Durham!

So better late than never! Here are some of the photos I took of Durham. It really is a very picturesque place with a lovely vibe about it.

One of the problems I found was that it was quite a bright day which made photo taking a bit tricky at times. Still, enough of the ramblings, have a look!



No, this isn't her Halloween costume!



Ellen's made the place a lot more like home since I last saw it.





Looked round Hogwarts, I mean Durham Cathedral!





You've got to take a picture of people rowing in Durham!





I always keep my eyes peeled for street art wherever I go. I love this one!!





I wonder if Ellen wrote this?!





Poster in Ellen's room





We went to see this awesome guy playing called Sam Brookes.

 So that was a little glimpse of Durham through the eyes of me there! I took so many more photos but these are definitely my favourites and what I think sum up my stay.

Granny Square Bunting

I went to Durham in my half term from college to visit my twin at uni!! I took lots of photos of Durham but I'll show them in another post. This post, I decided should be all about The Bunting!

As every good visitor should, I came bearing a little gift for her. A few weeks ago Ellen asked if I could make her some bunting for her room.

Well, of course I said yes, no problem. What size? I asked her. I'll admit that her reply of two and a half metres threw me off guard a bit but nevertheless, I got it done and I'm pretty sure she was happy with it.

This I found was the perfect project to do you're a bit busy with other things, as it was just so flexible to make. By this I mean that I could do little bits here and there, quickly whip up a triangle and block it whenever I had a bit of spare time.

Yes, this project involved me trying out the art of blocking for the first time. I wanted the triangle to look more, well triangular so I read up on how to block yarn. Turns out it's incredibly easy being that you only need to soak them in luke warm water and pin them to the shape you want on a board. Leave to completely dry then viola! Done!

Once measured and the requested size of 2.5m, I folded it all up ready to give to my sister.

Just thought I'd show you the little pile of work I created. It might not look like much, but a fair amount of work went into that!

And so here it is in it's new home in Durham! Ellen had obviously told her friends on the same floor as her about this bunting so I think that they were just as excited as she was to see this much awaited bunting.

Show and tell time!

Thought I'd show you a couple of the things I've been up to in college these past few weeks.

Our assignment this half term has been about working with 3D materials. It's been so cool the amount of the things we've been allowed to try out. Wood work, different types of printing, wire and plaster are just some of the mediums I've been giving a go.

Working on a theme of objects that inspire creativity for our design with wood, I created this clapperboard mounted on a background of words from the acting world.

Working with wire, we were allowed to do anything we wanted for our theme. Inspired by my travels, I created a wire globe all about the favourite country Ellen and I visited, New Zealand. It's really hard to take a good picture of wire I've found but you can probably just make out the countries on the outside of the globe with some Maori pendants hanging inside. 

As we're now coming near to the half term holidays, we're now in the process of finishing up this assignment. For this, we have to create a final piece by creating a sculpture out of any of the materials we've worked with.

I haven't got a finished piece to show you yet, but here's a sneaky glimpse of the final design for you to look at:

I'm also still doing a bit of knitting and crocheting whenever I have the time. I think me knitting and crocheting is like me with reading. I've always got to have some form of wooly craft on the go just like I've always got to have a book to read!

I'm currently crocheting some bunting for Ellen to go in her uni room. I've asked her how long she wants the bunting to be in which she replied, 2.5 metres! I've got to get cracking then! I'd say I've got about a metre done and the first five triangles are now in the process of being blocked to give them more of a triangled shape.

It's a shame I can't show you them but I can't risk my sister seeing them as I want them to be a surprise. But to give you an idea, they're going to look a bit like the bunting below.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little show and tell post! I'm now off to make some more triangles I think whilst my Dad's downstairs watching Wales play rugby. I can't hear any shouting at the telly going on which he is often prone to doing when watching Wales, so I'm not sure if that's a good sign or not!

Oh I tell a lie, Dad's just given a few gruffly shouted words of encouragement to Wales as I was typing!

My twin goes to Uni!

It was a big day in the Funning household today! My twin went to Durham University and so it was a whole family day out to settle her in. 

Though I think she was pretty nervous when we drove her there, once we'd arrived, she seemed fine. Her room is HUGE which my Mum being mum was very relieved about.

So when Ellen was settling in, Dad, my little sister Megan and I went into the town to get a few last minute stuff and to have a look round. Durham, from what I've briefly seen of it is a lovely little place. It's got a really nice historic feel. I think Ellen will like it there.

Her room overlooks the river and just in front of her building is where the boating house is. Even today, we saw a few people out training on the water. All very cool.



Do you remember this little knitted elephant?



