Symposium! (and stuff :)

Hi,

 

Last week was a really good week for me as it was 'Symposium week' at my college. What this means is basically a week off of timetabled lectures with loads of fun and interesting workshops, talks and performances going on instead :D

 

I booked myself onto loads of the workshops including zumba (which was really enjoyable), dream catcher making, sword fighting (super fun!!!!!) and I did quite a few costume related ones, including 3 morning workshops about Kimonos :0)

The lady was really nice and knowledgeable and bought in tons of the kimonos from her collection from martial arts related ones to bridal.

 

Here are a couple of her most extravagant kimono over-robes:

 

 

And here is me (from behind so you can see my freestyle- tied

 obi which hangs down) dressed as a Geisha :) It was cool being dressed up- I learnt a lot about how it actually feels to wear the kimono as well as how to put it on properly:

 

The obi is done up so much more tightly than I imagined it was and there is a lot more padding than I thought there was underneath too :P Brian who is next to me was dressed up like a shogun (military warrior). The lady who ran the workshops also rents out her kimonos etc... and has a website- where there are more pictures of all the kimonos we all tried on at symposium: here!

 

Another workshop I did was trauma makeup. Hahaha, a lot of fake blood was used! and some cornflakes mixed with coffee, golden syrup and red food colouring to make stuff that resembled blood clots.

 

I warn all those who are faint hearted to LOOK AWAY NOW!

 

As the following picture of my work I did in the workshop although FAKE (of course! :) is very gory:

 

 

I think I actually did get it quite realistic looking thanks to the techniques of the tutor :-)

 

Another thing that made my week really good apart from symposium was finding out that I was the special winner of a free Royal School of Needlework day course from the draw I entered at the creative stitches and Hobbycrafts show at the excel :D I am soo excited and have chosen to do a course on 17th century design inspired metal/gold work button brooches- It sounds so interesting- that is in November so kind of like a great early Christmas present!

 

And if all that wasn't enough for one week me and my mum went to the John Paul Gaultier fashion exhibition at the Barbican Arts centre/Theatre in London which was fabulous.

 

It was really different to other exhibitions I have been to as they gave some of the mannequins faces using digital projection- they even talked! I thought this really brought the whole exhibition and the clothes to life a bit more.

 

Look at the amazingness of these dresses!:

 

 

Another thing that was cool and different was that they actually had a moving catwalk! All these mannequins were dressed and on stands that moved around the catwalk, again this brought so much more life and excitement to the clothes making them look even more spectacular than they already are:

 

Well, that's just about it for the catch up of my week...

 

.....No.... Wait! I have one more fabulous thing to tell you about :P The Chocolate festival I went to on Sunday with a friend from college at the London Business and Design centre  (I really did have a crazy fun week :oD)

 

There were quite a few different samples of yummy chocolate to try and lots of baked goods on sale. As a treat I went for this brownie:

 

 

It was sooooo delicious, it was called a 'buckeye' brownie. It was a normal chocolate brownie topped with Oreo cookie frosting and a layer of milk chocolate ganache mmmm... I want another one!

 

My brownie was from Batch bakery: http://batchbakery.co.uk/

 

My friend had a peanut butter brownie which she said was amazing from the Brownie Bar: http://www.browniebar.co.uk/

 

They do a really good price online delivery of brownies so I think I may have to get some of those sent to me in the near future as they looked good too but I couldn't fit a second brownies in after my Oreo- sugar overload one :P

 

I hope you are all well, and now I promise my post is officially finished :)

 

Don't forget to enter my Spring/Easter giveaway if you haven't already as as I found out last week you never know your luck!

 

Speak to you all again very soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxX

I won a giveaway!

Hello everyone,

 

Last week I was very happily surprised to find out that I was one of the lucky winners of Stephs mystery giveaway prizes!!! :oD

 

I was soo excited and was not at all disappointed when my fantastic parcel arrived a couple of days ago- look! :D:

 



 

I really really love the nakd bars so was very pleased when I pulled one of them out of the envelope!

