★ Happy Birthday Sienna ★

so, HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all! hope you all had a fun NYE and saw in the arrival of 2012 in style!

well here we are then, the very first blog post of the NEW YEAR and... it's a personal one!

because on Monday it was my darling little cousin Sienna's 6th Birthday! yaaaaaaaaay

this meant that on Monday i was invited along to the party at 'the Fun Factory' in Onchan to help supervise the little party guests and help dish out the party food and party bags etc

it was soooo much fun and the party went brilliantly! Sienna looked like the perfect little Party Princess in her sparkly dress and little silver shoes

and it was lovely to spend some time with my little cousins Sienna, Hanna and my god-daughter Bonnie (who is also Hanna's older sister)

they're all such cutie-pies!

we had a lot of fun playing 'musical colours' (like musical chairs only you use the colours of the walls or floor... don't ask, it seemed like a good idea at the time!)

a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sienna, i hope she had a super duper day :) xX

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in other news, i know they've been a long time coming but i thought maybe it was time for a teeny tiny sneak peek at some of the new 'candy character' scenes...

(All images featured in this post belong to Jade Boylan © do not claim, use, distribute, reproduce or trace ANY of her work without her express written consent. All Rights Reserved.)

they've all still got quite a long way to go, lots of details and textures to be added in etc but i thought i'd give a sneak peek of how the characters are looking at the moment! so expect more updates when i eventually get on with finishing these scenes off!

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also, did i mention that there's currently 20% off everything in my Etsy Shop!!!

to celebrate the New Year, i'm offering 20% off all items in the shop, all you have to do is type in the discount code NEWYEAR2012 at the checkout

this offer won't be on for too long though, maybe a week or so more, so don't leave it too late!

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that's about it for now i think, i was back in College today finding out about assessment timetables for next week + catching up with the other HNDers and BAers which was nice! 

i have a funky Creative Café post to run this week, maybe at the weekend, so keep your eyes peeled for that

so until next time, that's all folks... ◕‿◕ ★ xX

★ Bonnie ★

i've been a rubbish blogger this week! i've just been sooooo busy working on commission files that i genuinely haven't had time to whip up some blog posts! 

but have no fear faithful (and deeply cherished) readers, i'm going to make a special effort next week to do more posts!

anyway, this weekend my darling little god-daughter Bonnie came to stay

we had a lovely afternoon in Douglas shopping and then had a yummy juice and cupcake break in the Alpine, (where we also bumped into my older sister Nicola!) so that Bonnie could test out her new dress-up sticker book.

then it was on to Tesco to gather some stuff for tea. but Tesco sounded boring (apparently) so i stayed in the car with little mademoiselle so that she could play with her new Pinypon dolls 

because Bonnie's godmother (aka me) is a fool and doesn't need any excuse to buy treats for her dear little god-daughter... and one of the dolls had red hair like Bonnie so it kind of HAD to be bought... you know!

ah what can i say, she's a little sweetheart, 100% worth it! even if she is too young to drive...

eventually we got home and within five minutes my room had been taken over!

to be fair though, Bonnie made up for it by drawing a lovely picture of me, check out my colourful dress!!!

   

she's quite arty actually (much to her godmothers delight...) and spent the better part of the evening drawing, cutting, sticking and colouring!

but eventually it was time to settle down a bit, so after dinner we watched the Wizard of Oz (Bonnie's choice) and some Family Guy DVD's (my choice... obviously!!! but in my defence they were bleeped and she was drawing most of the time anyway! honest...)

we were going to head out to the park in Ramsey this morning but it was a gloomy day so we stayed in and watched some more Family Guy, and after breakfast we did some baking instead!

Bonnie was ever such a good baking assistant! she mixed the batter perfectly and put all the cupcake cases into the mini cupcake maker (more about that here - Cute Cupcakes)

she also did a great job mixing up the fresh pink buttercream icing i made... even if my piping skills still suck!!!

we ran out of the buttercream, so she helped me mix up some pale pink icing as well

the decorations were all done by Bonnie, and i think you'll agree that she did a smashing job using heart sprinkles, colourful hundreds-and-thousands and the odd minstrel!

and most importantly... they tasted absolutely delicious!!!

so delicious in fact that we boxed some up so that Bonnie could take them back to share with her mum and dad, her little sister and her older brother.

she was a little angel (well, mostly!) as per usual, but the house is so quiet now without her! there's just a trail of mess and destruction left from earlier...

