Little felt things

I'm back!  Do you want to hear about the nightmare that was yesterday?  I'd developed an abscess on the gap where I'd had a tooth removed.  Overnight it swelled up rather large and part of it turned black.  It bloody hurt.  I tried to get an emergency appointment at my dentists, and, get this... they don't do emergency appointments.  That's right, you need to schedule your toothache in advance...  I ended up at the emergency dentists at the walk in centre where I waited 2 hours and ended up bawling my eyes out in the corridor when both my cards were rejected.  I'm talking bawling, snot everywhere, uncontrollable sobs. 

I rang my mum to get her card number - no answer, my dad - no answer, my husband - no answer.  Finally my brother picked up and I used his card, rejected.  It must be the machine because there was money in all three accounts I tried, but by this time I was desperate.  To put this into context, this was an NHS dentist.  The work-shy don't pay, but the rest of us do - £17.50.  I was being kept from stopping my agony by £17.50.  Finally they agreed to see me but made me promise to go back in with the money, they were convinced I'd run away!

The dentist lanced the abscess and gave me anti-biotics, the relief!  I had to go into work after, I don't think I was the most productive member of staff yesterday!

I have today and tomorrow off work as a final push towards the craft fair.  I have been making progress.

This little matroyshka dolly (sorry, can't find the pattern anywhere) started life as a Christmas tree ornament.  I felt she was too big though so she became a lavendar sachet.

 

While I had the felt out I whipped up this little fella from a free pattern at BHG.There are tons of free patterns on that website... wonder if the Matroyshka came from there too.

 

These little puddings were inspired by about 2,000,000 pins on Pinterest, but I just winged it as they were so simple to make.  I ran out of brown and white felt though!

I also winged this little robin... spot the problem with him?  Poor fella.

 

Horrible today

I had intended to post today, but I've had a very traumatic day involving a rather large abscess and a trip to the emergency dentist.  Hopefully normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Knitting and Stitching Show - Harrogate

Good afternoon ladies!  As you've probably guessed from the title, I'm going to show you my haul from the Knitting and Stitching show I went to with my lovely mum on Thursday and Friday last week, but first, you have to see Norbert!  Here he is...

I posted a pic on facebook and one of my ex-Mini-owning friends (he used to earn a Mini, he's still a friend!) told me Norbert was part of a special edition called Checkmate, hence the groovy checkerboard stripes.  He got us to Harrogate (about 2 hours North) safe and sound, despite the best efforts of a lorry to run us off the road.  Yes, another one.  I'm not really sure what I've done to offend the lorry drivers of the world, but I wish they'd pack it in!

Oh, before I go any futher, I got my present from the in-laws.  There was an amazing book about Polymer Clay Millefiori techniques, AND...

Yes, I've got Summersville!  Just a bit, but a bit is enough for me!  My MIL also picked me out that fab notebook (I say my MIL, it could have been my FIL, but I don't think so), she said it was because she knows I like to make lists.  I think "like to make lists" is putting it mildly, I'm slightly OCD with my lists...

So, the show was fantastic.  Much better than the ones at the NEC and I can see us going again next year.  We had two days which was good as it was bigger and we got to be really leisurely, rather than racing around trying not to miss anything.  The picture above shows the supplies I picked up from Molten Designs where a lady was demonstrating Friendly Plastic.  It looked so interesting, I had to get some!  I'll show you what it is when I get a chance, hopefully soon!

I saw this lino cutter at a bargain price so picked it up along with some lino.  I feel some printed bunnies coming on...

I picked up this handful of pretty glass pearls and spacers on the Thursday.  I thought I'd buy more beads the next day, but actually I didn't.  I was sticking to a budget this year!  The show was held in the building surrounding the Royal Hall.  We had no idea it was there until we followed some ladies who had disappeared through a side door.  The coffee and snack bar was in here and we were blown away!  (seriously, click on the link)

I love fabric panels, I made some cards from some recently, so picked up these ones too.  We stayed in a nearby B&B ran by a lovely lady who wasn't even mad when mum accidentally stole her keys the next day and took them to the show.  I was just glad we hadn't got back to Nottingham before she realised!

I was quite restrained with my fabric purchases.  The red corduroy above is actually a lovely deep red colour and at £2 a metre, I had to have 2 metres!  The other is wool and at £5 a metre, that came home with me too. 

