Craft presents... for me!

I've found a way to blog about handmade gifts without spoiling gifts -yep I've still not given all the gifts out. For the record I'm not a social recluse it's just my nearest and dearest live far away. Anyway, these blogs are going to be about gifts I've received and although I'm in danger of upsetting a few people I'm going to put my neck on the line and say this is my favourite.
This is the friend that gets cross at me for making her stuff, she claims she can't make stuff. Clearly she has been lying.
You may be asking why I would stay friends with such an obvious liar, however she knows too much about me and we have too much in common for me to ever consider not treasuring this friend.
One thing we have is Grey's Anatomy. After I had a really rough week about 18 months ago my friend bought and had delivered the entire 1-8 season boxset. She claimed the reason I needed to watch it was one of the main characters reminded her so strongly of me she was sure I would love it. She was right. As my husband and I watched the programme even my other half saw the resemblance to Christina Yang - clearly the best character. When I told other Grey's addicts of the links to the character they were shocked my bestie could think something so mean of me. See Christina Yang is a harsh character. She has an insane work ethic and is prepared to sacrifice friends for the benefit. She says what she thinks even when it's not socially acceptable. She is completely unable to control her facial expressions and lastly she is an ugly crier. Beautiful the rest of the time but when she rarely cries - it ain't pretty perhaps a reason she doesn't do it very often. She also only lets a select few in.
Maybe now you're wondering why my friend is still invested in a friendship with me. Seeing all these things makes me happy that my friend is my person. A concept from the show. Your person is someone who you can rely on. They know how ugly you can be and happily take a selfie with you. They are the person that if you rob a bank they drive the getaway car. Or as my person wrote on my gift: 'if I murdered someone she is the person I would call to help me drag the corpse across the floor'.
I'm not advocating murder. For the record I'm against murder. But I'm glad I have my person.
This gift is my favourite because I love the type written quotation, I love the scrabble tiles and the black chunky frame. It's already up on the wall. But mostly I love what the gift will remind me of. By the rules of written work I should now systematically round up all the things I love about my friend. That wouldn't be very Christina of me though would it.

Still no spoilers

It's Thursday. On Thursdays I write my blog. Unfortunately I still haven't seen all of my friends to give them their gifts so there are somethings I just can't talk about yet. However, my husband has opened all his gifts and as he isn't immune to the odd handmade gift I can safely share with you one gift he received.
Along with having the unusual name, unusual hobbies and an unusually accepting nature - comes in handy when I want yet another craft machine- my other half is unusually difficult to buy for. I know men can be difficult to buy for but this guy tops the charts.
He treats himself as and when he likes, he doesn't covet things of others', except the PS4 pretty sure he covets that and he prefers to buy his own clothes. He has expensive taste: he fell for me after all and his collections require detailed research.
That leaves me with buying him the obligatory socks, dvds that he hasn't already bought and the necessary onesie or I break into a bank and get the money for the PS4.
I went for a more original idea. Toiletries. Boring I know. However, this set had a special coupon inside. It was a kind of voucher/I.O.U that he is allowed to redeem throughout the next year. I've done him a book of vouchers before and as they were so successful I decided to keep up the tradition as it allows him to get a present he wants, me to spread the cost and Christmas to last all year. That's a hat trick folks.

Last minute makes

I shamefully rely upon the gift bags I receive for the next year's gift receptacles, to be fair it's worked very well for the past 10 years even if it has meant remembering who gave me which bag so I don't give them their bag back.
Far too much effort.
Along with wanting to add a personal yet professional touch to my presents, this, was my motivation for a new gift bag idea. That and my desire not to resort to 'posh carrier bags' as we discussed previously.
Wrapping presents in parcel paper has been popular for a while so I thought a little brown paper bag would suit the current trends. What makes these bags even better is that they use up even more of that leftover wrapping paper that you don't have anything small enough to wrap up.
The following are my take on this year's gift bags. If there is anything I've learned this festive season it is that double sided tape is my best friend. It's worked for the rosettes, for my gift tags, for my gift boxes and is now the staple ingredient for my gift bags.
Just another tip for recycling wrapping odds and ends if you find yourself outnumbered and tempted to wrap the family hamster just to use them up.

Posh Pooches

I don't usually post on a Saturday but I don't usually get asked to make a bow tie for a pug.
My friend sent me a picture of a bow tie she wanted to get for her pug but as you may know pugs have unusually large necks so to get one from the Internet wouldn't have fit. Upon seeing the picture I was infected by the 'icandothat' disease that many crafters suffer from. It's incurable so make sure you support your relatives that suffer from this sickness by supplying them with patterned paper, ribbon and offcuts of fabric on a regular basis.
Anyways, I went in search of fabric from my supplier aka bag of scrap bag. Within an hour the bow tie was completed and I was mega chuffed with it as was thankfully my friend. Hope you like it too. It wasn't without its challenges but I don't like finishing on a negative so I'm just going to remind you that challenges merely make you stronger/better or some other cliché. Oh and leave you with perhaps the cutest, poshest pug on the planet.

