Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all!

I do like the start of a new year, it gives you a chance to think of all the possibilities it can hold.

For me, 2015 will be the year I finally get to grips with the garden, and sort out some neglected jobs around the house.

In the meantime, I've tidied away the Christmas decorations, doodled 2015 into my new journal and bought a few flowers to cheer up, the now bare, fireplace.

The 'vase' is a glass storage jar which I found in a local charity shop. The greenery is a mixture of the fake eucalyptus, used at Christmas, and sprigs of bay from an overgrowing tree in the garden. The rest of the flowers are a small 'whoopsied' bunch from the supermarket.

Altogether, a thrifty display that makes me smile.

Till next time...

Deck the Halls...

I bought these vintage sundae dishes, not that long ago, with the view to turning them into hand-poured candles. A project I've fancied doing for a while.

Until I get around to that (hmmm sounds like a lot of my projects!), I thought I would use them as part of my Christmas decorations and put tea lights in them.

They looked really sweet, so I decided to use all four on the mantelpiece and fireplace.

I don’t have much room for many decorations and my Christmas tree is less than two feet tall! But I do like to dress the mantelpiece and fireplace as my main attraction.

I've used a mixture of fake and real greenery, as well as fir cones, large baubles and the sundae dishes. I’m really pleased with the effect and it looks lovely and cosy when the fairy lights are on and the candles are lit.

I’m very much looking forward to Christmas, having some time of work to spend with family and friends.

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas too, and I wish you the very best for a happy New Year.

Till next time…

Knit One, Purl One Dishcloths

One of my goals for next year is to combine my love of crafts with my love of vintage collectables, and have a stall at a local homemade and vintage fair.

I have lots of crafty ideas to get me started. One of which is knitting dishcloths, like they did in the olden ‘vintage’ days!

You can still get the dishcloth cotton fairly easily, so there must be more people knitting dishcloths than just me out there!

Part of the fun is being able to make up your own design. I like to knit a heart shape, using moss stitch, in mine.

I’ve knitted these before and had glowing reports on how much nicer they look and more durable they are, compared to bought ones. One friend, told me recently, that her’s is on its last legs now, so a new one would be lovely…

I think I’d better put one in her Christmas stocking!

Till next time...

Postcard Post - Swanage

As you may know, I have a thing for old postcards!

I also like to send old postcards to friends and family. This one of Swanage, is destined for my Aunty Jean.

My Brother and I used to stay with Aunty Jean and Uncle Cliff for a week during our summer school holidays – many moons ago now! They would take us to all sorts of places in and around Dorset, where they lived. Swanage was one such place where we went to see a huge stone globe on the coastal parkland nearby.

When I’m sending an old postcard, I usually just tuck it in a letter or pop it in an envelope. Then I had the idea to come up with a folding card design which can temporarily mount the postcard on the outside, and have space to write your own message on the inside. This is what I came up with…

By cutting a couple of shaped slots in opposite corners, the postcard can sit quite happily in place, ready to be posted and enjoyed all over again.

 Till next time…

A Birthday Make Over

Well it's a bit belated, but I've decided to give my blog a birthday make over.

I've been blogging for a year now, and although I've not always been very attentive, I have enjoyed this last year sharing my designs and doodles with you.

For this next year, I hope to share more postcard posts and crafty designs, but I also want to share with you, some of the vintage treasures that I love to pick up from flea markets and collector's fairs.

Talking of vintage, here's a classic! A photo of me, on the beach, aged about 2 or 3. What a cheeky chops!

Till next time...

Busy Busy Busy

Where has the time gone?!

I've been so busy lately. My house had become wedding stationery central, whilst I designed and produced a varied library of invitation samples as well as producing a large display frame of matching 'save the date' designs.

These were met with plenty of positive ooohs and aahhhs at a recent, local wedding fayre. A first for the Pure Grace team. We had a very enjoyable and busy day! Thank you to all of you who stopped by our table, its was great meeting you.

A report and more pics of the day can be found here at Design and Elegance.

Gill x

Can Can Girls!

I've recently started keeping a journal again. This was something that I used to do, but gradually got out of the habit, and it lapsed.

It sounds quite posh calling it a journal, basically its a note book where I jot down my mind chatter and somewhere to doodle and sketch and try out some ideas. It also acts as a scrapbook for anything that takes my interest, whether its ideas for home decor or inspiration from other artists found in magazines.

Quite often I will happily copy someone else's art work. I don't apologise for this, as its all art practice for me. Something in their art work has inspired me enough to pick up my art materials and do something!

While I'm busy using computer graphics for the majority of my art work, simply copying a drawing or watercolour allows me to enjoy drawing and painting as a way to relax as well as practicing my art skills.

I did a little favour for a friend recently. She had a greetings card which featured a line of can can girls, illustrated on the front. She wanted it enlarging and then framing. Unfortunately, I didn't take note of the artist's name so I'm sorry but I can't credit the below image.

I thought the image was great fun and I couldn't resist doing my own version of the first can can girl, in my journal. Here she is.

I hope to post a few more of my journal extracts soon.