Happy half birthday

I have been seeing loads of designs with cats on lately and wanted to make a card for my friend.  However her birthday is in December, so I decided to make her a “half birthday” card!

I used a TiddlyInks digital stamp, coloured it with Copics and cut it out.  I then used a dotty stencil and distress ink for the background.  I made another stencil by cutting out paw shapes and using the holes as the stencil.  The sentiment is stamped in Stazon black ink.

I am entering this card in … TiddlyInks Challenge #183 Happy Birthday

 

Happy Birthdays.

It’s show off some cards time again, so here are a few I made recently……

Sadness and creativity

Oh dear, nearly three months since my last post!!  I hope you are all still out there…….

It’s been eventful.  Firstly I still have a bad back/hip/leg.  I put it like that because I really don’t know which bit it is that is causing the problem.  I am still waiting for a physio appointment on the NHS(!).  I am so thankful to the NHS for so many things but really, 4 months until I see a physio for something that really should be gone by then.  I was originally told it was sciatica, and it would clear up in about 6 weeks. Humph!  I went to a private physio at first but no relief.  Then an osteopath, no relief, and am now seeing a chiropractor.  A bit of relief but only because I am still on the pain killers.  I tried to cut them down a bit recently but the pain worsened so I went back on them again.  It’s very frustrating, all from a simple action of holding a small child!!

Anyway, let’s get the rest of the doom and gloom out of the way.  My laptop died, but that was easily solved by buying a new one.  A lovely MacBook Air.

Then sadly we had to make the horrible decision to say goodbye to our beautiful girl, Susie, our golden labrador who we had from the rescue 6 years ago.  She just suddenly went off her food which is not like any labrador but especially not her – she used to inhale her food and it never touched the sides.  Following test it turned out she had metastasised tumours on her heart, spleen and the whole of her liver.  There was nothing they could do for her so we had to let her go.  It was only three weeks ago and we are still heartbroken.  I had a meltdown yesterday when I saw a dog the spitting image of her on the way home from work.  It just brought back so many memories.

Well, moving on…………

I have become multicraftual!  Just before Christmas I decided to make Christmas cards.  However then the back went and I only managed to make a few for the closest friends and family.  I have been making since then though, but it does mean accumulating more stuff (more news on that later……).  I bought myself a Sizzix die cutting machine and have been playing about with that.  I’m not realising anywhere near it’s potential but I’m having a go.  Here are some of the cards I have made recently……

On the knitting front I haven’t really made much, my fingers are quite stiff at the moment and the middle finger of my left hand keeps clicking and getting stuck.  But I did make a little Tubby Tabby for my friend Mel for her birthday

I’m currently trying to get a pair of socks out of the way so I can move onto a larger project.  I’d really like to start one of the projects from Kate Davies’ book Yokes.  The Epistrophy, but I’m going to have to face my knitting nemesis to do that, the dreaded STEEKING!!!  Yikes! not Yokes!

I have offered my very limited sewing skills to a friend whose daughter will be going to a school prom in Jume.  She is happy for me to attempt to make a prom dress!!  (I have warned them to have a back up plan!)  So far I have made a mock up of the skirt portion using an old bed sheet and it seemed to fit ok.  I am using Burda Kids pattern 9499.  In the meantime I practised my skills on a cute bunny.  I’m really pleased with it and am going to make another in some more flowery fabric.

I mentioned accumulating more “stuff”.  Well the decluttering went quite well but things are spilling out again, especially craft stuff, so Colin decided that he would move his office stuff out of the small 3rd bedroom and we’d make it into a craft room for me!!  Yay!!!  It’s currently in the being emptied stage so I can’t really get an idea of what it will be like but it’s going to be so nice to have everything in one place rather than in corners of the living room and kitchen extension.  I’ll get a large-ish sewing table so the machine can stay out and lots of storage for fabric, yarn and card making supplies.  I am a bit excited.  And hopefully there will be room under the table for a four legged friend if one should happen to come along!

 

Bring on 2014

So that’s Christmas done and dusted!  Hope everyone had a fabulous time and ate and drank until they burst!!

