The summer I took to burning my shoes .... literally!

I love Swedish clogs. Absolutely adore them! I watched Carrie Bradshaw strut her stuff in some amazing Swedish Hasbeen high heeled clogs and desperately wanted some. Unfortunately, my wallet didn't quite stretch to proper Hasbeen prices. Fortunately though, I encountered a lovely company based down in Twickenham who offered some lovely Swedish clogs at more modest prices. I bought my first pair - in a delightful red - from Lotta of Stockholm, some three years ago. Even got them off the seconds sales which was even better. They are super comfy and a favourite summer wardrobe staple.

A few months ago, during the summer of 2015, I bought myself a second pair of clogs from Lotta. A delightful tan pair with lovely 7 cm heels carved out of a pale Swedish alder wood and vegetable tanned leather uppers. See? Aren't they lovely?

The more I looked at them, the more I felt the urge to do something to them. I mean, look at all that gorgeous pale wood. These shoes were just screaming out for some Craftyady attention. So I dragged my pyrography machine out and decided on some burning.

I played about with a floral design and drew it onto the lightly sanded heel. Once I was happy with it, the burning commenced.

I was incredibly pleased with the finished results. After I was done, I rubbed a bit of olive oil into the wood to protect it (it's what Lotta recommended) and they were ready for an outing.

I wore them to the summer graduation ceremonies where I stood for a few hours watching my students graduate following their years of study at the university. They were so comfy and they looked really nice too. Always a bonus! Here's another photo of the clogs on my feet - not the best photo ... It's really hard to take a decent shoe selfie!

Once I had done my first pair of Craftyady customised Swedish clogs, I was hooked! Remember how I said in the beginning that the very first pair I ever bought from Lotta were red ones? I decided that they needed the Craftyady treatment too! I'll go find the photos from that project and tell you all about it in my next post.

Until then, have a great day, friends.

To market, to market

Some time around October last year, my friend invited me along to a country market that she is a member of. "You should join," she said. "Your crafts are just what we need." So armed with a box of my 'produce', I went along and met the members of the Wythall & Hollywood Country Market.

"What's a country market?" I hear you ask.

Well, the country market I am a member of is part of a larger group called Country Markets Limited. It's a cooperative limited company which coordinates and organises regular sales of home-made  goods - food related or craft - by individual producers. There are lots of country markets all over the UK and each is run co-operatively with no stall or table dedicated to any particular individual. Each member of the market is expected to take their turn staffing the stalls and helping to run the market. The sales income from the produce goes to the country market which then returns 90% of the sales income back to the producers.

The little country market I have joined is called the Wythall & Hollywood Country Market. Wythall and Hollywood are two suburb areas on the outskirts of Birmingham. Our market is made up of a number of individual producers, offering fresh vegetables and eggs, wonderful baked goods like cakes, scones and cookies, homemade jams and chutneys, delicious home cooked stir fries and pizzas, handmade greeting cards, knitted items and wooden items decorated with pyrography.

Being a part of the market has been great fun. I attend every Saturday morning with my produce and we have a lovely time hanging out together. The market used to be in a local library but since November last year, has been moved to a new location. We are trying to build up greater awareness of our presence in the area to encourage more visitors and customers. It's pretty quiet at the moment but I think word is spreading and as the weather improves, we will likely get a higher footfall at market. 

The variety of produce I offer at market ranges from my hand bound journals to leather and felt brooches, wood burnt boxes, personalised bookmarks and gift tags, fabric zipped pouches and foldaway shopping bags. Here's an example of some of my produce on display.

I have really enjoyed getting back into my pyrography and being a part of this market, although trying to juggle work, family life and the crafting for market can be tricky sometimes. But hey, you know me - I like challenges like that. :-)

Until next time, happy crafting, friends. xxx

(Oh by the way, if you're on Instagram, you can find me there as @craftyady.)

Helloooo out there!

I am so sorry I have been missing for so long. Life just got in the way of blogging. I still craft and bake and run around after the small persons who are not so small any more. Dinoboy is now a teenager and MissyMoo is 8. Time just flies by, doesn't it?

So how have you all been?

Aside from doing my usual CraftyAdy stuff, I joined a local country market society last November. It seemed a good way to make new friends and have an outlet for my produce. I will tell you more about it another day. Just wanted to send out a virtual wave.

