Monday, July 08, 2013

1000 Liker Giveawayyyyy!

A few days ago I reached 1000 likers on my facebook page, woooooo! Very excited!

Thank you to all you lovely people have joined me on my page since I started it up, it means a lot to know that people enjoy my work :D

And now for the giveaway details.


Because this is a mahoosive milestone I will be offering two prizes - the first is a Cedric Sheeep in the colour of your choice, and the second is a colourful dinosaur, also in your choice of colour :D


To enter the giveaway, first you need to let me know which draw you would like to be entered into - the sheep or the dinosaur. You can enter both :D

For an extra entry, head over to my facebook page, Kayleigh's Craftyness, and share the post pinned to the top of the page (and let me know you've shared as facebook doesn't always tell me who has!)

And lastly, for another entry, like the same post pinned to the top of my page :)

Simples!

You have until 7pm on Friday 12th July to enter and I will draw the winners very soon after.

Go go go! :D

Sunday, June 02, 2013

Giveaway Winner!!

Morning all!

I was meant to announce the winner yesterday but somehow completely forgot - plonker!

Thank you all for entering my giveaway, I'm chuffed that so many of you entered, and chuffed that I'm past 800 likers on my Facebook page, woooo! The next giveaway will be at the big 1000! How exciting :D

So, you had the chance to win a custom Cedric Sheeeep in this giveaway and who is the lucky winner?


The winner is...


CLAIRE CAREY!!!


Claire, if you could message me your address and the two colours you would like your Cedric to have as soon as poss, that would be great!

Congratulations :D

Monday, May 20, 2013

800 Likers = Giveaway Time!!

Yesterday evening I reached the 800 liker milestone over on my Facebook page, yay!

Wow everyone, you are all brilliant!

Only a couple of weeks ago I sent off the last giveaway prize which was to celebrate having reached 700 likers on Facebook and now I am celebrating reaching 800 likers!

I'm really really proud of my little page and I love the fact that it is growing and I get to make more people happy and smiley with my work.

Anyways, getting to the giveaway details - As some of you may have seen, I have been making some sheeeeeps over the last couple of weeks. They have gone down a storm and so I will be offering a custom made Cedric Sheep as the giveaway prize :)

You will have the chance to pick two colours for your Cedric, and also whether you would like him to be a pendant or a brooch :) And who wouldn't want the chance to win one of these colourful sheeps? They are so much fun and bound to add a smile to your day :D

So, how can you win?
You have a chance to get four entries into the draw.
1. Comment on this blog post.
2. Like the post pinned to the top of my Facebook page, Kayleigh's Craftyness.
3. Share the post pinned to the top of my Facebook page :) (Please let me know in the comments below the facebook post if you have shared, different privacy settings may not allow me to see all those who have shared)
4. Tweet this: Fun custom Cedric Sheep giveaway over at @CyndraArts :D - Click the link to see how you can win! http://goo.gl/3VtD3

There you go! I will be away for a few days over the bank holiday so you have until the 30th May to enter! GO GO GO!
Edited to add: Could you leave your name and pages with your comment please? I'm struggling to match names to oages and it's all getting a bit confuzzling, hehe!


Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Giveaway Winner!!

Good evening everyone!

My giveaway winner has now been decided with the help of Random.org :D

Drum roll please.........


The winner is......


JENNI WREN!


Well done to you Jenni! If you could message me on facebook, or email me at kayleighsexton@live.com with your address and our preference of summer or autumn colours for your tree pendant I will get it made and sent off to you as soon as possible :D

Congratulations :D

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Giveaway Time!

Hey peeps!

As a celebration for reaching 700 likers on my Facebook page I am doing a giveaway :D

Firstly, what you can win - a gooooorgeous tree pendant like these in either summer or autumn colours (it is up to the winner!)



Very prettiful :D

Now, how can you win?
You have a chance to get three entries into the draw.
1. Comment on this blog post.
2. Share the post pinned to the top of my Facebook page, Kayleigh's Craftyness.
3. Tweet this: Gorgeous handmade tree pendant giveaway at @CyndraArts :D - Click the link to see how you can win! http://goo.gl/YyBXR

There you go, a possible three entries per person.
you have until the end of next Tuesday (30th April) to enter :D

Go go go! :)


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

26th March 2013 :) - PASSED MY DRIVING TEST!

Firstly, apologies for no post in a while, it was a mixture of being busy doing not very interesting stuff, not having anything interesting to blog about, and being worried about said driving test.

