A blog full of randomness; about anything and everything.

Monday 22 August 2011

Honey, I'm home

Yes, I'm back. It's been a while but here I am whipping off the dust sheets, blowing away the cobwebs and throwing open the windows. The musty smell of an unlived in house is heavy in the air and the colour seems to have ebbed out while I was away.

Now there is loud music pushing away echoes and colour splodges return as I unload great boxes of craftiness all over the place.

To sum up: I have much to show you.

But not all at once because you might all pass out with excitement!

But for now  Cute Coffee Cozies


Yes I am a tiny bit addicted to coffee.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

I'm not unemployed...

Nope I'm not. I'm a struggling author :p

This struggling author thing would work a bit better should I have a rich father or maybe if I didn't need to pay bills or anything and didn't need to get a job. But struggling author sounds better than unemployed. I decided a few nights ago to seriously get down to some writing and actually get some stuff finished. I have lots of short stories but have rarely finished anything longer which I have been happy with. I've had an idea whizzing about my brain for ages and so I decided to go with that.

The only downfall is an aching arm. Unfortunately when I decided to become a struggling author it was the middle of the night and pen and paper were closer to hand that the laptop. I've filled a whole notebook so far and have made the possibly crazy decision to continue on paper. It gives me more freedom to lug it around places and gives the long suffering Daisy (the laptop) some rest. After all she has done a degree; three years of being on all day every day and now being needed for several hours a day to apply for jobs. The poor things has been run ragged. 

I've also been meaning to do some new years resolutions so in honour of Chinese New Year here they are. (And doing them now also means I can give progress reports).

1. Get a job (see above)

2. Diet. After a slight hiccup called Xmas I am now well back on track. I even still managed to shed some pounds despite indulging in a bag of minstrels whilst wallowing in self pity last week. 

3. At Christmas I cleared out our recipe book cupboard which was bulging at the seams. I weeded out books we don't use or only use one or two recipes from (the recipes we use have been typed up and are nice and neat in a folder) and even found a few duplicates. The cupboard is now full rather than overfall and I made the decision that as we have so many recipe books I have to choose a book to try a new recipe from each week. This seems to be going well and everyone seems pleased at the discovery of some new recipes. 

4. Start writing again. (See above).


Wednesday 5 January 2011

Xmas Crafts

So this should be the post where I belatedly talk about my new years resolutions but have instead decided to focus today on the belated photos of all my Xmas makings.

First of all it wouldn't be Xmas without all the presents. So here is a round up of all the ones that I managed to get photo's of (with all the excitement I completely forgot to take a few snaps!)

First of I made this Picture/ Notice Boards:


Two like this for my sister and a third for my best friend made from sewn together scraps of some very pretty Chinese fabrics. These were all my own design and I'm really quite proud of them although the rubbish picture quality (there hasn't been any good photographing light in a while) doesn't really do it justice.

Next, for my Mum, I made oven gloves as like me she likes to bake. 


The inside of the pockets is line with a pink spotty material which you shall see later.

Next was a peg bag for my Grandma made from some awesome fabric that my mum picked up cheaply at a market in Mallorca. 


Both of these creations have been adapted from patterns found in this Cath Kidston book.

It also wouldn't be Xmas without all the cooking and me and my Mum decided to cook in style this year and we both made aprons!


Mine is on the right! I also made one for my Gran's Xmas present - it was made from the same fabric as the oven gloves with the pink spotty fabric as the contrast and together we made one for my Aunt exactly like my Mum's but with pink edging instead of green. The pattern is from this awesome book.

And now some actual baking. Back in October I cooked three Christmas cakes (1 big and 2 small) and here they are all decorated.





The small ones were presents for the grandparents but the big one was all for us greedy lot!