I know that it’s a mother’s job to see her own children as the most gorgeous children in the world. But seriously, I could just look at this face all day.

Look at those cheeks! And those eyes! Isn’t she just gorgeous? Can you guys believe it’s been nine and a half months since she arrived? It feels like yesterday.

Anyway, I’m not cruel enough to put an orange hat on a ginger child – she’s simply modelling for me! I made this hat for my wonderful friend Jenn who had a lovely little girl in January. Jenn’s elder daughter is Nairn’s Canadian birth twin – they were born on the same day 3000 miles apart – and both celebrate their 4th birthday tomorrow. Isn’t that sweet?

This hat is made from the candy cane pattern in Itty-Bitty Hats by Susan B. Anderson and knitted in a lovely Debbie Bliss DK cotton in a beautiful bright orange. Isn’t it cute? Greer certainly seems to think so.

Does this photo remind you of anyone..?

I defy anyone to say my girls don’t look alike

Posted under knitting

Just a quick post from me today!

As a Mum of sons I do feel frustrated at times because all of the super-awesome crafting and sewing projects seem to be directed at girls or little boys, so I’m excited to see what will come out of this idea of “Celebrate the boy” month, run by Dana and Rae. They’ve set up a Flickr group for inspiration and showing off your spoils too.

Let me know if you join in!

Posted under recommendations

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

A few months ago I noticed that Sam of Incy Wincy stitches had organised a button jewellery swap. I hung off joining because things are just MANIC busy for me right now, but when Sam mentioned she was one person short i decided to go for it. I was paired with Laura Figiel of She Draws and I finally got round to posting Laura’s package off yesterday. Only a couple of weeks late – sorry Laura!

Unfortunately, being as far North as we are I’m struggling to get good photographs these days so you’ll have to make do with this. Time to dig out the lightbox again perhaps!

On the left there are two brooches, in the middle there are two hair bobbles, a keyring, a ring and a necklace. I had initially made a bracelet and decided I hated it so had to start afresh. I packaged these up with a FQ of Japanese fabric and a little pouch of Daim sweeties so hopefully Laura is happy.

I will get a photo of what she sent me later in the week Thanks to Sam for hosting this swap!

Posted under jewellery, sewing, swaps

I actually made this over a month ago believe it or not, but I can’t get a photograph of her wearing it because she wears it so often it’s never clean! Using this pattern I made this pinafore-come-smock for Erica as you can see. Now – I had a few problems with this which I’ll share.

1. This is a vintage US pattern. Both vintage and US sized items usually run small for my kids and this pattern was no exception. It fit Alicia’s daughter at almost a 2T size but was so neat on Erica I had to add snaps to the straps to fasten them instead of tying.

2. I thought the smocket looked really cute in the illustrative pictures but when Erica tried it on I didn’t love it. It’s about 3 inches too long in the front, and the back criss-crosses at such a height that she can’t wear it without leggings/tights and a top underneath.

On the plus side, it’s so easy to put together that the things which annoyed me could simply be remedied by raising the hem, lengthening the straps and adding some width. I made it with cream babycord on one side and a polkadot cotton on the other which worked really well. One I’ll definitely attempt again

Posted under sewing

Last week I took the plunge. After seeing work done by two of my friends – Chrissy and Kerry – I’ve been dying to experiment so I took a little trip to this fibreglass specialist and picked up a kilo of clear casting polyester resin. I didn’t want to invest in supplies until I was sure this was something I’d do a lot of so for moulds I used ice cube trays that we had in the house (available from ikea) and some beer bottle tops. Using Kerry’s book called “Create your own resin jewellery” as guidance, I set to work.

Bear in mind that I haven’t done anything to these since they came out of the moulds as they’re still curing! I promise I’ll post more photographs once they’ve been sanded and finished. You can see all my work to date by clicking here to see my flickr set

These ones need topped up

I’m quite excited to do more, now!

Posted under resin

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

I’ve been playing around a little more with jewellery making lately, culminating in me making this bracelet over the weekend. Isn’t it pretty? It’s made with glass beads wrapped in silver wire, hung on a silver-plated bracelet.

As always, click for a bigger picture:

It’s available to buy in my Folksy shop now What do you think?

Posted under jewellery

A couple of weeks ago I received a very interesting email from a representative of Baker Ross, a company I was vaguely aware of through my previous voluntary work with the Beavers. The Lovely Chap explained that he was trying to spread the word about the products they have available for arts & crafts and offered to send me some goodies in return for a review. Well, being a canny Scot I’m never one to turn down a freebie Only problem was, what to choose?

Bob & I spent ages flicking over the site to try and pick. In the end I had a list of – well to be honest, pretty much everything they stock! So I emailed Lovely Chap back and told him that I’d be thrilled to review for him but he’d need to pick for me and last week a package arrived containing half a dozen mini canvases, a pack of Giotto Decor pens and this set of woodcraft kits.

So! I opened the package, looked at the canvases and Bob & I said almost simultaneously “Handprints!” You see, my babies are not really babies anymore and it’s really hitting me. I have the ubiquitous penmarks up my living room door showing how they’ve grown since we moved here four years ago, but I’ve always wanted to make a more permanent reminder.

Look at the difference between them all!! The girls (Erica is a UK6G) managed to fit their hand and foot on one canvas but the boys needed separate ones (Nairn is a UK9G, Findlay is a UK12F), which meant I didn’t really have the fallback of spare canvases if we made a muckup! I did find with Erica it was a bit of a squeeze because her feet are so broad but we managed.

On the whole it was pretty easy – Findlay being older was able to listen to my instructions not to move his hand or foot once it was on the canvas. Nairn and Erica had clearly done similar at nursery by the professional way they slapped their hands and feet down. Then it was Greer’s turn. What a bloody nightmare. First of all I had to feed her so she’d let me paint her foot without screaming the house down. Then, once she’d finished feeding I sat her up to put her foot on the canvas and she spewed on me. I cleaned us both up and painted her hand only for her to decide that she was keeping her hand squeezed as tightly into a fist as possible so I decided to do a fistprint. Started painting the outside of her fingers and she opened her hand up! ARRRGGHH! Hence, Greer’s prints aren’t as neat as I’d have liked but that in itself is a little story to tell her when she’s older

Next time I think I’d use paint pads like these though. The orange, purple and green paints I’d bought when Findlay was a toddler (so at least six years ago now!) and they were very watery hence the resulting prints not being quite as crisp as I’d like. Findlay’s red prints were done with paint the kids got at Christmas which was quite viscous and perfect really for the purpose. The only drawback with this was getting paint out from in between toes and fingers – as you can see, Findlay just loved this part!

Now I just need to paint my hall so my lovely reminders of my tinies can go where I can see them!

Posted under family, with the kids

As I may have mentioned, it was my lovely little sister’s birthday last week and I got her these fabulous earrings made by the fantastic Debbs Elliman

and after badgering Debbs for some of the birds, I’ve made this bracelet to match it:

(Click for embiggenisation)

Now – here are my dilemmas (dilemmae?)

1. It looks a bit sparse to me. What do you think?

2. The bracelet chain looks really chunky compared to the delicacy of the beads and charms. Do you think it would look better on a bracelet blank like this?

Any other handy hints and tips would be gratefully appreciated – my wee sister has been an absolute tower of strength to me over the years so I want this to be special for her

Posted under jewellery