Recycled Rosettes

I love craft magazines, one of my favourites is Crafts Beautiful because the projects are always so straightforward and the freebies are brilliant making it really good value. Now I'm not on commission for the magazine so I had better move on.
Today is my day off and as such as a treat, after jobs around the house are done, is to indulge in a cuppa and my favourite magazine. Before I even got past page 19 I had to stop and trial an idea.
Now as my avid readers will know I'm a hoarder and as such although the recipe called for card I had a piece of wrapping paper left, too small for a present but too big just to throw away so rather than cut into my treasured pretty Christmas card I decided to use this as an alternative. A mock-up if you will. I'm also lazy, so seeing as I didn't have a button to hand but I did have a bunch of card making bits I used card and transfers to make a Christmas Rosette.
You might not agree with me but I think it worked a treat. I did however make the booboo of using the wrong colour for my tree decorations so I decided instead to decorate a rather plain gift bag in order to make it more festive.
I hope my favourite magazine won't mind having their recipe played with and I'm sure one of my favourite people won't mind the addition to her gift bag.

The answer to all questions

I've had a pretty rough week; my little car gave up on second, fourth and reverse gear meaning I could only go forwards at either a very slow or fast pace, I've had the mammoth of all colds - my other half has caught it and gotten over it and I'm still clinging onto mine, and although I'm a fan of a Philip Larkin I think he would have been more on the mark to say 'they p*ss you off your mum and dad' rather than 'f*ck you up'. In my mum's defence she made my week better by sending me a pair of owl earrings (owls are my favourites) as a surprise without even knowing I was having a matathon week. My dad on the other hand just doesn't think sometimes - love him to bits but he is a numpty.
So yesterday feeling pretty glum I sat at my machine to make the next batch of bunting. After an hour of straight stitch sewing my stresshead seemed to be mellowing. My self directed tips of square bottoms of the triangles was working. I didn't need to go out so my car didn't matter, my nose was plugged with tissue bungs - don't judge me you know you do it - and my dad is just my dad, you chose your friends not your family and I have an awesome set of those.
After the said hour of sewing the shuttle needed changing. I then had to attach my bunting to the ribbon. As the ribbon was 10 metres and you have to sew down it twice I discovered there is 15m worth of thread on a shuttle. I don't know why it fascinated me but it did, I've always wondered how much you can get from that little piece of kit and now I know.
So there's the answers to life's questions - bunting will solve all world anger issues and there is 15m of cotton on a shuttle. You're welcome!

Handmade cards

I'm full of cold, my lips are chapped and my nose could compete in a rudolph lookalike competition with really good odds but today arrived at my door two envelopes to make me smile.
Most crafters love Christmas because of the endless opportunities for creations, one reason I love Christmas is seeing the work of other crafters appear to brighten my day. The first two cards I received for Christmas have been handmade and I love them both! Mine haven't been made let alone sent so clearly I'm late to the party.
What makes these cards so special is not just the thoughtful nature of the cards but that they have been addressed to my whole family: me, my hubby and our very grumpy pooch. Why does this make them so special? Because it reveals just how precious these friends are, they know I'm bonkers about my dog, I very much treat him as my baby and have not only taken the time to make me a card but embrace my bonkerdness - again not a real word and I won't use it again I promise.
To these lovely ladies - love ya!
To others - follow their lead with the Christmas assault: make cards and embrace the crazy.

Christmas Bunting

This is just a quick blog to share with you my afternoon's efforts.
I was really touched to be asked to make some festive bunting for my church and thrilled that bunting has found its place in the festivities. Originally accepted as a decoration for summer bunting has become so popular that it's springing up all over the place. My next challenge is to make bunting appropriate for all seasons. I can't think of a season where it isn't appropriate so I should be onto a winner.
Here's hoping my friends like the addition to our walls, I've even snook in a couple of wool wraps for good measure.

Alternative wreaths

This is the newest addition to the list of PIF gifts I have given to my good friend and has won my favourite spot.
I saw this in a magazine but unlike most crafts, I haven't seen it made and sold on craft stalls so I was a little suspicious of what the back is supposed to look like. It wasn't easy. I attacked the back with my glue gun and folded the fabric over the edge. I had cut out a small circle of fabric to cover the back but it didn't look neat enough. I cut out a slightly larger circle and put this over the back so that it glued to the sewing ring rather than the fabric and this really worked.
The sewing on button part was easy. The beads and bow took a little longer but then God is in the detail so I don't mind spending more time on the little parts.
The annoying part was that I don't always know when to stop. Less is definitely more so when I embroidered 'Happy Christmas' I realised - a little belatedly- that I had gone too far so quickly undid it. I'm pretty pleased with this unusual Christmas decoration and hope you guys like it too.

