Crafty Goings On

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Sarah

I’ve been doing a lot of crafty thinking recently and decisions are afoot.

The fuel for all this is coming to the end of my second fused glass course and wondering how I’ll cope without a glass kiln of my own!

Starter glass kilns are £500 to £600 and saving up hasn’t got me the full amount, coupled with financing my crafting becoming more challenging, I’ve decided my crafting needs to start paying for itself at least.

This has brought up many more issues to consider!

Back in 2005 I had to give up my complementary therapies practice, as energy and health wise I couldn’t run my own business and home educate my children too.

At first I found giving up my complementary therapies business very difficult, especially from a personal identity point of view.  Over time though I very happily rediscovered the true me, no longer defining myself by my profession and very importantly rediscovered my love of and passion for arts and crafts :-)

In the in between (nearly seven) years I’ve attended lots of arts and crafts courses and workshops, from paper and textile multi-media art, to mosaic and clay, various types of wet felting and most recently fused glass, along with reading lots of crafting books and doing lots of crafting sampling and experimenting.
Although I’ve always crafted since childhood, I had neglected my love of crafting for too long and it was wonderful to be able to explore it in much more depth than I ever had before and really develop my range of crafting skills.

And finally, I now feel confident and happy enough with what I am creating to consider offering my arts and crafts for sale.  I have even got two local venues organised where I can sell my arts and crafts.

But I’ve had and have more challenges to face…

Lots of personal issues around balancing work with home education/family life/time to relax and to do other things I love, issues around work been hard and difficult and its effect on my health and well-being, along with financing my business – where the money could come from and uncertainty of returns (not that I will ever craft to make money!)

So I’ve done lots of journaling, healing of negative beliefs with EFT and my Health Kinesiology treatments have helped too – maybe even brought me to this place of feeling confident about offering my arts and crafts for sale!

And most importantly I know I must create for the love of creating and create what I love, never create stock to just sell!
An inspirational live interview of the wonderful Wendy and Brian Froud cemented this one in place :-)

Finally, I’m in a place where I’m ready to take the leap, then our finances become more challenging and I have just one more major hurdle – as we are renting we have to ask our landlords permission for me to work from home and they are taking their time – 10 working days from last Thursday!

So I’ve been trying not to get too excited and reign myself back and told myself if it doesn’t happen its not the right time and I’ll cope without a glass kiln for now (I don’t think so, I love fusing glass!).

So waiting was feeling like a life time with so many mixed feelings going on, then yesterday happened…

I went along to a jewellery workshop at Bunyip Beads in Exeter, with my daughter, we had a wonderful time doing wire work to make beads into charms and created charm bracelets.  I’ve so wanted to learn wire work for ages and want to learn much more :-)

Then synchronicity took us to Opus Mosaics which has lots of lovely mosaics and fused glass pieces, fused glass and mosaic workshops and offers a glass fusing service at a very reasonable price too :-) :-)

So the pressure is off regarding needing a kiln so urgently and it might be a potential solution to worries our landlords may have about me running a glass kiln.

What a roller coaster of a ride!

And lots of positive thinking continues at this end, whilst I wait for our landlords decision…

Posted in Arts & Crafts, Creativity, Home Education, Living life, Well-Being | Leave a comment

Living In The Present Moment

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Sarah

Often our lives can be so busy and so full we never really really connect with the beauty and wonder of the present moment and this is something I have been learning to do again.  I’ve been pushed into doing this by feeling like life is going too fast and even when I’ve had time for my self I’ve not been able to really relax and enjoy it but remained in a state of busyness and doing which did not feel right or good.

I love that blissful magical state when the simple things in life are magical and filled with joy, my body melts into total relaxation and I am filled with unconditional love.  And when I am active and have things to do, even challenging things, life flows easily and I feel a deep sense of inner peaceful and know I am on the right path.

The journey to finding this wonderful state began many years ago and I probably first achieved it in 2009 when I went along to my first Gill Edwards Living Magically workshop ~ my spiritual journey took me there after a near death experience the previous year.  I have achieved this wonderful state many times since but I feel my life changing again and this is when achieving this state is most difficult because I’m so filled with wonderful ideas and I never stop!

Over Winter Solstice it felt like we hibernated which was lovely and we needed it, even if I did wonder if we were been a bit unsociable.  The days felt totally unpressured and my family and I filled them with what we each love to do ~ having fun together as a family and on our own.

