Photos from bedpop and the & co launch

Today has been a very "full on" day. I went to Roller derby raining in the morning- had a few falls- and we finished training late. So I was shovelling in some cereals for lunch, getting changed, sorting my bag out and texting Lisa all at the same time to tell her I was probably going to be late!

I did make it and it was worth the chaos- our & designs will be on the & co (Formerly bedford creative arts) website and we each got to make a badge. :D

After that we went to the huggings to see the bed pop stuff and ran into Paul Pibworth who is so lovely. he has an exhibition there which uses near field transmitters which send information directly to your phone about exhibits when you're close enough. cool no?

Following bed pop we went to TKMax in search of orange and chocolate chip shortbread (No luck) and Lisa tried turkish delight for the first time (I am addicted, she was not impressed).

Threads of life Exhibition & Artist talk- Cambridge festival of ideas

On Tuesday night Tina, Prema, Phil & I went to the cambridge festival of ideas.

We went to the threads of life exhibition, which is artistic representation of protein molecules in the body and we attended a talk by the artist which was very cool.

Oxford with Abi & Jon

This weekend has been awesome.  There are so many amazing places I had forgotten about in the city outskirts!
On Friday night we drank pumpkin spice tea and watched the nightmare before Christmas.
On Saturday we had breakfast in maison blanc.  They do awesome patisserie and some of it is Halloween themed. I had a ham and cheese croissant but was very tempted by a giant spider cupcake.  And they have a tea menu!

I do not recommend adding bergamot oil to any food. it makes it taste like a soap.

After food we went to demijohns in jericho. I bought 30 quids worth of alcohol as part of my xmas shopping.  I also did a shot of gin at 11am. Which felt wrong.
We headed over to MOMA next to see their two current exhibitions.  

One was called 'freedom' by josh kline and involved an awful lot of resin doughnuts.

The other was 'fly me to the moon' by kiki kogelnik. Which was awesome.  I really liked her work.

We followed that up with shopping (I got sugar skull nail stickers in MOMA) and meeting Ray. And a trip to aldis for baking supplies.

We went back to Abi's for tea and mince pies. And caught up for a bit before heading off to the Cowley road to eat atomic burger!
I loved atomic burger.  I had a 'stray dog' and it was seriously good. I want to go there again and eat everything.

After dinner we walked into Jerich again and went to the last book shop. Everything us 3 quid and if you buy 2 things they knock a pound off. A fiver for two brand new books is very good value. 

 So, I have a book based on virginia woolfe's journals and I got the lily vanilly 'a zombie ate my cupcake' Halloween cook book for a quarter of the price it was in town. So we had all the sugar craft tools ready for Sunday.

Xmas sewing workshop

On Saturday,Jenny and I went to an Xmas crafts workshop at Tudor rose- There were 4 crafts on offer:
Xmas wreathes
baubles
fabric baskets
Quilted christmas trees

When we arrived (With bags of materials to use) the ladies running the workshop asked us which craft we'd be doing- And we replied "all of them" whilst looking a bit bewildered- who goes to a workshop and doesn't complete all the activities?!
They were laughing at us- we were the youngest in the room by a good 20 years- apparently the regular ladies just do one new craft and then go on a Tuesday to catch up whatever they didn't have time to do.

Well, incase you were curious, We did complete all 4 with excellent results!

This is my quilted octopus tree- and the craft I was the most excited about doing- it's a bit wonky, and initially I managed to cut my triangles really badly so ended up with bunting.
I think this ended up being my least favourite craft of the day- I enjoyed making it- I just can't see me making any more quilted xmas trees!

Although, it made a good hat.

The Baubles:

The baskets:
I also made bigger, bread basket sized ones- We now have a TV remote basket (For the 5 remotes which get lost round the front room)- I think I'll make big baskets for hampers next xmas and small ones for jewellery or little bits to keep them safe- this is a really handy thing to be able to make!

Xmas wreathes:
This was my favourite- but the one I was least keen on- I actually did this last as I wasn't arsed really if we had time or not- in the end, I'm delighted with my wreath and I'll probably make some of these as xmas presents next year.
It was time consuming and I have blisters on my fingers from pushing in pins- but oh, so worth it for the results!
And also relatively cheap- good for using up odds and sods of fabric which take up stash space.

