UFO Sightings: Crochet Novemeber 2012

UFO Sightings: Crochet October 2012

UFO Sightings: Crochet July 2012

My July Round up of all my Unfinished objects (UFO's).




Secret white UFO. (Currently being worked on)

Currently this is just a heap of white yarn (Hayfield Bonus DK) in worked up in endless single crochets. I've used 3 balls of this yarn (with half a ball left) and I think I'll need another 3 balls to finish off the white part, before the idea I have in my head all comes together.





Cushion cover 1

This chunky beast is taken forever to work up. I'm using a 9mm hook and it is killing my hand to work with, I can only manage to get one row done at a time before I have to stop. Using Patons Big Fab Yarn.





Cushion cover 2

Same pattern used as above with a DK yarn (Sublimes Cashmere Merino Silk) it is a pleasure to work on this piece but as it is a present for just me I do tend to put it on the back burner when I have gifts for others to make.

Why can't it look like the advert?

I'm really disliking the weather at the moment, just damp and humid, not warm in fact its more on the chilly side, not rainy just icky. I hate decorating in this weather, I just end up sweating silly amounts getting frustrated with how energy sapping the humidity is and not enjoying myself what so ever.

So instead I'm trying to organise the music on my iTunes. With nice hopes of it looking all pretty and organised and just like the Apple ads where they scroll happily through perfectly catalogued music collections.

Oh what a silly dreamer I am... after uploading my CD's I had be storing in the study (I don't want them back in my bedroom to gather more dust), and making sure all my tracks that where hiding in my saved files where accounting for I take a look at how many tracks I need to sort though.

5088 tracks...... What the f.... how the heck did I get that many... urgh this is gonna take a while.

Now to be fair most of these will be getting deleted, there's got to be a good few doubles of songs in there. Many are junky filler tracks on albums I bought because I like one or two songs. However I think the worst culprit has got to be the ones I download on mass from OC Remix, this is a website were people can submit remixed music from video games. There are some brilliant remixes on there however you do have to dig around to find them. This is because there no 'most popular' or rating system on the site, this is because the site owners want people to be able to not be bias toward one music style or one remix. So I just downloaded them all in bulk and left which trying to sort them out.

On the bright side, I can now see my crochet basket in my craft room, which means I can get back on top my many U.F.O (UnFinished Objects) soon. I'll get some pictures of those up next week.

Future project

Looky, I've finally done it, posted something on the right day of my topic schedule. Annoyingly however, it is only a look at a project I am planing to do in the future since I still need to buy the materials and home life is still very hectic around here with decorating projects and a leak pipe in the kitchen. Anyway here are some patterns from Cross stitch collection Magazine that I want to get stitched up for some cards.

This set was from Jan 2012 issue, these would be a great, any occasion card, and I think I'll try and design some patterns similar to these based on the birth month flowers using the PC Stitch Program. If the ones I make they are any good I'll post them in the freebie section.

Christmas is the time of year when I make most of my cards, and these cute bird patterns where from the Christmas 2011 issue.

More cute animals patterns are from the October 2011 issue and best of all if you have a iPad (maybe iPhone too but cant test myself) you can download this issue free from the Newsstand App. 

All good things must come to an end

on Tuesday, Helen over at It's All Fiddle Fart, announced that she will most likely be ending her blog on 1st Jan next year, although it is very understandable due recent events in her life purely from a blogging point of view it is sad thing since I get so many wonderful ideas from the projects she shares with us all.

I'm going to spend some time pinning some of her wonderful crafts to a new board on my Pinterest (you can get there by clicking the logo below). It will in no means be all of the crafts she has posted, but a selection of my personal favourites and inspiration for myself once I crafting again.

A positively uncrafty post Part 2

I'm back for part 2 of my E3 posts, this time I'm looking at Sony, Nintendo and the other notable games shown this year.

First up Sony, who opened up with a rather lengthy montage of game footage before they took a look at their first game Beyond: Two Souls. Not sure what to make of this one, the cinematic shown was interesting but didn't really explain much of the game play front.

Next up was Super Smash Bros oops I mean PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale. I am not a fan of these type games so it doesn't really interest me. They announced that it could be played simultaneously with PS3 and Vita so that was kinda neat. They followed this with news about PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Vita. Neither me or Adam are really looking at purchasing a Vita (or a 3DS for that matter) so the next game was a title we weren't taken too much notice of. Assassin's Creed 3 - Liberation. Following this they showed of a bit of the PS3 Assassins's Creed 3 game, this game play demo was different from the demo Ubisoft showed in there conference, it was rather nice to see the sea battle in action.

