How to make a marbled scarf - or a marbled anything really!

I saw this craft and it's instructions posted on Etsy and I REALLY want to try this!

I think if I could get the hang of making a scarf this would be awesome on shirts or T-shirts- or even canvas shoes! but lets not get ahead of ourselves- as currently the only equipment I have to do this would be the bucket and water. Perhaps If I work on Ms Heap enough we can do this at hers in August? This is like a step on from Hayley's Tye-dying with bleach (Which was a step on from making rainbow tye dye- because I'm probably too old to be wearing that kind of thing anymore, which makes me a bit sad...) and I was really good at making marbled paper when I was a kid! that means I must be qualified to carry out this craft safely...

We shall see.

Anyway, here are the instructions- if you try this before I find someone who lives in a craft shop (no, I live in a junk shop- you want plant pots and extra tent poles and wool in a bazillion colours  I am your lady- I need to find someone with a more discerning collection of items- paint and a tray would be a good start!) let me know how you get on! 

You Will Need:Water
Alum (to set the paint into the fabric)
Methocel (to thicken the water and create a “size” so the paint floats on the water’s surface)
Household ammonia (helps thicken the “size”)
Bucket
Whisk
Large, shallow plastic storage container (your container will serve as a tray and needs to be the size of the fabric you want to print on)
Liquid acrylic paint
Paper
Paper towels
Iron and ironing board
Paint brushes
Newspaper (or scrap paper)
Large-toothed comb
100% silk or 100% cotton white fabric with a high thread count
Golden GAC 900 (to help the paint adhere to the fabric)

Stage One: Preparation

For your designs to adhere to the fabric, you will need to pretreat using a mordant called alum. Alum has been used for centuries as a natural ingredient when dyeing fabric.

Pretreat the Fabric

Dissolve ¼ cup of alum in a quart of warm tap water. (Note: double this mixture if you are dyeing a large piece of fabric, so the fabric will be fully immersed.)

Soak your fabric for 20 minutes and remove. Wring out the fabric in the sink or tub (do not rinse!) and let it line dry. Once the fabric has dried, iron it out completely, making sure to use the appropriate heat setting.

Prepare the Marbling Size

A marbling size is a suspension mixture which your marbling paint floats upon. I usedmethocel to create my marbling size, which will thicken the water just enough so the paint will rest on the water’s surface. There are other products on the market that you can use to thicken the water, but I prefer methocel because it’s quick to prepare and the mixture will keep for 3 days at room temperature or a week when stored in the fridge.

To create your size, slowly add 4 tablespoons of methocel per gallon of warm tap water to your bucket. (Note: double this mixture if printing on a large piece of fabric.) Blend the methocel and water with your whisk for about 5 minutes. You’ll feel the mixture start to thicken as you go. While you are whisking, add 1 tablespoon of household ammonia per gallon of water to the bucket.

When the 5 minute mixing frenzy has passed and your mixture is clear, pour it slowly into your tray and let it stand for at least 45 minutes. Rinse the bucket and fill it with cold tap water.

While you are waiting for the size to set, start mixing your paints. You’ll need to add an acrylic polymer (like GAC-900) to every paint you plan to use to ensure that your finished scarf is washable. The ratio should be one part GAC-900 per one part acrylic paint. For this project, consistency matters. You want the paint to be thin enough so that it will float on top of your methocel mixture – if it’s too thick, it will fall to the bottom. Aim to make all your paint mixtures the same consistency as whole milk, adding water if needed.

After the mixture has rested for at least 45 minutes, check to see if there are any bubbles. If there are, hold a sheet of paper that’s the size of your container on both ends and slowly lower it down until the middle touches the surface of the size. Let go of both ends and let it float on top of the size for a few seconds. Carefully peel it off the surface of the size and discard. You can use this technique to clear your size of any remaining floating paint as well.

