Craft - It's All Just Sew Dolly Clackett

My plans for doing different types of posts on different days was obviously foolish! My inability to plan what will bubble to the surface should have been more obvious to me from long experience... So, today I am back on the craft/creative bent again. I have got another Pearl's Pantry post in mind and shall be putting that up as soon as I remember to buy the ingredients and do the tutorial!

Today, I mainly wanted to tell you about a couple of books I bought at the weekend whilst buying yet another (bigger) pair of school shoes for madam. She's on her 3rd size since September, when will her feet slow down? 13.5 is nearly as big as quite a few of my friends and their teeny feet!

Anyway, books... I have a bit of a thing for DK books as they are genuinely some of the best reference books I've come across and are always well laid out and easy to read. I've been lusting after some of their Step by Step series for ages and have been putting off buying because, well, I'm skint.  

The ones I'm interested in are the Knit, Crochet, Sew and Stitch books. And it's those last two I managed to get. They were on sale at The Works for £2.99 each so I snapped them up despite my mum rolling her eyes next to me and complaining I didn't need any more books and where was I going to put them? 

One day I will post pictures of all the book piles/bookshelves stuffed full that my mum owns and let you work out why I found that statement hypocritical. 

But as you can tell I paid no heed and merely joined the queue and happily paid out for my new prized possessions. I sat and read through both of them on Saturday evening - my rock and roll lifestyle showing there... For those who have never read or heard of these books, Sew is about dressmaking and mending and Stitch is about embroidery and decorative stitching. 

There is another, bigger, version of the Sew Step-by-Step which is called Dressmaking Step-by-Step and includes some projects to have a go at, but it's way out of my budget, sadly. Even in The Works! 

I am particularly interested in learning as much as I can about dressmaking because I still feel very nervous about taking the plunge on my own to make an actual garment. I really want to take part in the Sew Dolly Clackett challenge and have to just give it a go and get on with it... But, but, but... ugh. I know Roisin herself would be telling me to just have a go and do the best I can.. It's about the taking part, after all!

The idea is to make a Dolly Clackett inspired dress, like these, modelled by the lovely Dolly Clackett (Roisin) herself...

Blanche dress - Christine Haynes Emery dress

Madarch dress - By  Hand London Elisalex bodice, Simplicity 2444 skirt.

I used two examples as I couldn't pick just one! And I adore that mushroom print! And if you click on the photo it'll link to the post about the dress (I'm starting to get technical with this blogging malarky...) 

So, I have to find a (simple) dress pattern that will actually fit my plus-sized and gorgeous self and then some impressively wonderful printed fabric to use. The print is the defining thing about Roisin and her dresses. And quite frankly being big and beautiful lends itself to some funky prints. Ditsy prints look stupid on me... 

Um, yeah, so this post started out about books and ended up about sewing love, wasn't sure how to categorize that, went with craft! (Is there a category that I could invent for mindless rambling from one topic to the next?). Anyway, that's enough from me. I'll update you on my #BLCreativePrompts next post...

Love, Pearl.

Raspberry Ripple Crochet

This month, although I have still been motoring on with my reading challenge I have also been getting on with some crochet for myself. I got hold of some lovely yarn in Boyes the other week with the intent of making myself a new scarf. The yarn is King Cole Galaxy DK in Pink Tourmaline and is lovely and soft and sparkly. 

Not entirely sure why I chose such a bright shade of pink, but the black helps to make it less in-your-face and I am glad of the cheerful shade on miserable days. 

I spent ages on Ravelry looking at scarf patterns and found one I quite liked which had been invented from a hat pattern the writer had previously made! I did look at making it and then at the last moment spotted a pattern in Simply Crochet issue 4 called Raspberry Ripple which just seemed the perfect thing to go with the yarn.

I got out hook and yarn and set to it straight away. I found the project grew quite quickly, but getting through 2 whole balls of yarn still takes time. The pattern is a pretty fan and mesh design which, when I finished, I decided to add tassels to the ends of. 

I was so pleased with it and still had two balls of yarn leftover, so I decided I could make a matching hat. Going back to Ravelry I came back to the original hat pattern that had inspired the scarf I liked (this is so much more complicated to explain that it is in practice!)

The pattern, Urban Jungle, is finished off with a rather cool star shaped top and it made me think if I could maybe use the pattern but with the fan and mesh design rather than the puff stitches of the original. 