Does size matter?

I've been playing with wire a lot just recently and as this blog started with wire words it's something you're probably familiar with me talking about.
I set myself the challenge of joining two wire words together but as the perpetual procrastinator this obviously didn't turn out until being the serial stubborn individual that I am I needed to prove a point - see previous post.
With that challenge under my belt I started to think about what else I could do with the wire and it would seem that I ran my race backwards. The stockings you see in the pictures were incredibly easy to make and part of me wishes I had tried these first. The trickiest part was getting two wool colours but even that was manageable. As such if you like the wool words perhaps a play at festive shapes would prepare you for the task. But onto my dilemma...
Does size, for the craft in question, matter? I love miniature things, the best things come in small packages- silver leaf shaped earrings, beautiful broaches, diamond rings - as such the small Christmas ornament measuring in at 8cm makes my heart skip a beat but I am not blind to the imperfections. The larger one has smoother edges, the twist at the top looks really good and the shape looks stronger. As such the perpetual query of women nationwide remains to be a crafting conundrum - does size matter?

If I can do it anybody can

I'm a Christian and as we've established this means a few things, Jesus is God, the Bible is His word, and the Godhead is lord and creator of all things. Being a crafter it's easy to admire a creator. It does not mean I will hit you with my Bible on your way out.
Another awesome thing about being a Christian is that I get to celebrate Christmas with unbridled joy. This doesn't mean I spend millions on the people in my life (I wish I had millions to spend on them but let's face it I would just buy craft instead) it means I celebrate the birth of my saviour and jump with both feet into caroling, tinsel and yule log.
On the other hand a few pet hates of mine include Bah Humbugs, argumentative relatives and most of all the term 'Xmas'. First of all it doesn't work phonetically - you'd be forced to say crossmas or exmas and what has that got to do with anything. Secondly if you need to remove Christ from the Christmas forget celebrating it. Thirdly Xmas features in no Christmas carols. Fourthly X just means no, bad or wrong to me as a symbol so why celebrate that?
For all those people out there that use Xmas as a shorter version of Christmas I have a message - don't! The attached picture is a wool wrapped word which I will be selling this year to all Xmas to Christmas converts at a reduced price but prooves if you can wrap and bend wire to make 'Christmas', a pen should be able to draw holly and tinsel and snowflakes and candy canes and rudolph with no bother at all and the full word not a shorter apology for it.
Take that Bah Humbugs!

Right tools for the job

This blog starts with a gift. My mamma is responsible for a lot in my life for which she deserves an age of credit but one thing I can rely upon her for is amazingly random gifts. She bought me the first picture on the list after I had played with hers- I would insert the name of the contraption but since I'm a maker not baker I've no idea what it's called. At first I thought I would never use it but in less than a month it has saved my creations in a variety of ways.
The second picture is of an article I saw in a craft magazine. As it was in a craft magazine I was convinved that it would be suitable for crafters. Maybe it is and I'm just a dunce- who knows. I followed the recipe to the letter and unsurprisingly it turned out nothing like it should have. Where I should've had 'firm balls' I had something that resembled the scrotum of a ninety year old man- clearly watching embarrassing bodies is having an affect on my use of imagery. After a lot of improvisation and frowning I made the goo I had made into the 'firm balls' I required. I gave myself a cooling off period then went back to work on the chocolate.
Following the method in the magazine I was left with, well continuing with the embarrassing bodies theme I will leave it to your imagination. I abandoned the recipe again and went my own way and managed to make it look like the pictures then I added stars to replace the flowers from the magazine.
To be honest the picture on the plate looks nothing like the magazine but after I boxed them up and handed them out they were very well received.
I've frozen some mixture so I will be making more chocolates up for  Christmas gifts and I get to make even more boxes so I'm happy but I wouldn't have been able to make these goodies without the right tools for the job. Guess mamma knew what I needed before I did, that's why she is known as supernan.

Making as a reward for marking

As Christmas approaches it gets harder to write this craft blog as obviously my makes are going to be for gifts. As much as I would like to think that this blog is read by millions worldwide I'm pretty sure mostly it is read by my friends indulging my eccentricity. This leaves me with somewhat a dilema. Either I hibernate for the festive period then inundate you with blogs after the surprise can't be ruined or we establish a rule, if you don't want to have the surprise ruined- don't read on. For now I'm still fixated on my boxes so you can safely read on while we collectively try to reach the masses.
After being a good girl and doing my marking I decided I deserved a reward. I retreated to my craft allocated corner of my house and built my little boxes. I've attached tonight's effort somewhere although I confess I'm on a new phone so I'm not sure where it's gone.
I still can't decide if I prefer traditional wrappers to the 'nordic' papers which seems to be mega popular so please feel free to comment.
Be warned the next blog will be about the gifts I've been making- your surprise is in your own hands people, similar to destiny but that's far too deep and meaningful for a Monday.

