New Year's Resolutions

My attempts at blogging here this year have been woefully poor. I may have made this same resolution regarding my Other Blog (where I talk about real world, rather than crafty me, and generally rant, moan and discuss what happens in my head!) but one of my New Year's resolutions is to blog here, and there, at least once a week.

I'm hoping that this will inspire me to a) craft more, b) actually write about things without bottling them up more, and c) entertain / annoy / amuse / insert word here people who bother to read these things!

So, keep watching, and poke me (metaphorically preferably) when I don't make posts.

ETA: I've added a new layout. Isn't it pretty?!

Armwarmers!

Over at the Craftzine blog, there's a Loom Along happening! As one of the few people I know whoknits with a loom, rather than needles, I was pretty excited.

Sadly, it's based on the armwarmers a character in Twilight / New Moon wears. And I'm pretty sure everyone who knows me knows that I hate Twilight with a passion. As soon as anyone mentions it I all but foam at the mouth!

Still, a Loom Along is a Loom Along, and I've wanted to make Armwarmers for ages, and hadn't had much luck with finding a pattern. And I wasn't the only one with the same opinion. Over at the Flickr Group that relates to the Loom Along, a lot of people said much the same thing!

Anyways...without further ado...here are said armwarmers:



And here's one on my wrist:



I am totally on a stripes kick right now, and these remind me of being a kid, and reading the Beano. They are totally the same shade as everything Dennis The Menace and Minnie The Minx wear. They are officially known as my Minnie The Minx armwarmers! I can see myself making a lot more of these, and if there's any interest, I might make some for sale!

I've now moved onto knitting a shrug type thing, which if it works, will be an xmas present for my Auntie. It's an experiment really, as this is the first time I'm making something from a pattern that exists solely in my head. It'll be good if it works though!

And finally (this has been going on for a while it seems...), The Sock Swap, has been postposted. I only had two people email me about it, so I'll try again in the new year, when people are likely to have more time and aren't worrying about making things for xmas!

Phew...I'm going to shut up now!

Sock Swap

As avid readers (ha, like I have any of them!) will know, I make things from socks. Mostly monkeys, but also bunnies, cats, monsters and just about anything my imagination can come up with!





I've also just learned to knit socks, and armed with this knowledge, I've decided to host my very first swap, based around, you guessed it, socks!



So...here's the brief:

Socks! Simple as that! Whether it's something made from socks, or a pair of handmade socks, or even a pair of socks that you've embroidered or made pretty in some other way, socks is where to start!

Then add something crafty for your partner - fabric, buttons, stickers, (maybe even more socks!) and something tasty to nibble on (chocolate, biscuits, sweets...)! And there we have it, a sock swap parcel!

Overall you should aim to spend around £10 ($15) on your parcel, although obviously, it's up to you how much you do!

This is open internationally, as I don't think it'll be too expensive to post everything!

And now, the important bit - if you're interested, email me: driahades@gmail.com with 'SOCK SWAP', in the title! Then let me know your name (real and online!), address, and favourite colours, themes, items, and anything you're allergic to!

Sign up will end on Friday 30th October, and a rough date for sending parcels out would be around the end of November.

Simple as that! Enjoy!

Socks!

It's been a while since I made a post here...what with the new job I haven't really had too much time for crafting.

I made 2 sock monkeys for a friend, who was overjoyed with them, and has ordered 4 more for xmas, which makes me very happy. I've also got the pattern for the frock coat my dad wants me to make him, but it looks REALLY complicated, so I keep putting off actually doing anything with it. It's a much more complicated pattern than I've ever used, and it's been so long since I've done anything with a pattern I'm not even sure I remember how! Hints, tips and lots of fingers crossed for luck when I start it would be gratefully accepted!

In other news, I knitted some socks! For a year now I've been playing around with my knitting looms, and I haven't mananged to make anything except hats and scarves (things that are basically just round!). Looking at something completely different online, I found a link to a great loom knitting resource site, and from there, I managed to find a pattern for socks!

And here they are:

On the bed:





and on my feet:



They're obviously not the prettiest socks ever, but they're warm, and comfy and I totally love them. I am going to go wool shopping at some point in the week for pretty wool to make many more pairs from!

And The Winner Is...

