Grow your Blog event January 2014

 

I am determined to use my blog better this year so I have joined up to Grow my Blog with 2 Bags Full 

 

To begin with we have to introduce ourselves, so a bit of waffling with a few pictures...I can do that...so why am I doing it last minute as always? 

 

To help me do this quick I am going to do it with pictures and few words, I am that woman of a few words ask anyone...except the husband and the kids and really anyone that knows me!

 

 

That me above...ahem...ok so its not, that is my youngest, my beautiful daughter who turned 18 at Christmas, I looked like this about 20 odd years ago if you squinted and wore dark glasses!

 

This is Defi.  He is my youngest Golden Retriever at 4 in February, he has been with us for 3 yrs now and is a mummys boy who walks around with a comfort blankie and loves cuddles.

 

This is my Izabel, and is why I am Izzybeads.  She is the only dog we have ever had from a puppy, and is the last puppy, boy they are hard work!  I am a rescue and rehome house all the way!!  Izabel is gorgeous but she does prefer the dirty and matted look no amount of grooming and care can make this dog stay fluffy and clean!

Ok, this one is me, but is 20 yrs...or so...ago.  I am with my boys, my beautiful faithful Ricky, the German Shepherd, and my son, the same son that turned 20 at Christmas...yes I know Christmas babies, but then my birthday is March.....the joke is on me! 

 

The daily walk.  I took this photo last week, the mist was low over the river - that's the River Wye just to the right of the picture - and the sun was trying to burn through, was a glorious morning walk.

 

For those that don't know the River Wye is in Hereford in the UK.  I live 5 mins walk from this beauty spot.

 



What do I do?  Well, I draw, you can find my prints at Canine Cavern as well as some of my beads and bits.  More about those in a minute.  My first love of art was drawing, I have doodled my way into my....later years....I have no formal training just a love of doing.

 



My current love.  Glass!  I love glass I love to sculpt it.  Originally I wanted to be more realistic in my glass work, but everything came out whimsy so I stopped trying to change it and went with the flow, everything I make is designed to brighten your day and make you smile.

 



 

My glass is sold in my Etsy shop Izzybeads

 

My beads are designed to display as sculptures but I also make them to wear, sometimes I just get a bit carried away and keep adding sticky out bits!

 



 

 

 

Really there is not much to tell about me, I am a wife of 20 yrs with a very supportive husband, a mother of now grown children although they still live at home and make more mess now than when they were little and I create...well it keeps me out of trouble!

 

 

 We have always had animals.  We had chooks (chickens) until Foxy Loxy came and ate them, we live very rural here in beautiful Herefordshire surrounded by farmland, its idyllic and peaceful.  I am a real home body that can't cook!  My husband does all the cooking and shopping as I am completely rubbish at that, but I do occasionally run the hoover round and in the summer I grow veggies and tend our big garden with the help of my furry four paws.

 

Our newest recruit to the house is our Gordy.  Yes that's him in the washing machine, he uses it like a hamster uses a wheel.  Our Gordy is a bit of a celebrity, he has a huge following on FB, he is my beautiful boy, my British Shorthaired Black and Silver Tabby cat...and he has brain damage.  Gordy has been with us now for 5 months and is the baby of the house loved and adored by us all he doesn't have good balance and falls off of everything, he has no fear so can do silly things like sit on the cooker when its hot or try and sit in the coal fire, and he dribbles..alot...but as you can see we love him anyway, all of us.  He claim to fame is that he was featured in the January edition of Cat World, he is a real life superstar!

 

This picture is just because I like it!

 

So that's me Laney of Izzybeads

 

 

You can find me around the web, on my Facebook page in my Etsy shop and hopefully more often here!

 

Now I am off to have a look at the other Grow your bloggers.

 

Laney x

 

List of other bloggers involved in the Grow your Blog event are found here

 

Vicki 2 Bags Full

 



Winter blues, squelching mud and dumplings.

I don't mind Winter, as long as I am indoors!  My daughters birthday is the 22nd Dec the shortest day of the year (could be the 21st but I use her birthday) and after that its longer days, I really look forward to that the promise of sunshine and long days in the garden.

I like driving in snow as long as no one else is on the road and I love deliberately skidding in the car down our icy lanes, I love the feel of the slide, only if no one else is around though and the only thing I can hit is the hedge!  I would really like to have a go on a professional skid pan and I am determined one day to do doughnuts complete with smoke and squealing tyres.

I love coal fires and drawing the blinds when it gets dark so its all snug and cosy, long hot soaks in the bubbly bath with a good book, thick stews with dumplings and thick baggy jumpers that hide the rolls consistent with eating too many dumplings!  I am not so keen on wet stinky dogs after a trudge through sludgy fields, even though I quite like the sound of the squelch when the wellie boots sink in the sludgy mud.  I hate cold feet, but love a tingly cold nose feeling and I hate the fact that my clothes are dried in the tumble dryer and not on the line.

Today though the sun is shinning and the little robins are perched up on the leafless trees and singing loudly, I had a nice walk down by the river with patches of frost on the less exposed areas of grass, Defi rolled in the muddy puddles and chased the birds across the empty field, the only noise heard was that of the robin and the squelching of the mud.

Prints of 'Please don't disturb me' are now available to buy at Canine Cavern all designed and drawn by me.

 

In print

I am so excited to announce that my Bottoms Up will be available to buy as prints and keyrings from Canine Cavern in approximately 10 days :) just visit www.carolynscaninecavern.com for more details....or drop me an email laneymead@yahoo.co.uk

Laney x