Blog Redesign

Recently I've been thinking about redesigning my blog as I was missing the sidebar that I used to have many moons ago. This probably came from simply writing as many posts as I have recently, and therefore spending much more time with my blog. I mostly kept wanting to add widgets down the side of my posts and was upset that I couldn't. I figured that was as good a reason as any to have a rethink of the appearance of my blog. 

I began by thinking of what I needed to do in order to make me happier with my blog, and decided I wanted to add a new header to the page. I also thought it would be fun for me to design this myself and as such I brought out my iPad and decided to try out the iFontMaker app that I downloaded a couple of weeks ago.

I made the font I wanted for my header, and then moved across to my Mac, getting out my Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet (which I haven't used for quite a long time) and reinstalling Adobe Photoshop Elements. At this point I simply added whatever images I could think of that I liked, designing as I went. 

I then altered the opacity of the colour in the image until it was subtle enough as I didn't want it to be quite so bright, saved it and then uploaded it to this blog.

The final steps were to pick a template (Travel), choose a background from those available and adjust the colours, fonts and layout until I was happy with it. 

So that's how my blog went from this:

to this:

Next on the list: update my About Me, seeing as I'm no longer that young and I don't live in France anymore!

Puggy

As I mentioned in Christmas presents 2012, I made my sister a knitted dachshund due to being requested to make a pug by a friend of mine. This pug took over a fair amount of time during the Christmas-present-making-time, but was actually quite enjoyable to make. Possibly why I decided to make another breed of dog from the book.

The book in question is 'Best In Show: Knit Your Own Dog', and around the middle of November I received a quick snap of a page in the book with a message asking whether I'd be able to make it. I said of course I'd be able to (after having a quick look at the pattern to make sure I wouldn't be letting anyone down!), and set to ordering some nice wool. And, believe me, the wool was nice. 

Very soon after the wool dropped through my letterbox, I made a start on the dog. It had some stitches that I'd never attempted before and therefore I found sections of it trickier than I might otherwise have done. I also found that whilst knitting up the different pieces was mostly fine, the hardest part about making a knitted dog was the sewing up. I am notoriously bad at sewing projects up (I still haven't finished my wife's Birthday Blanket, but shhhh) but I obviously had no choice here. The pattern directions didn't really help with the sewing up in terms of the specific, and so I mostly relied on the pictures in the book. More particularly, I found the face very tricky to make, as I really have no idea as to what a pug reeeeeally looks like. I googled pugs more than a couple of times while working on this project just to look at their little faces.

In the end though, both my friend and her mother (who the gift was for) were really impressed with the pug, so I figure I did a good job. I also got some homemade truffles out of the bargain, and got to make something I probably wouldn't have otherwise. All in all, a good turn out, I'd say.

So here is the little pug that I knitted:

Wifely Christmas presents 2012

As mentioned in yesterday's post, the gifts my wife and I exchanged on Christmas deserved their own post.

As far as the gift my wife gave me, I knew where it had come from (a vintage fair that happens every Thursday in Oxford), I knew it was rather heavy and I knew roughly how large it was as it happened to reside in the bottom of our wardrobe for around a month and a half! Aside from these things, I had absolutely no idea what I'd be unwrapping on Christmas day, but was über über excited to unwrap a beautiful typewriter! This was an especially thoughtful present on my wife's behalf as there had been one in a Grenoble shop that I walked past every day for a couple of months, longing for. My wife had also repainted, oiled and changed the ribbon of this typewriter, making it (presumably) more gorgeous.

As my wife's birthday is at the end of October, I sometimes find it difficult to think of something to give her for Christmas. This was the case for quite a while, until I decided on making a snowglobe and some silhouette art. Both of these ideas came from my favourite inspirational site, Pinterest! Even once I'd decided on making each of these gifts, I wasn't entirely sure about how they would look, so I went for a supply buying trip one weekend, having made a rough list of the things I needed.

In the end, both of the presents were made over two evenings in December, when I had the flat to myself as my wife was back in Kent attending interviews. As such, I spent those evenings fully emersed in my crafting, and completely forgot to take any photographs! Fail.

