Candles and Daffodils

Happy 2012 everyone! I hope yours has gone smoothly so far. Mum came to stay for a week on New Years day and left her nasty cold behind. Both my other half and I caught her cold - knocked me for six! I spent four days in bed, coughing, spluttering, sneezing and wheezing. Not nice. We've both kicked the cold now and I'm raring to get 2012 started.

In my last post I told you how I had felt magically blocked for a while - that I had lost my witchy feeling. Guess what?! I have it back! *does a little dance* Thank you everyone who commented on that post, I felt so much better after reading what you had said, knowing that I wasn't alone. I hope that you guys have your witchyness back too!

Want to know what sparked it of? Candles! My aunt gave me two packs of beeswax sheets and wicks to make my own rolled candles and I had a go the other day. It was great fun! Took me a couple of attempts to get the hang of starting them off but I think I did quite well. Here's a photograph of the first one. Excuse the table - it's scratched to hell. I really need some new candle holders as all I really have (except for the one pictured which I don't like) is tealight and votive holders. Anyway, I made 20 candles in total and loved every minute of it :D I still have some wax left too to make some more. I just wish rolled beeswax candles wouldn't burn so quickly!

I now have a wonderful collection of candles, including the ones I've made and ones that my other half bought me a while back. I've got loads of different coloured mini spell candles too which is always handy!

Who has had enough of winter then? It's not my favourite season to be honest - I much prefer Autumn and Spring. Spring is just around the corner now though! I know it's a bit early but when doing the weekly food shop I couldn't resist getting a bunch of daffodils >.< Daffs, as I like to call them, really signify the beginning of spring to me - for me spring starts when I see my first bunch of daffs growing. I'll be having a look in my books later, do a little bit of research online and will write a post all about daffodils soon.

Here's my bunch, in a ribbon wrapped Kilner jar, I can't wait until they open up -

Well, I hope that you're all well, had a wonderful Yule and New Year and that you are looking foward to spring just as much as me. If I don't speak to you all before hand, have a wonderful Imbolc!

Trying my hand at Embroidery

Mum gave me a few copies of Mollie Makes - my favourite crafting magazine - and I instantly fell in love with the "Lovely Ladies" embroidery projects. I'd never done embroidery before, plenty of cross stitch but that was always on Aida and what have you. I gave one of the ladies a go and oh my, I'm so pleased with her! My other half loves her as well!

I started another one last night, from the same series, I'll be finishing her later. Including making her right eye bigger, looks like she's squinting at the moment -

I don't have any linen at the moment so I've stitched them calico (the only plain fabric I have it seems!) and plan to make the second one into key ring.

I've definitely fallen in love with embroidery and will be going through all my crafting books and magazines to find some more projects!

More Apples

As the first apple I made was such a success I rooted around in my piles of fabric for some green, pink or red cottons. Found a few and made five more apples last night. I'll be making a load more in the red and green holly leaf fabric for yule, the rest will be displayed all year round (want to find some sort of wire basket to put them in).

I've started reading another book as well (haven't quite finished Kitty Raises Hell yet but I will, I know what happens but still). I had a look through all the books I have in a cupboard in our bedroom trying to decide what to read next. The thing is I've been completely hooked on Urban Fantasy novels for years now, before that I read a lot of crime/thriller stuff - mostly Andy McNab, Jack Higgins and Wilbur Smith. So I decided to get a McNab book out (one of his Nick Stone books, not the non-fiction stuff) and see if I could get into it. So far so good! I'm reading Firewall, the earliest Nick Stone book I have (really need to get the others so I can read it from the start...) and I'm enjoying it. Fingers crossed I enjoy it enough for me to get back into the crime books - I have 50+ of them to read!

Where have I been?!

I've been buried in books...

 
I got the Kim Harrison and Patricia Briggs for my birthday and whizzed through those, both of which were amazing! The Hollows series (by Kim Harrison), Mercy Thompson series (by Patricia Briggs) and the Kitty series (by Carrie Vaughn) are my favourite Urban Fantasy books. I've read each series 5-6 times now.

I re-read two of the Nocturne City books after finding three more buried in a cupboard. The first two were great, the third confused me no end, the fourth had a coincidence that annoyed me and the fifth.. Well, I nearly threw the damned thing out of the window. Yet another massive coincidence that really, really bugged me. It was ridiculous. I did cry at the end though >.<

I've also been doing crafty things, a couple of which I will show you as they are my favourites...

Apples! Little fabric applies with little wooden stalks. I love them! The pattern is from Tidla's Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle.

And... SPARKLY PINE CONES! I love pine cones. I love glitter. Add some glue to the mix and you end up with these -

I've also been busy starting another sort of blog, don't worry, I wont be abandoning this one! I've just started a blog for hamsters where I can share all the knowledge I have and gain while doing research. So if you have a love for hamsters or have ever thought about getting one as a pet, pop on over to Hamsters Galore.

