30 Days of Lists...

I'm looking forward to registering for 30 Days of Lists.

This is the state of my usual lists - I tend to write them on post its at work and then they get stuck in a book.

I will definitely have to make a nice book or collection of notelets to write my 30 lists on :)

I found out about this on from Yellow Bird, Yellow Beard - when I started reading this blog, I read
whole load of the archive posts and Janee who writes the blog had completed the original 30 Days of Lists, so I was intrigued!!

I got looking at the original and saw there was one coming up in September - pre-registrations starts next week! I will definitely be there!

p.s. While I was out the room getting my camera Tim wrote this for me; -

Louise's Husband loves her very much

He's all tired and cute at the minute x

Really useful 'Really Useful Boxes'

Really useful boxes are the most genius things ever - and they come in purple!

Me and Tim both have an obsession with these boxes and they're our go to choice for storage - it didn't start out like this buy design but all mine are purple and Tims are clear. It's probably a good job, otherwise we'd argue over who brought what! (I hate to admit it would probably be me starting it despite the over abundance of various boxes - I have a box of boxes!)

I bought these ones over the weekend from Hobbycraft, to make myself some embroidery floss card storage.

I like the sectionalised boxes that the various thread companies make but I wanted something slightly different.

To make my boxes I measured the interior (these 1 1/2" deep, 4 1/2" wide and 6" long) and decided to split them into 8 sections.

Tim had some card leftover from making some scenery for his hobby which he let me have (he's is definitely not a stasher when it comes to supplies!), so I used my quilting ruler and an old blade in my rotary cutter to cut the pieces out.

To make the slots I just used some scissors.

Then I slotted them together to get this insert :)

Oh, before I cut the slots in I played about with the layout and decided that I wanted the cards standing up.

Sooo... Ta - da!! Here it is!!



There are 44 cards in here which is a snug fit, but I want to keep this floss group together. I got this grouping from Aimee Raes Doodle Stitching - The Motif Collection

Its a bit of a cheat for me because its a ready made rainbow, but I liked how bright and cheery the group is. When I put colours together myself I tend to choose really deep colours, but I do love brightness so this is ideal!

I have three of these boxes made up now so I just have to get filling them up now which won't be too hard.

On being poorly

On Thursday and Friday last week I had some kind of random sickness bug that really made me feel poorly for those couple of days - I think I was actually starting with it on Wednesday because when we went to the cinema I didn't finish all of my Ben & Jerry's ice cream!!

I was off work all of Thursday and splet for most of the day, so the weekend was kind of busy because I was catching up with some bits that I should have done in the week.

Hopefully its gone now, because I have a busy few weeks ahead at work - I have just under 3 weeks left at my current job where I have to do a lot of handover work. Then on the 15th August I start my new job so I have a hell of a lot of learning to do!! Eek!

Over the weekend me and Tim went to visit my Mum and Step-dad, and stopped over on Saturday night. Their place is about 2hrs drive from us so we always try to go when we can stay over!.

 

Because we were visiting I didn’t take anything crafty with me for the weekend, although I did end up reading an awful lot, because we have to wait around a lot for my Mum as she takes an age to get ready to go anywhere.

 

I’m reading the A Clash of Kings the 2^nd book from the Song of Fire and Ice Series, of which A Games of Thrones is the first.

We watched the HBO series of Games of Thrones when it was on TV not so long ago and really enjoyed it. I love fantasy books and it was really good to see an adaptation done so well on screen, I really think that fantasy benefits from having a whole tv series rather than a film adaptation because you can explore the characters almost as much as a book can.

 

Dragons are by far my favourite mythical creature, I really like the many different ways they are portrayed in literature and on screen. I don’t have a favourite incarnation, I like everything from cutesy imagery to them being mage’s to being fierce warriors!

 

Here are some pics of the various incarnations of dragon that I have around my home!

 

A blackwork dragon that I stitched a couple of years ago…

This is one a bluey-grey linen fabric stitched with black DMC cotton blended with a deep red Kreinik blending filament. Blending filaments are one of my favourite ways of adding a bit of sparkle to embroidery as they don’t cause me as many problems to stitch with as other metallic threads.

 

 

 

Pocket Dragons

I’ve got a small collection of these little guys that I’ve had for about 10 years. I don’t like to have massive collections of the same range of things so I keep most of these packed away and rotate the ones I have on display – at the moment it’s the ones in the photo's.

 

 

 

Warhammer dragon

I’m really proud of this one because I painted him myself.

Tim used to work for the company that makes Warhammer, and I was kind of getting into the game so have an army myself. Here is the main website for the company if you want to see more.

The army that I have is the High Elves, but this dragon is about the only model out of the army that I have painted!!

 

 

My friend is heading round for a pasta dinner so I'm off to get cooking!

Pincushions & Photography

I was really worried that my camera was broken, and more than happy to discover that it was just a dud battery :)

£10 lighter rather than the expected £50+ I have my camera back!

So now I can start getting some decent photos, here is the first...

These little pincushions are hopefully the start of something that I have big plans for :)

The are very much the beginnings, but I'm pleased with how they are looking so far!