Now onto 2014…..

I am going to submit another pattern idea, which needs to be in by January 9th.  At the moment it is just in my head but I have got some Drops Safran to use for my swatching.  If the pattern was chosen it would be published i the summer so I have chosen some lovely fruity colours, in raspberry, peach and yellow….

 

I just hope I am able to knit it.  I have been diagnosed as having Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and my hands get pins and needles.  I was having some physic to see if it would alleviate it a bit but after an initial improvement it has now gone worse again.  So I am being referred for some nerve conduction tests.

So after I finished a cowl for my dog walking friend Nina…….,

 

I decided to take a self imposed break from the knitting.  I bought another card making magazine yesterday which came with a vintage lady stamp and some art deco type papers, so this morning I made a couple of birthday cards for friends.

 

I still have a lot of card making stuff left over from a few years back so I was able to fish out the purple hearts and the silver card and embellishments.

I shall also be catching up on my reading, as I now have a Kindle Paperwhite which is very light on my poor hands.  I am currently reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, and to be honest I’m finding it a bit of a slog.

And just maybe, I will start that podcast……

So what are your New Year crafting (or other) plans?  Will you be trying anything new this year?

I made cards!

With Colin off on his course again today, I took a friend out to the golf driving range for an hour or so.  I am quite pleased with my progress after my series of lessons, it really seems to be starting to come together now.

After lunch and walking the dog, I decided to make some cards using the kit from Papercrafter magazine.  I made 5 in about an hour and a half.

 

I’m not keen on the one at bottom left, but I think the others are quite nice.  I’ve got loads of supplies left, just have to get the imagination going.

An odd sort of Saturday

My week consists of mainly pottering around while Colin is at work Monday to Friday.  I go into his office and do his bookkeeping once a week, I go to knit group on a Wednesday, food shop on Thursday, and various bits and pieces of housework (as little as I can get away with usually!). The rest of the time, I knit, read, walk the dog and potter.

At weekends Colin is home so we pop into town and generally spend the weekend together.

However this weekend he is on a course in Manchester on Saturday AND Sunday all day.  So although it sort of feels like a weekday, it also doesn’t.  It just feels a bit odd.  We are meeting friends for a meal this evening though so that will be good.

So, what am I doing with my weekend?  Well, a bit of knitting of course…….. I am working on a Zilver shawl.

 

In my foolishness I decided to join in the “EpicKalCal” on the Skein after Skein podcast group on Ravelry.  There are 12 items to make in a year, 2 of which are shawls.  I don’t particularly like shawls and don’t knit them because I don’t wear them.  But I have to now make two!  Luckily I have allocated a recipient for this one, a friend who recently had a 60th birthday and loves purple.  I think she’ll like this.  So Zilver is the first one and I will probably do a Boneyard shawl as my second one.  I have a lovely red Zauberball which I may use for that.  This yarn is Eden Cottage Fantasia, 100% tightly spun merino.  About 3 years ago back when Eden Cottage yarns were called Wild Fire Fibres, I joined Vicky’s sock club for 6 months and this was one of the yarns I received.  The colourway is called Peacock which suits it perfectly.

Well today is a lovely bright day so I managed to get photos of the joins on the 2.5mm needles I posted about last week.

l-r: Addi Lace, HiyaHiya Sharp, Chiagoo, KnitPro Karbonz, and KnitPro Harmony.

They are all pretty similar really.  I haven’t actually tried the Chiagoos yet.  The HiyaHiyas seem to have the longest transition from cable thickness to needle thickness.  I think you can guess which I like best.  Hope this is a bit of a help Blueadt.

Whilst in the supermarket on a Thursday I look at the magazines.  I usually buy Eat In which is good for quick recipes, and have a mooch at the knitting magazines.  However this week something else caught my eye.

The magazine came with a bumper kit of stuff, well worth the cover price……

I used to make a lot of cards back when I first stopped working and before I rediscovered my knitting passion.  I still have a lot of supplies from back then.  So I thought I would break out the Pritt Stick and use the kit to make Christmas cards for my friends.  And being at a loose end this weekend, I might just have a go this afternoon.