Family Friday - Daisy Flowers

Hi There and welcome to another Family Friday

This week you can have some cute photos of littlest princess from when I took her to a local orchard. There were many 'daisy flowers' (as she calls them) and it made for an adorable shoot!

WNW: Charm Earrings

Hi - and welcome to What's New Wednesday. This weeks what's new is going to focus on some cute charm earrings. I've already got my ballerina charm earrings, (both ballet shoes, and ballet dresses) up on my etsy shop - but I've made a few others as well. Each of these are one of a kind - so if you want them, speak up! Charm earrings in this style are £3.00 for the pair

Turtle Earrings

 How cute are those turtles? Anyone a discworld fan? If you don't get that reference, you clearly aren't as nerdy as I am.

Crown earrings

 Well, it wouldn't be Katy Page designs if we didn't do something at least a little bit princessy would it?

Sausage Dog Earrings

 I felt like these cute daschund charms needed more than one bead to balance them out - but aren't they just adorable?

Cat Charm Earrings

And these little kitties, have a cute black bead - super witchy and goth huh? As I said before, each of these are totally unique so if you want a pair of these get in touch. Alternatively, if you've something else in mind, you all know I love making new designs.

MIM Cluster Bead Earrings

Hi, and welcome to another Made-It-Monday. These cluster bead earrings are super cute and super fun to make too! All you need is some beads, spacer beads, flat head pins, a couple of jump rings and some fish hook style earrings.

I've tried this with various sizes of beads and I find sizes between 2mm and 4mm work best. For each earring I use 7 flat head pins (so 14 in total for a pair). The longest strand of beads has 3 beads, seperated by spacer beads, and then I use my needle nose pliers to make a loop in the end. I repeat this with 2 flat head pins with 2 beads on each, and then 4 pins with one bead each.

Then I open up one of the jump rings, and put the 7 loops of the pins onto the jump ring in the following order 1-2-1-3-1-2-1. I slide an earring wire on and close up the jump ring.

I've made a few different colours of these - white and blue are both up on my etsy shop. But if there's a colour you'd really like, please do get in touch. I've made up a hot pink pair too, but I've not put them up on the shop yet, so if you'd like them get in touch. What do you think would look great in these? (I may have to try a rainbow version soon!)

Showcase Saturday - Doodlepeople

Hi and welcome to another showcase Saturday. I'll be showing you another small business that I support and that I believe you should too.

Today, it's doodlepeople Feminist accessories. Like seriously, this stuff is awesome. Check out some of these fantastic pins.

I totally need one of these at times!

There's badges which say what you can't always say, plus there's these totally epic pronoun patches

Let people know what pronouns you use without having to have that conversation over and over again

And there's a butt-tone of awesome feminist stuff.

You know it's true...

The artist has a fab facebook page on which she also shares some of her artwork - so totally worth a follow!

TBT: Wish Jars

Hi Everyone and welcome to another throwback Thursday. This weeks throwback is going to be about my wish jars. Now I absolutely adore these little beauties, and they're one of the best sellers in my shop. Whether they're going to be a stocking filler, or just a little gift to remind someone how much you care. Currently I have 4 different wish jars available through my shop, but there's another one or two (or four) in the works, so keep your eyes peeled.

The fairy godmother wish jar is without a doubt my most popular out of all of them - with a magic wand suspended by magic, and full of glitter - it's the perfect gift for any godchildren you might have.

My Fairy Godmother Wish Jar

This cute little fairy in a shower of fairy dust I actually made nearly 20 of for party bags for a fairy themed birthday party (it was awesome, the kids were totally convinced the entertainer was a real life fairy).

My Fairy Wish Jar

The mermaid version only has gold glitter in - it makes me think of golden sandy beaches. It's got a real shell suspended in it, and the poem talks of mermaid kisses.

The Gold in the Mermaid Jar makes me think of sunny beaches

Last but not least is the tiniest little angel wing - a perfect gift for someone who's having a tough time or who needs cheering up.

A beautiful Angel wing finishes off the quartet

TTT: Self Care

Today’s Tuesday Top Tips are tying in with last weeks Monday Make – which is our spoonie bracelets. When you’re chronically ill, one of the most important things in life is looking after yourself. It’s often easy to remember all our commitments and promises to other people, and to forget about our commitments to ourselves – like keeping enough spoons in our back pocket. So here are a few tips I use to get through even the worst days.

