Ash, Rings and Wings

Well, it’s been an unusual couple of weeks. Unless you live in Europe, you probably won’t have taken much notice of an Icelandic volcano eruption, but over here, particularly in the UK, it’s caused chaos! Why is that you may ask? Well, it seems that volcanic ash is not very good for aeroplane engines. And as that cloud of volcanic ash was headed our way, planes were grounded and airports closed. Even the RAF weren’t taking chances, and in my mind, that’s be good enough for me! For almost two weeks, our skies were quiet and unmarred by the sight of plane trails. It also coincided with the most beautiful warm weather…coincidence?? I wonder!

Of course this has meant that thousands of Britons have been stranded overseas, unable to get home. As it was the Easter holidays/Spring break, many of our students had gone home and were unable to get back. We also had teachers who had gone abroad for a holiday and not been able to get back. Some of our students have only just been able to get flights now, and some are still waiting. I’ve had classes of perhaps only one or two students. Our GCSE students were supposed to take the first part of their exams on the 24th, and we had to get special dispensation to postpone it. I’m sure it will all be okay in the end though.

The warm weather has meant that everything has leapt into blossom, my cherry tree is starting to look glorious! We planted grass seed and bulbs out over the holiday, but I’ve had to water regularly, and the ground is dry and cracked, so yesterdays rain shower was welcomed by the garden.

I drove home from yoga the other night to see the most stunning full moon; huge with a glowing ring of light around it. I grabbed my camera when I got home and experimenting with different settings got these shots.

This one was taken with a different setting about half an hour later, partially obscured by a tree.

And then this one was taken much later, high in the sky…

 

I’ve spent spare moments over the last week reconning an old fleece top that I had acquired, I loved the colour, but it was a plain boring v-necked fleece top, so I had some ideas in the back of my mind and attacked it with a pair of scissors to create a shrug style fairy top.

It was really easy to do, I cut down the V at the front and then scooped under the bust, and round the sides to a point in the back. I was watching Ugly Betty at the time, so maybe I got a little Mode style inspiration…

I also cut the sleeves to a point.

I serged around the raw edges, then added the finishing touches, beads, and then appliquéd wings on the back! I totally love it now!

I’ve also been knitting away creating my Mosey legwarmers..

On The May Day Bank Holiday, M and I decided to take a day trip. It would have been nice to get away for the weekend, but we haven’t got around to getting a tow bar fitted on the car yet. Anyway, we decided to go to St. Albans for the day, which was one of the oldest Roman settlements in Briton (after Londinium). The weather was nice and we spent a lovely day strolling around the market, where I bought a lovely flower pendant, and the Cathedral…

 

and then we went to the Verulamium Museum, which showed how the Romans lived along with some of the stunning mosaics that their homes were decorated in…

I could totally live with one of these on my floor!

There were lots of displays with artefacts discovered by archaeologists (my friend was on a dig here when she was an archaeologist). I was fascinated by these  key rings..keys that were worn on the fingers and is probably were the expression ‘key ring’ comes from!!  

And a mosaic floor, still in situ with the hypocaust (under floor heating)  exposed at the corner.

 

It was a lovely day out…

Tales from the Riverbank…

I can’t believe that a week’s gone already! It’s flown by at supersonic speeds that would have put Concord to shame! And what a week! I’ve managed to keep to the Pledge as sworn to uphold in my last post; yes folks, it’s been over a week, and I’ve not succumbed to the digital temptations of the FB games. Do I feel virtuous? Well, just a little :)

It’s been a lovely week; spring has peeked through the covers and has decided that it’s time for her to get out of bed. I have actual buds blooming in my garden. The forsythia is stunning in it’s yellow glory.

 

I mean, how could you not feel a surge of happiness when greeted by such a burst of colour in the morning? Even the bamboo has flowered!

 

Joe and I have managed to take a stroll along the canal in the sunshine

 

We said hello to the wildlife we met on the way

 

 

 

We revelled in the quietness…

 

 

I even managed to get Joe to pose for me!

I’ve also managed to get out and about this week, I walked to the cinema one day to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D which was amazing, and then on Friday I went out to lunch with some friends, to celebrate Pippa’s birthday. I gave her the heart brooch along with a candle that I’d made a decorated with sequins.

And I also made these for the party bags

Lots of these very cute felt necklaces.

I think I saw something similar on the ‘net ages ago, but I don’t remember where, so I can’t credit it.

I cut three circles out of felt, each one getting smaller…

then I used an embroidery needle to thread them onto some nylon coated wire…

They look very cute when worn…

Everybody loved them anyway and we had a great time! I think my hips need a little me time to recover though, all you can eat buffet is nice, but it does tend to make one overindulge!

The best thing about last week? We bought a new car!!! Hurray!

It’s big enough for Joe to fit in the back, more than powerful enough to tow the caravan and was in our price range! So I’m now mobile again!! Woohoo!

