Wooly Brained

I've some crochet to show today. I have absolutely bombed through the Granny Stripe blanket and have only 6 more coloured stripes to do, and then its just blocking (will have to read up on that, I think its just washing and pulling into shape?) and the border to do.

But I just couldn't resist having a start at my next project - a hexagon blanket pattern here Its great fun to start something new and a nice easy pattern too, although I must admit to being a bit apprehensive about all the joining I am going to have to do, last time I tried that it looked a holey mess!

Here are my lovely hexagons lying on top of the almost complete granny stripe, pretty!

And finally my rolled up Granny, wish I could take better photos!

Back to Routine

God I love Christmas I really do, I love socialising and seeing family and friends, I love our annual Boxing Day afternoon in the pub, seeing all our mates and going back to someones for food. I love Christmas food, all those little snacky things and dips and everything. But I am so ready for some routine today, no visiting, no snacky foods, proper routine and proper food again.
Today is the first time I have done something crafty in days and the first time I have scrapbooked in about 2 weeks, let me tell you that itch needed scratching!!! From about the 27th I started to get the urge and yesterday I was almost squirming in my chair to get my paper and scissors going!

You would think wouldn't you that after all that I would knock out a page naturally, no such luck it seems my mojo is still firmly living it up in full party mode at someone elses house!! All my new crafty things to play with and nothing doing! But I am not to be beat and so I finally made a page that I am happy with (All about the knitted going ons at our woods - see post below!) Unfortunaltey my camera does not like this page and I could not get a decent photo but here it is in all its not true to life glory.!

Loads of misting and painting going on, love the messy look to it!! I got so much new paper for crimbo and was dying to get stuck in but that wasn't working for me this time, so paints and mists it was!

If you go down to the woods today

You're sure for a big surprise!



Our local woodlands have been yarnbombed



Little piggie boots!




A snail on our big old fossil




Stars in the trees

My favourite bit of all - the Nativity Scene, very impressed that this is still all here!

There was many more that I could not take photos of as my memory card was full, but the gate leading out of the woods had a lovely knitted jacket on that had a tag with a website address http://www.socialknitworking.co.uk/winterwonderland which explains all about it.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve late afternoon walk trying to find all the items on the trail.

Merry Christmas

Poor Bruno, he's obviously dog tired after all the shopping and wrapping he has had to do recently. Father Christmas had to work around him!




Have a Happy Day everyone!

Gingerbread House

Yay its Christmas Eve - I think I love Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day, I love the magical feel to it, tracking Santa, visiting people locally, the hustle and bustle all about, hanging up stockings and leaving out treats for Santa.



I love Christmas Eve tea, party food, ham, dips and a nice port and lemon (although I have been partaking of these most of this week!)

I still get excited and can't sleep, its not about what I am getting its about the kids and their excitment and also its about seeing family and the lovely get together we always have on Christmas Day.





Yesterday Jessica and I (Joe was not interestered) made a gingerbread house from a kit, something that we've not done before. OMG that thing was tricky, like trying to make a house of cards, the blumming thing fell down so many times I was really getting my hair off with it! Eventually I managed to constuct the blummin thing and handed it over to Jess for the decorating, she spent about 30 mins on it and is very proud of her house.

I want to say MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my readers and followers and thank you for all the comments you leave (I love to read comments!), hope you have all got where you need to be, are in good health and enjoy this festive season.

P.S There is something strange going on in my local woodlands, but more on that next time.

Learning to Crochet

Ughhh the weather is not nice at the moment, cold and rainy. I took the dog out for a walk at 8.15am this morning and it was so dark outside, it was really eerie and wierd feeling.



I scrapped again today, using Decembers Scrapagogo kit, its not coming naturally to me at the moment, but I have to get back into it so I forced myself to sit in my cold kitchen (its not cold but it is the coldest room in the house) and just get on with it





And here we have it! Jessica has been eager to learn how to crochet and she aint half bad, its very sweet watching her concentrate. And now I am off to do some more on my blanket it is currently 30 colours or 60 rows long, its really coming along!

Va Va Voom

So the party season is upon is and in full swing, My Christmas meal is on Saturday, the pub lot are all going out for a meal and a band and although organising it has literally been hell on earth (there have been tears) I am now really looking forward to it! After all the crap I have been through with this night out, it had better be good!

