Revisited Bejewelled Bathroom Lightshade

Following on a couple of posts ago and the charity shop beaded chandelier find I decided that there was no time like the present to try to re-vamp the light shade currently adorning my bathroom to see if my ideas actually worked …….

Bathroom light shade before

I think they did ……….

Light shade after

I hope you can see in difference the pictures.

I started off by removing all the existing drops and replacing some of them with the larger ones from the charity shop shades, colouring two clear beads with a yellow and purple Sharpie pen and leaving one in the original amber to reflect the colours in the main body of the light shade. Four of these drops were positioned in the corners of the shade and another three were evenly spaced along the sides.

I then made up another set of drops to be spaced in between the new larger drops, this time colouring one clear bead purple, again to pick up an existing colour and then I coloured an amber bead with green for a subtler shade of the colour, using green straight onto a clear bead was just too vivid, if that makes sense?

If I say so myself it does look pretty awesome, it throws wonderful colours and patterns on the walls, with just the sort of effect I imagined and wanted, but was wary I would get ……

………. it is also so much more individual now and more me. I am thrilled.  Now, when I get another hour or so to play, my next challenge to to re-vamped the jewelled lamps in my guest room, to hopefully achieve the same individual look and success.

Cards from Christmas 2018 – Fiddle Fart Guest Crafters No. 2

Four cards that I was soooooo lucky to have received for Christmas 2018, plus an interloper for you today.

The first card is from Di, a fellow craft blogger and adopter of several of my monkeys way back in 2011.  In our cards we both mooted that another Monkey reunion in Swindon must surely be a goer in the coming year. Why Swindon? Well, it’s almost half way between where Di and Valery (another adopter) live, easy by car and for me the train.  This is a stamped design, but so beautifully executed, coloured and cut out I really thought it might have been a printed die cut. Sorry Di.   http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.com/

The next card was from The Lovely Laura’s mum.  I am guessing it was cut on her Silhouette.  I think I have told this story before, but when we were making all the things for Tom and Laura’s wedding I introduced Denise to said Silhouette which she really ran with it, putting me to shame, as I don’t think I have had mine out since cutting out all those cheese shaped boxes!

Another stamped card from Christine ( Tilly), I love it, so cute and such lovely colours.  You know me and stamping ….. but  a couple of weeks ago I treated myself to Tonic Studios & Tim Holtz Travel Stamp Platform, which seemed to be the perfect size for me as I tend not to make cards any bigger than 6ins x 6ins. Using a new customer code I managed to get it with 20% off, so that pleased me too. Needless to say, like  a lot of crafters I have yet to try it, but perhaps this post will give me that spur.  Initially I want it to print sentiments straight onto a card, something I rarely do as I am such a kak handed stamper and in the past many, many blank cards have ended up in the bin. So …… watch this space.

This final card was obviously a Thank You card sent by my very dear Monkey follower friend Jan The Fan.  It’s the cute simplicity of it.  I think I could do something very similar for Easter using some of the wooden polka dot rabbits I have squirrelled somewhere. I just need to have more faith in my doodling ability.  Marc would now tell me that when I have come up with a doodle I am happy with I could then put it through my Scan n Cut ……. I feel another “out of my comfort zone” challenge coming up for me then ……  but as Marc is coming over in a few weeks time, perhaps we could do this one together ….. it sounds like a plan.

Charity Shop Find – Bejewelled Lightshade.

I first saw two of these bejewelled lightshades in a charity shop when Marc was staying with me. We ummmed and ahhhed, but at £3.99 each we questioned what I would actually do with them as brown/amber isn’t the most appealing of colours and in the end we talked ourselves out of a considered purchase.

About five weeks later I saw that they were still there in the shop, so again stood standing there with them in my hands pondering, when the new manager came over and said that I could have them for £1 a piece, well in that split second it was a no brainer, but I have to admit as I walked away from the shop with my swag I did have second thoughts, more rainy day junk under the bed?  Then I had “that” light bulb moment ……..

The brown/amber colour was the same colour as the drops on the lampshade in my bathroom and lamps in my spare room ….. what if I replaced some of the original drops at regular intervals on these with the more fancy new ones (of which I now had 62) I now had,  giving them a much more individual look, colouring the clear beads with yellow, purple, and pink Sharpie pens to blend in more.  With that I felt my £2 spend was justified!  Well, that’s the theory anyway!

The rings on the drops are pretty easy to do the change around …… it’s the Sharpie pens I am now wondering about, particularly on the bathroom shade as the added colour needs to be subtle  ……and there’s only one way to find out ………… watch this space …….

Black, Red and Green Let It Snow Christmas Card

This hand cut, white linen effect card, measures 5.5ins x 5.5ins.

