8 Reasons Why I Blog!

1. Mostly, I blog because I enjoy it;

2. It motivates me to craft more;

3. I enjoy the interaction with lovely readers;

4. It's nice/useful to have a record of what I've accomplished to put into perspective;

5. I like having a record of what I (my friends, family etc) have been up to;

6. I like being part of this virtual world;

7. It's nice to share something that not many of my 'real' friends 'get'.

8. I would one day like to use my blog as a one of a number of ways to direct traffic to an online shop

I post once a week because it seems about right for me.  I tried twice a week but ended up looking for subject matter rather than just sitting down and letting it flow. I'm sure I'd get resentful if I made myself post more often and would then end up drifting away from here altogether.  It might not seem very spontaneous to have a rigid once-a-week timetable but if I didn't, I believe I would have the same drifting away problem, as intervals between posts became further apart!

My OH is away skiing in France this week and I was so looking forward to spending lots of time sewing.  It hasn't quite worked out like that so far but I did get some baking done (not the choc/nut muffins above - these are from last week - but some banana bread to use up some over-ripe bananas I had kept in the freezer) and tried cooking a whole chicken in my slow cooker (which turned out well). I'll cook chicken like this again - there's very little mess and the meat falls off the bones when it's done.

On my kitchen table is a little experiment in progress of a crafty idea I've had in my head for a while.  Things have moved on a little from this and the results are almost ready to show.  It hasn't turned out quite how I pictured but I already have an idea for a modification to try next.  I may have to test the waters, so to speak, and offer one of my prototypes as a giveaway to find out what you think of them.  If I make both versions and offer a choice, it will give me an idea of what would be successful.

My photographing mojo has been a bit lacking recently.  Once, I would see something interesting or beautiful and immediately whip out my camera, but lately I've been remembering when it's too late!  I say this, in case you're wondering about the random selection I've presented today - they're all I have that you haven't seen!!  I blame Christmas!! Well,  perhaps the holidays rather than Christmas itself.  I've got out of the habit - but fear not - I will make a concerted effort to get back on form.  I enjoy showing you my pics and, let's face it, this blog would be seriously lacking without them!!

Bye for now

Teresa x

Books: Old, New. Borrowed.........but not Blue!

I want to start today by thanking you lovely ladies for all your encouraging words and compliments in my comments.  It's largly because of your interest that I've made what I have, and I realise now I must stop comparing what I've done to other crafty bloggers and celebrate my own achivements.  I'm going to concentrate on my crafting and only look at other crafty blogs for inspiration, ideas and to 'oooh and ahhh' over all their goodies!!  (If you comment on this post, please don't mention this bit - I'm not fishing for compliments but wanted to thank you and let you know how you've helped me).

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The Christmas holidays saw quite a few books appear in our house from various directions. (Time now to sort through and get rid of few, one way or another - what do you do with your old books, do you take them to the charity shop, sell them on, give them as gifts or put in the bin?)

Below are a couple of new books I treated myself to for Christmas.  A Slice of the Goodlife is one I saw back in the summer at the Centre for Alternative Technology and kept in mind.  I've just finished reading The Handmade Marketplace (so it will be No 1 on my reading list for 2011!) and found it packed with useful information for when I start seriously selling my wares......ahem, ahem!  (I will one day, honestly!).  I'd heard about many of the crafty bloggers mentioned in it already which made it seem familiar.  A lot of the information in it was new to me and will be really useful to have on hand to refer to in the future.

This is another new book that I got my DS for Christmas.  It's also one we saw at the CAT Centre and which he showed an interest in. 

The book, The Great Explorers, below is also new and was a present to my OH from his boss.  He has quite an illustrious family and this book was edited by his uncle, the explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison. 

These 4 books fall into the old category since I bought them from charity shops over the holidays.  Quite a mixture here:  a bit of light reading, a humorous history and a look at green fashion.

