Love, Life and Liquorice

Crafter...oo Button Swap - What I Received

2011-07-20T08:53:00.005+01:00

I have been woefully lax in blogging what the wonderful Nicola of Smitten Kitten sent me as part of the Crafteroo Button Swap!

She blogged here well over a month ago about what I sent her! I am very bad!

But here we go:

First of all, check out the awesome box she sent everything in:

Inside were some wonderful goodies:

A notebok and a pen decorated with buttons (and a kitty!)

A box full of little bags of buttons:

And finally, my favourite treat (as my blog title would lead you to expect, salty liquorice!

This was really a great swap, and has made me want to do some more, so if any one is arranging anything let me know! And again, a HUGE thank you to Nicola for being such a great swap partner!

And The Winner Is...

2011-05-02T13:57:00.003+01:00

Thank you to everyone who took part in the giveaway!

As I didn't have a hat, I wrote down all of the names and put them in a chocolate box!

An independent adjudicator (aka the boyfriend), picked the winning name and it was...

Cassandra, of CassandrasBeads!

A message is on it's way to her now with the good news!

In other news, I listed 6 new items in the Etsy Shop today. I still have 5 or 6 other bits to list which I may do today, or tomorrow, so keep an eye out.

If you enter the code RANDOM at the checkout you can get 10% off as well, just because!

A 10 Sale Giveaway!

2011-04-27T13:17:00.003+01:00

I've been pondering for a while the idea of having a giveaway when I reached 10 sales in the FoldedFrippery Etsy shop.

I was at 8 sales last night when I asked the question on twitter, and it was answered almost immediately by a twitter friend buying two items from the shop - taking me up to 10 sales! And so, now I'm going to have a little giveaway!

You could win a pair of FoldedFrippery hair slides! The very ones below in fact:

To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is go to the shop and then come back and leave me a comment saying which item is your favourite. You can get another entry by 'liking' my Facebook page and then coming back and leaving another comment to say you've done so!

Make sure to leave a way for me to contact you in your comment!

The giveaway will be open until midnight on Sunday May 1st. I'll draw the winner on Monday May 2nd!

A Day Out at Kew

2011-04-16T18:39:00.009+01:00

Today we took the Boyfriend's mum to Kew Gardens as a mother's day present. She's a really keen gardener, and plants are really her thing, so I hope she enjoyed herself.

I tried to be a bit handy with my camera, so I thought I'd post some of my favourite pictures here. Feel free to mock my awful photography skills!

First, some wildlife:

This is (apparently) a Golded Pheasant. It looked cool at any rate!

And here is a Peacock (and possibly a Peahen). It was being REALLY noisy!

And now onto (lots of) plants.

I think these are a type of Rhododendron - they were everywhere at Kew and I really like them. They look like big floaty skirts to me.

I have no idea what most of these are, I just really liked them:

And finally, here are some Bonsai trees. I really love Bonsai. I nearly bought a tiny one in the gift shop!

Oh, and one more - this is a statue of a heraldic falcon. They had loads of weird statues based on heralidic symbols, but this was the only one I managed to get a picture of.

Tim Burton Swap pt 2 - What I received!

2011-03-28T17:57:00.004+01:00

A few weeks ago I blogged about Apryl's Tim Burton swap and what I'd sent out to my partner Trudy in Canada. Today I finally received my parcel from her (which she sent out about 2 weeks before I sent mine! Thanks Post Office!), and it was truly awesome!

When I opened it everything was beautifully wrapped, but because I love presents so much I couldn't resist opening them all before I could find a camera!

First up was the chocolate! Pretty much anything made by Reese's is the best thin ever in my opinion, so these things really made me grin!

Then I opened this truly gorgeous notebook! It's a cover as well, so when I've use the notebook up I can move it to another one of the same size!

Next up was probably my favourite thing - a bag made from Beetlejuice fabric! I have decided to use it as a make up bag and it now has pride of place in my handbag!

Outside:

And even better, the inside:

And finally paper, which one can never have too much of!

This is one of the best swaps I've ever been involved in, so huge thank yous to Apryl for organising it, and huge thank yous to Trudy for being such a great partner!

Etsy Update

2011-03-27T15:42:00.004+01:00

I joined a new team on Etsy this week. It's called April's Army and is made up of people who read the site Regretsy and despite what some people seem to be saying it's actually really quite awesome. I've been featured in so many treasuries and all of my items have had so many new views and quite a hearts, and I even sold something last night! So Etsy is really quite fun for me at the moment. And I plan to do a few posts linking to some awesome team members in the coming weeks.

I listed seven new items there today as well. My favourite is these hairslides:

Click here to buy them

I finally got around to listing some hair bands as well. My favourite is this one:

Click to buy!

Other things you may notice about the shop: I have a new banner! It was made by another member of April's Army and it is awesome. Click here if you're interested in your own! I'm also adding sections to the shop, so you can browse by brooches, hair bands, rings, etc!

New Items!

2011-03-19T16:42:00.002Z

I haven't done too much in the way of making items in fabric over the last few weeks, but I have been making quite a few in paper! And so today, as the weather is so lovely and I've been able to take photographs, I've listed three paper origami items in the shop

Buy Me!

Buy Me!

Buy Me!

I've also listed three new sets of hairslides

Buy Me!

Buy Me!

Buy Me!

I'm working on a fair bit craft wise at the moment - I'm making a sock monkey for someone, knitting some socks for my dad's birthday, and working on another secret present for him, which will be revealed here at a later date! So I really should get on with it all!

Nightmare Before Valentines Day Swap

2011-03-14T16:56:00.005Z

Back at the start of the year ever lovely and cool Apryl organised a Tim Burton themed swap, called the Nightmare Before Valentines Day swap!

I was partnered up with Trudy, and this was her first ever swap!

Now I know she's got her parcel I can share with you what I sent!

First up were these wrist warmers, which I loved and wanted to keep myself! Will have to get around to making myself a pair soon

Then I embroidered an interpretation of the tree from Sleepy Hollow for her:

And finally I sent her some cool Japanese Alice in Wonderland fabric:

I didn't take a picture of all the items together, but Trudy did, and so I've borrowed hers! I hope she won't mind!

My parcel from her hasn't arrived yet, silly post, but I shall blog as soon as it does!

Origami Flower Tutorial

2011-03-12T18:23:00.002Z

A few days ago I made a bouquet of origami flowers to cheer myself up.

They're not too complicated to make, and so I thought I'd share the method with my blog readers. This is the first tutorial I've ever written, so I hope it makes sense, and if you need any further clarification please post in the comments and I'll do my best to help!

So, without further ado, here is my tutorial for making an orgami flower!

What you'll need: 2 squares of paper per flower, 1/2 of paper for a stalk, glue (I'm using PVA as I had it to hand, but pritt stick works just as well!), and a pair of scissors.

Step 1: fold one square of paper in half, and then unfold it again.

Step 2: fold both edges into the centre line you've just created.

Step 3: fold your paper in half the other way and unfold it again.

Step 4: fold the ends into the line in the middle you've just created and then unfold.

Step 5: This is the most complicated step! You'll need to put your finger on one corner:

And push down so it forms a triangle. This can take some practice, but the joy of paper is that you can always unfold it and start again!

Repeat on all four corners.

Step 6: fold the triangles you've just created up to the points above them.

Step 7: Turn your paper over

And fold the triangular flaps over.

Step 8:
Fold your paper in half.

Step 9: repeat on another piece of paper - you should now have two boat shaped pieces of paper.

Step 10: cut a slit in the middle of the top of one piece, and the bottom of the other.

Step 11: slot the two pieces together.

Step 12: fan the petals out

Step 13: Put a spot of glue on the loose petals which touch and stick together.

Step 14: for the stem of your flower you'll need half of a square of paper.

Step 15: roll up your rectangle into a tube, from one corner up to the other

Put a dab of glue on the loose end to stick it together.

Step 16: cover the end in glue

And insert between two petals on your flower

Leave to dry, and you have the first flower of your origami bouquet!

Tips:

I folded this flower so the patterned side of the paper faces outwards. If you want the patterned side on the inside, so you can see it slightly better, start with the coloured side of the paper facing up with the first fold.

Practice with squares of printer paper or magazine pages if you're unsure - practice really does help, especially on the tricky triangle folds!

If you need to cut paper, you can do it with scissors, or my personal favourite method of folding, and wetting the paper and tearing it!

Paper Origami

2011-03-10T21:30:00.003Z

Although my main crafty projects all seem to involve making origami items in fabric these days, I do still love to play with paper. Today has been all about the paper origami!

Last week my friend Sarah, who is a great lover of Sock Monkeys (I think she has five I've made!), asked me last week if I could make her an origami dinosaur brooch. After some discussion we decided it would be better made of paper, and so off I went to find a pattern. Here are the two finished dinosaurs - I'm just waiting for new brooch backs to arrive so I can send them off!

It has been a rough few days here, and although the daffodils are starting to bloom in the garden, and the crocuses are coming out in the grass on my walk to walk, I thought some flowers here in the bedroom would make me feel better. What with our new rule of not spending any unnecessary money (we've got a mortgage deposit to find!), I did the next best thing and made some!

These are really easy and fun to make, and hopefully over the weekend I'll find the time to write a tutorial for making them!

New Items

2011-02-27T14:50:00.005Z

I went on a bit of a fabric and button buying spree yesterday, and then made some new items for the shop. I thought I'd do a quick blog post to show some of them off.

My favourite of the new items I've made is this ring - I love polkadotted fabric, and the star buttons are so cute I couldn't resist them - I also have some in pink and some in yellow!

I've had this fabric for a while, and have made a few sets of hair slides from it, bit I wanted to make something a little bigger, so I made a hair band with a larger flower.

Finally, these seem to be really popular - they had about 30 views in the first half hour after I put them up for sale, and someone added it to their favourites about 5 minutes after it went up for sale!

There are a few other items in the shop too - new rings, brooches and hair slides, so do stop by and have a look!
Click for more shop goodness

In other, related news, I spoke to the owner of a local gallery space that sells handmade items yesterday about them selling some of my items. Nothing concrete has come out of it yet, but it's a start, and it was certainly a bold (and scary, out of character!) move for me, so it will be interesting to see if anything comes of it. I shall keep you updated!

Presents!

2011-02-21T22:26:00.002Z

Me and my friend Coffeecups have been sending each other letters and parcels in the post for getting on five years now. As previously mentioned on this blog, we met online, on a pixel art forum, and immediately hit it off. We became penpals and the rest, as they say, is history. Despite only ever having met her once, I class her as my best friend and sometimes don't know how I'd make it through the day without her.

Recently we've both been really stressed out for one reason or another, and so along with the letters, we've started sending one another little care packages to cheer the other up. I most recently sent her a necklace, and a hairslide, some tea and a mug warmer I knitted. She responded with an amazing parcel containing more than I could have imagined!

