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!

 

Easter Weekend

Well my little Easter Bunnies, how is Good Friday treating you all? True to form, the weather here is unspeakably grey and drizzly today, not a sunbeam in sight. I have been pounding the keyboard furiously this week so far and have managed to make a dent in the OFSTED paperwork so I’m feeling ready for the weekend and a little fun. Mind you, it’s not been all work this week – Wednesday I had an 8am blood test at the hospital so took advantage of being out and about in what looked very possibly like it might turn out to be a nice morning and packed Joe into the car so that when I had been blooded, we could head over to the nicest park on that side of town, Bradlaugh Fields. The park is named after the eminent Nineteenth Century freethinker and politician Charles Bradlaugh. (Charles Bradlaugh is a fascinating character, in case you haven’t heard of him you can check him out here ). Anyway Joe and I had a lovely stroll about; Joe doesn’t mind when I keep stopping to take photos while M sometimes gets a bit impatient. As you can see in the photo below, the sky was a lovely blue and you could see for miles.

Joe splashed in and out of the streams.

We found the remnants of the old Woodhenge

We admired the glorious yellow flowers of the blossoming gorse bushes

We sat by the chestnut pond for a while – I don’t know why it’s such a pastel green colour.

And nearly stumbled over this fairy ring.

While pondering here I wondered where the name toadstool originates from. Was it in fact from the use of the fungus for little toads to rest their weary legs upon? Did fairies turn naughty toads into toadstools for watching their secret midnight frolics? I discussed this with Joe but he just gazed at me with his head cocked on one side and was saying nothing.

So once I got home I did a little research and discovered that the word "toadstool," (a commonly used name for mushrooms that have an erect stalk and a wide cap) is from "Tod", the German word for death, and the deadly, poisonous nature of certain mushrooms is probably the  origin of the word toadstool. The etymology of toadstool is further compounded by the poisonous nature of toads. Many European folk tales refer to toadstools as places where poisonous toads sit on poisonous mushrooms in the forest, a myth perpetuated in whimsical drawings accompanying fairy tales and other stories intended for children.

So I wasn’t too far off then!

Tired out by our adventure, Joe and I travelled home again.

I’ve also been knitting hard…look, I’ve practically finished one whole arm on my BPT Hoodie!! Squee!

I actually would have completely finished the i-cord edging (which I love, love, love by the way!) but the pattern says to graft the last couple of stitches and I’m not quite sure about grafting. I’m going to have to check that out *lol*

My flower granny square blanket is coming along nicely. I love how you can just bang off a square in minutes and feel all productive! They will all be edged in white and joined together for a lovely coloured kaleidoscope effect. This is all from my scrap stash, you know, those little bits of yarn that really aren’t big enough to do anything with? I do seem to have a lot of them hanging about! It’ll be a lovely flowery blanket for putting on the garden bench to lounge on in the summer. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to lounge in the sun over the summer.

I have lots of floral square patterns to try out and I think the overall effect will be lovely and colourful – a mosaic of colours!

I’ve now done both arms on my ‘Go for Baroque’! I’ve also done the front panels on either side and I’m now edging round the front panels and round the neck. Then I’m *gasp* done!

I know, I can’t quite believe it either! It seems to have taken forever! I’d have finished it much sooner without all this study, but hopefully it’ll all be worth it in the end!

Tonight we have some friends coming round for an evening of Wii and frivolity, and then tomorrow night I’m going to see ‘La Cage aux Follies’ – Hurrah! Sunday I think M and I are going to go to Glastonbury for the day. We’ll climb the Tor, spend some quiet time in the White Chalice gardens, look around the town at the lovely hippy shops and visit the old ruins. The weather says it’s going to be nice weather, so I’m quite looking forward to it! I always feel rejuvenated after visiting Glastonbury!

What are you doing this weekend?

Spring break!

