Show and tell time number 3

Happy new year! Hope you had a good night and aren't too hung over. I'll try not to shout too much if you are. So I thought that I would show you my Dad's present today seeing as I showed you Mum's yesterday. Those might know that Dad is pretty into his golf so I made him a golf club cover. But not just any cover oh no. It's him in knitted form! Although, I think that I was very generous with the amount of pom pom hair I gave him. I knitted this on straight needles even though it probably would have been easier to knit it up on double pointed or circular needles.

But it was cool though because it meant that I got to learn a technique called mattress stitch for when I was sewing it together. I love mattress stitch as it helps create a seamless seam. How I wish I had learnt it sooner. Looking back on my past projects, I realise that my seams were pretty shoddy. But still, I've learnt it now. I've actually learnt a lot through knitting all these presents, it's been great!

Oh and the 'R' on the front by the way is his initial not some new fangled golf club.

Show and tell time number 2

Time for another present! This time it's my Mum's pressie I want to show you.

I made her a party clutch bag. The majority of the bag was knitted using moss stitch which is knit one purl one.

The yarn I used was a bit annoying though. It was really thin so I had to double it up. Once I had done that though it knitted up quite well. You can't see it from the pictures but the yarn is actually sparkly.

But after finishing the bag, I thought it needed jazzing up a bit so I lined the bag with this lovely fabric, embellished it with pretty beads to act as the buttons and crocheted a flower brooch. I thought that I would make it as a brooch because then she has the choice of moving it about the bag or taking it off completely to just wear. Anything that takes her fancy!

I also made her a strap that you can wear different ways. She can wear it as a little shoulder strap or clip it on the other side for a wrist strap. And of course, she could have no straps at all!

It's a bag of many options!

Well this is my last post of 2010! I really hope that you have a great night tonight however you choose to celebrate the new year coming in. I'm just going to be having a quiet little night in having fun with my family. I'm cooking them a nice three course meal so that should be nice. We've also got some fireworks! But before that, I've got a new years cake to make! A yummy scrummy chocolate cake.

Here's hoping that 2011 will be a fabtabulous year for you.

Show and tell time number 1

Well the presents have all been opened now so finally, I'm able to show you everything I've been so busy with in the last few months. Rather cool was that my presents were the first ones to be opened! I think to give these presents the best chance to shine, I'll show you them in separate posts. So, without further ado, here is the first installment: This is what I made for my twin, Ellen. A travel pillow. I thought it fitted in quite nicely with our future plans happening next year. I'll tell you more about this in another post! Inside is a fleece cushion which I made and sewed together. The stars I was really pleased with. I crocheted and then blanket stitched them on. The edging is also crocheted. One of first things that Ellen noticed though for some strange reason was the wooden buckles. I found these in Boyes and just had to get them. I think they go really nicely with the moss stitch border don't you think? Anyway, I hope that it will come in handy. If she doesn't use it though, I know I certainly will!

Christmas Eve magic

Well it's the night before Christmas and I'm sat here by the Christmas tree with my family watching a film on the telly with my dog sleeping by my feet. How lovely eh?! Like something out of a novel I know but it's all true! Speaking of the Christmas tree, here are some of the decorations I've made including that Christmas star I said I was going to finish the other day. I decided to give my knitting needles a bit of a break so I crocheted these. I got the pattern for the baubles from a lovely blog called Attic 24.

I can't wait for Christmas tomorrow! I may be considered in the eyes of the law an adult now but I still get very excited nonetheless! I hope that you all have a great day tomorrow whatever you're doing.

I'm off now to fulfill a family Christmas tradition, to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol!

It's a Crafty Christmas

Well first of all let me just apologise for my absence. As I'm sure is the case for most people, I've been very busy with my preparations for Christmas especially considering that I have decided to knit my presents for the family this year. Blinking heck it's been a knitting frenzy trying to get everything completed. There have been quite a few panic stricken moments where I didn't think I would get it done but I have managed to pull it out of the knitting bag! Yes excusing that rather bad pun, I am finally able to lay down the knitting needles and say I am finished on the present front . I'm in the process now of making Christmas tags to go with the wrapping paper.

This is all rather annoying actually. Here I am all excited as I've got all this crafty goodness to show you but because they're presents and thus a surprise for the recipients, I can't divulge any information. So you'll have to wait for show and tell time till after Christmas I'm afraid.

Now that my presents are all taken care of, I think it's time that I pay some attention to my other project; a crocheted tree top star decoration I made a start on a while back. It's perching on top of the Christmas tree quite miserably at the moment begging me to complete it's other points. I'll do that today so it'll sitting proud for Christmas day I think.