But I passed!!!!!! Wooooooo!

So now I can quite worrying about it, celebrate tomorrow with a pizza lunch date with my lovely man, and get on with essay writing. Ok, so the last bit of that isn't overly interesting, but it needs to be done and only a few more weeks left to go.

One thing I have been doing is trying to find some craft fairs to do. I now have three, almost four, confirmed, and another few nearer Christmas in the works. So that is very exciting and I will give you more details when everything is confirmed and sorted completely. Definitely looking forward to taking part in fairs again as I haven't done one in a while :)

I'll try to keep posting regularly over the next few days but my lovely man is coming down for a few days tomorrow so I probably won't be able to post every day.

As a little crafty thing to finish off, here's my first attempt at a paper cut. It think it went quite well really :)

Friday, March 22, 2013

March 22nd 2013 :) - Cabochons

Just realised I forgot to blog earlier today! I've been pretty busy I guess which is why I forgot.

I spent the day in the library which was pretty boring but got lots of reading done. And I got there at 8.30 this morning, too early to be studying for my liking! But oh well, got some work done so that is pretty handy.

Had a busy evening photographing cabochons, answering questions for an online magazine feature (More to come on that sooooon!), and carrying on making my colourful seed bead bouquet. It still only consists of one flower, but got five more ready to make up tomorrow. Can't wait to get some of the colours together :D

Now for the main point of this post - cabochons! These are what I have been working on recently. I was challenged by a lady called Sam to make her some fun and large-ish cabochons. I'd never made any before so it really was a challenge to get them to work.

I started off with polymer clay, but didn't like the way those turned out so started again by covering some ultra light clay in plastic. This worked sooo much better! Have a look at these beauties which will all be on their way to their new home very very soon :) I can't decide which is my favourite... which is yours?


Thursday, March 21, 2013

March 21st 2013 :)

How on earth is it possible for my room to have got out of hand AGAIN? I hate having a messy room yet I always let it get out of control.

It's as soon as I get my crafty stuff out. Then chaos happens and I end up trying to do work in a space about 6 inches square!

A quick blitz will have to go on my to do list for today :)

Yesterday was pretty successful! I got a bunch of stuff done, and did two and half hours in the library where I actually managed to read and understand a whole article, and I figured out how it will relate to my essay. Huge relief! I need to attempt to read the other paper today, and also got other uni reading to do.

After I successfully did uni work, I came back, watched Hairspray (Have you seen it? It's very colourful and happy and just a bit of fun really! It took 2 weeks to arrive, silly post! But it was worth it when it did arrive.), and carried on with the cabochons I've been making. They're going really well and are about to enter the final stage of their creation, hehe! Had a bit of a setback, but I figured out how to get around it.



After I did a bit on those, I started making a very colourful french beaded flower bouquet :) After I made the one for my mum, I decided I would like to make a really colourful one. So I bought some pink, orange, yellow and blue beads and got started on the pink flowers while watching The Holiday (One of my favourite films! I think I must watch it at least once a month and I don't think I could ever get bored of it. If you haven't watched it and you're a fan of happy, chick flicky type films, you definitely need to see it!). I got petals for three flowers made, and one flower completely finished. I don't think one flower quite makes a bouquet, but it's a start :D



Happy Thursday everyone, nearly the weekend!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

March 20th 2013 :)

Yesterday was pretty hectic. I made a to do list and told myself I wasn't allowed to make anything until I'd done everything on the list. So I actually knuckled down and did everything on the list, including spending a very boring but productive three hours in the library.

It was actually quite nice to get some stuff done. I've been finding it really hard to concentrate on uni work since, well since I started uni really! But my motivation has got worse as uni as gone on, and now the end is in sight my motivation seems to be at an all time low! So to actually get some work done made me feel like I'd achieved something. Now I just need to do the same again today!

After the boring stuff was done I was able to carry on with the cabochons that I've been challenged to make. They're looking pretty funky at the moment. I've got three on their way to being done but they need to be sealed so I can't show you yet! But when they're all shiny and finished I will definitely show you. I hope you'll like them :)

So today's challenge to myself is to read at least one article, if not two. I'd like to spend another three hours in the library and get as much read as possible.

I just wish the library looked like this!



Picture from here.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

March 19th 2013 :) - Ink Playing.

Mondays are long, and notoriously boring. But Mondays at uni are very almost done, only one more left!

