I know, blogger fail, sorry. Hello if you are still reading my blog!
I have made a decision, that this year, I will be brave and "try crafts"
I call myself a crafter, but really there are only a couple of things I actually do, I want to rectify that.. a bit anyway. (I'm not talking about basket weaving - not that there is anything wrong with basket weaving.. digs self out of hole) SO - to start with, I have been learning to crochet!
ME
CROCHET!!
I am officially the girl who said she would NEVER pick up a ball of wool and think "I must make with this!!" BUT - my friend Rach has been making some beautiful ripple blankets, and granny stripe blankets which has prompted me to retract my previous sweeping statements and actually convince my friend Nathalie to teach me. One night armed with Haribo, wine and her patience (of a saint) she showed me how to do a chain, and then turn, and single crochet...
I was hoping that I would walk away from my lesson with something like this:
instead... obviously I walked away with something resembling this:
BUT I also walked away with the determination to master my found skill... I say skill very loosely by the way- as it took A MILLION attempts till I learned how to turn my work .. but I have happily started to find my rhythm with it - and I am working on my first proper project as we speak... a very simple blanket for a very small person, a gnome perhaps, or for Finlay's favourite bear.... who knows. Here is a quick instagram photo of it as it stood last night.... Soz for lighting - it was like 11pm. aka dark.
It is not just crochet I am doing though, I have rekindled my love of printing - and I wandered to my local curiosity art store and asked non-expectantly if they had lino cutting supplies - and to my glee he said yes. Admittedly the lino appears to be from 1981 and cracks like you would not believe - but - that said, I still managed to carve a couple of designs out of the three pieces I bought. I happen to know that they have easy carve stuff in there too now, so I will be trotting off there at some point to stock up, as I have had lots of fun with these. (Also - lots of nearly cutting my fingers off, and some properly painful injuries, but they were worth it .. kinda..)
Here are three of my little attempts....
After I took this picture, I also took a chunk out the top of my ring fingers.. sob. Oh how we suffer for our 'art' - pretty though - birds in a birch tree! <3
and you know me, I couldn't "not" do a jar!
a herringbone style one for creating backgrounds.
And then I got a bit ambitious...
which provoked me to actually utter a profanity. Or twelve.
and then simplify a huge amount till I was left with this:
which I know is much less grand.. but.. if you will, imagine it with gold ink on a black or purple textured card with some added bling - and you have yourself a little fancy!
The print will be fully customised to your specifications, hair styles, clothing preference. You can add song lyrics, quotes, a love heart bubble, cloud, bird, moon, whatever you would like (if I can draw it!)
Below is a sample with song lyrics from "Can't take my eyes off you", the couples first dance *swoon* very romantic, what a lovely valentines gift.
I was so excited to be asked to design for Quirky kits again, as I LOVE the kits truly.
Firstly - I used Snow Stories to design some pages:
I loved how the kit was so universal and could be used for anything...
I am not a massive Christmas scrapper - so I was delighted when the kit arrived and it wasn't snowman themed!! Here are some of my pages I have made using the kit.
I will be back this week with more pages from the December kits!
It's a day late - I will get myself in check for next week (I hope!)
This week, I needed a banner for a project - so drew a few to choose from, and thought that perhaps you might like to have your own banners too :)
There are two ways you can do this...
One - right click on the picture below.. and save, print and cut etc
Or - you can
clickHEREand download the full set of individual files, digi stamp version for your own colouring and PNG files for digi scrapping should you so feel the inclination
I am really excited, because a while back I was asked to design the latest range of Fiskars roller stamp sheets. They have been in the pipe line for a long time, but are now available!
as soon as I get my grubby fingers on them I will post some photos of how they print.
See that paisley design one? That took me TWO DAYS to get right lol! I am most proud of that one!
It's that time again. A new year, and new year blog post!
Last year - (and I had to look back at this!!!) I said I wasn't going to set myself a list of goals to fail at! (a little pessimistic much?) and I gotta admit - as I sit here tonight, I am properly disappointed at myself! ha!
So - instead of reflecting upon that.. cos, I can't... I instead will reflect upon some of the years events that made me smile, cry, ponder and celebrate!
This list, is in no way, in order. Just saying. I have no favourites :)
Things I made water in my eyes over:
Selling stress - our selling flat saga spread itself over 2 long years of woe = but finally this year, we handed over the keys to a couple and ran for our lives to rent a house where Finlay could roam free.