Now you’re ready to start adding paint to the methocel mixture. To do this, take your paint brush and gently drop your first color on the surface of the mixture. You can place your drops at random or in a pattern to create different effects, but keep in mind that the more paint you put on the water’s surface, the less pastel your print will turn out. Don’t be shy if you have a large container; it’s going to take more paint than you think to cover the size’s surface completely. If you’re using a small container, take care not to add too much paint – if so, you will lose the surface tension of your size and your colors will sink.

Once you’ve added all the color you want, I recommend printing a test run on white paper to see how your paint colors may show on your scarf. Follow the same steps you took to remove the bubbles from the surface of your size, and this time, “pick up the paint” with your paper. If you like the results, you can lightly rinse the paper with water and lay it on a paper towel to dry.

Stage Two: Pattern-Making and Printing

Once you’re happy with the colors and arrangement, the fun really starts: it’s time to make your patterns. Experimentation is key – try any of the techniques below to make a pattern, or create your own!

Turkish Stone: Create different sized spots or “stones” with paint on your size. This is the beginning step to most other marbling patterns, and it’s the one you used above when you tested your paint colors on paper. Try using different tools, like a brush or dropper, to create drops in varying sizes. I like repeatedly tapping the brush with my index finger while moving across the surface to create smaller drops of paint. You can create concentric circles in your stone pattern by adding drops of different colors in the center of previous circles.

Back and Forth: Start with the Turkish stone. Next, draw through the size with an upside-down paint brush in a back and forth snake pattern. Repeat this movement in the opposite direction if desired.

Nonpareil: Create the back and forth pattern. Use your rake or a wide-tooth comb and draw it across your size in the direction opposite your back and forth pattern. Prepare for the psychedelic results!

Once you’ve created your desired pattern (I used back and forth), you’re ready to print on fabric! Holding the fabric on both ends, slowly lower it onto the surface so the center sags down and touches first. Let go, and let it rest for a few seconds. Carefully lift the fabric off the surface and put it straight into your bucket of tap water.

Slush it around in the water and rinse, being careful not to rub the fabric (or you might smear the design!) Gently wring it out and hang to dry.

Once your fabric is completely dry, you can heat-set the paint by ironing. Make sure to complete this step in a well-ventilated room – GAC 900, the fabric paint medium, can release fumes.

Hand-wash your fabric in warm water, air dry, and you’ve got a chic marbled scarf!

Our attempted walk from Northampton to Daventry... accidentally via the M1..

Today Karl, Emma and I went to meet Lars in Northampton and attempt to walk from Nothampton to Daventry to find the source of the river Nene.

I know what you're thinking- "oh, well, that sounds like a nice country walk, you might even get a tan! and it should be pretty easy as all you have to do is follow the river back to it's source."

Yeah, yesterday when I rang my mum and told her of our plans that is what I said too. And she scoffed at me.
My response to which was "well, we have an OS map so we won't get lost".
Touche.
I set myself right up there.

We started out by getting cake a hot chocolate- as no-one can walk 12 miles on an empty stomach.
We met Lars, and we walked onto the Nene way- which is a footpath that runs alongside the river and is clearly marked.


So it was all going very well for about 200m and then the signposts stopped saying "Nene way"- Come on Northampton council you have to at least give us a sporting chance?!
We figured it out and we did the first 2 miles or so admirably and in excellent time- it was cloudy, and warming up and the birds were singing and the sky was grey as normal- all excellent- as you can see:

Ok, so all going very well- then we run out of both River and path- the map tells us to walk though an industrial park and then we have the option to walk along the main road (noisy, smelly, but easy) or to take a left and walk along a footpath (pretty, quiet, what we came out for).
We went left.

Unfortunately we were
a) further on than we thought (actually, only 1/2 a mile from the village we ended up in 2 hours and 5 miles later)
b) on a housing estate that was too new to be on the map.
c) following directions given to us by an idiot.

We took the left, ended up on the hosing estate- and popped into the show home office where the lady assured us we needed to walk straight down, through the farm and onto the footpath there.
We did not.
But this is to be figured out in 5 miles time. Don't let me ruin this for

 you...