Farcry 3 was shown off again, this time with a 4 person co-op mode. Now this is something both me and Adam noted this year, and while it is a personal rant, some of these people playing the demo's were rather poor at playing the games. I mean the point of E3 demos are to give a good impression of the game.

Anyway next they talked about PlayStation Move. We owned the Move for a both 10 minutes (we got it along with the PS3 when we took out a phone contract) before we traded the Move into Game. They had a demo of the Wonderbook, and the whole thing looked awkward. 

God of  War was shown next, again it's not a series I've played although it definiatly looks like it would be something I would enjoy. I think I might pick up the collection of the earlier games. Sadly the PS3 gets a little neglected in our house since most of the time any games which are cross-platform get bought on Xbox (friends only have that console). 

Finally Sony showed off their big one. The Last of Us. It's from Naughty Dog, aka Makers of Uncharted, and really has that playing a movie feel that those games have. Although the guy playing the demo was rather trigger happy, I have heard several times that guns and bullets will be very very limited in this game.

Nintendo took the stage last, and unlike Xbox and Sony, a new console would be getting air time this year, Wii U is a go.

To be fair I didn't really pay too much attention to Nintendo's conference, Wii U just hasn't gripped me yet. The old Wii was the last console we purchased and to be fair we hardly use it. Although to start it was a problem with game choice, many games aimed at a younger market and some games just playing horribly different than the versions on other consoles. I'm looking at you Wolverine... , and later a problem with lack of HD.)

The other part of their conference was involving the 3DS a console I just don't like, I've played on my BIL's one and while the 3D on it is very cool, there is a huge part of me that cannot justify buying a new handheld console which in pretty much all other aspects is the same as my old DS. 

So the question that is always asked at the end of E3 conferences "Who won E3?" For me it definatly wasn't the big 3. Xbox & Sony as much at they want to argue this have dying consoles on their hands, and while there are still the odd gem of a game appearing they were lacking something. As for Nintendo at the moment they haven't sold the Wii U to me which was what they were trying to do in their conference. This year I pick Ubisoft as my winner, although most of there games shown wouldn't be my first pick they all looked decent, and I was blown away but Watch Dogs (hoping they don't mess it up)

Now although the big 3 and the 2 bigger game developers get their own stage show lots and lots of other game into is announced during the course of the show, and while I won't cover everything here are some of the other highlights for me.

• Square Enix Tech Demo - If it is anything like the PS3 Tech Demo of Final Fantasy 7 then this is not and never will be a finished game just something pretty to show what the next gen hardware is capable of. This footage isn't a cut scene but real time rendering which is pretty cool.

• Planetside 2, now I've not played this but Adam made a rather audible (manly) squee noise when he saw this, and an even bigger squee when they reveiled it has no monthly subscription.

• Lost Planet 3. Now me and Adam played number 2 a while back and enjoyed it, for some reason we never bothered to finish it and I can't really remember what that was. 

• Epic Mickey 2 and it's on every console! This makes me so happy, I really liked the first game but the camera and Wii Controler where painful to use. 

• Dark Souls - Prepare to Die. Adam adores this game (and Demon Souls) and was so happy when they annouced it would be coming to PC. Now considering this a game that been out for the better part of a year and it's just being ported to PC with some extras( which are DLC for the console verisons) I wasn't expecting too much fuss made at E3 but they did show some trailers as well as some gameplay of the new bosses.

• Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2. I loved the first LoS, and the ending was cool, and this looks awesome.

• Now this wasn't an E3 announcement but it fits really well in this gaming post. Disney's up coming film Wreck It Ralph finally got its first trailer. 

That's all for today folks, sorry this post has been a tad delayed. It's been super busy at home and the blog has been put on the back burner for now.

A positively uncrafty post Part 1

Gosh everyone has been super busy here the last few weeks. Soon after the upstairs bathroom was completed, we started work on my bedroom. We cleared everything out storing it in the craft room of course, the walls have been striped, the messy coving ripped off. The new furniture delivered and checked. Adam has worked super hard over the jubilee holiday, installing spotlights in my bedroom and in the kitchen (which turned into a bigger job than we first bargained for).

