Chez Spud

Nothing like a bit of sewing to while away a wet afternoon. Alas my boys have some kind of thread seeking sensor and miraculously appear from all corners of the house when my sewing box comes out. I relish their enthusiasm for all things crafty and making but, you know, sometimes you just don’t want any ‘help’…you don’t want to get roped in to ‘helping’ with their projects…you don’t want someone to sort out the buttons/cotton/ribbon and you definitely don’t want anyone to take all your fancy coloured pins out of their wheels. But who I am to quash their creative spirit?

So my iphone cover took about twice as long as it should have done. And isn’t ‘quite’ as it should be as the kit (which came as part of issue 1 of Mollie Makes) didn’t actually contain enough felt to make it. No big deal, actually I ‘possibly’ prefer mine though the orange/hot pink combo isn’t my favourite.

Quick practice with my macro lens…no hiding some dodgy stitching with this kind of close scrutiny

Next on my Mollie Makes making list is those pointless apple jackets…

I just don’t think I can resist! Even though it will involve hours of wrestling with small boys and crochet hooks … ‘helping’. Meh.

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Oh claps hands and praise the gods of crafting! Mollie Makes has finally launched in the UK, with the slightly twee ‘living and loving handmade’ tagline. But we’ll forgive them that.

I read about Mollie Makes on Dotty Angel’s blog a while back and meant to track down a copy when the time I came. Of course I promptly forgot about it until I was scuttling around in town and my eye was violently caught by this gorgeous front cover:

In I skipped and, rejoice, twas the first edition of Mollie Makes which is now mine. All mine. And I gather I’m one of the lucky ones since they are flying off the shelves and there is much Hunting High & Low going for them all over the UK, such a nation of crafty makers that we are now.

A quick flick through and I’m sold on a subscription for life because it’s packed full of Lovely Things to look at, make and – natch – buy. Lovely felt kit included, coming soon to my iphone:

Four page spread on Tif’s lovely home and makery…I want to live there…

A dress guard for Agnes, my bike…that’s on my ‘to make’ list. Not totally sure that it’s very practical but who cares about that? Why do apples need crochet jackets? They don’t, of course, but that doesn’t mean they don’t ‘want’ crochet jackets…

Garlands made from fabric scraps and paper? Thank you, don’t mind if I do…

If only my parties were this elegant. Mine tend to involve jelly, ice cream and plastic cups…

Another feature…this time on Keboniko. I need to at least go to that shop, if not move in. It’s in Barcelona but no matter…

A peek at Pixie Blossoms’ studio. Yup, need to move in there too.

I’m completely smitten, can you tell? It’s beautifully put together and styled, the photography is wonderful and it’s just the right mix of things to look at, read and do. Very very elegant. Priced just about right at £5.00, not cheap but then it’s not a cheap product. I now wish I’d bought two copies so I could have shared the love with someone. If you’re in the UK you can look at a map here on the Mollie Makes site to track down a stockist, though WH Smith and Sainsbury’s seem to be the biggies at the moment. The rest of the world will have ‘limited’ supplies from 9 June, cry .. only limited? Or you can buy a subscription and read on your puter or ipad.

Other things I bought this week…a Lego boardgame that my children didn’t throw at me when we played it YES!…oh and a very whizzy and shiny Nikon macro lens. Mollie Makes was £5…the Lego game was £10…the lens was £toomanytomention. But, ssshhh, Mollie Makes wins.

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Mr Bertie at his birthday party this weekend, looking a little weary it has to be said. It’s hard to know if that was down to having just done his first two days at school…or the vast melt down he’d had earlier in the party for being rubbish at pin the tail on the donkey. Sigh…

I rashly decided to make both my children’s birthday cakes this year, as part of my 39 things to do before I’m 40 project. It was an ambitious addition to the list as I’m rubbish at cooking and baking, and I’d never attempted a birthday cake before.

Diggy’s, back in February, actually went quite well and even tasted good. No one was more surprised than me…

Emboldened by my earlier success I handed the fancy cake book to Bertie and let him choose his own. To be honest I was a bit disappointed he chose something so ‘easy’ (hollow laugh), which was included in the ‘simple cakes’ section of the book. I encouraged him to choose something more showy (thank GOD he didn’t go for it), but he was very firm in his choice of a number 5 shape cake in pale blue. Fine.

It should have been straightforward. Two cakes, one round, one square. Cut the middle out of the circle cake and a bit from the side, cut a couple of rectangles from the square one and assemble in a 5. The cake mix was the same as the one for the owl cake, and the buttercream icing looked very easy.