Well, I hope you're all well, I'm sure I'll be seeing you all before Samhain at the end of this month - looking forward to Samhain? I am! :D

Life's a Stitch

I started a new cross stitch project yesterday, it's almost done, I just need to do one more row of stitches across the bottom and finish of the row at the top where I ran out of thread (typical!). I used a scrap bit of aida that I found - it was the perfect size! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, maybe sew it onto some felt and make a lightly padded hanging thingiemabob, maybe attach it to the front of one of those blank Kraft notebooks or photo albums from Paperchase... My other half thinks my grandma would love it but I'm not so sure I want to give it away!

It's a Lizzie Kate design, she has these wonderful little "Snippet" samplers, I bought mine from a craft show in Manchester a while a go.

 

The thread in the picture is what I need to finish it off - I didn't use the thread colours stated in the chart as I wasn't too keen on them. I rarely use the colours charts say to use anyway.

I made felt notebook cover the other night that I thought I would share too. I have a thing for lists and have a number of slimline notebooks but they aren't very pretty so I thought I would use up some scrap felt to make a cover. The stitching is a bit scruffy as I was tired when I made it but I still love it!

Hello again!

Although its doubtful that anyone particularly noticed that I wasnt about for a while, the gap between posts needs explaining I reckon. To cut the short story even shorter, my laptop died and I couldnt log my other half out of google on his computer so that I could use Blogger as he doesnt remember any of his passwords. Typical man! He was very kind today though and made an account for me on his computer so all my stuff (Firefox etc) is seperate. I can now get back to blogging and what have you! At least when he's asleep and not hogging his computer hehehe!

I've been up to a few things, mostly crafting and organising my flat. It's going really well - I can now find stuff in the kitchen and everything in the spare bedroom (my craft supplies mostly) has its own place. I'm currently writing a cleaning schedule so that I can keep up with the cleaning. I actually enjoy cleaning but when you have to do the entire house in one afternoon it can be daunting. I had the kick up the butt that I needed to get back on track with cleaning though - my landlord turned up out of the blue and the flat was a state! Luckily he knows that we generally keep it nice and tidy but it was so embarrassing for him to see it when I hadnt hoovered in a few days, dusted in a week and the night before dishes were on the worktop... Oops!

The crafting I've been doing is mostly felt stuff as I have a new found love of felt! I've been making all sorts, from keyrings to pin cushions. Not a fan of the pin cushions though, wanna know why? I had a pin cushion on my leg then by accident I slammed my arm down onto the pin cushion. Guess where the needles and pins went - my leg. Now, I don't do needles, let alone unsterilised sewing needles. My god it hurt! Luckily only three of the needles stayed in my leg when I pulled the pin cushion off. I had a number of holes in my left thigh for a few days. It's safe to say that that pin cushion wont be used for a while, nor will any other kind that doesnt have a metal base of some sorts!

Here's some of the things I've made, please excuse the creased sheet, I just needed something white to put under the bits and pieces and I most likely wouldnt be able to get the creases out by ironing it anyway - I seem to have an inability to iron (any tips ladies and gents?).

Back to the organising thing - my other half bought me a recipe book, the notebook type ones that you add your own recipes too, a while ago and I've started to properly use it. I've got 20 or so recipes in there so far, some are much loved favourites of mine, some are ones that I've yet to try but definately think I would love. I do have a lot of my tried and tested recipes to add yet and I have a massive stack of cookery magazines to go through but at least I've started!

I also have a "Household Organiser" that my mum bought me for Christmas last year. I absolutely love it but I hadnt actually been using it until now. There are two main things I use it for  - to do lists and meal/food shopping planning. I've got an emergancy/important number page in it too plus some useful magazine cut outs (eg a chart explaining all those little pictures you get on clothing labels that tell you how to wash it, the ones that most people either ignore or guess what they mean).

Here's my recipe book and organiser:

  

And a couple of pages from each (just to prove I do use them :P) - 

On the subject of notebooks and what have you - I have also thrown myself into writing my own Book of Shadows. My other half gave me a beautiful leather bound book with a pentagram on the front and handmade pages inside. This was well over a year ago now and I hadnt actually used it before as I was so nervous of going wrong. Plus my handwriting is awful. But I decided that I would rather fill it with information thats writtin in scruffy handwriting than just have it collecting dust with my books. Granted I've only done a couple of pages but hey, its a big book and the pages are bigger than A4.

Here's  the book, I dont feel comfortable sharing the pages I've writtin but maybe one day I will show you the inside!

Well thats it from me folks, I hope you're all well, I sure am glad to be back! See you either here, on your own blogs or on Twitter!

Make it on a Monday: Felt Box

This is the first edition of Make it on a Monday, I hope you like it!

I have a love of felt - you can make loads of things with it, its easy to work with, cheap (although 100% wool felt can be expensive) and you can get it in a million different colours. I was reading Simply Homemade, a new craft magazine and fell in love with a felt and fabric sewing box. As I don't need a sewing box and didn't want to use any fabric (I have a limited selection) I decided to make a small felt trinket box.

