Wish Me Luck for my BIG SWIM!

Hi! I hope you're well and happy today! :-)

It's my Swimathon day today! So this is a very quick post before I get ready... I'm really looking forward to it but don't feel 100% well, which is a bit of a pain but there ya go.

So to celebrate (what is life for??), here's a video of some of the music from one of my favourite video games: Jet Set Radio which came out for the Dreamcast.  I love the music from this game and if I could get the soundtrack on CD (or even a download) I'd be a very happy lady!  But thanks to YouTube and Renegade466isback, I can enjoy the games again without dusting off the old Dreamcast, and turning it upside down (which is what we'd have to do to get it to work again, apparently... don't ask!)


Best wishes
Joey xx

A Celebratory Giveaway!

Kitty 1000

I hope you've been having a good weekend.

I had a lovely surprise this morning when I went through my usual daily bad habit of checking my Etsy stats (yes, I am very sad!) on the "Heartomatic" bit on Craftcult.com...

I was very happy to find that 1000 people have now hearted my shop, Joey's Dream Garden! I can remember way back, when the number of shop hearts reached 100, I was so pleased, but never thought I'd reach 1000 hearts!  Good things come to those who wait... ;-)

I've had so much fun since I set up my Etsy shop, back in September 2007. The first thing I listed in my shop was a little yellow bunny brooch (pictured below). I'd made a few little bunnies from felt like this a while before, but not as brooches.  So when I discovered Etsy, I decided that I just wanted to join in with the crafting fun!  I'm really glad that I did.

Anyway, I think this is a good opportunity to celebrate with a giveaway! I have made a special commemorative Kittypip brooch, called Kitty 1000 (pictured at the top of this post), in golden yellow felt, with lots of metallic thread stitching. To win her, all you need to do is leave a comment to this post, by 17:00 BST, Sunday 18th April 2010 (so if you don't live in the UK, check here for your time: http://www.timeanddate.com/)

I'll be using the random number generator to pick out the winning comment at random (the first comment will be number 1, the second number 2 and so on) and then post the result very soon after!

Only one comment per person please.

Good luck!
Joey x

Affodell, the little springtime owl!

Affodell, the Owl Brooch

Hiya!  I hope you're not too blue if you've had to go back to work after Easter... remember there's another bank holiday coming up in a few weeks!

Just like I promised, I've made another owl brooch... yes, already!  Wasn't that quick for me?

This one I've named Affodell, and I think she looks like a she-owl.  Her colours were inspired by all the beautiful daffodils and narcissi (I don't know the difference though!) I saw on Sunday in the botanical gardens.  Just like this:

Daffodils in Sheffield Botanical Gardens

She's in my Etsy shop, Joey's Dream Garden, right now!

Have a happy day!

Joey x

Mottieve, the Blue Owl!

Mottieve, the little blue owl brooch

Hiya! I hope you've been enjoying the Easter break so far... and it's not finished yet! Yippee!

I was really quite productive yesterday and finished the first one of a new brooch design: an owl! I've called him "Mottieve" (pronounced "motty-vee") which is a made-up name I found, but I like the sound of it. 

The design isn't completely new... do you remember the owl and pussycat in a pea green boat sets that I made together with my friend Claire of The Pin Factory?

Well, I've used the same owl design because I loved it so much! There is one difference though... now, his wings pivot, so you can make him flap them! I'm a real sucker for a novelty, and I was determined that my owlie brooch would have flapping wings!  The picture below shows Mottieve in progress, a couple of days ago, minus his striking tummy markings!

He's in my Etsy shop, Joey's Dream Garden right now... go take a look!

I will be starting another one very very soon too!

Have a great day everyone!
Joey x

Happy Easter!

I always love the spring, but especially this year after the long, cold winter we've had here in the UK.  It's lovely to see our garden springing back to life.  Just look at the lenten rose (hellebore orientalis) above; isn't it pretty? I've had this plant for about 5 years, I think I bought it as a tiny thing from one of the Sheffield Botanical Gardens plant sales.  In the picture below, you can see the seed pods just starting to form on one of the flowers; they're the green pod-like things right in the centre of the flower.

The next photo shows what our clump of lovage looks like at the moment. In the summer, this grows to a massive 7ft!

Now, look at the picture below... this is what the lovage looked like just 14 days ago!  Tiny, isn't it!  All that growth in just 14 days...

Now for some Eastery-crafty goodness!  Here's a few of my recent Etsy favourites...

Art Textile. Sparkle Cloth - contemporarystitches

I love Karen Ruane's work, it looks really pure and clean, and pretty.  Her embroidered art is unusual in some aspects (like how she adds little loops of fabric to the edges of a piece) but traditional in other ways, with the flower motifs.  Just gorgeous.

Pattern to make a little baby Bun - VivianneGalli

I would love a little bunny like this.  I think it's that worn, "well-loved" look that a little bear of mine has (which I had when I was little, and cried when some boy turned his legs the wrong way! There was no lasting harm though) And that old bell around her neck is just too gorgeous! Tinkle-tinkle!

