Kate's Crafty Times

Oops....

2009-09-26T14:42:00.002+01:00

.....I forgot to say i also made a cross stitch keyring for my OH but i can't get a piccie cos it's on his bag which is with him at work.

I also forgot to tell you I have set up a shop online at etsy.com where I'm hoping to sell some of my cards I make. I've only got a few cross stitch ones on atm but hopefully I will get around to adding my other cards on. If you want to check it out the web address is

www.kateelizabethjackson.etsy.com

love to you all xxxx

Sorry for the long absence

2009-09-26T12:29:00.010+01:00

Hey,

sorry i haven't been around much recently. I lost my camera for like a month and things have been mental with my new job. I have found some quiet time with my newly found camera to finally do an update =)

My new job is going really well. I've been there almost a month now and i love every second of it. I'm an animal nursing assistant and hopefully in about a year i will start my nursing training =)
I've seen some really amazing things whilst i've been there and already got some qualifications. Training is always fun when the reps bring us lunch lol. I love playing with the puppies and kittens but also with the older dogs, cats and rabbits. Watching surgery is amazing!! I even got to watch my own cat get spayed!! Below is a piccie of me and a giant cat that came in. It was beautiful and so friendly! There is also one of my cat Twix in her cone after surgery to stop her licking her wound!! But we bought her a tunnel to play in to make it up to her.

I haven't done much stitching recently as I've been wiped out after work. I managed to do a little card for my MIL as she loves owls.

I also have my TUSAL update. There isn't much in it so if anyone has any advice on how i can bulk mine up it'd be very much appriciated! There are threads in there from my giraffe WIP and all the mini kits i have done. There is also bits of Aida where i have cut them down to make into cards to sell =)

I also made my 1st skirt a few weeks ago and wore it to my interview for the job I now have =D
Please ignore how messy my hair is. I took this photo after i had just finished making it so i don't look my best.

That is all for now. Hope everyone is doing ok and i shall now rush off to do some stitching to make up for all the stuff i haven't done yet xxxxxxxxxxx

Just a note to say....

2009-08-27T18:41:00.001+01:00

I've been so busy since my birthday, not had much chance to stitch. I got a new job at a veterinary clinic which i love but keeps me busy =D
I haven't forgotten about my TUSL but my camera has disappeared for a bit so once i have relocated it i shall take a piccie. It's not very full atm.

I made my 1st skirt the other day so will add piccies once the camera is found lol.

Thats all i have time for now, i will do a proper update soon xxxx

A Nice Lazy Week of Stitching

2009-08-04T18:29:00.006+01:00

Hi All

It's been a very lazy week in the run up to my birthday. I'm going to alton towers on thursday and to leicester on friday for my brithday. My OH is going to do a treasure trail around leicester for me so I'm really excited.

I've kept going with my Giraffes. I'm loving doing it and can't wait to finish it and hang it in the bedroom.

This is where I'm at atm with it.

I've also done a card for my brother's parner, Claire, who loves gardening.

I hope she likes it. Wont find out for 2 weeks yet as she's on holiday on her birthday. Took me 1 evening to do the cross stitches and an hour to cut out the card to put them in and decorate it. There is more inside the card but I don't have a photo of that lol.

Thats all for this week. Hopefully I'll have some pics of my birthday next week and of my time spent back home after that.

xxxx

Back From Spain

2009-07-29T10:11:00.009+01:00

Hey everyone, I'm back from sunny spain.

Had a brilliant time, fires just missed us, but am glad to be home. We were evacuated on the 2nd to last night as the fire came down the hill towards where we were but it burnt itself out before reaching us so we were very lucky. Thankyou to my mumsie who paid for us to stay out there. It really was a piece of paradise and we felt so relaxed.

I did 4 small projects whilst on holiday which is more than i thought i would do lol.
Some days it was too hot (42 degrees) to be outside so i used that time to stitch =D

This was a stitch I did for my aunty (whose apartment we stayed in) It matches the blue and yellow colour theme.

Above are the other little stitches I did. My OH has claimed all of them lol. It got a bit hard to sticth when i was out there due to the fan blowing everything off the table all the time and I didnt have enought things to weigh my bits down and if I did they annoyed me cos I had to take them off all the time.

