My Hen Party

Saturday afternoon was my hen party. My sister cleverly organised the whole fabulous event. And it was exactly the kind of thing I would have wanted for a hen do. Family and close friends, piña colada's in tea cups, glitter, fairies, cake and games.

The whole thing was held at my grandparents house and I am in awe of how my sister managed to organise the whole thing so well. There were fairies hanging from the ceiling, a tower of cupcakes on the table along with a big marbled chocolate gateaux cake and some cake pops. Her boyfriends mum kindly made all the cakes for us. 

In the evening my sister organised an amazing meal starting with artichoke cups filled with parma ham and quails eggs- I know, fancy! Then we had asparagus and asparagus wrapped in parma ham, cucumber sticks and carrot sticks, cheese fondue with toasted bread, steak fondue and then chocolate fondue with strawberries, marshmallows and pink merengues made by my aunt. There were a lot of fondues involved.

We played some funny games and at the end my bridesmaids gave me a really nice book with nice stuff written in it and photos etc- it's got loads of space left in it so will be the guest book for the wedding too.

Also at the end some of us went swimming in my grandparents pool. It wasn't the best weather but it meant that the pool felt warmer. In fact it was so chilly that there was steam coming off the water! Zoe (my cousin) looked like a mermaid because she had so much blue glitter and gems around her eyes.

Celestine made an appearance in her bridesmaids dress. I have made her one exactly the same as one of the real bridesmaid dresses! She had a tiny teacup of piña colada and nibbled at a cupcake both of which she very much enjoyed.

It was a lovely afternoon and evening and I am very lucky to have a sister to organize such a nice party for me! :) (she's the one in the daisy crown below!)

Princess Kitchen and Bathroom

Here's something I worked on very recently. They are replicas of existing sets I did at the end of last year. I think they are going to be used as examples to sell the titles. It was quite strange to just do an outright copy of something I have already made once. It was quite a nice job to do actually as I didn't have to think too much about it, especially as my brain is quite occupied with wedding thoughts and dummy booking (for a different book) at the moment.

You may have seen this kitchen set on here before but this time it has characters in it. And I don't think I ever posted much of the bathroom one anyway.

Oh to have a real life bathroom like this one! Celestine is quite jealous of it and very miffed that it is only made of paper and has to be sent away.

What I like about these Princess books is that I can put as much glitter and gems and sparkles on things as I want. Golden glittery floor tiles? Why not. Gems round the toilet seat? Of course!

I think the cabinet is my favourite thing in the bathroom. I wonder what expensive and royal potions and lotions are inside all those crystal bottles...

Some Things

It been a while since I did an inventory photo of Celestine's clothes. She sure has a lot of them! This is actually only half of them.

The yellow coat is still my favourite.

Things have been very busy and wedding-planning crazy lately. I am so excited about the wedding now- I can't believe it is so close!

Below:  That is a penguin I made for my craft club kids. Got the idea from here on Pinterest.  I have made lots of fimo animals before but I thought a penguin was probably the easiest one for kids to start with making. 

Celestine went to the beach and I painted a picture of her there though I wasn't very pleased with it so have only put it in small on here! Need to practice my flat illustration.

Peak District

This was a few weeks ago now (just before Easter) but I never got my act together to post any pictures. We visited Henry's mum in Derby and took a trip into the Peak District. It was sooo nice. I loved it!! I think I really really love nature haha. It always makes me so happy to be out in nature.

I just love big rolling hills and streams and the place we went to (Dovedale park) had both. Henry and I climbed up the biggest hill we could see which had what felt like an almost vertical side! We had to hold onto the grass to get up to the top.

Celestine enjoyed it too. She wished she had brought her little boat as there was a very nice stream. And the sun was all shining and nice and made the water sparkly. She almost dove right in for a swim!  There were stepping stones across the stream which we walked across.

We also had lunch at a pub nearby which was just bang right in the middle of countryside with stone walls around it and hills all around. It was in such a stereotypical picturesque spot that I almost felt like it couldn't be real. Pie, chips and mozzarella sticks.

