My Blog is Moving

As most of you are probably aware, my blog is moving home. I have moved to my own website and can now be found here.

I have been posting on both blogs for the past month so there's plenty to look at, including a few new posts :) I hope you all call round and visit. You can also follow using either your rss reader or through networked blogs. I also have my shop over on my new site so why not come over for a browse.

Busy, busy, busy!

I've been busy beavering away on my new website and listing stock. I have also made the decision to close my shop on Folksy as my heart just hasn't been in it since they made all the changes to their definition of handmade. Also, the thought of making a sale and giving even a tiny part to them as commission was also leaving a nasty taste in my mouth.

I'm loving the freedom of having my own site. It took me a few days to get my head around the fact I could list whatever I liked :) I'm also considering moving my blog over to the site. What you you folks think? I hope you would all come and visit and follow me in my new home :) If I know you're coming I'll bung the kettle on and even rustle up some cyber-biscuits ;)

I've also been enjoying getting to know the other ladies (and gentleman) from Shhim. Mrs Diddybears has done an absolutely fab job on the site and is currently working on a Christmas showcase! I can't wait. I do owe her a huge debt of gratitude. Not just for all the hard work she has done with the Shhim site (which is currently doing in her own time and for no fees!) but also for being the catalysis in getting my arse in gear with the website. I think its one of the best things I've done and its really inspired me to get creating. Thank you Mrs D and also the other Shhim ladies :)

If you need a little bit of cuteness you should pop on over to her shop and check out her Diddybears. They are utterly adorable. Everyone is different and they come with their own birth certificate. My favourite bit is the description on the about page :)

I can haz new shop!

I finally took the plunge and got myself a website with shop. Its a bit of a gamble as I've always sold my jewellery through other sites like Folksy and Dawanda but I think after the nonsense on Folksy I felt it was time. I'm going to keep my Folksy shop till my listings run out and haven't decided what to do with my Dawanda shop yet. Dawanda have always been supportive so I don't want to abandon my shop there but I have to be honest, I get a fraction of the traffic I did on my Folksy shop and pricing in Euros is a little awkward.

You can find me here so please do take a look. Any feedback would be very welcome. If you have a shop/website you would like me to promote just leave me a comment with your details.

Mouse Fingers

Its been absolutely freezing here so I've spent most of today on the computer surfing the web and playing games. As a result I have a bad case of mouse fingers. This is a term my bf came up with to describe what you get when you've been spodding too long and your mouse hand gets really cold.
So you too can share in this condition I thought I'd share with you my top 5 online games :)

5. Flight of the Hamsters - this is a cartoon network game where you use your mouse key to glide the hamsters as far as possible using the hamsterballs, skateboards, springs and speed arrows. Its a bit of luck with a fun amount of skill thrown in. Also highly addictive and once you get the hang of it you can get some really big scores. So far today I've got 805.


4. Samorost 2 - very quirky game where you have to solve the puzzle. Its a bit of an odd one to explain as its so different but I love the beautiful animations.

3. Cats - this is a game from Orisinal and another beautiful and quirky game where you use your mouse to hover over the cats so that they either sit or walk, depending on what the cat in the highlighted bar is doing. You clock up points for how long you can get all the cats doing whatever they need to be doing. Its simple but highly addictive.

2. The Fancy Pants Adventures: World 2 - in this one you use the arrow keys and space bar to guide Fancy Pants around his world kicking a snail shell around to get it into its goal. Its another slightly quirky one and a lot of fun :)

1. Nethack - one of my most favourite games ever. Its a role play adventure game where you move your character around the dungeons of doom in search of the magic amulet. You get to choose between a variety of characters, I personally love being either a wizard or a priest. Its extremely simple graphics but a massively complex game which is so playable and addictive. Its been around since the 80s and I've been playing it since Uni (over 10 years ago). To find out more about the different strategies check out this very thorough wiki. If you like a bit of geeky fun check it out :)

I can haz award?

I'm feeling particularly chuffed with myself today as my blog has received its first ever award :) :) Thank you Violetta for this - you've made my day!

