January Sale at Bags of Swank and update

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow! Bailey is :)

Just a quick update to let you know there is a January Sale on at my Etsy shop (link on the left there) many of the items will not be relisted to make way for future new stock and ideas.

I am also starting a new creative blog which is a bit 'more me' than this one and the health one - its about my Art ventures and new projects. That can be found here I hope to make a start on it today with my first post. I have only done the 'about me' page so far, the camera is at the ready to make a start.. Also the iron is warming up for new fabrics too but first is local retail shops not the Etsy shop.. that's next on the list.

New Blog Info

FINALLY - I have started
MY NEW BLOG having changed direction somewhat, I decided a new one would be a better idea. So, if you have an interest in health matters and good food please do pop over to here MY NEW BLOG and continue to follow me. If not, thank you for following me and to those who bothered.. thank you for the comments.

I am not sure yet whether I am keeping this blog or not.. wait and see how it goes but I will be too busy to continue reading you all from here, I have always read all the blogs and often commented, those who follow me to my new blog this wont change - but I simply dont have the time to follow both lists, and all the other social media etc. As you see I also spend a lot time in the kitchen now - above is the single most delicious stew, by Sally Bee - this was last nights dinner and will be the first recipe to be added to my recipe page on the new blog (its should have been my peppers but I deleted the pics by mistake), I do need some practice at food photo's I know.. but all the food we eat these days is good wholesome food, and I will be sharing some of this on the new blog.

Also, the months I have spent on general health reseach will be shared - if this interests you, this is the place to be MY NEW BLOG In time I will be holding interviews with some fascinating people I have met along the way and their life stories, of how a simple change of lifestyle has helped them with their health. For a fun approach I am doing my own illustrations, I noticed there was a fair few health blogs about but none with their 'own' illustrations, and not as many here in the UK that are not associated with HUGE companies and famous folks.


All that remains to be said again is thank you for your support, especially to Mick from Sphangle who has been fabulous when I often felt I was babbling away to myself. It is very likely due to my change in direction that Bags of Swank will be closing in April next year, the Etsy shop will be open till February 2013.. not sure about after that. The link remains on the right of the page, there is also a link on my new blog for the time being.

I wish you all well for your futures, and hope to see at least some of you at my new blogspot, would be great to keep up.



Lynda xxx

My First Bread

Some of you have already seen this on FB, but do not know the story behind it. I think I have mentioned already that due to health issue's I have been forced to learn to cook, and start to eat 'real' and healthy foods. This has lead to an awful lot of discoveries... I noticed today one of the members of my team on Etsy has had to avoid Soya and already found out just how many foods contain Soya we were not aware of. One of the main foods is Bread, have you ever looked on the ingrediants list on your supermarket bread? probably not.. neither had I until recently. In my quest to avoid all things processed Bread was next on the list, so I proudly started to purchase the wholemeal healthy bread with popular names and great adverts. Until I read what was actually in them!!! Worse than that one of my best friends is a veggie, her lovely Soya and Rye bread was found to contain some very unhealthy 'E's for a veggie. So, on this discovery it was a choice of awaiting the next farmers market to stock up on Artisan bread or learning to make my own, of course to buy this stuff is not cheap and quite rightly as it is made from quality ingrediants by hand. Luckily I found my Mum had two breadmakers she no longer used (yes, I know who does that?) so I have one, and the other is earmarked for my veggie pal. All looked very scary and complicated to me, but with the husbands help yesterday, I braved it, now do bare in mind that not so long ago boiling an egg was a challenge. I DID IT!!!! I made my own bread, it looks a bit wobbly but it tastes fantastic, its actually Organic too, I devoured some today with organic butter and cherry jam. Last night we had free range chicken, with spicy potatoes and a stack of organic veg from my local organic shop.. as usual far too much for the two of us, so tonight we are having a very delicious smelling chicken soup... Can you smell it cooking?

Fabulous Giveaway

Yes, you must get excited - not only am I doing a blog post midweek, but its for a giveaway, which can be found here GIVEAWAY You may remember I am a member of Effy Wild's Book of Days which I joined to teach me about Art and Art Journalling, I joined back in February and still there and still loving the group, Art Journalling and the teaching. I am now in the Premium group too. I have learnt a lot from Effy and met some fantastic people from across the globe. I am also on my Book of Days volume 5 now as it is a daily practice. There are 6 amazing prize packages in this giveaway, the one I would like to win more than anything is a place in "Life Book 2013" which is a year long journal class with amazing arty tutors, including our own Effy Wild, I believe "Life Book 2012" was totally amazing, sadly I never have enough available funds to join but would so love to win a place, or if any of my readers wanted to treat me for Christmas:) Other prizes include some fantastic hand bound journals, something else I would love, and a place in one of Effy's courses called 'Boot Camp' I dont need this one as being in the premium group I have almost completed this one, but it is a truly fabulous course if you want to learn everything about Art Journalling and various mediums to use, how they work, all about paints and inks... and so much more, I havent finished yet so cant tell you anymore. Anyone with art interest must go take a look, or maybe any friends who havent but might like to win it for me!!! LOL. I have already but a link on my FB page, and last night I ventured into Twitter for the first time in over a year. Here is that all important link again GIVEAWAY KEEPING EVERYTHING CROSSED!!!!