If Coca Cola says so, it must be so.

The famous advert has been on so it must be true, Christmas must be on its way. I absolutely love Christmas! Mainly because I get presents and I'm a sucker for shiny boxes under a tree. As we've already discovered I'm a breeze to buy for so as long as its covered in shiny paper and has my name on it - I'm happy. 

Another absolute pleasure is being able to flex my crafting muscles under the guise of making gifts for others. I get to claim craft purchases as ingredients towards gifts and therefore put them on a joint account and I get to experiment with all the ideas I've seen in magazines - what is not to love about Christmas?! Did I also mention that it's the time we remember our saviour being born? Now eternity in heaven, try beating that as a gift! (had to point it out guys, I'm a Christian after all).

This year I've been reading a lot about packaging. And I have to say I'm a guilty packer. I make pretty gifts then generally put them in bags, it's a gift bag if you're lucky but I have resorted to 'posh' supermarket carrier bags in the past. As suchI thought it was about time I broke the habit.

This is my box making pallet groove thingy:

Obviously that is the technical name. On one side are grooves for cards and then on the reverse side are grooves for boxes. I've had it a while but not put it to the test. You will notice a black pen, that's because I've lost the implement to make the grooves so improvised. Keep the lid on if you find yourself in this position- it fits the grooves but doesn't leave unpleasant black lines.

These are my boxes:

The brown one was the first one and then I just gradually got more adventurous until I made a tiny triangle box with a tiny gift inside for a good friend of mine. The big triangle box is another PIF gift but the square boxes are Christmas gifts. Look at me being all prepared!

I'm very excited about the look of the boxes, I think they do have that professional appearance which I haven't been able to achieve previously- supermarket plastic bags just don't give you the edge. It also bumps up the simple gift inside to something a bit more special. Well I think so anyway, I will have to find out and let you know after the recipients give me their feedback.

Not for the love of money but for the love of making

I love craft. I love going to charity shops and finding things I can upcycle. I love making things from a whole host of goodies. I also love looking around me for inspiration and producing cute little makes either for myself or predominantly as gifts. And, let's face it, who doesn't love a bargain. But if that's your joy in life, craft might not be for you.

There is the assumption that if you make gifts they are cheaper- this is not always the case. Unless the ingredients can be found or sourced for free, other peoples clear outs for example or autumn leaves, crafting can become quite expensive and even if you do manage to forage some goodies the time it takes to make such items - even if you work for minimum wage - can start to add up. Look at the airsoft magazine I made:

Remember that one? Ignoring the paper, ink, card and double sided tape it took to create the magazine I spent an entire day putting it all together. To sell it in order to make money I would have to sell it for at least £30 which is beyond ridiculous. Another example:

These are my wool words. The wire and the wool are inexpensive but each one takes about 30-40minutes to make, depending on the length of the word. To be worth selling I would have to charge £8 per word.

Thankfully making these gifts was an absolute pleasure. For not a second of the making process did I count the cost, I enjoyed what I was doing and got a real kick out of knowing how much the recipients would like their gifts. I was even more pleased when those people displayed their presents and told others how much they liked them.

My point here is that when you try to make a gift for someone don't assume it won't cost you as much. Equally when you receive a handmade gift, consider how much it may have cost the person if not in money in time. Or if you buy handmade items, don't quibble over the cost - it isn't cheap to do!

I'm not trying to make anyone feel guilty I'm trying to point out how loved you actually are for another to invest so generously.

My motives for handmade gifts are purely selfish- I love to make things. A friend of mine has asked me not to make her things because she can't return the gift- what she doesn't realise is my being able to make her something is as much as a gift to me as it is to her. Here's hoping she lets me keep going!

Oranges - kind of...

I was really hoping today to blog about oranges. Last year I enviously watched my friend make beautiful gifts with dried out oranges and so this year I wanted to give it a try, unfortunately I don't have my end product yet- oranges take ages to dry. So instead I've decided to blog about a PIF gift that didn't get a mention.

I think it's a suitable blog entry for two reasons:

1. It's an easy homemade gift just in time for a festive period.

2. It is incredibly pretty and orange so still partially what I wanted to blog about.

It's a collapsible food basket. My mother in law has one that she bought from France that she puts bread rolls in and is a fancy centre piece for something quite basic so I thought I would give it a try. And as a food basket needs food I made rock cakes to go inside.

