Sunday, 7 November 2010
circus fandango!
(Insert a violinist and dergy music here!) So the wrist is still torture, and I'm hardly crafting at all, which is a right pain up the bum, actually not the bum, the wrist hahahahahaha!. (Enter circus fandango here!) Right I can't do any crocheting or sewing or anything really that I want to do. Switch tactics. (Enter light bulb above one's head!) Soap making!!!. Yes I thought I can do soap making. It doesn't put any strain on anything. (Enter ebay skippage!) Off to ebay I went and ordered a few supplies, which come to around £13.00 and I'm going to have a go. Yes I am. So I am currently stalking the postman waiting for my goodies. It's not really a pretty sight, as every time he posts something there I am looking back at him through the letter box. I need to do something it's terrible just sitting there picking something on my body. That isn't a very pleasant to look at either, especially when I start analysing what I've picked from my ear/nose/arse LOL!! Seriously though, when I mean bored, the tears have dried up and frozen into icicles. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but I'm trying to paint a picture of how bored I have been.
ANYHOOOOOOOO. Guess what? I started my job last Thursday. It's so weird being in the real world. I am battling with my confidence. I am determined to pull myself out of the rut I have been in for a few years. Some SAHM/D know what exactly I mean here. Well so far I really love it. Obviously at the moment, I am just feeling my feet. I think once I get settled in I will totally love it! My job title is Mid Day Assistant (a dinner lady to help out with the lunches at the local school). It's the perfect job to ease my way back into work. I mean I haven't really had a job for about 11 years. So for me it is a next step of my journey of reclaiming myself. It has not been an easy journey and I am still tripping up along the path, but I have learned to pick myself and dust myself off. 4 years ago I didn't even know my arse from my elbow. I came through that and I am a much stronger person. Anyway less of that more of this.
This week I received the lovely book from Elizabeth Hartman or Oh Frannson! as some of you know her by. She has some really wonnerful work in her book and I really recommend it for those of you who are starting out on your quilting adventure. The book is very well written explaining everything about the parts of a quilt. How to cut and then build the quilt back together, and even tips about how to quilt the sandwich together. Yup on my top 10 books I have bought. And you know the nicest little thing that Elizabeth did, was to send me a little note on the insert of the book. How nice is that? I love those little personal touches, it does make the difference. Thank you Elizabeth x
I have been doing some really light embroidery, I can get about 10 minutes at a time a few times a day. I've been collecting the 'Truly Scrumptious' BOTM (Block of the month) from The Fat Quarters. It's by Natalie Lymer from Cinderberry Stitches. I'm absolutely loving it. I'm not the best embroiderer on the planet, but I can handle back stitch and Natalie's instructions are soooooo simple. I think the toughest is deciding which jelly you want to go with it.
Anyhooo times up, the pain of typing is creeping in..
I hope to be back soon, have a fantastically great week xx
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Hoo Are You #20
Friday, 15 October 2010
Oh My Days Indeed.
Sometimes life is Arseholes!! And then Sonny comes along!!!..
Hello everyone, sorry for the absence. I shall explain my sorry arse. There is exciting news (wooohoooo!!!) and OMGoshly news (boooooo!!!). Let's start with the OMGoshly and work towards the positive, seen as I really do loathe negativity.
Remember the wrist? ( I think I am gonna name my wrist Wally from now on!) So yes you do. Do you remember my love, John the Physio guy?? Well I went to see him last week and predicted I might have carpal tunnel syndrome, which I researched up and its the muscles that your tendons are surrounded by, might have tightened causing the tendonitus.. (you will have to excuse my spelling, I'm really naff at medical terms). So last week he was giving me the once over with the ultra sound machine, this week he gave my carpol muscles a really good massage and some laser treatment. No it wasn't painful, but by the end of the night I couldn't even hold a cup. He still thinks its carpol tunnel and if it hasn't eased any by next week, the next step is accupunture and then off to the osteopath *SIGH*. Do you know what that means!? It means the osteo may possibly want to put my wrist in a contraption and then I will be stuffed.. This week I have been so good resting it. No computer, (holding the mouse hurts) minimal driving (gripping the wheel hurts) and most importantly very minimal crafting, no more that 15 minutes at a time and no more than an hour through the day. It's tortureeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Did I mention it's torture??. If I want this blooming wrist to heal then I really will have to tow the line.. Today I am typing up my blog which means no crafting for me.. See how I sacrifice!!!
