Anyone for Chocolate?

I didn't think I'd have time to join in with Handmade Monday this week but after getting back from Bruges this morning I just had to show you a couple of photos!
They are handmade, just not handmade by me! Although I have to say I would love the job of making these:

All made from chocolate, aren't they just mouthwatering?
I shall do a proper post all about Bruges soon but I now have to dash off to work for a night shift!
Almost forgot... I managed to get this posted out to a customer before I left, K is for Khloe!

Short and sweet for now,
Until next time,
Jem
x

It's cold Oop North!!!

Is it me or has winter suddenly just appeared? I don't just mean the weather as we haven't had any sunshine for ages but I found myself waking up at 6.30 this week and thinking it was an hour earlier as it was so dark outside! It was also pretty cold too so I did the only sensible thing... I turned the alarm clock off and went back to sleep! If that wasn't bad enough I woke up yesterday morning to go to work and found my car covered in snow!!! Blimey it's cold Oop North!!!

I've decided not to push my business until next year when I have a few things sorted out, (such as moving into my new house and creating a proper craft room) but I have noticed this week there has been a big increase in orders and the more I do the more orders I seem to get! Word of mouth seems to be working as they all seem to be coming from people who know someone who's bought/received one of my products.
I'm not complaining though, in fact I love it, the only downside is that I still have to fit my full time job in too, not very easy when its shift work!!!
I'm going to keep this post short as I have lots to do but I wanted to show you some more letters that I have done.
I normally paint with the lighter colours but this customer requested one letter in red and two in teal.

It took me a while to work out what 'teal' was, but after a search on Google  it appears it's a shade of bright blue.

I have also done a K for a new baby girl in pink but I haven't uploaded the photo onto my computer yet!

On the subject of photos... A few weeks ago Wendy over at Handmade Harbour had a give-away, the prize was a book about how to take great photos of your crafts.

Now I didn't win this but it made me think about just how poor my photography skills are so last night I went on Amazon and ordered myself a copy of it! Hopefully it won't take too long to arrive and then there should be a vast improvement in the quality of my photos!!

Next weekend I am off on a romantic weekend away to Bruges so I won't be joining in with Handmade Monday then but I shall try to do a post in the middle of this week.

Until next time,
Jem
x

A little trip Down South and a wedding

A couple of weekends ago I took a trip down south to the beautiful west-country (or as I prefer to call it - HOME!)
We went to Brean in Somerset, despite having lived just half an hour away from Brean for much of my life I never visited this place although I had heard a lot about it. We dropped really lucky with the weather, it was tipping it down on our way there and on the way back but for the time we were there we had sunshine, yes sunshine in October!
Although Brean itself is very touristy there are plenty of beautiful quiet little villages nearby. whilst travelling down one of the country lanes we came across this cider farm shop

Inside this Aladdins cave the lady serving was very friendly and as soon as we entered she offered us a taste of their scrumpy! Despite being from the area I'm not a big fan of cider but I'm assured this scrumpy tasted delicious! What I did taste was some of their butterscotch brandy, WOW, it was amazing! So much so we bought 2 bottles, one as a Christmas present and another bottle for ourselves at Christmas!

Something I noticed whilst we were driving through a nearby village was their bus shelters, not your standard metal and glass ugly looking shelters but stone ones that have clearly been lovingly hand-painted

How gorgeous are they? As a big fan of giraffes this one was my favourite!

The trip was over far too quick and it was back up north and back to work my day job.
When I returned I received a short notice order for a wedding gift. The order came on Wednesday for a wedding on Friday and all that was requested was 'something with the wooden hearts'
These are the wooden hearts referred to

With not a clue where to start I thought about trying to create some sort of hanging piece using craft wire... I soon discovered that me and wire do not work well together! Hats off to Wendy who makes it look so easy when she uses it on her plaques!
So after a tantrum creative thinking session I decided to stick with what I know - twine! The end result was some wedding bunting,

Bunting seems to be quite popular lately and I'm quite pleased with how this turned out, unfortunately the photos aren't great as the silver writing doesn't show up much but it reads Mr / & / Mrs / Lomas / Bagden Hall / 12.10.12

I've had some good feedback from it and I'm thinking about making some for myself in the Jam Dalory colours to go above my stall when I finally get round to doing a craft fair.

I'm working on several more of my free standing letters at the moment, thank you to all who commented on my last post about the teddy bears, the majority went for dungarees and so that's what I went with.

A lady at my other job also wanted an initial for her 1 year old grandsons bedroom and was chuffed with the teddy bear and buttons design

Until next time,
Jem
x

Dungarees dilemma!!!

