Being Crafty

I recently had a week off to be lazy and have some crafty "me" time, it didn't really go to plan but with a inspiration from fellow bloggers, crafty magazines and a little trial and error I finally managed to get crafty!

My Nan used to remove all buttons and zips from clothes before throwing them away. Whilst watching a film one evening I twiddled and twirled one of the zips into this floral'esque brooch, which I rather like.

My friend Alison, a print artist and social media teacher and I had a pop at making some earrings, rings and hair slides. We've been collecting unusual objects to continue this idea most of our beads came from Japan which, Alison sourced whilst on a photography project. 

This little mosaic was a birthday gift and made a pleasant afternoons distraction to the pouring rain,

plus I have a shiny new coaster!

finally my sewing machine saw action after a little inspiration from Lazy Daisy and 

Mary Jane Baxter.  I finally made some head bands from vintage buckles and some vintage pillow

cases as well a some modern cotton. Just for fun I knitted a bow hair slide!

after all this creativity I needed a little rest!

Easter

Hope you all had a Happy Easter even though it was a chilly one!

i've updated my tree with feather birdies from Tiger (brilliant Shop) and I made the eggs from a pattern in Making and made a few more poms! 

My Easter started Wednesday as I don't work Thursdays. One of my work colleagues retires this month and took us all out for dinner, about twenty of us! I'm third from left

I baked Banana bread

I knitted egg cosies for my Niece and Nephew (these were the free pattern from a daily newspaper

I cheated a little on the design) They're keeping Kinder eggs warm

We watched ITV3 and enjoyed the old films. I did some knitting to those too

My tree is now an Easter Tree in now in the front room,

you may remember this tree for here and here!

Notice my little owl, I knitted this over Easter, if you look closely, you can see the pattern in the previous picture! Its from a Christmas knit book I mentioned before, here he is close up

Isn't he Tweet!

ps I've been very good and only chomped two Cream Eggs (honest)

Pom-pom's

I love Pom-poms, easy to make and cheerful too, like fairy lights, I just get enough! A few years ago I scored a pom-pom maker from a car boot sale, new in its box, never used, such waste. I used to make poms the old school way,  two circles of card with small balls of wool from mum and nans scraps. Now I have scrap's of my own to turn into things of beauty…well that might be over doing it just a little bit…

My little white bird is made from air dry clay, I pushed him onto a clear drinking straw so I could stick him in to the foliage of pot plants such as herbs. Now all my herbs are dead  *ekk! So he's in with the twigs!

**This would be a simple easter project with or without little ones, you could make bunnies from clay or little eggs which you could then paint, or why not make Pom-Pom Bunnies????! Why didn't I think of that before...

You know its Autumn when...

You know its Autumn when you start cooking stews, harvest your mammoth crop (yes, my one and only apple!)

My Mums gold fish were also impressed with my apple and came to have a look when I took the photo at her house...

You know its Autumn when the light changes in your home,

You know its Autumn when you spend nearly £15 on Guilty Pleasure magazines…

You know its Autumn when you start finishing of crafty things you forgot about during the summer that never was…but was also amazing for other sporty reasons…

(this is my knitted Jane Torvill, I still haven't knitted poor old Christopher Dean!)

and finally you know its Autumn when the flip-flops/wellies get put away and the sensible 

shoes come out. 

Before we know it, it'll be time for twinkly lights (can't wait!) x 

Weekend starts here...

The weekend always starts on a Friday night…

After all the excitement of the Olympic opening ceremony I had a lazy breakfast with my Mum in a local garden centre, she had the bacon sarnie and I just had a coffee. Afterwords we had a mooch around the flowers, I love agapanthus but I just can't keep them alive!  

The sun was still out in the afternoon, I painted my toes and popped some sandals on, my cat wasn't impressed with my nails or the hot weather and spends most of his time lying in the shade of the garden or under our bed.

Sunday bought the rain so Bob and I cooked lunch, mine being veggie with plenty of mint sauce! A little telly and a bit of crafting, I'm hooked on making these little friendship bracelets, I used to make them in my teens as their quick and easy to do, this ones for Bob. 

And before you know it, the weekends over *boo!

Jubilations

Patriotic cake!

Well, that's the Jubilee over and done with the GBW (great british weather) proved a damper and 'long to reign over us" had a slightly different meaning, especially after three weeks of fantastic sunshine, but being British, we do rain well.


Our street had a party, I've never done anything like this; I was around in 1977 (just!) but lived in a small village with a village park where all the celebrations were centred.

Homemade Bunting

To decorate the house I made some crochet bunting for the front window, I did have one pack of bunting in readiness, but wasn't keen on it, so Saturday morning I made my own. 


It was slow to start, but one by one each house hung flags, balloons, bunting and the like, until the first section of our road was bedecked in Red, White and Blue.  Around two o'clock on Sunday something rather magical happened,  all the cars moved and the road was closed, garden tables were erected, bowls of food arrived, ditto drinkies and people chatted. We had music, laughter, children "playing out" and a convivial atmosphere hung over our road, then it started to spit with rain, then it chucked it down heavens hard, so we packed everything up and all ran back inside!


 It's been a long time since Britain united in this way, everyone seemed to really get behind the Jubilee in one way or another. It made you proud to be British, you don't often get to say that, I hope you had good Jubilations whatever you did :)

A New Day

I'm trying blogger for the first time, I normally use Typepad but thought I'd see if the grass is greener!


As this my first post I thought I'd just add some pictures to get a feel of how it operates, and you can see what i'm all about!

 

That's me, what I love and what I get up too!