Kazzybo – Page 3 – A box of allsorts

June project goals

Every month I consider whether to write a ‘project goals post’ as its really just a list of what I’d like to achieve and invariably I don’t complete everything on the list and other things not on the list tend to creep in too when they catch my eye. However, I have decided to keep doing it as it does help me to organise my overloaded brain and gives me a chance to organise the zillions of ideas that are tumbling around my head into some sort of order.

so, project goals for this month are…

Finish spring embroidery sampler
Make spring embroidered linen project bag
Finish crocheting ‘mystery project’
Start zenbroidery mandala
continue ‘ripple blanket’ which I just couldn’t resist starting last week…oops! this is for s present so there’ll be no pictures until its finished.
BRING THE SEWING MACHINE OUT OF RETIREMENT. Now I know I have been saying this for such a long time but since my course with Sophie of Huxter kids a couple of weeks ago with I have renewed enthusiasm and confidence. I fully intended to start today on my day off but I had reports to finish off for school 🙁 (I have cleared the desk though and there is now space for her, so it wont be long til she’s back in action …)

She’s an old bird bless her but she still does a good job. I just need to see if I can remember how to thread her up and then we’re off!

7. Sew in ends on the itty bitty squares. I think it’ll be a while before I start joining them but at least if the ends are sewn in they’re ready to go.

Right, I’m off to finish the spring sampler, happy crafting!

Karen x

May project review

Seeing as it was almost half way through May when I actually posted my project goals for the month, it probably comes as no surprise that I didn’t complete everything I had planned to. However, I am happy with what I have achieved.

I did finish the winter berry embroidery and am very pleased with how it has turned out:

I started the spring craft pod box embroidery projects

I started out by tracing over the design on to the fabric with washable pen, changing a few little bits on the way. I just love the fact that with my new washable pens (fully tested on a spare piece of fabric!) I can make tweaks on the design and know that it will just wash off…genius! I have to say I am absolutely loving becoming reacquainted with embroidery and reminding myself of some of the stitches that I used to know quite well. I really cannot wait to get started on the zenbroidery mandala and I keep gazing at it longingly but I am absolutely determined to finish these 2 embroidery projects first.

The itty bitty squares are still sat in my craft room patiently waiting to have their ends sewn in.

My mystery project has grown a little and really shouldn’t take too long to complete but it was a little too bulky to take away with me last week on my trip back to England, so it shall still remain a mystery for a little while longer.

Any ideas what it might be?

Whilst back in England last week I did attend the sew your own jumper workshop with the lovely Sophie of Huxter kids where I made little Miss a jumper. I really think it deserves its own post though so watch this space for that later in the week.

Happy crafting

Karen x

May project goals

I’m all too aware that yet again I’m super late with my project goals for the month but bet late than never! In ‘normal life’ I’m actually one of these people who is always ready stupidly early for things and end up wasting so much time twiddling my thumbs waiting, so I don’t quite know why I’m always late with my blog posts. My excuse is that I’m always so busy making things that, much as I do enjoy writing my blog, I have to tear myself away from making things to write. Not a bad thing I suppose as I’ve always got something crafty to share.

anyway, here are my project goals for (what remains of) May:

Finish winter berry embroidery. This was from Winters craftpod box and although its not really the season for these colours now, I just want it finished and hung up in my craft room. This is as far as I have got currently so shouldn’t take too long to finish.

2. Start spring craftpod projects

I’m really itching to get started on these, especially the botanical sampler. Looking at some of the stitches on there brings back childhood memories of seeing my Grandma embroider tablecloths and later having a go at embroidery myself. I’m very excited about having a go at chain stitch and French knots again. I have to admit that the colours don’t really grab me so I may go a bit ‘freestyle’ with this one and substitute some of the colours for brighter ones that I already have in my sewing box.

Whilst I’m on the topic of embroidery, this week I stumbled across something called ‘zenbroidery.’ I spent hours pouring over different pictures deciding which one to order (yes, yes, I know I’ve a lot of other projects on the go, but I just had to have one!) Basically zenbroidery is a detailed picture printed onto fabric. The pictures are very similar to the adult colouring books that you get and the idea is that you ‘colour’ the picture in with thread. This is right up my alley! whilst I do have a colouring calendar and I do enjoy a bit of therapeutic colouring in, its not something I would ever frame and display, so it seems a bit of a waste of time. However, just imagine, a picture ‘coloured in’ with thread, that definitely deserves wall space! You don’t order them as a kit, as you choose your own colours and your own stitches so each one becomes an individual work of art. I cannot wait to have a go but I’m determined to be patient and finish my other embroidery projects first. Here is the one I’ve ordered….eek!