So lets get on to some good news.. I have been finishing up some projects this week. Do you ever get that feeling where you start a million projects and put them to oneside to start another?. Naughty yes, I am guilty!. So I finished my quilt that I was doing with the quilt along over at Fat Quarterly.. Have a look, don't laugh and constuctive critisim is always welcome.
A close up of my colours. I have learn from this to plan my colours better, so they stand out nicer.
The finished size. Not very good at displaying I know, but you can get the idea. Again I think if I had planned my colours better the quilt would look nicer.
I also had a go at stippling, which was easier than I thought, but not good for the old wrist and this took me forever to do but I completed.
I am really proud of myself, I have never done a quilt before, never ever. So this has been added to my I can do list. Hopefully each quilt I do I will get better and better.
A sneaky peak at a christmas presant I have finished.
I'm not saying nothing else, just incase they are looking... @( o o )@
Finished the union jack cushions. (oh look at the quilt sneaking in for a quick pic)
This crocheted flower is causing me to have frown lines.. I may need to get some botox. LOL!!! By the time I have done a bit it's time to stop ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! Such is life...
Lastly my lil baby Rosie was all poorly this week. She went for her booster injections which swelled up and left her with a very sore neck. I must say she as been extra pampered this week.
OH OH OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Guess what another bit of good news! I have a job, yes I do!! I applied at the school as a mid day assistant, or dinner lady in the days with simple job titles. So yes I went to the interview, which I must confess, I really didn't want to go, simply for the fear of another rejection, but I went and well, CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS to me!!!... they gave me a call. LOL!! When they called I was munching on crisps, so all Mrs Lewis must have heard was crunch crunch, slurp and a munch. Still, I have to wait for the police checks to come through and medical checks blah blah blah.. Once they are done, I join the working people.
Tomorrow I have my first guitar lesson with Ben. So I'm gonna get off here so I can rest up ready for tomorrow..
Have fun miss you all loads xxx
I'll be back!! (said in a terminatory way)
Monday, 4 October 2010
Shhhh!! Don't tell the Doc...
So he gave me a strap on ...... OH STOP IT!!!!!!! It's a strap on wrist brace. I have to wear it all the time. Oh buggering hell it's annoying lol. Although I take it off to drive (I'm not supposed to grip anything, it's a good job I'm single *snort*) So crafty wise, I've got nothing to show you *SIGHHHHHHHHHH*
But I thought I would share this picture of my 3 favourite people in the whole world. This was when we visited Land's End back in august. It's totally my zone to be there. Knowing if I go any further I would fall right off England (Don't tell the Cornish I said that they will have a fit that I said England and not Cornwall *titter titter*) Yeah it's really a great place to be. I love it there totally! If you haven't been, I would suggest a good pair of walking shoes and a brolly. I could just be there forever, but you know looking out at the sea is not everyone's cuppa tea.
From left to right
Charlie-Poo, Mummy-Poo & Sonny-Poo xxx
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Hoo Are You? #16
Ok onwards we go into the mind picking questions that the lovely Leslie as asked us this week.
Saturday, 25 September 2010
I Made it...
So I started the day off with The Three Degree's Mum, Charlie and Sonny serenading me the happy birthday song with a wonderful ball of flames cake.
So pretty and tasted fabulous. Though no I did resist from having a piece for breakfast.
Some balloon's for the Birthday Girl.
Some flowers for the Birthday Girl. Which has a funny story behind it. I wanted to go out yesterday morning and mum kept saying that she had stuff to do. I was like all huffy, thinking hey it's MY birthday, I want to go out. Anyhoo jokingly I said to her, "oh I know you have surprised me with a strip-a-gram and that's what we are waiting for. With that the doorbell rang and I was skipping to the door singing "HE'S HERE!" When I opened the door a much better surprise was waiting for me. A fabby basket of flowers from mum and a box of Belgium Choc's. Nom.. Nom.. Oh I was really over the moon. I never had flowers delivered to me before. It definitely was the best surprise I had. I really love them.
I had a wonderful array of heart felt cards from my friends and family. (Look there's my car sneaking into the picture)
My Kath Kidston Roberts Radio. A gift I had early cos I nagged my mum to give it to me... (This is why she don't buy me presents early, because I nick them)
Lastly the bestest prezzie of all. Dylan my Guitar. Isn't he just gorgey? I can' t play. I'm waiting for lessons. I have learned to play 2 notes and have really sore fingers at the moment. Playing the Guitar is something I have wanted to learn for moons. So now I can learn. Although I think mum has donned earplugs. You tube is really good, I am surfing around there looking at different way how to play, until I can get to my lessons. I think learning to read the music will be harder for me. Oh well I'll let you know how that goes.