Are you keeping up with all this at the back? Not sure I am anymore...

Anyhow, I cast on, using a slightly smaller hook than recommended as I had a lighter weight yarn than suggested. I crocheted the band exactly as stated in the pattern and then, after crocheting a foundation row of DC (SC to our American friends) moved in to the mesh and fan design I had used for the scarf. I had somehow managed to make the hat exactly 3 times the pattern of the scarf. Genius. So I crocheted away, joining my rows, but turning each time to keep the pattern correct. 

I have ended up with a slightly weird bit up the back, but as my rows started and finished on the back seam, which you don't see when the hat is worn, I just went with it. 

The other adjustment I made was to not make the hat quite as long as the stated pattern. It says to crochet until 12" from the bottom of the band, but I stopped at 10" as I was happy with the amount of slouch that gave me. I then had to make a solid band around the top so that I could use the star shaped closing that I was after. This meant I chained and slip stitched all the way around once and then did a row of DC into that.

Yes, this is really out-of-focus, it's not your eyes!

I then followed the pattern to the best of my ability (it's a bit fiddly/confusing to me at that point) and have indeed ended up with a star closure :)

Sadly, it doesn't show up terribly well on the photos I took... 

But, there you have it. My new hat and scarf set :) Now, I am just working out if I could get some mitts out of what I have leftover...

  

A mitt of crochet (sorry, not sorry)

I decided to finally get around to my new crochet project last night whilst I watched Pitch Perfect for the hundredth-odd time. I have been meaning to start it since I got Issue 13 of Simply Crochet Magazine last month. It came with free silver (coloured) fasteners to use with the project and they are dead cute which totally made me want to make them even more!

How the mitts look in the magazine.

I read the pattern and realised that the finished mitts would be too small for me. I umm-ed and ahh-ed for a bit trying to work out how I would make them big enough to fit me and my man-hands. I came to the conclusion that if I used a larger hook and followed the pattern as was that would be the easiest way. I just hoped that would work. 

I had found some DK yarn the other week that I had thought would be perfect for the project. I have used it before in different shades and know it is a slightly thicker yarn than some other DK weight yarns. This would mean that using the bigger size hook wouldn't leave me with less warm mitts.

That's madam's lovely patchwork blanket the yarn is on. 

The yarn is a James C. Brett Marble in shade 21 which is a lovely grey/teal combo. I made madam a lovely cardi in a pink/grey colourway when she was 2.

Ahh! I miss that hair...

I found the pattern easy enough to follow though when it switched from back and forth to in-the-round I got a little confused, but figured it out after a little puzzling. Not sure it could have been written more clearly, think I was just being dim... I still haven't got that much experience in pattern reading for crochet.

The whole of the mitt is worked in Double Crochet (dc) which makes it good for beginners. I did find I got a bit lost with how many rows I had done whilst working in-the-round, but again, that's just me and not a fault of the pattern.

From start to pretty much finished.

I got one completed in the evening so I just need to do the second tonight and I can have a lovely new pair of mitts to wear on our trip to York on Monday :)

    

Advent Sunday 3

Oh, my poor little neglected blog! I really do have a reasonable excuse for not having blogged more this week. I have been on a training course. Yup, the job centre have actually allowed me to be trained in something that will actually be useful to me. 

I am doing what's called a Level 1 in Basic Computing. This is a four day course and I'm doing 2 days a week over this last week and next. I have spent a day learning Sage software and a day on Excel. Sage is something which I have never encountered before so was a good thing for me to play with and I felt like I really got quite a bit out of. 

Excel I have used before, but not much since my GCSE way back in 1994. This meant that although I couldn't remember much of the GCSE stuff I didn't take long to pick it back up again when he explained it. I spent most of the session explaining how to do things to the people sitting on either side of me. But hey, I like doing that kind of thing, so it was fun :)

Tuesday we will be covering Powerpoint which is, again, something I've never used before (I don't even have it on my computer!) and on Thursday we're doing Desktop Publishing. This is another thing I covered in GCSE so I might have some idea of what is going on, but then again...

I've really enjoyed putting my brain to use. I do sometimes think that I would be happiest as a perpetual student. I love learning things and trying new stuff out. Which was an almost subtle segue into what this post is actually about.