Firstly was this cool cupcake notebook:

Then this lovely art postcard:

4 bags of beads!!:

A 'fairy' bag, containing a magic wand, fairy glitter and sparkly string:

And a bag full of random silver charms and 'stuff':

I am already planning another parcel in return which will involve more tea (despite her nickname of Coffeecups we are both big tea fans!), a cocktail ring, and a long letter pouring my heart out to her!

This has turned into more of a love letter to my best friend than I imagined. Still, she deserves it. <3

Mug Warmer

2011-02-02T17:11:00.003Z

With the yarn left over from knitting my socks I decided I would knit a mug warmer for my mug at work. I drink about four cups of tea a day (Earl Grey, if you were wondering), but I'm normally so busy that it gets cold. I've become quite accustomed to drinking lukewarm tea!

As a first attempt it wasn't too bad, although the mug I measured it against at home was slightly smaller than the one I use at work, so it's a bit of a stretch! It seems to be doing the job though!

I think it looks like my mug is wearing a scarf!

New Socks!

2011-02-01T21:40:00.004Z

Today I finished a pair of socks I started last october! The trouble I have with knitting is that it's so dull and repetitive that after a while I just get bored and find something more entertaining! But I've been feeling a bit low the last few days and decided some knitting was what would cheer me up!

So here they are:

The yarn is from the lovely Wharfdale Woolworks. I'm making a mug cosy / warmer with the leftover yarn.

I posted this from my phone. It was hard. Stupid laptop is being stupid.

Treasuries

2011-01-30T14:01:00.003Z

In the last two days I've spent a lot of time browsing treasuries at Etsy and having lots of fun looking at the fun things other users have made lists of. And so I decided to have another go. I've only made one other treasury before, and I didn't really like it, but the two I've made now were much more fun!

The first is all about polkadots! I love polkadots.

It can be seen in full here

And then I made another with stripy items. After polkadots stripes are my favourite pattern.

It can be seen in full here

Anyone else recently discovered a love of treasuries?

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T17:42:00.003Z

So, it's 2011. Wow. I think that every other year I've been writing this blog I've posted new years resolutions around this time of year. This year I've resolved not to make any because I always end up breaking them around March and then getting cross! There are things I'd like to do this year - I'd like to be tidier, and to lose some weight, but as long as I'm happy through the year I won't be too bothered if those things don't happen.

FoldedFrippery is now open again after the Christmas holidays, although I've been so busy I haven't had time to make any of the new stock ideas I have in my brain, so I'm going to be doing that over the next few days - keep an eye here and at the shop for new stock!

So, Welcome to 2011 and I hope it's a good year for all my readers!

Christmas Gingerbread

2010-12-21T20:09:00.002Z

I made lots of gingerbread today, some as presents, some for a party at work. I gave some to my lovely neighbour who then promptly told me I was 'The Gingerbread Queen'. And then I was asked on Twitter to share my recipe, so here we are:

Ingredients:

350g Plain Flour
1 Teaspoon (or more if you like it gingery) Ground Ginger
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1 Teaspoon Bicarb
100g Butter
175g Brown Sugar (I use demerara)
1 Large Egg
4 Tablespoons Golden Syrup

Method:

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees c.
- Mix flour, spices and bicarb.
- Rub in butter to breadcrumb like consistency.
- Add sugar and mix.
- Break egg into mix and then add golden syrup.
- Mix thoroughly and knead.
- Roll and cut out.
- Bake in the middle of an oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

You can then ice them, or just eat them. The finished products are quite hard once they've cooled down and very good for dunking in tea!

I don't have a picture of any I've made I'm afraid, but here is a picture of my favourite cookie cutters - they're in the shape of Lego men and women!

Paper Origami

2010-12-16T13:49:00.007Z

Before I make anything in fabric, I always make it in paper first. Paper is cheaper than fabric, you don't need to iron it to make it hold creases, and when it all goes wrong I get less cross!

So I thought I'd show you some of the things I've made in paper recently. Some of these pictures I've played about with in lo-mob so they look cool, others are just boring phone pics - I apologise for the quality of some of them!

Firstly, a full ball made from 12 flowers. Each of these flowers is folded from 6 bits of paper, so these take a while to make. They're really pretty though:

This is half a flower ball, so made from 6 flowers, each made from 6 pieces of paper. Several people have pointed out to me that these would look good around the bottom of candles, if I left the central flower out, but I'm sligtly worried about the paper + candle flame aspect of that!

Here are some random little flowers I made in a mug on my desk at work. I've tried making this flower design in fabric, but it just doesn't work sadly!

I made this just a few minutes ago - practicing a new design. It's a waterlilly and I rather like the way it turned out:

And just to prove I'm not all about origami, here's a picture of my hair. I plaited it across my head, and I loved the effect, so I took a picture!

Also this week I had my first sale in my shop which has made me very happy. I'm hoping it's the first of many. I'm also still waiting for some ring blanks to arrive so that I can make cute cocktail rings - hopefully they'll be here soon!

My Week...

2010-12-06T20:04:00.002Z

...of being positive was hard. But I got through it, and no one told me off for being negative, so I'm counting it as a success!

Things I found to be positive about:

- Managing to get to work through a foot of snow!
- Winning some prizes in a work raffle
- Finishing my Christmas shopping

And a really big thing to be positive about - I sold my first set of hair slides today! I sold them to a friend from work, rather than online, but a sale is still a sale, and she's told other people about them too, so I'm hoping for more!

Sadly I don't have any pictures of the hair slides I sold, but here's a picture of some I made last week from Japanese kimono fabric:

They, and many other things are for sale in in the shop, and as I still haven't had a sale online, the code FABRIGAMI for 25% off will still work!

Promotion

2010-11-30T08:04:00.002Z

One of things I'm really trying to focus on at the moment is promoting FoldedFrippery, and I'm rapidly running out of ways to do so.

I've recently come across Craftgawker and so I'm trying to submit photos to there, and I've set up a facebook page, which can be found here (I'd love more likers!).

I've also been advised to start using my flickr page to better effect, which I'm going to try and and start doing.

Does anyone else have any ideas for promotion of FF? Comments please!

A Positive Week

2010-11-29T20:21:00.004Z

It has been pointed out to me recently that I can be rather negative on twitter and suchlike. And so for the next week I'm going to endeavour to be positive in everything I put out there on the internet. So if you see me moaning over on twitter, or here, then send me a message and tell me to stop it!

I'm hoping this will not only make me feel better as a person, but hopefully show people that I am a nice person, honest, and I don't only moan!

Oh, and look at the really cute pin-badge I just bought from Meridian Ariel at Etsy. I *heart* it.

Check out her shop (linked above), she makes some really cool stuff!

PS. You can still get 25% off at my etsy shop with the code FABRIGAMI. I've recently added some new items!

Discount Codes!

2010-11-25T07:44:00.005Z

Etsy finally has coupon codes available at their site - when I have a sale now I won't have to mess around with paypal invoices! And in honour of this, and the fact that this is apparently the biggest internet shopping day of the year, I'm having another sale!

If you enter the code FABRIGAMI at the Etsy checkout when you buy anything from Folded Frippery you'll get a massive 25% off!

So if you're looking for cute gifts this Christmas, check out the shop!

If you're shopping from overseas you'll need to order your items by December 4th at the latest for them to reach you by the crucial day!

Good News!

2010-11-24T07:40:00.006Z

This week so far has mostly been spent by me and the boyfriend discussing important money issues (eeek, scary!), and generally behaving like grown-ups. All of this discussion has had a purpose though, and it looks as though in the spring, we'll finally be able to move out of the hellish living situation we're in now.

I've been here just over 2 years, and the boyfriend has been here getting on for ten, and neither of us are happy, but we finally have a light at the end of the tunnel! And so, I've been looking at lots of gorgeous houseware items on Etsy that I'm mentally decorating our (at the moment hypothetical) new house with.

Here are some of my favourites:

I really love this this Origami clock from giftedpapers - with my love of all things Origami how could I not?!

I actually have a dress made from this fabric, and it's one of my favourite fabrics ever, so how could I resist this funky little pillow? It's by OlivetheBeach

And finally, for now,

I love the look of this rug. It looks like it would fun to walk on and lie on and generally just look at! It's from Crafttasticparties.

There'll probably be more of these posts the nearer we get to moving! I hope none of you will mock my bizarre and eclectic tastes!

I've gone Etsy Mad!

2010-11-12T21:53:00.005Z

As I posted about yesterday, I've reopened Folded Frippery over at Etsy. And today I'm trying to learn to be a more active member of the Etsy community.

I've started posting in the forums over there, although I'm still quite timid (they're really fast paced!), and I managed to make my first ever treasury today, which can be seen here, although here's a screen-shot of it:

It looks much better at the site though!

Other than that there's nothing else for me to really say - I've had an entirely unproductive day, making wise, and I'm back to work on monday, which means I probably won't be making at the rate I have been, but I'm going to try!

Oh, and any tips for dealing with the Etsy forums without being eaten alive?

Grand Re-opening!

2010-11-11T17:21:00.004Z

So a month or so back I opened Folded Frippery, a shop selling my fabric origami products. And I haven't sold a single thing!

Since then I've worked hard on new and different products, and on improving my photograpgy skills (which I think I've done!). And so, I've taken new photographs, made a new banner, and have decided to have a grand re-opening!

Here are some pictures of the new items I've been working on and that you can buy here:

As part of said Grand Re-Opening I am offering 2 things! Firstly, from today up until Midnight on Sunday 14/11/2010, I am offering a 20% discount on all items in my shop (postage not included), which will be refunded once payment is recieved. Secondly, for my very first sale, I will be sending the buyer a special (and secret) free gift!

So, any questions? Comments? Feel free to leave them in the comment below!

Folded Frippery

2010-09-01T09:11:00.004+01:00

A few posts ago I posted about making Origami from fabric. Since then I've been working really hard on the idea, and today, I've opened a shop to sell all of my new items!

Folded Frippery is now Open For Business!

Please, take a look around, and tell me what you think - I'd love to hear your feedback. There's only 3 products listed so far, but more will be listed as soon I get home from work today, and with the first item I sell I'll be giving away a free gift!

Along with the item my first customer buys I'll be sending them this:

A Fish Brooch made from some really cute heart printed fabric!

So spread the word, and please keep checking the shop, and the blog here, as many more products and updates will be appearing soon!

Oh, and one final thing - this is my 99th post! For post number 100 I think I'll be doing a giveaway...so keep yout eyes peeled!

Apryl's Bookish Craft Swap

2010-08-18T08:02:00.007+01:00

I'm a little late in blogging this, but better late than never I suppose!

Here are things I was sent by the lovely Emma as part of Apryl's Bookish Craft Swap:

Firstly the book:

I've started reading it in the last few days, and while it's certainly not something I would choose to read myself, so far I'm enjoying it.

The whole package arrived wrapped in this gorgeous little tote bag:

Stamped on the back is one of my favourite Oscar Wilde quotes.

