Here we go

I have moved over from blogger.  So if you have followed me here hello.

One of the mistakes I have been making blogging wise was trying to post on just one subject and it has never really taken off as I am a whirlwind of many things that are all affected by mood.

Mostly I am in no particular order a

1. Mum
2. Nana
3. Partner/Wife
4. Crafter
5. sewing addicted in many ways ( dressmaking, quilting, recycling etc)
6. Baker
7. Tarot Reader
8. Medium
9. Paranormal Investigator
10. Photographer
11. Book Reader

And probably a lot more than I can think of at this time.

My main aim will be to get my thoughts and ideas on lots of different things all in one place.  Somewhere I can keep a record or show off my makes. It may work or it may just confuse everyone as my mind tends to be rather random. But at the end of the day, this is for me, if anyone wants to follow along then great. If not then I am not going to be offended I am used to talking to myself  😉

Wyatt’s treat jar

I absolutely love these big coffee jars as they are actually big enough to put useful stuff in and get your hand in them to retrieve what’s in the bottom of them. So I turned this one into a treat jar for GrandDog Wyatt.

I lost the middles to the S and tried to replace them so in the end removed them and counted it as a rookie error. After struggling with transferring a Tardis onto a water bottle I was kind of putting this bit off but I needn’t of worried because apart from the S all went smoothly. So smoothly I can’t wait to do more.

Meanwhile, we have had scaffolding going up around the house and I can’t settle into doing much as it’s hard to concentrate as a pair of heavy booted legs are walking across outside your window. The noise aspect hasn’t been to bad. I can stand in dark underground tunnels and not jump at things at a paranormal investigation, but those boots were really making me jump yesterday. Luckily today it’s quiet but I know the actual work starts tomorrow so this could be interesting to see how I get on with that.

Dogs deserve treats to

I have an adorable granddog. He’s just celebrated being a year old. Any excuse to find a new reason to practice with my Cricut Maker! So I just cut and weeded the vinyl to put on a jar to be his treat jar.

I cannot believe how long I spent picking bits out of this or sticking them back on to where they should be. Black vinyl at this time of night (11pm) was silly but I did it. No way am I putting this on the jar tonight my eyes have gone cross eyed enough as it is.

I found the free SVG file through Pinterest so it isn’t my own image.

A new hobby or craft means more craft snips and stickers. Came to the realisation yesterday that every hobby I have had, or craft I do, runs the very big likelihood of finding bits in strange places. When I sew or quilt it’s bits of cotton, when I make cards or scrapbook it’s slithers of card or glue or even worse glitter everywhere. Now I am playing with self sticking vinyl I keep finding the bits I and picking out all over me and sometimes in other rooms. All good clean, even though it’s sticky, fun. I did make a card the other day and still finding bits of glitter around the place.

It’s Mothers day on Sunday and I have done a little crafting but really don’t want to share it on here in case it gets seen so I will share it near the end of the week.

My coughs settled down a little, only had 4 or 5 coughing fits today so a big improvement and sleeping is easier. Yay! I don’t like it when I can’t sleep. Am not a morning person at the best of times. Morning with no sleep and there’s not enough coffee in the world to make me not grumpy first thing.

Butterflies and a cough

Just recently it has been craft central around here. Spending so much time doing this and not actually blogging or being very sociable. In between that and now I think I have caught every bug and cough/cold going round.

Jennifer Maker on YouTube made a canvas with a heart of butterflies on it and I fell really in love with it. Having bought myself a Cricut Maker it didn’t take me long to cut out 448 tiny butterflies out of 4 different coloured pieces of card yesterday.

Today nothing else was going right craft wise so I brought out the butterflies and starting gluing them in a heart formation. All great fun, and no glue anywhere but where it should be, until I coughed and they flew across the canvas and desk it all went surprisingly well. Luckily I can see the funny side.

so far so good and will continue it tomorrow when I get some time.Trying to decide on a short quote or few thoughtful words to also put on one of the bottom corners of the canvas.

