Limited progress

I haven't really settled in properly yet and am realising how big the North/South divide is!! I've been quite tired recently as my job involves a LOT of driving and, particularly in this weather, it's been very demanding.  I've also been feeling quite low and uninterested in doing anything crafty so haven't bothered to blog.

Today is different....
- a large sheet of matboard has started being cut into pieces to make various furniture, I'm planning to follow this tutorial http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/search/label/How%20to%20make%20a%20kitchen%20dresser%20with%20mat%20board

- I've started turning a box (approx 3inches x 2inches) into a teenytiny roombox and have put wallpaper in as well as the ceiling and started on the light fixture hanging from the ceiling - photos will follow.  I need to work out how to furnish it in the same scale which I'm expecting to be a bit of a challenge but there we go

All in all some much needed positivity - may it last longer than the end of the day.....

Hull

I have moved North, all 240 miles North which is why it is having a capital letter and started a new job today with a community respiratory team.  Respiratory physiotherapy is definitely my preferred speciality and it's an amazing opportunity, if a *teensy* bit daunting.  In one day alone I have learnt more than I think I ever knew about inhalers and have sooooo much more depth and experience to gain!
As you might imagine crafting has taken a bit of a back seat to the rest of life but I did pack a much fuller box of supplies to bring with me this time and have bought a little pack of postcard size butterfly printed papers; very vintage (?for wallpapers).  The duck did not get knitted together, nor the cross-stitch mounted.  Mum has found another of my old cross-stitches, Tigger this time, and I bought a nice wooden frame for it but didn't quite get as far as mounting it... perhaps it will be finished as a surprise for me in a few months when I'm back down at my parents....
Ooh, I did also start doing a scrapbook page for Christmas 2011 and have got some stuff pre-prepared ready for experiences to happen and be documented this year; how organised is that?!?
Sorry for the lack of anything particularly interesting to talk about....although I have just remembered the miniature wooden toy train I started making, inspired by a tutorial in an old issue of 'Artisans in Miniature' magazine.  I can't remember which issue but you can find them all, here:  http://www.artisansinminiature.com/photo_2.html

Mine has progressed slightly since this photo was taken but that's all you're getting for now... And next time I will have the coin the other way up so you can tell it is a penny!!

January

I'm planning to make a scrap book this year of all the 'firsts' I do and experiences I have.  So far there are a few things on my list for 2012 e.g. olympics, diamond jubilee, learn to crochet and I have a couple of things from yesterday as well

- first time I drove my boyfriend to catch the train to go to the airport to fly out to Germany for work (felt very 'wifey' and probably counts as a 'life tick')
- first time I have driven the M25
When the scrapbook pages have been made I'll post them up here.

I've also made a couple of miniature books but they are packed away in one of my boxes somewhere and still need to be glued together as well so you can't see them quite yet

I've been shopping in 'The Works' today with my christmas giftcard and found some really great books and can't wait to try all the different things out.  I've seen the 'one brush' flower painting before and this book has amazing instructions and I've also picked one up called 'New Ideas in Ribboncraft' by Susan Janes

Happy New Year

Having bought my boyfriend a cocktail kit for Christmas we decided to have an evening making cocktails to bring in the new year.  We spent a fair amount of the nectar points that we've collected over the year on the alcohol that was listed in the 'basic bar' - brandy, whiskey, rum and some really yummy blackberry and elderflower liqueurs.  You do need an awful lot of the 'extras' though - fruit juices, aromatic beers, dashes of this or that flavouring so we were very grateful to find a website that you could enter all your ingredients and it would suggest cocktails you could make!!  Wishing everyone a happy new year and more success in your endeavours than we had last night with our cocktails - we'll try again another time!

Christmas

If you want to work in healthcare - don't pick the week before christmas as a time to try it out!!  I've been so busy at work and my blog has been shamefully neglected.

