secret message holder and picnic plans

Saturday morning I made a secret message holder for H using an old key chain and a pet i.d. that had been kicking around the house forever. I typed the note and gave the secret key chain to Harrison wrapped in a bit of tissue paper. He has spent all weekend twisting the pet i.d. capsule open and shut and reading the note 'Dr. Horrible is my hero.' over and over again. I told him he can type his own secret note or the location of a secret hiding place and we will play spies. Or possibly list the secret location of food stores in the event of an alien invasion or zombie apocalypse. A simple thing to make a boy happy.

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picnic plan update: Its been a manic few weeks here with awards, organizing the school summer fair and more things than I can remember to blog at this moment in time. A few interested bloggers, twitter-ers have said that they are free to come play on Mondays or Wednesdays so I'm going to call the shots and say:

Picnic Blog/Tweet Up

Where: Chatsworth Grounds

(meeting near the car park on the grass near the trees leading up to the shops)

When: Monday the 8th of August

Time: From 11am-4pm (ish)

What to bring: a picnic, the kids, craft work in progress bag if you want to sit and sew/knit/sketch while picnic-ing and chatting. Cake works too but is not essential as Chatsworth has excellent cake and coffee.

Nothing is set in stone I figured this would be as flexible as possible with many different people coming from all over the place. I just thought it would be great to have a little get together. I may possibly be mad, as I like many of you I'm an anti-social introvert, But I have met quite a few bloggers and twitter people and so far we have all got on like a house on fire.

Any Questions?

What the Felt?

teal felt flower brooch

glaring evidence of my lack of sewing skills

Go on feel free to laugh, I have always maintained that I cannot sew, aside from the occasional button replacement. I took pottery and art in school instead home ec, my reasoning was I already knew how to cook, I grew up on a farm so I could take care of animals, what else was there to learn? I'm pretty sure the pottery course didn't really do much for me, although I did make a damn fine puffer fish shaped tea pot! My parents stiff have it but as far as I know it has never held any tea.

This was also part of the Recycle Reuse Recraft Challenge the felt was from a charity shop find of a slightly stained teal scarf that was 100% wool that I bought for a bargain 99p. I have only used the edge of the scarf to make this slightly wonky flower brooch but it is recycled. Even the thread is, its from a hotel travel kit that was kicking around in a drawer.

the scarf in question pre-felting

Sinister Crafting

Anticraft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister

by Renee Rigdon, Zabet Stewart

With my Christmas book voucher clutched firmly in hand I visited Waterstones.com and ordered the anticraft book. If you haven't been to theanticraft.com then you are missing out on something. Admittedly I'm more geek than goth, but none the less I fiercely coveted this book and it arrived today in a flurry of loan offers, bills and general rubbish. I have yet to read it but in a quick skim through the pages it looks to be very good or vaguely evil at least, and nice to have something that is a bit different than the usual happy bunny crafting books out there, not that there is anything wrong with happy bunny books but sometimes you just need something a little more sarcastic, a little more sinister than that.

Anticraft Knitting Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister

beady beady beady

I'm sorry for the bad quality of the images, as they truelly are crap, and not at all aided by beign set on some kitchen towel but I jsut made these two bracelts today. The top one is Rose Quartz and silver, birthday gift for a friend. and the bottom one is New Jade, not really sure what that means I always thought jade was jade but apparently not. I'm so pleased with how they turned out. Technically the beads and jewlry making stuff was to be a christmas present for me, so I realyl should have given it to M to hide away and wrap, but I'm not terribly pacient, and seeing as it was in my possession I just coulden't help to mess around with it all. And especially becuse the beads are semi-precious stones, I just love that sort of thing, I have several large stone and silver pendants that I wear all the time and when I saw all the pretty pretty stone beads how could I say no?

Dried Oranges

Drying Orange Slices

Choose fruit that is in good condition and not too ripe. Slice the oranges as thin as you possibly can, and as straight, if you cant cut straight, and I can't, then jsut do the best you can and tell everyone you were going for a more rustic and organic look.

Place the sliced oranges between towels and remove as much moisture as possible by patting gently.

