craftyguider – Page 9

#Economyblockalong Quilt

I have a lot of fabric. I have confessed before to my addiction; I see something, I like it, and I’ll buy a metre or two because “I’ll make something from it” and then never do. This is a photo of my scraps bag which are defined as smaller than a fat quarter but bigger than a 5cm square. I use a lot to make mirrors, tissue holders, and rings amongst other things, but it’s still full to bursting.

I read on Instagram about the #economyblockalong on @sewjustinesew’s feed and spotted an opportunity for a fabric stashbuster, a step up for my current patchwork skills, and a community feel to my crafting should I need support. There is an excellent tutorial on Red Pepper Quilt‘s blog, but I thought I would drag out my Sizzix quilting die’s that I bought some time ago to help me cut the pieces out.

I found 3 dies that gave me a vague approximation of an economy block and made a trial square.

Yes, I know it’s not ironed, and it still needs trimming, but it’s a trial, OK! In a true economy block, the corners of the centre square should touch the centres of the ‘diamond’ square, so I’m going to have to weigh up the convenience of using my dies to cut out rather than doing it the conventional way.

Is anyone else doing the #economyblockalong?

Linking to the Handmade Monday linky party.

So far so good

It seems to me that 2014 is moving quite slowly. We are only at the beginning of the second week of January, but New Year seems so long ago.

A week ago, I set myself the task of completing some of the kits I have stashed in my craft space and recycling some of my craft magazines; one craft kit a week and one magazine a day.

On 2nd January, during a #creativesunite session on twitter, I picked up a couple of Christmas Cross Stitcher magazine cross stitch kits from my stash and made some progress. The robin is more than half finished now, and the houses kit has all the cross stitch finished ready for sewing together.

I have succeeded in finishing a kit for this week though. This one is from Homemaker magazine.

I was quite pleased with the tree, although some of the detail was lost on the star because of the layers of paper. In the magazine, the glitter appeared opaque, but as you can see from this photo, it is very transparent.

I think I am up to date with my magazine recycling. Since Monday, things have been crazy, but today I managed to get a bit of planning in place.

How is your 2014 panning out?

Theo Paphitis #SBS Winner

I wanted to get more focused on my blog and my webshop in 2014. I’m still on catch up, so my targets for January were just to get my workspace organised. Simple but achievable.

However, I did start a couple of things. I have a plan in place for what themes I am concentrating on for www.craftyguider.com month by month. I have started following more accounts on instagram, pinterest and twitter, as well as more blogs on bloglovin, and I started entering Theo Paphitis’ Small Business Sunday competition on twitter. Two weeks in, I won!

My winning tweet said “When I was a Guide, I earned 2 Craft badges. Now I’m a leader, I design and make badges.”

I am so pleased Theo Paphitis personally chose me, and having had a quick look through the #SBS winners website, the benefits are fabulous, I’ve increased my exposure on twitter, and I hope this, with a bit of hard work, translates to more sales in my webshop. And best of all, I hope to meet Theo and get a certificate at his next winners event.

I’d love to hear from you if you have any creatives you think I should be following on social media. And obviously feel free to click on the links above to follow me!

My Mission, and a Quick Scrabble Coaster Tutorial

My last blog post was on the 26th November. It was about having lots to do but needing to concentrate on the important stuff, which is kind of what I am blogging about today. It’s the important stuff I’ve been concentrating on for the last few weeks as I’ve been struck down by coughs, colds, snotty nose, tonsillitis, fever, and lots of other cold symptoms, one after the other. Just as I was getting to the end of these, I cut my thumb on some Barbie packaging and it got infected. This all meant an enforced period of not doing much whilst I tried to get well again.

I haven’t had time or energy to blog about my handmade Christmas decorations and I made very few Christmas presents (apart from this one with the Craftyguidelets for Mr CG).

Quick scrabble coaster tutorial:

1. Get 2 girls (aged 4 3/4 and 7)
2. Buy 2 scrabble sets from charity shops
3. Play with the letters.
4. Veto most of their word choices due to spelling/not enough letters in the boxes/the wrong amount of letters to make a square/complete gibberish
5. Come up with five 5 letter words
6. Hot glue them together and to a piece of stiff card
7. Bind round the edge with a piece of satin ribbon attached with hot glue, and you are done.

For January, I am going to try and get a few things done. I’ve started a Q&A a day journal, along with the Craftyguidelets.

January 1st’s question was “What is your mission?”. My response was “To do! Less procrastination, more doing.” So I am blogging and setting myself a couple of goals for January.

The first is to recycle one magazine a day. I flick through magazines, then I read them and then I should rip out the bits I want to keep and recycle the rest. This part doesn’t get done enough so I want to clear 31 magazines by the end of January. This will clear the magazine mountain in my craft area.

The second task is to complete one craft kit a week. I have lots saved from magazines, Crafty Creatives boxes and gifts, as well as all the WIPs I have scattered around. They need doing so tonight I will be joining in #creativesunite on twitter and doing a bit of Christmas cross stitch. Hopefully another space will be cleared in my craft area.

What are your plans for 2014?