The conditions of the award are:
Display award on blog :)


Link back to the person who gave you the award - Violet Elephant







List 15 other bloggers and pass the award onto them. Okay, here goes :)

1. Chic Steals
2. Bumpo's Place
3. The Closet Crafter
4. Crafty Loos
5. Lovely Godely
6. Minnie Burton Craft
7. Sew I Thought
8. Sleepy Robot 13
9. Sweets & Hearts
10. The World of Twiggy Peasticks
11. Trixie's Ethical Aesthetic
12. Kiddo's Shenanigans
13. Sugar Coated Chaos
14. World of Loulou
15. Christina RTC

Buzz buzz buzz

The plot is buzzing with life at the mo so we've been spending extra time down there. We've left the leeks to go to seed and the flowers look really beautiful. The bees seem to be appreciating them too :) Our raspberries are also producing tons of fruit this year so we've been nomming lots of raspberries straight off the plot. They make a very tasty snack when you're down the plot working.
The onions are looking good. Even the new ones I planted the other week from spare onion sets that some kind plot owner left out are also coming up. Hopefully that will keep us in onions for a bit. The sweetcorn is also coming along nicely too but that will be a while before they are ready to eat. We're also giving Spinach a go too this year so we're looking around for some yummy recipes to use this in. I'm thinking of giving Saag aloo a go :P Also the Sunflowers are all flowering and they look amazing. I love the way they all turn themselves to face the sun. Theres also something really happy about sunflowers too which I love.
The plot is also teaming with life too. As well as tons of bees I also spotted loads of ladybirds, grasshoppers and butterflies. I even saw some Small Tortoiseshells which has made me smile :) They were laying loads of eggs on the stinging nettles at the end of our plot so we made ourselves a little unpopular with our neighbour by not trimming it down but it was well worth the hassle. They look lovely.
I've also been working hard on 3 crafty swaps. I've sent of the earrings I made Tara for the Earring swap. Hopefully they should reach her in a week or two. I've also nearly finished making stuff for Kiddo for the Tiny Swap. I'm really chuffed with how the bits I've made have come out so I want to get on and finish that one this weekend. I'm also gradually getting bits done for the Spooky swap. So far I've made 4 things and the goal is 7 so thats going well too.
I've also made my friend a birthday pressy too :)
I've also picked myself up a second hand copy of the new Professor Layton game so I've been glued to that too :) Within a week I'd clocked up about 10 hours on it! I was chuffed with my purchase of this though as I was able to pay for it with the voucher I'd got from Computer Exchange when I traded in a few games last month.

The Cutest News Story Ever!

I heard about this yesterday and had to share it.

This is the story of Oscar the cat who lost its back paws in an accident and has had new prosthetic paws fitted by Surrey based Orthopaedic Surgeon, Noel Fitzpatrick. To read the full story click here.

The Sun has got his hat on \o/

Its been really summery today so I've been out and about getting my 10,000 lux, which is apparently what causes you to feel happy on sunny days. I had a good potter about the charity shops in Borehamwood yesterday and had some great finds. I bought a pretty, strappy summer dress for about £4 and some chinese balls (the ones which chime when you move them round in your hand). I also got a ball of some really cool purple wool - its really light and almost looks like something out of an art deco pic as its made up of two thin strands with little dots of colour every inch or so. Its really unusual and looks like it could have a lot of potential for making cool jewellery with. I also got a really pretty beaded bracelet for 99p which appears to be made from pearls and rose quartz.
Last night I also found a really cool tutorial on Mooky Chick on how to make 1940s hair dos. I had no idea how simple they are to do. The secret is apparently using foam rollers. I've had a play around with some foam strip that I had collected from some packaging ages ago. It was great fun :) I was also watching a whole load of tutorials on you tube on how to do 1940s make up. I don't know how I ended up looking at any of this stuff but it was amazingly interesting.
I've also been invited to a Alice and Wonderland themed tea party. This should be cool. I'll have to have a poke around the wardrobe and see what I can wear. I don't know if I have anything wonderlandish but I'll see what I can do :)

Got my creative mojo working overtime

I've been feeling really arty and crafty lately which has been really nice. I've done a few smallish paintings and been working on the t-shirt refashion swap that I'm running. I've just got the finishing touches of that to do and then its ready to send out. I've also been making a fair bit of jewellery :)
This is one of my recent paintings and my current favourite.

I think my extra creativeness has come from the really nasty cold I've had this week. I haven't been able to go into work and I think I've had a temperature yesterday and part of today so my brains been extra strange. I also think boredom is an excellent motivator. I absolutely hate colds and flu and I'll do pretty much anything to take my mind off it so I think that's what's happened.
I've also been having fun trawling through you tube and have been watching loads of Steven Wright. If you're not familiar with him he's an exceptionally surreal American Comedian. I've loved him for years and remember first seeing him on telly donkeys years ago, probably late 80s early 90s.
I've also been reading some Bill Bryson which has also been making me chuckle :D. I'm reading A Walk in the Woods and it has had me chuckling most nights. I can't believe I hadn't read anything by him till now. My bf's a big fan and so is one of my best friends but I'd never quite got round to reading anything till now.

