Holiday and a few crafty updates

I have just had my holiday for the year - we went to the Norfolk Broads for a long weekend on a canal boat. It was very very cold but a lot of fun! I would definitely do it again and would recommend it to anyone else who is considering this kind of holiday. We had a great time - all you need to do is make sure that you find a warm pub to stop at if you go in winter. The cold did mean that the fish hat and scarf got a lot of use!

I have had a very crafty day today and also when we got back yesterday but mostly working on getting all of the things finished for my swap. I can't put any photos up yet as I am still trying not to give anything away but hopefully they should all be finished in the next week and get posted off.

I still need to make the tassels for the table runner which I might try to do this evening.

The only other thing that I have been working on a scarf for myself - it's going to be one of those ones that you join together in a loop. It's the first time I have tried to do any cable stitches so isn't perfect as I think I lost a stitch at one point which is why the pattern has gone a little bit wonky but I'm hoping that by the time it is done it shouldn't be too noticeable.

I love the effect that the stripes in the wool are coming out with

While I was away I also found an amazing gift shop and couldn't resist buying a few treats for myself and also getting a few ideas too. I bought this fantastic gingerbread ribbon! Not sure exactly what I am going to do with it yet as it is really wide but I still love it! If anyone has any ideas then please let me know.

Finally I also saw an advent chain (I guess that's what you would call it!) in the shop - I know this shouldn't be too difficult to make so this might be an idea for next year - I might have to find the old sewing machine and have a go. I don't have a very good picture to show you but it was basically 24/5 pockets all sewn out of different Christmassy material and each with a number sewn to them. They were then all attached to a piece of string (or I guess you could use ribbon). I think this is a lovely idea and would be great to hang up anywhere really around the house as a bit of extra Christmassy bunting. Maybe next year I'll give it a go.

Ooooh! I almost forgot to say - the coin Pudsey collected a really rather impressive total go £10.56 for Children in Need! Not too bad for a little gathering amongst friends.

Almost, almost, almost!

Really quick post tonight but I just wanted to say I have nearly nearly nearly done it!

It's long enough!

Edge is getting there!

Edge is done!!! Woohoo!

 And here's a lovely close up for you too.

All I have left to do now is make a couple of tassels, one for each end and then decorate it with stars and Christmas trees etc when I get some more coloured cotton.

I'm so pleased as this is the first thing I've ever crocheted. The stitches at one end are slightly tighter than the other so I'm glad I didn't start with a jumper or anything but hopefully this should look really good on our coffee table for quite a lot of Christmases! Yey!

Children in Need

Yesterday was Children in Need so we didn't need much more of an excuse to host a party. The theme was yellow or spots and we had a load of friends round to watch the TV show (and hopefully we could also raise a little bit of money along the way too).

A couple of our good friends came round about lunch time to help us decorate our living room up with anything spotty/Pudsey related. We printed off loads of pictures of Pudsey and the Children in Need logo and stuck them around the room (ok so we did the door and most of the other sticking was done by my friend)!

 

They ended up all over the other wall too and even stuck to our hideous fire (too hideous to even show you a picture)!

We also had quite a lot of help blowing up balloons and (very prettily I think you'll agree) stringing them up across the fire and along the window

Finally we also made some tissue paper pom poms. I found these on another blog and thought that they'd be perfect for the spots theme of Children in Need. They are so simple but really effective. I'll try to run through how we made them (please excuse that the photos look like the tissue paper changes colours part way through - I didn't take photos of all of the steps on one pom pom)

Firstly layer 10 sheets of tissue paper on top of each other in a stack (as neatly as you can). I think the sheets that we used were about A1 size and as you can see they make pretty dramatically huge pom poms - I'm sure if you reduce the size of the sheets and maybe the number that you use then you could make smaller ones - I think I might give this a go with all white paper near Christmas and try to make a snowman. Anyway we were stacking paper:

Fold the tissue concertina style all the way along - I left about an inch between each fold line. Again I guess maybe less with smaller sheets:

Tie some string around the middle leaving the ends long enough to hang the pom pom later:

Shape the ends - we made a few and shaped all of the ends differently so just experiment - it depends which look you want to go for:

Unfold the sheets into a kind of giant bow tie shape:

And then start to separate the layers - be careful to make sure that the first one you pull out as far as you can and also try not to rip the tissue paper (it is very thin and my finger nails ended up going through it a few times):

Once you have done about half of them it should look something like this:

This is when it gets quite tricky and you could do with a second person to help as I did - you either have to dangle it in mid air to try to separate the sheets on the other side or try to balance it carefully without crushing the side that you have just separated. When they are all separated they should look something like this - we experimented with a few different colour combinations. A nice tasteful blue-y coloured one (we forgot to shape the edges on this one):

 All of the bright pinks, oranges and yellows - with spiky ends (just cut the concertina at a diagonal):

And a couple with totally random combinations (with inward curved edges):

 (And outward curved edges):

All in all I think they looked pretty good and worked well for the spotty theme.

We had a really lovely evening with our friends and raised a little bit of money too with the help of the change pudsey that we printed from the internet (everyone donated some change to stick on Pudsey). We haven't counted it yet but I think there will be a few pounds.