Obsessively, Compulsively Happy

I am sitting here, watching Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners on Channel 4 and having a think. There are people on the programme with debilitating OCD who spend most of their waking lives as slaves to their cleaning routine. I am not one of these people. I couldn’t afford to spend all that time on my house, let alone the hundreds of pounds they must pay for bleach every year. I also couldn’t be one of those people they are helping who haven’t cleaned for years.

My mum had a little dish when I was small which said “my house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy”. This is how I run my house. I’m sure the OCD brigade would faint at the sight of my ironing mountain, the lego on the floor in the playroom, the unplumped cushions in the living room. However no one ever got ill from a pile of magazines sat in the corner of the room.

I have the Motivated Mom app on my phone which helps me with my housework routine. I am not obsessed with it, but I know that the bathrooms get done on a Monday, and Friday is the day for changing the beds for example. As this scheduling is helping with the housework, I am hoping to broaden it to the other elements in my life. This is only my second blog post this month. I have a WIP list a mile long. I need to launch my Etsy shop. I haven’t been to the gym in ages. These aren’t essential, but I feel like I want to include them in my weekly routine. I know that this is not the time for me to start cramming things into my life, but I am hoping for a relaunch of myself in the new year.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a magazine to read.

Meal Planning Monday 4.11.13

I’ve been away from meal planning for a few weeks. Time, disorganisation and a weekend away have meant that I’ve been winging it or planning and not blogging. This week needs a bit more careful planning.

Last Monday’s storm knocked out our power and tripped the mains switch. We were away, so when we came back on Tuesday evening, we had to clear two fridges and freezers of food. I rely on my freezer a lot. I am a vegetarian, husband is gluten intolerant (amongst other things), and therefore I cook most meals from scratch. Rather than be a slave to the kitchen, I batch cook and keep my freezer stocked up. Therefore I can cook one type of meal and just defrost the other. I also keep uneaten portions of food, homemade bread, herbs, some fruits and a whole host of other bits in the freezer, and they are now in the bin. It’s such a waste.

No more freezer diving for a while. I even ate a commercial ready meal for the first time in years last week. Not good. I had to bake two loaves of bread last week because the Craftyguidelets were at home. I normally have a jacket potato or something else that suits my Slimming World programme so just pull a couple of slices from a frozen loaf if they are home. I also came unstuck with a lack of gluten free breadcrumbs and other ingredients that I normally just pick from the freezer or fridge.

We do have a glut of chocolate though after a trip to Cadbury World. Or we did have. I seem to have eaten rather a lot…

With a food delivery today, this is what we’ll be eating this week.

Monday Fish pie
Tuesday Toad in the hole
Wednesday Chicken cordon bleu
Thursday Spaghetti bolognese
Friday Vegetable goulash
Saturday Tuna pasta bake
Sunday Roast

Linking with Mrs M’s Meal Planning Monday.

Organising Cups

There is a game we have played at Guides. The group is split into about seven different groups and are shown a pile of cups. Each group is given a secret instruction to carry out such as put all the cups in a straight line, keep one cup in each hand, turn all the cups upside down, keep all the cups right side up, take all the cups outside etc. Pandemonium then ensues as the Guides run around, the cups go flying and violence breaks out.

A halt is called and the Guides then share their instructions with each other and work out if they can work together to achieve harmony. Lots of the challenges can be achieved by working together: the person holding the cups can hold them whilst they are placed in their straight line. However, sometimes a compromise cannot be reached: you cannot have all the cups upside down and right side up at the same time.

I have lots of cups that I am trying to arrange: kids, blog, business, house, volunteering, crafting etc. On Wednesday evening after a day making Christmas cards with the kids and making sure they had started their homework, they were having their bath with their dad and I was waiting for the first one to get out for hair drying. I started thinking about what I was going to do once they’d gone to bed. I am on the cable rib for a baby’s pullover which I need to get finished. I want to get my blog going and have lots of themes I want to cover. In doing Christmas cards I found some of the Christmas kits from magazines that I’d never made so I could make them. Great British Bake Off is on. I can actually participate in #handmadehour on twitter as I’m not at Guides tonight. I need to tackle Magazine Mountain. This carried on until my head exploded.

In the end, I wrote this blog post whilst watching a recorded Bake Off Masterclass after finalising my online shopping order. I had to abandon the knitting and cross stitching; not easy to type, sew and manipulate yarn at the same time. I got a couple of tweets onto #handmade hour to show my face, but after several nights of disturbed sleep, a full on half term day and a couple of hours on the laptop, I wasn’t fit for anything else.

I see other bloggers who post every day or couple of days. Some people run successful craft businesses whilst working full time. Surely I can do all that too? Am I just being disorganised or distracted too much by twitter or Minion Rush?

I have to remind myself that everyone is different. Do these people have two bright little girls who deserve their mum’s attention? Do they have a Guide unit to run weekly? Do they also have other volunteer roles?

It is so important to work out how your life works for you. You cannot know the full circumstances of someone else’s life. They might have a cleaner to do the housework. They may be 3 years into their chosen path whilst you are at the start of your journey.