Anyway, I digress, back to the goals…

3. Sew in the ends on all 240 of these colourful itty bitty beauties…

4. Finish my mystery projects. I don’t want to say what this is going to be just yet as I’m really not sure how it will turn out but it should be finished by the end of the weekend…

As well as all the projects I have on the go, I will be flying back to England for some of half term week with little Miss. Whilst I’m back I’m very lucky to be taking part in a ‘sew your own jumper’ workshop with Sophie Bell-Carr at Huxter. If you have never seen her work, do go and have a look at her website. She makes the most amazing clothes for little people (and adults) and I’m very excited to have the opportunity to learn how to make a jumper for little Miss. Hopefully, using the sewing machine again will get me back into machine sewing and give me the kick up the backside that I need to get the bunting finished that’s all cut out and ready to be sewn see here. I will dedicate a whole blog post to the workshop once I have been and let you all know how it went.

Have a fabulous weekend.

Karen x

Bright stripes blanket

Finally here it is, drum roll please…

I won’t say a lot about it but let the pictures speak for themselves (and be warned there are a quite a lot of pictures, the excitement of finishing it plus the beautiful sunshine sent me a bit giddy!)

Now you’ve seen the pictures there are a few bits of information you do need to know…

The pattern is the cosy stripe pattern by Lucy of Attic 24.

The yarn is stylecraft special dk and the colours are the ‘original’ colour pack also put together by Lucy, available at Wool Warehouse, with a couple of other colours thrown in. Rather stupidly, I didn’t keep a note of the colours I used as I went along and the order was completely random. However, if anyone really does have a burning desire to know the exact order of the colours I used, I could work it out fairly easily.

I’ve had a bit of a love/ hate relationship with this blanket. I’m not really sure why but making it just seemed like such a long process and rather than get into a rhythm with the stripes I just got rather frustrated that each stripe seemed to take so long. I really did have to be in the right mood to pick it up but judging by the fact that it took me well over 6 months to complete, it would appear that the right mood just didn’t come along very often!!

Now its finished though, I do really love it, I love the bright colours, I love the eclectic feel of it and I really really love the border. When I had finished the yellow and green on the border, I will admit, I was tempted to pull it back and start again as it just seemed too gaudy and in your face. In the end I trusted my instinct and chose a further 4 colours to tone it down a little. I love how my friend Michelle described the border, she said the dark purple on the very outside provides the blanket with a full stop and I couldn’t agree more. What a lovely way of putting it.

As well as revelling at having finished another blanket I do like to reflect on all my makes. Whilst I do love how the bright stripes blanket has turned out, I think I would make the border even thicker if I was to do it again. 6 rounds of trebles seemed quite a lot as I was doing it but having looked at the photographs I took today I think it could have handled a chunkier border. Having said that though, I am thrilled with the overall effect and I just hope that the recipient, my sister in law Dianne loves it too.

I’d love to hear any comments or questions that you have about the bright stripes blanket and would be happy to provide more information on request.

Thanks for popping by,

Karen x

Enjoying the simple things

With all the lovely weather we’ve had here in April, there has been a lot of outdoor time here at Chez Oakley and a lot of pottering in the garden. Mr O has given the shed a fresh coat of paint, I have been planting flowers and weeding and little Miss has helped me plant A LOT of seeds. We planted pumpkins, spinach, tomatoes, peppers and courgettes which will all go into the vegetable patch once it has been weeded and prepared. We also planted sunflower seeds which I’m planning to put at the back of the vegetable patch to cover an unsightly wall.

I’m so looking forward to seeing the flowers grow and fill out the hanging baskets and the geraniums and lavender open up in the flowerbeds. Hopefully in just a few weeks the garden should be transformed by colour!

