Tuesday 31 May 2016

Book I read lately

Morning all!

I never write book review before, so please don't be harsh :)

Last week I was in library and put my hands on this:



Long time I didn't read anything wrote by him - I must tell you I like Mr Sanderson writing style, so nice and easy to read plus I'm fantasy fan :)

On the back cover you can read:

'When Shai is caught replacing the Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she must bargain for her life.

An assassin has left the Emperor Ashravan without consciousness, a circumstance concealed only by death of his wife. If the emperor does not emerge after his hundred-day mourning period, the rule of the Heritage Faction will be forfait and the empire will fall into chaos.

Shai is given an impossible task: to create, to Forge, a new soul for the emperor in less than one hundred days. But her soul-Forgery is considered an abomination by her captors. (...)'.

You can read few more sentences on the cover, but I decided not to re-write it here. It is look almost like spoiler :), but....

Believe me or not, I'm not surprised that Mr Sanderson received Hugo award for this novella.

Great plot, interesting characters and... yes, the end you will like :)

I read it in few hours - was totally 'glued' to this book from the start. At the moment my man is reading it and if consider that he doesn't have much time to read, he 'eat' the half of the book already and is enjoying it as much as I did.

So if you never read Brandon Sanderson - this book is great for start! If you like fantasy and never read this book - just do it!

Thursday 26 May 2016

Dom, homework and chickenpox

My little cutie catch nasty cold few days ago and coughing, sneezing etc, mostly late afternoons and nighttime. Last night he decided he need a cuddle and he came to our bed :) I was surprised to see him today morning 'glued' to his Daddy :)

He woke up in nice mood... fact, wasn't happy when Daddy was leaving house for work...

We played some lego blocks, drank some tea and start to deal with Dom's homework 'Minibeast Home Learning Challenge'.

Dom likes 'Incy Wincy Spider' rhyme, but we both need more practice with words and gestures :)

We have no chance to see Ladybirds outside cause weather is not good, so we used my butterflies dies to make a colourful meadow.


Look at him - he knows what he's doing :)


Take them out from dies :)


Bit of glueing :) Then extra colour added :)


Our 'Butterflies on the meadow' finished :)

Then we were in the town, little shopping with frog cookie for Dom :), cheat chat with our fave computer man and we back home. 
Just then I realised Dom scratching his head - badly, plus has few spots here and there - not lots and not massive, but blistery, so I checked net, then consulted with our GP practice and called Dom's school. 
He's catching nap now. Midterm at home ahead us unfortunately, but better to have chickenpox when you 4 then eg. 16 or 28 :)

That's all for today my friends :)




Tuesday 24 May 2016

Meet Stefano

Are you a fan of leather accessories? If you are, Stefano is your man :)

Stefano is from Italy and is designer and creator of beautiful leather covers, masks, costumes, instrument cases and accessories - also steampunk style :)

What he wrote about himself on his Etsy profile:
' I love my work with leather. I love the smell of it and how I can use it for almost everything. I'm the kind of person that want to sell only perfect items, based on customer wishes, and this is why I'm completely committed in this job. (...)'

Want to know more, check: https://www.etsy.com/uk/people/MeoLeathercraft

I can tell, that as a member of Handmade Movement Team Stefano is nice person and hard working man.

At the moment he is working on pieces he will show on Yggdrasil Medieval and Pagan Festival in Treviso between 17 and 19 June this year. We are all waiting for his news from this big event :)

We all have our faves from Stefano's shop, here few pieces I like a lot:









If some of these pieces catch your eye and you want to check Stefano's shop by yourself, go: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MeoLeathercraft. You can also check his web: http://www.stefanomeo.it/ or give a 'like' his FB page: https://www.facebook.com/StefanoMeoLeathercraft

More info about Yggdrasil Festival you can find here: https://www.facebook.com/events/879512058830901/

I wish Stefano lots of sales and a HUGE success on incoming event :)











YGGDRASIL Medieval and Pagan FestivalYGGDRASIL Medieval and Pagan FestivalYGGDRASIL Medieval and Pagan Festival

Saturday 21 May 2016

Day without net

'More then 24 hours without net - lovely...

Irony my dear friends, just pure irony... Why irony?

Answer:

Around midday yesterday when checking my etsy shop I lost net connection, bit surprised first, thought - router? what the...! Check it and another surprise - router's fine, just net gone... connection back few minutes later for maybe a minute or two... believe me I was happy I'm alone at home. Connection back and gone for good... We tried again on the evening, connection still unstable - totally, just had enough time to find out I had a sale, but had no chance to write down buyers address - net was gone again.

Today morning - net still unstable - this time I just wrote buyers details with no checking anything else, net gone again.
So I had no other choice then call my net provider - talked with nice technician girl, she made some checks and other magic and net was back, but I'm not dealing with online stuff when my son is at home, cause I prefer spend this time with him, reading and playing or just going for walk. I back online after midday ( Dom at nursery), after 20 minutes net was gone, so I called net provider again, talked with another nice technician girl - this one made some checks, asked me to do some stuff on my side, she made something on hers, then we checked how all this work.