So I really did have a wonderful day, so many thank you's to my friends and family who made it special.
Quilt along time now. I have finally sewed up all my blocks and put them all together. I learned that your seams must be perfect or it knocks the rest of it out of shape. But I wasn't about to undo it. Some of my blocks are on the wonky donkey side, but it's ok I have learned this for next time.
I don't know if you can see or not, that the blocks are slightly off. Thank the honey bee's I picked a really fussy pattern, they are not as noticeable when you stand back to look.
Saying that I can see a lot of wonky ones. I don't think it is too bad on my first try. I am super nervous about next week *nibbles nails*
Oh well enough wiffy waffy waffle from me. I'm off to do a bit of crochet, yes I'm still at mum's blanket. Though I can't wait to finish it. All the little piles of hexagons look really cosy and rich.
Have a fabahhhhh day xx
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Hoo are you #15
Charming, easy going, romantic, diplomatic, idealistic, refined, in love with love, likes pretty things.
The Dark side of my Scales.
Indecisive, resentful, frivolous, changeable, flirtatious, easily influenced, highly susceptible to flattery, restless.
Friday, 17 September 2010
I have gone wrong.......
As you know I joined in the Quilt Along over at fatquarterly. It's week two and I must say so far I am really enjoying making my quilt. Yes indeedy I have gone wrong and fixed my little wrongs. Katy has just made it so easy to follow that even people who have never used a sewing machine could easily follow this. So here is what I have done so far.
My 80 blocks all ready to piece together. The piecing was so easy and really quick.
I really am starting to love the colours on the Moda Freebird jelly roll. These colours are not to my taste usually, but I admit it, they are really growing on me.
Can you see what's wrong here? Yeah I did sew the larger block back to front.
Don't we all make mistakes? Or is it just me who does that? They are unpicked and fixed back on the pile. LOL I never noticed though until I was pressing them. Out of 80 blocks 2 fails. I don't think that is too bad going.
Onto my next project that Mum and I have been fiddling with. I didn't do as many as I liked to simply because my wrist wont allow me to knit for some reason. I am ok with crochet now but knitting still hurts like a mo fo!
OOOOO That's nice wall paper.. Anyhooo here is our little innocent hats, going off to help raise money for our elderly. There are a few more in the envelope, but they were so bright they were screwing with my camera colour. And you know I can only point and snap pictures.
I bought the new UK based magazine Making yesterday and I was really surprised how great it was. It's fairly priced at £4.99 a month but if you subscribe you can get 12 months for half price.
For a crafter like me who likes to dabble in all crafts it's really good. I mean it had all crafts in there. I was really surprised. Sometimes you pick up a craft mag and think, hang on a sec, I've seen all this. But it had how to make soap and how to make pickles in there. Had a bit of fashion revamping.
Things to make for the garden, ooooh all sorts. It was in a really nice thick paper mag rather than a flimsy whimsy pages. But the best thing of all I liked about it, was that I wasn't overwhelmed with every other page full of adverts. Although it does have adverts it wasn't in your face advertising. Yup I think I will be subscribing to this one.. I might even ask for it for a birthday gift. (which is coming soon).
Now for my most exciting find of the week. Drum roll please ......
Irresistible gifts to crochet. Fantastic!! Finally a crochet mag that actually isn't about knitting lol. Mum and I both gave it a thumbs up. It is one of those one off mag's ( you never know the UK might think oh people like to crochet too, let's do a mag.) It was very fairly priced for what was in it. £9.99 and that included postage and packing. Fabulous darling's, just FAB!!
Here are a few of the content pages.
And you never guess what.... Or should I say, you will never guess who I found lurking in the pages.
Well it was my favourite crochet girl Lucy from Attic24.. Yeah it's troooooooo!!! There she was smack bang in the center of an online ad page. I was so excited I nearly peed my pants. I was bouncing all over the place like a loony. The funny thing was I was that excited to see Lucy in the pages I run off to tell her that she had been featured, but in the wrong mag ha ha ha ha. Anyhooo to cut a short story shorter, Lucy emailed me and I replied letting her know that I had not seen her in Making but I had seen her in Iressistable Gifts to Crochet.. I hope that it's still a nice surprise for her.
Well what a yarooooooo week for me.. I have been really busy pottering about with my creativeness bubbling away. That's just how I like it.. I hope it last's forever and ever and ever *bursts into song*
Ok I am off becasue I need to get some laundry done and I want to browse through my new books and have a look for my next project..
