So basically I am rubbish at this!

I am a terrible blogger! I have the intention to write blogs on thoughts I have or little projects I am making and then get sidetracked or things happen that mean I don't even get a chance to do my little projects to blog about in the first place!

However I think I am just going to accept that... I still like blogging every so often and my etsy shop is a hobby rather than a fully fledged business and I do still want to share my crafty projects and little adventures. So I think I will carry on being a rubbish blogger and selling a few little creations when I get the chance. I am about to start making a few things again and probably add them to my etsy shop! I'm also thinking I will have a little sale on older etsy things and renew all my listings that have expired.

My latest excuse for being rubbish is that I have recently moved house again! I had a lot of problems with my old landlord, who was the worst landlord I have ever had! He regularly came into the house without telling us and hadn't put or deposits in a protection scheme and all these stupid annoying illegal things that I could have only done something about if I had the money or time to. But anyway now thats over!

I now live in a flat with two friends from university! I love it, its in a proper Georgian Bath house and its lovely although a bit old (I quite like the weird champagne coloured bathroom suite and textured wallpaper in a "I love it because of how ugly it is" kind of way). My walk to work now goes past the royal crescent and through the circus, and just generally through lovely places in Bath. We went through an agent to get the flat and after my awful previous landlord it was amazing to have everything sorted out for you even if the fees are a bit pricey!

Anyway, I again am going to have the best intentions to start blogging regularly again, but like always I may well get sidetracked because life gets in the way...

Ruin Hunt: Nunney Castle

Nunney castle is another of these amazing ruins that is completely free to visit and on our visit it was very quiet so we had the castle to ourselves. The castle was really small and was built by a knight for his own house as he became more important in the area and then later was owned a rich London family before being besieged during the civil war. Hence the large hole in the side, good for a cheeky climb now but not good at the time I'm sure.

Our drive from Bath was an eventful one that included getting lost multiple times due to incorrect addresses being put in the satnav. A fun little Road trip none the less and the village with the church in was so quaint and cute, we had a look around the church all sorts.

I love turrets, probably because I have a secret wish to be trapped at the top of one with a big pile of books to escape the world for a little while.

One of the things about ruins that I really love is that you can see the windows and fireplaces on multiple floors, I think it might be the way it reminds me of an architectural section drawing and the fact that in an actual building you would never see these things at the same time.

The castle is surrounded by a small moat and the little spot of green around it made me wish we had taken a picnic. Definitely worth the trip even if it is to marvel at how small the castle is. 

Hearts and Hammers

So I have a 2 new earrings to put up on Etsy. Heart shape clippings of both book pages and maps. And as for my birthday I got an eyelet punch and setter I am now able to make all my clipping earrings more durable with the addition of an eyelet. At the moment all the eyelets I have a silver but I have some more fun colours on order which I hope will go perfectly with the map clippings and maybe be the inspiration for new designs.

The setter is so easy to use with one end that punches the hole and the other hammers the eyelet. The spring in the middle and weights in the ends act like a hammer, its so simple and I have been practicing so I can get the backs of the eyelets to look a neat as I can!

And here are the pretty little things, I will put them up on Etsy this week. And make all my clipping earring available with eyelets added too!

Another ruin hunt - Glastonbury Abbey

So in the summer, once final year work at uni was over, I once again managed to convince some of my friends to go on a ruin hunt with me.

One of the places we went was Glastonbury Abbey, which is amazing and has so many different parts to explore, definitely a place to take a picnic and spend the entire day like we did!

Glastonbury Abbey has connections to the legend of King Arthur and was originally founded in the 7th century and after extensions, fires and rebuilding was suppressed during the dissolution of the monasteries.

There is something so beautiful and peaceful about ruins. When I become an architect working with a ruin would be a dream come true, being able to work with something so beautiful and inhabiting it with something new.

During my final project at university my tutor commented that my building would make a beautiful ruin... I'm not sure if that is a compliment or not but it would be amazing to be able to see.

Compulsory shot through the non existent roof... We were lucky to have such a beautiful day. Gothic architecture makes for some of the best ruins due to the detail in the stonework that erodes and has a new amazing qualities.

There was a lot of lovely natural forms as well! And a cool, but a bit scary witch/scarecrow.

I would definitely recommend a visit. Especially on such a sunny day!

Trees

So one of my recent little projects has been using new earring findings that I haven't used before, a hanging hoop. I have never been one for hoop earrings so to start with I had no idea what to do with them. I found myself inspired by tree of life dream catchers and decided to give it a go! And here are my first results!

Of corse I had to integrate some steampunk into them with my beloved watch parts. These take a little while to make but I am going to experiment with different beads and make some more clockwork trees for etsy.

I have just put up these little lilac trees up.