Now to the borrowed. At various times during the last year there were film crews filming at an old farmhouse on the estate where my OH works.  He was told it was for a film called 'Resistance' about what it would have been like if the Nazis had invaded Britain in WW2.  Eventually the TV news showed an article about it, interviewing the author of the book on which the film was based.  He was Owen Sheers, (who I don't know but) who grew up in a nearby town and whose grandparents lived at the end of our road for a while before they passed away a few years ago.   Owen started out as a poet and my mother collected his works, continuing to do so when he began writing novels as well.  So here we have the book 'Resistance' and his previous work, 'The Dust Diaries' borrowed from my mother.

Looking at piles of books makes me happy!  It's the same feeling when I look at my baskets of knitting yarn or shelves of fabric - The Potential!  My BIG problem now is which one to read next!!  I think it may have to be The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (first brought to my attention by Leslie) which I got from a charity shop and want to read before I watch the TV version I've recorded.

Ooh, I'm going for a lie down now!  It was tiring posting all those links :-)

Bye for now

Teresa x

Look to the Future!

Looking at my progress on my blog pages for reading and crafting I see that in 2010 I managed to read 14 books and complete 16 craft projects.  I immediately thought of declaring them dismal results but I must look at it a different way.  I must look at the lists and actually 'see' what is listed, congratulate myself on what I've achieved and aim to do more in 2011!  Therefore, I must look forward now and not back or I'll convince myself I can't do any better. My friend, who is a life coach, has told me that each time we meet up she wants me to bring something new that I've made to show her. That will be good motivation for me.

I'm aiming to get enough items made to take part in a small craft fair this year and maybe even sell to friends. This scarf, along with my purple mini quilt and small embroidered hanging/runner makes 3 items in stock!! I finished up this scarf, which is made from reclaimed yarn, during the days after Christmas when I wasn't feeling my best.  It's not from a pattern exactly but based on an idea from Betz White that intrigued me.

The recent holidays also saw me finish sewing together the half-square-triangles at last!! I need to decide where to go with it next.  I think it needs some kind of border to finish it off but will have to put a bit more thought into it.

The Tag Square Bee had a break for December but is back in action now for January.  I had an idea for the block below but somehow managed to cut 8 instead of 4 squares for the middle.

So I cut extra small squares and made this one aswell. Monafrank wanted a block with all shades of green (except neon) and would welcome the odd bit of blue, red or orange in it too.

I've decided to send her this one simply because I asked my OH and DS which one they prefered and they chose it!  I'll make a cushion cover or something out of the other one.  I nearly forgot - someone must be sending me a block too - can't wait until it comes and I can add it to the pile.

I didn't intend for this to be 2 'bread-shaped' loaves!  It started as a plan to be one 'bread-machine-shaped' loaf.  Wanting to make use of my machine in the holidays I used a pack of granary flour I had in the cupboard and followed the recipe on the pack.  The recipe made 8 rolls so I thought I'd double it and started throwing ingredients into the pan.  When it came to the flour it wouldn't all fit so I left some out, put the pan in the machine and crossed my fingers!  I went to check after 15 minutes and, although the machine was making a noise, nothing was moving!!  There was nothing for it but to tip it all out and continue by hand.  I was quite relieved when I saw it was acually rising!  Turned out alright in the end I think!

Bye for now

Teresa x

Happy New Year!

(Our lane on Christmas Day as we walked to meet up with family.  Very pretty but slippery I can tell you!)

 Hello again and Happy New Year!!  I really wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas but computer problems and then being a little off-colour for a few days prevented me getting here. 

(My DS and his cousin playing TV console games later in the day at my sister's house)

 I hope you all had a wonderful time over the Christmas period!! We had a lovely time with family and friends and I managed to get all the homemade gifts finished.

 This is a cross-stitch bookmark I made from a kit that I bought when we visited The Centre for Alternative Technology in the summer.  It's for a good friend of mine.  Making it made me realise why I haven't done any cross-stitch for some time - it's time-consuming, fiddly and frustrating!!  It came to life when I added the backstitch but I'm not very inspired to do any again soon. 

