Angharad the Harpie

Angharad is a Welsh girls' name meaning "Much Loved" and having seen a video by Meghan Ashley, this is what I have named my Welsh Folk Harp. Although it is lovingly just called "Harpie" most of the time.

As the story goes, I wanted a harp at the tender age of 7yrs but my Mother, who could only envisage the grand orchestral harps, decided a guitar was much more suitable for a small girl. Needless to say I only learned a few plucked tunes and soon gave it up altogether.

My 50th birthday was fast approaching and my husband happened to see a TV documentary about a Welsh harp maker and I jokingly said, "That's what I'll have for my birthday!" It was sort of a whim, but we searched the internet and came up with this Welsh Folk Harp page and my husband bought me a harp from there.


My harp has no levers and no pedals, just 19 plain strings from 'F to C''. It has a round back, it is beautiful to look at, soft to the touch, and most definitely "Much Loved".



With the help of some tunes from the supplies webpage I can just about play "Heno Heno" and "All Through The Night". My husband recorded me playing these after a week with my harp. He has changed them slightly (I wasn't actually in a church!) removing the pauses as I found the next chord but essentially it's me. There is also a Glissando too (you'll know when you hear it). Enjoy

Glissando ;  HenoHeno ; AllThroughTheNight



Although I haven't successfully found a harp teacher yet, I have found various harp teachers on the internet, Chris Caswell being the first I came across on YouTube. My most recent acquisition is "Teach Yourself to Play The Folk Harp" book by Sylvia Woods.

Other tunes I am working on are, "Frere Jacques", "Be Thou My Vision", "Twinkle Twinkle" and most recently "Brian Boru's March", or this version.

I'm happy to sit of an evening learning to read music and practicing and the time just flies by, certainly a wonderful Birthday Present.

WOYWW #247 - Replacement

Morning everyone. What a surprise I got yesterday.  A few days before my birthday I received a little box in the post and had no idea what it was, so I kept it for my birthday. Somehow my Valentine chocolates ended up on top of it and then it was surrounded by cards and it was only yesterday that I realised it was there and STILL unopened.

Anyway you should have heard my delight when I opened it as out rolled the 5 distress stain replacements for the ones which had discoloured or gone smelly. Yippee, thank you Ranger. It had been posted from the UK supplier - Personal Impressions and wasn't the USA package I was expecting. So glad that is sorted now.

Today on my desk is my 12 Months in View Journal drawing to a close. I did the last February page celebrating the Winter Olympics, with a washi tape frame. I am currently doing the "Winter in the Garden" pages, highlighted by raindrops to mark the wettest Winter in 18 years here in the UK. I have the pocket and tags page to do next and am then left with a spare page. Wondering whether to remove it or not?

You can see my little DLP diary is getting chunky after just 2 months with my abstract tip-in showing, which is really growing on me.

Perhaps you can spot the distress pens in their "covered" toothpaste box suspended under the other covered box too!

The only other thing I have done this week is my STRONG page for the Craft Barn Q&L challenge.


Oh and the JUG! Hmmm Shhhhh there is a PILE of ironing beckoning from half term week, really ought to get it done soon!

Happy WOYWW everyone, come join the fun.

Q&L #03 - Strong

I think I am more of a Lyric person than a Quote person for The Craft Barn's Q&L Challenge this year.

I have had this song in my head for the fortnight and even had the cutout of the African Girl on my desk for a week or so too but only today got around to actually doing something about it.

I scraped acrylic paint on the background and despite drying it, it managed to EAT 4 black pens in doing the border.
The song is the Anti-apartheid one from 1987 by Labi Siffre. Here's the original video on YouTube.

WOYWW #246 - Welsh Folk Harp

Hello everyone and Happy WOYWW to you all. Here's the answer to last week's conundrum.

A 19 string Welsh Folk Harp.

I had wanted a harp as a small child around 7yrs and had been given a guitar instead. Needless to say I didn't go on to play the guitar at all or any other instrument for that matter. So decided to mark my 50th birthday with getting a harp knowing now that there are smaller ones than the huge orchestral ones which was the reason behind me not getting one as a child. I grew up in Wales from age 9yrs so a Welsh one was quite fitting too.




Crafting has taken a back seat since I got my harp on Saturday but when I did do some I sliced the top of my finger with my craft knife, so no chord practice on my harp for a day (without a plaster!!!)

Anyway, there's a page in my diary for DLP with the line of hearts, a general catch-up last week can be found, here.

There are a few printouts awaiting crafty mojo to hit me. 

Plus the cutest little Owl making kit I got for my birthday too.

Oh the sweet sweet sound of the harp is so enchanting....

February DLP & Catch-up.

After some kind words from fellow crafters about me bombing out on all the challenges, I allowed myself to forget the majority of the deadlines which were really the crux of the problem and have hence "Caught Up"!

I guess the hormones making a return visit after 10 weeks off has also caused me to slow down and rest up which often equals crafting - horrah.

So I have done 5 tip-ins in my diary for February. I took my inspiration (DLP 6) from Pam's blog as I daren't go near pinterest as you'd never see me again! I repeated a circle (DLP7). My Sochi page is my own as I love the patterns. The hearts is my Love Letters Page (J52/6) and the abstract art (J52/5) which I made whilst making my "Silence is Golden" page for the CB although sadly too late for the deadline - never mind!

I have also done Psalms 9 and 13. I was glad I spotted both sets of printables this time as they serve as my stepping off point together with the actual Psalms and the blog posts. I used up lots of hearts and butterflies I had in my spares box and found a great magazine cutting too.