Place the orange slices in a single layer, I placed them on the oven rack but I would suggest using baking racks on a cookie sheet.

Dry in a 150 degree oven for approximately 3 or 4 hours. Check every 1/2 hour.

If the fruit appears to be turning brown the oven is too hot. Shut off for 15 minutes and start again. Turn fruit over if the edges begin to curl. When dry the fruit slices should be pliable.

I threaded ribbon through the orange slices and added a bundle of cinnamon sticks to create tree decorations with H. He almost made one before wandering off to do something more entertaining than making Christmas decorations with me. The dried oranges can be added to potpourri, wreaths, garland, ornaments, and gift tags.

Dragonfly Scarf

Its not much to look at but I just finished knitting this little scarf last night, made with Noro Silk Garden, its a simple knit skinny scarf with obvious tassely bits on the ends. I fell in love with the wool and just had to make something with it and other than the coffee cup warmer! I wore it today but didn't quite have the nerve to take my picture wearing it. On my needles now is a grey and white spiders web scarf, and um that's about it but I do need to work on my stash and I have set myself the goal of learning to knit a simple lace design this week, we shall see how well that goes.

Oh and H wants a red scarf to match his red and black winter coat, and I want to get a bigger set of circular needles and attempt to knit a hat again, perhaps this time it wont go diabolically wrong. and I want to make some wrist warmers, though I'm not sure what wool and who for.

Putting aside the knitting for now I have some canvases that are in desperate need of a repaint, and first paint on a few, and also need homes for some of them so if I get brave enough I might put one up for sale or trade in the next few weeks. *fingers crossed and brave face on*

Marie Claire Magazine Craft Challenge

Today I bought a Marie Clair Magazine and attached to it was a free canvas bag with the slogan 'Plastic Ain't My Bag' all well and good, save the environment little by little. But for a lack of anything better to do I thought I would decorate the blank back of the canvas tote. Not that I don't have plenty of things I could have been doing tonight but due to extenuating circumstances I was not going to get anything done tonight. M has a migraine and is curled up in bed since yesterday and Lucky me the fuse for the downstairs lights has blown and I'm stuck with a dull reading lamp and assortment of candles to light my way. I'm not ironing by candle light, I can't paint as I intended as its too dark so I got out the MC bag and a fabric pen and entertained myself. I suppose I could be watching tv as the wall sockets work but there really isn't anything on that I want to watch.

The pictures are shoddy as the flash on the camera is only small and next to useless, but I'm quite happy with the result. If anyone actually reads this blog and Marie Claire Magazine, and also crafts, possibly a very small niche, I think its a quick little project to get your imagination going. So go on give the little hamster a kick to his wheel. All you need is the magazine with the free bag, and a fabric pen or permanent marker pen.

Willow Tree Bag

Idaho Cup Warmer

I'm not exactly sure if its right to call it a cup warmer, maybe a cup holder instead but I just finished it and thought I would share. Not bad for being jetlagged and tired. The wool is some Noro Silk Garden that I have been touting around and trying to figure out what to make with it. This is obviously only the beginning of the ball of wool but I wanted a really small project to do and as this goes perfectly with a cup of coffee well then what could be better. H and I are recovering slowly and managed to sleep till 4:30am almost heaven..well its not quite so hellish anyway. I don't know what to do with the rest of the wool, I'm tempted to make another cupholder for M when he gets here in 9 days, though I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want a flower charm on it. I'll have to have a think about that. ITs very foggy and misty this morning, that would probably have to do with being so near to the lake, Hopefully it burns off quickly becuse we have promised to take H to one of the playgrounds today if he is a good boy. and based on how he is acting now thats a big IF.

Unfinished

I was busy last night painting the little paintings above. Sorry for the rough qualitly of the pictures as they were taken with my little camera phone. The first painting is my favourite so far but I also like the second one although it dosent show up very well in the image. I'm not happy with the tree one yet, they are all alittle rough and unfinished but thats sort of my style so I'll not worry too much about that, the tree painting might get completly re-painted though because once again my imagination outstrips my talent.

