Love these crocheted flower brooches!

A lovely lady came into the shop today when I was working and she was wearing some gorgeous crocheted flower brooches with cute buttons in the middle. Her daughter was also sporting a couple and they looked so lovely! She'd made them herself, and I asked cheekily (to the dismay of my boss) if I could please take a photo for my blog. She looked a bit surprised but agreed, so after a bit of awkward fumbling for my phone, I took this pic! They're just so cute though and I love it when people make their own accessories and wear them! The world definitely needs more of that!!!! xxx

4 Simple Goals...A bit of inspiration from Emme Lou!

This morning I was reading Emme Lou's blog, and she wrote down her "4 Simple Goals by 2011" as inspired by the blog; A Beautiful Mess by Elsie Flannigan (I need to check that out!) But it made me think about my own goals...what do I want to achieve by 2011 (as Emme Lou cruelly puts- only 4 months left of the year to get cracking!!) That means achieveing an average of one goal per month!
So what DO I want to achieve by 2011? What's going to make me happy...crafting or otherwise...
I guess me No. 1 goal is to improve on the piano...that's a must, as I am pretty terrible and am due to start a secondary school music PGCE in September! I've been manically buying music books in a desperate attempt to improve!
So, No. 2 goal.........I guess to get my life in some kind of order! Sort out any outstanding paperwork (I have a lot) and get a proper filing system going! I am soooooo messy when it comes to paperwork - I need to sort it out and it's a big job!
No. 3....I'd like to get crafting and get a few bits and bobs into Birds of a Feather Lifestyle Boutique (where my curtain ties are soon to be!) but I have so many things that I'd like to make- lots of hairclips and keyrings and mobile phone danglies, that I'd really like to put aside the time I waste doing rubbish and use it to get crafting!
No. 4...More of a general thing, but to just try my hardest at everything I decide to do..whether that's uni work, weekend shop work, crafting, music-making or keeping in contact with friends. I need to stop pissing about, and spend at least the next year working really hard and putting any effort I can muster into anything I do. I really want to do well on the course, and that means working hard! And I just want to do well in life and be happy too......A nice goal! :D
SO those are my 4 (hopefully simple) goals!!!
Time will tell!!!!!! xxx

Celebrity Spotting...

Sooo...today at work Angela Griffin and some other woman from The Bill came in to the shop (oops..don't know her name!) But it was pretty cool. It's always quite disappointing when you see people off TV just wondering around! They never look as glam as you expect them to or would like!! I used to work in a shoe shop that sold Clarks shoes and Noel Gallagher walked in- took one look around and went straight back out! HAHA! Apparantly Judy Dench (sorry..Dame!) is in town at the moment, so perhaps she'll pop in and make the most of the sale!! In the meantime, my eyes are peeled!

I Heart Friends & The Beach...

Yay! I LOVE it when friends come back to Cornwall for summer! I really miss them when they're away, and it is SO nice to catch up and do fun things! The other day I met up with a couple of friends - Millie who lives in Brighton and Annie who lives in Nottingham. We went to Marzion and got an ice cream and walked across the beach and through town (stopping off to go in a few art galleries along the way) and it was lovely! I saw so much handmade jewellery in the galleries that was just soooo nice! Oh well- it'll just have to stay there!!
I keep meaning to do something crafty with Milly - last time she was down we made badges with her full-on industrial badge-maker...Amazing!
Yay for friends! :D xxx

Boardmasters in Newquay was so good!!!

This is me...About to be sick on the waltzers! YUCK! I get SO ridiculously travel sick- literally, if I'm in the back of a car, I'll get sick by the end of my road - less than 100 metres, so WHY did I decide to go on the waltzers!? Peer pressure me-thinks! So, I braved the waltzers, and about 2 seconds in, I started regretting it! I went quickly green and my friends were starting to worry about 'splash-back' if I did throw up while moving! I ended up begging the guy spinning the car faster "Please, have some compassion! No more!" To which he replied, "Oh sorry love, do you feel sick? Don't worry, I'll spin you the other way twice as hard- that'll counteract the dizziness!" [WHIZZZZ]....Bastard! So I got off, looking slightly worse for wear and wobbling like I'd downed a bottle of the good-stuff! Bonus!


