Craft - Ceramics Course

Ceramics

I have completed a leisure course called ceramics, at my local college.

it was great fun and I met some cool people.

This is what I created.... well my favourite pieces anyway.

• This is a cat yarn bowl but I made it a little small so now its my sweetie bowl on my desk :)

My sweetie bowl

the back

• These are the Green man. I made the big one first to go on the wall outside, sadly it broke in two when it was being fired, so my tutor told me to make another but my heart wasn't in it so it ended up small and inferior to the first. but at least it didn't crack!

the little green man

The big green man, broken :(

• I made this little bowl for sweets at Christmas, this was very easy to make as I used a mould. 

Christmas bowl

• I made this for my arty supplies as they were going everywhere :s this I quite like and was one of the last things I created. 

pot for pencils

• This is a little cottage I made for my daughter Rose to give her hello kitty's a home :) she liked it very much.

Little kitty cottage

• I made this for a bit of fun for the hubby's stocking at Christmas, its a Creeper from the game Minecraft, isn't he cute.

Cutie

 I have done more but they were not really that photogenic :s

I really enjoyed the course and I will attend it again.

signing off for now :)

Garden Project - Carpentry

My New Garden

I haven't updated my blog in such a long time :( and I have no real excuse :s

But I have been making various items for my new garden,


I'm not a carpenter as you can see and I had a budget of about £5
I found lots of bits of wood and stones lying around the garden, house and Yard. But I had to buy some nails and screws.

So this is what I have achieved so far:

I needed a partition so that I have 2 distinctive areas to my garden. I made this out of an old pallet and some wood I found in the shed.  I'm growing climbing rose bushes at the sides so they will go all over the arch and make it look pretty, (and hide my carpentry work).

The partition.

The areas of the garden are:

The kiddies play area, this area is quite large so I have added a small flower bed so the kiddies can grow some flowers (this means me of course).

kiddies play garden

   

The flower beds, plus young tree :)  I found some paving stones dotted around the garden and used these to create a border to the flower bed and a border to protect the tree base. I also had to re-seed the grass in this area so its a bit sparse at the moment, but this area is doing better then the actual garden lawn area :s

My baby tree :)

Flower bed

Starting to look nice

Getting there.

In my area there is a vegetable patch, herb planter, flower bed (well it will be) and the patio area.

This is the vegetable patch. Well.. one half of the patch anyway as the other half needs some work.

Vegetable patch

 
I needed a herb step planter, so I could reach my herbs easily. Couldn't afford one at £30 so I made one :D.  This lives near the back door :) I also painted the terracotta plant pots as they were a bit boring these were 50p each in the sales.

Herbs

This is my next task, im planning on this area to be a lovely flower bed, with rose bushes and pansy's and tulips etc.... lots of colour.  I bought a lot of seed packets in the sales for 5p each packet (considering some were £2 a pack, was a bargain).

The messy flower bed to be.

Well thats what I have been doing for the past few months plus various bits in the house.
Its getting there slowly.

Knitting Project - Fair Isle Cardigan

My New Knitting Project - Fair Isle Cardigan 

I realised the other day that I have been putting off the Fair Isle Cardigan's Collar :s so i made a big push to try to get it finished for my daughters birthday.

So for the past 2 days I have been knitting 299st for 30 rows in K1, P1, and after sewing it up today I have finally finished it.

Completed jumper - The Front

Completed jumper - The Back

 

It has taken me 6 months to complete it.  It was tough going at times and extremely frustrating especially on the shaping parts, I had to pull some of it back many times before I got it correct, and I can still see mistakes. The pattern itself I found a little confusing at times and I had to improvise :s im not a talented knitter and I am disappointed with the results :( BUT my daughter loves it, that's the main thing!

My daughter Rose in her new Jumper

I finished it on the 10/06/2013 just 2 days after my daughters birthday :D

I think she is happy with it, even though its a little big :s

Going to knit something a little bit more mind numbing now, so i don't need to concentrate as much.

Knitting - Seaside Bathroom

Sorry I haven't written for some time but we have moved..... again.

I have been carrying on with the crochet blanket for my daughter rose, still a lot to do but im getting there with it.
 

