Bug Gets Involved In My Annual Leave

🤒😷 got to love this time of year with tummy bugs abound NOT! I had major crocheting plans for my weeks leave and bar 2 days where I couldn’t even remember my name I did get to amigurumi yee ha!

Big old boooooo for back to work tomorrow, whilst I love my job it does rather get in the way of my addiction.

The Emmi Lou pattern from Bubbles and Bongo has become a firm fav with loved ones so I’ve made one for mum in law for her 72nd birthday, she informs me it’s her favourite of all her gifts….. Number one Daughter in Law 😂 Baby A our great niece wants one for her birthday and I made a surprise one for HH cousin who had gushed over pics of my earlier makes.

Doodah Millie also by Bubbles and Bongo turned out rather well also so all in all a most excellent week for makes. Happy days 😃

Darling Dellis at curlsnskirls sent me a package…. I’m in love with the green satin drawstring bag, have a few ideas for its use.  See the little cotton crochet squares? Dellis did a couple for me before and I won’t use anything else for my bathroom cleaning tasks,mother are perfect. These smaller siblings have already found use around the house.  I have one for wiping my iPad clean, another for my mirrors and the others are is the kitchen.  Super duper useful. THANK YOU my lovely friend. Xx

Told You I’m Addicted!

Following the recent eating of my ergonomic 2.5mm crochet hook by that smelly monster Merlin, decided to try a soft grip for my stupid hands.

Wool Warehouse had just the job so whilst there purchased some more Drops yarn. Well it’d be horribly rude not to!

The coming weather forecast for my weeks annual leave is quite frankly PERFECT 🤗

Frost, cold, snow, rain all the ingredients for a monster craftathon with of course a coal fire, Netflix and aforementioned smelly monster.

It’s Nerd Nirvana 💖

 

Aurora Duckus Humongous

I have delved into the world of Amigurumi on a complete whim and in turn given myself yet another obsession!

I found Bubbles and Bongo on etsy after DD2 tagged me on Facebook with a picture of a darling ickle unicorn stating she needed one. After a bit of tinterweb research I found the source of this beautiful pattern. A Mum and Daughter duo who design simply gawjus patterns that are super simple to follow (more on that in a minute) at really reasonable prices.

Erinna the daughter half of the duo can be found on Instagram @littleaquagirl while Mummy, Rosemary @petite_tini

My desire to get going didn’t include a rational thought process WHATS NEW I hear you cry🤗.  Wrong size hook, incorrect yarn and burning desire at hand I cracked on.

Now given how many years crafting experience I have you’d think at the very least I’d think colour themes through…..DONT BE DAFT, waaaaay to keen to make a start.

As Aurora’s head started to grow (and grow and grow) it occurred to me I may have been a bit hasty, but hey whoever believed in the act in haste, repent a leisure saying?

Aurora was getting humongous and to add insult to injury the colours (well it’s what I had available and I’m sticking to that defence) started to make her look more than a tad duck like. HH encouraged me to keep going, dang that man knows how to smooth my feathers.

I got the shivers everytime I glanced over at ‘the’ head.  It’ll be alright once I’ve seen the mane on I told myself.  She stopped looking quite so duck like and took on the form of Woodstock from Snoopy DABNABIT …… Dear Sewing /Amigurumi Gods pleeeeeease sprinkle some lucky dust over here.

Dont know what you think but I think they were listening.  Now she’s fully constructed albeit in humongous proportions I love her and more importantly DD2 thinks she’s the sweetest thing ever PHEW 😂

Ive started Emmi Lou now CORRECT HOOK, CORRECT YARN and cool colours, she’s coming on a treat, truly beautiful imho!

Can’t recommend Bubbles and Bongo patterns highly enough.  They are simple to follow with fantastic descriptions and pictures to help you along the way. I’ve already purchased 4 patterns ADDICTED!

For your perusal and amusement herewith is photographic evidence of my journey.

BTW my new yarns which arrived in a gawjus organza bag are from the Drops Cotton Light range at a mere 95p per  ball. They are 50% cotton and 50% polyester from

Wool Warehouse

Quack

Quack Quack

Where’s Snoopy?

Mohawk

Aurora Duckus Humongous

Cheeky faces

 

A Great Starter …

 

Just have to become a great finisher!

