My favourite make

So at 23:48 on 27/01/15 my son Rohan was born! 

It wasn't an easy birth, but he was ok which was the main thing. I can honestly say I haven't made anything since he's been born as I'm too contented staring at him in the spare moments between feeds, nappy changes and general entertaining of him. I did, however, get some bits made before he made his belated appearance. He was a week late and I was going a bit nutty to say the least!

I made a knitted hat for baby and a matching headband complete with bow for me and another for my niece

The hat is knitted from a Ravelry pattern in organic cotton and because I had lots left over I made myself this bow band which is also on Ravelry, both are free patterns.

This one was made at the request of my niece in her second most favourite colour

The light is awful on this picture I now realise. Sorry about that.

A good round bump picture methinks! A fab shelf for projects it was!

I also made these leg warmers, but haven't put them on him as my husband thinks leg warmers are too girly and part of me agrees but I am disappointed to have made something and it not be used. I also knitted a cocoon for him but misjudged the size so he went in it once just so I could get a photo and that's been it as it was so snug a fit! I think one of my nieces will end up with it for a bear or dolly.

As you can see he was well and truly straight jacketed! 

Moving away from knitting to sewing, but with felt. I made a giant mobile to hang above his cot. 

I'm really chuffed with how this turned out. I'd seen a couple of different versions available and thought 'I can do that!' So I did! I drew directly onto the felt and then used the first cloud and raindrop as templates for the others. They're stuffed with toy stuffing and have used normal cotton thread to attach the raindrops to the clouds. I was hoping to use invisible thread but couldn't find mine and wasn't about to go rushing out to buy any, so thought white cotton was the next best option. 

And now we're up to date with my projects. I'm hoping to make some things when he's a bit older and more settled into a routine, but for now when he sleeps I either sleep, eat, or do housework, or if I'm really lucky a bit of all three! It's a good job he's cute or I might have to complain!

He's so cheeky!

Crafting a Wedding

I'm finding that having tried my hand at almost every craft so far has been a blessing in disguise as it means I can turn my hand to having a go at making lots of things for the wedding.  I'm not sure if I've said it here before but I'm not having real flowers at the wedding as although I love them, they're expensive and I have the issue of a couple of hay fever sufferers coming to the wedding and I don't want the issue of pollen staining clothes or risk them drooping if it's a scorching hot day (finger's and toes crossed everyone for a fine day!) so I thought, if I'm not having a real flower bouquet or decorations why should the button holes be real flowers?

I talked to J about this and asked him what sort of thing he'd like to wear, I'm nice like that sometimes and consult him on something to do with our wedding! I gave him a few different options and he chose to have a needle felted flower in the same colours as my outfit.  It was the first time I'd needle felted a stem for a flower, but think it's turned out well.

Dark purple petals with a jade green silk self covered button as the centre and mid green felt for the stem and leaf with a light green for the veining on the leaf

I'm really chuffed with it, so chuffed in fact that I thought I'd make everyone at the wedding a button hole if they wanted one...I know I know what on earth was I thinking?  It must be the endorphins...

So with this rod for my own back I made my three nieces a pink felt flower each and I've been told they want them on hair clips.  I'm under strict instructions you understand, they've all got very specific ideas, my eldest niece (8 years old) on hearing the news that we are getting married announced 'I know the exact dress I'm going to wear!' THEN said congratulations.  Fashionista in the making methinks.  So all three are wearing the same dress, I did wonder whether there would be fights over who looks best in it but apparently they're having different shoes and cardigans to differentiate themselves from each other and that it's not a problem.  So nice to be told off by an 8 year old, 5 year old and 3 year old...

Three little button holes all in a row. They're a light sparkly pink, each with white stamen and self cover buttons in white and pink but each button is different.

Alas I cannot acclaim fame for the crocus in the background of the photo, this was taken in my soon to be mother-in-law's garden.  No one else has decided on an outfit yet so I don't know what colours to make them.  I get the sinking feeling that they may all want one at once...

I've also made good progress on my bouquet.  J and I sat round the table one day me wrapping the wire round the brooches, him wrapping florist tape round the wire; it was all very romantic...and then gathered them all together and popped them in a vase for safekeeping until I get the rest of the brooches and wire and tape them up, here's a sneaky peaky!

A mass of big shiny sparkly brooches in a vase

If nothing else it's a good discipline keeper as if anyone gets out of line they're getting a knock on the head from this baby and take it from me it's a fair weight!  I'm pleased with the overall effect, I've just got to get the last few pieces in and then tie a ribbon round the stems to keep them all in place and give me something non slip to hold as the tape is quite shiny.