Have a fabahhhhhh day x
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Filled with buttercream and raspberry jam.
Well I can't believe myself this week. No I really can't. I have even amazed myself. *swoons* And, yes it's only wednesday. This so far has been pleasantly busy. Not too busy that I'm running round like a headless chicken. Yet not busy enough that I'm sitting pretty staring out the windows at the gorgey guys building a brick wall *grins*
Monday I finished off the birthday cake for my monster - in - law. I was really proud of myself because it's the first birthday cake I have made. Usually I buy them but I thought, I can do this. I have been following Make-a-cake Series over at Make It and Love It. Ashley makes things look so fabulously, fabulous, I just thought ok I am going to do it. So I did. And I made a few thousand mistakes, yet I learned from each one.
Lesson Number One Learned.
Do not drop the cake tin with the cakes still in it. It squashes them.
Lesson Number Two Learned
Once your cakes are starting to cool, it's not wise to drop the tin with another batch on them it also squishes them.
Lesson Number Three Learned
Be Creative.. I was having so much fun with this honestly. The mini cupcakes look really horrid colours but they were pink and blue. I think it's the light because the flowers have come out all pretty..
I learned a multitude of lessons, doing this cake. Above all I learned how patient I can really be. A useful lesson I learned is if your fondant is really tough. Let your mum sit on it to soften it up.. It really worked lol. My fondant was as hard as nails. I had read somewhere to pop it in the microwave, but I was not that brave. So I gave mum the packet and said sit on this!! ha ha ha ha ha!! She did and it was really pliable.. I should have kneaded it a little more beause it cracked a little when I draped it. (See pic below)
See just on the top edges, the fondant?
Well I don't think I did a bad job on the cake. It was a triple layer cake. Filled with buttercream and raspberry jam. I'm still waiting for a piece.. I don't think we will get one. My MIL said it was absolutely delish, but then she is bias lol..
Yesterday I started piecing my pieces together for the quilt along. So far I have 80 strips of fabric waiting for the iron and then I can piece the edges on which will complete the block.. I will post the finished blocks and all the quilters can faint and recoil in horror ha ha ha ha..
Happy days.. I LOVE creative days x
Have a great one xx
Saturday, 11 September 2010
See I knew you did
Wanna see what I have been upto? No? Really? Are you sure? See I knew you did.
Do these look delish or what? Holy handbags they were indeed delish, topped with creamy yoghurt. Definately refreshing and look what I found...
Awwww how cute is that. Mummy and baby strawberry. No I didn't eat the baby, just before you ask, but I certainly ate the mummy. *NOSH NOSH*
Do you like these? I do I love them dearly. I am making a granny for mummypoo. She wanted all bright colours on a background of black. Let me tell you. Black is beastly to crochet with. I can hardly see my stitches LOL!! I brought a daylight lamp to help me along. My eyes are getting old lol.
This is my favourite combination. I don't know if you can see or not? I like the way the blue digs out the flower shape. I got the African Flower Hexagon pattern from Heidi Bears Creative Blog. She is worth a visit. Her blog is fun and she has lots of tutorials on there, which are easy to follow if you are a newbie hooker like me.
I am also working on this for mummypoo. She wanted this is candy colours which is what I am trying to achieve. I really love it, I can work on this at night as it's lovely and light to hook. And somehow it's rather cheery when I hook. I got the Ripple Pattern from Lucy over at Attic 24. She is also a great read, her blog is always delightful and her designs are so simple that anyone can achieve.
And finally.
Yes I must learn how to take nicer pictures. These are the colours that I will be using on my next project, which is actually FOR MEEEEE, ME, ME.
I am baking a cake tomorrow for my monster in law's birthday on tuesday. I will let you know how that goes, yes with pictures.. What are you up to the weekend? Anything fabulous?
So that's me done for now. I hope you have a fabulous Saturday. x
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Quilt Along Cutting
The reason I decided to do this was, I had, had a go at doing at making a quilt before but failed miserably. I have seen so many wonderful quilts,I just wanted to make one. So this gives me the opportunity to learn a new skill and also makes some friends?
So I picked out my Jelly Roll which was a Moda Freebird. And cut it into about 4000 pieces to make my squares and rectangles. ( I hope I have cut them all properly lol.) Next week is the piecing, I am so nervous, because this is where I could go drastically wrong and it all become really doomed. So anyhooo I'm ready for my next week.
You can join in to if you would like to make yourself a little quilt. Just pop over to Fat Quarterly and join on in. I hope to see you there x