Hats Outrageous!

Busy busy busy!

It's the wind-down to the summer holidays - I should say it's me that's winding down, while everything else seems to be winding up!  At school it appears they're now trying to fit in all the things they've had all year to do, concerts, plays, school trips, whatever...and it's all happening right now.  The weather is topsy turvy, but whatever the weather, I have to keep on working, school work, craft work, house work...it's non stop!  This week I've attended my daughter's summer concert at her school.  I went to the Christmas concert, and was a little non-plussed.  Not sure why - I think it might have been because we travelled there by train and it finished very late, which meant we were on the station platform freezing whilst waiting for the train...the concert itself wasn't so bad, but my memory has been coloured by that cold, cold night! This time around, I still travelled by train, but my daughter stayed at school and organised her own dinner and so on - what a difference six months makes!  Back in November she wouldn't have dared do that, the result being we had to rush around in a mad panic because she arrived home half an hour before we had to catch the train - now she's Little Miss Independent, and I was able to take my time!  The concert finished almost as late as the November one, but the main difference was most certainly the weather, we walked to the station in the dusk - at 10pm - and although there was a chill in the air on the platform, it wasn't nearly so bad.   Anyway, this concert was great - my daughter played piano as part of the Lower School Symphony Orchestra, and sang as part of the Vocal Ensemble.  It's really lovely that she's so involved in school life; I really wish the opportunities were there for me to be as involved, but this is secondary school, the focus is on the children (young adults!) rather than the parents, and in a lot of ways that's much better...I guess!

My daughter also had her Confirmation on Sunday!  I'm so proud of her - she made the decision herself to have it, and although she was very nervous, it was lovely to see her stand up and profess her faith in Christ in front of everyone.  Poor thing was in tears because she was completely overwhelmed by it all, but she had her first Communion and that made it all worthwhile.  She's told all her friends at school that she's now considered an adult...a few of them are looking at her in a different way...and it's certainly had an affect on her attitude!  I wonder if this is part of the reason why she was happy to stay back at school on Wednesday?  She's having an outing to the cinema with her friends on Monday, which is a big step for me as much as for her, because it involves her taking two buses to get to the shopping centre where they're seeing the film.  She's under strict instructions to keep her phone turned on when she's not in the cinema...eep!  On the other hand, she's 13 and a half, I should be happy she's growing up and wanting to do things with her friends...and I'm sure I was doing the same sort of things when I was in Year 8...

I've been busily crafting and listing every day on Folksy - I can't believe it's been nearly a month and I've managed it every day - and once again, I'm *so* sorry I've not managed to do the same for you all here, and blog every day...how about I see what I can do for June?  Anyway, my daily listing is starting to see dividends:  I've been featured in quite a few blogs, and I've had *two* custom orders for my map coasters.  I haven't shown you my map coasters yet, have I!  Okay, well, here goes, let's have my Folksy Listings from where I left off...starting with the 17th of May:

1.  Map Coasters

   

2.  Felt Flower Brooch

   

3.  Felt Flower Brooch

   

4.  Map Coasters

   

5.  Denim and Patchwork Shabby Chic Coasters

   

6.  Large Barrette with Felt Flowers

   

7.  Crayon Roll

   

8.  Crayon Roll

   

9.  Felt Flower Brooch

   

10.  Felt Flower Brooch

   

11.  Felt Flower Barrette

 

Now, all of these are for sale, and are listed in my Folksy Shop!  I ship everywhere, and take payment by PayPal.  Don't forget, all proceeds from every sale go towards sending my daughter to the Jamboree next year!

My May So Far...

Today is the 16th of May, and while I can't believe we're this far into the year already, I thought that I might as well, seeing as how we're this far into the month, give a summary as to what I've been up to.  So sit back and enjoy the ride (ummm...)!