Spring has sprung….

Hello my wonderful bloglets, I hope you had a lovely Spring festival, whatever you celebrate. I have two, count ‘em, TWO whole weeks off to catch up with some much needed crafting therapy! And yes, I’ve been very productive! See, I’ve had an epiphany. A big one. And I’ve taken the pledge. Well, not THE pledge, but a pledge. No alcohol involved folks promise, couldn’t involve alcohol anyway since I’m not allowed to drink very much as it interferes with my meds. But I digress. After my Dad died I realised that I really don’t see that much of my family, except at family get-togethers. And the family members that usually host those get-togethers are aging. Y’see most of my family are spread all over the country. My mum and siblings are the only ones here in my town. And I do want to keep contact with my family. I don’t have any kids and are unlikely to have any and I don’t want to be alone in my dotage. So I succumbed to Facebook. Aaaahhh, does the penny start to drop?? Anyway, all my family are now now networked on Facebook, me, mum and my brother and sister, my uncle and aunt, all my cousins…some of the older generation don’t seem to have got the hang of it yet, but all my generations and younger are fully embracing the virtual family network. I like seeing what terrible things my second cousins have got up to at Friday nights parties, I’m amused at my cousins ramblings and I like seeing holiday photos ‘n stuff….you get the picture? So that bit is wonderful, I’m back in touch with friends and family that I’d kinda drifted away from. But then, I discovered the games on Facebook…Fairyland, Farm Town, Vampire Wars, School of Wizardry…so many fun games, so little time. And there-in dear readers, is the crux of the problem. My crafty life was beginning to suffer. My blog was suffering. I’m sure you guys have noticed?! So I have decided to drop the games, well, all except Fairyland which I’ve kept to have a little flutter when I have the time. I am still playing the Wii, and my NDS, but as for FB games, since the weekend I’ve only been on Fairyland and I’ve not gone on any of the other games. And look what I’ve been doing instead!

I’ve painted several new batches of bulbs for my eBay shop…

 

I call this colourway Mardi Gras because it’s so vibrant and fun…

I also completed this…

 

 

Isn’t it pretty? It’s reclaimed fulled sweater felt, space-dyed with Kool-Aid, and cut and serged to fit.

 

But to fit what? Hmmm. See the adorable felt flowers all lovingly hand sewn on.

Any ideas? Well, this is my very old laptop which had been languishing in the loft for years, since I got my fancy all singing, all dancing, widescreen laptop in fact. I needed one for work, to work on, to show students tutorial videos, resource pictures and stuff like that on. So I didn’t want to bring my good laptop, but I figured that this one would do fine. I slapped in a new cmos battery and Hey Presto, I had an up and running laptop again! Yeah so the students laugh and take the piss out of my ancient laptop, but I guess it’s never going to be nicked. It’s running XP on it, but it’s only got a CD drive, so I can’t load Windows 7 on it like I’ve got on my other laptop. Of course because my lil dinosaur gets carted around all over the place, he needed a lil jacket to protect his lil old arse. Admittedly his arse is rubber coated, but well, y’know how it is! I like pretty and functional, I’m Arts and Crafts through n through me!

 

 

What else have I been doing apart from dinosaur cosies? Well, I finally got around to finishing this apron top which I started last summer. It’s made from scraps and I literally used every scrap that I had of this fabric. Please excuse the leaning model, I think she cracked one of her legs in a Series of Unfortunate Events involving M and a Dyson.

There wasn’t even enough for ties at the back, so I did a cross-over popper fastened back, with decorative buttons. 

It actually fits me better than it does Chi’anna (my grey girl model) and was a fit n pin job. No patterns were used in the torturing of this fabric!

 

Saturday M’s mum lent us her car for a car shopping trip, so we had a little tour round the car showrooms and found a car that we liked and that amazingly enough was in our price range! Hurray! It’s a 2lt silver Skoda Octavia estate which is big enough to tow the caravan easily, I can fit Joe in the back and should be great for all our needs. Sadly because of the Bank holiday, the paperwork has taken a little longer to sort out, so we get to pick it up on Saturday!! Hurray hurray! I’ll have wheels again next week. Hmmm, where shall I go?? I can’t wait to get back on the road.

Sunday my Mum had us all around for an Easter Sunday lunch. My Mum loves to cook and boy is she good at it! She makes the most amazing cakes, she doesn’t tend to follow recipes, it’s all instinct! Thanks to Mum and her amazing culinary skills, we all love food and sadly,none of us can carry it easily. You know the old expression, ‘a minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips’? Well, they could have been describing our family *lol* So with my health problems, I’m maybe a little more aware of my weight and try to keep it under control than the others, so I watch what I eat and try to exercise regularly, my brother and sis haven’t quite got it under control yet, so they’re a bit heavier than me, but I tell you, dinner on Sunday was awesome. Vegetarian lasagne for the girls, surf n turf for the boys, garlic bread and salad, with cherry pie and/or chocolate cake for dessert. A heaven that I don’t often allow myself. So yes, I pigged out! Hee hee! 