One done!

Woohoo! I'm really pleased because tonight I finished and made up the very first of my Bake Off Recipe Books. I am dead chuffed with the way it has turned out. The covers are a bit of a faff but I think well worth it when it's all put together.
The first set of content has been printed:

Cover covered in sticky backed plastic 

 And finally the rings and inside pages added to bind all of it together:

I am really pleased with the way it turned out. We just have to make another 2 before Friday when we are having all of our friends round for a Children in Need party so we can give them all their copies then. There may also be a couple going out nearer to Christmas for a couple of other people who have requested a copy.

Other exciting news - I have almost finished my table runner:

It is soooo close to being long enough to start doing the white at the other end it is almost painful - I think I will do a few more rows on here whilst watching I'm a Celebrity in a few minutes.

Henlow is still tortois-ing about and we're quite pleased that he seems to be loving his new light.

We have got some more matching mats and coasters to match our crockery - a friend bought us a set of 4 coasters when we moved into our new house so we just had to request a few more as well as some place mats to match:

They have been made by his mum (www.susicoxglass.co.uk) and go really well with all of our crockery and fit in well in our kitchen - including with our new "family Rules" sign that is up on the wall - we saw this in a shop in Lincoln last weekend and simply couldn't resist. I think it certainly sums up the rules for staying/living in our house very well.

Finally, last night I found out how to and made my very first flat crochet in the round. I can't really reveal what it is for as it is part of something I am sending on my swap but I don't think this is too bad for a first attempt.

I will reveal all of the pieces and what it forms part of once I know that my swap goodies have been received.

I think that's about it for today but I'm sure I'll have more crafty goodness to share with you later in the week - I am off work on Friday and need to make decorations and some food treats for our Children in Need party - watch this space! Any ideas for decorations would be greatly appreciated - preferably things on a spotty/yellow theme and that are fairly quick and easy to make.

Card request

Well what an eventful week - our car broke on Monday but we manage to get it to work and the garage on Tuesday morning. £350 later we picked it up last night and it completely stopped almost on one of the busiest roundabouts in Nottingham. Adam did a fab job of getting it into the car park around the corner with no electrics so no power steering or anything and it went back to the garage. They have had it all day today and done no work on it but at least they have found out that this bit will be covered on the warranty and they should be able to fix it tomorrow.

Anyway - happier things :-) That hasn't turned out as bad as we thought so not too awful anyway and should be fixed soon. Today was my last day at work for the week so I'm really excited about my long weekend coming up - going out to see some friends tonight and Christmas shopping with my Mum on Saturday - I think we might need to do some tomorrow as well but we'll see how we feel in the morning.

Yesterday I was asked to make a bespoke greetings card - something I love doing but mostly when I have a specific person in mind to be making them for - I'm not so great at getting the stock ready - something I am planning on working on though.

The card was for someone I work with's Grandad and her daughter Grace's Great Grandad - All I was told that it should be made in fairly manly colours and that he likes gardening.

Whoops - had to go out at this point so finished the rest of the blog this morning

I love this rabbit gardening stamp that I have:

I stamped a few of these, coloured different bits in:

Then decoupaged them:

My husband printed the backing paper and greeting out for me and we stuck it all together:

Ta dah!

Start to finish (well almost) in one day

Woohoo! I have received the first comment on my blog! I'm really pleased as I know I haven't advertised it at all really so it's good to see that people are taking the time to read it and even better to comment. I also discovered from checking the stats the other day that I have a viewing in Germany - also very exciting - I hope that these people continue to read it and like what they see :-)

Have had another crafty day again today - I'm making the most of the weather and my husband having to work weekends.

Yesterday afternoon I managed to go and watch the football with one of my friends, which is brill as I get a free ticket and otherwise could never afford to go. As it was really cold yesterday I had a rummage around before setting off to see what warm and cosy treats I could find to wrap up in and managed to find 2 matching (almost finished) scarves in the club colours as well as another half complete one. I'm not sure why I was making so many in the past but always come in handy I guess. The one that I ended up wearing I think I was planning on adding tassels to at some point - hence the ends are not fully finished. It kept me warm yesterday afternoon though and somehow has managed to create me another little project to finish. I will make sure I add some tassels before I wear it again.

Today I have been making something for my craft swap - I don't want to give too much away so have taken a photo when I hadn't long started. I have managed to finish this part of it already today so I obviously managed to drag the old skills back from the depths of my brain not too badly.

The other excitement of the day was that by the time we got up Henlow was still fast asleep and in the dark - bless him. His lamp hadn't come on this morning and we think the whole fitting had also gone too. A trip to Pets at Home and about £100 later and he is happy again and running around eating anything and everything that is put in front of him - back to his usual self.

I know that I have brought it on myself by deciding that I don't want to give away anything that I am making for the swap but it is really frustrating not being able to share what I have been making - not long to wait though - I will share all when I know that all of the goodies have been received.

Now to check how to make the magic circle in crochet for sure (not sure if I have been doing it right) and back to the crafting - see you again soon!