Leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again

This post brought to you by My Travel Checklist. All opinions are 100% mine.

2012 is the year of travel for us. I mean, we have the most epic holiday of all this year, our honeymoon, but also lots of mini trips. We are off to Hastings next weekend woohoo! One thing that bothers me when going away though is that niggly feeling that I’ve forgotten something…

I did it this Christmas when I was packing for the in (out of) laws. The whole trip down I was wondering if I had forgotten things and it turned down I had! There’s not just that though, there’s worrying about whether or not you turned off the heat, turned off the appliances and put the cat’s litter tray out, and I’m speaking from experience on that one, not fun.

Main checklist screen

My Travel Checklist 

Well, I was chosen to review a new widget called 
My Travel Checklist  and it’s a fantastic little tool that helps you get organised before you leave on a trip. It takes you through step by step on what needs to be done, packed and checked, before during and after your trip.

It’s so quick and easy to do I wish I had, had it before Christmas. You can download it to your smart phone or computer and can access it however you like. I work better on paper so it nice to know you can set up your lists on the PC and then print them out. 
My Travel Checklist  is very customisable but also has useful presets, so you can get started very quickly. So I can make sure “Put the cat tray out” is top of the list!  Believe me when I say though, it really does have all that needs to be done on that list! Everything is organised in categories that are really easy to navigate and it’s just so simple to use.

Checklist screen shot

It is so very handy, especially the mobile version. In a few clicks I can check everything I packed. I’m going to use it for our wedding preparations too it’s so versatile and fun to use!

Oh and the best part of all is that it’s completely free! Hows that for a good deal.

I hope you guys will check it out!

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Super Simple Ribbon Puff decorations.

You will need:

  • Pipe cleaners in coordinating colours
  • 7-9 inch lengths of ribbon x 5 per decoration
  • A lighter or fray stop
First fray stop or singe the ends of your ribbon with a lighter.
Take your pipe cleaner and lay it on a flat surface. Then, lay around 4-5 pieces of ribbon across it like a plus sign. You can vary the ends a little, it adds to their charm.
Fold the pipe cleaner in half over the ribbon pieces and pinch tight.
Then twist the pipe cleaner until secure. Affix to the end of  as many branches of your tree you would like. These also make cute gift toppers, wrapped around the neck of a bottle of wine, as glass markers and 101 other things I’m sure you smart people will think of!
Ribbon Puffs - on the tree
The whole tree
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It’s Christmas time!

This may not make a whole lot of sense as it was written before Christmas. Just warning you!

I always put up my Christmas decorations December 1st and take them down on New Years day. It just makes sense to me to start the New Year fresh and it’s also when the advent calendar starts. That’s my argument and it makes sense. So today I put up our decorations, the little of them that we have, and decorated our tree. I put them up while the OH was out and I waited till he got home to turn on the lights and put on the star. It does look lovely and festive now and even BC is feeling Christmasy!

I am a little disappointed with our tree. I had really wanted a real tree but what with the cat and our stretched finances we really couldn’t justify it. I must say though that although I can’t put the larger decorations on the tree because the branches can’t hold them up, the tree still looks lovely. We are going to hunt out some smaller baubles and such in the sales after Christmas but to fill out the tree some I made some really simple decorations that you can make too!

Ribbon Puffs - on the tree

You will need:

  • Pipe cleaners in coordinating colours
  • 7-9 inch lengths of ribbon x 5 per decoration
  • A lighter or fray stop
That’s all you need and they look really cute! I don’t have any good pictures due to my crappy camera… My bubbykins bought me a new P&S for crimbo. ? look how clear, indoors at night, with and without flash!
Yes, I have giant ric rac on my tree, don’t you?
I’m sure you don’t need a photo how to but you’re getting one any way. ^___^ jump over to the next post to see that!
I also made a tree skirt, our first one and though it was a bugger to get the binding on (Who told me to make it scalloped??), the end result was worth it. It really finishes off the tree.


Taken with my old camera… in the day… meh!


New camera in the night, yay!

What do you guys think? I love seeing everyone else’s tree!
TTFN
Starry
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Wishing you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Hi guys!

How was your Christmas celebrations? I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and are looking forward to celebrating the New Year!

Unfortunately I am having numerous problems with my hosts lately and could not log in for a while. I also had not much time to chase them up as I had 101 Christmas, wedding and birthday related things to do, which I of course left to the last-minute. It seems fixed now. So, over the course of the next few days, will be my December posts which I wasn’t able to post. December was a very interesting month of making, so it will be an interesting recap.

BTW,  if anyone could recommend a good host, preferably but not essentially where I don’t have to pay a year up front first (committing to these unknown companies for a year seems a bit crazy to me…), be sure to send their details my way. I am paying far too much money for such a crappy service.

See you tomorrow with the first post!

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Kimono, Kimono

 

kimono

Hi Guys,

I know I haven’t been about for a while. I need to get some kind of blogging schedule going rather than letting it slide so I decided Thursday is going to be my day. I need to be held accountable!