I done did another making :) 

I have been pondering making sequinned baubles for a little while and never quite got around to it. But yesterday I bit the bullet and decided to give it a go. I bought 3 packs of sequins in different colours (99p each and on a 3 for 2 though I couldn't get the red I wanted so had to settle for silver) a tub of sequin pins (£2.30) and a polystyrene ball from Boyes for 40p.

I emptied it all out on to my lap tray and got pinning. I had a couple of false starts whilst I worked out the design which meant I pinned and re-pinned more than I would have liked to. But eventually I settled on a segmented design and happily pinned away whilst watching DVDs with madam. It's incredibly easy to get quite a fancy effect.

It did take ages though, partly as I had such a big ball to cover and partly because I kept being distracted by a certain someone and her antics. I also realised that the amount of sequins I had might not be enough to complete the project and that started making me stress a bit, but I just kept pinning and in the end I finished, with the design I wanted, with only 2 sequins left over!

leftovers!

and leftover pins from a full tub...

the base of the bauble (and where the design started from)

A right way up bauble

spinning, hanging bauble!

I'm so impressed that today I have gone out and bought more supplies and some slightly smaller balls to decorate! I did buy more pins too, but this is mainly paranoia on my part as I have some left, though I must have used at least half of the ones I had originally so I maybe do need them...

I shall put some pictures up when I have finished making them, though I need to try and wrest the first one back from madam who has hung it up in her room. Mind you, when I look at it all I see is that it's not the colours I wanted so maybe I will let her keep it! 

how can a year go so quickly?

I genuinely thought that after madam went to school full time I would get more chance to blog and maybe I would be able to make my blog something really interesting... But no. I seem to neglect it for days on end now.

 

This, I suppose is in part due to just how busy life seems to have become, what with starting to do actual job hunting type activities. But also I think because I am becoming more well in myself.

 

The whole reason I even began to blog was because of my depression and how it was affecting me. I felt like I was hiding from the world and needed somewhere that I could express myself and begin to feel more normal again. And I think it has really helped me. I have learned to be able to look at myself in a different way.

 

But do you know what has really helped? Twitter. Yes, that's right, the worlds favourite micro-blogging site (WTF *does* that mean? It's a chat room for crying out loud...). But over the last year I have met and befriended so many people who show me nothing but kindness and encouragement. Supporting all my endeavours and just generally being lovely. It's the community I always wanted to live in, full of like-minded souls.

 

Obviously, my lovely friends who I have known for years have all been a massive part of it too. But Twitter even comes into that too. We are now more capable of staying in touch than we ever have been before, and we can talk as a group which is *almost* as good as having them all there together.

 

 

It is just over a year since I first came out as being depressed. I had struggled alone for quite some time before then. I am amazed at the difference a year can make. At about this point last year I was sitting crying, almost uncontrollably, in a café. My lovely friend picked me and madam up and brought us to her house for tea. I still can't thank her enough for how much that meant to me.

But now, although my demons aren't all defeated, I'm so much happier. My feelings of being overwhelmed all the time have subsided. I am finding I have some of my confidence back. I have applied for a couple of jobs (sadly, not successfully) and I think I can fight my own corner a bit more.

My beautiful, crazy, cheeky little girl has just turned 5 and I feel like a new start is upon us. I have started making the proper moves to go back to my maiden name. I am determined to draw a line under the end of my relationship. I *finally* have lost those feelings for him that were making that so hard.

I will always care about him. But as the father of my child not a partner. I finally feel free of him. And having my real name, as it were, is going to be a part of that. I feel like, with this blog, I have spent a lot of time giving you progress reports. And having to really think about me, who I am, how things have changed has done me no end of good.

I think that now I am here this blog is starting to go in another different direction. It will always be a place for me to think things through, and for me to ask questions I feel I need to, but mostly it's becoming a crafting type blog! I have another finished project for you to see, but I'll just finish this bit first...

I am so thankful for all your support. Thank you for helping me realise that life is sometimes shit, but always worth it. Thank you for being there, I hope if you ever need me I can be there for you. Thank you to whoever it was who invented Twitter and for it giving me a space to meet people who are just like me, only different and wonderful all at the same time.

(This is a really big, aww, you guys *group hug* type of post!)

