Empress Bat's Journal

Positive thought: pay attention to the good things in life

______________________________________________________________________________

About Me: I work full time, I am also studying for a therapist qualification in Advanced Herbalism, subsequent to completing a Diploma inHerbalism, I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers

Illustration: Crow in Sunset

It was raining a couple of days ago, and as I stood at the train station near home waiting for my husband ot pick me up, I saw two wet crows on the power lines shaking themselves out to dry.

Their shaggy wet black feathers were a stark contrast to the grey stormy, early evening sky, and it inspired me to paint a silhouette of a crow against a sunset.

Here it is - watercolour on Arches Rough A5 paper

As always I am happy for you to share, download, print, PIN, etc, but please be kind and state where the image came from!

_____________________________________________________________________________

Illustration: Queen of Hearts

Yesterday I showed you my Alice in Wonderland art work, and tonight I would like to show you my Queen of Hearts mixed media piece. Feel free to share, download etc, but please be courteous and say where you got the image from!

__________________________________________________________________________

Illustration: Alice in Wonderland

Been playing with watercolour paints and ink, Here is an 'Alice' doodle I have just finished. Feel free to print, use, share the image.

Be courteous and let people know where you got it from!

...............................................................................................................
I will be selling 2015 calenders based on my original illustration as well!!

_______________________
Postcards made from my original illustration

............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Snow Gum Bounty Farm: a family business

Supporting cottage industry, hobby businesses and small family enterprises is important. I firmly believe that we all need to support cottage industry so that we will always have the choice to purchase and own quality products. Large enterprises are pushing out small family run business and if we do not support these small hobby or home businesses, in the end all we will have left is mass produced, factory, plastic, tasteless, nasty, soulless items!

I have in the past blogged about products and businesses involved in jewellery making, home decoration, and aromatherapy, and today I am introducing you to a family farm business.

Snow Gum Bounty is a family farm/small business in Yass, New South Wales, Australia. They describe themselves as a family operated farm that provides grass fed sheep and beef to the Canberra and surrounding regions.

photo (c) Snow gum Bounty: see the kangaroos peaking over the fence?

They sell lamb, beef and hogett (a hogett is a sheep over a year old and less than two years) meat directly to the public, how cool is that? Their business is registered as an Australian Business and they maintain a Food Standards licensed mobile cool room.

This farm is run by a young couple and their little boy; a hard working family with honest, ethical, and quality values. They have some amazing plans for their farm and really care about their environment.

Snow Gum Bounty Farm is looking to future improvements of the pastures by using livestock and not chemical fertilisers and are continually work towards improving the land and improving the quality of the fields that grow the grass that feeds their animals.

Can you see the two alpacas? I LOVE alpacas! photo (c) Snow Gum Bounty

If you want to know more about their farm or wish to join their mailing list please contact them via email

snowgumbounty@gmail.com or via their facebook page.

Bovine model courtesy of (c) Snow Gum Bounty

Please support this family run business! Please LIKE them on Facebook!

______________________________________________________________________________

About Me: I work full time in a computer security area, I am also studying for a therapist qualification in Advanced Herbalism, subsequent to completing a Diploma in Herbalism, I also have Diplomas in Fraud Investigation and Fraud Control, and i read a lot! I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week either here or on apothecary greens, I have a website about herbalism, and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers

...............................................................................................................

Coffee: how do I love the let me count the ways

I am sitting at the kitchen table drinking a long black coffee made from beans purchased from the amazing Buzz Coffee; it is a gloomy, chilly, grey day, and as I sip my coffee I revel in the cup's ability to make me feel good. I am not talking about the supposed brain stimulation of caffeine, I am talking about the solace, comfort, and happy feelings sitting and enjoying a cup of coffee gives me.

I am not sure I should tell you this dear batlings, but I have been drinking coffee since I was two years old. My family are all English, tea is their thing, and yes I do drink tea both Herbal and my fave Irish Breakfast blend, but coffee is my drink of choice.

I will happily drink coffee in a variety of blends, styles, and temperatures! It can confuse cafes when i may order a skinny flat white one day, and a long black the next, I drink coffee in the style I feel like at any given time.

All I ask is that the beans be good!

If you are looking for an amazing cup of coffee and you are in the Port Macquarie area, try out Cafe Buzz Peachtree Walk, and if you want to buy some coffee beans either whole or ground for you, you can get them online from Buzz Coffee.

