Felicia the Artist

So, I noticed on one of my visits to Youtube that Mr. Tim Holtz had brought out a die called “Artful Dwellings”- I am always so far behind the lastest trends so this may not be news to the rest of you, but it was to me!

Anyhoo, I thought, I like that, but its straight lines for goodness sake and since I am the proud owner of a steel ruler and a craft knife, I set off on a crafting spree….

Let me just say, this is NOT an anti Tim Holtz post, but apart from his round roof it looked pretty easy.

Here are the results, this project was such FUN!!! I used My Minds Eye Lost and Found papers. It was one of those collections that I was saving for “best” (why? why do I buy paper that I don’t want to cut???) and then I opened up all the boxes of embellishments that are on my shelves and just used a bit of everything!

I used things I haven’t used for ages like Stickles and Crackle Accents, I used stamps, buttons, beaded pins,lace and the paper roses that I am currently obsessed with making (another example of me being SO behind the current trends!)

The basic shape was cut from chipboard (they are 5″ in height) and I used “Frayed Burlap” to distress the edges.

I don’t know if any of you have tried cutting chipboard with a craft knife, but I would just like to say that if you get the die you will be saving yourself AN AWFUL LOT OF WORK!!!!!

Mr Holtz knew what he was doing!!!!!

But mine are cuter because they have chimneys!

This is the wardrobe that we had made – because none of the furniture shops could deliver in less than six weeks, and its nicer! it was literally one centimetre narrower than the alcove it was to go into….. getting that up the stairs and in place was a challenge, the radiator had to come off the wall along with all the skirting, but now its in place, never again to move! (and yes, we’re still talking!)

Not a great picture of the blind, but you get the idea, simple fold up blind – very easy to make and as there is no gathering uses very little material.

This is the blue chest that I HAD to have! thanks to the new motorway it is a three hour drive from here to Ikea, it was well worth it to bring this home. I am now an expert at assembling flat pack furniture!

The bedside tables are Ikea too (no point going all that way for just one thing!) the patchwork quilt was made a couple of months ago, its full of mistakes, but I love it!

So that is pretty much that! I know its kind of girly but I have a very patient partner so I’m making the most of it!!!!

You can never have too many cushions…….

F xx

Ok, so her room was always messy, but this what happened when we started to tear things out….. chaos!!

We have three bedrooms in our house and five people, while they were sharing the girls had the largest room, we had the middle room and Zac got the box room. Ebony moved out so I decided it was time to take back some extra space and move into the big room! (There is still room for her to stay over, you know, just in case!)

Zacs room got a makeover earlier in the year and when I asked if he wanted the middle room he declined, so it was eventually time to tackle The Great Transformation…..

Years ago we had built bunk beds (that were high enough to have desks underneath) on two of the walls, that meant the first day was spent deconstructing (is that a word?) those.

The Velux window had to be treated, which we did on a nice dry day…. only to have the heavens open and trying to put it back into place was fun I can tell you!

There are two windows in this room which make it really light, I chose Dulux Warm White for the walls and the new floor is a light maple, making the whole room light and airy.

Here is a sneak peak of the finished room – i’ll add the rest of the photos in the next post.

While we were doing all that, Mollys room had to be finished since she is coming home on Monday (yeah!!! can you believe the time is up?) so we have been living in a DIY state of chaos for almost three weeks!

It is totally dreamy to wander into our new bedroom now – I keep opening the door to make sure it hasn’t changed back to the way it was!

Anyway more piccys to come soon!

Thanks for looking in x x x x

Well, how are you? I am fine, more than fine actually!

Here is the latest Polly to join the family, ” There is nothing worse than normal” the first lot of printing didn’t turn out well, buts that the beauty of painting – paint over it and start again!
I have just made some prints of her to bring to the Ballylongford craft fair tomorrow. Along with cushions, fridge magnets, keyrings and notebooks its going to look like Polly World!!!!

What else? well………. yesterday Tim retired from his job after 43years of service!!!! (well deserved i’d say!) and since my Etsy shop is empty, my blog is neglected, there are craft fairs that i’m missing because I dont’ have time to make things, its probably the last summer that my son wants to spend time with me and I have a million things to catch up on…….. I decided to retire too!!!!!!!!