The most gorgeous stall award would have gone to Favourite Fabrics (if such an award had existed), it was beautiful.  I picked up the 4 FQs above but could easily have bought the entire stall.  I notice they have an ebay shop with a webshop coming soon, one to note.  I've already used that Union Flag fabric!  See the Marmalade charm pack?  Pin It and Stitch had little tiny charm packs, I've forgotten what they're called and I nearly bought one, but it worked out cheaper to buy a charm pack.  One of the ladies was showing a customer Marmalade and some Vintage Modern and pointing out how well they went together so, after snatching the VM out of her hand, I showed them my handbag and pointed out how well it goes with Bliss and Ruby too!  I looked like some kind of Bonnie and Camile stalker...

Scrap bags, ribbon, french knitting dolly (I want to make bracelets from wire with beads inside) and some 3d fabric medium which is just amazing - wait and see!

Right, that's enough showing you stuff for one year I think!  Give me another week to get this craft fair out of the way and I'll hopefully start showing you my experiments with all this new stuff!

purse

Good morning!  I'm back from the Knitting and Stitching show in Harrogate, but I'll fill you in on that in a later post.  I just wanted to quickly show you the final clasp purse I made.  When I participated in the UR Priceless blog hop, I showed you a half-made purse.  She's now finished.

The front and back are made from a piece of Mr CA's jeans (hope he doesn't notice the big hole in the leg) and sides are linen.  I added a felt flower to the front, left over from my flower making escapades.

I love the colour of this clasp, it's a sort of bronze, I think!  I wasn't sure if it's go with the orage perle cotton I sewed it on with, but I felt it needed orange to match the flower.

The lining is possibly Kate Spain fabric.  Possibly not!  Another one to add to my little stall, and when it doesn't sell it will be someone's Christmas present so it's win-win really!

bear hats

Morning ladies.  I scheduled this post as I'm in Harrogate today but I've still got a lot to show you, and I know you miss me when I'm not here ;0)

During the trip to Northumberland recently, I took along some craftwork to do during the drive up (which didn't happen as I had a migraine), the drive back and in the evenings.  I packed a few things but forgot key items.  I packed my snowflake patterns and hook, but forgot the thread, I packed my cowl pattern and yarn, but forgot the hook, I packed some cross stitch but forgot the chart!  The one thing I got right was baby bear hats.

I took chunky white and black yarn to make panda hats...

in 4 different sizes - don't they look cute together! 

This yarn I picked up in a craft shop in Alnwick, it's gorgeous!  It's Sirdar Hug, a chunky yarn that feels amazingly soft. I bought two balls of this light brown and one each of two shades of blue which I intend to use to make myself a hat.  I think there are three sizes of hats here.

The two on the left above are made from Sirdar click.  I know real life bears don't have coloured speckles on them, but who cares when they're this cute? The other one is made from the grey aran I used to make the twisted beanie recently, I had to play around with the pattern as it is a much thinner yarn, I made the 6 month version, but added extra stitches and rows.

So that's 11 baby bear hats for the craft fair!  This is a free pattern by Alli Crafts which can be found here.

Jigging that wig

Morning ladies!  I meant to write this post yesterday but the lack of computer at home is making things hard, I'm so behind in my blog reading it's unreal!  I know I could just "mark all as read" but I don't want to!  I'm unlikely to get any work done today, I'm bursting with excitement.  I picked up my "new" car yesterday - he's gorgeous!  I've decided to call him Norton.  I think I've already told you this, but he's a blue Mini One with a checkerboard roof and checkerboard stripes!  I'll take a photo when it stops raining and if the sun comes out at all today.  it's 9:30am and dark as night!  Tomorrow me and my mum are going to Harrogate to the Knitting and Stitching show.  We're staying overnight so have two days at the fair.

Which brings me to my topic of today, I realised I didn't tell you about the Bead Fair I went to a couple of weeks ago.  It was hosted by The Bead Shop Nottingham in a local hotel.  It was quite small but there were plenty enough shops there.  There was also a free mini workshop.  We signed up for the Wig Jig workshop, thinking it might follow on from the class we took a few months ago.  It turned out to be the same, just condensed.  So I freestyled instead!

Here are the designs I made up.  They don't look terribly neat, they'll look better once they're attached and made into jewellery.  Promise!

Want to see my haul?  I didn't actually spend very much, I got quite few bargains!

Not bad eh?  I got bails for putting polymer clay cabouchons or Fantasty paint in, some filigree pieces, some lentil beads and bangle blanks.

Lots of chain, delica beads and some fab painted wooden buttons.

Beading kits.

Spacers, connectors, bead caps, funky shaped beads, lucite leaves and ribbon clasps.

Speaking of haul, my winnings from the Zakka Style Sew Along turned up from Robert Kaufmann...

