Christmas Is Coming

Hello everybody, how are you today?  I hope you're well.  I'm having a good week tackling jobs around the house and ticking them off the list - always a good feeling.

At the moment I'm reading this book -

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin - a very inspiring read and I'm aiming to put into practice some of her wise advice.  No one ever said "No" to more happiness in their lives.

So I'm tackling jobs I've been putting off, one of which was making a start on getting organised for Christmas.  I'm not brave enough to leave it for any longer.  At last, and with a sense of relief at having got started, I've conjured up some Christmas cards.

The inspiration came from Pinterest, where else? (Although I can't seem to find the original site that the inspiration came from to give it full credit)

It's a simple idea, using upturned paper hearts to create the shape of the Christmas tree with a few little sparkles and a ribbon added.

So that's one Christmas job complete - only a few dozen more to go - but at least I've made a start - and therefore it adds to my happiness!

How is your Christmas preparation coming along?

My New Favourite Thing

If you are of a certain age and in the U.K., you may remember a children's programme called Vision On that ran from 1964 to 1976.

It was an art programme designed for the deaf, so it was very visual.  Tony Hart was one of the presenters and I loved the amazing pictures he produced and the way he made creating them look so easy.

Anyway, I think I've discovered a modern day equivalent - mixed media collage videos on YouTube!  I'm enjoying watching the fabulous designs created by numerous talented artists, who make it look so easy.

Like the television programme, Vision On, many of the videos have a musical soundtrack rather than a spoken commentary, so they can be watched with the volume on mute - handy when you have one eye on the sport on the television!

One of my favourite artists (there are so many, I have plenty more yet to discover) is Gabrielle Pollacco.  Here's just a small sample of her work.

Isn't it amazing?  I particularly love the Steampunk journal cover.  The videos showing how these are made are very addictive, it's easy to see why I'm not meeting my targets (please see previous post!).

Anyway, I just had to have a go at creating my own mixed media canvas.  I chose as my theme BLOSSOM.  Here's my effort.

I basically threw everything I had at it and tried to incorporate all the techniques I'd seen in the videos. I don't have all the fancy paints, stencils and other notions that are used in the videos, but it was good to make use of what I did have to hand.

What fun.  It grew by itself and, for a first attempt, I'm really pleased with the results.

I can't wait to try another one soon.  I'm so glad I've discovered these videos - I suppose when you look, there's just about a video for everything on YouTube.

Patchwork

One of the main projects I wanted to work on this month, instead of knitting and crocheting, was some patchwork using the English paper piecing technique.

I've done quite a bit of patchwork in the past, using the good old sewing machine and I particularly love the log cabin designs.  But I've never tried the hand stitched EPP technique.  I realised that I had seen this technique before when I was reviewing my Mollie Makes magazines.  There was a tutorial on it in issue 18, but I must have glossed over it the first time I read the magazine.

It was seeing Lorraine's beautiful work that piqued my interest.  I found this helpful online tutorial and set to work.  For my first project, I'm making a small piece of fabric that I will turn into a bag.

I can't believe how much I'm enjoying working on this.  It's a great evening activity and reasonably portable.  Once the paper and fabric had been cut, it all seems to have worked up very quickly.  I can't wait to start sewing all the little hexies together.

I had thought about using squares, but I was fortunate to find in my grandma's sewing box, this plastic template.

I'm feeling so inspired now, that I popped out to the local library and borrowed these books.

Some lovely projects in them.

The future could very well be filled with patchwork quilts.

Mollie Revisited

Thank you all for your comments on my last post, and for sharing your true ages.  It was fun to read the variety of responses.

Today I'd like to show you some bits and pieces that I have made in the last few days.  Whilst considering what to make that doesn't involve knitting or crocheting, I consulted my back issues of Mollie Makes magazine.  I found two projects that were quick and fun to make.

The first is this cute little apple pin cushion from issue 6.

It's hand stitched, with felt for the stalk and leaf.

