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.