WARNING! Boring blog post ahead!

Another month, another lack of bloggage. I admit, I'm a bit ashamed. Especially after catching up at Weebeastie Creations . How pretty is this blog? I think it may be time to redecorate.

Anyhoo, from my rambling intro, you may have guessed I'm not that focussed right now. There are lots and lots of very exciting crafts on the go but they're mostly Chrsitmas presents so I can't share! Not yet anyway. There are one or two things that I'm working on that will be gifted in the next few weeks so as soon as they're done I'll pop them on.

Wowsers. Dullest. Blog Post. Ever.

Here ya go, hope this helps.

What a weekend!

Monday is here again, and I'm glad to report that I've had a pretty darn good weekend. Crafting, playing, eating, all the good stuff.



Saturday afternoon was spent at the awesome Central Bazaar, I had a fab afternoon, met some great new crafters and caught up with old friends, as well as selling quite a few bits and bobs! It wasn't as busy as we would have hoped, but Wrexham's only just beginning to realise that crafts aren't all about tea cosies and the W.I. (Although both of those things, in my opinion, rock). My Design Your Own badges seemed to be the favourite of the day, so I'll be making a bigger thing of those next time.


Me at my post.

Speaking of next time, I will be having a stall at the Ashfield Park Fun Day on Saturday 25th September, 12.00 - 5.00pm at Ashfield Park, off Crispin Lane, Wrexham, which should be something different! A fun fair, the Fire Service, North Wales Police and a host of activities have been organised in order to attract as many people as possible. I normally just stick to craft fairs, but a very nice lady called Dawn approached me on Saturday to ask if I'd be interested and I though why the heckaroo not. And it's for a good cause too. <3 good causes.

After chatting to another lovely lady on Saturday (honestly, the place was full of them), she got me thinking about the prospect of printing directly onto fabric. Now this may seem a bit sad but this was a huge moment of creative enlightenment for me. You can print. On Fabric. With your printer. Good golly miss molly.

My brain then went into a bit of overdrive: I can print out pictures of everyone I know and make them into teddies, I can make floating head Christmas tree decorations, I can print embroidery patterns directly onto fabric... I CAN PRINT EMBROIDERY PATTERNS DIRECTLY ONTO FABRIC.

As you can probably tell that was the biggie. I have a craft swap that has to be posted in one week and until last night I hadn't really started it. I wanted to do a Transformers themed embroidery hoop, but was having an awful time trying to get the design right. Lots of craft swearing and square paper hurling later, and the idea got stuffed into the bottom of my bag. Until now...



That is printed onto fabric! (are you starting to get an idea of how excited I am?) Here it is in the hoop ready to be embroidered.




My gosh. I'm having a LOT of fun sewing this baby, and am glad tonight's Craft Night theme is embroidery so I an carry on sewing and blag onto the girls about printing on fabric a bit more.

Right, not another word about it. In this post.

On a less fun note, I made myself put some stuff on Folksy today. I took about 30 (bad) photos of things I want to put on, and managed to get 8 on before I wanted to top myself. I HATE listing things on the Internet. It's not even one thing, I hate the whole darn process, taking pictures, touching them up, writing the descriptions, waiting for everything to load... eurghh. It's a good job I've already come to terms with the fact I'm never going to be a dot.com millionaire. So if you want to see 8 very nice but badly photographed and terribly described items of jewellery, have a look here

Wowsers, that was some blog post. Hope it keeps those bored at work entertained for a bit. Oh, and here's a picture of a dress I made from a man's XXXL t-shirt that I wore to go out with a very lovely fella on Friday night.



I'm calling it the Whoredry Hepburn dress. See what I did there?

The Final Countdown... Again

Less than a week to go to Central Bazaar and once again I realise I'm ridiculously under prepared. Why do these things only dawn on you when you're lying in bed and have no intention of doing anything about them? On awakening I've realised things aren't quite as bad as they seemed whilst dozing, but still lots to do.

