Aren't these beautiful? They make me smile just to look at them!

These divine "Celestial" coasters are made by my talented friend Luthien of Pimp and Paint. Luthien held a competition to celebrate Pimp and Paint's 1st birthday and I was lucky enough to win (and no bribery was even necessary!)

These coasters were Luthien's very first design in her etsy shop. The beautiful and richly coloured images are printed from her original artwork; she then hand embellishes the faces so that each one is unique.

Luthien is one of those rare people who is modest enough not to realise how talented she is! She actually told me that she was nervous sending these to me in case I was disappointed - can you believe her?!

Luthien is one of the most creative people I've come across - she can turn her hand to so many different things, from clay to painting to jewellery, and she excels at all of them. In fact I'm not really sure how I don't hate her ;)

If you would like some of these beautiful coasters for yourself (because you're not having mine!) you can find them in Luthien's etsy shop, along with many other pieces of loveliness.

Now I'm sorry to remind you, but it's only 50 days til Christmas!

Getting into the festive swing, I've been busy listing some more Christmas ornaments in my etsy shop.

The ones shown here are solid wooden hearts that I've painted with with my own fair hand, then I've added a coat of varnish for protection and a little red ribbon for hanging.

I do always seem to return to traditional red and white for Christmas, no other colour scheme ever seems quite as Christmas-sy to me! Those colours look great against the forest green foliage of my Christmas tree too.

I'm also starting to hunt round etsy for some possible gifts - though there are so many lovely things to choose from, I'll need to force myself to make some decisions before Christmas Eve!

Kreativ Blogger Award

Aaaages ago (I'm very late!) I was nominated for a "Kreativ Blogger" award, by the lovely Threads of Magique

The rules are:

1. Thank the person who gave this to you.

2. Copy the logo and place it in your blog.

3. Link the person who nominated you.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.

5. Nominate seven 'Kreativ Bloggers'

6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them

Now, I've done the "seven things about me" a few times before and frankly, I'm running out of things that are even remotely interesting!

So, unless you're really interested to know that I have a bit of a cold today, or that I'm cooking chilli for dinner, I though I'd take some artistic license (well it is a "creative" blogger award!) and list 7 of my favourite things instead!

1. The English seasons - especially the first warm days of spring and the colours of the autumn leaves
2. Unexpected hugs from my teenage son (well hugs are good generally, but my son's are extra special!)
3. Art (obviously) in all it's forms
4. Browsing around old antique or book shops
5. Sitting in a cafe and people watching
6. Train journeys - there's something exciting and romantic about train stations that you just don't get at airports (you couldn't really imagine "Brief Encounter"set at Gatwick airport ...!)
7. Thunderstorms

For my nominations for "Kreativ Bloggers" I had to pick at random, there are too many to choose from otherwise! So -

1. Art and Inspirations
2.Michele Lynch Art
3. Coastal Sisters
4. Mana Moon
5. Annette Quirke
6. Rocki's Rock'n Blog
7. The Magpie's Nest

This Week's IAE Challenge

It was my turn to set the IAE team challenge this week - the theme I chose was "travel".

I've realised though that I appear to be suffering from a rare condition called "Challenge Hangover"!

The above little canvas is my submission for the "travel" challenge, but somehow I seem to have been unconciously influended by the challenges that have gone before. I realised after I'd finished this, that it could also have been entered for the "sky" challenge, possibly the "orange" challenge, and - wait, yes - there's even a tiny touch of pink in there!

You can see all the challenge entries on the IAE team blog, and the theme for next week's challenge - which anyone can join in - will also be posted there very shortly.