My Latest Crafty Capers

I haven't written in my blog for total ages so thought it was about time I let you know what has been going on. Over the past 2 months I have been adjusting to my new crazy life as a mum. It has been good but very very very tiring. Caelan is a little milk fiend and if he had life his way - would be on the boob all the time! So as you can imagine I've not had much time to get up to any crafty stuff. However that is all changing now. Managing to get the wee man down for 9pm every night and he generally sleeps through now, yay! So got some time back to myself again and Craft Sundays are starting up again this week, woohoo!

In other news; my grandparents bought us a lovely travel cot. We don't have room for a proper cot in our tiny flat so this cot is the business! It can be used as a cot, a bassinet (which we are using at the moment), a playpen and even has a changing station attachment so it is a great space saver for us! The only thing I would have to say about it is the toys that came with it are pretty horrendous. They are grey and pretty much look like the toys the children from the Addams family would play with.

I decided that I would use my crafty skills to create something much more colourful and vibrant to replace these dull, poor excuses for toys. And let's face it, that wasn't going to be very difficult was it? I have been experimenting with making things from felt recently and practicing my really rusty sewing skills. So I thought what better than to replace these dismal toys with than some funky felt creations of my own! I came up with a little family of celestial bodies including a daddy sun, mummy moon and little baby star which I then sewn using different colours of felt and buttons. Here they are pictured on the cot with Albi the dragon admiring them!

I think I can safely say that although my sewing technique needs a bit more work, the new replacement toys are much nicer to look at! I also have plenty of ideas for new felt creations that I'm hoping to get around to soon.

Birth Announcement

Hiya folks! Just to let you know that I gave birth to a healthy beautiful boy last Thursday named Caelan. He's been such a good baby so far, it's hard to believe he's only a week old! We are settling into life as a family at the Nomi Palace which is why I haven't listed anything for a few weeks. But don't worry the Nomi Faerie will be back very soon with a new spooky range just in time for Hallowe'en... Until then stay sparkly!!!

Half An Hour With Andy Barrett

And time for some other creative stuff that I have been up to... My very talented friend Andy
Barrett has put half an hours worth of his music onto a CD and asked me to design the artwork. We did a photo shoot along Monifieth Beach and I used these to put the design together to Andy's requirements. At one point he was wanting me to include his painted big toe in the artwork but glad I talked him out of it, haha! But on the whole the project was a success and am now considering expanding my shop to offer these types of services.

So here is the finished result and the tunes are not bad either! On Sale at Grouchos, Dundee for £5. Andy is having his CD launch at Thomsons Bar, Dundee next Saturday 24th September at 8pm and there will be music from other guests too. I'll not make it because the baby will be here by then but should be a good night! In the meantime here is a little taster from the CD...

http://soundcloud.com/dancingbob1/01-find-my-way-andy-barrett

Still waiting on baby...

Hiya folks! Just a quick update. Still no sign of baby yet so have been using the time to get on with my creative projects now that the house is back in order. I'd gotten photos taken of my bump every month from when I was 14 weeks. So I've put them all the photos together using Photoshop and here is the result... The Bumpometer!

Day of the Triffid Sunflowers

My friend Lydia and I have been meeting up for Craft Sundays over the past couple of weeks, mainly to make decorations for my mate's big 30th Birthday extravaganza at the weekend there. We made lots of cool stuff including strawberry bunting, big giant strawberries, a strawberry pinata (yes, she is mad on strawberries) and thought it would be cool to make some lovely flowers out of tissue paper for the table as well. I thought I would cheat and picked up a sunflower making kit in the town; the box included green wire and crepe paper etc. The instructions on the back made it seem fairly easy. Well, it wasn't...

That actually took us 2 hours to do, we had to cut out 36 bloody sunflower petals, 6 leaves, some spiky green things to go round the stem. The stupid things wouldn't stick together so ended up just being a mass of sellotape, wire and unsticky PVA glue, lol! They defo do look like something out of The Day of the Triffids, haha! I wasn't about to waste another 2 hours trying to do a better attempt! We took the flower making kit to the party thinking it might be a good party game trying to get the guests to make their on flowers, haha! But after the punch came out well, that idea went out the window! I think the moral of the story is buying things in kits isn't always necessarily easier. My strawberry pinata on the other hand which I made from scratch did turn out successfully, I will post up how I made it very soon so look out for that!

Baby Shower

My friends threw a fantastic Baby Shower for me at the weekend there. It was really lovely of them , they all put in a big effort and I had a great day. I also received lots of fantastic presents for the wee man when he puts in an appearance over the next few weeks. The theme of the party was 'Peter Pan'... quite fitting really seeing as I am mad on faeries, mermaids and pirates and also because I grew up in Kirriemuir, which is the birthplace of J.M.Barrie.

This was the first Baby Shower I had been to and it was my own, lol! I wouldn't really know where to start if I had been organising it. The girls put up lots of Peter Pan themed decorations, there was a tasty buffet and lots of homemade cakes and punch! We also played party games including Pass the Parcel, Crap Prize Raffle, and Baby Come Dine With Me. You're probably wondering 'What on earth...?' Baby Come Dine With Me involves getting lots of jars of baby food, removing the labels and then the players have to guess what flavour/recipe it is. It's actually a lot harder than it sounds and some of the food is just pure mingin, urgh! Poor babies, I think we're just gonna blend our own baby food when he gets to that age rather than buy that jarred stuff!

In Pass the Parcel every time you unwrapped a layer of wrapping paper there was mini prizes such as stickers and lollipops and also a quote to read out from Peter Pan. In Crap Prize Raffles there was a wonderful selection of prizes to win including a car air freshener, magic duster and even a turnip!

I hope this gives anybody who's planning on throwing a Baby Shower some good ideas. I had a great day which I would like to thank all my friends once again for that. It's good to know that my wee boy is gonna have lots of wonderful aunties looking out for him!

In the beginning...

Hello... my name is Princess Nomi. This year I started my own business called The Nomi Faerie which specialises in unique handmade jewellery and other crafts. I am writing my first Blogger post from my friend's computer in Edinburgh where I am visiting for a few days. The festival is on but being 8 months pregnant now it's getting rather difficult to get around with all the crowds. Nevermind, next year I may even have my own stall at the Fringe... well, here's hoping anyway! For today I'm just spending my time setting up my Blogger page as I think this will be a great way to promote my shop. I've actually been thinking of loads of new ideas of things to make for my shop, a lot of these ideas are becoming quite baby related as well for some reason, I wonder why, hehe! At the moment just gonna dot some ideas down in my sketchbook until I find some time when I get home... and my new felting kit arrives!