Some Demolition Work!

When we moved in to our present house we inherited a big old wooden greenhouse at the bottom of the garden. We've only ever used it for storage and it was prone to having it's glass panels smashed by falling fruit from a large apple tree which overhangs it. We have now trimmed the tree back so it's not quite so destructive, but over the years it has become more and more decprepit and derelict.

So this year we made the decision to demolish it completely and replace it with a new structure, preferably one we can sit in on a blustery or rainy day and still enjoy the sunshine, which this end of the garden enjoys all day round.

The following video shows the operation to demolish it. Pepsi and Max are popping in and out of the frame all the time and it finishes rather abruptly as we realise that Pepsi has disappeared through a gap we had exposed in the fence (it used to have chicken wire attached to the greenhouse to stop him!), which is when we had to drop everything temporarily and chase him across the field down to the river which backs on to the garden! Didn't do poor Hubby's blood pressure a lot of good either!

My lovely Roses for Mothers's Day

These are the lovely roses I got from Pepsi and Max for Mother's Day, or Mothering Sunday as we call it here in the UK. Hubby had bought them on the boys behalf when he'd done the shopping yesterday, and hidden them in the garage overnight so I wouldn't see them. He had them all arranged in one of my Waterford crystal vases for when I came downstairs this morning. I love the peach colour and globular shape, but sadly they have no scent and probably wont last long, which I find with most supermarket flowers these days. So I've taken loads of photos of them to keep as mementos, including this great close up which really shows off the colour nicely.


I also got got a huge bar of Cadburys fruit and nut milk chocolate, my favourite, and Hubby cooked the most delicious roast pork Sunday lunch, so I've really been spoilt today.

Oh well, back to work and real life tomorrow!

Michael Jackson's This Is It - They Don't Care About Us - Dancing Inmates Video

Here's another great video from the inmates of CEBU Prison in the Phillipines, this time they dance to Michael Jackson's This Is It.



If you enjoyed this and would like to see their other performances check out the byronfgarcia YouTube Channel to see their complete impressive repertoire.

Curry & Specs!

My office manager Pam, was telling us this morning how she went out for a curry with her sister last night. They go to the same Indian restaurant fairly regularly and she always manages to forget to bring her reading glasses with her, so reading the menu is a problem. Now the head waiter has taken to bringing out a tray of spectacles for her to try on until she finds a pair she can read with! These are 'borrowed' from the other waiters, chefs, washers up etc in the kitchens and has become standard procedure when ever they see her coming, now that's what I call service!

Kaleidoscope Kreations the website, gets a spruce up!

I've felt for some time that my Kaleidoscope Kreations website at http://www.charmainezoe.net was in need of something of a spruce up. I keep this website to feature my kaleidoscope and mandala art, of which I now have a number of galleries in which I also include my animated kaleidoscope YouTube videos, as well as a section for featuring my designs on items for sale such as t-shirts, greeting cards, ties, gifts and even shoes.



I've improved the home page by changing the header graphic, tightening up the text and adding more graphics which give it a clean and tidy appearance without looking boring ( I hope!) and expanded to about 30 pages, so lots of content. Still got a few pages to complete next weekend (should have enough time, although I haven't decided whether to go in to Birmingham for the St Patrick's Day Parade & celebrations, guess it will depend on what the weathers like) and then it's finished - for the time being anyway :-)

I'm getting a lot more exposure these days as I get a lot of visitors via Google, as well as Facebook, Twitter, Zazzle, YouTube, Squidoo etc. and my kaleidoscope designs are selling well, I recently got an order for 400 photo cards and another for 100 invitations in the same week! I now have customers in the USA & Canada, Europe and Australia & New Zealand and I'm looking forward to getting my first Brazilian customer as my Zazzle Store just went on line there too.

In the meantime I am still adding new designs and just introduced a lovely line called Ice Crystals, in delicate blues on t-shirts, stickers, magnets etc. This is one of the 6 patterns available

Ice Crystals 3 Mandala Designer T-Shirt by CharmaineZoe
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St Patricks Day fast approaches!

Will you be celebrating St Patricks Day on 17th March? As a true green Dublin born Irishwoman I certainly will! There is a huge St.Patricks Day Celebration and Parade in the City of Birmingham every year, this year on Sunday the 14th,(said to be the 3rd largest in the world after New York & Dublin!) and I'll be going. It's only 15 minutes into the City Centre on the train from here, so won't have to worry about parking - which will be a nightmare.

Pictures & reports for the Birmingham St Patricks Day Parade 2009

I've also been getting ready for the huge demand for St Patrick's Day Souvenirs, T-Shirts, gifts, cards etc by adding a St Patricks Day mini shop to my Zazzle Store. So far I've got 14 great vintage designs, many including both the ancient Irish flag of green and the American Flag. These are available on mugs, magnets, t-shirts, button pins, cards and ties.

The designs are all from old postcards which belonged to my Irish Grandmother, whose brother, as a young lad set sail for America and joined the 7th Cavalry in Texas. He was a horse shoer and when WW1 broke out was an MP at Camp Wadsworth in South Carolina before going over to Europe to fight on the battlefields around Ypres in Belgium, where he was killed, he was only 24.

But while he was in America he sent my Granny a lot of these postcards which I now have and which are no longer copyright due to their age. So I thought it would be nice to adapt them to create souvenirs, gifts & t-shirts etc to celebrate St Patricks Day. Of course they predate the adoption of the green, white and orange tricolour flag, and instead feature the ancient green flag of Ireland which dates back to the 1700's and often has an Irish harp or the words 'Erin Go Bragh' gaelic for 'Ireland Forever' on them and many also feature the American flag.

Proud to be an Irish American 3 by CharmaineZoe
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Proud to be an Irish American 5 by CharmaineZoe
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Been mad busy designing!

A small selection of ties - click on image to enlarge
I've had a lot of fun over the last few evenings creating designs for my tie shop in Zazzle. I've now got a large collection of fractal kaleidoscope art in my library, which I've built up over the years and have been choosing works to use, then trying to decide the best way to utilise them, given that ties are long and narrow. But I think I've put together a very nice selection of patterns and designs for this latest collection. If you can't see the flash gallery below, you can go straight to the Tie Rack dept in my ZAZZLE STORE

I have over 250 ties in my store now with evrything from subtle colours and patterns to totally over the top psychedlic, or pretty chintzy to elegant. So gentlemen if you need a new tie check me out, and ladies if your looking for a present for Hubby or the boyfriend then have a look too.

NEW! Check out my new Tie blog and keep up to date with all my newest designs at Ties by CharmaineZoe!

I recently sold a couple of ties to a gent in Houston, Texas and I just love the idea that someone is walking around on the other side of the world wearing my designs, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling! I always get a thrill when I get an email from Zazzle to say I've had a purchase, not so much because of the commission, which is fairly small, but because someone has liked my design enough to actually buy it - I love that and that's why I keep designing!


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