On the way home we popped into sainsburys for hot chocolate and cake (Finest red velvet- we we earned it!)
We then decamped to the bedroom to carry on crafting whilst traff watched the final football scores and highlights (Norwich won, and scored 5 goals, he was really excited about it!) about an hour later he came in to see what we were up to, took one look at the mess turned round and walked back out!
I did tidy up, and it was just fabric bits.
Easily sorted!

Jenny also brought my glass from the fused glass workshop now it's been fired- how cool?!
All wrapped up now ready for other peoples xmas stockings- but I did keep some bits for my tree too :D

How not to make an embroidered cushion cover

Today, as it's my last day off now (for another 7 weeks urgh) I wanted to make a prototype for a new textiles project using embroidery.

I get really hopelessly bored when I'm embroidering anything. I love the finished product but I hate the repetitive, tedious task of sewing neat and perfect stitches. I swear I spend more time unpicking my embroidery than actually getting anywhere!
My mum is pretty damn good at embroidery- she had samplers hung up in the hall of the Oxfordshire house- And she has tried and tried to teach me, my progress was very slow.

I decided that the easiest way to motivate myself to practice the embroidery would be to "hit two birds with one stone" thus:
1) we need new cushion covers for the sofa- some of ours are tatty now and look a bit uninviting
2) I enjoy unusual homewares
3) So, buy some cheap, plain fabric for the covers and then practice the stitches for the textiles project- knowing that this is a home ware we need will spur on my progress.

So, I got some reduced price white fleacy fabric on Saturday morning before we headed over to Andy's.
When we got back I immediately measured and cut the sizes and pinned them- feeling really motivated and pleased with myself I went to plug in the extension lead for my sewing machine.
Then realised Traff had used it to put the washing machine.
So I had a potato farl break and watched the numbers tick down on the front of the machine- losing motivation every second!

Finally, everything was good- machine working properly, ace!
I managed to complete 3 of my 4 covers, and on the final seam of the last one, This happened:

I don't even know how that happened!
I'd already taken the pin out!
I do have more needles, but as I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself after my night out (and my hands are still shaking- I swear the needle unthreaded every time I even looked at it (I spent more time shouting at the machine than sewing today!) I've decided to leave that for another day.

I've marked out the patterns on two of the covers- I'll see how they go before I mark up the 3rd and complete the 4th.

I'll chalk this up as a partial success- especially as I know exactly where the machine needles are!

DIY pompom rug instructions

I'm not totally decided if this project is genius or a death trap (The last rug turned out to be quite deathtrappy because it likes to grab your legs!

I'll probably make one anyway- esp now I know that the cancer research charity shop sells balls of wool for like 25p.

I also expect it to be a disaster!

Small rugs are a great way to add color, texture, and comfort to a room. But they can be expensive and there aren’t always perfect options available. Though it isn’t usually thought of as an item you can make yourself, there is a very easy DIY rug method that only requires yarn and scissors.

To start this project, you’ll need to make a bunch of yarn pom poms. There are also pom poms you can buy from craft stores, but if you don’t want to use pre-made pom poms, you can make your own. Choose a color of yarn and wrap it around your fingers or a fork, then tie a strand around the middle so that all of the yarn is held in place, and then cut the ends of each loop of yarn.

A more detailed explanation can be found here if you need any further explanation.The number of pom poms you need will depend on how large you want your rug to be. The rug shown is about the size of a doormat and uses 48 pom poms arranged in 6 rows of 8. But the same concept of this tutorial can be applied to a larger rug.

Once you have your pom poms completed, arrange them in a pattern that you like based on their size and color. Cut pieces of yarn that measure the length and height of your rug and arrange them in a grid. Then tie each pom pom to its spot on the grid where each piece of yarn intersects. It works best if you start from the outside and work your way toward the middle.

Once all of the pom poms are added, tie off any excess yarn and place the rug with the grid facing down toward the floor. That’s all there is to it – enjoy your new rug!

This project can be very easily customized to match your home decor with different colors and patterns. You can make a pom pom rug that is just one single color. You can make one with stripes. You can make one that’s sort of a checkerboard pattern. And you can change the size and type of yarn. The possibilities for this project are nearly endless!