Worked :) And still working :)

Fingers crossed for long time' - and that was all what I managed to write yesterday before I lost net connection again...

Net back sometime later for about 40-50 minutes - my man watched some documentary on YouTube and then gone again.

I switched router and laptop on today morning - result: no net connection.

We decided - we'll deal with it later.

Then had some breakfast, wrote down our weekly meal plan, shopping list and went out. We had nice walk with sunny weather. After returning home, we drank coffee, ate bit of cake, helped Dom with his new Lego racing car and then called net provider.

Result: net back :)

But...

We were told to monitor situation for 7-10 days and if connection drop down call them back...

So...

Please keep your fingers and toes crossed for us, I'm tired of calling them again and again :)

If you had similar experience with your net connection, please tell about it in comment.


Tuesday 17 May 2016

Total bookworm :)

I decided it is time to write about my first kiddy love - books :)

I'm reading since I learned how to do it :) Plus my childhood passion was one of the things my parents always share with me - they both are book lovers :)

Thanks to my Dad I read Charles May, Jack London, James F. Cooper, Alfred Szklarski, thanks to Mum: Alexander Dumas, Agatha Christie, Joe Alex etc.

When I was rather late teen I discovered Lucy M. Montgomery, Danielle Steel, Stephen King, some time later I fall in love with Garcia Marquez and William Wharton, found David Gemmel, David Eddings, Andrzej Sapkowski.

When I left home and moved to England things I missed the most were books, I have none with me, and my English wasn't good enough to read books in English.
I had just one option that time - learn :) And books helped me with it :) I could read Shakespeare in original!!! That was something :)

Now I'm reading in both languages :)

One of our book shelves - packed in 2 rows of books each:


I think we need more shelves for books :)


Finished this one yesterday - great writing style, brill story - hope will find other books of this author :)


Today I back to Mr Knight - Crowner John Mystery is nice serie for anyone who likes criminal with historical twist :)

Saturday 14 May 2016

Photography

When I was a teen I wanted to have good camera - Nikon or Pentax.
Still don't have any of those :), but I think camera I use at the moment is ok :)
Hope one day I will have my dream camera tho ;)

I wanted to be a photographer or photo reporter - finished working as office worker/admin. Then was doing lots of other things, making courses, again landed in office :) but after maternity I stayed at home - costs of nursery for our boy was to high...

So now I'm full time Mum and crafter with online shop (self-employed :)).

Still taking photos, some good, some not, some even tragic to be honest - these not staying with me for long :) THANK YOU camera producers for 'delete' option :)

I tried some digital manipulation programs and had lots of fun with them (Picasa and Photoshop, bit of Gimp).


Photoshop - Autumn trees


Photoshop - Colourful leaves


Photoshop - Nettle


This one is just nature - catch these beauties on one of our trips :)


Spring in park in 2005


Some kind of festival in September 2006 in Newcastle upon Tyne


Grey squirrel - Peak District if I'm not wrong :)


Holy Island, Northumberland, Lindisfarne Priory - Autumn 2007 - memorable place for us - typical English weather :), but we had great fun and became English Heritage members there.


My little sunshine in black and white - 2012.

Fact, at the moment Dom is my main pic object, but how I supposed do not take his photos???

Friday 13 May 2016

Meet Karine

Today I want you to meet Karine, owner of https://www.etsy.com/shop/LaJoieEnRose, captain of Artisans Canada team on Etsy.

Karine is originally from Quebec, living now in British Columbia - beautiful western Canadian province. She's jewellery maker.

What she wrote about herself on her Etsy profile? Here you go:

'Young woman in the early thirties (...) La Joie En Rose was born of the desire to take my professional life in my hands after many moving and share my passion for art and beauty through the joy of creating. (...)'

Want to know more? Go: https://www.etsy.com/uk/people/RoseetBum

You can find lots of different items in Karine's shop, eg. creams, jewellery or children teethers and other accessories for parents.

My faves:









Karine is Etsy seller since 2015, she's very active team captain and friendly person who trying her best to help team members with their sales :) 
If you want to know what else you can find in her shop, just pop in there and check, maybe you'll find something you'll love to have :)


Thursday 12 May 2016

Dinosaur cookies :)

Wednesday - cookie day - dinosaur day!!! Dom was happy :)

We had another nice and sunny day, Dom had great day at nursery and after back home I started to make a dough.
Dom came into the kitchen with his chair to watch what I was doing - he likes to watch me preparing food :)
'Chocolate' he said when saw that I added cocoa powder and dough became dark brown :) 'Yes, chocolate' I said back and we both smiled :)

Then I placed new dino cookie cutters in front of him and started to roll the dough - you should see his face :) We had lots of dough rolling and cutting and placing on baking trays :) 3 medium and 1 small tray full of cookies :)

Which dinos? Can you name them?


