New Year, New House, New Goals

It's a brand new year, which means new resolutions to make and break! I've gone for the standard ones, try to improve my general fitness, be more organised (greatly needed) and try to finish what I start, craftywise.

It was great having time off work for the holidays, especially now the contracts on the house have been exchanged and everything's going well with that! We have a moving date, and even managed to box up some stuff over the hols. I've gone through my wardrobe, and will be making a trip to the charity shops soon with lots of things I no longer wear. The wardrobe is still full though - perhaps I should stop buying clothes...

Sadly I've had to revise over the holidays as I have exams in January, booo. This has sapped some of the excitement out of moving/packing! Still, it's nice to know the exams will be done with and I can enjoy the new place and go shopping for furniture and anything else we need.

Beer Festival meetings are starting up again soon, another thing using up my precious time. It does mean that I haven't had much chance to craft of late, and it's looking like Feb before I'll have any proper time to start again. One goal for this year is to get out the Epic Pokemon stitch and work on that. I can't believe it's been a year since I did any work on it.

Right, back to it, lots to get on with! Apologies if I don't update for a while, things are just starting to get hectic! :)

I hope everyone reading has a great 2014!

Some finished things and good news!

I keep promising photos, so here we go, just in time for Christmas!

 

First up is my friend Emma modelling the Space Princess hat I knitted from 'Knits for Nerds'. Fairly quick knit, although the 'braids' took a while and were very repetitive. If I made this again I'd definitely make the hat part larger, and I thought it was too small. Does keep your ears nice and warm though!

 

Next up is the completed bracelet kit from CC Box 17. Really please with how this turned out, but I didn't realise how big it would be when I added the fastening - it's now too big for my wrist! Ah well. It was fun to make, and at some point (when I have some free time!) I'll go back and alter/redo it. I'm tempted to remake it with the purple beads that came in box 16...

You might remember the scale mail wristwarmers I made earlier in the year. Here's a necklace to go with them! I volunteered to be a pattern tester for Crafty Mutt (http://craftymutt.etsy.com) ages ago, and she got in touch at the end of November with a new pattern. As you can see, it was a bit of a mash up of scales, as these were the only colours I had in, and I ran out a little bit at the end which is why there are random silver scales on the top right! This was a lovely knit, nice and simple, plus it knitted up fast which was a bonus. I'm tempted to try it again, with a bit more thought to scale placement.

And finally... A blurry photo of my newest Christmas tree ornaments. We have some glittery red mushrooms on our tree from last year (the only decorations left in the shop when we went it) and some glittery reindeer... I saw a similar thing on Pinterest and decided to get some Christmas dinosaurs done. The panther was in my CCbox 16 kit, but I wasn't keen on the necklace idea, so he was sparkled up as well. The boyfriend helped me with this one and we had a great time making them together, even if we did end up covered in glitter and glue.

Also... we've exchanged contracts this week on the house we wanted! We should get keys mid January. It's really exciting, but it does mean we have lots to do, packing up house stuff, notifying suppliers etc etc. I have a feeling that crafting is going to be put on the back burner for a while - as I also have 2 exams in January.

Right, I'd better get offline - there are still Christmas presents to be bought, and then wrapped! Where has December gone this year?

CC Box 17

CC Box 17 arrived last week, and I was really impressed, especially after the let down (in my opinion) of CC Box 16.

This month, the theme was Medieval. Not my usual cup of tea, but I thought the crafty goodies worked well!

Here's the art card, along with a fat quarter of lovely patterned fabric and the usual craft papers (I never know what to do with these, they're so pretty and I don't want to cut them up!)

There were some lovely fleur de lis charms, a couple of crown charms and 2 metal filigrees, along with some shiny red beads, siver fabric paint and washi tape, which I'm looking forward to using.

It wouldn't be a CC Box without the kit - some pretty shiny pearl beads and seed beads to make a bracelet with - I'm looking forward to attempting this over the weekend if I get chance! There were also some metallic fibres in the box - they fuse together if ironed under protective paper - no idea what to do with these, but I'm sure they'll be useful for something!

And in other good news, my Sprite Stitch swap gift arrived safely, and seems to have gone down well! I'll post pictures soon, I promise.

Long time no post...

I really did mean to write an 'anniversary' post at the beginning of the month, but things got busy and I haven't done it. It seems a bit silly to do it now, so I won't.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures for today's post - because I'm rubbish and keep forgetting to take photos! I honestly will have a picture of the Lemming blanket soon, and possibly the swap gift I sent for the Sprite Stitch swap. It went a bit late, but it's gone, and I'm just waiting to hear that the swapee has received it, which whould be in the next few days!

I've also started a new knitting project, and will have pictures of that next time - I've started a Princess Leia hat. So far the hat part is done, and I'm now working on the hair swirls. Sounds odd, but hopefully it will turn out ok.

This week is looking busy, work wise, with a course to go on, as well as the usual college work. I'm also off to watch the snooker (UK Championships) this weekend, which should be good! I've never watched it live, but do enjoy watching it on tv. It'll be a new experience and it's even better because I won the tickets in a Twitter competition!