So, project! I have crocheted a new hat for myself (I may need to do one for a couple of other people too (that would be one each, not to share!)). The pattern came from Ravelry. If you're into knitting/crochet it is a great site to sign up to... So many patterns!

The pattern I used was one of the free ones that is available. It's called Polar Hat and is by Pippa Wilson. It comes from her blog and you can find it here if you're interested. It's a really quick make, I made it in an evening. It uses chunky weight yarn and an 8mm hook. Her version is a rather fabulous orange, but I chose a James C. Brett marble in shades of purple for mine.

And here it is:

wow, cheesy grin or what!

It has a very small brim that gives it that bit more interest than a beanie. I made mine very slightly bigger as I have a big head! I would imagine that her design would fit almost everyone else though...

Whaddya think?  



internet tutorials are awesome!

Guides last night was a great success. We had everyone occupied and so busy that we lost track of the time and had to race to get finished on time.

 

We will be continuing the project next week. And will also be doing more badge work. Last night we had them talking about energy and they made a plan for themselves of ways they could save energy on a daily basis. I particularly liked the suggestion of one Guide who was going to attempt to get her mum to drink the coffee her dad makes in the morning rather than making a second one!

 

We also had the usual suggestions of watching less tv and then there was turning off wifi on the tablet so it would need charged less often. I think I can safely say that is new issue...

 

And then the fun began! We got out the t-shirts and I took some before photos (which I won't publish here as the Guides are in them). Then they were let loose with glue and needles, ribbons and net, and some very large scissors. I went to work on my own project. I cut my t-shirt into one big tube and then cut up through it, leaving a strip at the top.

 

My Guide leader was absolutely fascinated and could not see how it could possibly turn into a scarf. I ploughed on regardless. Next you pull each of the strips to get them to curl in on themselves. Gather the top together and secure it with some ribbon, or whatever et voila... I have one (fairly cool) scarf in less than half an hour :)

 

I like it so much I am actually wearing it today, too.

 

I'm going to re-do that ribbon later...

 

 

Next, I had to try out the whole "design on a piece of sandpaper" idea. The idea is that once the design is complete you can turn it over and iron it on to a t-shirt, or where ever. Again, much scepticism as to how it could possibly work. But it seems to be quite legit. There are loads of tutorials online about doing it.

 

So QM and I gave it a go. I drew a turtle and she tried a butterfly. The crayon seems to stay on top of the sand and I can see how, when I iron it, it'll be transferred. It's quite strange colouring onto sandpaper though, I can tell you.

 

I remembered to write backwards!

 

 

Madam is currently drawing her own design using some of the leftover supplies from last night. I'm not sure hers will work as well though...

 

As for today, well, it's pretty much back to normal. We went to the market this morning. Madam got a book and now we are waiting for dad to make us lunch. Which will be pie and beans, the same lunch he has had on a Saturday practically every week of his life! I did manage to get him onto quiche and a salad over the summer! Progress...

 

This afternoon I have to be domestic and get all madam's school things washed and organised for next week. She is still loving school just as much and had the added excitement of football skills practice yesterday morning. I think the main excitement in that was actually that she got to wear trackie bottoms to school instead of her uniform...

 

 

Upcycling for the masses

As it's Friday, you get the now obligatory Guide related post! And I am really enthused about this weeks meeting. (Well, and terrified we won't have any guides turn up...) But lets stick with enthusiasm, shall we?

 

Oh, before I get started, madam has been to the GP and told that she is doing really well. She is just reducing the amount of puffs on her inhaler slowly now. (My friendly, tame pharmacist (Dad) is helping with that).

 

Ok, so Guides tonight... I found out last Friday that there is a competition running in conjunction with the Clothes Show Live and we could win a trip for our whole unit to go to the show! Brillbobs. All we need to do is take an old item of clothing and take a photo before doing anything to it and then one after we have repurposed/customised it to something we would wear now. Send it in by Sept 29th and Bob's your auntie!  

 

This is the kind of activity that totally excites me! I have spent the last couple of days gathering some great ideas on things the Guides could do including this awesome tutorial on how to turn a t-shirt into a scarf! I love it! I'm completely going to do this tonight with my t-shirt (cause you knew I'd be playing along, didn't you?!)

