It's been all about crochet here this week. Well crochet and a spot of name tape sewing seeing as Little Miss C went back to school on Monday. In my usual disorganised fashion I suddenly realised at 8.30am on Monday morning that a ski coat probably was no longer appropriate for school seeing as the forecast was for 20 degrees. Luckily I'd picked up several coats from a half price sale in Millets so the kids should be correctly attired for the next couple of years between them, but of course the new coat was un-named and anyone who has had to spend an hour searching through a smelly pile of ... read more
My week in crafts
Another row finished whilst watching today's swimming lesson. #crochet #craft #momsoninstagram #handmade #homemade A photo posted by Penny Carr (@realbeingmrsc) on Apr 16, 2015 at 1:50am PDT It's been a week of mainly continuing with the two main projects that I started last week. Firstly the crochet ripple blanket has progressed well. With it still being the school Easter holidays here Little Miss C was booked on to an intensive swimming course which meant that we were at the pool every morning for a 30 minute lesson, in addition to her usual slot on a Friday afternoon. Excellent ... read more
My week in crafts
Since my lightbulb moment a week or so ago I'm finding that whenever I have a moment or two spare, rather than reaching for my phone and going on social media, I'm picking up something crafty and doing that instead. And I'm absolutely loving it! Not every week am I going to manage to complete a whole crafty project (and possibly not even every month!) but I do want to try to keep track of what I'm up to so here goes with the first of many My week in crafts posts. In the last week I've kicked off two quite major projects. Firstly I'm crocheting again (the first since finishing my big ... read more
Introducing the Pointy Nosed Pooch and Finding Balance
It's funny how sometimes you don't realise what is missing in your life until it is reintroduced and then you're left wondering how you ever coped without it. Back when I started this blog (nearly 7 years ago now) one of the main drivers was because I was feeling swamped by my day job and I wanted to force myself to make the time for all the crafty things I enjoy. It may seem a bit like a backwards way of doing things, but I was determined to actually do some of the things that I was reading about on other people's blogs, and for me a way to do that as to make myself write about what I got ... read more
Making Flop
Yikes - it's been quite a couple of weeks here. The whole household has been more ill than I think I can remember, and inconveniently it's all happened at once. Master C's been off nursery, Little Miss C's been off school and even Mr C has been off work for a while. There have been trips to the Dr for all three of them (including one to the out of hours GP at Watford hospital) and antibiotics for two of them. And in the middle of all that we had a quick 36 hour trip up north to visit my mum and celebrate her birthday and late Mothers' Day with her, my sister and brother in law. I've been ... read more
What do a cute little tin, potato starch and almonds have in common? #StationeryWednesday
I'm pretty sure that none of you will have guessed that the answer is adhesive paste. Or more specifically Coccoina Adhesive Paste, as sold by Bureau Direct. I included a tin of this in a recent review order and to be honest it's sat there on my desk looking incredibly cute for a while now. So much so that I almost didn't want to open it and stop it just looking sweet in any way. But last week I got my Cricut machine out again and when it came to sticking some things I had cut onto cards I reached for the Coccoina instead of my usual glue stick. The Coccoina worked really well as a ... read more
Getting crafty with Interplay Fairy Cards
Little Miss C loves crafting at our kitchen table and she's very fortunate that we have a huge amount of craft supplies in the house, and a recycling box overflowing with materials that can be repurposed into something else. But, since she started school full time in September we're finding it harder to fit doing something creative into the school day as I often can't face giving her free rein with the supplies as the clearing up job so we can eat tea at the table is just too much to face. I was really pleased therefore when we were asked to review Fairy Cards by Interplay as it meant I ... read more
Years of stitches
I'm trying so so hard in 2015 not to start new craft projects without finishing off ones that are already in progress. I have to admit to being one of those crafters who starts lots of things with great enthusiasm, but struggles to actually finish them. Hopefully this year will be different and I'm trying to start as I mean to go on. This blog provides a great record of projects that I've started over the years, but it can also be a bit scary when I then look back and realise just how long they have been going on for! LMC rocks the hoodie look! Back in March 2012 my ... read more
Banner Making with Super+Super at Drink, Shop & Do
I had quite simply the most brilliant time at the Super+Super workshop at Drink, Shop & Do last week. I'm under absolutely no obligation to blog about it again, but I came home absolutely buzzing from it and therefore want tell you all about it. Firstly, the workshop itself. As I said last week it was put on by the publishers GMC to promote the two new books by Super+Super: Embroidery and Printmaking, and a review of both books will be coming soon. The aim of the workshop was for everyone to make their own banner on the night - either embroidering it or printing a design on to ... read more
First makes with my Cricut Explore
I dropped some pretty unsubtle hints to Mr C for what I wanted for Christmas last year. Ever since I went to the Handmade Fair back in September I've been longing to get my hands on a Cricut Explore. I saw Jen from Mum in The Mad House demonstrating one on the Cricut stand and I was completely blown away by what it was possible to do with it. Luckily for me, Mr C responds rather well to unsubtle hints (even if I did go as far as emailing him a link to one on the Hobbycraft website and an email containing a discount code too!) and come Christmas morning there was one very large box wrapped ... read more