I had a couple of lectures and a seminar, but those weren't the interesting parts of my day.

For lunch I made sandwiches. I cut my bread, got it all sorted and put it together. turns out my bread was cut just that bit too thick - the sandwiches ended up about 3 inches thick! Oops! Tasty though :) I do love fresh bread.

Then in between my second and third classes of the day, my housemate and I went for a wander round the lake at UEA. It was so sunny and such a pretty wander which was nice. A very good break from lectures.

The evening was very slow until I decided at 9pm that I decided I was going to get my inks out and have a play. Possibly a tad late to start playing but oh well! I've had a request to make some cabochons, and as I haven't made any before I've been playing around with ideas before making something for real. This is how far I've got so far - plastic and ink. It's hard to get the ink to do what I want it to to make it look nice and I did have one disastrous attempt, but this photo shows the four pieces that I am happy with. Now I just need to make them into cabs without ruining them! Fingers crossed!



Today I neeeeeed to get work done. At least some reading so that I know where these essays are going to go. You'd think that the thought of only having a month left at uni would make me do the work and get it over and done with. Quite the opposite, it seems that I just don't want to do it anymore! Unfortunately I need to get these essays done, but after that, and in a month, I can stop worrying about uni for good (well, until results!) and enjoy a few months off before job hunting. The end is in sight, I just need to get my bum in gear and reach that end!

Have a good day everyone :)

Monday, March 18, 2013

March 18th 2013 :) - Mother's Day Flowers

I had a lovely Saturday with my mum. We went shopping and had a wander around Hobbycraft and then the normal Tesco shop that we do when she comes up :) As we were going round we realised that that would probably be the last shop mum did for me while at uni! The three years have gone crazy fast. And we noted how my first ever shop at uni where I bought everything needed to make food interesting cost around £45. This shop we did cost £40 and it wasn't even half a conveyor belt full! Can't believe how much food prices have risen.

I also gave mum her mother's day present finally. She loved it! And that means I can finally tell you what I've been up to :)

I have started learning how to make french beaded flowers, and made mum a bouquet.

Got a busy day today so I will leave you with some photos of the bouquet. I'm very pleased with it, and even happier that mum loved it!

Friday, March 15, 2013

March 15th 2013 :)

Bit of a later blog post today. I've had absolutely not motivation or want to do anything today, it has been highly unproductive! Which now means I have to do a bunch of stuff this evening - not clever!

Yesterday I did quite a good bit of tidying and decluttering! Got rid of about 4 bags of rubbish, and found a bunch of stuff to give away to peeps so it was pretty successful. Not completely tidy, but a lot better than yesterday morning :)

So this morning was unproductive, then went to uni for a bit, then came back to wait in for a lady who was picking up some craft storage from me.

What a palava! The lady couldn't find my house to start with, and then her car broke down right outside! She came in with her son and had a cuppa to warm up and wait for the AA man to come fix her car. We had a natter though and eventually she got back on the road, craft storage drawers and all!

That has been my day in a nutshell.
I may not be able to post tomorrow - my mum is coming up and we are going to do a bit of retail therapy, wooo! Then got a pizza date night with my housemate which will be really nice :)

Phew. Right. I better get cracking with the things I should have done earlier, oops!

I shall leave you with one of my all time favourite photos - Meet Bert, who has just got out of his bath.






Thursday, March 14, 2013

March 14th 2013 :) - Messy room!

It's Thursday!! Which means it's nearly Friday!! Which means it's nearly the weekend, wooooo!

I'm looking forward to the weekend. My mum is coming up to see me on Saturday so we're going to do a little shopping and I can finally give her my Mother's Day present. Not that my card ever arrived :( I sent it first class last Thursday and it still hasn't arrived at home. Really not happy about it.

But hopefully it arrives at some point!

I also need to start thinking about moving out. I'm not sure exactly when it'll be but I definitely need to start culling the amount of 'stuff' I have if I ever want it to fit in my room at home! I also realised this morning that it has got to the point where I literally have too much stuff as I cannot keep my room even slightly organised. Every new little thing that appears in my room seems to create complete and utter chaos. Tis not good! I have a new DVD player now (My old one skipped constantly. So frustrating, especially when I use it nearly everyday!) so I think I will pop on DVD or two, enjoy the non-skipping films, and get on with organising chaos.

So today the plan is to get a little order in this room. Ha! I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes!

Wish me luck! :P

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

March 13th 2013 - Scrunchie Time!