These are GOOD BEANS!

coffee beans (picture origin unknown)

______________________________________________________________________________

About Me: I work full time, I am also studying for a therapist qualification in Advanced Herbalism subsequent to completing a Diploma in Herbalism, I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers

ANNOUNCEMENT: i have a new website

Hi readers of empress bat's journal, thank you for reading my musings, I appreciate your support. I have recently created a website to further explore my interests in Herbalism and other complementary therapies, I'd love you guys to have a look at it, let me know what you think!

The link is apothecarygreens.weebly.com

______________________________________________________________________________

Monday: Welcome to the week!

Happy Monday everyone!!

______________________________________________________________________________

About Me: I work full time, I am studying an Advanced Diploma in Herbalism, I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers

Goals Check in: half way through the year am I on track?

At the start of the year, i made some goals for myself, you can see them here , and in summary they are

Actively blog
Be organised
Keep designing and making things to sell
Stay positive, promote happiness and support others

Goals need to be monitored, assessed, revised, to ensure you actually keep reaching your targets. To that end, I did a goal check in April, which you can see in this post, here.

So we are half way through the year, how am I tracking with my goals?

Actively blogging:

I initially aimed to blog at least once a week, I have two different blogs, and this aim although something I still feel is what I need to aim for, has to be flexible, as I do not always have the time after working all day to sit and blog when i finally get home in the afternoon. So although I may not always get to blog once a week, I do maintain a regular blogging schedule and every month so far this year has at least two posts in this blog, and there is a post every month in my other blog, Apothecary Greens.

Be Organised:

I want to be so super organised that I can fit in a day everything I want to achieve and still have time for..well sleep... I am still working on the ultimate schedule, but I am improving my organisation skills, and the Filofax is helping with that!

Keep Designing and making things to sell:

My creative Muse left me for a bit over May and June, so I took a short break from my online shops to recoup my creative thoughts. This has resulted in a whole new design theme in the jewellery I am making and selling! I have been creating Steampunk-Goth inspired pieces and I love them!

Stay positive and Support Others:

This has been hard, life throws mud at me (as I am sure it does at all of you), at times, and I fall... into a muddy self pitying heap for a bit. Then i manage to crawl myself upright, wash myself off and start again!

My Support Cottage Industry Facebook page still promotes small hobby businesses and charities in my effort to support the small hobbyists, and I have recently instigated Project Fun Mail as a random act of kindness to bring fun and joy to others. I am really happy to see relatives and friends taking to this project too!

I recently received a lovely Project Fun Mail from my Aunty Verna, as well as one from a talented lady, Sarah, who I met on Facebook, she runs the Rainbow Gecko Gallery Facebook Page.

So although my goals aren't being reached 100% all the time, I have not lost sight of them, and am still working towards them.

How are you going with your goals?

Fun Mail from my Aunty Verna

______________________________________________________________________________

About Me: I work full time, I am also studying for a therapist qualification in Naturopathy specialising in Herbalism, I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers

PROJECT: Fun Mail

In this fast era of instant messaging and emails and no time to stop to smell the chocolate, sometimes we can forget to enjoy moments, to embrace fun, to smile. The only thing in your post box is a bill and some junk mail, and your life is full of stress.

I decided that as part of my goals for this year I will do my small part to spread some happiness. I have created a little project for myself called PROJECT FUN MAIL.

I will be sending cards, small fun gifts, stickers and other ephemera to people at random. The aim is to spread some joy to others, and hopefully they can then spread joy to the people they know to, and it can be an exponential happiness!!

Some of my customers will be recieving mail from me, as well as family, friends, and people I do not know but 'met' via social media.

Why not join me in spreading the joy.

Post by Empressbat's Emporium.

______________________________________________________________________________

Steampunk-Goth DIY supplies on the cheap

Still on my Steampunk meets Goth jewellery creating theme of last week, which you can read about here, I decided to look around the house, the grocery store, and the hardware store to see what could be used to create original Steampunk-Goth pieces without costing a heap of cash, and without being mass produced jewellery components.

'Found items' from the house

To start with, anyone who knows me knows that I am into technology and work daily with computers, so it won't be a surprise to know I have quite a stash of old memory cards, old phones, wires and assorted computer bits and pieces including circuit boards lying around the house. These have been piled together and are ready for me to create with. Not only is this recycling it is also a cheap supply of jewellery components, as otherwise all these bits would have ended up in landfill!

