Catching up with Cross Stitch

I thought I'd catch you up. I've got a UFO (un-finished object) that I've been avoiding for years and years and only work on sporadically. It's a bird cross-stitch and a friend of mine lit a fire under me and I've been working on it quite a lot lately. This picture here is what it looked like when I picked it up after quite a while of avoiding it.

Here's a better view, this time with a bit more of a bird done on it and some of the base of the birdhouse. Still so much to do on it.

More later.

Purple Wrap Sweater for Little Girl

Aah, here's my little one in the first wearable item besides socks and hats that actually fits properly!! It's quite big for her-- the pink line on the cuff is supposed to go to her wrist-- but she'll grow into it. It was a toddler sweater so I made the largest size because I would have cried if it was too small!

I got the pattern from The Art Of Crochet by Hachette Partworks. I have subscribed to this for about four months now and I haven't looked back. I love it! The colours originally chosen for this pattern were a bit odd- three pinks, only two of which went together. A candy pink, a hot pink, and a dusky pink. Ugh!!! Dusky was the third wheel in there. Besides, I already had the purple and the dusky pink. :)

She loves it. If I put it on her, she won't take it off. It's getting warm out now though and she hasn't got many occasions to wear it right now. By the time the weather's cool enough to wear it again, it might fit her!

A Scourer or a Scarf?

I bought the decorative yarn for this at a Knitting show. It looked gorgeous and I had to make something out of it. It's called Starlight Revue. It looks like a pot scourer in normal light but under stage-type lights (or jewellery shop lights) it looks sparkly and gorgeous. Since my mom is in a band and is under those kinds of lights, I thought she'd look nice in something made out of it. So I did a simple fishnet stitch until I ran out of yarn. I didn't like the size of it so I ordered more yarn and even though it was the same colorway it was very very different. So I crocheted one skein of it onto one end and one onto the other end. Hopefully at least it's symmetrical. Here in the photo it's rolled and bunched up so you can't really tell.

Here's a close-up of one end of the roll. As you can see, there are lots of pretty colors in it, not just black and silver. I just hope it looks nice on Mom.

As far as I know, she doesn't read this blog, so it'll probably still be a surprise when she gets it in the mail. Unless I can't help myself and tell her to go look at it when we're online together. That is most likely going to happen. I can't keep secrets.

My Crafty Week-and-a-Bit!

Hi everyone who reads my blog,

It's officially half-term and tomorrow morning, my Craft Killers (a.k.a. Children) will be on their way to their grandparents' house with Daddy for the half-term break, leaving me the week plus the weekends either side to do whatever on my own!!

In celebration of this fact, I will be setting an auto-post for every day, depicting something I've made and not blogged over the last few months.

With all these forums and blogs, it seems that we crafters spend so much time writing or reading about crafting that we have less and less time to actually craft. I don't want to see the forums and blogs go away, but at the same time I don't want to rob myself of actual craft time, so a balance must be struck.

Leave a comment- let me know what you think of your reading/crafting balance. Is it good? Meanwhile, I'll pre-post my creations here.

Happy Crafting!

Bombshell Hump Day Hop!

I've been really naughty this month. Actually, not naughty. Busy. The weather here in London has been so glorious, that we have spent most of our time outdoors and I haven't done much crafting. Here's what was required for the hop this month:

Call it a Mother's Day theme....or Just fun.
This month, we want to see what you are made of....and what you can make.

You can make any sort of project, a card, a layout, an altered object...whatever...you just need to make a handmade embellishment. It can be a flower, button, etc... You just have to make it.

I made the embellishments that went on my ATCs for the Bombshell Technique Themed ATC swap. I thought I'd double-dip this month because I just haven't had time to make anything new. I can't show the rest of the ATCs because I still want people to be surprised when they get their ATCs in the post. :)

Well, that's my lot for the hop! Please leave a comment and be in with a chance to win this month's prize package, courtesy of Smeared Ink:

Also, please carry on down this list and visit the other Bombshell lovelies!!

Kas
Kelli
BoHo Rose
Katie
Alison
Angie
Kathi
Cheryl
Sy **you are here**
Meredith
Mary G

Check in next month for another hop!

Invitations completely from Scraps!

This is a proud moment for me. No, really. Besides some stickles and permanent adhesive, these seven party invitations were made entirely from scraps. No card blanks were harmed in the making of these invitations!

I saw this idea somewhere before, basically when you pull up the flowery bit, the invitation is on the bottom. The pot is like an envelope.

I remembered that this project exists somewhere on the internet, but I had to completely re-invent how to do it in my head because I forgot exactly where the instructions were. I used two sizes of the same flower punch, my own devised formula for the pots, and stickles for the middles of the flowers. I'm happier with some of them than with others, but c'est la vie, right? Aww... but they're cute if I do say so myself. I will be delivering them in person just so I can see what people think of them. I'm pretty pleased with myself, having not cut into any new paper or card to do this. Yay me!

And now, to bed. 'Night crafters! :)

New Look, thanks to The Cutest Blog on the Block!

I checked out this website and they offer some great blogger backgrounds. If you want to re-vamp your blog, do check them out. I think they have a little something for every taste!

I have been scrapbooking this weekend. I made 14 pages, 11 on one day. Simple was the order of the day with many photos not matted even, and most of the pages hand-written on with a black Sharpie. Not loads to write home about, but if I get around to putting them up, you can find them here. That's my Scrapbooking blog.

Thanks to TCBOTB for my new decor! I have already spotted one I would love to use when summer is finally here. Go check them out. There is a link here somewhere, possibly on top of the title. Don't know why that's done that, first time I've seen it happen.