arty projects for outdoorsy little boys...

this weekend has been a stereotypical family two days at home. we've run errands, endured our swimming lesson (I swear he just has a thing about that pool cos he's fine in all other pools), done the food shop, visited the park, walked the dog and pottered in the yard.

i set myself a task this weekend of completing a card to mark a friend's engagement. in theory this is easy to do in 4 days, particularly if Did is around for 1 1/2 days of it. in reality I've not got too far yet. it seems that whenever I sit down to write, on a laptop or my iPad, I'm the best form of climbing frame. if I dare to sit at the kitchen table to read, write or attempt to do anything remotely creative then after 10 minutes Seb's hanging off the baby gate screeching. so it got me to thinking about friends and acquaintances who discuss happily indulging in a hobby whilst their toddler plays at their feet (I once tried to put some photographs into some new frames while Seb 'played'at my feet, climbed up my legs, sat on half the photographs and picked up one of the frames and threw it in the fire place.) and I've pretty much decided that ain't going to happen for me but what about trying to get him interested in being creative with me?

it's been the general school of thought that Seb has the attention span of a knat and previous attempts to put crayons and paper in front of him are usually poo pooed after 2 minutes. so does anyone have suggestions on what to do with a live wire 19 month old who likes to throw and screech?

projects...

so post holiday, which was eventful but great thank you. and by eventful i mean late night ambulance calls, bed ridden mother- to- be, us taking a local pub by storm on more than one occasion, another ambulance and finally a door- bell ringing, late night mystery visitor (thankfully we had already left by the time the creepy could- be serial killer turned up.)

so post holiday, and post easter weekend, i've been mental busy with a couple of work non- work projects. so much so that i've had no time to myself or to this blog, which is frustrating when i've only just kicked it off again. but now the initial work for these two exciting projects is done i'm hoping things are calming down and its back to business. 

firstly, back at the start of the year, i decided that i wanted to get more involved in the local community. we moved here last may and, although we knew York as a city centre pretty well, we're really new to this area and it really is like a village within the city. so i enrolled Seb into a baby and toddler music group, Songbox, which is fantastic and a great way to meet other local mums. i also volunteered to be part of the team organising this year's summer party in our local park. Rowntree Park is situated close to the Ouse, just a short walk from the city centre. It was gifted to the residents of York in 1921 by Messrs Rowntree & Co (as in the Fruit Pastels) and continues to be a family favourite. The annual birthday party is held in the summer and i thought it would be a great local event to get involved with a) because its close by and i like the park and ill meet new people, locally. and b) anyone who knows me knows how much i love an event, in particular decorating or hosting, but i've never been a part of anything huge. so i am officially the food coordinator. here goes.

secondly, as well of wanting to get all grown- up, community focused and wanting to widen my event organisation portfolio, i also wanted to write more (hence blog) and broaden my pr skills, so i volunteered to do pr and social media for Did's Triathlon club. the Yorkshire Vikings started in 2014 and is rapidly growing. but the busy ladies that run the club cant do everything, so i've jumped on board to help.

so right now im fingers deep in emails back and forth with food traders and last week i posted my first write up for the YVTT. and im really enjoying it. a teacher at my old secondary school used to have a saying, and cheesy as it is, and as much as my younger self would hate me for using it, its true. you get back what you put in.

ive wanted to do more with my work life for a long time, but timing and situation has never been just right. but rather than sitting back and waiting for the right time to start a full time career again, and hoping that the skills ive built up will suffice, ive gone out and found some opportunities to better my cv, and myself...


p.s. there wasn't time to post about easter but it was brilliant. a lot of family, food and wine. this year Seb was able to get involved with a hunt in my parent's garden which was so cute.    