Over on Folksy I've been participating in a May Listing Challenge, aka the Mad Mayhemmers.  Every day I've been loyally listing an item I've made to my Folksy shops, and, although I've not sold anything yet, it means that my stock has increased dramatically, my crafting skills have improved dramatically, and I've had a go at different things to what I would do normally - I'm challenged every day to do something, so I have to think on my feet.  Here's a brief summary of what I've listed so far...in pictures:

1.  Flower Hair Clip, Crocheted from T-Shirt Yarn

   

2.  Felt Flower Brooch

 

3.  Shopping Bag, Crocheted from T-Shirt Yarn   

4.  Shopping Bag, Crocheted from T-Shirt Yarn

   

5.  Felt Flower Brooch

 

6.  Shopping Bag, Crocheted from T-Shirt Yarn

   

7.  Silk Purse

   

8.  Map Badges

 

9.  Shopping Bag, Crocheted from T-Shirt Yarn

 

10.  Linen Shoulder Bag

   

11.  Spring-Weight Hat Crocheted from T-Shirt Yarn

   

We'll take a little break at this point, under the watchful gaze of my daughter's eyes...

I started a second shop on Folksy (well a third, I have a neglected "destash" shop) called Lemonade and Lamingtons, and from this point I decided that my submissions for Mad Mayhemmers would be from this shop.  It was a bit of an epiphany - a summery sounding shop name for summery stuff; a wintery sounding name for wintery stuff (duh).  In the meantime, I sorted myself out in business terms, I ordered some name tapes for Hats Outrageous!, which (because I only received them yesterday) I shall sew on all my stuff from that shop (and any consequent wintery stuff I sell).  I started Twittering heavily, and I was featured in no fewer than 4 blogs, not including my own.  Most excellent!  Also, about the same time as the crochet hat was featured, I received an eBay purchase of a photo light box, complete with studio lamps.  That improved my photography no end!  The acquisition of some lovely craft items meant I wasn't solely reliant on charity shop finds/stuff from around the house.  I bought some brooch pins, which improved the quality of my brooches somewhat.  Okay, on with the show...

12.  Felt Flower Brooch

   

12a.  (bonus listing)  Felt Flower Brooch

   

13.  Felt Flower Brooch

 

14.  Brooch with Three Tiny Flowers

   

15.  Matching Felt Flower Brooch and Barrette Set

 

And finally, today's listing...

16.  Two Felt Flower Barrettes With Matching Brooch

 

Phew!  I don't know about you, but that was exhausting!

In other, non-crafty news, I broke my sewing machine yesterday - sob sob - making some denim and patchwork coasters - I'm halfway through the third one out of four, and they're going be a gorgeous set!  I have enough denim and some contrasting patchwork to be able to make a second set of 4, so watch this space.  I've ordered a new sewing machine, one which is more suited to heavy duty sewing, with the added bonus of being computerised as well, so it's not going to be quite so much of a brain drain on me when I just want to get it done!  My studio has a mile high pile of work in progress...hmmm...I'm sure I said this was non-craft related news...

Oh - and my youngest son turned 4 at the beginning of May, which is impossible, so it really mustn't have happened...hmmm...I also worked at preschool one day, which was lovely, and given that week I didn't get to work for my "little old man" meant I still have some play money of my own.  I worked for him twice this week though, so that was nice...lots of play money!!

Anyway, my fingers are about to drop off, so I might update you further another day!  Keep an eye out for my Folksy Friday Feature - any ideas for a theme for this week will be most welcome!

 

Wet wet wet...

My daughter's away on a Scout Camp this weekend.  Not just any Scout Camp, but a selection camp to choose the lucky 27 Scouts who will be reperesenting South East London next year in Skåne, Sweden (my favourite part of Sweden, primarily because of Henning Mankell and Wallander).  Now, I'm not sure if it has anything to do with her, but every time she goes on a Scout Camp...it rains.  We thought the hoodoo might have been broken, as yesterday was, not quite glorious, but compared to the weather we've been having lately, positively tropical.  True, we had a spit of rain, but nothing to write home about, and definitely nothing which would threaten the whole weekend.  But this morning...we woke to torrential rain...and it doesn't seem to be wanting to give up...still, it could be worse.  A few weeks back we looked at the long-range forecast for this weekend, and we were supposedly having HEAVY SNOW!  Glad that one went away...

To make matters worse, our car is playing up a bit, and I'm a bit worried that my husband won't be able to get to the campsite today to pick her up (what, you were thinking I was going to do it??!  Hah!)...the car's been working quite well for the past couple of months, but yesterday it had a hiccup on Hubby's return from the campsite.  Urgh.  Oh well.  We'll see what happens.  She'll be cold and wet, but I'm sure she'll have had a great time.  We'll find out by the 8th of March - I'll keep you posted.