Birthday cake surprise

It was my Mum's birthday the other day so I decided to make her a cake as a surprise. We went to a nice restaurant for a meal where the waiter very tentatively gave her the cake being careful not to singe his eyebrows off. The fountain I bought to put on it was very impressive! As you can see in the photo, the flame was so high it went out of shot! The cake was a real labour of love. It took me a couple of hours to bake the cake itself and then all night for the decoration.

Luckily, Mum was out at a party so I didn't have to worry about her walking in. I started decorating at 7pm and just literally didn't stop till just gone midnight! As you can imagine I was very tired. But as much of a cliche as it sounds, it was worth it. I actually had to point out to Mum that I had made it because she thought that it was a restaurant cake! An what does the cake itself taste like...well, as my Dad put it, fabulous! Yay!!!

Bottle cap badges

This is my most recent crafty creation... well one that I can show you. I'm making Christmas presents but obviously I can't show you them until they have gone to the recipients. Don't want to give the surprises away now do I?

I've been wanting some badges for my guitar strap but in my search for them I found it to be very expensive in comparison to just making your own. I pondered into getting a little kiddies badge maker kit but held back on the basis that they might not be that reliable.

Thinking upon his mini conundrum, I suddenly had a brainwave. I know of people who can get hold of lots of bottle caps so why not make badges out of them?! Oh and by the way, these people aren't raging alcoholics, they just work in places that have bars!

Inside the caps are little MOO stickers which were the leftovers from my laptop sticker cover project. I then bought some brooch pins and super glued them on the back. Here they are on my guitar strap. I'll have to order some more stickers as I've run out. These were all the badges I could make to put on my strap so far.

It felt quite strange making something that only took a few minutes to do. I'm so used to things like knitting which take time to achieve the final results. These would be a perfect thing to make and sell. My brain is now whirring with the potential!

Cheeky Monkey

You probably don't want reminding but Christmas is on it's way. I thought that this year instead of buying my family presents, I would knit them all something. That's the plan anyway. I would be able to get on a lot faster if Jenna here didn't think she was a cat and start playing with the balls of wool. The scene in this video here is what met us when we came home one night. This hasn't been a one off event either. She seems to have an obsession with wool and I've caught her many a times. Every time she pulls a ball apart even if she's only had it for a minute, it takes (and I don't joke here) over an hour to unravel it all! This time took even longer as it was multiple balls all tangled together. I've become somewhat of an expert now and actually secretly enjoy the challenge of unraveling! It's like a puzzle. What was lucky about this time was that the knitting on the needles remained intact. Man I would have been cross if she had pulled that apart and I definitely wouldn't have seen the funny side like I have here let me tell you! I decided on this occasion to put it on video because the trail of destruction was vast. Also, you don't really know a huge amount about Jenna and this video really portrays her cheeky personality. Watch her ears twitch back and her eyes blinking innocently when I talk to her! Tut tut!

Chocolate truffles

And now it's time for a mouthwatering post. My twin sister and I made some chocolate truffles this evening. We drove over to Asda to buy some chocolate and ground almonds first though. I real sign of the times there actually. Ellen can drive now so there is no more having to wait till a parent is free to take us; if we want chocolate this evening then I'll be darn it, we will get chocolate! Oh what freedom...that is until we have to pay for the petrol. Speaking of driving, I'm now learning. I've had a few lessons now which are so far going quite well. Although having said that, I did have a lesson today after not being behind the wheel for a couple of weeks so I was a bit...rusty. Lets just say I found it rather amusing when panic crept into the voice of my instructor today! Anyway, back to the truffle making. They were really quick and easy to do and taste GoooD with a capital 'g' and 'd'. Ellen has warned me that when she's a student with no money, this will be what I get for a Christmas present which is fine by me! I love white chocolate so I've requested some of those. They really do make the best presents. If you put them in a pretty little box with packaging, it will look like a high class gift with little effort. What I really loved about truffle making though is that it's messy! Or that might just be because we made it unnecessarily so. I'm still finding choco powder on me even now!

So Amazing by Bekah Funning

I got my song recorded today! And yippee you can listen to it!

I found out a way you can put on audio tracks through my blog so here it is. It was quite simple really. All I had to do was make it into a movie/slideshow thing. I also designed a 'single cover' to go on it so you have something cool to look at whilst you're listening. It's of me recording the song complete with the same outfit I had on and everything.

I would just like to say a huge thank you to the worship leader of my church who put this whole backing track together for me to sing on. Great work!!