I'm right now in the process of making some signage, and for once it seems to be working out first time... which is a bit worrying. I'm waiting for the printer gremlin to jump out "You may have designed them Jenno, but I sure ain't gonna print 'em! hahahahahahaha!"

If they do work out, they'll be loving pinned to my newly decorated pin board with some awesome button pins (which I've yet to make. Or buy). Next are some fabric badges. I realised I'd completely forgotten to make any in the furor of the film badges. So the craft night girlie's, although they don't know yet, will in fact be my Badge Brigade this week. we'll be singing some kind of working chant to help proceedings I think.

Crochet season is upon us again, woo hoo! I pulled out the project I've been doing since last winter and discovered I only had about 20cm's left to do which took about 10 mins. It's been in the cupboard about 6 months. Sigh. I've now started a cot bumper for thee soon-ish arriving nephew, which contains a lot of black... sounds erm, gross, but is in fact very cool! Will be making myself one as soon as it's finished. A blanket, not a cot bumper. I'm little, but not that little.

Ooh, Juniper and Roses has just come on the radio, my fave.

Right, back to work. Please, please, please come along to Central Bazaar this sat, 12 - 4 in Central Station, Wrexham, there's always so much beautiful stuff on display and you can maybe get a head start on your Christmas shopping! Also, mention this blog and you can have 10% off anything you buy from me, as well as a surprise, craft fair only offer I'll be revealing on the day. How good am I? That's to make up for the lack of pictures in this post.

Badges, Badges, Everywhere...

I have finally finished some badges! What I thought would be a couple of evenings worth of work has turned into a bit of a marathon, but it's lots of fun so I don't really mind. I managed to get about a hundred badges cut out Friday and yesterday packed up all my badge making kit (which is obscenely heavy) and carted it to my folks to make them up whilst Rubes was entertained by other grown ups. Unfortunately though, I didn't take enough badge parts. Oh well. I still managed to get about half done, and am going to embark on the rest this eve whilst watching some kind of cheesy/scifi violent film.

To the pictures! They're all themed, and here some highlights:


Do you recognise the references? I'm going to be selling these at next month's Central Bazaar for a measly £1.50 a set! Bargain or what? As well as these, there will also be some True Blood, Grease, Die Hard and plenty of Twilight ones. Oh, and I'll be doing design your own badges for £1 each! Can you feel your creative juices flowing?

By the way, my fave by far:

I really do <3 Sheldon.

Interim...

I was hoping to have some lovely badge pictures up by now, but as per usual, they're taking much longer than intended. I thought I'd be able ot bash them out in an evening, but I think so far I'm on night five, and that's just the designs! I'm really happy with how they're coming along, but alas, no pictures yet.

So instead, mouse crafts!


How cute?

Surprised? Not me!

I didn't leave it six months between posts this time, oh no! I am back, primed and ready to blether on about the random crafts that fill my days.


Coming up very soon is Central Bazaar number 3! I am so excited to be involved again this time, I missed the last one, I just didn't have enough time to get stock ready (I know, excuses, excuses) but after a ring and earring set was very well received by my craftster swap partner, I decided "hey, they were pretty quick to make, you only have a month left and a two year old and a dog and trying to find a job to do, but what the hell!". I've not finished yet, but after spending £20 on buttons (yes, you read right), I can't bring myself to stock up again yet.


I'm making rings, earrings, hair clips and ring and earring sets, here's a few teaser pics:


I love those stripey buttons!


I feel like I've made loads, but I don't think these are going to fill a six foot table.

I'm also going to make some badges, but not sure whether to do just fabric ones, or some slogan type ones too. Thinking about doing sets of three themed ones, maybe True Blood, The Big Bang Theory (Bazinga!), Grease, that sort of thing... Think I'll have a go, see how they turn out.


Finally, a warning:


Some things even heroes can't weather.

Hello? Anyone Still There?

Well it has been a terribly long time since I last posted. No particular reason really. Laziness maybe. I've been crafting away, that's not stopped and lots of things have been happening to fill up my time. Camping, new nephew on his way and the general running/jumping/playing chaos created by owning a two year old.

