So, what have I been up to?

I have been rattling on about how busy I've been, but not actually mentioned any of what I have been up to! I thought I would write a quick post with some of the bits and bobs I have been doing...

First and foremost, the play unfortunately had to be postponed.  The good news is, we do still plan to put on a play at Christmas - a panto of Robin Hood.  Fairly different from Shakespeare for sure, but I am hoping we'll still manage to have fun - and this time have the momentum to put on a great production.  

At the moment we're doing some fund raising, ready to start rehearsing in late August - meaning I have had to do some home baking and also attend a food hygiene course.  I actually wanted to do this for my own reasons, as it is a useful qualification to have, but I have been informed by the council that if I intend to make cakes 'as many' as three or four times in a year for fetes or fundraisers, I need the certificate, and may also need my kitchen inspected.  Seems a lot of fuss for a few cupcakes, so after this local fete, maybe we need to go back to the drawing board in terms of fundraising!

In May I went on a girly weekend, offshore, for the first time in ages.  My lovely sisters in-law arranged a trip for my sister in law to be, as a sort of secondary hen do. I really welcomed the chance to spend time getting to know these three wonderful women better.  It was also an opportunity to slow down almost to a stop, as we were on Sark, one of the smaller channel islands.  There are no cars allowed on Sark, but at just two square miles in size, it's easy enough to get everywhere on foot. 
 
My sister in law Liggy was our tour guide, as she has actually lived on the island for the tourist season a few years running. She is a font of knowledge, and showed us the quiet paths and beauty spots she fell in love with while she was there.

The pace of life feels very natural and relaxed.  We popped to the local Friday night disco at a pub called The Mermaid, where the DJ, Roger, is in his 80s, and plays everything from the Beatles through to Tiesto, quite a playlist!

It was an interesting walk back to the B&B, as there are no street lights, and at night everyone navigates the roads by moon and starlight; due to the lack of light pollution, the island was the first place in the world to have designated Dark Sky status.  You can see well enough to walk, although avoiding puddles (and horseapples) can be somewhat challenging... It was a fantastic weekend away, and so nice to recharge my batteries a little.  I have so many lovely pics, I will have to try to make time for a whole post about the island later on.

I've also been attempting to get my allotment slightly more under control in the last month or so, and though I haven't done brilliantly at that, I have managed to harvest some crops.  I am a little disappointed in myself that I haven't made time to get it really sorted, as this year has been the first really good spring since I took it on, and we could have had fantastic yields if I had managed my time a bit better (and also not been unwell, which I have less control over).  But as with everything else, it's been a learning curve.  We've had some really good soft fruits, and for the first time this year I have enough blackcurrants to make a whole batch of jam, which I am really pleased about. It also looks like it's going to be another good year for blackberries and crabapples, which is great.

I've been doing some bits round the house, too; we have rearranged some furniture and also put up another shelf in the study.  I also made some cushion covers with a bit of Cath Kidston fabric I got in their sale (and have made about a hundred fantasy projects with in my head) and a random cotton fabric my mum brought over.  I used a mini cushion pad for the small cushions, and pillows for the large ones, as our sofa cushions are quite wide.

The Cath Kidston is a lovely hard wearing linen-cotton mix, which is so tactile - I don't know how you all feel about this, but personally speaking I only like to use fabrics I enjoy touching.  I am not a big fan of some of the man made fibres, no matter what results might be possible.  The fabric remnant I used on the reverse looks to me like an 80s bedsheet - a scarlet with white squares.  It has that lovely washed-in feel.  I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.


Finally, I went to my soon to be sister in law's hen party.  It was fab - I will do a separate post on the amazing 1950s makeover, with links to the ladies who did my hair and makeup, because I loved it so much! The lady who masterminded the whole day asked if I would make some Tiffany cupcakes - I think they turned out pretty well! I also made some Tiffany blue lemon cheesecakes, though they didn't look as neat as I wanted, partly due to the warm weather, and partly because I couldn't work out a way to get the bows on (I thought icing would be too sweet).

I will have to leave the rest of my news for another evening as this post is already getting very long, but I hope you have all had a fun couple of months and I look forward to reading all your blogs

H
xxx

Personalised babygrows

I was sending a parcel to a loved one, who lives abroad, ready for her daughter's birthday.  I had packed up some lovely clothes, but I wanted something a little more personal.  She is always frustrated by the lack of variety in clothes, especially for little girls, and likes her daughters to have brightly coloured garments that reflect their interests, rather than the typical pale pink. I have skyped with them all quite a lot, but have only met the littlest one once.

