Horror Film Screening

On Thursday evening Anders and myself went to a screening of Jugface and Q&A with Lauren Ashley Carter. This was organised by the Grimm Up North company that host the GrimmFest horror festival. 

The showing was in Manchester Central Library. 

The tickets for the film were £6 each and we paid £11 for parking. I didn't take any photos of Lauren Ashley Carter because I didn't want to appear rude or stalker-ish. I'm sure that she is used to it though.

What Anders got a bit excited about was as we were leaving the car park a guy whizzed past us on his bike and Anders said it was John Robb. Now I only caught a quick glimpse. It may have been him but then again I do have poor eyesight, it hasn't stopped Anders telling people that he's seen him though.

This Old House

This week Anders popped up in to the loft to find something we thought Little L might like.

We packed this doll house away when Little L began to find her feet as a toddler. I was worried in case she managed to pull it over on to herself so it has been in the loft since then. 

It had been passed around a few times before finding a home with us. My brother in laws boss had it built for his daughter and when she grew out of playing with it he offered it to my sister for my niece. Luckily she wanted it because if she didn't it was destined to be burnt on a bonfire. My niece had it for a while then it was passed to my Mum who had it in her spare room for the grandchildren to play with. When she got sick of dusting it, it came to us. My boys and his friends played with it a lot when they were little. Not much of the furniture has survived since then but it was never fully furnished away.

The roof could do with a fresh coat of paint but Little L thinks it's fantastic. She cleaned it and set up what bits we do have. This is going to be a long project for me and Little L though Anders is now trying to muscle in, he's talking about putting lights in it now. 

A Bit Quiet

Hello.

 I thought I'd better pop on here and explain why the blog has been a bit quiet lately. Nothing exciting has been going on it's just that we have made a start on decorating the living room and it is not going to be a quick job. It has taken us weeks to acquire enough boxes to pack stuff away. We're not going to be keeping much of the furniture only one of the bookcases and TV unit. Anders is going to be building us some new storage, a pc desk (though that one is the last thing on the list of jobs) and coffee table at work. We are then replacing the sofas, cabinet, dining room set, basically everything else in the room

These shelves have now gone (My friend had some of them for her house)

and so have these bookcases. As you can see from the photos, we're not minimalist type of people but I have been having a good sort out along the way.

We have stripped most the old wallpaper from the walls and uncovered this stenciling which goes all around the room. After speaking to my Mum and a friend who live in the same type of house, they also have stenciling so I wonder if they were all decorated this way after they were built. There are lots of holes to fill and bits of plastering to do before we can get to the actual decorating part. That's the part of it that I enjoy doing and I can't wait to get started.

Fleece Ear Warmers

A few weeks ago Jenny from Winnibriggs House posted a handy tutorial for making ear warmers and hosted a giveaway for the materials to make one. I was lucky enough to be one of the recipients.

This lovely package arrived at the end of last week. It contained a beautiful hand written card, fleece in a chosen colour plus some black fleece to practise on or make extra ear warmers, velcro for the fastens and two pins to attach to the warmers. As Jenny knew I would be making mine for Little L she made some especially for her depicting some of her interests.

Aren't they cute? Little L was delighted. I think that Caleb (who will be 18 next month) even had his eye on the pirate one. It's a wonder him didn't try to bribe it off her.

After the weekend I got cracking straight away. There was no way Little L was going to let me hang about knowing that they were for her.

She loves them. So handy in cold weather especially as Little L as an aversion to woolly hats. 
If you would like to have a go at making some for yourself the tutorial can be found here. Thank you again Jenny for this kind thoughtful gift.

Siamese Fighter Fish Picture

Yesterday I gave sewing a rest and fetched out my paint. 

I wanted to make something with my betta fish on and not being an artist decided this was the easiest way for me to create a picture.

Using this photo of Scaramanga I produced an outline of him. I traced around the photo, coloured it in on the PC then printed out a copy.

I removed the glass from a picture frame (this one was £3 from Matalan), placed it over the image and traced the outline using a permanent ink pen.

Using acrylic paints I began to fill in the drawing. This photo is of the first coat of paint. It took three coats to cover properly but it didn't take long for the coats of paint to dry.

I then cut some patterned card to place inside the picture frame.

Felt Heart Cushion

Today I made another heart themed item, a cushion which is going to be a Valentines Day gift for Little L. The only cushion pad I had at hand measures 12in x12in so it's not very big.

After my fabric pieces were cut out I pinned the felt hearts in to position and drew on heart shapes in between. The hearts are spaced about an inch apart.

The felt hearts were sewn on using my sewing machine then the hearts that I had drawn on were outlined in chain stitch with embroidery thread.

The cushion has a simple envelope closing back. I inserted some pom pom edging when I joined the front and back pieces together.

Jute Heart Bunting

Last week I began to dismantle these jute gift bags that have been hanging around the house for a while. The fabric was quite stiff as the back had been coated, it looks like a layer of dried glue.

I was limited as to what to reuse use the fabric for due to the size of the pieces and I settled on making some bunting.

I marked out a triangle and heart shape on to the fabric

and chain stitched around the heart shape with some DK cotton yarn.

I cut out the triangle shapes and using a sewing machine, sewed on the crocheted edging

then glued some buttons on to the top corners of the triangle.