Return from the dark side...*long post warning*

Hi there.
Once again I have been away from my little Blog for far too long and i fear no-one is going to read any more. 
I have been rather inspired and en-heartened by my dear friend, Bonnie's recent post, re: Things I'm afraid to tell you. You know the first lady who blogged it is calling it a 'movement' now, as everyone is blogging it!
Isn't it refreshing..but please i hope the pretty perfect loveliness doesn't end, after all, we all need something to coo and ahh over, and be inspired by. 


Anyway, I should tell you why I have been absent.
I have a few drafts in my post lists, one of them starts 
"I'm not going to apologise for my absence... I'm not in the best of moods. So please bear with me, while I share some makes with you, while I fester in my pendulous and tumultuous mood." 


I'm glad I didn't carry on with the post!! 


I have been absent because I am hiding. Hibernating, festering!
I am suffering with quite a severe depression. The medication I was prescribed brought complications and so I was prescribed a different one and this one has not even 'touched' it! I have even wondered if I've been given a placebo! 
I can't really say what has triggered this bout. Its been getting worse since the year started.
(its a mix of couple of different things-that I can't do anything about- but I'd rather not share publicly!)
 I thought, and hoped, I would perk up once Spring came, but alas, here in England we've had nothing but grey skies and rain. 
For all of April and this month so far. The forecast I have heard for the rest of the month is not any better. One Newspaper headline declared it was going to be "Winter Until June" . 
So, that's rather dire isn't it. 
I have however been making odd bits and pieces. 
I think of the things I've made and not yet shared, and just going to the bother of photographing them - lighting conditions are horrendous - that I give up! 
But, a few weeks ago, there was bit of late afternoon sun, so as it set, I grabbed my camera and set to capturing my little makes. 
I am intending in gradually building up a bit of stock to sell and start a little Etsy shop. 
I have been spurred on by encouragement by some friends who have seen my makes and also by one who after seeing a little make for my son, commissioned me to make her son one, and then days later has commissioned me to make another for another little boy who wants one. 
Let me get on and show you hey?!!

Say Hi to Yoda. 

( may I just note that I will not sell him commercially as he is a copyrighted character, I made him from my own interpretation of the character and accepted payment for the costs and labour!) 

Ooh get me with the small print!! 

So yes, i made him up as i went along after a while of browsing 'google' for images of 'amigurumi yoda'

most of them were a bit to 'simple' for my liking. 

He is made from DK yarn, (stylecraft special dk if I'm precise) with a 2.5mm hook. 

Yes.....my finger/hands/wrist ached for days after!!

I did worry as I as i was making him up as I go along he was looking too much like a frog... then once the ears went on, he looked like a gremlin (albeit toothless)

http://images.wikia.com/gremlins/images/9/9b/Stripe_bobble_head_figure.jpg

*shudder* they still creep me out!! 

but once I added the fluff for the wisps of hair, and the nose and mouth bit, which was tricky, 

he looked a bit more like the actually little wisened dude himself

so he was my first paid comission and now i have to remember how to made him again!!

Her are some other amigurumi (small crocheted toys) I have made as gifts

here is a little Elephant i made for a friend's little boy. 

I got the pattern from here after seeing it on a google search for an amigurumi elephant. 

I made him slightly different by adding fabric to his ears and

feet

the little toddler loved it, and shyly cuddled him and marched him across his Daddy's shoulders!

He too is made from grey DK, with a 3mm hook i think! (can't remember now)

then I made this little chap...

a minion from the film 'Despicable me'

(actually i made him first, he was my first attempt at Amigurumi)

from this blogger

he was so easy to make but now my little son wants the whole minion army!! or at least one with two eyes or teeth!

My favourite creation of amigurumi yet, is Rosie

She's just so pretty!!

and cute

I used this pattern and again I modified her to my own liking, i.e using pretty fabric on her feet

rather than felt as the pattern says and also used a contrast thread to sew the fabric on. 

and I used felt for her eyes instead of safety buttons, as I didn't have any at the time!

I have since made her a brother, using the grey wool that Elephant is made from, and he -Robbie - came out bigger! despite using the same hook! 

Rosie is made from cream Sirdir Snuggly baby wool, so she's extra soft and cuddly! 

She was a little joy to make and I'll be hard pushed to sell her as I intended!!

and finally, I just wanted to share with you a cushion I made for my Mum. 

Both my Grandparents have passed away now, Granddad died in February, and last month they would have celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary. 

So, I made this to help mum feel better!

first I downloaded a lovely photo from my Auntie's FaceBook album, it wasn't very good quality as it was scanned, but it is so 'them'! 

