I posted recently about how I’d lost my crafting mojo and I know loads of my friends were feeling similarly, so it made my heart really happy to see that my Saviour Amanda has come up with a productive way to beat the blues.

If you want to join in you’ll need to acquire this book which costs a tenner (inclusive of delivery) from Amazon with the first project being a skirt. You have until 20th March to finish the skirt and upload pictures to the flickr group.

If you fancy joining in, let me know! But please do also pop over to Amanda’s blog and let her know that you’re intrigued because we all know that comments are a blogger’s desire

For a wee injection of cute I need to share this awesome video of Nairn. Voila!

Posted under general crafty updates

I mentioned recently that I’ve lost my crafting mojo and I think these might just snap me out of it. I’ve been making loads of these fabric corsage brooches, initially for my button swap but subsequently as I realised they’re a fabulous way to use up scraps while making something of use. I’ve already made a little one for Erica’s winter coat and I think I’ll have a few up for sale in my Folksy shop over the next few days. What do you think?

Posted under general crafty updates

Very local-centric post quickly, just to say that Mandors in Glasgow are starting their own craft group from this Sunday! I am going to try and make it along – will I see you there?

Posted under general crafty updates, recommendations

A few months ago I knitted these longies with matching hat for Greer from wool that I’d dyed myself. Being that her things were newborn-sized I had a little ball of wool left over, sitting sadly in my knitting bag where it was likely to languish unused. So! A little tutorial for you to find a use for all those little scraps of yarn whilst saving some crap from landfill

When I was at school some of the kids in my year would use pringles tubes as pencil cases and now I use the mini tubes for keeping marbles and rubber bands in. I reckon with a little bit of embellishing these could be quite cute for tweenagers to keep art supplies in or indeed for anyone who just needs a little bit of extra storage. Best of all, the materials are dead easy to come across.

This is the end product:

Before you start, give your tube a good rinse with the strongest smelling liquid soap you own. The pringles tube I used didn’t have a completely even top so I glued some cotton twill tape around the top. Sticky tape would do the same job if you don’t have twill tape.

Now there are two ways you could do this – either cover your tube in double sided sticky tape and wind the wool directly onto it, or do as I did and coat your tube with pva glue. Leave the end of the wool hanging so that you’ll cover it with your winding, then wind your wool onto the tube. Take care not to pull the wool too tightly because it’ll thin your strands out – you want them to stay thick so no writing shows through.

Continue to the bottom of the tube. If you’re using the PVA glue method, dip the end of your yarn into the PVA glue before smoothing it against the tube. The glue will dry clear but this way your end should be hidden securely. As you can see I ran out of my striped wool and had to finish it off with another ball but I think it still works.

Let me know if you try this out yourself – I’d love to see your versions!

Posted under general crafty updates

Stepping outside my comfort zone a little, this is the results of my first ever attempt at fabric stencilling. This wasn’t difficult by any stretch of the imagination but I am going to write up a step-by-step tutorial of things wot I learnt whilst attempting these. Overall, there are some minor details I’m not happy with but I’m pretty pleased with the results. What do you think? (As always you can click on the image to see a bigger version hosted at Flickr.)

Minor irritation – I didn’t stamp my name in a straight line.

Two sleepsuits, two baby vests and a vest top in the middle for Erica’s birthday.

As an aside, I am selling the unstencilled cotton tote bags in my Folksy shop if you’d like to get supplies in to try this yourself. I will make sure the tutorial is available by the end of the week too.

Posted under for the kids, general crafty updates

Very quick little update from me today, I’m going to bullet-point for speed and efficiency.

• This is my 90th post. 90 posts! NINETY! For my 100th post I’m going to have a very special giveaway featuring some handmade goodies so tune in. I anticipate the 100th post to arrive within the next four weeks.
• I have finally bitten the bullet and opened my very own Folksy shop. There’s only some owl stitch markers listed right now but I’ll expand that with time. I am very nervous about this and hope it pans out because I need to start recouping some of the money I spend on crafty things!
• For the fifth week in a row, Erica is too sick to go to nursery. I can’t even explain in words of more than two syllables just how frustrating this is for me. Is it selfish to crave some time on your own? I have one day a week where everyone is at work/school/nursery and I haven’t had that day for over a month and I resent losing that time. I don’t resent Erica because sure it’s not her fault, but I really needed today. Ah well.
• I decided against using the cookie dough. It probably would have been fine, but there were eggs in the mix and with Erica being ill with seemingly no reason I just didn’t want to risk it. I am quite annoyed at the waste, truth be told.
• You can now become a fan on Facebook! Click the link to go to our fan page on facebook – I promise you won’t be bombarded by updates etc.
• We also have a web presence on Twitter and Flickr
• You may have noticed at the bottom of each post now there are a row of little icons. Can I encourage you to explore what they do and how they work for both you and I? Any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them
• Finally, I was wondering why whenever I leave a comment on your blogs I have no avatar that shows up beside my details**. Turns out that there’s a very simple way to do this – just go to www.gravatar.com, register your email address and the picture you’d like associated with your comments et voila! If you already have a wordpress.com account then your gravatar should be linked as long as you’ve registered the email address you use to comment. I know there’s a fair few of you who comment here but don’t have a gravatar set so go go go!

