Tag! You're it!

Hi everyone,

I just got tagged by Maria at The Scarlet Butterfly Company, so I'm it! The rules of the game are:

1. open your first photo folder

2. scroll to the tenth photo

3. post the photo and the story behind it

4. tag five more people

.... so this is my picture ....

I cheated *ever* so slightly and used the photo folder on my iPhone (new readers see my previous post about my love for my new little gadget!) and found the 10th photo to be a picture I took of the paella my lovely fiance Paul cooked for us for our Valentine's dinner. Neither of us had cooked paella before, and I was in charge of finding and reading out the recipe. There were a few cross words when we realised the recipe was for 6 people and Paul had been converting amounts for 2 people and when I measured the rice I didn't convert the amount ;) But, it all worked out fine in the end and the dinner was delicious. There was even some left over for my lunch the next day - lucky me!

I have loved seeing what Maria and other people have found in their photo albums and the stories behind them, so the 5 people I tag are:

Kirsten at Quernus Crafts

Sarah at Noahs Ark Crafts

Kate at Coffee with Kate

Sooz at Crafty Business

Jayne at Confident Ladies

Looking forward to seeing your photos girls!

Have a great weekend,

Kate x

Gem 'n' Bead Show in York

Hi everyone,

We all recovered from the latest hit of snow this weekend?!

Yesterday I went to the Gem ‘n’ Bead show at York Racecourse. I managed to get there about 20 minutes after it opened and stayed for around an hour and a half. It was getting really busy by the time I left, with the usual crush of people around tables, so I was glad i got there early. I didn’t go too overboard with my purchases – most unlike me! – I just got a few nice glass crystal beads to make a necklace for my cousin, lots of little charms and a few magazines. The show is in a large U-shaped room, with a little under half allocated for bead stalls.

The rest of the space had sellers of crystals and gemstones, hence the ‘gem’ part in the show’s name. There were some really beautiful crystals on show so it was nice to have a browse around there for a little while too. When I was younger I used to collect tumbled, smooth gemstones so it was nice to see names of familiar stones such as rose quartz, carnelian, amethyst and see some more unusual gemstones too.

I’ll leave you with a picture of Hef enjoying a hop around the garden yesterday :)

There's an app for that...

Hi all!

First of all, let me say hello to my lovely new followers *waves* Hello! Thanks for following my blog, I hope you enjoy reading my ramblings!

Now then, I'm sure many of you already own one, or something very similar, but I just have to talk today about.....my new iPhone! It did take a lot of convincing of Paul that I really did want one, that I would use it and it was worth the 24 month (gulp!) contract, but he finally relented and last week my lovely, shiny black iPhone was safely in my clutches. I have to be honest and say the phone and I didn't get off to the best start together, with it taking 3 hours to get set up. Now, I'm not great with technology, that I'll happily admit, but I followed all the steps and they just took sooooo long. I persevered however and boy am I glad I did! I can read my emails, keep up to date with Twitter, Facebook, Folksy at any time of the day, wherever I am. Whilst I love my laptop, it is so great to be able to catch up on emails whilst I'm in the queue at the supermarket. I know people complain about today's culture of always being on call and available to be contacted and I can understand that, but for me, I love now being able to update Twitter or send an email whenever I like.

Whilst I know I can check emails and the internet on many phones (I certainly wobbled in my phone decision when I saw the lovely pinky-purple Blackberry!), but what really swung it for me was all of the apps that you can use on the iPhone - there are over 100,000 available to choose from. There are apps for news, education, business, weather, games,reference, music, social networking - and many many more categories! I have chosen the Cat Translator, so that I can convert Barney's miaows into English, the Ocarina (blow into the microphone and the phone becomes the instrument the ocarina), a food diary to help with my diet, a Starbucks app so that I can get my coffee fix even if I'm in a town I'm not familiar with and a few more. Some are free, some cost upwards from 59 pence. I think they're great, really useful and lots of fun.

Which apps would you recommend?

Thanks for stopping by,

Kate x

PS - as I am now so contactable, you can find me on Twitter, Facebook and Folksy. Look me up!

A Slap on the Wrist

Whilst I didn't make an firm New Year's resolutions, I made a few promises to myself. One of which was to blog regularly. Sigh. Dear readers, I have failed, and for that I give myself a slap on the wrist and apologise. My first blog post of the year I had planned to be about some lovely Christmas presents I received from fellow Folksy Folk, so bear with me as we step back in time a few months and get festive again!

First of all I received a lovely magnet from Maria at The Scarlet Butterfly Company....

Isn't it cute?!!! See the tiara she has added, so that it looks like my Glamourpuss logo? I love it! It has pride of place on the radiator in my office.

Secondly, I received a parcel from Sarah at Noahs Ark. You may remember she sent me these decorations as a thank you for commenting on her blog. Look what was inside her parcel this time!

Isn't it beautiful? I was so touched when I opened it all out, I even shed a little tear :) It is actually a decorative sort of banner, for decorating the fireplace really, but is so long I couldnt fit it into one picture when it was out straight! I used it to decorate the puddings and chocolate table on Christmas Day. It is so well made and everybody who visited the house over Christmas commented on it. This is definitely one of those pieces that will be displayed year after year and will remind me of the lovely people on Folksy and Sarah's kindness. Do make sure you check out her shop and her blog and she's on Twitter too. She is a really lovely, kind and talented lady.