Moving in



View from her college, St hild and St Bede

So now my twin lives in Durham whilst I'm still here in little old Kendal. Will I miss her? Of course!! But I don't really feel sad today that she's gone because it's not a sad occasion to go to Uni. But I'll look forward to staying with her definitely!! 

Still here, still knitting!

Yes yes, I know I'm starting to make a habit of saying this in all of my few and far between posts but it really is true!

It's been a whirlwind of busyness and I feel like a parent who's just had another child, spending more time with the new one compared to the older child in terms of now running two blogs. I've been putting so much onto my blog for college that I have rather neglected this one haven't I.

Well, I thought I'd make up for it by putting a post on about knitting; just like the old times!!

Having college going on full time, my knitted projects aren't growing as insanely quick as they used to but I'm still chipping away at it whenever I can. I even take it into college with me just in case I get a spare few minutes! It's certainly a good conversation starter I can tell you.

So my current knitted creation is this owl from one of my pattern books:

So cute isn't it! I thought I'd knit this up because I had the perfect wool in my wool hamper and I've had my eye on making this owl ever since I got the book. I've not got anyone in mind to knit it for but if you want it, it's yours once I've finished it!

Other news, I've finally gotten round to buying myself a new camera after dropping my old one in a lake somewhere in New Zealand. It's a Fujifilm camera which is very different for me as my last one was a canon powershot which I got on very well with.

Though I haven't learnt my way properly around the camera yet, it's serving me well so far. I use it a lot for college actually. I take pictures of whatever we're doing so I can put them on my college blog.

My singing at church is still going well. I even got asked to perform at someone's wedding last week as part of the worship band so that was pretty cool.

Well that's me for now. Do keep following my blog if you're one of my few regulars. I may be busier now and not posting as much as I used to but I will always get round to posting my news in the end even if it does take a bit of time.

If you get fed up in the mean time, you can always have a look at my college blog www.funningr11.tumblr.com.

College begins!

I can't believe that it's been almost a month since I last put a post on this blog. That is just not on. I'll try and be more up to date in the future.
Still, I've been busy here, there and everywhere so it's not as if I've not been bothered to post, it's just that I've struggled to find the time.

It's been a nice few weeks visiting various members of family in different parts of the country and trying to make the most of the summer days when they choose to shine. The pictures in this post are just some of the photos I took of my trip down to Norfolk staying with my grandparents. Looking at these, it's hard to believe that these were taken such a short time ago. As I write this, the weather and fewer light hours really proves that summer doesn't last long and is rapidly drawing to a close.

But anyways, as my blog title says, some things do begin! It's official, I am now an art student!! Ok, so I've only attended two days of college so far but it all counts.

So far it's going really well and although I have been fairly nervous, I'm really enjoying my first week. I'm so excited at the prospect of things I might create. With amazing facilities there, chances are that I'm going to get to do make things way beyond what I could achieve at home!

Another exciting thing is that this year, they are introducing to their students blogging. The plan is to use them as an online portfolio so that people can easily access my work.

You can have a look at my blog if you want. Unfortunately, you won't be able to comment on it but if you do have any questions, then you can just ask me on this blog!


http://funningr11.tumblr.com/

Illustration work!

Thought I'd show you a bit of what I've mostly been up to these past few weeks:

My Dad is currently writing his own book about leadership and has asked me to do some illustrations to go with it.

I'm really enjoying doing this work. It's been interesting working for someone and trying to get the drawing how they pictured it in their heads.

I've also learnt a lot with these drawings so in a way, it's a great sort of preparation for college which starts on the 5 September eepp!!

Above, are just a selection of the work I've been doing for my Dad. So far I've done over ten illustrations for him and the orders are still coming in. The most recent request involves me having to draw an Englishman and a Frenchman together. I'll show you how it turns out once I've drawn it shall I?

We've got a little system set up and everything! What usually happens is Dad's working downstairs and then it's me upstairs at my desk. Occasionally, he'll come up the stairs and hand me a post-it note with the next thing he wants me to draw. I then draw it up on my computer art tablet and then email him it. A reply email of thanks then completes the process. Job done! A slightly odd set up perhaps but it works!  

And no, my Dad isn't paying me to do this. But I have been promised a 10 percent cut of the profits if it ever gets published. 10 percent?? Yeah, I'll have to work on that figure!

crochet spelling

Making some crocheted letters to go on Jenna's crate is one of those projects I've had in my mind for a while to do.

My thinking behind the idea was that if I have to have a big dog crate in my room then I can at least make it prettier to look at!!

