★ 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

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

Shops & Stuff ♥

so... couple of days without posts! What's going on?!

Well I couldn't post on Thursday because I was very verrrrrrry busy working on a logo design commission for an American customer

and i didn't post on Friday because i literally spent the entire day setting up my etsy shop!

and i didn't post yesterday because i was out in town all day!

Busy busy busy!

So yes anyway the etsy shop is finally open!

To be fair it only has 5 (now 4items listed for sale but still...

it's nice to finally be an etsy person!

In fact set the shop up Friday morning and I got my first sale in the afternoon!

Someone bought the little 'eat me' cupcake embroidery

now the item is currently still listed, so it can still be bought on a 100% 'made to order' basis seeing as sadly I don't just have multiple copies of these things laying about the place!

this also means it's price has gone up a little bit

on another note, the little plush lollipops are also up for sale

as are the little mini dolls

hopefully in a week or two i'll have postcards and stickers to add to the shop but until then I guess it's a work in progress!

here's a link to the shop - Etsy

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on with the main point of the post!

so yesterday i went into town with my mum in search of various post and packaging related bits (for the etsy shop) and we ended up spending the day with my cousin Mandy and my little cousin Sienna

Sienna had just been to a fancy dress party so was dressed up in a gorgeous 'enchanted' Giselle dress

and look at those pink accessories! so young and already a fashionista!

we walked up to the other end of Strand Street (main shopping street in Douglas) because my cousin Sharon was preparing a troupe of her little Irish dancers to perform in the street

my god-daughter Bonnie was among the dancers, here she is (on the left) with her little friend Emma

their irish dancing dresses are too adorable right!

the girls put on a stunning performance dancing slip jigs and reels in their soft shoes (ghillies) as well as some dances in their hard shoes

they drew quite a crowd since it was for a good cause (the girls were raising money for their annual trip to Dublin to compete in the Irish Dancing Championship (where they always win loads of medals!)

it was a cold day yesterday + it even started to drizzle a bit so they really were super duper stars dancing in the rain!

here's Sharon with the littlest Irish dancer, her youngest daughter (and Bonnie's little sister) Hanna 

despite the gloomy weather we all had a great time watching the dancers 

+ it was lovely for me and my mum to spend some time with Mandy, Sienna, Sharon, Bonnie and Hanna

even if we did all have to take it in turns holding little miss trouble!

i was of course supremely proud of Bonnie, she really is a little star! not that i'm biased or anything... but after all, she is my god-daughter! her dances with little Emma were so sweet! they were fantastic dancing duo

for more info about the 'Western School of Dance' and the 'Scoill Daunse Yernagh Ellan Vannin' please check out the website here - WSD IOM

and if you're interested in starting lessons or would like to sign up your son/daughter you can contact Sharon here - wsd@manx.net

the Western School of Dance also teaches ballet, tap, modern, jazz, acro, street, and musical theatre classes as well as Irish dancing

Sharon is also a verified Zumba and Zumbatomic teacher

the classes aren't only for children either, WSD holds Adult classes as well and they put on a fabulous big show at the Gaiety Theatre every year as well

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and that's that!

back to college for me tomorrow, i'm hoping to get cracking with some new embroidery ideas

so until next time

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ♥ xX