Mottisfont Abbey

We went on a Sunday trip to a local National Trust Property to start using the membership that my lovely in laws brought us for the Boyfriend's birthday.  Mottifont Abbey was a victim of the Dissolution and has gone through various guises to get to today's building:

It was all set up how it would have appeared in the 40s so Dan loved it.  It was fun poking round all the things left in the rooms, like 40s sheet music and the white evening gloves and sparkly accessories!  But what I really loved was the grounds....

We followed this gorgeous, clear stream through several weirs, twists and turns to its source - a spring that was the most amazing clear blue.  I had to restrain myself from jumping in!

I also loved the trees planted down the old cloister to evoke the architecture of the old building:

We also found some of the old tiles from the monastery and some lovely flowers:

The we walked down by the river which was also relative clear and found a Monet-like bridge:

It was a very nice, chilled day.  Just what I needed after a week of feeling yuck, to get outside and blow the cobwebs out of my brain.

We also popped round the parents to drop of fathers day presents to discover my Dad walked round Ikea today with mismatched shoes, seriously mismatched not just a little, and didn't notice until he got home.  I worry about my parents sometimes!  Luckily I wasn't present for the odd looks he got! Hope you all had a great weekend!

The Cutest Little Shark

So the other day I saw this on my travels round the interwebs and had to have a go, this is my interpretation:

Isn't he cuteful!  I do love a cute little sharky.

I'm really loving making amigurumi at the moment and I'm getting a little better each time.  Now I'm torn between creating a crochet hook or making a pretty crochet necklace.

I also had to share the amazing contents of this months Crafty Creatives Box this month:

As you might guess the theme is treats - very much my thing!!!  I love the fat quarter and have a fantastic idea for it.  Plus the cake slices are adorable!  So many ideas...I struggled a bit with last month's box as I'm not at all glamorous so I wasn't sure what to do with all the shiny stuff, as pretty as it was.  However cake and sweeties, yummy.

I've been a busy bee over the past couple of weeks - a few weddings, more that a few birthdays and quite a few BBQs.  I'm glad I enjoyed the good weather while it was around as it seems to have gone away for a bit.

My lovely boyfriend had a birthday last week and we went to one of our favourite restaurants, complete with real chilli decorations:

I love this and am super tempted to make some sort of chilli display in my kitchen.  Ted would probably think they were for him and constantly try and take them down.  He is still loving his new curtains...

Anyway I will stop waffling and go sew something interesting as I'm stuck in tonight with a nasty bug!

My Homemade Home - Pretty Curtains

So awhile ago at a sample sale at work I picked up some curtains for a £1, BARGAIN!  They are lined and 100% cotton.  However despite the instructions saying that they would fit our window they were about 40cm off.  They were also a pretty horrific lilac colour (I don't like lilac, its not a Laura colour):

So I got some iDye in navy (after a very bad moment of dizziness between me and the boyfriend when we somehow thought we had 7.5kg curtains and would need millions of pounds of dye to dye them) and we managed to change the colour to blue:

I even managed not to dye the kitchen, the cat or the surrounding area.  Then on an Ikea trip I got some nice stripey fabric to lengthen them so they fit the window and then we got them on the rail with some hit or miss balancing on a chair:

No more sun interfering with my T.V. watching, plus Ted thinks we just got him an awesome new toy.  He is busy playing hide and seek and leaving his fluffy tail hanging out to give us a clue as to where he is. I have learnt that sewing large quantities of fabric is super hard and that if you choose a colour similar to the fabric your seams can be as wonky as you like!

2013 New Year's Resolutions Update: May

Ted helping me revise...

So I completely failed on the resolutions front this month, I needed to concentrate on my exams so pretty much everything else got ignored.  However as of last week I've finished (WOOO) so I'm slowly adjusting to having time back again and planning my attack for this month!

Blog once a week - If you include this one then yes but I fully admit this month was a bit patchy as my brain was overflowing with revision and stress.

I managed to fall prey to Coca Cola's
excellent marketing ploy!

Grow my own vegetables - We had our first runner beans from the indoor bean, our strawberries and raspberries are flowering and the other veg is going well.  Just a case of remembering to water now I think!

Do my Operational Level CIMA exams - I did one.  It didn't go as well as hoped but fingers crossed I did enough to pass.

Start working smartly - I did this pretty well I think and managed to get through a very challenging month with only minor issues!

My first Poppy!!

No further progress this month:

• Look after myself more.
• Take more pictures of life.
• Cook from Scratch a 15 Minute Meal once a week - I stopped, so a minor fail but will pick it up again soon.
• Be more organised
• Go on more adventures 
• Work Towards a Homemade Home 

Still to start:

• Make a skirt from my Collette Dressmaking Guide.
• Sell something I've made/designed.
• Do an intermediate pattern from my Cute and Easy Crochet Book.