If anyone wants a photo tutorial on how to do this bouquet I can make one or you can check out the ones on Pinterest. There's a few different options you can go for. I've probably chosen the most time hungry method but that was because I wanted the brooches on individual stems, you could get a Styrofoam ball and cover it in wadding and fabric and pin the brooches to it or ball up some wadding and do the same but at the risk of it being a funny shape if you don't evenly distribute the weight of the brooches. I've also seen people intermix real or faux flowers with brooches which is really pretty too.

I've started to think about the finer grooming details and had my nails done professionally for only the second time in my life yesterday.  I'm a wuss, the first time I had my nails done the girl sliced my finger open with the nail file and I bled all over the table and the polish smudged before I'd even left the shop so didn't want a repeat performance. I also find it hard to talk to hairdressers and beauticians as I find it just so weird to have someone doing something rather intimate like washing my hair or holding my hand and asking me questions that normally someone doing something so intimate would know.  It's also that I can sometimes tell they're bored with what they're asking me about and don't want the answers and I know I would bore them with things I'm interested in as hair and nails aren't something I usually take a great deal of care over and feel a bit of a fraud.  I also have this thing that when I have my hair washed by someone else I find it so relaxing that I'm on the brink of falling asleep at the sink. 

Take yesterday for example, I end up in the back room of the nail bar as that's the only free space with the young nail technician and she's perfectly pleasant and polite but can tell she's just going through the motions and answering almost every answer I give her to her questions about the wedding with "that's nice" in that sort of high sing song voice you only reserve for when you're doing something else and not really paying attention.  I almost laugh out loud!  I'm slightly nervous as we're one on one with no other distractions and I'm dying of embarrassment as I'm 30 and this is only the second time I'm getting my nails done and I have no idea about what I should ask for or anything. I am umming and ahhing about explaining that I'm perfectly happy to sit in silence if she wants, until she asks me whether I have my dress.  I tell her it's purple. I tell her it's 1950s and it's got a lighter purple underskirt.  Her face is amazing! She's suddenly giving me all her attention and realises that I'm not going to be some bridezilla telling her my nails have to be done in this specific colour because it won't match the groomsmen's sashes or that it won't match the table decorations and things go on well from there, here's the result

Grey green sparkly nails

 It's a gel nail treatment thingy they tell me will last 2-3 weeks, the girl even explained I could go to the chemist and get the chemical myself to soak it off, she was so nice to me and my nails are perfect!  I booked to have them done again the day before the wedding!  I'm so glad I got over my little phobia with small chat and found a common ground!  I may even be brave enough to go and have my eyebrows threaded...wish me luck!

And just so that you don't think that all I talk about is the wedding, I've knitted some wrist warmers from a book my lovely friend in work gave me as a present 'for putting up with her' she said. It's a really comprehensive knitting book for beginners, although there are a couple of instructions on bobbling when knitting that I think I may need to have someone show me as even with the idiot proof instructions I can't get my head around it!

Two tone purple wrist warmers

Knitting with smaller needles now doesn't frighten me like it did at first and I've learnt how to do a rib stitch and they match and fit and everything!!!  I'm working on another pair for my soon to be mother-in-law but think I've knitted the colours the wrong way round to what she wanted so I'm going to knit another lot up and give her the choice.

My other non wedding related make was paper related. I was told once by my sister that if someone makes 365 paper origami stars and gives them as a present, the receiver gets a year of good luck according to Chinese culture.  As she's in desperate need of good luck I sat down last Sunday whilst watching two films and made 365 paper stars after getting a refresher on how to fold them off the internet.  I had sore thumbs from pushing the paper out I can tell you!  Especially since I started off using a rather thick white paper. I soon learned my lesson and found the thinnest paper I had in the house that wasn't tissue paper and carried on from there. At this point I will mention that I didn't cut the strips by hand, I used a guillotine and could cut five sheets of paper at a time.  Otherwise I would still be cutting them out now!

Here's the jar of good luck

multicoloured fluorescent stars in a jar

 It reduced her to tears which wasn't what it was for, but I've heard tell that she's very happy with it and my niece has made it very clear that she would like sole ownership of it because it's pretty!!