I know my friend's kitchen is decorated in golds, oranges and earthy colours which is why I picked the fabric and I've already made her an apron using the same ribbon edges so soon her kitchen will have lots of matching accessories. The inside is a different fabric which is lighter and I really like the contrast of the two fabrics. You can see the inside better here:

What is so lovely about this is that it's two pieces of fabric, sewn right side together, turned inside out and ribbons attached in the corners to make it pop up. Easy! The ribbon part is the most time consuming- working out where to put it to get the right height. Equally it would be easy to make a set of these in a variety of sizes - now there's an idea!

Twice wrong but happy for it!

I may have found a new love. I know I said that I would remember my old loves but I'm very excited about my new love: Quilling!

It's my friend's birthday very soon and after receiving a beautiful hand made gift from her and seeing as her gift is already bought I figured I could put the effort in on her card. 

Another friend of mine recently gave me a bag of bits from her grandma's and inside was what she thought to be ribbon, on closer inspection it was discovered they were indeed quilling papers. Let the fun commence!

I'm very pleased with the result: 

So excited in fact that I text her this very picture because I couldn't wait until I saw her to give it to her - this could be a while - and as I now have an ingrained hatred of royal mail there is no way I'm putting this bad boy in their hands!

I chose autumnal colours because autumn is her favourite season and the letter E because that's the beginning letter of her name, an obvious choice really.

I thought it would be harder than it was but I also thought it would be quicker. Twice wrong!

GTAV Widow

My husband is a wonderful man but like all wonderful men he has a vice. He isn't a gambler or alcoholic and I'm grateful for that. My husband's vice is PS3 and a very particular car game.

I'd consider myself a very tolerant person and even more supportive, during all the hype around the game I have been found doing other stuff- to give him alone time with the game, but it's starting to wear thin, so I turned to baking. It wasn't to try to get self satisfaction, or even to just know that the mix from the bowl before baking would make me feel better. It's to send a very particular message:

That's right. GTAV Sucks.

I loose the access to the telly, the living room and my husband.

As well as being tolerant and supportive it is apparent I'm also from passive aggressiva, and I shall be known as their queen.

As I said my husband is a wonderful man, he regularly buys me beautiful flowers, 

does the shopping without moaning when I work late, does DIY without being asked, makes me breakfast every morning and packs my lunch for work everyday - wonderful man! I wouldn't change him for anything. I would however, jump up and down on the copy of GTA that has taken up squatters rights in the TV with much pleasure.

Until I can get away with that without being divorced I will go eat my cakes, that coincidentally taste pretty darn good!

From page to product in 24hrs

It's PIF time again. One of the most wonderful women I know isn't having it easy, but through it all she has been a wonderful friend. She is just so awesome and talented. I try to match up to her skills but I'm me and she is she. Today I'm feeling pretty good about what I've made for this lady.

It's a little bit silly and very cute. It's not perfect but let's face it, I'm an amateur-play-around-crafter what do we expect. Let's see if you can guess what it is... 

It's not a jewellery roll...

Not a fold away table runner...

Not a storage bag for buttons...

It's a collapsable button draughts board! I absolutely love it, here's hoping she does too!

I saw this in a magazine while away for the weekend, it's supposed to be a Christmas gift idea so kids have something original to do on the big day, but who says all the kids get to have the fun.

Punctuated Projects

I read an article recently about the therapeutic powers of baking. Personally I think this is absolute TOSH. For those of you that know me or have read my earlier blogs you will appreciate my journey with baking, I try, I usually fail, a blog is written and I get back to my crafting. What I do find therapeutic though, is the entirely captivating powers of craft.

I regularly start projects get distracted like a five year old and then move onto something else, but a common thread is I return to these projects and finish them off- unlike a five year old. Either after a week and polish off to perfection or repeatedly take them out add to them and then put it away again. 

Most people would assume this makes for boring, elongated projects (sometimes true) but for me it makes them more special because they become witnesses to my existence. I'm guilty of personifying everything. As I sit adding to a piece of craft I think about where I was the last time I was doing it, who I was with, what was happening. It always makes me think about when I learned how to do the craft and as such laughable, not always happy but laughable, memories start to build up. I usually put the craft away because it has beaten me but I rarely remember that frustration, especially when what I add to the work looks as pretty as this:

It probably doesn't look much to you but that tiny feather is part of a much bigger project. A project that has been going for years, a project that I both love and hate but one that's seen me through uni, two relationships one of which turned into marriage, arguments and make ups, dream jobs and house moves. As you can see I'm a busy girl so it's hardly surprising projects get put on the back burner for a while.

Each time I get this particular cross stitch out, I'm convinced I will finish it off once and for all. But as I've aged and hopefully matured- jury is still out on that one - I'm happy to accept that whatever I add to it this time will be a memory for the next time.

