I'm Forever Cutting Circles...

I think I might have some kind of manic craft disorder. I can go for long spells where I have no desire for crafting. That would be the low end of the cycle. Then I cycle up to where I am now, in hyper craft drive, where I can't seem to stop myself and leave a pile of projects in my wake. Here's what I've been up to lately.

I volunteered to make a cake for my friends daughters birthday. She was having a Halloween themed party this year, and was looking for a witch cake. After a little contemplation (and research on the interwebs) I came up with this;



Yep, that's all cake. Well, except for the hat brim and ribbon. I had a heck of a time trying to make black icing, so I went with a purple hat and what I like to refer to as a copper kettle for the witches cauldron. Hey, it's cake. It's more important that it taste good (which by all reports, it did). I made the card too. I KNOW. Paper is usually not my medium, but a while back I finally bought the paper dolls cartridge for my Cricut Expression machine (it was a gift if you recall) and I gotta tell ya...it's fun. I never thought I would find myself making cards, but there you have it.

I also never thought I would find myself making wreaths, but in the past week I've done not one, but two. I saw a tutorial this time last year at WhipUp for this ruffly felt circle wreath and my initial instinct upon seeing it was MUST MAKE. However, the thought of cutting a billion felt circles with the tools already in my arsenal didn't appeal. Which lead me to buy a circle rotary cutter recently.



Now I'm addicted to cutting circles. I need project ideas that require circle cutting. Any ideas? I need to justify the purchase of the tool for something other than felt circle wreaths (although I could make a couple more of those too. Quite a quick project to put together, and the result is pretty and satisfying. I'm thinking either one in Christmas colours or another in blues and white to go with my living room Christmas decor). The wreath is almost finished, I just ran out of felt last night. You really do need to buy it by the meter for this project. It takes quite a bit more than you think.



I saw something similar to this at one of my local yarn shops and thought 'Ooo, that's charming.' Yes, I say stuff like that to myself. So I picked up a small wreath at the dollar store and hot glued some yarn balls from yarn stash to it and badda bing, badda boom, you gotcha self a wreath. I'm thinking some small knitting needles or double points might be in order somewhere on there as well.



Also for the aforementioned birthday girl, I knit this matching sweater and hat set for her Build-a-Bear friend Bunny (which I guess would make her a Build-a-Bunny, but I digress). I wish I had thought to snap a photo of Bunny modelling her ensemble. She was quite fetching in her new digs.



I've also been stash busting. I threw together this trick or treat bag for Miss A out of stash materials. I inherited this rather hefty orange canvas that I wasn't sure what to do with, but it came in handy. I've also made two of these and two of these but they are going to be gifts, so I'll just leave that as a teaser.



Finally, I finished this quite some time ago and have been meaning to throw it up here, but just haven't gotten around to it. It's a little cloth book that I put together for Miss A and was mostly assembled for her first birthday. It's genesis dates back to, hmmm, 2006? when I cut out all the pages and the letters.



I used the left over material from A's crib set to make the covers and remnants out of my fabric stash for the letters. I wish I had been able to do a little bit better job of outlining the letters, like say machine embroidery or something, but after four years, I just really wanted it completed so the quick and dirty route seemed to fit the bill.

And that pretty much sums it up for the time being. I'm currently caught up in a flurry of Christmas projects that I'll be gobsmacked if they're done on time. Every year I swear I won't do this to myself and then do it anyway. Guess I'll go pick one to work on for a while. Until later...

The Will To Blog...

...is hard to muster sometimes. A few reasons; first, I was on my own for two weeks while the constable was on course and for the first week I was sick, for the second the constable took the portable blogging machine back with him on said course. The stationary blogging machine (re: desk top) and I don't get along very well.

Anyhoo...

I'm worried that there is something very, very wrong with me. To illustrate, I present to you exhibit A.



A cake. I made a cake. For no apparent reason. I just was gripped by the notion that I wanted to make and decorate a cake one day and it wouldn't let go of me until I up and did it.



I think what started it all was that one day, I was thinking about little A's first birthday, which will be here freakishly soon (still five months away, but at the rate time is passing, it might as well be tomorrow) and what should I do for it and hey, we'll need cake and oh yeah, my mom used to make some pretty awesome cakes remember the time she made a little one and brought it to my third grade class that was both awesome and embarassing because there wasn't enough for everyone so I could only give some to a couple of other people so really what was she thinking? but anyway I could make a cake and hey, those fondant cakes are kind of cool I betcha I could do that let me Google that and see what I can find out.

Welcome to my diseased brain.

So I Googled and asked a friend of mine who makes cakes, bought some food colouring gel and well, here we are with a heap load of cake without a cake-eating occasion. This compulsion would've been helpful a week and a bit ago when it was the hubby and Hank's birthday. Oh yeah...



Birthday goofiness. Hank is two. Constable is older than that. Little A doesn't have a clue what's going on, but thinks it great fun anyway.



Speaking of her, this is how I found her when I returned from a minute in the kitchen. No idea how it happened. But, I suppose there are worse things in life than to be attacked by a soft, squishy sheep. She's my constant source of awesome in a day. She's...however many weeks older than the last time I posted. Yeah. Almost seven months. Let's go with that.



Now for knitting...oh, the knitting. Sometimes I feel a slave to it, I really do. I'm in the midst of a creative explosion at the moment, so there's a tragic little trail of works in progress strewn about the house. The above photo is the result of a solo trip to Have a Yarn prior to being abandoned, I mean, before the constable went on course. I think a few hours of autonomy combined with wool fumes left me defenceless to the lure of colourwork. It's a Lanett pattern and yarn and it's pretty and delicate and intricate looking without being overly so. Sized for 3 yrs. so I've got a while to work on it, which is a plus since I pick up and drop things at an alarming rate anymore.



There are some others, but in the interest of brevity, I'll just showcase the most recent and what I'm currently working on. From left to right, a wool soaker for my nephew for Christmas and a cabled earflap hat in the works to match (gotta keep all essential body parts warm and toasty); the Pretty Thing cowl a la the Harlot in the works in scrummy alpaca; an adorable little bonnet type hat for the baby (need a photo of her in it to really do it justice); and two felted pumpkins that I converted into little felted pumpkin baskets. I'm also crocheting food, but I don't have a picture of that at the moment. And I've got a few paper projects on the go as well. Damn Cricut machine. I KNEW this would happen.

Hmmm, anything else I need to get caught up on? I did make a couple of soups in my absense. One was what I call a Frankenchickenball Soup. It was chicken soup with chicken meatballs in it. My own recipe. Tasty enough but the chicken balls were too big. After that was a rushed french onion. French onion in celebration of being able to actually eat all the onions I wanted without having to get any grief about it while my beloved was gone and rushed because, well, I started too late in the day for eight hour soup in the crock pot. And you could really taste the difference. FYI, don't rush french onion. I did take photos, but, well, who cares really. Then it was Thanksgiving and I made a turkey but we ate it all before it got to the soup stage.

That should just about do it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and listen to the repeat of Q on CBC radio. I heard the morning broadcast and some female sportscaster totally dissed knitting during their sports culture panel discussion, and since I was playing with the baby at the time and only heard snippits of what was said, I want to make sure I have all my facts right before I send off my snarky little email. As an aside for anyone who listens to copious amounts of CBC radio like I do; a fun game to play while you're listening to Q is to count how many times Jian Ghomeshi says 'zeitgeist'. Can also be played as a drinking game.

Until later...