Going Crackers

At last I'm starting to feel a vague christmassyness  feeling a stirring. We started the weekend on Friday night with a Christmas lights switch on in the town where we used to live. We drove home through a very white swirly blizzard. While we'd been out our village had changed from everyday to a clean white snow world. As we had tons of food in the cupboards and the log basket was full we didn't need to go out once all weekend. It's been bliss.

This morning a craft urge hit us. I 've been wanting to make some tiny crackers for the tree for a while now so I got everyone else to join in too. We covered the table in shiny, sparkly stuff, glue and crepe paper and got cutting and a sticking.

Then I thought you might like to have a go too so I made sure I took a few pictures to show you how we made our dinky crackers.

Start off by cutting a narrow strip of paper and roll it up into a cigarette tube. Then fix it with a bit of cellotape.

Next choose your shade of crepe or tissue paper and cut a strip slightly wider than your inner tube. Stick it down and then get rolling again, fixing it again once it's all rolled up.

 

To make your crackery ends, tie a knot at each end with thread or ribbon. Then you can leave well alone or snip to make feathery ends (which is what I preferred). I had a vision of imitating well worn vintage crackers from the 1960's in my head.

Once your cracker is made then you can start having fun tarting them up with all your shiny sparkly stuff.  I definately think we'll be going crackers again.

I've really enjoyed reading your kissy fantasies in my  Mistletoe Kisses giveaway. Thanks for sharing them (even Hugh Hefner Jus) and for taking part. Shame I can't send you Johnny Depp too as he seems pretty popular in his pirate suit. If you've not already entered then don't forget to take part and Pucker Up.
Giveaway ended now. I've drawn a lucky winner and I'll be back later to let you know who it is.

Pucker Up

Well I said I'd be back with a giveaway and so here I am as good as my word.

My Mistletoe Kisses brooches seem to be quite popular at the moment. I sold quite a few at the weekend.  We're getting to that time of year when requests for a kiss or two or three under the green stuff is a coming. Even better if it's wearable mistletoe as you can have that kiss whenever you fancy. Make sure you ask for a cuddle too.

I have three Mistletoe Kisses brooches for sale in my Workshop and can always make to order too. Even better you could take part in my Pucker Up Giveaway and have a go at winning one of your very own.

To have a chance of winning let me know who you'd like to pucker up to under the mistletoe and why.

I'll keep this open until Wednesday 1st December and draw the winner then. So Pucker Up and off you go.

Bad me - I forgot to give away my pucker up daydream. So first in the line must be Mr Bun (he reads this here blog now and again) and I still fancy the pants of him anyways. Right off with my daydreams - David Bowie kissing the 15 year old me when my crush on him was overwhelming and the grown-up me would dangle my mistletoe over any gorgeous tall man with an Irish accent. Hopelessly unfussy.

Making and a Sharing

Making stuff is a do it on my own thing, apart from if you count my family who take it for granted that I'm attached to a hook, needle or notebook most of the time. My family have to be my best fans, it's their job and I really love their support, but it's also great when I get to meet people who want to buy my work because they don't have to like it.

This Saturday I met all sorts of lovely people at our Christmas Pick 'n' Mix Makers Market. 

People came to really enjoy the whole experience. A great compliment came from one man who had not known about us, just happened to be in Holt. He'd thought it would be one of those whizz round quickly awful craft fairs, but instead he'd been there an age as he thought it was wonderful.

A few people came quite a distance to visit us too. That's all down to this wonderful blogging thing. One lady who had bought from me online came from Shropshire to see what Pick 'n' Mix was all about. It was lovely to meet her and her family. I was blown away by her absolute thoughtfulness when she gave me a pop up Mabel Lucie Atwell book.

Oh and I managed to give myself a gift or two aswell. The wonderful Snowman and Tree at the beginning of all this were made by Sasha who makes toys to get the serious wants for. We did a swap for them, I gave her some Happy Days Bunting in exchange. This is the best kind of shopping, something I love for something someone else loves. Shame I can't swap a dozen eggs for a diamond ring.

