Gingerbread Cottage ★

so i may have mentioned it already but i'm not feeling particularly festive and christmassy this year! no advent calendar, no decorations, no festive spirit whatsoever!

well to try and drag myself out of this bout of doom and gloom i had a little go at decorating a Gingerbread House (well mine is more of a cottage but it's supposed to be a house i guess!) using a nifty little kit from Ikea

the 'PEPPARKAKA HUS' kit contained a flat pack set of gingerbread panels ready to be assembled into a little house!

it was actually LOADS of fun to build and decorate! even if my decorating skills aren't exactly the neatest...

i bought in a bunch of sweets + tubes of icing to use and i'm not going to lie, i had a lot of fun icing it all and sticking on the sweeties!

next year i might just have a go at baking one from scratch myself but for now... this will have to do!

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in other news, the very uber cool Tim Easley (illustrator, graphic designer and sneaker aficionado) sent me one of his groovy little Rudolph Xmas cards 

as well as a very awesome Zombie Moustache sticker

truly coolio stuff for sure! big thanks to Tim!!! to get your hands on your very own Rudolph Card head on over HERE (+ they're on SALE at the moment!) or for a 'too cool for school' Zombie Moustache sticker, head over HERE

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in other OTHER news, last night i finally switched my Facebook over to the new Timeline, although this isn't the most exciting news in the world, i did have fun fitting together a little 'website matching' cover image for my profile page!

do you like it? or loathe it... 

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not much else to tell for now, i spent today zooming around Douglas and Onchan delivering Xmas presents to various cousins and family members! but hopefully i'll have some more stuff to share with you all tomorrow night or Xmas eve!

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

Galleries and Gingerbread ★

so yesterday, before i headed off to the gallery times (more about that soon) i spent some time stitching and sewing at my college desk, so here's a snap of what i've been working on lately...

yaaay Gingerbread plushies! now it really must be nearly Christmas!!!

i spent my day at college making them. it was lovely to get back to some stitching! i think i've missed it!

even if my desk was a mess of felt, ribbon, embroidery floss and buttons all day...

some of these are already available in my Etsy Shop (on a made to order basis)

so i also realised yesterday that i'd completely forgotten about the 'Xmas Giveaway' i promised you all! i've just been so busy lately i honestly haven't had chance to gather up some goodies for it! (i haven't even started my Xmas gift shopping yet either!!!) so i've decided to postpone the giveaway for a while...

instead, i'll be holding a mahoosive NEW YEAR Giveaway Extravaganza! i promise!!! so keep your eyes peeled in early 2012 for some fun giveaway times!

so to make up for this (sort of... i hope!) + because today is Thanksgiving and tomorrow is 'Black Friday' i'm offering 15% off EVERYTHING in my Etsy Shop until the 15th of December 

all you have to do is type in the coupon code FESTIVEFUN when you make your order

so you know... Merry Christmas :)

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right so, as i mentioned in my last post, some of my work is currently on display in a groovy group exhibition at a little local Gallery in Tynwald, and last night was the exhibition preview night!

 it was a fab exhibition but it was kind of weird to me, getting to display my work alongside some of the islands top artists and photographers! weird but brilliant :)

my best pal Courtney tagged along to keep me company and we had a laugh wandering around the gallery + the Tynwald café and shops all night

all together i had 7 pieces in the show. my 4 sweet canvases...

2 lovely framed giclée prints of the sugar skull and matryoshka

(+ some pretty mounted/bagged prints for sale as well...) 

and my 'un-domestic Goddess' canvas which miraculously... is the piece that sold :)

i didn't manage to snap too many photos but it was a brilliant night! and best of all, like i said... i actually sold something!!!

crazy awesome times! thanks to all those that popped along to have a little peek at all the work! the Exhibition will be running right through Xmas so if you live local and head to Tynwald to do any Xmas shopping, be sure to pop in and have a look!

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so not much else to tell really, here are a few of the fun colouring/maze pages i've been working on recently for a lovely local commission

these have been sooooo much fun to work on! i can't wait to do some more stuff for 'Imagination Station' in the New Year

to find out more about Imagination Station + to download your own copies of the colouring sheets, check out the official Facebook page here - Imagination Station

and on that note, i'll say goodbye for now!

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

when boredom attacks...

so today i stayed in again to work on my essay, it's already gone way over proposed word count but it's still not finished!!!

worrying about how to finish it properly without rambling on forever like i did for my Michelangelo essay (it ended up about 7000 words long in the end... i had to crop it right down to just under 4000) but the problem is i do tend to ramble a lot when i write an essay about something i like

and this essay is about picture books so yeah... i like the subject quite a lot!

anyway, moving on to something (hopefully) a little less boring

i really haven't done much today apart from mope about in my room so all i've got to share is a few photos...

These delightful little lovelies were brought home by my mum

aren't they adorable! Tiny mini gingerbread men... total genius!

She also brought home two more edible creatures...

well it's no secret that I love sugar mice, especially when they're pink!

This afternoon I also pinned up my new cupcake bunting (from THIS blog post – Home Sweet Home)

it's hanging up above my bed, just above my rose fairy lights (from this post – Brilliant Birmingham), my Colin Kerr original prints (from this post – kicking back in Kinsale) and the gorgeous Purplecatscorner print I won last year off the lovely Karen Tomlinson (check out her super duper blog here – Purplecatscorner)

I think they add a nice touch of sweetness to the room though, they certainly help distract from the hideous 'skin disease' wallpaper I have in my room (I didn't choose it... my dad did, a long time ago!)

this afternoon I also spent a bit of time messing around on a clever little website I clicked onto this morning after one of my friends on twitter posted a link

Basically, it's a digital version of the old drawing game of 'draw and fold over' where you draw a body part and fold the paper over for the next person to work on until you end up with a mismatched figure made up of all sorts of wacky and wonderful designs

it's a little tricky to handle the pen without a drawing tablet but it was loads of fun nonetheless (this was one of my designs)

you can even pick different pens and pencils to use + swipe on a bit of liquid paper (aka tippex) if you make a mistake

when a picture is finished it gets automatically posted to the site gallery where people can rate it

once you've finished drawing your body section you can send it off to someone to be completed via email

I tried to recommend it to my friend Mike but he wasn't really interested. This just makes him a sulky photographer as far as i'm concerned so i'm not even going to post a link to his blog like I normally do!

anyway if you fancy having a go at creating your own mixed up masterpiece, check out the site here - draw and fold over

it's free to use and very simple to get started + your drawings can be as detailed or as simple as you like

have fun!

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So what else have I been up to today?

Well I worked on a new commission for a bit

it's nowhere (and I mean nowhere) near finsihed + it's just a tiny part of a much bigger design but it was kind of fun to draw a matryoshka doll

there's also a funky little bow which I have attempted to colour... and subsequently given up on every single time

i'll work it out in the end

hopefully...

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not much else to tell really

i'm supposed to be heading into college tomorrow but it's HND second years assessments for the rest of the week so i'm not sure if i'll bother

might strike this week off as a failure and head in next week for a fresh start

i've got lots of new crafty and arty bits (thanks to the massive Hobbycraft store in Coventry where I spent far FAR too much money) so i'm literally itching to get on with some new stuff!!!

watch this space!

that's all folks...

♥ ◕‿◕ ♥