St Francis Hospice

Yesterday I had a lovely dAy helping out at the Woofs & wags day . We were raising money for the St Francis Hospice in Romford. They do marvellous work for people with life limiting illnesses.

I took my little baby Snowy and he helped me on the raffle table , my friend Jane came as well . There was loads of people there with their dogs . If you visit the Facebook page for the hospice you'll see some lovely photos of the doggies.

Shrine design

Good morning  all,

busy yesterday and am getting very excited as Ihave had a breaak through on my shrine design and embroidery. I was really struggling with how to decorate and produce a shrine which I wanted to be looking like a mosque with a man praying in side. It is a 3d textile art peice and Ive now moddelled the little man in clay but as hes naked he looks very odd so Ill show him once hes dressed!
However I have started the embroidery so Ill show the design work and then ill post the embroidery as it progresses .
At the day job today so no creative time today.off tommorrow though so lots of time hopefully!

Art doll sculping

Ive started trying to scuplt dolls heads and busts for some fabric doll figures I am making for my exhibition....its not as hard s I expected although I have did do pottery and sculpture a long time ago at school so maybe I have found easier because of that experience. Anyway heres a fewphotos of my first effort.

Butterfly notebook

Heres a little notebook that i made today using canvas work and mixed media . i made it into a book as i needed a new notebook so it wil be used as example on Saturday for the afternoon workshop at EG and its useful for me to use as well as Im lways scribbling something.

I made it in 2 hours so it was quick to do and its a handmade buttefly embelleshment and it has some stitch on it as well.I then applied the canvas to a sparkly foiled peice of fabric

Holiday in vegas

Thought it would be nice to shae a picture of  Vegaas with you all s we did hve a lovely time and theresso much more to do than gamble! we shop and go around the hotels looking at many of the free exhibitions and stuff they have going on .the pictures shown below are from the bellagio hotel and casino where periodically they actually chnge the instllation which is in the foyer/conservtory area and is made up mainly of fresh flowers. the smell is wonderful and the whole thing is so creative.this exhibition isbased on the sea.

Back to work & normality

back to work today.... Although I am glad to be back home as I do miss my dogs and the comfort of my own bed....( oh I'm sounding old LOL) doggies are glad to be home though Snowy is following me around constantly , I think he's trying to guilt trip me!

Also was very happy that I didn't put on any weight in Vegas this time which is a miracle! I tried to stay off the bread and potatoes but I did eat just about everything else! For anyone whose seen those buffets in Vegas you'll know they are huge and have just about every food on them so make it hard to be good! Back home now though so I'm on diet proper need to loose 100lbs which is a lot but I figure only 2lbs a week.

Then next year in Vegas I'll be at goal weight.

Anyways enough of my weight I'm not obsessing or anything LOl

He's a photo of me now from. Holiday ( I'm on theQueen  Mary in long beach   Los Angeles USA) so u can see my current weight . I'll try to do one a month so it's a diary of my weight loss as I go along.

picture of dog treats

Finished  cooked treats .
I freeze them. In plastic food bags and take out a few at a time for each day I give two to each dog daily.
They last about two days in fridge as well kept in airtight plastic container I'm super careful as they do have chicken in them.

Dogs love them. They sit and watch me cooking them!

low fat dog treats

Made these for snowy  my little fat Bichon who is now losing  weight . He's lost 2kg in a 6 week period .partly due to me baking these yummy treats instead of buying  them pre made . They are less than .1% fat as no oil or butter is used .also wheat  free.


recipe - cut up 100g chicken breast and dry fry till sealed and brown. Pour on a pint of boiled water and one veg stock cube. Simmer till chicken is cooked. Stir in 1 table spoon of gravy  granules.
Leave to cool for 10 min then blitz with hand blender to get a thick gravy.

Put 200g of rye/gram / rice flour into a bowl.pour over the liquid abd beat till smooth add one egg and beat more .if need too add more flour ( I use non wheat as better for doggies tummy) you need the dough to be like shortcrust pastry texture. .then turn out  onto floured bord and kneed gently. Then roll out to a 1/4 inch thick and cut out the cookies. Use any  shape about 3 inch wide. Place on a non stick tray sprayed with fry light . Cook on top shelf of oven on gas 6 or 200c or 375f bake till crispy and bottoms are golden brown.takes about 15-20 min .
Allow to cool then watch doggie  chomp thru them.