There was also this pretty friendship bracelet:

And some cool Origami paper:

Some of which I have already folded into cranes:

There were also some liquorice catherine wheels with the package, but they were gone by the time I got to photographing all the other gorgeous things I recieved...

Fabric Origami

2010-08-16T07:31:00.007+01:00

When I get bored at work I inevitably end up folding bits of paper into interesting and fun shapes. As I've mentioned before of this blog, I really like doing Origami, even I'm not the best person in the world at it.

My new favourite thing to make are these flowers:

And on Friday, when I was really quite bored at work, I had the notion that I could make these out of fabric. And so, that's what I spent my weekend doing! (Apologies for the rubbish phone pics!)

This was my first attempt, and although I liked the way it came out, I really wasn't happy with the raw edges, or the way I'd sewn it together.

A quick trip to Hobbycraft later for invisible thread and elastic, and this was my second attempt:

It's hemmed with invisible thread, and I liked it much better.

But then I had another idea - what about multicoloured flowers?!

I turned these two into hairbands - as you can see, one is on my head! As well as sewing the two fabric colours together, these two also have interfacing in the middle - I wondered if it would help them keep their shape, but I actually think it makes them too bulky and I don't think they fold right.

I've made one more of these too - a plain black one for my hair, which the boyfriend tells me is pretty, but I'm undecided about. If we get decent enough light today I'll take some pictures!

I'm not sure they can be technically called origami as they're sewn together to help them keep their shape, but they do stay up and together without the sewing! And now I know it works I'm thinking of trying to make things using all the other Origami patterns I know!

I've looked at Etsy this morning, and it seems like no one else is selling flowers like these, which is exciting for me, as I think this is the first original thing I've ever come up with. I want to open a shop to sell them in, different to Dria's Sock Shop, but I need a name - if someone can help me think of one, I'll send them an origami flower - either on elastic or on a brooch back!

EDITED TO ADD: I'm keeping this open until 9pm on Saturday (the 21st August). I'd really like a new shop name by then! So please keep coming up with ideas!

Quick Post

2010-07-21T08:38:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post, before I go to work today, to say that along with the two sock creatures I've sold this week, I've got a commission from someone at work for another one! It needs to be baby pink though, and I cannot find socks the right shade anywhere! If anyone knows where I can get baby pink socks, either striped, or just with different coloured heels and toes I'd be really grateful for the information!

Not much else to say - expect pictures when I eventually find socks!

What I've Done This Weekend

2010-07-18T16:01:00.004+01:00

I haven't done an awful lot to be fair, it's mostly been a terribly lazy weekend. I've watched Season 3 of Arrested Development, and Season 3 of The Guild and done very little else.

What I have done though, is make a sock bunny. Matt, of "Rayguns, Chainsaws, Swords and Dice" who I know from the SFX Forum and Twitter sent me an @reply saying that he'd wanted me to make him a Sock Bunny for ages. And so I did!

This is a WIP shot I took about halfway through making it:

And here are two shots of the finished Bunny:

I'm going to send it off to it's new home tomorrow, where I hope it will be well loved! And I've had interest in a Monkey I made, Bernard, which has made me happy. For good measure's sake, here's a picure of him:

Facebook Shop!

2010-07-15T19:43:00.005+01:00

Oh yes, I have opened a Facebook Shop. I'm not sure if it'll mean I'll get any more sales, or if it'll be another platform where I get grumpy no one wants my things, but it's a chance I'm willing to take for now! So go take a look, and then tell me what you think!

I'm still on a bit of a crafting low, but I did sew a pincushion for my new sewing box, and then another pincushion thing, which was meant to be a strawberry but ended up looking like a chilli. It's so mishapen I'm not even going to bother taking pictures and showing the world.

I'm sort of in the mood to start sewing something bigger though, so I might start another creature. I'm still not sure. I'm still in a slump where I know we have too many sock animals already cluttering up the bedroom / house, and I really am loathe to add to them when I know they're just going to sit here with the others. I might have to start looking for little sewing projects I can do just to entertain me. My mum wants a sock Elephant, so I suppose I should start on making that.

I'm not sure if I posted this picture before (and I'm too lazy to go back and check!), but this was the first Elephant I made from socks - yes, it has two heads - it was meant as a gift for Amanda Palmer in reference to the song Elephant Elephant by Evelyn Evelyn (a concept too complicated to explain...please, look it up and enjoy!).

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I'm not sure if my mum wants a two headed or a single headed elephant, but I might make a two headed one just for the fun of it!

So...

2010-07-12T07:29:00.003+01:00

It has been nearly a month since I blogged. I really am bad at this blogging lark. Maybe I should write and schedule posts ahead of time, when they occur to me, because I can never find the time to actually blog once I get home from work. I'm not too bad when it comes to blogging in the morning I guess!

I haven't blogged because I really haven't had anything to say. Everything minor I just post on twitter, and in the end, all of my minor things end up as the major things I would normally blog about!

Craft wise I'm not doing anything at the moment. I still have French Knitting waiting to be finished in preparation to be knit into something else. I have a pile of socks waiting to be turned into fabulous creatures, and zero inspiration or inclination to do it. Our bedroom is already so full of creatures that it seems pointless to make any more that will sit here waiting for homes, and in all honesty it's been too hot to knit!

I'm also having a weird time of things at home at the moment - our Landlord / Housemate seems to have a new girlfriend, and she's been here pretty much every day for the last 2 weeks cleaning our house. I know it's entirely irrational of me to be cross about this, as someone else cleaning is always a good thing, but it's the fact that she's been doing it so relentlessly, and it seems to me (again, probably entirely irrationally), that me and P are being blamed for half the mess in this house, despite the fact we pretty much live in one room. I dunno, it's complicated, even in my head. I'm just ranting about here.

In some better and more cheery news, I got a birthday present yesterday from P's sister. It's a Cath Kidston sewing box, and it looks like a house! It's so gorgeous I'm almost inspired to sew again!

Here are some pictures, of the outside, and the inside, now I've filled it with lovely things! The button box is actually filled with tiny reels of thread - they all fit perfectly in there:

Day Twenty

2010-06-24T18:55:00.002+01:00

Day Twenty — A hobby of yours

One of my hobbies is Origami - I love folding paper! At the moment I'm working on filling a vase with tiny 3D origami stars, which I think might take a while! There's something quite relaxing about folding paper and seeing fabulous shapes appear, and while I'm hardly the best at it, it's still entertaining!

Here's what I have so far:

Day Nineteen

2010-06-24T18:53:00.000+01:00

Day Nineteen — A talent of yours

I don't really think I have many talents. I can sing okay, I can bake fairly well, I can do crafty stuff to an extent, but I don't think anything I do can be called talent. Aside from maybe procrastinating, I can do that!

Hmm...I guess what most people would call my talent is my Wenching ability - I sit on knees, I pour beer expertly, I make Grog any pirate would be proud of and I look damned good in a corset!

Still not sure it's a talent though!

Day Eighteen

2010-06-24T18:47:00.003+01:00

Day Eighteen — Whatever tickles your fancy.

Ah, blogging about whatever tickles my fancy again...difficult. I never know what to blog about, hence my not blogging normally!

Ah, I have an idea!

Craft swaps are often fun, but I always really stress over what to make for people. Apryl has come up with a really awesome idea - a crafty book swap - alongside sending some handmade craft items, the participants are also going to swap a book!

I think this is a really great idea, and I am going to sign up just as soon as I'm done blogging! All the information is here:

Click me for swapping fun!

Day Seventeen

2010-06-24T18:42:00.001+01:00

Day Seventeen — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)

I don't really know a lot about art, but I have bought some art recently that is cute, surreal and makes me smile.

They're from the super talented ravengirl at Etsy - check her out!

Day Sixteen

2010-06-24T18:36:00.002+01:00

Day Sixteen — A song that makes you cry (or nearly):

Wow, am I behind on this. Apologies for the blog spamming which will now ensue. Sorry for anyone who's reader is now filled solely with posts by me!

There are very few songs I can think of off of the top of my head that make me cry (or nearly), but one that definately does is Rufus Wainwright's version of Halleluja. I'm not sure what it is about it that affects me in a way no other version of it does, but there we go. I'm not sure what else I can say, so here's a video of it.

Apologies for the crap video - I could only find the Shrek version of it!

Day Fifteen

2010-06-15T07:50:00.001+01:00

Day fifteen — a fanfic.

I'm not sure I've ever really read any fanfic (except maybe the awful Dr Who nonsense my friends over at the SFX forum know about, but which isn't suitable to talk about here!).

I have written fanfic though. When I was about 14 or 15 I wrote some truly awful Star Trek fanfic, which I'm laughing at even remembering now, and at the same time I was a member of a Buffy-verse based roleplay site, which probably counts as a kind of fanfic.

Other than that, it's really not something that interests me. I like characters to stay where they belong!

Day Fourteen

2010-06-15T07:42:00.003+01:00

Day Fourteen, a Non-Fiction book.

I'm not really big on Non-Fiction, but I suppose the non-fiction book I've read most often is 'Byron: Life and Legend' by Fiona MacCarthy. It's a biography of Byron, and it's probably one of the best written, and my love for Lord Byron means I feel the urge to read it every now and then to reacquaint myself with him, as it were!

There's not really very much I can say about it, it does as it implies - talks about Byron's life, and his legend. If you have any interest in Romanic Poetry, or even the man who was Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know, I recommend it!

Day Thirteen

2010-06-15T07:34:00.002+01:00

Day Thirteen, a fictional book.

I read a lot. I always have a book in my bag - it's very rare I leave the house without one. As I mentioned previously on this blog, I've read Gone With The Wind about 10 times. I'm re-reading it at the moment in fact!

I know it's not politically correct, I know it's racist, but it reflects a time I really wish I could have experienced, and you can't help but fall in love with Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. There's something timeless about the story. Even though it doesn't have a happy ending, you find yourself siding with Scarlett and her determination to fix things.

There are sequels as well, commissioned by the estate of Margaret Mitchell - Scarlett, which focuses on life for Scarlett after Gone With The Wind, and Butler's People, which is about Rhett Butler before and after he meets Scarlett O'Hara. They don't work together, and I was really confused when I read Butler's People, as it doesn't link in with Scarlett at all, but they're both as entertaining as GWTW.

Day Twelve

2010-06-15T07:12:00.003+01:00

Once again I have been very bad with actually keeping up with this. So, many posts this morning!

Day Twelve: Whatever Tickles Your Fancy.

I'm a bit stuck on what to write about here. I think I might talk about Lego. Yup, plastic bricks.

I love Lego. I have done since I was a kid. Who would have thought there could be so much fun in snapping bricks together? As a kid I made cars, houses for dolls, towers, anything my imagination could come up with. And at the end of the day, it all came apart and you could start the next day!

Pete is a much bigger Lego nerd than me, our bedroom is full of completed Lego models, and more recently, a couple of them are mine. And mine are all Toy Story Lego. As mentioned in the previous day's blogging about favourite films, Toy Story is quite high up on the list of my favourites. I'm very excited about Toy Story 3 coming out next month!

