It's been a while!

Hello bloggers.... Do people blog these days ? Or is it outdated?
Doubt I have any followers nowadays its been so long!
I haven't had  inky fingers so such a long time despite now having the luxury of a lovely arty space known as Nicks Nest, lost my mojo due to lots of factors but I have mostly had wool in my hands when I have a free minute.  This weekend though I did unearth the paints to alter a very solid unopenable (is there such a word) box that matt made for Georgina to start saving for when she goes to uni next year... Trust me and money she puts in there can't be removed until dad gets his saw out!

so after a couple of years since I have really had my paints out (too many were dried up :(..... ) here is the result, I'm pretty happy but really need to get back in practice!

Now then I promise I will be back soon ..! I mean I should make more use of a bolt hole / Lady shed / nest like this shouldn't I ?

Happy Christmas

Christmas is a time to be jolly - Surely even the Bah Humbug Scrooges have to smile at s bit of glorious colourful hooking.
Here is our Christmas Wreath that adorns our front door - It makes me smile every time I come home. I love my wreath, can you tell?
Started in June, its been a WIP until I realised it was actually December and Christmas is approaching, so I finished it off at the Knitting Circle I go to on a Friday Morning. Needles, Hooks, Chat and Cake what could be better?
I have to give a heads up to Lucy at Attic24 for the inspiration for this wreath - I recommend you head over to her blog if you need a bit of colour cheerfulness.

I wish you all a Very Happy Christmas xxx

Back With A Vengeance

Oh My goodness, I see I haven't blogged since the beginning of August. So much has been going on in our family some good some bad nothing to bore you all with, but through all that the hook has still been in my hand! People have always asked me if I sell my crocheted bits or indeed any of my 'old tat' I have always shied away from selling as any artist/crafter will tell you there is nothing in it, you end up 'working' for literally pence per hour, but then I balanced that against how much I enjoy it, so if I am doing it I may as well sell it even if its only to cover the cost of the materials. 

Then a friend challenged me to make a hat that she found and loved when she was browsing the net. The hat was knitted and I apologise to the designer because I don't know who it was and I always like to credit people. Her hat was knitted and I like to crochet so although I have copied her design mine is crocheted, no pattern I just made it up as I went along. My friend's husband threatened to leave her if she wore this out in public but they still seem to be happily married, fortunately she resisted wearing it when they went out to celebrate a rather impressive wedding anniversary the other evening! 

This is the offending item .... 

This then led to a flurry of orders

again I didn't have a pattern for any of my hats I just 'wing' it as I go along (rather apt for the owl...) 

and a LOVELY compliment about this hat from a lady who ordered it for her son

Nicks your tortoise hat has magical qualities. No 2 son [aka Tim] definitely does not do mornings, BUT, this morning he got up being his usual self [grumpy] dressed, put his hat on and he is all smiles and laughter. He loves it and has said he is not taking it off till summer 2014 !! You need to patent this happy hat :-)"

Another lovely lady ordered this hat and also an owl as above. She is confined to a wheelchair and was fed up with the 'does she take sugar' attitude from people and being stared at, so she thought she may as well give them something to look and smile at... what a brilliant attitude and how lovely to think that a bit of wool can bring so much pleasure. I am truly humbled by my new customers

talking of smiles, here is my nephew who is the most gorgeous boy ever with his monkey 

called Antonio 

dah, da, dah, da ..... Meet Mr Shark 

Now some Tea Cosies and a couple of random hats which will soon appear on my new Etsy shop (apart from the cream one which is already sold :) ) 

Can't stop I am in the middle of making a moose hat!!

Happy Hooking x

Been Monkeying Around.....

By the request of Edward my son who has a thing for Monkeys! Super cute little chap don't you think? His name is Doapoo... (dont ask!)

Pattern by Sharon Ojala available from here.. http://www.amigurumitogo.com/2013/01/monkey.html

PS I have got a inky project on the go - promise!

Can't Seem to Stop

The hook is still winning the craft battle in this house, not sure OH really approves, he likes to see me at my desk getting inky and paint covered. I blame a FB friend who shared a link to my page about a local bird rescue centre Wing and a Prayer who had put out a shout for people to crochet some Owls for their open day - well I couldn't resist could I?

