"Party on, Excellent"

It's safe to say that the past few weeks have been manic. But on the up side, all with pleasant things. I will admit it has left little room for hard crafting but has left me with some idea ammunition going forwards.

I have managed to cram in a Rock music themed 40th birthday party where I got to hang with the younger looking members of Kiss, Wayne and Garth from their very own Wayne's World, Alice Cooper, Slash, and a whole other handful of famous rock stars. Okay, so it was my partner in crime, Helen's 40th and her boys as Kiss, but after a few beers nothing mattered. Time was just taken up with singing along (badly) to Queen songs, rocking out with Guitar Heros, and of course, running like an idiot through the house with blow up guitars. Much fun was had.

Which was then followed with a trip up to London and my mothership Forbidden Planet where my hubbys pockets got robbed of cash. After all with my birthday on the 5th of November, is it my fault if someone (me) walks around going, "I want one of those, and one of those, and one of those..."

Which leads me to this weekend. I get to rock out at Alice Coopers Halloween concert in Alexander Palace. As you can probably guess, I'm very excited about that. Though I am now wondering where on earth this Alexander Palace is and why it takes so long to walk from Wood Green to the venue.

Hence the little to no time to craft :( But there is hope yet, week off work next week, so of course plenty of time to craft.

I have managed to kick out a couple of bits. Mainly request pieces for family members, but here's the snaps anyway.

Made for a friend and more will be made, livin' up Christmas

Made as a Christmas Gift, Moonstone and crystal pendant and earring set.

I was approached by a girl at work who loves her chocolate and wanted a pair of earring to go with (theme, not chew on). Now normally I hate the idea of even stepping over the ground covered by others, but when she gave me two fimo Magic Stars and asked for me to add the hooks I couldn't say no. She'd spent the money otherwise I would have pointed her to my second favourite haunt - Folksy. For a 30 second job of adding a little wire... I ended up getting a pair myself. They are much cuter on then this quick shot shows.

Not like I bought the beads, just hooked them up ;)

Oh... and here's some party shots...just because I can ;)

 

Messy work space

Today has resulted in absolute chaos - so all in all no change there then.

I have been busy Christmas shopping over the past few weeks, picking up the parcels from the post office where they have wandered off to when I haven't been in to answer the door. Spent so much money between Folksy, Etsy and a handful of sites that I am sure some of you will be happy for my pay out, whilst I think my credit card may be hating me with a vengeance right now. I was hoping to take some snaps before it got dark to put in the post but with the light failing and my living room looking like I might have dropped a packaging bomb at some point I figured I'll wait until Saturday to have a camera session.

Which goes to say my work space looks even worse than the floor right now.

The good thing is, my little cherries are being set into gift cards, along with their invader and Mario friends. When I wasn't opening parcels that in actual fact aren't really for me, I was busy cutting out the frames for these cards. I forgot how time consuming something like that can be. However I am hoping my hard work will pay off. Again piccys will follow at a later date.

However whilst I was busy with crafting I was wondering, am I the only person that buys handmade with a person in mind... then when you get it in the post you don't really want to part with it?

Not sure which I am finding harder right now. Contemplating tidying my work space, or deciding which items I am going to give away as gifts, and which I will keep for myself. Decisions, decisions...

So to those of you whom I do owe gifts - beware, a thief is loose in the area... I can't be held responsible! They ruined my work space too...

New Venture, start the Adventure - Randomling

Seems that everything is changing this year. Not sure if it's for the better or worse in some cases but at least some good has come out of the last few months. 

Redundancy still hasn't been announced, but it lurks around the corner like a child's depiction of the bogey man. So as you can imagine every last penny goes to paying the bills and keeping things up to date, just in case. However it would seem there are others out there that have had enough of the Man and the way he just seems to pee from a great height on those that work hard. Either that or city pigeons really don't like me ;)

However after very long conversations that included plenty of Coke (bottled kind), coffee, a fry up, some pretty lame sandwiches and a dog vomiting on the floor, it seems I am about to go into business. Now, having done the self employment before it's not that daunting. However keeping my full time job for now is going to put the pressure on. With a close friend of mine looking for a way to leave the 9 to 5 and having bundles of talent in the flora area, as well as skills in up-cycling old furniture we have decided to do business together. Which also means I have to get my finger out and start keeping this little baby up to date and fully functional. Naughty naughty me! (Anyone mind if I blame my cats?)

And of course, this little blog of mine will be the starting point (well that and a web page that's under-development). So with a pre-warning to my dear readers, I will soon be featuring the creative talents of my partner in crime Helen Campbell, and my sometime associate and Mother, Jean Hudson. Which at least means I can show off the talents of someone who can knit ;)

Whilst I often take on projects for others I rarely write about them for fear they won't appreciate my inane humour. However with a plan in mind, no stone can be left unturned... so I apologise to the woodlouse whose home I may disturb in doing so.

So wish us luck... I think this is going to be a bumpy ride, if not a fun and crafty one. 

With U in Mind is about to go global... soonish (is so colon, capital D).

