Polymer Clay Buttons

Hello

A very busy week this week so only a very short post today.  We went for a wonderful walk along the Devon coast around Salcombe yesterday.  There are far too many photos to add to this post so if you would like to see how beautiful this area is please click on the link.

First I would like to say thank you for all your comments last week and the help in naming Maisy's little tiny friend.  I finally decided to go with the name Minnie as suggested by Catkin Jane.  She really is very minnie and I love the idea of 'wearing purple' when I'm a grandma.  Thank you all for your help, it makes it far more fun than thinking up a name on my own!

You may have noticed for the past few weeks I have been answering each comment.  I hope you like this idea, I know it's not necessary but it feels a little more personal.

This week I have been having a fiddle with polymer clay buttons.  I hopefully will be running a short workshop on how to make a very simple crochet flower and turn it into a brooch or hair tie.  As there will be no crochet knowledge necessary for this workshop I need to make these as simple as possible.  Therefore I thought a button centre would be perfect.  As you can see from the picture below  I haven't got around to adding the holes yet and I will still be experimenting with other colours.

Below are a couple of ideas for the finished article

Thank you for stopping by :)  

I'm off to see what everyone else has been up to 

over on Handmade Monday.  

See you there!

A Kidsilk Haze Fix!

Hi Everyone

Hope you have all had a good week, our weather has been a bit disappointing again lately rather a shame after that spell of sunshine we were all beginning to enjoy.  What about the Olympics?  Haven't we had some fantastic results?

I've had a very bitty week really, not getting much done at all.  I did manage to put out a few posters to advertise my workshops and I have just been preparing one for the Hobbycraft Store as I am doing a Crochet Flower Workshop in their Kingsteignton store on 14th September and I have agreed to do another workshop for Social Fabric over in Totnes, a new venture for a lady called Caroline so I hope it goes well for her.  When you look back at it, maybe I have achieved a something.

I wanted to share a couple of things with you.  I had a 25% off voucher to use in Hobbycraft which had to be used by today - so as it was raining extremely hard all day it was an ideal opportunity to pop down for a bit of retail therapy.  Look what I bought!!  It is so scrummy!

Three balls of Kidsilk Haze Stripe!!!!  I have no idea what I shall do with it but using it recently to make those fingerless gloves I absolutely love it.  I had to buy 3 balls just in case I found a lacey cardigan or jumper pattern, but a pretty drapey scarf would also be wonderful.  I wondered whether I should design my own jumper, although Kidsilk Haze may not be a particularly suitable yarn for a beginner designer to start on!!!  I'll let you know.

You may remember a short while ago I made 'Maisy' a little elephant.  Well I promised a dear lady I would make one for her to keep for when her great-grandaughter came over.  Unfortunately I didn't have enough of the cotton thread I used for Maisy so had to use something a little thinner.  As you can imagine she came out just a little smaller!

I crocheted her dress in Kidsilk Haze that I had left over from the gloves.  I think she needs a bow or flower in her 'hair'.  What do you think?

Here she is next to Maisy.  Maisy is about 3" tall and she is about 2" tall.  Both created from the same pattern written by Sharon Ojala.  If you click on her name it will take you to her blog where you will find the pattern.  Talking about names, any preferences for this little cutie?

Ooh one last thing!  A lovely lady over at Christmas Pie Crafts is looking for Friday Guest Bloggers she says
"If you are ready, willing and able to give it a go, please email me on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com with Friday Guest Blog in the subject area.  Your article should be approximately 500 - 600 words, but please don't panic if that seems too long,  Let me know the date you would like to take part and also your blog and website address will be added at the end of your article.  Many thanks for your help and I am looking forward to reading lots of fantastic articles and sharing them with the rest of the crafting world."

So if you would like to direct a little more traffic towards your blog just get in touch!  It really isn't as daunting as it sounds!

Ok now I'm off over to Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been up to and I may even have a little look to see if I can find any Kidsilk Haze Stripe patterns.  Have a great week everyone, bye x

Hobbycraft Update and A Graduation or Two!

Phew! I don't seem to have had any time to think just lately and when I have had time I'm just too shattered to do anything!  Sound familiar?  Thought it might!

This post is going to be a bit early for Handmade Monday so I will link up to you guys in a few days time  (I've done it now so why not pop over to see what all the other lovely crafters have been up to) but if I don't get it done now I shall miss yet another week.  So much to say, but so little time to write it down!

This weekend we have our younger daughter and boyfriend coming to stay and we have friends coming for a meal this evening so I have been running around making everything just so!!! (As we do!)  I actually made meringue for a pavlova this morning, they were cooking by 8.30am!! I was very impressed with myself. Not sure how they will turn out though, they look ok but the taste test will determine it!  I'll let you know :)

Anyway, thank you all again for your comments on my last post I shall try and answer each comment individually this time as I think I have been neglecting you all.