In other news, E3 has kicked off again, and to be honest my predictions for a rather lack lustre show have so far been proven right. Of course there was some nice games being shown off, but we are getting close to the end of the current consoles lives but only 1 of the next gen consoles being shown off (Wii U) we're left with the swan song from the other big players.

Xbox headed up the show with their live conference. Kicking off things with a Halo 4 live action cut scene followed by a game play demo, expanding a fair bit on there teaser trailer they showed last year, giving us some nice hints on who enemies Chief will be facing this time around.

Next up was a demo of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Now I've never played any Splinter Cell games in the past, any while the trailer looks good enough, I properly won't be in the future. However one thing I do like from this demo was using Kinect to issue voice command and distracting enemies.

EA showed off Fifa 13 and Madden NFL 13 as they do every year, and just like very year I went and made a cup of tea. I'm not a sports fan when it's real and I have zero interest in game versions. 

Back on track, Fable: The Journey. A Kinect game. Not really sure what to make of this, still not seen it in action so how it handles is still the big question. As for Fable itself, the poorly implemented co-op game in the 2nd game tainted my enjoyment quite a bit.

A new Gears of War game popped up, this is another game that seems to pass me by. Never played the series so can't really comment on the trailer. It's that weird camera over the shoulder view that has put me off  not sure why just don't like it.

Forza Horizon was next, and driving games for me are on the game level as sports games. I pretty much glazed over and got a snack from the kitchen.

Now here comes the boring part. Xbox yapping on about things like putting a browser in Xbox, new movie and music services in the Xbox dashboard. While I sure this info is nice enough I just feel far far to much time was devoted to this, when the millions of people that are watching E3 are watching it for the games. At some point Nike started talking about a fitness game. I was still a little switched off from the last segment so didn't pay to much attention. However if it's a well done game (and imo Kinect is the better motion control system for working out games) I might pick this up.

Again Xbox came out with silly filler info. Connecting all different Microsoft devices together. Which for someone like me is completely useless. All my devices are made by different companies and it is like this for a reason. This whole segment was meaningless to me.

Finally something decent. Tomb Raider. Last year they teased us with a pretty opening cutscene. This year they showed us a nice chunk of game play. It looks and feels a heck of a lot like Uncharted which I really enjoyed. This is one on my to play list.

Next up was Ascend: New Gods (a hack/slash type game, could be interesting so see what develops of that one).  Loco Cycle: Just a teaser trailer which was a bit weird and Matter which both me and Adam thought was a portal game at first. No real info from any of them so hard to form a strong opinion on these three.

Resident Evil 6 up next. It looks good, very good. The Show game play featured a section with Leon but reports from the booths say that each character to play handles differently reflecting the game they were from (but control really well), even the various character inventory screens and HUD's are different. Kinda a nice touch.

Now they focused a little on Xbox Live games. Leading the way Wreckateer which looked pretty much to be an Angry Birds game using Kinect.

Now this next game shown was a bit of a wow moment. 1) because if some of those clips in this trailer are game play then this game will be how a TV cartoon based game should look. 2) because I just thought is this game really gonna be in my highlights of E3? Anyway South Park: The Stick of Truth.

Bonus points for Trey Parker and Matt Stone for taking the mickey out of Xbox for that whole connecting all your devices junk.

Harmonix followed with Dance Central 3. Usher pranced around on stage promoting it, but as far as the game goes its more of the same really. Not to say I dislike the game, far from it, I rather enjoy Dance Central. However at the end of the day I can only form an opinion of the game from the full list of songs included in the game.

Finally things were wrapped up with Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2. Yes it looked pretty, and action packed but, I just don't care any more about the series. For one reason and one reason only. The on line community. It is a drain to play with the so very vocal whiny kids that cry if you shoot them, rage quit the game if they are losing and pretty much just spam obscenities at anyone and everyone when not doing one of the first two. Sadly I wish I could say I just ran into a bad bunch of players but it's always the same and it's got to the point where the game is just not enjoyable so I'll be saving the money on the game (and the endless DLC they pump out during the year).

EA took the stage next showing off Dead Space 3 first. I'm hoping that Co-Op mode doesn't take too much a way from the feel of how the older DS play. The whole element of Issac losing his grasp on reality while being rather isolated was just as key to the game as necromorphs jumping out at you. I'm just worried having another character to bounce off of will take that a way from Issac and from what I've seen from the game play it looks like it's leaning more towards Lost Planet style (even though I enjoyed that game).

More Sports was up next so I excused myself for another cup of tea.

