rubykittyruby

I woke up this morning to frost outside and a very definite chill in the air.  Inside, the central heating's chugging away, and I keep imagining my energy bill going up, up, up, but what can you do?  A family member's just had a heat pump and solar panels installed at his home, and it'll be interesting to see how low his energy bills go in the winter months ahead.  I honestly don't understand why our government doesn't launch a huge investment programme across the country, insulating homes and installing solar panels wherever possible.  I know it'd cost a fortune, but it'd be good for the nation's health & well being.  Whether that's pensioners shivering in cold, damp homes, or poorer families not having enough money to eat well or pay childcare costs as they're struggling with huge energy bills.   Anyway, enough of that.  I've been carrying on with various crafty projects.   My 'colour study' efforts are continuing.  So far I...

  Here's a round-up of what I got up to yesterday in regard to all things crafty.  I made a few more stamps for use when gell printing.  They're simple shapes, inspired by watching Elizabeth StHilaire on YouTube and her Botanicals foam stamps that represent stylized versions of poppy seed heads, leaves and flowers.   I used Hobbycraft adhesive backed craft foam and leftover pieces of plastic to stick them to.  Plus a hole punch to add the dots.  The resulting prints aren't sophisticated, but I'm happy with them.  They add a natural look to a background, and you could paint or draw more finely detailed images over and around them.   I also decided to make a - well, what do I call it?  It's a single sheet of cardstock folded into three.  In a Megan Quinlan video she refered to such a folded card as a book, so maybe it is a mini-book?  I'd previously made a little collage in a journal, with the wording 'Keep Our Oceans Plasti...

  The Olympics have begun, and even someone like me who's not that bothered about sports ends up watching all kinds of weird & wonderful contests.  I become an armchair expert, criticising a dive or a jump, a kick or a badly timed manoeuvre.  Of course, being an armchair expert means I can keep one beady eye on the telly and the other on some hand-stitching.  I'm making progress with my Creation themed wall-hanging, though I'm still not 100% convinced it's going to all come together and look good.  My landscape's got too much of a post-apocalyptic look about it right now.  Doesn't so much say 'isn't the world a wonderful place?' as 'the end of the world is nigh, repent! repent!'.  Oh well, I'll soldier on, it may get better.   I finished reading this, which was pretty good overall.  The story moved along at a rapid pace, the details of life in 1938 Germany were chilling and appeared well researched.  If I had reservations it's t...

  I was going to do some cleaning.  No, really!  I was.  But the vacuum cleaner's decided to give up on life.  I've tried resuscitation.  Switching it off and on again.  Also swearing at it.  But it won't work, and I've yet to buy a replacement.  I'm debating whether to buy a cheap 'n' cheerful model for about £60 or so, or splurge on a Henry at a more substantial £140.  The Henry looks like it'll last longer and be robust, so I suppose I'll end up getting that.  Anyway, being cleaner-less gave me an excuse to spend time on craftiness.  First up was this bag.  I'd decided that it needed an inside pocket.   So I dug out this denim pocket harvested from an old pair of jeans.  A simple task to sew it to the bag's lining.  A nifty bit of upcycling, I hope you'll agree.   Also completed is another zokin.  I went off-piste with the sashiko stitching and for some reason added circles. ...

It's Sunday afternoon, my mind's turning to 'what's for tea?' and there's a decent drama on BBC iplayer that I can binge-watch this evening.  So life's not too bad in my corner of the world.  This is a mixed-bag of a blog post, a jumble of projects completed and ones that're works-in-progress.  I was supposed to be attending an embroidery workshop yesterday, but unfortunately it was cancelled.  The tutor's car broke down in the wilds of North Yorkshire, so I settled instead to some sewing and listening to podcasts.  This little stitched piece is just basic running stitch and back stitch, and is meant to be stylized cow parsley.  I've got scrapbooks into which I've stuck images from magazines or flyers, anything that catches my eye, and the idea for the cow parsley came from a page in one of those scrapbooks.   I think it was an Angie Lewin lino print that gave me my jumping-off point.   It's a calico background that's been painted wit...