Super Fatty Crafter

I'm a teacher by trade, fairly new at it, but I completely embrace some aspects with enthusiasm and excitement, other aspects I cuddle like a drunken relative that I would really rather avoid.

One of the aspects I adore is the requirement to have stationary. Lots and lots of stationary. Since being little I've always felt the need to buy stationary and every new start of term was a wonderful excuse to buy a new pencil case, all the contents and whatever novelty rubber set that was popular at the time. So when I was given a stationary catalogue and told I could make a list I nearly imploded trying to maintain my professional demeanour whilst secretly wanting to wee myself with excitement. For the record I haven't wee'd myself with excitement for a long time but you get the picture at how thrilled I was now.

The stationary arrived but then the conundrum, how to display such goodies?

Decopatch was clearly the only sane way to go.

Ladies and gents (I know of at least one fella that reads this) there we have:

1. A shoe box

2. Two pop bottles

3. Two milk cartons

4. A margarine tub and a

5. A water bottle 

All decopatched in an array of purples, pinks, blues and greens. A maximum of three colour shades per item of course.

I take this beauty into class with me knowing I will always have the implements to support my students. Although as stationary is so important to me, should a student need to borrow a pen I do require a shoe deposit.

The decopatch took me a couple of days - there was a lot that needed drying time- and pretty much emptied my recycling bin for that afternoon. At which point I realised I was partially responsible for keeping 7 items out of machines to regurgitate fumes into our environment - run with me here, it's the only way to get to my end point even if it's flawed, I was saving our environment. I think saving such a huge commodity for the world makes me somewhat of a superhero. You can call me Super Fatty Crafter! For all your decopatch needs!

Ok, possibly a little hyperbolic there, but I still think its pretty neat. Yes I probably used enough glue to bath my dog in and yes buying these items fair trade would've been a better option, but I like them. I get a sense of satisfaction using my collection, and possibly what I love the most is the potential for the collection to grow. Should a new stationary item become required I'm sure there is a container waiting to be decopatched to hold it.

Help!

I like the idea of undoing work about as much as I like the idea of licking a sweaty bear's armpit. It's right up on my to do list with pulling my eyelashes out. Perhaps this is the reason I got so good at improvisation, at being able to 'fix' craft errors and change designs to produce as good an outcome as if I had followed the original plan. There are however some points in a crafter's day that defeat must be acknowledged and the only thing to do is undo.

This happened to me recently with a cross-stitch project I've been working on for nearly 18 months. I haven't actually been making my own version of the Bayeaux tapestry it's just I pick up and put down projects at the same velocity a child on lucky charms does laps of a garden. 

I thought I had found a fix to a border problem. A miscalculation left a 3 space gap where there should only be a 1 space gap. 'Not to fear', I thought, I will just put another pattern across the middle complimenting the design. I picked a nice flowery design and set to. At least an hour later, two colours and back stitch I proudly displayed my work to the craft critic in my house to have the rose tinted glasses removed. It did indeed look crap. The pattern was fine but having it go through the middle cut the should-be-complimenting words in half effectively divorcing them. Less than ideal!

Another, very stressful, very blue, hour later, this is what I had to show for my salvation attempt.

I was not a happy person and an even less easy person to live with. You can't even use these threads for anything else!

I've still to discover how I'm going to fix my 3-space-should-be-1-space problem (undoing the entire border really isn't an option) so if you have any advice I would be extremely grateful. If not, chances are the project will go away for another indescriminate period of time until I can think of another approach.

Did I also mention that I now have a green line across my work that needs sorting too?

An adulterous crafter

My friend is pregnant, five months ago she told me about her expanding family, and belly, and as she is the first in our friendship group to become a mum I didn't really know what the protocol was. Thankfully my other half came to my rescue and congratulated the couple while my socially stunted brain processed the information. I would like to think I redeemed myself when I offered to make the baby a crocheted blanket. I love crochet so it didn't really seem like much of a chore, win win. 

What hadn't occurred to me was that I had been cheating on crochet with craft. I have been so wrapped up with new forms of craft I had completely forgotten about my first love. So when I started the blanket, excited to be reigniting the relationship I was surprised that crochet was not as excited to have me back. 

The first attempt at an advanced level technique failed miserably- hardly surprising- so I undid it and reconsidered my approach. 

The second attempt seemed to be going well until on my 14th round the square was not so much square and more an uneven hexagon. I decided to persevere but after another hours worth of effort it was clear I needed to undo it again.

After three unsuccessful attempts at following a pattern and having to undo hours worth of work I have to admit I did consider buying a blanket for my friend, ripping the label off and messing with it a bit to make it look like I had made it but I'm far too stubborn for my own good. Instead I abandoned the patterns and went back to basics. 

I used half treble crochet for the middle and a granny square type pattern for the border. It finally, worked really well. 