It has been a while since I last showed any crafts off on here, I am however still working away, both at my full time job and at my new business.

The biggest development in the world of Jam Dalory has to be my new facebook page I hope that at least some of you will take a look and if you like what you see then please do click the 'like' button!
I will soon be doing a little give-away on there and on here for followers and likers so watch this space!

So what have I been doing?
I have had a few orders lately for my free-standing wooden letters, this was a gift to a new granddaughter from one lady

And this one is a Christmas present for a young girl

There are some more photos on my facebook page of other letters I have done. I have a few more orders that I'm working on at the moment, the letters above are great for little girls but boys are a bit more difficult. I'm working on some orders for little boys at the moment and could really do with your help for one in particular! One of the little boys is called JJ, he's 2 years old and his room is blue and cream. I've made and painted some little teddy figures but can't decide whether to go for the ones with dungarees or the ones with the heart. What do you prefer?

Dungarees

Hearts

Sorry about the colour quality, I took these photos on my phone in a bit of a rush!!!

If any of you are wondering these letters are approx 6" in size and are just £8 each (+p&p)

I'm going to be linking to Wendy's Handmade Monday which I notice has moved over to her other blog Handmade Harbour, I'll then be having a look at all the others who have linked up. Please do the same!
Until next time
Jem
x

My Easter Safari Mothers Day Weekend!

A different kind of wild weekend to the one I went on a few weeks ago.
This weekend was very random, so much so that i've named it the 'Easter Safari Mothers Day Weekend'
I know what you're thinking, Mothers Day was last weekend, Easter is next month and Safari? Allow me to explain!
Last weekend was indeed Mothers Day but thanks to work commitments and the distance between my mother and me being 250 miles I didn't get to see her so we arranged this weekend instead. Whenever I ask my mum what she wants for Mothers Day I get the same reply each year, "It's a gimmick don't waste your money". Well if I can't waste my money on my mum who can I waste it on? So I suggested doing something for a weekend as she's not close enough to just pop round for a home cooked dinner. This is where the Safari part comes in, I thought about where we could go that wasn't too expensive but where we would all enjoy ourselves. The answer? Longleat Safari Park

Longleat is less than an hour from where my mum lives but i'd never been despite me spending most of my life so close.
On Friday I packed up my car and set off for the long journey from Yorkshire to Wiltshire. The child in me bouncing up and down asking the sat nav "Am I nearly there yet?" but the grown up in me cursing myself for never visiting when I lived so close! After 4 hours I arrived at the Travelodge in Wiltshire and was able to kick off my trainers and de-stress after the hecticness of the motorway. Then all I had to do was wait for my mum, sister and littlest brother to arrive.
That evening we went out for a late Mothers Day meal in a little village pub, which was delicious, then returned to the hotel to tuck into some handmade cupcakes,

I'm really not sure whats going on with that rabbit!

I made these myself and its the first time i've ever made anything out of icing! It reminded me of polymer clay although these tasted much nicer! I have to say though that I have a newfound respect for cake makers. My ideas of beautiful iced flowers became... well you can see what they became!
The next morning we woke up bright and early and set off to Longleat, I have a lot of photos and stories to tell you but it was such an experience over 2 days that i've decided to do a couple of seperate posts about it throughout this week so please check back later in the week (or you could click to follow my blog so you don't miss it!)
Finally I just want to tell you about the Saturday evening, we went to legoland last year for 2 days and knew how shattered we were at the end of each day so we knew this would probably be just as exhausting so we decided to celebrate Easter on Saturday evening (I'm working for Easter weekend this year so I won't see the family) my other brother drove down to join us for the evening and we got a delicious takeaway (well several - subway, chinese and indian!) which we ate in our PJs tucked up in the hotel beds watching Britains Got Talent! Just when we thought we'd had enough out came the easter eggs and we suddenly found a bit of extra room in our bulging tummies!
I arrived back home today and I have to say i'm more tired than my colleagues who had to work night shifts over the weekend! I'm going to have a nice bath then settle down in bed with the laptop to browse through the other blogs taking part in Handmade Monday.
Please come back soon to find out about the safari.
Until next time
Jem
x

A little treat for me!

Another week gone, Handmade Monday sure does make the days pass quick. Once you've finished here make sure you go over and take a look. Bath Bomb Creations are also beginning to host linky parties every Sunday and could really do with your support so please visit them too.

