Saturday 19 January 2013

The return of the blogger...

I now have a schedule. Which I am weirdly sticking too (except the exercising part, that seems to be suffering some sort of start up issues).
My little list is starting with February.
I have:
Mums b-day;
Valentines day (which we don't really do much for); and finally,
Our anniversary!

But before I get into that I have to post the rest of the pictures from last year! Not the most exciting however I want to try and keep note of my meagre contribution to the world in the form of craft.



This is one of the little toadstools I made for the boys rug. Saw a rug covered in these little things and the price was a bit more than was willing to pay for something that would have toast, milk and malteasers trampled into it.
So, in true modern style, I went to Ikea! I know so many people who say, "I hate Ikea", "it all looks the same", "this is whats wrong with the world...", etc. However, I like it!
I know it all looks the same and everyone complains about it but I dont care! The way I look at the shop is that it provides a base. A base for people who can't build furniture but want to have something they've 'made'. Everything in this shop can be customised. You can paint it, wallpaper it, cover it in fabric and fill it with all of the things you want people to see.
Rant over, back to the point.
I bought the green rug from Ikea (1/6th of the price at £10!), then I used scraps of material to make the little toadstools!

Then came my sisters birthday!

I had seen this cake in Making magazine and again on Pip Lincolnes blog and decided it was a cake for me! It was actually quite nice! I used a cake recipe from the Innocent cookbook which hasn't failed me yet.
Best of all my sister loved it so I'd say that was a winner.

Next up, halloween!
I love halloween. I love the costumes, I love the candy apples, I love the faint smell of fireworks (only 5 days before Guy Fawkes night) and I love autumn.
When I had my first son, a few weeks after halloween, one of the things I was looking forward too was making his halloween outfits.
Last year in a joint effort, with my mum, we made this...

To be fair I actually only made the hat, but I was massively pregnant at the time.
I'm sure you'll agree its very cute.

Then came santa...
I have been "knitting" a stocking for my eldest for the last 2 years. In march last year he pulled half of my attempt off the needles. Time for attempt number 2. Which is still sitting in a drawer.
Knitting is not my forte.

Sewing however, is a bit more up my street, meaning its much quicker and I'm not very patient.

Thats my 2012 re-capped.
Not too bad. but not too good either.
This year will be better...i'm sure.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Bring on the new year...whilst having a look at the old one.

As I promised myself I have actually come back on the post! I said this year I'm actually going to make the effort to make things and I'm also going to make the effort to document them in the hope it'll encourage me to improve. So here goes...

I though it would be best to go over what I did last year as I wasn't completely inactive. I started the year with knitting! (I'm a very impatient person and my knitting skills do not make for speedy progress)

I got this knitting pattern on the net from Tiny Owl Knits and each little hexagon is lovely as you can use lots of different colours and then put them all together. Also each one is stuffed with toy stuffing which makes each one like a little pillow! To bad that the ones in the picture are the only ones I've done since last January! Moving swiftly on...

Valentines day.

I made this card by stitching an old t-shirt. Bad idea. As soon as I took the fabric out of the embroidery hoop my lovely tight neat stitches became distorted and wonky. Lesson learned for this year.
Then in March it was my cousins little boys birthday. I decided to attempt something from one of Pip Lincolns books.

Looking at this picture you'd never be able to tell if the bag is supposed to be a dog or a monkey. Unfortunately regardless of which one it is supposed to be it's a pretty poor attempt. I did add a little pocket into the bag at the bag (with a zip and everything!), but I think the only thing the bag is being used for at the moment is to cushion the toys being thrown into the bottom of the toy basket.

Not too bad I suppose for the first 3 onths of last year but I'm hoping to improve on that this year!

I will come back over the next few days and post the other things I attempted (or started) last year and I will hopefully have an update on my new projects for this year too.

So as my papa used to say, cheerie bye! Until next time...

Tuesday 1 January 2013

As always, I was right...which is not always a good thing.

In my last post (which was also my only post so far) I said I always started something I considered to be a good idea but that I never finished it. I hadn't anticipated this blog would be another example of that. Since my last post I actually have finished one or two things I started, like this tree for my eldest sons wall
also the rug for.his room which I made toadstools for, christmas stockings for my boys,and...ah yes,a little baby. My youngest son, not hard as i only have two so it's es and ys. I have a plan for the new year, which I am going to detail,if only for the reason it might shame me into doing it,however i'm trying to write this post on my phone and i'm getting a little upset at the stupidity of the working of it so I shall update tomorrow on the computer. happy new year, let it be a crafty one!