I haven't actually made the "proper" box yet, but I made a trail run one out of some scraps of felt, I didn't want to go using the new felt I bought if I ended up not being able to make the box properly or I wasn't happy with it. Thankfully, I'm very happy with it and cant wait to make the "proper" one! The below picture is the felt I will be using to make the box, plus ric rac, ribbon and buttons I will be using to decorating it. The felt and ric rac was ordered from Paper-and-String, I cant tell you how pleased I was with my order and the service!

So, onto making it!

You will need:

12 5inch squares of felt (or whatever size you wish, keeping it square makes it easier)
8 4inch by 1.5 inch strips of felt
12 5inch squares of stiff cardboard (you will need to trim them to fit)
Thread
Needle
Decorations (if you want)

Firstly, sew on any decorations to the panels that you want to add. Then sew together two panels along three sides, continue with the rest of the panels until you end up with 6 panels, each with three sides sewn up. I used blanket stitch on mine but you can use whatever stitch you prefer. Slide in the cardboard into each panel and sew the opening closed. Sew the smaller strips in the same way, without adding the cardboard, these will form the lip of the lid.

Now, starting with the base, sew the panel edges together to create a topless box. Again, I used blanket stitch but you can use whatever stitch you prefer. Do the same with the lid, sewing the strips along the edges of the lid.

You should, if I've written at least marginally useful instructions, end up with something like this -

Make it on a Monday

I have a love for crafts - I sew, knit, make jewellery and cross-stitch to name a few things - and I thought I would make a feature out of my craft blog posts by having a "Make it on Monday" regular feature. Each Monday (where possible) I will be posting photographs, tutorials, updates and links regarding all different crafts. I may have a give away every so often as well!

If you have a love for crafts, no matter what it is or how good you are at it, why dont you get involved in "Make it on a Monday"? If you want to get involved, you can place the button below (code provided) on your blog and get posting about your crafty adventures every monday!

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Spell Candle Pouch

After buying some lovely beeswax candles I realised I had no where to store them where they wouldn't get damaged. The main thing I didn't want to happen was the different coloured wax rubbing against each other so I decided to make some small pouches out of felt - they are quick, cheap, simple and serve their purpose. Of course you can use them to store other things too! The most difficult thing about them is the stitch I used (Blanket Stitch) but even that's quite simple to do.

You will need:
Scissors
Tape Measure
Thread
Needle
Felt
Button











Method:

Cut a piece of felt that is 3 times the height of the candles. Lie the felt flat, fold the bottom of the felt up to create the front piece, this piece should be slightly longer than the height of the candles. Sew both sides of the front piece to the back piece, using a blanket stitch. (Having one piece of felt instead of two means that you only stitch down the sides)

Fold the top of the felt down over the front piece to create the "lid". Cut a slit in the lid half the size of the button you're using, ensure that the hole meets up with where you will be placing the button. Sew the button onto the front piece.

Ta Da! You should have something that looks like the green one below, which I made last night (I sewed the bottom of mine as I got a bit carried away with the stitching...)

Apologies that my instructions aren't very good, I'm much better at showing than explaining... I wont even attempt to tell you how to do a blanket stitch, click here for a video tutorial someone made on YouTube.

Salt Dough

Over the last week or so I've been searching for statues of the Goddess and God, nothing caught my eye except one which was extremely pricey. I asked on the Black Cat Wicca forum what others use to represent the Goddess and God (if they do at all of course), there were some wonderful replies and suggestions including glass bottles.

As I only wanted something simple I thought that maybe I could purchase some clay and mold my own, then it dawned on me - salt dough! I've never used salt dough before and I wasnt sure whethe it would be suitable but I have to admit, I'm quite impressed with the results. I ended up making symbols rather than statues mind you!

Salt dough is very easy (and fun!) to make and you're likely to have all the ingredients in your cupboard. It can be air dried or oven dried and then painted. I'll be using poster paints as thats what I have in and then glazing them using PVA glue.

Salt Dough

Ingredients:
One part salt
One part water
Two parts flour

Method:
Mix it all together! Thats basically it to be honest, mix all the ingredients in a bowl and nead into a ball. If its sticky, add more flour, if its dry add more water.

The dough will look like this -
















Drying can be done in one of two ways - air drying, which can take a couple of days or more or oven baking. to oven bake, preheat the oven to 50C, cover the dough with foil and place in the oven, after thirty minutes turn the heat up to 100C. It should take about 3-4 hours but obviously it depends on the size and thickness of the dough. Check and turn regularly.

I personally prefer air drying, although it takes longer it means that I havent used electicity or a machine to make them - baking them is just a convenience, not a necessity.

If you have any left over dough dont panic or throw it away - it can be stored in the fridge for up to a week, just wrap it up in clingfilm and put it at the back of the fridge. Stick a label on it if you have children or a husband that will eat anything.

Here are mine so far, I will be going over them with a nail file just to get rid of any bitty parts and then painting them. I will update you with images of the painted ones once they have dried.



Elements and Horned God

Triple Moon Goddess (my personal favourite). The colour difference between the ones above and the triple moon goddess symbol is because the above photographs were taken two days after making them so they are almost dry.