Good posture, zentangles and pretty flowers :)

Finally got my posh new chair from sit kneel chairs yesterday \o/. Its very posh with purple seat and kneeling pad.
The idea is that rather than slouch in your chair you sit on the top pad with your knees resting on the bottom. It forces you too sit more upright and with a much better posture. The tough bit now is getting used to it. Yesterday I was sat on it for a couple of hours but ended up with a bit of a backache. I don't think you realise how bad your posture is until you try and change it but my back will get used to its new chair. And its a nice bright purpley colour so you can't really go too far wrong :)
I've also been keeping up the zentangling so by request here are a couple of my attempts.


Not exactly ready for the Tate but I've been having fun doing them :)
Also I have bought myself some more seeds for the trough that we keep out on the balcony. This year I have gone with labelia, sweet peas and morning glories. They are all pinky, purpley, bluey colours so they should all look pretty together and the sweet peas and morning glories should climb up the railings and look extra nice :)
Hopefully it will look as nice as last year and we'll have something pretty to look at when we sit out on the balcony.

Room to grow

Yay for me! I finally got round to repotting the Winter Pansies I started off before Christmas. I had them growing in a pot inside a sealed sandwich bag and had been meaning to repot them for months. Sorry plants for the wait but I finally did it tonight. While I was at it I also repotted my Iris bulbs and my Cyclamen. The Iris's had got some aphids climbing all over them so I had to give them a good clean under the tap to get all visitors off. They are all hopefully feeling happier now and have some room to grow.
Now I just need to get my arse in gear and get down the allotment a bit more often and get some new stuff growing there. Thankfully we were quite productive in the Autumn so theres plenty growing (in amongst the weeds) so we shouldn't get any nasty letters from the council just yet.
I've also been making and have made myself a business card holder. It was a little project I came up with last year when I was doing the Recycle swap and I'd been meaning to make one for myself so I finally did that too. I also made a how-to and have uploaded that to Cut Out & Keep so hopefully that will be on there by the morning :) All in all a quite productive evening.
Just one last thing. I've been following Trish from CO&K and she recently posted something about Zentangles on her blog and since then I have been zentangling away like a mad women. That's not too hard considering I was a mad women to begin with, but nevertheless they are pretty cool. If you want to know more just check out below.

HTML 0 Kitkat 1

I've been faffing around since yesterday trying to make a button for my blog. After playing around most of yesterday evening and nearly throwing the laptop out the window a few times cos it kept crashing, I finally had a brainwave. I got back down to business this morning (well 1ish) and got it cracked \o/ I have never done anything in HTML so I was pretty chuffed with myself.
I've also had my nose stuck in another book today. As I got through The Solitaire Mystery at neckbreaking speed I've now started The Minotaur takes a cigarette break (I think that's what its called). Totally different to what I'd been reading before but it looks promising.
Been making lots of jewellery tonight and have made a nice necklace from the vintage beads I picked up the other weekend. I also made another pair of earrings from the beads too and a pair to match the wooden beaded one I made the other day. I must get piccy taking tomorrow so I can post some pics and get some put up in the shop.
I'm going to make a concerted effort to go down the plot tomorrow, basically because I've been a very lazy gardener and haven't been down for ages. I want to check out the state of things after the flooding and see if any of my bulbs are coming up. The grounds probably going to be like glue though so I must remember to wear wellies. The soil down this way is really clayey which means we'll probably come home caked in the stuff.

New design

As you can probably see, I've had a little play around with the look of my blog. I have also had a change around of my shop logo and banner so please feel free to have a look and let me know what you think. I'm quite pleased with it, especially as its completely my work - I painted a couple of cats to try out in a logo or banner and went with the one with his paw up and then uploaded it into Gimp and added the text.
I've also been crafting away making more jewellery for my shop. I've uploaded 3 of the earrings I've made and I've just got 2 necklaces to add. I just need to have a fiddle around with ways of displaying necklaces. Earrings are easy enough as they hang nicely from the wine glasses I've got but a necklace is a bit tricky. I might see what vases we have around the house and try those out.
I've also finished Sophies World - a bit too clever for its own good towards the end but I still really enjoyed it. I've also read The Solitaire Mystery by the same author and that was amazing. I read it in about 4 days and it was one of the best books I've read for a while. It was similar to Sophie's World in that he put a lot of philosophy into the story and made it an interest of several of the characters but it managed to got loose the story to being overly clever. The story was lovely and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes something a bit magical.

