Felicia the Artist

This is the abbey in Lagrasse – its just one of the many amazing buildings that we visited. Tim is a history fan and was spoilt for choice of places to visit. Actually, they were all really interesting, and there were alot of vineyards to visit too!

This house is why I want to live in France! there was a patisserie next door, which made it just about perfect!!

and this is a close up of my birthday present, do you want to know why its so special? well, i’m going to tell you anyway!

When my babies were small they always called their beds their nests – they would snuggle up and be cosy in there. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE being at home, I mean, love it! even if there is laundry and chaos to sort its the best place to be! and finally, the nest at the bottom has 3 eggs in, one for each of my children.

I wonder if Gwynnie knew that when she made it?

Hello, there are a million things going on in our home at the moment, mostly good, some that we will wait and see what happens. But one thing that happened this week was it was my birthday on Sunday…… (This could be a long post, best go and get some coffee, tea, water, wine? and get comfy!) So, because my fella (that is an official alternative title to “partner”, hes not my husband, he says he is too old to be “boy” friend, and he also says “partner” makes him feel like a cowboy!) is completely AMAZING he took me to Carcassone in France for 3 nights! The castle is huge – huge enough to form the outer walls of the old city, people actually still live inside the walls – can you imagine that? they have to be really good drivers to get up and down the streets that were made for knights on horses! There are so many stories and so many photos to show, i’m not sure where to start or finish! we started our journey by driving to Dublin, we had dinner at The Porthouse which is a Tapas bar (thanks Cathy for introducing me to it!) but something strange happened there – I had never tasted calamary or the particular wine we had, I didn’t like either and only had a bare taste but I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic. I was convinced that I couldnt’ go to France for the silliest reasons, I am claustrophobic and thought that I would suffocate on the plane, also that my children couldnt be on their own while I was gone ( the eldest is 20!) In general it was a total panic that I can only put down to the food……….. a horrible feeling, poor Tim, I woke him up at 4am to say he would have to go alone!!!! Still in the morning, all was calm again and off we went. I didn’t suffocate – I have alot of visualisation techniques for plane travel, its not the flying it sharing that space with so many others! Also, this is sooooooo stupid – I got a copy of Cloth, paper, scissors in Dublin. I’ve never found it at home, I was so excited and decided to not even open the cover untill I was on the plane. On the plane I opened my bag to find…. that i’d left it in the hotel!!! but the trip was far too good for that to matter… Anyway, we spent 3 days travelling from Chateaux to castles to Abbeys, taking hundreds of photos and eating delicious food. The whole thing was fabulous!!!!!! But there is more!……… Look at this!!! no not the Gorge or the mountains or the sunshine….. look what is around my neck! Once, ages ago I mentioned to Tim that Gwynnie B had this necklace that I was going to treat myself to….. guess what he had for me on my birthday????! I know, reading this you may be thinking I am thoroughly spoilt, I think I am too! but I honestly totally appreciate everything that I have, I am one very happy 42 year old!!!! xxxxx

The “Open Coffee Killarney” meetings are run by (the very cool and groovy!) Maria Stack as an informal business networking group. Last night Maria had arranged a fund raiser for a very good local cause the South West Counselling Service. This service is badly needed and could really do with extra funding to help more people. I donated a framed print, which was one of many spot prizes ( I didn’t hear who got it yet, I hope they like it!) and since it was “Cocktails for Charity” it seemed rude not to have one! This week has been very busy and so I am loving being at home and pottering around today. I had to go to the DIY shop to get some hooks to finish a craft project, I found them amongst about a thousand other hooks, queued up, paid and then drove away without them!!!!!!! Duh!!!! Still, its no big deal, I dont’ need them just yet. What else? my friends Nicole and Timi are putting together an online magazine, “Crafting Ireland” i’m going to enter something into their first challenge, its ages since I did any crafting! Thats all my news today, there is more news to follow when I get some decent pictures…….. Have a lovely weekend x x x

Morning! if you are in Ireland then what a beautiful morning it is! I hope its sunny and spring like wherever you are.
So, this little Petit Polly (5″x7″) was just finished last night. I love her, sometimes I make these Pollys and think, “she’s cute” and sometimes I just LOVE them! anyway, heres the thing, it took me ages to learn how to shade a face with pencil…… (and there is ALOT more learning to do!) but I have been trying to paint faces instead and so far it has been a disaster!!!
I have ruined more little faces then I care to mention, so I’m back to pencil and finishing with wax. Tam over at Willowing has some lovely tutorials on this, but she makes it look easy!

