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Today’s Positives

Some days are much more suited to positive thoughts than others. At least, some days it is a struggle to see the positives. Not that anything bads happens, particularly: something just doesn’t click. Which is why, on such days it is even more important to look deliberately for the good stuff.

1. A good long walk with the dog cleared my head, and lightened my mood. The sun came out, birds were singing (and fighting a little bit), and hardly any man-made noise. Lovely.

2. A visit from our lovely friend Sam, always guaranteed to lift your mood

3. Managed to write two positive posts today, plus a Spotlight. Not done much felt-work today, but some. And tomorrow is a whole new day 🙂

 

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Spotlight on Deidre Dreams

Today, I am going to have a look at the creative talent that is Deidre Dreams

I love Facebook and twitter because you never know where peoples shares might lead you. One of these paths led me to another realm: that of Deidre Dreams.

The owner (Deidre?) lives in a small town in the south of the Netherlands “in between rolling hills and meadows, where the wind always blows in new energy.”

Inspired by folklore, myths and legends Deidre Dreams creations are incredibly detailed works of art. She primarily uses Polymer clay to create incredibly detailed pendants, brooches and other jewellery, but she is also accomplished in the art of crocheting (something she learnt at an early age from her Grandmother and Mother). Combining the two allows her to create some really interesting, and original pieces:

Perhaps the success of Deidre Dreams is the witches, mermaids and other mythical creatures, featured on her jewellery are not generic: each one has a character and a story behind them: “All the characters that I make (the witches, the mermaids, the fairies, etc), they are not pulled from any official mythology source. They are my stories. The characters, the designs, their stories: they are my creations. I am inspired by paganism, Wicca, fantasy, fairy tales, folk tales, legends, and lots of other sources (as many artists are 🙂 ) but the characters I make are all a concoction of my own Deidre Dreams world.”

 

The characters shine through her work, and maybe it is this that draws people to them. In fact Deidre Dreams has facebook fans (amongst over 17,000 of them) who contact her and tell her how much her work inspires them to create themselves (whether that be in writing, drawing or sculpting): “I am deeply honoured to get so many messages of people telling me my work inspires them. I love that SO much! I love to hear that my work sparks something in someone that stirs passion and energy!  I also would like to say that I hope anyone who feels this way, will be respectful towards that inspiration and find their own way with it and welcome their own designs and characters.”

Why Deidre Dreams’ Facebook page is so popular is not a mystery: not only does she create unique, beautiful work, but she also interacts brilliantly with her fans, and followers. She is generous with sharing other people’s work too, which is great because she helps me travel to other peoples creative worlds too.

You can find Deidre Dreams on her own Website, on Twitter, on Facebook, Etsy and other locations too

Disclaimer: this review was not asked for, nor paid for in any way. I wrote it because I love Deidre Dreams’ work and her facebook page

 

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Good things that happened yesterday…

Here are three positive things that occured in Felt.Buzz land, on Tuesday 29th July:

1) I completed a couple of pieces of felt work yesterday. Not as sure as I was before as to where I am going with it, but it is part of the creative process to have doubts and sometimes you ignore them and produce something great and other times your doubts lead to something even better. We’ll wait and see…

2) Had a lovely walk with Basil the dog. There are so many trees and bushes overladen with fruit at the moment (very early). It will be a bumper year for jam and sloe gin!

3) Another day with the B&B full. But no meals to prepare so felt quite relaxed and we only had one room to prepare yesterday. Managed to catch up with ironing (get it out of the way for another week or so!) so that is good too.

Looking forward to Wednesday: hope it brings you productivity and joy!

 

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Spotlight on Cheeky Tree Creations

Today, the Felt.Buzz Spotlight is on Cheeky Tree Creations.

Cheeky Tree Creations is run by Tanya, a mother of two boys, who loves to be creative in her spare time. I love the name Cheeky Tree Creations, I tell Tanya, for some reason it brings a smile to my face whenever I see it.

“My main inspiration [for the name was] from my two boys which are my cheeky monkeys who love to climb so everytime I think of Cheeky Tree it reminds me [of] my boys.

“I only started seriously crafting and thinking about selling earlier this year, in March in fact when we booked the craft fair. Before that I have been making presents for friends and relatives. It was my two boys who inspired me. Samuel who is nearly 3years and Lukas who is 15months. My oldest Samuel is dinosaur mad and there were not many things for boys anywhere so that is what made me start. I work part-time and stay home with the boys for the rest of the time so life gets rather busy”

Cheeky Tree Creations‘ first craft fair (last weekend), exceeded Tanya’s expectations: “What a fantastic weekend we had. First craft fair went better than expected and was a really enjoyable experience! [We have] no craft [more] fairs yet lined up but at the moment it is something that I am looking into. Hoping to do a local one in October and hopefully one before Christmas”

Everything has moved so quickly for Tanya since deciding to make a business out of her craft: “I haven’t had time yet to put many things onto my etsy shop, as I was mainly concentrating making things for the craft fair and I only tend to get an hour or two in the evenings to do anything so most of my time went to preparing for the craft fair. Hoping now to concentrate more on my online presence.”

You can find Tanya and Cheeky Tree Creations on Twitter, Facebook and Etsy.