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personal post today but then that always happens when a family member comes to stay!

anyway in other news, like i said at the start, i promise to make more of an effort with the blog posts next week! promise promise promise!!!

in fact, i already have a cracking creative café post lined up for you all tomorrow evening!

so keep an eye out for that!

but until then, that's all folks... ◕‿◕ ★ xX

Wizard Wednesday ♥

so i promised i'd do a little post today didn't i!

well today i've been busy sorting stuff for my trip to Ireland tomorrow + working on some commission files

anyway, on Wednesday (as in, the Wednesday just gone) i had a brilliantly busy day in Douglas here on the island

i spent the morning trawling around the shops looking for goodies to put in the giveaway (don't for get to enter! - August Giveaway)

then in the afternoon i got to visit my cousins Gary and Sharon + their kids Robson, Hanna and my little god-daughter Bonnie

it's been a couple of months since i last saw Bonnie and Hanna so it was lovely to spend some time with them

we had a good giggle doing some drawing and colouring, + playing with Oscar the cat

i got the girls a special little treat since i know they're both such big fans of Hello Kitty (Bonnie has a HK pencil case and school bag) i got them Hello Kitty marshmallow lollipops!

which unsurprisingly... went down rather well with the two little ladies!

they didn't want to eat them at first though! Hanna just kept sniffing hers...

but after a while Bonnie realised how yummy Hello Kitty's ears were!

oh it was so great to see them! i've missed both soooo much!!!

they're just the sweetest little sweethearts! 

anyway after that i had to go all the way down to Ronaldsway to collect my dad from the airport, we stopped for a coffee/frescato at the new Costa at the sea terminal before heading to the gorgeous old Gaiety Theatre and Opera house on Douglas Promenade to see the Taylorian production of 'The Wizard of Oz'

i may have mentioned it before but i'm a big BIG fan of Musicals both on film and on the stage, i've always loved the book and i loved the movie of the Wizard of Oz as well so when i found out this was going to be on at the Gaiety i really REALLY wanted to go!

luckily... my lovely mother won a pair of tickets to go and see it and since my dad is such a big fan of Musical's too, he took me along to see it

i love going to the theatre! especially to the Gaiety, it is one of my favourite buildings on the island, so so beautiful, i just love it

i've grown up visiting the theatre to watch shows + i've taken part and helped backstage in a few as well over the years. i've been coming to the Gaiety for as long as i can remember actually, i just love it! it's gorgeous outside but the interior is even more amazing! 

isn't it beautiful! 

anyway back to the point, the show was incredible! such an amazingly talented cast of Manxies, the sets, costumes, lighting, music and acting was just top notch! i loved every minute of it :)

if you live local i definitely recommend you go and see it! my friend Shiny went with her family last Tuesday to see it and my cousins went to see the matinee performance this afternoon and they all LOVED it too! in fact, i haven't heard a bad review of it yet because it's just THAT good!

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anyway not much else for today, sorry for all the uber personal posts lately! i'm sure you don't just come here to read about my day to day life! or do you...

ah well, Ireland tomorrow so you can expect lots of lovely shopping and scenery filled posts! + i've got a couple of Creative Café features up my sleeve as well so watch out for those!

until then, that's all folks... ★ ◕‿◕ xX

TT family times ★

so i vanished for a few days, i would have blogged earlier but i didn't get home from the TT fair until the small hours of Saturday morning, and i didn't get home last night until late because i was looking after my little cousin Sienna

oh and obviously this blog post is going to be kind of family orientated so if you despise my personal posts. . . now would be a good time to bugger off! i'll be doing a new 'Creative Café' post tomorrow evening so stay tuned for that instead!

so . . .

on friday night i actually left the house and headed into Douglas for the Senior race day firework display

it was a great night since i got to hang out with lots of my awesome cousins at the fair which was EXTRA nice because i hadn't seen them in aaaages

my cousin and little god-daughter Bonnie was there with her little sister Hanna, her brother Robson and her parents Gary and Sharon + my cousins Mandy and Marcus were there with Sienna

the kiddlywinks went on loaaaads of rides and Bonnie even managed to win a massive teddy bear!

they also all went on the old fashioned Carousel

while myself and Mandy looked after 'Diamonds' the teddy!

we all had a good giggle when Mandy and Robson went on 'the Vertigo' as well

as it got darker we made our way down the busy prom to find a spot to watch the show

and to be honest we couldn't have picked a better place to stop! we must have had one of the best views of the display

i took quite a few videos of the display but here's a little one you can watch if you fancy a quick skeet at the show

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in other news, i bumped into my friend Yvonne yesterday as well and she gave me a belated birthday present. . . full of the most awesome stuff!!!

there's a lovely embroiderer's guild embroidery kit + embroidery hoop

a 'make do and mend' postcard, a lovely embroidery stitch booklet and a 'Frida' card from Purplecatscorner

there was also this amaaaaazing badge which i love for obvious reasons!!!

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so what else?! well i bought myself a new dress yesterday + some pretty flowery headbands

it's the first time i've been shopping in about a month and a half (no. . . i'm not exaggerating! really!!) so i figured i could treat myself to something

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s'all for now, heading off to cook some tea now + sort stuff for college tomorrow, oh what a thrilling life i do lead!

until next time, that's all folks . . .  ◕‿◕ ★ xX