Sim City next starting off with Sim City Social.... a Facebook game... really? Nothing wrong with Facebook games, but is E3 really the place to be announcing them. Anyway they showed off the real thing next Sim City. Now I like Simulation Games, I find them after relaxing, so I guess I'll pick this one up sooner or later.

Next Battlefield 3, they talked a bit about Battlefield premium which if it is anything like Call of Duty Elite it's nothing I would be prepared to pay for.

Next up they talked about Star Wars: The Old Republic. They announced new playable races, flashpoints and quest lines. I played this for a couple of months when it launched, and while it wasn't perfect (no newly released MMORPG's are), it wasn't bad. I just think I've grown out of MMORPG's in general, and I just don't have the will to play them any more. In truth I much prefer Diablo style multi player RPG.

Medal of Honour was up next, I don't play this series so while the demo was playing I took the moment to make up our bed for the night since we're sleeping downstairs while we're working on our room. I came back to UFC game being talked about I was told I missed Fifa 13 segment (bonus).

Need For Speed: Most Wanted was shown, again driving games are a no no for me, but I know Adam sometimes dabbles in the Need for Speed series so he might be interested.

E3 wrapped up their show with Crysis 3, another series I haven't played ( FPS tend to give me a headache if I play them too long so I don't play too many of them, don't really think about it until E3 rolls around and so many FPS's get shown off).

Ubisoft was the last show I would be watching that night. So snuggled up with a mug of hot chocolate to enjoy their offerings.

The opened with Just Dance 4, and Flo Rida jumping around on stage. While I like Dance Central  I've never played Just Dance. I'm not THAT into dance games (plus Just Dance always is marketed heavly as get your friends together and dance (cue my forever alone face).

Farcry 3 looks pretty, although I doubt we'll get this one, Farcry 2 was a game bought for us as a gift played a little then just got put on that "I'll finish that another time pile" and has remained there ever since.

Splinter Cell showed up again, but just as a cinematic this time.

Next up Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth. I'm a big comic nerd and while I would have loved to have heard more about Marvel Heroes, I'll settle with this for now. The commented this game would be on the Wii U which led on to some talk of games using the new system.

Rayman legends highlighted the Wii U controller. Looked interesting, but it didn't have be begging for a Wii U. Followed was something a lot less cartoonish and was a nice step for the Wii U platform

ZombiU the trailer reminds me a lot of Dead Island, (which I enjoyed), and was little nod to the Jubilee with God Save the Queen playing and the London setting.

The game everyone was expecting was next Assassin's Creed. The game play reflected the trailers that I'd seen so far so nothing major stood out with this one, since it focused on the usual AC fare or sneaking around with your hood up, tip toeing above people on branches, taking out the guard or two, a gorgeous cinematic and jumping off very high places.

There was a whole section on E-sports, I didn't really "get" this segment. It felt like filler, it looked like filler. The game they used in the demo, didn't even look that good. They show cased a few more Online games then moved on.

Now they showed something that caught my attention. First up was a teaser trailer. Info-graph style.

Then came the game itself. I really liked the look of this, felt like a real world Deus Ex melded with GTA very interesting. This game for me was definitely the winner of the day.

Tomorrow I'll review my highlights from Sony, Nintendo and other shows.

Bread Pudding

I tried out this recipe (from BBC Good Food) last night wanting to use up some bread that was going stale. Was very tasty and declared by everyone in the house that the recipe is a keeper.

Ingredients

• 500g white or wholemeal bread
• 500g/1lb 2oz mixed dried fruit
• 85g mixed peel
• 1 ½ tbsp mixed spice
• 600ml milk
• 2 large eggs , beaten
• 140g light muscovado sugar
• zest 1 lemon (optional)
• 100g butter , melted
• 2 tbsp demerara sugar

Method

1. 1. Tear the bread into a large mixing bowl and add the fruit, peel and spice. Pour in the milk, then stir or scrunch through your fingers to mix everything well and completely break up the bread. Add eggs, muscovado and lemon zest if using. Stir well, then set aside for 15 mins to soak.
2. 1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 20cm non-stick square cake tin (not one with a loose base). Stir the melted butter into the pudding mixture, tip into the tin, then scatter with demerara. Bake for 1½ hrs until firm and golden, covering with foil if it starts to brown too much. Turn out of the tin and strip off the paper. Cut into squares and serve warm.