I suppose i’ll keep practising, any hints, tips, video links would be greatly appreciated, but maybe i’m just a pencil kind of a girl?!

Yesterday was the Crafty Alley Shops 3rd birthday and Cathy had arranged a craft fair for the day. This is my little stall, there were loads of friends there that I hadn’t seen for ages so it was really nice to catch up. the crafts were amazing and inspiring, I wish I had taken more photos! I’m seriously tempted to take up patchwork ( or is it quilting?) but I really dont’ need another addiction!! ….. however, I did buy fabric while I was there………

This is Christine and her daughter, we met online before this, so it was lovely to put a face to the emails! You can see Christines work on Etsy, at Killarneycardscrafts.

and the amazing Viv O’Shea, quilting queen and daffodil farmer!! in the time we were in the fair Viv had made almost all the strips she will need for her new “sew in a row” quilt. That is one of her other projects hanging behind her.

There were also ceramics and weaving and a candlemaker, in all a very enjoyable day!

Did you notice I was missing? well i was! I was thrown down with a vicious dose of tonsillitus and sinusitus. For 9 days I was really sick, and today I’m not, so I’m having a little party here!!

There is always a silver lining though, this morning I got to read over a weeks worth of blog posts, which was lovely, loads of links to follow!

It is snowing…… it isn’t sticking to the ground, but there is white stuff falling from the sky! last week it was positively warm. But this is good news, why? because there is a man in Donegal who predicts the weather and he said that in March we would have more snow and then a BRILLIANT SUMMER! everyone thought he was mad, but here is the snow in March, so I really hope he’s right!!

I’m off to do a million things, even though I’ve been at home this week I haven’t done one creative thing, so now I have lots to catch up on.

Have a lovely day, and if any of you are sick then get well soon! xxxxx

p.s. I apologise for my spelling of medical terms, spell check says they are wrong but doesn’t offer an alternative………….

The January Scrapzville challenge was to create a journal in which you could write about 5 achievements. Ann was my partner and today (yes February 23rd!) we are swapping……. so this is the cover, i’ve left alot of space inside for writing.

The paper is mostly ledger paper from the Slice stack with some colour thrown in for good measure.

Ann hasnt’ seen this yet, but at the moment she is driving over here so it won’t spoil the surprise! I hadn’t done any paper crafting for a while, it was fun to get the Big Shot out again!

I think one of my challenges to put in my journal will be CLEAN MY DESK!! its no wonder I can’t find anything, I actually made the back cover twice, the first one is missing- presumably hiding amongst this mess. I’m sure it’ll turn up when I’m searching for something else…………

Who knew there was so much to Etsy? I was hoping that you put something up and somebody bought it……… not so!

There are thousands and thousands of shops, so you have to try and make yours more visible to attract visitors, who will hopefully become buyers. There is SO much to learn, today i’m going to add these little fridge magnets and maybe a couple of other things.

What else is new?

I’m not really loving ” The Elegence of the Hedgehog” its good when I pick it up, but i’m not dying to pick it up ~ what suggestions do you have for me????
I think I will re read Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris, its years since I read it. When I like a book I always re read it, does anyone else do that?

Have a lovely weekend, I think i’ll bake some delicious chocolate chip cookies…… yum!

Here is the previously mentioned brown paper package……….

Lots of nice things happened today, I had a book voucher left over from Christmas and got “The Elegence of the Hedgehog”, and Zac made a cake!

Look how pretty it is!!!!

And THIS is what was inside of that! not the best picture i’m afraid ~ for the full effect have a look at Gwynnies site at ” The Lucy”.

Today was pretty good for a Tuesday, so now i’m going to eat cake with Zac and read my book whilst gazing at my necklace!

I hope you had a great day too,

Felicia xxx