Woohoo

I'm really happy to announce that I got myself a place on the It's A Creative World team.

My first post over there is due in the middle of November.

Not A Fan

of Halloween that is but I put up with it for the kids.  No other day of the year would you allow your kids to go knocking on the doors of strangers begging. I just don't get it at all.

Anyhow one pumpkin was badly carved in the style my little man requested with a stencil he had printed off.

and I bought him a mask which glows up with yep you guessed it glow sticks.

I'm not religious but tomorrow is All Saints Day and then it is All Souls Day and those days are all to do with the souls of the dead going to heaven so please give a thought for those who passed away since this time last year. 

WIP Wednesday and One Naughty Doggie

Thanks for the feedback on the little trees.  I have decided to make some more for the craft fair.  I made a pink one with some sparkly yarn which is horrible to work with because it is so scratchy so I switched to some white yarn I had with a thin sparkly thread running through it. I used it doubled.  It is really soft in comparison and I'm loving adding the little beads to it.  For WIP (work in progress) Wednesday here is a pic of the pink one and one of the white ones which needs stitching and the yarn with the beads threaded on for the next few. I'm going to do one with yellow, one with red and one with pink/blue.  For more WIPs this Wednesday head on over to Tami

My newly decorated living room is no more - one very naughty dog who goes by the name of Daisy did this during the course of two nights.  She only usually chews things when she is about to come into season.  She is very very irregular with her seasons and we never really know when to expect it.



Shredded christmas gift guide from Asda aswell all over the room.  You know that saying about the dog messing up your homework well in this house if it is left out at her time of the month then it WILL get shredded. The little madam knew she had done wrong and took herself to bed when she was found out this morning.

It is now sprayed with a puppy deterrent and once I get a chance I will sand it down, maybe mix a bit of the deterrent with some paint and repaint it and then spray it again. 

It's Orange

I found Project Alicia earlier today and there is currently an Autumn Colour Challenge.  This week it is ORANGE. 

In my haste to find some orange on our way to Asda I slipped the point and shoot into my bag and we walked through the park instead of our usual route.  However I didn't look at the point where 50% of the shot has to be orange but here are the ones I shot anyway.

A Sainsburys carrier bag - yes our park is a dump!

Some leaves

A gas pipeline sign

I figured that would be it but in some waste land just as we left the park there was a bush with orange berries. I have no idea what they are.

Then I had a look around our yard to see what orange we had

hulahoop

Marigolds that are now definitely on their last flowering.

The pumpkin we went to Asda for

and last but not least this made me smile this morning (Lucy the weather girl makes my husband smile every morning lol) She is colour co-ordinated to her map.

Camera Critters

I stumbled across a blog called Camera Critters where every saturday you upload your blog post about animals.

This week I'm going to join in and use one of the squirrel piccies I took on our recent holiday in the forest.

FO Friday

I've not taken part in Finished Object Friday for quite some time. Mainly because I didn't have anything finished to show you.

This week I have finished a ruffled scarf and have written up the pattern on Ravelry - here to try and make a few extra pennies for Christmas. Also because I am doing a craft fair soon and plan to print a few out to sell there.

I decided that my main sale item at the craft fair will be corsages.  I've finished a few more than this picture shows and whilst some of them are finished I could use a bit of feedback on them.  I was going to add beads or buttons or both to each and every one of them but with some of the bigger ones I am wondering if less is more and to leave them plain. They are made with a variety of stash yarn I had.  The bigger ones are made with some Icelandic Chunky yarn which is absolutely gorgeous in real life. Each one takes up a full ball.

Then there are these little guys.  Just a simple trianglar knit made into a christmas tree shape.  I'm undecided whether to make some more because it is a christmas craft fair or just keep them for my own tree.

One thing is for certain, as much as I am enjoying making things for it, I shall be glad to be able to go back to knitting for my own pleasure once the craft fair is done.

Shameful pimping of my pattern post over now so please visit this week's FO Friday for lots of knitted and crocheted inspiration.