Crochet blanket, going to be BIG and HEAVY

and creating a Beach Hut doorstop for my newly decorated bathroom :)
 

Doorstop

I also made a seagull, isn't he the cutest!

my seagull

my seagull

I was going to make other things for my nice bathroom, but my daughter wants me to make her all kinds of things for her new playhouse, curtains,bunting,name sign,rug :s, so my bathroom will have to wait a little bit to get more cute.

Crochet - A Granny Square Story

Learning to Crochet,

My Journey

So one of my new year resolution this year was to finally learn how to crochet, I have always wanted to learn, but my mother refused to teach me :(. so I decided it was about time I learnt, and if she wouldn't teach me then I would have to teach myself!
So I bought some Crochet hooks from eBay and had bits of wool scattered around my house, and I gave it a go.

Well I tried and tried to do it. The results were not so good.  As you can see I appear to have made a funnel, it was supposed to be the start of a granny square :s

1st try at crochet in the flat and round.

I kept trying but I just couldn't seem to get it, I tried to follow instruction from a beginners book and Youtube, to no avail.  So I basically gave up. :( figuring that I couldn't do it as it was just too fiddly.

But then I started going to my local Stitch 'n' Bitch group (highly recommend joining one if you can),  a lovely lady there said she would teach me how to make a granny square.  So on Tuesday (26/03/13) I took my hooks and some wool to the group.

 She taught me to do Treble Crochet stitch and to be able to create a granny square.

The first try didn't really form a square, I got the tension all wrong and its very out of shape but I was so pleased with how well I had done.

2nd attempt with a little help from my friend :)

So the next day with the basic stitch sorted and committed to memory, I tried again, but this time with chunky wool and a bigger hook, I found this much easier to try with as I could see it better.  I was thrilled with the outcome :D

Single colour in chunky wool.

But I wanted some colour in it so I had another look at Youtube and found a video for a traditional granny square.  It showed how to add colour.  I rocketed through this one in no time at all.

Getting confident, adding colours.

But now I just can't stop :s 

Just can't stop now.

I'm planning on making a crocheted blanket :) I have always wanted to make one.

I'm so pleased I have mastered this technique, I know there is so much more to learn but I'm on the right track :)

Cant wait to try more crochet. My children want to learn as well now so I best get practising.

Craft - Knitting Dolly

Knitting Dolly/Knitting Nancy/French Knitting

So I found a knitting dolly in a local craft shop and I decided to relive my childhood and buy it :)

when I got home I started to 'knit' with it.

So many memories of doing it when I was a child, I had one when I was about 10 years old, that my father made me from a cotton real and some nails, plus a nail for doing the knitting part :) I loved it. I would make little rugs for my dolls house and necklaces for me and my friends to wear. It was great fun and fairly relaxing. (Still is by the way)

A Knitting Dolly

So I spent about 30 mins doing some, but that time came again, when I had to go and get the tribe from school.

Upon arrival home my eldest daughter saw it on the table and asked what I was doing, so like a good mum I showed her, where upon she popped it out of my hands and started to do it herself. I was really pleased that she took to it so quickly. Until she announced that I should go and buy myself another knitting dolly as the one she was using was now hers :(

Molly (11) Knitting on a Knitting Dolly

So I did, I went out and bought another one for myself.

Then my boy wanted to do it.

Daniel (9) Knitting on a Knitting Dolly

So off I went to the shop again for the third time, for another one, but this time I was sensible and bought 2 as I had a hunch that my youngest daughter would want to have a go aswell.

Well I was right.

Rose (6) Knitting on a Knitting Dolly

I showed her how to do it before school this morning and she has taking to it very fast. She has even taken it to school to show her teacher and friends.

I have finally got round to doing some for myself :D

Mine!

Very proud of my children for taking an interest and actually managing to do it so well. Don't know how long the interest will last but for £3 each plus some old wool, I have had a lovely time teaching them something that I did when I was little.

Happy Proud Mummy :D

Knitting Project - Fair Isle Cardigan

My New Knitting Project - Fair Isle Cardigan 

I haven't completed much on this cardigan over the past couple of weeks but im now powering on with it.
Doing well on the fair isle cardigan for my daughter.
I finished the back within a week of starting, but the fronts were a different story :s took me a week to do them EACH!!! maybe more I don't know I lost interest at one point!