Swoon Sunday

I missed last week's Swoon Sunday too busy, today isnt much better but I am determined not to waste my photographic efforts this time. Above is my Meerkat painting I did last week, after the photo I did thin his whiskers a bit, but forgot to photograph him. Then yesterday after watching some youtube videos I thought I would try a new style of painting which I really loved, so much so I wish I was doing it now, instead of in the middle of sorting out a LARGE list of things to sell on Ebay (tedious job). I must credit Shilpa at Artyhils for this painting style, of course I am not quite in her fabulous league but these are the steps she takes to her wonderful art works, I'm just having fun with it. For step one its a quick sketch, mine was then done in marker pen. Dropped on some of my chosen colours of paint...

Spread the paint around with a keycard or old credit card..

Repaint some of the outline so you can see were you are again...

..and mix, colour and have fun. They look a bit like startrek characters dont they? and of course I have a very long way to go yet as this was my first attempt. I sketched out some fun flowers to do next, hopefully I will get to them tomorrow.. I would far rather be painting than having the day I am today thats for sure.

This post has joined the others on Effy Wild's Swoon Sunday this week, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EFFY for today xx

Animal Magic Day Out

My goodness, seems its almost a whole month since my last witterings. I'm not really doing so much that can be chatted and photographed of late, I am learning to cook 'real' food, which at the moment is Indian food, learning all about the herbs and spices, and eleminating all processed food from my diet. Anyway, thats the boring bit. Today we had a break from everything and visited our local wetlands, 'Martin Mere' for their 'Animal Magic' weekend. Believe it or not at my age I had never seen real OTTERS, so what a treat this was.. and just how cute are they? there are actually about another 80 pictures but I just shared these two.

Our next favourite was the MEERKAT enclosure, I didnt say it - honest, though it was really tempting.

There was a number of owls on show for us from the nearby sanctuary, here are just a few I managed to capture.

Lastly this ugly duckling, who's Mum is the Black Swan, another very cute moment.

One of the most important things we did whilst there, was chatting to the local Badger Protection Group was to sign the culling petition. They had a young Badger with them, these animals are adorable.. I will never understand man's intent on murdering the defenceless. We really should go here more often, not been for two years and its only 20 mins away, we are even members and supporters so it doesnt even cost us to go. Hope you had a great weekend, I'm off to cook tea now.. tonight its something simple, just spicy scrambled eggs with rice.

Swoon Sunday #3

Its Swoon Sunday again, which is were members of Effy Wild's book of days can share their Swoon Moments of the week.





I will be sharing the weeks paintings, starting above with the Angry Blackcurrant. Before I continue though, I am not around much this weekend, its the local Town and Country Fair and we (Woof Beginnings) have a stall, so Friday I was setting up, yesterday was working the stall all day, and tomorrow will be working the stall too. The weather is amazing, as in we are told by the forcasters it will be raining biblical quantities all day... only to find hot sun all day? then today being the 'best day' weather wise, my clothes are still in the dryer from the soaking I got walking the dogs earlier.

On to the paintings.... my personel art critic, other wise known as the husband came home from work when I had done the above painting and said "oh look its an angry ribena berry" it was actually meant to be a fun purple monster. I had also painted this one..




to which my critic then named the 'happy raddish' this one was just a fun happy general painting I had fun creating. So the next day I painted this one..





I wouldnt mind but he came home from work and announced "oh look, SPROUTS"... they are meant to be brocolli....

Hope you enjoyed this weeks selection of happy fruit and veg, maybe its due to my new smoothies I am enjoying to try improve my health, they are going down very well I had my first one on Friday, made one up to take with me yesterday morning, and today I am on my second one, in place of my usual 'pick me up coffee' in the afternoon.

Enjoy the rest of your bank holiday weekend.

PS I HAVE FINALLY WORKED OUT HOW TO TURN OFF THAT SILLY CODE THING, SO YOUR COMMENTS WILL GO STRAIGHT THROUGH NOW, WITHOUT HAVING TO TRY READ THE CODE FIRST.