I bought myself a glam top a few weeks ago but eeeek it is a little on the tight side, so today Jason took me to town so I could have a look for a dress. Dresses are hard things to buy don't you find? I need it bigger up top and smaller down bottom, however I have got my dress and its v glam and sexy and mega flattering, makes me look slim and everything so I am well pleased. Here it is on the moody model (I will try to smile) Its also golder on top IRL not silver like it is in this pic (would have prefered it to be silvery I think)



Scrapping wise I have not done much as I am still using most spare moments crocheting my granny stripe, however my lovely Scrapagogo kit arrived on Monday and so I spent a quick 90mins whipping up this, its not photographed in the best light but hey ho!

A Blankety Taaaadaaaa and a new beginning

Morning everyone - hope your weekends were fabby?

I actually finished my ripple on Friday afternoon, after a couple of weeks of fairly intensive daily crocheting. Jessica LOVES it and is very pleased with it.

Here are some stats:

I used about 7 1/2 balls of wool so around 750g

There are 42 Coloured stripes or 84 rows of crochet

Each coloured strip took between 1.5-2 hours to complete

I've been in such a rush to get this finished for 2 reasons, I really wanted Jess to have it for Christmas and whilst it was still cold weather - the rate I was going it was going to be spring before it was done!

And most importantly I was DYING to get started on a granny stripe blanket, so first thing Saturday morning I was down the wool shop (and the pound shop, which are excellant for cheap acrylic wool) for lots of different coloured wool and I have spent pretty much ALL of the weekend granny striping away using this fabby pattern Attic 24 Granny Stripe

Its a fantastic rhythmic pattern, once you are past the first couple of rows you are away and you really can happily hook whilst watching the telly and just let it flow



I do struggle with the randomness of the colours, I like co-ordinating shades or colours that repeat often so going all random is hard for me, but the bigger it gets the easier and the better it looks!

This lovely blanket crochets up so quickly its around an hour for each coloured stripe, so its really easy to say 'just one more'

The dark purple row is bothering me, but I think once I repeat it once or twice it will look like it belongs more and will hopefully 'pop' out in a good way - we will see.

We wish you a merry christmas

Isn't this christmas tree cut file the cutest? Fiddly as anything though! My Craft Robo is still after almost 2 years on its first blade and so with the intricate details on this it struggled a bit, which meant I have spent far to long this morning brandishing a craft knift to cut out bits here and there!

I'm off out tonight for a drink with Mandy, not been out midweek for ages so it will be a nice break for me. It does mean that I have to stop fart arsing about with Christmas cards and get my 2 rows of crochet done because I won't get it done tonight unless I take it to the pub with me and I think that may earn me some funny looks!

I love Noel

The word that is!



For some reason I always choose Noel as the greeting on my cards, its just so much easier than a long greeting to fit on the card.





I knocked these up today, I am definately going to stick to a more graphic style of card, its just much more 'me' and I am really pleased with these. They took a while to construct mainly because I've had a couple of arguments with electrical items this week and have ripped my thumb nails off in the process so getting the back off the foam pads was a Loooonng job!

ETA: I just showed them to Jason and he looked at them and said "Who's Noel?" and then "are these for the people you don't like" to which I replied "yeah thats why you're getting all four of them!"

I do sometimes sweat the small stuff

I so wish I was paying more attention when I answered the door to the postie this morning.

I was handed a clear plastic sack. Now both Jason and I are expecting parcels, multiple ones in my case (I do so love online crimbo shopping).

I opened the sack to find a puzzle maze ball I had bought Jessica for christmas, this puzzle ball had obviously not minded the recent freezing weather and had decided to go for a swim enroute. Both the outer delivery packaging and the inner product packaging were completley descimated, I honesly don't know how the postie had the nerve to deliver it really (I know its not his fault but it no way left the warehouse in this state!)



So I contact Play.com and am told I can return it "how?" says I, there is NO packaging to speak of, so I am asked if I can jiffy bag it - no too big, can I put it in a box - no I don't have a suitably sized one.