My other shopping consisted of cakes and hot chocolates. The Bun's stole my marshmallows when they turned up.

Now then I'd better get on with showing you a few pictures of what it all looked like hadn't I. I forgot to take close up shots of a few stalls including my own, so my apologies to those makers.

Vanessa of Little Black Brooch had a mouthwatering selection of cameo brooches and rings.

Eldest Bun has her eye on this cat, I think she's called Doris. Little Bun fell in love with a small cat in a crocheted covered bed. I think I might be calling Sasha very soon to do some more shopping. 

A lot of you bloggers will know this lovely lady already. A shot of Emma of Silverpebble, it just captures her sunny personality perfectly and if you look carefully, just resting on Emma's left shoulder is the head of my Little Bun keeping an  eye on her mummy I guess. Her work was as divine as usual.

Just behind Emma is Helen of Funky Mutts. I never got to take a picture of her stall or even round to sizing Alfie Blue up for a new collar. He was there with us for most of the day too before he went home with the Buns and my mum. 

These stunning textile prints are by Vicki of Red Red Blue who can be found at Stew Printworks in Norwich. 

 

Another yarn lover is Fiona of Highfibre. She had her Fox Terrier there for a nano second. Such a beautiful girl, thank goodness Alfie didn't see her as he's quite rude to other dogs.

It was great to have Jon and Sarah of Lapwing Printworks back again. I really don't think my awful picture has captured how wonderful their work is. Most of the time I had an eye on my stall with Mr Bun nodding to me to get back and chat to a customer. 

Another new addition to Pick 'n' Mix was Sean and Tuula of Stik Designs. Their help in getting the word out about the market was greatly appreciated. Even my mum proved a dab hand at handing out a flyer or two.

 

Well that's us done for another year. Now we need to get a planning for Spring and sorting out a date too I guess. 

Before you go, just to let you know I have a mind to hold a wee giveaway in my next post. I'll let you in on it then I promise. 

No more gentle purring

Driving home tonight my car went from sounding quite purry to nasty throaty. Exhaust not happy I thought in a less than calm way. Then when I stopped it acted like a clown's jallopy and wobbled and vibrated a lot. For its final act of the day an engine failure light came on and yelled at me every other second. I turned up the radio to drown it out and hoped I'd get home.

My lovely Wednesday plans of being at home and stitching (as well as getting rid of those grey roots in my hair) have been hijacked by a need to get my car happy and working again. Arrrgghh plumbing on Friday, car mechanics Wednesday. It's just not on. Thank goodness I have some handy friends who can do these kind of mending things.

Do you think Prince will get me about if my car doesn't want to play ball? Dream on.

Somehow I think Mr Bun's car will be the one getting me up to North Norfolk to decorate the hall on Friday night and back again in the early hours to open the doors on our third Pick 'n' Mix. His car doesn't like going very fast at the moment so that'll be another interesting journey. Mr Bun's suggestion was to dress the part of a genteel driver and wear a hat and driving gloves.

If you have better transport and are anywhere near that part of Norfolk on Saturday then please pop in and say hello won't you, we'd love to see you.

How to Sort out a Big Drip

Thrifty goodies have been very very thin on the ground lately. It's never a great time of year for hunting and gathering. Most of the boots have stopped and so I'm missing going out and coming back with something I never knew I wanted.

I did find these at a market recently though. Still in the original wrapping. Gorgeously leary in their splodgy pattern. I knew Little Bun would love them being a wee bit partial to the purple. I left them hanging to dry on the Rayburn and as she walked past I heard an "ooohhh", followed by "can I have them please?"

I do think they need orange crochet trimmed edges first though or they will be far too tasteful and we can't have that can we.

Now what do you think of the wristwarmers I made for Eldest Bun? So easy to knit and cable, but oh so hard to actually sew up. I did it late at night when I should know better. First stitched them the wrong way round. Then I unpicked and stitched them up without a thumbhole. Got there in the end though. First christmas make all completed - hooray. As for the bedsocks, it's slow progress.