Hardware Store

Oh my I have found Aladdin's cave! Here for purchase I find cheap copper wire, washers, nuts and bolts, soft metal tubing, industrial strength glue, and all manner of things that I can turn to good use for minimal cost!

My favourite find is these elbow shaped copper capillary joins that were in the plumbing section. (they are small and will be good to thread necklaces through as a kind of pendant bail)

Grocery Store

At the grocery store where I was purchasing potatoes to go with the salmon I am cooking for my husband tonight, I found these beer bottle caps. They are an antique gold tone, were super cheap for a massive bag, and I can think of heaps of ways I can use them to make jewellery!

Very happy with my stash, I can't wait to see what I can create with it! Stay tuned to future blog posts to see my creations.

What bargain finds do you have for your jewellery making?

______________________________________________________________________________

Steampunk musings

I just watched the last ever episode of WAREHOUSE 13, the steampunk, sci fi, fantasy, crime solving, adventure series from America. I was most vexed when I found out the show was no longer going to be made.

As well as the entertaining plots, the humourous dialogue, and the quasi historical artefacts, I really liked the steam punk feel of the show. The modern technology meets scrolls and filigree of Victorian bronze art... love it!

Steampunk is basically a fantasy sub culture of an alternate industrial revolution, where Victoriana with its flounces and fantasy art meets technology.

Two Steampunk artists and makers of jewellery I admire are Sassy Steampunk and Mad Scientist Designs. I own several of Sassy Steampunk's creations and have just ordered a steampunk bracelet cuff from Mad Scientist Designs.

Both these talented ladies own etsy stores and sell not only their one of a kind steampunk creations but steampunk supplies to DIY steampunk accessories!

Anyway I started thinking about steampunk jewellery offered on ebay, and how some of it seems to lack the grand flourishes of the style, seems to be not really understanding the origins of the art form and seems really rather cobbled together rubbish, although it features many a fuse or transistor. So I have been working on my own pieces.

I think I may venture more into creating steampunk designs as I am really enjoying the geeky creativity it inspires!

Below are some of the pendants I have made, they are a bit Goth meets Streampunk, and not solely steampunk.

Steampunk owl pendant

Steampunk absinthe faery pendant

Steampunk-Goth cameo pendant

Have you seen my Steampunk Meets Goth Pinterest board?

Follow Eliza's board SteamPunk Meets Goth on Pinterest.

__________________________________________________________________________

Blogs to follow

I enjoy reading blogs its like having a huge amount of free magazines and autobiographies to read. I learn, laugh, cry, along with the blogger.

Some of my favourite blogs at the moment are as follows:

Minerva Levinston: a digital artist. using a variety of media combined with digital edits to create some amazing images. She has free downloadables for people to print and use in their art journals and scrapbooks. Like me she is participating in the Documented Life Project, and that is where i discovered her blog. Like me she loves her coffee!! A very creative person with an interesting blog, please follow her blog you won't regret it.

This is CorpGoth: I really enjoy this blog as this lady works and is a Goth, like me she is in the big bad world of professional work places, and can find a happy medium between her self expression and her job. She posts some great pix of her fashion and she provides a glimpse into her life. Fun and interesting read.

Confessions of an Australian Goth: This lady blogs about her fashion style, her pets, her life. She is another great creative person who shows the world that us Goths are creative, good people!

More Nail Polish: this blogger lives in Canberra, she has the most amazing finger nails I have ever seen! She blogs about nail polish (obviously) and she does the most artistic manicures that have to be seen to be believed! She also reviews nail polish and publishes DIY so you can also try out the manicure styles she uses. I find her blog posts informative and entertaining, and the manicures are amazing!

Deep Midnight Perfume OIls: this lovely talented lady creates the most divine fragrances and sells them on etsy. She has a blog where she interviews other artists, helps to promote the work of others, and also talks about her perfume inspiration.

Do you have favourite blogs I should read? Please let me know by putting the links in the comments!

______________________________________________________________________________

DIY: crochet snowflakes

It is heading for Winter here, and although winters where I live never get much colder than -1 degrees celcius, and some morning frost, I decided to be creative with a winter theme.

cue crochet snowflakes

I made this one in cream coloured 8ply acrylic

I learned how to crochet when I was very young, around 3 or 4 years old, and I find it quite easy to do. The trouble is I am not that good with understanding crochet patterns, I always find them convoluted and complex. I find it easier to make stuff up as I go along, or revise a pre-written pattern into one that works for me.