So, we take the footpath- here is Lars to prove it:

All very nice and sensible.
We go through the farm- which appears to be marked on the map as expected (Wrong farm) and follow the extremely muddy footpath at the other end:

OK- all going pretty well.
This is also when it started to rain lightly.
We didn't mind it to be honest as it was so warm and humid a little bit of rain was nice and refreshing.
We kept walking and came out in a field, more footpath sights , river (or so we thought) to the right of us- all going swimmingly well.. and then we came to this:

thats right- A lock.
The footpath met the road- which we were expecting, however, no lock was marked on the map.
Unlike the housing estate we couldn't use the excuse that it was too new.

We decided to walk on the roadside and look for signposts to help us work out where we'd gone wrong- after almost an hours walking- eventually we thought we'd fixed the issue and walked along the footpath by a busy A road. We followed it and followed it and followed it.
And then the signpost said "M1 Northampton"

This meant 2 things:
1) we couldn't walk that way anymore
2) we'd managed to walk out of northampton- and no-one could take that way from us!

We got the map out and the weather decided that was an excellent time to bucket down.
We wondered about a bit and came across this sign:
I've never been so please to see a road sign for Daventry in all my life!
Sooooo.. off we went- Lars managed to locate us on the map and we took a footpath through a field- rather than walking towards the M1 in the pouring rain.

Look at it.
That is pretty heavy.
We were all soaked to the bone- and everyone else's glasses were all steamed up.

We finally managed to find a village- and we walked round and round trying to find a pub.
Every time Lars saw a for sale sign, or an outside lamp or a flag he got excited and thought it was a pub.
We even considered taking a house viewing to get out of the rain.
In the end we ended up in a bus stop-shed thing with the map.
Success- there was a pub by the church with a spire (yeah, I know my map shit!) so we headed for the church- only to get there and find it was closed for refurbishment.
We were given another set of crap directions by the landlady to another pub on the other side of the village.
We stopped off in the shop for better directions on the way.

This is where we had ended up:



We went to the Cromwell Cottage- and it was lovely- for a start it was warm, had food and the staff didn't mind us taking our shoes off or putting our coats on the radiators.

We had some drinks and dinner and all cheered up and thawed out a bit.
The food was really really lovely- I'd go there again- but perhaps using a more direct route.
After our food and drinkies we decided to see how far we'd walked-- We worked out roughly that we'd done more than 6 miles- so if we'd been going the right way we'd have been over 1/2 way to Daventry- but as it was we were 3 miles from our starting point having walked more than double that!
We realised it was too rainy and getting too late to get much further, and we were pretty soaked though so we took the bus back to Northampton- which took about 10 minutes.
Gutting.
lol

I'm home and just about thawed out.
A cuppa wouldn't go amiss mind.

Little Chef and a road trip!

Traff picked me up today walking home from the train station after dropping my nan off- We went up to the garage to drop off the last bits of paperwork for le new car (I picked it up this evening and it's so exciting and shiny).

On the way home from Bromham, We decided to go on a bit of an adventure- to Give Traff a bit more driving practice and because there is no point in sitting about in the house waiting for a phone call to tell us when we can collect the car- waiting for phone calls makes time go super slowly.

We have a pootle around town in the car which was lovely- it's pretty weird to be a car passenger- especially in your own car- Traff then decided to take a drive up to his new place of work- in Wyboston- So a nice bit of dual carriageway practice and the horrible black cat roundabout.

To celebrate our successful arrival in Wyboston we went to little chef for lunch!
:D

Awesome.

He goes, She goes, they go, AYGO

So, I did go for a test drive today.
And I did buy a car.

Not the car I proposed to buy.

In fact, not even a car I'd heard of before I went to the Garage.

