Empress Bat's Journal

DIY: make a bowl from a scratched unplayable record

We, (husband and I) collect records; given that these precious music recordings are often second hand and old, it is inevitable that at times we may get a record that is just too damaged to be playable.

Instead of discarding the records, we upcycle!

1. Preheat an oven to 120 degrees celcius
2. Place the record on top of a metal colander
3. Carefully place the metal colander and record on a baking tray in the oven

4. After five minutes the record will have moulded over the colander

In oven

5. Remove the colander and record from the oven
at this stage the record is still malleable for about a minute so do any fine tuning of shape
6. Then place in room temperature (still on colander) to set

Cooling down

7. Remove it from the colander and you have a record bowl!

The upcycled record as a stash bowl!

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Sneak Peek: unboxing the limited edition Blue Midori Traveller's Notebook cover

I love stationery, I draw, write in long hand, and scribble ideas for the things I make to sell in my etsy store. I go through a large amount of sketch books and notebooks in my scribblings and sketching. I have been wanting for a looong time a basic notepad cover that is sturdy and strong, and can cover a few notepads at once, that is small enough to cart around wherever I go, and not so precious that I am too scared to use it in case I scratch it in some way.

Enter the Midori Traveller's notebook cover.

I bought mine from Notemaker, (they are on Twitter as @NoteMakerTweets), which is one of my preferred online stores for quality stationery. The have speedy, quality customer service, and the prices are reasonable, with rewards for repeat customers, and free postage for orders over a certain amount.

Midori is a Japanese stationery brand, not the name of the notebook cover itself, and they make and sell a lot of quality goodies such as brass pens and pencil cases.

The Unboxing

The Midori Traveller's Notebook cover (which I shall abbreviate to MTN for the rest of this post) is beautifully packed.

Wrapped in clear cellophane and a cardboard cover, with a description tacked to the front and held together with an elasticated band.

Opening the cellophane and cardboard reveals a small cotton drawstring bag ...

Opening the drawstring bag reveals.... the MTN!!!

This one is the limited edition blue, and it is thick but flexible, any scuffs will enhance the look of the cover, and you seriously do not have to treat this with 'kid gloves'. This is a tough cover meant to be used!

The MTN comes with one refill of a blank notepad and a spare elastic to add notepads.

I have a total of four notepads in this cover and they all fit perfectly.

Midori have a specific sized notepad for their regular sized covers, as tall as an A5 but skinnier. The paper they use in their notepads is fountain pen friendly and such a smooth paper to write on. I have the thick sketch paper, the plain paper, the ruled, and the graph in mine.

I hope this unboxing post helps to show you the MTN in more detail than shop websites do, and can help you work out whether this is for you or not!!

I will show my MTN set up in a future post.

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DIY: personal tissue holder

I always have tissues on my person, stuffed in my sleeves, shoved in a backpack, or littering my handbag. How much nicer would it be to have my tissues in an organised decorative especially made holder to slip into my bag? I decided to make one for myself, it took less than ten minutes, easy to make takes a teeny bit of fabric, and can be made different ones to match your bag, your stationery, your décor!

They are so quick to make you could make heaps and give them as gifts or use them to sell at fund raisers and fêtes. If you don’t sew.... and here is a plug for my store... i make these and sell them in my etsy store and via my facebook page and am happy to take custom orders.

Here is how to make a tissue holder for your tissue stash!

Cut two rectangles of fabric, you can use matching or contrasting fabric whatever you want to! I used a bright yellow and orange floral print as my lining fabric, and a blue polka dotted fabric as my outer fabric.

The rectangles need to be about 16.5 cm * 14 cm(you need to alter this according to the size of your mini tissue pack as some are larger than others!).

With face side in, sew all around the rectangle with about 0.5cm seam leaving 2 cm un-stitched.

Turn right side around, and iron flat,. Ironing helps to keep the project neat and makes it easier to sew as there are no bubbles or creases in the fabric to mess up your straight lines!

Stitch around the rectangle, to close off the small opening, and to make all the sides uniform. In this example I chose a decorative stitch, however a straight stitch or hand stitching is fine as well.
with long sides horizontal, fold the fabric in half short sides together to provide a half way line, then unfold it, and fold the left side and right side up to the midway line. Iron and pin to make it easier to stitch.

Stitch across the short sides

Then turn the fabric the right way around, and put your small packet of tissues, or some loose tissues you have folded into the holder, and you are ready to use it!

Ideal to make for fund raisers, fêtes, or as a small gift! These tissue holders help to organise your tissues in your bag, and you could make other accessories, such as diary cover and draw string bags for makeup, in matching or coordinating fabric and have a set of items!

