Little Lego Christmas Tree ★

so... dudes and dudettes, the time has come at last for me to reveal just what it is that i've been working on for the past few weeks...

are you ready?!

Tah- dah...

that's right folks... i've spent the past 3 weeks designing and building a Lego Christmas Tree!

you see, THIS is why i couldn't tell you what i was building and what colour the Lego was!

so shall i explain it all..

i shall indeed!

about 3 weeks ago i got a message on Twitter asking if i'd be willing to help on a project for Isle of Man Advertising (you can find out all about them HERE - IOM Advertising)

so i gave them my email address then a message came through asking if i knew anyone that would be interested in helping to build a Lego Christmas Tree...

so i volunteered!

i worked with Carroll and Martin to come up with a design and a build plan so big thanks to them for all their help throughout the project (and for putting up with my tantrums)

so after a few meetings at their offices they got the lovely Katie to cart a big box of Lego (1900 bricks) up to me at college and i got to work...

so thank you to Katie as well for delivering it to me

so after a good few hours playing and messing around with the Lego, this was the first EVER design i came up with

the problem was, they all liked my design but they didn't think i'd be able to build it with the bricks supplied!

i got really upset but at the end of the day it was up to them so i had a go at building the one from the designs they'd sent with the Lego

it was impossible to build!!!! 

those are the plans in the background behind the mini model tree, it was just crazy! i could not build it!

and i used to have to do things like this all the time during the IB at my last school!

it made no difference, i couldn't build it

so...

i was allowed to have another go at MY design

so after many emails and photos going back and forth we finally settled on THIS design

so last Friday, before i went away to Coventry, Carroll from IOM Advertising came up to college to collect me + the lego and i re-built it all at their offices in Douglas

then obviously i went to Coventry and Birmingham for a few days (SUPER DUPER trip by the way!)

and on Thursday morning i got up at 3:30am (yikes) to travel to Birmingham airport for my flight back to the IoM.

i landed at 9:25am, Carroll arrived at 9:30am with the Lego and that was that

she helped me unpack it all and we tried to work out how the plinths would work but then she had to go back to the offices

it was her birthday as well! so Carroll, Happy Birthday again for Thursday xX

then it was down to me to get it all built in time (no pressure!!!)

it was SUCH a long day! i literally spent the whole day sat on the floor by my plinths (big thanks to Bill at College for supplying them) building up the tree and moving bits about

this is how it looked early on in the day... a lot like a Pagoda with 7 tiers

eventually (at around 5:30pm) it was FINALLY finished! and we ended up with one big 5 tier tree and two mini ones

also, big thanks to the little boy and his mother that stopped to help me build the 'fence' around the bottom of the tree at about 4pm x

and big thanks to Rosemary Walters from Save the Children who kept popping by to make sure i was still awake and to see if i needed anything, thank you x

and that's it, my little tree is finished at last!

it's been a hectic few weeks i can tell you, 

i've had to keep it all on the hush hush for the past few weeks but the grand opening of the Festival was last night so... now i'm allowed to tell you all!

i took my friend Charlotte (check out her blog here - Loretta Jane's Vintage Boutique) along last night to look at all the trees

every year at Ronaldsway Airport at the Isle of Man, they hold this 'Festival of Trees' to help raise money for 'Save the Children'

local schools and businesses take part and enter trees into the festival and members of the public can vote for their favourite trees and post donations to the charity

it's a great event and always draws a lot of people to the airport to see all the trees.

there are 23 trees in all this year and i have to say, there are some really fun trees dotted about the place.

like the 'Manx Farmers Union' one, entirely made of Manx produce, totally genius

and the Manx Museum's 'i-museum' tree, covered in CD's, vintage film slides, photos and cameras

you can see the King William's College (my old school) entry as well in the background. the one with the little green and silver trees.

the KWC Chapel Choir were also at the Festival opening singing lots of lovely Carols. i couldn't get a photo but they all looked fab in their Choir robes + it was lovely to hear the Choir again after so long

the Lieutenant Governor's wife, Lady Haddacks was there as well to help open the festival.

it was a really festive atmosphere with lots of mince pies, Manx fudge and wine on hand to make people feel merry.

there were some unusual 'trees' there as well, like the Manx Landscapes 'Pottering around' entry

and the Victoria House Nursery entry, it was so beautiful though, and such a clever idea

it was a great evening and all the trees looked great

i'm proud to have been involved in the Festival this year and to have worked on the Lego Tree for 'Alliance and Leicester' (our tag line for the Lego Tree was 'Building for the Future' how AWESOME is that! love it)

it was a lot of work but it was nice to do something different for a change and i'm glad i got the opportunity to do so. 

so all that's left for me to do is ask all you fellow Manxies out there to pop down to the airport and get donating (and to VOTE for my Tree if you'd be so kind...) 

