February Creations

Posted on February 12, 2016 by thecontentedcrafter

Hello Y’all! It’s already almost half way through the month and I feel as if I’m playing catch up with my blog already. I’ve been busy – no, no, really I have – well sometimes I’ve been busy – other times ……… let’s just say I’ve watched a few movies, and read a few books and done a bit of knitting

Jos jumper 2

It’s a richer brown than is showing, flecked with gold and this is the pattern

Elation free Cable Aran Knit Sweater Pattern Elation or buy as knitting kit

It’s a free pattern from Artesano Yarns in the UK – isn’t it lovely!! My ED will love this for our coming winter.

And I’ve been receiving gifts!

I’ve been really touched by the kindness of people in this blogging world again. In a recent post on the blog Love Those Hands At Home I mentioned to Kerry that I loved the little white crocheted place mats she was readying to put into her shop. The next thing I knew they were delivered by my friendly postal lady and Kerry’s placemats now adorn my table and a couple of other places too – aren’t they pretty!

Kerrys mat 1 Kerry's mat 3

The post delivered a completely unexpected thank you gift just over a week ago. Robin was a recipient in the Christmas Light Catcher giveaway and she sent me a thank you note and a copy of her CD – a collection of lovely folk and contemporary music played on her flute. I was surprised and delighted by her kind gesture. Thank you Robin, I am enjoying it very much – I’m so in awe of people who can make music!

Flute CD

Then I received another gift – from my friend Norah in Australia who didn’t receive a Light Catcher in the giveaway, but who did nominate her friend Robin [above] and who simply decided to send me a beautiful thank you note and a lovely inspirational book which has made it to the bedside table for dipping into before sleep. Isn’t this the kindest thing? Aren’t all these actions so thoughtful and so generous – and so happily welcomed!

I am constantly really touched by the generosity of people in the blogging world – and just want to say thank you, thank you. I am really, truly blessed and absolutely require no more gifts!

Norah and I recently had a bit of a discussion about education. Those of you who know me well, know I was once a teacher and am rather opinionated about that and about childhood in general. Norah and I think alike and so she sent me some questions and ran a small Q&A type interview on her blog.

Part I is here and Part II is here if you should be interested.

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My shop was cleared out of Light Catchers by Christmas and I have finally made several new ones, of which three have made it into the shop [found at the top right of this page, under the header picture if you are interested in having a look]. There’s a ‘Mellow Yellow’, one called ‘Purple Haze’ and another called ‘Aqua Lights’. Here’s a sneaky preview

Mixed pizap

There are three more still in production and I keep experimenting with curly-whirly, mobile types of danglers that will sparkle and jingle and tinkle too. I haven’t yet found something I really like that is actually affordable for anyone short of the Sheikh of Araby to purchase ……. but I’m working on it.

Here’s a peek at the six strander I made for my kitchen window recently – lots of fun with this one bouncing rainbows and sparkles all round the room. As always I apologise for my photos and the lack of colour – it is of course all shades of blue 🙂 6 Strand Blue pizap

And for all his fans here’s Siddy again, just going for a drive all windswept and tousled and loving it – and yes, I must clean the car mirrors sometime soon – but really, he doesn’t mind!

driving2 nov 15

I’m thinking about gifts and kindness and contentedness a lot these days. I feel blessed! I hope you do too.

Thanks for coming by today today, I love that you did!

Starry Nights Light Catcher

Posted on October 15, 2015 by thecontentedcrafter

This is a recent photo, taken one evening on the sofa – Orlando is being cuddled with – not sure if he is enjoying it …….. but he stayed. Siddy was exhausted after a busy day and his mumma wasn’t sitting still, so the kitty had to do.

Mumma was busy. Making light catchers for my customers, another one for a friend, another [really special one] for a Christmas gift. I’ll show you most of them in another post, right now I want to show you what I’ve just finished.

If you have been popping into my store in recent weeks you may have noticed that most of the light catchers have ‘SOLD’ printed across them in big letters. Which is not a good look for any store is it? So I’m off to clean up my shop as soon as this post is up!

Any way, having woken with a bit of an inspiration yesterday morning, I set to and made another one.

For this one I had two colours in mind that I wanted to play with. Blue and purple.