But by popular demand (ahem), I am back! Woohoo! So a few projects as proof I havent gone off and joined the circus. Although that would be pretty cool. I'd be a tightrope walker. Or big top re-sewer.

One of the things keeping me so busy is the participation in a few craft swaps on Craftster.org. It's awesome. You join up for a certain theme, get assigned a partner, chat about the things you like then get crafting for each other! The theme for this was 'Once You Pop' the idea being that everything had to fit into a Pringles tube! Clever heh? My partner and I also agreed to send one bigger item that wouldn't fit in.

This is what I sent:

She got a sock monkey with her name on, which I attached to the outside of the Pringles can which I decorated like a tree.

There's also a scarf belt, a handbag, a button ring and earring set, some Alice in Wonderland badges, a bookmark, and an embroidery, a new craft I've been playing around with. It was a lot of fun to do and she loved it all. She sent hers today so I should be getting it soon!


I have this ottoman that I got whilst I lived in Edinburgh and ever since, I've wanted to re-cover it. It's now Ruby's toy box and centre stage in my living room so I thought it probably the time. Only took eight years.

Before:



After:



Not bad eh? I bought the fabric for a dress and still have plenty left over so one day I may mysteriously disappear whilst looking for the doll's potty...


I also recently bought a book called One Yard Wonders, and it is awesome. I've made loads of the projects from it and liked one particularly which is a little fold up dolls house. I took inspiration from it, jiggled it around, added a bit of Jennyness and got this:



"Why, that's a nice bag."
"Thank you kindly, but it is more than just a bag..."




"It's a Peppa Pig picnic Tent!"


"Too much barbecue Daddy Pig? Time for bed I think "

I was so excited to give this to Ruby and she loves it. And all my measurements worked out FIRST TIME. That has literally never happened to me before. Ever.

You know, I've missed blogging...

Am I late?

The shame! Woe is me! I am an un-dedicated blogger...

Better late then never though, eh?

I haven't been sitting round on my bum watching Judge Judy the last 23 days though, oh no. I have been busy sewing and making and being a bit poorly. Myself, Rubes and my Ma all came down with a virus that really knocked us about. The poorliest I've been since before Ruby was born. Managed to sort everything for the craft fair in the Northgate Arena, which turned out to be awful. Freezing cold (and it was indoors) insanely loud Gypsy Jazz music(which was really good for about 2 songs), hardly any actual crafted items, most just imported and I only made £2.30! I spent £5 at the chocolate stand.

It did mean however lots of stock ready for Central Bazaar, which was AWESOME. Did a lot better money wise and it was just a super cool day. The other stallholders had amazing products, I could have easily gone into some serious debt, and I can't wait for the next one!

As for none fair related items, been making a lot of tshirt dresses, mostly for Ruby but one for myself too. Will be making them at craft night tonight too. Also been working hard on the Lola makeover, it's nearly done, she's looking fabulous and I can't wait to go camping! Have a look at my other blog for updates.

A blurry tshirt dress for Ruby

A pair of pinstripe trousers made from one of my
pre-pregnancy pairs. She looks so cool.

Making ties and binding like this gives
me real pleasure. Am I bonkers?

Anyhoo, I hope everyone in blogville is fine and dandy and looking forward to a wonderful spring. Kisses.

Yep, Too Green...

Papa Jones has come to the rescue and the comp is in full working order, a whisper of its former self. My laptop however did not take too well to the negative endorsement I gave it, and has carked it. Oh well. Ebay here it comes...

So, a round up of recent crafts...

A scissor roll from what's left of my current favourite fabric.


A snack bag and sandwich wrap for my sister's birthday.

Snack bag

Sandwich wrap closed

Opening...

Ta dah!

These are also going to be one of this weeks craft night projects, and I can't wait to make a set for myself! They're both wipe clean on the inside and fasten with Velcro, and the sandwich wrap opens into a handy place mat, to catch all those crumbs and put your crisps on.

