Books About Town

The Librarian, Author: Terry Pratchett

I love all the new book benches that have appeared in London, especially this Terry Pratchett one. I've written a post about it on my other blog, check it out here.

Age Old Youngster - Vintage Lifestyle Blog

So I'm not doing very well at posting regularly on this blog. This is partly laziness and partly because I am actually quite busy with my freelance writing now.

I've been doing some more work recently writing content for websites, but I'll update you on that in a future post. Today I wanted to post about my other blog, Age Old Youngster.

It's basically where I can right about my inability to keep up with modern trends and my love of retro TV, books and clothes.

I know there are thousands of vintagey blogs out there but I'm aiming for something a bit different, instead of a 'look how beautiful and perfect my life is' type blog it's more to showcase fashion, literature, media and other things that I enjoy and think others will too.

I've been writing the blog for over a year now and it was a slow start but it's gaining in popularity. I have a couple of regular series; every Monday I write an Affordable Wedding Dresses post; providing inspiration on vintage-style big day dresses that don't break the bank.

I also often post my Tattoo Trends series where I showcase amazing tattoos on various themes.

Please check it out here; I hope you like it.

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Papercut Practise

A little while ago I tried my hand at papercutting.

My friend and fellow blogger Emma Daniels, who I've known since we were this big...

...is a very talented papercutter and she's recently started running workshops at Baker & Barista in Ipswich. She was holding her first craft workshop over the Christmas period and she wanted to try it out on a few friends first. So myself and a couple of others got together to have a papercutting lesson, complete with wine and snacks.

Emma started us with some simple designs that she had drawn; we started cutting along straight lines and then graduated to curved ones.

Eventually, when we'd got the hang of using the scalpel, we created our own designs for a Christmas bauble papercut. My incredibly unimaginative design included my two pets, Jack and Otis, in a cheesy festive motif.

It took me forever to cut, but it was a lot of fun.

Finally, I had my very own Christmas papercut.

I was pretty proud of it, but I don't think it really compares to any of Emma's work.

Papercuts by Emma Daniels

Amazing, huh? I don't know how she has the patience.

The Christmas workshops at Baker & Barista went really well; in fact they were so popular that Valentine's Day and Mother's Day papercutting workshops have now been scheduled. If you're in the Ipswich area and want to create a unique papercut for a special someone then book yourself onto one of the craft evenings. There's also free cake, amazing incentive!

Check out more of Emma's work on her blog: www.made-by-ed.blogspot.co.uk

P.S. Apologies for the rubbish photos, they were taken with my rubbish phone.

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Never Work with Children or Animals

I don't have much experience of children, but I can definitely agree on the animal front. These two did their best to stop me working today.

I think I'd best give up for now.

Peter Pan Art for Christmas

Happy New Year.

I thought I'd share one of my favourite Christmas presents; this Peter Pan quote art.

It's actually inspired me to read the book again, it's been a while.

This was bought for me by best friend and fellow blogger Emma Daniels, check out her blog www.paperandpasta.wordpress.com

Happy January!

Alex Monroe's New Jewellery Collection

Jewellery Designer and Previous Interviewee Alex Monroe Releases the 'Banquet' Collection

Alex Monroe Baroque Parrot and Fruit Necklace

I had the pleasure of featuring the very talented jeweller Alex Monroe in the November issue of Make & Sell Jewellery magazine, the last issue I worked on before I left. I had been after him for a while as my colleague on the magazine had one of his signature Bumble Bee necklaces, which I loved.

Alex Monroe Bumblebee Necklace

The design sums up his style; natural, detailed, unusual and with a little touch of whimsy.

He was ahead of his time as bee jewellery is becoming a big trend, I did a feature on it in the November issue of Make & Sell Jewellery.

I was lucky and managed to interview Alex for one of our regular features, How I Started, which was also in the November issue. As the name suggests, the piece is a look into how big-name designers began their journey. Alex was really interesting, funny and refreshing, plus he comes from Ipswich, so he's local to me. His story is fascinating; he's gone from being homeless to one of Britain's most successful jewellery designers.

Here's the feature in the November issue of Make & Sell Jewellery magazine.

Now Alex has released a new collection of jewellery called Banquet. It's a fitting title, the range features Baroque style pieces depicting delicious fruit and exotic birds. It makes me hungry just looking at it.

Alex Monroe Perching Parrot and Fruit Ring

Alex Monroe Split Pomegranate Necklace

Alex Monroe Split Peach Necklace

I particularly love the Asparagus Bundle Necklace, I never would have thought to include vegetables in my jewellery.

Alex Monroe Asparagus Bundle Necklace

Check out Alex's Banquet range, and all his other collections, they are beautiful.

I'm afraid the November issue of Make & Sell Jewellery is no longer out (due to my slowness at posting) but you can order back issues here. Or you could buy a current one, it's a pretty good mag, even if I don't work on it any more.

Happy December!

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Still Going: Freelance Copywriting

I know I haven't written anything for ages.
You'd be fair in thinking my freelance writing career had crashed and burned. Luckily it's quite the opposite. I have gradually built up some regular clients and have quite a mixed workload, varying from writing product descriptions for children's clothing to informative articles on haemorrhoid treatment (I kid you not).

I'm still writing for children's fashion and gift company Kidsen, as I described in my previous post. I've been writing descriptions for some of their Christmas stock, including this cherry print dress which I want in adult size.

Mini Rodini Mon Cheri Dress from Kidsen

I've also been working for a medical information site called Health Beacon, writing informative articles on subjects like pregnancy and, yes, haemorrhoids. Here's a link to a few of my health articles, I'm afraid the haemorrhoids one isn't up yet.

As well as that, I'm also writing freelance for www.ineedlinks.com, which, as the name suggests, helps websites build links and increase their audience. I write website copy for their various clients and I've also written a few blogposts for them, including this one on building links.

It's really great to work for these websites as it gives me a chance to increase my knowledge of web writing and SEO. Plus, they pay me, which is always good.

As you can see, I've been pretty busy with work and blog posts have got a bit left behind. I've also been busy as my boyfriend and I have recently adopted a puppy.

Jack

This is Jack. He's about seven months old and was a stray in Bulgaria before he was rescued and brought over here by dog charity K9 Rescue. They do great work helping stray dogs and increasing the public awareness of the plight of Bulgarian street dogs.

Jack's lovely but still a little nervous so we're working on increasing his confidence and socialising him. He already likes hanging out with our cat Otis (who we got from Suffolk Animal Rescue, another great animal charity).

Jack and Otis - Cat Selfie, Dog Photobomb

I don't want to be one of those people who ramble on about their pets all the time, but Jack's part of my excuse for not posting more regularly. He's cute but he's hard work.

So that is what I have been up to. I'll attempt to post more regularly now, when I'm not looking after Jack or writing about bodily functions.