Choosing your hooks

Just like yarn comes in hundreds of variations, there are many types of hooks to choose from as well. Hooks  can come in different shapes, sizes and textures, all having an effect on your end result.

While the hook size should be based around the yarn & pattern you are using, what the Hook is made from is really down to your own preference. The most common materials you'll find hooks made from are metal, wood and plastic.

Metal Hooks in the UK at least the most common hook materials you'll find to buy in shops, they are strong, durable and smooth. Generally they will be made from aluminium or steel. Metals typically have a looser grip on yarns, allowing you to crochet faster. Metal hooks come in a huge range of sizes from giant 25mm hooks for the bulkiest of yarns to tiny 0.5mm for the most delicate of lace.

Wood hooks can be made in many different types of wood like bamboo. They are smooth and relatively light, Wood hooks tend to have a stronger grip on yarn, so may be a better choice to some very silky yarns.

Plastic Hooks are normally made of acrylic, and are lightweight. They tend to be somewhere in between metal and wood in terms of gripping yarn.

It's good to consider having multiple hooks of varying materials, because their properties may have different effects on your gauge, and general ease to working with different types of yarns.

A brillant morning

Gosh this morning has been a busy one, first and foremost it's my Mum's birthday. I was planning to treat her to a nice cup of tea in bed but she suck up on me as I was in the kitchen to let Mutley outside (he had other plans and refused to get off the bed).

After breakfast was done, and she had opened her presents, we headed out to Windsor for a morning out. We arrived at about 8:40am so not much at all was open so just had a wander until M&S opened, we went up to there cafe and enjoyed some tea and some delicious fruit scones.

After we had finished there we wandered around a bit and someone from the new L'Occitane shop which was opening that day was handing out little bags with some free samples in, since this is one of our favourite skin care brand we were delighted.

Our freebie bag contained a little sample of their face serum, travel sized bottles of the Almond shower oil and Shea face moisturiser.

Since it was their opening day they also were offering 15% of everything in store, I picked up a couple of bits I was getting low on. Rich Body Cream and the Protective Cream.

I also picked up one of their Nail and Cuticle Creams, my hands and nails are taking a bit of a battering with the painting I've been doing recently so that will be a treat for when it's all finished.

Mum bought a nice reed diffuser and fragrance for the upstairs bathroom once it's finished. She picked the Verbina scent which is a wonderful fresh zesty citrus smell. 

Finally because we were both one of the first 100 customers of the day we got a free gift, which contained travel sizes of the new Peony Shower gel, and Cherry Blossom Hand Cream and shower gel.

After we left there we headed down to B&Q to see if I could get a final look at the furniture I was planing to order when we got home but the only things they keep stock of in store is the sliding doors. But yes, we're officially starting to decorate another room. 2012 is the year of the Makeover for this house!

Repainting the dining room and good and bad movies

Well I finished off the living room and straight way I had the erge to paint the dining room, the two rooms are joined by some nice windowed French doors so we normally keep them the same colour. This was a nice bonus since I still had half a tub of the warm beige colour and a full tub of the soft sand colour left.

I whizzed around this room, it only took me about 5 hours to finish the whole thing, minus the small patches I missed. The one annoying thing about the darker colour I chose, when it's wet it near identical to the existing colour on the wall so it makes it rather hard to see in lower light where I've missed until it dries.





Now for some film talk

First up the Hunger Games it's based on the book by of the same name by Suzanne Collins. I've only read the first book (although know my fair share of spoilers from the other two books). Before I begin I'll say where I stand on the book, I only read the book after I saw trailers for the film. I really enjoyed the book and got through it within a couple of nights, it was by no means perfect but I'm glad the book seemed to make a point of Katniss not lusting after the two male roles rather that she had strong opinions against it.

The film however I thought was poor, I can wrap up my views on the film by saying. You have to watch the film as a book companion not as a film adaptation.
(Spolier ahead. Highlight the colours blocks if you want to read them
I'm happy to accept the deaths have to softened due to age rating they where aiming for, and Haymitch's heavy drinking was toned down out for the same reason (although I kinda was hoping they would have left him falling off stage in but that proberly would have added too much humor to the serious part in the story.


Yep, things have to be changed to for the film or cut out completely. How close to dying Peeta is, where the pin came from ect.  


