TataniaRosa is up and running

Good evening. I've had a hectic weekend. Sorry for not blogging on Friday, it took quite a long time to set up my shop and start promoting it. By the time I had finished it was about 11pm! Anyway my shop is up and running. It has a few items in there at the moment with more to follow soon (see 'Items from my Etsy shop' on the right).

At the moment I am trying to make a homemade light box so I can take good pictures. I tried to take some today with natural light but it was cloudy. Always the way isn't it! Hopefully this way will mean I can take photos whatever the weather.

I've set up a Facebook fan page (the link is in the Facebook box on the right). Come and join the fun! I've also just set up a twitter account. Hopefully I'll see you there.

That's it for the moment. I shall blog more tomorrow.

x

Tomorrow is the day

Hello. After months of preparation I shall finally be ready to open my online shop tomorrow afternoon (UK time). I will start adding items on Etsy around 2pm and then set up a Facebook fan page and Twitter. I love social networking sites as it's a great way to get to know people. The links will be added here soon after they go live. More items will follow in my shop in the coming days. Gosh this is exciting!

Today my mum and I went to see Surrogates at the cinema. It's actually quite good. It seems to be a cross between I Robot, Minority Report and Ghost In The Shell, which is no bad thing. The part I found the most weird was the fact that Bruce Willis had blonde hair! Crazy stuff! It's an interesting and scary idea for the future of the human race, so if you like your futuristic movies, I would recommend it. I think the next film on my list to see is Up. That dog looks adorable from the trailers.

Talk to you tomorrow.

x

Tatting and the Pastel Delights Treasury

Evening. I've been very busy today. My silver chains came this morning so I was able to get on with attatching them to some of my necklaces. I'm doing a few styles of necklaces but sshhh it's a secret. All will be revealed next week.

So anyway, I got on with that and then tatted some pieces. I'm halfway through tatting a simple white pendant with a Swarovski crystal at its center. It's looking quite good at the moment and the crystal adds a nice sparkle to it.

I couldn't do more photos today as it has been raining since about lunchtime. Don't you just love the British weather! I instead decided to do another treasury. My new one is based on pastel colours and features more wonderful etsians. Enjoy!

x

Large tatting shuttles are great

I got quite a bit done today. I started this morning by experimenting with some large tatting shuttles I received yesterday. It took a while to get used to the sheer size of them but I think I've now figured out how to hold them without hitting my palm each time I make a knot! They hold a lot of thread or yarn and are perfect for an idea I have. I'll explain more in the coming weeks.

This afternoon I got down to photographing my jewellery. The weather for the past few days has been terrible so today was the first time I had enough light do my pics. I think I'm happy with how they turned out although I'm sure I'll tweak them before they are uploaded to my shop.

I'm still waiting for my silver chains to arrive but I managed to order some more boxes. I shall now refrain from buying things for a bit.

x

Jewellery stands and other bits and bobs

I'm sitting here in my dad's office watching the rain outside. All my tatting equipment is at home so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to do my blog for today.

Yesterday I spoke of the jewellery stand I was eyeing, well today I went to purchace it and suddenly realised that the minimum order was far too expensive, as was the postage. Like that's going to happen! I decided to look elsewhere and found another seller very quickly. Strange isn't it. You search for ages for something then two come along at once. I have now bought the item and hope to receive it soon. It will be very useful for my shop.

I'm hoping that some silver chains I have ordered will also come soon as I will then be able to finish some pieces off. This evening I shall buy some more jewellery boxes and then I shall be nearly there in terms of set-up for my shop. Phew. I think I need to stop buying things!

x

Etsy, Etsy, Etsy

Hello. Apologies for not doing a blog for a bit, it's been quite hectic here over the past week. Most of my time has been spent trying to find a supplier of jewellery stands. I did find one who had a good stand but it's not in stock at the moment. My search continued until I stumbled across another supplier this morning. The stands they are selling are very reasonable so I think I may order from them. Hurrah!

This morning I registered as a seller on Etsy. I decided it was a good idea to sort out the appearance of my shop before I started selling. I shall be open for business by the end of next week. This is so exciting.

After spending some time on my shop I found that Treasury West was a few hours away from opening. This is where you show twelve items from other sellers that you like. I made up a treasury and voila, I managed to get a space. This is a screengrab of it.

x

Devon

Hello. I've just returned from a few days down in Devon with my family. We had a great time and the weather wasn't too bad either.

On Sunday we made a trip to the coastal town of Dawlish and then up to Haytor on Dartmoor. The former place is unusual as it has a river flowing through the town and straight into the sea. The latter was great. I have been to Dartmoor before but this was the first time we've found the remains of the tramway at Haytor. This was built in the 1820s and transported granite that was used in the costruction of London Bridge (the one that went to the USA). On the right is a photo of part of the tramway.

On Monday we went to Dartmouth. This is a very pretty town situated on both sides of the River Dart. It has quite a few niche shops and loads of steps (thankfully, though, we didn't need to climb them). We managed to spend the whole day there, wondering round the shops and visiting the impressive castle. This shot of the castle looks quite eerie and gothic to me. We found a wonderful jewellery shop and I've decided that one day, when I have some spare money, I shall come back down here and spend, spend, spend.

There was also some great architecture dotted around the place, like The Cherub (right). This pub is a wonderful overhanging building. I love this kind of structure. Earlier on this year and last year we went to the town of Much Wenlock in Shropshire. This place is almost entirely this style of construction and feels very medieval.

