Christmas Decorations Blog Hop November 2014

Well, it's pouring with rain, the teenagers are back at school after a lovely half term break, and the naughty Wobblydog (who celebrated her 1st Birthday yesterday) is busy with a stinky bone...after waking me at 3am, ripping up the offcut of carpet that sits underneath poor Merlin Moog's bed.

I'm on strong coffee and lots of sewing to get me through the day but first I have a slightly different blog post to do.

A few weeks ago I was invited to take part in a Christmas Decorations Blog Hop being run by Stitch Craft and Create. It's not something I usually do but I thought it would be fun to take part and encourage me in my endeavour to blog a bit more. The blog hop is taking place throughout November and all bloggers taking part have been asked to make a Christmas decoration from one of a number of Christmas craft ebooks offered by Stitch Craft and Create.

It wasn't easy to choose which ebook to go for as they were all very tempting but after some deliberation I chose this one as the cover photograph really drew me in:

This is a beautiful book, the photography is stunning and the images and text really evoke the kind of Christmas I would love to have. There are over 120 craft projects in the book, including papercrafts, knitting and crochet projects, edible gifts, gift-wrapping, some lovely food and drink recipes and even a section on making bird feeders to keep our wild feathered friends well fed at Christmas! The projects are all very accessible and most could easily be done by the whole family.

There's an emphasis on using natural found materials in many of the projects and it makes me want to head to the woods for twigs, cones and berries! The twig stars and hearts in the first chapter 'Preparing for Christmas' are something I really want to make and the dried orange and apple slices in the 'Scent of Christmas' chapter are going to have to be tried this week.

There are also some lovely knitted and crochet projects, in gorgeous natural and typically Scandinavian colours - the infinity scarf on page 47 and the cosy hat on page 49 are going to be cast on very soon too...and then there are all the fabulous sounding recipes I need to try, especially the White Mulled Wine and the Winter Warmer Hot Chocolate. I can see me dipping into this book many times in the run up to Christmas.

Even if you didn't make anything from the book, browsing through it would get you in the festive spirit in no time - you can almost smell the spruce and cinnamon! 

It took me some time to decide which decoration I wanted to make from the book. I was very tempted by the crocheted candle holders and the little heart decorations made from Dad's old socks (some rather gorgeous not at all old looking Scandinavian colourwork knitted socks!) but in the end I opted for a project out of the 'Cut and Glue' chapter - the Bird Garland.

It was a great quick make that, I think, captures the simple Scandinavian style so well - it was also an absolute pain to get a decent photo of! This is the best one:

This one definitely isn't!

Full details of the blog hop and the other bloggers taking part can be found here. If you fancy treating yourself to the book you can find it here in the Handmade Christmas Shop, where you can also find lots of craft materials, kits and gifts as well as ebooks and downloads. If you sign up to the Stitch Craft & Create newsletter you can also download a selection of free ebooks.

If you're a new customer you can click here and use the code SCC525 to get a £5 discount on your first order over £25.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the other blog hop bloggers get up to this month - I think we're in for a treat!

Before I head off to start drying apple slices I just wanted to thank everyone who popped into my etsy shop this week - I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you purchasing some of those little brooches - I sold 11 on the first day!

Moogs xx

fun with wallpaper

Last week I scored some rather fabulous rolls of wallpaper at the Scrapstore, to use with my school recycling groups at work. Obviously I needed to come up with some ideas, so I spent a happy hour on Sunday playing with scissors and glue.


This resulted in a revamped notebook, plus a gift bag...



...and a snazzy new look for my tatty old cardboard-box-clipboard.



I've been scouring the internet for fun and easy 'things to make with wallpaper' ideas that I can do with infant school children but most things seem a bit complicated. I usually work with 12 children plus a teacher and anything too involved usually ends up with me being surrounded by small people all saying 'Please can you do this for me?' Any ideas?


I came home from work yesterday to find an exciting looking parcel waiting for me. Inside it was even more exciting - a gorgeous bundle of goodies from my lovely friend Thimbleanna.