So this is also me...after recovering from sickness and taking in the sights, enjoying a portaloo trip or two and sampling some fine festival dining! Feeling MUCH better! :D I had such a good day at Boardmasters - unfortunately I could only stay for one day and had to go home in the early evening (to attend to my 14 year old horny daschund) but it was brilliant! The only downside was that my poorly car broke down 4 times on the way there, and a journey that should only take 45 mins took 3.5 hours due to a mixture of roadworks, crawling holiday traffic and my car breaking down! Oh no! Luckily I managed to get it started again, but it got pretty embarassing when it decided to break down in the right hand lane and then again in the right hand lane where the traffic filters in! I wasn't too popular with the cars behind me. Or maybe I was...I received a lot of beeping- maybe that means they liked me! :D Luckily my poorly car is now fixed (I hope...touch wood!) Oh God..where's the wood!?
Can't wait for Boardmasters next year!!! xxx

Wow - I didn't realise my friends were so talented...

I bumped into an old friend today - Dan...He said he'd been doing illustration work and has been creating t-shirts (one of which he was of course modelling!) I was really surprised when I checked out his recent work on his facebook page (Dan Morgan - Illustrator) and his website http://www.danmorgan.moonfruit.com His work is really good. He's done some amazing artwork on the walls in a snowboarding shop in Truro- looks awesome! Check him out!

Maybe I should have done this at the beginning...

So today I decided to start updating my blog a bit more regularly and a bit more seriously. I have no idea what made me come to that conclusion...But here goes! There may (or may not!) be a bit more writing from now on!

I recently got a job in a really lovely boutique in St Ives, Cornwall called Birds of a Feather. It's absolutely amazing and stocks lots of cool designers like Emme Lou, Jane Foster, Lisbeth Dahl, Lisa Stickley (currently showcasing in the Tate gallery) and lots more... I'm even getting my own designs in there too which is fabulous news. I've almost finished some yellow and purple curtain tie-backs for the changing room which will soon be on sale. It's always hard to price your own creations though. For the amount of hours and love that have gone into each piece of work, you'll never get that value back, but I guess it's just such a nice feeling if someone likes your work that much that they're willing to pay good money for it, so it makes it all worth while! Emme Lou popped in to the boutique today while I was working and we discussed the blood, sweat and tears that go into a project and how hard it is to price things. She's also started a new blog which I'm following, and really looking forward to seeing what bits & bobs she'll make next. She makes the most amazing crocheted brooches and hair clips that I really think she should put on her folksy shop! She recently got a gorgeous tattoo on her foot - it says 'create' in ribbon-effect and looks so cool (although I did only manage to get a glimpse through her white tights!) so I really hope she posts a photo! Emme Lou- if you're reading this, please post a photo! If you're reading this, and you're not Emme Lou, I really recommend you follow her vintage chic blog: www.emmeloucreates.blogspot.com


I know it's not very interesting, but I bought some really cool Barry M nailvarnish and decided to use all the colours on my nails. They're a mixture of yellow, pink, lilac and baby-blue. They're really strong colours and I like it, but I'm not sure if I like it on me! Usually I paint my nails red or just one colour, so I don't really know if it suits me. Emme Lou said she liked it, and she's pretty damn stylish, so I guess I'll just trust her judgement! Unless she's trying to make me look like an idiot! I felt like a right emo today though - I wore a leopard print cardigan with my multi-coloured nails...hmm...cool or not? I'm still undecided! I was going to wear a floral scarf tied around my head and red lipstick, but I decided it was a step too far. Maybe one day I'll have the confidence to not care and just go for it, but until that day, I'm just going to put on everything I really want to wear and wimp out and take it all off and get changed just before I leave the house! *Sigh*

