Friday, 4 July 2014

I've been quite ill recently. I was in hospital with an infection and septicemia and it's taken a while to get back to my normal self. I'm still doing my befriending work with a mental health charity and although we haven't fostered a pet for a couple of months (because it's quiet just now), we are still on the list. It's great fun having a pet around the place.

I've decided that I'm going to diversify a little, need a slight change to keep things interesting. I'm not going to say what I am making, but I will be using something very Scottish, no not haggis. It will take a little while to get things started up with the new range, but I'll put photos on when I take some. I still have a bit of research to do with regard to supplies and outlets, but it will all come together soon.

Anyway, talk soon

love & hugs
Angela xxx


Best advert ever

The Guinness Surfer Ad with the horses from 1998, must be my most favourite advert ever.

Sunday, 18 May 2014

Lyon, France

We had a wonderful time in Lyon. I think the city is incredible and well worth a visit, historical and beautiful, for me it has it all.

We stayed for a week in an apart-hotel very close to the Gare de Vaise railway station & Metro in the 9th arrondissement. The room was great, just perfect for us. It had the living/kitchen area, bathroom with bath & shower, good sized bedroom and a full length balcony (which faced the evening sun).

We've been to Lyon many times and wandered around all our usual haunts. We arrived on a Wednesday afternoon, so we looked for food and went to the Phenix bar which is a local bar to watch football and drink Ricard. In the evening, the temperature was about 14 degrees C.

Thursday was rue de la Republic. We got off the metro at Bellecour and stopped for a meal deal from Brioche Doree (love the raspberry tart). Mojo (my other half) bought cigars to bring home for us to smoke in the Cigar Bothy at Hotel du Vin in Edinburgh. For dinner, we went back to the apartment with some Toulouse sausage and a baguette (yum). Later on, we wandered into the Vieux Lyon (old town) for a stroll and some lovely Cote du Rhone and a cigar outside a bar looking over the river Soane. In the evening, the temperature was about 15 degrees C.

On Friday morning, Mojo went out to have a look at some guitar shops and I stayed in and rested. in the afternoon we went to Foch and visited Bernachon for a coffee (the president cake was rather disappointing, shocked). After that we walked along to Brotteaux for evening drinks and had a lovely time.

Saturday found us back to Vieux Lyon and found some of my favourite shops and places to sit and watch the world go by. In the evening, we had a Groupon deal, so a walk in the rain took us to  l'Address, a very modern bistro/bar for an amazing 3 course meal. Well worth getting a soaking for.

We stayed in and chilled out for most of Sunday. In the evening, stayed locally for a few drinks.

On Monday, we went to Bellecour and took a bus to the new Confluence shopping centre. It is really lovely and absolutely full of great shops. Not all of them were to my taste of course, but I did find a few. After that we went to Part-Dieu shopping centre to get some thing to take home with us.

Tuesday - we went up to Croix Rousse on the hill to have a wander about and have a picnic lunch. It's a lovely part of town (more like a village), stayed for ages. Then got back on the metro line and got off at Hotel de Ville and had a wander around the Opera. We had another Groupon deal for an intimate little bistro in one of the back streets called Comptoir Lyonnais. The food here was amazing and we had a brilliant time here. We are definitely going back to this bistro next time we are here.

Wednesday, we were very sad to be going home, could easily have stayed another week or two. Can't wait to come back again.

Talk soon
Love & hugs
Ange xxx

Saturday, 12 April 2014

Edinburgh School of Icon Painting: 5 days intensive Icon painting course

Edinburgh School of Icon Painting: 5 days intensive Icon painting course: INTENSIVE ICON PAINTING COURSE IN EDINBURGH 10th June - 14th june Tuesday - Saturday 11.00am- 5.30pm Andrej Rublev "The ...

Edinburgh School of Icon Painting: The Divine Feminine

Edinburgh School of Icon Painting: The Divine Feminine: Exploring the Divine Feminine Saturday 12th April   -  10.am - 4pm Salisbury Centre                                 Workshop Le...

Sunny Days & New Projects

At last, Spring is here. What a difference it makes to see the sun out (well, sometimes) and everyone looks in a better mood. I've heard that this summer is going to be the hottest since records began. That could be good and bad, loads of fantastic days out and vitamin D, but think I'm thinking droughts in England (after all the terrible floods), though we shouldn't be too bad in here in Scotland.

I thought for a change, rather than showing you a finished notebook, I would show you one that I'm in the middle of doing. It has a blue background with needle felted pale trees. The size is going to be somewhere in the middle of an A5 and an A6, I've cut the paper and bound in into signatures. I've been doing a lot of Coptic stitch recently, so I'm thinking that would make this casebound instead. The middle of the main tree trunk will be the spine, it's a touchy feely type of notebook. You will feel each of the twists in the trunk as you handle it .

I'll take more photos as I go along and post them on my blog.

Talk soon

Love & hugs
Angela xx

PS: Has anyone read the book 'The Four Agreements' by Don Miguel Ruiz, it's one book that has really made me seriously look at my perceptions and have a rethink.

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

My Folksy shop is now up and running

I made the decision a while ago to change my shop host from Etsy to Folksy. Now it's done and here is the link:

https://beta.folksy.com/shops/McLeanBookArts


I've listed some of the notebooks I've already made and I'm planning to do some notebooks with wet felted covers. 

I also have some photos on deviantART here:

http://mcleanbookarts.deviantart.com/


On my To Do list are some wet/needle felted Moleskine covers. I love Moleskine notebooks, so I think I'll make covers for mine and for sale.

At the moment, I'm making an A6 monogrammed Coptic bound notebook for a client and after that I'm making a diary. I'm getting fed up using my phone diary. I'm not sure of the size or design yet, but I have the diary pages ready to print. I make the diary blocks myself on Publisher, that way I can get the layout exactly how I want it. I'll probably start it from 1st May to end Dec 2015.

I'll might be putting something on Folksy next week, I wonder what it will be....

Talk soon
Love & hugs
Angela xxx