Apart from that - I am sitting here racking my brain for other sad stuffs - and I can't think of anything other than the normal weeping at sad movies, and some private inner woe that really doesn't need to be discussed lol!.... wow..... really!? Is that it?! Quick - touch wood that means 2012 isn't my year of sadness!
2011 Achievements
-January -
My first line of stamps with Personal Impressions went to QVC!
I started doing monthly giveaways on UKS of printable freebies.
-February -
My first project article was published in PaperCraft Inspirations
I made my most favourite quilt of all time - properly - and it is almost perfect! (almost - as I don't do anything to the degree of perfection, who wants to spend their life trying to be perfect!?)
(this is it mid - stage)
-April-
My second release of Angel stamps arrived!
I was so so so proud of these!
April was fairly quiet - I had some awesome guest designers for Little Musings... and my stamps were on QVC again <3
-May-
I demonstrated for Letraset for the first time, in a hobbycraft (eep)
-June-
I learnt basic origami!
we SOLD AND MOVED!
I turned 30. Gah
Finlay beat a terrible strain of chicken pox that started to attack his organs!
I made the Scraprat Design Team
And the Little Bit of Whimsy Design Team
I guested at Pencil lines,
and perfected my shortbread recipe!
-July-
I did my first craft fair in years
I did well - but don't think ill do another any time soon!
Finlay learnt how to ride a bike
Me and Ben celebrated our wedding anniversary.
-August-
A lemur kissed me!
I made a cute cushion from scraps
-September-
I released my Christmas digital angels
I had two epic articles in magazines which made me so proud I don't even mind having a little boast!
and
I started TAKE ONE
Which - I will be continuing in the New year folks!
Now - this one is not my personal achievement, but my TWIN brother got married!
I practised Victory Rolls
I made their wedding biscuits!
I taught at Cardinal Colours retreat
I started designing prints fuelled by the love of typography
I cut my own fringe lol!
-October-
I learnt how to needle felt.
I started selling Personalised names likes prints:
I fell in love with a photo
-November-
I released one of my post popular downloads:
Finlay turned FOUR!
I spent a lovely day at Craftaholic Supplies! I wish I lived nearer!
We went for a lovely weekend away (though missed Laura) :(
-December-
Tumbleflump moved in:
My little boy was a shepherd!
and there is a shed load of freebies on the blog should you care to look back over December too!
Word of the year:
Nuture 2009
Renew 2010
Evolve 2011
So - my word for 2012 is.... *drumroll* Evaluate e·val·u·ate
tr.v. e·val·u·at·ed, e·val·u·at·ing, e·val·u·ates
1. To ascertain or fix the value or worth of.
2. To examine and judge carefully; appraise. See Synonyms at estimate.
3. Mathematics To calculate the numerical value of; express numerically.
I need to evaluate a lot of things in my life - some of the main ones are:
Working out where to worry less. I seem to spend a lot of my time worrying about things I cannot change, sometimes I loose sleep over other people! I am not saying I want to worry about them less, but what I do want to do, is work out why I worry so much!!
I also worry a crazy crazy amount what people think of me - why do we do that so much!?
I want to evaluate my time better - working out where to spend time, on what projects etc and to make sure that I don't become so "last minute" as I did in 2011
I guess Judgement would be a good word to go hand in hand with Evaluate - but we can't have two!
There are some really personal things I need to evaluate in 2012 - not blog appropriate but we all have our personal things right?
Goals for 2012
I have a few things I would like to "aim" for in the forthcoming months.
One is to craft more - considering I call myself a crafter - I didn't do anywhere near the amount of personal projects I thought I would last year.
The other is to develop Little Musings (the shop) more. Through sales I have identified which areas to focus on and will do so in 2012... I feel so fortunate to have such wonderful customers!
I want to spend more time with friends this year, more time on adventures with Finlay and Ben and more time with family.
I want to say get healthy and loose weight - but I seem to jinx myself when I do that.. so I will merely mutter it under my breath.
I want to paint more! I want a sketch book full of drawings, I want to journal and keep a diary so I never miss a deadline!
I want to wear more dresses and heels and dance! <-------- even though I have no one to dance with!
I want to live in the present - and forget day dreams that leave me sad in reality.... if that makes sense.
I want to love simply without holding resent.
So what is left? How many more words can I fit into a blog post without you falling asleep!?
None - I shall leave you with some tunes instead, and wish of great things for you for 2012!
Some of my favourite songs I listened to a million times this year were:
