PINK SATURDAY - IT'S MY BIRTHDAY + GIVEAWAY

Me!

hAPPY pINK sATuRDay! It'S mY bIRThDaY!

So, to celebrate, I'm having a giveaway: a blog header and button or blinkie! Your choice...

The winner will be picked out by the Random Org thingie, and I'll announce the winner next Saturday. All you have to do is leave a comment.

If you'd like some ideas, here are my latest Makeover and More Makeover posts showing some of my design styles. 

This week's eye candy was taken last Sunday, when Himself and I visited the new Westfield Shopping Centre in London - just down the road from us. The Centre is brand new, and the shops are totally stunning.

Me again - down 22 pounds!

The pink ceiling changes colours

All Saints clothes shops - they have two, both with floor-to-ceiling sewing machines

Shoes to DIE for

Oooh... those pink ones....

My Blog of The Week is Nancy at Linens&Laurels, for bearing life's little vagaries with patience, grace and great ingenuity. Plus, if you visit her stores you just might pick up a real bargain!

Other news: I've finished writing my new website if you'd like to take a look (here's my blog post about it) and I've got my canvases back from Amersham Gallery, and have just put them up on my Etsy shop. Much fun!



Finally, please visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound to see all the other wonderful Pink Saturday posts - and don't forget to leave a comment if you want to win that blog header & button!

ARTWORK NOW ON ETSY

I finally picked up my artwork on display at Amersham Gallery (that's how I did my back in) and thought you'd like to see the paintings before they go on to my Etsy shop.

This is my Kitchen Series - mixed media on cavas, very dimensional - a bit of fun to liven up any kitchen or dining room.

All four canvases are the same size:
Height:   12 inches or 30 cm
Width:    9.5 inches or 24cm
Depth:    Just under 1.5 inches or 4cm
Materials: acrylics, collage, ribbon, braid, papers, beads, plastic spoons 

COFFEE TIME

Till receipts, crackle glaze, charcoal drawn back in

Designs carry right round the edges - no need for framing

"Real" sugar and a real spoon

Hand-drawn, glazed lettering

CUPCAKES

Side view: ribbon, dimensional "icing" and topping

Another side view, showing dimension

Hand-drawn lettering with glazing, collage - "real" cake, all crumbly

TIME FOR TEA

"Real" sugar cube and a real spoon, dimensional cup & saucer

Tea is a crackle-glaze effect

Hand-drawn lettering, painted & glazed

Extreme closeup of the lettering

CAKE

Real fork, collage, dimensional "icing" with dribbled glaze

Separate cream and jam layers!

Vintage braid, paper doily, Toile de Joue tissue background

Hope you like them! Go here for more details.

MY NEW WEBSITE

I've now finally finished making over my own website (and high time too) as if I haven't been busy enough with Blogger makeovers, lol.

1st Floor Flat

Unfortunately, the old Microsoft Front Page template had to go: MS are no longer supporting it, and it was the 2000 edition, so woefully out of date! The new one is using Serif WebPlusX4, and the easiest one I've ever written!

All images copyright Susie Jefferson

 It even has a Flash photo gallery capability, so I've had fun with that - probably used it too much ...

You'll possibly be shocked - it's very pared down, very plain compared to my previous one. But I think websites are going in that direction - the all-bells-and-whistles stuff is very much now in Blogland, where we can easily update and change 100 times a day if we want to!

I have absolutely bundles of stuff to add (pix etc) but this will be getting loaded slowly, slowly. At least it's up, it's working, and my Workshops list is no longer 6 months out of date, lol.

FORMAT

Basically a single page. I'd love to hear what you think - it's a new format in that I haven't done long pages this time (as with previous websites, where you scrolled and scrolled and scrolled...) so the whole thing should sit nice and tidy inside any size of monitor without any scrolling at all (except for the dates of the Workshops).

 COLOUR

Colours: nice and restful, easy on the eye - a total change from my manic Theatre designs. Do you miss them? Should I have done a red curtain etc??

Anyhow - it's done, it's up - I'm a happy bunny!

GREAT DIY FURNITURE MAKEOVER TUTORIAL

Just found this post on Blue Cricket Design... and had to share!

Photo copyright Becca of Blue Cricket Design

Do you love faux finishes? Do you need to update/makeover furniture?

This tutorial tells you everything you need to know about prepping, what paints to use - everything!

COLOURICIOUS - FABULOUS RECYCLING IDEAS

COLOURICIOUS is a fabulous UK-based company run by Jamie Malden - an absolute powerhouse of ideas! Her latest projects are art DVDs, made and produced by herself, featuring mainly British artists.

Here's a taster of her latest, on recycling - with some wonderful ideas for cushions and a woven bag (pretty much completed in the clip) so watch the DVD, turn up the sound, grab a coffee and ENJOY.....



I for one am going to have a go at that woven bag!

Additional: check out my Colouricious page for some project ideas.

MORE MAKEOVERS

Here are some more makeovers you haven't seen:

Starting2SpillOut

Arty Retreat- using some of June's own fabulous artwork for the background and header.

Fundametals - which is actually 5 separate blogs, all welded together into ONE humungeous website!

The Kathryn Wheel - incorporating Kate's own artwork for header, buttons etc.

