In Edinburgh every year on April 30^th, the Beltane Society host the Beltane Fire Festival on Carlton Hill, an amazing spectacle in every way……fire (obviously), dancing, ritual, procession, and drums….oh my, the drums…the sound goes to your very soul!

I haven’t been to Beltane in over 20 years or so, being out of the country or raising small children with no sitter.  So last night I went with friends, full of anticipation and although it was a wonderful evening it was rather marred by the amount of drunken louts who were only there because it was a cheap night out and they had nothing better to do.  They had absolutely no idea what the ceremony was about and didn’t take the time to find out.  I even heard one person say ‘oh, it’s not serious, it’s just a laugh’.  As my friend very rightly pointed out, would you say that if I were to go drunk into your church during a service and act the fool?  There were some very disrespectful people there.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against people having a good time – after all, Beltane is a time of celebration.  However, there were plenty of people there who were having a wonderful time, without being disrespectful or arrogant.

So back to Beltane….the night started with the lighting of the fires on the top of the acropolis and the arrival of the May Queen.

We stood at the fire gate behind the acropolis and we had a fantastic view, much better than had we stood at the front, as the crowds were so thick there we would have been hard pressed to see anything.  The May Queen, Green Man and the elementals then proceeded down through the fire gate and past the fire elementals.  Kudos to the fire elementals especially, it was a cold night to be prancing around mostly naked.

This is where we got confused….we headed down to the handfasting tent to watch the ‘marriage’ of the May Queen and Green Man, however instead of coming up to the tent, they bypassed it and headed down the hill and up to the entrance of Carlton Hill where the procession split into two with the May Queen going one way and the Green Man another.

The crowds were so thick by this time, we missed the lighting of the bonfires and the other ceremonies, but we did have a cracking view of the fires lit at the top of the hill.  However, we figured they had to come back up anyway so we stayed put and had a fantastic view of the closing ceremony.  What we could see of it anyway…the stewards and torch-bearers lined the walkway and it was very difficult to get photos of this, although we did manage to peek over their shoulders to catch glimpses of it.  Being tall definitely has it’s advantages at this point – unfortunately I’m only 5’2.

It would’ve been nice to see more respect, less fish and chip and burger vans and more handcrafts and traditional foods, but all in all, it was a fabulous night and one I’m glad I managed to get to this year.

I’ve added a couple of photo’s I managed to get, plus some wonderful ones my daughter’s friend Chishu took, but if anyone has more they’d like me to add, I’d love to see them.

after I ‘broke’ my last website..but no!

I’ve been swithering since before Christmas to revamp the site.  I wanted to separate the Wedding stuff from the general cards and invitations and streamline the site a bit – it was getting a bit crowded and a few people had said it was confusing and hard to find what they were looking for.  So, with the help of Carol (once again), I did a bit of moving, a bit of copying and pasting and a bit of mashing buttons until they did what I wanted them to and et voila!..our new and improved websites.

I’ve added a couple of fun things to them too – my ‘follow me’ twitter logo and my twitter stream…not that I say anything earth shattering you understand, but nice to know they’re there.

All in all, I’m really happy with the site now – it’s clean and easy to navigate and gave me a reason to ignore the housework for a while!

St Valentine was a bishop who held secret marriage ceremonies for soldiers, in opposition to Claudius II who had prohibited marriage for young men, believing that married men did not make good soldiers and that marriage made them weak.

St Valentine was caught and imprisoned.  He refused to agree with the Emperor regarding the ban on marriage and refused to recognise the Roman gods (he even tried to convert the Emperor to Christianity, fully aware of the consequences).  This angered the Emperor who gave orders for Valentine to be executed.

In the meantime, Valentine had formed a friendship with the daughter of one of his jailers and just before his execution he wrote a farewell message to her … signing it ‘From your Valentine’ – a phrase still used today in modern Valentines.

It was, however, only during the 14^th Century that St Valentine’s Day became associated with love.  The author Chaucer is credited with being the first to link the day with romance in his ‘The Parliament of Fowls’ , written about the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia.

The holiday evolved over the centuries and by the 18^th Century, sending gifts and handmade cards made of lace, ribbons and featuring cupids and hearts on Valentine’s day had become common in England.  This tradition eventually spread to America, however it was not until the 1840’s that Valentine’s day cards were commercially produced in the USA.  The first American Valentine’s day card was created by Esther Howland of Massachusetts, now known as the Mother of the Valentine.  She made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colourful pictures known as scrap.

Today, Valentine’s Day is one of the major holidays and has become a booming commercial success.

According to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all cards sent each year are Valentines and the tradition is celebrated all over the world.

Firstly, my boiler went kaput!  We have no heating and no hot water – it really makes you grateful for things you take for granted.  Just waiting for some quotes to come back (hopefully a lot less than British Gas quoted us) and then we’ll be in business.