This is my latest WIP. I wont say what it is as I have a guess what it is comp running on the cross stitching forum. I started it yesterday and did more than I thought I would. My OH also bought me a new lamp which is FAB!!!!! It sits on the table beside where I stitch and I can see so much better and stitch till a lot later =D

Thats all for now. Hope everyone is ok xxx

Off On My Hols =D

2009-07-12T16:21:00.002+01:00

Just a quick post to say I'm off to spain for 2 glorious weeks as my engagement pressie from my mumsie. It's my OH's 1st time abroad and on a plane so he keeps jumping around going 'We're gona be in spain this tim tomorrow wooooo' lol bless him.

Taking lots of small kits with me to cross stitch so hopefully I will get quite a bit done and make them all into cards once I am back.

Lost my stitchy bug with the penguin cards but they will be finished at some point lol.

Hope everyone is ok and I don't miss too much whilst I'm away on holiday

Be good =D xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A Small Update

2009-06-29T21:13:00.002+01:00

Hey all

Not done a lot of stitching. I finished a small xmas penguin card but it's part of a set of 6 so i'm waiting till I've done all 6 to put photos up.

I've been going through all my magazines recently, cutting out charts and putting them into categories and then filing them (not my mother's daughter for nothing). Means I can see all the charts I have (literally hundreds) and if I'm looking for something specific then I can find it faster, rather than looking through all my mags. I think I'm going to stop buying kits (unless it's a really really good deal at a craft show) and buy a full set of threads and some material. Means I can work through some of my charts. I'd love to do enought to sell them at the Skegness Victorian xmas market. Cards and xstitches.

Did my acting class on my own again tonight (well i took the better half for support and to talk about mics to fill some time for me) and it went really well. Played games for the 1st hour then did script work with them for the 2nd hour.

Not done anything weddingy recently. Waiting till we've visited the venues and decided which we like. A lot of things could change. We may not like any of them and decide sod it, save the cash and have it in a marquee in the back garden (well not mine as I don't have one).

Thats all for now. Going horse riding tomorrow in my new jodphurs *does a lickle jump*

Hope you're all well xxxx

I'm Back =D

2009-06-24T13:41:00.028+01:00

After being a bad blogger for quite a while, I am back and trying to be good.

I have only recently got my card making bug back but my stitching bug has always been running around.

I don't go to college anymore so i have plenty of free time to be crafty until i find a job. My OH is as supportive as ever and loves my craft making so much that he has even offered to take me to a craft show!!! along with the wedding show he's going to take me to that makes me very happy but with a lot of money to save lol.

I've also gotten into making things like bags and clothes. I made my costume for the college easter show b4 i left which i was very proud of.

I may end up using this blog for more than archiving my crafts. I may also use it for ideas for the wedding that i really love that will inspire me to make things. Hopefully this time i will remember to keep this updated at least once a week.
Below are several images of the stuff i have been doing recently.

I made the cushion above for my grandma to go with the birdie cross stitch and the twins stitch was for my cousin who had twins. The cross stitch right at the top went to my grandma and grandad.

A Quick kit i got for 50p!!!!

Valentines day card for my OH

If you've made it this far, well done lol.
Below are some of the cards I have made recently

Well that's all for now. Thankyou for looking (if you made it this far lol).
Hope everyone if ok xxx

A Hard Week

2008-10-08T19:24:00.005+01:00

Well what can i say? It's been a hard and very loooong week. I was ill at the beginning of last week with whatever it is that is going around everywhere atm. I'd fought for 3 weeks to not catch it and then woke up one morning to find that it had a different idea to me lol. I also struggled with dancing at college to the point where i worked myself up into a state. Why is it that we always worry about things so much that you can't see anything for the elephant in the room (always wanted to use that phrase, i love it lol). Fortunately i have great parents and a brilliant partner who sorted things out for me so i now have a new attack when it comes to dancing. It also helps that i'm more flexible now and can touch my knees with my nose... just in case they might smell =D I did a few more cards whilst i was off ill. Always helps to distract me when i feel poo so the rabbit was locked out of the room once more (not long till i get my study!!!) to stop her eating the blanket wrapped around me and the card embellishments. She gets just as excited as me when it's card making time but i feel it's for different reasons.....

These are the only three cards i made. I made them as a rough idea of the kind of xmas cards i want to do. I have some embellishments for doing blue xmas cards as well so i will try them out at some point. I found with theses cards that it felt like something was missing and it took me ages to work it out. In one case it was just the addition of some gold swirls and changing it from landscape to portrait. Took about an hour to figure that out though lol!