I find when my anxieties start to get the better of me I bury myself in some kind of crafty, creative project. It’s a pretty good therapy, well for me it is 😉

My my rainbow makers as I like to call them were my project last Sunday. I have more Swarovski crystals than any one human should have and it felt like a good time to use some of the stash along with some mini semi precious stones. A few crimp beads and jewellery wire….. hey presto a little collection to hand at a window that gets direct sunlight.  As if by magic lots of rainbows appear on my walls, floor and ceiling. Simple but very effective.

Theres another baby in my friendship group so another blanket has been started, got until December to finish it 😂

The fabric. Well as if I don’t have enough stashed I found some lovely cotton viscose on eBay for £3 per meter. My recent gypsy skirt makes have been such a success with DD1 I thought I’d make her a couple more. When the fabric arrived, this one really spoke to me, like really loudly. Yep you’ve guessed it, I’ve nabbed this one for myself and will start my own skirt later on, let’s hope my finishing brain is awake though 💤

Happy weekend fellow creatives xxx

Pinky Promise …..

I have squeezed some sewing in.

It’s silly o’clock right now rather than stupid o’clock. What’s the difference . Well Stupid o’clock is when I really should be asleep, Silly o’clock is early, should be getting ready for work but REALLY wanting to go back to bed 😉

I’m popping up a few pics proof of recent sewing activity …. Bank Holiday this weekend and this is the weekend I should be getting the garden going but the forecast is a rotter, near sub Arctic temps!!!! Well maybe I exaggerate a bit but blooming cold considering it is May now!

Upside to this is I can sew. Not sure what yet. I do like my tunicesque tops for work. Comfy, smart casual and hide a multitude of sins so this is a distinct possibility. This said dear reader you know us creatives, change of direction and temperature in our creative moods happens in a heartbeat, a bit like the British weather. X

I am told BA is laying on dress awkwardly and it isn’t a mini!!!

A Strange Time …..

I’m pretty sure we all go through times in our life when we feel clueless about life no matter how experienced we thought we were. My personal roller coaster has been being out of work following a life changing experience, many ups and downs with some days being horribly dark (you know the type)  have culminated in my starting a new job last week wth a company who have been on my radar for many years and for all the right reasons. To be honest I would have choked on my cuppa had I been drinking one when Jane my new boss called me the day after my interview to say I’d got the job and how excited they were to have me coming on board. ME, silly, crazy, (apparently funny), quirky I’m an artist don’t you know darling me!!!!

No warmer welcome could have waited me and now 2 weeks in my roller coaster is on the rise. I am working with my most favourite client group lovely reader.  I am a pretty highly qualified support worker for vulnerable people but my specific group now is Older People.  I LOVE LOVE the group. They are funny, talented, rude, intolerant and just gawjus!  If that weren’t enough for me my ladies will sit and talk all things crafty till the cows come home HOORAH!

This group of people in our society are so over looked time and time again in the UK.  The wealth of knowledge sitting inside their heads just waiting to be shared with any one of us who cares to ask leave me humbled.

In just 2 weeks I have seen works of art made by their very own hands, some many years ago and some only last week. I have noticed the ones who have art in their life, be it sewing, knitting, gardening, baking or the likes are the ones whose emotions sit closest to the surface but also have the most life about them.

Busy getting ready for the baby

My perfect Great Neice Amelia who came on mine and HH Silver Wedding. What a gift!

Blanket keeping new Mum warm …. She’s a natural 😀

Maybe us young pretenders with our strange roller coaster lives have that to look forward to.  Being the ones who are more ‘with it’, ready to share, love and laugh.

For me in summary, being a creative has what I thought was its cross to bear – being an emotion pendulum but now I know it’s that very cross, that funny type of madness we share that will ensure our future will be wonderfully colourful, vibrate, textured and just down right FUN!

Even when I’m in ‘mad’ phase I can squeeze out some creativity. For beautiful Amelia the newest addition and first of the next generation in our clan, Great Neice an Auntie Samantha blanket 😍

Wonderings and Wanderings

Well Dear Reader,

What an odd few weeks it has been. You know the whole life thing getting in the way of creating wonders.