Don’t think I will need all the butterflies as my hearts a little smaller than Jennifer’s, but they sure do make me smile. I spent a while yesterday cutting them out, peeling them off the cutting mat and pinching each one in half. All where put in a separate tub according to the colour. I often admit to not liking fiddly things or working with glue but, in this case, It’s been good because of no stuck together fingers or massive glue spills all over the show. Not sure if its’s because a tacky glue and not to liquid maybe? Whatever the case it didn’t up up down my arms, over my elbows and in my hair. Winning moment indeed 🙂

Other than that it’s been a quiet weekend so far. We braved a visit to Sainsbury (supermarket) and managed to leave the shop with everything we went for and without being rammed by someone else’ trolley or basket so I was impressed. Makes a change for grocery shopping to be so easy .

Hope you have been well and would love to hear how you all are x

Toaster sweater woes

The toaster sweater is a pattern by sew house seven and a fairly quick make with a serger/overlocker. That is unless you put the collar on backwards and have to unpick it. So far I’ve unpicked a third of it and left it in a heap like this in disgust

Maybe tomorrow I can get it looking more like this

Until then I’m settling for something a little less frustrating. I’ve made this pattern twice before and it’s a pretty quick make. And one I like wearing so homely the patience to unpick and redo the neckline will come to me knowing how I will enjoy wearing this sweater.

On the other hand this really will make me double check next time I do necks etc not having put the notes or marks in to line things up. So a lesson learned today.

Half square triangle playtime

After the realisation last week that I had cut and sewed the wrong amount and quantities of half square triangles for a quilt, a change of plan was needed. Rows were as far as I got and then realised they didn’t fit together as I wanted either.

So hubby and myself played around and laid out this arrangement.

Ended up changing the bottom 2 rows so the pink areas carried on the dark lines and followed from the black bits. It’s nothing like was originally planned but I like it.

Was nice to finish putting the top together so far. Not sure if I’m going to add borders just yet. I’ll take a look and give it more though after our meeting tomorrow morning.

Still trying to decide between a cotton traditional backing or a soft plush backing. Being it’s lap quilt snuggly size I’ll probably opt for the soft fluffy backing. My mind is very changeable at the best of times so I’ll let you know when I decide eventually.

Glitter jelly!

Having 2 granddaughters means that I get to have some sparkly pink fun now and then. Living with boys that aren’t into a lot of colour etc it’s the strangest things that make me smile.

I picked up a pack of glitter jelly last time I was out in the supermarket.

Disappointed with how it was not exactly very glittery. The colour pink also reminded me of either calpol or Medised from my oldest children’s toddler days. that put me off it to start with. It did sort of shimmer. So lesson learnt today was stop believing all you read on packets!

Bonus points for setting in a mold and it coming out in one piece to jiggle all jelly like for the kids entertainment. Was worth it just for the giggles with wobbly jelly. And they loved the taste of this raspberry jelly.

All in all I was a bit disappointed with it. Would I buy it again? Only if someone requested it.

This tells you how calm and non exciting my day has been. My quiet time in the evening and I’m still thinking of a packet of jelly. Saying that though it also shows how nothing drastic, annoying or bad has happened today. Good quiet day. Now and again we all need a quiet rest day and today was it.

I’m off to attempt to sew my quilt top rows together and relax with an audiobook.

Do I ever learn?

It appears not. Every time I get sucked in to do a free kit with a craft magazine or a cheap one in a shop something is missing. In this case a simple embroidery kit including everything you need for creating a little cute saying

It included all the thread and even yarn to make a hanger and a pompon. Haven’t got that far yet. The first instruction was to put the fabric in an embroidery hoop. Not included. I carried on anyway and although it’s only a really simple embroidery I found myself enjoying doing it. It definitely looks like it was made by a beginner but I will turn it into a little pennant/flag and hang it next time I have the right thread to match it in my sewing machine.

One of these days I will remember to not believe all I read on these packs of delights. Although, in this case I was pleased with the outcome anyway.