                                                                                                          

 

samuel's big day...

over the last few weeks i have been busy designing and, with the help of my lovely creative assistant (aka Mum, creating decorations for a little boy's christening that went ahead this bank holiday sunday just gone.

what made this event extra special is it is the first one I have done for someone not friends or family, purely though word of mouth and the samuel's lovely mum spotting my work at a friend's birthday party. so special, but scary.

after initial chats I put together two mood boards with themes chosen by the client, thomas the tank and ipswich town. as is the case with a lot of my ideas, there was an element of the vintage and/ or nature to them, with features such as hessian table runners and old school colour pallets. not only is this typical of my work but it also compliments the venue, the local village hall. the ipswich town theme was picked and I set to gathering further ideas and prices.

the general idea with this theme was to stick to the team's colours as apose to emblazoning their logo everywhere. anyone can go out and buy a football team table cloth and napkins, what makes something special and unique to your party is creating something new and bringing together a range of ideas, or getting someone else to do that hard work for you.

so with old school royal blue and white stripe material and red material here and there, we created bunting to hang down the two lengths of the hall (keeping costs down) and a table runner for the cake table to add a splash of colour. bunting really is a tried and tested great way of decorating a party venue, it's traditional yet fun and it adds colour to otherwise drab walls. and especially with this colour pallet of red, white and blue, it oozes good old fashion British fun.

an initial idea for the table centre pieces was to attach a big perfectly spherical ballon to a little tin bucket filled with sweets. but to keep costs in line we changed the idea to little flags made out of surplus bunting material with a little ipswich town logo attached. flags are sinonimus with sport and football and again have an old school, childhood memories touch. the tin buckets were sprayed royal blue to bring colour to the tables and then filled with little chocolate footballs.

for the cake table with its stripy runner I hand painted a wooden toy tractor (for those not in the know with ipswich town their nickname is the tractor boys) in team colours for an additional feature and designed a framed sign with sport style font to direct people where to leave their cards. finally, we created additional bunting with samuel's name hand stitched on. this hung above the cake table and made a nice focal point. one great thing about going that extra mile with your decorations is that, if well planned, you can re use for further dos or use in your home. the name bunting might be something nice to hang above the cot maybe?

as ever, you could always go further with these things, the possibilities are limitless but I was really pleased with what we achieved and I left a happy lady. later that day I received some positive feedback and today a lovely thank you email. hopefully this event will translate into some more word of mouth recommendations and I just might be able to run with this...

                 

time flies...

i don't know where the time is going at the moment; we are absolutely rushed off our feet with life. as well as work, social activities and sporting hobbies (Dave is training for triathlons and  i am keeping my toe dipped into the gym and have taken up swimming again)we are getting the house baby ready and trying to make the garden something like. i am working towards a qualification through work, even though my maternity leave is looming and i've also decided now is a cracking time to try and launch a new business venture. 

you might remember in march i helped a really good friend pull together her disney themed 30th? well i got such a buzz doing it; planning, making, doing and setting it up, i posted on twitter and facebook that i would happily help anyone out with any ideas, advice, right up to the full doing everything decor wise for any kind of event. for free. i did my wedding and this party, plus a few other do's here and there and decided that I might as well start building up a portfolio. so it's as much a help for me as it is for them.

the good news is that a couple of weeks later I received a request to do the decor for a little boy's christening. a lovely lady who had attended the disney do, dressed as Belle I seem to remember, got in touch and away we go.

on top of this I have a possibility of some typography printing for a company looking to decorate their new offices. so lots of little pots bubbling.

and despite running round like a wild woman whilst trying to relax and put my feet up as all good mums to be should, i'm feeling the need to spend a little bit more time on here. i feel i've neglected things a little with everything life is throwing at us right now. so  I think i'll embrace the changes and the busyness and just start writing about it. so expect a lot more postings, and things probably taking a bit of a turn away from purely the creative. after all 'they' say the best writing is what you know, and live. whoever 'they' are. another blogger who I have just started to follow offered some advice in that writing is easy if you enjoy it. and it is.

so expect a bit more general musings, baby talk, fashion mumblings, skin complaints, dog stories. you know the stuff. life.

and if you need any help or advice with the creative doings of an event (birthday party, wedding, christening, anything...) or you know someone who might, point em in my direction. anywhere in the country, no job too big or too small. and just the cost of material whilst I build up my portfolio and my name.

it's exciting when something fun might turn into something more...

