Created with Love

A sad au revoir

 

I've been thinking.

A lot.

When I opened my other blog, Life As We Know It, Mon asked me if I was closing this one. My answer was a resounding no. And I totally meant it. I had great ideas for this place. I even went ahead and made a nifty new about page outlining some of them.

I still don't want to close the blog. I love this place and believe whole-heartedly in my ideas. But the timing is just not right.

 

Right now my focus must be on my family.

That's the season I'm in. Plain and simple.

 

So I need another bloggy break.

 

I'll still be creative every day, I know no other way to live and, frankly, it makes me a more patient wife and mother, but I just can't complete projects as quickly as before or keep up with a regular blog schedule here. Especially not with the ideas I have for this place. They are pretty time-consuming.

I will still be blogging away over at Life As We Know It, so I'll post my completed projects over there till I feel ready to re-open Created with Love. I'd love for you to follow me across, but totally understand if you don't. If you do, but you're only interested in my arty crafty stuff, you can subscribe to those categories on their own when they become available.

I'll close all comments here in about a week. If you want to contact me after that you can do so at creatingwithlove at yahoo dot co dot uk.

 

Thank you so much for understanding.

Lots of love to you all, xo

 

The Summer of {Bloggy} Love

 

 

If you haven't been over on my other blog, Life As We Know It, yet I really encourage you to do so. Especially right now. I have a wonderful summer project going on over there that I'd love for you all to take part in. It's called The Summer of {Bloggy} Love. I'm so excited about it! Please take a look, then  write your own post  about some of your favourite bloggers (you can see my pick here).

You can also find a button in my sidebar on both blog, please grab one and spread the word!

 

Sweet Shot Tuesday

 

 

Sometimes my big sister is a bit mean! Here I am, minding my own business, concentrating hard on learning to sit up on my own without toppling over, and she plays a trick like this on me! And that mum of mine isn't much better. Instead of helping a poor fella out, she runs and gets her camera! Honestly! What's up with you people?!

(Get used to it kiddo, it's going to happen a lot around here!)

 

Linking up with

 

 

The inquisitive creative

 

Oh man, I laughed so hard reading Mon's post a creative meanderer this morning, I nearly choked on my tea. That's me in a nutshell! So I thought I'd write my own list.

These are the crafty/creative things I've tried at some point in my life. The things in bold I still do and love, the rest I've either skipped for good or hope to return to when the time is right.

 

Knitting

Photography

Art journaling

Crochet

Decoupage

Drawing

Web design

Felt work

Show dancing (I even dreamed of moving to New York to study dance)

Collage & mixed media

Interior design

Embroidery

Drawing

Drama (high school stuff mostly)

Writing poetry

Creative cooking & baking

Writing fiction

Sculpting

Line dancing

Painting

Blogging

Playing the electric organ (never got as far as learning to read music though)

Card making

Cross-stitch

Learning new languages (English, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek)

 

No wonder I chose develop as my word for this year! I need to focus on just a few things a little while, certainly while I've got young kids at home who need most of my attention.

(Excuse the lack of photos in this post- the photo I want is on the external hard-drive, which won't come on at the mo)

 

 

Sweet Shot Tuesday

 

I had an impromptu mini-shoot with my girl in the garden last Friday. She was so excited about having gotten a medal at the nursery sport's day, bless her, that she actually asked to have her picture taken! I, of course, jumped at the chance.

 

 

I love that that the shots are so real, so her. Knowing what she is like, there was no time to change her top and clean her up. It was a moment in time we both wanted captured. I'm glad we did.

Linking up with

 

 

Also, before I go, please hop on over to my other blog, Life As We Know It today. I'm introducing a really exciting summer project and hope you will all take part.

 

Sweet Shot Tuesday

 

Reunited

 

(To read the story that goes with the photo, click on over to my other blog)

 

This photo is linked up with

 

 

 

 

Links I love

 

Links to inspiring posts, articles, giveaways or tutorials from the past week.

 

:: Kate from the Kathryn Wheel is giving away 2 copies of her new art journaling DVDs. Go check it out!

 

 

 

 

:: Mandy from Eight Is Enough has a tutorial on how to make a tote from a tea towel (and is also running a giveaway).

:: Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle is running a fabulous summer challenge called The Summer of Color. They've done blue already and are now doing green, but it is not too late to join in.

 

 

 

 

:: Kristi over at Creative Kristi is running a fabulous series on spreading bloggy love, including this how to on making your own blog button (but seriously, check out the whole series, it's great!)

And finally

:: Maya from Maya Made guest post  over at SouleMama on making jars of love (check out the comments section too for other ideas, including the idea of making jars of love memories). Such a sweet idea!

 

Half term crafting: butterfly canvas

 

With a baby in the house, Aoife hasn't had quite as much concentrated mummy-time as she's used to lately. We've both missed it, and I've been feeling guilty about it (there's that darn mummy-guilt again), so I made a point of planning daily one-on-one time with her during half term last week.

It was fun. We did a lot of playing, some cooking and baking, and I taught her how to weave, which she loved and has asked to do every day since. We also made this super cute butterfly canvas.

 

 

 

Isn't it cute?!

I came across this fun butterfly art project over at Whatever the first day of half term and knew straight away it would be something both Aoife and I would love to do together. And since we had all the materials to hand we didn't waste any time in getting started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See how easy it is?! Yet it was a lot of fun to do and created a really cool art piece for her new bedroom (but that's a whole different post or two, so I'll spare you the details of that today).
 

Go on now! You know you want to try this yourselves!

 

Sweet Shot Tuesday and giveaway winner

 

 

 

I rarely get a good, clean shot of Aoife these days. She's always on the run, doesn't want her photo taken very often, or pulls silly faces. When I do have the chance, I have to be quick. This was taken during a picnic lunch when she got so into the story she was telling she forgot about the camera for a second.

Linking up with

 

 

 

And the winner of the cross-stitch giveaway is number...

 

 

 

Christa from Brown Sugar Toast, who chose the Time For God cross-stitch. Congratulations Christa! Hopefully this will bring a little extra sweetness in your life. Shoot me an email with your snail-mail address so I can stick it in the post for you.

 

Welcome June

 

 

 

Oh how I love June! June conjures up such lovely childhood memories of running barefoot through sprinklers on green, green grass, the sweet scent of lilacs in bloom, bowls and bowls of sun-warmed strawberries, joyful picnic lunches with friends and hours of solitary reading in the shade of my favourite tree. 

 Have a wonderful month everyone!

 

P.S Don't forget to enter the cross-stitch giveaway!