As the parents don't want to know the sex of the baby and my friend and I have always had a running banter about colours, I went a little crazy with my wool choice. Definitely more than three colours there! The outer edge incorporates the colours of the rainbow- I was certainly sick of the song by the time I reached pink! But I smiled as I imagined my friend singing the song - equipped with a visual aid, to her baby. 

I had a lot of suggestions by my very honest grandmother as I made this as to what I should do but I'm glad I stuck to my imagination. I text a picture of the finished outcome to my friend (we have a long distance relationship) and to my relief she really liked it. I'm not exactly sure what I would've done if she had hated it. 

I really enjoyed my time with the 4.0 needle and have already started thinking about my next project, I also have rekindled my relationship with my sewing machine, just in case Its feeling rejected.

I'm not going to stop meeting new crafts and wooing their crafty goodness but I am going to remember to show my loyalty to the crafts that I woo'd a while ago. 

Let this be a lesson to all you adulterers out there, anger the wrong craft and she will pay you back!

Not just for pleasure

I love cooking because I can bend the rules, adding new ingredients in cooking is a good thing. I love crafting for the same reason. Wherever my imagination is what counts and my resourcefulness is called upon I'm in my element. 

I don't like following specific guidelines. So when it comes to sewing I love seeing what my machine can do to make decorative pieces and as long as the curtains are how I want them I will make them until my needle snaps. However, when I have to repair clothes this is less fun to me.

Redoing seams means strict straight lines. I'm not so good with the strict, the newly sewn hem of my work trousers looks like a five year old did it, but no one is going to see it too closely so I'm not really bothered. On the up side the black cotton I used was free and although far too big for the reel I was able to stick a colouring crayon to the holder so I could still use it. Bargain and resourceful!

But what I really wanted to revel in today is the dress I've brought back to life that you can see in the picture.

I've had this dress for about 7 years (I don't throw stuff away) and I called upon it once again for a wedding at the weekend. But disaster struck when busting some moves on the dance floor my right boob popped out to congratulate the bride and groom. Don't worry we were fully bra'd in place so it wasn't that embarrassing. Now I know I've lost weight- a good thing I'm told- and the dress is old so the elastic on the back is going but I love this dress and I'm not ready to throw it out.

Back to the resourcefulness, after my semi-successful hems I thought I would put some darts in the dress to tighten it at the top and although a professional could probably have done better, I'm rather chuffed with myself.

The dress fits snugly again, I've bounced around my living room to make sure, and you can't see the darts at all for the material that goes around the body and ties at the back. Result!

I think I might be even more cautious about throwing things out in future.

Confession of Craftaholic

It's my wedding anniversary today and that is something to celebrate. I haven't injured myself or anyone else and am still affectionate toward my husband. Enough sop, let's move onto the craft.

As most five year olds, the inner child in me gets very excited about presents. I warned my husband that I was never going to not want a gift and that he should probably remember this when I'm too tired or distracted to drop heavy hints. I am incredibly easy to buy for though so don't feel too bad for him. He on the other hand, along with having a unusual name, is impossible to buy for. His hobbies are so specialised I stand no chance of buying a gift of any real purpose or substance so I'm often left with the unenviable choice of money, I.O.U or voucher. I like receiving gifts but as any outer adult I like seeing the smile of a well thought out gift being appreciated too so imagine my dismay when the first year category is paper and under interrogation my fella decides an airsoft magazine - the paper kind not the load with BB's and shoot kind - would be the perfect gift. Without ordering from the Internet and paying double the price this is impossible. With only a week, ok more like two days, I was running out of options. Then it occurred to me, I just needed to consult my inner craftiness. I would make a magazine, it can't be that hard.

I gathered all the feature stories, reviews, funny pictures and recipes that I could. All good magazines have a recipe of some kind. Then came the putting together. Six hours worth of craft, a full roll of double sided tape and probably a full ink cartridge and the magazine was born.

Seeing how pleased my husband was with the magazine made all the hard work worth it.

Hard work? Who am I kidding, I loved making every page, I'm already looking forward to next year's challenge. Then it dawned on me, if crafting can be used to supply an airsoft fix maybe I really have reached the realm of craftaholicness. No that isn't a word, I will give myself a good talking to for that later.

Creativity knows no limits

When I started this blog I wanted it to be about my crafting life, I didn't want to turn it into a diary. As it turns out, crafting is such a big part of my life that it may as well be a diary! 

Recently I went to Calcutta in India. I went with four other amazing people all wanting to serve God in a school that our church sponsors. This school provides education to the children of slums and poverty in hopes that speaking English and being able to achieve their certificates will give them a chance at employment. Our job for the week was to teach using games and creativity (my favourite word) both the children and the teachers and to revamp the school.

