Another Ta-Dah

Well I finally finished my pink 'we are friends again' blanket, although I had to crochet another 60 squares so that it was the right length which, of course, was no hardship. I used double-knitting yarn, a 3mm hook, 3 rounds of trebles and the final round I used a half treble (the pale pink) so that when the squares are sewn together the edging is the same height as the trebles - err if you see what I mean!

I worked out that if you use 5 different shades of pink (not including the edging colour) you can attain 60 different combinations (ha ha, such mind-blowing information).

So now its in my sewing/crafting room covering my rather scruffy old nursing chair, which is really comfy and ideal for the back problem.


So until I get round to doing a full upholstery jobbie on my lovely little chair, this will do nicely.

I don't know if its the drugs (painkillers) but, although not a very productive week in what I've made (mainly a mess) and attaining my First Class Honours Degree in Procrastination, I've designed my little head off this week and I am in 'bag' mode - more on that next week.

Before going, I would just like to show you these


are they not just lovely. I found these at hmsdesign on Folksy do pop over and have a look at all the wonderful flowers.

Also this, which is top of my wish list at the moment


from Folksy too, Claire Rose Designs

Well I'm off now for lots more mess-making-procrastination, but I wanted to say thank you for your well wishes and hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Jak x

'Trollied' in ASDA

Yes I was involved in a pretty nasty accident in ASDA on Saturday afternoon. Now I don't usually do the weekly shop as I have a troublesome disc and the trolley pushing and loading the car just makes it (my back) and me as miserable as hell. Why don't you and Mr. P going shopping together, you may ask? Well I would rather slit my wrists with a rusty knife then go shopping with Mr. P as he absolutely hates it and does not waste one second explaining, in the tiniest detail, why this is so. I can count on one hand the amount of times we have been shopping together in the last 20 years - yes he really is that bad!

Anyway, I digress. I was standing admiring the tulips and daffs trying to decide what to treat myself to, when I was almost knocked off my feet by a speeding trolley driven by a young girl (about 9 years old I would guess) hitting me square in the back with the handle end of the trolley (she was pushing the trolley from the other end). She did not apologise or say a word, just went speeding off again. I knew my disc had gone again and I suppose, given the pain and the shock, I just wanted to get out of there and go home.

So now I suppose its back to the doctors, who will refer me back to the hospital for months of physio and all because I stopped to smell the flowers!

But hey, I'm not dead and it has been gloriously sunny here today, so on to the yummy things that have happened this week.

Firstly, ahem, I am rather pink with embarrassment, as I won another blog giveaway. Now I don't sit all day scanning blogland to see what lovelies I could win, no, no, no, I just seem to have been incredibly lucky lately.

I won Vicky's giveaway on Anglesey Allsorts. Now Vicky must be the queen of the boot fair/charity shop bargain hunting genre, please pop over and have a look-see at all her wonderful finds.





So thank you very much Vicky. I'm thinking that I might use the tweedy fabric to make some inside pockets on my winter coats (like men have - when they are not stashing all their stuff in our handbags). Not being blessed with any bosom of note, I don't think these will cause 'bulk' problems, but an inside pocket might be useful for stashing my tissues, killing 2 birds with one stone, so to speak, lol!

Now speaking of tissues, I spent quite a while designing and making this and photographed it today to put in my Folksy shop





again out of my lovely Anna Griffin vintage style papers, only to find that tissue box cover is too small by about 3/4" (in height) for a standard square box of tissues. It never occurred to me to check the measurements, but the worse thing of all is I've got about 50 of these boxes which I bought off eBay as a job lot about 2 years ago. So if anyone has any suggestions what I can do with them (please be clean), please let me know, bearing in mind that the thickness of the wood is only 1/4".

Please pop back later in the week as I have a ta-dah, my pink 'we are friends again' blanket is just about done.

Jak x

Man Flu + Nointernetitis

Lots of these this week as laid low by the dreaded man flu, one of the most virulent viruses known to man (but, strangely enough, not woman, haha!). Mr. P brought it home last weekend, he sneezed three times and sniffed insufferably for a day and that was that, but me and number 1 son were hit pretty bad.

Then to add to my misery, our internet buggered off on Wednesday night and we didn't get it back until Sunday morning. Now I am worried how much my computer + internet mean to me. I was totally bereft without any contact with the outside world, not catching up with blogland, no emails and no Russel Grant giving me my 'stars' for the day in his camp, good humoured way. OK, I could do without the telly and I could do without the phone, but my computer, I could not do without.

It wasn't a totally unproductive week though. I made these for my Folksy shop,





some cute new baby gift sets. Also, I sold two items on my very first day of opening, how exciting was that?

Some Mother's day cards for our mums




and I won another blog giveaway from the lovely Sarah at Paper-and-String Thank you very much, not only pretty, but practical too (drawing pins covered in lovely bright flowers). Do go and have a look at her very colourful and inspirational blog.