and if you're flying in or out of the IoM anytime soon, don't forget to go and have a skeet at all the trees

thanks x

* * *

in other news...

well there isn't really any other news actually!

i'm so tired from all the Lego times i haven't really been up to much else!

i've a few new Pin-up Girl illustrations to finish so hopefully they'll be ready for my next post

until then

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ★ xX

Grazie molto e arrivederci

(that's thank you and goodbye in Italian, L'italia è un paese meraviglioso, grazie, mia amico x)

Feeling Festive ♥

so it's that time of year again, the time when shops suddenly fill with shiny new things, the time when fairy lights appear to be strung from everywhere and the weather turns freeeezing (depending on where you live, if you live here... it's bloody cold!) it's time to pull on your hats, gloves and scarves and wrap up warm...

winter is here and that means... CHRISTMAS!!!!!

it's no secret that Winter is my favourite season (not just because of Christmas... honest) i love the snow and the frost and the freezing cold wind (not so much the rain but living on the Isle of Man you learn to live with it) i love any excuse to wear my big winter coat and my winter boots

winter, winter, winter... i LOVE it!

and obviously it's late November now which means Christmas isn't too far off!

so because i'm off to Coventry and Birmingham tomorrow for a few days to see my family for, i had lots and LOTS of presents to wrap and loads of cards to write

and i mean LOTS! i have a massive family and it literally took me about 6 hours (with breaks, lots of them) to wrap all the gifts!

my wrapping skills aren't that great but i try my best! 

i make a hell of a lot of mess as well when i wrap stuff... as you can see!

but my macbook kept me company the whole time playing a constant stream of lovely Christmas songs for me to sing along VERRRY loudly to as i wrapped

i didn't have half as much stuff to wrap as my mum did though! i popped into the Dining Room (aka Present HQ) to ask for some ribbon and the entire room was filled with presents!

the table was full and the rest were all bagged up, ready to go to Coventry tomorrow...

i'm so excited to be going away though! i haven't left the island since early September for the wedding in Montenegro (read about that here - Montenegro Times) so it'll be nice to get away for a few days

i packed my case earlier this evening, thought i'd share this snap with you...

good to see i'm getting my priorities right?! 

only joking... yes the Zombieland DVD is for me to watch at the hotel but the Mika DVD's are for my sister to lend 

contrary to popular belief i don't take them everywhere with me... honest!

my big sister is a Mika fan as well and she's never seen him live so i thought she'd like to see these

i can't WAIT to go away!!!!!

i'm hoping to do a few posts while i'm away as well, my macbook is coming with me and i'm pretty sure the hotel we're going to has wi-fi available = good times!

plus... on Tuesday i'm spending the day in Birmingham City Centre with my mum and my Auntie and i CANNOT WAIT!!!!

several reasons why i'm so excited about the day trip and the places i plan to visit...

1: i LOVE Birmingham

2: the Bullring Shopping centre... complete with Selfridges

3: Harvey Nichols in 'the Mailbox' building

4: the Christmas Markets in Victoria Square

5: the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

6: Birmingham = awesomeness

that's about it i guess, oh AND 

i go on the 23rd and that just so happens to be the day that the latest H&M collection is launched!

that's right... the Lanvin collaboration (fangirl squeal) 

yay yay yay

i'll probably come back 'Lanvin-less' due to the hordes of people cramming into H&M but a girl can dream right?!

i'm already in love with most of the pieces in the collection but i have my eye on this dress in particular... 

although after spending £90 on my plane ticket home the chances of me getting this dress are now very slim indeed! 

saying that, i'd quite like one of these handbags as well... or both of them!

and maybe some of the shoes as well...

OH MY GOD it's going to be a nightmare!

i want it ALL but i can probably only afford one or two pieces tops!

i may have to BEG for some Lanvin-esque thing for Christmas but i doubt i'll even be able to get near the shop let alone get my hands on some stuff!

i've just looked it up on the H&M website (HERE) and apparently the Bullring branch of H&M will be open from 9:00am til 8:00pm so... maybe i can sneak back in in the evening and fight off some other Lanvin lovers to claim a piece!

sharpen your elbows girls...

to be honest though i'd rather come home penniless and laden with Lanvin loveliness that to get home empty handed!

why WHY Lanvin... why must you create such beautiful dresses!