My favourite Lego model is my Lego Buzz Lightyear. He looks like this:

If I had the money, I'd have the entire Toy Story Lego range!

Day Eleven

2010-06-11T08:21:00.001+01:00

Day Eleven - a recent photo of me.

Generally I don't like having my photograph taken, so I don't really have many recent photos of myself. I think the most recent one I have is this one, which was taken about a year ago.

It was taken at an SFX Forum weekend meet up, and it's a picture of me, with a jug of Grog I'd just made. The Grog went down well, and I do actually like this picture - one of very few I do!

Day Ten

2010-06-11T08:19:00.002+01:00

A photo of me taken over ten years ago...

This is me and my sister (I'm the redheaded one, obviously!), outside of the house we grew up in in Bristol. I'm probably about 4 or 5 in this picture, and my sister is probably about 2 or 3. I miss that house!

This is actually a photo of a photo, so apologies for the poor quality - I took a photo of it ages ago, when I was too lazy to find my scanner, when everyone was posting baby photos of themselves at the SFX forum!

Day Nine

2010-06-11T08:15:00.002+01:00

Okay, I am really quite bad at this. I blame the fact that P is off work this week and taking me to work, so I don't have to get up early. So I don't have time to play about online!

Okay, Day Nine - a photograph I took.

This is a picture of Lilah, one of the first sock bunnies I made. She's probably still my favourite! This is probably also one of the best photos I've taken of my crafty work!

Crafty Update

2010-06-08T20:20:00.002+01:00

I said on Sunday that I was going to have a go at making drawstring bags, for my dice. I didn't do that. In the end, I spent all of Sunday doing pretty much nothing.

I am doing something crafty at the moment though - although it's mostly experimental at the moment. I'm French knitting some really gorgeous wool (it's from Wharfdale Woolworks), and when it's all done, I plan to try and knit with the braid I'm making at the moment. It'll be interesting to see how it comes out!

Here's a picture of what I have so far:

Apologies for the crappy phone picture - I seem to have misplaced my camera again!

Day Eight

2010-06-08T20:16:00.004+01:00

A photo that makes me angry, or sad.

I don't have any pictures that make me angry, but I do have a couple that make me sad.

This is a picture of my niece (and her dad) on the day that she was born. We live about 130 miles away from my family, so I didn't meet my gorgeous neice until about a week after she was born. And I was, and still am quite sad about that fact. Pictures just aren't the same.

Day Seven

2010-06-08T09:19:00.004+01:00

I did start this post last night, from my phone, but it died before I could post it, and I got grumpy, so you're going to get two (possibly three if I can get pictures of something I'm working on) posts from me today.

Day Seven - a photo that makes me happy.

I didn't take this picture - in fact it's been on my hard drive so long I'm not sure I even remember where it came from. It's of the Covered Market part of St. Nicholas market in Bristol, which is one of my favourite places in the world. The covered market is where all the food stalls are, and even just thinking about it I can smell all the fabulous food they sell there. There's a Morrocan food place, a Jamacian food place (mmm, salt fish), a smoothie place, an olive stall, a place that sells sausages. It's lovely. And I miss it. But this picture makes me happy!

Day Six

2010-06-06T09:09:00.004+01:00

Today's blogging theme is 'whatever tickles your fancy'. And I'm having trouble thinking of anything...

Okay, I think I'm going to blog about how totally nerdy I am, and talk about D&D. Yes, you read right, Dungeons and Dragons.

Back when I lived in Bristol I played D&D once a week with some friends. And it was amazing fun. We played through the most ridiculous scenarios, had the most amazing weapons and at one point, killed a dragon and then had a necromancer reanimate it so we could use it for our own nefarious plans! 'Proper' D&D it wasn't, but it sure was fun!

It's one of the things I really miss, and I would love to start playing again, but it's hard to find a group. I honestly can't think of a way to search for a group, or advertise for one, without sounding really nerdy, or really creepy. And I know it is nerdy, but I don't want to sound like I'm THAT nerdy when talking to strangers! I know, it's irrational!

I've been reading about making drawstring bags this week, and I think today I'm going to get the sewing machine out and have a go at making one. I'm going to embroider some dice to the front of it, and voilà, I'll have a new dice bag! There'll be pictures when I'm done!

This has been kind of a rambling post - hope I didn't scare anyone off!

Day Five

2010-06-06T08:48:00.002+01:00

I know I should have posted this yesterday, but a) it was Saturday and I was busy, and b) it was waaay too hot yesterday! So today you get two posts. Here's the first - and today's topic is a favourite quote.

Quotes are hard to choose, harder than books or films. So many people have said amusing, witty things that are worth remembering.

I think a favourite of mine has to be this one by Lord Byron:

"If I could always read, I should never feel the want of company."

It sums up everything I love about reading - that you can lose yourself so much into a book that it seems that the characters become your friends!

Day Four

2010-06-04T07:26:00.002+01:00

First off, I'm really not in the mood to be writing this today. I woke up thinking it was Saturday, and the sudden realisation it wasn't has made me quite grumpy. Today will probably be fuelled excessively by sugar and caffeine.

Still, A Favourite Book.

When asked what my favourite book is my stock answer is normally 'Alice In Wonderland'. And it is one of my favourite books. But I love to read, and so it really is hard to choose just one book.

I also love Gone With The Wind (as posted previously I've read it about 10 times!), Stardust, Darwin's Radio (a great story based on real science, and genetics to boot! It's by Greg Bear - look it up!), Kushiel's Dart, The Vampyre (this is essentially a biograpy of Byron written from the perspective of 'what if Byron was a vampire?'), The Scar and so many Pratchett books I couldn't choose one. Although it's possibly Soul Music.

If you haven't read any of these books, go look them up! They're all awesome (or at least I think so). And then come tell me what you think of them!

Day Three

2010-06-03T07:35:00.000+01:00

What's with all the favourites in this blogging list? I'm so indecisive it's hard for me to keep choosing favourite things!

Today's topic is favourite tv programmes. I watch a lot of TV, probably more than I should, so choosing a show that's my favourite is hard. I may have to resort to making a list again.

I have actually been thinking about this one for a few days now though, and I think I have finally decided - it has to be Futurama. I love everything about it, most especially the geekiness, and I am really looking forward to it's return later this year. As I type, I am in fact watching an episode!

I was always a Simpsons fan, but Futurama seems to take everything that's good about the Simpsons and takes it one step further. I tried to find some amusing clips from the show on YouTube, but I couldn't find any that just summed up the show perfectly, from my point of view. But I urge everyone to watch it, because it is great!

Also, I love it so much, I've listed to the Audio Commentary track on every episode. And I remember far too much information from them. I is officially a nerd!

Day Two

2010-06-02T07:32:00.003+01:00

Today I'm meant to talk about my favourite movie, which again is a really hard thing for me to choose. I have a hard enough time even narrowing my list down to ten, when people ask me my top ten films.

Movies, like music, can instantly take me back to the first time I saw them - take Star Wars for example - I was 9 years old, I came downstairs, and my mum's boyfriend at the time was watching it. I was hooked instantly. My love affair with sci-fi had begun. Or True Romance - it reminds me of living in Bristol, working for Broadsystem, and Damian making me watch it with the promise that Gary Oldman was in it! Every film I love, I love because it means more to me than just the fact I spent two, or however many hours sitting in front of it.

I think the point of this exercise is to choose one film, but I really can't, and besides, this is my blog, so I'm going to make a list, in no particular order, of my ten favourite movies. Judge my taste in the comments if you must!

1 - Empire Strikes Back
2 - Toy Story
3 - True Romance
4 - Gone With The Wind
5 - Leon
6 - Mermaids
7 - The Little Mermaid
8 - The Sound Of Music
9 - Girl, Interrupted
10 - Chasing Amy

Day One

2010-06-01T08:46:00.003+01:00

Apryl is doing this over on her blog, and it seems like a good way for me to actually get back into blogging. Every day for the next 30 days (so until the end of June), I'll be making a post with the following themes:

Day 01 — A favourite song
Day 02 — A favourite movie
Day 03 — A favourite television program
Day 04 — A favourite book
Day 05 — A favourite quote
Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 — A photo you took
Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 — A fictional book
Day 14 — A non-fictional book
Day 15 — A fanfic
Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 — A talent of yours
Day 20 — A hobby of yours
Day 21 — A recipe
Day 22 — A website
Day 23 — A YouTube video
Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 — Your day, in great detail
Day 26 — Your week, in great detail
Day 27 — This month, in great detail
Day 28 — This year, in great detail
Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 — Whatever tickles your fancy

So, day one is a favourite song. I've had to think about this for a while, as music means a lot to me, and my favourite song at any given time depends on what mood I'm in!

But I think my favourite song, generally, is 'A Sea To Suffer In' by My Dying Bride. They're my favourite band, and while not to everyone's taste, I've found a video of the song to share nonetheless:

Hello Crafty Stuff

2010-05-31T20:49:00.001+01:00

If you're a regular visitor to these parts (do I even have any?!), you might be noticing that there are a few more posts here than there used to be. If you're wondering why, it's because I've moved the posts from my Craft Blog, to here. Because having two blogs is complicated and hurts my brain.

So, as well as my totally random and nonsensical ramblings, from now on there will be a variety of pretty things I've made on display here. Enjoy!

Bank Holiday Awesomness

2010-05-31T12:56:00.003+01:00

So, it's bank holiday monday here. And I'm enjoying it by doing precisely nothing. Aside from blogging, obviously, and watching the boyfriend play Lego Star Wars on the Xbox. On the whole, this has been a fairly awesome weekend.

On saturday, I went to Brighton for the first SFX forum Brighton Meet. Which wasn't the greatest success in the world (only five of us turned up!), but which was still great fun. I spent too much money, as I always do in Brighton, but I am now the owner of some awesomely cool stuff, which makes up for it immeasurably. I have Zombiw Fluxx and Munchkin Booty, which are two of the coolest card games ever, three new Edward Gorey books, and lots and lots of sweeties from Cybercandy, including Jolly Ranchers which I cannot get enough of. Pete was ill, and so didn't come with me, which was sad, and everyone missed him, but he also got cool presents bought home for him, in the form of more Cybercandy sweeties, a print of a Ford Capri ad from the 70's / 80's and a Doctor Who mug which has Tom Baker, a Dalek, a Cyberman, the TARDIS and K9, who I'm chosing to ignore as he ruins an otherwise awesome mug!

Yesterday was mostly spent recovering from walking around Brighton all day, seeing the in-laws, and trying to teach small children to play first Munchkin and then Fluxx, neither of which went very well. Which made me very sad. I'm hoping I can teach the boyfriend to play both of them, so I will have more allies next time I try and teach them to play anything!

