitchens :) Thanks for reading and have a good week! (Btw for fellow nerds Game of Thrones necklace below and online at my shop!)
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Well it's been a while since my last blog mainly because my life has been absent of grand excitements (no Everest scaling, lottery winning or learning to play the ukulele). I have been living vicariously through others by getting the Avengers dvd, watching New Girl and FINALLY seeing Dark Knight Rises. Avengers was awesome and I am suffering from Tom Hiddlestonitis (soon to be a recognized illness) as that man is the definition of great though I am also loving the cast of New Girl as season 2 has kicked off even better than season 1. And finally Batman which I wierdly was sort of hesitant to see, it had been built up so much I was kind of nervous to see it, I needn't have been. Anne Hathaway aced it as Catwoman and Tom Hardy did the best 1/4 face acting I've seen(the bits I understood the mask needed a speaking hole.)
Aside from debating the merits of wearing spandex, trying to create a carbon copy of Zooey Deschanel's wardrobe and wondering if Michael Caine would come and be my butler I have been sewing, metal stamping and preparing for a crazy November of craft shows. My flat currently resembles a recently burgled HobbyCraft crossed with my room at uni in Hull....bad times (hence the need for Alfred). Though on the plus I have rediscovered my love for Keeping Up Appearances possibly one of the greatest tv shows ever, I exaggerate not! It has cheered me up as I battled the terrible disease of season changing which seems to cause a mixture of sickness/headaches etc, you'd think after quite a few thousand years of development humans could cope with a bit of weather change! Anyhoo back to making Christmas stockings, gotta start early in the cut throat world of online crafts :) and attempting to put eye ointment on Alfred (not the one in Batman....though that would be a movie I'd pay to see as my Alfred is a Russian hamster). It's a glamorous life....maybe I should climb Everest?
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Saturday was show day! Off I went to the Usk Show with a car full of tables and wares :) The half 5 wake up call did not allow any time for the mass panic which filled Friday, which was just as well as by the time we arrived at 7am we had a ton to do, marquee was wrestled with, balloons blown up, earrings laid out and confetti drastically cut back when my dear father/chauffeur/assistant mentioned the word's 'tacky, ruined it and cheap'.....thanks Dad! But in the end the stand was ready in time for the 9am punters arrival. I found out over the course of the day that 12 degrees and thick mist for some people equals shorts and t-shirt weather, leather chaps and hotpants are an interesting choice of agricultural show outfit and 12 hours on my feet is about 11 and a half too many. In the end it was a good day, people were very nice and bought my wares :) I will be putting up new jewellery today so if you like t-rexs, wolves, elephants, russian dolls, zebras or music today is the day for you! More to follow in the next day or two. I leave you with a photo of me getting to grips with pneumonia at 9am at my stand! Thanks to all who came and visited and those who couldn't it's all steadily getting put online. Thanks!
New Jewellery:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BostonStClair?section_id=12011597
