Summer

 Hi peeps!

What I can write here... We all had kinda strange Summer this year, right?

I tried to be up to date with my diary, read more nice books, sell some more of my jewellery...

Ridley Park

What a beautiful paintings!

Beach treasures - from Blyth and Whitley Bay

Common orchid we found on hill in Blyth

I spent 1 day with Dom in Whitley Bay - just little trip 😊.

With start of August Dom back to his dancing classes. 

I'm baking... Rolls, breads, cakes, cookies sometimes.

We had our little renovation project - will write about it some other day tho 😁.

We have carrots and tomatoes in our garden, cannot wait for them to be ready to eat 😂.

That's all for now...

Till next post Friends!

Meet Lizzie

Hiya peeps!

Today I want you to meet Lizzie Chantree.

I 'met' Lizzie 'long time ago' (about 2 years or so) on Twitter. 

Busy girl, have to tell ya ;)

Lizzie's a successful writer and as she wrote about herself:

'... an enthusiastic inventor, businesswoman and artist. I founded my first company at the age of 17 and have been creating products and driving my family mad ever since.'

She's living in Essex with her family and doggy girl named Pepper (see pic below)

Lizzie sent me this pic with note: 'This is where I often sit and write'

Beautiful spot, don't you think?

I asked Lizzie few questions, here this little 'interview' :)

Q: What you were doing between your first business and being writer?

I ran a retail and wholesale business for over 15 years. I designed products and sold them here and abroad.

Q: What kind of products?

Glassware, candles, aromatherapy, home wares.

Q: How long ago you started #CreativeBizHour? (every Monday night 8-9 pm GMT networking hour on Twitter)

Five years ago now. It's been trending most weeks for years. Still do :)

***

I also asked Lizzie about her books, here her answer:

Baby Driven was my first book. 5 have been published.  One more is out with an American publisher next year and I have three more books written. I'm not sure when they will be out yet. I'm writing book 10 now.

Lizzie's first book was published in 2013. Pics of all her (published) books below:

I read four of them so far and they are nice reads :)

Lizzie is active on Facebook too, so if you are a writer (no matter genre) and looking for writing friends or reader (like me), who's looking for good reads not printed by big publishers, but independent small publishers or even self published by writers check her group:

Lizzie's Book Group

If you like romantic books check:

Romantic Fiction Book Club

Lizzie is one of admins in this group :)

More info about Lizzie's books, creative networking, fellow writers and her blog you can find here.

Little discoveries

Hiya peeps!

If we place politics aside (better for our mental health really to do that), lockdown isn't/wasn't bad time.

We all have/had chance to learn from it a bit about ourselves, our families and our surroundings.

Homeschooling is hard work and if your child losing interest in learning maths or science or just 'can't be botter', better chill out than push... They can learn other things than stuff from national curriculum during this time, things more important in life then biography of kings or how many legs insects have.

I learned to bake bread without flour, eggs, yeast

Buns on baking powder

Found lots of interesting new books/authors to read, eg:

Checked new recipes, also for sweet bakes

Finally had chance for little walks and proper look what's growing around:

To see how sky and riverside look during spring,

finished painting on one of buildings in our town's park :).

Have a 'treasure hunt' with my son on the beach and be surprised by his 'find'

Plus finding places within town's boundaries we have no idea they exist:

That's all for today :)

Stay safe!

Social distancing time

Hiya peeps!

Hope you all keep yourselves safe and in good health.

We all are in the same situation... bit frustrated, not sure next day, hopeful for some solution...

Answers for virus were different in different countries.

Here in the UK we were waiting for a bit for school closures and other procedures...

Lots of people still don't want to understand seriousness of the situation and that is scary.

They think it is just another kind of flu... I have to admit, in some point I thought similar, but changed my mind rather quickly...

Our nearest neigbourhood is full of pensioners, people who are vulnerable for this virus, plus other people after major/serious ops who are in high risk group. We have neighbours who are 'key workers' - carers, NHS workers etc.