Which brings us to today, a day where I have again, done very little, except read blogs, finally download Firefox to this computer, and muck about in iTunes. The crowning glory of today however, is that the amazing and super smart Space Squid, who I know from over at the SFX Forum, blogged about an amusing fake certificate I made for him. While following his posts on Twitter, he mentioned that he owned a cravat, which I, with my love for Victorian / Regency dressing thought was awesome. A conversation followed in which I told him he could be Wenched at any time, and he asked if there was a certificate to show such a thing. And me, being me, had to make one. And here it is:

It was the work of about 10 minutes with google, and MS Paint, but I think it's pretty awesome. I make no claims of ownership of any of the images, just the concept. I may even have to work on my own images and then sell them! :p

The point I was making though, is that he blogged about it. And it can be seen here. I also urge you to read his blog. It's awesome. And so clever it sometimes makes my head hurt!

I have some more posts planned here, I think, and I'm also thinking about transferring all the posts from my Craft Blog over to here, but I'm not sure what people would think about seeing my craft stuff alongside my random (and often depressing and sweary) real life blog posts.

Thoughts? Ideas? Comments telling me to stop Wenching and grow up?!

100 Things About Me

2010-05-12T06:44:00.005+01:00

Meridian Ariel posted this on her blog, and I thought it was a cool idea so I'm stealing it! So here we go...100 probably not so interesting things about me:

1. I moved to the other side of the country to live with my boyfriend.
2. I miss my home town of Bristol every day.
3. It took me a year to find a full time, permanent job here.
4. I hate my job
5. But I'm absurdly good at it.
6. I am very bad at doing the laundry.
7. I love to cook.
8. I can't knit with needles.
9. I love to cross stitch
10. But I hate back stitch.
11. Toy Story is my favourite film.
12. I want to have been a teenager in 50's America
13. I love Lord Byron
14. Although I don't think his poetry is all that amazing!
15. My hair is waist length.
16. I consider cutting it off daily.
17. I love heavy metal
18. My favourite band is My Dying Bride
19. I have the ticket stubs from every gig I've ever been to.
20. My first ever gig was to see Nightwish at the Astoria.
21. I love socks.
22. I drink my coffee black
23. Unless I go to Starbucks, then I drink lattes with syrup in!
24. I like my tea white with no sugar.
25. I doubt my ability as a crafter every day.
26. I doubt my ability as a grown up more than that!
27. I have a crush on Charlie Brooker.
28. And a bigger one on David Mitchell!
29. I like men with beards!
30. I have the ideas for 2 novels in my head.
31. I played D&D right up until I left Bristol.
32. I also LARPed.
33. I have a D20 necklace.
34. Scarlett O'Hara is my favourite fictional character.
35. I have read Gone With The Wind 10 times.
36. I used to sing in a band.
37. Now I mostly only sing in the car.
38. I used to go out every friday night.
39. The idea of going out really no longer appeals to me!
40. I dropped out of university.
41. I don't know what to do with my life.
42. I want to backpack across the whole of America.
43. I'd like to have children one day.
44. I have 6 pet mice.
45. I am a gamer girl.
46. I watch too much television.
47. I have watched the entire series of Buffy The Vampire Slayer three times.
48. I've only watched Angel all the way through once.
49. I don't know how to drive.
50. My first attempt at driving ended in me nearly crashing the car.
51. I love Futurama.
52. My favourite car is the Fiat 500.
53. Both the old and new versions!
54. I still have a Warhammer 40k army.
55. I am 5'4.
56. I am a proud redhead.
57. I love my eyes
58. Even though I'm blind without glasses.
59. I cannot put eyeliner on properly!
60. I could eat Sushi forever!
61. I can eat (badly) with chopsticks!
62. I had to think about this all day.
63. I can do some origami.
64. Hedgehogs are my favourite animals
65. I endeavour to be neat but am actually really untidy.
66. I'm a bit of a nerd.
67. I suffer from migraines.
68. I am a closet Elvis fan.
69. I can quote most of the Star Wars original trilogy
70. To the point where no one will watch it with me now!
71. I love corsetry.
72. I own 3 corsets.
73. I want to learn to sew corsets.
74. Gary Oldman is my favourite actor.
75. I love the Winchester boys!
76. And Captain Tightpants!
77. I have two WoW characters.
78. I haven't played WoW in over a year.
79. I have a fairly vast collection of handbags.
80. Teeth freak me out.
81. Horror films set in Asylums freak me out a lot.
82. I never leave the house without a pen and paper.
83. I wish I could have met Peter Cushing.
84. I am generally known as The Wench.
85. I often get told I'm a natural barmaid!
86. I drink proper beer!
87. And occasionally proper west country cider!
88. I currently have a headache.
89. I think Batman is an anti-hero
90. I was vegetarian for 2 years when I was 14.
91. My mum's beef stew turned me back into a meat eater.
92. My favourite perfume is Jean-Paul Gaultier's Pour Femme.
93. I wanted to be an archeologist as a kid.
94. I also wanted to be an astronaut.
95. I like chemistry.
96. I hate maths.
97. And physics.
98. I love liquorice.
99. The name of this blog reflects that!
100. I don't know anyone who will read this all the way through!

Bank Holiday Discount

2010-05-02T08:42:00.001+01:00

I know it's a little bit late to be posting about it, but I've decided to give a 20% discount in my Etsy Shop this weekend. Any purchases made up until Midnight on Monday will have 20% of the purchase price refunded back to them, within 48 hours of payment being recieved! This doesn't include postage!

So take a look, and buy something that takes your fancy! I'm offering this on all items!

Randomness

2010-04-18T10:55:00.002+01:00

I'm not even going to bother mentioning how crap I am at blogging again - you all know it by now. I am seriously considering combining both my Craft Blog, and this blog, because at least there would be updates here then. But I'm not sure how many people who come to look at my crafty stuff would be interested in my real life stuff, and vice versa.

Anyways.

Since I last blogged not a lot has really happened. I have a pretty dull life. Work, sleep, eating, more work, etc etc. However. I did buy some soap shaped like a D20, from the fabulous Geek Soap who can also be found on twitter here. I also bought the boyfriend a soap which has a Mario 1up mushroom in it. We are a geeky household.

I'm also off to see Amanda Palmer and (hopefully, volcano dust allowing!) Evelyn Evelyn next thursday, which I'm looking forward to. It's been ages since I've been to a gig. We went to see Springsteen last summer, which technically was the last gig I went to, but in my mind, huge open air gigs are really not as much fun as the dark, sweaty, indoors, crushed up against other people who love the same music as you, gigs!

Other than that, I've mostly been carrying on as normal. Making crafty things (which are listed here and here), being my normal geeky self, and generally living.

New Listings

2010-04-18T10:44:00.000+01:00

I have finally got around to listing some sock creatures over at both my Etsy Shop and my Folksy Shop. There are some new creatures, as well as some you may have seen before, along with some pairs of socks.

As a sneek peek, here's some pictures of my newest creations:

I've also made this funky little creature:

But she's not for sale - she's going to be a birthday present for the boyfriend's niece. She watched me making her and fell in love with her, and as her birthday's next week it just felt really mean not to give it to her!

Today I'm planning on sewing up another monkey, and if there's time, I might sew some new socks, so keep an eye out for more listings soon!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T08:50:00.003+01:00

How on Earth is it Easter Sunday already? It doesn't seem like 5 minutes ago that it was Christmas! Anyways, I'm currently sat on the sofa in my mums kitchen, rewatching last night's Doctor Who and finishing off a sock. All in all it's pretty blissful. We came down to visit Bristol on Friday and it's been a pretty nice weekend on the whole. It took us an age to get down here on Friday, after which point we pretty much collapsed at my mums house and didn't do anything - although my dad came to see us, which was nice. And then yesterday my mum took me and my sisters shopping, which was an experience. We went to Cabot Circus, which is the big, new shopping place in Bristol, which I haven't really explored before. And all in all I spent far too money. I have got a new cardigan and a new dress to show for it, as well as a really cool Toy Story shopping bag (it has one of the aliens on it!) and the boyfriend has a new tshirt and a cuddly Stitch. And I bought my mum and my sister their birthday presents! But I'll be living on beans on toast for the rest of the month I think!

It's been a very big telly weekend too - as mentioned above I'm rewatching Doctor Who, which I think was pretty damn cool. So far Matt Smith hasn't beaten Ecclestone in my book, but already I'm enjoying his performance more than Tennants. Time will tell if he'll become my favourite new-who era Doctor!

There was also Ashes to Ashes, which I totally enjoyed, although was thoroughly confused by, and me and my sister have already been coming up with theories about what's going to happen and how Gene's involved in it all. And finally, there's a new Jonathan Creek on tonight, which me and my sister are very excited about. We've always been massive fans of the Creek!

I think that's all I have to say at the moment. I'll probably blog again when I'm back at home!

Friends

2010-03-30T18:31:00.003+01:00

I've been thinking about what to blog about for a while now, as I'm always quite rubbish at thinking of topics (I might have to make a list of random things to blog about for when I'm stuck!), and it occured to me today that I really don't talk about my totally awesome friends nearly enough!

I don't really have very many really close friends, and the few I do have I don't see nearly enough. In fact, one of them I've only met once, and I've never met the other!

I think my best friend in all the world is Miss Claire Coffeecups, who used to blog, but doesn't anymore, and who twitters occasionally. I'm not going to post links to that though as I'm not sure she'd be too happy! I met her on a Art / Dolling forum 3 years ago (I think) called Eden Enchanted, which sadly no longer exists. We were partners for a Halloween collaboration, and after a few months (it may even have been weeks!) we started writing letters to one another. We're still penpals now, although much more sporadically than we once were - and we still email, text and twitter at least twice a week. I honestly couldn't imagine my life without her anymore!

Here is the doll / art in question we made:

She is also the maker of really cute paper type products - here is a really cute notebook she made me from all different kinds of paper. It was only a prototype, and I'm not sure she's made any more, but I would totally buy them if she did!

I made Little Bo Peep on the left, and Claire made Little Miss Muffett on the right!

We've only met up in person once - a few years ago when I went to the Midlands to stay with her. Every year since we've said we're going to meet up, and we never have, but I'm really hoping that we will manage it at some point this year!

I do have some pictures of us together, but I don't want to post them without asking her first, so you'll have to keep visiting if you want to see us!

I do have a couple of other friends I plan to blog about, but I think this post has gone on for a fair while already, so they'll have to wait for another day! Sorry Bex and Steve!

My Least Favourite Time Of Year

2010-03-28T09:44:00.003+01:00

The time of year when the clocks go forward. To be totally honest, it's not the worst time of year - it does at least mean that there's more daylight, and considering I think I may be suffering from SAD, it's much better for me for there to be light. But I don't like losing an hour!

My sleep patterns have been really messed up recently, with me waking up at 6am and not being able to get back to sleep, and then having to go to get at 9pm, which means I'm then ready to be up at 6 the following morning! Despite the clocks going forward overnight though, I had the best nights sleep I've had in a long time last night and am feeling rather more refreshed today!

I'm hoping I can spend today in a fairly chilled out manner, so I won't be worn out and needing to go to bed at 9 o'clock again tonight, thus starting this awful cycle all over again. We need to buy a new cage for the mice, and we might buy some more mice too; we haven't quite decided on that. We're still arguing over what they would be called...