I made the silhouette pictures first, using frames that I purchased at Wilkinson. I knew that I didn't want a back to the frames so that they could ultimately go in any room as the wall colour would simply show through the frame. I therefore used the glass from two seperate frames to sandwich the silhouette and lettering, making two pieces - one of my wife and one of myself. The silhouette and lettering themselves were made from printed images which I cut out using my craft knife and then spray-painted black. This was a simple enough process, with the trickiest part being to make each part the right size, but after a little trial and error I ended up with the design I wanted and here are the finished products:

Moving on to the second part of the gift-making, the snowglobe. To make this, I bought glycerin, a large jam jar, some decorative crystals and smallish Christmas decorations, and some silver glitter. I also knew that I wanted to put an image of my wife and I in the snowglobe, so used one of us from last winter in the snowy mountains of Grenoble. I cut out the image in a size small enough to fit in the jar, and then laminated it twice to protect it from the water. I then used my hot glue gun to glue the image onto the pre-sprayed lid of the jar, proceeding to use the crystals to stabilise the image. During this part, I tried to ensure that I attached each crystal securely as I knew that the jar would obviously be shaken and I didn't want things coming loose. Once the glue was dry and everything had settled, I put some silver glitter and some star confetti that I already had into the jar, and filled it up with water and a little glycerin. I then checked on the water level by screwing the lid on, and once I was satisfied with it, I hot glued around the edge of the jar and screwed the lid back on. Ta-da, one finished snowglobe!

So there you have it, wifely presents of Christmas, 2012 :D

Christmas presents 2012

Seeing as it's now been nearly a whole month since the big event that was Christmas, I figured I'd best get down to showing what we got (mostly made) for everyone. With a family as large as mine (one brother, three sisters, one step-brother and two step-sisters, along with parents, grandparents, uncles and cousins) and everyone coming over during the festive season we knew we had many presents to get! That's why my wife and I made a start on Christmas presents waaaayyy back in October. 

We knew we didn't have enough money to spend a whole lot on people (and that's generally not our style!) so the emphasis this year was on using crafting supplies that we already owned (as far as possible) to produce a gift that people would appreciate on a low budget. We reckon we pretty much achieved this ... or I hope we did, anyway. 

The first present we decided on and I made a start on making was for my Mother. Whilst looking on Ravelry for inspiration on things to make, we stumbled across this pattern and decided that knitting a pair of socks, seeing as I haven't made one yet, would be perfect for my mama. So right at the beginning of October, I cast on, using my circular needles for the first time, ooooo, excitement! I have to say, I was pretty impressed with both the process and the outcome, finishing them just over a month later. My mother seemed to like them too and said they were plenty warm. Equally, my grandmother was enamoured with them, although partly just to show off her granddaughter's knitting, I think!

So that was one present finished, and it was only the second week of November! Only *counts on fingers* fourteen (at least) more to do, not even including my wife's presents ... that's manageable right?

The next presents -or rather set of presents- that got completed weren't for family, they were for a number of the girls at work and my wife's best friend. These were just a token present each really, and came from ideas seen on Pinterest. After buying the supplies for these presents (Sharpies and mugs) I really hoped that they would in fact turn out ok. Thankfully they did, although we ended up having to bake them in the oven twice and then the colours faded in ways we didn't anticipate, but we figured they still looked good. 

So now we were five presents down, and a million still to go ... but we were getting there. 

Immediately after casting off my Mother's socks, I picked up my knitting needles (straight this time) and set to making this badger hat for my sister, although this actually ended up being the very last present finished as it wasn't fully completed until Christmas Eve! I think that was partly down to the lining of the hat knitting up so quickly that I got fooled into thinking it wasn't going to take very long, not taking into account that the lining was by far the simplest part, doh! This hat was therefore finished off back in Kent, in my Mother's house, and the buttons for the eyes and nose came from my great-grandmother's sewing box, making it all the more special.

Possibly the best part about this gift was my sister not realising when she opened it that it was handmade!