 I don't have 'before' pictures on my phone but here are some of our efforts to turn a small dingy classroom into something a little more special.

In the older group we made personal flags, when I spoke to the tutors about displaying the children's work they didn't really seem to know what I meant. Here is hoping they get the idea.

This was to inspire the children to dream but to encourage them to work hard.

This room is for the youngest of the students and was the biggest room to try to turn into something good.

There were five of us working on these rooms, the base colour is gloss paint and I can assure you that the smell of gloss will live with me forever, there was some definite hysteria produced from close proximity with the fumes!

We didn't have long and only had the resources we had taken but I'm hoping that the children see and feel a massive difference. 

The time we spent there will perpetually teach me a lot of life lessons, of that I am sure, and more than one thing will stick with me for a long time but for now it's the image of a ageing lady who couldn't speak English that was with us at every moment. If we painted, so did she, if we were covered in dirt, she tenderly cleaned our hands and faces, if we were tired, she fetched drinks and fans. Without a word of communication, without knowing us, this lady cared for us in an incomprehensible way. To her and so many others I will be forever thankful.

I guess my crafting went with me to India, and I guess my time in India will go with me everywhere else. 

Honesty is the best policy

What a funny couple of days! 

I'm a Christian, this means I believe in the trinity, that I'm a sinner and that Jesus the son of God came to earth as man to live a perfect life, be put to a cross to die and take away all sins. It does not mean I'm going to hit you with a bible every time I see you or try to slip holy water into your tea. Now we've cleared that up we can get to my point.

Last Friday night I taught a craft session at a church event on wool words:

There were 50 women attend the ladies night which involved cake and tea served by handsome men in tuxedos. There was prayer and testimonies and it's fair to say a good time was had by all.

As I was teaching the craft to a large group I was given a microphone. For the record I should never be given a microphone. I tend to say ridiculous things and generally turn a nice shade of crimson. But needs must. 

Now while the ladies were doing the easy but slow part to the craft I decided to entertain them by talking a little bit about what I do and why I was there teaching. As such I told them about the college I work for and was probably too honest for my own good.

After the evening's proceedings a lovely lady approached me and asked me about my college. A little stunned I started to panic thinking my p45 was in the post for sure. What actually happened was she offered me a potential job. My jaw hit the floor but I picked up a piece of wool to disguise my utter surprise. Of course I was interested but this had to be too good to be true. I've wanted to make a job out of my hobby for a while but never found my way in.

The lady took my contact details and left. I was convinced it was a dream until an email came through inviting me to an interview. This is where I was this morning. The hours will be sessional and the courses short but it's certainly worth thinking about! 

There are a few points to iron out but God willing all things will work together. As such I just want to give some veteran no hopers like me some encouragement. Honesty, it would turn out, is the best policy and the next amazing opportunity is only a 'yes' away. When I found out the craft might would be to 50 people I nearly backed out, joined my nearest convent and took a vow of silence so I didn't have to admit to my nerves and shame. But instead I covered my bingo wings, smiled and thought 'here we go then' and right now I'm so thankful that I did.

Crap at life, good at craft

I think the title of today's post definitely should be written on a tombstone for me. 

Today I was supposed to get my visa. I was supposed to go to the Indian consulate, prove I'm a person and leave to return one day next week to collect my visa allowing me to travel to Howrah in less than a fortnights time. 

Upon arrival at the wrong building whilst surveying the people around me I realised quite an important thing. I'm an idiot. It was bad enough that I was at the wrong place but the cherry on the cake was that I had driven an hour and a half to produce my passport to the authorities with one minor mishap- I had forgotten my passport.

Oops! Oh well I thought maybe they could process my paperwork without it. So after I wandered listlessly around the jewellery quarter (talk about temptation!) I found the right building and a rather friendly security guard who informed me that I was a dreamer with no hope. He put it more politely than that but the sentiment was the same. He gave me a ticket and pointed me in the right direction and I dutifully waited for the third person to tell me I'm a duffus. I had already given myself a stern telling off.

The tv shouted me to the booth and the security man was right. There was no hope for me. I would have to return a different day. Ah well at least I know where I am going and I had accurately inserted information about my parents- that much they could tell me. But to get the visa another trip was necessary. As I walked and then drove home I must've said 'on the bright side' a dozen times. This put me in quite a good mood - there was no one around to remind me how ridiculously I had failed. As such I thought I would give machine embroidery another try, and guess what? It worked!

I've finished three words and already thinking about the fourth. With a little bit of time and a lot of patience I managed to fix the machine problem. Admittedly I had to sacrifice a needle at the alter of sewing machine Gods but my offering seemed to please them.

So although my journey of self discovery led me to realise I'm still scatty and a little bit stupid, at least I still get my craft right. And let's face it, who wants to be good at life when you're awesome at craft?