So a lot has been going on, but I don’t want to talk about any of that because at the moment I am obsessing over making a kimono. It’s a slightly long story but to cut it short I used to have a kimono style dressing gown which I wore to death and ever since have been thinking I should replace it but not ever found anything. So I’m going to make one! Finding a pattern though, not so easy. I’ve looked for an authentic style Kimono pattern that looks right but can’t really find one. I’ve found a couple that looked ok until I made a muslin and it was not right. So, I am attempting to make a hybrid of them all to make the perfect Kimono style dressing gown.

The fabric I am using is Parisville by Tula pink which I  bought to make PJ bottoms with but never got round to and I am trimming it in some pink polka dot which I bought at the fabric store. I think I’m going to make it with french seams to because I like the finish you get that way and I don’t have to zig zag the edges.

I just wish I could find my fabric scissors…

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Make and Bake

So, I had a baking class at my house! I am part of a meetup group called Make and Do which is a pop is craft group. I dont know if Any of you are familiar with meetup but it enables groups of people to connect with like minded people.

If you live in London and would like to join me in Make & Do you can join us here!

So, I decided that I would host my own event. Since I LOVE making cupcakes, it was a perfect class for me to teach. I thought I could probably fit around eight people into our flat so was relieved to find not everyone who signed up made it. If everyone had turned up, there would of been 13 people! Too many!

I had to start preparing early in the morning because I needed some of the icing to have set and some cakes to be ready. I also had to rearrange the kitchen so there was space for everybody. I got to use some of my supplies I haven’t used before. Which was fun!  I’d recently bought some new icing nozzles and also a decorative rolling pin. Everyone loved the rolling pin, it made simple shapes fun.

I was really nervous as this is the first event and class I have taught. Everything went very well though. Everyone made fantastic looking cupcakes and said I was a good host!

So I think I will definitely has classes or events again. I had a really good time even if I was left with a very messy kitchen.

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Monday Makes: Frilly Reversible Apron

Hi guys, forgive me I’m about to mention the big “C” word. That’s right Christmas! To be perfectly honest I’ve been Christmas  crafting for about a month already. I love Christmas I couldn’t wait to get going! I know some of you will think it’s too early so think of this as just a pretty reversible apron.

I need your help though, I made this without a pattern or any guidance as to how I would go about it and I have hit a snag too far into the making progress to really rip it out.

Here is the apron:

and here is the problem:

The top half sags in the middle. Unfortunately I added grommets (I dunno the proper name for them but they are like giant rivets) where the neck straps fix already so moving the position of the straps will be awkward… Will making a more structure neck strap alleviate the problem or do I need to suck it up and make new grommet holes? Also BC says the grommets need to be further apart while I think they need to be placed closer together. Once I figure it out maybe I’ll do a pattern to share too. I’m submitting it to Mondays Makes any way so I can enter it in to Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily’s Quilts:

Fresh Sewing Day

This month I’ve also finished the Supercolourfragilicious quilt, numerous carved eggs (Only 2 of which are still intact xD) and a chocolate, vanilla, rum, raspberry layer cake of my own invention. Not too shabby at all.

Also, I’ve decided to take part in the Small Blog Meet. Maybe it will help get my readership up. It’s quite a nice idea basically small blogs get to link up with other small blogs and hopefully some other readers.

Small Blog Meet

If you have a small blog and want to take part why don’t you go say hi and check it out!

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Finished item Supercolourfragilicious Quilt

 

 

Sorry to double post but there must have been a server hiccup as this post completely disappeared.

I finally finished it. The binding had me umming and aahing for a bit, and I decided to go for a rather unconventional pieced binding with a straight grain (don’t kill me quilt nazi’s!). I’m glad I did though as it finished it off just right and just wouldn’t have worked on the bias. I have saved some of the fabric for repairs should it need any.

So without further ado, here it is in all it’s rainbow glory!

I’m really happy with how it came out. It’s double size and will fit perfectly on the guest bed (Which is slightly shorter than a double bed), only I don’t intend for it to stay there. It is approximately 165 cm square, so slightly shorter in the length and slightly longer in the width.

Name: Supercolourfragilicious Quilt

Date started: Sometime in spring 2011

Completed: 24th September 2011

Total hours: Approx 60

Fabrics used: A selection of scraps and remnants but includes Bliss, Amy Butler – Love, Michael Miller – Various, Meadow Sweet 2, Dream on, Gazebo Damask, Summer Song, Central Park, Peacock Collage, Lots of BC’s old cotton shirts and various cotton dress fabric from Rolls and Rems.

Notes: This was my first time machine quilting and it got bunched more than I anticipated considering I hand basted it carefully.

 

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Tuesdays Tips

Use Aquarium Gravel to add weight to large pin cushions and other projects that need weighting. It’s quite cheap and is ok to go in the wash!

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Wak-A Wak-A Wordless Wednesday

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