I can see how it should be in my mind, how I want it, but it just never turns out that way, I'll blame being left handed for now rather than admiting that i have such little talent.

off to bake cakes now.

Into the Sun

The above images are a bit crap due to it being only my little camera phone, I might plead with M at a later date to take some proper pictures of the paintings i just did tonight. The paint is in fact still wet but I was very happy to have sat down and felt like painting not one but three little pictures. They are loosely inspired by some glass art work in a glass working workshop in Caldwell's Mill that was all Burgundy and gold that frizbe loved, it just so happened that i had a bit of gold paint in the bottom of my paint box and earlier I just felt like painting. M says its like something just snapped in me or a switch was flicked because the canvases sat blank in the closet for the last two months and tonight I painted all three.

I'll see if I still like them when they have dried overnight. Of course I haven't a clue what to do with them as there really isn't any space on the wall that doesn't already have framed photographs from M or a few oil paintings that I did about ten years ago. anyway I'm happy and on a little creative buzz but that might just be all the coffee I had earlier.

Tree Bag

This is a quick post as I have about a million and one things to do and no time to do them in but I just wanted to get this posted as I'm chuffed with the results. I know its just a little shopping bag well not little, I painted it with a paint pen this morning for a friends birthday present, and think it turned out quite nicely. The sketch has been lurking in my note book for a month or two and i think it just lends itsself to being a carrier bag and the dylon fabric paint pen worked really nicely I am quite pleased with the effect and I might consider going back to the craft shop and getting a few more of the cotton bags to decorate. Artistic and enviromentally friendly that can't be too bad can it?

That Crafty Feeling

I have been having some creative feelings again, though perhaps i should be a bit more gun shy when it comes to letting my creative demons wreak havoc upon poor innocent canvas bags but the deed is done and the above pictures are the results. One canvas bag mildly injured in the process of being crafty. The medium is Acrylic paints on a 100% cotton tote bag that i got from the craft shop at the garden center. For all you crafting and composting needs I suppose. I have a second larger shopping bag sized.. erm bag but that is as they say a blank canvas tote at the moment.


I'm mostly happy with the result despite thinking I'm pretty much crap at crafts I still keep trying, I like to paint but I'm just never good enough for my self, I have the creativity and inspiration at times but I'm never satisfied with the contol over the paint brush when attempting to do finer details, instead of a more blurry abstract sort of resupt that i normally end up with. As for what I'm going to do with the little bag, well thats a very good question and I don't quite have an ansewer for that just yet, I'll get back to that later.

And I'm still working on knitting Meg's scarf on and off depending on how much free time I have and how much Alys is trying to eat the wool, and steal the needles as I knit. Here are two little pictures of the scarf as it was earlier today in the garden, obviously its rolled up in a ball so if Meg is reading this she dosen't get too much of an idea of what the finished result will be. I'm calling the scarf Firefly after the tvshow (and movie Serenity) as to me it looks like something that would probably fit in quite nicely there.

Crafty

Ok don't laugh but the other week I started a new um hobbie I guess, and some cheap organic cotton t-shirts in plain boring old white that I found at Primark. Yes I hand my head in shame I have been to primark and actually bought something. Anyway I wanted to design a t-shirt, and not having a clue what to do with it the shirt sat around for over a week before I did anything with it, then I bought a laundry pen.. that you iron the ink on to make it stay even when washed. The above is what I ended up with. I'm pretty happy with the result, though I'm sure it could have turned out better or possibly worse if I tried to lean how to do silk screening.

I think she is a lovely little flower goddess I must scan or take a picture of the original sketch I did. My only other option would be to have the imaged scanned and either print it on that iron on paper or take the file to one of the printers that prints t-shirts.

Yesterday was Frizbe's birthday and I made a t-shirt for her, its the same style shirt just a different drawing, which i totally forgot to take a picture of I'm such an idiot.. I took a picture of the original sketch which has been lurking about in my sketch book for something like a decade.. ouch.. anyway here she is until i take a picture of Frizbe's shirt anyway.

P.S. Meg if you are reading this I'm still working on your scarf I haven't forgotten about you!