Happy new year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2009 is almost upon us, can you believe it? I sure cant... It seems like there isn't enough time in the world to do everything that we would like to. And now there is even less time to stitch or play with my beads. I have so many ideas and tutorials that I would like to do but cant seem to get the time to do it. And to top it all off Santa brought us a Wii. Now there is another excuse not to do my course work ;0).

We had a great Christmas this year, my youngest had her first Christmas where she was aware of what was going on. The girls went straight to sleep because they knew santa wouldnt come if they stayed awake. If only I could have gotten some sleep. I was awake till 2am and woke up every hour till 5am and finally went and woke my girls up at 7.30am. Can you believe I had to wake the kids up on Christmas day!! Just goes to show who is the bigger kid lol...

I dont normally do resolutions but this year I think I will. So here it goes...

• I will make more time for my hobbies


• I will listen to my doctor and do as she says (I suffer from depression but I hate taking medication so am really bad at taking my tablets, I tend to forget and end up quite weepy and suffer from mood swings)


• I will make enough time for my course work (and try not to find an excuse as to why I dont have to do it)

I wonder if I can stick to these!!

I hope everyone has a great 2009 full of health and happiness.

Its nearly chcristmas.

Wow, I'm so excited this year. I'm already having trouble getting to sleep at night lol... I dont know who is going to be worse on Christmas eve, me or the kids!!

I got my partents landscape finished last week but in my excitement I wrapped it before I could get a chance to take a picture. I wasnt sure if I was going to like it but once it was in the frame I had to change my mind. I will take a picture once my mum and dad have opened it and post it.

Now I am working on a chart by HEAD. Its called sister angels and the girls in the design look just like my two girls. Its going to take me a while to get it done but it will definately be worth it.

I am just about finished another module in my degree, just a report to write and send off, then I get a months rest and another module starts in February. I wasnt sure if I wanted to start another one just yet, my motivation is a bit lacking just now (except for making things lol...).

The Christmas holidays have just started here and my girls and I have been busy crafting and decorating their play room with lots of snowflakes and trees and paperchains and pictures, we have no space left for toys lol...

This is one of the trees my girls made, they had a blast with the glitter making this, it was awesome to watch their little faces when they were playing with it.

I have two of these, one made by each of my girls, its the first thing we see when we come down stairs in the morning and last thing we see when we leave the house. It was my 4 year olds idea to put them in the spots they are so that Santa will see them when he comes to visit.

This was made by my oldest at nursery, it was the first thing we put on the tree and boy was she proud of it, needless to say so was I.

This wasn't made by any of us, it was made by my mother in law for our christmas last year, I just had to show him off. I love this little guy and couldnt wait to get him out this year.

Have a great Christmas and pray that I will get some sleep before the big day lol...

Its been a while....

Wow, I didn't realise how long it has been since I've posted a blog. In my time away I've managed to finish a few things to show. I have finally framed my Christmas angel, and couldn't resist hanging her up now (yeah, I know its a bit early but I couldn't wait.).

I have made a fair bit of progress on the landscape I am doing for my mum and dads Christmas pressie too... I am now using a colour other than grey and am sure i can get it done in the next two weeks (fingers crossed).

In between this I did a quick stitch that was a freebie with crossstitcher UK magazine, Its hanging just now too... (again I know its early for Christmas pictures but I cant help myself, I'm worse than the kids lol...)

Jewelry wise I have also managed to get a fair bit done. I have given up on my macrame bracelet and will give the necklace a try another time, but for now it has been chainmaille practice. I made some bracelets for my girls in the byzantine weave, a bracelet for myself using mobious flowers and a pendant made from mobious flowers. Alongside this I also mad a charm bracelet for myself, It could do with a few more charms on it but I want to make some from wire. So they will have to wait till I have the time to play again.

I still have to take better pictures than this and try to get some of the bracelets I made for the girls.
Other than that I have been getting my Christmas shopping done and took my girls to see the Christmas lights being switched on in the town centre. Which was magical, if i had only taken my camera to capture the amazement on the girls faces. Especially when Santa turned up.

Back to course work for a while so it may be a while before I get a chance to post again. My course has also been the reason that I haven't managed to post much on my yahoo groups but hopefully that will change soon.

So for now Happy crafting and if I don't get a chance for another post before hand have a Happy Christmas. xx

Course work birthdays and progress.

It was my oldest girls birthday on Monday, I cant believe my baby is 4. It seems like it was yesterday she was born. We had a little party for her with her cousins and we all had a ball.

This is her on her new bike, I think we should have got her the bigger size lol...

And my baby girl who is 2 trying on her sisters birthday crown. She is such a cutie.

And my two girls with their cousin and the cake (which I am proud to say I made myself).

I had a new module for my degree start this week too so less craft time again, I will have to fit some in though or I wont be able to cope, that and the fact that my parents wont get their christmas present.

This is my progress so far

Yeah ok it looks like a big grey blob but it is about a quarter of the way done and works up really quickly. This is what it should look like when its finished

I have also gotten a chance to play with some beads too, I wanted to practice my wire loops and found the best way to do that was to make a bracelet. So here it is.

Hopefully I wont find myself too bogged down with this course that I cant play with my thread wire and beads any time soon.

Cross stitch jewelry!!

Oh my gosh I'm so excited. I have just came across a site that sells kits to make cross stitch bangles. I don't know why the idea never crossed my mind before, and its not really a bad idea.





These designs are really simple but the threads to make them are DMC precious metal effects and light effects so will look stunning when worn. Now, when i find time I'm just going to have to get a cross stitch design programme and start coming up with my own jewelry designs that way. I've wanted to design and sell my own jewelry for a while now and was selling for a while, but the time to make and promote my pieces was cutting into the little time I have for course work. (I have a new module starting next week too). Anyway, what a way to combine two of my addictions. Now all i need is a way to find the time to satisfy my cravings lol....