I made up for it yesterday though, I walked Joe up to the post office and back, to post off all my eBay sales, and then in the afternoon I went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. No-one else was free, so I went on my own, which was cool, although the place was packed! I’d have struggled to find a couple of seats together. I just love Tim Burton, and Johnny Depp always puts the cherry on the cake! The weather was so nice yesterday, it was a nice stroll across the fields to the pictures, just me and my mp3 player.

And what have I been doing today? Well I finished on of Mosey. Looky here…

Such a pretty cabling pattern..

 

On Friday the girls and I are going out to celebrate Pippa’s birthday. We’re going to Red Hot, the local all-you-can-eat international cuisine place. We’ll do our usual party bags and it’ll be fun fun fun. Wonder what mayhem we’ll cause this time :) So this is what I’ve made for Pippa. It’s reclaimed fulled sweater, the same one that I used for my laptop bag actually. I’ve needle felted different coloured roving onto it, then embroidered and sewn beads and sequins onto it. I haven’t made anything for the party bags yet, that’ll be tomorrows projects.

 

Wow, look how much you can get done when you don’t allow yourself to be sucked in by online games! Catch you all later!

 

Catching Up On Old Times!

Well, I never meant to be gone so long! This term has been crazy, and sooo busy! But let me tell you, I haven’t rested on my laurels. I had a visit from an old friend and her daughter who’d emigrated to Australia two years ago. Lola was a wee baby when I last saw her, and here she is, all growed up at the ripe old age of three years old. Joe’s bigger than she is, but after a hesitant introduction, here she is teaching him how to make pompom’s (we made pompom chicks and I hyped her up with double chocolate cookies – hee hee!). I was a touch jealous of her trousers though, almost makes me want to cut up my vintage candlewick bedspread….almost! 

I bought my mum an MP3 player for Mothers Day and made her a case for it. She was going on a cruise to the Dominican Islands, so I gave it to her early. It has vintage sari ribbon decorating it, and a long cord so that she can wear it round her neck! Poor ole Mum, she went down with bronchitis on her cruise and was too ill to enjoy it!

I’ve been treating myself to the odd bunch of flowers just because it’s starting to feel like spring!

I’ve been embellishing an old hoodie with handspun yarn…

Just simple chain stitch flowers, French knots and blanket stitch.

 

And I’ve had a card making session or two, with a mixture of new and recycled embellishments.

I found a very cheap online craft site and have treated myself…..

A friend gave me some clothes that she couldn’t get into anymore, so I’ve been taking them in and up. One of the thing she gave me was a beautiful brown and aqua tie-dye skirt which was about three sizes too big for me, I took it in and made this from the scrap, a vintage button and some matching ricrac. The edges of the fabric will hopefully fray and look all raggedy.

The car’s had a few mishaps this month; I accidently took off the bumper whilst reversing it out of a space (yeah, embarrassing, I know!), then the damn thing conked out last week, so I’m now without wheels and it’s torturous! Just as I’m coming up to my holiday too! I’ve really been missing my yoga and dance classes, but the last bus stops at 6 o’clock and there’d be no way of getting there or back, and believe me, my wages don’t stretch to taxi journeys everywhere. The bus is bad enough, costing me £40 a week in bus fare! I certainly don’t pay that much to run my car for the week and I can use it safely at night too! Pah! Hopefully by the next time I speak to you, I’ll have arranged a loan, and I’ll be showing off a new (to me) car!

Roll on Spring holidays!

New floor!

So we had our new floor done! Hurrah! After three years, possibly longer, the laminate floor which had been sitting in a pile at the side of the room has finally been laid! We paid a lovely guy to do it and it took him almost two days (which is a surprising long time considering the miniscule size of our living room) and was a bitch to do apparently! The floor isn’t even and the wood was slightly bowed (although we think it was like that when we bought it, which explains why we were unable to do it ourselves all those years ago!)

 

Look how lovely it looks! We bought a new rug to compliment the sofa and the floor, and we’ve sat and admired it all for many days now!

We found these lovely little purple flower lights at the same place that we bought the rug (John Lewis for any interested Brits)…

We’re so happy with it!

So this has all spurred me on in my creative endeavours! I have a pair of jeans which are actually a size too big for me now, but with a belt and a longer tunic top look fine. I embellished the hem with some felt flower appliqués….

I even stitched some on the bum pockets!

I’ve also been making brooches from some felted jumpers, some coloured fibre, and assorted embroidery threads, sequins and beads :) This one’s for me, in multi coloured shades of pink, purple, lilac, turquoise and emerald, to go with my lovely new purple coat

and this one’s a gift for a friend! It’s in swirly tones of green, turquoise and purple…

needle felted and embroidered details….I think there’s going to be more of these in the future!