Three More

I am still amazed, being as busy with work as I am, that I have found time the last couple of months to scrap!

I treated myself to a little bit of new stash and made these....

 Me and my friend Jayne on one of our last nights out before she moved to Oz.

 Me and Kerrie shopping in town during the Olympics.

My mad friends Sarah and Sam at Jayne's leaving do.

That's all for now!! xxx

iCraft

A while ago I spotted an iPhone cover on Pinterest that I immediately knew I just had to have! It was a rubbery cover with holes in to cross stitch your own pattern on.  I chose one of the designs that came with the cover that looked like the Apple logo.

After I had been using it for a while I got some admiring comments from two of my friends so as their birthdays were approaching I bought a couple more.

This time I used patterns from the Cath Kidston 'Stitch' book.

I have to say I am quite jealous now! I wish I'd had the book when I made mine...I want a pretty one!  Ah well, at £3.99 they don't break the bank...I might have to make another!

TFL xxx

A Speedy Ripple

This little blanket was a quick project for the arrival of a friend's baby.  As he was the baby who got me a job (I'm doing his Mum's Mat leave) it had to be a good pressie!

It's just a little car seat/pram size and was made mainly using scraps that I had around, it felt like a really satisfying project as I knew I was making good use of wool that would otherwise have not been used.

I'm pleased to say that Sophie really liked it!

TFL xxx

Snuggly Lego

Way back at the beginning of the year, I began working on a little project that I'd found on Pinterest.  I adapted the colours slightly as I wanted to include a green border, I also adapted the pattern too, instead of having 6 stitches on the hook for the bobble stitch I made it 8 to make them more pronounced.

This is how the bricks looked to start off with, I then added the green border to each brick and joined them together in rows.

  I added a wide green border to the whole thing and voila!

 The blanket was for my nephew Max, he loves to have a blanket over his knees and he is the biggest Lego fan ever so I knew this would be right up his street!  As I finished in September I decided to save it for his birthday.  He was thrilled with it, as were the rest of the family.

 He had it over his knees for the whole day and wouldn't go to bed without it!

I'm so pleased that he loved it!

TFL xxx

30 Things.....

This time next week it'll be my birthday....it's not a big birthday but kind of a milestone, and one I've been dreading a little bit.  It's my last twenty something birthday and it feels a bit scary!! Who knows what I'll be like this time next year (think Joey in Friends...why God???!!!)

A few weeks ago I stumbled across an idea on a blog....I forget which........apologies if it's you!! The idea was a list of 30 things to do in your thirtieth year.  As I was about to embark on my thirtieth year I thought it might be a fun thing to do so I set about writing a list.

It's not a hugely ambitious list, it's more like a list of prompts......some things are quite 'big' but others are more simple.  Some are things I've wanted to do for ages and some are just a reminder of what I want to be like every year. Some are related to work, and others to hobbies and passions that I don't want to be forgotten because of the hectic nature of my job.

Anyway, here it is.....

Learn how to decorate cake pops properly...mine are always rubbish!

See at least 1 live gig 

Go to the theatre 

Make at least 1 thing from pinterest per month

Scrap at least 1 layout a month

Get a tattoo

Go on holiday.....already booked!

Meet up with some blogging/twitter friends.....under discussion!!

Buy a new car....done today!!

Complete a document/yearbook style project

See a live comedy show

Crochet a blanket for me

Achieve a better work/life balance.....tricky to measure but one I need to be reminded of!

Eat proper Macarons

Go camping with friends

Learn to fondant ice a cake

Watch live motor racing 

Find a permanent (or less temporary!) job

Be spontaneous......a quality I always aspire to but need reminding!

Take more photos on an actual camera not a phone!

Go on a plane......booked!

Spend a few hours in my craft room per week

Be part of a choir concert

See my own class in a christmas play

Complete my NQT year

Dance more often

Make a Christmas journal

Try new recipes 

See 2013 in in style

Live, laugh, love....just generally have a happy and fulfilling year.

I've already got plans in place for some, and others I hope will just happen.  I won't beat myself up if I don't do them...it's just for fun.  I'm also hoping to document them in some way so that I have a record of the year before my big 3-0.