In other news, Hubby and I spent quite a bit of time yesterday tidying up our Garden Studio (photos are here somewhere of a sign which says "Leisure Centre" - that's the Garden Studio), getting all the toys and crud out of it, so it will become a proper studio for me, and a hang-out for us girls (daughter and myself) away from the Testosterone City that is our house.  I'm quite excited about it all!

Crochet class tomorrow night - we're out of printer ink, so unlike last week, when I had take-home sheets for my class (hence there being no printer ink...) I'll be doing stuff out of my head.  I'm sure I'll be fine.

Oh - and Hubby has a phone-interview tomorrow for a 3-month contract!  Prayers please, we need this job!

Crafts with the Kids

Good Morning (well, actually, good afternoon, it's 12.12...)!

I don't know how your half-term is going, or even if you have a half-term, but today at our house it's very very wet!  So, rather than go out anywhere, the children and I have made some bookmarks!

I found this website the other day, when I was having a bit of a search on Twitter If you have a bit of a look around, they're more than just a webshop, they've also loads of ideas of things to make with stuff you may just happen to have lying around.

And so we did!

Our bookmarks came from this page on their website.  We adapted the directions a bit - would you like to see what we made?

 

The third one is my daughter's - isn't she talented!  The rest are mine though...what do  you think?  The book is an old one we brought over from Australia called "Victorian Lives".  I bought it from a library and I don't think I've ever read it...it's made from the most lovely paper - I think hemp, because it's woven - so rather than have it cluttering our shelves, unloved, it lives to see another day!

Not a lot!

Half term hols started here today, so I'll likely be offline a bit...in the meantime, I've updated my flickr photostream, so if you want to check it out (and make some comments!), it's found here:

Also, remember I'm on Twitter, just click here or go to Twitter and look for Hats_Outrageous, and you'll find me!

Feeling a bit foolish...

We had a short-lived blizzard at 5.30 yesterday afternoon, and as the kids and I had a full programme of events (our normal Wednesday evening) I cancelled, on the basis that a woman at the bus stop earlier that afternoon had said we were going to get 5 inches of snow overnight.

Guess what?  Barely an inch fell in that blizzard, and nothing since.

Hanging head in shame.

Apologies to Beavers and Scouts and J whose party I hope went alright without my presence...

Sharing...

Overnight I had a commission for a brooch from a friend.  She liked this one:

  

But...could I make it for her in pink please?  Certainly, say I.  I'll see what I can whip up this morning, and I'll bring it with me to Church.

TWO HOURS LATER and this is what I've come up with:

 
It was torture, I tell you!  The felt wouldn't sit right, I had to unpick and resew, then unpick and resew...anyway, being the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided it wasn't enough to just make a felt one, I made a foam version too.

What do you think?

 
I prefer the felt version myself, but they both have their good points I guess!

Anyway, Husband came down from bed after all my hard work, and has decreed we're not going to Church this morning after all (we're all suffering from obnoxious head colds, so it was a bit of an ambit claim on my part anyway...).  Oh well!

The day after...

Thanks everyone who wished me a happy birthday!  It was so lovely, and completely unexpected!  Very nice to know that people actually read my blog - bit of an incentive to get on with it and do some more posting...

I've been feeling a bit fluey today, and so my wonderful husband offered to do the school run this afternoon while I had a nap - he even took the 3 year old with him...but of course, as soon as the front door closed I was up and down here on the computer!  Bad,  I know.  I have things to do though!

I've convinced said husband that PayPal isn't such a bad thing, and in the next day or so I shall be opening a Folksy shop so I can sell some of the lovely little things I have shown you on here.  I'm currently working on some Valentine's Day Brooches, made either from felt or foam, but all definitely gorgeous.  They'll be selling for £3 each, plus £1 postage.  I'll be sure to post a link to my shop so you can all have a look and hopefully buy them from me!  I'm going to put up some of my hats and scarves and gloves too (as well as some other stuff I have in my "stash") so there'll be plenty of variety to choose from.

Until then, see ya!  I'd best be off back to bed, as they'll all be home soon, and I'll have to explain why I'm downstairs!

Hee hee hee!

Why am I laughing?  Because my daughter kept herself logged into her school web account today after using my computer...and so I felt compelled to do a little light-hearted hacking.  All good fun!  She's discovered my antics though, so everything's been remedied.  Honestly though, she keeps herself logged into Google, after using her GoogleMail, so I go and do a search and find that Google is thinking it's her doing it.  Come to think of it, maybe that's not such a bad thing...

