Beads!

Hi

I had a shed day yesterday. It was very productive.

I'm especially proud of this bead I made:







I put a tree on both sides because I think its a shame when you have a lovely picture on a bead but when it flips over, which it often does as you go about your day, no one gets to see the lovely picture. I very much admire the beads of 'Rowanberry Glass Art' and love trees. I've made tree beads before and even had one shown in 'Bead' magazine once but this is easily my best. I am so pleased with it and have been wearing it all day.




I quickly put it on a a headpin this morning. It has a green Swarovski Crystal at the bottom and a blue one at the top. To make it not wobble because of the silver headpin being thinner than the hole in the bead, I put some size 11 seed beads between the two crystals. You can't see them but the wobble isn't there.


See that bead on the left of the photo above my big hole bead? It's a new Troll Bead I got for Christmas. I've wanted it for ages. It's called 'Three Siblings' and makes me think of my children. I gave up hoping to get it and instead stuck a photo of it in a scrapbook of things I would like and told my husband I would really like it. I love how this necklace looks. I've added a lobster clasp so that I can easily change the pendant when I want to.




The other day I was wearing this one:




I made this face cloth for my son:



It's Rowan Glacé Cotton with DMC Petra number 5 in black worked on a 3.5mm hook. I thought it would make it more manly for my son.

Now I'm working on a cowl/neck warmer for my daughter because scarves can be a bit tricky when you're little. I used my yarn I'd intended for a cushion. I hope she likes it and wants to wear it when it's finished. There are an awful lot of ends I need to sew in:



I decided to not use a pattern of stripes but to pick them more randomly and I'm very much liking how it's looking.

Forgot to show you these beads:



They remind me of Spring.

I'd like some more pink glass. Gellys Sty is my favourite but pink glass is expensive at the moment. Pink glass uses gold to make the colour and Gellys Sty is currently £30. Hard to justify. I kid myself that I'm very with the market when I have a look at gold prices to see if they are dropping.

This is my little light tent I use when I'm attempting to take good photos of my beads:



Here's that bead again:



Did I say how pleased I am with it? I think I might have.


In other 'news' the orchid is still looking good:



And this tulip is emerging:



I bought these today for the pots outside our house:




Have a wonderful weekend. I have to do new school shoe buying. There's always something I need to spend money on. One day I'll have some spare for a glass order but not for a while. There are lots of new colours since I bought my last lot and filigrano which I've wanted for a long time.

Sally
Xxx

Hi

We made carrot cake this weekend.

It was very popular but I felt it was a little dry. I'll try a different recipe next time.





The Lego treehouse was completed and looks pretty brilliant.


I made this:


From this book:


It's a very simple no frills book but is the one I learned to crochet a granny square from.

The face cloth was used to clean this:


And did a very good job.

I tried to make my windowsill look a bit more attractive. I loved having these flowers. The slide can go this year. The children are mostly playing on it in a way that scares me these days so it will be good to see it go.


We played dolls. A has these Bratz dolls her Grandparents got her from a charity shop. They aren't my favourite. The heads coming off is a bit weird.


I was in charge of shoes:


The daffodils lasted a few days and I replaced them with these roses. I love roses.











We had a good weekend. There was football, tap shoe buying, cake making, homework doing and film watching.

Sally
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Stuff

Evening everyone

It's hard to know what title to give this and I've always liked the word "stuff".

This has been a weird week. Mostly for dog related reasons which I won't go into but things haven't been terribly relaxing. I do find great comfort during times of stress from the mundane act of sitting and creating something.

I made a bracelet I'm very pleased with for a kind friend who gifted me some clothes recently:




Not the best photo but I was in a bit of a rush. I also made myself a pendant which I am really pleased with. I haven't photographed that yet though.

I bought a last ball of Baby Cashmerino to make a hexagon cushion:



But I've been distracted by an idea for Valentine's Day of making small bags to put nice stuff in. I've not tried anything like this before and like the idea of giving the children a hopefully nice memory.

Tomorrow I get to see two lovely ladies I call my 'clay friends'. They both make stunning things from polymer clay. I've never had a great deal of luck with it. I find it a bit of a faff to get everything out and put it all away again. It will be great to catch up and interesting to see what I manage to make.

Sally
Xxx

Hi

Hello there

It's been a good weekend. Stuff has been accomplished which is a very good thing. There's been a tip run and I've managed to throw a few bits and pieces away (I'm not very good at that).

This man was made the other day and P asked me to photograph it. He's behind it holding it up while eating a prawn cracker!