I don't enjoy making the same thing over and over again, so I made a few different ones and a couple of birds. Thanks to Jaylee, Jacquie and Lucy for being generous and sharing their patterns and giving permission for the finished item to be sold

Last night however I designed my own owl and I'm pretty proud of him..... here he is (name ??)

Yesterday afternoon I learnt how to do 'Crocodile Stitch' thanks to these excellent instructions from Crochet Spot, and thought I would use it on an owl - Just hoping now I can recreate him because I made it up as I went along - in fact you could say 'I winged it' ....... ha ha ha see what I did there


Here are the other ones I have made - added a few more to the collection since I took the photo, hope they go to a happy home ....

Right.... time to put down the hook for a while and see if I can find my paint covered desk - thanks for reading. 

So Many Crafts, So Little Time

I can remember my mum saying there weren't enough hours in the day - I so understand what she meant, (thats terrible english!). Like her, I think housework is a necessary evil and time is much better spent creating. That however doesn't mean I have enough time to do everything kind of art/craft that I would like to, so I flit between this and that.
I had been crocheting for a while but was hankering over inky painty messiness. Then my lovely surrogate triplet  Debs invited me along to a workshop with her twin sister Sue and another friend Beverley - with our surrogate quadruplet Andy Skinner - Confused??? well we all share the same birthday - July 11th - apart from Bev, cos if she did we would be Quintuplets - I digress, the upshot is we all had a lovely time with Sir Skinner, and learnt the art of image transfers and played with several other lovely Deco-art products.
As it was my Birthday I also treated myself to some multi medium paints that promised to go onto any surface and after seven days be totally water and everything proof. I had seen that another friend had painted a pair of boots with it, so I decided to have a go with an old pair of Birkenstocks I LOVE my 'birkies' and although these had loads of wear in them they were looking a bit worse for wear (they are 10 years old!).
So here is the before and after....

AFTER

BEFORE

You should leave them for 7 days to cure properly but I am not that patient, these have been worn from day two almost constantly, and apart from where I adjusted the buckle the paint seems to do exactly what it says on the tin (or bottle in this case) I did do the buckle up almost immediately and then adjust it a few days later, so in fairness the paint didn't have a fair test in that instance, so I am really impressed - larger project next a handbag. Watch this space..

THE QUADS

(can you tell who the twins are by any chance?)

The full team with our project for the day ..

and my box 

Andy also gave us a quick tutorial on using Gelli-Plates... that's another story for another day

Hooky Love

Ouch, its ages since I last blogged - bet you didn't miss me? Go on say you have cos I feel unloved!
Havent had the time, space or inclination to play with my paints for ages now, enjoying being a Hooker though - maybe its my age, siiting in a comfy armchair with my dog snuggled up with a hook and yarn is much more appealing atm - or maybe I am turning into my mother cos I have joined a knitting circle - thats it I am becoming my mother, though I could never inspire to be as talented with anything textile. Sad that she died so young when I was young, she could have given me a few pointers - but at least she inspired me to create before she died, so she left some kind of legacy.

Last week I visited a beautiful lady 'oop north' (my surrogate mum!) along with a couple of friends. I haven't been away since Ed was diagnosed with epilepsy last year, so as soon as the opportunity arose I was off like a bomb. It was her birthday so I hooked her a little present in the form of a tea cosy - her house was full to the rafters with birthday flowers, so maybe it was just as well I took her crocheted ones!

I have also got piles...... 

Can you guess what it is yet ?

Did you guess correctly? - well that was Jammy!

A marvellous friend of mine that I met through a craft site holds a Macmiilan coffee morning every year - she has raised thousands over the years and works extremely hard producing jars and jars of jam and chutney and all sorts of other goodies - so I thought it would be nice to send her a few pretty crochet covers for the jars

Just realised that I lied to you earlier when I said I hadnt played with any paints - here is a handy way of proving we have had the paint out 

We painted Edwards bedrrom over the May half term (well when I say 'we' I mean the royal 'we')

Ed has as many bonkers ideas as his mum, and he wanted his walls splattered - so splattered they were

One whole wall and a large canvas on another wall 

Original and very cool Edward - I'm proud of you - it was alot of fun!