And so it goes on until I tell her quite plainly that I am not prepared to trek into town, buy packaging and go to the post office to return something that I bought at my convienence to be delivered to my house - this prompted her to tell me I could pop it in a post box (FFS you MORON I have already told you it is a largish item, it aint gonna fix in a post box!)

Anyway I now have a return courier arranged, see they CAN do this for you, they just don't want to untill you completely stonewall all their other 'helpful' suggestions. Then I am told that once its returned they will send me another. OH NO you will send me another one NOW thank you very much. Luckily she agreed to this (as I am a valued customer I can do this for you this once) I very nearly lost it at this stage as they are NOT doing me a favour, they are solving a problem that is THEIR responsibility, and when I get told things like that my blood boils, what should I do kiss their bloody feet?

This rant was bought to you by the letter ARGHHhhhhhhhhh, I know I haven't ranted in a while and I know some of you enjoy them ;)

A thing of beauty

We have an ipad in the house, Jason has wanted a 2nd laptopy type thing in the house for a while as I really dominate this one (it is mine!) and so yesterday he bought an ipad. We were all stupidly excited by this despite me having an iphone so we do know what it will be like.



Today Jason has left it at home and I have it in my craft space and I am watching telly on it (like I do my iphone) it really is lush!

Craft wise I have done this lo, which is missing something

And this quick card for a party Joe is going to this evening. Joe is mighty lucky to be going out this evening as he is in my bad books right now. Yesterday I had to take Jessica to the dentist and Joe said he would rather stay home so off we went. I came back to find Joe completley monged out to the xbox with the tv in the living room on and about as loud as it could be and no one about. Also in the living room was a box of chocolates which the dog had eaten because Joe had left the stair gate open and so the dog had got into the kitchen and managed to drag the chocolates out of another box. I then had to spend about half an hour in the garden in the FREEZING cold which we had only just got in from (and I was gagging for a cuppa) trying to get soda crystals (they make a dog vomit) into a dog that did not want to swallow soda crystals thank you very much, there were a lot of tears and despite me trying repeatedly to prise open the dogs jaws he did not bite me once. The dog resolutely REFUSED to vomit but has been absolutely fine since apart from being a bit wary of me now.

To say I was cross with Joe would have been an understatement I was so furious that I had to send him upstairs whilst I calmed down. His punishment was to tidy his sisters room (seeing as Jessica spent half an hour with me trying to make the dog to vomit I thought she should get something out of it) and no Xbox until the 10th of December.

Now I have to go and crochet, I am desperatly trying to finish my blanket for Jessica for christmas, I have worked out if I can do 2 rows a day it should be long enough, so I am off for a cosy little knit to try and get todays quota done!

Bohemia

Have you taken a look at The Scrapbook Magazine lately? If not its definalty worth another look, they have a new editor and a new look, and its so much better than before, clean white pages, better photography and lots of new regular features and techniques, and lots more talented designers, and a page full of really great sketches. I've really enjoyed the last two issues.

I am in the new issue out in shops now, page 24 if you're interested. They asked me to do 2 layouts on a Bohemian Style, with Sanctuary as a theme, I also had to include eyelets and use all recent materials, it was quite a challenge but here is what I came up with!

Squeeeeeaaallll

Can you tell I am excited?

You have to get down to TK Maxx (if you're a scrapper) they have some amazing deals there at the moment. American Crafts Album kits for £7 that have 20 papers, thickers, stickers, chip AND a 12x12 postbound album. Its all new/newish ranges too!! I bought 6, I've needed new albums for ages but hate spending on it so these were too good to pass up. Also they have SHELVES of this stuff, not just one or two mixed in amongst all the crap like it normally is there.

I did have a picture but my memory card and Picasa are not playing ball!

Christmas shopping today, and it was really enjoyable and not too busy.

Scrapping tomorrow I hope!

A Scrapbooking Card

I like making cards that are mini scrapbooking pages and as I had this lovely picture of Jessica and Emily together it was an easy thing to make it into a card for Emilys birthday. I like that she can keep this card as a ready made picture frame after her birthday. Emily likes seeing my scrapbooking so I hope she will be pleased with this. Jessica is going to Emilys sleepover tonight and Joe is going to his dads.





