Beach Day.

We had Mothers Day early today as we are all busy, busy, busy tomorrow so we decided on a day at the Seaside. It's a bit of a drive from where we are to the coast but it's through beautiful scenery most of the way so well worth the effort!! So we packed up the buckets, spades, picnic, coats, hats and kids! and headed off to St. Bee's (NW coast).

















We stopped on the way over Hardknott Pass, which is a very narrow, very windy, very steep road over the mountains in the Lake District, to have a look at a Roman Fort right at the top. This is a beautiful area but very wild and in the middle of nowhere, I'm sure the Romans stationed there must have done something very wrong to be left there!!



Then onto St. Bee's and a happy hour or so beach-combing and sand-castle building before heading back for a lovely tea out. Aaaah bliss!

Those of you who read my Twitter or Facebook probably know I've been whinging about a sore hand and wrist, so for those of you who don't I'll whinge here too!!! After spending a lot of days working on my next Folksy item, which is a hand hooked Seaside wall frieze, my hands were sore, this seems to have developed into something a bit worse in one of my hands. I have a feeling it's Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and it is VERY painful at times, got to go to the Doctor's this week and see what he thinks but obviously this means I can't do any crafty things at the moment which is extremely frustrating. I spent most of today with my arm in a sling (on orders from Hubby!!) so we'll see if it just magically goes but it doesn't seem to be yet. GRRR!

 

Friday again......

Well, it's Friday again and we have spent a fantastic day at our Home Ed group doing Digital Arts. A local Arts charity brought in loads of amazing digital applications, one being a music mixer where you can mix you own music on the computer. Don't know all the technical terms but this could be another way you could spend hours on the computer!! I WANT ONE!!

Anyway...... it's Friday..... so that means it's Folksy Friday and keeping with the theme of seaside and because we spent a lovely day last week on the beach looking for all those treasures you can find, I thought I would look for some Driftwood items. WOW!!! What gorgeous stuff! Here's just a few of my very favourite's, it was really hard to decide and I WANT ALL OF THESE TOO!!!  

Driftwood Chair - by Julius Driftwood Furniture

Driftwood Boat - by Driftwood Boat Builders

Story Telling Chair - by Free Range Designs

Slate and Driftwood Shelf - by Driftwood Designs

Driftwood Heart - by Kirsty Elson Designs

Driftwood Clock - by Artiology

Aren't they just beautiful!?

Catching up.....

Hurrah!!! At last I have a lovely new (to us!) computer and it is sooo fast!! I knew our last one was on a go slow but never realised just how slow until now!! What a difference.....so now I can catch up with all those computer jobs I've been putting off, catching up with the Link Love on Facebook and posting some new photos here.....

At the moment I have very sore fingers and hands from Hand Hooking quite a lot over the last week, one item was for the Folksy Treasure Hunt which I am part off (shhh, don't tell anyone!) and another is a Seaside Wall Frieze which I have just finished tonight, Yay! Really pleased with them both but only got pictures of the  first so here you are, you could win this along with loads of other gorgeous goodies if you join in with the Treasure Hunt, get hunting!!

We spent a lovely day last week on the North West Coast collecting driftwood and lots of other lovely treasures. One of my favourite pastimes is beach-combing, I should really be a hermit on a Scottish Island somewhere!! 

Anyone up for a Treasure Hunt?

Come and join in a fantastic Treasure Hunt from the comfort of your computer chair!! You could be the winner of some gorgeous prizes too...

Get ready, it starts tomorrow!!

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.......

It's Folksy Friday time again and as I seem to have a little bit of an obsession with anything Seaside'y I thought I would dream of Summer and find lots of gorgeous Seaside things to drool over. I grew up by the sea and spent many happy summer days on the beach and even though I moved away many years ago (not saying how many!)  I still miss it and feel so at peace when I go back to a beach with the waves rolling in.

Some of these Folksy people are quite new and haven't had many sales, so please take a look and give them a bit of a boost at the same time!!

'I do like to be beside the Seaside'

Tweedmatters Seaside Collage Card

Mosaic Lighthouse Picture

Stained Glass and Driftwood Boats 

 

 Sealife - Silver Starfish Necklace 

  

Wooden Boats 

Now back to my own Seaside Hand Hooked pictures, nearly finished now....

Please leave a comment as I'm feeling a little bit dejected and would love to hear what you think!!

Stroll along the prom....

Today was another beautiful sunny day so we packed the bikes and headed off for Grange-Over-Sands. A lovely Edwardian resort near to us with a nice long and flat Promenade, ideal for learning to ride! We spent the morning hunting down some more Geocaches, (managed to find two) and then onto the bikes. Before today, our two cherubs were unable to stay upright on a bike so this was going to be a challenge, but after getting to the stage where we would really love to go cycling but they are far to big to take on Tag-Alongs we thought we'd better get this cracked!! We could'nt believe it....after spending some time free-wheeling down a long grassy slope they were off, so we decided to try them out on the flat and they never looked back......literally....we had to run to keep up with the littlest hobo at one point!! Alright it wasn't all plain sailing with daughter falling off and then going all wobbly and not wanting to get back on but they DID IT!! So chuffed, we've spent ages putting it off because we thought it would be a nightmare trying to get them to ride and as neither of our backs are particularily good it just never happened, but after a bit more practice we'll be able to go into the forests cycling...can't wait!! Mind you, it's been so long since I rode my bike they may have to teach me!!

Crafty wise I am trying to get a set of three Seaside Hooked Pictures completed, seems to be taking ages and my fingers are sore but I'll get there. Nearly finished the third one and then I'll need to finish them off and find some way of hanging them.... 

Fears and Frustrations....

I am not a particularily confident person, some people would say I was quite shy so Folksy has been a great way for me to get 'out there' without having to put myself up in front of anyone. I opened up my shop last year and plonked a few bits on there, mainly because I had made them and thought maybe they would sell?! There was also an ulterior motive in that, as we Home Educate our two children, one of us (hubby or me) needs to be at home. The only real way we could achieve this was to be Self-Employed, so that I wouldn't be hounded to go for job interviews etc...probably not a particularily good motive for starting a craft business but that's how it was!! I drifted through the last year, making bits and bobs and with no real oomph behind me. However, after selling a few items, I thought I really need to take this a bit more seriously and get going.

BUT.....After spending more and more time on Forums, looking at other peoples blogs, finding all these amazing craftspeople and artists who make such amazing things I am having what is commonly known as a confidence crisis!! Is my work really any good, am I making anything anybody wants, maybe I should just go back to pootling along, oblivious to what anyone else is doing!! Those are my FEARS...

Now my FRUSTRATIONS......I have so many ideas buzzing around my head at the moment but there always seems to be something in the way, broken sewing machine, no funds to buy what I need, really painfully slow computer which needs replacing, no room, no time...blah de blah de blah!!!

Now the thing is, do I carry on regardless, making what I can from what I have and give myself a boot up the backside  to move things along? Do I head towards the things I really want to do, a direction I really want my shop to take rather than sitting back and carrying on with bits of this and bits of that?...........Obviously the answer to all of those is YES!! I feel I really need to focus on what I  want to make and stick to it but to achieve this I need some of my frustrations sorted out!!! AAARGH!!

For the moment, I guess I will just keep going, heading towards where I really want to be in the future. I'm sure many people have been in the same place I have and I'm certainly not looking for any sympathy (!) but needed to get it off my chest....sorry!!