Christmas decorations
- I made a christmas tree by folding the pages of the John Lewis christmas catalogue, also a miniature one by making spiralled pipecleaners and then a slightly larger mini one where I glued green pompoms to an upside-down shot glass
- I also have miniature paper chains, a real labour of love I can tell you, they took forever to make as I had to use a mini bulldog clip and wait for the glue to dry on every single link!!
- I made some miniature holly leaves, cut out of green foam and tiny red beads as well to link them all along a string
- small bits of green pipe cleaner, trimmed into tree shapes, sit on top of a white bottle cap which has a ribbon round the sides of it: a perfect christmas cake!
- incomplete snowman decorations; I saw a tutorial which I adapted.  Take the cotton wool off a cotton bud (very gently), tie some red embroidery thread around to make a head and body, add a black sequin and black bead on top for a hat and then put dots with a fine tip pen for eyes/mouth/buttons
http://www.miniland.ca/SnowmanClass.html

Christmas gifts
- my oh so lovely boyfriend found a stall selling miniatures at the christmas market he visited in Germany (he's there for work) and bought me some lovely little bits and pieces
- firstly a rabbit hutch with doors that opened and three cute little bunnies and some nibbly carrots.  he was worried that it would make me cry but the rabbits don't resemble my Charlie Bunny so it was fine and I just think it's cute
- secondly a fuzzy wuzzy furry polar bear (little bit random!!) which reminds me of frozen planet.  Absolutely amazing series by the BBC, if you haven't seen it go back and do so NOW!! Penguins and polar bears are on my list of top 10 gorgeous animals that I want to keep (see also the film ' Mr Popper's penguins')
- thirdly a little mannequin with a corset on and a drapey skirt.  this came with a shuttered mirror which is in a completely different scale

Plans for the coming year
- decide which scale I'm going to work in rather than having a mish-mash of various sizes.  I absolutely love working in teeny tiny weeny but it's so fiddly and you can do so much more so much easily if you just stick to 'ordinary' dollhouse scale
- make some miniature paper corsets, using up pretty papers and trims, I can make a worktable with all the bits and pieces laid out and expand it into a project of a craft room as well as finishing my friend's sewing room/quilting shop (inspiration: http://miniatyrmama.blogspot.com/2011/09/redecoration-of-paint-shop.html and picture above which came off flicker several years ago)

- carry on visiting my new favi=ouvirte website PINTREST every day for loads of inspiration and ideas on allllllll sorts of different things - my pictures folder is rapidly expanding with some great pictures that make me smiley!!

Apologies

I haven't blogged for ages, I know, and I'm sorry.  My internet is terrible, work has been hectic, my headaches bad - and I'm slightly self conscious about my latest project.

I have built a house, a two-storey, roombox type house - which sounds fairly impressive until you realise that it is made out of nutrigrain boxes and covered in wallpaper samples from homebase!

To be honest I'm quite impressed with my "fireplace surround" and the "carpet".  I'm working with limited resources here as I don't have my craft box and can't get to craft shops particularly easily either.


The "bookshelves" are made out of boxes of meciations which I cut up and stuck together and as I think I'm going to turn this into a christmas theme I started by making a wreath out of reindeer moss and some ribbon - very simple but surprisingly effective.

I really enjoy other people's work-in-progress pictures so will try and be good about putting up my own too but please bear with me on this one....

Shopping

I like having annual leave :) It meant I got to spend some time with my lovely boyfriend and part of that was going craft shopping.  There is a garden centre/cafe/craft place near his Nan's called 'Squires' which we visited.  I was very restrained and only bought a couple of scrapbook pages which I though I could use to brighten up my walls.  They're double sided which is a bonus and have glossy/glittery accents too.

I also bought some wrapping paper for a friend of mine who isn't feeling great; we tend to look after each other and I have a funny feeling that pictures of guinea pigs, wrapped up in wool and skiing, will be right up her street!!

 I saw a set of cardboard boxes, laid out like a printers tray as well and had a fisherprice moment ("oh the possibilities") as that would be a much cheaper and easier way to do one of the projects I have brewing in the back of my head.  There was also a house shape made of wood. 3D, with shelves or floors in.  It was only about 9" tall and I'm sure I could have found something to do with it but didn't feel like trying the patience of my slightly bored boyfriend any longer.

The cross stitch is most definitely underway - I started with a colour I was very confident I knew what it was and as this was only half cross stitch I've managed to get a fair bit done.  having started filling in my first couple of leaves tho I'm discovering that I may not have followed the pattern quite as closely as I should have done and I appear to be a couple of stitches or rows 'out' - but not consistently. Bizzare!  I shall 'careful construct my own interpretation of the pattern' and if you don't tell, no-one will ever know!!