I had a few friends over this weekend and J, who likes to tinker with computers, saw what my monitor screen was doing and announced that it appeared to be a video card problem.  He literally spent 4 hours playing with the guts of my computer and managed to get the graphics (?) card inside the computer working and took out the busted video card and behold!  You're all in wonderful colour again :-)

I've been playing with the 'Creepy and Cute' book that one of my sisters got for me-a friend of mine is very into the 'Spartacus' TV series on Sky1 and there was a pattern in this book for a Spartan (that I decided looked more like a gladiator) so I have made her one (it was pretty tough to make-I'm not used to making lots of little bits and then trying to stitch them all together!) and a Ninja for her husband who's into his martial arts..
Myf has been trying very hard to eat all her school dinners so as a reward I told her I'd make one of the creatures for her-she chose the Skeleton Bride which I think takes irony to a new level!
 Anyway, here are the cutest creatures ever!

Adorable yes?

Winnie the Pooh blanket

My monitor has gone all weird-I've tried changing the cables to the monitor, I've even tried swapping the monitor for my spare but the screen is still very stripy so it's hard to see what the pictures look like :-(  Hopefully, they look better on your screen...

Anyway, a while back, I posted about a baby blanket I'd been asked to make by a friend who works in the other branch of the charity I volunteer with for her expecting daughter who really loves Winnie the Pooh.  Trouble was, I couldn't figure out how to make a Winnie the Pooh out of squares so I learned how to do afghan stitch and made a few squares with that to cross stitch on to.  I've been procrastinating for a while about getting it finished as my cross stitch skills are frankly rubbish.
Last week was the first week I'd been back at volunteering as they closed over Christmas and since the New Year, Myf's been home sick with a chest infection.  She was finally better after a week of antibiotics so when I went in, I spoke to S on the phone and she told me her Grandson had been born on Christmas Eve :-)  So once I'd finished my blanket, I spent Saturday getting the cross stitch done as well as I could and yesterday stitching it together and putting a border around it.  And I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out.  However, I'm quite nervous, really hope S and her daughter like it!  What do you think?

In other news, I spoke to one of my sisters a couple of weeks ago and she's suggested a really lovely idea.  The three of us don't get to see each other very often at all and we live all over the place but now that I've finally joined the crafty ranks, she's suggested making things to send to each other monthly as a kind of 'Sisters Gift Exchange'.  As we're coming up on Valentines Day, we're starting off with 'Hearts' for the first theme :-)  Now that I have my blanket projects out of the way, I'm playing with ideas and can't wait to get stuck in!

(Last year, I did 7 posts.  This year I've done 7 and January hasn't even finished yet!  This makes me happy...)

My blanket! (photo heavy, sorry)

I finally finished my blanket yesterday-after staying up until 3.30am to get the border done as I refused to go to bed without it!  Myf was at her dad's so at least I could stay in bed a bit longer :-)  And it was totally worth it as my blanket is beautifully snug.
So, I have pictures to bore you with...

The concept is based around the elements-and the layout is inspired by a tarot spread a friend and I designed together a few years back called the 'Elemental Compass Spread'

I took this before I started stitching the squares together and as it turns out, this pic showed the layout better

 You can't really see the border but it's a shell stitch in dark, sparkly blue :-)

So that's done!  It's nice to have finally made myself something XD

Wire Jewellery

I had some vouchers for the local craft shop for my birthday so I decided to treat myself to this book.  My first craft-y love has always been making pendants and I've wanted for a while to learn more skills.  I'm really enjoying this book-I think it's not amazing in how it explains the techniques but I quite like improvising and the ideas in the book are beautiful :-)  So here are some of my first attempts...

The one on the left is crocheted with a fine gauge beading wire with little black beads-

Once I got the knack of trying to crochet with wire, this was a lot of fun to make!
The other bracelet is a handmade chain with some charm ideas-it'll probably never be worn as it's just for practice-

 

Lastly, I was asked recently to make a Fluorite Pendant for a friend so I used some of the ideas in the book for inspiration-

Sadly, my local Pagan shop has closed down so getting crystals is a little tricky now but I may be going to Glastonbury this weekend with some friends so I may find some more then :-)

Brid's Crosses

The Moot was not exactly as planned-I'd gotten confused over the arrangements with Myf's father and as he doesn't do compromise (unless it benefits himself), Myf had to miss out on the Moot and was very upset.  We had a couple of new faces there though which was lovely but one of the little boys (who has cerebral palsy) was unwell and ended up having a seizure.  I called an ambulance, one of our other ladies stayed outside to direct the paramedics in and thankfully he came out of it (although he did stop breathing for a minute or two which was quite terrifying) and they went into hospital to have him checked over.  He's fine, they don't know what caused the seizure but he's alright which is the main thing!
So I didn't really get much opportunity to do some of the activities planned but when Myf got home, we did a couple of Brid's Crosses ourselves-

Sparkly!