So, here's to the next year!!

xxxx

500

My apologies for not blogging but I knew that this was my 500th post so it had to be a decent one!  As luck would have it, despite settling down to a full on career, my mojo has returned big time and I have to say it is proving to be a lovely way to wind down for an hour after work a couple of nights a week.  So, I have not 1, not 2 but 5 layouts to share with you!!!

This is one of my fave photos with one of my favourite quotes, scrapped with OA Woodland Park papers.

 Another one with Woodland Park, a pic from my camping trip, a instagram one...yes I'm hooked! And my first go at chevrons.

This one's a mix of papers and some pics from last year.

 I absolutely love this collection (more Woodland Park) mainly because I am obsessed with peacock feathers at the moment.  One of the few photos from my graduation ceremony....if you zoom in you will see Mary Berry (wearing a mortar board next to the bald man!)

And finally, one hot off the press this evening, using brand new OA Midway collection, a really fun one with a pic from a night out.

Let's hope this phase lasts and boosts my blogging mojo too!!

TFL xxx

Another Pinterest Project

I often wonder these days, what on earth would I do without Pinterest? How did I manage to have ideas without it?!! Ages ago I pinned some yarn wrapped chipboard letters, thinking that I had a large chipboard 'B' and tons of yarn lying around, and today I was sat at my desk, spotted it and thought I'd give it a go.

After I'd finished, I posted a pic on Instagram, as I do with most things, and I immediately had two comments asking how I did it, so here it is....

It was dead simple......I had a pre cut chipboard letter but I'm sure you could do your own if you wanted.  I simply ran some ATG, a small amount at a time and then wrapped the yarn around.  I used the end of a ball of chunky wool so it covered quite quickly.  The only tricky bits I encountered were where the horizontals meet the verticals, but with a little extra tape and some perseverance I made it work.  The fabric flowers are some that I made an absolute age ago.....probably about three years or so, from a you tube video that I don't remember the name of!  Those were glue gunned on and it's as simple as that! (Jess and Lou, I hope I've explained it well enough!)

Now to find a space in my craft room for it!!

xxxx

An Instagram Summer

As the summer holidays draw to a close and I get ready to start my new career, I thought I'd share with you some photos that seem to sum up the last six weeks for me.  They are all photos I have shared on Instagram which also seems appropriate as I have become properly hooked in the last few months!

Here we go......

As we speak, I am working them up into a little project that will remind me of how good summer 2012 was! It will be finished soon, it has to be, my days of endless craftiness are limited!!

TFL xxx

Wedding of The Year

As I write this I can't believe it was two weeks ago.....for the last year I have been helping my best friend plan her wedding, it only seems like 5 minutes ago that Lee proposed to Jen in Paris and now they are married!!

The wedding was absolutely perfect!

It started with the bride, her bridesmaids and personal attendants (that's me!!) getting ready at her parents house....

(I took this one so I'm not in it!!)

You can't see the shirts very well but I monogramed a load of oversized shirts with our initials to wear on the morning, the photographer thought they were great!! (Thanks Pinterest!!)

The service was beautiful, I cried buckets and the new Mr and Mrs Smith looked sooooo happy!

Me and the girls appropriately (and inadvertantly) came dressed as team GB!!!

The weather was beautiful and perfect for the photos....

 The food was good, drinks plentiful, the band were awesome and we partied hard!!!

It truly was the perfect day for the perfect couple.  I cried from start to finish, complete emotional wreck, and it took a good few days to recover but it was totally worth it!!!

I'll be back to share all of our crafty contributions to the day very soon xxx

Hens

I promised I'd be back to fill you in on more goings on from the last couple of months, so here I am!

At the beginning of July, it seems an age ago now, I helped to organise a hen weekend for my best friend Jen.  We hired the most beautiful converted barn in Dorset and had a lovely girly weekend of food, wine, pampering and partying.

I won't go into to much detail, there are far too many stories to tell.....to say it was eventful is an understatement! But for now I just want to share the craftiness!!