I have been fiddling around with an easy to make crochet snowflake, after success making one out of variegated blue 8ply acrylic yarn I thought I would share it with all of you!

what i did:

using a 3.5 hook and 8ply yarn chain 6 and slip stitch to join

chain 4, then treble 11 into the hole

slip stitch the end of the row of trebles to the start

*chain 5, then double crochet (dc) in the 4th chain from hook
chain 5, dc in the 4th chain from hook
then dc again near the top of the trebles
and one more dc in the next treble*

repeat from * 5 more times

then slip stitch to finish, darn in edges

et voila

if you use sparkly yarn it will look even nicer!

this one was made in variegated blue 8ply acrylic

______________________________________________________________________________

DIY: air freshener

Have a look at a post on my other blog about my DIY air freshener made from roses and herbs from my garden!

Apothecary Greens: DIY air freshener

______________________________________________________________________________

Picture this: Schroedinger's cat

______________________________________________________________________________

Book Review: No.1 Ladies Detective Agency

I read a lot.

I started reading when i was 3 years old, and my love of reading has never abated.

A series of novels i have been reading in the last two weeks, and now on to the last of the series so far, is by Alexander McCall Smith, author of many books on a variety of subjects, about a private investigator in Botswana.

Fourteen books so far in the series and i have been averaging reading a book a night (i do not sleep much and i read fast). The fifteenth in the series is due to be published later this year and I am eagerly awaiting it!

They are of course the novels about the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, with the private detective Precious Ramotswe and her assistant, Grace Makutsi.

They are about how small crimes/fraud/infidelity have been investigated by these two ladies, and also about their lives in the ever changing world. The sadness of old traditions being lost, and the embracing of the modern world.

I find these books charming, and hard to put down, they have a good juxtaposition of 'feel good' positive themes, tackling real life problems such as domestic violence, and the honour of some traditional ways.

Mma Ramotswe drinks red bush tea, (which i believe is Rooibus tea), and a common thread through the novels is her drinking her tea. It is very English in this respect as tea is made on occasions of celebration, thought, sadness, and any time in between!

I give these books f5 out of 5 bats.

After I have finished the most recently published of this series, I think I shall start on Mr McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club series!

The series so far!

______________________________________________________________________________

Long Weekends: time for creating, cooking, and relaxing

It is the Easter long weekend, four glorious days of not having the two hour each way commute to the day job! It is midday on Easter Friday and despite relaxing I have been quite productive.

I have cooked a Vegan oat slice, it is uber yummy and uses crushed linseeds as the binding ingredient instead of eggs. It is my recipe (i rarely use the recipes of others), and it has baked into a lovely goldeny good semi sweet slice!

I have been working on my art journal pages for the Documented Life Project, it is relaxing to create in an art journal not caring whether it is perfect or not!

I have cleaned the bathroom caddy where i keep my toothbrush , hairbrush, and other detritus of bathroom stuffs.

I have finished reading another of Alexander McCall Smith's 'No 1 Ladies Detective Agency' novels, I wonder if Botswana is as lovely as his novels suggest?

and I am now watching Star Trek Next Generation, not sure which series or episode, but its the one where Data creates an AI with a positronic brain like his.

What is everyone else doing for their long weekend?

______________________________________________________________________________

Upcycled Ephemera: making greeting cards out of bits n pieces

Ephemera can be defined as collectible paper objects that were originally meant to be transient in nature, (such as movie posters, postcards, magazine clippings, letters). The word is from the ancient Greek 'Ephemeros' meaning for the day.

I collect all sorts of bits of paper, magazine clippings, wrapping paper, old greeting cards, playing cards and the like, and then recycle them into other goodies.

I prefer to use the term upcycle, as sometimes the magazine scraps become better than the original item, when they are reformed into woven papier mache pendants for example.

I enjoy upcycling my collection of ephemera to make one of a kind greeting cards and gift tags as well as jewellery pendants and these I sell either from my facebook page or my etsy store.

Some of the cards I have recently made and sold are pictured below:

______________________________________________________________________________

Pages

'Found items' from the house

Hardware Store

Grocery Store