Artful blogging from Glenda Waterworth

Honeysuckle Watercolour

Jan 202012

We have just launched some new stamps! You can see them all over on the Design Team blog and of course they are showing up in the What’s New department on the Chocolate Baroque website too.

There is so much you can do with these images, from complex colouring to very simple stamping. This little concertina is made from heavy watercolour paper and stamped with Adirondack dye inks. They are not waterproof, so I used a waterbrush to pull colour in from the stamped image. I then patted the inkpad onto a non-stick sheet and mixed with water to paint the backgrounds. The colours used are Oregano, Wild Plum, Denim and Terracotta (or possibly Ginger, I can’t quite remember).

I have some other cards I’ve made with these and some work in progress too, so watch out for more artwork coming soon.

A Spring Card

Cards, Rubber Stamps

Jan 132012

I am longing for Spring. I’m literally counting how many minutes earlier sunset is each day and savouring the extra little bit of light. We haven’t had the really wintry weather we had last year, but what is it this year with gales? I don’t remember it being very windy last year, but we seem to be living in a permanent storm force ten at the moment. The garden shed has blown off its base and is perched at a very drunken angle in the corner of the garden. It was in a pretty derelict state when we moved here, so earlier this week I got permission from the landlord to let Adrian loose on it with a crowbar and lump hammer. I am hoping there may be some planks I can salvage for artwork.

So with thoughts of mild, warm, sunny Spring days ahead, I made this little card with the Breath of Spring stamp set. It’s stamped in black Versafine on watercolour paper and coloured with Inktense pencils. I’ve layered it onto some card coloured with Distress stains (Crushed Olive and Pine Needles I think). It’s mounted onto a lilac pearl card and stuck onto a deep purple scalloped card.

The layered panel stands a little taller than the card itself so it’s almost like a mock stepper card. I put decorative paper on the back so that if you look at the card from the back, the sticky up bit isn’t just plain. Well that’s what I’d like you to think, but I actually made the classic mistake of putting my double sided tape all over the back and just as I was about to stick it on, realised there would be exposed adhesive on that back piece so if I ever stuck it in an envelope, it might never come out!

According to the weather forecast, it looks like there’s a lot more Winter to come before I’ll get my warm Spring sunshine. Ah well, I’ll go hibernate a bit longer in my craft room with those new stamps …

January Sale

Chocolate Baroque

Jan 072012

I don’t know what it is about the start of a new year, but I do tend to find I have a burst of energy for clearing, tidying and re-organising at this time of year.

We have been in our new warehouse for a year and it has always been a little cramped in there. Next week we are having a re-arrange of some of the furniture as there are boxes we sill haven’t unpacked and I know there is good quality stock in some of them. I can see tantalising words hastily scrawled on the boxes – Stampsmith, TSS (that’s Ten Seconds Studio), Zutter, etc. Let me at ‘em, I need to go digging!

Our production department is much smaller than it used to be and the filing cabinets that we keep all our stamp making boards in are full to bursting. Many of the boards for our older stamps are almost worn out now and we have to make a decision on whether it is worth the cost of a new board or whether it is time to call it a day and retire the set.

So we have been working through the older stuff and we have come up with a list of stamps that we are going to retire. We have set March 1st as the official retirement date, so you still have a couple of months to add them to your collection if there is something you have wanted to get, but haven’t got round to. Even better, all ‘LAST CHANCE’ stamps are on sale throughout January and we have free UK delivery all this month too.

I’ve tidied up our department structure a bit on the website, so you will now find that the Special Offers department has three sub-departments and Rubber Stamps is now a top level department with Chocolate Baroque and other companies as sub-departments.

The tidying isn’t just happening at the warehouse, I have already started on a clear out of my craft room at home. In Special Offers you will find a department called Used and Second Hand which is currently empty, but is where I plan to put some of my own stash that I no longer need or use.