I have found myself wondering what now? Not what now as far as creating goes, as a fellow ‘I’m an artist darling’ we always have something or ten in our heads 🙂 More wondering where the life journey is taking me next. A few things up in the air right now and I am letting myself go with the flow which is not a natural position for me to take but hey ho, why fight it? New beginnings and adventures lay just around the corner I am sure, along this wandering path that is life!

I’m doing some temp work right now which many would consider risky but I have to say suits beautifully during this period of wondering and wandering 😉 Gives me time to consider my options of which there are of course many. Not emotionally tied to an employer is strangely liberating albeit a little nerve testing. One thing is for sure, I know I am alive not moving from one day to the next in auto pilot.

All this has had an impact on the creating bit. Crochet is going great with many jobs on the go. I love crochet as it takes no setting up (I am not in a place big enough for a separate sewing room) but I do miss my first and true love, sewing. I even bought an overlocker at last but still haven’t tested it. Note to self : pull your finger out woman and give it a wizz

Finally made a rag quilt, saw one an age ago and loved it but had no good reason to make one but now my dear friends baby girl is due any day I had the chance, I am so very pleased with it. 100% cotton I hope it will be a loved item that maybe in years to come is used to wrap dolly or teddy in 🙂

Here is a gallery of odd pictures showing what I have been up to, as you can see no particular direction but nevertheless still creating!

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Father Forgive Me For I Have Sinned ….

… And keep on sinning! Bad Gal 😦

Here dearest reader I lay before you my confession for the day, the week,  ok the year!

In the workplace I am a highly disciplined person. To do lists that are tackled by priority, meet targets and deadlines as NT would I believe attest to. So how come in my home life does chaos rein?

Could it be the Gemini in me? That old two-sided personality … Or maybe the only child syndrome?

The attention span of a gnat quite frankly. Well in truth if things are going well I see it through to the bitter end BUT I can be given to tantrum if things go against me. Not the stamping, hissing type of a teen but the obstinate, petulant sort of a toddler!

Case in point … Hidden in the airing cupboard is a real kimono that I know Del will remember as she offered words of wisdom when I hit my wall.  I miss calculated on the belt, as a result just couldn’t turn it through (fabric isvery very old and quite delicate). Rather than be a grown up and listen to my buddy by Re cutting a wider version I hid it! There it has sat for a year … OMG a year!  It’s so close to finished but oh no Mrs cut off her nose to spite her face, there it still sits.

Hiding in the airing cupboard

Remember this Del? Another unfinished following yet another tantrum

1 of 4 jobs on the go atm

Unfinished following a tantrum

Stash hidden in DD2 room

Uh Oh! More stash from my reclaimed fabrics from the 40’s and 50’s… Yep in DD2 room

More stuff, buttons of every sort

Ahh pretty stuff, bling MAGPIE gal!

Stuff, just loads of stuff

Crochet heart addiction started last night and just can’t seem to stop!

Not a chance …. No way can you see inside this cupboard

Fragile package by the cupboard in which NOBODY is allowed to go is a couple of cork boards to decorate as Del did.  So loved the effect I thought YEP I’m going to do a couple of them for DD2 for her photos BUT because I couldn’t find my staple gun, there they sit wrapped …. This one in my defence is just a couple of weeks old.

On the wardrobe door is the DD1 blanket which is a work in progress, as is the one hour kimono whose neckline is driving me berserk.  Theres the tantrum talk again 🙂 All I need to is bind the neck and front edge. Sewing machine is set up, have lovely satin bias from Walthamstow BUT it annoyed me so can’t bring myself to touch it.  What’s that all about LOSER!

How shameful is it that I have stash taking up valuable space in DD2 bedroom? Big bottom drawer MINE, top of wardrobe MINE ….. Drawer is Walthamstow, wardrobe is the carefully collected vintage fabrics. Not sure what caused that particular fit of sulks…. Think my brain finds it too painful to deal with so has erased the memory 😉

Attention span so pathetic I even meandered off from the actual pics you need as evidence and took pics of bling and stuff just because they please me.  Whilst I say I like order and method me thinks I am also a serial liar (to myself) if I spot a bit of blingage or a doobrie that makes me smile I have to fill a space and believe me, space is limited in my little piece of England.  Praise the Lord I married a man who accepts my foibles else I would have been a divorcee time ago!