I dislike shopping

Or rather other peoples rudeness. It’s one thing someone walking in front of you and slowing down but it’s another to wedge yourself in the small space between me and the shelf I am looking at as if to squeeze past then stop to look at the item I was trying to look at myself. The shop wasn’t even that busy. It happened in 2 shops and ended up laughing it off. Can’t help he rude peoples attitude but I can choose to not carry on the rudeness or negative energy over it.

Saying that though, we had to pop in town with a shopping list of bits we needed like deodorant, shampoo, a look for something in a fabric shop, pipe cleaners (couldn’t find any) and a look around a few other shops. Kiddo did pretty well bargain wise in the book shops and was happy with his choices. We were into town and back in 1 hour 36 minutes which was brilliant.

The rest of the day has been a quiet one, not really anything to report or share. Lovely quality time with kiddo has been lovely. He’s in the lovely stroppy teen stage and has seemed to be coming out of that the past few days which has helped things a lot.

Going to call an early ish end of the day and try and get a good nights sleep, my scars are all a bit itchy and I am cold so probably overtired and in need of a decent nights sleep.

Chopsticks save the day

AKA cooking sweet and sour chicken.

Having seen someone making crisp chicken and a sweet and sour sauce yesterday somewhere I decided to give it a go today. Often when we have take away one of the boys will ordered battered something with sweet and sour sauce, so I thought it might be a welcome change tonight for them.

So starting with bite sized chicken pieces, they needed to be dunked in beaten egg then seasoned cornflour. no matter how well you keep to using one hand for the egg and the other for the dry flour I always end up with very claggy fingers and need to scratch my nose orbrush my hair away from my eyes or something. Then I had a brainwave. Ok this is probably nothing new but having a new nonstick pan as well I didn’t want to use metal utensils in it. So, I used wooden chopsticks to deal with the chicken and another for turning the chicken in the oil and removing. it worked a treat.

The sauce was so easy it was unbelievable. Hubby tucked in and helped himself for more and he can be a little reserved with gravy and sauces at times so it’s a winner. It was served with plain rice and broccoli. Definitely, a make again meal.

for my sauce, I simply put in a saucepan a tablespoon of cornflour, a cup of water, half a cup of rice wine vinegar, 85 grams sugar, and 3 heaped tablespoons of tomato puree. Whisked this in the pan until it was combined and put on medium heat and stirred until it came to the boil and thickened up. tested for taste and then when as we liked it just served it up.

One thing is for sure though, I am going to remember the chopsticks trick, Anything that makes life easier is a bonis

Facing nemesis, origami and glue guns

If there’s a hard way to do something it’s me that takes that way. For years my awkward hands have made things hard to coordinate some fiddly things and origami never quite works in my favour.

However, in my Pinterest feed and YouTube suggestions I kept seeing these pretty origami flowers. If you search for origami flowers these will pop up in the first few suggestions. The ones I liked were made of old book pages and I have this idea for a string of lights with the flowers being lit up from the centres.

Things got interesting as glue guns and I are not on good talking terms. The one I had leaked, didn’t behave and given a cord I can tangle myself and anything else up in it. Solution was to find a cordless one that doesn’t leak. Won’t stop me gluing my fingers or nails but it’s a start right?

Glue gun and little fabric clips to the ready, I chose this lovely sparkling purple thin card. It’s a little to heavy and sturdy for this but I’m not cutting up old books until I’ve seen I can do this or wasting other ‘good paper’ until I tried this out first. Thought just came to mind old magazine pages might be good with the glossy coloured pages maybe. Will have a think.

Anyways, the flower is a little off but that’s down to thickness and the card being to stiff to manipulate the way I needed it to sticking it together. But the glue gun was so easy to work with and I haven’t glued any part of myself today. It maybe a one off but I finally feel I am battling and winning with these two things now. For years I wanted to do origami and have finally made something that doesn’t look like it got chewed up.

So that’s my crafty moment for today. It didn’t take to long. I used a rotary cutter with an old blade in to cut the 4 inch squares which made it more accurate and fast.

Now where did I leave that string of white LED lights?