Some Crafty Stuff

2010-03-27T11:30:00.000Z

I've been up to a little bit recently, in the craft world, and I have some pictures to show now. They are bad, for which I apologise - they were taken with my phone because I've misplaced my camera again! But hopefully they'll give you some idea of what I've been up to!

First up, a new monkey:

He's the first one I've made in a while actually, and I think he's a little on the skinny, gangly side. He is for sale though. He's £12, and I can list him in either my Etsy, or Folksy shop if anyone wants him. And because I love you all so much, if you post here, or email me that you want him, I won't charge you for postage!

Next up - a sock I'm working on - it's a mothers day present for my step mother (I haven't even started the ones for my mum yet! Thank the gods I still have a week before I go to Bristol!):

I've also made another pom-pom hat, which I still need to list in the shops. Again, if you want it, I can list if just for you, and won't charge Postage. The hat is £8!

And finally, some pincushions. I've never made pincushions before, and as I'm still getting used to my new sewing machine, I thought it might give me some practice sewing in nice straight lines. I still need to work on that! These are also my first attempt at patchworking too, and I know, it's really wonky and still needs work. But on the whole, I think I'm pretty happy with them all!

I really am...

2010-03-27T10:51:00.003Z

...appallingly bad at this. And it bothers me. It really does, because so often I think, I could blog that, and then I never do. Mostly it's things about work I think about blogging, but then there's things that happen at Scouts that amuse / irritate me that I want to get out of my system, and I never do it.

The other day at work I wrote down a load of stuff that I thought about blogging. I might still do it, I don't know. It was mostly about how I don't know what to do with my life, and musing how other people work out what they want to do with their lives. There was the start of a list of things I wouldn't be good at - I suppose knowing what I don't want to do is the start of working out what I do want to do with my life! It's still floating around in my handbag, so I might get it out and type it up at some point. Not sure I want to really - it's still really rough and pretty personal.

I've also got a list of things that really irritate me about callers, which might make for entertaining reading at some point, if I can ever be bothered to type that up too!

And now for some good news - after a little while without a pet, last weekend I went out and bought some new pet mice! I wanted a bunny rabbit, but we don't have anywhere to keep one, and bunny proofing the house seemed like too daunting a task! So we looked at hamsters, which Pete doesn't like, and gerbils, which I don't like, and eventally decided on mice! We have two girls - Lucy and Mina, and they are gorgeous. Mina is grey, and Lucy is ginger. And we're already thinking about getting some more! Pete is really quite smitten with them. I already have names picked out for any more we get - if we get more girls I want to call them Channon and Yelena - 5 internets if you know the reference.

I'm off home to Bristol next weekend too, which I am really looking forward to - we have't been since Xmas, and I already have a busy weekend planned - shopping with my dad on friday, shopping with my mum and sisters on saturday, and possibly meeting the very lovely Bex on sunday morning - if anywhere will be open. It is after all Easter Sunday.

I've been doing a fair bit of crafty stuff recently too - it'll all be posted at the Craft Blog in due course!

I was going to post pics of the mousies, but I can't find where the boyfriend's uploaded them to, and they're asleep so I can't take any more! I'll put some up eventually!

Kind Of Slow

2010-02-08T20:22:00.000Z

As the title says, I'm kind of slow on the crafting front at the moment. I've made a pair of socks, and I'm about halfway through another hat, but other than that, I've not really got a lot done.

I'm really quite keen to get my sewing machine out now, but I still have nowhere to put it, which is really quite irritating.

And unless putting Lego together counts as crafting, I've actually really not got anything left to say. :(

More interesting posts to follow. Promise.

Oh, one more thing, my business cards arrived. If anyone wants one, or wants to do anything with one, let me know! Comments are the preffered method, if you leave an email address!

Nothing to Report...

2010-02-08T20:20:00.001Z

I mean it...I honestly have nothing to report. Nothing at all interesting has happened in my life in the past week or so.

Actually, I lie. I bought a Lego Buzz Lightyear. Yes, I am in fact that sad. Hey, I love Toy Story. It's totally awesome.

I also bought Dante's Inferno for the Xbox. It's not a bad game, although it's very hack and slash, and it's bought out the old geeky gamer girl in me, which has been hiding for a while. My only irratation with it is that it bears very little resemblance to the source material after which it's named, and when you die (which I do frequently!), you get snippets of the poem flashing up, only they're really badly translated, and totally have no context.

I guess if it inspires more people to read the incredible Divine Comedy then it's only a good thing.

The game is very cool though, and very pretty in HD, and I really am enjoying it!

Hats!

2010-01-30T21:36:00.000Z

As I mentioned over on my other blog, I've been making a new style of hat, that seems to be going down well. So well in fact, that I've been commisioned to make two more!

One I've already done, and it's gone off to it's new owner (who loved it, and wore it round the office all day!) and the other is half done, but is awaiting the arrival of some new wool!

Here is the hat that started it all:

I really must apologise for the picture. It is a)dark, and b) of me, in my pyjamas, wearing the hat! I hope it still shows how cool it is. Basically, it's a beanie type thing, with a pom-pom either side. I think it kinda looks like ears!

Here is the first one I made on commission, for a work colleague:

The other one I've been asked to make is for another colleague's little boy. It's in the same grey wool as mine, only with blue pom-poms instead of pink! I'm hoping this will lead to more commission type stuff, although it's definately got me thinking that people do want my stuff, it's just a case of getting myself known out there!

Not keeping up...

2010-01-30T21:24:00.004Z

I'm not really doing very well with this posting once a week thing, am I? Oh well, I'll just have to try harder!

I've been meaning to blog about this since I recieved it, at the start of the month (which shows how rubbish I am), but here goes anyways!

My totally awesome best friend, Claire Coffeecups, who is talented beyond belief, made me this truly cool New Years card:

I apologise for the bad picture, because it really doesn't show up how awesome this card is, but I love it, and I really had to show it off.

Nothing else very interesting has happened here. I'm being made permanent at work, which in theory is a good thing, although I'm still not entirely keen on the job. My mum is coming to visit in about 3 weeks, which should be fun, and I've been making a new style of hat, which seems to be going down rather well. Details, as always are in the craft blog.

I've actually spent the majority of this afternoon engaged in lengthy discussions with some old roleplaying friends. We've got our old text based site, The Hunted up and running again, and all three of us have big plans for what should happen plot wise. The two guys I was plotting with have been with me pretty much from the beginning, so it was really great to relive some old times by plotting all over again. And as a shameless plug, new members are always welcome! If you have any experience of Text Based Roleplaying, come join in!

I think that's it for now...more posts soon, promise this time!

A Bad Week

2010-01-13T08:06:00.003Z

This week has so far been a very bad week.

On sunday night, our kitty died. :(
On monday our car died.
Our Landlord's brother has moved in with us, because his marriage is failing.

And did I mention our shower doesn't work, so washing my hair is now a major mission involving sitting in the bath and having P pour pints of water over my head.

And now, it's snowing really heavily again. I want this week to be over.

Here is a picture of our cat:

Snow Crafting...

2010-01-09T13:17:00.000Z

Yes, that's a bad pun. Due to the snow (and we have a lot of it here!), I've mostly been too tired to do any crafting when I've got home from work. Trekking to and from work in snow up to my ankles is not something I particularly do again, but as we're apparently getting a blizzard tomorrow, I think I'll have to!

So, no pictures at the moment - I can only say that I have been knitting socks, and pictures will follow at some point!

Also, I'm taking part in the Etsy Baby Shower. Not because I'm having a baby, but because I want to get some socks out there in the world, and what better way than by giving them to gorgeous little newborns and their mums?!

Snow!

2010-01-09T13:08:00.002Z

Okay, so I think by now every UK blogger has made a post concerning the snow, but here's mine!

We are pretty snowed in here. We have at least 6 inches of it outside, and although we can get out, it's not easy to. None of the roads around our house have been gritted, so driving to the main roads is a bit of a mission in itself, and considering I walk to work uphill, it's a miracle I've got there unscathed the last few days!

Still, its very pretty! Here are some pictures of it taken from the bedroom window (I'm not going out in it to take pictures!!):

Back To Reality

2010-01-04T08:02:00.002Z

So, here we are, the first working day of a new year. A new decade even! I've just accepted a permanent contract at my current job, so I'm hoping that it's a sign that this year will one spent gainfully employed. After being unemployed for the majority of last year it's not something I'd like to repeat, so even having a job I don't love is much better than having no job at all!

So, I suppose I'd better go and finish getting ready for it then!!

Socks!

2010-01-02T17:01:00.005Z

Today I have mostly been knitting and photographing socks, to attempt to sell online (see my Craft Blog for more info!), and it got me thinking about socks.

I love socks, weirdly. I much prefer socks to shoes. I frequently buy socks, just because they're pretty. Sometimes I even turn them into things.

Like this:

And this:

But mostly I like to wear them.

And here's a picture of a really cute sock I knitted last night. Just because:

New Year, New Shop Looks!

2010-01-02T16:50:00.000Z

Hello, hello! Happy New Year to everyone!

As I posted previously, one of my New Years Resolutions was to blog more, which for this blog actually means having to craft more! Well, so far, 2010 has been a very productive year craft wise! I have finished one pair of grown-up socks, and knitted three more baby pairs of socks!

Grown Up Socks:

Baby Socks:

Also, as it's the new year, I thought I'd have a bit of a re-vamp with my shops. In both my Etsy and Folksy shops, I now have a new banner, and have listed all of these items in both shops. Links are in the sidebar if you want to check them out!

I'm also having a bit of a think about what to sell in them. Obviously, socks are now my main focus, but I'm wondering if I should just sell knitted socks, or sock creatures (mainly monkeys and bunnies) as well? At the moment I'm thinking of still selling creatures, and maybe offering make your own type kits, where I'd cut out all the pieces for a monkey, package it up with the stuffing, and let people sew them together. Although this is still just an idea and one that needs to be tested at the moment (anyone want to volunteer for the job!?)

So, opinions are always valued, comment and let me know what you think! And in the meantime, enjoy 2010!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T13:18:00.002Z

So, here we are in 2010! So far, it's not been a good year! We have no milk for tea, very little food to eat, and I've discovered that what we thought was our landlord watching the telly at a stupidly loud volume last night was actually just the telly playing to an empty room. He was at work, and though we were going to be out last night, so left it on make it look like someone was in the house. We rarely go into the front room so we genuinely didn't notice!

I ended up asleep by about 11:30 last night, woke up briefly when P came to bed about 1 and then woke up this morning in a new decade. I'm hoping though, that after today this year will be better. I'm set to have a permanent job, we're going to look for a house of our own, and I've got big plans for selling some of my craft bits this year!

Think I'm out of things to say already...I'm in the middle of knitting a pair of socks and I want to get them done today! Pictures will most likely be on the craft blog when they're done!