Skywatch

Taken in the park with the hipstamatic app on my phone on Tuesday

Lovely and sunny for a change so I couldn't resist a strange shadow picture aswell.  One dog at my side and other not staying still long enough to be anything other than a blob.

Decorating

Long overdue but our living room has finally been decorated by my own hands.

I bought this paper in B&Q in June at a bargain price of £1 per roll reduced down from £22.98.  At the time I wasn't sure which wall I wanted to put it on but at a total cost of only £4 for the 4 rolls they had left I wasn't walking away from it.

I stripped the paper from the longest wall in the room and then had second thoughts.  Roll forward to August and nothing further had been done.  I then had the idea that I would use the paper for the chimney breast but since it was the school holidays nothing was really going to get done until the kids had gone back to school.

During that time I realised that the long wall needed some paper aswell and I figured that even if I was lucky enough to find some more of the same at that price it would maybe be too much pink for one room.  I found some this in Homebase of their extra value range at £4.98 a roll which I actually quite liked.

Roll forward time again to September and the kids going back to school and us getting back into a routine again.  I stripped the chimney breast, painted the walls which weren't being papered and did all the gloss (I hate that job).  Finally last week I started on the papering.

This shot shows the Arthouse pink stuff on the chimney breast but also the Homebase stuff through the mirror.

I had quite a puzzle with the pink paper.  It looks upside down but that is the way it comes off the roll.  I tried it the other way up but it didn't look right either so ended up just going with how it is shown on the B&Q website.

That hurricane lamp was another bargain.  M&S this time and was only £6 reduced from £15.  I like my bargains.

Not entirely sure about that back wall because it is currently empty.  I have some collage type leather photo frames so might use those or try and find a nice picture.  The trouble with pictures though is that I get bored of them very quickly.  See the canvas on the cream wall?  That was another sale purchase - £10 from Next.  I'm not sure about its position either. It may well end up in a different room yet.

Just need to get a new carpet now but that won't be until next year.

Chocolate Sparklers and Autumn Flowers

This was something we did at brownies a couple of years ago (I think) and we did it again last night as we were doing firework safety.

Pretty simple and easy to do and they loved it.

You simply dip the end of a breadstick into chocolate spread and then roll it in sprinkles.

There were some spare breadsticks and chocolate spread left so I brought them home and let the kids have a go aswell.

Edited to add: I've just noticed the angle middle man has his thumb on this picture. I sometimes forget how strange his joints are. Sorry for drawing your attention to that if you are eating and browsing.

Little man can't keep his hand still with the excitement of having this at breakfast time which is why the photo is a touch shaky.

and talking of brownies. Last night I received a bunch of gorgeous flowers.  My birthday was last weekend but I was still on holiday last monday so missed our usual brownie night and they gave me these last night.  I love having an autumn birthday because the flowers available are more unusual and I especially love this selection.

 My absolute favourite is the miniature ornamental cabbage with the pin in the centre.

but then I really like the perfection of these small white flowers which I have no idea of their name.  The blue one is a favourite too but again I have no idea what it is called.

Skywatch

Boring skies here at the moment so I've borrowed one of my husband's photos with a bit of glare from a strange bright thing in the sky that forgot to say hello to us this week

Design Team Call & The BIG ONE

I just realised I forgot to put up the design team call on here for my challenge blog.

Full details can be found in this post

I originally put up a picture for inspiration but haven't had much response so I've changed it to the usual type of email me your details call.

I made a corsage/brooch for the picture inspiration

I've made quite a few of these lately, amongst other things, for a craft fair I'm doing next month. 

This last weekend I hit a big birthday - you know the type when the front number changes aswell as the last one.  I'm now 40 and to be honest it doesn't feel any different to being 39. No deep wrinkles appeared overnight lol

We had a weekend away at Center Parcs in Elveden Forest.  More to follow on that later.

Skywatch

Some crazy people actually paid to go on this. My stomach was in my mouth just walking by!