and it's like Bruce says...

things to come...

so this weekend just gone we decided to put our best feet forward and start clearing our my study/ creative lair/ junk room. i visualised this day would come in about June or July but I guess it makes sense to do it now and get decorated so as not to fume out the new arrival.

so my things are being boxed, i can't say have been, the contents of my room are now on the spare bedroom floor and will no doubt stay that way for a few weeks. and my paints and sketch pads and everything else Dave doesn't know what to do with will live in the kitchen. and the kitchen table will be my office. i hope to be one of those kitchen table mumtrepreneurs i've read about.

we had talked about when the time came for a little one and that the logical room for it to reside in would be my room, and i had pictured clearing it, boxing away my things, ready to replace with babies and toys and nappies. but the time has come and it's so exciting. and not just because i get to decorate another room in the house.

but i'm not ready to swap my things for baby things. i'm very ready to mix it in with my things though. a great big mixing pot of Dave, Lucy, lentil and Penny the dog. i'm still going to be me, just me covered in baby sick and with bags under my eyes not seen since the wedding.

a photo a day...

i have always enjoyed taking photographs. from snapshots at school every few months which, when i look now, capture my teenage years like a dream. both my dad and my brother have a great technical knowledge of photography and cameras. myself on the other hand just snaps away and hopes for the best. i have an eye for what i like and if things captivate me i take it. the invention of camera phones and in turn I phones has meant that people like me, who see things all day everyday, have a camera on them permenantly. 

towards the end of last year I decided to take part in the photo a day challenge. call it an excuse to get arty and self indulgent everyday. i didnt want to just take them for myself though, i wanted  to find somewhere to share them with like minded individuals and also link it to my shop, blog, twitter, the works. i searched for the right place but websites were either too international, too pompous or just looked a bit naff. the same name came up again and again though in my searches, fatmumslim. Written by Chantelle, a mum and all round nice lady from Australia, she started taking a photo a day to record her changing shape after having her baby and, like a lot of bloggers, writing for her own pleasure.

nowadays she launches a prompt list for every month. you can take a photo a day for just a month, or for a year as I plan to. Her print lists are great inspiration and along the way who know what else you might see. you can share your photographs via twitter, instagram, on her Facebook page, lots of places. you just hash tag FMSphotoaday and you're linked!

i'm going to make my project a weekly posting on here. and as my online store expands and develops then it may be some of the images might be available to buy one day soon. if they're half decent that is.

so, week one. themes were as follows (in order):-

today

something new

heart

the view from here

movement

mine

street.

and the photos...

let the fun begin...

so the hangover should be over by now and those of us not drinking (or seriously cutting down) in January are hopefully still on the bandwagon.

time to look forward and make a list of things to be done. I've spent a good bit of this afternoon, when not watching Girls or X Files, sorting though my work space and deciding on which new projects to take first. i've got an exciting pile of cards, paper and odds and ends for some new post card and note card prints I have in the pipeline. so much is bubbling in fact that I wish I had a few days uninterrupted to work through it all but unfortunately some of us have to work a day job...I've tried out a couple of new designs and will post some pictures once the paint has quite literally dried.

i've also spent the last few days increasing my reading list of blogs and i've found a couple of beauties to get the creative juices flowing. first up was Chantelle from FatMumSlim who birthed the whole photo a day challenge (more of that in a couple of days) and whose blog is an inspiring candy coloured treat that i have been checking out daily. secondly is Nicole Lavelle who I discovered via Urban Outfitters website. she's an illustrator and general all round arty lovely and has a taste and talent for font. check them both out if you get chance.

finally, i've been mulling a separate section for my blog, more style and fashion focused but ill let that simmer a little while longer.

i was never much a fan of January before to be honest. the whole new year new start thing didn't really sit with me, i found September was better for that. i think it takes a while for the school year to get out of your system. 12 years in my case. but this time i have felt refreshed. even more so when I spotted this pink winter blossom on my New Year's Day walk with the family. pink blossom holds a special place in my heart because it was one of our wedding flowers. flipping bright pink blossom on a bright blue day. perfect.