I chose the beads. I chose the bead caps and the little extras – and started to thread.

Almost immediately Don McLean began singing in my head. ‘Starry, starry night, paint your palette blue and grey …………’ and then I began musing on starry nights and dreams and wishes. the beads grew and the strands multiplied beneath my fingers as my mind wandered through wishes and dreams and the magic of the night that grants those wishes and dreams……………..charms began to appear dangling from the charm strands – a unicorn, a fairy, an angel sitting in the moon. Harbingers of dreams coming true were placed, a bell, a crow, the word ‘miracles’, a heart, young lovers………….

And I found I had made a light catcher for a dreamer, one to make wishes come true.

It’s not quite as deep a blue as the photos are showing – it is a softer hue of lilac, pinky purpley blue …….. unfortunately seemingly impossible to photograph with my skill level.

I think it’s really pretty!

What do you think?

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!

After the Party & The Winner

Posted on September 12, 2014 by thecontentedcrafter

I had such a wonderful birthday week – and it featured so many lovely messages and gifts from my friends in this blogging community and on face book that I almost became speechless. To you all, each and every one of you who so loyally read and comment and interact and join in the spirit of this blog – a huge heartfelt thank you and a great big bear hug 🙂 You all really made my week overflow with your warmth and kindness and generosity.

Here is my birthday cake – well, more of a rather lovely birthday dessert really, the recipe for which, I think [I hope I remember this correctly] came to me via the lovely Fran. It is made with dates and nuts and bananas and coconut and cacao and surrounded with these dear tiny peanut butter chocolates which were a tiny bit fiddly to make, but unbelievably scrummy and I shall be making many more of them 🙂

And here is the delightful Siddy waiting for his piece

While the mail man was kept busy bringing interesting and unexpected packages to the door for the birthday event, there were also little packages arriving with items for the ‘Dangler of International Happiness’ I now have items from Australia and Tasmania [yes I know, but it is a different land mass], the UK and Canada. I’m not showing anything yet as there will be a wee competition held for the unveiling – but my it is going to be so pretty! And I wish I had taken photos of the gorgeous soaps and creams all wrapped up in lace that the lovely Wendy sent – but suffice to say that when she remembers her recipe for the face cream I shall be among the first customers – it is so soft and creamy and delightful!!

When the door bell chimed in the middle of my birthday I was stuck ungracefully beneath a furry pile of puppy and cat. My youngest daughter said to me – you have to go get that. By the time I had disengaged myself and opened the door there was no-one there, but a beautiful bouquet of white flowers lay in front of the screen door. “Good God!” I exclaimed. “I brought you flowers my child” said a cheerful, disembodied voice. “Thank you God!” I replied.

It wasn’t actually God who sent me a bouquet of white roses and lilies and orchids for my special day – it was the lovely Alys. Here’s me holding the bouquet looking somewhat befuddled, over-whelmed and over-come and in need of a hair cut!

And, as Alys noted, that’s Siddy attempting his first photo bombing.

Throughout the birthday week, which was spent primarily with my favourite people in the whole world – my two daughters – the puppy was pretty much the centre of attention. Then Orlando decided it was time to give up his hunger strike and join in. He began to reclaim all his pampered cat rights and climbed down from his table of discontent and returned to sleeping on the bed, sitting on chairs and knees and generally being sociable again. Whilst nobody ever remembered to photograph anything we were treated to some lovely moments as my birthday wish came true and my pets began to spend companionable time together.

They now share a bed, a chair, my knee. I snapped this early this morning surreptitiously so as not to disturb the early morning bathing ritual.

And now for your viewing pleasure here is Siddy, his aunt YD and me as filmed by the lovely ED who was experimenting with slo-mo on her iphone camera

One of my birthday gifts was a kick start for my vegetable garden. It included a large bag of organic compost, salady and herby seedlings and yesterday I made a big mess in the tiny courtyard and got started

We are going up folks – I have no idea how it will turn out, but I discovered some most handy contraptions at Bunnings which have the advantage of being both flexible and affordable. They can be used as a trellis or a tripod and will be most handy for the likes of tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and maybe even some sweet peas just because I love them. I’m also hoping to get some hanging baskets in but not sure what might grow best in them – any suggestions?