Hobbycraft

Ok now to Hobbycraft!  It was last sunday when I went in, you may remember that was one of our first real days of sunshine!  Chester really did arrive in style.

Safety belt on - ready to go

Here he is about to leave, he has his safety belt on but I think he looks a little uncertain!

Chester arrives safely!

He needn't have worried, he arrived in plenty of time!  I followed him down (I couldn't fit him in my car with all the other bits and pieces!) which was great as I was able to see the looks on people's faces when he drove by.  I heard one little boy say to his dad "Look at that huge ..." he wasn't quite sure what to call it and I'm not sure his dad would have believed him anyway unless he saw it for himself!  I could see a lot of pointing and gesticulating from people and Chester certainly turned many heads!

Chester had a great view across the store, watching everyone coming and going.  He was sitting on a perfect chair, one of those tall bar stools.  I was very cheeky and borrowed it from some great guys at Willow Kitchens, Bathrooms and Bedrooms who have a store just around the corner.  They thought it was fantastic when I explained how I had made him and the size of the hooks I was selling!!!!!! Innuendoes came spilling out!!!!!!  A big thank you to these guys, they made Chester very comfy!

Here is Tina, the lovely lady, who made all this possible.  I think she was explaining about the store to Chester?!!

I had two tables this size, one I used to display the yarn, the hooks and the items you could make and the other (which unfortunately I don't seem to have a picture of) for demonstrating where people could sit and have a go with the Jumbo hooks and yarn.

Did you spot Taffy perched on top of the yarn?  I couldn't leave him behind, he would have felt so left out!

As you can see it's a fantastic store!  You can just pick out Tina and me having a chat with Chester in pride of place.  I met some really lovely people, the staff were all so helpful and eager to learn about what I was demonstrating and they all fell in love with Chester.  I sold some yarn and hooks and also received bookings for my workshops (Introduction to Crochet is proving very popular, only a couple of spaces left on this one!).  A brilliant day and a BIG thank you to everyone who made it happen :)

And finally!

A very proud mum and dad showing off their eldest daughter's graduation!

And just so the youngest one doesn't feel left out - this was last year at our youngest daughter's graduation!

Very proud of both of them and of course the boyfriends too!

Have a good week!  Hope the sun keeps shining :)

Bye 

x

Hobbycraft

Hello everyone

Time for another Handmade Monday!  I think each week that I have plenty of time to get prepared for the next one, only to find they come tapping you on the back far quicker than you imagine!

Thank you for to those of you who commented last week on A Kidsilk Haze Experience.  The shopping trip was not very successful although I did find a decent bra! (whispers quietly so only ladies hear!) I think you'll know what I mean, finding one that fits is like looking for a needle in a haystack!  We found that within the first half hour but unfortunately it went down hill from there. Although, it was lovely to spend a complete day with the youngest of my lovely daughters :)

Hobbycraft

Well, I may have mentioned this before but it is getting closer now so thought I'd do a quick post about it.

We have a new Hobbycraft Store opening very near to us, so in this neck of the woods it is quite exciting as our nearest store would be Bristol, about an hour and a half away.

It is due to open on Thursday 19th July and over the weekend various activities will be taking place in store.

Where does Fiddly Fingers come in?  On the Sunday I will have my own bit of space in the store from which to promote my workshops and sell my huge balls of yarn and huge hooks.  I'm rather excited as it will mean a ready made audience of like minded crafters.

I am busy getting ready at the moment. Made the gloves that you saw last week for the display and am just starting a slouchy hat from the same book in Rowan Cocoon an 80% merino wool and 20% kid mohair blend.  It's wonderfully soft.  I'm making signs for Fiddly Fingers so people know who I am and signs to let everyone know what workshops I'm doing. If anyone here is interested you can find them all on the Workshops page.  I need to wind some more balls of wool as well, it's so difficult to know how many to take with me.  All this and I'm still not sure what size space I will have which makes it all the more difficult to plan.  Oooh and of course Chester will be coming with me!  He will be the star of the show, I'm sure!

I'm also going to run some workshops in store over the coming months.  Not sure what they will be yet, but what a great opportunity!  Probably will run them for about 2 hours at a time.  Any suggestions on what we could make? Can be crochet or crafts of any kind really but I would like people to be able to achieve something to take home with them within that 2 hours.

I'll update you next week with a few pictures and let you know how I get on.  I may be a bit late posting on Handmade Monday next week but I'll do my best, so don't forget to wait for me!!!

Off to my eldest daughter's graduation tomorrow so may have a picture or two for you.

Hope you all have a very good week, I can see a bit of sunshine outside now so I'm going to make the most of it.  Bye for now!  See you soon.

A Kidsilk Haze Experience!