But it turned in a Whole Big Thing. First of all my mother’s 30 year old electric mixer went on the blink, and would only operate on the first two speeds. Then the first cake, the circle, failed to cook throughout and sank like a pancake when I got it out of the oven. It looked more like an omelet. Why? How did that happen? I didn’t open the oven door until the suggested cooking time was done. It clearly wasn’t done at that point so I left it for another 10 minutes, at which point a skewer came out clean so I took it out assuming it was cooked. Wrong. It did its collapsing act and I started with the heeby jeebies.

Luckily the uncooked ‘omelet’ bit was the bit that needed cutting out anyway.

Then I made the square one. I increased the cooking time but this one, too, sank a bit in the middle and was rather crunchy on the outside…not at all sponge like.  And don’t even get me going on how hard it was to cobble it all together in a 5 shape…

Next day…I tackled the buttercream icing. My arm nearly fell off getting the icing sugar and butter to cream together. And then it was so stodgy I could have laid bricks with it. After a bit of humming and haaaaaring I added a bit of milk and that sorted it out. But it took FOREVER to ice that damn  cake, really fiddly!

And I’d never used food dye before. How scary is food dye? Seems to be a fine line between ‘making no difference’ and ‘looking like something from a horror movie’. And it stained my hands blue, in a way I’ve not seen since 1986 when my Parker 25 consistently leaked ‘royal blue’ ink all over me for a whole school year.

I realised early on the cake wasn’t going to be a masterpiece of understated elegance. To detract from the vile blue crusty omelet, I made some Fimo clay aliens and they were a big hit. Alas they are not edible so people had to, youk now, actually eat the blue omelet. Some kind souls have said it was delicious. I ate some myself and can attest to the fact that it was dire. Even my children won’t eat it and I’ve had to chuck the leftovers in the bin.

I would ideally like the throw the towel in on the whole cake making business, since I found the whole thing so stressful. But Diggy has already been through the book and put in an order for a ‘rabbit cake’ for his next birthday.

Still, could have been worse. While I was going through Cake Hell my neighbour, with whom we shared the party, was hard at work on his masterpiece for his daughter. The dog ate it. He had to start all over again. At least I could just ice over my omelet and call it quits.

x

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I’m on a self-imposed Crochet Break. It’s breaking my heart because I love it so much, but crochet is breaking me and that’s can’t be good. My wrist is painful, tingling and numbness in my fingers, up my arm and in to my elbow and should. Carpel Tunnel nastiness I suppose. Weep. That’s not at all good.

I’ve not even been very prolific in terms of output recently. A couple of sweet headscarves as presents for little girls, above. And then Wilbur the Whale for The Wife’s youngest child.

A couple of Little Secret Things that I can’t show just now, and that’s it. The problem is that I had to rework both the headscarves AND Wilbur endlessly. Neither are hard patterns, but following them, keeping an even tension etc etc is tougher than I thought it would be. I think possibly I’ve been trying to run before I can walk, but you have to start somewhere right? You can’t just granny and ripple forever?

So I’m taking a break before I do some long term damage. Is it normal for crochet to break you like this? It’s annoying because The List of Things I want to make isn’t getting any shorter. I have a lovely book called Crochet for Boys & Girls and I want to make pretty much everything in it. Diggy has put an order in for this blanket:

And both boys want one of these:

Then I’d like to make these for my imaginary daughters:

Although I suspect it’s probably just as well that my daughters ‘are’ imaginary as I think that coat might just cripple me for life. Surely it’s a life’s work? Perhaps I could make it for my imaginary grand-daughter? I think that’s a more realistic time frame.

But for now I must nurse my poorly Crochet Claw and hope some rest will cure the pain.  Who knew crafting could be so hurty? Weep.

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Ssssssshhhhh….somebody, somewhere is getting this gift from me sometime soon….I can’t say who, or what it is….because I’m mysterious like that. Or, more to the point, the recipient might be reading and then it would be no surprise at all would it?

This is my offering for the Art Exchange project I blogged about a few days back. Make one gift, post it off, receive 36 in return…in theory. Even if I get one I’ll be thrilled.

I do feel a bit shy about my ‘offering’ because I’m such a beginner crafter. Also, the offering was immediately snitched by a Megaboy. Then the other Megaboy forced me to make one for him. I was going to make a third, non snitchable offering for the project but I ran out of supplies. So, in the dead of night, I snitched one back from the Megaboys and have posted it off. Let’s hope they don’t notice (slim chance).

To divert attention from my crap crafting I have gone all fancy with the wrapping.

Little bug clothespeg holding on a hand stamped, shaped paper apology for crap crafting:

Alternative view, hopeful that the lavender diverts attention away from crap stamping:

Crocheted flower embellishment. Oddly tied on with ribbon bow and stuck down with sellotape to stop it slipping all over the place. Pure class, that’s me…pure class…

‘Handmade with more love than skill’…that’s what it says on the card. Pretty much sums it up….I do feel sorry for the recipient! But it’s been a fun project.

