Stitch & Weave

Fairytales and the Brimble's Book Club When Anna announced the bookclub was starting up, my bookworm leapt for joy. I've always wanted to be part of a bookclub but I've not had the courage to find one to join. I'm an avid reader and I've my nose stuck in a book ever since I was a little girl. Books have always pulled me in, an entire world contained within a few pages, hundreds of people to meet, love and hate. The smell of the paper and ink, it's intoxicating! I knew I wanted to through myself fully into the bookclub and figured I should start a reading planner....and what better way to decorate it than with Anna's absolutely stunning Fairytale Forest  kit. I mean it's a match made in heaven right?  I couldn't resist the opportunity to turn some of the diecut pieces into paperclips. I had originally intended to laminate them to give them a bit more durability but it would mean I'd have to fussy cut them out again and I was too...

Hiya Brimblers!! Phew! The last couple of weeks have been so hectic for me, for one reason or another and sadly I have all but abandoned my art and journaling and if I'm truthful I haven't been doing much planning either! It is true what they say about the imagination/brain being a muscle, in that if you don't use it, you lose it. I've been slowly getting my paints, papers and brushes back out but I'm feeling uninspired and very rusty, even several hours lost on Pinterest haven't helped much. I've mostly been reference working and failing to produce anything original. It'll come in time I hope!! That said I have been making good use of the travel journal I commissioned from Steph at Scurry and Peck . It's just the perfect size for sticking in my handbag and whipping out whenever there is lull in goings on. A couple of weekends back J and I took a round trip from Manchester down to Aylesbury for a wedding cake tasting (omg so good!) and we p...

Hey guys! I cannot believe we are half way through February already! The past few weeks have really zipped by, I'm already behind on my daily journalling....oops! So I've been struggling a bit lately with my creativity, I've not journaled properly since Christmas. I've kept a log of what we've done, in a really informal, unattractive way. So if I feel the urge I can go back and journal, but at the minute I just keep thinking '...Nope'. So I've been exploring and doing other things which involve some level of creativity. I've spent a few hours (read that as days) playing on The Sims4 and doing some Tumblr  ish type DIY projects with Anna's Patreon content for this month. I just can't get enough! Our house has been in a perpetual state of undress for the last five years, we've been slowly, and I mean slooowly doing it up. I've put so many things on hold, kept things in boxes waiting. It has frustrated me to no end, as I feel lik...

Quite a short post from me this time. I've been struggling the last couple of nights with a bad bout of Insomnia. At the minute I feel like I'm walking through the day waist deep in Treacle, everything is running in slow motion, basically jetlag without the holiday. I hope to give you a more art and photo filled post next time, but for now I'll include images of my safe place. Incidentally whilst I was writing this blog post Geraldine posted a link to her post on her own blog where she mentions the way to living your Truth is to discover the things you perhaps did not know about yourself and to also consider the aspects of ourselves we may not like. It struck a cord with me because I too had come to same conclusion. Often when I've washed my dreads I'll sit in front of my mirror and blow dry my hair, a mirror is not exactly required for the job of blow drying ones hair but it seems to be something I do. Occasionally, I will find myself staring ...

The Adventure Pact Hi everyone! Is it too late to still wish everyone a Happy New Year? I often question when it has passed the point when you can still speak well wishes, I guess when people start giving you funny looks in return. As I'm writing this we still haven't quite reached double figure dates, so I'm gunna go with it and wish everyone a fun, creative year ahead! (This is from a recent wander around a local nature reserve) With a new year comes the inevitable talk of “New Year Resolutions”, to speak the truth I'm not a great believer in making them. Too many people seem to drop them within a week or two when the hype and positive outlook begins to wear thin or the self applied pressure starts to weigh heavy. Too bigger a step and you're destined to struggle, if not fail. I don't wish to set myself up to fail so rather than burst into the new year (seriously how many times can I get that term into this blog post?) all guns blazing I try...

Last month's Patreon saw Anna demonstrating the use of masking fluids and wax crayons to create resist art. Now, I haven't created anything using these techniques since I was in primary school, and only then it was with kid eat proof paint and crayons. So I was super keen to get going, so much so that I forgot to follow one of crafting's golden rules namely that of washing your paintbrush after use. So in this case washing it after using the masking fluid....something Anna also mentions in the video! So after a few hiccups and a new brush or two - I did eventually purchase a Molotow Pen which I found a lot easier to use - I kind of got the hang of it. Then I thought I'd be a little more adventurous with it. My initial experiments saw me working mostly with watercolour paints on watercolour paper, so I wanted to try using some other mediums to see what results I could achieve. Here I've used the Molotow Pen to create a couple of quick doodles of Christmassy...

So recently I've had this obsession with drawing and painting lilies. I've taken it upon myself to create the artwork for the invites for my wedding next year (eeek!) and so I've been creating lily after lily. I can't seem to settle on one I like so I've just kept going....at some point I need to make a decision as I really should get them sent out to people, but the perfectionist in me won't let me settle on one, but for the moment I'm happy prattling away lol. I've still got time! Also with the colder weather drawing in and the darker evenings on the way J and I have been enjoying more cosy nights in, in front of our new log burning stove. I grew up with a log burning stove in my parents house so I'm massively excited about the winter ahead! A year or two ago we purchased a hand smithed fire poker, we've now decided we'd also like a companion set for our fire and I've been spending time looking into blacksmiths and ironmon...