Inchies

I've been a bit of a slack blogger of late again. I'm not quite sure why but time seems to have picked up pace this month and got away from me.
I had a little experiment last Wednesday and tested out the matinee that is on most Wednesday afternoons at my local theatre. I saw Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr and once I'd got over the awkwardness of being the youngest person there by about 20 years I really enjoyed it. I got myself settled down with my 50p hot chocolate and bag of sweeties and whiled away a couple of hours in the company of Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. Not a bad way to spend the day and tickets cost a bargain price of £4! I think I can safely say that experiment was a success.
I've also been doing a bit of shopping round my local charity shops and had a real bargain fest. For about £20 I picked myself up a mid length, black, velvet coat, a grey fleece hoody, a little, short, brown dress, a cool, bright green, bag for work, a bronze, sparkly cardie and a bathroom set of smellies which were unopened. It was a good days bargain hunting. Unfortunately its not that good all the time but thats largely why you have to get things when you see them.
On the crafting front I've been getting into making inchies. I can't remember if I've described these before but they are basically inch square scraps of fabric decorated with beads and embellishments. I've been making them for a swap and they are on the theme of spring. I've loved doing them and once I finally get round to sending these off I think I'll make some for myself.
Finally, on the spodding front, I have been thoroughly addicted to the latest GTA game (Chinatown Wars) and have been totally engrossed. For the first time ever in a GTA game I've actually finished all of the missions! \o/ I've just got a few odds and sods to do and I'll have totally completed it. Once again its been yet another reason why my DS was such a great buy.
I'm hoping all the snow has come to an end as I must get myself down our allotment. My boyfriend went down last week to empty our compost bin of kitchen scraps and its apparently looking good. I've also bought some Nasturtium seeds today. I'm hoping to put them in the trough on the balcony and down the plot. I know they will probably go wild but they have such pretty flowers.

Horray for my new furry bag :)

I've been a busy bee the last couple of days and found up a bag I was making ages ago but hadn't finished. I just needed to sew the strap on it, the buckle on the front and the flap and some pockets inside. I've done almost all of that now (just the pockets inside to do) and I'm so chuffed with it :) It will hopefully become my new work bag if it all turns out well.
I've also made myself a pair of fingerless gloves from an old pair of socks. I made these using a tutorial on CO&K. These are excellent. Just the thing to wear while spodding to stop yourself getting cold fingers.
I have also been baking tonight after quite a break and have made some cheese scones. They are cooling at the moment but I'm hoping they will be pretty yummy. They're from an old recipe I had which I modified. The recipe was for fruit scones so I just kicked out the sugar and fruit and added grated cheese.
I'm finished making up one of my swaps but unfortunately I'm going to have to wait till payday before sending out as it needs to go to the US. The swap is a sweet swap so I've bought about a fivers worth of sweeties which you can get in the UK. I hope she likes them. I'm looking forward to seeing what she sends me :P.
I've stalled a little on the favourite animal swap but I think I can get that done for payday too. I just need to get my crafty arse in gear.

This is beautiful

I was going through Craftzine's blog and saw this which I had to share with all you nice folks who follow me here. Its absolutely stunning!



Watch and enjoy. :)

Zzzzz

Had the most enormously long and tiring journey yesterday to Dorset. The snow just ground everything in the London area to a complete standstill so we ended up sitting in the services at Fleet for about 4 hours as there was no point going back on the roads just to sit in traffic.
Finally arrived at our destination at 2.15 in the morning feeling tired but a bit too wired from all the coffee on route. It was so great to lay in bed though and uncrinkle my back :)
Today much better though. After an huge lay in we went into town for a yummy lunch and to pick up some food. We also sat by the sea feeding a couple of ravens raisins. They were beautiful looking and had the funniest hop/walk. I did try and take a few piccies but unfortunately Windows isn't playing ball at the moment so I can't get any of my pictures of my phone :/
Plans for this evening include nothing, probably an epic spod and some nethack :) Possibly a bit of White Fang later too but I haven't got properly into it yet so not sure. It was also a bit close to home last night with all the snow. We bought blankets, water and munch though so we would have been okay.