A bit more catching up stuff - better late than never

I meant to post these wayyyyy back when it was Halloween but never did for one reason or another ... main reason being that I am rubbish this year! So behind in everything!

So this year at Halloween I continued what I started last year - which was carving pumpkins for the kids, for school and for my workplace. All in the name of fun. You might remember that last year I shared my inspiration for carving pumpkins here.

Here are this year's pumpkins. This was the first one of 2012.



which when lit looked like this -



Then there were these guys who went to school with Dinoboy and Missy Moo. Missy Moo wanted a not so scary one and Dinoboy wanted one with teeth.



They looked like this when lit -





The big chap in the middle below came to work with me and sat at our reception desk trying to scare students for several days.



Franklin Fangs from last year made a command repeat appearance. A friend of mine started teaching at a new junior school and she asked if I could carve her one for her new class.



They even got to light him towards the end of the school day.



All in all a pretty successful series of pumpkins I reckon.

On this special day in November, I wish those of you who celebrate it a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Lord, 'tis Thy plenty-dropping hand
That soils my land,
And giv'st me for my bushel sowne
Twice ten for one.
All this, and better, Thou dost send
Me, to this end,
That I should render, for my part,
A thankful heart.

~Robert Herrick

More amigurumi

I'm trying to find all the photos of stuff I have been working on over the past few weeks to share with you. Here are some more amigurumi I made after the birdies.

This is Zingy. He is the star of a tv advert campaign for one of our power companies. I found the freebie pattern on Ravelry and simply had to make him. Check out the funky remix of the first advert here and I particularly like this one.



Seriously - look at that face.



For a laugh I decided to use the leftover yarn I had lying around after the birdies to make this ...
it's a blob. No other way to describe it. LOL! He sits on my desk at work and just smiles at me.



There is one more to share with you but I'll have to do it another time. Got to go wake the kids up for school now. Have a great day, friends.

Distractions

I can't believe it took me so long to try my hand at amigurumi. A friend introduced me to Craftsy
where they do all sorts of really neat online video classes. I found one done by Stacey Trock on amigurumi and here's my first ever big amigurumi.



Blue bird was followed by pink bird for Missy Moo.



These were made using aran weight yarn (I think our friends in the US call it worsted weight). They work up really quick and are seriously cute.



 I might try moving down to DK yarn to see how much smaller the amigurumi get with a smaller gauge yarn. I'm quite comfortable working with the bigger yarn at the moment whilst I get to grips with increasing and decreasing etc.

The birdie project led to a couple of other amigurumi projects which I will share in my next post. Have you tried amigurumi? I can see why folks like it so much. It's quite addictive and very distracting. I spent hours browsing through the amigurumi patterns on Ravelry. There are thousands of them!!

Have a fabulous day, friends.

A UFO finished - the crocodile stitch hood

In January this year, I started a crochet project - the crocodile stitch hood by Bonita patterns. Then some other projects came along and this got put aside for a bit. I then picked it up again, only to run out of the yarn I was using. I managed to buy some more of the same yarn - which came in a skein which needed to be rewound into a ball - and got sidetracked again. Story of my life.

It was not until I got back from our Malaysia trip that I decided I was going to crack on with this WIP or UFO or whatever it was and just finish it. It actually didn't take me as long as I had feared it would take. And the rewinding of the skein into a center-pull ball was not as painful as I thought it was going to be.

I nabbed Missy Moo and made her model it for me. It looks a lot better on her than it does on me. See what you think.



The yarn is a fabulous 55% merino wool and 45% silk mix by Fyberspates called Scrumptious. This is their 4-ply sport weight yarn. It's so soft and the silk gives it an amazing handle. The Scrumptious comes in a DK weight too and will be my go-to yarn if I do make this again for myself. I'm thinking that moving up to a thicker yarn and a bigger hook might make it better. This hood just about fits me but I'd like it to be looser - the way it fits Missy Moo.



"Please mummy, can I have one of my own? Pleasseeee??" See this? This is my daughter's woeful deprived-of a lush-hood waif look.



And this is Missy Moo when I told her I will make her a hood of her own. In pink. She is happy now.



I love the way the scales frame the face. It makes her look like a pixie, don't you think?



So next up will be a pink hood for the little miss - exactly how long that's going to take to finish is another issue. There have been many distractions since I started on the pink hood for Missy Moo. I will share these with you shortly.

Wishing you a fab Friday, friends. x