Spring Bunny Schnibbles Lampwork Bead Set by keiara SRA - bykeiara

Keira is SO talented with glass, I just marvel at how cute and perfect all her little beads are.  Look at the bunnies!! She is a lovely person too, so friendly and is happy to make custom beads for you.

Couple of Love Birds - Gingermelon

How lovely and sweet are these? Very very much so. And if you go to the Etsy shop, you'll see that they both just fit in the palm of your hand! What is it about tiny things that makes them so adorable??

Finally, I wanted to show you my little efforts to make the kitchen look slightly Eastery...

I've had these felt die-cut rabbits for about 3 years; I bought them from Paperchase and I've only just got around to doing something with them!  All I've done is simply string them together with invisible thread to make a garland for the dresser.

I bought these little glass egg ornaments from John Lewis Stores (otherwise known as Cole's here in Sheffield... it will always be Cole's to Sheffielders!) for half price and happened to have a child's clothes hanger lying around so hung them on it, sellotaped them at the back to secure, and used a jolly bit of braid to hang them in front of our kitchen window!

Have a great day!

Joey xx

Look - No Armbands! (a big swim)

Swimmers during learn to swim week, at a suburban swimming pool, probably Wellington region, ca 1939

In just over 5 weeks I will be doing a long-ish sponsored swim for charity, as part of the national annual Swimathon event. The charity is called Marie Curie Cancer Care, and they provide special nurses who care for people with cancer in their last weeks of life, in the patients' own homes. The Marie Curie nurses do an invaluable and extremely difficult job, and I aim to raise around £100 for them by doing this sponsored swim.

I did the Swimathon last year (Little Tiger is wearing the medal below, which everyone gets just for completing the swimathon) and I’ve decided to swim the same distance, 2.5 km (so that’s 100 lengths of a 25 metre pool, or approx. 1 ½ miles). I found it do-able, but for a few days after I felt really exhausted. So at the moment I’m training myself up by doing longer and longer swims at the same pool where I’ll be doing the Swimathon – at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre which was originally built for the 1991 World Student Games, and boasts one of Europe’s deepest diving pools at 5.85 metres.

I’m not a fast swimmer at all, actually I’m pretty slow so if I manage the swim in less than 1 ½ hrs I’ll be happy. I do get quite jealous of folks who can swim fast and with a beautiful technique, then do a fast flip-turn at the end of the lane… Well, all I can do is my best!

If you would like to sponsor me, please go to my sponsorship page: Joey's Swimathon Page and you can give by debit or credit card. If you’re a bit shy and don’t want your name to show for everyone to see, just untick the box which says "I give permission for my name to be displayed...", and your donation will show as “anonymous”.

Thank you reading!
Best Wishes
Joey xx

Exit Through The Gift Shop

This film is a sort of documentary about a French man's journey from a family man who happens to be obsessive about filming anything and everything with his video camera, through his discovery of street art, to his own rebirth as a celebrity pop artist. The reason I say it's a "sort-of" documentary because I'm not sure how much of it is partial or total fiction, because it's supposed to be a film made by Banksy. I love a lot of street art or graffiti (the sort that looks or feels like someone has put a lot of work or thought put into it, rather than what appear to be wanton acts of boredom) so it was fantastic to see a lot of great street art being created (despite the interventions of the police).

Thierry Guetta, the main focus of the film, is a very intriguing man. It's clear that he's incredibly driven by his passion for filming the everyday world around him, but when he finds the underworld of street art, he becomes obsessed by it, and forms friendships with graffiti artists in the US. It's through a particular artist, Shepard Fairey, that Thierry is introduced to Banksy and ends up following him around, assisting Banksy in constructing art and filming him (well, his hands at work, mostly!). Eventually, encouraged by Banksy, Thierry becomes an artist in his own right overnight and even hires the massive CBS studios in LA and has his own "art show". This is the bit where is all goes a bit fairy-tale-ish, but cheeky and entertaining nonetheless.

I've seen this film described as a "faux documentary" and a "hoax" of Banksy's... which may or may not be true. What I do know, is that it's a very entertaining look at the art world, and a great story. There are probably lots of critics over the world who are getting their knickers in a twist over the questions that this film might raise, around what actually IS art... Well, at the risk of sounding a little bit pretentious, my own personal view is that art is something that someone has made, and that they have some sort of emotional attachment to... but let's keep the lid of that can of worms tightly shut - life's too short!

Official Site: http://www.banksyfilm.com/ - this tells you where you can see the film - I saw it at the Showroom, Sheffield.

Discover more about graffiti and street/guerilla art: http://www.woostercollective.com/

Let's not forget my own favourite graffiti artist, Sheffield's (and Lutterworth's, where I went to school) very own Kid Acne:

nighty-night!

Joey xx