Allotment business....

After MONTHS of waiting... finally my mum and I have got the Allotment!! As you can see it is very overgrown and the second picture shows how we are tackling it a little at a time, when the weather allows.

We are going to grow herbs, onions, potatoes, peas (my fav!!), swiss chard and pumpkin... I cant wait to tuck into some of the delectable goodies when they are grown!! :D

My Christmas was very fun packed and I was stuffed full of gorgeous Christmas food...

I hope you all have had a very happy Christmas and the new year brings good health and happiness.

Lucy xx

Continuation of dog art.

Well, my art project at school is progressing, all be it at a slow pace!! Below is another copy of an artists painting. It needs improving an awful lot and isn't quite done yet!

I found a photo of Candy (my Springer Spaniel) when she was a puppy, and decided to replicate it. Many hours were put into this painting!!

I hope all this work pays off and gets me the A!! There are many more paintings to do, and I must get on with them! :)

Very VERY!! cold weather here, luckily no more snow fall! I hope it's the same for you :)

Have a WONDERFUL Christmas!!

Lucy xx

Exams are over until January!

Finished my final exam before Christmas on Thursday and then Thursday after school, the Community Centre had a Christmas Fayre and this is my stall!

At long last I can do some blogging - Apart from the exams I haven't been very well just recently. On the mend now and looking forward to the Christmas holidays!!

I hope you are all keeping well.

Lucy xx

Painting and Poppies!

My autumn Poppies have germinated and I hope the warmer weather will help them to grow bigger.

I have planted them in a large container to protect them from the big galavanting paws of the doggies!

I have also painted my final Dalmatian and improved it.

My art project on dogs is taking hours and hours to do!!

I have to do a lot of practicing, especially of eyes! I am happy with one above, but painting fur is quite difficult!

November and December are quite hectic for exams. I will be glad when all my maths exams are over!!

Hope you all have a nice week. Lucy xx

Beads, Crochet and Puppydogs....

At long last my mum and I had an evening of crafting together! I did the Beading and my mum did the Crocheted bags from left over yarn.

I came up with a new design of dragonfly that is more delicate for around the neck.

I have a new art project on the go, it differs from the others as I got to choose any subject to base it on. As I love my doggies very much I thought dogs would be great to paint. This is a little practice piece.

Last week was work experience week again! I decided this time that I would spend it at my mum's school. I found it such an amazing experience and didn't want to leave!!

Happy weekend to you all!

Lucy xx

Amazing Arrival!

As I walked in from school, there was a little package waiting for me. Lots of colour and wonderfulness!!

The package contained the give away (a gorgeous Needle Case and Poppy seeds)I won from Jane at Marigold Jam! Isn't it FAB!! All the different fabric and stitches, I just love all the small details.

I particularly like the little Spider on its little Spider web!! It looks so cute tucked away in its little corner!!

I must say I have always wanted to own one of these amazing patchwork needle cases that Jane makes and I am so pleased that I do!!!!

Half of the Poppy seeds will be planted this Autumn and the other half in Spring. I can't wait to see them flower and when they do, they will remind me of today and my super gift.

Thank you so much!!!!

Lucy xx

Weekend Painting!

I found that Slate is a great material to paint on! A little project to get my painting up and running.

I'm using this outside as a house number plate.

My mum used up all her old scraps of wool to make this dazzling multicoloured blanket.

I think its very eye catching and is almost like one of those magical illusions!!

This is the last slice (all be it a big one) of the cake I baked at the weekend. I used any left over ingredients I could find!

This last GCSE year has started with a bang for projects etc... It doesn't quite help when the weather is so terrible! Wishing you all better weather than it is in the Pennines!

Thank you for visiting.

Lucy xx

Ready to show!!

Well I am now back at school and already doing lots of work.

My Holiday in Northumberland was very peaceful as my mum and I sat in the garden and did lots of crafting (painting, beads and crochet) But only pictures of the finished frame at the moment! My slate project will soon be finished for show!

I hope you like the frame!!

It has changed a lot since you last saw it, there are now three background colour changes - Green, Pink and White. If you look carefully at the frame, weaving in between the circles is a curvy line of 2 cut and bugle beads of a different shade

of the background colour that is surrounding it.

These are the four different reds I used for the circles - Transparent, Silver lined, Opaque and 2 cut. Around the circles I used Iris seed beads to make the red stand out.

A little close up of the green seed beads that I used as one of my back grounds.

I really enjoyed this project and I may just start a new frame, but it will not be completed fast as I have a lot of work to do!!

Hope everyone is having a nice week and that the weekend is very bright and cheery!!

Lucy xx

Sneaky Peek ;)

I have a little project developing. You can probably guess what it is....

Yes its a frame that I have decided to stick beads onto! It is just a trial run so not an over complicated design, but its proving to be a time consuming one at that!!

I am going away for a few days to the gorgeous Northumberland (Wooler) cottage again so I will be hard at work with the frame, I may just get it finished!!

I will have plenty of pictures to show when I come back. :D

The holidays are nearly over! I seem to have been so busy mainly because my brother is visiting us and I haven't seen him for 11 months. He is flying back from Manchester Airport in the morning and I will miss him but it has been great doing all sorts of activities with him!

Have a nice week ahead.

Lucy xx

Summer Camp...

Well the Summer Camp was a very good experience. All the children co-operated and listened to all my instructions, especially when they were bribed to behave with a football signed by our local football team!!

I did many crafting activities with each group: Painting totem poles that I had pre made from toilet roll tubes, making bracelets from beads or Scoobies, painting aprons and making and painting for the big banner!