Which I am thrilled with and they look great on my pin board, which is something else awaiting a makeover.



Now to catch up on all your lovely blogs and see what the email postie has brought me.

Jak x

Can a Woman Have Too Many Drawers?

As any stash collector will understand, storage is always a problem and solving that problem is even more difficult.

I picked up this very charming chest at our local British Heart Foundation furniture shop. But I always have a ethical dilemma whilst shopping there - I think that they are too expensive! This particular chest was about £25 more than I really wanted to pay for it, as it was obvious it would need quite a bit of work. But buy it, I did.



The chest was obviously handmade, a typical piece of country furniture, somewhat crude, but very useful nevertheless.

Firstly, I had to chop a bit off the drawers so they fitted better, I then rubbed it down, primed it and painted it with 2 coats of eggshell. I decided this year that I would 'make do and mend' with the stuff that I (or Mr. P) already have. As mentioned in a previous post, Mr. P used to have his own painting and decorating business, so we have a garage full of paint, but not the cream eggshell that I wanted. I mixed some Farrow & Ball - Mouse's Ear (how lovely is that name?) - to some white eggshell until I got the right(ish) colour.


Then the fun bit, to decorate the drawer fronts. Unfortunately procrastination set in and I spent a week trying to decide how to go about this.

Should I cover the drawers with these lovely vintage style scrapbook papers by one of my favourite designers, Anna Griffin

The problem with these being that they are 12" square, and the drawers, rather annoyingly, were 12 1/4" wide.

I then sought inspiration from these


but as there are 10 drawers, I thought this might look over-fussy and perhaps a more uniform approach would be more pleasing.

Returning to my beloved Anna Griffin and one of my favourite stamps, I decided to stamp and emboss the design on some gorgeous mulberry tissue paper and just applied it with good old PVA (which I just love and buy it by the gallons).





A ta-dah moment



Sorry about the image quality (taking a photo of a tall, slim object proved impossible, probably why I don't take any photos of myself - who am I trying to kid, lol!).



In case you wondered what the 'E' stood for (as did Kim) - well I haven't completed the H, O or M yet, but have used another Anna Griffin stamp to do this also).


Really liking the red/pink scheme going on here. Half the pinky 'we are friends again' throw is all sewn up, but I probably need a few more squares.

Well all I need now is Mr. P's assistance in moving the drawers to my new craft area upstairs and to fill them with stashy delights. Although, I've got quite accustomed to the drawers sitting in the middle of my still uncompleted living-room.

Well, if you are still here, all I can do is wish you are wonderful, sunny weekend.

Jak x

Scrapheap = Taking the Plunge

I left my much hated and stressful job last year with 'dignity & respect' (their words, not mine) and nursed myself back to health. So, the payoff monies have now run out and I went for an interview for a new job last week. Local, part-time, well paid - just the ticket. I was invited to a second interview, which rather bemused me as it was more of a 'pay the mortgage' sort of a job, rather than my life-long ambition. But I was 'over qualified' (more like too old - they were quite interested to learn when I would be retiring), consequently I didn't get the job. This was a real blow, as this has never happened to me before.

To keep the wolf from the door (you know the one I mean - the bank manager/computer/terminator - who cannot be reasoned with), I decided to open a Folksy shop. I've only put a couple of things in there and that took me all day. A few notebooks







and some odd sock (one of life's great mysteries) gingham bags


I have been wanting to open this shop for a while, but 'stuff' kept getting in the way and sometimes you really have to be in the mood to start off quite a big project. I've got quite a few other things I've made to list yet, but I suppose that's probably enough 'computering' for one day and I must run the vacuum round and feed the masses.

I think the weather had something to do with it, such a lovely day again.

I'm really liking this at the moment


Please ignore the masking tape running around the back of my mantle, I was just in need of some pretties in my living room.

Jak

It's Official

It's the first day of March and what a glorious sunny day it is too down here in Kent. We are now entering week 6 of the living-room redecoration and although my tether is in sight, nothing can spoil this spring-like day for me.

Also, it is true, pink and I are definitely friends again!


My late aunt taught me how to crochet when I was about 9/10 years old when she was making a bedspread for her daughter, my cousin, in all shades of pink. I really coveted that bedspread and wanted to make one of my own, but, of course, I never got round to it.

I really like making these small granny squares, the repetition is comforting whilst watching TV (did I mention my TV, lol!), but the different colour combinations keep it interesting. I also like to finish each square off with a round of pale pink in half-trebles, as when they are all sewn together, it makes the finished appearance more pleasing.



I don't know if it is just me, but I always get a thrill when I see these neat little stacks awaiting completion!

This will only be a small throw to cover an old, but very comfy nursing chair which I have stashed in my new craft area, which I am very excited about (more about this later).

Even my daughter remarked on my pinkness yesterday, asking if I was feeling OK (my daughter is a real pink girly girl).


So yeah, I am OK, on this pink, sunny afternoon, why wouldn't I be?

Jak