please come see my new blog...

I have set up a new blog which will be linked to my new business venture, and will mostly be using that one instead of this now. Please check it out here: http://kinandcastle.blogspot.com

New Year Postcards

I needed a little creative project for this evening, and I thought it would be nice to send some postcards to family and friends, part thank-you cards for christmas, part wishing them a happy new year. So I got out a pile of magazines and starting cutting and collaging. I think they've come out really well!

Our Lovely Homemade Wedding : 30 Apr 2010

Although I had never been one of those girls that grew up dreaming of a wedding, I had pretty strong ideas of how i would like our wedding to look, and it was basically, green& gold, country fair. I love the rustic country style so wanted to incorporate as much of that as I could.


Also, we had both known people spend a fortune on their wedding day, ending up in a debt as a result, and really wanted to find a way to avoid that. In the end, we both spent a fair bit on our clothes, but everything else was done on a really small budget, and in total (including outfits) we think we spent about £5k - £6k. We also had our wedding list as a request for contributions to our honeymoon as we had agreed early on that this is where we should really splash out.


I made all sorts of items: all the bunting (loads of ebay fabrics), painted jam jars for candle holders, repurposed wine bottles as vases. Adding the ivy to my headdress, the bouquet and flowers for the register office were done by my mum and me on the morning of the wedding.


I also went hunting in local woods for a lot of twigs and put together a "wish tree" on which everyone left lovely messages for us (and some jokes and daft messages too of course!) I intend to pick some of these to make into a collage at some point.




Ebay was my best friend during the planning: so many things, including bridesmaids outfits, my jacket, decorations, fabric, yards and yards of ribbon etc came from there and saved us a fortune.



We provided some amusement in the form of hula hoops (my hobby) and juggling (my husbands hobby), lots of bubbles for blowing, we also had sky lanterns to let off in the evening which, given it was a breezy night was more entertaining than we thought as they headed dangerously towards local houses! All floated safely away in the end luckily!


I was lucky enough to have a good friend, who knows us well take all these wonderful photos, which give us such a great record of an amazing day, which really was both our dream come true!





FULL PHOTO ALBUM HERE

handy gardening tips

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/04/the_best_cheap_and_easy_garden.html

funky!

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/05/refashioned_crochet_embellishe.html

Darning!

this is a really fantastic tutorial on how to darn. something i have never learned before, i've always tried to sew things and pull holes back together. this is amazing and i'm definitely going to give it a go soon!


http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/03/darn_it.html?CMP=OTC-5JF307375954

Shrove Tuesday

in a hunt for pancake recipes i found bits and piece on the tradition of shrove tuesday, which led me finally to the answer i've been looking for for ages: the answer of how the calculate when easter falls!

according to this site, easter falls on the sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.



now i know, it's off to find the perfect pancake recipe for dinner.
happy pancake eating!

wow!

this is without a doubt the most amazingly gorgeous bag i've seen



http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=287652.0

WANT!

i need winter projects.

and i think this might be the first one ... :

http://safetybootsandcrochet.wordpress.com/alyssas-shawl/

at the moment i keep having ideas, but none seem to get me interested enough to get started. i am crocheting hexagons here and there, which one day (maybe 2011!) will become my second blanket, but i want something to get absorbed in. i really want to start quilting but something is holding me back. probably because in order to plan a pattern, choose fabrics, i really need a full day to myself and that never happens!

so maybe the shawl could be the perfect thing, as i have wanted one for a while, and this one doesn't look too complicated for someone who's terrible at following patterns!

what a great idea!

oooh i wish i'd seen these before i bought christmas crackers. i am definitely going to be making some of these in the future .

http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/surpriseballs/

inspiration

these easy mini apple tarts look yummy - i may be making some soon!

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert/recipe-nearlyinstant-apple-cinnamon-minitarts-068904

you may know i love penguins - and this amigarumi version is the cutest i've ever seen!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Crochet-a-Baby-Penguin-Amigurumi/

this year, my tree is very homemade and fun, but looks a bit like a kid made it. next year i have determined i will have a bigger tree, only white lights and then some homeade things like this:

and this:


ah roll on christmas 2009. and another thing. next year i am definitely taking more time off in december!

yule yumminess

no posts for months, now two in one day. had to just post a couple of pictures, as much as anything to remind myself that seeing things thru a picture doesn't give you an all round picture. was moaning earlier about having no time, but i guess thru a picture my christmas still looks pretty great so i cant complain so much !

also at the bottom, the towel bale i bought today (half price dahling). i am ridiculously happy about these towels , and amused at myself for being able to get so excited about it. but aren't they yummy? :)


happy yule everyone! x

no time :(

i am feeling envious at the moment of other people having much more time on their hands to do all the fun things christmas should be full of. all the crafting and wrapping and baking - i haven't had a chance to do any. the decorations got thrown up in between dashing about. the present shopping is finally finished but most of it is yet to be delivered and i am still trucking back and forth from london every day for work.

not how it is in the magazines - that's for sure!

i am now focussing on the fact that i finish work on friday - then have my yule do on sunday - but i can't even enjoy planning for that as i have another one to go to on saturday, so will have to tear around the supermarket on saturday and still make it to that on time.

basically the only day i have is monday 22nd on which the only thing booked is the making of mince pies, and presumable all the wrapping of presents. so i shall just have to look forward to that one.

well now i've had a moan i feel better.