And from that time of stillness and slow living came lots of wonderful joyful ideas ~ for holidays, festivals, our straw bale house plans, my crafting, the direction I want my life to take and much more!   It was so wonderful to have the time to plan the creation of a life my family and I love :-)   And I felt that I was on the right path again and I was been true to myself and who I am.

A whole family Winter holiday to the New Forest was booked, we booked our 3 Wishes Faery Festival tickets, I got prepared for Life Book, I made plans to get in touch with more like minded people and families, we made plans for home education activities, we did more work on our straw bale self build plans and land locations………

And I tried to remember to stop and have some still time doing nothing at all, which I did manage but probably not as regularly as I should.  Then in early January my Health Kinesiology treatment brought up that I needed to reduce my computer time to only two hours working at the computer per day and only have it on for three hours, including music and films, for my own well-being!!!

This has really brought me into the present moment much more; I now have to plan my computer time more carefully and think about what is really important each day.  I am managing to keep to the time limit most days and it has allowed me more crafting time but my state of mind is often busy and not still!

So I’m working on my state of mind and been in that blissful magical state when the simple things in life are magical and filled with joy, my body melts into total relaxation and I am filled with unconditional love.  And when I am active and have things to do, even challenging things, life flows easily and I feel a deep sense of inner peaceful and know I am on the right path.  The beauty of our natural world, the early spring flowers, the magic of family life and wonderful energy of Imbolc are a great help :-)

 

 

Posted in Creativity, Earth Spirituality, Festivals, Living life, Well-Being | Leave a comment

Going Within…

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Sarah

Here we are in the dark half of the year and the days are getting shorter and shorter; a time to go within and be less outwardly active. This has been rather enforced in our house and felt quiet challenging especially with cough and colds stopping us getting out and about!

 

 

We did get out in between the colds and went on a fungi walk around Cockington with our local home education group and lovely friends.

 

 

 

And I fitted in a little photography ~
fungi are so beautiful.

 

 

 

I really will have to improve my fungi identification skills!

 

 

 

 

I think the first one is a type of wax cap and I know the ones above are King Alfred’s Cakes.

 

 

 

I have no idea what the ones above are though.

 

 

 

 

I know these last three are some kind of bracket fungus…

 

 

 

And I think the last one maybe Chicken of the Woods.

 

 

 

I got to have a lovely crafty chatty get together with a very talented friend too – I will have to make more time to do this!

I’ve also used the time to do the Willowing “Whimsical Workspace” online self study workshop – I’m only just getting to the end of week one of four (which has been challenging at times!) but I know the worst is over and it will mean I’ll be able to find what I need easily, so have more time to craft and create :-)

 

Otherwise I’ve had little time to crafting, maybe I’ve not been in the right space energetically too but I continue to love my fused glass course and here’s what I did last week: -

 

 

And yesterday Paul, A and I we went off to Castle Cary for the Somerset Self Build and Renovation Show.

 

 

Castle Cary is a beautiful place, full of wonderful trees, history, lovely old buildings, friendly people and individual shops ~ I bought some wonderful traditional festive decorations :-) .

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a very very old Yew tree, we found in a church yard (as you usually do), the bark was beautiful.

 

 

 

 

I love this weather vane on Castle Carys’ Market House; we definitely want a weather vane on our eco house :-)

 

 

 

 

 

We walked up hill out of the town to see the remaining earth works of the castle.

 

 

 

 

 

It was rather misty so we could only just see Glastonbury Tor but there were more beautiful trees like this Oak.

 

 

 

The self build show was small but we got lots more information we need and I discovered Lisa Villarospo of  The House Of Ugly Fish and her wonderful, amazing, brilliant fused glass!
Her lovely husband even let me take a small picture of one of her wonderful fused glass creations as inspiration for my next piece of work on my fused glass course :-)

And today I’m in a rather reflective mood, as yesterday I discovered Gill Edwards has died.   I have done many workshops with her over the last ten or more years and her Living Magically work had supported me in dealing with some very challenging stuff and in make some amazing joyful changes in my life. She was and is an amazing soul, her work was and always will be an amazing gift to everyone, as is Gill’s farewell message :-)
My love goes out to her family and friends and all those touched by her and her work x

Life goes on always; we experience, we learn, we grow and we can choose to be loving and joyful…

 

Posted in Arts & Crafts, Earth Spirituality, Foraging, Home Education, Photography | Leave a comment

Indian Summer and London

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Sarah

Slowly I’m catching up on blogging lol
October has brought some wonderful weather and photo opportunities, and we’ve enjoyed a very busy trip to London, as well as local outings, home education stuff, crafting and much more!