Back to Nintendo

Well whilst I haven't paid much attention to my blog, I have spent countless hours in front of my t.v. trying to perfect my cross stitch. I wouldn't say I'm perfect, but I am getting there. I figured that I could watch a new charming t.v. series whilst geeking out to the past.

Those of you who read my last post will remember that I am trying to perfect my stitching skills in order to make a bag for the other half. A good idea... aside from the fact as I mentioned before my cross stitch skills were left somewhere in the 90's.

However, he loves his inner geek and wants something retro. And being a HUGE fan of the computer game (I use this in the broadest sense - those of you with young sons, brothers and 'big' kids will know what I mean), I figured lets go Mario. The worlds friendliest plumber - and if anyone has his number, drop it by me, I have a radiator that needs fixing before the next cold snap. But, all these little stitchings will not be going to waste. I figure, with my day off tomorrow, out comes the blank cards and glue gun. Waste not, want not. Or something to that degree anyway ;)

So here are a couple of my tiny critters, soon to adorn a keyring, card or some other form of media of my idle hands choosing.

This guy needs a background, but I thought, hey cute enough.

And inspired by 'Know you Mushrooms'

And in all fairness these have nothing to do with Mario... in fact some how Pac Man cherries and yet more Invaders found there way in there... but cute right? ;)

So I am off to 1st Unique Gifts, to see what the lovely Wendy and fantastic crafters of the world have been up to. I believe if you haven't already, you need to join in!

Space Invaders

It would seem the internet has been taken over by retro style. Between the Pac Man buttons, Mother Ship bags and Lego Star Wars cross stitch cuties I guess it shouldn't have come as a surprise that I get asked by the hubby to try my hand at something more fitting for the Geek fashion fall out. The only problem is the last time I tried my hand at cross stitching was back when I was a youngster with a cold, crying over the fact that I couldn't go out with my friends and play in our 'den'.

It was hinted at the other day that he wanted a number of items to fit in with the Geek Chic range, in a number of designs - made by me... I know I should be flattered but my brain is trying to process how much free time I have compared to how much I will need before Christmas.

However I thought I would share the first ever piece of cross stitching attempted with any amount of seriousness as I get ready for what could be a new Olympic event. Yes I will be sitting there on Woolwich Common testing my metal against the best of you ;)

It's not perfect, but I figure if I keep at it I should have it down at some point... soon... maybe...

However if I am being honest I did take five just to whip out these guys. I needed to get back into the festive mood (because watching Elf at the same time wasn't enough I guess).

Handmade Monday

This last week has been a little hectic, but all in a good way. I have a thousand things on the go right now, mainly a way to keep my mind off the of the fact that I may be walking redundancy street by Christmas if my job hunt goes pick up. However, I will have to share these little creations later this week when I've had time to get trigger happy with my camera.

I have decided instead to share with you the creation of a friend of mine. She wanted to give me something I could keep after my wedding. She knows I have a respect for people who create lovely cards and so tried her hand and the card arts. I have to say it is one of the most thoughtful things I was lucky enough to receive from the wedding - simply because she put so much thought into the colour schemes and themes. So here is my card, one that I am going to frame and put somewhere where everyone can see it. As I am sure you will all agree, she put a lot of effort and handwork into this.

Whilst I can dream of being able to create something so lovely, I am going to keep this post short and head over to 1st Unique Gifts where I can see what other lovely people have been doing this week!

I will be back to later document my Christmas decoration domination ;) But that's because I just LOVE Christmas!!!

My inspirational motivation of the week

It's been so long since I've had the chance to do anything for myself just for the fun of doing anything crafty at all that this past week I've gone a bit mad. Like any good crafter I have boxes full of things that have been collected over the years, hoarded with the knowledge that some day you'll use it, followed by the realisation that you have no idea when that will be and having to politely tell your beloved that 'no, we can't throw it out, I might need it one day'. Every once in while I try to arrange, tidy, and in some cases take stock of all the items I have in storage, only to get bored. At that point I usually go 'I completely forgot I had this, I have to do something with it now...', and of course tidy up gets forgotten as I try to pursue crafty dreams.

Whilst these moments of lucidity help me remember what I have in boxes under the stairs I think it is safe to state I still have moments of complete crafters block. And I don't care what anyone says, you have to admit when you're finishing of the place card of the same design for the 50th time, there are moments when you ask yourself why you insist on carrying on.

But we know its because of the love, and the joy of seeing other people appreciate the effort you've put into that one project.

I am waiting for paint to dry before I take the photos, but I thought I would post some pictures of what has inspired me these last two week to get crafting again. The inspiration is often better than anything I can make, and thus it deserves a post all on its own. Many of these photos were taken on my honeymoon, the rest on random days out.

The McDonald's thing made me laugh. I saw it in the Weather-spoons in Woolwich (which was unfortunately burnt down during the riots), but it just goes to show that inspiration can come from anywhere. So, just in case, take a camera of some form everywhere, because you might find something that will help you out of your mental block one day.