As if.......

I haven't got enough of these in my house already...

But this one won't be getting the cobweb brush treatment 

Oh Crochet does make me smile 

(and yes I have just noticed that the picture above the door needs straightening ;p) 

Spring Hasn't Sprung...

So my Green Man is still feeling a bit autumnal! Regular visitors to my blog will know I have a bit of a penchant for Green Men - usually you only see their head - well they do have bodies!

I have had a bit of a rocky start to The Book of Ruination course I am doing with Andy Skinner - the technique he is teaching is great but I didn't know where I wanted to take it - my first attempt was on a wooden box where I did the base layer but then I became well and truly stuck at what to do next, so that was cast to one side and I cast my eyes around my stash in the garage to find something that inspired me

I picked up a few of these plastic torsos from my local scrapbox store for 50p each a while ago and like a lot of things in my stash they were put aside until 'the right time' 

This I think was the right time!

The store also had some test-tubes for sale , which make a wonderful specimen vase for a single rose - though I will make something that can sit in there when I don't have any fresh flowers 

The leaves on his left shoulder were some diecuts I picked up (again from the store) that had been cut in the most garish colours you can imagine - who cares when you are going to paint over them?

The autumn leaves were cut from old tomato paste tubes - as well as recycling I refuse to use my precious metal sheets on something that will be painted within an inch of its life. 

And a lesson in never throwing anything out.. I found some skeleton leaves that I bought when I started making cards - never used them, kept them and hey presto they good great here.. you may be able to spy them on the right hand side 

Now - HANDS UP who was thinking of making a rude comment about the 'broomstick' propping him up? Its actually our Heath Robinson welly boot holder outside the back door!

I may as well share a couple of snaps of the 'book' I started, it lives in hope of being added to but I doubt it ever will be - I'm a bit tired of skeletons, freaky, steampunk which I think this technique naturally does lean towards, after going off at a tangent and picking up a hook, my Rhino just made my heart sing and I realised that although I like most things I make a lot just wasn't making me smile and chuckle - we all need a chuckle a day !

But Arnold my Green Man makes me smile, so all is good in the world 

Let's Be Honest

Apart from these baby casts I did this week (how cute are baby hands?) I haven't picked up a paint pot for months, moved over to balls and hooks... now lets discover why shall we?

* Is it because there is lots of good stuff on TV that i don't want to miss??        No
* Is it because its nice to sit by the fire during this everlasting winter??               Partly but we do have central heating in other rooms!
* Is it because my son has taken over the studio/office with a sudden urge to do his homework ... ??? err that's a definite NO!!!
* Is it because I have been totally inspired by clever hookers??   Well I have but that's not the full reason
* Is it because my craft room has got into such a state that I couldn't even bear to go into the room, never mind tidy it up??   Ummmmm YES, that will be the reason! I have been so embarrassed about it I haven't even shared my room om WOYWW... and that's saying something because I have shared it before in a dreadful state

But Friday heralded the start of another Andy Skinner online course, to which I signed up for the day it was released months ago when maybe the room was usable (or maybe not!) The fact that I started my project sitting at the kitchen table last night and struggling to unearth the stash I needed, prompted me to buckle down today and sort the room out!

I can now sit at my desk.... whoopee!!! So watch this space, I'm on a Book of Ruination roll and will soon be Rocking My Book

Sir Montgomery The Miffed,,,

Meet Montgomery.. Sir Monty to his friends, 

He looks rather miffed don't you think? Well I suppose you would to if your head was hung on the wall and you could do nothing but stare at a multi-coloured rhino opposite you!

I think he is rather handsome and distinguished though

again this is a pattern by Mrs Talented Pepika

These are the only two faux taxidermy ones on her site (lots more other lovely patterns though) and I want to make a stag and the once disparaging DD wants a unicorn, so I guess I will have to make up my own patterns!! (runs away slightly scared)

Now just waiting for Matt to make some plinths for my little beauties to be mounted onto