Something a little different...

Yesterday we woke up to an unexpected snowfall. We didn't make any snowmen, but it made me think to blog about our previous snow friends.

This odd fella was our first creation, we made it when Shoshone was only a couple of weeks old... I didn't want to spend too long outside in the cold.

He was quite a funny looking thing and made us laugh when we looked out to see him... not sure what the extra ball on his head was about?!

This is our more recent creation. He was made on 2nd January, 2010 and lasted for quite a few weeks... except most of the time he was under another 5 inches of snow. He started off like any other snowman, until my little helper got board and started making snow angels and bombarding me with snowballs. At which point I got a bit carried away.

Answers on a postcard who its supposed to be...?

Nan's Birthday Cards.

Feeling crafty, in the creative kind of way not the up to mischief kind of way, I decided to make some birthday cards for my Nan. These are 100% me, not a prearranged layout kinda deal like before...

This one was from Danny and me. I was really pleased with how the letters came out, they were made from a sticker sheet, from the negative letter if you know what I mean. Like, I'd already used the 'N' on the sheet, so I used the outline that was left behind. Does that make sense?

Well, anyway...


The other one was from Wiyot to his Great-Grandmother.

Again, really simple. Just a stamped image and then I used a water brush to create the subtle colour wash.

Pretty simple designs, but I really liked them :)

Finally...

I have been working on this jumper for ages!!!

I started it when I was pregnant with Shoshone, and just managed to finish it the weekend just gone... I must have known it would take this long as I decided to make it in the patterns largest size.

Other than a baby blanket I made, this must be my longest running (knitting) project... I'll blog about the blanket at some other point.

Actually come to mention it, I'm not 100% sure its complete... I planned to try a bit of embroidery on the chest, where the thicker yellow stripe is.

I might still do it...

Got the buttons from Dunelm Mill, they were to go allong with the embroidery, but think they look good on their own too.

In the pattern the jumper is supposed to be striped all over. I thought I'd run out of the white/speckled yarn and so decided to go for plain yellow sleeves... After knitting one of the sleeves I found another ball of the white yarn >:(

I couldn't be bothered to pull out the whole sleeve so the jumper now has yellow sleeves... Thought it might look weird, but quite like it now it's finished.

And here's Shoshone wearing it for the first time... Again, not a happy model :S




If anyone's interested, it is basically the first pattern in Simply baby by Debbie Bliss.

Happy Birthday to me...

I can't believe I'm 30! Not sure how I feel about that :-S

But seems like a good time to share a apple pie I baked for Danny's 30th.

He loves apple pie, so it seemed quite fitting and a nice change from a cake... Think it was the first one I've made? Anyway, thought it would be fun to decorate it with a pastry 30 as well as the usual leaves.

Couldn't really put a candle in it, but it sure did taste good :-9

My First Card.

Not including ones I made for my parents growing up, this was probably my first attempt at a handmade card :)

Unfortunately I can't really take all the credit for this one, as it was part of a set where the designs are pretty much laid out for you... Having said that, the design didn't quite fit the way it was supposed to, so I did have to use some artistic licence to make it work.

In any case I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

My Sculptures

When I was doing A level art, my teacher mentioned using breeze blocks to create sculptures. Having always wanted to give the old hammer and chisel a go I straight away got my Dad to go pick up a few blocks from the local builders yard.

My first piece was based on the previous years exam brief... From what I can remember (it was more than a few years ago) it was supposed to be someone relaxing in the sun. I was really pleased with how he turned out and loved the process of chipping away at something to reveal something completely different.

I loved the process so much I decided to do another one for my exam piece. The brief this time was to do something inspired by Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures, where the figures look as though they are struggling to free themselves from the marble.

I still love the way it turned out. It's by no means perfect, but I'm proud of it :-)

A Dress for Shoshone

I have so many projects, both completed and on the go, its hard to choose one to start the whole process off...

This one seems quite a good one though as I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out :-)

So Shoshone's first birthday was coming up and I realised that she didn't have a special dress to wear for her party... The plan was to nip out to a local outlet to find her a nice little outfit, somehow this changed to designing and making her a dress from some left over fabric.

Doesn't sound too bad, except it was Wednesday afternoon and the party was to be on Saturday. Not to mention that I've never drawn up my own pattern before, or made a dress, let alone done button holes (manually) and only started teaching myself to sew late 2009.

But I'd made up my mind. I made a sketch of what I wanted, studied some of her existing dresses and got to work making a toile. The design changed a few times in the making process, but ended up pretty much how I envisioned it in the first place.

Everything went pretty smoothly...

...until I got to the button holes, I almost ruined the dress!

I could do them fine on the practice fabric, but could I do it on the real thing? NO!

Thankfully I figured out what was causing the problem before it was too late. A seam in the dress was causing the presser foot on the sewing machine to move the fabric slightly to the side, causing the stitches to be too close together so I couldn't cut open the button hole... Not sure that makes sense, but don't really know how else to explain it!?!

Anyway...

The finished result, not too bad I think... Well I'm pleased with it anyway :-)

And a rather reluctant model...

Needs a bit of an iron, but you get the idea :-S

The best thing is it was free!! Made from left over dress fabric, an old bed sheet and some scraps from an apron I made my nan :-)

Hello to anyone and everyone!

So this is my first post... ever! Hmmm what to write about, seems like it should be something momentous.

Failing that, I'll just say hi!

I'm hoping to blog about everything that I have created in the past or am in the process of making now. Mostly knitting and sewing, with the odd bit of cooking/baking, embroidery, paper crafts and whatever else takes my fancy.

Hopefully I'll keep it up... the blogging that is, the creativity is always there :-)

PS Thank you to whoever invented the spell checker!!!