i did have one very pleasing thing happen at the weekend. last year when i started putting bird feed in the garden i had alot of blue tits and coal tits would come by, but gradually they seemed to have been forced out by three pairs of sparrows who've made it their own. but on sunday morning there were three little blue tits eating the last of the rose hips. i was so pleased to see them! maybe they don't tend to stay around in the summer- i shall have to try and find out more about their habits, see if i can encourage them.

hopefully i'll be able to get some nice pics to post here of my xmas decorations and the wrapping and mince pies next week...

autumn and halloween

phew long time no post ! there's been alot going on - the birth of a new nephew, halloween, and some fun potato printing for xmas wrap (which came out really well despite sounding like a kindergarten game). i have more halloween craft pics on the camera which i have to put on here sometime, but here's pob the pumpkin plushie. i was quite sad to have to put him in the cupboard after halloween was over.



nerdbunny and i had a great fun evening making xmas wrap using potato printing :

another labour of love was the baby blanket for the newcomer. i was really pleased with this and so was my sister. i also made the pink one for my neice to give to her baby doll.

i am sick at the moment, so missed going to see any fireworks last night. luckily there is another display nearby on saturday so i will hopefully get to go to that instead.

x

very quick update

this is a super quick update because no photos have been put on for ages i thought i'd quickly add some. i've been growing things, and cooking quite a bit recently, but not taking pictures. but here's some things i've been working on. some lovely cards to start off. amazing what a difference a gold pen can make :)

i have been doing a few mini cross stitch experiments, with good results ! not sure what i'll do with these yet, perhaps put them on book covers, or bookmarks for christmas gifts maybe. I'm going to keep the tractor for myself tho- i love it!
this is my threadcatcher - my solution to the threads that were collecting on the end of the sofa ! bit different from the normal straight ones, just made from card attacked with a hole punch, and you get a lovely colour wheel into the bargain. hurrah!

A death in winter

today the guardian has an article, and subequently many comments, containing poems about death. this one grabbed my attention.

poem by Jeni Couzyn, from the Bloodaxe Book of Women Poets.

A Death In Winter

Beside the exit, seated at a table
is a grey clerk with a ledger.
At his feet is a kind of box --
a trunk perhaps, a hope chest or
a rubbish bin.

Cross-legged in the doorway
my friend sits, watching light
stream in through the opening.
It soaks her in beauty.

She has given back her future.
In character, neatly folded, she placed it
carefully in the box
and the clerk ticked it off.

Now she takes off her feet, like shoes
gently, one beside the other;
she takes her speech and returns it
syllable by syllable
she unpicks it thoughtfully, like knitting
unravels it, one plain, one purl
meaning by meaning;
she gives back her hands --
lays them down in the box with a smile.
There is no regret in her.
She knows their excellence.
And now she gives back continence, choices,
understanding the strange
comings and goings about her.
Everything she returns is fine and cared for.
The clerk ticks it all off in his ledger.

She is hardly human now
she is almost entirely love
she has given back her children
and very little of the personal #is left in her heart.

To the left of the doorway is a linen basket.
A plump girl, laughing, kneels besides it.
She is handing out gifts
to the souls who come trooping
in through the opening like sunlight.

Hands to grip a finger
feet to walk
the first smile
Mama, Papa, I want, I think
all the trappings of the journey.

My friend smiles across at the girl
as if she were a daughter.

The radiance streams in and over her
soon she will take off the last of her body
and step out
into the stillness.

hemming curved edges

this is a Brilliant tutorial on hemming curved edges .

http://www.burdastyle.com/howtos/show/1125

once again this reminds me that adding an extra stage in (the ironing) actually makes things much easier and saves time in the end. i'm lazy and always cut out whatever i consider unneccessary stages. but once again i am reminded that this rarely pays off when in comes to sewing.

now, i just need to find a tutorial to show me how to hem curves going outward (eg necklines)...

well a quick search did NOT come up with any genius solutions for curved necklines, but it did turn a quite brilliant tutorial for making a dress out of a pillowcase !

http://www.askingfortrouble.org/crafts/2008/03/07/pillowcase-dress-tutorial/


and i almost failed to write my biggest bit of crafty related news of all! i have finally just ordered myself a brand new (and therefore fully working!) singer sewing machine! it should arrive on monday... i'm so excited to finally be able to sew again without feeling the dread that comes from battling with a useless machine .

fun with wordle

depends

the phrases were taken from shinzi katoh products: What can you see out of the window? The view depends on your feeling; Here is the crossroads of your life. Which road do you choose? you can decide; It depends on your heart whether your life is fun or not.

888

it will soon be 8th august 2008, and to celebrate flickr have started a group for people to take a photo of anything they like, so long as it was taken on this date. Moo cards are going to print some of them as postcards later in the year too. learn more here.

today i planted carrots, spring onions, and salad leaves. i have let it a little late really but the autmns are so mild i think it should be fine. this is my first attempt at a veggie garden, i'm very excited!

festival girl

oops, i am so bad at updating this summer! i have been to festivals and camping trips, getting an awesome tan, getting rained on, getting drunk. have been crafting lots in between, but not blogging or taking photos. terrible form.

for now i can but offer one snap of my postcard frenzy that followed on from reading the griffin and sabine books. i have hopefully brightened a few letterboxes by sending these ...


also, here is a plushie i made for my boyfriends birthday, from an old jumper and scraps. if you are a fan of neurotically yours, so may recognise this fella .