Rather a few of the presents we gave out at Christmas were made during a church craft evening on December 1st. This turned out to be an excellent event that both my wife and I attended along with the girls from school, and at just £6 each and coming away with eight Christmas presents, we figure rather good value for money! Unfortunately I forgot completely to take any photos of the gifts we made, darn it. But ... we made two sets of microwaveable hand warmers, two decorated door stops, two pillowcases and two rustic decorations. All, bar one of these gifts were given out on Christmas day: the hand warmers to each of my two step-sisters, the door stops to my step-brother and Grandad, the pillowcases to my brother and my middle sister, and one of the rustic decorations to my Nannie. As a token photo, I have to include the only remaining gift we still own - the other rustic decoration which was hung in our flat.

For my littlest sister it's always easy to think of things to give; the problem comes down to choosing just the best idea. This year, we decided to make her her own dog as she is always asking for a puppy. The idea for this came from the Christmas present my friend asked me to make for her mother: a knitted pug. For my sister I knitted a dachshund, with a pattern from 'Best in Show: Knit Your Own Dog'. This was also not finished until a couple of days before Christmas, in my Mother's house, and unfortunately my sister managed to catch a peep of it before the big day, disaster! Thankfully she still seemed pleased with her gift and I just had to think of a more creative way of wrapping it to try to keep her guessing!

Finally, there were several presents that we decided to buy. For my wife's Nan and my stepfather we bought photo frames and got photos printed to go in them, and we also bought presents for my young cousins. These presents were not big or expensive by any means, and were a draw your own puzzle for my three-year-old cousin and a paint your own bag for my eight-year-old cousin. They seemed pleased enough to get these presents, although being young they were rather overwhelmed by the number of presents they were unwrapping, especially as they came to see us a couple of days after Christmas Day and so were mostly the only ones unwrapping anything. 

So, there you have it. A quick rundown of the presents we gave out at Christmas. Obviously, this post hasn't included the gifts I gave my wife, but I figure this is definitely long enough and they probably deserve their own post!

Home shadowboxes

For a while now I've liked the look of projects like this one on Pinterest, and thought that I'd use this idea, combined with pictures of places my wife and I have lived to make some shadowboxes. 

So, during December we took a trip to Hobbycraft to pick up some supplies. We managed to get two white shadowboxes and some wooden numbers, as we already have a fair supply of crafty bits for projects like this one. We also decided that we'd use photos of the property and add in scrapbooking items like tickets or receipts from memorable events in our life from when we lived in that place. 

Here is a shot of halfway through the process of making one of the shadowboxes:

We simply used the piece of paper in the frame to stick our memorabilia items on, making use of almost anything we found in our memory boxes. The photo above shows the shadowbox for our apartment in Grenoble, and uses things like train tickets, our supermarket loyalty card and a take-away menu. We positioned these items around the edges of the paper, leaving enough room to put in a 6"x4" photo of the apartment in the middle. Then we placed wooden numbers and letters in the foreground of the shadowbox by sandwiching them between the glass and the wooden frame that holds the whole box together. I didn't feel the need to secure them any more than this as it seemed to work! Finally, I simply added the road name to the top of the photo using a Sharpie. 

And the final product looked like this:

Then the process was simply repeated for our home back in Kent, using the supplies we could find, including our key.

So there we have two shadowboxes, documenting the places we've lived and reminding us of some of the things that happened while we lived there. We intend to create one of these for each property we live in, and have already made a mental list of items we might like to include when we move out of our current apartment!

How Bazaar

At the beginning of December, my work held a Christmas Bazaar, so along with helping out with making cakes to sell, my wife and I had a wander round looking at the wares on sale. Mostly we just picked up food, but we also found some excellent things on the bric-a-brac stall. Paying very little (basically all our small change) we came away with the following items:

While we initially thought these were old suitcases, we were (and are) unsure as to what their intended purpose was. Along with not knowing their purpose, my wife and I were not yet clear as to what we were going to do with them; we just knew they were decorative and appealing to us. 

After leaving them in the living room for a little while, my wife concluded that if we turned the two smaller cases on their ends they would make interesting vases for artificial flowers. We remembered seeing some nice flowers in Dunelm Mill last time we were there and so went on a return visit. 