Today is really my last stitchy and making day before next weekend and I've ended up being a plumbers mate instead for most of it.  My very useful and DIY able friend came over to sort a very big problem we had. We had a leaking overflow pipe from the hot water tank, but no way of getting to it. It must have been put up there and then the ceiling put back in after. 

So today my friend climbed all over our roof trying to see in. I felt ill even looking up. I did do a good job though holding the ladder for when he finally came down. Next up we had to guess where the tank might be in Eldest Bun's room and cut holes though. After a few holes under the tank he then cut a square on the other side, went up and sorted the problem. Now there are a few holes, a really big square waiting to become a hatch, but thankfully no more drip drip drip.

I told you all this just in case you were under the impression that it can get quite exciting around here. 

Have a good weekend won't you.

What's not to like about Wednesday

Wednesday - I love Wednesday's. Halfway through the week, a day off for making and just being me, a day that's a bit nearer to the weekend when all my lovelies are at home with me too.

Today I've been busily hooking away making more brooches for the upcoming Pick 'n' Mix Makers Market. I had a lovely friend pop over for a natter and a munch on quite a few biscuits while I made some more Jolly Big Flower Brooches.

 

Just need some zingy yellow and apple green flowers and I think the colour mix will be just so. 

The Cheeky Cherries and Mistletoe Kisses are piling up ready and waiting to be stitched together. 

Later on I'll be seeing my partner in crime to chat through last minute stuff. Then on Saturday we'll be pacing the side of the road banging in road signs and generally letting North Norfolk know we'll be setting up shop in Holt next Saturday.

Cables & Sparkles

I realised the other day I'm never going to finish half the stuff I've started, so I might aswell get sidetracked and start some more new projects while I'm at it. I got out my knitting books for a bit of eye candy fun and ended up lusting after this pink sweater. Now I've never been great at cabling so I thought perhaps I'd better start small first and have a practice on something else first.

That's how I came to be making these creamy cabled wristwarmers for Eldest Bun. I found some Rowan Cocoon in the bottomless cupboard of stashed yarn to use. I bought it to make a cardigan, knitted the back and then stupidly lent the book the pattern was in to someone I was teaching to crochet. I've never seen them since, so that taught me to not lend expensive books out.

We had a fabulous time on Saturday night having our own Bonfire Party. A few friends popped over, the kids screeched, with delight at the fireworks; Alfie howled at being parted from his master and then we cosied up indoors to eat and drink until we were merry.

 

 

I was busy being a good hostess and having fun so I forgot to take any pictures once everyone got here, but anyway you all know what a firework looks like. Just say an ooohhh and aaaahh and you'll have the full picture of it all.

Hope you all had a great weekend whatever you got up to.

Juggling with Jam

I'm trying to learn how to juggle at the moment. I don't think I'm very good at it yet. Today was my day off and I had lots of plans for it, but apart from doing tidying type stuff, food buying and just stuff that couldn't be ignored I haven't done any of the things I planned. I also did a bit of staring at things.

In my head I had a daft idea that I would cut up all the squares for Eldest Bun's Memory Quilt, possibly even have it all patched and sewn by the end of the day, make more brooches for Pick 'n' Mix and then take a few pics to show you all.  Do you start the day with such big plans too? Reality is that working three days a week means there's not much time left to work for me and be our family PA, D.I.Y. guru and occasional daydreamer. So sometimes something has to give and so I went to the hairdressers instead, chatted to friends and then watched a bit of Dr Who with Little Bun. I've enjoyed my day.

I'm going to work on the juggling and see if I can do better next time.  

I'm also going to work on liking Alfie Blue again. He was very very bad tonight. When  Little Bun and I went to collect Eldest Bun from her friends he broke into my wardrobe. I'd hidden the Bun's choccy selection boxes and other Father Christmas stocking things in there. He scoffed the lot. Boy am I angry with him, he's made our carpet really brown and sticky too. Cats are so much more civilised.

I also wanted to say I feel bad that I never have the time to pop round all of the blogs I like to read and say hello to those of you who leave me such lovely words. I'd hate you to think I was just not bothering to say hello, I'll get there eventually and catch up with you all.