The Story Teller

 I have always loved both listening to and telling stories. Many of my friends know this and last year I was asked to be a Story Teller at a Family Day at a school.
I loved this so much. Later I was approached by one of the parents to do the same at an event she was organising, and so it grew.

Earlier this year I was asked if I would be available Halloween weekend, talk about being organised, to provide "spooky" age appropriate stories at a Halloween celebration held by a campsite owner in The Dales.

FINALLY IT DAWNED ON ME.....THIS SHOULD BE ON MY WEBSITE!!!! Bit slow on the uptake, but I tell a good story.

So the pictures below show our photo shoot in a damp, cold, snowy Yorkshire Dales woodland for pics for the website page. Hope you like them.

The cloak I am wearing to help keep out the cold is my special Story Tellers Cloak made by my own fair hands. My staff was made for me by Steve (The Ent) and has a carved bear's head topping it and my lovely drum is my working drum I use for sound Healing and lots of other stuff.

Cake, cake, luverly cake.

Ever since I was a little girl I have loved to bake. With my Mum, Gran, elder sister Gaynor, whoever. Any excuse.

When my boys came along I taught them the delights of baking at an early age. Oooooh yummy mess! Lovely! Steve, my beloved, is quoted as stating. "Well, I've never met a cake that I didn't like!" That says it all.

Over the years I have made celebration cakes for every birthday in the family, Yule, Leaving partys, Returning Parties. You name it I've done it. Friends and neighbours saw my cakes and asked for one for "Our thingy's 18th", christenings even weddings, including Matt and Jenny's ( My youngest son and daughter-in-law).

I realised that I very rarely took photos of these cakes, silly me. That was until I got my little digital camera. So I have pulled together the few pics I have and here they are.

This is Jabba The Hutt reclining on his stone slab throne.

This was made for the 30th birthday of a friend of my sons who is a great     Star Wars fan.

It was made as a surprise and his face was a picture when he saw it. The only problem being that he didn't want to cut it up.

This is Iggle Piggle in his boat sailing off to The Night Garden.

I made it for the 1st birthday of Ashton,

my 'adopted' niece's little boy, just over a year ago.

My son Matt and his bride Jenny wanted a chocolate cake

covered in chocolate and flowers that echoed the wedding colours..

Purple for the women and red for the men's waistcoats, cravats etc.

It was just over 3ft high, and a monster to transport to the reception.

This Pig Family cake was because I was bored and

had some flesh coloured moulding icing left over after

making lots of rounded pink bottoms for a

21 Bum Salute cake for someones retirement.

So this was for sunday tea from the leftovers.

You've guessed it! Thomas the Tank Engine for Ashton's 2nd birthday last weekend.

Two yellow candles take the place of the two whistles on Thomas.

I also made 3 dozen cupcakes iced in Thomas Blue and piped with bright yellow 2s.

That way Sarah (Ashton's mummy) didn't have to cut up Thomas at the party venue and people leaving early still got  cake.

Baking is one way I relax.

I always say "Cooking is an Art, but Baking is a Science."

One slip up in measuring or ingredients and the whole thing fails.

So I don't know why I find it so relaxing.Any ideas on that?  

If anyone out there has photos of other cakes I have made please send them to me. I can post them here then. 

My name is Izzy and I'm a lazy blogger.

Lots of apologies. I haven't got into this blogging stuff properly yet. But my September resolution(??)  is to get on top of this. So here goes.

Steve (my beloved) and I were at a mind body and spirit fair in Whitby just over a week ago. Great fun. It was a little quiet but it was a new fair, so whatever. It needs time to grow. We met some lovely people. One lady made organic chocolate full of fresh fruits and spices. Another has seven (I think) bee hives in her garden and sells honey and hand made beauty products made from the honey and bees wax etc. Another had handmade rag doll and cute little people on keyrings and more. Fab stuff!

Well we had quite a few new items on our stall, all made by our own sweet selves, Gaia & The Ent. Steve had made lots of new walking sticks, staffs and wands. All from local wood, sympathetically gathered and worked. These are very powerful and full of wonderful Earth energies.

I  knitted a new type bracelet in various hand dyed wools.  You can twist it around your wrist as many times as you want and it fastens with a button. I have called them Wrist Wraps. As with anything I make I infuse them with my healing/magick energy so you can tune into it whenever you need a little help. I am going to put them in our Gaia & The Ent Shop (at £3.50) on my website http://www.izzy-shaw-healer.com/.

Also I made some greeting cards using images from my own original art work. These went really well.The are blank inside to add your own greeting, but some (mostly the 'Lol & Lucy' range) have words on the front too.

                                               These are 'The Elementals'.

                                                                                AIR

                                                                               FIRE

                                                                       WATER 

                                                                          EARTH


I intend putting them on tote bags and maybe T Shirts, but for now the cards will be in the Gaia & The Ent shop at £2.50 each.

The 'Lol & Lucy' range are Lovey and Anniversary cards

This picture was one I originally created for our 25th wedding anniversary party invitations, just without the

'Happy Anniversary bit, and yes 'Lol' is based on Steve.

I have finally released a group of images that I drew when I was in a 'dark place' and couldn't talk about how I felt. These pictures were my only way of communicating my hurt.

I have called them 'LOST'.

                                                                  'Bad World'

                                                                  'Cracking Up'

'Silent Scream'

Many people on seeing the whole range of these pictures tell me that they can relate to certain ones in their lives. Some bought particular cards to take and show to family, partners, friends to help them understand just what they could not explain easily. I found it a little sad, but also felt glad that my images could help others too.

The whole of this set,10 in all, will be on my website shop tomorrow. Plus on Folksy under the shop name of Gaiatree and Etsy, shop name Gaia And The Ent.

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Well I'll Go To The Foot of Our Stairs!!!!

I've gotta Blo-og, I've gotta Blo-og!

Slowly I'm sliding sidewise into modern tecnology.  I daren't face it head-on it would be too scarey for and old witch like me, so I'm sorta sneaking up on it. And its FAB!!!