Alas I can’t share the contents of the parcel because it would be too embarrassing will spoil the surprise. Sorry about that.

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Can’t…stop…making…stuff…

Crappy iphone shot. Arms are both broken after shooting the valentine’s garland. Occupational hazard I guess…

This is mostly Julochka‘s fault. She’s either my ‘enabler’ or my ‘craft stash pusher’ (her term), depending on how gracious I’m feeling. Last night she was tempting me with a Gocco printer, but I fear my craft budget has been blown this month with the purchase of a sewing machine and an alarming amount of Debbie Bliss cashmerino wool. It’s surprising how much wool you need for crochet, especially when you don’t read the pattern properly and make 20 bad(ass) grannies and have to start again…

Once my arms are fixed I might attempt a ‘work in progress’ shot of the grannies. I’m getting on for half way through the granny part of the blanket. But then there’s all that tedious darning in of loose threads, blocking, sewing together of squares and grannying around the whole thing as a border to be done.

Should be done by Christmas.

Christmas 2012.

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How can a little badge be so sweet and yet so needy all at the same time? I hear the words said in a whiny voice, “I thought that you didn’t like me” which surely begs the response, “Actually, I don’t…you moaning minnie”.

That’s an aside. My point is that, hoorah hoorah, here I present wibbly wobbly not very good evidence of another tick on my 39 before 40 list: ‘learn to use a sewing machine’. I bought one, studied the manual, wound the bobbin up (without having to pull..pull…clap clap clap…etc etc), managed not to sew my fingers together or any passing children and made a valentine’s garland.

And then I sewed buttons on wonkily and stuck on a moany badge. Ta da.

Finally I plonked it on the mirror and nearly broke my arms lifting up that vastly heavy Big Girl’s Camera, standing on tippytoes trying to get some half decent shots.

My biceps were screaming by this point, but vaguely this is what it looks like…excuse weird perspective issues. I’m too tired to fix them, you get the idea.

I think I’ll call it my Irony Garland, on account of the moany badge.

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Saturday…I helped my lovely friend Katherine relaunch her deli business at a local farmers market and it looked like this…

Sunday…Diggy’s 3rd birthday…I made a birthday cake, the first one I’ve ever made (and one of my 39 before 40 tasks)…it turned out better than I dared hope and tasted pretty good (faints in amazement)

And then we had a little teaparty for him with a couple of friends. They played, they jumped, they danced, they ate, they ate, they ate, they ate, and then they passed the parcel wearing a variety of hats:

Digby. Diggy. Diggs. Diggydo. Diggers. Diggery. Diggerygo. MrGrumpy. MrWonderful…

Three years old and how time has flown/dragged since you rocked up. You are so willful, feisty, grumpy, delightful, charming, hilarious in equal measures. ‘Good value’, that’s what we say about you….no half measures…all or nothing…a whirlwind, a hurricane….our little miracle baby.

We are so glad you came along, with your white blonde “springs” (curls) and eyes as blue as the sky. We love your lisp, your earnestness, your huge enthusiasm for life and your total and utter lack of any kind “sense of consequence” (as Batman used to say).

You charm us with your unwavering love for your girlfriend Clara, the way you worship your brother and your insistence on “not LOADS of kithess….jutht only one”  You know your mind and you have done from the second you were born. Long may it continue.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy xx

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…see what’s become of me…(bonus points: name that song)

Time is slipping through my fingers. I can feel it speeding up and speeding away from me, laughing in the face of my ‘to do’, ‘to action’, ‘to buy’ and ‘to grudge’ lists.

The basics are sorted: children and MrSpud are relatively clean, happy and cared for, house is in a reasonable state, Mount Laundry is surprisingly under control, work/life balance in check, on top of admin and correspondence, Real Life and Interweb friendships on track, photography 365 project up to date.

So far so good, right? I should be feeling pretty chipper, don’t you think? Yes I agree, I should be marveling at my jiggly juggly skills and keeping focused on maintaining an even keel. Instead I am cooking up another project, another hobby. I know I shouldn’t, it will tip the balance but its eating away at me…sshhh…crafts are a-calling me. My inner quilter is screaming to be released, my felting tendencies will not go unheeded any longer, I long to Stitch & Bitch along with the rest of the planet, my vocabulary aches to embrace words like wadding, bobbin, interfacing, overlock, bias and dose-doh. ‘Might’ be off course with the last one, but go easy…I’m a beginner remember?

This is not new. Crafty bubblings have been burbling up in me for a while but have easily been quashed by the remembrance that I don’t own a sewing machine and can’t sew anyway. Finally, in a flash in insight last week, it came to me: I could BUY a sewing machine and LEARN to sew. Don’t you just love those eureka moments? And I wasn’t even in the bath, because I am ‘that’ brilliant.

