Something A Bit New

Happy Sunday everyone, I hope you've all had a great weekend.

I haven't really been able to do a lot of crafting this weekend as I'd hoped, things got busier than expected, so the only thing I got to make was for an upcoming something and I can't show you yet in case it spoils the surprise for the recipients. No spoilers!

So I'm going to share with you some items I made a few weeks back because I'm pretty proud of the fact that I taught myself to knit using Youtube tutorials and how to read knitting patterns by just guessing it, in a single day.

First I followed the pattern exactly and made this cute little ear warmer, it's a beginner's pattern but I had just taught myself that day so I'm okay with the fact it's simple.

Especially since I then modified that pattern (in a very simple way... I halved the amount of stitches...) the next day to be able to practice a bit more but finish something off more quickly. I ended up with a cute little wrist cuff that I actually prefer to the ear warmer and plan to make more of. I haven't had a chance since then to try any other knitting patterns but I do hope to in the near future, when I get a little bit of time to myself, because I feel like it's a great skill to learn and truth be told, I want to knit myself so many snuggly jumpers when I've practiced and learned enough... Until then I will have to keep practicing the simple knit stitch on it's own. Maybe I'll make a scarf or something.

Anyway, I think I'm off for an early-ish night.

Until next time!

Workdesk Wednesday - #5 ~ Blog Entry, I Must Post

Yes, I know I've been absent for a week. I'm sorry, my dayjob's been mental so I've been tired so posts may be sporadic or short or just plain weird for a little while.

But, it's Workdesk Wednesday and I really do want to try and keep on track with this blog so here goes.

I'm working on some stock for a fundraiser coming up that one of my friends from work is doing and it prompted me to dig out an unfinished project from ages ago... Geeky hair clips!

Most of the hairclips I'd planned are finished but for some reason I just sort of stopped halfway through making a batch of Yodas.

I found them though! And some of them have faces which will help me remember/work out the design I'd got going.

I no longer have the exact shade of thread I used for those first two but I found a similar one, so hopefully they'll still look consistant. I only really had the time to dig these out and do the prep for the project (i.e. matching the thread, finding the right size needle, etc) tonight so just the one photo but I am actually at home this weekend so hopefully I'll get a chance to do quite a bit of crafting then!

Until next time!

VDay Is Upon Us!

Yo!

So it's Valentine's Day, which means over-exaggerated, mushy, expertly planned, generic, "spontaneous" gestures of romance.

I moan because I understand it's a gross commercialisation of a holiday but I do love an excuse to spoil the people I adore. So I do still celebrate it. And I had a lovely evening, thank you very much.

Anyway. Like all holidays, it's a great way to get motivated and pull out the card making supplies. Gotta treat my boy like a king if he's gonna treat me like a queen, right? And as most of the people reading this blog will know, I am quite the fangirl. And as most fangirls do, I ship things.

Allow me to explain for those that don't understand or aren't involved in fandom activities. Or better yet, here's a song from Not Literally that pretty much sums up the whole thing.

Okay, I don't follow every example in the song, but I do a lot of shipping. And my man's well aware of it, so this year's Valentine's card was like a little inside joke/an homage to my ever so slightly crazy side.

The funny thing is, most of the elements on this card were recycled from one I bought for last year's Father's Day. I found out my sister and I bought the same one at the same time because our ex-navy dad loves all things nautical. We then discovered he'd got the same one for his dad. Great minds, huh?

So rather than let it go to waste, I found a little sailboat topper, some wave paper and let the card build up from there.

It got a smile from the boy, so I'm going to call that a win.

Until next time!

Workdesk Wednesday - #4 ~ Scrap Happy

It's that time again!

And actually, I've had the same thing on my workdesk all week this week, because since Monday I've really enjoyed going through some of those old photos and preparing pretty pages for my scrapbook. I took photos of each page I've done this week so that I can post the pages in the order I create them, before tonight I'd already done the three pictured below.

It's actually really nice to be able to do quick, small projects, like single pages, that make up part of one, much larger project, like the whole scrapbook. It means I can come away from crafting without feeling like I have an unfinished item and without feeling bad for not being able to add to what I've done. Win,win!

Tonight's workdesk was a nice, bright page to show off the special bond Jedward had with my mum. You can see from the photos below what the process is for me creating a page.

The right hand side of the above sort of shows my process. Picking what I want to work on, choosing the photo and colours and then getting an idea of the layout I want to go for. After that I just kind of wing it. I didn't use the little bunting strip in the end, but that's okay because I'm thinking of saving it for the next birthday page I do.

Until next time!

Remembering Jed

Sorry it's late guys, I was feeling pretty under the weather yesterday and actually I have something a little special to me that I feel like sharing today so I thought I might as well rest up on Sunday and post today instead.

Today marks a year since I lost my first guinea pig, Jedward. She may have been a little pet but she had a massive personality and obviously I've been thinking about her a lot lately.

It's important to me to revisit my happy memories without having to use a computer, regardless of their subject matter and a few years ago I started a scrapbook for Jedward that I haven't really entered into much. I made the cover and the first page before I even moved out but the second page I didn't create until a little while after I lost her. Sometimes it's difficult for me to craft things that are so personal to me but even though it makes me sad that she's gone, it's nice to relive those fun times by creating cute layouts and making her a tribute fit for the diva she was.

The polaroid style prints were a birthday present last year and I love them. I use photo corners so that I can take them out of the scrapbook at any time if I want to but as I include an image, I'm writing the dates at the bottom, just because sometimes it's nice to see just how long ago something happened when you reminisce.

Hopefully, now that there's more time between the initial heartbreak and now, I'll be able to add to this scrapbook a little more often and enjoy some more trips down memory lane.

I hope this wasn't too much of a downer for you folks because making this actually made me a lot happier this evening and I'm really pleased with how the layout turned out. I need to get photo prints for Eclipse so I can work on hers as well and it's reminded me to make sure I take as many pictures as I can of the below three cuties. I will always have pets and these scrapbooks are the nicest way I can honour them.

Every moment is precious, whether it's with a pet, a person or just a pleasant moment or place in time, so treasure them and if there's not enough space on your walls for that many framed photos, still print them out, make an album or a scrapbook. Turning pages is a lot nicer than clicking a next button.

Until next time.

Workdesk Wednesday - #3 ~ Pretty Soldier

It's that time of week again! And we're kind of back to where we started because I haven't had a chance to do anything more with that Sailor Moon applique project since my very first Workdesk Wednesday two weeks ago. Until now...

It's going to be a short one though because it's already late and I'm pretty tired so it's like quick overview time type thing. Yeah.

Since I'd done most of the prepwork last time I was able to trace my design using baking paper to make my templates, it's a nice, cheap alternative to actual tracing paper that you're bound to have lying about the house and it works just as well. I drew around those onto the felt I was using and then managed to stitch the first layer of felt onto one of the hoops tonight.

Next time I get to work on these I'll be sewing that second hoop, cutting the next layer of felt and stitching all of that down before it's time to add the gems and beads as the finishing touches and then neaten up the back so they're ready to hang up or sell.

Until next time!