Of course as well as all the gardening, there has been time for relaxing outside too

We’ve also had a couple of really lovely days out at a local park. The first time we went with my friend Lou and her boys. Little Miss and the boys were absolutely fascinated by the tadpoles and water snails and spent a good couple of hours pond dipping. We made sure that all creatures were put back in the water they were taken from. I got a chance to have a play with my camera and try out some different settings and am really pleased with the result.

My favourite photo from the day out though has to be this one of Little Miss taken by my talented friend Louise Mackenzie with her super duper lens!

I’m planning on having this one printed out onto canvas.

Last weekend, a week after visiting the park with Lou and her boys, Mr O and I took Little Miss back to see if the tadpoles had changed at all. There was very little change to see but once again she was fascinated and spent a long time ‘collecting’ water snails and trying to spot the biggest tadpole (again all creatures were returned to the water). At one point one of the bigger tadpoles come to the surface to eat some algae and we actually saw it open its mouth, which for a little tiny tadpole is not something you can visibly see very often. Again, I had a play with my camera, trying out some manual settings (until the battery died, which wasn’t very long into our trip unfortunately).

We didn’t stay for as long this time and there was no crocheting done as the weather wasn’t so good and it had started to rain. As the weather is supposed to be lovely this weekend, I have promised another visit to the park so we can continue to follow the tadpoles progress. We’ll hopefully cycle there, take a picnic and make a full day of it and of course I shall be taking my crochet with the aim of squeezing a couple of squares whilst little miss plays. Happy happy days!

Karen x

April project round up

Ok, ok, so I know we’re into May already but it has been a very busy week and all I’ve wanted to do in the evenings has been crochet or sleep, so in my usual monthly project review fashion I’m a few days late!

I’m actually sitting here with a very big smile on my face because for once I very very nearly completed my project goals for the month.

It gives me tremendous pleasure to say that the bright stripes blanket is now finished after approximately 6 months. Here’s a sneaky peak but it will have its own post very shortly, once I’ve photographed it in all its glory.

I have now made well over 200 itty bitty squares for a blanket for Little Miss and am getting ready to start the joining process…eek, exciting.

The Winter berry embroidered hoop is halfway through but I’m not too worried that I didn’t finish it as planned as it hasn’t really been the weather to stitch a wintry scene so my heart hasn’t really been in it, at the moment I want to be surrounded by bright colours that reflect the beautiful weather we’ve been having and all the gorgeous shade of colour that can be seen outside at the moment.

I’ve also done a couple of other makes that weren’t on the list. I went a bit Mandala mad see post. Since then I’ve made another one from the beads that were left over and I think this is my favourite:

I also made this Scrabble tile picture for my husbands 5oth, I couldn’t let him get away without having something handmade for such a milestone birthday.

As the weather has been so glorious here on and off throughout April, I’ve done lots of outdoor things too (post to follow). All in all it’s been a productive month with lots of fun family time and I’m happy with that.

Karen x x

‘Hama’ time

As you may have noticed from my Easter makes post, we have been going iron bead (the ones we are using are not all from Hama but ‘iron on bead’ time wouldn’t have sounded half as catchy!) crazy in this house recently. It all started with little miss getting some for Christmas and spending hours painstakingly making different shapes, first with random colours and then following a pattern. She then moved on to making princesses from a kit that we bought. She absolutely amazed me with the time she spent and the perseverance she showed to complete them, we really only had to help her with the more detailed bits. She did such a super job of them that I decided they must be framed:

Not bad for a 4 year old!

When we bought the princess kit, I found a kit for making iron on bead mandalas and just had to have it. Little miss thought they were for her but I soon put her straight on that one! These were for me!

I know iron beads are largely for children but so was colouring once upon a time and I just loved making the mandalas, I found it so relaxing and therapeutic and could easily make them in whilst helping little miss with her princesses.

The kit came with 3 patterns but I only followed one of the patterns exactly and then adapted the others slightly. There were so many beads left that I’m planning on making another, completely my own design this time.

I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with them yet but they will almost certainly be displayed in my craft room somehow. I tried framing them in box frames like the princesses but they just didn’t look quite right, the frames just didn’t make the most of their roundness if that makes sense. Once I’ve made some more I may try attaching them together somehow maybe with ribbon. If you have any ideas of how I could display them to show them off at their best, please do let me know.

