When I Grow Up
est. 2004
A Creative kind of Life. A blog by Helen Hobden
I still haven’t worked out what to do when I grow up! I’m mainly a writer, an artist, and a fairytale dressmaker with various crafty hobbies! Here (and on YouTube) I share bits of my life, thoughts, and what I’m learning along the way. Let’s find magic and inspiration; join me for this creative living adventure!

 

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Musings and ramblings

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Monthly Memoir – August
August 31, 2016
The very sad truth of the matter is that if I am writing this at the end of August, that pretty much means that summer is over. The leaves on the willow are mostly yellow already and flowers are sparse in our garden. It’s been a lovely summer, but a very busy one so I’m making a note to be more prepared next year. It began at the beginning of June with frantic sewing of bottle bags for Glastonbury Festival; then I just had a week to get ready for the three week American road trip; then I had two weeks to fulfil two custom orders for Oshun and get ready for my stall at the New Forest Fairy Festival; then I had two days to catch up on housework before my parents came for a a few days; then I had four days to make a mermaid wedding dress ready for a photo shoot in Cornwall. Which brings me up to two days ago! I’ve still got a couple of Khaleesi costume orders to make, but once those are done I can calm down a little. Oh and then it’s my daughter’s eighteenth birthday party. I’m hoping I get one or two days to relax before Christmas! ….
Monthly Memoir – July
July 31, 2016
The whole of July was pretty much about our holiday in America. The few days before we left were spent frantically researching where we were going, and the few days after were spent unpacking, washing, and trying to get over jet-lag. We had three weeks away and began in New York, getting the AmTrack train down to Washington DC, picking up a hire car and driving to New Orleans via Nashville and Memphis, and then following the coast East to Orlando to spend the last couple of days in Disney’s Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios. Wow! I’m exhausted just remembering it! We covered ten states of America (New York, New Jersey, District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida.) Phew! ….
Monthly Memoir – June
July 1, 2016
What a tricky month June has been in the world of politics. I think it is a real shame we left the EU, but just as I thought we might be ok, Michael Gove puts himself forward for the leadership. I think I would have to leave the country if that happens! Anyway, for me it’s been my busiest month of the year, as I was making cup carriers and bottle bags to be sold at Water Aid stands at Glastonbury Festival. I’m not entirely sure how my sewing machine coped, but in the end I delivered two hundred and seventy-five altogether….
Monthly Memoir – May
June 1, 2016
Family photo These monthly memoirs slightly scare me because they really bring home how fast the months are flying by. May began with another trip to Kent to see family; some of whom I haven’t seen in far too long. This time the occasion was my sister’s 40th birthday party – even though it was really in January. She decided to be like the queen and have a ‘summer birthday’ as well. Actually, when we were little, my sister and I used to have a joint summer birthday when my uncle, aunt and cousins and grandparents would come over and we’d have a big roast dinner if the weather wasn’t good, or eat a picnic in the garden. We’d even get small presents, usually something to play outside with. Until I was about eleven years old I thought this was perfectly normal and everyone got a summer birthday as well as a real birthday! Jane made some tasty quiches and my Mum made delicious deserts. The weather was beautiful – positively hot even – and overall it was an absolutely lovely day…..
Monthly Memoir – March
March 31, 2016
So the month kicked off with the Oscars. (Ok, strictly speaking that was February, but I’d already written February’s memoir by the time we watched them on the evening of the 29th. Despite our best efforts to avoid spoilers during the day, we were all unable to avoid the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio had won best actor. This is great news as we’re with the popular opinion that it was about time! It was difficult to judge the winning choices without having seen ninety-five percent of the films, but I still find the event enjoyable to watch. The fact that all the creative people in the film industry are being celebrated, I find really inspiring and convinces me that my next writing project should be a screenplay!….
In defence of Pixie Lott and freedom of expression
January 21, 2015
I’m a bit nervous about this one, so excuse me while a get a little political: Je suis Charlie. Everyone at the moment is defending freedom of speech – we are allowed to say what we want whether or not it offends people. The point is, we have the right to do so. So what about freedom of expression in other ways? The freedom to wear what we want for example? Glastonbury Festival has decided this year to ban the selling of native American style headdresses and costume while 2 days ago Pixie Lott received negative media attention and a flurry of criticism on Twitter for dressing up as TigerLily from Peter Pan and a similar thing happened to Ellie Goulding at Halloween. Surely the context in these situations is relevant? Festivals, fancy dress birthday parties and Halloween are occasions where it is quite commonplace to dress up. (I personally tend to find more excuses than that.) ….
new year fireworks
Happy New Year!
January 5, 2013
Just a quick note to wish you all a very wonderful 2013. I’m busy planning the year ahead…first I’m continuing the renovating push we started in the month before Christmas. I have a little more to do in the living room before I’m going to do our bedroom; so there’ll be more to come in my renovating blog at last. I’m also planning on getting Be In The Place available for the kindle and I’m hoping the inspiration muse will descend (otherwise known as ‘Flipping heck Helen, this book has been almost finished for 8 years or something, isn’t it about time you actually flipping finished it?’ self-talking to) and I’ll actually finish the last ever ever ever edit of my second book. For Oshun – www.oshun.co.uk or www.OshunCreations.etsy.com my plans for the year are to finish my new main website – I’m currently re-listing every item and after a new design, will hopefully be ready by summer. In the mean time I’ll be busy making floaty maxi dresses and handy bottle bags in time for Glastonbury festival; and wedding dresses – upcycled and re-made fairy-style and also starting something completely new – a small selection of made-to-order, made-to-measure steampunk and historically inspired gowns. My other Etsy shop, www.WickedFaerieGifts.etsy.com will carry on as usual, though my enjoyment of making book covers, along with my new Christmas present – a spellbinders grand calibur die cutting machine – means I’m going to make large wedding guestbooks with every page embellished, decorated and distressed with lots of interesting places for guests to sign and leave messages. Fun stuff. I think that’s enough to be getting on with for now.
new year fireworks
Happy New Year!
January 1, 2012
Happy 2012 everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful year 🙂 2011 was mainly focussed on my two Etsy shops, which was fairly successful, and I’ll be continuing with sewing and pyrographing this year. However, if you’ve been wondering what’s been happening with our renovation, well, not much at all. The only thing we did last year was Rain’s room, which I haven’t been able to take photos of yet because she got it in a mess so quickly. This year though, I’m going to get on with it again and try and get some rooms in this house actually finished. I’ll keep you posted.
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