Okay...so I didn't have a hat to put the names into...but I had a box, which worked well enough:



And the lucky winner of the monkey cards is:



So congratulations Livvie - I'll be contacting you to get the address to send them to!

In other crafty news, I've nearly finished the 3rd panel on the Looney Toons cross-stitch - I just have the back stitch to do. So the next picture will hopefully be of a fully completed cross stitch!

Oh, and my new job seems pretty cool too!

New Job!

Once again, I am an employed person! As of tomorrow, I will have a job once more!

Okay, so it's call centre work, I vowed I would never do it again, but at the moment, I don't think I can afford to be fussy, and work is work!

So, all in all I'm pretty excited, and looking forward to having money again.

One of the first things I want to buy when I have money, is I think, this cute little purse, because mine is falling apart:



It's made by alliebeans and is available here

Envelopes

Two blog posts in as many days....the world must be coming to an end!

Having a stack of fashion magazines lying around the place, with nothing to do with them except throw them in the recyling, I decided to recycle them in a different fashion.

I decided to make envelopes from them!









They're glued, and then sewn, more for sturdinesses sake than anything else, and I think they're pretty cute! I'm building up quite a collection, and am sending a few off to my best friend!

Other than that, I'm not quite sure what to do with them. I'd like to sell them, but I don't know if there would be copyright isses or anything - a quick look at Etsy shows me that a lot of people seem to make recycled envelopes, so I'm kinda in a quandary. And then there's the fact that I really don't think they're sturdy enough to go through the post, which begs the question of 'What do you actually use them for'?

Oh well, I'm sure I'll work answers out soon enough!

50's B Movie Swap!

Today I got my parcel from Kim who was my parter for the 50's B Movie swap! She sent me some utterly amazing things and I cannot thank her enough.

Here are pictures of what I got (they're taken on my phone, because I've misplaced my camera, so please excuse the rubbish quality of them!)

The handmade item was this gorgeous little plushie creature (who I am still trying to think of a name for!):


Next were these sweets (which I may have om nom nommed already!):


Then I had 3 crafty items - some yarn, some stickers and some pom-poms!:






There was also a very cool Horror magazine:


And finally, and most awesomely in my mind, a double feature DVD featuring one of my favourite actors - Vincent Price, and set in my favourite scary movie setting, old mental hospitals!:


I very stupidly forgot to take proper pictures of what I sent Kim, but I have some pictures I took just to show for friends!

I sent this cute Vampire Monkey:



Some stickers, much like the ones Kim sent me, some flying saucer sweets, and some "fizzy fang" sweets, and finally, some fabric which I thought was so amazing I wanted to keep it!



It was a great swap, and Meri was awesome for organising it! She's currently hosting a 1980's Fantasy Movie Swap, which I'm thinking of taking part in, if I can work out what to make before the sign-up deadline!

Wow, long post!

A Giveaway!

Well, it seems, once again, that I have not been keeping this poor, neglected place updated. So, in order to give it some new life, I've decided to have a little giveaway!

Since my original idea of embroidering my sock monkey design onto card, I've since been embroidering them onto actual cards, and so, have decided to giveaway a set of 5 lovely cards, to a) make sure I check on my blog, and b) advertise the fact that said monkey cards are now available for sale in my Etsy shop!

These cards are blank inside, for your own message (although I think they'd make awesome invitation cards, or thank you cards...or even 'I just wanted to say hi' note cards!) and they are stamped on the back with the initials DHD (for DriaHades Designs).







To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post, saying what colours you think the embroidered monkeys would look good in! This will close on Friday August 14th, so you have 2 whole weeks to enter! After that, the names will go in a hat, and I'll get my lovely boyfriend to pick one out!

So...enjoy!

Embroidered Monkeys

I've been playing around with the idea of embroidering sock monkeys on to things for a while, since I first doodled one, and then the idea suddenly hit me the other day to embroider them onto card. I plan to use them for thankyou notes, monkey birth certificates and perhaps gift cards, but I think they probably need a little more tweaking!



And this is a monkey I finished last night, who has been named Splodge.


I'm also taking part in two mini-swap type things with some friends, which should keep me busy and hopefully creative. I'm having a plushie swap with one friend, and with the other we've decided to swap something crafty with a broad heading of 'it has to be stripy'! So that should hopefully inspire me somewhat!