 

 

At the begging of October days began misty….

 

 

 

 

And Torbay looked very magical!

 

 

 

It was very hot!   So we went to the beach.

K enjoyed been buried in the sand for the last time this year (and hand fed chocolate lol)

 

 

 

And Pumpkin was so happy dogs are allowed on all the beaches again :-)

 

 

Then it was off to London for a family holiday and a few very busy, fun, active days!

 

We arrived on a Wednesday and were staying near Camden, so on the first afternoon we went to one of our favourite place ~ Camden Market.  Cyberdog is an experience not to be missed!

 

 

 

On Thursday L and I went to the Knitting and Stitch show at Alexandra Palace, with so many beautiful crafty things to look at, buy and try :-)

 

 

 

On Friday we went to Legoland Windsor – our boys love Lego and  it was brilliant!

 

 

 

The boys found their dream place to work and we went on loads of rides (Thank goodness for exit passes for the disabled).

 

 

 

And Saturday was museum day ~ the British Museum followed by the Science Museum, then…

 

 

 

 

 

…an unexpected historical tour of the Royal Albert Hall – it was amazing!

 

 

 

 

Then back to Devon and we’ve had more beautiful sunrises…

 

 

 

…and a stunning full moon :-)

 

 

 

 

And enjoyed the beauty of Cockington too, as always, Apple Day and the court :-)

Posted in Arts & Crafts, Devon Coast, Earth Spirituality, Exhibitions, Holidays, Home Education, Photography, The moon | 2 Comments

Experimental Felting

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Sarah

Larnia and I have been experimenting with felting and findings :-)

 

 

Larnia created a two tone butterfly decoration.

 

 

 

 

Together we create a brooch for a friend and embellished it with a collection of beads.

 

 

 

 

I experimented with mohair and created a fluffy flower, embellished with a wooden button, a glass bead and stitch ;-)

 

 

 

 

Larnia created a felted flower hair bobble, embellished with some of her favourite buttons.

 

 

 

And I am very pleased with my felted flower necklace which includes recycled sari silk and is embellished with wooden buttons and tiny beads.

 

http://earthspiritcraft.co.uk/wp-admin/post.php?post=490&action=edit

All these felted flowers were created using the highly technical (not) biscuit cutter~sandwich box~washing up liquid~prodding method ;-)

Now I’d like to learn some wire work skills so I can create a fastener for the necklace :-)

Posted in Arts & Crafts, Felting, Home Education, Photography | Leave a comment

Autumnal Beauty and Inspiration

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Sarah

The Autumn Equinox has been and gone and Autumn is in the air – it feels magical :-)

Yesterday day was beautiful and sunny, so we went for a lovely family walk in Manscombe woods – woodlands smell so amazing in Autumn!

I went out with the aim of getting some Hawthorn berry photos and Autumnal beauty was everywhere!

 

The afternoon sunlight at this time of year creates wonderful photo opportunities, along with all the fruit and berries.

The Autumn Equinox festival of Mabon usually leaves me a little sad, with the active part of the year coming to an end but this year is different.

 

I have deeply contemplated what I can harvested from my year, along with the Earth’s natural and farmed harvest and experienced the life force and potential within the seeds which just need time to rest and develop as the wheel of the year continues turning :-)

 

And to nourish us through the dark months we have all our wonderful friendships, memories of the year, ongoing plans and harvested goodies including jams and liqueurs made from foraged berries :-)  

And another wonderful activity for the dark half of the year is cosily crafting beautiful objects, photos coming soon……

 

If you’d like to visit Manscombe Woods it between Cockington and Occombe Farm – see the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust website for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Earth Spirituality, Festivals, Foraging, Photography | Leave a comment

Recycled And Paper Art

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Sarah

Although I haven’t done any arts and crafts of my own, at home for far too long, I have been enjoying other peoples :-)

On Saturday we visited TRAIL 2011 – Recycled Art In The Landscape in Dawlish and Teignmouth and here are some of my favourite sculptures:

 

This is the Earth Dragon in Dawlish, which my very creative daughter L, enjoyed helping to make at Dawlish Art Hub :-)

 

 

 

 

I love this colourful butterfly made from CD’s; it is one of several on Teignmouth seafront which makes a wonderful display.

 

 

 

And below the butterflies are flowers, made from the top of bottles and buttons – they look so effective especially in the sunshine!