 I made about 125 of these peppermint creams a couple of days before Christmas.  It wasn't easy to keep count of them with my DS around and, of course, having to "taste test" them.  :-)

 Here are the family's gifts ready to be wrapped.

 A closer view shows the finished coasters clearer.  The peppermint creams are in celophane bags in the mugs.

 The church in the village is spot-lit over the Christmas period courtesy of the local hotel opposite. I took this photo on our way back home quite late Christmas Day.

Just before Christmas I won a giveaway run by the generous Miss Prickly and my package arrived today all the way from Oregon.  I was lucky enough to be the winner of one of 3 prizes offered - this lovely colourful wristlet.  A lovely extra pressie just for moi!!!

Tonight there are 15 of us meeting at a friend's house for a takeaway, then we are heading for the village to join the locals to see in the New Year.

See you all again in, what I pray will be, a happy and healthy 2011 for everyone.
Bye for now
Teresa x

Second Last Weekend Before Christmas!

Saturday am

Rehearsing with the Saturday Singers for a Welsh evening on Monday 20th (squeezed into a corner of the Fellowship Rooms because there was a children's party in the Chapel where we normally go).  We're singing 2 welsh songs: 'Suo Gan' and a carol that I can't remember the name to) .  None of us, except the choir master, speaks much Welsh so we've been struggling a bit with these.  I remember my sister telling me about the time a visitor to the hotel she worked at was asking her if she spoke Welsh. She told him she did and spouted out a long sentence to prove it.  He was quite taken in but all she had said was "Abergavenny, Monmouth, slow down, stop, service station" and various other Welsh words on our road signs.  He then proceeded to talk about well know Welsh TV series Pobol y Cwm but pronouned it in quite an unfortunate way that had us in stitches when she told us.

Saturday afternoon

Met up with a friend for mulled wine and a chat.  She's recently started a life coaching business that's beginning to reap rewards for her after putting in a huge amount of work. 

(one of DD's sweet little bunnies in the palm of her hand)

Sunday pm

DD picked me up to go to town.  Where we had a some lunch before heading to the shops for Christmas shopping.  I couldn't go in my car because a man was due sometime in the afternoon to replace the windscreen - I'd somehow developed a 6" crack in it during the cold spell!

 (A little knitting I work on when my eyes tire of tiny cross-stitches)

Before my OH picked me up to get back home in time for the first Carol Service of the season, DD showed me the baby bunnies that had been born to one of her rabbits just a couple of weeks ago.  Sooo cute!!

Back at work now for the last week before the 3 week break!!!! :-)  We had the news today that we were successful in our appeal and the planning permission  has been granted for the next stage of the job.  This means work for another 18 months to 2 years. I wish I was happier about it because I should be grateful to have a job and certainly wouldn't give it up unless I had to, but this job is not really what I want to be doing.

Bye for now
Teresa x

Third Last Weekend Before Christmas!

Just in case anyone is on tenterhooks to find out, you can breathe again now because I can announce that I had exactly a QUARTER of a snow day last week!!!! Sorry for shouting but a QUARTER!!! What am I supposed to do with that?  Do you know what I did? I CLEANED!! Sorry, I'll calm down now.

This is the scene as I drove to work one day last week.  Here we have freezing fog on the two lane road. The car said the temperature was -13!!!!!

 Things were a bit brighter as I neared the office on the single track road.

I'm not really angry - I had a lovely weekend starting with a quiz at the local pub on Friday evening (which my team won)! 

I finished my Christmas bell pull (above) to take to my quilting group where we also enjoyed a Hope Lunch (everyone takes a plate of food and we hope there'll be enough).  I didn't take any quilting to do, but concentrated on some cross-stitch for a Christmas present I'm hoping to finish by next weekend when I will see the recipient. Pics will have to wait until after Christmas so she doesn't see.