On Tuesday we went to Bickleigh Mill. This is a restaurant combined with a small shop full of knick-knacks. We then made our way over to the town of Tiverton. There is an enormous factory located there full of fabric. I believe we spent at least half an hour browsing.

We travelled back yesterday and on the way we stopped off at Stonehenge. I've been here more times than I can count but it's still a beautifully magical place.

It was nice to have a few days break and now I can get back to working on my online shop feeling refreshed.

x

Etsy and tatting

Today I'd like to show my appreciation for the wonderful world of Etsy.com. Etsy is the place to buy and sell all things handmade. It contains thousands of shops of people from all over the world selling anything from jewellery and clothes to cosmetics and accessories, all handmade by themselves. I've found a lot of good products on there covering all price ranges. These people put a lot of love and attention into their products and this shows. I have to resist the urge to keep buying things.

I've placed the Etsy mini on the right of this page. Mine seems to be mostly corsets and medieval dresses at the moment. I suppose it fits with who I am. Most of the blogs on the left are of Etsians, check them out.

This brings me nicely to my next point. For the last year or so I've been tatting. This is a form of lace made by a series of knots. It is very durable and also elegant. Last December I discovered Etsy by accident through a Google search. I immediately realised that I could turn my hobby into a job. I would never have dreamed that this was possible but Etsy opened my eyes to a handmade world.

The pictures below show one of my own designs 'Elizabeth'. The first one is the black and red bracelet and the second one the red and cream necklace. I've also done these in other colours. I'd love to know what people think. I'm nearly set up and ready to go and I hope to become a seller very soon.

x

Winter Is Coming

Hello. Today I would like to discuss 'Game of Thrones'.

'A Song of Ice and Fire' by George R.R. Martin is a series of medieval fantasy books. It focuses on political intrigue more than magic and for once we do not get elves and the like. This is what was so appealing to me when I first found it a few years ago. It feels more like a historical novel than a fantasy. Yes it is set in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros but George himself has said that the story is based on the War of the Roses. This fan-made trailer, which uses elements of other films, is very good at showing the various aspects of the books.



Recently HBO announced that they were going to film a pilot for this series and call the TV version simply 'Game of Thrones'. We already have Sean Bean (Sharpe), Lena Headey (Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and other well known actors.

Today we finally had confirmation that Rory McCann is going to play the Hound. I've only seen him in one film, Hot Fuzz, where he plays the store assistant who simply says 'yarp'. I'm sure he will be fantastic as this character.

I hope this pilot is given the all clear as it would be amazing to see the series on the TV. I've always thought it had a filmic quality about it. This is not quite that but it's close.

x

Within Temptation and Elane

I've had an interesting day today. I woke up this morning and remembered we were due to have something new from the band Within Temptation. I found it later in the day. It was a trailer for their new CD 'An Acoustic Night At The Theatre' due out in October. Along with clips of some of their songs, it also includes a snippet of their new single 'Utopia'. Here is the trailer.



I cannot wait to hear this song in full. They seem to have filmed this gig so maybe one day we will have a DVD to accompany the CD. This is one of the reasons why I love them so much: they are prolific. It's great to have a band who release albums and then spoil us rotten with hours and hours of DVD footage.

That was the first bit of news to happen today. The next came completely out of the blue. I was on last.fm looking through their collection on Mediaeval Baebes songs and I decided to listen to the Baebes radio. After a few tracks of similar artists, I heard something that was absolutely beautiful. It was Nebeltanz from the gothic/dark folk band Elane. I had heard of them before but had never got round to listening to their songs. It is so atmospheric and emotional (especially with the violin). You could write a gothic story just based on this tune. I'm so glad I found that track today. I immediately went to buy it on iTunes and have listened to it several times since. Tomorrow I think I will check out more of their output.

I usually dig to find my kind of music but today came with was one of those amazing finds that I was not even looking for.

Heather x

Hello all

I've finally taken the plunge into the big, wide world of blogging. I've recently done two on my Myspace page but i've never had a site just for blogs. Wish me luck. I was thinking about starting one of these a few months ago but I decided to finish my degree at University before I got stuck into it. I suppose I should say a bit about myself.

I'm Heather. I've just finished studying Ancient History at Uni in Wales. My three years there were fantastic: made loads of great friends and was woken up at all hours by the sheep just outside our windows. Well maybe that last part was only slightly true, they were a bit farther away but they were still noisy.

I adore all things gothic, especially the art and music side of it. I love Within Temptation and have been a fan since Mother Earth first came out. Another band I follow is Mediaeval Baebes. They are both as good as each other for different reasons. My music tastes are quite eclectic. Apart from gothic, I love folk, acoustic, rock, alternative, some metal, celtic and classical (mostly living composers like Ludovico Einaudi). My favourite singer-songwriter is Darren Hayes who i've been following (no not in a stalker way teehee) for 12 years since the days of Savage Garden.

I can be quite geeky when it comes to films, Tomb Raider, A Song Of Ice And Fire, Farscape, anime and manga (especially Godchild). I like to do shuttle tatting and have decided to turn this into a job (this is what I wrote about on my Myspace page). It's still in the stages of being set up but I'm getting there.

There you go. I hope I haven't dragged on too much. I look forward to meeting new people on here.

Heather x