Mornin'!

I can now show you the little sewing project I made last week. It was a present for my Aunt and as she received it yesterday I can now show you :D

It's a scrunchie!

This was the first time I've made a scrunchie so it is a little rough around the edges.

This is how I made it:

I cut a strip of fabric about 3 inches wide and about 12 inches long. I folded it in half and sewed down the side. Then I pulled the inside out so the sewing was all on the inside. This was quite fiddly but I got there eventually.

Then I took some elastic - about 6 inches long and 8mm wide and threaded it through the fabric tube. Also pretty fiddly! After this, I overlapped the two ends of the elastic and sewed back and forward across it a few times to make sure it was completely secure.

The next bit didn't work perfectly but worked kind of ok, if a little messy. I folded in the ends of the tubes so there were no rough edges and then sewed the ends together, just by sewing through both ends and pulling them tight so the ends attached and I ended up with a complete scrunchie with  no elastic showing. You can just see the join in the top right of the photo above. It's pretty neat, but not neat enough as you can still see quite a few stitches!

I reckon there's a tutorial online somewhere showing how to join the ends perfectly, but I didn't even think to look, I just started making and sewing!

Anyways, I am very pleased with it for a first attempt, and my Aunt really likes it too so that's what matters!

And to finish, huge **HAPPY BIRTHDAY** to my cousin who is 16 today! Very proud of you in everything you do :) xxx

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

March 12th 2013 - Dish for one! :)

Mondays are long and boring and frustrating so after doing uni stuff yesterday I made a shepherd's pie for one in my new little casserole pot. It's sooooo cute! I filled it with the shepherd's pie mix and topped it with a whole load of mash and stuck it in the oven to brown up. How cute is this?


It was incredibly yummy. The OH and I made the mix at the weekend and had some then, and I saved a bit for me. Most delicious shepherd's pie ever! Even after stuffing ourselves with pizza we managed to polish off a good piece of pie each too.

Although the little dish is very cute, it is pretty tiny. It's more like a child's dish for one. It holds 200ml, and I really think they could do with making them at least 300ml, so I wouldn't buy one unless you are like me and don't eat huge portions.

They come with a lid too so you can make mini casseroles in the oven :D I got mine at Wilkos on sale for £1.50 - not bad :D

I spent the rest of the evening last night adding to my memory book. I will take some photos of some of the pages when I get more completely finished so I can show you what I've been up to. I do love my new silver pen and black glittery pen :D


As for today, I just had a driving lesson which was hard work but not bad, and now having a bit of a break to rest my mind before having to do some uni work later. I just got the titles through for the next essay I have to write and I don't like the look of any of them so going to have to do some brain work to choose the title before I have to use more brain power to write the essay!

Wish me luck :)

Monday, March 11, 2013

9th - 11th March 2013 :)

I had such a lovely weekend with my other half :) We had fish and chips on Friday and went to Norwich Castle and Pizza Express on Saturday.

And look what treats he brought me!

Thorntons scrummage! A box of caramelly melty goodness, and a bag full of smiles, perfect! Now I just have to try not  to scoff them, hehehe!

We decided to go to Norwich Castle as I figured I should probably do some of  the touristy stuffs while living here. We managed to go on the only day where it was free entry for 16-24 year olds! They had some events going on which meant we got free entry. It was pretty cool! The castle was surprisingly small itself, but it also has lots of galleries and museum rooms to look round too. I always love the Anglo Saxon and Roman coin hauls, and I like stuff to do with Boudicea too :) They even had a skeleton and two mummies!


And if you haven't been to Pizza Express I highly recommend it! Their pizzas are simply delicious. I could eat them every day, om nom nom nom.

So despite the absolutely appalling yucky weather we had a lovely weekend chatting, eating, and sight seeing.

How was your weekend?

Friday, March 08, 2013

March 8th 2013 :) - Sewing disaster?

I decided to get the sewing machine out yesterday to attempt to turn up some trousers, and to make a little something else, a present for someone so I can't show you yet. I seem to be saying that a lot don't I? I promise you will see these presents eventually, after they've been given to their peeps :)

So the present went well really. It's cute :)

And getting on to the trousers...These are what I had to turn up

They're so cute! The bears are all different and they're so funny to look at. I love my comfy trousers, so good to craft in because they're so comfortable :D But I also have very ickle legs and I needed to turn these up by a good 5 inches so that I wasn't tripping over them.