Charity Shopping

I had a nice day out today strolling round some of the local charity shops. I picked up a really nice jumper from Oxfam for £4.99. Its has purple and light blue stripes - very nice and I'm wearing now. I also got a mini sewing kit for 15p which had a needle threader which is what I was after as I broke the last one and probably the one before that too.
I also found a knitting shop which I didn't know was there :). I got myself a crochet book as I'm considering trying to follow a pattern. The one I got has some clothes in but some really simple projects too like a couple of scarfs and about 3 bags so I might give one of those a go when I finish my scarf.
I also finally got round to parcelling up my dinosaur swap for Ashley. I was holding back for a little bit to see if I heard from her. No joy as yet but she's apparently just become a mum again for the 3rd time so I don't mind taking a bit of a risk. I'll send it out Monday and hopefully she'll receive it and it might remind her of CO&K.
I've had some money for my birthday so I've been spending a bit of that on new bits for my DS. I bought the Lego Indiana Jones game and the 100 Classic Books. I'm currently reading The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgeson Burnett. Even though I've seen the film a few times I'm loving the book. I thought at first that reading a book through the DS would be tricky but it actually works well. I love the fact that you can flip over the page using the touch screen. You also use bookmarks to mark your page. Its very easy to use and actually makes reading a bit easier as there are less words to a page so you feel like your flipping through pages at a pace of knots which is pretty satisfying. Also 100 books for £15 - not bad value. I can't see myself reading Shakespear but you never know.

What a lazy blogger!

I've been pretty terrible for keeping up the blog this month :/ Consider my wrists well and truly slapped :)
What's been going on in Kitkatland recently? Well I went to my sisters wedding a couple of weeks ago. This went really well and was a lovely day. Although I don't do churches as a rule the service was lovely and I felt extremely proud watching my niece and nephew as best man and bridesmaid.
I finally finished the zodiac swap I've been part off and sent of all the bits I'd made to Creativemind. I hope she likes them. I've been really struggling recently to be creative so I'm planning a break from the swaps for a bit after this next one. That ones dinosaur themed and proving equally tricky to feel inspired. I think I need to go back to playing around with things and making some more jewellery for my dwanda shop for a bit till my mojo returns. I might make a start on the crochet scarf I've been planning.
I've been shopping the for the allotment. I've bought some more onion sets, some carrot seeds, some winter pansy seeds and some broad beans. I'm sure I don't like broad beans but they grow this time of the year and we need to keep up the momentum this year and keep things going all year round. There seems to have been a real increase in interest in allotments lately so there are waiting lists for all of the sites so the council are keeping a very close eye on anyone not using their plot and we don't want any problems with them this year. We got a non cultivation order last year and it wasn't very nice. We had been using the plot and had literally just harvested most of what was growing but we hadn't been able to find anything to put in its place other than bulbs so the plot looked a bit bare for a bit. I think what I've found is that you don't get much veg seeds around in the shops this time of year unless you go to a proper garden centre so this is what I've done. I hope things grow. I love carrots, especially when you've grown them yourself. They're so crisp and sweet :)
I'm currently reading Howard's End now by EM Forster but I've been a bit of slow reader lately. I'd like to say its tiredness but I think its more likely because I have bought myself another game for the DS. Its one of the Worms ones and I love those. I love their little voices when you attack one.
I've been trying to get back into doing yoga again in the evenings and have started with about 30 mins a few evenings a week. I am so inflexible I can't believe it. I swear I creak! I must be over a year since I've done any and I can't believe how much I'd taken it for granted. It never feels like your doing that much when you do it regularly but it really does make a difference. I can't remember the posture name now but theres one where your low to the ground with your arms above your head. I never used to have any difficulties holding the posture or getting into but now its an entirely different matter. Nevermind, I just need to get back into the routine.

If I can't keep a cat in my flat I'll keep one on my blog :)

I am now the proud owner of a virtual cat, a long haired silver tabby which I've named Sparticus. If anyone is reading this feel free to say hi, play with him and feed him :) Its a bit of silliness but its a close as I can get to having a cat where I live. I live right on a main road which doesn't seem to be compatible with cats and I don't want one which we keep indoors all the time as that seems uncatlike.
I also finally finished my crochet hat \o/. I've uploaded a pic here of my boyfriend modelling it :) It doesn't totally stand up to close inspection but I'm pretty chuffed with it. Especially as its my first proper attempt at crochet and I didn't use a pattern. I just kind of played around with what I'd learnt from youtube until it looked hatlike. Excuse the pun, but I'm well and truly hooked on crochet. It suits me more than knitting as you're not holding onto so many stitches and it feels more portable :) I look forward to creating more in the future.
I've eventually got back into sewing my dress. Thats such a long process though as the straps as incredibly long. I knew that in advance though as thats part of the secret of how infinity dresses work but it takes a long time to hem when your hand stitching. Quite relaxing though.
Also finished 'a spot of bother' by Mark Haddon. That was amazing. Really witty but moving too. The characters were all really likeable too. I'd definitely recommend to anyone. I'm reading 'Little Green Men' now but I can't remember who thats by.