* Friday Treat Time! *

What a cold, chilly Friday! Thankfully I have a number of fun treats you can snuggle up in front of your computer with a hot chocolate/green tea/normal tea/hot water!*

*Select your favourite beverage

1. A beautiful, inspiring advert - something everyone should do in their street:

US Cellular TVC feat. John Lee's 'Water Waltz' from gaga on Vimeo.

2. An image my husband sent to me at work - a beautiful image about the combination of joy and terror at the same time (I remember that feeling as a child on my bike cycling too fast down a hill):

3. A proud Dad making costumes for his kids on for Halloween (click on the image to see more photos and blog story):

Happy Friday!

x*x*

I'm a Brave Girl!

Reading the 'Feed your Soul Art' blog today, I came across * The Brave Girls Club * - I have now joined and think you'd love it too! Here's what they say about themselves:

"The Brave Girl's club is a worldwide community of women who want to live the best, happiest, most productive and fabulously brave life they can possibly live…and that means something different to every single one of us. Brave Girls Club is an online community, a portal for amazing connections, a news source for everyday heroes, a resource for great ideas, amazing endeavors, everyday problem solving, realistic recipes and unforgettable get-togethers. Brave Girls Club is a place to feel free, to feel peace, and to feel brave. Brave Girls Club is not an exclusive club…every woman is invited. Brave Girls Club is life-changing fun, life-changing truths, and life-changing friendships…"

Click on the birdie below for one of their daily truths - enjoy!

x*x*x

* Friday Treat Time! *

As the beautiful season of autumn is nearly over I thought I would cheer us up with some fun autumn-y activity sheets, featuring squirrels, Hobbes the Cat and Bert & Berta!

This is a fun project I started a while back - and its definitely a work in progress, learning lots along the way! The activities are from a black and white 'seasonal' magazine aimed at 2-5 year olds, including photo stories, making a coat for a sausage dog, autumn recipes and more! I guess I need to start a winter one now!

Just click on one of the images below to download the three activities.

Happy Friday!

x*x*

* Friday Treat Time! *

This week's Friday Treat Time is in honour of magical storytelling in this time of build up to Christmas - and my little sis, Cat Bean and her friend Sarah Neil, who I'm a big fan of!

Introducing: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, audio book, told by Stephen Fry:







If you want to continue listening to the rest of the story, just keep following the links that pop up at the end of Part 3.

Enjoy!

x*x*

* Illustrations in Cornwall *

Here are some illustrations I have been working on during my time in Cornwall - all of them inspired by what I have seen and felt here. Some may become stories, others may be pictures for a little fun booklet I'm working on and others are just for fun!

The Wandering Girl

Bunny

Deer

Knitted Dog

Sailing Bug

Fox

A Bunny Gentleman

x*x*

* Some Cornish Inspiration *

What wonderful teashops and crafty shops they have here in Cornwall - I'm getting lots of inspiration (and cake) on our jaunt to the fair land!

Here is what I've learnt so far:

* Teashop Essentials *

A sign

Lovely old rooms

Scrumptious cakes

Pretty tea things

Loose leaf teas

Frame teacups you don't want smashed

A full menu

A duck friend by your door

Bright colours and old squashy furniture

...and this crafty shop window wins the prize for making autumn look very exciting & magical...

Photo credits: Jon & Ros Bilbrough
x*x*

*Inspiring Collage Art!*

I was browsing through some blogs today, and found this lovely artist's work - her name is Harmony and you can find out more about her at her blog here.






Lovely and inspiring!

x*x*

Friday Treat Time!

An arty but hopefully inspiring treat for you today - a BBC Radio 3 audio drama starring Martin Freeman of 'The Unfortunates' by BS Johnson. What's inspiring about the original book is that it was published in a box, in 27 sections, to be read in any order, except for the first and the last sections.


Here is the official blurb below on the BBC Radio 3 audio drama:

"Adaptation of B.S. Johnson's 1969 novel in which a sports journalist travels to a strange city to cover a football match, only to discover it was the city where he first met his friend Tony who has died young of cancer. We follow the journalist from his arrival at the train station, through lunch, to the match and on the journey home, as different memories of his friend are triggered.

Listen as the author intended - in a random order.

Its structure is intended to mirror the arbitrary way that the author’s mind worked on this particular day – the random coming together of memories of Tony and the business of reporting a football match."

Click here to listen!

Enjoy!

x*x*

* Hobbes' First Day Outside! *

It was a momentous day in the Bilbrough household - for the first time in his life, Hobbes saw the outside world!

He is used to being pampered and carried around indoors...


...and watching the washing go round.


But today, he stood on his own four paws and sniffed and frisked in the great outdoors.

A tiny cat in a big world...

...it's a like a jungle out there (in our garden).

Eeep! Things got a little scary at times...

...but he soon settled down to his usual playful antics...

...And here he is - a professional prowler in the making:

After all that running around, he was content to chill out by the kitchen door...

...waiting for the next opportunity to see the outside world.

* The End *
(for now...)