Traff and I were looking at the cars on the forecourt to see if they had a 2010 or 2011 plate Auris or a Yaris for us to test drive- and there, in the middle of the forecourt was this Bright orange, 2013 plate Aygo.
So We're dancing round the car "I go, he goes, she goes, they go, we all go.." taking the piss out of the name, and I turn round and theres a sales bloke.

"Oh would you like to test drive it?"
Best way out of an awkward situation.. "yes, of course we would".

It drives very nicely.
So I was still laughing- the second time in a month I've driven a brand new car (see courtesy car saga) and I was saying to Traff we'd never afford it.

So we went to speak to the sales guy- and I was totally prepared to fight off all their sales patter to the point of aggression.
"you don't pay any road tax as the emissions are low"
"you get a years free insurance"
"you get 0% finance"
"it's within your budget"

I was still arguing it was too expensive and I'd like to drive a bigger car and its expensive and is it really such good value? lalala.. and then I realised I was just being deliberately difficult.
That is a rather awesome deal.

They even threw in a USB port on the CD player.

So I paid the desposit. And they're ordering me the car. and I will have a new car in about a week!
I feel giddy with the immenseness of this decision.



I've never had a brand new car before.
This feels like insanity.

Cars. Dammit.

As you may already know, because I've ranted enough about it- My car is playing silly buggers.

I really love my car- it's lush- it's so lovely to drive and it has a big sunroof and it's a special sparkly blue/purple colour and it has keyless entry so it doesn't matter that I lost my keys some where in my ginormous handbag and it's all whizzy and fancy.
I have not fallen out of love with my car.
I have fallen out with Renault.

As a result I have been looking for a new car.

I think I have finally found something which I rather like- and having done plenty of careful research I have now booked a test drive.

Before I enlighten you as to my choice of car, please allow me to justify it.

1) It's super reliable.
2) It's cheap to insure/tax.
3) It's cheap to run.
4) It's for old people. Old people like good value, sensible unflashy things.
5) Toyota's garage fees are loads less than what Renault charge- e.g a diagnostic test with renault is £96 and they do that for EVERYTHING including blown fuses. Toyota charge £60 for diagnostics, and they change fuses, bulbs and punctures for free without a diagnostic test. Now that is common sense and excellent customer service- not to mention their idea of a "long" wait for repairs is 2 days - Renault have happily made me wait weeks!

For these reasons- and a few more which I'll happily divulge if asked- I have now set my heart on a Toyota Auris.

Just incase like me you're not so good at identifying cars- here is a picture of one with an old person driving it:


I bet you weren't expecting that.

I have a test drive booked for tomorrow- so I'll let you know what I think then.
It's much smaller and more economical than my current car- so that'll be a bit weird- but I guess it's time for a change.

As the mechanic said who came to repair my car (3rd time this month) said:

"People only buy a Renault once".

... yeah, I'm feeling that...

Swindon, shopping, rain, our goldfish ate his tank companion, and unco-operative cars

This weekend I had some pretty specific goals:
1) buy the damn bridesmaids shoes!
2) Go to grafton water with Traff.

On friday I got in from work and Traff was cleaning our our last remaining fish tank- Which we assumed contained Swimmy McNolegs (the slightly odd funfair goldfish) and Dale-the-snail- who we acquired by accident on a live plant we bought from pets at home.
(He used to live in aunt Edies tank, but since she sadly passed, we put him in with Swimmy- no sense to keeping a 30l tank for a snail.. right?)
We'd assumed he was under the castle, so we weren't too worried we hand't see him for a few days.

So we carefully took out all swimmy's plants and rocks and then his castle- no Snail, so we searched all his tank ornaments- still no snail.
I jokingly said to Traff "Oh, fatboys eaten his friend" and Traff laughed and carried on looking... 15 minutes later we started to think the worst..
I checked online and it said "Small goldfish will not eat Snails, however, larger goldfish will eat anything that will fit in their mouths"
Traff was like "surely he couldn't have eaten a whole snail.."
And no-legs obligingly opened his mouth as wide as it would go.. which was quite a bit bigger than poor dale.
So we must assume that be became an interesting snack. poor bugger.