The back completed :)

But I have now finished both of the fronts, but boy was that difficult.  I had to pull it back 4 times at the shaping due to it going wrong, no idea why it went wrong, could have been the pattern? could have been me? who knows but it was hard to finish the fronts.

Both fronts completed :)

I am now onto the sleeves and getting a bit distracted by other things, also I am a bit tired of doing the fair isle pattern, but I shall persist and hopefully I will finish it before my daughter out grows it :s
I really want to start something new but I know if I do I probably wont come back to this and I know its going to look great on her.

Well of I go to do some knitting - chat soon

Craft - Positivity Jar

So I have found Pinterest and I'm hooked, I can not stop pinning things, I'm loving it.
There is so much great stuff on there, I love the craft section and have found some interesting projects that I will make (at some point).
There was an idea on the site for a children's reward system Jar, that I liked, so I decided to make it myself.  Its called 'Caught Ya'

Front of the Jar

I bought some glass paints and made some cute little creatures and then added googly eyes (so cute). I also added some stickers for the letters on the front. I also wrote my kidlets names on the bottom and the date the jar was completed :)

Back of the Jar

I bought some little pompoms from the works, and I reward the kidlets them when they have been good.  When the jar is full we will have a special day out, all together.

Pompoms

I loved doing this project and im delighted with the outcome, my kidlets love it too :)
lets hope we get some pompoms in it now :s

Gillian Becker

01/02/1950 - 23/02/2013

Hello, I'm back :)

 

Over the past couple of weeks I haven't done much in the way of knitting 

(or anything else, I may add.)

As I have been helping to organise a funeral for my late mother-in-law. 

Gillian Becker

Gillian Becker and my daughter Rose

It was a truly beautiful service and a great party to celebrate the

 life of an amazing, inspirational woman. 

Would like to thank the wonderful Marie Curie Cancer Care nurses

 for making her last few weeks happy and pain free.

She will be greatly missed by all who knew her. 

Sleep tight, Gilly, See you in the Stars.

xxx

Knitting Project - Fair Isle Cardigan

My New Knitting Project - Fair Isle Cardigan

I haven't written in my blog for some time now, but I am going to make a conscious effort to do so more often (promise).

So I decided to go and buy the latest edition of the Simply Knitting magazine (number 103) the other day and found a lovely Fair Isle cardigan in it for a child, so I decided to knit it for my 6 year old daughter. I have never knitted anything like this before, sure I have been knitting for many many years and I have knitted cardigans for dolls and babies and added pictures to them, but I have never knitted something for an child and this pattern is rather demanding with all its pictures and concentration involved.  I am only able to knit in the evenings after the housework has been done and the kidlets are in bed so I decided to do the size 7-8 as I thought it would take me a long time to complete but its developing fairly quickly.  I started this project on 25/01/13.

Back - After the first evening :)

 and I have already nearly finished the back.

Back - After the 3rd evening :D

This is growing quickly and I am really enjoying it, but I have made some mistakes and I have had to pull them back but hay-ho these things happen :s

I'm hoping that the collar turns out alright, as I have never used a circular needle before and I don't pick up stitches very well either, going to be a challenge.

Will report in again soon :)

Fifty Shades Of Grey

Hello Peeps,

  So I decided to find out what all the fuss was about and read Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James. 
to my suprise it was a thoroughly good read. 
  I expected some of the sexiness but not the fact that the book has a story line that is very  captivating. I found myself unable to put the book down and when I did manage to put it down I found I couldn't stop thinking about it ;) and unsurprisingly picking it back up again.....
  Much to my own surprise I found the believability of the core characters very engaging and delightful to learn about, sucking me in so much that the highs and lows of the story had me tingling with desire and anticipation for what would happen next and crying with loss and frustration as the main character did. 
  Overall a good story, very readable and I would recommend it to all my friends.

Well there's my little review of one of my favourite books, I have already started to read the second in this trilogy, and cant wait to see what the charming Mr Grey has in-store for the delightful Ana :D

The Journey.

The Journey.

