Our New Adventure Down Crafting Road!

Oh my word it has just hit me that it will soon be Christmas!!!... Arrrggghh.. That is exactly what I thought...

I was searching for some crafting materials as we have planned to do a wall mural for our Infrastructure project but have been severely held back due to not being able to find the crafting materials that we need for it!.

We popped into a local store that sells recycled crafting materials as we thought that would be the most appropriate way to do it, we ended up coming away with not very much. The problem was not that they did not have what we wanted but the problem was we didn't know what we wanted.

We have problems in the way we work that has pretty much shone through with this project and that is that we do not plan well enough.

I have never been a great planner, it has always been my downfall and it has shown trying to get this Infrastructure wall art project going.

We are so spontaneous that we usually just 'start doing it' so having to go out and find what we want is so monotonous, I was looking online and came across Create and Craft, the first thing that hit me was the Christmas Crafts, I thought wow we could make things for Xmas this year, do some personalised cards, so I started to fill up my basket, considering they are on a clearance sale I thought why not.

So considering I am not very good at planning I feel pretty pleased with myself that I have actually managed to plan ahead for our Christmas Crafts Making and find a way to be able to get the things we need for our Infrastructure wall mural, all with the help of Create and Craft.

The other great thing about having an online crafting site to go to is that we can decide what we want by having a look and seeing what is appropriate for what we want at the time, no trundling round loads of shops in the hope we find something that we might be able to use.

Create and Crafts delivery is pretty quick, they have great prices and they have lots of variety so I think they will now become my go to when it comes to crafting. 

I cannot actually believe it has taken so long to find them, not being a crafter of any kind with no creative bone in my body the site is easy to use, I can search by occasion or type of craft we want to do, Olivia loves Jewellery making and baking and painting she is so creative, it will help me no end meet her needs.

They have a membership club that costs £20 per year but has a half price offer at the moment, we have joined up. We get a magazine which Olivia will absolutely love, plus a few other added benefits which will make our crafting adventures exciting now, instead of an occasion I dread.

It feels like a new adventure down crafting road for me and I feel quite excited about it that I can finally help Olivia with her artistic endeavours much better than I ever could before finding Create and Craft.

A day of cultural enrichment

Today was a day of cultural enrichment as we attended the people's history museum were we watched a one man play about the Peterloo Massacre, as today 16th August is the anniversary of the day of the massacre in 1819 where 60,000 people demanded the vote and were attacked by cavalry, 18 people, including four women and a child, died from sabre cuts and trampling. Nearly 700 men, women and children received extremely serious injuries. All in the name of liberty and freedom from poverty.

According to Nick Mansfield, director of the People’s History Museum in Manchester, 

 "Peterloo is a critical event not only because of the number of people killed and injured, but because ultimately it changed public opinion to influence the extension of the right to vote and give us the democracy we enjoy today. It was critical to our freedoms."

Historians acknowledge that Peterloo was hugely influential in ordinary people winning the right to vote, led to the rise of the Chartist Movement from which grew the Trade Unions, and also resulted in the establishment of the Manchester Guardian newspaper.

The Living History Performance was something new to the museum but it was very well received by the audience, we certainly enjoyed it and will be going back next month for Black History Month.

To learn more about the Peterloo Massacre you could wait for the new feature film currently being made about the event or watch the short clip below!.

 

We went on from there over to Manchester Art Gallery were we attended a fabulous debate entitled 'But Is it Art? 

This was a debate between two Gallery guides John Ward and Rebecca Eastment moving round the Gallery starting with Manchester’s very own and recently acquired Duchamp’s Ring.

This was an entertaining debate, bicker and argument spectacular based around Duchamps Work and other pieces of contemporary work around the Gallery, focusing on the value of contemporary art, even Banksy's work particularly 'Love is in the air' which is aptly situated right next to my favourite painting in the whole gallery which is William Etty's masterpiece The Sirens and Ulysses

 All in all a very lovely day!...

Drawing Flowers

Today Olivia and I were looking into Van Dyking, the technique used to paint onto canal barge boats, we were soon distracted and found this fabulous video showing some techniques of drawing flowers.

Olivia and I were so suitably impressed that we had found a new technique and  I thought it was worth a share.

Do take a look at her other videos, they are worth a watch.

 

Big First Aid Lesson 2017

 
It is almost time for the yearly Big First Aid Lesson 2017.

The Big First Aid Lesson 2017 is an engaging show hosted by a well-known personality and school children. It will include practical elements, animations and interactive activities that will give thousands of young people life saving skills.

This years theme is a Bonfire night theme, to join up and take part click on the st Johns Ambulance logo below.

For some books on first aid for kids click here >Children's first Aid books< (Flat Stan First Aid Guide For Younger Children is my favourite), you can get that here > Flat Stan <

For first Aid Supplies click here > First Aid Supplies <