Apologies

2009-12-30T07:50:00.002Z

To everyone who has noticed I've deleted a post. I've just realised there was a spam comment on there I really wasn't happy with it and I couldn't work out how to delete said comment. Sad to say that to leave comments now you'll have to do the word verification nonsense. Hope that won't stop any of you lovely people commenting!

Testing, Testing

2009-12-30T07:37:00.003Z

This is sort of an experimental post to see if I can post here from my phone. The answer seems to be yes, although I type so slowly it would probably take an age to make a decent post! But, the option is here, should I wish to use it.

And yes, I may be putting off having to get ready for work by playing around here!

New Look

2009-12-29T21:26:00.003Z

Start as you mean to go on and all that...with my post about posting, I'm now making another post, about the new layout I've uploaded here. Sadly I can't lay claim to having created it (my coding skills extend to very basic HTML!) but I think it looks pretty cool, and it's very me.

I've also put links to my Etsy shop, and to my craft blog in the sidebar - expect more links to follow when I can think of things to put there! Possibly I'll end up with links to other blogs I read...I haven't really decided yet.

I want to post a bit about what's going on in my (fairly dull) life, but I think it would mostly be very dull. The short version is: Christmas was good, and mostly out of the way (still have presents to give to people, tomorrow and then on New Years Eve), I've accepted a permanent role from my temp job (pensions call centre...not amazing, but it's a job and I'm actually pretty good at it), and I'm still living here with P. Oh, and we've got tickets to see Avatar in 3D tomorrow, which is likely to be pretty cool.

Um...that's about all I can think of to say right now. Although I forgot how easy blogging can be. I always say this though, and then stop. Mostly when I get writers block. Hmmm...maybe I need some topic starters for when I don't have anything else to write about. Ideas in the comments please!!

New Year's Resolutions

2009-12-29T19:08:00.000Z

My attempts at blogging here this year have been woefully poor. I may have made this same resolution regarding my Other Blog (where I talk about real world, rather than crafty me, and generally rant, moan and discuss what happens in my head!) but one of my New Year's resolutions is to blog here, and there, at least once a week.

I'm hoping that this will inspire me to a) craft more, b) actually write about things without bottling them up more, and c) entertain / annoy / amuse / insert word here people who bother to read these things!

So, keep watching, and poke me (metaphorically preferably) when I don't make posts.

ETA: I've added a new layout. Isn't it pretty?!

New Year's Resolutions

2009-12-29T19:03:00.002Z

So, it's been nearly a year since I posted here. And that's bad. And I may have made this resolution last year too (and if I did I failed miserably!) but I am resolving now that as of January 1st 2010, I am going to make a post both here and at my Craft Blog at least once a week. And hopefully more, but at least once a week to start with.

I'm hoping that this will inspire me to a) craft more, b) actually write about things without bottling them up more, and c) entertain / annoy / amuse / insert word here people who bother to read these things!

So, keep watching, and poke me (metaphorically preferably) when I don't make posts.

Armwarmers!

2009-11-22T21:20:00.000Z

Over at the Craftzine blog, there's a Loom Along happening! As one of the few people I know whoknits with a loom, rather than needles, I was pretty excited.

Sadly, it's based on the armwarmers a character in Twilight / New Moon wears. And I'm pretty sure everyone who knows me knows that I hate Twilight with a passion. As soon as anyone mentions it I all but foam at the mouth!

Still, a Loom Along is a Loom Along, and I've wanted to make Armwarmers for ages, and hadn't had much luck with finding a pattern. And I wasn't the only one with the same opinion. Over at the Flickr Group that relates to the Loom Along, a lot of people said much the same thing!

Anyways...without further ado...here are said armwarmers:

And here's one on my wrist:

I am totally on a stripes kick right now, and these remind me of being a kid, and reading the Beano. They are totally the same shade as everything Dennis The Menace and Minnie The Minx wear. They are officially known as my Minnie The Minx armwarmers! I can see myself making a lot more of these, and if there's any interest, I might make some for sale!

I've now moved onto knitting a shrug type thing, which if it works, will be an xmas present for my Auntie. It's an experiment really, as this is the first time I'm making something from a pattern that exists solely in my head. It'll be good if it works though!

And finally (this has been going on for a while it seems...), The Sock Swap, has been postposted. I only had two people email me about it, so I'll try again in the new year, when people are likely to have more time and aren't worrying about making things for xmas!

Phew...I'm going to shut up now!

Sock Swap

2009-10-09T20:37:00.000+01:00

As avid readers (ha, like I have any of them!) will know, I make things from socks. Mostly monkeys, but also bunnies, cats, monsters and just about anything my imagination can come up with!

I've also just learned to knit socks, and armed with this knowledge, I've decided to host my very first swap, based around, you guessed it, socks!

So...here's the brief:

Socks! Simple as that! Whether it's something made from socks, or a pair of handmade socks, or even a pair of socks that you've embroidered or made pretty in some other way, socks is where to start!

Then add something crafty for your partner - fabric, buttons, stickers, (maybe even more socks!) and something tasty to nibble on (chocolate, biscuits, sweets...)! And there we have it, a sock swap parcel!

Overall you should aim to spend around £10 ($15) on your parcel, although obviously, it's up to you how much you do!

This is open internationally, as I don't think it'll be too expensive to post everything!

And now, the important bit - if you're interested, email me: driahades@gmail.com with 'SOCK SWAP', in the title! Then let me know your name (real and online!), address, and favourite colours, themes, items, and anything you're allergic to!

Sign up will end on Friday 30th October, and a rough date for sending parcels out would be around the end of November.

Simple as that! Enjoy!

Socks!

2009-09-06T21:43:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I made a post here...what with the new job I haven't really had too much time for crafting.

I made 2 sock monkeys for a friend, who was overjoyed with them, and has ordered 4 more for xmas, which makes me very happy. I've also got the pattern for the frock coat my dad wants me to make him, but it looks REALLY complicated, so I keep putting off actually doing anything with it. It's a much more complicated pattern than I've ever used, and it's been so long since I've done anything with a pattern I'm not even sure I remember how! Hints, tips and lots of fingers crossed for luck when I start it would be gratefully accepted!

In other news, I knitted some socks! For a year now I've been playing around with my knitting looms, and I haven't mananged to make anything except hats and scarves (things that are basically just round!). Looking at something completely different online, I found a link to a great loom knitting resource site, and from there, I managed to find a pattern for socks!

And here they are:

On the bed:

and on my feet:

They're obviously not the prettiest socks ever, but they're warm, and comfy and I totally love them. I am going to go wool shopping at some point in the week for pretty wool to make many more pairs from!

And The Winner Is...

2009-08-15T09:25:00.000+01:00

Okay...so I didn't have a hat to put the names into...but I had a box, which worked well enough:

And the lucky winner of the monkey cards is:

So congratulations Livvie - I'll be contacting you to get the address to send them to!

In other crafty news, I've nearly finished the 3rd panel on the Looney Toons cross-stitch - I just have the back stitch to do. So the next picture will hopefully be of a fully completed cross stitch!

Oh, and my new job seems pretty cool too!

New Job!

2009-08-12T13:56:00.000+01:00

Once again, I am an employed person! As of tomorrow, I will have a job once more!

Okay, so it's call centre work, I vowed I would never do it again, but at the moment, I don't think I can afford to be fussy, and work is work!

So, all in all I'm pretty excited, and looking forward to having money again.

One of the first things I want to buy when I have money, is I think, this cute little purse, because mine is falling apart:

It's made by alliebeans and is available here

Envelopes

2009-08-11T15:14:00.000+01:00

Two blog posts in as many days....the world must be coming to an end!

Having a stack of fashion magazines lying around the place, with nothing to do with them except throw them in the recyling, I decided to recycle them in a different fashion.

I decided to make envelopes from them!

They're glued, and then sewn, more for sturdinesses sake than anything else, and I think they're pretty cute! I'm building up quite a collection, and am sending a few off to my best friend!

Other than that, I'm not quite sure what to do with them. I'd like to sell them, but I don't know if there would be copyright isses or anything - a quick look at Etsy shows me that a lot of people seem to make recycled envelopes, so I'm kinda in a quandary. And then there's the fact that I really don't think they're sturdy enough to go through the post, which begs the question of 'What do you actually use them for'?

Oh well, I'm sure I'll work answers out soon enough!

50's B Movie Swap!

2009-08-10T14:16:00.000+01:00

Today I got my parcel from Kim who was my parter for the 50's B Movie swap! She sent me some utterly amazing things and I cannot thank her enough.

Here are pictures of what I got (they're taken on my phone, because I've misplaced my camera, so please excuse the rubbish quality of them!)

The handmade item was this gorgeous little plushie creature (who I am still trying to think of a name for!):

Next were these sweets (which I may have om nom nommed already!):

Then I had 3 crafty items - some yarn, some stickers and some pom-poms!:

There was also a very cool Horror magazine:

And finally, and most awesomely in my mind, a double feature DVD featuring one of my favourite actors - Vincent Price, and set in my favourite scary movie setting, old mental hospitals!:

I very stupidly forgot to take proper pictures of what I sent Kim, but I have some pictures I took just to show for friends!

I sent this cute Vampire Monkey:

Some stickers, much like the ones Kim sent me, some flying saucer sweets, and some "fizzy fang" sweets, and finally, some fabric which I thought was so amazing I wanted to keep it!

It was a great swap, and Meri was awesome for organising it! She's currently hosting a 1980's Fantasy Movie Swap, which I'm thinking of taking part in, if I can work out what to make before the sign-up deadline!

Wow, long post!

A Giveaway!

2009-07-31T16:03:00.000+01:00

Well, it seems, once again, that I have not been keeping this poor, neglected place updated. So, in order to give it some new life, I've decided to have a little giveaway!

Since my original idea of embroidering my sock monkey design onto card, I've since been embroidering them onto actual cards, and so, have decided to giveaway a set of 5 lovely cards, to a) make sure I check on my blog, and b) advertise the fact that said monkey cards are now available for sale in my Etsy shop!

These cards are blank inside, for your own message (although I think they'd make awesome invitation cards, or thank you cards...or even 'I just wanted to say hi' note cards!) and they are stamped on the back with the initials DHD (for DriaHades Designs).

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post, saying what colours you think the embroidered monkeys would look good in! This will close on Friday August 14th, so you have 2 whole weeks to enter! After that, the names will go in a hat, and I'll get my lovely boyfriend to pick one out!

So...enjoy!

Embroidered Monkeys

2009-07-17T18:47:00.000+01:00

I've been playing around with the idea of embroidering sock monkeys on to things for a while, since I first doodled one, and then the idea suddenly hit me the other day to embroider them onto card. I plan to use them for thankyou notes, monkey birth certificates and perhaps gift cards, but I think they probably need a little more tweaking!

And this is a monkey I finished last night, who has been named Splodge.

I'm also taking part in two mini-swap type things with some friends, which should keep me busy and hopefully creative. I'm having a plushie swap with one friend, and with the other we've decided to swap something crafty with a broad heading of 'it has to be stripy'! So that should hopefully inspire me somewhat!

