Showaddywaddy......?

I think I'm showing my age a bit when I say that I am really really excited to be going to see Showaddywaddy at Pitlochry Festival Theatre this weekend.

If you are now thinking "Showaddy..what ?" or "Showaddy..who ?" then I can only feel sorry for you that you are not old enough to have experienced the glam age of mid '70s music. Of course, I was just a child at the time....

If I can only contain my excitement for another day and concentrate on work I'll be doing well. I seem to have forgotten how to take photos these days.

There's been a lot of crochet going on and I am nearly ready to start on my Easter window so pop back in a few days and see how it turns out.

Scrap Happy Theatre Company

I've been working today !!!

Not a life shattering event for most people but I don't normally have to work on a Saturday. I realise that having Saturdays off is a  luxury that most shop owners only dream of. This is when I appreciate having nearly grown up kids, who are willing to work in mummy's shop for a minimum wage, so that mum and dad get to go out to play for the day.

However, today I had a craft fair in Blairgowrie organised by Scrap Happy Theatre Company. This is a local youth theatre group and the kids performed on stage throughout the afternoon which was great to see. What a lot of talented young people live in our small rural community. So, it really didn't feel too much like working to be honest... sell a bit.. chat a bit... watch a performance... chat a bit more. Not bad for a rainy Saturday afternoon.

My neighbour was a lady called Clara, who I have met a few times now. She uses precious metal clay, (PMC)  and makes some lovely jewellery. I found out today that she has started blogging but is still finding her way around Blogger. So if you fancy a look at something a bit different, please pop over for a visit to clarasmithjewellery 

My Creative Space.

This weekend is the annual Federation show for Angus SWRI. It's open to the public on Friday and Saturday at the Reid Hall in Forfar. Today was set up and judging so my creative space was cleared out this morning when my friend Cathy came along to collect my entries. If you were reading here last year you may remember me saying how bad I am for leaving things till the last minute. The schedule for the show comes out in September, and like last year I ticked off a few things I would like to enter for and this time told myself that I would work at a steady pace and get everything ready well in advance.

So ... what do you think happened ?

Well I finished off my 'Novelty Doorstop' on Monday afternoon.

My 'Button Necklace' wasn't so much of a challenge as I make lots of these to sell in the shop, but I did have a bit of a challenge just choosing which one to enter.

My 'Knitted Toy' was a bit of an afterthought.

 I have been busy crocheting bunnies for Easter and had kind of forgotten that I had said I would knit a toy.

This little guy was knitted on my day off on Tuesday, sewn up and stuffed on Wednesday and has his nose and eyes sewn on at 11pm on Wednesday night. I really should be better organised in future....

And finally this 'Christmas Themed Cross-stitch' was re-framed on Wednesday afternoon as I realised the original frame exceded the size specified in the schedule.

I think I now qualify for a big fish supper from the chippie for tea tonight. Or does that sound like a reward for being disorganised ?

See Creative Spaces from all over at kootoyoo

My Creative Space

I've been Chain Mailling again. This chunky bracelet chain was made with big 14mm jump rings and is another Byzantine chain. I want to try different sizes and patterns to see how they all turn out and I love the colour of this one.

This one is based on a Box Chain but I misjudged how many links it would take... a mixture of the size of the links and the extra chunkiness of the pattern. But I suppose it's all part of learning a new skill. I adapted the basic box chain by splitting it up with flat rings which made it go that bit little bit further.

Some people might call this a mistake but I think I will call it an Original.

More Creative Spaces are over at Kootoyoo

My First Chain Maille

I have been popping back and forward visiting the lovely blog of Crafty Ady quite a bit recently.

She has recently become addicted to the art of Chain Maille, and I was inspired to have a try myself.

I was lucky enough to have some project cards  which gave pretty good instructions on getting started.

And like Ady, I may have discovered a new addiction.

This one is called a Bizantine weave and was recommended as a good place to start. It was a bit fiddly getting started but I got the hang of it quite quickly. 104 gold coloured jump rings went into this and it's the perfect size for a bracelet for my skinny wrists.

Please have a wee click on the link above and see the amazing creations of Craft Ady.



My Creative Space.

It's been a wee while since I shared my creative space and today might not be the best day for my return.

It's been a complete nightmare of a day, interupted by endless phone calls and text messages about my poor broken car. On the plus side, it's no longer broken, and I finally managed to get a lift to Perth to collect it from the garage before they closed for the day. But it was all really frustrating. I love my car and seeing it being driven away on the back of a recovery truck yesterday was enough to bring a tear to my eye.

Anyway, amidst all this frustration I decided to get to work on a repair job for a customer.

Now if there is one thing I hate ....

Actually while I'm ranting, I may as well say that there are a few things I hate.

Ironing

The News of the World

Red Audis (one ran me off the road into a ditch last year and I, irrationally blame all red Audis)

Phone calls from telemarketing firms ..especially the automated ones.

So, back to my creative space... If there is one thing I hate it's admitting defeat. It was a close call today though. I was challenged with the task of restringing a five stranded pearl necklace. One strand was intact but since the catch was broken, that had to be restrung along with the others. Two strands had been restrung previously by the owner who admitted she had made a bit of a mess of it. One strand was almost intact but snapped at one end and may or may not have lost some of the tiny 1mm pearls. And the final strand was mostly in bits in a plastic bag. So there we have it... Around 600 assorted pearls, ranging in sizes from 8mm down to the tiny 1mm.

Here I am reaching the final straight. Time to decide on the clasp.

Don't even try to guess how many times I was on my hands and knees, scouring the floor for dropped beads.

Obviously no photos of that stage as I was way beyond the mood for framing shots and the chance of me throwing the camera was just too great.

In the end it was all worth while.

I'm really pleased to have been able to bring this sixty year old necklace back to life and I hope it's owner will be equally pleased.

To enjoy some less stressed out Creative Spaces just click HERE and visit kootoyoo.