 On Sunday I dragged accompanied my OH to a local craft centre that has recently re-opened after a few years being closed.  Most of the crafts they sell here are made in Wales.  In a workshop at the back of the centre I found a room with lovely bags hung all around the walls, and shelves at the end piled with gorgeous fabrics (not new but recycled and reclaimed!). It was almost exactly as I envisaged my own fantasy workspace and I was so envious of the mysterious Cayt whose workshop it was.  I couldn't resist buying one of her lovely bags (the flower is a detachable brooch!).  OH and I stayed for coffee and cake and had a lovely chat with the owners who suggested I go back when Cayt is there and chat to her about her work.  I fully intend to take up the offer! I also want to look in the vintage clothes room that was closed on Sunday in order to tidy it up after they held a Craft Fair the day before.

To finish off, here's a pic of the (mostly) vintage Laura Ashley fabric I won on ebay recently.  There are 3 lots from the same seller here and with combined postage it came to less than £11.  The pieces are all different sizes but some are quite big.  The only one I am disappointed with is the lightest fabric 5 from the left.  I haven't looked closely yet but it seems to have a few marks on it and is not a very inspiring design to boot. ("to boot"??? - where did that come from?  I never say that!  I just had to look it up so if you're interested have a look)

Bye for now
Teresa x

Teething Troubles at Work!

I expected the portacabins to be cold so wrapped up warm accordingly.

I expected the roads to be icy with the cold and snow so drove carefully.

I expected to be further from any shops so made sure I didn't forget to bring lunch.

I expected to be further from a garage selling cheaper fuel so filled up in advance.

I didn't expect it to be quite SO cold!!

I didn't expect the water pipes to freeze leaving us using water from the drinking bottles to fill the kettle and pour down the loo to flush it!!

And I didn't expect the frozen pipes to burst when thawing out, flooding water into the corridor and resulting in having to share the 'men's facilities in a separate cabin outside - Brrrrr!!!

Add to that poor mobile coverage, a dodgy land line system and a view out onto a blank wall and, well, you can't blame me for hoping today would be a 'snow day'!

Well, I managed to get there despite a bit of slipping and sliding, the toilet is fixed and I'm ensconced in my little office with the heater on high so things are looking up (and if the weather is anything to go by, I might yet get a snow day this week) :-)

Stitchy News

 I absolutely love this block that I received from Anna from Finland for the Tag Square Bee for November. 

 Look at the lovely fabrics.  I particularly like the big white flowers on the green background and the brown with butterflies. 

 The coasters have now been trimmed down during a few spare moments over the weekend.  Making things in batches seems to be the way to go with small items.

Here's a glimpse of a corner of my Christmas Bell Pull hanging I started at my quilting group last meeting.  The next meeting is on Saturday when we are supposed to take it in to show, so as I've only got the binding to sew down, I should get it done.   I know what I'll be doing if I do get a snow day :-)

Bye for now
Teresa x

Not a Tutorial!

After a comment from Ali of Very Berry Handmade about my coasters a little while ago,  I'm slipping in a quick additional post this week to explain how I put it together. It's not really a tutorial as such but you can skip this post if you've already guessed how it's done!

So here goes, this is what I did: (the text goes with the photo beneath it)

Cut a piece each of wadding and backing 4" square......

Laid the wadding on top of the wrong side of the backing, selected a few fabric scrap strips that complemented eachother and laid one strip along the left edge........

Next, I laid a second strip, right sides together, on top of the first strip, lining up the right edge..........

Then I sewed through all layers a (roughly) 1/4" seam.............

...folded open the second strip and finger pressed it open (you can pin it at this stage to keep it in place if you wish).

I kept adding strips until the wadding was covered completely........

....then turned the whole thing over and trimmed off the overhang to the 4".

Finally, I added binding but, as there are lots of tutorials online for doing that and people have different method preferences, I'm not going to show the process.  (The truth is I'm not sure I've really cracked the binding process yet and wouldn't want to open myself up to ridicule!!!)

The most observant of you will have noticed that this finished coaster is not the same one but the original one I made.  I haven't put the binding on the other one yet as I find it the most scary part! 

Here's a back view in case you're wondering what it looks like.

