How to Marble Paper

Gather together a deep dish that paper will fit into laying flat, or cut paper to fit. Lots of different things for making the swirls, we had cocktail sticks,chop stick, whisk, crochet hook, pencil plastic fork and the best one the barbeque fork.
Fill the dish with water.

Then add some drops of colour (first shaking the jars of colour to make sure they are well mixed.)
make some swirls by dragging the cocktail stick gently along the surface of the water. (we found there was only a minute or so to do this before it started setting.)
Grab anything to hand to experiment with different swirls and patterns ;) Then you lay the paper gently on the surface and lift it up, all the oil paint will have stuck to it. we found thicker paper worked best. there is a little residue left which if you lay thin paper down on and lift it up as above, you will have clean water to start again.
Then all that remains is to clear up the colourful mess.
We were very pleased with how the paper turned out and started experimenting with other things. The Jam jars would make good night lights with a candle in, and I'll probably wrap some wool or ribbons around the top.

A fab week.

I put all my buttons out in the shop last week, to make jewellery and button hearts and to demonstrate how to make them. Customers could also have a go and make a button heart for £5.00, which proved really popular.
I poured out my jar of Mother of Pearl buttons (for me and not to share ;) I made two necklaces that I really like, inspired by the sea. I am going to do a beach window and these will look perfect alongside a couple of my beach paintings and a window full of pebbles.
I also made some tiny mother of pearl hearts also for the window, I sold a couple on Sunday so will have to make some more :) I will be leaving the buttons out this week and adding a few big beads and some hemp to make crochet necklaces.
In Wincanton we are very lucky to have Jenny who runs Divine Wines, not only does she have excellent taste in wine but is also an amazing cook. Part of the Wine shop is a cafe and outside is beautiful..if you like to get that 'holiday moment' this is the place to visit.
On Friday night Jenny ran a Greek evening, a five course delicious meal, (I could hardly move afterwards!) everyone sat on the long tables and though we didn't know anyone to start with we soon relaxed and enjoyed the company around us. It was an amazing evening and we could walk home ya! The wall art was gorgeous and I'm sorry to say I have forgotton the artists name, the picture are weather proof, a brilliant idea for the winter.
On Sunday I did the monthly Artisan Market at Catherine hill in Frome, I did not have any help so didn't get much chance to go around the market, I managed to take a couple of pictures of the fab shops that can be found on Catherines Hill.
and this stall of Sunflowers from a farm in Codford (which I would like to get to before the seasons out), they sold out in a few hours.
I was in my usual place at the bottom of the hill, I couldn't believe how much stock I had made over the last month, which means being in the new shop is starting to work. My next job will be to find some galleries and shops to supply with my scumble collection and brooches.
I loved Laura Merritt's work, unfortunatly I could only afford a couple of her cards but would really like one of her embroidered fabric canvases for my kitchen.
Monday we went for a picnic to Stourhead.
With My Mum and Sister in Law, was great to get the cousins together.
A really relaxed picnic in an amazing spot, probably spoiled a few photographs lol

Think Mum was pleased to see us altogether, Arthur actually took this pic with my camera with the zoom lens attached.
I have also been enjoying flowers from my garden, it has been great to walk down the garden and come back armed with beautiful flowers to brighten up the house :)
Hope you all have a fab week x

A Beautiful Week

What a fantastic hot week its been.
I had a stall at the Anonymous travelling market on Saturday and it was sweltering from very early on. I stupidly did not take my marquee, thinking we would be inside. I like how the stall looks but I had to keep hiding behind my van in the shade. Unfortunatley the market was so Anonymous very few people showed up. I enjoyed sitting in the sun (and shade) crocheting and listening to the live music. Maria (who's bunting you can see in the pic) came along in the morning and went and got me some suncream to stop me burning for which I am very gratefull!


