"I wish I had time to do crafty stuff."

I am sitting here sifting through the camera again and have finally found some missing pictures!  I wanted to share these because, honestly, I just want to show off and take a moment to remember that work doesn't take over every spare minute.  I am always surprised by how many times I hear the phrase, "Where do you find the time?" or "I wish I had time to do crafty stuff." It does sometimes sound a little critical as if I should feel lucky to have sooo much spare time that I can just pootle around indulging a hobby.  The truth is, as all crafters know,  we all get the same time in a day and I choose being active over sitting for hours watching tv every evening.  I think most crafters are noctural as we seem to come alive during those twilight hours!  A friend of mine who whips up the most amazing dresses, always seems to want to start a  new project around about 9pm!  So this post is to remind me that those stolen hours before bed (and even before the family awakes) mounts up those little projects pretty quickly.
So, did  I tell you about the Christmas Bazaar?  This year, instead of making a ton of Christmas presents, I decided to make a bundle of goodies for the Church Bazaar.  I started whilst on the long train journey to my sister's for our Yarndale experience.  I crocheted mini stockings, felty garlands and stockings, pot holders, felty baubles, sweetie cones and loads of hair clips.  I loved it!  I was given a little parcel of cheap fabric and did a bit of a "Mocholate" with it.  If you know your "Friends" you will know that a  small amount of mocholate (chocolate substitute) was mixed with much nicer ingredients.  So I happily took small amounts of the bundle to mix with my own stash of felts, ribbons and trims (ahem).  As is always the case, the small, quick projects sold out and the pot holders- which took forever- didn't move.  Never mind eh!  The only real downer was I wasn't able to man the stall as at the last moments, the face painting lady didn't show up.  So I sat and painted tigers, butterflies (and even one dad as batman) for the entire day.

    

Never mind,, as I got  stuck by these two fabby friends who made me laugh the whole time!
I will  post soon on how I made the bow clips as I have now made so many (with two girls- how could I escape it) 

Christmas Feltie- Trees (in bulk)

Here's to Christmas and making decorations in bulk!  I really must get a wriggle on and create my own Felties designs as I always enjoy working in multiples.  My inspirational sisters encourage me to start my own little business.  And now that I have found a specific taste and a bit of a personal style, I think that 2013 Is the year to get the business ball rolling! So watch this space!

These darlings come from that lovely Fa La La favourite- Definately an all round classic!

It's sewing city over here!

Hello New Year!

It's so nice to have a break from Christmas for a while. I've been having a comfortable January hitting some long awaited projects- several of which I forgot to take pictures for sadly : (

A new hat for me, phone covers for hubbie and sister and lots of over due button-sewing and clothes mending. All these have been made much easier by a long-awaited (and much desired) craft cupboard! It may be small but it's my little space and I love it.

No more hunting for books on the edges of shelves and fishing around under the bed for boxes that never want to come back out unless you lift the darn bed...My buttons are in cute boxes, fat quarters neatly folded and my ribbons are now in a sweet little jar. There is even a bottom cupboard that fits in my sewing machine and larger cloth pieces as I am now getting really good at saving beautiful fabrics from old, worn out and outgrown clothes, buttons and trimmings instead of bundling the lot off to the local charity shop.

These two little Christmas felties are what I made in my spare Christmas holiday minutes. They're both from "Fa La La Felt" (see previous posts) and they have come out so beautifully. This is the kind of thing you can only do when nothing else is pressing as there is a lot of time taken for such a tiny object. They are so worth it now and I am loving how each pattern works up. I will tag my Fa La La projects so you can see how I'm working through this great book.February also sees "Hero Day" at my school. It's my own fault! I've organised a day to celebrate real life heroes past and present and one of the activities is dressing up for the children. I had my costume pretty much sorted until I remembered that Katie was going to need one too! So, I've been pillaging the local charity shops and got loads of cheap fabric and sheets and have been madly cutting and stitching up the costumes. I look forward to sharing these next month- I just hope I can get them finished in time....

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well! I can just breath a sigh of relief and stop the crazy Christmas crochet. No more, nup, nadda, zip, I'm all finished on gifts, wrappings, trimmings and trappings... It's been so long with the work basket out each night that last night's bid for freedom felt sooooo wrong.
Katie's Christmas wrap (the rainbow coloured strip bottom right) was only finished on the 22nd and was causing me so much stress! I could only do it when my little darling was asleep, so, fitting it in with dinner, work and-oh yes- sleep was tricky. But it's done and it's lovely. Thick and warm. Small enough to fit her frame and large enough to use as a small adult wrap will keep it usable for as long as she wishes.
Presents this year seemed to be mainly scarves. This bulky pattern from "Cute and easy crochet" that I talked about last post knocks up so quickly and looks the business.

A last minute gift was this cute pudding. It was a free pattern that came as an email gift from "Inside Crochet" magazine which I was subscribed to. I haven't found many patterns that I would use from this year's magazines, so I haven't renewed my membership. Then this pattern sprung up and it's right up my street. Easy, quick and fun. It's now part of a gift box of handmade decorations for my Mum.
These Christmas projects have now taken my Ravelry page to over 60 projects. Will 2012 see my first 100?? It's a challenge I think I'll go for.

So, Merry Christmas everyone! Have a good holiday and look forward to coming back online after some serious family time!

Back from the wilderness!

Hello Peeps! Did anyone out there miss me?? I've just come back from a 2 week break in the Forest- of-Dean (pronounced "Far-rist" mostly) and, boy, did I miss my Wi-Fi. There was no signal for phone or internet in our little caravan which made catching up with friends and family particularly tricky. I had to use a pay phone- it's surprising how strange that felt...


Anyway, I took a whole bag of wool and patterns to work through but got very little done I must admit as, by the time the girls were down and we had eaten, it was way past 9pm and we were only good for a short read before turning our sofas into a bed again.




The joy of a teeny caravan! There's a certain Ballet that needs to be performed for every little task where both of you are looking after bouncy bundles of energy and trying to move around a small space. It normally involves one doing baby care whilst other is standing doing washing up and cooking and entertaining big sister with lots of swapping around. So getting out and about was definitely the key!



One of my highlights was accidentally coming across a craft group on the one evening we had a drink in the pub. I must admit that I gate-crashed these lovely ladies in "The Fountain" in Parkend and probably looked a bit crazed as I was having hook withdrawal symptoms. They politely listened to my wittering and I came away refreshed and eager to get my hooks out when we got back and settled for the night. Thank you Ladies! I'll be back in the Summer if it would be alright to say hello again?




I did manage to make these two little dears as gifts for my friend and her little girl- A Snail finger puppet and an owl from my lovely "Fa La La Felt" book which I'm really pleased with. Hope everyone had a lovely Easter break x