I went to my parents on Friday evening- Which was really lovely- My sister was over too so we all mooched about drinking tea and watched the program on the BBC about re-creating Jane Austen's descriptions of the balls in pride and prejudice.
It was quite rude.
They talked for a full 10 minutes about how breaches are designed to show off a mans downstairs department.
My father was largely oblivious to what was going on and about 3 minutes later decided Ray and I should have a joint pride and prejudice style wedding.
My mother decided my father should wear a dress for modesty. He spent the rest of the evening looking a bit hurt and confused.

On saturday Mum and I went to swindon (Ray went to s spa at the the Hilton in Bracknell- I didn't know Bracknell even had a hilton? it must have gone up in the world)

I did get my shoes for the Wedding- Debenhams did us proud once more!

I also went to House of Fraser and bagged myself some bargains from Therapy! I got the red coat which I've posted below and I got a cute blue skirt with a blue and white waistband- I pretty much never buy clothes- last time I bought anything was in the january sales and before that? no idea.
the coat was £30 reduced from £100
The skirt was £7.50 reduced from £32


I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.

I also bought Kirstie's Birthday present- but I won't tell you what it is! :P

We also wen't to swindon Octogon for lunch- This place is so 70s it hurts- but I seriously recommend it- it's such a bargain place and the food is amazing (especially the cakes- and very generous servings of tea..)


I was trying to be a bit good and healthy- so I was looking at having soup- I turned round and my mum ordered us both massive bacon baguettes.. so I thought I may as well have a Giant millionaires shortbread to go with it (In for a penny, in for a pound- the lb kind in this case...)
It was awesome.
You can't beat a bacon sandwich - especially not on a rainy day!

We headed back to my parents- and they gave us their old house phone handset- as ours is a big button kind with a cord- and they gave us has an answer phone.
My Dad took it into work when they replaced the phone at my parents with a better one- and now the power station has closed they don't need it anymore...
So we're rehoming it!
(so now, you can call and leave us a message! that makes us sound like real adults!)

I got back really late because of the crazy rain. it was insane! I need another setting on my windscreen wipers- I had intended to grab a ready meal or something on my way home, but I was driving with so much concentration I forgot.
I got home with that feeling you've forgotted something.
I ended up buying dinner from Waitrose at about 9pm! it was worth the wait though- Goats cheese and Red onion Ravioli.

Today Traff and I were going to go to Grafton water- So that he could practice driving the car. We got to the end of the road and the "toxic emission" light came up on the dashboard.
So we just had to turn round and come home.
I tried putting more oil in t see if that would make the light go off. but it didn't. That is sort of the extent of my car fixing ability.

I have a man coming to fix it on Tuesday- so please everyone keep their fingers and toes crossed for good weather for my cycle ride to and from work for the next 2 days... or longer if it turns out that the car needs more parts.

So today has been a lazy one. And a slightly stressful one. but I can always wear my new coat to cheer myself up...

Picnics, Pubs, aeroplanes and Traff's Grandad.

Right, before I get started on today, I'd like to just point out how much my boyfriend looks like his grandfather...


And how summery we al look! I now have a sunburnt face, chest, neck and arms and I sprayed dry suncream in my eye.
Summer must be here. I'm red.


We took our picnic up to houghton house- I won't bore you with more photos -I've posted plenty on yesterdays blog post- but this was our lunchtime view.
Is that not a fair prospect?

After we'd been sat out for about an hour the sun went behind a massive cloud and we started to feel a bit chilly- so we took ourselves into Ampthill for a pint or two... (Of soda and lime in my case).

Then we went to the Shuttleworth collection.

Accidentally via Shuttleworth college- which is an imposing building- and they have alpacas.
True story.

Anyways- We took Traff's Grandad to look at aeroplanes as during ww2 he was an aeroplane technician, and we thought he'd enjoy explaining them to us.
And he did- We learned loads today!