Marked By The Muse - where I did all the coding etc. These are Stephey's own header & background designs.

Queen of Dreams - again, I did all the coding and Stephanie used her own designs

and this blog has the most STUFF I've ever seen! Here's Stephanie's layout as I coded it...

Layout coding copyright Susie Jefferson

and here is what Stephanie has packed into it:

Layout coding copyright Susie Jefferson - widgets copyright Stephanie Queen of Dreams

I actually had to piece this together from 3 separate screen shots! Way to go, Stephanie!

Hope you enjoyed these little windows into separate worlds.

MAKEOVERS!

Lots of makeovers to show you!

Firstly, yet another blog - this is my personal diet journey. I've gone public, in the hope it keeps me to the straight and narrow (hysterical laughter) and I definitely need to do a header just as soon as I have some time...

Extra Portions

I heavily personalised this Template Designer layout, just to see how adaptable they are

 Sorry for not posting for a while... as usual, Life happens.

First, my old computer (6 years & counting) crashed yet again, despite the fact I nurse it like a baby... took me 3 days to reload everything... and then I did my back in. OK to walk, stand or lie down - but not OK when sitting (and getting up again). So only essential computer work got done.. FOUR (count 'em - four) makeovers in the last 10 days! And I feel I've done my best work yet.

Here they are:

Useless Beauty Designs

A blog for a fellow artist - who makes wonderful and unusual clothes

Maximum Embellishment

Stunning, magical... with a twinkly Fairy Wand cursor effect

Pinxton Craft Club

Purposely left a white background, as this client loves to swap her backgrounds around A LOT

Polymer Play Days

For the same client, again white, to take advantage of all those freebie backgrounds out there! With two signatures in the code, as this blog is shared by Helen and Cathryn

And some I made earlier, that you haven't yet seen:

Antiquemajik

This one shows one of the new Template Designer layouts

Linens and Laurels

Nancy then commissioned me to change her 3-col, 2 right-sidebar blog to a wide 2-col:

Which just goes to show what a difference a little tweaking makes! This wide 2-col format gives a lot of elbow room, so you can have really big photos.

I've noticed there is a definite trend towards white backgrounds - the secret is not to have things TOO minimal - you need lots of colour in there as well. And all the bells and whistles: email button, and/or blinkie, grab button,  numbered comments, a great signature, post dividers... all these dress up a blog and are definitely noticeable - but without overwhelming the star of the show - the actual post!

Follow my tutorials to do it yourself - or call in an expert (me? check my shop on Etsy).

PINK SATURDAY - I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW!

Copyright-free image from Tack-o-Rama

I've had to miss a few Pink Saturdays - pressure of work (busy, busy, BUSY)... and because of needing new glasses!

Believe me, if you've ever tried to do anything on the computer using your reading glasses (I wanted to keep my frames, so had to make do with my old ones: the prescription before the current one which was being replaced) you've never lived! Migraine, nose about an inch from the screen, and after an hour or s,o my eyes felt like they were plaiting from the inside.

Copyright-free image from Tack-o-Rama

and photoshopped by me

As I'm one of those 'lucky' people who can't tolerate varifocals or bifocals, I now have 3 sets of glasses! My computer glasses live by the keyboard, and my readers and distance glasses get juggled as necessary. Definitely signs of getting older... as Bette Davis said, 'Old age ain't for sissies!'.

 Cupcake stand - thanks, CC!

Sunbonnet Sue pincushion by CC

So now my outlook is sunny, and I'm in the pink again! I also received my brilliant prize of the prettiest cupcake stand you ever saw - CC's giveaway on Lace'n'RibbonRoses (and I never win anything so I was totally thrilled) plus CC sent another package - with this brilliant Sunbonnet Sue pincushion (now sitting on top of my sewing machine) plus some lovely lace and pearl strings, hand-crocheted mats and a little vintage basket about 1 inch high.

Fun stuff

Here are some totally frivolous pictures - just because I like them!

Bill Minder

I love the way the boy is diving into the spread... food is on my mind these days, lol.

This town is where my husband is from - on the North Yorkshire coast (top right-hand side of England, before you get to Scotland). It's very hilly: cable cars, just like San Francisco - and very beautiful. Lots of wonderful Victorian architecture, especially the Grand Hotel, which overhangs the cliff on the North Bay.

Georges Barbier - I know it says 'Spring', but it makes me think of Summer!

My Blog of The Week

I'm very pleased to have finished this blog for Toh Ee: Be Holistically Inspired -  this blog is a wonderful concept. Toh Ee has a great outlook on life, and is very wise re health, nutrition etc. This is a brand-new blog, not a makeover, so not all of the pages are ready to go... but the ones that are done are pretty special! I can't wait to see the rest. I hope you'll go and visit her and leave some nice comments. (I'm hoping to coax Toh Ee to take part and join the Pink Saturday gang, so fingers crossed.)

I'm very interested in all this - healthy eating, holistic outlook, exercise -  especially at the moment as I'm now in the 7th week of my diet and doing well: I created a new blog (another one!) as a visual record. (And also because it's public, it's helping me to stick to it). Today I bought new jeans (pedal pushers) a whole size smaller!

Happy Pink Saturday!



Don’t forget to visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound to see all the other wonderful Pink Saturday posts!