Yum yum!  Would you believe I've forgotten its name???  I'll leave you with the birthday card I made for my mum.  I'm off to stand by the window and admire my car!

glass update

Hello!  I had a lovely weekend with my gorgeous nephew.  On Friday I spent a lot of money getting my car fixed and then on Saturday... I bought a new one!  The old car will now be Mr CA's so it's not a waste of money and the new one isn't actually new, it's just new to me.  It's a blue Mini One with a checker board roof... I am SO excited about picking it up next week.  I hope you all had a lovely weekend too.

Just a quick update on my stained glass window...

I have started leading. I haven't got much done yet as I had to cut all those semi circles to fit in the glass nuggets at the bottom and side.  I was so relieved to be over that part, I completely forgot there are large nuggets throughout the design!  It's going to take a while.

The nails are to hold the glass in place.  Some pieces, like that leaf above, are a right pain in the arse as they wiggle around when you're trying to get the rest of the lead on!

The gaps in the lead will be neater as I'll be soldering them... so maybe the won't be neater, but they will be different!!  I warned my Uncle today that I'll need it installing soon... he didn't seem very happy about it, he'd better not drop it!

P.S. I've just ordered some business cards at moo.com and they gave me a 10% discount code.  If you use it, I will get money off future orders, but you get 10% off, so what's to lose?

crochet santa and snowflakes

Good afternoon ladies.  I've scheduled this post as at this time on Saturday I'll be at my parents house for my nephew's first visit to his ancestral home!  I'll be far too busy cuddling and kissing and playing with him to write a post!

Do you remember my crocheted snowflakes?  They look a bit better now, they've been blocked with about half a can of starch! 

Although it's a vast improvement, they're still too floppy considering they're to be hung on a tree, so I think I'll take Nancy's advice and Mod Podge them, maybe even adding in some glitter. 

They were made from free patterns, go to the original post for the links as it took me forever to identify them last time!   I crocheted up a couple more.  Most of the pins I have of crocheted snowflakes are from the wonderful blog Snowcatcher, where a free snowflake pattern is published each Monday, adding to the huge collection already there.  Some are too hard for me and I've been struggling - not because of the patterns I might add which are very well written, it's just that I forget that I'm not a pro-crocheter!

The patterns for these too can be found here and here.  Next up in the Christmas decorations stakes was a Santa.  Again, I used a free pattern, this time at the Sugar N Cream site which has a lot of free patterns.

He's rather odd looking, but also rather cute, I love his wire glasses.  I forgot to add a ribbon when I put the pompom on, but to be honest, he's a bit too big for a tree anyway.  He'll have to be a freeform Christmas decoration - though I wish I'd filled him with something heavy at the bottom as he doesn't stand up properly.  Clearly he's had too many sherries... 

One last thing before I go.  I've been getting lovely comments from a lady called Kerry who is a no-reply blogger.  I've gone into her profile on the comments but it comes up asking me to log into open ID.  Kerry, I'd love to reply to you but I'm not sure if you're the same Kerry who I talk to who's from Leicestershire, or another one.  Can you let me know?  If you're a different Kerry, can you let me have your email address so I can write back to you?  Thanks!  Oh - and I didn't bother with a crime number or claiming on my insurance as my car is an old banger anyway and it'll just put my premiums up.

Why I am a useless Crafter's Apprentice

Good morning ladies! In a future twist to the hit-by-a-lorry story, though perhaps unrelated, I broke down on my way home from work last night.  The steering went completely, it took all my weight on the wheel to turn it enough to pull over.  The dashboard was lit up like a Christmas tree BUT, that annoying high-pitched whine it'd been making had stopped.  That's got to be a good thing, right?   OK, so perhaps not!  Mr CA played my knight in shining armour and was able to get the car to the garage, albeit quite slowly.  He informed me when we got there that the car was overheating and smelt of burning!  Great...  Meanwhile I had fun driving his partner's car.  I managed to stall every few feet as he has a spring in his gear level (like most normal cars I believe), mine doesn't, never has had since I've owned it and so putting it in first is just a push upwards, on a "normal" car a push upwards puts you in 3rd...  Let's just say I'm glad the car's owner wasn't there to witness it!

Anyway, on with the post.  I just had a birthday.  Most of my family buy from my Amazon wish list (what an amazing invention that is!) so I get a lot of "craft stuff".  This year was no exception.  My wonderful parents bought me a Dremel 3000!  By "parents" I do of course mean that mum instructed dad to buy it and dad said "what the bleeding 'ell is it?"  I don't think I'm going to get a chance to play with it until the craft fair is done, but I'll certainly be showing you the results!