In the meantime, I will carry on doing what I can and trying to follow my own advice! Some of the cups will remain the wrong way up, but as long as I have the important ones in a row, that’ll do me.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I’ve been lucky to have been able to get a move on with quite a few crafty projects to tick off my WIP list. Last month’s #WIPslinky post was a bit up and down with success in clearing my archive, so I set myself a realistic task list for this month.

I have started my Christmas cards. I am about halfway through making them and really enjoying thinking up different designs. I am also enjoying using up the different elements that I have collected over previous years. Perhaps I will be able to store all my Christmas crafty bits in just one box this year!

I have also managed to get lots of fabulous new products made and listed on Craftyguider.

These frame purses were featured in a previous post and are now on the website. This polka dot one is my favourite.

I’ve made five kilt pin charm brooches with themes of sewing, gardening, owls, party girl and this knitting one.

I’ve also added some more rings to the Rings and Things category, including these two fabric covered button ones:

And I’ve been sewing Christmas decorations too.

These stockings are made of soft fleece with a furry cuff. I’ve made several different versions including these ones.

I’ve also been making Christmas tree decorations for the website this year. The pine cones are made with pins and folded fabric, and the cute Christmas trees use some funky Christmas fabric.

One of my biggest sellers last year was Christmas fabric bunting so I’ve got four colour combinations listed including this one.

Quite a successful month! Just as well as I have a craft fair to go to on 17th November in Puckeridge, and there are bills to be paid at Guides (where all the profit goes).

Next month I think I’ll focus on getting the Craftyguidelets’ WIP list started. They use the dining room as their craft room and I need to reclaim it in time for Christmas. They need to make Christmas cards for friends and teachers, there is a half finished hama bead ballerina that needs completing and ironing before it gets knocked on the floor (again!), and there are numerous projects and kits that they have started and never finished.

What do you need to get finished before Christmas?

Linking to Tales From Mount Pleasant’s #WIPsLinky party. Come and join us!

Meal Planning Monday 7.10.13

Last week was a week of in and out and dashing about which meant meal preparation was tricky. A lot of the meals were either pre-prepared or quick to cook so I could just pop them into the oven or bung a few ingredients in the slow cooker.

Sunday was the exception. For the second week in a row we had a roast dinner. I always make sure we have lots of veggies as I don’t eat meat, and this week we even had a home cooked pudding.

The Craftyguidelets made a gluten free apple crumble. It tasted delicious with a big dollop of custard.

This is what we have planned for this week:

Monday Macaroni cheese

Tuesday Ham egg and chips

Wednesday Freezer dive

Thursday Cider braised pork chops

Friday Fish pie

Saturday Take away or freezer dive

Sunday I’m out all day. Do I get Mr CG to cook a roast on his own whilst looking after the Craftyguidelets?

Linking with Mrs M’s Meal Planning Monday link party. What have you got cooking this week?

Getting my craft on

I have a lot of craft stuff as I have many different crafting interests. I am an expert at packing it away, but this causes problems as I never know what I have, or it is so difficult to get at I never use it. This week I have a had a sort out and tidy up as in 2 months, 18 days, 6 hours and 19 minutes (at time of writing!), a certain bearded, rotund, elderly gentleman will be doing his rounds.

My ribbons are more organised, although I still have 2 disorganised boxes of scraps, lace, ric rac and “miscellaneous”. I have also sorted my embellishments for card making so it is easier to select a box of flowers or some crystals to use on projects.

I’ve had a few family and friend cards to make including supervising these 3 for my dad. From left to right, created by eldest Craftyguidelet, youngest Craftyguidelet and me. Having access to all my stamps again meant a stamping frenzy.

The sewing machine has also had an airing.

I’ve been meaning to make these holsters for the Craftyguidelets’ water bottles for some time. When they travel to and from school they have all sorts of luggage including book bags, PE kits, music folders and cardigans, and it’s come up as a problem at the school parent forum. Perhaps I can sell these at my next craft fair.

Having posted a picture of my Rainbow unit’s latest batch of ‘patrol’ badges, a Rainbow leader on twitter requested some for her unit too. She loves them and hopefully the Rainbows will too.

And now, those with delicate sensibilities should look away. I am about to use the C word.

CHRISTMAS!!!!

Christmas card production has started.

I have made 23 cards and glued together 14 decoupaged toppers. Fortunately I have lots of pre-prepped bits and pieces so at the moment it is full steam ahead. Needless to say it will slow down when I start on the stamping and colouring.

I have also started a bit of Christmas crafting.

These angels came in a kit I bought and didn’t get round to making last year. The instructions were poor but I managed to adjust them to make three decorations for my Christmas tree this year. I also tried to finish making the leftover fabric pine cones that the Guides had last year for their Christmas craft. The aim is to put them up for sale to put the funds back into the unit, like everything in my Craftyguider shop, however I ran out of pins so it’s back to the shop I go for more.

I am really enjoying this flurry of crafting. In a tough week health-wise, it’s kept me going and I’m ticking off the WIPs.

Have you started your Christmas crafting yet?

Linking with Handmade Harbour’s Handmade Monday linky party.