I bought a pack of 3 babygrows (I looked all over for Fairtrade but couldn't find them - does anyone know where to get plain Fairtrade babygrows?) I washed them and dried them, and then used Giotto fabric pens - by the way, I'm not trying to flog these pens - it's just they are the only decent type available within 20 miles!

They are a brush tip, iron-to-set fabric pen, and they work just like a normal, good quality felt tip marker would, except obviously they stay put when washed.  I found that they lay down quite a bit of ink and blend easily - but I am sure other brands work brilliantly too.  I would stay well away from Dylon pens though.  Their home dyes - especially washing machine ones - have always been fab, but I found their pens were dry and useless, running out very quickly - and they were somewhat pricey as well.

When littlest came to stay with her mummy and older sister, she was already showing a great personality and letting us know her tastes, despite her lack of years! She simply loves fruit - especially strawberries - so I had a clear idea for my first design!

I slid a piece of card inside the babygrow to protect the back from ink transfer, then drew the outlines using the black pen, as well as the writing underneath. I then highlighted the neck and sleeves with complimentary bright colours to make them look a bit more interesting.  I was really pleased with the look when complete.

The next thing she really enjoyed was sitting with her mummy in the garden, watching our chickens scratch and play in their little run.  She sat there for half an hour, giggling and pointing, listening to her mummy talk about the chickens.  She enjoyed looking at all our animals, but was especially fascinated by our hens.  As I am used to drawing animals, I thought this would be a great theme for the second one. Again, I picked out the red colour from the main image to pick out the sleeves and neckline.

Finally, I am afraid I went with family tradition, and opted for a terrible pun.  Littlest really enjoyed fresh fruit and veg while she was staying, and I thought some carrots might be the order of the day - and I thought it might be really cute to create something for the '24 carat baby' she is....

Again, I drew the outlines, let them dry and then filled in the colour. This time, I used orange, yellow and green to complement the design.

I then ironed them all to fix the images, and washed and dried them again, before pressing them ready to send.  These were so quick and easy to make - and don't have to feature picture perfect images.  The brightly coloured inks do seem to be reasonably tolerant to being washed.  

As white babygrows are available reasonably cheaply - way cheaper than those with cute images - and the pens (around £5-£9 a pack depending where you get them) would be enough to decorate a lot of babygrows, this could be a fun way to make something special for a baby, maybe even a project kids could get involved in to welcome a new arrival!

I look forward to reading about more of your projects soon :)

H
xxx

My favourite project of 2013

Okay, so the title's a bit of a fib. I actually had at least 2 favourite projects of 2013 - though one is currently lost in the mail and I am hoping against hope it will turn up, so I don't want to spoil the surprise - hopefully I will be able to post about that later.  This one was by far the biggest though - it took weeks to complete, but I was delighted with the end result. 

Favourite childhood teddy

I have two very dear friends who are sisters, and the older of them (though she's still younger than me by a little) had a milestone birthday recently.  I wanted to do something really special to celebrate, and she had specifically asked for a homemade gift.  An idea grew in my mind, based on all the memories we shared, and her love of bright colour, cartoons and all things nerdy.


I ended up using 2 double flat sheets, one very lightweight summer duvet, about 3 packs of Giotto fabric pens and a few weeks of my life!

First, I pinned up the sheet on the wall with masking tape and drew out a few images in pencil to give me an idea where to place things.  

I marked off the edge of the double sheet at the width of a kingsize duvet cover so I knew where to stop drawing.  

I quickly realised that the pens would run through onto the wall, so I then took the sheet down and used a book wrapped in a sheet of plastic to draw on.  

Favourite chocolates

I then learned that you have to stop occasionally and wipe the plastic down to stop the colour pooling and transferring back onto the fabric! However, if you do get the wrong colour on, it's easily fixed if the ink is still wet - with about 10 minutes scrubbing (I used wet wipes) and a little sotto voce swearing as required.


I had a lot of help from her wonderful sister (whose present I am already plotting about) who snuck photographs of teddies, gave me new ideas about pictures I could include, like one of a dolphin, and was so supportive and encouraging as she always is - so welcome, as she is an amazing crafter with a great eye for colour and design.


Finally, I finished drawing, and hung the sheet up. But it was missing a little something.  I decided to use her love of astronomy as inspiration, and filled all the white space with little coloured stars.  I ironed it all over to fix the colour, then washed it to get out any pencil marks, and ironed again.

I then pinned the edges together around the lightweight duvet, got out my long suffering Singer and sewed it together.  I overstitched around a few of the items to make them stand out, sewing in the ends by hand.


Finally, I handed it over.  Here it is on the bed (lightness is due to flash, the colours stayed fairly bright), and I have to say, I was pretty delighted with the finished look - and thankfully so was my friend!

Hope you enjoyed - and if you are crafting today, hope you have fun

H
xxx