I have issues with sewing machines. They never seem to do what I want them to. The first leg went well, perfect actually. The second leg did not go as well. Half the leg sewed fine, the other half only sewed on one side. I never understand why it does it and I get really frustrated. Although it didn't sew properly it seems to be doing the trick at the moment so I'm going to leave it and if it decides to undo I'll redo it properly.


I might not be able to put up a post tomorrow. My other half is coming down to see me for the weekend and we're going to do some Norwich sightseeing. I figure I've been at uni here for nearly three years, I need to see some of the touristy things!

I hope you all have a good weekend :D I'll leave you with a black bear to go with my comfies :D

Thursday, March 07, 2013

March 7th 2013 :)

Today I need to do some actual work, rather than making stuff. Maybe I can make stuff later but really need to get reading done first.

I quite fancy going for a wander too, so I'm hoping the grey skies will clear up just a tad :)

My other possible mission for the day is to get my sewing machine out. I am already dreading it - sewing machines never do what I want them to and have a tendency to blow up when I'm using them!

Yesterday was pretty productive. Finished mum's Mother's Day present, and it's looking really pretty, can't wait to put photos up! But she's not coming to visit until a week on Sunday so I can't put photos up til then unfortunately.

Til then, I shall continue to bore you with tales about my memory book, and uni work! I'd like to put up some photos of the memory book to show you how I'm going about it, but I have to wait for photos to be delivered first so I can do a bit more to it.

I better get on with the Nietzsche reading - it's on nihilism so I'm hoping it's not going to depress me too much! Wish me luck, for the reading and the sewing machine! Hehe!

Have a good day everyone!

Baby Mooooose!

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

March 6th 2013 :)

I looooved the sun yesterday! Did you all get to see some sun?

I had a driving lesson first thing which went well, and I ended up in town doing some shopping :) Was such a lovely day that I could have walked all day and been happy :) As it was, after my trek round town, hobbycraft and back home my legs were not happy! I was sooo achey!

But it was worth it - I got a pretty Faber Castell silver pen and a glittery black Sakura pen which are so much fun! I do love a bit of sparkle :)

Once I was back, I started on my memory book. I've completed two pages so far, and made a start on the third. I've had to stop there though as I need to wait for my photos to come through the post. I'm really pleased with it so far though! Normally if I start something like this it never looks right so I never get very far with it. I've put a lot of thought into this one though because I want it to be 'me' and just right. Oooh maybe I'll put together a post of how I went about sorting mine out. You never know, some of you might find it useful :)

Today I really need to do some sort of damage control in my room. It actually looks like a bomb has hit it. Any tips on how to fit about three rooms worth of stuff into one room? Or just how to keep this one very cluttered room tidy, that would work too! Hehe!

On with the day hey? And lets hope for some more sun :)

Picture found here.





Tuesday, March 05, 2013

March 5th 2013 :)

Yesterday was a loooooong day. I really dislike Mondays at uni - 5 hours of lectures and seminars. Doesn't sound like a lot but it takes lots of brain power and with the gaps in between lectures the day always seems incredibly long.

I also had to do that presentation. Last one ever at uni, woooooo! It went ok, wasn't really a presentation, more like a few points on the material we were looking at. Done now! :D

After my really long day I didn't really do much. I decided to watch Jingle All The Way (Yes I know it's a Christmas film! But it wasn't on at Christmas and I always watch it while wrapping presents and I was frustrated that I didn't get to see it! So mum bought it for me for my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I decided to watch it! :D Hehe!) and I made a couple carried on making my mum's Mum's day present (Almost told you what I was making there!) It's getting bigger and can't wait to show you still!

So that was my day. Nothing overly thrilling happened.

Today I have a driving lesson starting in a few minutes, and then doing a tiny bit of shopping. Need to find some bits in Hobbycraft and off to visit my favourite bead shop :D I might try to start putting my memory book together later today. Need to take the plunge and just do it!

Apologies for the very dull blog post, Mondays are always frustratingly boring! Have a cute cat to make up for it!

Monday, March 04, 2013

A quick look back on the first week of my fresh start :)

It's been a very interesting week since I started posting everyday, full of ups and downs. It's been hard to stay positive at some points as I do get so down about things, and once I feel down it's really hard to become positive again.

But I really should remember to look at all possibilities before letting something affect my mood, things aren't always as bad as they seem, and there might be ways around them!