On photos

I'm definitely a beginner in the photography stakes, so was intrigued by a magazine that I spotted in Tesco the other day - Photography for beginners

Without having my camera working its a bit tricky to practice some of the tips, but just from reading through the magazine I've spotted a few interesting things that I'd like to try out.

I've also decided to invest in a mini tripod, because a lot of things that I photograph really need a steady hand!

I hope peoples are having a good evening, I'm off to my friends for some good old spag bol now, goodnight x

New job!!!! Woohoo!!

Yey - I got offered a new job today :) I had the interview on Tuesday and they phoned me to offer it to me today!!!!!!!!!

If you hadn't guessed I'm soooo excited!!!!!!!!!!

Thats all :)

Wedding Photos!

Me and my hubby Tim, got married ont he 20th March 2010!

Becoming his wife was the best day of my life so far and I wanted to share a couple of photo's x

Here we are during the ceremony, we got married in a local hotel in a civil ceremony, and it was perfect!

Mr & Mrs...



We had 32 guests in total during the day which is a relatively small number, but it meant that I was able to really concentrate on details and I hand crafted as much as I could.

Here is my place card (I made ours to show Bride and Groom - there is only one day we get to use those titles so I made the most of it!)

I made this to echo our invitations, the ribbon unties at the back and card opens to show the menu for the day!

Here is how the top table looked all laid out!

And finally my bouquet

I really wanted a natural feel to my bouquet and the flowers that we had as table settings and the florist perfectly captured what I'd imagined! 

These are just a little taster of our day that I wanted to share x

Our photographer was a wonderful lady called Teresa O'Neill, she was wonderful on the day, completely un-imposing and has that gorgeous reportage style of wedding photograhy that I love!

First Felty make!

Last night after resisting to do my interview prep I decided that it was about time I made something with my felt and this is what I came up with!

A mini pincushion which I've been meaning to make for ages. I didn't start with a plan, but just started stitching in the centre and carried on adding until I was happy with how its looks.

Here is a picture for scale...

As well as making this I'm also working on a project I've been thinking about for a while. This is the very start!



more on that another time x

Things I love about crafting #1 - Supplies!

Today I recieved some felt that I ordered from Paper and String and was a reminder of how much I love craft supplies (I know all I really need to do is look at my stash upstairs!)

I've been reading the Paper and String Blog for ages - it's one of the first blogs I regularly read and its one of my favourites. This blog really makes me smile because everything about it is so bright and happy! The materials or gorgeous and the supplies are perfect!

So I got my felt and I really love how it was packaged...

I almost didn't want to open it - the purple bag in the background is the postage bag, and the tissue paper wrapping was perfect - the need to get to the felt won out though!
 
...and look how how lovely this is - 45 different colours of 9" Square felt! It feels gorgeous! I've been waiting for ages to find an excuse to order this; after using the felt from a certain UK chain craft store this feels like heaven and I can't wait to use it!

 The ribbon holding it together is a nice mint green polka dot which I'll be able to use for something (or just keep in my stash of pretty things...)

Unfortunately I had to put this to one side for tonight because I've had to prepare for an job interview tomorrow. Fingers crossed I get it!

To reward myself I used up the very very ripe bananas to make this Banana Cake, which is cooling down in the kitchen as I speak - yum!

A Gnome-y Needlebook!

I've finally got around to stitching this little guy up, after owning the book that the pattern comes from for quite a while now!!

He's on a little needlebook and has his house on the other side.

I've stitched this onto quilters weight cotton with felt for the pages - you can see here how I've fixed them in.

The patterns for the Gnome and his house are from Doodle Stiching - The Motif Collection by Aimee Ray - her designs are so sweet x
On her blog she share designs and other creations that she makes in felt which are all adorable!

Take-it-with-me Project Mat

I've finished another project from my embroidery class!

This time a Take-it-with-me project mat, which I've made with some stripy canvas that I picked up from Ikea.  I've got a real thing for green at the moment so this was perfect!

The mat folds out flat like this (its a lot bigger than I need really, but never mind!)

Instead of two handles I've put one handle and a band of fabric that this can 'lock' under so that its a bit more secure without being too complicated!!

Then I've used some of the previous classes and have attached some 1 penny pieces using some shisha embroidery and some straight stitches - the metallic thread was from Mollie as part of first week class sign ups and it inspired the coins as the colours match perfectly!

I'm liking how this turned out!

Sophisticated Stitches!

This is some more practice from the 'All in the Details Embroidery Class' from Mollie (Wild Olive)

These stitches are from the Sophisticated Stitches class and I'm really pleased with how this tured out.
I decided to go with a bit of a random pattern just by drawing round a couple of circular things that I had to hand.

The floss isn't anywhere near that bright in real life again its because its on my iPhone (I really need to get that photo Apps that was recommended!) - oops and I've just realised I took the photo without removing the marking lines!

Some of the stitches look a bit too alike, so I think I'll practice these on some straight lines so that I can see how the are formed a little easier.

This class and the Bitty Baubles one has helped me not be scared of just practicing, and because embroidery is pretty whatever happens you end up with something nice! Thank you Mollie :)