These would make nice little gifts for crafty friends.

In Mollie Makes, I also saw an idea to use washi tape to decorate a jam jar.

It makes a lovely decorative pencil jar.

I'm continuing to work my way through the magazine's.  I haven't looked at them for a while and it's surprising how new inspirations come from looking at the pages with new eyes.

Whatever you are doing today, I hope you find inspiration and time for a bit of creativity.

Embroidery - My First Love

Day four of my "no knitting" month and it's not easy.  Usually I knit or crochet everyday, not just in the evenings but anytime I have a few minutes spare.  So not having that occupation is really hard.  I am getting plenty of jobs done around the house, especially de-cluttering, which is much needed.  However it's the evenings that are the hardest.  I can't watch television without having something in my hands to work on.  I have far too much energy to just sit still, so I need to find something to occupy me - I'll have to sort something out soon or I'll be climbing the walls!  At the moment I'm reduced to frogging old knitted cardigans!

One of the activities I want to spend more time on this month is embroidery.  I love embroidery, it was my passion before knitting took over.  Now my older eyes can't cope with sewing for too long, and then only in very good daylight, but if I can manage little and often I shall be happy.

Last month I completed an embroidered tablecloth.

I bought the cloth in a charity shop in Chester, many many years ago.  As you can see, the previous owner had made a start.

Every year I would promise myself that I would finish it, I'd sew a bit then it would be put away again.

This year, thankfully, I have fulfilled my promise.  And I'm very happy with the finished cloth.  Especially as now I can start a new embroidery project.

I'm very excited about this new project.  Inspiration came from Pinterest (as always).  I'm going to embroider little squares and then join them together to make a wall hanging.  I will make 54 squares in total - one for each year of my life - and I've already decided the subject for each square.

To make it more interesting, I making it into a lucky dip, so that a subject is picked at random.

Some of the subjects are open to any interpretation, so it gives me freedom to play around with ideas.

I don't expect to get this project finished in a hurry - embroidery has a very leisurely pace - I will embroider when the mood takes me.  I have completed my first square.  The subject picked out of the jar was "insect".  So I couldn't resist embroidering some bees.

I'm happy I've made a start and looking forward to the next square.

Today I'm going to start planning some sewing projects, I've set up my sewing machine and I'm itching to get started.  I think this is going to be a very productive month.

Happy New Year!

The trip to London has been made and it was successful.  We postponed going until Monday because of the issues with Petticoat Lane market.  We stayed Sunday night in Northampton with my sister, so only had a relatively short drive into London from there.

Grace and her boyfriend, Rob, joined us at Eve's flat, so there was plenty of help to unload the car and carry everything up the stairs.

Today is her first day in work, so fingers crossed she has an enjoyable time.

Even though we were only away from home a day and a half it feels a lot longer.  So today is going to be a planning and getting organised day.

I must admit that I always regard the first day of September as a sort of New Year.  The academic year has been a major part of the rhythm of our lives for so long. Not only in terms of the girls education, but also because my husband works in a university.  So despite the fact that my daughters are now in full time employment, the academic year is still significant.

I love new beginnings, and as my husband said, now that Eve has moved down to London, this is the start of the rest of our lives.

I have no big plans at the moment, but little plans are just as much fun.  There are lots of crafty things I want to get done as well as new things I want to try.  I don't know about you, but I find that knitting and crocheting are such easy projects to pick up and put down, that I tend to focus on them.  Other crafts like embroidery, patchwork, dressmaking etc, tend to be put on the list of things to do but are never prioritised.

So for the month of September, I have decided that this will be a "no knitting" month.  By that I mean no knitting and no crocheting in any form for the whole month.  No exceptions!  The idea is that I will have time for all the other things I want or need to do.  They will no longer be good intentions, but will finally become a reality.