So the time is upon us at last! That time of year which used to be called Easter Hols and is now dubbed Spring break by the Educational Authorities, they who must be obeyed. I don’t care what it’s called, I just know that I have two weeks off from the educating of young minds (whether they want it or not!) – hurray! Mind you it’s been full on so far, I’ve had my haircut, a slightly different cut which parts more to the side than before and a soft side fringe. It really needed it, I’ve always had fine hair, but there’s always been lots of it. Since I started on the Warfarin I’ve noticed that my hair is a little thinner on the top – not quite the crown, but more towards the front and it made me self conscious, so now my hair parting is a little more on the side and covers it. Yes ladies, I have a girlie comb-over! The Warfarin’s also made my nails really soft and brittle, so I’ve been taking calcium tablets to strengthen them again. I’ve had my friend, her partner and her adorable daughters over for a visit. I’ve been to our local S&B meeting in which we totally ripped the piss out of the knitting magazines which we’d all brought in to swap. Someone bought in the Son of Stitch n Bitch to give away, but to be honest, looking through the patterns, I don’t know any male who would have been happy to wear any of the knits in there. Am I alone in looking through a magazine and feeling lucky if I find one pattern in there that I want to knit? This is why I stopped buying magazines. And since the advent of Ravelry, you can find so many wonderful free patterns out there, I have no need to. I taught a friend to crochet and I took my Baroque and see how much more I’ve done? That’s nearly two whole arms now! Don’t worry, there won’t be any more! I do have to do the front panels though, because no matter how rose-tinted my spectacles are, I know that I’m not that skinny at the moment! *lol* I might even get it finished in time to wear over the summer! And then what? Hmmm, what to knit/crochet next? Better check the Ravelry queue!

Look, I finished my cardigan recon! I’m quite pleased with it, it looks completely different! I used the crochet corkscrew technique as my inspiration and after cutting of the unflattering ribbing and the ugly ribbed collar, I used a crochet hook in approximately the right gauge to crochet along the edge of where I’d cut. I did this once in sc to secure it, then in dc, then again in dc in another colour.

Each time I crocheted along I increased to give me that ruffly look, so the first time was just a single stitch in each stitch, the next row I did two stitches in each stitch, then the last row I did two in each stitch again. It took forever but I think it was worth it.

I did a row of sc in each colour on the pockets and on the left pocket I added a jaunty little crocheted flower.

I like how curly the ruffles are. I’m now checking through my knitwear to see if there are any other unloved garments there that are likely candidates for the old cut‘n’shut treatment!

Did I tell you that I had my eyes tested recently and my prescription’s changed a little, so I needed some new specs? No? Well I don’t need glasses all the time but I do need them for the pc and driving (I’m long sighted), and I lost my driving sunglasses recently so I thought I’d check my prescription before I got some new ones. And I also wanted to try out buying my glasses online which I’ve heard is soooo much cheaper than buying from the opticians. I don’t really know anyone that’s done it, but I’ve seen articles in magazines and online so I thought I’d be a trail blazer and give it a go. So armed with my prescription I went a hunting. I have quite a small narrow face and while I kinda know what suits me, I do like to try specs on for fit, because if they’re too wide, I look ridiculous. But I tried out a few of these virtual mirror type of applications and I found one or two sites that gave really detailed measurements of the frames, so I grabbed an old pair of mine and matched the dimensions, and found a couple that I liked. This pair cost me the whopping sum of £15 and have dark red frames. The other pair (which are in the car already sorry) were black decorative acrylic frames with a black tint to use for sunglasses and cost me the princely sum of £39! And they’re both lovely and at that price I could probably afford to have a pair in each room! Sometimes taking a risk is soo worth it!

A week or two ago, the college I teach at had a staff training day with what they laughing called a Learning Fair (sadly no fun involved though, despite the jocular name) and lots of ‘educational’ lectures. The Learning fair consisted of lots of stalls from teachers unions, Human Resources, and various support departments within the college. Boooring! Most of us signed in (gotta make sure you get paid!) and then whizzed round the fair collecting all the freebees. This was one such freebee. A very plain black bag with long shoulder straps which is big enough to get an A4 folder in. Now the size was perfect but I was less than thrilled about the advertising blurb on the side.

One choppedy chop later and I had a piece of white felt cut out which covered that motif nicely, thank you very much!

Then I crocheted a black flower from some regular black acrylic yarn using SkaMamas pattern for a crochet picot flower and sewed it all together. Tada! Much better! I’ll try to get a better picture of it, the background’s a bit dark to see the bag properly. It was late. It was dark. I was tired and excited at finishing it!