I've noticed I've not blogged for a while, ooh, since New Year's Day (Happy New Year everyone, by the way - I also noticed I'd not said that either!), but since then we've fairly been snowed in.  Yes, you've probably seen it on the telly, or are experiencing it yourself.  Britain's all white, and that has nothing to do with the BNP's political stance.  Have you seen this?

The kids and I have been frolicking in the snow, but it's now a bit slushy, and any snow we're getting is more sleet than actual flakes.  We had a lovely little blizzard yesterday, but it was terribly short-lived, and although we were promised more snow overnight (Husband and I left our curtain open just a leetle beet so we might watch anything that happened), but all we had was rain.  Rats!  The kids had 2 days off from school last week, which was lovely - particularly for the boys, as they'd only gone back to school on Tuesday.  It was even better going to school on Friday, because that meant that although it felt like a Monday, it was already the weekend when we finished school.  They finished early too, due to the inclement weather, so that was double-plus good.

This is a photo of the hard winter in 1947.  As you can see, the snow was a fair bit heavier than the 2 or 3 inches we've had here in South-East London, and they were still having rationing.  Everyone just got on with it.  My Dad was born in March that winter - I'm amazed he survived (I'm GLAD he survived, speaking from a purely selfish perspective) but I guess people did.  They didn't have central heating, they weren't soft like we are today...schools didn't close...but then again, I guess the kids went to the local school, unlike today, where quite a lot of kids (including my own) pass a few different schools before getting to the one they actually attend, but still, I think we're a bit wussy!

More Pooh Sticks in the Park

Just because I thought they were nice photos, I've decided to share them all with you!  Aren't you lucky!
Action shot!  Drop them over here... See them come out over here...or maybe not... Through the tunnel...
To the land of mystery!  Well, the other (posh) side of the park anwyay. Back through the tunnel again... Up the path, past the playground (too wet) Past the bench with the new plank (the old one was probably burned by local yokels) Come on Mum! Wait a sec - just taking some arty shots... Loving the colours and shape contrasts!

 

We've had a light dusting of snow today, so if that keeps up (and turns into more) we might venture out yet again...

 
 

In the Bleak Midwinter

The past couple of days the weather has just been miserable. Miserable.  Rainy, gloomy, cold, windy, yuck.  It's midwinter in South-East London - it's my 5th winter in London - you'd think I'd be used to it by now...but I'm not.

Anyway, the kids were going absolutely berko yesterday, so I announced: TOMORROW WE SHALL BE TAKING A WALK.  QUITE POSSIBLY TO THE PARK.

Much mirth and merriment ensued thereafter.

This morning, I lifted up No. 2 Son as he came down the stairs.  Not good, and an act that shall never be repeated as he is VERY HEAVY.  He's 6, very nearly 6 and a half, and only about half a head shorter than his very nearly 9 and a half year old brother - who is very tall, and who I gave up lifting long ago.  Anyway, I have hurt my back but REGARDLESS WE WERE GOING OUT.  It was decided the time of the going out would be 11am or as close as humanly possible, and so we did.

Oh goodness, what a lovely time we had!  It was so nice to just go outside, to breathe in some cold air, to be buffetted about by the prevailing winds (of which there were many).  I took some photos - would you like to see? First we took a trip to the local shops for provisions...it's New Year's Eve after all!  Nothing too dramatic, just some sweeties and mince pies (and bread...always bread).  The path to the park is a lovely long winding one...that just goes on.... And on... And on...Until we came to the first of many Pooh Stick bridges...where of course, we played Pooh Sticks! First, drop your stick... Then race to the other side, to see if it's come out... We didn't have a great deal of luck, even though we tried FOUR different bridges.  I won't bore you with pictures of all of them (but I DID take pictures of all of them, so if you ask nicely...!).  I think on average, we had one stick out of an average of six thrown in per bridge come out the other side.  Master 3 decided it was a much better idea to throw them in the "wrong" side - I must say, he had far more chance of seeing his sticks again than the rest of us did! All around the park there's these lovely meadowy bits.  Here is just one that took my eye.

I think I'll post some more pics tomorrow, mostly because I think they're worth it...