This is another Christmas card which embraces colours not usually on my colour radar, especially when I think of Christmas.The papers comes from a paper pad (£1) I found in Poundland, and when I realised it’s versatility and potential for something a little bit different had to go out and get another!

I don’t often cover the whole front of my cards with a paper but it’s something I am quite getting into …… I am not just feeling white space at the moment!

After a little mat and layering on white and red mirror card and a touch of faux stitching plus white glitter card for the hills I simply added the sentiment and a wooden tree from Hobbycrafts Snow Cool Collection. The final touches were a red, flat back gem star on top of the tree and a scattering of tiny black dots using a fine permanent pen. All done and fairy dusted, simples!

A Confession ……

Now, you know how much I love a charity shop, well, I have a confession …….. I have joined a few groups on Facebook related to that said “love” …. but hope, in posting this I don’t offend anyone.

The groups I have joined are Random C*** You Find In Charity Shops, S*** You Find In Charity Shops and Charity Shop S***.

I tell you what, these groups really ought to come with a health warning before joining as I have almost suffocated myself from laughter, goodness knows what the neighbours must think ….. that poor lady ….. living all by herself …..

It’s the best way to end a day, going through all the posts in bed, tears streaming down my face.

I am hoping to contribute a few choice items myself in time ….. I might even make my finds a regular post on here …….well,  it would be churlish of me not to spread the joy a little further.  It could also be a new “interest” for Marc and I when we go on one of our charity shop jaunts, Happy Days!

Object of Desire ………

If I actually had a space for this Mary who knows ………… at £120  she was a steal at Georgian House Antiques in Evesham. I think she was as tall as me (a shrinking 5ft 2ins)

Goodness knows what my kids would say, what with all my other religious bits and pieces scattered everywhere ……. blame my strict Catholic upbringing and a middle name of Mary! Sadly on this occasion all I could do was give her a longing stroke.

I know Rick, Marc’s partner would have absolutely loved it ……. he has a huge wooden Mary from church salvage, I think, in the hall of his flat which I oooooed and ahhhed embarrassingly at when I saw it.  Can you imagine my “new” millionaires home if I ever won the lottery ….. saints preserve us!

Advent Drawer Tuesday

Another two drawers for you today, hope it isn’t getting too boring??!!

I am finding it much easier limiting myself to just using the five sheets or so of the foiled card and foam Christmas stickers from Flying Tiger.

I have ordered a lot of extra frames and other wooden shapes to use as backgrounds and frames for the stickers and numbers. They will also help to add a extra layers to the drawer fronts I hope.

I think of the drawers so far that the tree one is my favourite.  I have a long way to go so I expect there will be another couple of drawers that might surpass it …… it’s going to be interesting journey.

Jingle All The Way Christmas Card

This hand cut, white linen effect card, measures 5ins x 5ins.

The sentiment and green patterned paper on this card come from Hobbycraft’s Snow Cool collection.

There’s a fair bit of matting and layering going on, but I think it works.

I loved the sentiment, but it looked a bit flat ….. so out came the big boys ……

….. in the guise of clear, flat backed gems, Glossy Accents and a spring of beaded holly  (£1 pack from The Works), doused with a little extra Accents.  I’m really thrilled with how well this has all worked out especially as I am well out of my comfort zone with the colours!

Error 400 - The Remote server returned an error - Live Writer and Google Photos Problem.

There seems to have been a problem come up with Live Writer once every year or so but which has, thankfully, always been solved after a day or two.  I have always found it to be the most brilliant way to edit blog posts before publishing, with millions of bloggers using it all over the world. I am lost without it and so are they.

However, it is a programme that Windows decided not to develop/update any further a few years ago and so problems have occurred over that time when Google (???) have changed some of their codes/workings (???, forgive me, I am not a techie).  About 2 years ago after a huge problem left bloggers who used Live Writer up the swannie without a paddle, a team of very clever people took on Live Write to create Open Live Writer  and all has been well ...... until on 16th January (2019), when Google did something connected to Google Photos and/or Picasa which left bloggers once more unable to post from OLW to Blogger ......including me.

Finding out what was happening was a nightmare, so I added my problem to GitHubb and Blogger Help 

https://github.com/OpenLiveWriter/OpenLiveWriter/issues/786

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/blogger/nJbedfynH7o

There has been one fix, but so far its having problems and as it's only a temporary fix until March, we'll all be scuppered again anyway

However, I through github I have found a work round, I'll not bore you with the details, see below. just in case if helps anyone else.

It's not as slick as just being able to use OLW but after a week or so I think it should become more comfortable. I can no longer add a copyright to my pictures, but that's something I can sort out in time.

I, as well as a many others users find editing on Blogger hard to manipulate, which is why we love OLW so much.  Along with many bloggers I am now wondering how long it will be before Google gives up on Blogger and stops updating it or tweaks something else that makes it too almost impossible to use.  I think, when I have time, I need to start looking for a new free blog platform, before I fear the inevitable happens!