Of Ugly Sock Rabbits and Gingerbread Cakes

Yesterday I finished what I think is the ugliest sock rabbit I have ever made. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong with it, but it just doesn't look right to me. I have named it Wonky...because, well, that's how it looks to me. The boyfriend however, thinks it is lovely, despite it's wonkiness, and has decided to keep it. So we have yet another creature that lives in the bedroom with us.

And here he is - in all his wonky glory:



I also made gingerbread cakes at the weekend. I started out with the intention of making gingerbread men, but on inspection of my baking supplies I realised I had no plain flour. So instead, I cobbled together a cake mix from the gingerbread ingredients.



They actually came out really, really well - they're slightly crunchy on the outside, and really soft, fluffy and moist on the inside. The recipe went something like this:

300g Self Raising Flour
300g Butter
300g Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 and 1/2 tsp Ground ginger
1/2 tsp Ground cloves
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tbsp Golden Syrup
Milk

I didn't measure the milk - just poured it until the mixture got to the consistency I wanted! I am from the 'Add ingredients until it looks and tastes right school of baking.

I put them in the oven at about 180 degrees for 12 minutes (ish) and they were perfect! It makes about 20 cakes - by the time I came to take a picture it would appear that the boyfriend and the landlord had got to them!

The recipe is probably not exactly how I made them, so if anyone does make them, I apologise in advance for them not coming out well! Next time I invent a recipe I shall be sure to write it down as I go!

Sewing Machine Fun

I am very bad at remembering to update this. I blame my lack of actually doing anything remotely crafty for a little while.

Anyways, due to the wonders of Freecycle, I am now the proud owner of a (vintage) sewing machine. It's from 1971 and is built into it's own little cupboard:




(please, ignore the horrible state of our spare bedroom where the machine currently resides!)

I haven't used a sewing machine since I was a kid, and this one is vastly fancier than the one I used then. Apparently, it can do about 10 types of stitches, buttonholes and who knows what else?! But, seeing as I've had enough trouble making it just sew in a straight line, I think I'll leave the fancy features until I'm a little more au fait with it.

Still, I have managed to make something with it. I have a made a cover for my hot water bottle (which is, at certain times of the month my very best friend!). I had this really gorgeous Matryoshka Doll fabric FQ lying around, and wanted to use it for something, and this seemed like the project for it - it means I can spend much time looking at it now!



And here it is (complete with hot water bottle inside):



It is hardly the best thing anyone will ever make, but on the whole I'm pretty darn proud of it (and myself!), and am now looking forward to making lots of pretty things with the machine! Eventually, I plan to quilt (and have what I think will be a gorgeous quilt already planned out in my head, involving Alexander Henry tattoo fabric, skull and crossbones fabric and black velvet and lace!), and I shall keep you all updated on my sewing machine adventures!

Uninspired

So, once again I am feeling pretty darn uninspired. I have loads of projects I could be getting on with, but don't want to do anything at all. I don't know what's wrong with me. It seems like as soon as I'm unemployed, I jut have no ooomph.

2 FQs of really cute fabric arrived the other day, and I have no idea what to make with them, I have 2 unifinished cross stitches (although admittedly, one is nearer to being finished than it was before), a swap item I need to get in gear and finish, and some embroidered pants I really need to do something with.

Any idea how I can get some inspiration / ooomph back?!

And just because I can, and I think it's pretty - here is a corset ring by ccj2 available at etsy:

Big Catch Up!

I have the internet back at home! Hooray! And that means a big catch up post of everything I've made while the internet has been down!

First up: Cross Stitch.

I made a post a while back about the two big cross stitches I was working on. Without internet to distract me in the evenings, I've got some more of the Looney Tunes one done:



Next up: Embroidery

I had an idea a while ago about embroidering things on the back of underwear. And now I've done some:







I'd like some opinions on these - not so much the designs, as I was just playing around, but ideas, thoughts, constructive criticisms - I'm pondering whether to sell them, but don't know whether they would sell.

And then we have sock creatures:

I made 2 monkeys and a bunny that were sent off around the world this week, which I stupidly forgot to take pictures of first. One was a monkey for my step-sister's birthday, made from socks with pink and sparkly hearts on them, and the other was a monkey made of fluffy socks for my friends in Finland. The bunny went to Finland too - he was made from black socks with purple red polkadots!