 

But I also found ways to add a design using wax crayons, sandpaper and an iron. And then there are all the normal things I might do, like adding material to turn it into a dress like Tabatha and I did for madam in the summer. Or adding pockets, a collar or an applique motif. Then, of course, there is good old tie-dye and dip dye. (Those will *not* be being done at the meeting!).

 

One of the Guides is going to turn her t-shirt into a skirt, which is a great idea. A couple were asking about customising old jeans and canvas shoes. I love that they all got behind the idea.

 

And, even better than the fact we might win a competition, the upcycling/repurposing counts towards the badge that QM and I had decided on for them to do over the term! How well planned of me was that!? We're doing the first activity from the first section of the badge and then we have to do 3 clauses. Upcycling is one clause covered.

 

And they won't even notice that they're doing it. Although, one of the Guides got *almost* as excited as me about the prospect of a badge! I'm such a badge nerd, and this is a great one as it's from WAGGS so it makes it a bit different.

 

I think the complete over-enthusiasm for it all on my part sort of rubbed off on the Guides too, which was nice. And even better was QM telling me to just plan and run it all and she'd help out if I needed. So I get to mostly be in charge, which I need for my warrant. Excellent.

 

See, I was going to tell you about all this at the weekend, but madam being so dramatically ill put paid to that!

a few of madam's customised things

 

 

I'm still trying to decide on birthday presents for her too, but she has managed to give me a couple of acceptable suggestions. She has announced that she would like some big girls Lego and also some Winnie the Witch books. I can cope with that...   

 



fun and flowers at Burnby Hall

Yesterday was lovely. It was madam's Fairy competition at Burnby Hall Gardens in Pocklington and we had a great day. The weather held out and we got a chance to look around the rather stunning gardens.

The gardens also hold the national waterlily collection (who knew the nation even had one?) and they were pretty much all in bloom. They were all different colours and looked just beautiful.

There were a few fairy activities for madam to take part in and we started by being given a little collection bag so that we could gather up any leaves, twigs, feathers, etc. that we might find so we could use them to make a name plaque. 

All around the gardens were signs telling us about the various types of flower fairies and when we might be able to see them. Our favourite part though was hunting for the fairies up in the Stumpery (which is in the woodland area). And it was so sweet. There were lots of little doors dotted around on the trees and all around the glade were things for us to spot, like a washing line, a swing and a fishing rod.

a tiny door!

And madam was convinced that if she knocked on all the doors eventually a fairy would answer her ;) 

We found a picnic table (of which there were many) and settled down for a picnic before heading back with our finds to do some crafting. There were pictures to colour and fairy houses to make. We just stuck to making madam a name plate. But, sadly, the glue wasn't really sticky enough to cope with madam's twigs so we agreed to take it all home and let her use the PVA glue to finish it off with. 

And then it was time for the fairy and pixie parade. The fairies outnumbered the pixies by quite a large amount, so fairies went first. There was only one other little girl in a homemade outfit. And she was much littler than madam with the most enormous frothy tutu confection on. So, so cute. She won the competition, which wasn't that much of a surprise. But I was really glad they recognised the effort someone had put into making it. Madam got a few comments on her costume too, and many were amazed it was homemade.

We had to leave after the parade as my mum and dad had to go round to my younger brother's place and help him with something. But I really want to visit again. It was just such a lovely place to while away a few hours. I'm hoping we'll go back for the pumpkin festival in October.

And mum saw an "Elf Training Camp" day in December too...

So yeah, if you're in the area ever and want a nice afternoon wander (the cafe looked rather good, too) it's worth checking out. Oh, and the Stewart Museum holds some things brought back from the round-the-world trips the owners made in the early 20th Century. Might be worth a look too...     

capes and wings and things

Madam and I, whilst waiting for the bus yesterday, were messing about and I made a cape for her out of her nightie. She had it with her so she could get ready for bed there rather than at home... Anyway, it didn't work all that well so she announced that I had to (HAD to) make her a cape. A Superman cape, to be precise. You just need red and blue she said...

 

So, apparently that is my next sewing project. I'm also going to turn the gorgeous elephant print fabric I got from ebay into a simple summer top for madam. Mother and I are planning how we can do that. Sounds like we're making a tube and threading ribbons for straps!

 

 

 

This afternoon will be mostly spent cutting out these flaming wings for the fairy outfit though. I must get it done otherwise it'll be Tuesday night and I'll be doing it in a flap. I have got each of the three colours of net we originally used and my plan was to cut two wings out of each colour so we have the same 6 layers as the skirt. Then I will have to hand stitch them onto the vest top. I might run a line of machine stitch down the middle to help keep them together first...

 

My next issue is what *actual* wing shape I will cut. Do I do butterfly, dragonfly or some form of other shape... She's going to be sitting in the car for a while whilst we get there so maybe she won't be wearing the top until we arrive! Crushed wings, whatever their shape, is not a good look. 

 

template from www.craftscope.com

 

 

Template from peekadot.blogspot.co.uk

 

 

I think I'm more excited than she is now... I'm really hoping the fact her costume is homemade will help her in the competition stakes. It's easy just to buy all the things you need... I also love that I made it. I love knowing that she has something unique and that makes her happy. When she spent the day dressed in the outfit she told me she was a happiness fairy and that everyone smiled when they saw her. And they did. It was lovely for her to get all that positive feedback from people.

 

I had better get a move on if I want to buy stuff for cape making, I suppose!     

peanut butter and fairies

*This post now has all the photos I had planned it to have*

Firstly, some apologies... I haven't written anything all week as madam is now on holidays and I can't go to my usual haunts for free wifi. Well, I can, but it wouldn't be as easy to achieve as usual. I have got lots of things to write about today but have forgotten my phone so I can't post the photos :(

 

I shall have to post them another day... though I might be able to lift a couple from where I've posted them on other sites...

 

So, I made the salted caramel peanut butter bars from essbeevee's blog and it was great fun. I found some of the initial mixing a bit hard going with a spoon so in the end went for the tried and tested "just shove your hands in" technique. And then squished it all in to a big disposable tin thing. The big tin could have done with being bigger. This recipe makes a huge amount...

 

Then I made the caramel and poured that over. At which point I *really* wished my tin was bigger, it didn't overflow or anything but I was a little wary of what would happen when we poured the chocolate on... I had promised madam faithfully that she could do the chocolate and sprinkles so I put what I'd made into the fridge and licked out the bowls before doing the washing up.

 

In the morning I was going to meet my dad at 9.45 as I was heading for a gym induction and he was having madam for me so chocolate melting/pouring/sprinkling was being done whilst also making breakfast for us both. And it was a lot of chocolate! My, this really is a great treat recipe.

 

 

After it was topped and sprinkled it went back in the fridge to set and to await the arrival of my sewing buddies in the evening.

 

Although madam and I did have a sneaky taste test in the afternoon, you know, just to make sure...

 

I ended up having a rather frustrating afternoon as I had planned time to do some more tidying, get dinner sorted, and do some pattern cutting. But I ended up stuck waiting for the gasman to come round and service my parents appliances. :( We were late getting home and therefore all my plan went out the window. I ended up throwing out my ideas for the pattern I was going to sew and decided to just make the a fairy skirt for madam.

 

She is really excited about her competition and I really enjoyed making her skirt. It was a good job we had three pairs of hands to hold and pin the fabric as that was the only complicated bit. But more importantly it was really nice to have the girls round and we had a great chat. I also learned how to do a French seam.

 

 

Madam was awake the entire time as she is too nosy for her own good! She also insisted on modelling her outfit after everyone had left before she would go to bed!

 

  

 

The fabulous Tabatha also brought me a lovely goody bag of sewing stuffs including some pinking shears! I am so grateful to her, she really is like a little sewing fairy being so kind and helpful to me.

 

I will be attempting to make some wings to go with madams costume once I have acquired more net... I'm planning on cutting out wing shapes from the net and just sewing them on to the vest top madam is going to be wearing...

 

 

things to do with madam's summer

I received the first of my ebay purchases yesterday :) It's the shrug I ordered to go with the wedding outfit for September. It's not as dark blue as I thought it would be, but that's not actually a bad thing. Madam took a photo for me, urm, slightly dodgy but you get the idea... (that's the dress I'll be wearing it with, too).

Have spent the last couple of days trying to plot out things for madam to do over the holidays. This is made harder by the fact that she is 4. There is no provision for pre-schoolers locally. This is a perpetual whine of all parents with children under 5. I am amused by the fact there are some children (like madam's best friend who isn't 4 for another fortnight) who will complete a full year at school before having their 5th birthday. So are those 4yr olds allowed to participate or must they wait until the age of 5 like madam?

 

Obviously, our plan is to sign madam up for the things we think she'd like and just ignore the fact that she's supposed to be 5. Being tall will definitely help her in this case. And because she's under 8 I have to stay with her anyway... So I don't get why they impose the age limit!

 

There was a small mammal hunt that she could have done this morning, but there were no spaces left :( I have signed her up for a minibeast safari, a butterfly safari and a teddy bears picnic. All at the local country park nature reserve. It cost me £1.50 each and they're all at least 2 hrs. I just need more things to do with her on the other 39 days of the hols...

I am planning on, hopefully, another trip to Bristol. I want to go and see L and her family and have a nosy around the new house she's moving into. But more importantly madam and I want to go on a Gromit hunt! For those of you who don't know, Gromit (you know, from Wallace and... ) has been hidden in various locations around Bristol. The Gromit Unleashed art exhibition is raising funds for the Bristol Children's Hospital charity and 80 sculptures have been  hidden around the city.

I am planning on downloading the app so we can play along when we get the chance! The exhibition finishes on the 8th September so I really hope that'll give us enough time...

But my other plans for the holidays mainly involve the seaside and/or various parks and local (free) museums etc. Madam is really keen on doing any form of colouring/painting/getting messy that I can think up too!

I just hope the weather stays mainly fine as I don't think a soggy summer will be an easy thing to navigate. Although I would get more chance to indulge in the sewing/crochet/knitting projects I have on the go. Oh, and to read some of my book mountain.   

well and truly bitten by the bug

I'm a bit excited... I have been bidding for a couple of patterns on ebay (slightly aggressively in one case) and have managed to secure both of them! I have been a bit of an ebay refusenik for a while as I'm not very keen on the whole bidding thing. But I seem to have finally been dragged into the whole thing and am now a little excited about the whole thing.

 

 

 

I have bought a pattern for both myself and for madam so I might *actually* make something for myself for once. I bought a (hopefully) simple dress pattern that I might make for this wedding I'm going to in September, just need to find out how much material I'll need now!

 

Madam's pattern is a sun dress and goes up to age 16, so I might have to make it a few times... Again, need to know what the material requirements will be before I plot out how I'll make it... I fancy making her something in some really bright flame colours, she looks amazing in yellows/oranges.

 

I'm currently bidding for some very sweet elephant print fabric which I have yet to decide what I will do with. It'll be big enough for a madam make, or maybe a bag for me...

 

 

 

I mentioned the peacock coloured fabric I've got yesterday and I have now found the pattern I want to use it with. It's a very simple dress design with a little tie strap fastening. It's out of Prima magazines Spring Makes book. The version in the book is made from gingham and has quite sweet embroidery on. I was thinking I might attempt some of the embroidery, but I'm not sure I can be bothered with all of it! (There are quite a lot of flowers in their version).

 

 

 

So anyway, there is a fabric stall that has appeared on the local market, might have to check that out at the weekend, last time I looked they had some great stuff in navy with a strawberry plant print. Was ace. I'm thinking not for a formal outfit though...

 

I still, also, want to try making one of the fab Miette skirts by the lovely Tilly. I have a feeling sewing is going to be my new favourite past-time for quite some time to come!

jobhunting for the tech savvy

I started this post on Tuesday and I was going to add in a link to the Universal Jobsearch website. Which is the point where I interacted with the Jobsearch website. And wow. Now, I'd heard before how awful it was, but I foolishly thought that I would be ok, I mean, c'mon, just how bad could it be.

Awful.

I couldn't get it to register me, and then when it did do it, it wouldn't let me back in as it said the email address was already registered! Yeah, that was me... Now let me in! But it wouldn't. And even when I tried just running a search it refused to tell me how to apply to the job I'd seen. By the time I'd finished arguing with it I had come to the point of no return and had to pack up and head to my Work Focussed Interview (WFI).

Now, if you've never been unemployed then I am envious of you, and if you're on income support it's slightly different. You only have to attend once every six months for these WFI things. I'm up to 3 monthly as madam is nearly 5 and I will be moved to being a Jobseeker at that point.

So, I went to see my advisor, who is lovely, but completely pointless. I explained that 1, I can't get on to Jobsearch. 2, I can't input my skills, I had to use generic ones and miss out the qualifications I actually have as they're not in the options list. 3, the website is awful and threw me out just when I thought I was getting somewhere.

