One World One Heart ** Blog Giveaway **

I can't believe this blog event has come round again already, I participated in it last year and it seems like only yesterday!! That said, I am so excited to be a part of it again this year, each year it seems to grow and have more and more participants, so they'll be lots of blogs, old and new to visit this year. Incase you haven't heard of this event before please visit Whimsical Bohemian's Website by clicking the banner above, there you will find all information on this event, the participants list and how to get involved yourself if you want to. Now, on to my giveaway......
This year I will be offering one of my new Vintage Shabby Scented Sachets, these are a new line of perfumed pouches for your lingerie draw. Each sachet is designed differently and I will be showcasing more later this week. But for the One World One Heart event the winner will receive the above sachet, created by myself using vintage lace, fabric and buttons. The image is printed onto cotton material too! Inside the pouch is filled with gorgeous dried Passion Flowers, the scent is wonderful and is known for it's calming powers.

To enter this giveaway all you need to do is leave a comment at the end of this post (if you do not have a blog be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you should you be the lucky winner!) The draw will take place on Feb 15 and will be announced here. Now pop along and visit the other blogs for more giveaways, click on the One World One Heart Banner at the top of this post to get there... Good Luck!

Freshly Caught Fairy Folk

I've been busy catching fairies and mermaids these past few days and bottling them up to keep them out of mischief....

If you are interested in a bottled fairy or mermaid please don't hesitate to contact me, I'm sure I could catch one for you!!

Vintage Fancy Dress Supper Menu's

On Tuesday morning I volunteered at Oxfam as usual and around 10am we have our usual visit from a local Antiques Dealer. He has become a good friend of mine and is always on the lookout for vintage finds for me. This time he came up trumps with these wonderful 1939 Menus from a Fancy Dress Supper at Carnarvon Castle.
The Menus are in wonderful condition, each has the most stunning bird illustrations on the front cover, along with the title UNION - CASTLE LINE. Inside the front cover is the description and date of the event; (Top Photo).

The dishes available on the Menu are wonderful, they include such vintage delights as; Sardines on Toast, Cheese Straws and Croute a la Suisse, then moving on to Sucking Pig a l'Anglaise, Terrine of Duckling and Pheasant Pie Voliere. Amusingly the Menu also offers Sandwiches, one of which is Marmite!

The deserts sound lovely with Iced Cake, Castle Baskets, Panier au Marzipan and Coconut Meringues on offer. Hot and Iced Coffee is also offered after desert.

The Menu even outlines the decoration on offer; Balloons, Serpentines and Crackers! What a perfectly grand affair it must have been!!

So now these wonderful delights are in my possession I need to get my thinking cap on and come up with how to use them in my art, of course I will not disturb the originals themselves, but simply scan the images in to use at a future date. I'll keep you posted with what I come up with.

Bamboo Fun

Occasionally I like to take a break from my paper based art and have a play around with Digital Altered Art. A year ago my husband brought me a Wacom Bamboo Tablet and Pen, I found this amazing to use when creating digitally altered art, it makes the whole process so much easier, use the pen and tablet instead of a mouse gives so much more precision to your work, and having great editing software like PaintshopPro or Photoshop only compliments the Bamboo. Check it out for yourself here!

New Goodies Now Available...

I've been busy most of the weekend updating my Website Shop with some new goodies to include Valentines Cards, Love Tokens and Gift Tags. It's a long old job uploading new items and quite laborious, but very satisfying once it's all finished.
I adore the little vintage cherub gift tags above, they look great attached to a surprise Valentine's Gift, they really "dress it up" . And how about on Valentine's Morning leaving your loved one a Love Token (top photo) on his/her pillow?

I've several different styles of Valentines Greetings Cards for sale, from cherubs to cheeky ladies, pop on by the Maygreen Shop and have a browse.

I've also added some new twists to old favourites like the bookmark above, as well as a new line in vintage jewellery, below. So I hope you'll get the opportunity to drop by!

Look What The Postman Brought........

I was soooooo excited this morning when the Postman brought this wonderful package to my door. I have been expecting it since the lovely Jennifer Float of Gallery Girl blogspot gave me the wonderful news that I had won her blog giveaway! The envelope was beautifully decorated and was enticing me to open it and delve inside to find my prize.
.... And what a gorgeous prize it is!!!! Jennifer had created the most beautiful collage on canvas, a feast for the eyes, I can't wait to put it up in my creative space, it will give me inspiration every time I sit down to create. Thank you so much Jennifer. You must check out Jennifers blog!

Creating for the Season of Love.....