And while M spent yesterday travelling up to Manchester to see his footie team play, I spent the day shopping with my Mum, then came back to have a peaceful evening with a glass of wine, playing Mario Galaxy and chomping on Bourneville Orange! (Yummy). Today has also been productive; I’ve been out to lunch with the girls and then I’ve completed an assignment! That feels so good! While I’ve been doing teaching practice the assignments have kind of been put to one side. M’s back at work tomorrow so I’ll get the place to myself for a few hours and hopefully I can get some more work done tomorrow. I need to get enough to to be able to go to London to see Graham Norton in The Birdcage without guilt! I wonder if they’ll let me take piccies? Have a good week folks! 

Spring is springing….

Well my pretties, how are we all today? All fooled out and ready for spring? Isn’t it nice that the weather’s starting to get warmer and the plants are starting to peek their little shooty heads up out of the soil? I have officially broken up for Spring break and things would be looking wonderful about now except that we have an OFSTED inspection the second week that we return. *Sigh* There’s always something isn’t there? If you live in another country and aren’t familiar with OFSTED Inspections, they are the absolutely super jolly people who visit educational institutions here in Britain, can you tell I’m being extremely ironic and sarcastic here? There is one word guaranteed to strike terror in to the hearts and souls of anyone involved in the education of young minds and that word is OFSTED. They are meant to govern educational facilities and monitor the standards of said institutions. Most OFSTED inspectors appear to be failed teachers, so the mere suggestion that the can sit in my class and observe my techniques, and pour over my lesson plans and schemes of work is ironic to the extreme. Nobody likes being observed. No-one ever gets used to it. The kids hate it. It changes the whole dynamics of the classroom. The inspectors never introduce themselves. I just hate it. I currently teach in an independent school and an FE college. The school was OFTED’d last year and the college is being OFSTED’d this year. Wonderful. I understand the theory behind inspection and I’m okay with that. I think education should be the highest quality possible. I just could have done with it at another time. I have assignments to write and lessons to plan and I really don’t need the stress of an inspection and all the paperwork involved at this moment in time.

So okay, grumble over. I’m sure I’ll get it all done. We have longer days now, and the promise of spring has put a new, well, a new spring in my step. Corny? Yep, I’m completely up for it all. And I have a whole two weeks off! Two weeks people! Word has got round though, my diary is booking up fast. I have a haircut booked for tomorrow morning followed by an observation (fun fun eh?), a stitch ‘n’ bitch meeting Saturday lunchtime, then a visit from my childhood buddy and her other half and sprogs, for cake and Wii bowling. Sunday brings an early morning shopping trip with Mum, then I get an evening to myself whilst M goes to see his footie team play in Manchester! Monday the girls and I are having lunch out at a local pub, that’s bound to be an outrageous outing, Wednesday brings the dreaded blood test and Good  Friday my friends are coming round for fun and games. Okay, yeah, we’re busting the Wii out again. Hell, that’s the best money we ever spent, it gets fired up maybe three times a week! And then I’m going to see  la Cage au Follies (the Birdcage) at the West End in London on Easter Saturday, Graham Norton’s starring. I’m really looking forward to that! Although I have to admit that Graham Norton looks kinda scary in this photo.

The rest of the week is going to have to be filled with study. Okay yeah, there will also be crafts. Hee hee! Remember the granny squares that I’ve been doodling with? Here’s what I’ve done so far. It’s all scrap yarn so far. I’m wondering about joining my squares as I go and after reading Lucy’s tut I’m definitely going to give it a go.

And then I got distracted again. Yep, so sorry about that. I know you want me to finish my BPT hoodie or my Go for Baroque, but I needed instant gratification and decided to do a little reconstruction on a boring cardigan that I never wore. Why did I never wear it? Well just look at it. Not me at all.

It has long ribbed sleeves and a long ribbed waist and a massive ribbed collar. And it zipped all the way up the collar and then it was supposed to fold over. Hmmm. So in these credit crunch times I decided to make something wearable from it and I chopped off the collar and the sleeves and the waist, and took my trusty crochet hook to it. I’m not quite finished yet but lets’  have an in progress photo…

I’m really liking it so far and can’t wait to finish and wear it!

And something I just threw together is this long beaded necklace. I used some thin purple cord and some beads from my stash, and the charms are from little pendants that people gave me growing up and I didn’t wear anymore because they were too small, but I didn’t want to get rid of them. They all have memories attached to them. 

Right, I’m off to see if I can finish my cardigan. What are you all up to?

 

Tree of Happiness Award!