I want to go back!

Here's another picture I never posted- Celestine at Easter. She had a gold egg of course. Gold is her favourite colour. It took her quite a while to eat as it was solid all the way through unlike our eggs. She managed it though. What a chore it must have been for her...

forget me not

Celestine loves the flowers...

Buttercups are her favourite but forget me nots come a close second as they're just the right size for her.

The bigger flowers she can pick and use as parasols.

And the really big ones she can climb inside and sit in!

Also two films I've watched and loved so far this year:

The Sea Prince and the Fire Child. Beautiful visuals. Very magical.

Ernest et Celestine. Just such a lovely (if a little bonkers) film. I LOVED it! Will definitely be watching it again at some point. Celestine is such an adorable and characterful little mouse. Great visuals too of course! Highly recommended.

a walk in the woods

The other day we went for a walk in the bluebell woods- we were just at the right time because all the bluebells were out and it was nice and sunny too. Celestine came too, she loves the forest. She wanted to wear her flower crown and visit some of her tiny fairy friends who live inside the trees there.

evening trip to the toyshop

I have been practicing my 2d work. Was quite pleased with how this one turned out.  I think I still have a long way to go on it though.

The dinosaur kiddies have been on an evening trip to the toyshop. They bought dinosaur toys of course!

I still find working in 2d quite difficult and it takes me longer to do a 2d piece than it does to do a 3d piece but I am going to keep practicing!

The only thing though is that often when I look at my 2d picture I just think- this would have looked better and more exciting in 3d. I think I am a 3d girl at heart but shh!

This week Hnery's dad stopped in on his way home from Europe. He brought us Belgian Easter eggs from Buges! We couldn't help opening them early. They just looked so good all wrapped up in a white box with a yellow ribbon. Celestine was especially pleased because inside the big chocolate Easter egg there were lots of mini Easter eggs perfect size for her. Well, almost perfect size- if perfect size is almost half your height! 

 

Also my friend Carol from Belgium sent Celestine a tiny necklace she had made herself. Celestine is very pleased with it and has been wearing it ever since. It makes her feel bohemian because of the feather. I think Celestine rather fancies herself a bohemian/one with nature kind of summer. She wants to dance round campfires with flowers in her hair and swim in wild lagoons. She has even made me buy a book for her about wild swimming- all the best places to swim in wild and secret places round England and she is insisting I make her a tent. So that is on the agenda.

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nice things and paper flowers

I took this photo the other day while I walked my dog. It was feeling like a very cold/grey day after having nice sun in Dubai for a week. Ah well C'est la vie! At least the heavy clouds made for a good photo!

There was a nice surprise waiting for me when I got home. An Ernest et Celestine book had arrived in the post from my french friend Carol. I love Ernest et Celestine! In fact it is where I got the name Celestine from for my Celestine. Yes she is named after a little mouse.

I just really love Gabrielle Vincent's illustrations- so characterful, and this is a sweet story too. I translated it all on google translate. Celestine is confused as to why Ernest has all these old photos but has no photos of her. They remedy this by going to a photographers and getting Celestine's portrait taken. She looks pleased as punch as she poses for her picture!

I made these two cards recently. One for my mum's birthday and one for Henry's mum's birthday. I was so pleased with them that I decided to make them with the kids in my craft club. It went down really well as it is an easy way of making very pretty cards. Anyone can do it! They all made beautiful ones for their mums for mothers day. All you need is patterned paper, scissors, a glue stick and some glitter! For the kids I also brought along buttons and gems for them to use for the middles of the flowers.

Still working on my Witch Cat sequel cover at the moment. It's taking its time. I find overs always take a long time. But each time we revise it I see that it's getting better and better so I am pleased that I am really being pushed to make the best cover I can.

Here's a little sneak peek:

The weekend before last Henry and I went up to Derby to visit his mum. We had a nice weekend which involved eating nice food, watching films, sewing, shopping and eyebrow threading. 

Celestine came too. Here she is in the mall. She had to be careful she wasn't trodden on!

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