Home of The Small Art Company and a bit of British all sorts about my family, kids, home, art, mixed media, craft, photography, illustration, travel, cooking, organisation, teaching... Good to see you:)

Friday, June 26, 2009

Hats and More

Today I'm blogging about Anita from Hats and More. Anita is a fellow Folksy seller and was kind enough to feature me on her blog recently.

Anita knits and crochets hats and, well... more beautiful things. I love Mr Rectangle:

He comes complete with Mrs Rectangle:

Or how about this fantastic hand crocheted cake/pin cushion. It's an ice cream coffee bonbon! Raspberries and chocolate, mmm. Actually, rather similar to that cheesecake I blogged about...



Fabulous items Anita!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Alphabet Chart

Another package today. This time it was some prints I'd ordered for my stall at Fun in the Park (Stanborough Lakes 5th July). One of the prints is a new alphabet chart I made using the same technique as for the frog, sheep, jelly etc.


I really like the effect of these prints. For those of you who haven't seen them before, I draw an image onto acetate in outliner, paint with glass paints and then take a photo using my macro lens. I've never come across anyone else who does this, although I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world who does!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Cheesecake!

We went 'home' for the first time in over two months at the weekend. I still say 'home' even though I haven't lived there for 6 years. And I don't know why we haven't visited for 2 months, as it's only a 40 minute drive. Anyway, my youngest bro made a raspberry and chocolate cheesecake and it was delicious!



Youngest bro really isn't the type you'd think would make a good cheesecake. He's a bricklayer/plasterer and doesn't look the sort at all. Well done bro, I think I may now prefer raspberry and chocolate cheesecake to plain cheesecake!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Shiny new books

The postman knocked today with a big(ish) parcel for me. I knew exactly what it was and became very excited as I opened it. Hurrah! My new polymer clay books! And here they are...




I just love books and these ones are full of delightful pictures. I've been playing around with some ideas for clay photos (fairies and elves in particular) for a while now and they're not turning out quite like I'd hoped, so I thought I should get some books to help with the basic techniques. I always have little niggling concerns that I'm going to copy something and not realise so I try to do things on my own, but I guess there's no harm learning from others and adapting things to make them your own, is there? Oh, by the way, three of these books are meant to be from my husband for my birthday, but hey, I only had a little peek...

Also while I was out in the garden I tried taking some photos of roses, which my cousin's asked me to do. Only problem is, the slightest breeze and the photos blur. I really don't want to cut them and bring them indoors!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

A different kind of play time

I took my son to a parent and toddler group for the first time today. I'm not sure why it's taken me nearly 20 months to do so, but anyway, it has. It was in a really nice setting, in some woodland, which I didn't expect living in a town. Okay, look, I'm still getting to know the area after 3 and a half years..! I should've taken my camera with me to post a pic on here, but I didn't, sorry.

Anyway, Thomas had a thoroughly good time and me... well, I was constantly trying to get him to stop crashing the walker into other children, to go down the slide, not up it and generally trying to get him to share. I guess these things come with time.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

It's Play Time!

Yesterday I had lots of fun with Fimo! It's been months since I've managed to do anything with it and I realised how much I'd missed playing with the stuff! Look at all these lovely colours waiting to be mixed...


I've got so many ideas of things to make but just need the time to make them, especially as I've just booked a stall at Fun in the Park in Stanborough Lakes, with special guest Chico no less! It's on July 5th so I'd better get a move on.
Here are a few of my Fimo creations anyway...


I think I'm most pleased with the decorations I made for my son's Advent tree last year, but I won't post those in June. Thinking... no, I can't, honestly, it wouldn't be right.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Housey Stuff

Our washing machine broke down on Monday. It's so typical, beautiful weather all week, loads of washing to do, no work this week... and the machine finally packs up. It's been on its way out for ages, but I was hoping it would last a little longer. We were planning to buy a new front door for the porch, but instead we've had to buy a new washing machine, which in my opinion, isn't half as exciting as a front door!

Anyway, the porch is coming along nicely. Here's Mr W. digging the foundations:


Onto other housey bits... We're growing our own veg again this year. We've just spotted the first shoots of either carrots, lettuce or radish I think. I can never remember what we're growing. The tomatoes and strawberries are doing well too. Nothing beats home-grown veg!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Orange on Folksy

Fiona over on Folksy has been picking a colour in the rainbow and choosing 12 items for her blog. Look at all these lovely orange things...

Thanks for including my wobbly orange jelly Fiona!

Talk about baby brain!

OK, my first post and it may as well be about blogging. I've been thinking about blogging for a couple of years, but have only definitely decided to give it a go in the last week or so, or so I thought. I just went to create an account and it turns out I'd already attempted to blog over a year ago! I had completely forgotten about it! Looking at the title of the (empty) post, it would appear to be about having a baby in the 21st Century, but other than that, who knows what I was going to blog about?

Anyway, let's start again. I guess I'll blog about my creative thoughts and processes, things I like, people who inspire me. I'm sure the mundane goings-on in my everyday life will sneak in too. Isn't it fascinating how we're so interested in all these little things nowadays? Erm, I hope that's not just me..! I also probably won't be able to help giving my views on issues of the day or week. So, that's what to expect from me.

Look forward to sharing with you,
Vic