Caffeine for the Creative Mind

After reading this flickr post i was inspired to by the book Caffeine for the Creative Mind, it is filled with 250 exercises to wake up your brain. The creative exercises cover design, writing, photography, problem solving, idea kindling and play.
I am going to try and do one exercise each day and keep you updated regularly on how its going. We will see how that goes!
I decided to use the book that I made at the retreat for the exercises, this will keep them all in one place and its a good enough reason for me to keep it for myself?
I started off with the project in the flickr post, i went for a walk with my camera and took lots of photographs of patterns.
The exercise really got me looking at things in a different way, i was surprised at the amount of different patterns on manhole covers. I did get a few funny looks when I was photographing these, crouching down on the pavement next to the main road but I don't care!

One of the other exercises i tried was dressing you brain i don't have a piccy of that one but if you want to try it yourself the brain templates are here: http://www.wakeupmybrain.com/cftcm/exercises/MyBrain.pdf

While i was out i decided to do another exercise, take ten photographs of things that don't belong, it was supposed to be things around you but i think i will do that another day. I came across quite a few things that didn't belong! (and a few things when i got home when does a hula hoop ever belong on the back of the door, who has been feeding our cherry tree chocolate? and those mints aren't hot why are they arranged on that coaster?)


In this exercise i had to draw a squiggle/line with my "off" hand and then turn it into something sports related with the strong hand. I think it ended up tennis related because the tennis was on!

I still have today's to do so I'm off to make a list of thirty items you would find in a mad scientists lab!

A Grand Day Out

On Wednesday i had a simply super day out with a very good friend of mine, we try to get together whenever we can to catch up. Our get togethers always include food, be it lunch or dinner and we always manage to fit cake in there somewhere!
We went to mugdock park for a walk, in the mud! it was a really nice afternoon but it had been raining heavily during the night, whats a little mud between friends!
The park was lovely and so was the sky, there were some really interesting clouds in the sky, i dont look up nearly enough!
There were some people out doing some archery (that does not sound correct! performing archery?) lets go with having archery lessons. I would love to have a go at this it looked really fun, i bet you have to have pretty strong arms though. I took loads of phtographs of the archers, trees and water.
We had a couple of great burgers in the cafe and some caramel shortcake to keep us going on the walk back to the car.

After the park we went to the west end I should probably mention where we are as that could be the west end of anywhere! We are in Glasgow.
Hunger had us again and we stopped in for some chips and garlic bread, then off for a bit of a charity shop cruise, no excellent bargains but you can't be lucky every day can you?
Before going back to the car we went to an ice cream shop calles 3 steps 2 heaven for some amazing ice cream.
Let me talk you through their amazing 3 steps:
1. choose 2 flavours of ice cream (i chose strawberry and coconut with chocolate drops)
they pop them on a marble slab and start to mix them together
2. choose 2 toppings (i chose hazlenut crunch and white discos, one of the big white chocolate discs with the multi coloured sprinkles.)
they mix this into your ice cream, put it in a tub
3. then choose a sauce (i chose strawberry)
sauce over your ice cream and voila! a huge tub of your own creation.
The nice young man serving me was kind enough to let me photograph and video him make my ice cream.





This was my first visit and it wont be the last, it was amazing, the shop is lovely and the service was great so if you find yourself in Glasgow's west end they are in Cresswell lane just off Byres Road, 3 steps 2 Heaven.
its my boyfriends birthday this mont so i think i will be taking him there for a birthday treat, shhhh dont tell!

The Great Retreat

The UK etsy Retreat in York 2009

My retreat diary, set off from Glasgow on Friday morning with my sister Katy with a car full of crafting things.
Arrive at York and open the boot of the car to see it overflowing with craft supplies and tools, but wait! where is my suitcase??? it must be in the back seat...........AAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH
Alas no suitcase, a car filled to the brim and not a thing to wear, no toiletries either!
Better get the directions to the nearest shops, 2 hours later after a trip to tesco for the essentials, clean knickers, socks, pj's, jeans, a few t's and a toothbrush and I am ready for the weekend to start.
Fridays dinner was great, it was in the pub next to the school where the waitress will tell you about the things and stuff they have on the menu and that 'the ice cream used to be Amazing but now its just good'

Saturday morning arrives and I'm feeling good in my new jeans, my crafting started with a bit of needle felting, i finished the dragon that i started making with the wool from the secret swap.
His name is Huxtable and i am keeping him for myself, selfish i know but i like him and he took ages to make.

I bought som buttons from BigFish she has the best buttons, i love buttons.

On saturday afternoon Alibali gave tutorial masterclass on PMC (precious metal clay) I made a silver button and Katy made an & pendant. i stitched my button onto a piece of blue thong to match my top and wore it the rest of the trip.

Unfortunatley i missed the coin purse tutorial by littleblackduck :(

But i did make a little makeup bag with a little help putting in the zip from littleblackduck.

if you have read my blog before you may recognise the fabric by Showpony, yes i finaly got round to making something with it.

I made a matching book too!

On saturday evening very late at night, i made some book covers to bind on Sunday, i didnt get round to binding them!

We didnt just craft though, we ate...

....and went out to play too!

it was a great weekend, it was great to see some of the same lovely faces from last year and meet some new crafty ladies.

It was organised by Debbie yay for Debbie aka tinyisland.

Now i just cant wait for next year!!!!!

Bad Bad Me!

Bad bad me! I haven't blogged in a while and i don't really have a proper excuse because i have had lots of things that i should have blogged.
OK, here we go.....

The journal that i made for the winner of the journal competition, to refresh you memory the winning theme was oriental.
I think this one should be named a hint of oriental.

It has a red cotton fabric cover, cartridge paper pages with shiny black signature covers to make the spine black. It is bound with waxed cotton cord the metal detail on the front was recycled from a piece of jewellery, it also has a page marker with a tassel.


I had a table at the Glasgow Craft Mafia market in mono on Sunday 26th July, this was my first proper craft market so although it was a quiet day it gave me the chance to try out my table display.
I spent the day filling up the table with brooches and hair slides.

The secret swap
Look at the totally amazing goodies I got from my swap person broadstone she has a shop on Etsy where you can see more of her gorgeous bags...........

A gorgeous bag in great colours..... and thats not all........ inside the bag there were not one but 2 bags of wool for felting and some felting needles, i have started to make a felted dragon i will post a piccy of it when it is done.

I think thats it for now.

Look Who Arrived

I entered a blog competition on feltmeup designs blog and i was one of the winners of a teeny tweet. She has just arrived and is just gorgeous. I took a quick snap of her as she was checking her tail in the mirror after her long journey.

I am absolutely delighted with her, i choose the colour combination myself, she is very me!

A huge thank you to feltmeup.
Visit feltmeup's blog it is always a good read and the competitions are great.
See more tweets in feltmeup's etsy shop. (take a look at the baby barn owl, how cute is that?)

We Have A Winner

We have a winner.
Before i announce the winner i would like to thank everyone who entered there were some fantastic ideas, Thank You.
My sister lended her hand to pick a name from the box.

And the winner is......

Stacey-Ann with an oriental themed book.

I will be making the oriental book soon so check back to have a look at it.

New Camera

My new Camera arrived yesterday, yay.

I wanted compact that i could pop in my pocket or handbag for those moments when you think 'i wish i had my camera!'

It's a Fuji, i chose it because my other camera is a fuji and i really like it, my mums compact is also a fuji and it takes great photographs.

Here I am with my camerain the bathroom mirror!