So I have a new embroidery project in mind (more on that in the next post), I'd like to have a go at spinning, English paper piecing, more dress making and a whole load of other crafty things.  I'd like to enhance my juggling skills - it's great for improving your concentration levels!  I'd also like to devote some time to beautifying the garden, maybe with some drastic landscaping changes for next year.  I have been following Daffy Suburbia's summer diary and I have been so impressed with the way she organises her garden that I feel very inspired to do more than just potter around.

So today I will devote some time to thinking about what I want to achieve this month - I have high hopes but trying to keep it realistic!

I have one finished object to show you before all the baskets of knitting and crocheting projects are put out of sight for the month.  It's my Circles of the Sun cushion cover.

The CAL organised by Tatsiana was such fun.  Here are the nine different blocks we used.

I made two of each, for the front and back, crocheted the two pieces together, then added the border as an edging.

This is the back view

Such good fun.  You can see full details of this project on my Ravelry page, here.

The Dancing Bees shawl that I mentioned in my last blog post has been put away, whilst I think about it.  Thank you for all your comments and encouragement.  I think a month away from it will do me good and hopefully I'll return to knitting it in a more positive frame of mind.

Thank you also for all your good wishes for Eve.  I have passed them on to her and she is very appreciative.

So, I seem to have rambled on for long enough.  Now I need to get off and get organised.  Bye for now.

Inspiring Colours

This year, I've learnt to love my garden more.  It still needs a lot more attention than I am likely to give it, but nevertheless, it manages quite well with the little attention it gets and I'm pleasantly surprised by the persistence of the plants to bloom and continue growing.

I'm hoping to spend some time over the next few weeks planning ahead and thinking how I can improve things for next year.  In the meantime, here are some pictures of the beautiful colours I'm enjoying in my garden at the moment.

Yes, I'm feeling quite inspired to devote more time to my little patch of loveliness.  Hopefully the feeling will last through to next year.

Edible Gardening - a beginning

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm not really a gardener.  Once I'm out in the garden, I quite enjoy pottering around, but the weather has to be just so before I'll venture out.

So I don't tend to devote a great deal of time to gardening.  But I do like to read gardening posts on other people's blogs.  I find them very inspiring and some of the pictures are so beautiful.

I have a great deal of admiration for anyone who grows their own veg, that seems like a lot of devotion and hard work to me.  But last month I was reading a post on Lorraine's blog, Mama's Mercantile, and saw she was growing lettuce in pots by her door for easy picking.  I like this idea (thank you Lorraine).  I thought even I could do this.  It doesn't require undue effort and it would be a good place to start.

So I bought a cheap packet of mixed salad seeds - no idea what's in it - and sprinkled them in the pot.  And much to my amazement, I have some salad leaves ready for picking.

This may not seem much, but to me it's wonderful.  A beginning.  Next summer I may expand into lettuce, who knows, I may eventually have a proper vegetable patch!  But for now, one step at a time, I'm enjoying being able to pick some edibles fresh from the garden.

Pebble Penguins

Some tiny pebbles that are now penguins.

I have so many pebbles around the house (a good thing about living close to the beach - or is it a bad thing?) I may just make a whole colony of penguins!

Inspiration came, as always, from Pinterest - where we would be without Pinterest?

Christmas Dove

My Christmas makes are progressing well.  I'm working my way through the list of things I want to make.  Unfortunately, I keep adding to the list.  Not a day goes by without me seeing something inspiring on Pinterest or Ravelry, and so my list grows ever longer.

Most of my makes are totally hush hush - not to be revealed until Christmas Day, but I thought I would share this crocheted project with you.

Isn't it just so cute?

I thought it would make a lovely Christmas decoration.  The pattern is called Amigurumi Doves and it's by Karla Fitch.  It's not a free pattern but very reasonably priced and very well explained.  You can see details of the pattern on Ravelry, here.

It would be fun to make the bird in interesting colours - I'll add that to my after-Christmas-making-list.  Meanwhile it's back to the Christmas-making-list.  I do love lists - but I've a feeling mine are getting out of hand!