That is actually an exaggeration! what i’m doing is taking the whole month of August off, and then in September I hope to get a part time job and make a serious attempt to sell art…. there i’ve said it out loud!!! its now out in the universe for everyone to hear…… scary!!!!!

There is a major decoration/ swapping of rooms going on at the moment, so i’m actually hoping it rains for the next few days. If the sun shines, i’ll be gone and there will be nothing done! I have a sneaky suspicion that “the whole month of August” will turn into, “what? its september already?!”

Thats my news, i’m packing boxes for the fair tomorrow and will report back on all the things I bought while I was there!

Enjoy your weekend,
Felicia x

At 4 o clock this morning Molly was checking her bag onto her flight at Cork airport. She stayed up all night since we had to leave home at 2.30am and decided that she would sleep on the long flight instead.
She should arrive in Nairobi at 6.30pm our time to a whole new experience, 42 degrees, different foods, staying with people she doesn’t know, making new friends , meeting the children at the school and generally having a ball!!!!!

I was SOOOO good, I didn’t cry!!!! she was so excited going through the gate, she hasn’t been out of Ireland on her own before, let alone all the way to Africa, but she will be fine. She will be back in 4 weeks, and I will miss her, but what an amazing opportunity!
As soon as I get a phone call to say she is there safe I will relax a bit…. i’m sure all you Mums out there will understand that.
so that is how our Sunday has been, how about yours??
F x x x x x x

So Saturday was THE BIG RACE!! it started rainy and windy at 5.30 am when I got up to eat peanut butter and nutella sandwiches and a banana…..

I think I should say that “Maxi Marathon” is a bit misleading, am I the only one who thinks it suggests further than 26.2 miles?? I think it was because half marathons are “Mini marathons” and this was 15 miles. But getting back to the story…..

We (all 1000 and some competitors) were taken by bus through Molls Gap to the Sneem road, I had thought we were starting from the lake but we kept driving for another mile and a half. From there the rain stopped briefly and off we went!

Its amazing how fast the crowd thinned out, we could see the fast runners way off in the distance after half a mile. Judy ( my running buddy and good friend) and I ran 10 minute miles for the first 8 and then my knee decided to give up!! I was SOOO disapointed, Judy did very well and ran almost all of the course, but I walked/ ran untill the half marathon mark (13.1 miles) and then walked the last bit with a jog to the finish line!!

The atmosphere was great, so many happy people at the finish line, my time was 2 hours 48 minutes. I had hoped to finish in less than 3 hours so I was pleased with that.
On the back of the shirt they gave everyone it says, ” I completed the worlds most beautiful road race” and I am very proud to have it!!!!!!

I spent Sunday painting and creating and taking it easy, then went to see Harry Potter, so all in all it was a great weekend!!

Today I learned to be careful what you wish for – cos you might just get it……
Scary? yes,
Exciting? yes
Can I do this?……… lets wait and see!!!!!!!

Hello!!! remember me??
this morning i sat down to look at the blogs I follow and found literally dozens, I was delighted, I love reading all these posts.
BUT, every time I tried to leave a comment blogger wouldn’t let me! “choose a profile! so I did, and then it says, ” choose a profile” its the same profile i’ve been using since I started my blog!

So I would just like to say this, to Jane, Kay, Jenni, Christa, Ebony, Dharma, Ruth, Louise, Katherine, Amelie and all you other lovely ladies, I’m not ignoring you, I wanted to leave comments, it just won’t let me…… so the next thing is…. does anyone know how to fix this???? is it just me?????

The Polly in the picture is still not finished, but she is getting there – she might have stood a better chance if I hadn’t given in to the patchwork quilt!
I have never started quilting because firstly you need space (of which I have none left!) and secondly I knew it would become an obsession! so far, the quilt i’m making is REALLY simple, just squares, but really pretty ones. I will take some photos today when i’m working on it.

The other thing that is taking up all my spare time is running. I started running last March to take part in the Easter 5 mile fun run, and some how got ropped into a 15 mile run that takes place on 16th July!
I’m following a training plan but I find that if I run 6 miles for the first time I think its a fluke, so i have to do it again to prove i can do it. I’m up to 8 miles comfortably but yesterday when I attempted 10 my knee suddenly stopped bending and I had to hobble back to the car.

This is not good!! i’ll go to the physio on Monday to see what can be done.

So, thats all my news,
If you can’t leave comments for me here then maybe Facebook?

Have a lov-er-ly day! x