I make fabric pouches to hold a small tissue supply, ideal for your bag or briefcase or to stash in your pockets . Listing them for sale on etsy and happy fo take custom orders https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/EmpressBatsEmporium?section_id=17126648&ref=shopsection_leftnav_6

A photo posted by Empress Bat (@empress_bat) on Apr 20, 2015 at 9:10pm PDT

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Book Review: Angela Marchmont series

Any of you who know me, are aware that I love to read, and despite being busy with my day job, my hobby business, my volunteer work, my studies, and everything else, I read approximately 5 novels per week. I have not shared any favourite authors with you all before, but this author is new to me, and maybe new to all of you as well!

While I was away recently, I downloaded a few novels to my Kindle, and a couple of these e-books were by an author I had not read before, Clara Benson. After reading my way through the delightful, albeit predictable, amateur sleuth style novels 'The Murder at Sissingham Hall', and 'The Mystery at Underwood House', I was hooked!

The books are set in the 1920s, mainly in England, and centre around Mrs Angela Marchmont and her ability to get herself into the middle of many an intrigue and manage to solve crimes while she is there.

The first novel is written in first person, and Angela Marchmont does not have such a lead role as it were, but the following books in the series are in third person and Angela is most definitely the protagonist.

Angela Marchmont appears to live the life of the idle rich, and along with her chauffeur William, tends to arrive in the middle of crime and mayhem wherever she goes. She has the trust of British Intelligence and Scotland Yard, and is a bit of a mystery herself. The mysteries are predictable, but still a great adventure read and very entertaining.

I had not seen the biography of the author until after I had read all the books out so far, and was surprised to see that these novels are purported to be written by a lady in the 1920s and her manuscripts had been found in the mid-sixties and worked on for publishing well after her death. When reading these stories I felt the syntax to be of a 21st Century author writing in the style of Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, and even Enid Blyton, but I did not get the impression from the books that they had actually been authored by someone of that time.

This could be because the author was:

anachronistically ahead of her time;
the books are heavily edited; or
they have been written by person or persons unknown in the 21st Century and given a cute back story of a fictional 1920s author.

I have decided that the books have indeed been written in the 21st Century - but don't let the author's fun at pretending to be someone else prevent you from enjoying these books!

The fact is however, that I thought the books were great fun and it doesn't matter to me who the author is or when the books were written. love them all!

I really enjoyed reading these delightful novels. They are a charming old fashioned yarn, the kind of novel you take with you to the seaside and read while sun bathing! They do not ask too much of the reader, instead they take you for a rollicking ride of mystery and amateur detection!

4 out of 5 bats

You can download them via the Amazon store for Kindle, and also ibooks and they are really cheap. Why not give them a try?

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Beaded Webs: revisited review

Hello Batlings! I hope everyone's 2015 is being absolutely splendid, and if it isn't I hope things will get better soon.

Almost a year ago, I did a review on a small home run business called Beaded Webs, you can read that review here. <<<<< click the linky!!

Since then Beaded Webs has added some amazing new designs to the creations for sale, and I wanted to share these amazing finds with you all!

This talented artist has started to design and create 3-d bead and wire sculptures!!! I am honoured to own a gorgeous purple and black spider made by Beaded Webs.

3-d bat

3-d spider

All of the creations from Beaded Webs are hand crafted, using wire work techniques and meticulously threaded beads. This artist is going from strength to strength and every week there is something new to marvel at, and to buy!

Beaded Webs sells via a Facebook page , grab yourself an intricately designed 3-d bead and wire creation today, make sure you check the page out!

[Pictures used are copy-write Beaded Webs 2015]

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Setting up my Blogging planner in my Kikki K Gold A5

Hello Batlings!

I hope your 2015 is looking really lovely! I have settled back into work, and into my studies and my home hobby business for the year and it feels like I had never had a holiday!

Today's post is about my new Kikki K gold planner and how I set it up to keep myself organised with my two blogs! Empress Bat's Journal (this blog) and Apothecary Greens (my blog about herbalism and alternative therapies). If you are interested in my other planner related posts and my free printables, please have a look at the page where I have put all my planner related post links.

Note, I have not yet 'prettied' up the planner as I have only just set it up! I will do an update to this post once it is all pretty with stickers and washi and doodles!!

Personalise planners to work for you!

Remember using planners, binders, notebooks, diaries, and sticky notes, is all about what works for you! So work out a system that makes sense and that you know you can use to be more productive, less stressed, and organised!

I use multiple 'planner binders', but they are not all used as diaries/calendars. They are used as conveniently sized project binders, each has a different use, and each works well for me, with my diary as the 'hub' of operations!

Blog Planner Set Up

1. I took everything out of the Kikki K planner, I sold the refill papers to another planner fan, and started to sort the A5 ring binder in the manner that makes sense to me.

gutted the Kikki K planner

2. On some scrap paper I worked out what I needed in a blog planner book. I ended up with needing seven sections: schedule, information, blog 1, blog2, to do, inspiration, and tools.
Happily the Kikki K planner came with seven dividers, I just need to change the tab titles!

3. With my trusty Dymo Labeller, I made labels on some cool silver metallic tape. Then as I was telling myself how cool the labels looked, I realised I had made them too big...so I altered the font to small and tried again!!