He also was my Scotch Pancake making Buddy and did a most excellent job. This one he made all by himself:




I asked the children's view on a ripple blanket v a hexagon one and they said ripple with no hesitation. That's good then. I can stop wavering about that. I'm going to gradually collect the colours and will use the Debbie Bliss yarn I bought to make a cushion. I have an idea for a squares pattern. In the meantime, I'm still making flowers for my scarf which has an extra flower appear almost every time I wear it.

Friday I ignored the house and went out to my shed to make beads. It was lovely. They are all clean and waiting for me to photograph.

Tomorrow is going to be a strange day that will involve me either dog walking or driving to hospital for A's check up while P is at school. It will be great to get things checked out but I've made a bit of progress in the kitchen this weekend and would really like to keep going.

Hope you had a good weekend.

Sally

My Day

Hello

After a dodgy start to my day it got better. There were some things to be thankful for:

Knowing that there will come a time when I'll be walking through the field with my toes out









One day it will happen.

A clean V for a change:









No need for a big clean up job once we got home.

Time instead for an Attic24 cookie:









Seriously delicious.

New yarn delivered by Ocado:








How great is that. I can sneak yarn into my grocery shopping from time to time. These colours look lovely together and I keep wavering about what I want to make. My head knows we need more cushions (we have two currently shared between two sofas and a chair) but my heart loves the idea of a blanket that I very gradually work on. I still like the ripple idea.

More bread making. This time from a packet:




























Sunshine in the afternoon:


















My new diary:









I feel more organised already and I used Tesco vouchers to buy it meaning I don't feel guilty buying it when I already have a 2014 diary.

If my children are reading this in however many years time I hope they have enjoyed reading the albums I wrote in for years and looking at the photos.

After reading lots of the Attic24 posts I decided that this might be a good way to carry on writing to them. After the albums got too hard to keep up, I started to write documents on the computer with photos but worry that they will get lost or deleted. I'm going to try this for a while as a way of recording what we get up to. I very much agree with Lucy that it is lovely to think that when they are all grown up they can have a read of what their childhood was like. I have very few memories of mine and would love to know more about what life was like for us as a family. I'm also hoping it will help me to enjoy life a bit more by thinking about the good stuff. I have a tendency to be so wrapped up in getting through the day and fitting everything in that I don't take time to stop and smell the roses.

I hope my children and anyone else reading this enjoys it.

Sally
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P.S. I looked at my stats yesterday and it seems that some American people might be reading this sometimes. I hope the weather is ok for you at the moment. d showed me a photo of Niagra Falls which looks amazing at the moment. I'm sure it's no fun if you are in the middle of that very cold weather though. That sort of thing looks romantic and lovely from the outside but going about your daily business would not be fun.

I thought, just incase, that I should say "stop and smell the roses" means to appreciate the moment.
Xx

A picture

Hi

I've been tidying one of my piles today (not finished though) and found this gorgeous drawing by A:




She loves drawing and I think she's brilliant at it. Her pictures always delight me I just love that rainbow and the little heart.

On today's walk V met up with a friend and after they'd both ran about for a while chasing each other and rolling about he needed a proper wash involving shampoo.

I have a couple of library books I'm looking forward to looking at and a new diary to hopefully make me feel super organised and make sure I never forget anything important.

I hope you enjoyed your day.

Sally
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Bread

Hi there

Today I made a very tasty loaf of bread:



I think I may have cracked breadmaking. I've learnt that it's important to have the dough tight as you make it into the loaf shape otherwise it will spread out instead of rising up.



The 200g you see in the photo there is a reminder of how much to feed V. Incase you were curious.

There were two very muddy walks today. I managed to stay vertical although only just at one point. I'm very grateful for my old riding boots. They keep my feet warm and dry but have no grip so I must walk very carefully. V doesn't have that problem and very much enjoys walking through the puddles while scooping up the dirty water for a drink as he goes.

There was some very exciting weather where we live today. The hail was especially dramatic. P said he couldn't hear his teacher at one point and A asked us if we'd seen the rainbow. Sadly we did not. We still have a weather warning in place here so I will possibly be getting drenched at some point tomorrow.

By the way, the headband looked brilliant. A wore it happily for a short while then I noticed she no longer was. I said "I'll go and get your headband, it's fallen off". She replied with a reluctant "well...I don't want to hurt your feelings but it's a bit itchy". She is my harshest critic. Her best friend is road testing it to see if it works for her. I've learnt to think about the yarn I'm using in future.

Sally
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Today's making

Hi there

Today I worked on a headband. I made an Attic24 flower and a strip of crochet:



I thought a button in the centre would look good so got my stash out:



This guy was looking at me with great interest:



I couldn't find what I was after so had to tip it all out:



Once he realised there was nothing edible in the pile, he took himself off to bed:



I found these to pick from:



This is the one I went for:



Tomorrow I get to put it all together and am hoping A likes it.

Sally
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