Today is going to be a day in the car. I have to get Nairn to nursery, Erica to see her Doctor, take our growhouse back to a large nationwide DIY store after it blew away Wizard of Oz-style last week destroying all our seedlings (nearly a month’s worth of planting and the DIY store in question are refusing to replace our seeds, making out like they’re doing us a favour by replacing the growhouse. I am unimpressed to say the least!) then we have to get some food in and finally take the cats to the vet before I can sit down. Happy days!

**Edit to add – the ever-lovely Ryan tells me that the gravatar thing doesn’t work for every blog as the blog owner needs to enable that option. For the most part it should work though!

Posted under general crafty updates, site stuff

Sorry for the lack of update recently – I desperately want to blog the Time for Tea swap but there’s a couple of people still to update their blogs or the flickr group with details and I’d like for you lot to see everything that was exchanged because honestly, some of it blew my mind with the creativity and thought put into it.

I’ve been working on a pattern designed byAmanda from Kitschy Coo – the pattern is for a Matinee Jacket that looks like this one from her shop and let me tell you, friends. I have even more renewed admiration for Amanda than I did before. This pattern is outstandingly put together, I had the shell and lining constructed within an hour (including winding two different colours of bobbins) which I think is pretty good going for a complete novice like me. The sole reason it’s not finished is because I cannot for the life of me master the buttonhole setting on my sewing machine! Tomorrow I have some quiet time so I will have it finished tomorrow. Whether I show it to you lot is another matter as I’ve added a “design feature” that I’m not 100% sure of!

Just a reminder too that in the last entry I have suggested a craft challenge. So far the flickr group has eight members so there’s plenty of room for another few of you to join in

Hope you’re all well and enjoying the spring holidays!

Posted under general crafty updates

Firstly I’d like to say thank you to everyone for your very kind comments over the last week or so. Things here are still nowhere near back to normal but as the saying goes, “This too shall pass” and in fairness the worst certainly seems to be past us. I am frantically grabbing at the door to touch wood right now!

Secondly, I would like all of you with young children to head on over to Amanda of Kitschycoo fame’s blog, in particular this post and this post. You see, a month ago I bought this pattern and Amanda also sent me the pattern for her Matinee jacket asking me to test it for her. The pattern pieces are still sitting cut out but unsewn – a month after Amanda asked, I haven’t had two minutes peace to finish it. The thing is her patterns are fantastic! Very easy to follow, beautifully put together and unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere else so when I saw she was doing a giveaway I thought, “I must let my readers know about this!”

Thirdly, I finally managed to get my Time for Tea swap goodies posted off today although I’ve missed the last collection. Sue has been very patient with me as the world collapsed around my ears and I just hope that she’s as happy with what I’ve sent her as I was with her package which Sue blogged here. I actually wore the earrings the night my package arrived and they’re just gorgeous so thank you again, Sue!

This is what I sent to Sue – the candle is made from beeswax and is made in a vintage teacup with matching saucer. This was my first attempt at candle making and in fact I made another to burn myself and make sure it was okay! The silver caddy is filled with Faerie’s blood tea from my favourite little teahouse and there’s also a packet of shortbread fingers as I believe shortbread to be the best biscuit in the world

I also made a little bag with a felt cupcake appliqué and Japanese knot-style closure which I’m very proud of!

What do you think?

Posted under general crafty updates, sewing, swaps

The bright sparks over at Crafteroo organised a challenge with a twist at the end of January, the premise being that members were paired up and had to then produce a gift item utilising both partners’ crafting skills. I was paired up with the very lovely Debbs and we decided that she would make a brooch which could be pinned onto a knitting bag that I’d make but which could also be removed and used elsewhere. This is the final result (with apologies for the not fantastic photograph!)

The bag will be going into the Comic Relief shop on Folksy which is stocked with donated handmade items from Crafteroo members – please have a look! There are some absolutely gorgeous items there from some really talented crafty people.

So what do you think? Would you buy it?

Posted under general crafty updates, sewing

Phew! What a week!

Everyone who has signed up to the Time for Tea craft swap should now have received an email from me with your partner’s information. As I’ve had no emails complaining vociferously, I will assume everyone is happy. For the record, the swap partners are allocated as follows:

Apryl and Kathryn
Julia and Tor
Megan and Kat
Erin and Helen
Julia and Eileen
Hannah and Amanda
Courtney and Chrissy
Laura and Kathryn
Ali and Izabela
Anne and Sam
Jen and Kerry
Gill and Katie
AnnieB and Laura
Sue is stuck with me!
Pennie and Emma
Nadia and Fiona (currently blogless)

All participants should have been invited to the Flickr group but if not please wave and yell in my general direction so that I can get an invite sent out.

I encourage everyone to have a look at these wonderful blogs, it’s a very creative bunch of people that are participating in this swap!

In other news, I will be back later tonight with successful muffins, not so successful oatie biscuits and a craft challenge completed item that I’ve been working on

Posted under general crafty updates, swaps