Lots of good stuff has happened too in the last week, and now I have this blog to read back through and remind myself that things aren't all bad :)

One of the best bits has been learning a new crafty skill in order to make my mum's Mother's Day present (which I spent all afternoon on yesterday :D ) and simple things like this make me happy.

So I just need to keep slogging through my uni course, not long left now, and that will be another hurdle jumped. After that, it's one less thing to be negative about leaving me lots of room to be positive about something else.

Making things really does keep me sane, so I should probably carry on doing that too :D

    Picture found here. 

Sunday, March 03, 2013

March 3rd, 2013 :)


Ooooh I had a fun day yesterday!

I made CAKE! And I ate cake :D

And then I started on my mum's mother's day present which I am dying to show you but can't for another couple of weeks til I see her! I'm really excited about it though :)

Today I need to do work on that presentation I told you about yesterday. I've been told it doesn't have to be an analytical presentation so that makes it a lot simpler.

Here is the cake I made. It's just a plain vanilla sponge cake with butter icing. I attempted to melt some chocolate and make them into stars using a mold, but they didn't turn out so well, so I ended up with one star and lots of chocolate blobs. It's yummy.

I had a bit of issue with getting it out of the tin, but no cake-splosions like I normally have in that oven so all is good and all taste good :D

I thought I'd also show you a photo of my 'cooling rack' too. I don't own a cooling rack yet - it's one of those things that I always forget to put on my list so always forget to buy. One of these days I will buy a cooling rack! Until then, I shall make do with two bowls and and upturned pizza tray.


 Have a good day everyone! Keep smiling!

Saturday, March 02, 2013

March 2nd 2013 :)

I managed to get all the boring stuff of washing and tidying and that kinda stuff all done yesterday.

Had a bit of a panic though - here I was thinking I was all done with doing work for the weekend, giving myself a few days off. Suddenly I remembered that I'm meant to be doing a presentation on Monday and because I missed Monday's lecture through being ill I didn't go and didn't have next week's material which I'm meant to be doing the presentation on! Cue big panic.

I eventually got hold of the material so should be able to get something sorted for Monday.

I spent the rest of the day not really doing a lot until I decided to make roast chips (I don't have a chip frier, and the frying pan isn't big enough to fry a decent amount of chips, so I par boil the chips then roast them for a good 40 minutes. They turn out pretty well for roasted chips!).

I did get the clay out as well. Had a go at mokume gane, but didn't really produce anything worth while, and I definitely need a new blade. Mine is full of dents and chips and doesn't really work as it should anymore. Hopefully I can get mokume gane sorted and have fun with the technique. I can't believe I've been working with clay for nearly four years and haven't ever tried it before!

I'm also in the process of making a memory book to store all those tickets and some photos and bits and pieces that I don't want to get rid of but no longer have space on my pinboard for anymore. I started last night but cutting up a bunch of old birthday cards with pretty patterns and stuff on them for use as memory book decorations. Then I just had to make an envelope using this fantastic envelope making tutorial
which was a lot of fun and just what I needed to store all those cut up bits of card :D I'm kind of nervous to start sticking in the book though, don't want to ruin it!

I was watching Mary and Martha at the time. You should watch it. It's about two women who suffer a tragedy and want to do something about it. Useless summary there but I don't want to give it all away! Watch it, it's on iPlayer! I did have a couple of tears though, so be warned.

                                              

Anyway. I should stop my rambling and get on with today's fun stuff. Beans on toast and cake making are first on today's agenda!!

Have some cuteness for the day :)

Friday, March 01, 2013

March 1st 2013 :)

I had a bit of an up and down day yesterday after I finished my essay. But it all turned out ok, apart from the huge mouth ulcer I have going on along with a wisdom tooth coming through and causing me hassle! Any ideas on how to get rid of wisdom tooth pain? It huuuuurts!

I had fun wandering into town to buy beads for my new pendants. I'm sooo happy at how she turned out. She's a Goddess pendant made by Jo over at Turner Rowe Glass Art. Completely gorgeous :) I decided to buy a few shades of matching seed beads and use my new bead spinner (so much fun!) to string three long strands of beads. Each strand has a different balance of clear to green shades of bead. I don't think I got the balance quite right but I'm happy with her so not going to worry about changing any of the strands.
What do you think?


Today is going to be one of those days full of boring stuff. Whenever I have essays to write my room gets a little out of control so I need to do something about it.

