Inverness update

Hi,

I hope you are all doing really well :-) I have got some updates from my holiday to share with you now :)

First up some loch Ness monster related pics (or Nessie as she/he is sometimes called :p)

This is the centre me and my family visited. I learnt lots of cool facts and information such as the loch Ness is big enough to submerge everyone in the whole world 3 times over!!!! And at one point it is deeper than the BT tower is tall!

Here is a shot of the huge loch I took while staring out looking for Nessie :p:

Next, just a quick flash of some more tartan, this time from some Vivienne Westwood designs using Scottish tartan displayed at kiltmakers:

And this the the tartan for the Macbeth name, quite colourful I thought compared to Shakespeare dark tale:

And here are the kiltmakers hard at work:

I might try and visit 1 more kiltmakers before the holiday is up, I love seeing the 100s of varieties of tartan it fascinates me, but my family may get bored of me staring for hours! Which I easily could do :p

I have almost got you up to date now, almost! Yesterday me and my family went on a walk along all the little islands on the water (you cross little bridges to get to them) and then walked around Inverness botanic gardens.

The waterfront:

The wild flowers at the botanic gardens, they were a combo of daisies and poppies just like on my dress I made:

Then they had a tropical greenhouse, it was so lush!  It was landscaped wonderfully and they had so many amazing tropical plants I had never even seen before! Very impressive considering the Scottish climate,  which doesn't gave the best reputation for being warm and sunny :p Have you seen any of the crazy plants before?.....:

Last but not least on my catch up, me and my family went dolphin watching at the Moray of Firth. When we went in the morning there were no dolphins but the lady told us to come back later about 3 (because the tides would be right that day at that time) and sure enough we did see some. Two Bottlenose dolphins in fact! We had to use our binoculars to see them clearly but I did also manage to get some snaps of fins and tails in the distance. It is a bit like Where's Wallly but is you look closely you can see little fins and splashes in the water :):

It was quite exciting as I hadn't got my hopes up that we would see anything because nature is fickle and you never really know for sure :)

I better go and get ready for whatever we are doing today... I am not quite sure exactly what that is though yet :p

See you again soon,

Bye xoxoxo

Sunday style

Hi,

My my, it has been quite a while since I brought you a Sunday style! I have one for you today though :) As I mentioned in a previous post I had designed and started making an A line dress (from scratch, making my own pattern etc.) from a shirt and skirt I picked up in the costume store sale. Today we had family friends over so I made sure I got it all done ready to be worn and shown off! Lol :P

Here is it just flat:

Here are some of the details up close:

Folding back the  corners of the pocket flaps was my dad's idea and then I thought I could do the same with the collar and add little buttons to tie everything on :)

If you had forgotten the pieces I got the fabric from here they are:

Here is me wearing The dress:

I am really pleased with how it came out as it fits me really well, as it should because I made it to my measurements :P and it nice and airy for summer.  The colours also go with the colour of my hair too I think- if I am going to indulge myself and be really vain, lol! I will stop now and compliment you all- You all look beautiful today :D xxx

I am off to go and relax now. I have eaten a lot of my dad's delicious food today so need to sit and let it all go down- warm chocolate peanut butter ice cream sundae sauce and brownies is all  that needs to be said! :P

Before I go though I do want to say thank you to everyone who has looked at my new etsy shop. My viewings are increasing which is lovely :-) Also I have a special tutorial coming soon that I have made for you all so keep your eyes peeled! 

See you soon,

Bye xoxoxo

Brothers birthday + creative stitches show

Hello,

I mentioned a few posts ago that my Brothers birthday was coming up- it was this Tuesday (He loved his Domo pinata so I was pleased. It took a while to brake into so I didn't do too badly at making it! :) As usual my dad pulled an amazing cake(s!) out of the hat, this time I got to help though as I was at home and my dad said he couldn't achieve it all in the time without me :0) It was sooo fun and here are the results....