We had yet more snow when we awoke today and the kids school was closed again, but I just had to get some crafting time in as I am so behind with my Valentine's preparations. I have several card designs to finish and also my usual Love Tokens that always prove popular at this time of year. In addition to these I am also offering really pretty vintage gift tags to dress up those Valentine's Gifts this year. So keep your eyes peeled and please pop back later this week when I will have an update on what's for sale, and, hopefully I'll have the website shop stocked with my finished Valentine's goodies. Hope you're having a great day!

Our Own Private Narnia

Well we're still in snowy land so we thought we'd go off for another walk in the woods in search of Narnia, fantasy creatures and some excitement. First stop had to be that lamp post, there was no Mr Tumnus in sight but the lamp was shining brightly so he couldn't have been far away!
On our way to the entrance of the fairy wood we saw a little snow fairy on guard, you can just make her out to the left of the photo. She was very friendly and let us pass.

Every so often we took a break as the snow was so deep today our little legs got very tired, very quickly.

As we left the Fairy Wood a little victorian fairy spirit bid us farewell, she was definitely dressed for the cold weather!

We passed the elfin seat and the sun shone brightly, it was very peaceful and quiet! A truly magical walk.

And finally over, or should I say, under the stile out of the woods and home!

Our Snowman's Slipping Away!!!!!

HELP!!!!! he cries, this constant snowfall is not good news for our poor snowman... he's drowning in snow!!!! He's just managing to hang on but don't expect he'll be around by morning... maybe just his hat if we're lucky, I'll keep you posted tomorrow on his fate.
The snow is continuing to fall here in the UK and isn't showing any signs of easing in the coming days, it's also bitterly cold, apparently it's the coldest winter the UK has experienced for 30 years! My little stone lady above is not liking this weather one bit, she's even got a frozen ice waterfall bearing down on her head!

As as for my poor garden fairies; this little one has a top hat of snow, not the best look for a demure garden fairy! More pics to follow tomorrow when we're off on another family walk, but this time in really deep snow.

Fun & Frolics in the Snow

As expected we awoke this morning to lots of snow and it hasn 't stopped snowing all day, so we're in for more of the same for the next few days by the sounds of it! Of course we had to take a walk in this weather as it is so pretty, so after putting on layers of clothing, hats, gloves and boots off we set.....

Our garden looked really pretty so we took a few photos here before we made our way to the woods....
Above Cameron is standing next to his favourite climbing tree in our garden, although I don't think he'd want to attempt climbing it in this cold weather!

Here I am in the lane next to our home which takes us to the woods, it was thick with snow and really pretty.

The entrance to the woods is over this stile, a few footprints had gone before us... dog walkers we think, although we didn't hear or see anyone else during our walk it was really quiet and peaceful.

The snow made beautiful patterns as it lay on branches and twigs......

The boys stopped for a quick hug to keep warm, then we pushed onwards deeper into the woods

Every so often we stopped for the obligatory snowball fight, although Daddy always seemed to win!!!!!

But eventually we got him back and ohhhhhh what a sweet moment that was for us all lol!!!!

One very happy, excited little boy, up for a laugh and really enjoying the snow and the outdoors

One cute little boy, feeling the cold a bit, but soldiering on as he was having great fun, honestly!

Out of the woods now and into the open fields, and boy was the snow starting to really come down here.... lots more snowball fights and snow angels in this field.

An untouched stile at the end of the field, what a beautiful picture this image has made.....

A gated entrance to a local cottage, frosted with snow, the smell of woodsmoke now thick in the air.

One, once happy little boy, now not so, getting cold and tired and wanting to go home to a warm hot chocolate.

The loves of my life making their weary way home to warmth, comfort and a roaring fire!

Ohhh Nooo More Snow!!

Well, the weather people have been talking about this for the last few days, warning us that it's coming and now at 9pm it's arrived!! In the last ten minutes this much has fallen and they are predicting that it will continue like this most of the night, so we're in for alot of snow come morning! So let the chaos commence.... for the UK cannot cope with any extremes of weather!! Schools will be closed (they only went back yesterday!!!!), buses and trains wont operate, businesses will close for a day or two and everything will grind to a halt.
Actually the disruption has already started as my sky box is not working due to no satellite signal being received, this always happens in extreme weather... crazy isn't it?

And then there's the aftermath once the snow has melted we have the dreaded pot holes in the road to deal with. After the last spell of snow we had before Christmas the roads were awful, with deep, nasty pot holes at every turn and they wont be filled in for a good few weeks!! Now my rants over lol!! I'll be sure to post snowy pictures tomorrow, whilst it's still pretty and before it gets all slushy and icy.