 

Disclaimer: this review was not asked for, or paid for in anyway. I wrote it as I like the Creations that fall from the Cheeky Tree and her Twitter and Facebook pages.

 

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Yesterdays 3 positives

Late again, but have had too many early mornings in a row to stay up updating the blog before sleep calls. So here are Mondays good things

1. Completed the prototype for my new project. Need to scale it down, so looking forward to that today. I also spent time updating my blog, which I was pleased with as I had given myself the weekend off, and it can sometimes be difficult to get kickstarted again.

2. There was enough gaps in the rain for me to sit outside with a coffee and do some felting, as well as play rugby with the Basil dog!

3. We had noone arriving (or leaving) yesterday, in the B&B, (which could be seen as a negative in high season but I choose to see it positively because): this meant no cleaning of rooms and Andrea had a chance to chill together. Enjoying the smells from the kitchen too: Andrea brewing up some batches of apricot jam

La Boutique du Coin, Vallière

I am part of a co-operative of artists, creators and producers, who run a small shop in the village of Vallière, in La Creuse. Set up and operated by the Mairie (the town council), the boutique is staffed by the artists and producers themselves. The shop doesn’t charge commision on what it sells (there was just a small fee to join the association) so the money you spend there goes straight to the artist/creator/producer.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA  OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA  OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIf you are in La Creuse (central France) in August 2014 come and check us out!

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Spotlight on Kume Bryant (Artist/Photographer)

Today, the Felt.Buzz Spotlight is on Kume Bryant, and artist and photographer

Kume Bryant lives in Arizona, United States of America. She has a wide range of artwork (both paintings and photographs) with lots of different themes and styles, available on her website.

Working as a freelance graphic designer until 2013, she had always enjoyed painting, but (like a lot of us) lacked the confidence to take it seriously. It was her husband who forced her hand (in a gentle way):

“I have the most supportive husband in this world. His idea, what seemed small at the time, but his way of nudging me which encouraged me to paint today. He brought home a photo of a coworker going camping on a horse, and asked me to paint that for him just for fun without pressure. The painting turned out well. I had much fun doing and made me wanting to do more. I bought me a book on painting and learned some techniques…that was in 2006. I started selling online ever since to buyers all over the world.”

You can buy a range of things from Kume: including phone cases, t-shirts and original artwork.

Kume is not the only talent in her household. From her site you can buy artwork from her son, Thomas (I particularly like Slash).

Kume is active on Twitter and on Facebook and, as well as promoting  her own work, and that of her son, she is a good sharer of other peoples work on both platforms.

Disclaimer: this review has not been paid for, or asked for, in any way. I have written it simply because I like Kume’s work and enjoy her Twitter/Facebook posts

 

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Sunday’s positive Buzz

Opps, bit late on posting Sunday’s 3 positives. Was so tired last night I decided to treat myself to sleep rather than blogging! Anyhoo, here are a selection of positives that happened yesterday..

1. Started work on a new project. Not going to say much at the moment, but it does involve a pumpkin…

2. Took some photos of the dragon I made at the market (and finished at la Boutique du Coin, on Saturday). Here is one of them:

3. After a busy morning at the Bed and Breakfast, we had an afternoon and evening free. Went to Blessac for the vide grenier (car boot sale to all you UK types), bought 4 necklace displays and some things for the B&B and bought a kilo of blueberries (of which only 500g made it home, the rest took a ride in our bellies). Great weather yesterday too. Had lunch sitting out in the sun, and dinner too.

Hope you had a good weekend and are looking forward to a positive week.

Todays 3 positives

Evening all, hope you are enjoying your Saturday. Here are my Felt.Buzz three positives of the day:

1. Did a shift at the Boutique du Coin in Vallière. Had some good chats with customers and other artisans and producters. Managed to find time to do some felting too. Didn’t sell any of my stuff, but one of my acorn garlands was sold this morning 🙂

(not this one, but one like it)

2. Had some time to relax outside (after doing breakfast for 9): lunch outside the house, lovely. And then this evening we sat in the town square, watching the world go by (and a large honking procession of wedding cars), and ate pizza and chips! Got to love carb on carb action!

3. Went for a post dinner walk. Took some photos (using the tablet):

 

Had some suggestions and thoughts for some new felt projects too. All in all, a pretty good day.

How about you?

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Friday’s Felt.Buzz Positives

Hello everyone, hope you had a good Friday and have a fantastic weekend to look forward to.

Here are just three positives from today:

1. I sold some stuff at the market today (hurrah) including this wizard

which I am kind of sorry to see go, so will have to magic up another (but different wizard)

2. I made a dragon finger puppet whilst at the market, and got a lot of positive comments about my hat (if you missed it this is it:

)

3. Another busy day at the B&B, we are full, but no evening meals so despite getting up at 6, doing breakfast, then going to market, and cleaning the rooms, once we’d welcomed the guests in and left them to have a ‘bonne soirée’ it has felt like a bit of a day off. Funny old world, innit?

An addition plus was the weather has been pretty good (apart from the blip of the thunderstorm half way through the day) so we have enjoyed the sun, and a nice evening walk.

Here was the view from our bedroom window a couple of hours ago:

Life is good: have a good evening 🙂

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