Making my own tab labels

Newly labelled dividers back in the planner

3. For the SCHEDULE section, I used the Kikki K month to two pages, I will write in the boxes when i need to draft a post or load up a post and other important blog type things i need to know dates of.

For Apothecary Green is use a green pen, and for this Empress Bat's Journal I use a purple pen. (my colour key is on the right hand side of the page)

4. Using some file cards in large size, i punched holes in them to fit in my planner, and wrote my sites and what they are on them. Example '' @empressbat | twitter | social media"

These cards will be in my 'Information' section, as they contain the sites I use for blogging and social media, and any guest bloggers and their blogs. Basically handy information I can get at a glance!

file cards to use in my planner

5. the next two sections are called Blog One and Blog Two and are for Empress Bat's Journal and Apothecary Greens respectively. In this section I use note paper with holes punched in the sides. My brain dump for my blogs goes in these two sections. Blog ideas, what aims I have for each blog or post, how to increase my audience, drafts of future posts, all that kind of stuff!

6. To Do: the to do section has things I need to get done, a memo section of things i need to do, for example: contact my guest blogger..hint hint Madame Monstrous of Zentangle Creations, and fix up my templates... notes of things that once done can be discarded.

7. Inspiration: In this section I have pages with pockets, I stash magazine pages, and stickers and all sorts of items that inspire me for my blog posts! I also have printouts of information I may wish to refer to later when composing a blog.

I make the pages with card stock and washi tape to create pockets.

one of my pages with pockets! Some inspiration cards are in this pocket

8. Tools: this has pages about how to make a blog sparkle (like the Blog Ready Challenge by Raine of Lime Tree Fruits); as well as information on search engine optimisation, and HTML and CSS for formatting websites.

9. Page Lifter: I used two pieces of metallic gold card, cut to A5 size, and washi taped together, to create a page lifter for the back of my planner pages, to stop my pages curling up when I shut the binder. The card stock was doubled to ensure it is thick and heavy, and I made the holes larger than normal so it can move freely in the binder. This helps it to act effectively as a page lifter.

Page lifters stop your pages getting all curled up when you close your binder! They are easy to make form stiff card stock, make sure you make the holes for the rings larger than usual so the page can move freely.

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CREATIVE EVERY DAY: January 2015 Lost and Found

As I mentioned in my first post for 2015 I am participating in the Creative Every Day (CED) challenge.

The January 2015 theme is 'Lost and Found', so I decided to write a short story about Lost and Found.

Enjoy!

Welcome 2015!

Hello Batlings, and welcome to 2015!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

(1) This year I am very excited to announce that Empress Bat's Journal has a wonderful guest blogger on board who will be sharing her wit and wisdom with you all as the muse takes her! You may know her from the Madam Monstrous blog, she also blogs on Zentangle Creations; she is a great person and I am really happy that she has accepted my invitation to be a guest blogger for Empress Bat's Journal.

(2) Last year I participated in the Documented Life Project (DLP) 2014; this year I have decided to double the creative projects I am participating in, so I shall be actively involved in creating pages in the Documented Life Project 2015, PLUS the Creative Every Day challenge! My DLP pages will be shared on this page and my Pinterest Board for DLP as usual, and the Creative Every Day challenge will be in a blog post each month or so with the subject line: CREATIVE EVERY DAY: <Month>: <Theme>.

(3) As promised in my December 2014 blog post I will share with you all my resolutions/goals for 2015 and I will monitor and review them through-out the year to see how I am proceeding with them. Feel free to share your resolutions in the comments of this post too! Publicly promising to achieve a goal and reviewing your progress is a handy tool to keep you on track!

MY GOALS FOR 2015

Write
Organise
Create
Positive
Improve

Write:

I will blog on here and/or my Alternative Therapies Blog and/or my Herbalism website at least once a week.
I will actively keep a journal where I write at least a paragraph of either fact or fiction every day!

Organise:

I will organise my time effectively to be able to fit in all my projects and volunteer activities, and my hobby business, and my studies, and my fulltime job without exhausting myself and ensuring I have time to relax and ..just be!
I will organise my stuff: I will stop hoarding and cluttering!

Create:

I will actively participate in creative projects
I will design and create items to sell in my etsy store and via my Facebook Page
I will play music (whichever instrument I feel like playing at the time)
I will draw, just for fun

Positive:

I will keep supporting small home, family run, and hobby business to be a positive force in keeping cottage industry alive!
I will continue Project Funmail to bring some happiness, smiles, and positivity to the days of others.
I will do things for myself and be mindful that I am a worthwhile part of the universe and deserve good things too

Improve:

I will take steps to improve my hobby business
I will complete at least two tertiary qualifications this year
I will exercise more and look after myself
I will be organised
I will stay free of clutter
(clutter is a common theme here.. i have OCD and tend to hoard...)

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