Enough rambling, I have things that need doing (when do I ever not?!) and I should try to get at least some of them done.

CC Box 16

As promised, here's my post on CC Box 16

The theme this month? The Circus.

I really loved this month's art card, which is by Luke Spooner. I just wish I could get it the right way up on here, grrr!

There were lots of bits and pieces in the box, including some beautiful purple beads, wome red and white stripey buttons, a set of circus stamps (again, the picture wo't go the right way up for some reason - I really must start taking pics on a proper camera instead of my phone) some paper tickets, 3 lovely mask charms, a couple of double sided craft papers plus some temporary tattoos. I love the black and purple circus card, but have no idea what to do with it at the moment. I may just frame it, along with a couple of the art cards from the Crafty Creatives boxes.

 

 

The stamps look like they could be fun, but I'll have to go out and get an ink pad to use them with I think. I'm going to attempt to make a pair of earrings from the beads in the near future, nice and simple ones. What I'll do with the rest of them, I'm not quite sure yet!

 

As well as all of these lovely goodies, there was the kit for this month, which was to make a kitsch animal necklace. My kit contained a lovely black panther, although I'm not sure I'll turn it into a necklace.

 

 

There was also a second suggested 'kit' which was to make some circus themed coasters. The box had some card circles, some black and white circus prints and PVA glue to do this with, and they suggested using the temporary tattoos on these as well. While I may not make the coasters, I'm tempted to decorate a ccouple of plain cardboard boxes with the tattoos, possibly after decopatching them.

 



 

There were some really lovely items in the box this month and my brain is whirring with suggestions of things to do with them.

 

A quick update on the crocheted blanket - only 8 squares left to sew together, then it will be complete! Pictures to follow once it's complete, I promise. I'm hoping to get it finished before Tuesday so I can take it to the local knitting/crochet group. I'm also still working on the Sprite Stitch swap gift, and hope to have it complete this weekend. Lots of crafting to do, too little time to do it in!

 

 

Finished item and some WIPs

It's been a while since I posted, life has been busy! I've been looking at houses, and found a nice one, which has led to lots of learning about mortgages. Exciting stuff! I've also been busy with work for the accounting course I started in September, and we've had a new starter at work.

Even with everything else, I've still managed to find some time to craft! I completed my cowl in Sirdar Giselle. I really love how this turned out - Purse stitch was quite simple to pick up, and resulting in some fairly mindless knitting in front of the TV. Sewing it up was quite easy as well, especially compared to other recent projects! The copper flecks look great next to the blues, I just wish I could get a better photo of it.

And I've done some more work on the Wingspan shawl in King Cole Galaxy since this picture-I'm now on the 4th 'triangle'. I'm really liking how the colours are coming out on this, such a lovely subtle shade change. I'll try to post another pic soon showing the colours a bit better.

But the main thing I've been working on this week is the crocheted blanket. 120 squares. So far I've managed to get 30 squares sewn together (but forgot to take a photo, as I'm silly) and realised that I have a lot of ends to sew in once they're sewn together. If I ever decide to make another blanket like this again, remind me not to use black wool - it's driving me crazy!
Here's a poor picture of most of the squares... there's a lot more black than any other colour, and it makes me want to cry.

 

I'm aiming to get at least 6 squares sewn on each day, so it should hopefully be finished in a couple of weeks. But, you know what they say about good intentions and all that...

 

This weekend I really need to finish off my Sprite Stitch swap gift, which means getting the sewing machine out. I've got most of the weekend to myself, so may indulge in lots of craftyness (and square sewing)

 

The latest Crafty Creative Box arrived this week as well - I'll do a post on that next week hopefully, once everyone else has received theirs so that I don't accidently spoil the contents for anybody.

 

Final (slightly scary) thought for this post - I've been blogging for almost a year (My first post was 2nd Nov). It doesn't seem that long ago I started this nonsense!

 

CC Box 15

I'm pretty late posting this...

 

CC Box 15. I was pretty excited to receive my 3rd Crafty Creatives Box. What would it contain? What would this months theme be?

Here are the contents:

The theme was monochrome, in case it wasn't obvious!

The contents: FQ of monocrome fabric, a CC blank page notebook, art card, chalkboard clip, black and white headed pins, a graphite pencil, Stabilo Sensor pen, domino beads, polymer clay rose, teabag folding squares, some prints from Aubrey Beardsley and the CC kit - needle felting with black and white wool.

I must say, I really like the fabric, although I've not decided what I'll do with it, and the polymer rose and domino charms are pretty too. The pins will most likely come in handy when I decide what I'm doing with the fabric. The art card wasn't my cup of tea, and I'm not fussed about needle felting (although I have a friend who has wanted to have a go for ages, so she'll be having a play with the kit. I might give the tea bag folding a try, but doubt I'll make much use of the pen/pencil/doodle book as I'm not very artistic (I can draw Garfield eating a burger and that's about it!)

If I'm honest, this month's box didn't appeal to me greatly, which is a shame. My friend is happy though, as it means she can try needle felting out! You can't please everybody sadly, and I'm hoping next month's box will be a little bit more suited to me! Hopefully I'll be able to blog about it a bit sooner next time.