But to me there was two things the film just glossed over, and they aren't small issues, and I think not really delving into them hurts the film. 1) How awful life is in District 12, if Katniss and Gale don't go out hunting illegally, there is a very real chance of them and their families starving. That's the reason Gale's name has been put in 42 times, they are so desperate for food they will take the meagre rations the extra entries award even though the worst case scenario for that is so grim. 2) How brutal the Capitol is. Yeah the games itself are cruel, but you know only for those 24 unlucky ones. Not if caught with a weapon, found outside in the woods, hunting illegally, trading illegally, running away from the capitol the best you can hope for is a fast execution at worst, having your tongue cut out and becoming a slave for the rest of your days.

In the end I kept going back to the thought, I only know this because I read the book. And I'm sorry but that is not how it should be, I didn't need to read LoTR or Harry Potter to understand what was happening in the film, the film explains it.

The one thing I will happily admit I liked was the scenes involving the game master since in the book (written in first person) we never see what's going on with him and it did give me a real scene of how in control of the game arena the capitol really is (it seriously had a whole Truman show vibe going on with that)

Now for the good one.

It's been many years in the making, all the way back in 2005 when the idea for a host of superhero origin stories (Iron man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America) culminating in a movie that bought them all together was announced. Since then each of these films had hints, teasers as to what would follow.

I was hoping the film would be good, equalling the films that came before it.... It blew them away, it pushes the bar of the super hero genre up a good few notches. There is tons of action, personality clashes from the team, some ace one liners in there which has the whole audience laughing, interestingly enough even though it was the action that drew me and I thought would be the focus, its the parts which reflect they characters humanity which I enjoyed the most.

On a side note, even though the Hulk (not Bruce Banner) is semi reduced to comic relief, I think they got him so right this time around. Despite me sleeping though the last two hulk films, if they ever make another Hulk film with Mark Ruffalo in it and done in a similar way as they have done with this film I'll be getting a ticket.

Decorating the Living Room

First of all my scheduled posts have gone out of the window. The reason for the that is we're having the upstairs bathroom redecorated at the start of May, and part of that is going to involve a wall being knocked down. In the tempt to keep my crafting stuff as dust free as possible while the work is being done I'm making an effort not to do any major crafting up there for a few weeks.

So while I've made some progress on my Crochet cushion cover and done a little bit of scrapbooking, everything else is on hiatus for a bit. I'll share some pics of those over the next week.

What I have been getting up to though is painting the Living Room, it's been a good few years or so since we last updated the colour in there and it was looking a bit tired. I managed to get 1/3 of the room done before dinner had to be started, so hoping I can get it finished off before the end off Friday.

We managed to get a bargain with the paint as well, we went for a colour called soft sand (for the top half of the room) and Warm Beige (on the bottom half). However when we started looking for the soft sand in a 5L tub we were told that size had been discontinued however it was showing on the system what they had a few tubs still in stock so the shop assistant was determine to track them down for us. It took her about 20 minutes but she finally found 3 tubs of the paint for us. Unfortunately  it was 2 matt and one silk (we was originally after the silk version) and for the size of the room/rooms we are decorating we needed more than one tub so went for the matt version instead. Then as she was checking out our paint she told us because this colour was being discontinued they had reduced the price from £22 a tub down to £6, we took a double take and then asked if that was the case with the Silk tub as well, yep it was, so we took that one as well to save it for some of the upstairs rooms. In the end we got £110 worth of paint for £40.

Making quick pages

I really like it when I have some nice quick pages to use, they are so simple, drop in your pictures and your done. So this got me thinking, why not make some of my own from the kits I have? It's great practice and I can save my work as different layer groups to make it nice and easy to work with / change if that photo I want to use in the future just wont fit.

Here's my first attempt, I've used elements from a Kellybell Designs Kit "Expedition Safari". 

This image is made up of four parts *saved separately on my PC for when I come to use it*. The top layer, which has the buttons and embellishments over the photos. The 2nd layer which is the Photo frames, I just need to slot my photos in behind them then add some shadowing. The 3rd layer which is the page boarder and the big cluster in the bottom right of the page.  The 4th and final layer (which I didn't save purposely) consists of a big picture (The Tree of Life in this case) and a paper layer set as an overlay.


I really enjoyed making this up and didn't take too long at all, and and by splitting the Quick Page into a couple of layers I still give myself some flexibility just in case i get an awkwardly sized photo to work with.

Mother's Day Card and gift bag

Mother's Day has come and gone but I though I should share with you the cards I made for mine and Adam's Mum.

The rose paper and the flower stickers are from the kit I got from the QVC outlet shop, and the Mother's Day topper I made myself in Paint shop since I had no pre-made toppers in my stash.