It has been amazing to have the doors open in the sitting room drinking the odd glass of wine and enjoying the full moon :)
The flowers are all coming out in the garden, Star flower one of my favorites to add to salads along with nasturtium flowers (we eat very pretty salads lol)
The sweet peas have come out at last and look gorgeous.

and I have been lucky enough to spend time reading the paper and drinking tea amongst the flowers half way down the garden, my own little hiding place.
Arthur had his first sleep over on Saturday and they thought it was great to watch Doctor Who together, I made them a midnight feast (which luckily they ate at 7.30 ) and they were asleep by 8 after quite a bit of chatting. On Sunday we went to The Wincanton Classic Car Show which we thought would be very small.
But it turned out to be a really good show of vehicles, the guys were in there element.
Arthur and Ted loved all the steam engines,
Tony loved the bikes, He has an old BSA which he is slowly restoring.
Sunday afternoon we all planned to watch the World Cup with England versus Germany, Arthur has been loving the football and insisted we put flags on the van.
George and Tony put up a new goal for Arthur (well thats what they said) Think they went for a rather big one!
George thought he'd test out the goal....I don't think Tony was quite ready it was hilarious, he got quite badly hit by the ball as you can see from his face, I haven't laughed so much in ages.
Then Tony decided he would get revenge..not sure George was ready for it either, but he did turn sideways I notice ;)
The boys had a little game then went in to watch the match, which ended 4-1 to Germany, with a goal that was disallowed because the Ref didn't see it, he was the only person in the world not to see it, not sure about the rules there! It was so funny reading all the comments on Twitter...quite a bit of swearing going on!
I have also been busy making this week, I sold out of the felted brooches so thought I would make some more, I am also working on scumbled bags, which I am lining with recycled jumpers, and cushions which will be backed with recycled jumpers. I love playing with colours and textures like this. Great fun.
Arthur picked me this lovely bunch of flowers from the garden. I feel so lucky this year that we have the luxury of picking our own flowers :) Veg is also looking good and I forgot to put the picture in!

Summer is...

Collecting Potatoes we've grown in the garden, Arthur was so excited we had to cook them immediately.
Jumping waves. we went down to Poole on Monday afternoon for a picnic lunch by the sea, a really special afternoon :)
Watching Balloons pass by on a summer evening..

Setting up a carboot stall in the sun, Arthur did his while I set mine up with a lot of shop stuff I no longer wanted, we both did really well. There was not much vintage bits around I only bought a few buttons..which meant I just brought home some money for a change!
I hope you've all been enjoying the gorgeous sunshine too :)

My blog has got very colourful which I like, but would like the background to be more transparent (I have pressed the transparent button but it does not seem to work) If any one knows how to do this or put solid colour behind the links please let me know. Thanks x

phew we made it!

A little glimpse into the new Tamsyn G shop. Which at the start I was slightly worried we would get finished in time. Before it got to the state below I had to empty it out of all the prints and paintings that we stored in there when we moved house, these are now hidden in what will be my workroom in the house.. so another job for later. There will be a sign above the shop and the circles either side of the sign..will be painted to look like buttons :)
I had been planning and measuring for the past 4 weeks, and was amazed to find I was nearly right about where things wopuld go, luckily I have Tony . If I had got my measurements slightly out he would magically make the cupboards fit.

The cupboards above needed a fair bit of tweeking, like little wedges cut out and the bottom bit cut off as well as the middle shelf being cut in half, but made to look like its always been like that, so much so that when my friends came in they said 'wow Tamsyn your measurements were right those cupboards fit perfectly' which made me cry with laughter!
The above little corner makes me smile everytime I see it, I had been saving these little cupboards and printers tray for the new shop but had not really worked out how they would look, me and Kate said where they should go as Tony magically fixed them in place.
Perfect for all the vintage Haberdashery :)
The view out with the perfectly fitting shelves completely stacked up! That was the other strange thing, it looks like I have lots of new yummy stock but is virtually the same as before.
I love the layout of the shop, this is the backroom with all the yarns and making bits.
The jewellery cabinets did fit perfectly into there little space by the slope leading to the backroom.

We opened on Thursday and I am sure it will be a welcome addition to Wincanton, people will slowly find us..next week will be full of promotion and getting leaflets printed to spread the word.
We managed (just) to go for a picnic at Bullbarrow Hill which we can see from our house, it was very funny trying to work out the hills in the distance and look back towards Wincanton. I just sat still for half an hour resting my tired legs, but the guys had a great runaround.
and climbed a tree! including Tony. I tried not to tell them to be careful!

I hope you've all had a fab week, I hope to catch up with everyone's blog over the next few weeks and will have more time to do mine to. x