We are off to my brothers for the evening, we were supposed to be going for a meal and then drinks in Cheltenham but I am still under the weather and have a dreadful hacking cough that is worse when I am moving about and in the cold so we are going to have a takeaway a nice bottle of wine and some games on the wii instead. I am looking forward to it, not seen my little brothers new home yet! Best bit is that Bruno gets to come too. Jessica informed me that going to a sleepover at my brothers house was 'gay' but then everything is 'gay' to Jessica at the moment!

The good news this week was that I finally finally found Jessicas must have christmas present, she wants a lotso huggin bear from toy story 3 and they are so hard to find, everywhere is out of stock or overpriced (I refuse to pay double on ebay!) But this week I managed to lay my hands on one. For a little girl whos vocabulary runs to saying 'gay' a hundred times a day she sure likes her cuddly toys!

Whats on TV

Afternoon

Nice quick one for me today, this came together without any pain.



That OA paper with the TV schedule was a gift as far as this LO is concerned, now I have to dash, its Jessica's Drama club and food shop night - I hate food shopping!

Paint everywhere!

I am increasingly using paints and mists and masks more and more in my layouts, from having a complete mental block where mists were concerned I suddenly seem to have clicked with them. I find that when starting your layout with paint or mist it really does look like a dogs dinner to start with and the temptation to throw it in the bin is huge, but really if you are just starting out with using either of these mediums, just PERSERVERE, keep on layering all your other elements and before you know it your dogs dinner will look more like a sumptious three course meal!

On this layout I used LOADS of paint techniques (I normally stick to just the one per page) these techniques are all ones I have used singularly before but this time I went MAD and you know what? I really like it. For the frame I used corrugated card roughly cut into a rectangle, I then covered it in torn up pages from an old book that I have no used for, I liberally covered each torn strip with poster paint (I think Gesso is the proper thing to use but poster paint worked for me!) a bit like the old Paper mache technique. The Poster paint drys but the newsprint is still visible.

If you want to really know how to use paints and mist you should visit this blog, this lady is the QUEEN of all things messy and always provides me lots of inspiration.

And its not just cafty stuff thats getting covered in paint, we are in the throws of decorating our hallway at the moment, here is a pic of our STUPID cat who just could not resist the temptation of the ladder and then could not get down!

Damn you Autocorrect

This is something that I say on quite a regular basis, Iphone has a system called autocorrect on your typing, where Iphone in its wisdom thinks it knows what you are trying to say better than you do.

I came across this site and just HAD to share, it made me cry with laughter, anyone with an iphone will feel their pain and everyone else will be guaranteed a chuckle!

A one hour reprise

Yay I got my laptop back today (it needed a new charger dock). Unfortunately with all my charger dock problems I have buggered up my charger and so I need to buy another one - they are about £45 in the shops so I am buying from ebay who are much cheaper. I literally have about 1 hour left on my battery until its bye bye again :( If anyone needs a quick and cheap laptop man in Bristol, let me know, he was fab and I would recommend him.

I've been scrapping with this months Scrapagogo kit and made a couple of pages, the first one is a shabby chic layered effect that I rarely do well, however I am pleased with this one!

And this one is for the Cocoa Daisy Crop - in the kitchen.

Thanks for looking x

Look to the Stars

Oh I am not feeling too bright this morning, my wisdom tooth is cutting through and my mouth is so sore, I can hardly open my mouth wide enough to eat. I also have a sore throat and a very weak voice and feel like I am running a temperature, but I so want to get out and about today, not sure I will be well enough :(

But I do have this layout to share that I made for a DT call a while back

Happy Sunday everyone, hope you have a fun filled scrappy one!

Cocoa Daisy Crop

I've had such a lovely indulgent day today. I decided to join in with the Cocoa Daisy inline crop and spend the whole day scrapping. I even didn't have a glass of wine last night so I could be bright and ready to roll straight away this morning. I sat down to scrap at 9am!!

