My Life's Ingredients

Scenario - you promised your kids Hogwarts robes for their birthday party (which is of course a Harry Potter Party). However, you've left things quite late and then had to go to Germany for holidays. So, after you managed to finish all the pencil wands, mini cauldrons and most of the golden snitches, you decide to start on the robes... on the twins' birthday (the day before the party) at 5:30pm... But all should be ok... because the pattern you found says it will only take 1 hour to make ... Ok... I suspect somehow that's withouth ironing and cutting... or most likely that the lining fabric has the same width of the outer fabric so would be easier to cut? But of course my lining is a bit more than half the width of the outer fabric which resulted in me having to measure and then double them up and sew at the top. It IS actually a very good pattern/instruction. I managed to get everything done like they said (mostly, but that's my measuring issue), h...

... well... in a crafting kinda sense. One person in our OAHPT (One Awesome Harry Potter Thing) swap (where I made the paper pieced blocks on a tote) flaked and because the swapper who lost out lives in Scotland I decided to jump in to make her something and then she wouldn't have to wait too long for the postie to deliver it. :D I had been toying with the idea of making another paper pieced item, but she stated that she likes Amigurumi ... and she likes Buckbeak (the Hippogriff in HP). Soooo ... in my infinite wisdom I decided to make something fairly new to me (I've only made 1 amigurumi before, for yet another HP swap), and the pattern was a bit of a problem for me, too (the "toes" and the wings in particular ... had to ask several friends on help what the foundation stitch is!!)!! But here he is ... Baby Buckbeak, ready to "wing" his way to Stirling tomorrow!! ;) The pattern can be found here .   I should be safe to post this, as my swap...

Mmmmh... I really wish Microsoft Live writer and Blogger would sort out their problems ... so much easier to write and then upload, but hey ... just have to be on blogger itself to update *gasp!* the blog. ;) Some thoughts running through my head ... how many kids can we accommodate comfortably in our house/garden for the Hobbitses' birthday? I think taking everyone into account we may have 10 kinds around. Is that ok? We don't really want to have a big party this year with going somewhere and paying a lot of money - there's no need for it really. Garden, games and some sausages/potato salad/pasta salad was all I needed when I was a kid?! Only problem is of course that it's the two of them ... instead of just one kid, but so far they have the same friends, so no added numbers! ;) And then for craftiness ... I'm currently thinking about a fandom bookshelf quilt, based on the PoD ( Project of Doom ) bookshelf quilt on Fandom In Stitches .  Was thinking of doing th...

I HAVE been doing some crafts in the last quarter of 2013. Not as many paper crafts, which I always thought as my “go to crafts”. Some were swaps, some were presents. My first attempt at purling as well as knitting – loving the pattern, miscounted rows / stitches though, so will unravel and try again. Also have future plans for some things using those patterns… They are from “holynarf” on Ravelry. Some hats I knitted for the “Big Knit 2013”. Never managed to buy an innocent smoothie with a hat myself though, shame really! Definitely will knit more this year. My tags for the Christmas Tag swap at the Edinburgh Crop A crocheted Dalek egg cozy which I transformed into a plushie. Have to improve my bobble-stitch mind (first time I ever stitched those). Another pattern from Ravelry . Some Halloween “Ephemera” and a Candy corn hat for a Halloween Swap on Craftster (currently my favourite craft forum) A Mug rug for a swap on a FB Sewing group (my first mug rug and first ev...

Well… when it comes to crafts I don’t have much time for due to the girls demanding my attention during daytimes and me being just flat out tired/cannot be bothered (oh oh!) in the evenings. Effectively I only have Tuesdays to do crafts for long when the girls are at the grandparents for the day and a sleepover.  And that’s usually the day I catch up with housework… Despite all this I’ve decided to sign up to 2 swaps at our local crop group (in addition to the monthly layout Chinese Whisper we’re running at the moment – the only thing I get scrapped at the moment) – a Christmas tag swap (15 tags) and a “Merry Christmas Bunting” swap – each person is doing 14 triangles with a certain letter (mine is “E”) in certain colours (fortunately most are doing the traditional gold/green/red, but we have a couple more modern Christmas colours , too). Can I make it? I just HAVE to. So this Tuesday I just declare a CRAFT DAY – with maybe some washes on and cleaning the kitchen floor, but tha...