I then edited it with Picnic, now sadly gone, and I added the lyrics from one of 'their' songs, 'Look at Us'

I then printed the photo onto photo transfer paper,..then I reversed the image, and printed it again!!! D'Oh!

then I ironed it onto natural cotton, and added it to this pretty cushion cover I made, and edged it with cream crochet lace trim. 

Here it is... 

words say " ....If you want to see how True Love should be

.....Then Look at Us "

Poor Mum shed a little tear when she saw it! and its sits proudly in her home for all to see! 

Well, thats all from me for now, I'll try not to keep away so long next time, these long catch up posts take me so long to do!!! 

i hope you enjoyed this post, and please feel free to leave a comment 

Take Care

Em Xx

Hello friends,

This is the scene we were greeted with as we stepped outside this morning to begin the trudge to school!

my little son is up to his wellie boots in the snow! 

my back garden

down the lane

I love to look at the snow and see how beautiful and pure it looks but I certainly am not one of these who likes to go and play in it! Far too cold and wet!!
However, we went to my sister-in-laws yesterday, and all the menfolk bar one, all worked together to build a big igloo!! (Which was no surprise as in the summer when we went to the beach they all made a huge sand fort!! when they get together they get very creative/mischievous!)

Our main reason for all getting together was to see my new great niece, Sienna Rose who is 2 months old now! She is so sweet and diddy!!

Over the past weekend I set to making her some cute crocheted bits, I don't think I have coo'd and ahh'd so much over my crochet before!! I kept turning to hubby and saying 'awww look! its so cute!'


I happily hooked two hats and a pair of diddy little slippers!

The pattern I got from a Google search and found here. It was so easy to follow, (once I used a conversion table to work out the difference between U.K and U.S hooks and stitches.)
 I just love how they turned out.
I used a bamboo wool that I picked up ages ago from a discontinued bargain bin. I think its Sirdirs Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK. The little flower I made with Stylecraft Special DK that I had left over from my 'caravan granny squares blanket' 

                                               


This next hat I made with Sirdir Snuggly DK that i had left over from my youngest sons' blanket I made, its called 'Bluebell Mix' its so...well, Snuggly!!
I had fun making these little daisies and the butterfly, I got the instructions from Issue 3 of Mollie Makes.
                   

                                           
And then I made these adorable little slippers, originally I was going to make them to match the first little hat but I didn't have enough of that yarn left, so I made them from the Stylecraft special Dk. I used a small 2.50mm hook to make the little rose and leaves.  I used this free pattern, and they were pretty simple to make, lots of counting though!

                                     
I didn't add the little straps as I attempted to make little ankle straps instead, and messed them up, and then ran out of time to do anything else!!
Silly me always leaving things to the last minute!!
But we tried them on Sienna and they fit perfectly, and stayed on too, since she doesn't do anything much more than sleep!!

i was glad I managed to make things from my stash I already have, as I couldn't afford to by her any outfits or even any new wool. I cannot believe how much things have gone up in price!

                                   
I am inspired to make some more little hat and shoes sets as I found out a friend had her baby last week, a girl and also another friend is due in May!
Might even finally get round to making extra sets and start using my Etsy account to actually sell rather than browse!!
My youngest son is off school again, he now has chicken pox! Poor little guy has had it really badly over the weekend, so he had to stay with my Mum while we went visiting the baby!
We didn't hardly get any sleep Saturday night. Around midnight, I was driving in the heavy snowfall to the 24 hr shop, to get some anti-histamine, however I got there and it was shut! I'd forgotten it closes at midnight on Saturday! I was 20 minutes late! Fortunately my car is a 4x4 so it holds the road well, and the snow made the fields and trees and countryside look so serene and still and beautiful!
On Sunday I managed to get his needed medicine and he slept a lot on Sunday. So today is he much more cheerful and thrilled to be off school, and there being snow to play in too!
I have a busy week, appointments here and there, my eldest son has to have dental surgery on Friday and will need to be totally sedated for that, and on Wednesday we have my Granddad's funeral.
So I will be glad next week when it is half term to have a break from the morning school rush and stay warm indoors crafting!
I hope you have a good week where ever you are!
Take Care Xx

Things I've been quietly making

Hello there, 
welcome to my first post of 2012. 
My how time flies so quickly!
I have been absent due to illness and keeping busy. 
This past week both my sons and I have been ill. Myself and my little one with a strange 'virus' i guess, that made us very weak and achy, glands swollen and headaches. And my eldest son has had Chicken Pox.
Which I've never had...so perhaps I get the 'illness' part of it without the spots, although today I had sprouted out a few pimply spots so, perhaps I've had it mildly, i don't know, but anyway, on with the post!!! 


