Claireabella Designs

I'm so excited to be blogging about Claireabella Designs. This girl is a complete genius. I've been a 'bit' of an addict for months, I say 'addict', to be more accurate I am dam right addicted.

Claireabella Designs creates beautiful, intricate hand drawn and hand painted jute and cotton bags. Each item is designed, drawn, painted and decorated lovingly by Claire herself. No two bags are the same, each individually crafted to suit the owner and their expectations and specifications.

You can choose an array of details to make the design personal to you, your appearance and personality. Choose hair colour, eye colour, clothes, and accessories, and include your name or wording of choice to top the design off. Bags come in a variety of sizes, all roomy so perfect for shopping or to carry your beach essentials. Prices vary from £9.99 for a mini jute bag, to £39.99 for a large jute bag, and everything in between. When ordering be aware that delivery on orders may take up to 28 days due to the high demand, but from the rave reviews I've read so far this isn't always the case, most customers receive their order before the 28 days stated - testament to Claire working so hard.

Unfortunately I was late to jump on the bandwagon so I'm yet to get my hands on one of Claireabella's beautiful handcrafted, bespoke bags, however I have got my hands on one of her hoodie designs (see image above), which have just been released via Toxic Fox, a website dedicated to unique and personalised gifts. Claireabella designs currently features on the front page!

 

I bagsied my hoodie through a competition Claire ran in conjunction with Toxic Fox a few weeks ago. Claire regularly runs competitions via Twitter and Facebook, they tend to come round when the site reaches a new 'follower' milestone or in the case of Facebook gets a certain amount of 'likes'. Claire uses Twitter a lot so you can always be updated with the latest news and updates and get involved with the latest competitions, they are quite a regular occurrence!

Claire runs the brand from her home in Yorkshire where she lives with her husband and children. The bags are now in such high demand (understandably) that stock is limited each week to avoid a meltdown. The bags got so popular that the Claireabella site was crashing every day. I think its safe to say all the girls from TOWIE are sporting Claireabella bags, as well as Katie Piper, and model and TV personality Nicola McLean, along with others.

Follow Claireabella Designs on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with the hype, or visit the website to get more goss. The website includes an extensive photo gallery so you can get some inspiration for your own design.

Glitterati ..

I've been meaning to post about this little gem for a while now. It's been keeping my phone cosy for several weeks and it's been getting some admiring glances from passers by. This IPhone case has been lovingly hand made by Kaitlin. If you give Kaitlin's Facebook page a visit you can see all the wonderfully unique, bespoke, colourful and quirky designs she has produced for customers nationwide. I've had lots of comments on my case so this works wonders if you want to grab some attention.

If you want to grab your hands on one of these beauties simply fill in the order form from Encrusted UK, choose your colour palette, I chose pearly pink, but options include pink gems, black and white pearls or blue gems, so an array of choice to make a case that suits you. That's step one, but you then go on to pick a selection of small gems and larger gems to decorate your case, see the options here, everything from flowers, hearts, to cupcakes, ladybirds and teddy bear designs. The order form gives you the option to choose one large gem and two smaller gems, the price goes up slightly if you want any more than that. The process is as simple as that and days later this landed on my doorstep and I popped it on my phone straight away.

The designs are reasonably priced, although if you don't want to spend as much go for fewer gems, you can see all the pricing options on the order form page - Kaitlin knows what works best and will take your choices and display them to create her unique designs. New designs are popping up on the page every day so have a browse before you order for some inspiration, most phones can be catered for, but check your phone is listed before you order. You can also find Encrusted updates on Twitter.

I love mine - comments have stemmed from 'Big Fat Gypsy Weddings' to 'TOWIE'. The cases are definitely an eye catcher and a conversation starter. I've been spreading the word about Encrusted to anyone who has shown an interest. It's early days for the business but I'm sure we will see Kaitlin's empire grow, maybe we will see some Encrusted designs in the next series of TOWIE!

Coming Soon..

I'm currently hooked on this book. On first glance it looks like your 'classic' romance but there is much more hidden within the pages. Read my review on the book very soon. Let me know if you've read the book yourself or if you've seen/thinking of seeing the film adaption!

Peace Bracelets for Japan

We’ve all watched in horror over recent weeks as Mother Nature dealt its most devastating blow, leaving Japan in the grip of a mind blowing relief effort with unspeakable lives and worlds shattered. Echo’s of the disaster have been felt worldwide; with people all across the globe wanting to do all they can to help rebuild a broken Japan.

Pretty Little Poppet designs, brain child of Sophie Keegan situated here in the West Midlands has come up with a creative, innovative and multi coloured way to help raise money for the Japan relief effort.

‘After seeing the devastation that had been caused by the earthquakes in Japan I really wanted to do something, no matter how small I just wanted to do my bit to help’, says Sophie.

As part of Pretty Little Poppet designs, a youthful, creative and colourful collection, Sophie sells multi coloured elastic bracelets with peace charms.

Sophie says, ‘The idea literally just popped into my head while I was watching the news and once I’d set my heart on it I had to do something. I felt this could be the perfect thing to produce and sell to raise money to help.’

Available in 5 different colours and at £1.50 each the peace bracelets are a roaring success, with all the money raised going straight to Japan.  

‘The feedback has been amazing! Sophie explains. ‘Within minutes of putting the photo up on Facebook explaining what I was doing I had so many people contact me requesting one or two, or one of each! I’ve had lots of personal messages from people telling me how nice they think the idea is and it is so nice to see that there’s so many other people that want to do there bit to help too even if it’s just one small step’

Pretty Little Poppet was last year mastermind behind a local ‘Clothing Fair’ event created to help raise money to help towards the relief effort in Haiti after the 2010 quake.

 ‘Last year after the Haiti disaster I was watching a programme on what had happened and I literally couldn’t believe the devastation and the amount of lives lost, you just can’t imagine that ever happening here and I don’t think people realise how lucky we are’

The Clothing Fair was set up at a local hotel, together with her best friends and the generous community, women’s, men’s, children’s clothing and accessories were collected to sell.

‘Friends, family, work colleagues, old school friends who I hadn’t seen for years and even strangers helped to spread the word’

Local businesses got involved, donating lots of raffle prizes, from local theatres, cinemas, restaurants, spa’s and match tickets/signed football shirts from both big and local teams. 

‘The response from everyone was amazing and after days and days of sorting through and organising everything, we held our Clothing sale on a Sunday and so many people came it was wonderful!’

A small article featured in the local paper and the fair warranted itself a mention on a local radio station. The team had promoted the event far and wide, doing everything they could to advertise the sale and it all paid off with a fantastic raising of £1000 on the day. 

Sophie’s peace bracelets for Japan are available to order via her Facebook page www.facebook.com/Pretty.Little.Poppet or contact her via her Twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/PrettyLittlePop    

A Place Called Here...

‘A Place Called Here’ is a truly magical an enchanting tale. I can honestly say I still never really understood what was going on by the end of the book, yet I felt like I’d been on a rollercoaster journey – Sorry for using the inevitable talent show line there - backwards and forwards with the character, feeling her frustrations, excitements, her wonderfully endearing highs and her ever suppressing lows.

Half way through the book I was dying be able to come to some sort of conclusion as to where 'The Place Called Here' could possibly be. The only seemingly logical explanation I came up with was that the character – Sandy Shortt, I talk more about her later - had to have been dreaming, which would of been somewhat disappointing as we all know, if a book ends with 'It was all just a dream' you might as well of not bothered reading it, it would be an overwhelming disappointment of a climax.

This book however was different, the world she creates, that she simply names 'Here' is a parallel universe to the one we live in. It is so utterly believable by the end you just except it as truth, similarly as I did with 'Harry Potter' - I'm convinced there is a platform 9 and 3/4 and there is Hogwarts immersed within a spectacular world of wizards, witchcraft and mystery, as I understand many others across the world to be with me on this too. When an author can create a world that the reader immerses into and believes that's the evidence of a truly exceptional writer.

I've loosely referred to Harry Potter as a parallel to this book, but as well as the famous wizard, the book also makes reference to the classic tale the 'Wizard of Oz' a childhood dream of a story, there is even reference to the ruby slippers and the words 'There's no place like home'.

The essence of this book centres on the character Sandy Shortt, a woman who from an early age is desperate to find all those missing things. Just where does the stray sock from the pair go, and why is it that you never ever find it again? What happens to the teddy, that once sat so proudly on your bed and then one day vanishes never to be seen again... (You think!)

Sandy dedicates her whole life to missing things and missing people – she sets up a missing person’s agency and finds out everything about their lives and every detail of where they were when they went missing, what they were doing, why there were doing it? With many, the only thing she doesn’t find is where have they gone?

Her entire life is filled with questions, it’s only when she goes for a jog and stumbles upon the ‘Place’ that she’s been searching for her entire life – this is where she sets out to find all the answers to her never-ending list of questions, and comes face to face with old friends.