Now I've said before I scrap slooooowww so I have only made 2 layouts for challenges 1 and 2 but I will deffo be doing more in the week (I've a busy time socialisng planned from now til Sunday eve)

So here is what I have done:

Challenge 1 we had to take inspiration from pic of a red and white living room that had frames on the wall - here is my take:

Challenge 2 - we had 9 album covers to choose from to draw inspiration from, I choose a garbage album called version 2, I used all one colour on my lo like the cover and also used the title work on my photos

I am in danger of losing my voice this evening I think, I am very crocky today for some reason, too much yapping might be the end of it - won't stop me though! ;)

Year 6

Jessica's school employs one of these more modern school photographers nowadays, where you get a posed shot. He seems to like to get them lying on their stomach with their legs up and crossed behind them in the air, which is all well and good, but last year he left their socks on and to my shame Jessicas photo came complete with very very grubby socks so there was no way I was buying those!

This years are better, he made them take their socks off!



Today I made this layout, I've been busy crafting all week, but for DT stuff so its nice to complete something for me that I can actually show you now. Its based on the latest Sketchy Thursday sketch and heres my take on it:



I kept it quite clean and simple, which seemed to suit my mood today, looking at it now I can see that there could be lots more added to it, but todays mood is clean so like this it stays!

I've not had a night out in 2 weeks, I am gagging to get out tomorrow night! I've saved all my slimming world syns for a few drinkies.

Scrapping Disasters Darling

I am certainly having my fair share this week! Yesterday I was shaking a bottle of pink cosmic shimmer mist with the lid on and it sprayed everywhere (turns out there was a hole in the bottom of the bottle) it went all over the 5 cropped photos that I was about to use, it went all over the completed birthday card for my sisters birthday next week and it went all over my jumper that I was wearing, all of those things completley ruined!

Today I finished the 2nd layout for The Scrapbook Magazine, and I was really pleased with it, I was photographing it on my kitchen worktop on an easel, when the bloody thing toppled off and managed to land face down in a tiny amount of tomato splodge that was on the worktop, I now have a large area that I will need to fill and I am massively NOT AMUSED! I hate having black worktops I genuinely did not see the tomato sauce at the back of the surface.

Anyhow I do have 2 completed layouts that I really like (well when I have performed surgery on the 2nd one) and so at least thats something. Here are a couple of sneeks for you:






At the moment here it is raining so heavily that it sounds like I am in a caravan not a house, I am soooo looking forward to picking up Jess in an hour! Lets hope it stops, I don't have that many talents in life but one of them is the ability to be the wettest person around when it is raining, I kid you not, the rain is attracted to me and while most people will look a little damp I will look like a spaniel that took a swim in a river! One thing about winter I am liking is the ability to wear a hat, thus covering my hair and stopping me needing to make my birds nest presentable, just whack on a hat and go!

Frustrating!

Oooo its so frustrating! I have an commission from TSM and I just can't get started, after procrastinating all morning I finally sat down to create and have only managed to ruin one really nice piece of paper - bah! Luckily the deadline is not for another 6 weeks so I have plenty of time but I hate it when I stall like this.

We've had a busy quiet weekend, went into town yesterday with the intention of buying Joe and Jess some winter jumpers and managed to come back with a gorgeous winter coat for myself (Jason offered to get it me for crimbo but I WANT IT NOW!!!) so I bought it myself. I did managed to pick a few things up for the sproglets so its not all bad.

We've also done a far bit of decorating in the hall, its just the painting left now and managed to get Joe and Jess to tidy their rooms. Joe is getting a high sleeper this week, poor love has the box room and he has really outgrown it so we are hoping this will give him more space.

Creative wise I have not done too much, unless you count colouring in owls endlessly (I got a bit addicted actually) I bought this weeks little musings which were owls with scarfs and hats etc and so my cards will feature these this christmas. Jess and I spent a happy hour or two colouring them in on Saturday.

here are the owls:

and here is an example card

I don't profess to being a great (or even good) card maker, its not a love of mine!

And one last ramble before I sign off of blogland. I have started Slimming World AGAIN, I've put on half a stone since the wedding and my clothes were getting tight and I am looking very puffy of face so I have taken the bull by the horns and hope to get a half stone off by our christmas meal on Dec 18th (thats unrealistic but 5lbs would be nice) Let it be noted that I am hungry :(

Pretty Kitty

Bonfire night tonight then, we had a few bangs yesterday which the dog barked at. Bruno only found his bark about last December and so last bonfire night he pretty much slept through and even at one point joined us in the garden for sparklers, he was not in the slightest bit bothered. So we had words last night, he is just barking for the sake of it and because he is becoming a grumpy old man! He knows now I won't tolerate it! But we shall see what tonight brings.

