Busy Day

It was my birthday on Friday, so today I made cakes to take in to work tomorrow:

53 cupcakes and 24 cookies

Mocha, orange, lemon and vanilla

Here's the orange cupcakes ready to go in, and Piggy Wiggy, the spatula my colleagues bought me, which has worked hard today!

Also, mum & dad gave me these lovely flowers. I don't have a vase at the moment, so I arranged them in a set of jam jars:

Tired and accomplished!

UFOs

Current UFO Pile:

• Lace Mohair Scarf - ever ongoing
• Manos Vest - stalled because I have too many YOs in the wrong place - need aunty Helen to help me make it Go! ;P
• Denim dress which needs fixing
• Purple Linen skirt - just needs the hem turning up
• Laptop sleeve - lots left to do. I got bored.
• Hemming for a lady at work - really should do this.
• 1 x Top Secret Crochet Project - just need to join pieces
• Part finished blouse - slow progress being made
• Crewel picture, lots of circles - I think I'm nearly done with this then I can frame and hang it
• Textured embroidery butterfly pic - nearly done, got a few more areas to add to, stitch the border, frame and hang.
• Petticoat - loads to do on this, however I now have a bias binding foot for the sewing machine, and a ruffler foot for the overlocker, as well as Hot Ginger as an excuse!

Hrm... There are probably many more UFOs lurking forgotten in cupboards, but these are the ones I can call up straight away!

How many have you got, crafty peeps?

Embroidery Threads

Yesterday I discovered that Sharon B, who writes my favourite Stitch Directory, was teaching an embroidery course through Joggles.

Despite being half way through already, enrolments were still open, so I took the plunge and booked myself on. So far, it looks fantastic - loads of great instructions going from design to stitch.

The first activity involves working in monochrome - all white/cream threads - to focus on design and texture. I knew I didn't have many suitable threads, so decided to find all the heaps of cottons I have stashed around the house, and tidy them, so that I can pick up some more.

Having found all my stashes, I had:


Including a lot of blues and greens:


And almost no blacks and whites:


I tidied these away into my two Gold Concept boxes:

Drawing

I've been doing quite a lot of crafting recently, knitting and trying to allow myself to relax more.

I have a lot of ideas for projects, embroidery particularly, in my head, but because I am not a very good artist, I struggle to get them down in a form where I'd be able to execute them. To that end, I've been trying to do more drawing. I've been using the poses on Pose Maniacs*, set to 90 seconds, and drawing the people as displayed. This is my first foray into life drawing, and I am pleased with the results. They're not perfect, but they look like people:



I'm intending on doing more drawing, then hopefully both being able to produce my own ideas, and going to a life drawing class to further my skills.

*The site displays a massive range of male and female figures in many poses, some quite challenging. They're displayed as muscular forms, rather than naked flesh, so should probably be safe for most workplaces. I've certainly been drawing from them on my lunch hour!

Tortoise

Mr Wonderfuls and I spent Bank Holiday Monday at Earlswood Lakes, where I bought some gorgeous thick wool felt squares - red and black, which I am going to sew into a rabbit, and green and brown. I saw those two colours and knew that they would be a perfect tortoise.

Meet John:


He's hand sewed, the shell is circles and semi circles stitched into hexagons, and his legs and head were my first attempt at 3D limbs - I am rather proud of them.



I named him after my Grandad.