mmmmmmmmmmmmm Craft!

I often get asked how I find time to do crafts. Easy, I ignore the housework. seriously, so long as the cooking part of the kitchen and the bathroom are both clean and Sophie has clean clothes, everything else is extra. I am a terrible housewife.

BUT, I am very good at crochet lol!!

My first Filet Crochet project, and I think it'll be my last because this has taken me over a year to complete. It was a project from Magical Needlework by Dorothy Morrison. It's meant to be an altar cloth, but I don't have an altar so I wanted it as a wall hanging. I am soooo in love with this project.

The hanging itself is made form cotton yanr with a 3mm hook and it's suspended from a piece of 10mm diam copper pipe with a bead treaded onto each end.

Basically, it took me ove a year because I kept getting frustrated and confused and upset, ad then putting it away for a while. I found it half finished in november 2010 and was determined to have it finished by new year. That didn't happen, but I don't think 12th of jan is too far from my target!


Now for my new year project. Earrings. My mum gave me some fimo for my birthday, and I found some gorgeous little glass bottles on ebay and fell in love.

I wanted to make some random earrings.

one is a butterfly.

and one is a fairy in a jar.who is leaning against a toadstool and looking incredibly depressed.

here are the set

and finally, a picture of me to show the scale and how hard they were to make!

To make the teensy tiny things in the jars, I made them bit by bit and placed them in the bottles using a bamboo skewer in one hand and a pair of tiny tweezers in the other. I think I've taken years off the working life of my eyes.

Pah. It's worth it.

Happy New Year

I am starting 2011 in a not-too-efficient way. Here's why: I am 28 years old. I make sure my family eats what's good for them and avoids what their bodies can't cope with whether this is lactose, wheat, sugar etc.

So why, then, can I not resist food which I KNOW will make me ill and miserable?

I attended a gathering last night with karate club friends. It was wonderful, very relaxed, kids able to be kids and fooooooooood! so much fooooooooood! I couldn't avoid it. I couldn't resist.

Tell me, is it possible to grow willpower? or am I doomed to constant diarrhoea whenever I can't resist a chocolate swiss roll?

ahhhhh christmas is over!!

as if i didnt have enough to do, I have a 4 (soon to be 5) year old diosaur obsessed little girl.
3 days before xmas sophie started talking more and more about something she'd put on her santa list, something i'd glossed over and practically ignored because i thought she was kidding. She outgrew her dinosaur dressing up outfit LAST year and wanted a new one. turns out she wasn't joking and she REALLY did want a new dinosaur outfit. Please. Now. Please ask santa... etc.

Being more normal that I ever thought, I looked at pre made ones. But in the UK it turns out you're not allowed to dress as a dinosaur if you're over 2 years old according to the major supermarkets and ebay.

I gave up. Dejected and trying to work out a decent lie for the child to explain why santa couldn't follow through, then when i was in the 99p store getting tut (essex colloquial profanity meaning collective poo), i saw *THE* rug. cotton, stripey and a really disgusting shade of green.

i combined the rug, three fleece scarves and a lot of mental to complete this in time for xmas day. she was impressed!

now for the science bit.

being a shoddily made pound shop rug, it began to fray as soon as i put scissors near it. So, I machine sewed the seams first, and then encased all seams in fleece offcuts. the encasing was done by hand. at midnight the night before xmas eve.

 Yes, that's midnight. on 23rd dec. Yes, I am mad.

i added fringe to, you know, pretty up the dinosaur a little. and some 1960s buttons obtained from my mother in law. i was sure i would never use them because of the shade!

here's the tail.

i did machine embroidery on all the spines. i know, overkill? it was really to stiffen the fleece a little and make it stand to attention a bit better. Seriously, I thought of everything.

here's the back.

 and the front laid flat

That dinosaur looks like she's on the prowl, quick! stay still! they can only see you if you move!

oh noes! she found her prey!!!

one day I hope my daughter will appreciate everything i went through to give her a magical childhood lol.

aid me thanks!

does anyone have a hand they can give me regarding fixing the wrong direction "d" key as it has almost totally ceased to function on my black mobile digital data management device...

i have tried blowing under it, can't remove it as that's bad for mobile digital data management devices like mine (Lenovo t400s) and I am now at a loss and having to think of ways to say things which don't involve using that letter.

thanks!!!

i'd rather not have to give £7 for a can of air from a well known electronics store which begins with M, but will if i have to. it's not that it doesnt work, it's just that it needs jabbing hard and i dont want to break it.

Merry Samhain!

so, this weekend I have carved a pumkin and made a futurama brain slug. Win all round.

Brainless

Do actions speak louder than words? Well yes, with regards to a kiss instead of "I love you", a hug instead of "missed you", a longing look instead of "fancy a bit of this?"...

Obviously this wisdom does not apply when you try to help out your Hairyman and inadvertantly lose his keys so he ends up leaving late for work...

Last night, he carried the sleeping child inside. To help I took his keys, emptied the boot of the car, locked it, locked the back gate, came inside the house, put the stuff down and set about getting the ice cream in the freezer and the dinner on the cooker. I'd not realised that in order to get myself, two shoping bags and a curver box full of Lego through the back door without droping anything, I had stuck Hairyman's keys in the Lego box and forgotten about them.

Let's fast forward to 5:45am thursday. Hairyman woke me gently, wearing his coat and hat and said "Em, where are my keys?". Can you imagine my answer at 5:45am? I believe it was something along the lines of "thrwrghhthppprp?"

I got out of bed to aid the search. 20 mins of solid searching later, being snapped at by the husband for not hanging his keys up and I had a stroke of genius. FREEZER! damn. not in the freezer. keep thinking.

In the end I sat down to contemplate my fate. would I have a day of being snapped at by Hairyman? would he go to work by train and therefore be more annoyed with me because of the journey and because of not having his work keys? would he sit Playing with Lego while giving me the silent treatmen......LEGO? LEGO!!

I peered into the pink plastic box. There glistening in the multicoloured lums of plastic were the Man's keys. Car key. House key. Locker key. Tool locker key.....

I didn't get a kiss. I didn't get a hug. I got a glare as he left, but he did phone me when he got to work and told me he loves me.

He needs a whistly thing for his keys.

Don't Own a Toilet if You're Not Prepared To Clean it.

today I noticed that the toilet fairy has yet again failed to pick up the slack for me, and so it fell to me to clean the bog. let's just say I love Asda limescale remover. Why does nobody else in my house know how to use it?! Ok one person has an excuse. she is 4, but the 32 year old man? humpf.

As well as cleaning the loo, I have cleaned the kitchen, done two loads of washing and made a checkerboard cake. I'll exlain in pictures later lol.

Why all this activity? well first and foremost I am sick of living in what looks like a squat, and secondly I have a friend coming over later.