Today the mail man brought me my gold card – I am now an official OAP – rolling on the floor, holding my sides, roaring with laughter! I can ride the buses for free and go half price to the movies. Whoo-hoo!!

And now here [rather belatedly, for which I am not sorry as it is due to the extortionate amount of partying that has been going on round here] is the announcement you really came by for – the winner of an assortment of postcard size prints of my mixed media paintings.

Twenty-five names written on cut up strips of paper

Placed in my favourite coffee mug

Vigorously shaken, stirred and tipped over

And the winner is ta – daaaaaaaa

The lovely Lady Gallivanta from the shaken but not stirred City of Christchurch.

Gallivanta, will you go to the ‘Contact Me’ page below the lovely Orlando’s photo at the top of the blog and send me your address please and then I shall mail off to you as speedily as possible a small assortment of postcards.

To the rest of you, my lovely ethersphere friends, thank you for coming by today, I love that you did 🙂

All Our Christmases

Posted on April 15, 2014 by thecontentedcrafter

Hel-looooooooooooo!!

Today Orlando and I received a package in the post

I set about opening the extremely well sealed package wielding knife and scissors carefully and several minutes later

We were very excited!

Orlando was especially keen to see what was inside for him

“C’mon Mumma” he is saying “Let’s open it!”

While I was trying to enjoy the pretty packaging and practise ‘Anticipation 101’ my cat was nudging my hand and insisting the box be opened. Once opened the contents were thoroughly investigated and then he went looking – he knew there was something else, he just had to find it ………..

The whole thing went something like this

Then we got to the really exciting part – his present!

The package was, of course, from the absolute Queen of beautiful gifts, the wondrous Ms Boomdeeadda. While King Orlando snuffled and nudged, I oohed and aahed at the gorgeous packaging, the envelope, the letter, the sweet smelling pot-pourri…… Then I settled down with the gift bag – truly the most impressive gift bag I have ever seen in my life. So pretty, so detailed, so impeccably put together in terms of colour and combination and detail. The woman is a genius!

I wish the photos could convey the texture and subtleties better

The front of the gift bag

The back of the gift bag

Bearing all the wonderful signs of my dear blogging friend – I felt it really didn’t matter if there was anything inside the gift bag or not – in itself this is such a treasure. But there were several more little treasures and tea bags and chocolates wrapped in aqua foil [of course – if you follow Boomdeeadda then you know how much she loves aqua! If you don’t, go on over and say I sent you – you will love her blog!]

I knew Boomdee had sent me this wee container of pot-pourri as I had squee’ed over it last December when she posted about making them. With her big heart all aglow she had obligingly wrapped one up and sent it off via a nice postal person who hiked from Alberta, across British Columbia to the sea and then swam southwards across the Pacific to my door.

And here it is at last. A beautiful, woody, piney, spicy, rich smelling wonder which in 24 hours has wafted through my home filling it with the memory of my Northern Hemisphere Christmases – with perfect timing as Father Winter has just begun to rap loudly on my window pane here at the other end of the world!

This amazing package also contained a little something from Alyster – see the specially packaged little porcelain toadstool surrounded by some of the gift bag contents – thats especially for us, from Alyster 🙂 Next thing I’ll be making fairy gardens!!.

And to end, this is this mornings shot of a boy and his new best friend, who have just been woken from a sound slumber by a crazy woman with a camera.

This was a lovely break from my house cleaning and tidying – the job has grown and grown. The bathroom has been re organised and given a good seeing to. The laundry has had the same treatment and my bedroom is also getting a redo. My ‘Create Joy’ room is inaccessible as that has become the place where everything gets stored until it is ready for relocation, either here or elsewhere…….. YD is still selling stuff on Trademe and other sites. Various charity stores have been the recipients of trunk-loads of stuff and other bits and bobs are making the giveaway rounds of family and friends. I am so light!! My wardrobe has been halved, my ‘one day it might be useful’ pile has all gone. My ‘cottage by the sea’ accoutrements have also now all gone. I have left only what I need and use.

And, of course, my arty-crafty stash 🙂

And please, do pop over and visit Boomdee – I know you will enjoy her, she is a lot of fun!