Numbers given by NHS re confirmed cases and deaths are growing...

We are worried for our parents... they are over 60 and live in Poland, so... if anything happened to them, we are unable to go there... Borders are kinda closed, cause countries went for lockdown.

As our son is out of school, we are trying our best in homeschooling.

Bit of 'marine' biology plus reading and writing :)

Practicing times tables

Designing boat

Concert hall from Lego

Dom's also drawing, learning French, finding out about English queens and kings, ancient civilizations eg Minoans, helping with laundry, baking and lots and lots of other things including playing and enjoying his own 'me-time'.

We hope we found a balance between learning and playing time to avoid getting bored and give him a chance to learn something new.

He doesn't like all this social distancing idea, but he understand that this is for keeping us and others safe, he's missing school and his friends...

Fingers crossed all will back to normal soon...

Stay safe Friends!

Reading challenge

Hiya peeps!

What a lazy writer me?! Nothing here since... months!

Right... been kinda busy... we can say... Xmas, leak (actually 2 leaks) from bathroom into kitchen, plumbers, electricians, few new jewellery pieces etc etc etc...

My man gave me kindle for Birthday /Xmas. .. so I thought I challenge myself.

I  told myself : 'you think you are bookworm! Right we'll check it! Read 225 books till 31st December 2020 then!'

Kindle gave me chance to back to Thorgal comic books - I enjoyed them as much as when I was late teen (doesn't matter I read them first in Polish :) ) and to check Witcher written by Paul Tobin, actually not bad (I know Sapkowski's serie since years) - it was really interesting to read about Geralt's adventures in English and not novel but comic book.

Also had chance to read books written by girls I 'met' on Twitter :). Defo will read more :). Who? Lizzie Chantree and Vivian Conroy.

Trying to find and read novels by Agatha Christie I had no chance to read before and found out that I love Robin Hobb's writing style.

If you like English history I can recommend Toby Clements and his serie Kingmaker about Wars of the Roses:

At the moment reading last book from this series:

Below few which awaiting my attention hihihihihihi:

Yes, I'm also checking cooking/baking books - you can always find something yummy in them :) plus I'm baking lots of bread lately so anything about breads is highly interested for me :)

Do you read anything good lately?

Write about it in your comments please, so I can add it to my reading list :)

Till next post Friends!!!

Writing

Hmmm... hi!

I'm hardly writing lately... not much crafting too... trying to find a job, which is not easy task these days.

Definitely I'm reading a lot :) Always was bookworm :)

I'm thinking: 'Should I try write something more substantial then blog posts?'

I was kinda good in writing poems and short stories as a kid and teen... 

When came to the UK over 15 years ago, I write a poem on ESOL classes, whole in English from start to the end and translate it to my 'mother tongue' later :)

My man is saying I should have a go... but... I'm kinda afraid I'll be not good... I know I'm silly, cause how I can be so sure of it if I didn't try yet.

And..

What should I write?

Poem?

Short story?

Something for children?

Or maybe something for teens or adults?

I'm not good in grammar... geeez... I never was :)

Maybe I should try bit harder to find some writing group near me... who knows, maybe town I live in is full of writers :)

I think I'll check library and maybe... community centres... Wish me luck :)

I wish I could be about half as good as Jack Higgins, but... at least I know how to make nice beaded bookmarks :)

Hmmm...

Think woman... think...

...

...

Need to 'sleep' with this idea :)

Dom's new painting

Hiya peeps!

So rarely writing in here...

Making cards (different blog for this), back to jewellery making (different blog for that too)... and possibly for that I'm not writing in here as much as before...

So...

My newest card here :)

Newest jewellery pieces here :)

And for you here newest painting of my 7 years old boy :)

He paint it 2 days ago (Thursday) after school.

Sorry for blurry pic!!!

He used canvas board, rest of acrylic paints and sponge brush.

I like colors on it :)