... A whole pizza dinner with drinks, sides and desserts- all made from cake!!!!

here is the mushroom (chopped dried banana  pieces) and olive (black royal icing) pizza:

The spaghetti (royal icing) and meatball (cake, chocolate and biscuit balls- I made these :P) cake:

Margherita pizza. We made the cheese look cooked by pinching the icing circles and putting little blobs of brown caramel biscuit spread on it to look liked the browned bubbles of cheese:

Onion rings (dried apple rings dipped in chocolate and biscuit crumbs), garlic bread (brioche with white chocolate on it sprinkled with grated dessicated coconut dyed green for herbs :P) and dough balls (brioche again!):

Garlic pizza bread cake:

the coke glasses were done by melting chocolate to coat the inside of the glass then filling with crumbled cake before topping with chocolate spread and inserting a stripy straw:

 

Chocolate cake chocolate gateau 1:

Chocolate cake chocolate gateau 2 (I made this one :-):

Safe to say we are still eating it all now, despite giving lots away to people! It is sooo tasty though and so cool to help make- we spent a long time thinking if what sweet items we could use to create the most realistic savoury look :P

Hahaha, In between cake eating I did manage to get to the Creative stitches and Hobbycrafts show at the Excel centre London on Thursday. It was really good and I got onto 4 workshops! (Tomorrow is the last day so get yourself down there if you can :0)

This was one of the workshops I did, ruffled ribbon petunias, so pretty :):

I got to practise my french knots for the centre which was good as now I can do them perfectly, I also learnt the little tufty  (turkey work) in the second flower which was cool as I had never done that before. Lorna Bateman was the lady who ran the workshop and she has an esty/folksy shop where she sells the kits if you like what you see above :P

This was the second workshop- making a creative textiles book cover from this material called spunbound made by Vilene. It was so cool- you put on this 3D paint through a stencil then heated it all with a heat gun and the £D paint bubbled a grew while the unpainted spunbound shrivelled and disappeared leaving holes. Then you paint it to make it look all colourful:

Then finally, I also did two embroidery workshops run by the Royal School of needlework, they were only £5 each which I think was pretty good value even though the other workshops were free (which is even more amazing value :P).

Here is my first finished piece from the Jacobean Crewelwork workshop:

Again, I learnt some new stitches and got to practice my french knots so that was all good. I will show you my silk shading sampler I started in the other workshop when I have finished it :)

Haha, after all that learning I got round to doing some shopping, well quite a bit of shopping actually.

I got these two Paddington Bear cross stitch kits, only £2.00 each! 

I am going to make something for my dad with them as he loves football, Paddington bear and he teaches maths so I thought they were perfect :P

Then I got all this:

All of the items cost me £1 or less each- what bargains :D

I better go now, got to get to bed to get my beauty sleep before my cake filled breakfast :P

See you all soon- when I may have another giveaway up my sleeve for you all.... so keep your eyes peeled :0)

Bye XxXxXxX

Sunday Style

Hello,

 

It has been a while since I posted a Sunday Style outfit so I thought it's about time I did!

So today I bring you the mix and match blue kimono style jacket/top I designed and made with matching blue wig and crocheted Minnie mouse style head band :0):

 

 

(Once again I haven't had a chance to wear it yet but when I do I shall post a picture :)

 

The back is done in the same half and half style but opposite so it looks cool and different from the back too! I got the two different fabrics in the IOW a while ago and then one day got thinking how it would be cool to use them together and they are quite contrasting but sort of do compliment each other in a way too:

 

It fastens at the top with a little bow of blue heart ribbon.

 

And here is a close up of the head band- the novelty yarn I had was perfect for making it with:

 

I am really pleased with this look to add to my Sunday style collection.

 

I hope you all like it too! :3

 

See you all soon, thanks for letting me share my creations with you :)

 

Byeeeee xxx

 

Mini shopping spree + some sights :)

Hi everyone,

The meal me and my brother cooked for my mum and dad went well they thought it was very tasty :0) we made mexican pizzas and some wedges (the wedges were a little bit hard though but still ok - me and potatoes don't get on well, they are always slightly hard whatever I do! :/) I forgot to take a picture though and when I remebered they were already gone :P

To make up for it I took some pictures of the places I went today :o)

Here is steephill cove, it is a very pretty place a kind of secret of the island as it is so small and secluded:

And here is a picture of the tropical garden (there are lotttss of different gardens) at Ventnor Botanical Gardens, it is very pretty there too! So many lovely flowers and trees :)