Ooh, I also had fun ripping up magazines and making them into a dragonfly collage at the Art Society yesterday evening. I'm debating whether or not he needs a background of greenery.


I'd quite like to make a cake this weekend :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Thursday, February 28, 2013

February 28th 2013 :)

The sun is shining! This pleases me a lot, hopefully I will be able to go for a wander into town in a little while and enjoy some sun. Lack of sun has affected me hugely over the last year or so and when it comes out it makes me automatically happier :)

Yesterday was pretty productive essay wise. I got 1300 words written, and I just finished off this morning. It is now submitted so I can relax slightly :) Unfortunately I know it's not the best thing I've ever written, my head just hasn't been in the right place to write it, but at least it's done now.

My plan of action will now be to get myself sorted and hair washed, then I may re-read my essay and resubmit it.

THEN I am going to go into town and buy some beeeeads! I bought a gorgeous pendant the other day and it came through the post yesterday so now I need to make a necklace to string it on. I got lots of goodies through the post yesterday - DVDs and stuffs that I bought out of my birthday monies - and it was very hard not to play with new goodies and do my essay instead.

I got very fed up with the whole thing yesterday and had to come back to yesterday's post to see those 'You can do it!' words staring at me. Gave me a bit of a boost which was nice.

I'm hoping the rest of my mother's day supplies come through today as well, then I can start making that, or at least start learning how to do what I want to do, later this evening. I do have some un-fun stuff to do as well, such as listening to the lecture and doing the reading that I missed this week ready for my seminar tomorrow, but I might do that in the morning and just take a complete break from uni stuffs for the day.

Oooh and I need to clean out the mices and give them a nice fresh new tank. They're always so fun to watch running around after their tank is cleaned, they have so much fun :D

My lovely other half sent me this photo yesterday which cheered me up a lot, isn't he a little cutie? :D

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

February 27th 2013 :)

Yesterday was quite a good day really :)

I didn't get as much written on my essay as hoped but that's ok. It'll be a squeeze getting it perfect in time, but you know what, I had a good day yesterday and I'm not going to let the fact that I didn't get as much done on a silly essay spoil that :) I don't know if that's the right attitude to take all the time, but right now it's exactly what I need to do.

I had a driving lesson in the morning which was stressful. Nothing bad happened or anything, I just concentrate so hard in lessons that I'm exhausted at the end of it.

But we ended the lesson in town as I had a little bit of shopping to do - supplies for Mother's Day present! I spent over half an hour in the best bead shop ever (Raphael on St Benedict's Street in Norwich - go visit, it's amazing!) trying to pick the perfect colours, which I think I have :) Came away with 400g odd of seed beads - that's a lot of ickle beads :D

I also got through a new bead toy in the post, one of these babies:
It's a bead spinner, given to me by a lovely lady who had no use for it anymore. It helps you thread a lot of ickle beads quickly so you don't have to thread each one singly. I can't wait to have a play, but essay has to come first, and I suppose there's the small detail of needing other materials to come through the post before I can actually make anything with it :P

I also bought a pair of green tights. To go with my orange skirt :) I've been after some for a while but not being one who likes to spend money none of the ones I've seen have been the right price. H&M had the ones I want, and I went in there yesterday to find they were half price :D So I nabbed em. Now the sun needs to come out so I can wear a skirt :D

Today's plan of action is to finish this essay. I can do it, just need to knuckle down and do it. I just had some good brain fodder - boiled eggs and soldiers, so now I better get on with the essay.

Phrase of the day: You can do it! :D



Tuesday, February 26, 2013

February 26th 2013 :)

Well. Yesterday didn't go completely to plan. I just did not know what to write for this essay. I don't think I'm getting to the panic point quite yet but the deadline is looming and I do need to get it done!

So later today I will be buckling down and hitting it as hard as possible! I did write a little bit yesterday so there was some progress, just not as much as I'd hoped.

Before essay writing, I have a driving lesson. Eugh. I do have the tendency to dread driving lessons now. Used to love them, but then I got hit by another driver and I just don't trust the other cars on the road. I get back from a driving lesson completely mentally exhausted. Hopefully it will go ok though.

After that I'm headed into town to pick up supplies to make my mum's Mother's Day present :D Looking forward to a bit of crafty shopping. Just need to make sure I don't start playing with the supplies before my essay is done!

Must...have....self....restraint!

Happy Tuesday :D

Monday, February 25, 2013

February 25th 2013.

