Christmas 2013

Since I've been busy (by that I mean slack at updating my blog) I realised I never shared my handmade gifts for Christmas 2013!

I had been a little obsessed with woodburning, which meant everyone got a wooden spoon for Christmas! I made up a vine/leaf design and sketched it onto each wooden spoon before I started burning them.

With the wooden spoon I also gave a tea towel and I made everyone a jar of sweet chilli sauce using my favourite recipe.

Oh and of course everyone got to enjoy my rumballs - I think they are expected every year now!

Find and seek

It is getting close to two years since my last blog post, unfortunately life got busy and my blog got forgotten! To add to that, my creative side has dwindled and I feel like I only ever make gifts. I don't seem to have the time - or the motivation - to just craft for the fun of it.

So my new plan is to be organised, I have been buying more gifts rather than making them, and also planning way ahead to avoid frustrating mistakes and deadlines. I have been completing unfinished projects, starting new ones, as well as starting a few draft blog posts!

Before publishing any new posts I felt that my blog needed a new banner, but I just couldn't decide what I wanted, so the blog has been waiting...

Yesterday I was sorting through my vase of origami lucky stars as I wanted the colours to match our home. Sitting there with a pile of stars covering my desk made me realise that it would look great as my blog banner.

After thinking about it while sorting stars, I decided that it would be cute to add some of my little decorations into the mix to turn it into a find and seek banner.

I did find my set up difficult to photograph because the camera couldn't get it all in focus, but its not too bad considering my camera skills. The best thing about my new banner? I think I'm finally happy with this one - we'll see how long that lasts...

Wood burning

At one stage I decided I wanted to try wood burning, so I got out my trusty plastic melting soldering iron and had a play with some scrap wood. It didn't look that great, but I blamed it on the wood I used, along with the fact I was using a soldering iron and bought a proper wood burning tool anyway!

So far I am finding that while sometimes it is the wood that is the problem, for the most part I'm just not that great at it. It doesn't help that I only found one wood burning tool, and I don't think it's all that flash.

Rather than wasting  my time doing scribbles on scrap pieces of wood, I found a cheap pack of wooden spoons and got to work. 

Even though I'm a total novice, I'm happy to add these to my kitchen and hopefully with lots of practice I will get better - or I'll buy a better wood burning tool. 

With Christmas getting closer, these spoons will be put to good use making rumballs - let's hope that unlike last year we don't end up with another snapped wooden spoon!

Blobby Sketch

I realised that I hadn't done a blobby drawing in quite awhile which of course meant I went out and bought a new sketchbook - because I don't have enough of them already! I attempted doing a quick and simple blobby sketch... but of course I did my usual proportions which take far too long to complete.

And now that my drawing is complete as to my original plan, looking at it I think something is missing.

So do I decide to work on it a little more or should I just leave it as is or start a completely new page?

Although I could always finish one of my many other projects!

Lace Windows

The front windows in our house have fixed panes underneath - which is great for letting in light, but it also makes it easy for Trixie to see lots of things to bark at outside! In the past I have just stuck wrapping paper over those fixed panes, but after all the time spent painting those rooms and cleaning the window frames I just couldn't justify taping paper there again!

Pinterest is brilliant, but I never seem to have enough time these days so I haven't been on the computer a lot lately, luckily a few weeks ago I found the perfect solution!

The pinned photo pointed to Annabel Vita's blog where she used cornstarch to 'glue' lace to her windows for privacy, while still allowing natural light through.

It was a little awkward trying to cut such big pieces of lace to the right size, then attempting to get them to stick, but eventually I finished the first window.

I am so happy with how it turned out! I have noticed that I need to redo the corners, but it still looks good from both inside and outside! Trixie however is not as impressed and now needs to be taught not to jump up to look out the window - no matter how cute it looks to see her standing there watching you as you come home. 

There are two more windows to do, now all I need to do is make the time...