I also finished 3 cross stitches this week. They're only small but it was nice to get some done.

This was a free kit off one of the cross stitching magazines i get. It took me ages to do it simply because most of the colours on the teddy are very a like. It made it really hard to know where i'd stitched and if i'd used the right colour. It only started to look good once i'd finished the backstitch which is when i decided i loved it lol. Its now going to be put in a little frame and hung on my 1st xmas tree in my flat when it gets round to that time of year.

These two were from mouseloft stitchlets range. I love doing them because they're so cute and they barely take anytime. I sent the mouse one to my grannymudder (grandma to normal people) because she's been unwell recently so i wanted her to know i was thinking of her. The japanese house i did just because i had some time to kill. Not sure what to do with it yet. They were my last two that i had from this range though so it means on saturday i'll have to make a trip to my craft shop to get some more in......such a shame lol.

I'm not sure what to start stitching next out of my kit box. I know i'm going to stitch a card for my cousin who just had twins and i want to start some halloween stitching but i need to wait till i can get to my craft shop to get in the threads i need. I'm not sure whether to start on the policeman (a present for my dad shhhh), Eeyore, a pressie for my mum (dont ask me what it is mum, i know you read this, you wont find me mentioning it on here lol) or a sarah kay design called the first kiss. Any help would be greatly received.

I hope everyone is ok and your lives are all going well. Until next time xxxxx

Busy Busy Busy

2008-09-28T18:32:00.006+01:00

Hey,

It's been another busy week at college so not had any time to cross stitch but i did make some Halloween invites for a dvd Halloween party I'm having at the end of October.

The haunted house has windows and doors that flap open and have ghosts etc behind them. The pumpkin's mouth was fiddly with a knife but was worth it. I think my favourite is the witch though. It was the easiest as well lol. Kirk prefers the haunter house though because of the hidden ghouls.

The only other card i made this week was just an experiment. You can't see it in the photo but the background is stamped with a fading effect. I put stick on jewels on the flowers on the stamp in the center.

I went and got some storage draws today to put all my craft things in because they were spread out everywhere and just chucked in boxes. I now have draws for certain things so everything is easier to find. I love organizing things but it was a case of where do i start lol. It means i'm one step closer to getting things ready for my new craft room =D

It's amazing how much stuff i've got over such a short time. I can't wait for xmas, fingers are crossed for more things *hint hint* (mum and kirk).

College has been uneventful. There are some idiots who have been talking behind my back which has annoyed me, but they're just not worth it. I'm persevering with the dancing cos i love my singing and acting so much. I'm getting better with my singing so all is good.

Hoping to finish my cross stitch this week if i find time. Want to do some quick small ones and then start a big project.

Hope you're all well xxxx

The 1st of Many (Hopefully)

2008-09-21T17:22:00.013+01:00

Hey, This is my 1st blog so bare with me. I've always been bad at keeping diaries but hopefully I'll manage to do this.

I had my 1st week back at college, and apart from a few aches and pains it went really well. I haven't really had time to make cards or do much cross stitching because I've been so tired after classes but hopefully as i get back into the routine I'll find time.

I have a few pics of cards I've made in the past but unfortunately a lot of them I forgot to take pictures of before I sent them to a shop where they get sold. Hoping I will get into the habit more now I can display them on here.

This is the 1st card i did once i started back making cards. I made it in a class in a craft shop in Skegness (where i am originally from). The ladies were lovely and me and my mum had a real laugh. I love making cards and cross stitching with my mum. We also have a severe shopping addiction when it comes to craft shops and craft shows.

I made these to cards whilst visiting my mum. It helped get her back into card making when she realised that all the things i used came from her supplies lol.
The cards bellow i made using a dog template i bought to experiment with. I've recently bought a cat template which is similar but I've not yet tried it.

The card to the left i made for my friends birthday. I was trying out a technique i found in a book. She loved it so it made it worth while. I found the beads were really fiddly. It was effective though so i think I'll try it again when i get more beads.

I've only recently started cross stitching so i don't have many pieces and half of those I've done have been sent to family members =) Below are just a few things i have done. The Creature comfort birds have been the biggest thing i have done so far but i have plenty of kits waiting to be started.

Thats all for now. Hopefully I'll have some new stuff to put up soon. Also hoping my next week at college goes ok. The toughest dance teacher is back which means my legs will ache sooooooo much!!!
Hope all is ok,

Love Katie xxx