Cheeky Monkey

Oh hello gorgeous people! How are you all?

I was very sneaky this week and managed to squeeze in a little crafty time. 

Having little moments of creative "me time" has been rare recently, I've just had too much going on. However as soon as I saw the opportunity, I squeezed in a little time for some creative chaos. This fun little project turned out to be not only a creative outlet for me, but also a fun work related task I could tick off of my list of "things to do"!  

Having been rehearsing with the new Tarzan cast members for the last six weeks, we had reached premiere date. An exciting evening when all of the new cast members go onstage for the first time. I couldn't let them go onstage without a little good luck token. 

I made a quick dash to the craft store one morning before our final rehearsals and bought myself a lovely stash of "super fluffy" modelling clay.

I bought a variety of colours. Colours that I felt would work well with a Tarzan/jungle theme.
That evening I got to work playing with this fun material, creating some cute little tokens to give to my new colleagues.

It was a lot of fun fiddling around with this clay. It reminded me of playing with plasticine as a child....Oh the memories! 

Rolling clay balls to be squished into faces.



Adding little button noses.

And making monkey ears by the dozen.

It was a joy forming these little lumps of clay into something magical. Slowly building layers of personality to each individual charm.

My favourite part was styling chunky over the top features. I was in pure creative heaven!

I used finishing touches of good ol' googly eyes and a plastic daisy here and there.

Shall I show you what I came up with?...

It's the whole jungle crew! We have apes, Jane, Tarzan and Professor Porter!
I was so thrilled with how they turned out! Cute, quirky and fun!

The modelling clay was so easy to work with. It formed easy shapes and the googly eyes stuck no problem with a little blob of glue from my glue gun.

Here's how I formed the cheeky faces of the monkeys:

Easy!! I added some extra detail by poking nostrils and a little mouth with the help of the pointy end of my compass.

How fun are they!?!

The great thing about this modelling clay is that it air dries firm. It meant I could leave all of my creations overnight and they were hard enough by the morning to add any finishing touches.

Using a very pointed darning needle I made holes in each of the firm faces and threaded some jungle inspired embroidery floss through each of them.
Of course I had to add a little extra crafty touch of beads and bells, just to finish them off!

All done....placed in a box and ready to give as a lucky charm and a warm welcome to all of the new Tarzan cast members.

Of course I kept one for myself! A little something to hang on my dressing table at work to remind me of how much I love being a crafty monkey!

Make your week creative and crafty!!!!! Until next time......

Hot off the press!

Hello Lovelies!! How are you all? As you may have guessed I've been a little busy with my job over the past weeks and so I find myself posting not as regularly as I would have liked.
My crochet hook has been gathering dust, but I'm raring to pick it up and get busy with a new project someday very soon.

Even though I haven't had a huge amount of time to spend with you guys or time to spend conjuring up creative havoc at home, my blog has been working by itself. Gathering little bits of attention from outside of blogland. Little bits of attention that I am hugely proud of.

I've been mentioned a couple of times in 'Gathered' by the creators of Mollie Makes magazine.

Having a little shout out in this ipad magazine is not only exciting because of the great magazine that it is. It's excting because it's a magazine that I read every single week when it is released on a Friday afternoon. A magazine full of creative treats and very talented crafters.

The lovely people at 'Homemaker' magazine have also taken a little bit of interest. To see my blog mentioned in their magazine  filled me with joy! WOOOOP!!!!

What really got me excited though was this little package I received two days ago from the amazing team at 'stampington.com' A package containing not only this cover letter:

but also the issue of 'Artful Blogging' that I have been lucky enough to be featured in:

I was contacted two months ago about writing an article for this magazine and was thrilled at the thought of having my work in a magazine. I didn't know much about 'Artful Blogging' as it is not available in the stores here in Europe, but instead sold nationwide in America.
I ordered myself a copy of the magazine online to have a little look at the type of magazine it was.
I was not disappointed. A fabulous collection of well thought out blogs all with a different spin on the blogging process. The photography was gorgeous!

I got to work writing my article. I chose to focus on the photography aspect of my blog and how I thought it was important for me to have a well presented picture blog, rather than a substantially written blog. (I'm not much of a writer!)

I sent my article off along with a collection of photographs and two months later this turns up on my doorstep:

A beautifully designed showcase of my work. I feel really honoured to have been given this opportunity. I can't tell you how happy and proud I am to see my work in a REAL LIFE magazine.

Six pages in total!

Lots of space for my photographs.

Along with little quotes from........ me!

I also feel very lucky to be published in this issue alongside so many other talented and creative people. HAPPY, PROUD, HONOURED AND OVER THE MOON!

I want to say a big thank you to the team at Stampington for approaching me to be in the magazine, but also to the editing team that corrected all of my punctuation and spelling mistakes :-)

I also want to say a MASSIVE thank you to all of you lovely people that continue to pop by, leave me encouraging messages and boost me creatively. I haven't had the time recently to respond to many of your messages, but believe me they do not go unnoticed. 

THANKYOU!!!

Together again :-)

The sun is shining and  Dennis is back home with me!!! I couldn't be happier! Quite a contrast to last weeks blog post :-)
There is nothing I love more than getting back into a routine of having Dennis around. Catching up on his recent travels and filling each other in on the details we forgot to mention when we would chat on the phone.
I adore hearing stories and seeing pictures of the amazing places he has visited and hope of someday visiting these places myself.
These three pictures are favourites of mine, I could sit for hours and get lost in the magic of these amazing destinations.

Iceland

Dubai

Cairo

Dennis and I are both extremely lucky to be doing the the jobs that we have.
Dennis gets to travel the world, whilst performing.  I get to dance in a show that I am truly proud of. Dream jobs, but it can be tough being apart for such long stints at a time. Because of this we really try to make the most of our time together.

Today (once I finished rehearsals) we spent the afternoon walking around the city and enjoying the Spring sunshine. Talking about everything and enjoying the sudden flourish of springtime colour.

We drank coffee, laughed and enjoyed yummy treats whilst sat in the late afternoon sunshine. 

Dennis munched on this delicious strawberry treat.

I (once again) went for the chocolate option.

We took a stroll back to the apartment and worked up an appetite by unpacking Dennis suitcases and getting him settled back in at home.

We ate a delicious dinner, whilst the sun set for the day. It was a lovely afternoon together!

For me there's nothing more comforting than having a little routine back to our lives, it makes me feel all fuzzy inside.
I hope you're all having a lovely week?