1.       Stay Hydrated. I’m not even joking, being hydrated can make the world of difference to how you feel. If you’re anything like me, and hate water… plan ahead. On a good day, I slice up a load of fresh lemons and put the slices in the freezer (one day separated on baking paper, and then you can just pop them in a freezer bag) – that way you can just grab a slice from the freezer and have cool lemon water whenever you need it… the same goes for cucumber too if that’s your flavour. Alternatively if you’ve got an infuser bottle, you can use frozen berries in the fruit compartment instead of fresh.

2.       Treat yourself like your own best friend. It sounds weird, but bear with me for a moment. If you went round to your best friends house, and they were sat on the sofa, still in their PJs, no make-up, not brushed their hair and they said ‘excuse the mess, I’m having a really bad day’…. Would you berate them for not tidying up on a bad day like you berate yourself? No, you’d tell them to sit back and relax while you popped the kettle on – so be your own best friend, cut yourself some slack on the bad days, it’s not every day, and it does make a difference.



3.       Know what cheers you up – is it watching a few episodes of your favourite TV show, is it reading a book, or maybe crochet? Give yourself a break, don’t feel bad if you need to soak in a bath – I’m pretty infamous in my house for having 2 hour long baths…. I could soak for a lifetime. Give yourself a few hours to truly just be, doing the things that really relax you – no pressures, no stresses.

4.      Find something low energy, that is also a little bit productive. No, I’m not talking about re-organising your kitchen cupboards. I like to sit and write some blog posts in advance on a difficult day. Maybe you could write a shopping list, or a list of the things you’d like to do when you’re feeling better – perhaps you can add a couple of rows to your knitting project, or make that phonecall to your grandma that you’ve been putting off. Accomplishing something, no matter how small, can really make a difference with how you feel.

5. Treat yourself. If you can afford it, buy something that makes you happy. If you can’t – allow yourself a sweet treat from the cupboard, maybe a hot chocolate, or perhaps there’s an ice-cream in the freezer with your name on it. It says in many religions ‘treat others as you yourself would wish to be treated’ but I think my overarching message today is to treat yourself as you treat other people too.

6. Last but not least… accept help. I’m lucky, I’ve family and friends that love me, and that understand my illness – sometimes it’s hard to remember to share when I’m feeling bad, but once they know, they’re so understanding. Even littlest princess likes to help by giving mama some kisses to make me feel better. Know that it’s not every day, and on the better days you can give back, so allow yourself to be helped – again, going back to point 2, you’d want to help your best friend on a day like this right? So let your best friends help you.

Style It Sunday: Cinderella

So, for today’s Style It Sunday, we’re going full on princess again. Let’s talk about my Cinderella charm bangle! With a cute pale blue colour, and charms of a pumpkin coach, a shoe, and a magic wand – it’s instantly recognisable as Cinderella.

Cinderella Charm Bracelet

Now, of COURSE with this infamous princess, we’ve got to start from the feet up. I’m not going to recommend glass slippers to anyone, we all know I’m such a clutz that it won’t end well for me! (Besides, there’s one theory that the original story had Cinderella in fur boots, and it’s an odd mistranslation.) However, fantastic shoes have got to be a go-to for Cinderella, and when I want to feel like I have truly fabulous feet, I look no further than Irregular Choice. I’ve been wearing IC shoes for the past 10 years (good lord, I feel old) and I love seeing what the company produces. You can get great deals on these second hand if you can’t afford full price!

Irregular Choice Cinderella Shoes

Next for cinders, it’s got to be a blue dress right? I'd be looking at a blue skater dress for an everyday cinderella look. Skater dresses are super comfortable, but they give that girly look - and everything about cinderella is innocence and girlishness. I'd love something simple like this wrap over pale blue skater dress - isn't it just adorable?

Pale blue skater dress

 Finally, for accessories - the bracelet itself makes enough of a statement, so for the rest of the jewellery, I'd be going subtle. Cinders is often pictured wearing a pale blue choker, like this one I've got in my shop ;-). You could totally pair it with the matching rose earrings, however as I’ve been writing this, I’m struck with a desire to make some pumpkin earrings – not dangle drop ones, although I could do that with the pumpkin coach, but studs, with tiny little pumpkin embellishments – I’ll have to check out the craft stores round about Halloween I think.

Pale blue rose choker