Inspirational Signs!

I like Inspirational quotes. They make me feel warm and fuzzy inside and this week when lil man was having one of his "I'm bored!!!!!" moments I decided to let him help me so some messy painting using my posh watercolours. Naturally it only kept him occupied for ten minutes till he declared that also boring.

I had an ulterior motive though, I'd seen some really cute inspirational posters on etsy and knew I could make my own. 

Basically we chucked some paint down on drawing paper. Waited what felt like ten years for them to dry. Then I perused pinterest searching for nice quotes which I wrote in pencil and tehn went over in either sharpie or fine liner. Depending on the font I'd used!  

Not all who wander are lost - J RR Tolkien 

This is one of my favourite quotes from one of my favourite books!

Enjoy Today

I think I need to remember to enjoy the little things in life more. I seem to spend a lot of time stressing and not much time relaxing. Especially when life is so good right now!

Shine like the Stars

This is so cheesy it makes me cringe a bit. Like in our GCSE leaving assembly where the head teacher was all like reach for the moon you just might land on a star? *cringes*

The best is yet to come

For a long time the future scared the bejeezus out of me but now I can't wait to see whats around the corner!

I can & I will

I had a lot of people give me side eye when I told them I was pregnant at 18. I mean "OMG your life is OVER! Do you need me to drive you....ya know to sort it out??" Yep I actually had someone offer to drive me for an abortion.... after I told them I was pregnant and showed them a scan picture. At the time I was fuming but now it makes me laugh because although my life took a different route it doesn't mean it was a bad one. In fact I like this road it pretty darn tidy and without popping out a kid at the ripe old age of 19 I would never have thought to start a blog or take up sewing again, or become addicted to all things crafty!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

P.S Please don't be too outraged my my friend suggesting I have an abortion when I told people I was pregnant I got of lot of obnoxious comments thrown in my direction! 

follow me on instagram 

follow me on bloglovin 

Hobbycraft wooden advent calendar Review.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Haha no it isn't its still November! Although if you make your own Christmas presents chances are you've been playing Elf for about the past 6 months.

Anyway I LOVE advent calender's! But not just the regular chocolate ones! I like the EXCITING ones! And last year we treated Lil Man to a lego advent calendar because that is basically the most exciting calendar you can buy! FYI don't buy it its absolute rubbish. Seriously it was the most disappointing thing I have ever seen. It was basically pointless.

 So this year I decided to be prepared and buy a solid advent calendar that we could use every year [Actually I wasn't being prepared the original plan was to put the contents of the lego advent calendar into a solid advent calendar with some sweets and stuff........then we realised that opening doors to that would be soul destroying] 

So instead I think we are going to go hunting for some stuff to put in it! which may or may not include lego!

anyway so this is how it turned up from hobbycraft. brown MDF. If you have a rustic Christmas you would probably leave it like this?

So I painted the white parts first, I used two coats of emulsion and two coats of white acrylic paint. I had some serious trouble trying to get even coverage on this thing. 

Next I painted the insides of the doors green which two coats of acrylic. I was going to paint the insides of all the compartments but its just so fiddly I gave it. we're going to use it for 25 days a year I can live without perfectly finished insides.

Next I painted the red parts with red gloss, this part probably took the longest because oh look super fiddly again! I think I did two coats of this and it does give a nice shine!

I free handed all the numbers on the doors using sharpie and scattered them about at random. Or at least I hope they are random.

Okay so the nitty gritty! Its a pretty good kit. Its very fiddly so i wish there was a way to take the doors off or to build it form flat pack or something. 

I like the simple house design it really does leave the door open for lots of imaginative decorating opportunity! like gingerbread house, sparkles, Santa! I kept ours with our red and white colour scheme though as we like to have a very tradition Christmas! 

In fact I think it would be super cute to just give these to your kids to decorate and then they have their own personal one!

Things I'd do differently:

If it was less fiddly id have loved to decorate the inside of each compartment with pretty paper or scrap paper so when the door opens its all beautiful and bright.

I'd have sprayed the whole thing white to begin with [or if hobbbycraft could just made a white version that would be awesome!] about half was through painting I had an "it would have been so much easier to spray paint this" moment. and then maybe I could have finished the insides of those pesky compartments!

I'm still debating a bit of glitter but part of me thinks we have a lot of glitter on our mantle piece at Christmas anyway and I don't want it to be too much.

I am going to add something to the bottom red square wheres there no door though, I'm just not sure what yet, I think I'll raid the Christmas box when we decorate and see if anything jumps out at me! 

So yeah I'm pleased I just wish the whole process had been less painful!!!

Frankie

x

David Bowie Painting

I haven't painted for ages, and I mean a really long time. I used to paint everyday, every single day.

I painted when I was happy, sad, tired, under pressure and drunk.

I never really needed a reason to paint I just always did.

And then I just didn't sort of do it for a while, I'm not incredibly sure why. But I do have a theory that its because I was trying to sell what I painted and I was trying to get commissions and to be honest I just wasn't very good at it.

I like painting what I want to paint!

Which is why one evening when I actually didnlt feel like sewing [I know its really rare!] I got out my brushes and found the paints and canvas my mum and dad had brought for me and got cracking.

I sat myself on the carpet, stuck on desperate housewives season 5 [Mike you know you love Susan stop being a moron] and got cracking.

I did actually have a terrifying moment when I wondered if I would be able to remember how to do this,

and then two hours later I had this.

Well this and cramp in my foot!!

I'm not sure why I chose David Bowie, He has a interesting face so that factored in but I really love his music as well!

I'm pleased with how it turned out and it was actually pretty nice to take a break from sewing for an evening!

I dunno what I'm going to do with it now though, I never put the things I paint up on my walls so I'll probably try and sell it!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

Beady Eyes

Yesterday between looking after the boys and trying to motivate myself to start the beading on my Indian owl. (As well as trying to finish my knitting) I actually managed to have a quick play around with my watercolours.

He's definitely not my best work, for starters I always tend to work better on a larger scale but I've  fallen in love with illustrations on book pages after stumbling upon some on pinterest. I also did it in five minutes using a postage stamp sized picture on my phone as an image to work from.

But I actually kind of like him, I think he's got a certain something. And I love his big old beady eyes!

This is probably just me being optimistic about him though, I can already hear the voices of art teachers past telling me to bin it and start on something fresh!

Which I might just do (not the binning part) the starting fresh part, it's been ages since I've had a go at painting. I'm thinking something of the large scale variety, possibly on canvas. And to be honest I am quite liking the idea of doing an owl! Just need to get myself a canvas now and to get my bum into gear.

Speaking of getting my bum into gear I have a list of things to do as long as my arm!

• finish current knitting project for etsy.
• finish patchwork quilt (lord give me the strength to actually complete this project!)
• aprons to be sewn
• needle books to be made
• beading on Indian owl to be started/completed
• all embroidery projects to be turned into cushions

The list goes on and on and on!

 

It seems every time something's finished something else rears its ugly head!

 

Much Love

 

Frankie

 

xxx