The Crocheted Butterfly I made using a pattern from Maries Making, however for my Butterflies I used size 16 White Crochet cotton and a size 1.00mm hook. It was pretty fiddly work but I'm really happy how it turned out. I used a bit of Beading wire and some small beads for the antennas.

I also made this little bag so I could put her gifts in, it was really simple. I used three A4 pieces of Dark red felt from Hobbycraft to make the bag and some off cuts of felt for leaves.

The Flower was  nice as simple I used a 3.50mm hook and used Hayfield Bonus DK in Primrose.

Chain 8, Join with sl st to form a ring.

Round 1: Ch 1, working in ring, 1 Sc, 1 Hdc, 4 Dc, 2 Sc, 1 Hdc, 4 Dc, 1 Hdc, 1 Sc, Sl St on the first Sc. (16)

Round 2: Ch 1, Sc in same St, (Ch 3, Skip one St, Sc on next St) repeat around, join. (8 Ch-3 loops).

Round 3: [(SC, Hdc, 3 Dc, Hdc, Sc) in Ch-3 loop, Sl St in Sc] repeat around, join (8 Petals)

Round 4: Ch 1, still facing front. Work the next stitches at the back of Round 3 petals, (Sc on the next available St from Round 1 Ch 5) repeat around, join. (8 Ch-5 loops)

Round 5: (Sc, Hdc, 5 Dc, Hdc, Sc) in each Ch 5 loop around, join (8 Petals)

Round 6: Ch 5, still facing front, work the next stitches at the back of Round 5 petals, (skip one St, Sc on the same St as the Ch-3 loop from Round 2. Ch 5. Repeat around, join (8 Ch-5 loops)

Round 7: Repeat Round 5.

Fasten off and weave in ends.

I attached my flower to the bag by using some yellow embroidery thread and then to finish it off I added some little pearl beads to the centre of the flower.

Back home

Me and Adam had a great week away, we started the bank Holiday weekend up in Warrington to celebrate Adam's birthday. I got a bit of crocheting done, continuing to work on my Link Amigurumi until I realised I had forgotten to bring my Aran coloured yarn with me and couldn't go any further. So instead I picked up my Cross Stitch magazine and started one of the patterns.

I really enjoy working on this, still have a little more to do on this piece but I'm happy I've tried with this small sample piece to get back into the swing of doing cross stitch. It's given me confidence to work on the Christmas patterns that inspired me to retry this craft now. 

I also finished reading the Hunger Games over the weekend. Despite being rather reserved about the story, I really enjoyed it. Some Mild Spoilers if you want to skip the next paragraph: 

It wasn't a perfect book by any means, I semi-dislike the whole love-triangle theme that I'm sure will be more prevalent in the next two books. I also feel that Katniss has it easy in the terms who she killed, the nice and neutral characters that would have caused her a moral dilemma for her were always taken out by someone else.

All in all though it was a good little read, and I was hungry for more once I had reached the last page. I'm even tempted to check out the film version and I never normally like seeing film versions of books I've read. (or reading books after I've seen the film version for that matter.)

On Tuesday we headed up to Blackpool for a couple of days. The moment got in the car the sun came out and even though the weather reports constantly said it would be raining all three days we had brilliant sunshine.

 I adore this windmill that's close to the holiday camp where we where staying, couldn't resist snapping a picture of it as we drove past.

On Wednesday we visited Blackpool Zoo, it's a rather nice little place, and I got some nice film on the Ipad (although it badly needs editing before I share). However the still photos are a bit lack lustre due to the fact that there is no zoom on the camera (digital zoom will never ever count).

On Thursday we had a walk down to the sea front. I snapped a couple of pics, before we had lunch on the beach. 

In the evenings we chilled out watching our way through all the films leading up the the Avengers (apart from the two Hulk films since I dozed off during both of those).

We headed back to Warrington for a few more days we visited my favourite wool shop, and picked up some more Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK yarn. Got 8 balls in both Buff and Treacle (which will be used for some cushion covers) and 1 ball in the colours Jou Jou, Smooch, Lido and Mango Presse (which will get me started on new ripple blanket for myself since Mutley has claimed my half finished pastel one for his bed upstairs. 

MouseScrappers Weekly Challenge #101

This weekly Challenge was a bit trickier than last week, we had to come up with things that related to the letters in the word "BINGO". On first glance I thought it would straight forward but I went through three kits before I found things I could use for each letter. My layout is below.