And talking of tidying, I think we better finish clearing up Christmas – we have boxes of baubles lying around which are proving to be a little too interesting for a certain calico cat. She’s not interested in the shiny bauble itself, but the string that comes out of the top, now that’s worth a wiggle and a pounce any day!

While working on a birthday card …

General Stuff

Dec 302011

Well firstly I have to say a huge thank you for all your very flattering compliments on the last post. I almost didn’t publish it, but I’m glad that some of you feel inspired to get healthier in 2012.

Today I have a little treat for you which has been a long time coming. At the last Paradise Weekend Retreat we held in September last year, Adrian took to the stage on the Saturday night and performed a little song that he wrote specially for the event.

We didn’t have a video camera to hand at the time, so there is no footage of the original, but I’ve put a little slide show together and I’m proud to present … Add a Brad!

For those who were there, I hope it brings back happy memories and for those who weren’t, I hope you enjoy this little bit of silliness.

Happy New Year!

So here it is, Merry Christmas!

General Stuff

Dec 252011

I’m not a great one for posting photos of myself online, but I am celebrating.

I am celebrating the fact that I have got rid of 34 pounds of excess weight since April. That’s one pound short of two and a half stone – nearly 16 kilos, or the average weight of a 3 year old child.

It has been fun buddying up with Lesley – we’ve been going to Weight Watchers together and she has done fantastically well too, shedding all the weight she gained after quitting smoking at the start of 2010.

I am 5ft 10 inches and Lesley is 6ft and we have both been told many times that it doesn’t show, we carry it well, you don’t look overweight, etc. Well thanks guys, but looking back at old photos, anyone who said that to me should get themselves down to Specsavers immediately. I did NOT carry it well, I had fat legs, fat arms, a huge bum and several chins. What I did seem to be fairly good at was accumulating the weight evenly over my entire body, so I never became an apple or pear shape, just bigger all over.

Back in 2009 I was given a diabetic warning which shocked me into making a few changes (click here to read about it). I was 17 stone at the time. With the stresses and traumas of the last couple of years, we have found it hard to stick to the healthy eating and I knew my weight had crept back up, I was 16 stone 8lb in April.

Me in 2009

Weight Watchers has been great, but it’s not enough on its own. If you turn up and expect it to be a magic wand you will just put the weight back on again. If you carry on eating what you normally eat, but substitute low fat or low calorie versions of foods, then you are not changing habits and again, you’ll eventually put it back on. WW has a lot of tools to help you, but my view is that to make it a permanent lifestyle change, you have to have the right mindset. You really have to be prepared to honour your body and treat it with respect.

I began this year with a resolution to look after my health more. I won’t tell you what that resolution has cost me in dental treatment, but you know, it doesn’t matter. I hadn’t been to the dentist for 8 years, so if I average it out, it’s cheap.

After losing about a stone in weight, I had a very painful flare up of endometriosis this summer, so I paused the ongoing dental work and spent the money on acupuncture instead. My acupuncturist has also studied nutrition and she gave me some great food advice. That problem seems to have settled down now, and I’m sure the extra weight loss has helped with that too.

My blood sugar is now perfectly normal and the diabetes alert has been removed from my records. I’ve dropped a shoe size, most of my old wardrobe has gone to the charity shops (including the size 22-24 jumper I found the other day) and I am loving the fact I accidentally came home with a size 12 jumper a few weeks ago and it fits!

Believe it or not, I am just over half way. The official guidelines for my height are between 10 stone and 12 stone 6 so I have another stone or so to lose. I will see how I feel because to be honest, I’m feeling pretty fantastic right now and I’m not going to aim for an unrealistic goal just for the sake of it.

So please forgive my self-congratulatory post, but Christmas is a time of celebration and I’m taking a little moment to celebrate my achievement. And the great thing is, I can pig out over Christmas and eat anything I want to. There is no diet, just a proper understanding of food and a lot of respect for how I treat my body.

So here’s wishing you all a very joyous Christmas Day and hoping that you too have something wonderful you can celebrate.

PS: Isn’t this great!