Maybe I ought to do some housework now....

WOYWW #245 - Big Tease

I have a significant birthday this coming Saturday, as can be seen by the beautiful card I received from Anne a week early and opened by mistake!










I thought I needed to mark this occasion with something a bit special and I took delivery of this package yesterday. Obviously I can't open it until Saturday, but thought I might get you all guessing. Such a tease. I have placed it on my desk the right way up, not upside-down like the delivery man had it! I'll reveal all next week, and maybe I'll post clues in the week too!

I have done a lot in my 12 Months in View journal this week. I used the giveaway papers for my flower of the month page and I made up the pocket and tag, the front of the tag became my Timmy Tag for February.

I also raised an issue with Ranger about some of my Distress Stains changing colour or becoming smelly and I await replacements.

I have been watching the Winter Olympics and have been totally taken in by the artwork they have been using. I did a page in my journal, diary (DLP) and my February zine using the designs.

I then made up all the 4 zines into a little book.






Do come and join the fun in what we lovingly call WOYWW at Julia's pad.

Happy guessing!

And the clues start

1) Going by the comments so far I can say it is NOT a visual craft as such although it will be something nice to look at in itself.

Twelve Months - Zine of Zines

Having finished my 4th and final zine yesterday, I now got to see how Bernice put them together on the 12 months blog.

I glued my bottom edges together as I had already taped up the other open edges with washi tape each season. Then I glued each zine to the next.








I didn't have any scraps of leftover sprayed card big enough for the cover so I just used some Kraft Card.

Then to decorate the cover? I used the bits and bobs I had left from the 12 giveaways during the year. A couple of sheets for the backing, a collage of the various yellow flowers, and the spare flower names cut up to spell out, "Twelve Months". I had to be a little inventive to make all the letters required.




What a great way to make a little book.

Thanks Bernice for showing us this technique.

12 Months Zine etc.

Well it would seem that I have bombed out on most of the challenges I started last month. I either couldn't keep up or they didn't inspire me. I have decided to plod along doing what I enjoy and just concentrate on the fortnightly Craft Barn and monthly Timmy Tags as far as deadlines are concerned.

Needless to say I am finishing off my year long 12 Months In View Journal and today I was totally inspired by Jenny Jones's Bronze medal win.

Also I was rather taken by the Russian Branding  at the different Sochi Winter Olympic events and had to look into that further. Apparently the look revolves around "the principle of the 'patchwork quilt' - a combination of 16 designs representing the most famous traditional Russian arts and crafts, ranging from Gzhel to Khokhloma."

Having watched the snowboarding slopestyle this morning I had wondered about the similar colours (shocking pink and purple) to our last Summer Olympics here in London, but it looks like just one of the colour combinations in the Russian branding.

So I have done a page in my 12 months journal, a tip-in in my Diary and my February zine too. I used the Charles Dance Sochi Poem we hear on the BBC Winter Olympic trailer for that.

Now that is better, doing what I want to do and not being dictated to - sigh.

Did I mention I LOVE colour?

Timmy Tag 2014 #02

I have done my February Timmy Tag in miniature again this month. It is on the tag which goes in the 12 months in view pocket in my journal.

February marks the end of this particular journal so not sure where my Timmy tag will go next month!

I made do as usual.

I tried to make a heart stencil with a punch and acetate but the acetate got stuck in the punch!



Then I was going to use my Tattered Rose Distress Stain only to find it had gone decidedly olive and my Old Paper was green and even my Frayed Burlap wasn't that brown anymore. Last week I had found my Peeled Paint had acquired rather a horrid smell and now I noticed my Weathered Wood was going the same way. I e-mailed Tim about them and he asked me to e-mail Ranger, so I have, and it now rests with them.


Anyway I ploughed on using my Bushed Pewter and Picket Fence Stains instead. My stencil and Distress Inks weren't working that well so I ended up using a pen for the heart background to heat emboss.

I went for gold as the accent colour and matted the blackboard words with it, cut out a freehand arrow, edged the tag and glittered a heart in it too. I also realised I couldn't have an overhang on the bottom edge as this would stop the tag fitting in the pocket like the others. I topped the tag with some gingham ribbon.

As I seem to find with all of Timmy's techniques, you just need to plough on and eventually it will turn out OK, and I think it did. Now I just need to make my hubby a Valentine's!

12 Months February - Crocus

The flower of the month over on the 12 months in view blog is the Crocus.

We have been treated once more with some lovely giveaway papers featuring the Crocus.




I have added one of the larger designs, fussy cut and cropped a little onto my February calendar page.

I have made up the pocket and the back of the tag too.

Thanks Anita van Hal for a year's worth of amazing giveaway papers.

WOYWW #244 - Chinese New Year

Having spent the past couple of days rather active (A new Rock'n'Roll Class, Gardening and Badminton) and have the aches, pains and pulled muscles to show for it, I decided it was a REST day today and what better way to rest one's body than to do a bit of crafting especially on WOYWW day.










I wanted to do a Chinese New Year page in my 12 months journal and realised a tag in the pocket I made last time would be the perfect as it spanned January and February which the Chinese New Year tends to do.

(My Basking Shark Eats New Year!!)


Other accomplishments this week have been:-

1) Finishing the Blue & Green felt house from last week's post.

2) My Calendar for February in my 12 months journal.

3) Craft Club (swan card on desk)

4) The Craft Barn's Q&L challenge and Psalm 8.

5) Blue and Green cards for twin boys 12th birthday's.

6) Oh and my garden for February.










Happy WOYWW everyone.