She lay still on the four poster bed, the drapes around her bed were deep crimson with dense flowers all over them; she had never really noticed them before, but now that she had time to appreciate them, they were rather lovely.
Her eyes began to glaze over with the new state that she was now in. The feeling in her legs started to subside and she felt herself begin to rise, she had risen from her bed before, but this was different. She glanced down at the bed and realised that she was still lying there, with her eyes staring at the canopy of the bed.

Sally, as she was called, floated above the abandoned body for a few minutes before she saw her family weeping beside her figure: Her daughter, son, grandchildren and great grandchildren were all there. She wanted to reach out to them, to comfort them, but as she did, her hand fell straight through them. Suddenly it hit her. She was dead. She knew it was going to happen but she had never thought it would feel like this, Lonely and lost with no one to help her.

Sally didn’t know what to do; she floated from room to room, trying desperately to find the light that was drummed into her since childhood. She passed through the kitchens, the maid scurrying about and the cooks shouting as though nothing had happened. Still she could not find the light, she felt betrayed, dismayed but most of all deceived, she was hoping for more than this. The priests promised more.

She finally ended up back in her bedroom, the four-poster bed taking up most of the space, especially with her entire family around it. She floated towards the bed, staring down at the body that she had occupied for over 90 long and happy years, it looked strange, empty and very old.

As she stared she did not notice that her family were fading from view, the room seemed to be evaporating from existence. All around her, the light was fading to black. She glanced up from the old body and saw a small white light emerging from the darkness beyond. It grew in size and intensity, until it surrounded her. In the light, there was a cute unborn baby waiting patiently for her to take control. She glanced down at the decaying body and realised that this life on Earth had finally come to its end. Now was the time to begin again as another: being born, raised, loved then eventually dies as she had done a thousand times before.

Only now did she appreciate the importance of this moment. The essential transfer to another body about to be born, to live, to breathe, to grow and to reproduce, in the way Mother Earth intended it to be.

She hovered toward the light and was consumed. She flowed into the new body, happy and content. ‘Sally’ drifted from his memory.

The Boy!

BANG!!! went the gun, the bullet ricochet through the child's skull, echoing in his ears as he went down. A familiar man hovered over him, smiling his horrid smile. the man bent beside him and gently wiped the hair out of the child's face, a single tear ran down his cheek as greyness of death covered his eyes, the darkness erupted and then he was gone.

James slumped down next to the boy, being careful not to contaminate the scene, feeling remorseful, he cradled the boys head, feeling the blood trickle through his fingers, he sobbed himself into nothingness, holding the gun to his neck, he pulled the trigger, there was no pain as he laid there, slowly fading away, he remembered happier times before the calamity's began, the day his son first walked, the bike he got him for Christmas, and the child's 6^th birthday when his son woke up from his long sleep, then the red light came, feeling the warmth of hell fill him he felt calm and at home, satisfied he drifted towards it.

3 YEARS EARLIER!!!

James got out of the car, locked it and walked towards the house, calm and content with his life, why wouldn't he be, His wife was beautiful and his daughter reflected that, she was also smart much smarter then he and his wife were, Now his son, well what could he say, his son was.....

There was a sharp pain in his lower thigh, looking down there was his son, Farrell, laying on the tarmac of the drive. He'd come charging around the corner, dressed up in his commando outfit. He must have been running so fast that he couldn't stop and had run right in to him. James sighed and picked the boy up from the floor, Farrell cried like he always did when he had hurt himself, a continuous whine drifted into James' ears, annoying him, he just wanted to shut him up!!! James looked down at the boy, who was clutching his knee, it was grazed and bleeding but not to badly.

“Pull your self together boy!” he said with no empathy

“I can't!” whined the boy

James muttered and picked the boy up, carrying him into the house, knowing that his wife would do her usual routine on the boy.

Julie took one look at Farrell and panicked, she rushed over to the boy and cradled him like a baby, Farrell embraced the attention and cried even more. James muttered under his breath, he never liked it when he did this. Farrell seemed to have Julie wrapped around his little finger, he never got a look in, feeling jealous he tried to get her attention, his wife had always been his, now she was the boys and he resented that.

Abigail had always been pushed away from her mother, when HE!!! was born, James had developed a firm bond with his daughter since, that would eventually become inseparable.

To be continued.......