Monday 30 December 2013

Monday Makes

So, after a few months of this:


And this:


I am finally back to feeling like myself again :) Ready to get back into the swing of things and kick start my blogging again!
(I may explain things in a later post, but today is just about all the lovely makes I've made whilst AWOL).

Where to start.....? I guess I'll start with how I'm doing on the Summer Stitching Club (yep, still haven't finished it and we've had the Autumn one AND now the Winter one has started.....).
My last post featured the ice lolly design, so here's what I've done so far:








All the hexagons have now been joined together and I'm just finishing off the last few instructions before it's done! My sister bought me a mini sewing machine for my birthday in November - I can't wait to use it for this!

I've also been busy making presents for other people. This (excuse the poor stitching, my first attempt!) for my nephew:


And got a little further with my nieces cross stitch:


And this for my awesome Wiggy wifey's birthday (pattern from Wild Olive's Friendship Week post):


And earrings for le momma. My aunty got her this gorgeous bracelet for her birthday back in March and she hadn't been able to find earrings to match. So after a lot of searching, I finally found beads to match (metallic petroleum blue is not as common as you'd think apparently). Then I hit Hobbycraft for some supplies and this is what I made. Not bad for a first attempt and possibly a new hobby:


And more recently, I made Xmas lucky pants badges for my Slay Belles Intraleague team (pattern taken from Bugs and Fishes Blog):


Whilst on the Xmas theme, I attempted my very first blanket stitch......:


And lastly, something that I look at every day, to remind me (pattern from Wild Olive's Let Go Of Your Kite post):


Monday 29 July 2013

Monday Makes

Following on from the last Monday Makes, here's my progress on the Summer Stitching Club:


Almost guess correctly on this pattern - I said it might be a drink xD


And this cute little guy is the last pattern in the food theme.  He also finishes off another row!  And here's what it looks like so far:


I've also been on the perler bead trail, this time making a Hello Kitty for birthday girl Maxx:


I got the pattern here - Kandi Patterns.  This is a great site for perler beads.

Feeling creative after pay day, I popped down to HobbyCraft and decided to make the nephew a shield and sword (he loves Mike The Knight!):


Not the best stitching job I've ever done, but I've put that down to my blunt needles, which I've only really used for cross stitch and some embroidery.  I made a template out of card for both the shield and sword, then I cut the felt out about half an inch around bigger than the template (so I had room to stuff the felt).  I completely forgot to pick up something to stuff the felt with, so I used some wool I had lying around that I probably won't ever use again.  I hope he likes them!

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Despicable Me - Make your own Minion

Us roller girls at FVRG have a little Friday night ritual of going to McDonalds after training (athletes!).  For the last couple of months, McDonalds have been handing out minions from Despicable Me 2 in their Happy Meals (I squeed, they are so cute!)  However, we soon discovered you could buy them without having to purchase a Happy Meal (I squeed even more!).  Alas, I couldn't go the first Friday they were selling them (stupid early shift the next day), and then I heard they'd sold out at our local McDonalds!  So I pouted a little, and then decided to make my own (as shown on Monday Makes).  The lovely Tiny came to the rescue though and managed to get me two from another McDonalds :D  And so my minion army grew......


After making my perler bead minion and collecting quite a few minions from McDonalds, I jumped on Pinterest and started having a look for other ways to create them (seriously, ARMY).  Here are some of my favourites (with Pinterest changing the way you embed pins, I've had to resort to a "insert-image-paste-link-at-bottom (hehehehehe "bottom") method.  Hope it works).

Easy, simple, something the kids could do!


Speaking of kids, how cute is this?


This is making me more determined to master crocheting!


I can cross stitch however, so this is definitely on my to-do list!


Puts my attempt to shame, this is amazing!


Someone needs to have a fancy dress party soon!


This is adorable.


But could I eat them......?


Something to bake for the next bout?


Great attention to detail!




Monday 15 July 2013

Monday Makes

What a hectic few weeks I've had!  With getting organised for the boy coming over to visit, the blog has been neglected, but I'm back now :)

I'm still plodding along with the Summer Stitching Club.  I love how easy it is to catch up when I "miss" a week.  Here's what I've done so far:


With the first four patterns completed, I stitched the hexagons into rows, ready for the next row of four patterns.  I still have to join them vertically, which I'm slighty panicking about - I always get like this when I do something I've never tried before.  Hopefully I won't mess it up!