Today I shall be hand delivering the wedding invites that are too close to post, saves money and would be silly sending our parents their invites in the post when they only live up the road.  I'll probably get told off for wasting time and paper giving them one anyway...can't do right for doing wrong I guess!  The only things left now you'll all be glad to hear is getting the final quote for the food, doing a trial run of setting up the flowers for the background for photos, going through a trial run with my hair and make up and then paying for everything...boo hiss!  And of course the big day itself. So things should be getting back to normal round here pretty soon and I can show you more sewing and knitting things that aren't wedding related.  Hurray!

The bad the good and the fabulous

I owe you all an explanation.  I've been really quiet as this year hasn't started well, I've had two very close family members die.  It's been heartbreaking and quite frankly I couldn't cope with it.  The first was completely unexpected and the second, although expected was sooner than we'd all hoped.  Death comes to us all but sometimes it sucks big time and this time it had bells on and everything.  I know some of you have been concerned, thank you thank you thank you.  I really appreciate your thoughts and concerns.  I've tried to write this post a thousand times but found it too hard.

And so to move on as I don't want to bring any of you down with my worries.

The good things that have happened, and there have been good things thankfully, are I've now got back into making things, the only thing I could do at one point was knit so I knitted a blanket in a stupidly short period of time along with eight scarves...grief is weird.  I'm still knitting and I've been getting lessons from a very lovely lady at my sewing class but still need more help to be honest.

It's a multicolour circus but it got me through and it keeps my feet warm in bed!

I've been learning lots of things in sewing class lately, all those who quilt already will know these blocks but they were new to me.  I have to say I really loved hand sewing them, it's been a really relaxing process.  I'm working on an off centre block at the minute in shades of purple, when it's finished I'll share it with you all.

My opal fruits coloured log cabin block

Court house steps in shades of blue

Corner square block in blues and greens

Sorry these photos are a little dark, it was late when I took the picture and I'm just too comfy to get up and take better ones now!  You'll get a good light shot when I've finished the project I promise.

And drum roll please...

The fabulous things are that I'm getting MARRIED!  Eeeeek!  Excited and nervous and giddy and oh I don't know all together!  So I'm going to be showcasing all the little bits and bobs that I'm going to be making to make the wedding more me and J and to keep the costs down as we're on a tight budget.

My engagement ring with Welsh gold and peridots

The engagement cake my work mates surprised me with!  The young lady who made this has now given up work to make cakes full time, lucky thing!

Going back to school times making a lino block print to use on my wedding invitations

So I've bought my dress...I know I know I could have made it but I saw this dress and it was a good price in the style and colour I wanted and with my lack of sewing mojo and me wanting to keep the last scrap of sanity I have left I thought I'd buy it and be done with it.  All I'm letting on at the moment on here is that I have a chiffon underskirt to go with it!  Eeeee!  I love it so!  I have my shoes too and J has his suit, we just need to get him a shirt and me some underthings and our outfits are sorted.

I'm going to make a bouquet from brooches as although I love flowers it's cheaper this way as I have a large collection of brooches anyway.  It also means I can have relatives long gone come along for the festivities as I have brooches that were both of my grandmother's and have asked J's family if I can borrow a brooch of J's grandmother who is no longer with us too.

My next big project will be making masses of bunting and paper flowers to decorate the venue when we find one.  It's a bit of a hunt for hen's teeth at the minute as we just want a room to eat in as we're going to get married in a registry office and think we've found a caterer we like so just need somewhere where our families can sit and have high tea with us!  You'd think that would be easy wouldn't you?  Oh no, nothing is easy apparently as whenever you mention the W word the prices of places sky rocket and won't let you have outside caterers. *Sigh*

So I'll try not to bore you all with wedding stuff and will intersperse other pretty things like sewing class activities and my escapades in knitting just to keep everyone happy.  Thank you all for your patience and understanding.

Merry Christmas!

Um ok, *shuffles feet* so I've neglected you lot and this blog a little bit.  I'm sorry but I have been busy honest!  I have photos to prove some of it and everything!  After the last post I got into the Christmas spirit (don't worry there's still enough gin to last the holidays!) and made a whole host of new things, things I hadn't tried before and have found a love for.  I'll try and keep it chronological to keep things tidy, there will be lots of photos and maybe a llama or two and most definitely a flamingo so what's more to want at Christmas?