So bad news...Last week I got 'dumped'! Oh dear! I was with my boyfriend for a year and we'd moved in together, but I moved out again recently. It turned out that he detested my crocheted blanket and array of vintage lamps and sheepskin rugs and said I was "too quirky" for him and it wasn't going to work :( It was a real shame, but if someone doesn't want to be with you, you can't force them to want to be. Hey ho, that's life. I'm kind of looking forward to being single. I was with my previous boyfriend for 6 years and there was very little break in between them (which I kind of regret), so I basically haven't been single for 7 years and I think it will be nice for a while not to have to answer to anyone and just be selfish and spend time on me and making things and not feel guilty about doing so. Obviously, I don't want to be single for TOO long! I am a bit terrified of ending up as an old spinster with 50 cats (I'm not even that keen on cats!) Eugh...It's just my luck - that's my fate, I can feel it! Oh well, I've got knitting needles, I'll be fine!! And if I run out of wool, I can shave the cats and knit with their fur on cocktail sticks while wearing an outfit consisting solely of purple and baggy tights!

As well as working in the boutique, I also work in a clothes shop in town, which I love, as everyone I work with is just so lovely and funny. I spend the day laughing, and it just makes working more bearable! But, at the moment I'm working 7 days a week, which is brilliant, as I really need the money at the moment, but it's so tiring too! I'm starting a PGCE in September to do secondary school music teaching, which I am so excited about, but I got through clearing and it's all been very last minute. I need to pay half of the fees up front in September which is a pretty terrifying thought! That, coupled with the fact that I've just had to re-insure my car, tax it and it's due its MOT and service this month too- aah! Rubbish! Because things weren't going that well with my now ex-boyfriend, I moved back in with my mum, which is great, as rent is obviously a lot less and I love her to bits and really get on with her BUT we drive each other nuts too! She's just come back from Ibiza (not clubbing thankfully!) but it was so nice to have the house to myself for a week. I could spread all of my different coloured wool across the lounge floor without annoying her! (she's a tidyness freak!) But I shouldn't moan- I'm super grateful she's had me back - I'd be really screwed otherwise and would find it near impossible to do the PGCE (moneywise) if I had to find somewhere else to rent on my own!

The interview for the PGCE was hilarious. It was a gruelling 2.5 hours! I was the longest in there by about an hour! Their bisggest issue with me is that I have an English degree not a music degree, and so I have huge gaps in my theory, and so they really weren't sure whether to give me a place or not. I'm the first person they've ever interviewed without a music degree, and they even invited me to interview over someone else with a music degree, so that's an achievement in itself. The interview itself was ok in places, and hugely embarassing in others. The man said to me, "so how are you on piano, can you busk your way through?" And I said "oh yeh, fine, no problem" (I was actually panincking as I've always been useless at piano, but I thought I'll get to that if I ever get through!) THEN, the man said to me "oh, well, this is a bit mean, but oh well" and pulled out his iPhone with the piano application on it and said "play me some cadences, play me some intervals"...AAAH! Panic mode! I hadn't done that since I was 15! Pressure! So I took the phone off him (thinking, Oh God, how am I going to do this!)...Miraculously, I got the first one right, then it all went downhill! But every wrong note I pressed, I coughed loudly over, THEN I decided the best tactic was to blame the wrong notes on my "wide fingers!" and that's why I couldn't press the right keys!...i.e. "I know the right notes, it's just I have exceptionally wide fingers!" The man just looked at me with a mixture of shock, confusion, amazement and disbelief! It was quite an interview!

While I was doing work experience for the PGCE, I met an absolutely lovely guy called Joel who is an amazing musician. He drums with a band called Lo-Star who are just so good. When he told me he drummed with a band, I thought "oh yeh, another one of those guys...oh yeh, blah blah" but I checked them out (as I was entirely ignorant to them) and they are really bloody good! They're like a mixture between Coldplay, U2 and Bloc Party and the singer has a really nice jazzy voice that kind of reminds me of Tom McRae and of course the drumming is just so good! Haha ;) Please check them out and support them as they really are talented! You can listen to some of their tracks on the website (and look at some lovely pics of them all too!) hee hee... www.lo-star.com

Right, that's enough blabber for now...I need to go and finish that second curtain tie as it's looking a bit wonky with just one at the moment!
I'll write again soon! Promise!! :D
Love, Laura xxx