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 :)