An utterly addictive story that I would recommend, again and again - No questions asked.

The End of an Era: Harry Potter Review

Seven Books, eight films, and over ten years later we reach the penultimate end to what has been one of the most ground breaking series of all time.

Harry Potter was born on a train somewhere between Manchester to London where J K Rowling penned the characters we have grown to love and admire over the past ten years. The books have captivated the hearts of children and adults worldwide, and the films have gone on to project scenes first created in our imaginations on to the silver screen raking in millions.

The final instalment in the Potter Saga 'Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Pt 2' was released on Friday (15^th July) and sees Harry, Ron and Hermione enter their final battle to defeat the evil Lord Voldermort. The final film is all about the three friends eliminating all three remaining horcrouxes to destroy Voldermort of his remaining power.

The entire narrative is playing at a race against time as Voldermort and his army are closing in on Hogwarts. The once safe haven is being turned upside down at every turn falling debris is crashing to the ground as dementours, giant spiders and death eaters close in on the castle. The pace of the film is breathtaking as the battle scenes increase in electricity as the two sides collide, there is little time to nip to the loo which is what I discovered half way through the film! (So be warned!) If you’ve read the book you will be aware of the films conclusion and as this is sprinkled seamlessly over the internet I’m not going to worry about spoiling the surprise for those that are yet to see the film.

Harry defeats Voldermort, after briefly lapsing into a parallel space where he is again reunited with Dumbledore. At this point it is quite clear those in the cinema who haven’t read the books as endless sobs echo throughout (Honestly!..) At this point if you are not a fan, or an avid reader of the books you may conclude that Harry is in fact dead, but you are mistaken. I never really understood why it is he gets to choose his fate, but alas he does and victory will out.

19 years later, and we get our first glimpse of how Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson may look in 20 years time! In the final cut we see the three friends sending their offspring off to Hogwarts, its history repeating itself.

I am somewhat bias as I am a huge fan of the books. If you are, like me a fan of the novels you may feel a twinge of disappointment as some of the finer details outlined in the book are barely referenced in the film. This has been the case with all the film versions so there’s little change from earlier criticisms there. The famous introduction music is also missing!

If I am to look past the obvious and take the film for what it is I would say it has bought everything I was hoping for, and more. The fast paced narrative of the book has been beautifully crafted into an action packed adventure film and brings a fitting tribute to the series which will be missed by many, including myself.

I have since Saturday night (when I watched the film with my best friends) watched Harry Potter, 1, 2, and 3. I’m still in a whirlwind of Harry Potter hype and I’m still reluctant to accept there will be no more from the magical world we’ve grown up with ( I’m still not quite on the Twlight bandwagon I’m afraid!) The next mystery is (despite a vague announcement by J K herself) what the hell is Pottermore all about, If anyone can divulge I would love to know more...

Katie Piper - My Beautiful Friends

I’ve never before watched a programme and felt such warmth, compassion and sincerity for a person I’ve never met. Katie Piper – My Beautiful Friends which airs every Tuesday at 9pm is one of the most inspirational and thought provoking programmes I’ve ever seen.  The programme follows Katie on her journey as she sets out to use her personal experience to help rebuild the lives and confidence of other people fighting for normality while living with disfigurement.

The programme follows Katie as she travels the country meeting other people in similar situations, many who will go on to become ambassadors of The Katie Piper Foundation, a foundation set up and supported by Simon Cowell to provide lifelong support to those with disfigurement.  All the people she meets are incredible, some have lived with disfigurement their entire life and yet their outlook and perception of life is incredibly thoughtful and positive. They appear to see the good in everyone and everything, a rare trait in today’s hectic and increasingly selfish world.

It’s a blessing that Katie has come through the other side and felt the confidence to share her incredible story. A lot of people could learn from Katie’s message, beauty isn’t just about looking perfect, it’s about having incredible confidence and being happy in your own skin, it’s about being thankful for life itself and all that exists within it. When I’m having a down day, over something so petty its embarrassing to share with others, it’s good to stop and think: there are always more important things in the world than whatever it is your worrying about. Don’t take what you have for granted as one day things could all change. It’s a sad phrase too often used, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, instead of conforming, live in the moment, enjoy every ounce of life, we’re here to live it, we are not rehearsing!  

I have complete admiration and respect for Katie, and I urge anyone that hasn’t seen this programme to tune in tomorrow night. I guarantee you will be moved. Visit the Channel 4 Website to read Katie's interview, where she relives the perils of her attack, her experiences since and what she hopes for the future.