About Me

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I currently live in Birmingham and come from Solihull. I have a love of all things crafty, developed from my mom's love of crafts as I was growing up. I currently work in marketing, but I'm a qualified Aromatherapist, and use to be self employed alongside a day job, might one day return to that. I try to fit in crafts when I can, I wish I had more time and money to spend on it! I enjoy researching my family history and finding out about the past. It can get frustrating, but is really rewarding when you have a break through! I hope to meet people with similar interests as me and swap advice/stories.

Saturday 27 August 2011

Family History

I have been looking into my family history for a while now, it's great what discoveries you make, and frustrating when you get stuck, but I have been in touch with distant relatives and it's great to hear and see what information they have.

My latest connection is with family in Germany- thanks to google translate I can get the gist of what they are talking about and hopefully we'll make more discoveries soon along with closer to home Irish relatives. Here are some of the family:

Great Grandparents: Henry Edward Smith and Emma Smith (nee Schulze) if anyone on the off chance recognizes this man please reply! (I can hope) German and Birmingham England origins

Great Grandmother: Sarah Eliza Lovelock (nee Hollingsworth)
Great Grandfather: Henry Lovelock. Both London origins and Hollingsworth from Hertforshire areas.


Wednesday 17 August 2011

Glass Painting

I have been doing glass painting for a while now, not quite sure how I got into it, but I quite like it.

I tend to recycle glass jars, vases etc, you can get them cheap from car boots and charity shops- even use a cooking sauce jar. Just make sure you thoroughly clean and dry the glass first. Sometimes labels are tricky to remove, try soaking the jar in hot soapy water, most of the time that will loosen the label, if not you can get products now which help remove labels, I think Lakeland Plastics has some.

You then need your glass painting equipment.



I tend to use the aqua glass range for paints and outlines. These paints are water based so any item you paint should not be washed, to clean they should be gently clean with a dry cloth and not rubbed. The bonus here is that if you make a mistake whilst painting you can correct it. I have permanent paints too and use them on occasions. The outlines can also be brought, although outline stickers used for card making work aswell, or if you have a steady hand you can use the outliners in the tube and draw directly onto the glass (you have to allow this to dry before painting).

Once you have your design and all your equipment including fine paint brushes and water, you are good to go.  Painting on any round surface does mean the paint will go where it wants, so my advice is to put the glass jar in a different position every few minutes to try and get an even spread of paint, it will never be perfect, but that all adds to its unique handmade nature!

Here are are a few of my most recent designs.

This was a drinks bottle, now decorated with red and black hearts, could be used for decoration or as a candle holder.

An old sauce jar, re-used and created into a storage jar or tea light holder.

This was once a cider bottle! Now a fairy wonderland with flowers, butterflies and dragonflies galore!


Butterfly and Daisy design which sits in my bathroom. Some bottles like this I do fill with my aromatherapy blends, it looks lovely and brightens up a room.

If anyone else glass paints and has any ideas or thoughts please comment!


Tuesday 16 August 2011

Newbie

Just starting out with blogging, hoping I can regularly update here, but life has a tendency to get in the way- I will try!

I have set up this blog mainly to talk about my love of crafts- I have two online shops:
http://www.folksy.com/shops/cheshirecat
 and http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheDarlingBudsOfMay?ref=pr_shop

I love making crafts when I get time and I like trying new crafts. I make jewellery, accessories, hand painted glass items, various fimo creations as well as knitting, crochet, card making etc.
I hope to learn more crafts and become better with the crafts I already enjoy- I'm thinking about doing a silver making course, it would be great to make your own designs and I have seen so many beautiful creations. Any tips or advice on silver making appreciated!

I also spend my time working as an aromatherapist. I like making oil blends and natural beauty products and I hope I will be able to make some more scented sachets from home grown plants! If you are interested in aromatherapy please see my website:

www.beautiful-serenity.co.uk