testing testing 123

I'm just testing out blogging from my iPhone using the Blogger app. I have no idea if it will work and where on earth the photo will appear! I hope it comes out ok - it was taken at the Ironman event at the weekend. It was a brilliant event and the competitors are all truly amazing for completing the gruelling course. Meanwhile, I have just managed to struggle round 5k....

new orla kiely bags in tesco

Tesco and Orla Kiely have teamed up again and released a new design bag. I love these bags, I'm building up quite a collection with all the designs which have been released. The new design has a blue flower on one side and a red one on the other side. The flower is a fab pixilated pattern(is that the correct word or did I just make it up??)
I may have bought a spare one which may or may not be included in a forthcoming giveaway!

silent sunday - tenby

lovely walks

I am lucky to live in the beautiful county of Pembrokeshire in west Wales. The above photo was taken about 5 minutes walk from the house and it is where we often walk the dog.




There's a stream at the bottom where we chuck sticks in for the dog to paddle around in the water and attempt to retrieve. She's a bit daft and usually misses them all! 

As you can see it is quite well used by walkers, cyclists and the sometimes odd horse rider. I have just noticed that my son seems to be hitching up his trousers in that photo!

 
I have been having a play with a few new products to put for sale on the website and at local craft fairs. I quite like my felt covered notebooks, I have used a butterfly design here which I have previously used on greetings cards. I find designing products for men quite difficult and I was requested to come up with more male designs at the last event I went to. I did some customer research and I got some great feedback. Lets see if I can come up with the designs!

the ironman commeth!

Our town is looking forward to an ironman race, how exciting! The competitors have to complete a gruelling course starting with a 2.3 mile swim in the sea, followed by a 111 mile bike race and finishing off nicely with a full marathon run! I cannot believe that anyone is capable of completing those distances all in one race. We will be having the bike race come through our town so we will be watching them coming through.

The event is based in the pretty coastal town of Tenby and we will be heading down there too to watch the proceedings. I think it will be quite a spectacle to see all the competitors heading off into the sea for the swim leg of the race. How we will get down there is a mystery though as lots of roads are closed on race day so no doubt we will be taking the scenic route to get there!

My husband has recently started competing in triathalons and has been training hard all the time. At the moment he is only competing in the sprint distances (a shortened version of the race) and hopes to enter the full distance races next year. The amount of training involved to compete in even the short races is incredible so how these atheletes train for these long races is unimaginable!

I'll try and remember to take my camera with me and will hope to get a few photos of the crazy folk who are taking part in this crazy race. Meanwhile, I am attempting to get running better. Unfortunately I am still at the plodding stage!

Get all the info on Ironman Wales here

new products

In between having fun days out and stepping over the growing Lego mountain in my lounge, I have managed to get a bit of making done. I love the new cushion design in all its dotty splendour!

This is an example of my name canvases. These have evolved into what I think is a great product and I love chosing the fabrics and buttons to make them up. I offer customers a choice of fabrics and can usually accommodate any requests for their favourite colours.

I'm going to be doing a Christmas version of these canvases and if I ever get my laptop back into working order I'll be able to get on with them. Argh!

What have you been working on lately?

Surviving the school holidays - just!

Well how's it going so far? We are on the home stretch now and into the last week. Seven weeks is a long time! We have been having lots of fun and visiting places, Legoland included. We spent ages in miniland where the models of places around the world are. The space shuttle launch was worth waiting for according to my 6 year old.

Look at that! Megafobia - the best wooden rollercoaster in the UK, apparently! I'm not know for my love of rollercoasters but managed to brave this one at Oawood theme park. I even managed to totally scare myself silly by going on Speed.  My friend totally loved it and we had a great laugh at the photo of us together on the ride afterwards: I was looking terrified and she was screaming in delight. And, no, I didn't buy it!

We had a camping trip to the New Forest and took a look around Salisbury (photo of the cathedral cloisters above). The other half used to work in Salisbury so it was nice revisiting places for him and experiencing new ones for me. There are lots of wild horses in the New Forest and I had been going on about not leaving food in the tent. Needless to say I managed to forget my own rules and managed to wander off to watch the other half and my son playing frisbeee, leaving the door open to everyone. A little horse decided to wander into the tent and proceeded to lick the butter! The cheeky little thing's rear end was sticking out of the tent when I got back! Oh if only I had my camera.

There's less than a week left of the school holidays so we now have the usual mad scramble for new shoes and uniform. When he's back in school I'll be able to show you some of the things I've been working on. Fab new Christmas decoration designs, stockings and Christmas cards.

What have you been getting up to this summer? Tell me about your sunny holidays. I've forgotten what the sun looks like!