We also picked up some foam discs for putting artificial flowers in so that we could arrange them in a more secure way. We went for wildflowers for our cases and made up bunches in the shop to try to get the right number and the right combination of flowers. 

Here are the finished products:

And here they are in situ in our living room:

We're definitely very happy with the way they turned out, and feel they add a nice pop of colour and happiness to the room. 

We have yet to do something with the largest case, which when you open the top has three round holes, but I'm sure at some point we shall.

If anyone has any clue as to what the intended purpose of these items is, please let me know as I'd love to find out!

Epiphany

Today, the sixth of January, is Epiphany. When we were in France last year, my wife and I were introduced to their traditions for the day and we decided to bring those to our friends back here in England today. It also provided a good excuse to catch up with the girls from work before we start back tomorrow.

The traditions we followed were thus:

- send the youngest member of the party under the table

- ask them to allocate each slice to each person

- see who finds the fèvre (or baking bean in our case) in the galette des rois (Epiphany cake)

- the one who finds the fèvre is king or queen for the day (or rest of the evening)

It was a lot of fun this evening, and it was fun to introduce some differing culture to our friends. 

The galette we served up was mostly homemade (other than the ready-roll puff pastry), and our recipe was based on a Raymond Blanc one that I found on BBC food, but was unfortunately taken down before yesterday when I went to find it again. Therefore, I did my best to remember the ingredients and process followed.

Ingredients:

75g soft butter

75g icing sugar

100g ground almonds

1 tbsp amaretto

1 egg

2 egg yolks

500g puff pastry

1. roll out the puff pastry and cut out two circles; one 20cm and one 22cm in diameter

2. chill the pastry in the fridge for half an hour or so

3. mix the butter, icing sugar, ground almonds, amaretto, egg and 1 egg yolk to make the frangipane

4. spoon the frangipane onto the smaller circle of pastry, add the fèvre and put the other  pastry circle on top. Press down around the edge to seal.

5. chill in the fridge for at least an hour

6. glaze the galette with the other egg yolk and score a spiral in the top

7. bake in the oven at 180˚C until golden and risen

The main detail that I completely failed to remember was how long to cook the galette for, so we kept a pretty close eye on it. In the end it took about 40 minutes to be ready.

And here's the finished result:

Happy Epiphany everyone!

String balls

Back in October when my wife turned twenty-two her best friend got her hand-died silk thread from Laos.

It was beautiful and soft and (unsurprisingly) silky, but we had no clue as to what to do with it. Especially when if we didn't like what we did with it, getting more supplies would be pretty near impossible. After a couple of weeks, my wife made a decision about what she'd like to make, and it was ... well, the best way I can describe them is string balls. 

We decided that we'd like to make a decorative feature out of them, and place them into a glass vase. We also decided that we didn't want only them in the vase, and so we headed out to Dunelm Mill to pick up some supplies. 

Adding to those some balloons and some PVA glue, we set about making our string balls, pegging them out onto a line when they were done to allow them to dry without sticking to anything.

Upon being dry, we popped the balloons, and delicately extracted the remains, leaving us with some ball-like objects. They required a little reshaping at this point, but thankfully they seemed pretty willing to comply. 

The only step left was to put them in the vase with the other objects and find a place to put them:

Here's the vase in situ; we decided the best place for it was in the bathroom, as the blue ties in best there. So ... whatcha think? We reckon at some point we may make some more with the remaining silk thread, but we don't as yet have anywhere to display them so we'll hold off on that for a while!

Absolutely terrible at writing a blog ...

So, it's been a whole two months (and a bit) since I last wrote a blog, which is definitely slacky of me! That's not to say that in that time there haven't been things I could have blogged about: there have been plenty. I just sat and wrote a quick list of all the things I could think of that I should have blogged about, and here it is:

There are currently fourteen items on that list, and even just sitting here now, writing this blog, I can think of a couple more that should be on there too. Maybe my new year's resolution this year should have been to be better at writing my blog! Who's to say that I'd actually succeed at keeping it though :S 

Anyways, I will try to be better at updating over here, and will make an attempt to catch up on all the blog posts I should have written, I promises!