I felt in need of a sketch yesterday to jump start some scrapping so I used this one at Twisted Sketches: Sketch 74 The twist was animals. My finished result was a far bit off sketch but it really helped me get going and some elements are the same. This photo was taken shortly after we got Skittle in Aug 2007, before we fell out and became sworn enemies!! Its my favourite one of her as she looks so pretty in it.

I am currently trying to organise a christmas meal for the pub lot, OMG its been a royal pain in the butt let me tell you. NEVER again its just not worth the hassle! I hope its a good night.

FANTAstic

I've made a good start on my christmas shopping this week and all from the comfort of my reclining sofa! I love internet shopping, no crowds and mostly cheaper, even with P&P on top. I've even sent an email to Jason with links to what I want (I sourced it as cheap as I can for him) and as some were low stock he did a bit of shopping for me last night ;) With a bit of research I managed to get 2 items for a bargain price, saving him around £40, don't say I never do anything for him!

I've managed a bit of scrapping today too. I bought an easel from Ikea on Sunday just for photographing my layouts on, with the terrible weather and light at the moment it makes it a bit easier. Still its not the best colour wise.

I've a faulty connection on my laptop which means its hard to get it to charge up, one false move and I lose the charge, its getting steadily worse and it very annoying, I rang a repair shop and they want £89 to fix it, its only a case of soldering the connection but it seems from research that its the going rate. Pah! I will struggle on for now I think!

Butterflies and Reindeers

Oh dear I have been a very bad blogger, no excuses I can't even think whats filled my time, well I can but really it should have taken second fiddle to crafting!

On Sunday morning we took advantage of the extra hour and went to Ikea (in all honesty I used that extra hour about 3 times!!! - one to go to a late night pub, as I had an extra hour, one to sleep a bit longer, as I had an extra hour and one to make the trip to Ikea, as I had an extra hour) we ended up in bed at 8.20pm on Sunday night because we used that extra hour so much!


Anyway Ikea did what it always does and thats make you spend money on things you don't need but suddenly realise you can't live without, unfortunately I had to live without the cutest christmas wrapping paper ever as it was out of stock. Its the Kraft one and has red reindeers on, it was LOVELY! We left ikea over £100 poorer just from buying a mirror, a load of photo frames and bits and pieves.

On the subject of photo frames, we are currently decorating our hallway and I want to do a wall of frames, all different, in white, light wood and dark(ish) wood. Mostly I am going to fill the frames with black and white photos, but to break it up I am going to make a few home decor items myself - to that end, I made this.






You can see its very simply done with just some neutral backing paper and the butterflies that I made the other week. A proper 10 min project!

Cold Comfort

I really had the urge to create today, really itching to make something and so once it became clear that the kids were happily occupied and not about to disturb me, I moved into the kitchen that houses my scrappy corner and got to it, I say got to it but that involves making the kitchen warm first as its a cold room and I cannot function in cold!

This is mainly made with the Craft Robo (ghost, title, pumpkins and border) Its not one that I am massively thrilled with but at least I got in a couple of hours of glue and paper and thats what its all about.





I have to say that after a few days stuck in with the kids and nothing but a dog walk to break the day up, I am REALLY looking forward to the weekend, heck I've got so much cabin fever I am looking forward to going to Asda tomorrow - someone shoot me now I am obviously going nuts cos I HATE that place!

Pumpkin Cat

This is the extent of any craftyness today, I got the shape from Silhouettes online store (although you can get templates free online, as I did a cool ghost one a couple of years back)



You then print the shape or cut it out and use it to trace on the pumpkin and then with a small sharp knife you cut around the shape. Its actually quite easy and fast the whole carving thing too under 10 minutes! We also have another pumpkin to carve tomorrow!



My two are looking a bit twin like today I think!

We've just got back from the dentist who has filled in Jessicas crumbled tooth, luckily it was the same one that went last year and not a new fresh one, so it was just a case of re fixing it! Its very strange my children having weak teeth that are prone to problems, as I at the grand age of 35 have never had any dental treatment apart from checkups - yup thats right, I have NO fillings no nothing! (much to my dentists disgust!)