So what have the past few days held for me? A few night shifts (boring!) and i'm now on a weekend off (hooray!) I finally managed to meet up with the friend who ordered the Jessica photo frame a few weeks ago and she was delighted with it. Pretending to be 'ladies who lunch' we went out for a nice healthy-ish meal which I finished off with a big helping of black forest gateau, It didn't help my diet but it sure did taste good!

Onto the handmade stuff, an idea popped into my head for a little plaque, I make different designs for little boys and girls bedrooms but what about the adults? I decided to make one for mum and dads room

I'ts not turned out how I was hoping but after a bit of tweaking I think I can improve it.
Next is something I've made for myself. I made a couple of kitchen boards as Christmas presents but one design stuck in my head. I wasn't sure who to make it for so I decided to treat myself and i'm glad I did

I really love these kitchen boards, there are so many designs possible and I think the caption at the bottom really finishes them off (even if I did forget to dot the I's before taking the photos).

You can have it made with any persons name and the caption can say anything you wish. Even the design can be made to suit any personality.

That's all I have to show this week, next weekend will be Mothers Day so I hope you'll all be remembering it.
Until next time,
Jem
x

Thwarted by the snow

Hows the weather where you are? I think its fair to say its flippin' freezing.

I had planned to meet up with a friend on Saturday evening for a lovely pub dinner and a good old catch up however the weather had other plans for me. There was a few inches of snow outside my door but being the eternal optimist I figured if I could just get my car out of the side streets then the main roads would be fine, how wrong I was! I never made it out of second gear and after passing an ambulance car that had mistaken a building for a bit of road and reduced its overall length by a good foot or two I decided the safest option was to turn around and head for the safety of home.
I was not a happy bunny, especially as the friend I was meeting had placed an order for a photo frame which I was taking with me, hopefully the weather will subside soon else I may have to post it to her.

Anyway, wherever you are and whatever the weather, stay warm, stay safe, be lucky and make sure you pop over to Wendy's Handmade Monday too.
Until next time,
Jem
x

Best laid plans (and my birthday!)

OK so this week I had a lot of things planned which I was hoping to show off this weekend... best laid plans anyone?
Well I started the week by sleeping through most of Monday after working the Sunday night shift, I slept surprisingly well on Monday night too although I woke at 2:30am on Tuesday and couldn't get back to sleep. Despite technically being an adult I still always wake early on my birthday, even though I wasn't particularly excited about it.

So did I do anything special to celebrate? Probably not by many peoples standards but for me I enjoyed it. I tidied the house in the early hours, watched a bit of TV, had a long hot bubble bath, made a homemade veggie bhuna, drank half a bottle of malibu and relaxed. Maybe its a sign of getting old but clubbing really isn't my thing anymore!
Wednesday I had a very good chat with a lady from HMRC, rather than attending one of their workshops they are now offering telephone workshops which are supposed to last about 20 minutes. Mine lasted a good hour and the amount of information I gained was fantastic. I'm no longer scared about the dreaded self assessment, in fact I'm quite looking forward to receiving it and getting stuck in (I will probably regret saying this in a few months time!) So the rest of Wednesday was spent sorting receipts and trying to get things into order.
Thursday I spent quite a bit of my day playing with my new birthday present, a Kindle. These things are absolutely fabulous, I'm quite addicted to it now. I did have a few technical issues with it first off trying to collect it to my wireless network however the ever reliable 'turn it off and on again' worked a treat and I was soon up and running. Now I just need to find a nice handmade case for it... or maybe a few nice cases!

Friday I was back into work. Where does the time go? Hopefully you can see why I didn't get much done.
I didn't completely forget about my paintbrush though, I did find time to paint a few photo frames, first up are these cute stars and hearts:

As Valentines day is fast approaching I also painted these two designs:

That's all I have to offer this weekend, note to self - must do more next week!

As usual I'm linking up with Wendy's Handmade Monday so please do go and have a look at what others have been up to.
Until next time
Jem
x

Dragons

Its been a bit of a hectic weekend here and I'm running a bit late with my Handmade Monday post so i'm going to keep it short and sweet.
This week among other unfinished items I've been working on a mischievous trio of dragons, Boris, Glenn and Rudy:

Boris

Glenn

Rudy

I love the cheeky expression on these guys faces and really enjoyed painting them.
I've also been working on my website a bit which, despite a few setbacks, i'm still intending to get up and running before the end of January. Building a website, even a simple one, is a lot trickier than it appears especially if you are a bit technically-dumb like me. Bit by bit though it is slowly coming together but in the mean time if you want to buy anything you see on here just drop me a message either in the comments section on here or by email to jamdalory@hotmail.co.uk
Its just the dragons I have to show you this week however next week i'll be getting in the Valentines mood and showing you some lovey themed creations.
Until next time,
Jem
x

2nd lot of Christmas presents revealed

If you missed the first lot of Christmas presents revealed you can see the post here.