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did! 🙂

Happy Mail

Posted on January 14, 2014 by thecontentedcrafter

It’s a lovely thing to get unexpected gifts – and my life is rich in them at the moment.

Just prior to Christmas I received an email from another blogging friend Katyoparty over at ArtOutWithYourHeArtOut telling me she had a few spare gelatos and they were winging their way to me, along with ‘a few other bits’ she thought I might quite like.

If you aren’t an arty-crafty type, gelatos are a newish product somewhere between a pastel, a crayon and a paint. They come in something resembling a lip gloss tube, are richly pigmented, easily moved about with your finger and are water soluble. You can use them like a crayon, an oil pastel or watercolour paint. They are a lot of fun and in my part of the world anyway, exorbitantly expensive.

I was very excited – I didn’t have any gelatos and had never received ‘Happy Mail’ before.

The courier delivered a box to my door a few days ago. It was battered and beaten and torn open at the top – it looked as if it had been round the world twice and through a few storms along the way.

The first thing I saw was a beautiful wooden box – a cigar box, just perfect for altering.

And here is what was inside the box or packaged alongside it, all piled on the little table for my delighted eyes to feast in.

There is an array of flowers large and small, pretty papers, sundry embellishments, templates and masks……… and of course the gelatos.

Here is the pretty hand made card Katie sent and just peeking out from beside it is – I’m guessing – some of her own delightfully hand painted paper.

And here are more embellishments and masks and some die cut flowers and sundry bits and bobs:

It quite made my day! I sift through them as I go about my daily art task of recording a word a day – I’ll show you some of those in another day or two.

So, many happy thank yous to katieoparty – it was a real treat! Do check out her blog and her videos if you get a chance.

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did 🙂

Christmas Giveaway – Winners

Posted on December 9, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

Thank you for your support of this give away – it is such fun for me when you all enter into the spirit of it!

I didn’t photograph the draw process this time, but did it exactly the same as the last time, [you can see it here if you wish.]

The person who gets to choose a whimsy girl print is

Christi over at Farmlet – Come on down Christi and name your print! 🙂

The person who gets a 5 pack of [A5] greeting cards of their choice is

Wendy over at Quarter Acre Lifestyle – come on down Wendy!!

What made me laugh at these two names is that from the comments we all think we know what Christi will choose and we all know that Wendy has no idea and may take until next Christmas to make up her mind!!

Do you think the gods of random choice are having a laugh?

To those of you whose names were not the ones that leapt into my searching fingers, there will be more chances, I’m sure I will find an excuse early next year to do this again ………stay tuned!

Christi and Wendy, please email me with your choices and addresses.

No rush Wendy! 🙂 You know you can have all the same or all different, right?

I’m adding an addendum to this post – I forgot to say this earlier but was reminded when Christi offered to pay the postage on her prize – not necessary, but aren’t people amazing!! 🙂

A contribution towards the cost of postage for this giveaway was made by Linne over at A Random Harvest when she purchased some of my cards – I repeat – aren’t people amazing!! 🙂

Thank you Linne, thank you Christi, thank you everyone – sometimes I just feel like I know the best people in the entire world 🙂

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did 🙂

Christmas Giveaway

Posted on December 4, 2013 by thecontentedcrafter

Hello there, my Bloggie Friends!

Because the Christmas season is upon us, the lights are up and just because I can – there is another giveaway on offer. This time there will be two winners. …Happy, happy dances and big smiley faces!! 🙂

A signed print of your choice from one of these:

A 5 pack of cards of your choice from my Etsy shop

Go to my shop to view the full range and make your choice, this is just one example.

[and yes, you can choose 5 different cards if you want]

Of course, you have to do something to enter – well, two things actually, here are ‘The Rules’:

1] ‘Like’ The Contented Crafter Page on Facebook.*

2] Leave a comment on this post.

*If you have already ‘Liked’ on Facebook, just mention that fact in your comment here.

If you don’t participate in or on Facebook, please let me know that too.

This giveaway is open to all followers old and new – please don’t be shy, make it fun and interesting and exciting for us all – tell me what you think 🙂

The Giveaway Closes on 8th December 2013 at 8pm [my time]

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did and I hope you will take part! 🙂