I mentioned my lack of faith in this whole "lets shove everything online" plan. And she agreed. There is one computer available at the Jobcentre which apparently is already booked solid, she has been locked out of Jobsearch as she had been on holidays and is waiting to be re-instated.

This meant she couldn't look up the vacancy I'd found, either. I mean, FFS what is the point... I couldn't find it on their silly touch screen things either. The lady gave me a list of other job search websites she would recommend instead!  We did a calculation as to whether I'd be better off working than on benefits and then I left again.

Advice given: well, she did know some other websites, I suppose.
Jobs nearer to being acquired: none.

Me, being me, I then had to go and do "joining in" at madam's nursery for half an hour, then we had to go and get the bus into Hull so that we could get the bandage removed from madam's hand. Why is it that everything is always on 1 day?

But the bandage is off, and her finger now just has a slightly larger than normal plaster on it. She is almost entirely back to normal and has been told to use her finger as much as she can. Of course, by the time we'd finished and walked back into the town centre we were just too late for the bus and had an hour to wait until the next one. So we tried again on the McDonald's toy front. And, finally, success! Sadly, they only had one version, but madam was just so happy with having one she wasn't bothered which it was!

We just need to watch Despicable Me 2 now...

I also popped into one of the shops and found me a new dress in the sales :) This makes a nice change as there are no shops in my hometown that I can really shop in. I just need to be about 5 sizes smaller and then I'd have no worries... (I do hate being this fat, but I can't seem to stop the comfort eating/eating anything not tied down thing).

And then when I tried to log back on to my computer when we finally got home it refused. It did the whole computer says no thing and wouldn't even start up properly.

Luckily as I was at my parents I managed to use their computer, log onto the website of the school I'd seen the advert for and print out the form so I could fill it in at my leisure... At least I had that option, I feel sorry for the people who are not tech savvy and have only one access point to the internet.

Yesterday, was mainly about my mum getting me to buy things! I'd seen a nice pair of shoes on ebay a few weeks ago, just everyday walking all over shoes, not too fancy. But they were purple. Mum saw them and made me buy her a pair and then got me to buy some for myself. Now I'd just been watching them thinking they were quite cool, but I didn't really need them...

Also, we found a really pretty shrug for me to wear to my cousins wedding that would go with the dress and shoes that I already have. I did get the money back from my mum for the shoes, but it was still £25 (altogether) down that I hadn't planned on spending...

I also bought some more fabric... Oops. This was just a metre of cotton poplin in Peacock. I shall use it to make madam a very simple summer dress...   

Crafty goodness is for everyone

 

 

I am quite looking forward to this evening. Tabatha Tweedie from the threadcarefully blog is coming over to help me with one of my t-shirt projects for madam. I have seen a pattern to turn a t-shirt into a dress by attaching a gathered skirt which I mentioned in a post a while ago. As I am a bit of a novice with the sewing machine she's coming to give me guidance :)

 

This is great as it's been a while since I've seen her and we can have a nice catch up too... Whether I'll get madam to leave us alone is an entirely different matter! Technically she'll be in bed, but I can see her nosiness getting her in trouble!

 

I really want to get more confident with my sewing machine and I really would like to make myself (and madam) some clothes. I have fallen in love with some amazing fabrics and am resolutely not buying them until I can use them properly. I really wish I had paid more attention in my textiles class at school, but I wasn't interested and I'm pretty sure even the best teacher in the world can't make a teenager do the things they're not excited by.

 

But since I've been getting more into the craft side of myself, this ability to use a sewing machine (or not) has become more important to me. I find it quite funny that there a so many people out there writing off the crafting skills and claiming they'll die out when most of the people I know can do something.

 

And I plan on passing on the skills to madam if she's interested.

 

Crafting is such a good hobby too, I have found that anyone who is into craft tends to be really keen to share their skills and that makes it a really friendly community. And everyone can do something. My friend was discussing her tactile art on her blog the other day. It looks like she had a lot of fun with her projects.

 

And even my Guides, who always claim to not like craft spent the whole of our last session gluing and sticking without any complaints at all. Madam of course, needs no persuasion to pick up a paintbrush/gluestick/glitter and get messy.

 

Maybe I should focus on craft as a career!