Are you sitting comfortably?  Then I'll begin...a long time ago, nearly a month now I decided Christmas wasn't Christmas without some handmade gifts and I embarked on making a doll for my niece well, after being told in sewing class that my folder was going to be taken in for evaluation making a better dress for the doll was put on the back burner to get that done.  I had also signed myself up for a Christmas sewing class so was going to sewing class twice a week...yes, thereby taking a night off the project that I needed to get in, idiot.  However, the projects we made in the Christmas class were simple and amazing, and for all you quilting fans out there I've actually made a log cabin!  Woo!

Decreasing sized Suffolk puffs made from Christmas fabrics piled on top of one another to make a tree with a present bow on the top as a star and white snowflake sequins sewn on all round as decorations

Heart shaped decoration made using the same Christmas fabric as for the tree (waste not want not).  My first log cabin and I put some sparkly gold bead trim round the edge!  There's now a gold ribbon on it to hang it up with a bow and everything!

So these got made, my folder eventually got in and finger's crossed I'm doing alright!  Here's a sample of my hand quilting, ignore the badly sewn on binding I was in a rush.

Yellow fabric with hand quilted flamingo (which I'd had to draw on freehand as I'd forgotten to iron on the transfer before tacking D'oh!) with candy striped pink and white bias binding not sewn onto the back and a needle still in the top!

Since the Christmas sewing class had got me in the Christmas making mood I whipped up some new decorations from Fimo as I had some lying around from wanting to make some beads from it earlier in the year.  I got a little carried away and used up the whole packet on decorations instead, but they're really pretty so I don't care.

Fimo stars and hearts with lace embossed in the clay and then smudged with either gold or silver paint

Fimo moose, Christmas trees, angel and large hearts embossed with lace and smudged with either gold or silver paint

Old and new handmade decorations together. Hand sewn pink felt flamingo with lighter pink sequins and a finished fimo heart with silver bell

Then during all this making madness I was putting in for a promotion in work....which I got!  Yippee!  I'm super duper excited!  In one day I got told I'd got the position, won a bottle of wine on the raffle and won a fiver on the Euromillions!  Who says bird poo isn't lucky?  I'd been anointed by a pigeon on the way out to a work's Christmas lunch and had been told it would be lucky and it was true!  Old wives tale 1 common sense 4 billion but it's nice when it happens! haha!

Ok, so I'd better show you the full sized tree we got since I've already shown you the decorations!

Our enormous tree with what now seems like a Scandinavian theme of red and white...don't know how that happened but it wasn't planned.  Yes the star is wonky and yes it nearly touches the ceiling!

And since Christmas isn't Christmas without some baking, I got on with some stem ginger biscuits, coconut biscuits, milk chocolate and whiskey truffles and white chocolate Christmas shapes.

Vintage bowls all set to make yummy niceties! Nom nom nom!

Then since I've been so good this year I thought I'd treat myself to a Llama or several...

Llama bites, they're super yummy and llama shaped!

Llama!

I also treated myself to some new accessories too

Needle felted wool ball necklace in a rainbow of colours. 

I wanted to get back into needle felting and really enjoyed this make, they might end up in the shop so if you're interested in owning one, let me know!

Wool felt snowflake with Angelina fibres fused over the top to give some sparkle! 

I needed something Christmassy to wear to work so a snowflake hair clip was made!  It was fiddly and the Angelina fibres haven't stuck as well as I thought they should but it's usable and I'll have another go with the Angelina fibres and see what happens.

One of my sisters lives away from the rest of the family so we had Christmas with her early and she got me some knitting needles and chiffon lace yarn.  Well, at first I was struggling to knit it as thought I'd ignore the holes pre punched into it other than for the casting on, my mistake!  Thankfully a very helpful and kind friend in work taught silly old me just how easy it was to knit with and it came together really quickly. 

Me sporting the ruffly scarf knitted by my own fair hands and the snowflake hairclip

This was a perfect project for a beginner knitter as the holes are evenly spaced so the tension is right all the way through, you only have to worry about picking up or losing stitches, of which I did both!  I gained a stitch and then promptly lost it a few rows later.  I was so impressed with myself that I started on the flamenco wool I bought two years ago and was too scared to have a go at!

Me and Fizz and the knitting all snuggled up

Finished scarf, it's a lovely teal colour but against the bright turquoise of the sofa it looks a lot darker than it is.

It can now be safely assumed that there will be more knitting projects in my future.  One friend has already said she can see lace shawls in my future...now that's got me thinking! haha!

And to round it all off a bit more sparkle!

Gold sparkly nails!

Here's wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!  And if you don't celebrate Christmas, enjoy the season!