Here's how I used my letters.

B:Blue Background paper, Blue Flowers, Black Elements and some Bamboo (That was a easy letter I went a little over board there)
I: Ink smudge in the bottom cluster.
N: Natural Elements, Blossom's, Bamboo and Pearls.
G: This one had me for a while, but G is the 7th letter in the alphabet so I put 7 hidden mickeys in the layout.

O: Old Coins make up Hidden Mickeys. (But you'll need to look harder for the other ones).

Birthday Cards

Last week I picked up a copy of Papercraft Inspirations it had a free gift of a bone folder and scoring board on the front cover. Since I have a few cards to make/ finish off this week I thought I would get to work testing out my new gadget.

It's Adam's birthday soon so mum asked me if I could make a card for her to give to him, so I came up with this stepper card. The papers are a free download from Papercraft Inspirations website (Issue 80) and I recoloured the Star paper. The paper with the stars I turned into a little envelope with a Happy Birthday message and some spending money in from Mum.

I did add some scores on the front fold and on the envelope but it isn't showing up to well on camera, however the K&Co Stickers that I've had stashed away for ages came in handy for this. 

I also had a few little gifts to gift wrap. I am a big fan of cellophane so I simply found a small cardboard box with lid cut off and covered it with some K&Co paper. I cut a piece of cellophane to cover my gifts, and laid  it into the box then used the lid to form a base inside the box. I added some Blue tissue paper I bought from Poundland then placed in my gifts. Then to finish I put the box on top of another piece of cellophane that will cover everything then, scrunch up the cellophane and pop a rubber band to hold everything in place. Then tie a ribbon around the top to finish it off. I had a little bit of the K&Co paper left, so I made a gift tag with it to match.

The finished thing has a bit of an Easter Egg vibe to it, considering the time of year, I'm very happy with that.

 I had just a little bit of trouble getting both Adam and Mutley to look at the IPad at the same time so I could  get a picture.

I asked "Look at me" Mutley cooperated. 

For about a second. "Will you both look at me!"

Cheesy grins from the pair of them!

Template Challenge #80

This time over on mousescrappers I took part in a template challenge. I do like templates as it can get you off to a great head start with making a page if your feeling a little stumped as to were to begin.

This template was great, you could get different effects by removing some of the mickey heads or put different embellishments in there place all together. Also you can give this template a rotate for a whole new look.

Here's what I came up with, I picked the some traditional colours out from the Blooming in Adversity Kit from Kellybell Designs. I was happy with this one until I noticed I mucked up on the shadow around the bamboo (of course I only notice once I've compressed the file down into a Jpeg). On the bright side I'm happy I did this now when I'm just practacing and not in a photobook page, hopefully this will make me double check my work from now on.

Off on a hoilday

Hey Everyone, just a quick blog post to let you all know I'll be off on my holidays for the next week. I have some scheduled blog posts that will be posted throughout the week but I won't be able to update some of my tutorial links until I get back.

See you all soon.

Cross Stitch Needle Guide

I've written up a short guide as to which size of Tapestry/Cross Stitch Needle to use with your project.

Tapestry/Cross Stitching Needles

Tapestry/Cross Stitching Needles have a large eye and a rounded tip. They are generally used for counted thread embroidery including cross stitch, blackwork and hardanger. The rounded tip makes it easier for the needle to pass through the holes in the fabric without tearing or splitting the fibres.

As a general guide here are the size of needled recommended for different fabrics.

Needle Size      Fabric Size

Size 18        -   6 count Aida Fabric

Size 20        -   8 count Aida Fabric  

Size 22        -   11 count Aida Fabric / 22-25-27 count evenweave

Size 24        -   14 count Aida Fabric / 28 count evenweave   

Size 26        -   16 count Aida Fabric / 32 count evenweave

Size 28        -   18 count Aida Fabric / 36 count evenweave.

As you can see, the higher the Needle size, the smaller the needle is.

Notes: If you are making fractional Stitches into Aida fabric you my find that using a smaller needle helpful since you sew through the middle of the fabric rather than the holes.

Beading Needles


Beading needles are designed to make treading and attaching small seed or bugle beads on to your work easy. Due to needing to fit through the centre of tiny beads the eyes and body of this needle are very small, the thinness of these needles also make them rather fragile.

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You can find links to all of my Cross Stitching Tutorials by clicking on the link in my Side Bar.