The next pattern was this cute picnic basket.  I'm not sure that mine looks right compared to some of the others that have been shared.  But I still like it.


And last Monday's pattern, the snow cone.  I think this might be one of my favourites!

So, with that pattern done, I am now officially half way through the project!  We get another pattern today, with only a hint that it's going to be food related.  Food, summer, beach....hmmmm, maybe a glass of some kind of summery drink?

Monday 24 June 2013

Monday Makes

It's been a very productive week for me! :D
Firstly, I missed the derby trip to McDonalds after training (stupid shifts....), so I lost out to getting my very own minion from Despicable Me 2, sad Moogle :(  So I decided to make my own!


Which did me until the lovely Tiny Tearaway surprised me with two of my very own from another McDonalds that hadn't sold out :D

We have a few crafty/fundraising things coming up with both Fierce Valley Roller Girls and the Cubs, so I've been trying to think of things I can make to contribute.  I came up with this:


I hope it looks like a skate!  I'm thinking I can make it into a fridge magnet or possibly keyring.  It might be too big for a necklace.  We'll see.

I've also been catching up on the Summer Stitching Club.


I'm quite happy with how this one came out.  I've done a little better on this one compared to the sunglasses from the last Monday Makes.  The stitches are closer and I've managed a circle!


The swimsuit was a little trickier, but I'm happy with this one too :)


The sunhat....was probably the most difficult for me.  I don't think I traced the image well enough onto the linen and for some reason, I completely messed up my french knots for the eyes.  I just lost it :(

And here is the progress so far which I posted up on Wild Olive's Flickr group.


I'm hoping to get the blue fabric tomorrow to finish off the hexies (I finally decided on a pattern!).  Then I can start joining them together.

Monday 17 June 2013

Monday Makes

I finally got started on the Wild Olive Summer Stitching Club last week!  Like I've previously said, this is going to be a every-2nd-week kind of thing due to my shifts, but I am making progress :)

I started by making the patterned hexagons.  Remember the "footprints in the sand" fabric I bought? (from my "In My Shopping Bag" post).  After buying that, I knew I wanted a beach themed project - it goes well with the patterns we're receiving from Mollie and my room is slowly becoming beach/sea themed.  So, I found another sandy themed fabric from the same company, Makower, and ta da!  My very first hexagon was made!  (I can't believe how nervous I was doing this first one!).


Once I got the hang of it, I was unstoppable, and finished quite quickly!



I still have to chose a fabric for the blue hexagons on the outside (see here for some fellow Summer Stitchers amazing projects! "Summer Stitching Club progress"), there are too many to chose from!
I then moved on to embroidering my first pattern.  I've never embroidered before, but thanks to all the cross stitching I've been doing lately, back stitch wasn't an issue for me and I felt a bit more confident about the whole thing.  I also did my very first french knot!



Once the excitement of completing my very first embroidery pattern wore off, I realised I'd stitched the hexagon the wrong way up.....



Which I quickly fixed!
Then it was time to join some hexagons!



And this is how far I got.  I'm quite pleased with my progress, although for the next pattern, my back stitches will have less gaps between them! 

Monday 10 June 2013

Monday Makes

Much to my own amazement (!), I actually managed to do some crafting last week!

 

I've finally finished the owl cross stitch that I was making for my mum :)  Now all I have to do is buy a picture frame for it so she can put it up in her room, the colours will go really nice in there.

 

I also made a perler bead Tazmanian Devil for one of the girls who's leaving Fierce Valley (sad face), Mazmanian Devil.  I hope she likes it!  I got the pattern for it from this page http://s300.photobucket.com/user/rgcainmd/media/Wee%20Project/TazDevil.jpg.html.

Last week saw the start of Wild Olive's Summer Stitching Club which I've registered for, so hopefully there will be a little more content to the next Monday Makes :)




Sunday 9 June 2013

In My Shopping Bag

As a sufferer of depression (I bet that's not how you thought this post was gona go when saw the title!), I know the signs of when it's trying to break through and ruin my life.  Sounds a bit drastic, but that's how it feels at the time.  You can't explain to anyone why you're feeling the way you're feeling, you just do, which can be difficult for people to comprehend.  Which is why I usually slap a happy face on and tell people "I'm fine" when I'm really not.  Although I guess this post kind of negates that effect now....oh well.

