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

After my prototype, I’ve been playing about with the design of my changing pad a little because it seems to be morphing into a large-ish bag rather than a small thing you can pop into your bag. Hmm.

I made another one last week with a snap closure this time so the mat can be folded in four and snapped closed. It’s a lot smaller than the prototype but still too bulky for my liking. The problem is that the bulk is caused by the padding in the mat which was the big selling point for me. I’ve been using mine everywhere, including putting it on a sofa in a cafe so Greer could lie on it comfortably and nap while I had a cuppa but I’m used to lugging a massive bag around with me and adding this hasn’t been a massive ordeal. For your average new parent I can imagine this being a cumbersome nuisance which wouldn’t get used and I need to change that before I start selling these bad boys.

I’ve got one tester lined up and I’m sending another version to a friend who is about to have a baby so hopefully I can iron out the niggles that are irritating me. This one is pretty lush if I do say so myself, but I will NEVER AGAIN attempt to sew fleece to a non-stretchy fabric. What a nightmare!

Posted under for the kids, sewing

So I’m getting a bit more confident with this making stuff without a pattern malarkey, and decided to make Greer a dress. Not just any dress, you understand – a reversible dress that could realistically be worn either way.

Everything was going great guns – I had sewn each side of the dress, pinned the two sides together and sewn around the arms, straps and chest leaving only the hem to be sewn. I pinned the hem together leaving a gap to turn my dress inside out, sewed the hems together, turned the dress and discovered I’d constructed some kind of moebius ring. I still have no idea what I did wrong but after an hour of tantrumming I cut my losses, pinned and sewed the hem from the right side. It’s left me with a hem that isn’t quite as perfect as I’d have liked but for a first effort I’m pretty happy!

What do you think? I reckon Greer likes it (although it is still a little big!)

Kaufman side:

Babycord side:

Greer:

Posted under for the kids, sewing

Firstly a wee thank you to everyone who has left comments, emailed and twittered congratulating us on the birth of baby Greer. It’s hard to believe that this time last week I was in the throes of labour, terrifying passers by as I pottered about the newsagents in the hospital having very painful contractions whilst searching for a decent ice lolly! She has settled into family life with ease and dare I say it, is sleeping and feeding very well.
If you’re interested in keeping up with her progress, Bob has set up a photoblog project here entitled ‘Greer’s 365′ to chronicle her first year in visual form (WARNING – Day 1′s photo was taken immediately post-birth and shows my big boob).

Secondly, the next post will feature my belated 100th post giveaway. I hope to post this on Tuesday as long as I get time to finish the prize and decide what the entry criteria will be.

Finally, considering the Time for Tea swap was finished on the 27th March I am very late in posting this list! In my defence, I have been waiting for a swap between international partners to complete before I posted and that didn’t happen until a couple of weeks ago so forgive me.

I have linked directly to each participant’s entry so that you can see for yourself what a creative bunch we have reading this blog. Additionally you can view the Time for Tea Flickr group to see photos there. A couple of participants either haven’t blogged yet or don’t have blogs – they’re nearer the bottom of the list.

Apryl and Kathryn

Julia and Tor

Megan and Kat

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 was stuck with me!

Pennie and Emma

Erin and Helen

Nadia and Fiona (hasn’t yet blogged the swap)

Posted under family, swaps

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

Well I have to tell you, friends, I have had a most productive weekend.

Yesterday I took a shower for the first time in I’m not admitting how many days. I don’t think I’d mentioned here but followers of my twitter feed will be aware that I hurt my neck badly at the start of the week and I’ve been pretty much confined to bed trying to ease it off since Wednesday. It’s still very sore and indeed I’m seeing both my GP and midwife tomorrow to discuss a plan of action from here but I’ve got a little more stability back today. I think the hot shower helped!

This of course has meant I’ve had most of the week to plot out things to make and do. I’ve managed to finish one little project, more or less finish the prototype of another little project AND spend some quality time with my cooker today! I’ll blog it out over the week so as not to deluge you with a mammoth post!

So today I’ll tell you about my cherry bakewell cake. Actually, I typed that and started salivating because this cake is good cake. Not “alright” cake, not “mmm that was nice” cake. This is “I want to have your babies” cake – well, it is if you like almonds. Otherwise not so much

My one error with this was that my icing wasn’t thick enough. My icing is never thick enough, I’m an icing sugar failure and should just accept it and move on. But looooooook! (Edit – whilst typing up the recipe I realised that it failed because I misread tsps as tbsps. What a diddy.)

Doesn’t that look good?!

To make it yourself, you will need:

200g butter, softened
150g light brown sugar
100g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
50g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
½ tsp almond essence
5 eggs

Filling and topping
½ a 340g jar cherry jam
175g icing sugar, sieved
5-6 tsp lemon juice
Flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease and line two 20cm sandwich tins.
Stick all of your cake ingredients into either your food processor bowl or a medium sized mixing bowl, then using your electric whisk or food processor beat together all the cake ingredients with a pinch of salt until smooth. Divide equally between the tins, smooth the tops and stick them in the oven for 30 mins or until you listen to your cake and you don’t hear tiny bubbles anymore. DO NOT open the oven before 25 minutes is up or your cakes will collapse. Ask me how I know this.

Once they’re done, give them a couple of minutes to cool slightly then tip them out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Get your half jar of cherry jam and loosen it up in a bowl with a fork then spread all over the top of one of your cakes before sandwiching it with the other. Mix your icing sugar with the lemon juice before smearing it over the top of your cake and garnishing with flaked almonds. Done!

This is honestly the easiest cake in the world and it’s SPECTACULAR. Go on – make it and see for yourself

Posted under baking, recipes

I am a big fan of any product that makes my life easier and I’ve been mulling this idea over in my head for a fair wee while. I wanted a baby changing mat that I could pop in my bag, one that would be big enough to hold a couple of nappies, some wipes, some cream and maybe a sleepsuit but which I could also change the baby on comfortably. Add to that complication, I use cloth nappies so a couple of clean nappies tend to take up masses of space AND this whole thing by necessity needed to be machine washable

I decided that what I needed was a bag with a box-style base attached onto the mat so with a bit of tinkering this is what I have come up with.

The bag section is on the left and has a snap button closure in the middle to prevent the contents from spilling out. The changing mat is plenty big enough to lie a baby on. The dimensions of this one were decided based on the item I used to pad the mat but in actual fact it’s probably a little on the too thick side. Ah well, the baby will be comfortable! The changing mat has snap buttons at the corners to close it over securely meaning that any accidents can be contained, and the whole bag flips over nicely. What I did forget was a way to fasten the changing mat to the bag in order to keep it closed but as this is only a prototype that can be remedied with the next version

What do you think? Once I’ve tweaked the design I might offer the instructions for download if there’s enough interest!

Posted under for the kids, sewing