Moots and stuff

I've posted before that myself and another lady run a Pagan Parents coffee morning together-it's not monthly yet (I'm hoping someday!) but last year we held 4 with a huge amount of success.  Basically, J and I felt there was a huge need for pagan events in our area to which people could bring along their children-most pagan events tend to be evening meetups in pubs which is great if you can get to them or open Sabbats (there are eight in the year) which frequently aren't child friendly.  So we came up with a plan and discovered there was a large number of people who are raising their children as Pagans (always respecting the child's choices as they get older) and have nowhere to take them and no one to share their experiences with.
The moots we hold are centered around the kids-we come up with child friendly activities, throw in a little story telling and simple fun ritual and give the grownups a chance to chat and have a cuppa amongst friends :-)  I love it, Myf has a blast and it's three hours of riotous laughter and creativity!
We're holding a Moot this weekend and sadly J can't be there as she's going through a bereavement so I'm running this one solo.  I'm a bit nervous but I remember helping my family at the Church Coffee Morning we used to run (the irony does not escape me) and I've gained a lot of confidence over the past couple of years.  As it's nearly Imbolc (first stirrings of light) we'll be making Brid crosses and crowns of light (not with real candles though!) with the kids and maybe a tiny bit of energy work :-)  I've very excited and really hoping everyone has a good time.  I'll post some pictures of my finished creations afterwards!

One last thing....

I mentioned previously that I'd made a few bits for Myf this Yule so I thought I'd post a couple of pics-she's VERY into the Tudor time period at the moment so that was the focus of her presents-I got her an Anne Boleyn, an Anne of Cleves and a Jane Seymour to go with the Catherine of Aragon doll she already had and I had to make skirts, cloaks and beds for them all.  I also managed to find a second hand castle for them which is possible the most awesome thing ever (it even has a drawbridge!) and the Myf high pitched screaming was the best sound ever!  So here is the castle with some Sylvanian families as courtiers :-)

The big circle in the centre was the 'welcome new Queens' rug that Myf wanted which fits perfectly (didn't realise when I took the pic that I'd forgotten the Cyberman in the background!)

Myf also has her 'children' which were two dolls called Annabelle and Sam for whom I made bedding for a while back (these were actually my very first crochet projects)

This year, Myf announced that Sam needed a little sister (just like her real life cousin!) so she had another little doll that she calls 'Catherine Victoria' and for whom I made another bed as I couldn't find a doll cot below £35 anywhere!

That really is all for now-I'm working on my special blanket at the moment, interspersed with some flower making, and hopefully next time I'll be presenting some new creations :-)  This is my plan this year-it's now offically a year since crochet helped me quit smoking so I'm now aiming to try something new once a month...

Happy New Year!

Myf and I got some lovely crafty presents this year that I'm very excited about as I'm starting to gain a craft book collection!  Looky here...

Thea got me the first two and will hopefully be very pleased to hear that I've already started trying out some of the flowers :-)

and some just for Myf...

This book really is fantastic-I was worried that I'd struggle with the patterns but they are so simple and easy to follow, I'm feeling more confident and I'm hoping to try out the other books soon!  The creepy cute crochet is from Jess and looks adorable, I can't wait to try them out and the amigurumi book is also from Thea-the pattern format is going to take a little practice I think but they look so cute I'm planning on attempting a couple for nieces and nephew.  The book on the far right is from Mum-sadly has no crochet in it and seems a little patronising in the writing style-it's also mostly set around crafts that require specialist equipment but I've found a couple of items in there that I'd like to try out.
Thea and Jess also made us some beautiful presents-the scarf and hat are from Thea and the ADORABLE mouse was made by Jess-

And here are some better pics of models wearing these gorgeous things :-)

Don't we look fantastic!  Thank you both darlings, we love them!