I've done all the strip piecing for 8 more since  taking these photos - now I've just got to trim them and tackle the binding. :-(

I'd like to know which method you prefer?  The traditional double fold or folding the binding in half and attaching it double? And as for the corners, I try something different every time and haven't found my "favourite" way yet!!  One thing I'm pleased to have got the hang of is joining the ends of the binding even though I know I didn't do it on this (it was just too small and fiddly).

I hope this makes sense (it did to me) but if not just ask and I'll try to explain better and edit later if necessary.

Bye for now

Teresa x

Probably the Most Boring Photo in the World!

How would you like to look out on this view Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.15pm??  This is the outlook from my new office.  A dirty, yellow-ish shed wall.  It's certainly not very inspiring or cheerful but is more than a little overwhelming and claustrophobia inducing!  One consolation is that the days seem to pass a little quicker since we moved here.

But let's put that out of our minds and look as something a bit more interesting.  My OH and I joined a couple of friends on a Sunday afternoon bike ride.  Despite the cold and grey day there were lots of people along this popular foot/cycle path.  

The last time we cycled here was during better weather when we wore far fewer layers of clothing.  We don't go cycling very often and never usually in the cold weather so I was unused cycling while wearing a woolly had, gloves and jacket.  I think the walking boots were a mistake too as they made finding the correct position on the pedals a bit tricky!  I confess I came off twice due to my lack of skill with the gears.  Not exactly over-the-handlebar jobs but sedately falling sideways into the mud!

 The carrot at the end of the ride was a nice mug of hot chocolate.  Sorry, you've just got dirty mugs here but my need was greater than yours! During the ride back my OH, not wanting me to fall off again, gallantly jumped off his bike and  pushed me up the last hill while running and pushing his own bike too!

This was all very different from the last time we went in the summer. For one thing, I was fitter than I am now!  It was also nice weather and we were less encumbered with clothing.

 Bikes were parked by the river and a different kind of drink was required.  Looks like I couldn't wait then either! :-)

Another confession - I'm a bit saddle sore today! (Note to self: Must ride my bike more often!!)

Bye for now
Teresa x

Moving and Shaking!

First today I'm going to tell you about the moving, which has to do with my day job.  We are moving offices and have a removal company in to move everything about 30 miles away.  Here are most of my crates ready packed.  I packed about 35 crates, and that was just my stuff!  We had 300 crates and used about 250 of them!! We're moving to a site where we were at previously, about 2 years ago and, depending on how things pan out, may be there for a few months and then will either have to move again or the job will end! It's the nature of the business, but it doesn't worry me which ever way it goes!

 Next, I'm going to show you my November block for the Tag Square Bee. This block is for Julianna from Poland who asked for energetic purples, oranges and reds.  I hope this is 'entergetic' enough - these are not colours I have in abundance.  I just need to finish the signature block to go with it then I can get it in the post.

 Finally for today, the 'shaking' is in reference to the Children in Need charity event I took part in over the weekend.  The idea was to perform a song from a movie of our choice.  We had to learn the song (not look at the karaoke screen), dress up and perform it.  My DD chose to do Waterloo as featured in Muriel's Wedding and needed a partner so asked me to do it with her.  Performing in public is not something she's normally that keen to do so I agreed as she was so enthusiastic, even though it clashed with BIL's 50th birthday party. It wasn't about winning or losing but about taking part and doing it for the children (but I can still hardly believe we came SECOND!!! )

We've raised about £130 between us so far in sponsorship but are hoping to get more!  Seeing as I couldn't take photos myself and my OH took only videos, all I can show at the moment is what I wore.  My DD wore the same thing but in pink with a blonde wig.  We also added huge platform boots for good measure.  How we didn't do ourselves an injury I don't know!! We had to do a quick rethink of a couple of our planned moves when we realised that the microphones weren't cordless, but all went well and we had a fun  night.  If I can get hold of any (decent) photos of the performance, I'll post them another time. 

We went on to the 50th birthday party at about 10pm and had a few hours of dancing and singing there too.  It was like having 2 nights out in one and I thoroughly enjoyed both!!

Bye for now
Teresa x