Well.. she's finished!

Well stitch wise anyway. It has taken me a year on and off but she's finally ready to frame.

I spent 9 hours putting all of the beads on the background of the piece but it was definately worth it. My hubby decided that after all of the beads were on he preferred her without the snowflakes, can you imagine how horrible that felt. His reasons were only that snowflakes arent that big so the picture could have done without them. MEN!! Its a good job that he has no say in the things that go on our walls lol....

Im in two minds as to how to frame her, I'm really tempted just to stretch the material and hang it like a canvas (don't think i've described that very well) but I think i would like to see her in a silver coloured frame too.

Now that the angel is done I can start thinking about other projects. I have a kit to make for my mum and dad for christmas. They absolutley love the Isle of Skye, so I thought it would be nice to stitch a landscape for them. So I chose a view of the Cullins, you can see a picture of how it should look here. I have started it but I didn't have enought time to make much progress so I wont pst a picture yet.

On the jewelry front, I made a ring using a tutorial bu Eni Onken, the ring turned out OK, but I am a begginer and am doing intermediate and advanced tutorials which shows in my work. I would post a picture of this too but I got a new camera and cant quite get it to focus properly (me and technology dont mix!) The tutorial I used can be seen here. I will post a picture of my version as soon as i can figure out how to work the camera.

I also want to say thank you for all the comments that have been left on my blog, It really helps keep me going and motivated to get things done.

Nearly finished.

I have been working constantly on my angel over the last week and she is nearly done. I am about halfway through the firts colour of backstitching, I have some backstitcking to do in the Krenik threads in her dress and then the fun starts with the hundreds of beads that go into this design.

I know i've said it in previous posts, but I'm really proud of this. It's the most detailed piece i've done and it hasnt put me off trying anything with even more detail. Its just made my addiction stronger, which is bad news for the purse strings and my hubby.

I want to stitch my christmas cards this year too, fortunately the designs i have chosen are pretty simple and i should be able to fit this in alongside my new module for my degree and some jewelry making. I dont think i will be as bogged down with this module as i was with the last one which is a great feeling.

I have had a chance to give macrame a go again too, I have made up one half of a bracelet and should be able to get the second half done this weekend too (in between finishing the angel and starting christmas cards of course.)

The centre motif will be twice the height and double the width, the same design is used for the centre of the neclace in this kit and also will hold a knotted pendant. Hopefuly it shouldnt take too long to do and I can get back to playing with wire. I have recently purchased some tutorials from Eni Onken and I'm just itching to give them a try.

Till next time, happy crafting.

Course work is done......

Well, that's it done so now i can take it easy for a few days before i have to start working on my next course. So to celebrate I got a full day of stitching done. My girls were in the mood to play together so I managed to get some done in between normal mummy jobs. So here is the latest progress on my Christmas angel.

Once i have filled in the rest of her dress I can get on with the back stitching and adding the huge amount of beads that is going to be in this project, that's the part I'm looking forward to most.





Alongside doing this i managed to give macrame a try, i bought a kit at my semi local craft store, not realising that the design is not a simple one for a beginner. So needless to say i began with the easiest of the designs.







I had to use my scanner to post this so the picture is not great, but better than what my camera could get lol... (If you click on the picture you should be able to see a bigger picture)
You can kind of see the pattern in this. It is a spiral of knots followed by four seed beads, this repeats all through the design. The next one i am going to try in the kit has a fancy knotted centrepiece which looks kinda tricky, if i get enough of my angel done this week then i will give that a go at the weekend.

Happy crafting.

Just a rant...

I'm starting to feel a little bogged down with course work this week (and its only Tuesday...). I have the motivation to get on with my christmas angel, start making christmas cards and to finish a jewelry piece that im halfway through too, but to study.... it's not happening just now.

But enough moaning... At the weekend alongside getting the gorgeous choker done i did do some of my christams angel, its not noticeable though so i wont post a pic just yet, just imagine her dress being a little bit longer lol....

Anyway, back to the housework so i have no distractions at study time...

Time for jewelry.

Last night I managed to get a chance to play with my jewelry supplies again. I purchased a tutorial which has been raved about on some jewelry forums and gave it a shot. My first attempt was an absolute disaster so I wont post a picture of it, this one though is nearly how I wanted it to look... I have to appologise for the quality of the pictures, my last camera doesnt work any more and I am left with a camera at 2.1 mega pixels, not good for jewelry photography unfortunately...



The braid is called the Tucman braid, the bottom picture shows the clasp which is so simple but looks great (I think you may have to trust me on that one, the picture isn't very good sorry...)
A great wire artist who has made this design her own is a lady called Mei, have a look at what she has done using the same tutorial, if you want to give the tutorial a go for yourself just follow this link.

Some progress at last.

I've taken a week off the studies this week to relax before my big end of course assignment needs to be started, so I took this opportunity to make some good progress on my Christmas angel. Heer wings took all week for me to do but hopefully the rest of her wont take as long.


This is the biggest design I have stitched and the first time I have used any speciality threads and it sure has got me bitten by the stitching bug again.

Hello world

Welcome to my addictions. I love to craft... O.K its really only two crafts, but its enough for now. I love to make jewelry and I love to cross stitch. I used to make jewelry to sell, but my degree is taking up all too much time just now so I'm afraid I can only keep up with it at hobby level just now. This has however gave me more time for cross stitching and I have recently picked up a prooject I started a year ago.



Isn't she gorgeous! I know the quality of the picture isn't great but hopefully I will be able to get a new camera soon.

Because of the lack of a good camera just now I cant post pictures of my jewelry, the one I have just isn't good enough.