 

The brooches Steph made are absolutely beautiful- they go perfectly in my brooch collection :) I can't wait to start wearing them :-)

 

All the little charms are super kawaii too:

 

I have lots of ideas of how to use them :o)

 

Thank you Steph for organising the giveaway and thank you for my fantastic prizes xxx

 

In other news I finished my mums kindle case:

 

She really liked it and hasn't stopped using it since I gave it to her :) Hehe, I was pleased with the fit seen as I didn't get a chance to do a 'fitting' as I made it whilst I was away at uni.

 

Im off now to keep working on the new items I am working on to go in my shop soon....

 

See you soon,

 

Byeeeeeee xxx

It's my birthday!!!

Hello,

Yes, today is officially my Birthday! :D I have had a fabulous day with my lovely family :-)

 

My Dad as usual amazed me with the birthday cake he made for me- it was so lovely to look at and to eat! (though my eyes were too big for my belly and I ate a bit too much :P)

 

Here it is in all its lovely leopard print and cute little mouse/bunny glory :D:

 

 

Isn't he adorable :3

 

Also as usual I was blown away by my family's generosity and thoughtfulness in the presents they got me because having them is a gift enough- and all the lovely stuff they got me ready for uni too- I seriously thought I might wake up and have stuff taken off me instead of getting more gifts as it seems like I have had more than my lot already!

 

Here are some pictures of my wonderful gifts- Thank you to all my lovely family and friends for all of them:

 

 

I am soo excited about reading all of these books :) I have already gained inspiration for my Halloween costume from the fashion book my friend got me :P

 

Hehe, two Kawaii fuzzy Llamas and a fluffy jacket to match- what more could a girl ask for? ;)

 

My mum got me the two little craft kits and my wonderful, lovely, brilliant brother got me the Hamtaro Bijou plush (he also got me a very cool Domo poster which I will post a picture of when it is up and the words he wrote inside my card he made for me were so lovely that they made me cry! And on top of all of that he offered to buy me a film and a Mcflurry- because I love them so much!)

 

I can now top up my chocolate stash thanks to my friends and dad (my friends also got me a pretty picture frame with a picture in it of all of us at my Halloween party dressed up- haha, it is coming to uni with to make me smile each day)

 

Some lunchboxes and luxurious bath stuff courtesy of my dad, I love the cat lunchbox as it reminds me of the Lucky Chinese cats!

 

And last but by far not least some cool Dvds and Cds. I have been wanting to watch the films for ages- mainly for all the amazing costumes in them and who doesn't love a bit of Andre Rieu? :P

 

Thank you again to my family and friends as my day would not have been so  special without you to share it with xxx

 

Hahaha, I hope all of you have had a wonderful day as well, see you all soon with more Innocent hat knitting news!

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye xxx 

Swap parcel and a prize package! :)

Hola!

The day after I got my lovely birthday present from Laura the postman delivered my cute 'n' quirky swap parcel from Odds0cks! :D This months theme was sweets and treats, here's what I got!:

• 2 lengths of pretty flower ribbon
• A pack of jelly beans and some tasty fudge! (YUM! :P)
• A cute cupcake birthday card
• A pack very cool ice lolly/ice cream buttons :)
• And an ultra kawaii amigurumi sweetie key chain designed and made by Odds0cks! :3

These are gunna be sooo great for adding to amigurumis!

Isn't he just soo sweet! I named him Tommy the Toffee :-) I have put him on my school bag zip too along with the twin cherries, they are my mini ami crew! :)

Thank you Odds0cks!!!! I love everything <3

Oddsocks has a blog which is really cute and I advise you definitely check it out as she said she might even put up the cute sweetie amigurumi pattern sometime!: http://0dd-socks.blogspot.com/

And if that wasn't enough great post already, today I got my special prize for being one of the winners of the summer DAL on Ravelry! (Heehe, it was such a coincidence Alyssa asked me if it had arived yet yesterday!)

Aren't these some of the coolest stitch markers you have ever seen? :0)

The DAL is run by Alyssa, from http://aly-oops.blogspot.com/ and this lovely prize was provided Stephcuddles, so thank you to both of you!

