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!

 

Painting potty! (swap spoiler alert)

The weather has become more sultry over the past week, alternating between scorching hot blue skies and tempestuous clouds. We've had thunder and lightning, gale-like winds, sudden and speedy monsoon downpours and beautiful sunsets. No time for sunbathing, no long and balmy days uninterrupted gardening and no light sheen of sweat adorning my body most becomingly *lol* I love the heat, sunshine how we doth adore thee...with my medical history, sunshine may not exactly be the best thing for me, but the heat certainly makes things more comfortable ...I like being able to feel my extremities, I like to move around unencumbered by layers of clothing and I like to be able to touch someone without them exclaiming on the coldness of my hands! My INR however is lower than it has been for almost a year, dangerously low in fact, and I'm back to weekly testing and ultra high dosage. I can't work out whether this is due to my current diet which is high in vitamin K rich foods like salad and chickpeas, or whether it's down to the increase in sunshine and my recent inactivity, but last summer my anti-cardiolyphid antibodies kicked off in precisely conditions like this although there was considerable more stress involved this time last year. Anyway, let's not linger on negative thoughts like that, my blood clotting levels may be dangerously low, but I am being tested weekly and I'm having my meds adjusted accordingly, so things should be okay.

Well, at least with the cooler weather the cats have reappeared from their garden haunts, Keilo is back on the window ledge and Pippin is on the sofa. I've been alot more productive. There's been housework done which I'd been putting off because it was so hot. I've been painting like a demon...

It’s for my Hippy Swap partner so I hope she's not looking! I also made her an embroidered flower hanging...

It’s a flower, different colours on each side, embroidered and embellished with sequins in each centre. Then I strung beads on each side (top and bottom), and hung ribbons at the bottom to flutter gently in the breeze.

These are destined for sale in my eBay shop if you fancy having a look....

This would be lovely to burn a tea light candle in, or just as a trinket/coin dish…

And this would be a great ring pot to keep in your bedroom, or by the sink…

This is an oil burner/diffuser; you put a tea light candle in the base, then put some water and essential oils in the glass bowl and place it over the candle-light. The oils will then diffuse into the room and fill the room with scent. I love the shape of the base, so unusual!

I've also been reconning some t-shirts; I don't like crew neck shirts, so I’ve been recutting them to be more comfortable, then zigzag stitched round the neckline to be more stable, otherwise cut t-shirts have a habit of growing! I have a work one in the pile to do shortly; we have to wear a recognisable t-shirt when we staff summer school trips...we have groups of very young people for the summer school this year, the youngest is 12 years old!

The latest girlie get together involved the consuming of cake and sangria, the painting of nails and bouncing wildly on a trampoline!

 

Hope your week’s been as fun as mine!

 

 

Belly dancing and Birthdays and Bulbs! (Spoiler alert!)

The weather is absolutely scorching here, yesterday hit temperatures of 29 degrees with promises of over 32 to come. The Met Office has issued heat waves warnings for the first time ever! After two summers with hardly any sun, Britain is enjoying the sun. We have had rain, but it’s been at night! You know, when you were a kid in the olden days before the Sims came along, you would imagine your perfect world in your head and on your drawing book, and it only ever rained at night! Listen up Gods and Goddesses!

Some pictures from my garden!

So what have I been doing for the last week or so? Well, I’ve managed to lose another four pounds making total weight loss now 1 stone and 1 pound so far! The Wii Fit says that I’m now in my ideal range and no longer a bit overweight! I’ve got another half stone to lose before I’m at my goal weight. Daily dog walks and plenty of gardening have helped I think. I probably would have lost a bit more but I went to a Birthday party on Friday night and of course had to sample the naughty delights laid out including cake! More of that later on!

Thursday night was the Summer Hafla which was great fun! The coach was leaving at 6pm and I was supposed to be teaching till 4pm, so I let my students go half an hour early so that I could get home, change and be at the meeting point in time. It was a fab night with many many different styles – tribal, Celtic Gypsy fusion, African fusion, Raqs Gothique, a belly dancer and a flamenco dancer who perform together, Bangra fusion, Bollywood fusion….too many to mention really!

Then Friday night we had a Birthday BBQ for a friend…well it would have been a BBQ but the weather was a bit iffy (night-time showers) so we had a party inside with our usual pass the parcels and party bags and lots of naughty food like home-made burgers, falafels, garlic and herb bread, huloumi (not sure if this is the right spelling), salads, hummus, pasta, meringue and raspberry deserts, lemon meringue pie and birthday cake!!!

(I’m sure I must have put weight on after this cake!)

Even the dogs got involved!

And the crafting? You may think I’ve been resting on my laurels, or chopping them down anyway, but no! There’s been crafting action too. Yesterday I painted some bulbs ready to put in my eBay shop

And I finished my huge swap project for the Hippy Swap over on Craftster. TintedShadow don’t read any further! So this project has taken forever but it’s finally finished and I’m so pleased with it!

TintedShadow doesn’t crochet so I knew that I wanted to crochet her something because I always think it’s nice to make someone something that they can’t make for themselves. She had a poncho on her list of things that she’d quite like so the stripy poncho idea was born. I totally winged this baby. Then I had the bright idea to add a little something…

and decided to add a hood which took so long but really really worth it! I wanted the hood to be a little loose around the face, and to kind of drape on the shoulders a little, which it does! Actually when you wear it, it looks like one of the Elven Fellowship cloaks from the LOTR films.

So I’m finally finished it!

And then, building on my smocking success of last week, I created these!

Again, I kinda winged this pattern, I half drew round a pair of trousers that I liked and changed the fullness of the legs a little. The fabric is from my stash so they didn’t cost me anything.

I shirred round the waistline to make them fit snugly

And because I can’t not do, I embellished them with some ribbon and lace! I’m planning some appliqué too!

My next swap project is this…

…any ideas as to what it might become? If it’s sunny where you are, enjoy the sun!

DaWanda

I opened up a Dawanda Shop before Christmas, but I've only just got around to putting anything in it. DaWanda is kind of like a European Etsy, open to International as well as European shoppers of course, but I'm interested to see how it develops. I've just popped a few things in there for now, there's a link on the side bar if you want to drop in and see me there.