Now I'd like to show you something that I made for my mum,

I had this idea in my head for months and it came out pretty much how I'd imagined. This personalised kitchen board with pretty mulberry flowers in mulberry paper plant pots hangs from a twine hanger. It has a small felt pouch hanging at the back which holds a piece of chalk and the whole board measures approx 45cm x 30cm.

Before she saw this my mum asked me to make a present for her sister so I got to thinking. I decided to use the same idea but tweak it to match her personality. I know she likes cats and I know her kitchen is blue so the obvious answer was this

again it has a small felt pouch with chalk at the back for writing on the blackboard part.

I'm really pleased with these, they can be designed to match pretty much any personality and are a great addition to the kitchen. They will be on the website when it is up and running, along with some other designs.

I'm pleased that Handmade Monday is back up and running after the busy Christmas period, I have missed it these past weeks. Go and have a look at what everyone's got to show, I'm sure there'll be a lot to catch up on!
Until next time,
Jem
x

1st lot of Christmas presents revealed...

I was going to do just one post of the items I made for Christmas presents but I've decided to split them up a bit so today I will be showing you two gifts that I made, one for my sister and one for my mum.

The idea started when I discovered Bath Bomb Creations, their stuff looked so good I had to order.
I ordered a mixture of different scented bath bombs, some for my mum, some for my sister and some for me! When they arrived they were well packed in a shed-load of bubble wrap that will definitely be recycled on my orders,

The question that came next was how to display them? I bought some of these boxes a while ago and forgot all about them,

I decided to paint them, pink for my sister who is a girly girl and blue for my mum who loves it. I tried to make it look like bubbles on the lid but it didn't work so they just became pretty colourful circles.

I didn't want to just put the bath bombs inside, it needed something more so I got some little organza bags. I ordered some from eBay but they didn't arrive so I had a last minute panic to find someone nearby who could sell me some, luckily I got these pretty lilac bags.

I then separated them into each bag and added a little tag to each to say what scent they were,

Then the moment of truth, I hadn't actually measured the inside of the box so had no idea if they would even fit! Luckily they did. Just.

Yes I was very pleased with myself! I also used some of the mountain of bubble wrap to make sure they were safe before I wrapped them with Christmas paper.

They went down really well as gifts, throughout Christmas day both my mum and sister kept opening the box and lifting a bag out for a sniff! I think I might even make a box for myself, it's nice to have a bathroom treat box for when you just want to relax and feel pampered and the boxes and bags can be reused.

As well as providing me with these lovely smelling bath bombs, the team over at Bath Bomb Creations are hosting their second linky party which I'm going to join in with now, pop over and have a look.
I'm also joining in with Lisa's Linky Party on a blog I've recently found. It's a brand new linky party so I hope they do well.
I'll be revealing the other handmade Christmas presents in a few days.
Until next time,
Jem
x

The week before Christmas

Its the week before Christmas and if you're anything like me you'll be wondering just where the time has gone?

Have you had any snow yet? Despite the weather warnings I've not had to dig my car out yet, unlike last year...

So what have you been up to this week? I was off work Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday (I can't include Monday as I slept the whole day after finishing the Sunday night shift). I have to admit to loving and hating the internet, I hate it because it is like a magnet when theres so many other things I need to be getting on with. I love it though because it means I can shop from the comfort of my PJs so I've ordered most of my Christmas shopping this way.

I have almost completed the last of my handmade gifts and I really wish I could show you but it will have to wait a week so as not to spoil surprises.
What I can show you though is some snippets of some of them as a bit of a taster,

They are a bit blurry and for once that is deliberate, I will show you the full pictures after Christmas.

What I can show you a proper photo of though is this

I love mince pies, not shop bought ones though, they have to be homemade! Admittedly I didn't make the pastry myself (thanks JusRoll) nor did I make the mincemeat (Asda) but I cut out the shapes and cooked them myself! I have seen some great looking recipes for mince pies since I started blogging and i've tried many different homemade ones but these are the first ones i've ever made myself! Not bad eh? They taste pretty good too!

Anyway, thats enough random ramblings from me, I'm off to Handmade Monday to see what others have been up to and I'll be back after Christmas. I hope you all have a wonderful time,
Merry Christmas,
Jem
x