The letters and colours came out just as I had envisaged them which is always very satisfying! The plan next in my new found career as a doggy interior designer is to make her a dog bed with the colours I used for the lettering. I haven't made Jenna one before now because she used to always chew up her bedding so there didn't seem to be much point. Now though, she's all grown up and doesn't do that sort of thing anymore.

I think Jenna likes her new lettering's. She just wasn't too happy at the time of taking these pictures because I shut her in the crate when it wasn't bedtime! I tried to make her look happy in the picture for you but she kept giving me the doggy evils. Yes, my dog actually does this!

busy bees

Hi again!

Well I'm posting on here after a longer gap since the last post than I had intended. Sorry about that! I've got so many ideas and projects buzzing around my head at the moment that I feel it's left me rather scatterbrained.

If I do manage to get my rambling ideas into a physical form of some kind then you'll know where to find them...here of course!

Another thing that's quite exciting at the moment is that even though music is a big part of my life already, in the last month, I've been even more involved in it.

I'm now an alto in the Lakes Gospel Choir and also part of the worship team at my church acting as a backing singer doing harmonies. All very exciting and I'm enjoying these new ventures a lot.

And of course, I'm still playing my guitar every day in the hope that I'll become good at it and I've also written a few more songs that I haven't put on t'internet yet.

After that current news, I thought I'd show you something I did in the past. This is going back a couple of months now as I made this mobile all the way in New Zealand. Yes that's right, even on the other side of the world I was still knitting!

I made this bee mobile for my little cousin (I think he's actually my 3rd cousin or something) who we stayed with. They live in Christchurch but thankfully, their house wasn't really damaged in the earthquakes. Even so, it's still pretty scary for them as they still feel the earthquakes.

The reason I made a bee mobile was mainly because the family actually runs a honey making business. So I thought these cute little bees would be rather fitting in their home!

That sort of sums up my last couple of weeks really. I hope you've had a good couple of weeks too!

Wow! It feels a long time since I last posted on here... Well I suppose it has been.
Let me tell you, travelling around the world really does play havoc with your sense of time.
I know a lot of you followers already know a fair bit about my travels, but my plan is to update our travelling blog just incase you guys are interested in hearing more, ergo the link below:


http://travellingtwins.blogspot.com/


I've not been suffering too badly from the post holiday blues. One of the reasons for that is because I've been fairly busy getting an art portfolio together for an interview that I had yesterday to get into art college. 
The interview went really well. The college has quite an impressive reputation and is one of the top three art colleges in the country. 
They seemed to love my work and offered me an unconditional place so that's pretty exciting! I start in September.
I would show you pictures of my portfolio but at present, I have no camera. Correction. I have a camera but one that had a very close encounter with a New Zealand lake, so is now on the blink. But as soon as I get a chance, I'll show you what I presented to the college.


So just a quick little post today to touch base and let you know that Bekah's Corner is up and running again. Also, keep your eyes peeled on the travelling blog too.

Please can I come?!

So I was busy packing yesterday for the trip when a certain doggy tries to slip themselves in without me noticing! I think I'll have a hard time getting through customs with her in my bag.

Actually, I'd probably get arrested for animal cruelty.

"But honestly, she put herself there." I would argue.

I think they would find that very hard to believe!

Ereader book cover

In the days leading up to going travelling I guess you would expect me to be heavily busy with packing and sorting out last minute details. Whilst that is true, I have been working the last couple of days on making this cover for my ereader. I'm taking it with me on my travels. It should be in it's elemet because this was what my sony was designed for.  But I needed something that would protect it as well as disguise the fact I have an expensive gadget on me. So I was searching for covers to buy but they were, to be honest a bit boring. Then I stumbled upon the idea of hollowing out a book and sticking the device inside. Perfect! I thought.

It took longer than I thought it would because the only craft knife I have is now really blunt but with perseverance I got there. I then stuck on some pretty paper to finish the look.

It's slightly ironic that I've got a book to protect my electronic book isn't it!

Meet Ed!

Yo!

So sorry, I haven't been on here much at all recently. Things have been fairly all over the place getting ready to travel the world. Still, I plan to put on a few more posts before I leave which by the way, isn't long now. 1 week and 2 days to go not that I'm counting!

Once I've left, I'll be switching over to the travel blog I set up with my twin. Just incase you missed the link in a previous post, here it is again: www.travellingtwins.blogspot.com

This will mean that Bekah's Corner will be inactive for a few months but I do plan to pick up where I left off once I get back so don't worry, this is not the end.

Anyway, enough of all that. Come and meet my newest woolly creation. He's called Ed and he'll be accompanying Ellen and I on our travels photobombing as many of our photos as he can! He's a neat little size; he fits snuggly in your hand so he shouldn't be to much of a bother to carry around.