So my main job for the weekend was to organise the food.  All the hens chipped in a tenner and I am proud to say that for this I provided for 16 people, an evening meal, two breakfasts, a lunch, a sweet table and 8 bottles of wine!! Now that is good shopping!

Most of my creative energy went into the sweet table for the Friday night.....

There is a bit of a story behind the theme for the weekend......the bride chose her dress from the Disney princess collection by Alfred Angelo, and the princess in question just happened to be Tiana, you should have seen her face when I told her that was the Princess and the Frog!!! So we went with a purple and green colour scheme and lots of frogs!!

I made lilac and green Macarons, cake pops, dipped marshmallows, strawberries and 

pretzels, rice crispie squares, cupcakes, Beignets (a bit like doughnuts, Tiana's speciality in the film!) and Oreo pops.  I have to say it went down well with everyone!

I also made a little fridge magnet for each hen as a souvenir and a guestbook that we gave to Jen the night before her wedding but neither of which I have photos of!

Back with some wedding craftiness soon! xxx

Long Time No See!!

Don't panic.....you're not seeing things.....that's right.....I am actually blogging!!!

Where have I been?? Well life has been chaos! Since I last blogged I've been spending lots of time getting to know my new class, I've been on a hen weekend and to one of the most beautiful  weddings ever, and I've been busy creating, but more on all of that later.

First, I want to tell you about my new classroom! It is a very, very, exciting thing for me to finally have my own classroom. I think, without even really knowing it, it's been something that I've dreamed about since I was a little girl, and now I have one!  I have to keep reminding myself that it's only mine for a year (my contract is temporary,) but for now I am going to enjoy it and make the most of having all the enthusiasm of an NQT!!

My class is year 1 and is called Penguin class, I don't know if I have mentioned before but penguins are my favourite animal so I have very much taken the theme and run with it! For example, one of the first things I did was make these....

Penguin tricky words that are velcroed to the wall so that the children can take them to copy and then pop them back.

My next project was a little Ikea chair that we bought my nephew years ago, he's grown out of it and it was looking a bit tatty but after a lick of black paint (thanks Dad) and me digging my sewing skills out of mothballs, it got transformed to this......

My very important penguin chair! Simply made with three pillowcases (about £1 each!) and some felt scraps.  I have to say I'm pretty chuffed!!

And finally, a project I've worked on for a while, since before I had the job actually! I bought this bolster cushion years ago with good intentions of making a cover but it never happened until now.....

A granny stripe in pretty rainbow colours, hopefully it will make the book corner a really inviting place.  This has to be my new favourite crochet pattern, so easy and grows really quickly.

And I actually enjoyed writing this post to so if you're lucky I'll be back soon with more!!

TFL xxx

Mini Festival Mini Part 3

And here is the final part!

I had a bit of fun with these pages! I took this funny photo of two of his mates and knew he'd love it! 

A random selection of photos from the evening.

Blowing out the candles..

And finally his speech.  I didn't take many photos after this point...too busy partying!

Then there are the pocket pages...

We were lucky enough to have an inflatable hot tub! I wasn't brave enough...too cold getting in and out and no fun getting out of a wet bikini in a tent, but some of the boys braved it!!

Washi tape was so useful in this project....quick and easy and nice and bright!

And that's it! I'm pleased to say that my friends were delighted to receive the book and think it's a great keepsake of a fab party.

TFL xxx

Mini Festival Mini Part 2

I'm back with the next few pages.....

The band....

I was really pleased with this page detailing the moment that the surprise was revealed in order.

There's that stamp again! This time in white and I love the effect of the paint mists against the black and the white, in real life they are so shimmery.

At the party I made a really big effort to take loads of photos of Laurence greeting all of his friends and family, there were a mix of different people and he was so surprised to see so many of them there that I knew he would want lots of photos to remember it by.  I was really pleased at some of the candid shots I managed to get.

 I found this great quote on pinterest that was perfect for this book....'no one looks back on their life and remembers the nights they had plenty of sleep.' For the record I stayed up til 4 am!!!

And I'll be back soon with part 3! xxx