Of Ugly Sock Rabbits and Gingerbread Cakes

2009-07-14T07:51:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I finished what I think is the ugliest sock rabbit I have ever made. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong with it, but it just doesn't look right to me. I have named it Wonky...because, well, that's how it looks to me. The boyfriend however, thinks it is lovely, despite it's wonkiness, and has decided to keep it. So we have yet another creature that lives in the bedroom with us.

And here he is - in all his wonky glory:

I also made gingerbread cakes at the weekend. I started out with the intention of making gingerbread men, but on inspection of my baking supplies I realised I had no plain flour. So instead, I cobbled together a cake mix from the gingerbread ingredients.

They actually came out really, really well - they're slightly crunchy on the outside, and really soft, fluffy and moist on the inside. The recipe went something like this:

300g Self Raising Flour
300g Butter
300g Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 and 1/2 tsp Ground ginger
1/2 tsp Ground cloves
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tbsp Golden Syrup
Milk

I didn't measure the milk - just poured it until the mixture got to the consistency I wanted! I am from the 'Add ingredients until it looks and tastes right school of baking.

I put them in the oven at about 180 degrees for 12 minutes (ish) and they were perfect! It makes about 20 cakes - by the time I came to take a picture it would appear that the boyfriend and the landlord had got to them!

The recipe is probably not exactly how I made them, so if anyone does make them, I apologise in advance for them not coming out well! Next time I invent a recipe I shall be sure to write it down as I go!

Sewing Machine Fun

2009-07-12T15:38:00.000+01:00

I am very bad at remembering to update this. I blame my lack of actually doing anything remotely crafty for a little while.

Anyways, due to the wonders of Freecycle, I am now the proud owner of a (vintage) sewing machine. It's from 1971 and is built into it's own little cupboard:

(please, ignore the horrible state of our spare bedroom where the machine currently resides!)

I haven't used a sewing machine since I was a kid, and this one is vastly fancier than the one I used then. Apparently, it can do about 10 types of stitches, buttonholes and who knows what else?! But, seeing as I've had enough trouble making it just sew in a straight line, I think I'll leave the fancy features until I'm a little more au fait with it.

Still, I have managed to make something with it. I have a made a cover for my hot water bottle (which is, at certain times of the month my very best friend!). I had this really gorgeous Matryoshka Doll fabric FQ lying around, and wanted to use it for something, and this seemed like the project for it - it means I can spend much time looking at it now!

And here it is (complete with hot water bottle inside):

It is hardly the best thing anyone will ever make, but on the whole I'm pretty darn proud of it (and myself!), and am now looking forward to making lots of pretty things with the machine! Eventually, I plan to quilt (and have what I think will be a gorgeous quilt already planned out in my head, involving Alexander Henry tattoo fabric, skull and crossbones fabric and black velvet and lace!), and I shall keep you all updated on my sewing machine adventures!

Uninspired

2009-06-18T09:29:00.000+01:00

So, once again I am feeling pretty darn uninspired. I have loads of projects I could be getting on with, but don't want to do anything at all. I don't know what's wrong with me. It seems like as soon as I'm unemployed, I jut have no ooomph.

2 FQs of really cute fabric arrived the other day, and I have no idea what to make with them, I have 2 unifinished cross stitches (although admittedly, one is nearer to being finished than it was before), a swap item I need to get in gear and finish, and some embroidered pants I really need to do something with.

Any idea how I can get some inspiration / ooomph back?!

And just because I can, and I think it's pretty - here is a corset ring by ccj2 available at etsy:

Big Catch Up!

2009-06-12T17:08:00.000+01:00

I have the internet back at home! Hooray! And that means a big catch up post of everything I've made while the internet has been down!

First up: Cross Stitch.

I made a post a while back about the two big cross stitches I was working on. Without internet to distract me in the evenings, I've got some more of the Looney Tunes one done:

Next up: Embroidery

I had an idea a while ago about embroidering things on the back of underwear. And now I've done some:

I'd like some opinions on these - not so much the designs, as I was just playing around, but ideas, thoughts, constructive criticisms - I'm pondering whether to sell them, but don't know whether they would sell.

And then we have sock creatures:

I made 2 monkeys and a bunny that were sent off around the world this week, which I stupidly forgot to take pictures of first. One was a monkey for my step-sister's birthday, made from socks with pink and sparkly hearts on them, and the other was a monkey made of fluffy socks for my friends in Finland. The bunny went to Finland too - he was made from black socks with purple red polkadots!

I did make another bunny though, which my boyfriend has now claimed as the girlfriend for his other bunny. He has named her Violet, and here he is holding her:

And finally...(getting there, I promise!) Today is my lovely boyfriend 34th birthday. And so we went to Legoland! We both love Lego! Whilst there, we bought:

The Kraken Attackin' Lego Pirates set (put together by me!):

Lego Minifig shaped cookie cutters (for when I make Gingerbread!):

And a really cool Lego bag (I have a major thing for handbags of all shapes and sizes!)

The boyfriend also bought a mini Lego Bulldozer, but I haven't taken a picture of it!

Oh, and before I forget - my monkey swap present arrived too. It's a gorgeous little monkey from Mel over at Felt Me Up. He also came with a really cute banana:

And I'm now taking part in Meri's 50's B Movie swap!

Woooow, that was a long post!

Still No Internet...

2009-06-09T18:04:00.000+01:00

So...our phone was turned back on yesterday, but apparently it's going to take another 7-10 days to get our internet back up. I am so not happy. I am seriously an internet addict. I need my internet fix. I think I'm starting to get withdrawl shakes when I look at the computer at home! It looks so sad with no one using it!!

Anyways, the upside of this is that I'm getting a hell of a lot of crafting done. Lots of sock creatures have been made (including one which the boyfriend has decided he loves so much I cannot sell), lots of cross-stitching is being done, and the embroidered pants idea I had is working amazingly. Also, the boyfriend has introduced me to Bones, which is an amazing tv series, which I actually have time to watch, and pay attention to when I'm not online!!

Sadly, because of my lack of internets at home, I have no pictures. My blog is going to look entirely boring if I carry on posting without pictures of things. :(

So, lots to report, but not a lot to show off sadly. Keep turned in though, hopefully I'll have lots of pretties to show off soon.

Grumpy Dria

2009-06-05T18:07:00.000+01:00

Yup, I'm a grumpy bunny.

We have no internet at home at the moment, and I now have no job, so until it's reconnected at home, sadly, I'm without blogging. On the plus side, not having the net to distract me means I'm actually getting a lot of crafting done. I've finished a panel in a cross-stitch and made one and a half monkeys and a bunny. Not bad going in 2 days!

There will be pictures as soon as I get the net back at home, which hopefully won't be too much longer. The phone bill has now been paid (after we poked the landlord with sharp sticks!!), and we're just waiting on BT to actually reconnect the line!

On the plus side, there is a hedgehog living in our garden. I LOVE hedgehogs. They are my favourite animals in the world. So this makes me a very happy bunny. And I saw him out in the front garden at half past five this evening. I hope he's okay and isn't getting run over! Still cross about the internet and the job. Trying to be positive and proactive though! Not sure how long it'll last. You know me!!!

Happy Anniversary

2009-05-26T08:00:00.000+01:00

I normally reserve this blog for craft related things, but seeing as I haven't updated my other one since January, and this one feels much more like my 'normal' blog these days, I thought I'd post something here.

Today is my first anniversary with the Boyfriend. A year ago today he asked me to be his girlfriend, after a weekend of wooing me with trips to the pictures and the zoo! And that was after a year of us emailling back and forth, so we took our time!

It hasn't always been easy, and we've had a few bumps, but on the whole, I'm happier than I think I've ever been, and despite the fact I'm now 140 miles away from everything I know and love, I don't regret moving here for a second!

So, Happy Anniversary Pete. I can't wait to see what the next year brings!

First Embroidery Attempt

2009-05-25T21:05:00.000+01:00

Embroidery is something I've wanted to have a go at since I was a little girl. I've been cross stitching since I was about 8 years old and I guess I've wanted to embroider since then too. I always thought it was so delicate and pretty.

After some pointers from the lovely people over at Crafter...oo, I looked at some links, and did a few practice stitches:

And once I thought I'd got the hang of it, I decided that I was going to actually try and make something pretty! I had an old t-shirt lying around; one which I loved the pattern on and so was loathe to throw away (it didn't fit!!), and so I decided to attempt to embroider around the pattern:

Here's a close up of the Dragon's head:

And of the flower:

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it, and I think it's a pretty good first attempt. There are a few bits that I'm not too happy about, and would change if I had the chance, but I guess it's all a learning curve!

Monkey Madness!

2009-05-23T12:54:00.000+01:00

I'm on a bit of a monkey making spree at the moment, after having spent lots of time making rabbits and monsters, I've gone back to monkeys.

At the moment I'm making a monkey for the Monkey Swap, so no pictures of that yet! I'm also making a dark striped monkey, and I bought some more fluffy socks this morning which I plan to turn into monkeys, as I think they look really quite cute made from fluffy socks.

In other news, I've set up a Coriandr Shop, which hasn't much stuff in yet, but hopefully will do soon.

Also, the Pirate sock creatures I've made are up for sale in my Etsy shop. I also have some better pictures of them too:

Things I Covet...

2009-05-21T09:37:00.000+01:00

As I am seriously lacking anything of my own to put here right now (working stupid hours is seriously cutting down my crafting time - I don't like crafting in the morning!!), I thought I'd make a post of pretty things from Etsy that I covet!

Anyone who really knows me knows that there are three things I love above most others - Wenches (and wenching!), Pirates, and Corsets! So guess what...that's what this post is going to contain!

First up is this amazingly pretty lunch bag from Proletariat Bags

As someone who takes lunch to work every day, in a very boring lunchbox, this would seriously make my lunch much more fun!

Next up, we have these really cute cards by RatherCrafty

I write a lot, to my dad and my best friend, and pretty stationery, with a pirate twist would probably make them smile just as much as me!

I just realised I lied...or rather omitted. There's something else I love more than lots of other things. Or someone...Lord Byron! Yes, it's cliched for a goth girl to love the Mad, Bad Lord, but I do, so ner!

And so, I want this:

It's a Byron necklace by FunckLoveDesigns

Right...next blog post will be something I've made...promise!

Pirate Socks

2009-05-13T16:06:00.000+01:00

I love Pirates. I love anything to do with Pirates. And so, when I found socks with skulls and crossbones on, I knew I had to make Pirate sock creatures. I've made two so far - a monkey, and a rabbit.

Before I post any more, please excuse the pictures. The weather here's awful, so I've had to take the pictures indoors. The light's really bad. Hopefully I'll get better pictures soon!

Here we have Captain Blacktail, the most evil Pirate Rabbit known upon the seven seas:

And here, his friend and ally Captain Bananas, who is an equally scurvy dog (or monkey, as the case may be...):

And here's one of them together: