Vintage jewellery & Community building

New bling in the shop!
All of these things I made from repurposed vintage jewellery, the first is a pendant which was once a clip on earring. The earrings where my Grandmothers, one had a broken screw up clasp. I love how vintage jewellery has a history.


If you would like to purchase some click here

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Treasure hunting on a Thames beach

On Saturday I met up with Jen, we cycled a point where the Thames is closest to us. We arrived at low tide in our wellies, ready to treasure hunt. I was looking for interesting bits of smooth class to potentially make wire wrapped pendants or a mobile. I guess because the Thames is a river, not the sea, most of the glass hadn't been smoothed enough by the time is was washed up. Instead we came home with colourful bits of pottery and interesting glass. In the mud there were lots of broken bottles. We bought home some really thick and smooth glass bottle bottoms which are now tea light holders. We did a little research on the markings and names on the bottles, apparently there was a lemonade factory nearby in the First and Second World War.

 But we decided the bottles where most certainly from ancient pirate ships/ smugglers/ once had a letter in them.

Wherever they originated, they now live on my windowsill.

Its really lovely exploring where we live, it may only be for a few hours but it beats watching TV. The Thames has seen so much, we let our imaginations run wilddddd.

Fabric Painting with Bleach

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Matt and I are taking it super eassyyyy, we are still in bed. Matt is making a Christmas video, I'm doing some reading and the occasional run to the kitchen for tea and some muffins I made yesterday. mhmmmmm :) Maybe we will go for a bike ride later, or not.

Anyway, painting with bleach. My sister gave me this idea in the summer. One day I came home and her and a friend were sitting in the garden with freshly painted bleached legging/tshirts/hoodies strung up around them. I was also really inspired by these beauties.

What we could paint was limited to what I had in my wardrobe that was dark coloured and I didn't mind potentially ruining. The first top I found and tried was an absolute fail. I applied the bleach but nothing changed. I then figured I need something with at least 50% cotton, not totally polyester. This worked far better.

You need:

At least 50% cotton item of clothing

Old paintbrushes

Thick bleach

Rubber gloves

Start by using chalk to draw on your design, paint over the chalk with bleach and wait until its bleached to a level you like. Then thoroughly rinse the clothing under cold water (this stops the bleaching process). Then hang out to dry/tumble dry. You could equally rinse under cold water then put it in the washing machine for a short cycle on its own to be extra sure there is no bleach residue.

I made this 'Grateful' shirt and Asel made the dandelion skirt. It was interesting to see what effect the bleach had on the dye in both items. The skirt went a very pink colour and the top went red then orange. If we had left the bleach for longer it would have continued bleaching and gone white.

I do like this top, its not the kind of thing I would usually wear but I imagine it going down well with a kind of summer bohemian outfit.

Bleaching is quite experimental, give it a go and let me know how it works out :):)

My interview with lovely Laura

I did a little interview about blogging for a lovely lady named Laura.  Here are three facts about Laura:

• She is on a mission this year to only buy second hand clothing. 
• She also owns a million Filofaxes and wants more.
• She is currently studying theology and youth work.

Check out her blog and my interview HERE.

Its even got a list of my favourite blogs so you should certainly check it out!

December Workshop

This is a little late coming, but I thought it would be good to do a short debrief of Decembers workshop as I have done with the others. It was another lovely evening of friends spending time together. We made Christmas cards using heat embossing and a rather vast selection of cards and ribbon and glitter and stickers etc.

The stamping table

The session was quite relaxed as there was a lot of creative freedom and no set rules. I think that some people find this harder, they would rather have rules to follow. I think that may be part of the 'creative journey', first you learn the rules and then you add your personal touches and soon you don't need the rules, you feel confident with your own creative decisions.

The ladies in the workshops have loved doing beadwork and jewellery so in Januarys workshop we will be making necklaces. The three pictures below are examples of necklaces we will make. I am yet to choose which of these three style we should go for but I bought all the beads and findings we would need yesterday. Which is your favourite of the three?

My review of 2013

Happy 2014!
What a fantastic year it has been. There were so many brilliant experiences and it felt like a real step into the rest of my life. I think starting Dear Friend, the blog and the workshops is the thing I am most proud of. It has been my dream for a long time and to actually see it happening is brilliant. This year I'm really going to try and grow it, ultimately I would LOVE it to be something that grows and I am able to devote my time to. It will be an exciting journey!

We started 2013 on the roof of our block of flats with a 360 degree view of the fireworks going off over London. It was absolutely breathtaking. We were with two of our closed friends and spent the evening discussing our dreams for the next year.

This year we started it all off by trying to light a bonfire.... using wet wood....in the rain.

A few highlights:

Korea
February was the month we went to Busan, S. Korea to celebrate a friends wedding. Busan is the most beautiful city I have ever visited. We had such a lovely time, there was so much laughter and delicious food. It was such a privilege it be accepted into the bride and grooms family. Also my first time in Asia!

India
Whilst in Korea I sent off an application to get some funding to go on a trip to India and help with a
charity out there who run daycare for the street children in Kolkata. In March I was awarded the money and spent a brilliant 10 days in a really noisy and colourful city. It was the first length of time I'd ever been away from Matt. There were a few scary experiences like being lost on my own after
dark in the back streets. It was challenging and brilliant and a real adventure.

The start of Dear Friend
In April I had to do a Dragons Den style presentation to a board of people from Unltd. A organisation that awards money to social enterprises. I was sooo nervous beforehand. A few weeks later I heard back and they really liked my idea, I had been awarded the money! This is when I first started thinking seriously about it, and 7 months later we had the first workshop! Already I have learnt lots, made some mistakes but am really looking forward to seeing where this goes.



Summer Holidays!
We had the best time over the summer, I still have long school holidays and Matts work is a lot quieter. This meant we could do lots of exploring. This started off in The Netherlands, we spent just over a week in Meppel with some of Matts family friends. This was a really inspiring time for me. The family we stayed with are very creative, so I planned workshops, was really excited to be staying in their beautiful house and we did lots of bargain hunting in the markets. When we got back to England Matt was off again, him and a friend cycled from Bilbao in Spain to St.Malo in France.
Whilst he was away I spent time with my family. We went kayaking and camped on beaches, it's so nice to spend lengthy amounts of time with my siblings. We then went to France to meet my lovely husband.

And to finish, New York.
This was such a wonderful time, more so than we could have ever planned. We got upgraded, met one of our favourite musicians, went to amazing bars, ate amazing food, got upgraded again. It was wow! We were so so blessed during our time there. Thank you to everyone who made it possible!

This year has been full of joy, provision and excitement. I am constantly thankful for having such a loving, supportive and dreaming husband.

 I have such a long list of things I'd love to do this coming year- I'm almost too scared to write it all down. I think one of my biggest hopes this year is to treat every day like an adventure, regardless of which country I'm in or things I have planned. To find the joy in each day.

I hope you have enjoyed the first two days of 2014 and have things to look forward to in the year to come!