I have been a-making a few bits and pieces. 
I'd discovered a new 'medium' i think its called! 
Printing on to fabric, yes, madly running fabric through my inkjet printer!! 
I never knew watching the printer slowly printy-printing away could be so exciting!! 


So here's how I did it, I choose an image from The fabulous Graphics Fairy, normally, then before I hit 'print' of my desired size, I stick an A4 size sticker - I used an unbranded parcel label - to my fabric, I used just plain natural cotton, I cut the fabric to the exact size of the sticker and made sure there were no strands or threads or frays, then I loaded it into my printer as I would with normal paper and it turns out lovely! 
So far I've not had any problems or mess ups, but then my printer is only a few years old and is a quite a reliable thing anyway. 


When you realise what one can do the ideas seem endless!! 




So far I've only made cushions and little scented hanging pillows, but I am so pleased with my little makings....

This cushion is the first one I made.

I've also been working with hessian or Burlap as some know it, and I kinda like the rustic-ness of it, but have learnt that a whole cushion for the sofa made out if it is not such a great idea as its 'itchy' according to my kids!! And hubby calls it the 'Sack' ..hmm think he's right!!

I love this one, its so cute! Its quite small, just a little decorative pillow for my step-daughter's bed, I trimmed it with pale blue velvet ribbon and a little ruffled trim I made.

This one I made as a gift for my sister, its got special meaning as she & her hubby met in Paris on a four day sight-seeing tour, where we also visited Versailles too, (i was with her too!) The image is of a vintage mapbook, I can't remember where i got it from, its not a Graphics Fairy one. 

I made the cushion from a gorgeous soft pale sage linen mix fabric, a remnant i bought years ago, and added a crochet trim and a little twill ribbon with 'Remember When' typed on it. 

I was really pleased that she liked it! 

Then I made this one for my step-daughter, her dream destination is Rome and wants to go to the Colliseuam , 

so I found a vintage postcard image from The Graphics Fairy and printed that, i edged it with a beige crochet trim ribbon, and the left over remnant fabric of the previous cushion, and its all on plain natural cotton.

i then made some little scented draw pillows and hangers, and gave them all away as gifts to friends!

I added the mug so you can get the scale of them, they are quite diddy!

I added a few drops of mandarin essential oil to the stuffing!

all these images are available from the Graphics Fairy

I have also made a fabric cover for my organiser/diary but it went rather wrong.

I really have to learn to stop doing thing 'by eye' and not taking the time and effort to measure things exactly.

i would save myself so much frustration and disappointment! 

it took over 5 hours to make this abomination!!

I made a little label with a vintage image on a postcard, I made the mistake of adding a bit of wadding to make it padded, its a mistake because the whole thing has thick wadding in it so its a bit cumbersome to handle! I ran out of cream trim, so blagged it with royal blue velvet ribbon trim and tiny buttons. 

So first off when I made it, I finished it and was so pleased until I tried to put it on my book and discovered it was too small, I was so disappointed as I was so sure I had done it right!! 

I was also annoyed I'd fabric glued the label slightly wonky also.

So, I stared at it for a good few minutes, had a cuppa, moaned to hubby, and we both sat and stared at it, and we both seemed to have the idea to 'just cut it and add another bit' at the same time!!

So I did, I used Hessian to make a binding. And added velvet ribbon trim and a favourite vintage image of mine.

but then it turned out too big...arggghhh!

So I've decided to just leave it, as I need it to serve as a reminder that I should do things properly!!

It doesn't look too bad from the front when its closed!!

In my never ending bid to get myself organised into a good housekeeping routine, I went over to Flylady, and copied and pasted and tweaked her lists to my own life, and digitally pasted them to some GORGEOUS digi-papers designed by my best friend, Bonnie

Then I printed them out and stuck them in my book and covered them with adhesive clear 'stuff' I can't remember what is proper name is, but it gives that laminated look!

 here you can also see the bookmarks I made with vintage images printed on fabric.

But I've yet to have a week where I don't have something to put a spanner in my works, like ill kiddies, ill me, etc to actually follow my lists!! 

And Also i think the fact I expect myself to just 'get' straight into the routine, rather than Flylady's suggested 'babysteps' hasn't helped!! but I don't consider my self and home to be in such a dreadful state that I need a complete overhaul and de-clutter! I just need to get going and start in the right order! 

So.

There we have it.

I do have some other bits to share but I will ave that for my next post, as this one is long enough already!!

p.s I am linking this to the Graphic Fairy's Brag Monday , why not go and check out what other crafty people have done with those lovely vintage images