I also visited a caravan show this week, which has inspired me to get Lola all dolled up ready for the coming season. I was going to chart her progress here, but I felt she deserved her own little blog so pop by and visit Lola Vanola and witness the transformation!

Right, I'm off to iron some gnomes.

What Do You Think?

Too green?

Mac's Back

My comp is poorly. It's gone off the Doctor Pappa Jones and the JCB hospital for some rest, recuperation and maybe a new fan, but will soon be returning home. For now though, I'm using my trusty old mac, which is great but not very trustworthy when it comes to pictures... so a photoless (aka boring) blog entry come forth!

Maya's been here a few days now, and we're loving having her in our house. She's fully embraced the life of a crafter's dog and happily snoozes on the sofa whilst the sewing machine brrrs away. I've torn myself away from dog crafting this week though, and although I haven't done any more fair crafting, I have been busy making Ruby some fabulous pinstripe trews, a sewing bag from some jeans, a scissor roll up case, and two pairs of curtains (five more to go...). I've also had the Crazy Crafting Sisters round for the first part of Easy Peasy Skirt night, and they're looking fab so far, with The Ladies Who Craft coming on Friday to make awesome lunch packs. Pics of both will be coming soon.

As long ans good 'ol El Compo survives...

Craft, But Not As You Know It...

This week has been spent sitting at my sewing machine late into the night, frantically getting stuff ready for the craft fair. Oh, wait... that's a pork pie.

I have indeed been crafting, but it's been for one particular individual. Meet Maya:


Isn't she gorgeous? She's the newest member of the Jones household, and a reason I HAD to craft. Not that I need one. So far I've made her:

A bed (I know the fabric's completely impractical, but I made two and they come off for washing)


A lead (I'll be making a matching collar as soon as I get the bits)


A crate cushion (with removable fleece cover)



A bag for bits and bobs (brush etc)



a poo bag bag!

I had everything at my house already too, so they cost me nothing, wahey!


Right, back to craft fairness. Maybe I can fit a pair of pinstripe trews in for Ruby first...

Coolness is Bowl Shaped

Holy Moly.

Goodness

Today has been an extremely successful day. I ventured into town in search of vinyl records to make into bowls for display and to sell at the craft fair, and I managed to get all of these for £3! There's about 35 records there!


Whilst I was there, I also found this fantastic vintage suitcase which I'm going to display my purses in at the craft fair. Another bargain at £2.


I was also visited by my lovely friend Richard who brought me this:


Isn't it glorious? It was nestled at the back of one of the workshops in his new house. He was going to burn it!

A good scrub (well, as I good as I could, I seem to have an inability to get anything really clean) and it looks like this.

OK, it doesn't look hugely different, but believe me it is. I had to kill a lot of spiders to get it to this stage.

It's now the home of all the crafty goodness I keep downstairs, including sewing machine number 4. I'm going for one for every room.

The Bird is Back in Town

Selfish sewing week is over, and I'm back on the sparrowarms train. Last week was very enjoyable, made a few dresses, did a bit of knitting and crochet, but as the craft fair looms, thought I'd better knuckle down.

I've been staying at my parents' this weekend so took a box of hand sewing goodies with me and made a pile of corsages. They're my latest fave as they're pretty quick and easy to make, but look really effective. Plus I can do them on the sofa under a blanket which is a big bonus on these chilly (aka frickin freezing) evenings.

Whilst the Rubes was at nursery this morning, I sewed 11 purses. ELEVEN! I'm quite proud of myself. They still need buttons/badges and poppers, but small victories and all that.


Last week also saw my second craft evening start up, so big welcome to my new students Alex and Lizzy, who made some awesome bags. At original craft night Natalie made this fabulous apron.

The photo doesn't do it justice at all, but Nat should be very proud of herself. I know she baked valentines gingerbread in it this weekend.

And what could top a quality week off? Raspberry Cheesecake, that's what.