I did make another bunny though, which my boyfriend has now claimed as the girlfriend for his other bunny. He has named her Violet, and here he is holding her:


And finally...(getting there, I promise!) Today is my lovely boyfriend 34th birthday. And so we went to Legoland! We both love Lego! Whilst there, we bought:

The Kraken Attackin' Lego Pirates set (put together by me!):


Lego Minifig shaped cookie cutters (for when I make Gingerbread!):


And a really cool Lego bag (I have a major thing for handbags of all shapes and sizes!)


The boyfriend also bought a mini Lego Bulldozer, but I haven't taken a picture of it!

Oh, and before I forget - my monkey swap present arrived too. It's a gorgeous little monkey from Mel over at Felt Me Up. He also came with a really cute banana:




And I'm now taking part in Meri's 50's B Movie swap!

Woooow, that was a long post!

Still No Internet...

So...our phone was turned back on yesterday, but apparently it's going to take another 7-10 days to get our internet back up. I am so not happy. I am seriously an internet addict. I need my internet fix. I think I'm starting to get withdrawl shakes when I look at the computer at home! It looks so sad with no one using it!!

Anyways, the upside of this is that I'm getting a hell of a lot of crafting done. Lots of sock creatures have been made (including one which the boyfriend has decided he loves so much I cannot sell), lots of cross-stitching is being done, and the embroidered pants idea I had is working amazingly. Also, the boyfriend has introduced me to Bones, which is an amazing tv series, which I actually have time to watch, and pay attention to when I'm not online!!

Sadly, because of my lack of internets at home, I have no pictures. My blog is going to look entirely boring if I carry on posting without pictures of things. :(

So, lots to report, but not a lot to show off sadly. Keep turned in though, hopefully I'll have lots of pretties to show off soon.

Grumpy Dria

Yup, I'm a grumpy bunny.

We have no internet at home at the moment, and I now have no job, so until it's reconnected at home, sadly, I'm without blogging. On the plus side, not having the net to distract me means I'm actually getting a lot of crafting done. I've finished a panel in a cross-stitch and made one and a half monkeys and a bunny. Not bad going in 2 days!

There will be pictures as soon as I get the net back at home, which hopefully won't be too much longer. The phone bill has now been paid (after we poked the landlord with sharp sticks!!), and we're just waiting on BT to actually reconnect the line!

On the plus side, there is a hedgehog living in our garden. I LOVE hedgehogs. They are my favourite animals in the world. So this makes me a very happy bunny. And I saw him out in the front garden at half past five this evening. I hope he's okay and isn't getting run over! Still cross about the internet and the job. Trying to be positive and proactive though! Not sure how long it'll last. You know me!!!

Happy Anniversary

I normally reserve this blog for craft related things, but seeing as I haven't updated my other one since January, and this one feels much more like my 'normal' blog these days, I thought I'd post something here.

Today is my first anniversary with the Boyfriend. A year ago today he asked me to be his girlfriend, after a weekend of wooing me with trips to the pictures and the zoo! And that was after a year of us emailling back and forth, so we took our time!

It hasn't always been easy, and we've had a few bumps, but on the whole, I'm happier than I think I've ever been, and despite the fact I'm now 140 miles away from everything I know and love, I don't regret moving here for a second!

So, Happy Anniversary Pete. I can't wait to see what the next year brings!

First Embroidery Attempt

Embroidery is something I've wanted to have a go at since I was a little girl. I've been cross stitching since I was about 8 years old and I guess I've wanted to embroider since then too. I always thought it was so delicate and pretty.

After some pointers from the lovely people over at Crafter...oo, I looked at some links, and did a few practice stitches:



And once I thought I'd got the hang of it, I decided that I was going to actually try and make something pretty! I had an old t-shirt lying around; one which I loved the pattern on and so was loathe to throw away (it didn't fit!!), and so I decided to attempt to embroider around the pattern:



Here's a close up of the Dragon's head:



And of the flower:



Overall, I'm pretty happy with it, and I think it's a pretty good first attempt. There are a few bits that I'm not too happy about, and would change if I had the chance, but I guess it's all a learning curve!