So, after having a pretty shitty day on Saturday, I was catching up on my blog reading and came across this - 19 Ways To Kick A Bad Mood To The Kerb.  Thank you FatMumSlim!  This is just what I needed!  I mean, I know all these things.  I do.  But having them in list form is what my brain needed to kick it's arse (if brain's had arses) out of the funk that I was letting myself slowly drown in. 

After waking up on the right side of bed this morning, which is number 10 on this list (although I can't really wake up on any other side, unless I want to fall out of my window), I did some cleaning (number 4 on the list), walked the dogs (number 1 on the list) and headed to the retail park to do some much needed retail therapy (on a budget, but hence the title of this post!  Got there eventually.  And this would be number 11 and 14 on the list!).

First stop was Hobbycraft.  Nobody will come with me to Hobbycraft, not even my own mother (who has a pretty high tolerance for pretty much everything) because I take so damn long to browse.  I've never been guilty of this before, so I think of crafty stuff being what shoes are to my sister.  Helps me sleep at night.

Here is what I bought!!

 

This fabric was on sale, which made me very, very happy as it's beach themed!  This is for the Wild Olive Summer Stitching Club.  I've still to pick out my second fabric.

 

The thread needed for the stitching club, plus an embroidery hoop.  This is only the second one I've ever bought of these - the first was for a little mouse I stitched using a sewing machine programme in Home Economics.  Yeah...little disappointed with that class.  But so glad I could get the exact colour I needed thanks to Wild Olive providing the colour codes :)

My last purchase in Hobbycraft was cupcake icing.  I'm going to recreate these delicious babies, 2 Minute, 2 Ingredient Cupcake (number 6 and 9 on the list).  Now, it does say to use whipping cream and vanilla, but I cheated and just bought the vanilla flavoured cupcake icing ;)

Then it was off to the supermarket!  Here I managed to purchase some vitamin D tablets (number 8 on the list), some raspberry ribena (another addiction and number 7 on the list.  Although they do list alcohol on this list, best to avoid the depressants when you're on a low), and I decided that instead of buying chocolate biscuits for the cupcake recipe (I couldn't find any decent ones anyway) I'd make my own double chocolate chip cookies freom a Weight Watchers recipe I had years ago.  Less guilt and the momma might eat some ;)  However, this recipe changed when I went wondering for chocolate chips and found fudge pieces sitting next to them. 

So, feeling better already, I have cupcakes to make tomorrow after work.  I also have a few more things to do from that list, including sorting out a pick-me-up music playlist and rummage through my feel good jar, and I might even indulge in a bath tonight.  If you're ever feeling down in the dumps, this is indeed a good list to get you smiling again :)


Monday 27 May 2013

Monday Makes

I apologise for the lack of crafty posts recently.  I've been extremely busy and not had any time to do anything, which makes for a sad Moogle :(  With my shifts being the way they are (early shift one week, back shift the next), I think I might make this section a fortnightly one, as I never seem to get any crafting done on a back shift and that makes for a rather dull blog post!

I have managed to do a few things in the last month, so here you go:


I finally finished my Mario mushrooms bookmark.  Well, I stitched the last mushroom.  I'm currently looking into ways that I can finish the bookmark off so it doesn't fray at the edges.  I'm quite happy with this cross stitch, but it did take a lot longer than I thought.


Fierce Valley had their second intraleague bout on Saturday (I'll definitely be writing a post about this!).  I was on team Autoblocks (Autobots but derby'd up for the bout) and this is one of the presents we were given in our treat bags.  Me and our captain, Dita Von Cheeze, made these.  Very easy and so relaxing, I do love crafting with perler beads.


This is the cross stitch I'm currently working on, an owl for my momma.  I bought the pattern from Nerdy Little Stitcher on Etsy. I'm going to put it in a frame so she can hang it up in her room.  She's been working really hard lately and she's exhausting herself, even if she won't admit it.  So hopefully this will cheer her up a little :)