 

 

And then on Monday I took Kory along to the Origami Flowers workshop at the Exeter Phoenix.

 

Kory loves orgiami and he makes lots of different things but origami instructions mangle my brain ;-)
He put the paper in front of me though and gave me the ‘look’ so I thought I’d best try!

We learnt how to make tulips – these are Kory’s complete with his stems, which he taught the tutor to make too.

 

 

 

And three of these tulips are my’n :-)
I actually successfully followed the instructions!
It is so much easier been shown origami than reading instructions in a book.

 

 

 

We also made butterflies, cranes and boxes – I got totally lost on the butterflies and cranes.

But I even helped K with his box and remembered how to make them to show L :-)

 

 

So am I an origami convert?
Well maybe a little and especially as our teacher was/is very inspirational – she is a
paper florist and makes really beautiful flowers for weddings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Arts & Crafts, Devon Coast, Home Education | Leave a comment

Lammas

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Sarah

I started this post nearly 2 weeks ago!
But here it is better late than never, especially because I love the photographs of our garden.

I love celebrating the earth based festivals with my family and yesterday we celebrated Lammas (2nd August) ~ the first harvest :-)

 

 

Our garden is full of wonderful Lammas colours and we’ve already been harvesting our Nasturtiums, Calendula flowers, Parsley, Onions, Garlic and various herbs.

 

 

I love this time of year with the sun feeling its strongest and a wonderful time of foraging just beginning.  We’ve gathered blackberries already and had a wonderful spiced black berry and apple crumble :-)

 

 

There is lots of seed gathering to be done too, so we can grow the annuals again next year for free!   This is a Corn Flower seed head (I think) – isn’t is amazing!

 

 

Although we’ve done lots of modelling before, especially with K’s love of stop-pic animation, yesterday was the first time we tried salt dough.  I picked a book up on it in a charity shop ages ago and here are the results of our first try:

 

 

 

As you might have guessed our theme was Lammas :-)
So we made bread as Lammas is a Saxon name meaning loaf-mass, a Lammas Goddess, sunshine and wheat, along with other things.

 

 

I’m not sure the white bread flour worked as well as the plain flour we should have used would have done and I need to work on positioning them in the right place in the Aga too!

 

We glazed the bread with beaten egg before cooking.

 

 

 

And we painted some of the pieces after cooking.   As some of them got rather too well done we used acrylic paint (rather than the recommended water based paints) to cover up the well done bits, then added faerie dust for added sparkle ;-)

 

We also made far too much salt dough so have another batch waiting in the freezer for our second try, but that had a wait for another day as we had Lammas to celebrate :-)

Posted in Arts & Crafts, Earth Spirituality, Festivals, Home Education | 2 Comments

Relaxing Devon Style

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Sarah

I so love relaxing outdoors in Devon; there are so many beautiful places (especially the coast and rivers) and the weather is so much kinder than in Yorkshire – which is very beautiful too of course.


Yesterday A and I were invited to going sailing on the river Dart from Galmpton Creek, in a much smaller boat than we’ve sailed in before which was much more hands on.


A is learning so quickly and it still amazes me how easily he has taken to sailing!

And I’m learning too, under the watchful eye of A of course ;-)


It was a lovely afternoon / evening with lovely friends :-)

Without the Disabled Sailing Association and their wonderful members we wouldn’t have begun sailing this Summer – so a big thank you to all of them.  I find sailing so deeply relaxing, I love the sea and it is especially amazing when the sails take over from the engine :-)

Posted in Home Education, Sailing | Leave a comment

Torbay Carnival Procession 2011

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Sarah

Our daughter was so excited to be in the Torbay Carnival procession last night with her Brownie friends :-)

Yesterday morning I finally (very last minute) found the perfect fabric for the Sweet Dreams theme that I knew she would love – pink and covered with faeries!

So in the afternoon we made lots of pretty sweeties big and small and covered her pretty pink PJs with them and her hair and her feet and her hands: -

After a very quick tea and final last minute adjustments Dad and daughter set off.

Then nearly five hours! later they arrived home again – still smiling and excited, with stories about dancing, money raising and enjoying the rest of the procession entrants, along with 1st Paignton Brownies receiving 1st prize :-)

Well done to you all :-)

I feel community events like this are so important for the community and great fun too.  The sweeties were no-sew so we’ll be recycling them in the future and making something beautiful :-)

 

Posted in Arts & Crafts, Carnivals & Regattas | Leave a comment