For example- Amungst a great many other things, today I learned that this kind of plane was used for espionage during WW2 as it only needed a short landing strip. like a pre-runner of a jump jet. so they could drop spies off.


And I learned that this is used for winding planes propellers up- He also showed us how you do it manually and told us a story about someone he worked with who did it wrong and had their arm taken off!


This an aeroplane engine- without an aeroplane- how do the even get off the ground?! most aeroplane engines were made by rolls royce.





I had a really lovely day today, And it was action packed.
:)
And full of stories.

I like it when people tell me stories about their lives. proper stories.
I enjoy spending time with Traff's Grandad because he's done almost EVERYTHING he's 92 this year and what he doesn't know probably isn't worth knowing.

The other person who's stories I really enjoy is my Dad- That used to be the highlight of my driving lessons as a teenager- We'd take Frank-the-ford-escort out on the downs- and he'd point out places he'd been to as a teenager, In my Grandad Mac's Maxi.

He told me that when he was in the car with his mates they used to drive up the downs, then turn the engine off for the downhill journey and see if they could get further than last time!

steveington windmill, Cavalcade, Owls, Houghton house and how I parked in 2 ditches on 2 different occasions

Yesterday after our yummy dinner at the swan (who knew there were so many different ways to top a baked potato?! they are re-establised as the best kind of food, other than cake or macaroni and cheese..)
Traff and I went for a bit of a wander about in Bromham.

As we turned onto the main road we saw a sign for a windmill- so we started to follow road sights. after about 2 miles we decided it would be better to go back and get the car.

We followed the sighs from Bromham to Steveington and eventually tracked the windmill down!
You can collect the keys from the pub and go and have a look inside!
This will be a summer adventure.
They also have a christmas tree farm. I'd never seen one before.
It's weird to see sooo many christmas trees in one place and in may- In my mind they just appear in Winter.
Christmas trees are clearly not just for christmas.

In the evening we headed out for gins and ice cream sundaes with Karl.

Today has been pretty awesome too- We were invited to Meet with Michelle , Aaron and Fern and Rushton Cavalcade- We also met with Si, Karl and Anita too.

I very much enjoyed the cavalcade- its just a really massive country show.
my personal highlights were the 1800s bicycle display, the owls, the wolf-huskies and classic cars.
I also did some junk shop browsing.
And had ice cream.
What more could you want from a day out?
AND Traff for to tickle the belly of an owl.
I wasn't brave enough.

We had to head back for traff to go to work but we ended up leaving a little earlier than expected when we realised we'd parked my car illegally- it was announced over the tannoy.
I never said I was good at parking.
We had intended to move it and head back- but it took so long to un-ditch the car that we ended up just having to head back.

on the bright side I wasn't sat out long enough to get sunburnt.

Traff and I had lunch together- which is a real novelty- and whilst he had a nap on the sofa before work I made a picnic for tomorrow- I was pretty impressed- so that means I get a lie in on monday now too!

I dropped traff at work and I was just going to head home, but it was such a lovely day it seemed a shame to waste it- after all british summers usually end in June and sunshine is fleeting- so I took the car to Ampthill.
My plan had been to go to Ampthill park and have a look at the views- one of my work colleagues had told me before that it's beautiful.
What I ended up doing was going to Houghton house.
Which is pretty stunning on it's own.

I then drove into Ampthill- intending to find somewhere to park and walk back up the hill to Ampthill park but I didn't have any luck at all. so I went for a bit of a country drive back to Bedford.

I'm just mooching about now.
Trying to persuade my sister to book the indoor play centre in Swansea out for her birthday- they do evening sessions where you can take alcohol!
I'm not making it up!- Seeee:
http://www.theplayzone.co.uk/playzone-swansea/adult-activities.htm

I've also planted some night scented stock. I finally conceded that my fuscia plant is dead, so it has been recycled and I'm growing my seeds in the pot.
Our front room is starting to look a bit like a jungle.