I was very lucky to win Anna's giveaway recently, for these fabulous Aurifil quilting threads.

I've never tried these threads and I can't wait to give them a go!

Anna also included these gorgeous little spools of baker's twine, complete with very pretty scissors.

As if that wasn't enough, all those goodies were wrapped in some beautiful Anna Maria Horner fabric....sigh....

Thank you so much Anna - you really made my day :o)

xxx

And about time too!

There have been more than a few mornings like this of late...

....and this morning we finally woke up to a fresh crisp blanket of snow. Children were dressed and breakfasted in record time so they could fit in some fun before school....

After slipping and sliding up and down the hill to school - with me carrying Minx's cello! - we arrived to discover the children could go home again.

School wasn't officially closed but so few staff had made it in that they would not be doing much today and told us they would close early anyway. We opted to do what 95% of the parents had done and go home to enjoy the snow. Luckily my work meetings were also cancelled today!!

This is the first time we have had anything near 'proper' snow in the seven and a half years we've lived here and it was too good to miss.

Minx's friend came home with us and Moog and I took them for a lovely snowy walk :-)

Moog went cracker-dog in the snow. Who would believe this nutter is nearly 14?!

Brrr....chillin' out!!

As many of you in the UK will know - 2 to 5cm of snow constitutes 'severe weather'.......thank goodness I whipped these babies up last night then!

Why the clenched fist? 'Cos I saw how old and haggard my hands were looking and couldn't inflict them on you!!

My demanding friend Locket told me I have to tell you how to make these. How can I refuse?

I used Sublime merino wool and a size 4.5mm crochet hook. They are made as a flat piece of crochet and then sewn together into a tube.
Here's how to do them:

With main colour - chain 34 stitches, turn and treble crochet (US double crochet) into 4th chain from hook. Treble crochet into every stitch to end of chain. Turn and chain 2, then treble crochet in every stitch to end. Repeat this for every row until wristwarmer is desired length. Fasten off main colour.

Place the two edges together and stitch together to form a tube. Now attach a contrast yarn to the top edge. *Slip stitch into 2 stitches, chain 3, slip stitch into next stitch** repeat from * to ** around top of tube - this gives a picot edge to the wristwarmer.

If you want to you can do a row of contrasting colour around the bottom of the wristwarmer too - I did but forgot to photograph this bit!

I did these in just over two hours last night. Let me know if you have a go too and if you have any problems understanding my rather vague 'pattern'!!

In other crafty news, last week's brief foray into recycled crafts (for work ;-) ) led to me having a go at making some envelopes. We always use loads of envelopes for school notes and I was about to buy some more but decided to opt for a bit of repurposing instead.

I used old envelopes opened up to make a template and then chose some pretty pages from my stockpile of old Country Living magazines, added a white address label and hey presto!

Once started I just couldn't stop......I made fifty!!!....and these are a few examples...

I have no idea if we'll be 'snowed in' again tomorrow. What would we ever do in this funny little country if we had real weather?

Have a good week :-)

Love xxxxx

Dream job?

I didn't think I'd say this a year ago....I love my job!

I've been asked to make 'recycled' gift bags with a school next week. I have an hour and a half session booked, with 15 children. As I'm not sure how long the bags will take I thought I'd better have some other options up my sleeve.

Lucy told me about this fab tutorial and I just had to give it a go.


The Argos Christmas catalogue :

...with it's friend - Sainsbury's magazine:


I found a great tutorial for the gift bags here. I used two layers of newspaper to make mine and reinforced the base and 'the bit that the handle goes through' (very technical term!!) with cardboard.

I also found a tutorial (you need Adobe reader to open this one) for a really easy bag made from an A4 envelope.


Thanks to Ali for posting her great origami wreath tutorial I have another option if we need to fill the time. These are made with the weekend travel section of M-I-L's newspaper.

I've since made another 10 of these using some lovely old yellowed pages from a very decrepit encyclopedia...but no photo thanks to a very grey and dismal day.