Hey, it feels like aaages since I last blogged but it’s only been a week! It’s been a crazy week though. I’ve done my third observation for my TESOL and transferred to my second class which is a lower level than my other class (Entry One level), I’ve done my second class with my new Vocational Studies students, I’ve done my art lessons as normal and covered another teachers lessons. I’ve been to belly dancing and worn my new tassel belt which is super swishy by the way in case you were wondering! M and I went out to dinner  one evening, we had our grass verge partially paved (it was getting worn down and muddy by the cars being driven on and off the drive because our drive is very windy), I went to yoga, I spent the evening with Sis playing the Wii (she’s just got Family Trainer) and she cooked for me. Family Trainer is hilarious, you have a plastic mat with sensors in and you jump around on the mate to do all the challenges like climbing mountains, jumping hurdles and skipping. You can play competitively or as a team. Sis has patio doors which are very reflective at night and the sight of ourselves leaping around clutching various parts (I had to hold down my necklace because it kept bouncing up and cracking my teeth, and Sis was holding her trousers up, was almost too much to bear! Last night I went over to my mates whilst M and his mates watched the footie here. We cooked pizza and had salad and played Mario Karts till almost the wee hours. Her eleven year old beat us. Alot. Sigh.

A high point of this week was receiving the Tree of Happiness award from Ducky! Thank you so much Ducky! It’s so lovely to get a bit of recognition from my fellow bloggers:-)

Okay, so I nominate Kookie because she desperately needs some happiness right now, her niece is very ill, so send all your healing thoughts and vibes her way; Morgiana who always brightens up my day; Lauralness who is nursing N at the moment; Cinders who always puts a brave face on things and hand-dyes the most amazingly happy colour ways (check out her shop if you haven’t discovered her yet!); Ducky your felty creations always make me smile and of course your colour ways as always are gorgeous; and 2Paw your puppy adventures always make me happy, so I’m passing the love back to you! 

My crafty endeavours this week have been concentrated round the production of gifts for Friday; I have two friends with birthdays this week so they are having a joint party with party bags and party games because we are kind of juvenile like that! We each have to take a mini gift for each party bag and there’s going to be twelve of us so here’s what I’ve made for the party bags 

 

Twelve sparkly key rings

 

 

And then here’s what I’ve made for the birthday girls

 

Can you see a pattern emerging? Each birthday girl will receive a matching pair (either blue or pink) of candle holders with matching T-light candles and a bath bomb. Which may have glitter in too! Hee hee, there’s no such thing as too much sparkle! Wanna see a bit more?

 

 

 

Keilo approves…

 

 

Pippin was too busy chilling

 

 

I finished my freeform hat (Better pictures will follow, I promise!)

 

I also busted the beads out to make a necklace in my favourite colours and a bracelet. Which doesn’t match so don’t get all disappointed now!

I’m not a hundred percent happy with the dark blue beads, they don’t really go with the pale blue in the beads, so I may look out for some beads to match and deconstruct it.

This bracelet is made using that stretchy nylon stuff; don’t know what it’s called. It’s not exactly elastic because it’s not woven. Hmm. Maybe I’ll remember the proper name, but let’s pretend that it’s called plastic elastic.

The faceted beads have a iridescent coating which really sparkles, and they go with the blue in the lamp-worked beads.

Hey I was on my way home from College today and I pulled up behind a vehicle that was parked in the middle of the road leading from the car park, still on college grounds you get me? I couldn’t get past coz the road was pretty narrow and the doors were spread wide. Suddenly a huge gaggle of people burst out of one of the reception doors and bustled in a group towards the car. There was maybe eight or ten people in the group; I recognised security and some ambulance men, I saw a tutor I recognised from my faculty and a few other people. And right there in the middle I saw the limp bodies of a couple of girls being dragged and carried to the car. The tutor recognised me and came over to tell me that the students lessons had been cancelled at lunchtime due to staff sickness and some of the students had decided to go to the pub. They turned up later to college absolutely rat arsed. You know what that means? It’s a bit of English colloquialism which means that they were super super drunk! They were being collected by one of their Mums! We (me and my colleague) laughed about it quietly to each other and wished them a hefty hangover to make them rethink their misdemeanours! I’ve been in some scrapes in my time, but I’ve never ever had to be bailed out by my Mum! Ha! The shame! I don’t think they were students that I teach, which is maybe a good thing coz I don’t think I could resist the temptation to do a little bit of teasing! Sometimes teaching brings it’s own rewards in the form of free entertainment!