Third of all was a present to myself! I had been looking at some earrings in Silver Moss' jewellery shop for a while and had managed to convince Paul into getting them for me for Christmas. However, with one thing and another they didn't get bought in the end (not Paul's fault, I have to say!). Imagine my suprise when I went onto Folksy in the new year and saw not only were the earrings still available (phew!) but they were in the sale (hurrah!), so I snapped them up straight away. I dont have my camera to hand, so hope Mossy doesn't mind me borrowing her photo of them!

I know people say it about a lot of things and I know it seems impossible, but these earrings are even better in real life! I havent been out anywhere nice enough to deserve wearing them, so think I will keep them for Valentine's Day now.

Hope you didn't mind me mentioning the 'C' word so soon into 2010!

Kate x

I've won an award!

Hi everyone,

Happy new year to you all! And a big hello to my new followers, thanks for following my blog :)

Whilst I have lots of news to tell you all, this first post of the new year is all about the award that I have been given from the lovely Maria at The Scarlet Butterfly Company - the 'SUNSHINE AWARD'!

Isn't it lovely? The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity & creativity inspires others in the blog world - Im so touched that Maria awarded it to me! However, there are rules to follow....

The rules for accepting the Sunshine award:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post
2. Pass the award onto 12 bloggers
3. Link the nominees within your post
4. Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

I follow lots of blogs, all fantastically well written, so it is difficult to narrow it down to just 12!

Anna and The Ring

Bliss Knits

Bugs and Fishes by Lupin

Charlotte Hupfield Ceramics

Funky Junk Jewellery

My Passport to Style

Niche Handmade

Noahs Ark Crafts

Quernus Crafts

Silver Moss Jewellery

TalulahBlue

Widget and Friends

All very deserving winners - go check them out for yourselves and Im sure you'll agree. Lots of great blogs for you to add to your readers :)

Whilst you're surfing round looking at my recommendations, dont forget to drop by Maria's (the lovely lady who awarded me my Sunshine Award) blog at The Scarlet Butterfly Company - she has all a girl needs to make her life dressing table more beautiful.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kate x

Snow and Ice and all things nice!

Hi everyone,

I know most of the blogs in your readers are probably discussing the white stuff that has blanketed the country over the past few days - and here's another one! I managed to resist blogging about it yesterday, but when I went out today I saw some beautiful things that I'd really love to share with you all.

First up are these beautiful ice patterns on our shed windows. The ice is actually on the inside of the window. They look like beautiful frosted patterned windows that would cost a fortune to have installed! Isnt nature fantastic?

Then I noticed a gorgeous icicle hanging from the corner of the shed. I love icicles, I rarely see them - they remind me of unicorn horns ;) Below is a picture I took at 12 o'clock and then another at 4pm - it had grown nearly three inches in just four hours!

There were icicles all along Barney's shed too, which looked so pretty. Barney wasn't too sure what to make of the snow - look how it has all frozen into a canopy ontop of his run:

For anyone concerned about Barney being out in the snow - he has a cat flap going into the shed where his food, bed, litter tray and a little oil-filled radiator are, so whenever he gets cold paws from looking at the snow he can go inside and be nice and snug in his shed :)

Just a quick note to let you all know that Glamourpuss Jewellery is staying open right through the holidays, with items being posted as long as the Post Office is open, so take a look for last minute gifts or treat yourself to some accessories to help welcome in the new year.

Keep warm and take care out in the snow!

Kate x

York's Festival of Angels and Ice Sculptures

Hello again!


I had so much I needed to do today, and then I banged my head on a door frame when going into a room so I havent felt able to do much after that! Head is still a bit tender and I've got a nice red mark in the middle of my parting for all to see, but I thought I'd use the time productively and tell you all about the lovely few hours Paul and I had out at the Festival of Angels in York's city centre yesterday.


There was a parade of angels through the streets, led by the Golden Angel, which unfortunately we missed, but along three of the streets were lots of amazing and beautiful ice sculptures. Here is how it is described by visityork.org: "A true Christmas festival, transforming York's most unique streets into a winter wonderland of ice-sculptures, stalls, al fresco dining, street entertainment and guaranteed 'snow' showers" - and they were right! There was christmas music playing, all of the restaurants had stalls selling mulled wine, Baileys, Sake, hog roast sandwiches - I had my lunch at the La Tasca stall where I had some delicious chicken and sea food paella and HOT sangria! We were even treated to 'snow' outside a few shops and everywhere felt very festive. Here are the photos I took of the different ice sculptures - they were so skillfully crafted and you could even touch them...


There was a star:

A penguin:

A Puma...


A peacock..

A chinese dragon:
A laughing buddha (He was also a drinks luge - see the hand at the top? That was someone pouring Baileys. It ran through the statue and you caught it, ice cold, out the bottom, in a chocolate cup!)
And a snowflake:
There was also a skier, Spiderman, a christmas tree, a temple and a snowman! We walked around the corner to go down another street and look who was there...



Peter Rabbit!


It was a really lovely afternoon with everyone getting into the festive spirit. On the way home we stopped off and got our christmas tree which we decorated last night, circled everything I want to watch in the bumper Radio Times and so now I'm all set for the big day!

There's still lots more going on in York in the run up to Christmas, you can find out what's planned by going to Visit York.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Kate x