I also got a lot of books.  Crafty books:

Spellbound Festive Beading - full of wonderful
                                             Christmas decorations to bead
          (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)
The Art of Bead Embroidery - luscious eye candy
         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Embroidered Jewellery - more eye candy and tons of ideas
         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Patterns in Polymer - this book is amazing!  I had no idea you
                                             could do so much with polymer clay
         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

The Beaded Edge 2 - I've already read this from cover to
                                             cover... expect to see lots of beaded edges soon...
      (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Mod Podge Rocks! - some fun ideas
       (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

I also got a present in the form of a craft kit.

(courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

and this is where the useless Crafter's Apprentice bit comes in.  You see I want to try everything, and I mean everything.  So I collect stuff.  The one thing I don't collect, can't buy and won't be getting for Christmas is time, so a lot of this stuff stays on the shelf, or in its box.  Want to see?

(courtesy of amazon.co.uk) First up there is an enamelling kit - please excuse the formatting, Blogger is being an arse...

Then there's Little Beaded Boxes.  I bought the book, but never had Delicas which you need to make them.  I've finally bought the Delicas, wonder how long it will be before I get round to making something...

(courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

Drawn Thread has been on my shelf for a while...

(courtesy of amazon.co.uk)

I bought this lucet at a Craft Fair...  it looked so much fun.
(courtesy of the lucet.co.uk)

At that same fair I bought a punch needle kit.  I took it away with me a few times and took it on holiday this summer.  No, I haven't opened the packet! 

My lovely friend Cuckoo sent me her sharp crochet hook for making crochet edgings.  Did that happen?  Erm.... no.  But maybe I could team it up with the Beaded Edge book!

I haven't finished!

         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)                       This book looks fascinating... so why haven't I tried any of the
                                                projects??



         (courtesy of amazon.co.uk)                               This one has crochet techniques galore, and yet it lives
                                                        on my dining room table... waiting.
I could go on, but I'm feeling such a failure right now I think I'll stop there!  If you are interested in seeing my shockingly long Craft book inventory, go here!

A witty, succint title containing the words "birthday cards"

Now, today's post isn't going to be terribly exciting.  It's birthday cards.  9 of them and all pretty similiar, so I'll tell you about the "incident" on my birthday as I show you the photos.  That way you HAVE to look at the photos, ha ha ha (imagine me doing an evil laugh)...

 

The cards came about as my dad asked me for a card for my mum who has her birthday 3 days before mine, so I had to make a card and you might as well make 9 as make 1.

 

I'd bought a panel of fabric at a craft fair with these little images on.  I cut them all out, layered them up with patterned paper and stitched around them on the machine.  I added a stamped and embossed greeting and then used my i-rock to add the gems

.

 

Mum gave me the i-rock.  I think she won it in a giveaway but already had one, so gave it to me.  It packed up half way through the card session.  I'm not sure if it's faulty or it just needs new batteries.  We never have any new batteries in the house, not in packs, just random ones floating around.  When a battery is needed, we just find one in a kitchen drawer and use that.  If a battery doesn't work, we put it in a kitchen drawer.  See my problem?

 

 

I'm supposed to be forcing you to look at these photos by talking about the incident, which I haven't even mentioned yet!  OK, here we go.  On Friday me and Mr CA drove up to Alnmouth, a journey of about 3 and a half hours.  I say we drove, but actually Mr CA drove as 10 minutes into the journey I had a migraine.  I took my medication then was a slobbering zombie for the rest of the day...

 

 

On Monday we drove back again.  Mr CA drove.  I'm bloody glad he did.  On the motorway a large lorry decided it wanted to join our lane, in exactly the position we were in so it did.  It shunted us at the rear passenger side.  Clearly that wasn't enough as he then did it again!

 

 

Neither of us were hurt, just very shook up.  The lorry driver didn't stop and we didn't know what to do, we slowed down to pull alongside him but he slowed down loads and we lost him.  We pulled into a service station to check the damage and when we got back on the road we found him!  I took his reg, but he's Italian so I'm not sure if we can do anything.

 

 

I won't be claiming on the insurance anyway as they'll just whack my premiums up.  The car is damaged, but it seems superficial.  Anyway, you'd be hard pushed to notice on my car, it's a beat up wreck from all my altercations with the damn gatepost at work!

 

 

And there we have it.  Not much of a story, but a story none-the-less.

 

 

You've come to the end.  Well done!