If you are jealous of my fab stitch markers (heheehe :)  you can visit Stephcuddles etsy shop where she has a huge range of uber cute stitch markers including the mini mug and cream cake ones above I was lucky enough to win: http://www.etsy.com/shop/stephcuddles You can also visit her blog which is really cool too: http://www.stephcuddles.com/

I wonder what the postman will bring tomorrow, lol! :0P

See you all soon,

Bye! xXx

Lucky me!

Yolah!

It's fast approaching my birthday (woooo!) so on Friday I had a party with 3 of my friends, it was very fun, we played monopoly and had pizza :P (I also got some special Hello kitty plates to eat the pizza off of! ahhaha so cute!). One of my friends gave me my present (well actually 2) early and I couldn't resist opening them, they were calling me! My first present was a stick of rock she had got me from her trip to Brighton (in a mystery flavour!!! :D) And the other present she got me was a lovely stylish mini 4 draw storage box for me to put my crafty bits and bobs in, psychicly she must have known I was running out of storage space! :-)

... But thats not all she also put a little gift in each draw of the box! :D How lucky am I! In draw 1 she had put a few sets of beads, and very thoughtfully in the colour black so I can use them for eyes on my amigurumi (currently I have to paint brown and pink beads to get black eyes!)

In draw 2 was possibly the coolest eraser you have ever seen.... :-) A big mushroom!

My friend is so generous, I still can't believe she even filled all the draws with gifts <3 In draw 3 was something I have never, ever seen before:

Mini love hearts! I really like love hearts but I didn't even know they made mini ones so I got pretty excited, they are sooo cute :D

And last, but definitely not least, in draw 4 was a handmade paper crane chain for me to give me luck :) I love it <3 It is so pretty and it means so much that she made it for me :0) I have hung it up in my room now so I can see it everyday!

So cool! XD

Also recently my nan came round and she bought lots of ribbon she had been given by someone and she asked me if I would like it!!! There was tons of it and as many of you will know it is really expensive in craft shops so I was thrilled. Look!:

I especially love the brown dotty one and there is almost a whole roll! My brain started whirring when I saw it, thinking of all the things I could make with it. My nan also brought me round three balls of red wool, one ball of yellow wool and a knitting and crochet stitch book she had been given too, I felt spoilt :0)

And if the lovely birthday gift and crafty donations weren't enough I also was recently chosen as one of the lucky random DAL winners for the summer challenge on Ravelry! I have won some pretty mystery stitch markers which I will post about when they arrive :) I also got this badge to put on my blog, made by Alyoops herself  (the DAL group creator):

I have submitted my pictures of inspiration for this round but am currently stuck between a few different designs for my final choice to make, I think I have nearly decided though. When I have finally, definitely, chosen I will be posting my sketch for you all to see!

I hope everyone is having a nice week,

See you soon!

Au revoir :-) xxx

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Bonjour my friends :)

As many of you will know tomorrow is St Patricks Day!

I made a pattern for these little 4 leaf clovers which im putting up free to help you stay lucky and spread the cheer :D

They are really quick to make and can be made with scraps of any green DK yarn.

 

You will need:

• A 4.0mm crochet hook
• Green DK yarn
• A darning needle
• Scissors

Pattern:

Using a 4.00mm hook and green DK  leave a medium length tail of yarn and make a magic ring, 8dc into the ring (8sts)


Rnd 1:  *3tr into next st, slst* repeat from * to * 3 more times

 Fasten off.


To make up:

Darn in the 'Fasten off' yarn tail and cut so that it is not visible.

Tie a knot about 3 cm down the tail you left at the start (from the magic ring) then cut the yarn just below the knot, this creates the stalk.

Your little clover is now finished!

Abbreveations:
(I am using UK crochet abbreviations)

st(s) = stitch(es)
slst = slip stitch
tr = treble
dc = double crochet

I hope everyone enjoys the pattern and has a great St Patrick's day :)

BYE xxx