live fast, die young...

NOW CAN YOU TELL WHAT IT IS?!

I'm over halfway through and I haven't been sitting doing this all day.  Just call me Speedy Beady!  (And excuse the awful photo again - I snapped it on my phone in the pre-bed half light, hardly ideal beading conditions!)

Jesus, what am I doing with my life?!  This is one of those projects that makes me think that thought repeatedly.  I mean, really, why am I doing this?  Who knows?  Though I often think that about reading (because when you die your brain and everything in it will be lost*) and I still carry on doing it.  But I'm starting to really enjoy fiddling with beads and skinny needles and thread.  And now that the beaded area is getting bigger, it's reminding me of the time my sister and I went along to the Antiques Roadshow with my granny and she had a beaded Virgin Mary which turned out to be worth quite a lot of money.  Then she left it at a petrol station on the way home.  Somehow, it got returned to her at a later date, though I can't for the life of me remember how...  

I'm thinking of embarking on some crazy ambitious bead project once this one's done.  Probably not the Virgin Mary, but something equally ostentatious, naturally!  I'll make sure all my beads are the right size first, though.  All these are meant to be the same size, but the white ones are massive and the black ones are tiny.  Well, really it's not even a mm of a difference, but it definitely has an effect on the uniformity/density, as I'd feared it would.  The row with almost all green beads (about 2/3 of the way down) is how it should look and would look if my other colours were as reliably consistent.  I guess the real test will be when I take it off the loom.  Hopefully it doesn't collapse or go irredeemably wobbly in the black sections.

I think I'll finish this before the week's out.  Watch this space!

* It's morbid thoughts like these that have pushed me into this sort of occupational therapy, my own equivalent of basket weaving.  It really helps.  It's probably unhealthy distraction/denial, but in a way it's kind of close to mindfulness, which is the psychology buzzword of the moment.  I'm a natural at this crap, obviously - pointless crafts and self-prescribed pop psychology...

taking it slow

Now can you tell what it is?!

I'm picking up speed at this beading thing, but it is still very slow.  But it's quite nice to switch off and take my time with something kind of pointless.  It's either classic avoidance/procrastination or first-rate occupational therapy.  I no longer think it will take me all year to finish this.

make it quick, make it slow

 Dulcie has been at my mum and dad's this morning and, in a bid to make sure today was better than yesterday, I decided to do some making in my new craft corner.  First of all I made these mix-and-match fridge magnets for Dulcie using a heads and tails game I found in a charity shop and some magnetic tape, also found in a charity shop!  I'd been planning to make these for many moons, but seeing a similar project in Jane Foster's new book spurred me into action at last.  They were so quick and satisfying and are really cute.  I hope Dulcie likes them.

 Once I'd warmed up with that little activity, I embarked on the first of my Craftathon 2015 crafts.  Yeah, remember Craftathon 2015?!  I might be slow off the mark, but I'm making a start at last and tackling bead weaving.  Bead weaving?  Beading?  Loom beading?  I don't know what you call it, but making things with beads and threads on a loomy type thing.

This make is SLOW!  And very fiddly and a little bit frustrating.  Plus I have no confidence that it will work because the black beads are much smaller than all the other colours for some reason (annoying) and I expect that will make it go wonky.  Ah well, I'm giving it a bash anyway, though I have a feeling this might take most of 2015 to complete and will it be worth it?  Probably not.

Can you tell what it is yet?  I know one person who might be able to guess.

outbid

Grrr!  I hate getting outbid on eBay.  This vintage pegboard was intended to play a part in our wedding but I was gazumped at the last second.  I kind of had my heart set on it, but it sold for more than I would have paid and even the (surprisingly expensive) new versions still look pretty retro, so I guess we could get a new one.  That's some consolation, but bah!  And all this in the week I realised I will never fit in my intended wedding dress, a beautiful '50s number in need of some TLC.  Let's call the whole thing off!

You may wonder what part a vintage pegboard would play in a wedding, so I guess now might be as good a time as any to start sharing some details of our nuptials.  We are tying the knot in Jaconelli's cafe, where we've been going since pretty much day one of our relationship.  It's special to us because of that, but is also special for the fact that it's a beautiful old-school cafe that's barely changed since the 1960s.  And their cooked breakfasts/coffee/ice cream are pretty special too!  We always joked we'd get married there if we ever tied the knot, but when we stared thinking about venues, we both felt that really would be the dream one for us.  We weren't sure how the owner would feel about the idea but he literally could not have been happier and has been so enthusiastic and accommodating already, which has added to our own excitement and happiness.  Jaconelli's won't hold many guests, but we are planning to invite plenty of friends to join us at our flat afterwards.  Yes, our flat.  I still can't decide whether we're geniuses or maniacs...  So most of our wedding planning so far (other than booking the registrar, buying a dress that doesn't fit and spending too much time on Pinterest) has involved working on the flat, trying to make it fit for visitors by August.

I think that's enough wedding chat for today, yes?  But do let me know if you happen to have an old pegboard that you're looking to get rid of.  Thanks :)

P.S. Look here for a photo of Baby Dulcie of the past in our future wedding venue!

swim sunday #16

(This crochet pattern available here.)

Lengths swum this week: 38
Target total this week: 870

Total lengths swum: 876 (6 ahead of target)

I'd need to swim 47 lengths this week to meet next week's target.

Just one mini swim this week since I've been feeling rubbish.   I still am, so I suspect I might fall behind this week, but I'll do my best not to.

crafting a crafty space and crafting in it

 

 Part of our ongoing work in the flat, and our most recent "accomplishment", has been to repurpose what was once our bedroom into a craft/music/play/laundry/spare-bed room.  My craft corner in said room is still a work in progress, but it's getting there.  I should have taken a picture of it before I'd pulled so much stuff out today.  It's tidy again now and I hope to be able to keep it that way, though it doesn't seem likely, given my track record.  Anyway, today I actually did some crafting in there for the first time, and you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs!

 I've made loads of these pointy kitties in my life, from a free pattern by Hillary Lang, but I hadn't made one in a long time, not since Dulcie's first birthday.  The one I made today is a birthday present for Dulcie's friend who happens to be called (wait for it) Kitty.  Yeah?  You see what I did there?  We've known about the birthday party for over a month and I made this with just 48 hours to spare, but that's quite organised by my usual standards.  Honestly, I can't believe I've made it at all.  I'm so glad not to be doing a last-minute present dash and buying something that makes me feel queasy for the environment...even if the kitty has turned out a bit weird looking!

I even managed to try out this nifty needle threader today.  I got it in my advent calendar from my sister.  It's a strange contraption, but boy is it good at threading needles!

It was really quite relaxing to craft in a dedicated crafting space today.  For the last couple of years I've been dragging supplies and equipment out of storage and into the kitchen every time I wanted to make something, knowing I might have to clear it all away before I was finished.  There's still a lot of organising ahead of me, but already getting this job half-ticked off the to-do list has improved our quality of life.  Dulcie and Graham are loving the new multipurpose room too.  Progress? Progress!

the castle captured me

I'm off work today, still feeling heart ill.  But really, I couldn't have wished for a nicer day as I've spent almost all of it reading I Capture The Castle.  If you've read it, I'm sure you'll understand how it could make even a day of illness so spectacularly wonderful.  I'm almost a bit sad to have read it, as it means I'll never have the joy of discovering it again.  And that's always a good sign.  I LOVED THIS BOOK! I loved it, I loved it, I loved it.

Thanks for the recommendation, Lynsey :)