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!!!