Dom started their 'mass extinction' when they were still warm :) I had to hide them, cause I knew if he grab more I can forget about him eating his dinner :)


Here - all what's left after initial 'extinction' :)

Recipe for dough I adopted from 'Cookies - a collection of 200 delicious recipes' book. 

If you want to try these cookies (cookie cutters of your choice ), here's all you need:

* 90g softened butter
* 60g caster sugar
* 1 egg
*  tbsp milk
* 280g plain flour (I used bit less then that)
* 2 tbsp of cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F. Line baking trays with greaseproof paper. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg and milk and beat together until combined, add cocoa and flour and mix to form soft dough. Roll the dough until about 5 mm thick, cut your cookies and bake 10-12 minutes. Leave to cool on baking tray for few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. You can decorate your cookies with chocolate or icing of your choice or just eat them plain :)



Wednesday 11 May 2016

May - door to Summer?

Finally I can say we have nice Spring :)

Fact, from time to time weather is playing with us and we have chilly winds or even unexpected hailstones like on end of April... but now is warmy and sunny and greeny :)

May for me is also month with birthdays and namesdays :) First my Dad and me with our namesdays, then Dom and my Mum with birthdays :) Plus bank holidays :)


Dom's officially 4 now :)

Last weekend we used for dealing with weeds in our garden, still some left, but looks much better and we have space prepared for our French beans now :)


Look at these bluebells :)


Dom's apple tree is blooming too :)

I was in mood for crafting and made few children bracelets with frosted beads.


Purple here, but I also made pink, yellow, green, orange and mix of yellow-orange-red which some nice gentleman from Belgium won in my Twitter giveaway for his niece.


These yellow pair above I made yesterday and one of my friend said they look like piece of fishing rod - cheeky man :)

On Twitter I met nice girl who also is making jewellery and this year opened shop on Etsy. Fran making macrame jewellery and she has amazing pieces in her shop, eg below



Maybe one day I learn how to make something so beautiful :)





Monday 9 May 2016

Meet Theresa

Today I want you to meet Theresa - owner of https://www.etsy.com/shop/KraftyGrannysHome.

She's from Arizona and selling her handmade items on Etsy since 2011. Theresa is one from key members of Handmade Movement Team - I hope this is not only my opinion :)

What she's writing about herself on her Etsy profile?

'Quilting has become a passion for me not sure why but I love the coordinating of colors. (...) I am a wife, mother & grandmother and have recently retired, now I get to do the things I really love quilting, crocheting and of course play a game of golf now and then...'

If you want to know more about what Theresa wrote about herself go:https://www.etsy.com/uk/people/theresaholland.

You an find lots of interesting things in her shop: quilts, baby things, potholders, scarves, vintage jewellery etc. Something for everyone I can say :)

My faves from her shop?

Look at these:











I decided stop here with adding pics from Theresa shop, cause I want you to check what more she has there :) Believe me or not - you can find lots of nice things :)

Personally - Theresa is friendly Lady, great cheat chatter and very hard working woman. I think she needs nice long holiday :) In some nice place :)





Sunday 8 May 2016

Lego-mania? Blocks-mania?

My already 4 years old son loves Lego blocks :) and not only Lego :)

He loves blocks since he was about 2. He never tried to eat them or anything like that - bless :)

He was and still is building walls, towers, strangely looking buildings, aliens, vehicles etc.

So... Here few of his last creations:


Tower?


Hmmm... army vehicle or firefighters stuff?


New transport vehicle design?


Boat I think :)


Helicopter???


Proper bike :)


Alien???


Hmmm, lizard???


No idea - really :)

Children are amazing :) They have huge amounts of imagination :) And nobody can tell them they are wrong when they're playing with their blocks!!!

Saturday 7 May 2016

Social media

Hmmm, social media... Not easy theme to write about.

People are using so many platforms for socialising these days...

Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, YouTube and many, many more...

In today's world almost no businesses left with no social media on board. Globalization?

Sometimes I feel strange to have no other choice then online shopping, but from other side I am online seller myself... XXI century :) Computers and net almost everywhere :)

Few years ago I thought: 'No, I don't need all that stuff', today I just have it for my business - want it or not :)

So... have this blog - also kind of social media :), Pinterest: https://uk.pinterest.com/monikeen76/, FB page: https://www.facebook.com/TobisiasLilThing/ and Twitter: https://twitter.com/TobisiaLilThing.

All of these media need nice pics, so I'm trying improve my photo taking skills :) Catching:


Nature - isn't he cute?


Tourist attractions - Warkworth Castle


My son - here exploring Whitehouse Farm


My creations - on pebbles in the front of our house :)

I still have lots to learn about taking good pics and dealing with digital improving programs and hope one day I'll be at least confident with needed stuff :)

By the way I made few elastic children bracelets and decided to organize little #giveaway on Twitter, so if you are interested, go: https://twitter.com/TobisiaLilThing/status/728573871973138432