If you follow our travel blog, which I really hope you will, then I should expect you'll see more of him in the future.

How long is a piece of string?

It's the age old question isn't it. But in this instance the answer is the length of the world...sort of.

This is a map that I bought some time ago now but today I mapped out our journey of the world with pins and string. I've been wanting to do this for a while and my Grandad (who is a map pinning and stringing expert) is up visiting us so we did it together.

For some reason I got childishly excited when it came to putting the string on. I guess it's because for the first time, I'm actually seeing our trip in a very physical form.

Stepping back and looking at the end result, it was interesting to see the different legs of plane journeys. It would be that our first plane ride of the trip turns out to be the longest wouldn't it! But it shouldn't be too bad as the excitement of flying will shorten the flight I'm sure. Well, it will for me!  

The last time I went on a plane was when I was 7 years old and even that's a bit hazy in my memories now.

My Nana and Grandad did actually point out to me as well that our flight footprint won't look quite how it does on the map. Apparently on the flight going home, we fly all the way up near Greenland.

I can't wait to go! Its exactly 4 weeks before we do.

Heart biscuits

         Just a quick post here. I'm off for a weekend away to visit a friend in a short while!

I got up early-ish this morning to make some biscuits for a Christening that's happening on Sunday. I'm getting a dab hand at making the biscuit dough now but it was the rolling and cutting out that took the most time. Still, I enjoy the whole process so I don't really notice if it is time consuming or now.

                                                  Just nipping out now to deliver them!

Travel blog

Ellen and I have set up a new blog together. It's all ready to go for when we go travelling. This means that there won't be much on it at the moment but there is few things to go and have a look at.

It's called Around the World in 91 days. I promise that we'll some pretty exciting things on it a couple of months from now.

http://travellingtwins.blogspot.com/.
Go check it out!

Another fishy post





For those who are regular visitors to my blog, you may remember that I've shown you a knitted fish before.

I was asked just before Christmas to knit another fish after they had seen my other woolly fish. The guy who has asked for one is a keen fisher and likes catching bass so he gave me very specific orders to make it look as much as the real thing as possible. He didn't want one of my colourful patterned ones which I can understand; it's not for everyone. 

So off I went on Google to try to find a picture of a bass to work off which you can see on my right there. I purposely didn't put all the fins on it. I thought if I did then it would look like a ridiculous frilly thing and not a fish.

I was meant to hand the fish over the day only the guy couldn't make it as he was ill. So for now, the bass is sitting on my desk amongst all my various plans and projects.

The modern granny square

Looky here at my crocheted square.

I saw this pattern on the internet

and

couldn't resist giving it a go. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it though. Maybe I'll make some more and make a blanket or pillow out of them or something. I'll have a ponder and let my creative mind go hunting for ideas.

This is the first time I've worked with different colours at the same time in crochet. I do it quite often when I'm knitting. It was really easy though. It required a fair bit of reading and re-reading the pattern to fully comprehend what going on but as you can see, I got there.

Now, you're probably wondering about the new look on my blog. Well, the background I was using popped up with a notice informing me that it was expiring and that I should upgrade it. I went on the site to do this but alas my old background wasn't there hence the new one. I then reworked the whole layout to make it all go together. This has taken me HOURS including a very late night but this is the finished result. I wasn't anticipating a change but since I was forced to I'm not actually that put out!

Ellen's Corner

My blog has had a temporary change of name today because this post is not about my creations but my twin sisters. All I do is talk about me me me so lets have a look at someone else's creativity for a change.

Something rather exciting for me, Ellen has just started getting into crocheting!! Yay! I have a crocheting buddy!

This box here is her first ever crocheting creation. So proud!

By her own admission it's a little wonky but that's what gives it charm I think. She worked really fast actually. Once she decided she was finishing it, there was no stopping her.

She finished it all off with some sewn on flowers in the corner. How lovely!

But that's not all. As soon as that was finished, she was straight onto her next ambition; making a granny square. After helping her at the start with technique and how to read the pattern, she was off. In fact, she got so engrossed that she has diagnosed herself with COCD. Crocheting Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

This is the finished result once she decided to cast off. She didn't know what she was going to do with it though.

Unfortunately, we did find a use for it. Her granny square became a shroud for my hamster, Woodstock who died on Saturday. It was rather odd the way she died really. One minute she was fine and I was cleaning her cage out. I turned away for a minute and when I look back, she was gone! There one minute gone the next. But she was fairly old so it was just a case of time.

I really hope that Ellen keeps up with the crocheting. It really is great to have someone to crochet with. There's something very sociable about sharing a hobby.