Then we got some very exciting news.  A wonderful commission from Volvo.  They were looking for some special party invitations and had some very specific ideas about what they wanted.  After lots of discussion and tweaking of our original ideas, we came up with a fabulous design, and one both CorriganCards and Volvo were very happy with.

Click on the pics for more detail

So, now that Kat’s officially moved out, CorriganCards moved into her old bedroom.  Because she was away so often over the past few years, she was given the small bedroom which I’d earmarked years ago for my workroom once she moved on.  On Sunday afternoon, my husband and I cleared the room, hauled away the old carpet and gave it a lick of paint.  This morning I laid vinyl tiles on the floor and heaved all my stuff upstairs.  You don’t actually realise how much stuff you accumulate until you have to move it all.  I have to say, I’m really pleased with the results, although I now hurt in muscles I didn’t know I had….

Before

After

I did manage to do some work this week though – I’ve been working on some handbag cards. I haven’t done any of these for a while and I had forgotten how lovely they turn out. No two are alike and most of the time I make these to commission and are made specifically for the recipient, but these ones I made just because. One is made using a gorgeous yellow paper with deco roses and the other with Kozo paper, my favourite paper medium at the moment.

These cards comprise of a little bi-fold card to write your message on, a handbag-shaped envelope to put your card and a paper gift (money or vouchers) in and a matching box.  They’re something just a little different and special.  To see more of the handbag cards I’ve made in the past, click here.

Click on the images below to see more detail.

See Shop/Children & Babies to order.

From time to time you come across people who change your life, who do you a great service or who just make you smile for a day…and then there are the people you come across who you know you were meant to meet.

My friend Andrea is one of the latter – we have so much in common it spooks all of our friends to the point where they call us The Twins.  Even though we live miles away from each other and don’t get to see each other from one end of the year to the next, we talk most days – usually via email or private message.  We’re roughly the same age, we have two children – a girl then a boy – with the same age gap between them, our second husbands are both 16 years younger than us and share the same first name, we have similar tastes in music, books and film, although we disagree on one thing …. I love True Blood, she prefers Twilight, but hey, I can forgive her that!  If one of us is ill you can guarantee the other will be too.  I can talk to her about everything and anything and know that I won’t be misunderstood and that feelings won’t be hurt on either side and I can count on her no matter what…this is a true friend.

My friend Carol, I met through the craft circuit.  She is truly an amazingly talented woman who has successfully attempted many different crafts – I can’t keep up with her.  She started photography a while back and her images are just amazing.  She also introduced me to Encaustic Art – something I had never heard of before.  The paintings she has come up with are beautiful.  Have a look at her site and see if you don’t agree with me.  www.hotwaxart.co.uk.

She also is the most patient person I have met.  She has painstakingly dragged me (kicking and screaming at times) through building my website and never turns me away when I do something stupid to the site and need her help to repair the blunder…although I’m sure she sits at her screen rolling her eyes and shaking her head at my idiocy at times.

Two years ago I met a wonderful couple – Derek and Valerie.  Valerie and I clicked right away and the more I get to know her, the more I realise we have in common.  She is truly one of life’s wonderful people, thoughtful, kind, considerate and tolerant of people (unless of course they are fools…but who tolerates fools?)  A while ago I admired a bracelet she was wearing…I had never seen one like it before.  Not being a very girly type, I don’t tend to notice things like that unless they are unusual.  Valerie makes the most wonderful jewellery and wedding favours and fripperies – check out her site www.scotsglassgems.co.uk.

Today, she and I were at the Balerno Craft Fair and I was having a really bad morning – Murphy’s Law had struck firmly on my head.  I was running late, had forgotten my cash float, I had left my card stand and banner at home and to top things off, as I was getting my cart to the hall it stuck and pulled out of my hand taking my fingernail with it.  I really just wanted to turn around and go back home to bed.

Out of the blue Valerie asked me what my star and Chinese zodiac signs were.  Without thinking too much about it I replied Aries and Dragon.  Two minutes later she handed me a little silver bag and inside was a similar bracelet to the one I had admired on her all those months before.  I was completely taken aback – what a wonderful surprise and such a lovely gift, given without reason except she could.

I think sometimes we get caught up in the idea of buying the perfect present for Christmas, birthdays etc that we forget that sometimes the best gifts are given for no reason except we can.

I also think we sometimes forget how lucky we are when special people come into our lives.  We take it for granted that our friends will always be there.  I have learned over the years that friends sometimes need to hear that they are special to us and to be thanked for being friends, that they are appreciated and that we are lucky to have them in our lives.

The hen cards are in the shape of corsets and come in any colour you want…the example shows purple, black and silver.

Our Stag invitations come in the shape of top hats and the example shown uses a black ribbon, however, we can use any colour ribbon you desire.  A pack of ten invitations costs £15 and includes envelopes and personalised inserts.

Click on the image for more details

For more details, or to purchase this card, click here or go to Shop/General Cards