A Box of Awesome from Crafty Creatives

So last month in the midst of exam horror, I decided to line up a treat for myself in the shape of a Crafty Creatives Box, I'd spotted a mini mention of them in Molly Makes a couple of issues ago and then decided that a monthly box of crafty goodness would be a good thing to look forward to.  I was super excited when the pink mailer bag dropped through the door and I opened it to find this:

When I opened it the prettiest tissue paper was peaking out:

Then I unpacked all the goodness with only mild squealing:

This month's theme is glamour and the contents reflected that:

• A gorgeous artist card by Lianne Williams
• A mini craft kit (more on this later!)
• Beaded fluffy trim (the only bit I really didn't like - its very old fashioned)
• Swarovski crystal beads
• Photo glue
• Stardust bead
• Lace stamper
• Metallic stardust sprinkles
• Fat quarter of velvet.
• Red rose pendant
• Pair of teardrop beads
• Set of earring findings and jump rings

The mini craft kit was for a 1920's style beaded hair clip:

It looks really cute finished.  I've come up with a plan for the velvet and some of the beads...honestly it's great not to be revising and instead surrounded by beads and glue and thread!

Easter Egg Bunnies...or Procrastination while I should be revising...

So after spending the entire day at the library on Saturday I felt the need for crafty respite...and decided to have a go at something I'd pinned on Pinterest a while ago:

From Tecrin Tries

I've been working on my big projects (my baking cross stitch and my crochet blanket) but didn't fancy carrying on with them as I wanted something quick to work up and achieve between revision sessions.

It actually turned out to be a little more complicated than I'd anticipated as I'd never crocheted in the round or used a magic circle...but I managed to get the hang of it quite quickly and worked up Procrastination Bunny:

He even got a handmade pom pom tail.  I don't think I've made a pom pom since I was 6.  I clearly remember the occasion because I had a particularly horrid teacher who, while she thought I was out of earshot, said that she was amazed I'd managed to make one given my patience.  Which I felt was completely unfair... This one however came with no nasty comments and I finished it on Sunday when I was watching the Formula One highlights.

Yes, his pom pom tail is huge.  I have decided it's part of his charm!  The pattern is from the Tecrin Tries blog, I love Tecrin's blog - it has lots of crochet and knitting goodness.  If you fancy having a go at this or another amigurumi I recommend the following to get to grips with some of the stitches:

• A Pinch of Hope on YouTube had a really clear tutorial for making a magic loop
• Stitch Diva Studios has some nice instructions and diagrams for decreasing using different stitches.
• Kid Craft Central also has a good tutorial for making pom poms if like me you can't quite remember how to do them!

Now it's back to work as I need to actually do some revision, 10 days to go and I'm feeling quite nervous.  Eeeep.

(Sorry for the terrible photos - I can't be bothered to use my DLSR so I'm just camera phoning it for now!)

You may call me Stressed, Very Stressed!

I've had a pretty bad week - I'm properly a little stress ball of argh over my silly exams.  I am stuck between revising and then feeling like I should be revising when I'm not.  It's a horrible bitey circle that culminated in a massive panic attack last night.  So to try and stop my brain I've taken today off revision and tried to regroup slightly.

However I have been trying to do some more fun things...

The garden is coming along well, this is our bean plant:

Dan also spent the entire day on Saturday cat proofing the garden so Ted can go out.  He is still not brave enough to go too far out and keeps coming back to the patio door to check that we are still there!

Talking of Ted, he's almost back to himself after he had a bad reaction to a flea medication that caused him to go horrifically angry and scratchy!  Now he's back to head booping my hand and snoring by the bed in the morning:

While Dan and Ted were out in the garden, I had vacated the house to revise in the Discovery Centre in Winchester:

I love this place - its in a circle and between each bookshelf and the wall there is a study desk.  I bagged one and then had to work on keeping a straight face while I listened to some hilariously inept flirting by some 'revising' A-level students.  I say 'revising' because I think there was more gossip going on than actual revision!  It's a really nice space to revise though and they have hook ups for your laptop and everything.

Then as a treat after an 11 to 5 revision session in the library on Saturday, the boyfriend booked us a table at Wagamama and I had my favourite, amai udon!  Then we went to go see Iron Man!  AWESOME!!!  If I were a superhero I would be Iron Man.  It's a very good film and there are some seriously brilliant action sequences.  I can't wait for Thor: The Dark World and Avengers II.  I love comic book movies.

I also went on a mild online shopping spree fuelled by the major stress induced acne outbreak and got myself some make up, which into the bargain came in gorgeous packaging.

We also popped the the pub yesterday and I attempted to relax while being social...

Finally I didn't forget about crafting - on my relax day after I'd got the worst of the cleaning sorted I spent two hours out in the sun with my baking cross stitch.  I've done about a quarter now, I think it will be an entire year's project as its so big and I'm so busy!

Hope everyone had a lovely bank holiday and enjoyed the gorgeous weather...only 2 and bit weeks until I get my life back YAY.  (Plus Dan has promised me a kitten if I attend the exam!!)