Tomorrow's my day off and I have another girly present to make for another girly birthday party.....but I just want to knit socks.....

xxxxx

Here come the girls....

I would like to introduce you to Moog's new friends.

From the left - Beryl (mine), Flossy (Minx's), Doris (Moogsdad's) and Jazz (Monster's) - wondering what on earth is happening no doubt!!


Our girls are 18 week old Warrens - a Rhode Island Red hybrid. They should lay their first eggs in about a week and for their first night need to be kept in their sleeping quarters. They'll venture out into their luxury run tomorrow morning.

They seem quite impressed so far with their bespoke accomodation.

Moogsdad chose Doris because she kept pecking his leg and then lay down next to him to be stroked - I seem to remember I ensnared him in a similar fashion ;)

I imagine from henceforth I will never be short of blog fodder!

To prove that small scale craftiness continues I dabbled in a bit of papercraft yesterday.

A while back Bethany posted a link to a great tutorial on making your own books and I finally had a go yesterday.


I used my very favourite Basic Grey paper. I do so wish this was available as a fabric - I'd buy metres of it!!

Of course - I had to use up the whole 12x12 sheet, which resulted in three notebooks. The two smaller ones are made from scrap paper.

I am now going to wander back down the garden to have a chat with the chooks :)

Here's to a lovely weekend xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Bye bye Baby, Baby goodbye......

An update on the sewing machine situation:


I've dithered all week about having to post my poorly sick Baby back to the supplier. A quick phone call to the supplier this morning confirmed it was indeed down to me to pay for her return. That's because they sell them so cheaply in the first place.

The very nice man said that their engineer would look at it (his word!! he didn't realise she was a she) as soon as it (men!!) arrived with them. If it looks like a problem that'll take a bit of solving they'll replace her with a new one straight away. Otherwise it should take a day or two to fix.

I got her parcelled up and then pondered the logistics and cost of trying to send her Royal Mail.

Mmmm - they've shut all the helpful local post offices that you used to be able to park outside of (or even walk to!!). It would involve driving to the main post office and walking 300 yards from the car park with a 15kg bulky box only to find it would cost me a gazillion of our pounds sterling in postal charges.


I think not.


There has to be a better way.


I put my thinking cap on.





I Googled 'parcel delivery services' and found Interparcel.


At 10.20am-ish, after a very simple and straightforward bit of online form filling, I completed my request for a DHL man to come to my house and pick up my poorly baby and deliver her 150 miles or so to the poorly sewing machine hostipul.

At 11.20am the dog exploded into the angry 'pretending to be a fierce guard dog' barking that can only mean one thing.

There's someone at the door.


A lovely lovely lovely DHL man!!!!


He carefully picked my poorly Baby up and gently placed her in his van and off she went.

Bye bye Baby!!!


Whether I see that Baby again or Baby MkII waits to be seen but at least she's on her way to hostipul where the sewing machine doctor can operate.

I am so impressed by the whole Interparcel thing that I had to share it just in case anyone else out there was faced with the prospect of struggling to the post office with a bulky something :)

I'm so kind it sickens me.

I haven't so much as stitched a stitch today but have parcelled up some somethings to be sent abroad very soon and have revisited an old obsession of mine - card making.

March is always a busy month for us with birthday's, anniversaries and Mother's Day.

This is for my nephew who is 2 this Sunday:



This is for my friend whose birthday is on Monday:


This is for Mother-in-Law for Sunday:


I thought I got messy with my sewing but it was nothing compared to the mess I made just doing these cards. Every box and drawer containing my papercraft stash was open. Every bit of the table was covered.

It took me ages to do them as I dithered and pithered with choosing what to do and what to do it with!!!

Oooh, would you look at the time. I have to be going. Naughty children to be picked up from school, beaten soundly and then locked in the cupboard under the stairs. Must go and fetch the children from school.

For those of you having a pretty horrible time, and I know a few of you are right now, I'm sending you a big hug from me and Moog. Hers is the smelly dog flavoured one :)

xxxxx

p.s. couldn't resist this