Karen x

April project goals

Just a quick post to record my project goals for April:

This WILL be the month I FINALLY finish the bright stripes blanket! Here it was before I sewed in the ends:

To reach a total of at least 200 itty bitty squares in the bright colour way,

(I currently have 137 and have calculated that I need 288 to make a single sized bed blanket but with my track record recently I’d be pushing it to try to reach that in a month!)

Finish the winter craftpod berry embroidery
Finish iron bead mandalas: these should be finished tomorrow, I’m very excited about them!

This month I am determined to complete everything on my list!! Hmmm, where have you heard that before!

Karen x

March project review

To recap, in March I decided not to set myself many goals so that I didn’t set myself up for disappointment once again. So, March’s project goals were:

Crochet the border on the bright stripes blanket after sewing in all the ends…
Make as many itty bitty squares as I possibly can by the end of the month (and add to each of the colourways as the mood takes me. I’ve even counted how many I have so far so I can see how many I manage to get done.)

Well, as usual I haven’t quite completed my goals but I’m not at all disappointed this time. I’ve sewn in the ends on the blanket and have done 3 out of the 6 rounds on the border (pics to follow in a separate post once FINALLY completed!)

My itty bitty squares stash in one of the colour ways I was working on grew a fair bit and another grew a teensy bit…

And, I’ve managed to do a fair few other crafty makes.:

Tuddy Pat and Wowly were created and became rubber stamps.

I got crafty with my Easter Makes

I started the berry twigs embroidery from my winter craftpod box (photos to follow once complete)

And I got bitten by the ‘iron bead’ bug. After making the Easter decorations and helping Little Miss with her princess bead kit, I found a fabulous mandala kit which I have almost finished (pics to follow, those beauties deserve their own post!)

So, all in all, March has been a fairly crafty month and my creative juices have been flowing at every available opportunity. I may not have totally achieved my goals this month but I have thoroughly enjoyed myself, I just love it when ‘must make’ projects crop up out of the blue, even if it does mean that the longer term projects take a back seat for a little while.

Karen x

Easter makes

I love decorating the house up for Easter and Christmas and have become more and more interested in handmade decorations rather than the shop bought mass produced decorations I used to favour. Whilst there’s absolutely nothing wrong with shop bought decorations I get such a buzz from making my own and seeing them in pride of place around the house. A few weeks ago I’d hung up the plastic eggs I had but they didn’t bring me quite as much joy as usual, I wanted to make some of my own but wasn’t sure how. I tried sprucing up plastic eggs a couple of years ago with sticky ribbon and stick on gems but they didn’t last and the sticky bits fell off. This year I wanted to do something different. Imagine my delight when I found a kit in a local shop with wooden eggs to cross stitch. It took me 3 nights to complete all 6 eggs but was well worth it, I just love how they turned out…

I bought some fake pussy willow branches to hang them on and displayed them in the hall…

Whilst I did love it, it just didn’t look complete, I wanted something else to hang on the branches too. Watching little miss making shapes with her giant Hama beads, the idea came to me, I could make decorations with the tiny Hama beads that I had in my stash from a Hama bead phase I went through about 10 years ago. These were the first ones I made…

Then, on Good Friday, Mr O had a bad back and was struggling to move so he decided to sack off the gardening he’d planned to do,join us on our Hama bead session and made us each an egg with our initial on…

Between us we made a few more…

I’m very pleased with how it all looks and they now have pride of place in the hall (pictured on kitchen table for lighting purposes). A real family effort! However, I am quite pleased that little miss found the tiny beads a bit too tricky so decided to stick to using her own maxi sized ones. It means that my beads are safe…for the time being anyway!

In other Easter makes I made these eggs with little miss by simply winding thread around a cardboard egg.

And then of course there was the obligatory Easter cake.

(sorry about the rubbish picture, we’d actually eaten some of it before I remembered to take a picture, plus the light was bad. The cake however, tasted delicious!!)

I had been looking forward to making this for weeks as it reminds me of Easter at home when I was little. Looking back I think I was actually more interested in eating the left over mini eggs than I was in actually helping to decorate the cake, hehe, some things never change!!

Karen x

These are about A5 paper size but I’m thinking smaller eggs with very thin thread may work as hanging Easter ornaments too…maybe an idea to store away for next year.