In the mood to boast

I need to boast to somebody, so this will be short and sweet.
I finished something!!! I have completed a WIP (work in progress). Not only have I finished it, it actually looks like the photo on the pattern, hooray.
I have made a basket to put all my granny squares in. I will post the pattern details next blog post.

A crop a month....

A crop a month helps a girl's scrapping mojo. Unfortunately I missed last months crop (was having an amazing time at the Paralympics), so my scrapbooking mojo has gone a little astray. I have also found myself a little busy since DD went back to school, I was expecting life to calm down a bit but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Today is the first day I have actually been able to get to spend a good couple of hours in my craft room. I am still plodding away on our holiday photos, I have so many that it could take a while. Luckily for me the last crop I attended Karen did a fabulous class that I got to take away with me. It was perfect for the photo that was taken on holiday on our anniversary.
So today I have two completed LO's, let's hope it leads to plenty more.

A finished WIP

In my last post I mentioned WIPs (work in progress) & UFOs (unfinished objects). Well last night I managed to finish a WIP, hooray!

I am a lover of Starbucks, I just can't help myself. While looking on the Internet for ideas I came across various images for a cup holder, one of those cardboard bands that they put around your take away coffee. Well this idea spoke to me and I had a go.

I don't think it is bad for a first attempt, my DH is not so sure, his comment of "are you really going to use that" says it all. I think I will have another attempt, maybe some stripes or even seams might be good :)

Back to school

September is here and that means back to school, but not just for my DD but for me also. I am going to sewing school. This is a big step for me as I have dabbled in the past with mixed success. I usually leave all sewing to my wonderful Mum, who does a great job.

So Tuesday of this week I walked DD to school for her first day of year four, then jumped into the car to drive into town. While feeling a little nervous, I was excited more than anything. I have spent all summer looking for the perfect pattern, which I finally did, but then became stuck when I was unable to find any fabric that I liked that would suit the pattern. Luckily for me where are classes are held in a fabric shop.

The class is being taught by a lovely lady called Pat, who was very welcoming. There were four other ladies in the class all with different sewing abilities. Our first step was to measure one another, not a great after the school holidays but I guess it had to be done. Then Pat took a look at our patterns to see if they were suitable, luckily for me mine was. Then it was a trip down stairs to find fabric, again I got lucky and found some lovely suit fabric.

So the photo below shows my pattern, fabric, lining, zip and thread. Pat assures me that I will have a completed dress by the end of the course.

This is great news for me as I am know for not finishing anything and thanks to a lady called Susan Carlson who has a lovely blog called Felted Button I am going to borrow her categories. An Unfinished Project will now be know as a UFO and a Work In Progress will be a WIP. This dress is in the WIP pile, it will be finished. Many of my crochet attempts are in the UFO pile.

So back to my class, once we had the fabric, we then had to cut out our patterns, if anybody has ever opened a pattern you will know that they are folded and a little fragile, so you have to unravel them very carefully, otherwise you might tear or lose a bit. Luckily for me I only had four pieces of the pattern to cut out, a couple of the other ladies had many pieces to cut out. Once cut out you then have to pin the pattern to the fabric, in line with the grain of the fabric. I had no idea that fabric had grain but apparently it does.

Now my teacher Pat, said at the beginning of the class that if she says "are you happy with that" she actually means that she is not happy with it. So I awaited with baited breath and got a well done, hooray. Next task to cut out, then also cut a lining to match.

So there we have my first class, I am feeling a little chuffed with myself and can't wait to go back next week. I will be pinning it all together and then sewing!

I am lovin the school holidays!

There have been times this last school year that I thought I would never find myself making a statement like
"I am lovin the school holidays."
DD has had a rough year at school, which also led to home life being a bit rocky at times too. So the school holidays could be seen as something to dread, luckily it has not been the case. Without the whole school issues, DD has turned into a happy, helpful eight year old.
We have managed to jam pack the holidays with fun stuff and we have seen so much of London. We have been Wenlock mascot hunting (83 Wenlocks & Mandevilles have been placed all over London), we have visited Hampton Court, the Tower of London, Kennsington Palace and Buckingham Palace. All have given me lots of opportunities for lots of photo taking, which is good because when DD goes back to school (boo) I will have some time on my hands to scrapbook & hopefully catch up on my target of 100 layouts.
So with two weeks left let's hope my DD stays the happy princess that she has turned into.

What a way to spend an afternoon

Saturday was crop day and as always it was lovely to see the ladies. I made the decision to leave early as my DH was on his own as our DD was staying with her Granparents.
DH picked me up & we drove down to London for the weekend. We are all definitely seeing the benefits of DH having a flat there. He can work late as much as he likes without the stress of the sometimes two hour journey home & DD & I have base in the holidays so that we can explore London.
So today I could not persuade anybody to hang out with me (they all had to work) & DD had gone to Legoland, I had a free day. What to do? There are so many things to see, well I decided on the National Gallery. It has been years since my last visit. The gallery has two of my favourite paintings, Van Gogh's Sunflowers & Monet's painting of a bridge over water lillies, always worth a visit. After a mooch round I decided to come back to the flat to catch up on my Olympics addiction. I can't help myself I am obsessed. Team GB is doing so well, we can't wait to go to the Paralympics, we have bought t-shirts to wear & a flag to wave.
So my afternoon has been spent watching the Olympics & scrapbooking, yes you read it right, scrapbooking. By my DH picking me up early from crop & driving straight to London I had my stash in the back of the car. It doesn't get much better than that :)

Olympic Fever has hit

I would be the first to admit that when London won the Olympic bid I let out a big groan. Why would we want to host the Olympics? What was the likelyhood that we would be ready in time?
Gradually I have been proved wrong and slowly my excitement has been building, yes I did get very grumpy at the whole ticket fiasco (I had a daughter desperate to see the gymnastics). I have enjoyed coming down to London on the train & watching in amazement as the stadium progressed. We were lucky enough to get Paralympic tickets (swimming, cycling & athletics) & we got a real buzz when I collected the tickets from the post office. Looking on the plans to see where we will be sitting.
Yes we did go & see the Olympic torch go through Colchester High Street in the rain & yes we have been Olympic spotting for weeks now. We spot (& count) the signs, cars & buses. We have now started spotting people in Olympic 2012 uniforms, this leads to great excitement from my daughter trying to guess what they do, I wonder what she would actually do if she saw an actual athlete.
This school holiday will be full of Wenlock Mascot searching & watching sport on tv. We have plans to go on the cable car as well. So the day before the opening ceremony we braved the traffic & came down to London. We found these amazing mosaics in the mall & plan to use them as inspiration when we attempt to do our own mosaics later in the holidays.
I also finally found the Heroes tin bus, which I think we will be tucking into while we watch the ceremony tomorrow.
So will anybody out there be joining me in cheering for Team GB?