Hello

I'll try and make this a quick post as I'm off to stay overnight with my youngest daughter so we can  get an early start shopping tomorrow!  It is my eldest daughter's graduation next week and I need something to wear!

Thank you to all of you for your comments on last week's post So Much Going On.  Kendal is doing fine, sat here happily watching the tennis with Maisy.  Taffy and Chester are not quite so interested in it!  I'm going to try and make an origami tea light holder with my silk paper (when I get around to it) so watch this space!

Pottery workshop

This week I have been to a Pottery workshop.  I was really pleased to be able to have a go on a wheel, which was not quite as scary as I had thought it would be!  We also made some terracotta items using coils.  It may be a few weeks before I can show you the results of these.  Here is a picture of my attempt on the wheel though, but unfortunately as we had only one session we couldn't keep these :(

Not bad for a first attempt I thought!

Lacy gloves

Over these last few weeks I have been busy making some fancy gloves using Rowan Kidsilk Haze.  I am going to be demonstrating crochet at the opening of the new Hobbycraft Store in Kingsteignton!  I'm really looking forward to it.  I have used a pattern from the book love...Crochet by Carol Meldrum.  A pair of lacy fingerless gloves using Rowan's Kidsilk Haze.  It's been very interesting using the Kidsilk Haze, it's so light and floaty.  It takes a bit of getting used to as it feels so delicate you start by treating it very gently.  It is only after a while when you get the feel for it that you realise it is actually quite strong and you can work it a little harder.  You can take it out if you make a mistake, but I found you had to do it very gently, stitch by stitch.  I have to admit, I couldn't see what all the fuss was about before I used it but now I would definitely like to crochet something else with it.  I think I'm sold!

Here are the gloves without the lacy bits (can't turn photo round I'm afraid)

This is the first row of the lacy bit (it's turned the photo round again!!)

Although the gloves look very lacy and fine they are comfortably warm on your hands.

And the finished article!

Has anyone else used Kidsilk haze? What patterns have you used? What did you think of it? What is it like to wear?  Does it bobble?

I think the next item I have been asked to do is a slouchy hat, but this will have to wait until next week as I haven't got the yarn yet!

Well, I'm off up the motorway to Gloucester now, so I'll see you all over on Handmade Monday tomorrow evening.  I have a felting workshop and a clay sculpture workshop coming up next week, the last of the freebies.  It really is great having all these opportunities to 'play'.  It doesn't happen very often!  

See you all soon x

PS - Just out of interest, does anyone know why occasionally pictures turn around of their own accord when you add them to a blog post!  Is there any way of preventing this?

So much going on!

Hi everyone

Yet another week gone by!  I've had a rather good week, work went well at the beginning, Wednesday I went to a free Silk Paper Making Workshop and then on Thursday we went to stay with our daughter and her boyfriend as it was her birthday and had a night in a hotel near Stratford upon Avon on Friday as it was my OH's birthday. Came home on Saturday and had a Chinese with our other daughter and her boyfriend! :)

Last week's post!

Firstly I must thank you all for your fantastic comments on Koala, last week's post. Especially Wendy and Mythillogical for their wonderful suggestions.  There were so many great ideas but one name was perfect from the first time I read it.  I have decided to call him Kendal.  I was so grateful for all your suggestions, I really couldn't have done it without you.  So an enormous thank you from Kendal and me :)

Silk Paper Making

Thought you may like to see what I was up to on Wednesday evening.

These are the 3 sheets of silk paper I made at a free workshop held to mark the opening of our new library and local Adult and Community Learning Centre now to be known as the Passmore Edwards Centre.

Lots of beautiful silk threads laid together and then 'glued' with a special paste.  These can now be used for anything that takes your fancy.  They can be stitched by hand or  machine and embellished as you see fit.  I may try and make a tea light holder with mine, when I eventually get around to it!
Anna Brindley was the lady with all the expertise on the evening and I have to say I am really looking forward to doing a felt making workshop with her later this week.

A Rainbow of Crafts Challenge

I was also very pleased to find that Chester was a runner up in The Crafty Network - A Rainbow of Crafts Challenge.  This is fantastic news as, to be honest, I had forgotten I had entered him and because we were away over the weekend I didn't get around to advertising this fact until right at the last minute.  There were some really pretty entries this time so a big thank you to everyone who voted for him, he was very proud of his position of 'runner up'.

Liebster Award

One last thing!  A few days ago I had a lovely surprise!  I have very kindly been nominated for the Liebster Award by Kat Shenton of With u in Mind.  A big thank you to Kat :)  I will be posting about this when I have got my head around it!!!

Well I am now about to link up with Handmade Monday and Wendy over at Handmade Harbour, but as I need to get some crocheting done for something a little exciting, which I will tell you about in another post nearer the time, I shall have to have a look at all your blogs tomorrow evening.

Hope you all have a good week, see you soon!