Today we also did a bit of shopping, In my fave craft shop on the island my mum treated me to 6 mini cross stitch kits!!! (mouseloft stitchlets :) I chose a butterfly, a cupcake, a teapot, a rabbit, a dolphin and a Chinese fan one :D In another shop I treated my self to some different embroidered patches as they were on sale at only 50p each! They were mainly american themed and I thought they would look cool if I sewed them onto a pair of jeans :)

There was a fairly new vintage clothes shop in Ventor which was soo cool to look around, I really want to study costume at university so it was fascinating to see all the old clothes, it was seriously like going back in time. Some of the dresses and coats were so beautiful.

Hehehe, I am off to watch Big Brother now (lol, my guilty pleasure :P) and start one of those cross stitch kits (if I can with all the arguing on the show!),

See you all soon, I hope you are all having a lovely week xxx

Bye :-)

Yarn, *Tick*, Needles, *Tick*... Woo, Im ready!

Hola! :)

Today I finally got the yarn I need for My design for the Dal (design along) on Ravelry!

I'm soo happy, I got it in hobby craft today. I got two balls of candy pink for the main parts of the gloves and then some in a coral pink for parts of the little flowers. The candy pink yarn was £1.99 per ball and the coral pink yarn was only 99p per ball, they were having a sale. So not only did I get some lovely soft yarn it didn't cost me a fortune either :D

I was also pleased because when I got home I found that I had some circular needles in the size I needed too, I thought I was gunna have to buy some of those too, but no! :0)

Ohhh I can't wait to start!

But first is the matter of a tension square....

Check you later! :)

Byeeeee

*Sniffle, sniffle*..... The designing bug is back!

Hi Guys :)

Yup its back alright since I've been off school I've had way more time to knit and crochet so have been doing some more designing, mainly of small things because they are the things I like to make the most :0)

First up I made some mini sushi:

Don't ask why, I just thought it would be cute :3

I want to make a few in different 'flavours' and then sew a little felt bento box to put them all in or attach them to a bracelet to make a cool knitted sushi charm bracelet! I'll probably have time to do both..... :)

I was inspired to create my next new design from the yarn I got sent by my swap partner in this months swap.



Oooo I nearly forgot if you want to see what I sent my swap partner you can have a look at the post on my swap partners blog: here! 

The different colours reminded me of planets and the different colours of the clouds of gas  etc... that surround them and I had the idea of making an amigurumi Saturn!

The pattern isn't perfected yet, it's still in the prototype stage but I am pretty happy with it. The random colours you get from the yarn I think gives a really good effect :D

And last but not least I designed this flower wristlet to go with my prom dress!!!!

It's difficult to show up the details on camera, but it is made up of three different sized flowers layered on top of each other on a little strap fastened at the back with a button.

It goes with my dress really well :) Proms on Friday and I'm soooo glad I finally have something I made (and designed) myself to wear to it!

I have to go now, my hands deserve a rest from crafting and typing! :0)

See you all soon,

Bye Bye x

P.s Start saving cereal boxes, crisp packets and other  wrappers as I have a cool crafty crochet tutorial coming up soon! :D oooohhh the excitement!

Au revoir! xxx

DAL Design Idea

Hey Guys!

Now I've finished my Project Yarnway design I've had a chance to sit down and come up with a design idea for the Design Along group (DAL) I joined on Ravelry as well (I've got the designing bug!).

The theme for the Summer Challenge is Gardens

I submitted this picture as my inspiration:

And then came up with Cherry Blossom Gloves as my design Idea. They are a bit difficult to explain so I'll let my sketch mainly do the talking :)

There basically fingerless gloves based around a triangle shape with little crochet cherry blossoms on the front.

I'm going with making the Cherry blossoms and gloves from a light pink yarn. Possibly some dark pink yarn for the middle of the flowers along with some little beads in the centre too to add extra detail :)

Now its just down to buying the yarn (I've only got a little bit of light ) and starting to knit!!! After working out tension etc... first of course :)

I have a while though as the designs aren't due till the 25th August so they will definitely be finished!

I LOVE DESIGNING! :D

See you all soon,

bye xxx