Ello again :)

Well I literally just posted about my fresh start, so now it is time to start living up to it! No point in putting it off, it needs to become part of a routine.

I don't know how often these posts will come, probably more often in the start and then get less, but hopefully I can keep them often and regular. Maybe even everyday would help me get in the routine.

Today is just a 'What I need to do today' post, so hopefully I can come back tomorrow and tick off everything I needed to do.

So I guess a start to the day would be to get dressed so I can pop to the shop. I had a really icky weekend full of a coldy flu-ey thing so I definitely need to go out and get some fresh air, even if it does look completely miserable.

Next is to write about 1000 words of my essay. This will be tough. I'm not enjoying it and finding it really hard work to keep focused and motivated. I think I'll just put on a film, type up what I've already got written and do my best to keep away from past seasons of CSI, Youtube, and eBay (I do love eBay!).

Those are my two main goals of the day. Fresh air and essay. I might even freshen up the mices tank later if I get these 1000 words written :)

Happy Monday everyone!

Fresh start.

Mornin' everyone :)

I've had  a bit of a rough start to the year which is probably why I haven't been blogging. I need to be a bit more productive so I'm going to try to use this blog as a way to stay motivated. If I write it down for you lovely lot to see then maybe I will actually do it :) As a side note, these grapes I'm eating do not taste good. I hate bad tasting grapes.

There will be crafty stuff, uni stuff, long and short term goals, and I'm going to put it all out here for you to see.

Here's an outline of things I want to blog about in upcoming posts, then I guess I better get on with the day!

- Everyday things that I need to do. This will include boring things like tidying up, cleaning my mices tank, cleaning etc. Might be tedious to read but if I write it down I will feel like I've been productive. I get very down when I don't feel as though I've been productive so maybe this will help me to stay happy. 

- Goals for the future. The future is very important to me and I think about it a lot. It might help me stay happy to write it all down. These posts might be about things I want to do to develop myself, my skills, or simply just things that I want.

- Shorter term goals. Things I need or want to do in the next couple of weeks.

- As well as goals, I will carry on talking about things I'm making and doing, and will be holding occasional giveaways linking with my facebook page.

Hopefully this kind of thing will help me keep focused and happy and hopefully you can get something out of reading it as well :) Here's to fresh starts :D

Kayleigh xx


Sunday, January 20, 2013

And the winners are...!

With the winning guesses of 1854 and 2000, the winners are Jeni and Vic!

There are 1881 beads on the string, all counted by me this morning :D

Brilliant guess by Jeni, only 27 beads away from being spot on!

So if you lovely ladies would like to let me know your addresses and colours for your earrings, I will get them made and sent to you during the week :D Email me at kayleighsexton@live.com or message me on facebook :)

Congratulations!!!

Friday, January 11, 2013

Giveaway! Extended Entry Dates!

Hello everyone!
A quick note to say I'm extending the entry deadline until Sunday at 6pm. This give you an extra couple of days to enter and me a chance to count the beads :D


As promised, I am doing a giveaway because I reached 600 likers on my facebook page! There will also be two winners as I reached that target before Christmas so that is double the chance of you winning :D

The giveaway is in the form of 'Guess How Many...' and the two closest guessers will win a pair of earrings in the colour scheme of their choice. Here is an example of what you could win:



And now on to the rules (sorry, there has to be some!)
1. Guess by leaving a comment on this post.
2. Everyone who is a liker of my facebook page or a follower of my twitter account (@CyndraArts) has one guess.
3. If you share my page on facebook and come tell me about it here then you earn another guess. You can share multiple times to get multiple guesses.
4. If you tweet about my Etsy shop (CyndraArts) or my facebook page (KayleighsCraftyness) and tell me about it here you get an extra guess. Again, tweeting multiple times gets you multiple guesses :D
5. Finally, if two people guess the same number, only the first guess will count so make sure you look through the comments to see if your number has already been guessed :)
6. Giveaway will close at 1pm GMT on Friday 18th January 2013. Amended closing date: Sunday 20th January at 6pm :)

Okily dokily, so with the formalities out of the way, what is it you'll be guessing?
I have a gorgeous string of beads strung around a couple of walls in my room. It's about 7 or 8 metres longs I believe.
How many beads are on this string?
Hint: There are a lot.
Closest two guesses win!

Here's a snippet view of the bead string:















Just a note, you are not guessing how many are in the picture above, but how many are on the whole 7-8m length :)
GOOD LUCK!