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!

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.

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?