Alber Elbaz you have a LOT to answer for do you hear me! i don't care if you're best friends with Mika, your designs are so pretty it's almost criminal!!!

end of rant

* * *

in other news...

look what arrived today all the way from Austin, Texas!!!

that's right folks... it's the ORIGINAL copy of my 'free crappy portrait'

the lovely and utterly super duper and fabulous Anne Genung who created the masterpiece 'Bluebird Cupcakes' based on a photo of me having a baking day 

(for more info check out the Baking Times post) 

anyway she got in touch with me after i posted all about the genius of the FCP site (read the 'my free crappy portrait' post and all shall be explained) and kindly offered to send me the original copy of the drawing!!!

how could i refuse!

i couldn't...

anyway it arrived today in a tube with a little note off Anne 

how awesome is that!

i can't believe she sent it to me! i am so soooo grateful i really am!

in light of that, here is an utterly shameless plug for Anne's gorgeous website

Anne Genung

seriously... check it out, her artwork is amazing! her paintings are so beautiful, really stunning work!

also Anne has a super blog full of arty fun times and she even did a post all about MY blog post about the FCP... how fabulous!

she said this about my post

"Isn't that just the loveliest response ever? I should draw more crappy portraits. And I do hope that she appreciates having the original."

well Anne i can tell you that i DO appreciate it

i LOVE it!

you can check out her blog here and scroll down to see the post about my FCP - Anjanung

so thank you Anne, you are officially AWESOME!!!

* * *

and that's it for today i think, sorry for the rantings and the ravings, can't be helped...

so tomorrow morning i get the boat to Liverpool then it's off to Coventry

i'll be posting tomorrow evening probably, i'm so SO excited about the hotel we're staying at so i will DEFINITELY want to share this one with you all!

see you then

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ★ xX

'vielen dank und auf wiedersehen'

(that's thank you and goodbye in German, big thanks to all those German people out there checking out my blog, danke ♥)

Lazy Days ♥

so if the title wasn't enough of a giveaway as to how my day's been... i've had an incredibly lazy day today and it has been SUBLIME!


i've basically spent the entire day sat on the sofa doing absolutely nothing apart from checking my facebook and twitter every so often + chatting to Mike on skype and making some new ad banners for my blog linking my fave shopping links and other various online creative pals.


i've spent this evening watching episodes of Futurama (genius) whilst attempting to make a new blog background. i've made one (as you can see) but i'm not too fond of it to be honest, i'll probably have another go tomorrow or something since i now have a delightful photoshop headache.


in light of this, Mike offered to make one and after about fifteen minutes of photoshopping i was sent this via skype... 

now i genuinely do appreciate Mike's noble efforts to create an original and visually stunning blog background for me, however... i'm not going to use this!

NOT because it states my love of lamps in general (how can you not love a good lamp after all) it's because my blog is a 3 column blog and if i used this you'd never actually be able to see the 'I Love Lamp' bit... which would of course defeat the whole point of it's beautiful magic.

so thank you Mike but... not this time. and as much as i truly do LOVE 'Anchorman' i just can't use this!

but what do you know, ten minutes later he sent me ANOTHER possible blog background and once again, his incredible photoshop skills did not disappoint... 

i think this one might be my favourite of the two mainly because it quotes 'Hot Fuzz' which is of course one of my favourite movies EVER!

but once again this lovely piece of artwork is marred by the fact that it wouldn't really show up on my blog... sorry Mike, thanks for the effort!

and just because he tried his best, here's a shameless plug on his behalf...

follow this link to see Mike's super duper photography blog - Point and Click

* * *

in other news, it's recently come to my attention that this blog has been receiving page views from countries all over the world, i finally checked out my International visitors map and was amazed to see where i was getting hits from! 

the exact list of countries (to date) is as as follows...

(NOTE: the countries are listed in order of page views)

Isle of Man, United Kingdom, United States, Montenegro, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Poland, Argentina, Norway, India, Spain, Indonesia, Greece, Japan, Malaysia, Venezuela, Denmark, Portugal, Turkey, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Chile, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Switzerland, Finland, Austria, Thailand, New Zealand, South Africa, Belgium, Lithuania, Slovenia, Albania, Cyprus, Costa Rica, Philippines, Lebanon, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Estonia, Iceland, Israel, Uruguay, Hong Kong, Latvia, Singapore, Macedonia, Vietnam, Egypt, Croatia, Moldova, Brunei, Ecuador, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czeck Republic, Slovakia and last but not least, Puerto Rico.

it's quite incredible no?!?!

i can't quite believe that people all over the world are stopping by to have a skeet at my blog!!!

so in light of this i have decided to end each future blog post with a thank you + farewell in the native language of one of the countries on the list. 

i intend to do this until every country has been credited with it's own 'goodbye' so this is going to take me quite a while to accomplish...

that's ok, i always love a good challenge!

i'll do the 'goodbyes' following the same order as the list here so todays post will end with a farewell in Manx and the next one in English and so on and so forth...

should be fun ♥

* * *

and that's it for today, short but sweet i guess!

time for some tea now and perhaps a bit more 'Futurama'

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ★ 

'Gura Mie Ayd as Slane Ihiat'

(that's 'thank you and goodbye' in Manx Gaelic on behalf of the Isle of Man)