Poundland Sale!

Is it me or has this been a phenomena that has just passed me by over the years ……since when has Poundland had a “proper” sale?  Yes, they have had reduced products after Christmas but never to my knowledge like this!  I recently joined the Poundland Appreciation Society on Facebook and that’s when I saw people posting their 50p/25p “bargains” and I got curious.

My nearest two Poundlands are in Worcester and are not, to be honest, the best, but there again, they are not as bad as the Portobello Road one near Marc, which believe me is dire!  Anyway, when I nipped into Worcester I only really picked up 4 boxes of the wooden Christmas jumper, hat and mitten tags (above) for 25p a box …… not bad for  a total of £1. I think individually they will look brilliant on a card or perhaps strung together for bunting.

Then when I saw that people were posting the aperture picture frames that I had used at Christmas my mind went into overdrive thinking of Easter, Home Sweet Home, Valentines Day, Weddings etc.  A trip to Wolverhampton, to see Lu, not just to go to Poundland, proved pretty fruitless.  The things I bought were full price because there was very little in the sale and the items that I’d seen people paying 50p/25p for were still full price, so I don't know what was going on there.

I got two picture fames (above) that I thought I might be able to do something with later on in the year plus two tag calendars (below)  that I think could be turned into advent calendars perhaps? 

As I said the sales shelves were totally pants, but I did have a little ruttle through the personalised gingerbread house decorations and did manage to find two blank ones that I can write Iris and Bertie on with a permanent marker (at the moment Iris and Bertie are not names you can ever find) but they were 50p each not 25p as I’d seen everywhere else.   So a bit of a boo to Wolverhampton there.

But all was not doom and gloom over the weekend because on Sunday Lu and I went over to the retail park in Tamworth as we like the John Lewis there and there is a place that does the most wonderful roast pork sandwiches, with crackling, stuffing and apple sauce that we have been drooling about since our last visit.

In the Poundland there I found my frames but they weren’t marked down so I only took four with Easter in mind.

I found two of the cactus vases that I really really wanted (new stock, so £1 but soooooo worth it) and some bathroom plaques that were reduced to 25p each.

Now normally I would have given these a wide berth, but after a comment online  where else would you get a frame for 25p? The lights went on, all I need to do is cover the middle with white card and they will be perfect for Iris and Bertie’s works of art to then give as presents to doting nannies, aunties and uncles!  I got six, but will probably regret not getting a few more.

Anyways ……. I got to the till and asked the lady if the aperture frames were full price or if they’d been reduced to 25p …….. OMG they had ……. and at that price it would have been rude not to want to get some more  especially as I already had a lady in mind who was desperate for one (or more) of my Christmas frames after seeing one at my stepmums. So while poor Lu went to put what I had already bought in the car, I headed round the shop again, but could I find them, could I as heck as like.  I was crestfallen because now I was  in full Fiddle Fart mode.  Then as I stood where I thought I had originally found them I looked up and saw a box on the storage shelf marked ….. erm ….. aperture frames and would you believe it, there was a shop stool stood standing right next to me, it was meant to be. I climbed up, reached the box down and opened it …….. to find ten black and ten white frames, well finders keepers, the white ones were mine! £2.50 the lot.

I was so chuffed and as the days have gone on I have had more and more ideas of what to put in them. 

I am not sure about these hanging hearts (25p), they will get painted, but I am not sure if the string will come away easily to re-string them individually …… time will tell.

I believe that most stores have now all but got rid of all their Christmas stuff, in some shops they put what was left by the check out for customers to take for free.  The household items are still reduced, but stock is dwindling. 

But a most excellent start to the crafty year, even if I had to hunt around to find some of my bargains.

Guest Crafter – Little Miss Iris’s Pass The Parcel Forfeits

Pass the Parcel is always a special part of Nanny’s tea parties and it falls on Iris to make the forfeits to go in between the layers of the parcel ……..

…….. these are her Christmas doodles, how cute are they?  Since starting school in September I have to admit to being a tiny weeny bit sad to see her drawings change as  she matures and is influenced by others styles, if that makes sense.  I still go all goose bumpy when I think of her first circle with its long, sticky out arms and legs …… and yes, I’ve got it all to come again with Bertie. He can draw a clear circle now, but doesn’t know where to go with it from there and he can also draw a most excellent snakes and drainpipes to boot

I love the way Iris has drawn squiggles to illustrate that Santa is speaking!

On this occasion she didn’t want to do any writing, there was too much to say, so Nanny was her scribe, but when she wants to ………..

…….. it’s all very, very beautiful!  I wonder when she’ll want to put fiddle fart dots on all her letter …… I don’t think I had better encourage her just yet, her mum and dad would kill me!