The crochet heart thing started last night. DD2 has a much-loved cardigan that she just won’t bin so I started some granny square mid DD1 blanket action …. They are cool but then I thought what else could I do so You Tube got it.  There I found my desire, very quick but super effective crochet hearts. 7 in half an hour and more have followed this morning. Started stitching to the dying cardigan and at this point am very happy with the result, just a few more to do. Then it popped into my head, ENT kimono, sitting cut out in my living room. Now I love this lady like a sister so should be highly motivated to get it done so why the failure …… It’s Georgette like the kimono of failed neckline!

I lay before you my confession to being a serial starter and non finisher IF things don’t go my way.

Have fingers and toes crossed that I don’t stand alone in this affliction? I seek your absolution dear reader. Am I forgiven?

Happy Sunday x

Update picture …. The hearts and granny squares start the rescue 🙂

 

Still Alive & Kicking …. just

It seems like forever since I sat with my blog or even looked at reader to be honest.

A super testing month or so that at one point I thought would strip me of my remaining sane brain cell BUT disaster averted and slow but sure on the climb back to the real world again.

My latest life tests have been that of both wife and mother. When we are put into the front battle line in defence or protection of those we love so very deeply it reveals parts of your nature that maybe you didnt know existed. I have felt fear like nothing I have ever felt before, yet ironicly strength too!

Investing so much of myself in these processes has left me, as you can well imagine, exhausted. The first thing to go was my crafts. So intent on fixing everything around me yet in the process of doing that didnt notice I was breaking!

So tonight after walking past my ongoing crochet blanket for the 1000th time, I sat down, picked it up and started to crochet. I spent just 45 minutes on it this time but already feel re engaged with what makes me whole.  Really any kind of ‘art’ takes my mind to a better place.  I dont yet feel inclined to sew, the great love of my life.  That mojo is in a hiding place unknown to me at this moment in time. Nevertheless a good start with the crochet I think.

I dont think I shall make any promises to myself just yet but will keep my crochet bag in full view so I can just pick it up and give it 10 minutes here and there.

Heres a picture of the ever so slowly growing blanket for my 19 year old 😉

Well It’s Like This …….. Don’t Laugh!

Saturday proved a total write off as we here in the UK with our temperate climate that produces some of the world’s most unique weather patterns (and we know this), had a storm. Not a huge one, a bit unexpected -ish lasted all of 10 minutes here in our part of Bedfordshire. Super lashing rain, awesome bright pink fork lightening and some super winds that had trees VERY near by that are hundreds of years old bending near to breaking point. Then it was gone, the sky blue and a hint of sun BUT we lost our electricity for hours!!! Crazy madness given we know this about our beautiful island, we are NEVER ready for our weather, ever. Rain, wind, snow, heat you name it we are not geared up for any of it…… bit embarrassing really. SO, sitting by candle light, no chance of a cup of tea (no gas in our village) I was quite a happy bunny (not). I did do an excellent impression of Vicor Meldrew (character in an old UK sitcom, he was a right old moaner).

By the time we had light again all I could think of was my cup of tea and the one Saturday TV show I watch so all creativity abandoned me.

Sunday dawned, mood a little lighter I had a more detailed look at my new 300 stitch crochet book to discover it’s in English!!!! By that I mean I crochet in American 🙂  I have no idea why my Mum taught me in American but she did. I am sort of bi-lingual in crochet so spent a bit of time doing a translation for popcorn stitch.  At this point Dear Reader I ask you to remember I am very new to crochet and my hooking extends to basics hence my choice of popcorn as it is described as a basic stitch.

They lied!

My osteoarthritis really doesn’t help but I have always tried to get past my limitations and pretty successfully I think. Not this time. I can safely say my one small test row of popcorn is a right old dogs dinner! It took quite a while and I am sure any one of you pro’s out there would have laughed your tail feathers off at my truly awful attempt. That all said, I did give it a go direct from the book. I will do a YouTube search and see a real crocheter doing it so I can see how badly I fouled up the technique 😉

I submit, for your amusement 2 pictures of my weak effort and beg your indulgence. x