Everyone seemed to enjoy my sessions and no one complained about them being boring, which was my main worry :) The most difficult but most popular activity was my beaded dragonflies. I simplified my complex design so that it would be easier to explain and complete by the children. It proved a great success!!

This is the big banner I designed for the children to paint and then I finished it off with gold and silver pen to make it look a little neater.

I created templates for ladybirds and frogs so that the children could create their own from felt and then I could stick it on to the banner and write their names underneath so when it is hung up they can say "I did that one!!" hehe :D

On a different note the weather here has been absolutely gorgeous and I have enjoyed sitting in the garden reading a bead mag and watching all the lovely birds come very very close to me!! :D

Hope you are all having good weather too!

Lucy xx

London trip.

Last weekend was a very new experience! My mum and I travelled down to London and stayed in a Bed and Breakfast in Northolt, the trip lasted four days. Setting off early on Friday left us with the afternoon to travel in to Covent Garden, using the underground trains. We then walked to Aldwych Theatre to see Dirty Dancing on the west end. It was an amazing show, I enjoyed it A LOT!!

The second day we traveled to Kew gardens, (there was an amazing butterfly and moth house where you can walk around and photograph all the wonderful creatures). We stayed there for a most of the day (until it closed at 5.30) and took the number 11 bus, which drove past all the main attractions such as: Big Ben, (even little Ben!!) the London Eye, Westminster ... We got off at St Paul's Cathedral and walked along the Millennium Bridge to Tate Modern. By this time it was getting dark so we didn't go round a lot of the art gallery and I also started to get ear ache, so headed back to the Lodge.

On the Third day, the Natural History Museum was a must!! I had to see everything and it was soooooo big!! That was all we did that day because we were so tired (Approximately 6 and a half hours in the museum)

The last day consisted of driving home with a little stop off at the gorgeous gardens of Trentham. The pictures say it all!!

Pictures and update of the summer camp will be in my next post, but for now have a wonderful weekend!

Lucy xx

Garden update :)

The garden has grown and bloomed since the last photographs, so here are a few more photos to show the summer growth.

One more week to go at the summer camp. I must get materials together for tomorrows session.

Wishing you all a relaxing weekend!

Lucy xx

Finished school.........Finally!!!

I had my last day of year 10 at school yesterday and it was great!! Finished with a bang in science, (explosion experiments) a little party in tutor period and time to chat with all my friends in English. I also was given next years timetable for lessons, its the same as this years but I have many new teachers.

Now to show you, what I wanted to show you, a long time ago, but as I was so overwhelmed with work this is the first opportunity I have had!

For my project I had to choose two different shoe artists(from a given list) and copy a piece or two of their work and write an analysis. For my first artist I chose Madison Moore. Copied three pieces of her work, trying to get them as accurate as possible.

For my second artist I chose Mark Schwartz. His style of painting shoes is very abstract and to copy his work I had to choose some of his more simple works.

To conclude I made a little flip book with some of his other (more complicated) paintings in and then painted a sketch of some art materials.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you are having a relaxing, sunny summer!

Lucy xx

Quick stop by

This summer is just flying by! I had an engineering placement at a company in Keighley last week which I thoroughly enjoyed although I was exhausted from sawing metal and handling unfamiliar equipment as well as getting used to the long working hours!

I am now very behind with all my other work (art, english etc) at school because most people did not have a placement. I am trying not to panic!!! The school's music concert is next week too which means that I should practice my piano a lot as well.

The photo above is of my stall at the summer fayre after quite a bit has been sold - not much left there! I helped to put the shed up that is in the garden behind me. The school run a summer camp during the first two weeks of the holidays and I have been asked to run three sessions of art and craft activities with the primary school children. I will have to plan the activities very well and order lots of materials. I feel quite honoured!

I am sorry that I have not been on for so long - it has been hectic but I will catch up very soon.

Hope you are all keeping well and I promise to get back to blogging by August!!!

Lucy xx

A wonderful Saturday surprise!!

I received a fantastic surprise in the post this morning from Yiota at Shells and Bells Flowers and Showers. I love anything arty and the painting of the yachts by a "foot and mouth painter"

made me realize how lucky I am to have my hands to do all the things that I do!

It is also nice to see an oil painting (below) done by a Greek artist. Unfortunately

the colours haven't come out quite right in the photograph!It is much nicer than this! The butterfly stickers and little note pad are sooo pretty!!!! Thank you Yiota!

The Summer Fayre is next Saturday at school. My mum and I have been quite busy when time allows, making things to sell for school funds, including some crocheted bunting! Here are some of the items:

This is my box of beaded sales items standing by for next Saturday!!!

Now back to finishing my school shoe art project. When it has been marked by my art teacher I shall take some photos!

Have a great weekend!!

Lucy xx

I'm Back!!!

Oooooo! What a wonderful holiday, such warm weather! We set out from Northumberland at 5 am this morning and arrived back home a short while ago. My mum and I went for lots of walks and we did some gardening in our friends garden.

This is one aspect of the garden where we stayed. It is a great garden for bird watching!

This is a photo I took of one of the many birds we saw on our walks.

In between all this fun I did get lots of crafting done!! I have finished 3 projects. One I cannot show because it is a friends birthday present and she currently reads this blog!! ;)

This is a necklace centre piece, made up of little beaded squares and rectangles sewn together to create this unique form.

Just a little bracelet to sell (for school funds) at the up coming summer fayre.

And a small wall hanging inspired by Marigold Jam's gorgeous sewing.

We returned to happy chickens and happy dogs which had been well looked after by my much older brother!! Thank you Bro!

Back to school on Monday! Hope you all have a happy weekend and thank you for all your encouraging comments and support.

Lucy xx