Posts like this, and that (shades of Extranjera?) and pretty much everything here have naughtily awoken those long suppressed creative longings. Mostly because I want to make pretty things, partly because I want to dive in to the bloggy craft kleeeeek…it’s painful having to stand on the sidelines, pathetically favouriting and RSSing beautiful things people have made rather than having a crack at making them myself. So, enough…I am Spud…I have fingers….see me make unidentifiable ‘offerings’. Set Crafty Spud free and let her do her worst.

There is a tiny problem which is that, as well as not being able to sew/embroider/knit/crochet etc,  I have pretty much no creative skill and I lack patience. This has the makings of a disaster doesn’t it? I have previously dabbled with glass painting (not bad), cross stitch (hmm, OK) and tapestry (more shabby than chic, let’s leave it like that shall we).  I can’t draw and am not capable of originality, thus my ‘offerings’ will not be inspired by anything, they will be straight copies. I have no lofty thoughts of expressing myself through craft, I just want to bloody MAKE something.

I love RedVelvetArt’s art journaling class idea, and may start there on the basis that I have nice handwriting and am a Master Sticker (comes with the territory of having preschoolers). Possibly I have misunderstood the point of art journaling?  And I want to sew something. I will start with a Morsbag. But what I really want to do is make a quilt, it’s quite ambitious but there we are. It’s good to have a goal. Whilst looking at the art journaling stuff I found a quilt kit for beginners, perhaps that’s the way to go?  Or there is a quilting shop nearby, where they run classes. Should I give that a go? Although that involves mixing with RWP  (Real World People) of course, that’s the downside.

I was particularly peeved to read about The Make Lounge on Wee Birdy’s fabulous blog (which by the way everyone MUST read) because  (a) it looks so much fun (WINE! I CAN SEE WINE IN THOSE PHOTOS) (b) this is exactly what I need to do to learn ‘my craft’ and (c) that place is spitting distance from where we lived in London before moving to The Country earlier this year. Why, why, why couldn’t these crafty urges have urged more urgently last year? Am having my first teeny regret at living in Not London.  I could be there, I could fit in…I have quirky glasses…I drink wine…I have fingers…Instead I am stuck with Ye Local Stitch & Bitch, frequented by a bloke who is knitting a rat (I am not making this up, I have a spy in the camp).

So that’s my plan, how do you like it?  To be honest there is a little bit of me that is reticent as there just aren’t the hours in the day to do all this stuff and keep on top of ‘life’ too. Something will have to give and I don’t know what.  Possibly the hours I spend languishing on the sofa in the evening could be used more productively? MrSpud will vigorously nod his head when he reads that last sentence…

However, before I unleash my ‘offerings’ on an unsuspecting world there are two ongoing projects which I have promised myself that I will finish before getting crafty:

1. Finish sorting out my photo library. 5,000 to go.

2. Learn how to use Lightroom properly. The ‘wife‘ lent me a Lightroom book ages ago, and I’ve never even finished the first chapter since it became apparent I should sort/catalogue my photos before really getting in to the nitty gritty of using LR to process my shots.

I thought I’d chuck the rules I’ve imposed on myself in to this post to make me stick to it. But, you see, if only I had an art journal I could doodle about it there….and then stick stuff on it.

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I’m a can’t cook won’t cook kind of person. I can just about manage to feed my children otherwise all cooking is the responsibility of MrSpud. He went away a few weeks ago, the neighbours ending up feeding me one night out of sheer pity.

Alas there are times when my can’t cook won’t cook mentality just doesn’t cut it. Our neighbour’s daughter turned two this week and my elder boy was quite determined we were to make her a cake. This demand came at 6am, I managed to put him off for a few hours but his pleas for ‘one with a cherry on the top’ were not to be unheeded.

So here is Lemon Drizzle Cake, which even I can make, with optional cherries on the top….introduced to me by the lovely Stephalie who even held my hand the first time I made it through the ‘help what kind of cake tin’ and ‘oh no I don’t have a food mixer’ panic attacks. Thanks mate! x

Lemon Drizzle Cake

For the cake:

110g Butter
175g Caster Sugar
175g self-raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
finely grated rind of 1 large or 2 small lemons
60ml milk

Drizzling Sauce:
3 tbsp granulated sugar
juice of the lemons

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F/ Gas Mk 4. Grease cake tin/loaf tin

2. Put everything (except sauce ingredients) in a food mixer and whiz until really smooth. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 40-50mins

3. Meanwhile dissolve the sugar in the lemon juice

4. Test cake is done by inserting a metal skewer into the centre. If it comes out clean then it’s ready.

5. Place the cake, still in it’s tin, on a cooling rack and pierce all over with a skewer. Spoon over the drizzle sauce and leave in the tin until quite cold.

6. Hide from the children and stuff the whole lot yourself.

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