Spam Strikes Again!

After somewhat reluctantly deciding to enable word verification on comments, what should pop into my inbox this morning?

This:

Ugh!

Are genuine human beings taking the time to post these comments?!

Or have the spambots got smarter when it comes to getting around word verification?!

Bah.


Now I am considering whether or not to disable word verification again.


This post was brought to you by Procrastinating on NaNoWriMo Novel. I think I'm writing the next War and Peace

Punkting

I’m not one for jumping on the bandwagon, but I’ve resisted making bunting for too long!

Of course, I had to give it more of a personal touch. No floral, pastels or chevrons for me, oh no!

Instead, I’ve got punky bunting…punkting?

Bunting seemed like a scrap-busting project, and my scraps supplies consisted of a lot of plaid, vinyl and skull-print! So punk-inspired bunting seemed like the obvious choice.

I was incredibly lazy with making this too...

I cut out the pieces...

 

...pinned them to some leftover tape/ribbon (I made it one-sided...like I said, lazy!)…

…sewed all the pieces on  and customised with safety pins, fabric paint and eyelets

I cut the fabric out using my rotary cutter. The woven fabrics fray, but (asides from my chronic laziness that day) I felt that using pinking shears or hemming two pieces together would detract from the messy, punky image! 

In the process of making this, I discovered how difficult it is to photograph bunting! Especially when outside – the only ‘big’ space suitable – the weather is wet and windy...

NaNoWriMo!

 

It's already November, which means it's National Novel Writing Month! 

I have participated since 2010 and love the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days!
Over the years I've become a very lazy writer and never get around to sitting down properly to write my ideas. NaNoWriMo is the ideal challege for me!

The idea of the challenge is 'quantity over quality': you don't go back and edit (you can do that in January, once the Christmas period is over!) you simply sit down and write.

I've added a word count widget in the bar at the right hand side of this blog. Over the past couple of days I've been writing like a mad thing but this year I'm not 'feeling it' as much as the past two years, so who knows where I'll get to...


If you're participating too, let's be writing buddies! :)

Keyboard Key Brooch

Are you a computer geek? Perhaps you know a computer geek. Or maybe you just think that keyboard keys are cool.

I have a bag of keyboard keys, because I think they can look cool (and I’d like to be a computer geek, but I don’t have the brains). They came from various defunct keyboards and although I’ve collected them up with different projects in mind, this brooch happened:

Pacifist Geek Chic?

On top of a new pile of keyboard keys, I acquired a bit of circuit board from a broken ‘computer thingamy’ (I think it was a keypad of some kind, but it came to me with stuff broken off and no housing, so I’m not sure).

Here’s how to make a little keyboard key brooch of your own.

You’ll need:

Keyboard keys

Backing for brooch (I used a piece of circuit board)

Brooch back

Strong glue

Cutters or a small saw

Sandpaper

Mrs Ogg

Every year, I love to carve something a bit more detailed onto my pumpkin for Halloween.
This time around, I racked my brains for ages! I'd done a cat, Dracula, Death (of Discworld fame) and more cats, and Frankenstein's monster.
Being a Discworld fan, I ended up opting to make a stencil of Nanny Ogg, one of Discworld's witches.

I scanned a picture from Nanny Ogg's Cookbook and used the Photoshop stencil-making method that I explained last year.

The pumpkin isn't all that big (large pumpkins seem to be in short supply this year) so the stencil ended up being just 15cm high!

Due to all the little details, this took me just under 5 hours to carve. Phew!

Of course, I made pumpkin soup with all the innards. This year I added (a little too much) curry powder, and subsequently blew everyone's socks off!

Big Agate Necklace

Months ago, I bought a big agate slice for £2 at a local charity shop, with one intention:

“I’ll make a giant necklace!”

Then it sat in a drawer for ages, partly wire-wrapped, because I hadn’t really decided what I was doing.

Eventually I put this necklace together using an old chain belt, some jewellery chain, small pieces of amethyst, embroidery thread, spikes, and the usual assortment of jump rings and clasps :)

My necklace was inspired by Assad Mounser’s ‘Wild Horses Mega Collar’ (F/W 2011 collection):

Source: assadmounser.com via Kei on Pinterest

Obviously mine is much smaller!

I utterly love Assad Mounser’s designs. Sadly there’s no chance of my affording any of them! So I was happy to be able to pull my own necklace together. It took about a day and a half to get finished--weaving all that chain together with embroidery thread took ages!

Agate slice: charity shop, £2

Chain belt: charity shop purchase, ages ago

Jewellery chain: from crafting stash (left over from another project)

Amethyst: bought last year at a Christmas fair (I used some on my Amethyst collar!)

Jewellery wire: from stash

Spikes: from a necklace (given to me)

Embroidery thread: from stash (given to me)

Findings: from stash

Glue: from stash

Wool Cape for Winter

Capes have been in a lot of fashion magazines recently, tipped to be the 'thing' for Autumn/Winter.
Happily, I'd been planning to make one using some fabric I was given :)  And here it is!

I made a muff to go with it, too.
This cape cost me just £2.50 to make, because I am jammy.

The outer fabric is 'All Wool Made In England', according to the selvedge! It was free.
The lining is part of an old blanket, £2.50 from a charity shop.
Buttons were free (given to me, like the fabric!) and the press studs were left over from a pack I bought for something else.

The muff is just an offcut of fake fur with a piece of blanket inside for extra warmth, and some grey polycotton over the top! The velvety ribbon is from a reel that my Mum bought me years ago!

I'm pretty pleased with how well this turned out, considering I went at it with a completely gung-ho attitude!
I didn't use a pattern, and drew around a cloak I already had, straight onto the blanket. It took me two whole days to put this together! Of course, there was a bit of seam-ripping and cursing done a few times ;)