Those of you who are YouTube fanatics will have heard of haul videos. It’s a trend where people, usually teenage girls, do videos of what they’ve recently bought. And, you guessed it, I’ve made my very own haul video but with a twist; it’s for craft. Yes, I realise I’m not a teenage girl, but sometimes you’ve got to get down with the cool kids.

The week before Christmas, I received an awesomely exciting delivery at work. What made this parcel even more exciting was the fact that it actually was from Santa. It even said this on the box, albeit with a Leeds post code written next to it. My friends at work immediately started guessing what it could be and one seriously misguided one thought it might hold shoes, pah.

It was in fact my very own Amigurumi making set including: stuffing, wool, an array of crochet hooks, an Amigurumi book and most exciting of all jiggly eyes.

The best part of this gift was the way that each part had been individually wrapped in tissue paper. This meant that I could greedily unwrap each piece, which literally made me giggle all the way through to the last gift.

Some may say this came from my good friend Rose as part of a Secret Santa we set up on elfster.com. Others may choose to believe that this came from Saint Nick himself.

I had high hopes this Christmas. I truly believed that this year would be the year I would make hand-made Christmas presents.

I really wanted to put my new craft skills to good use and maybe even save a few pennies while I was at it.

Just a few of my ideas included: a hand-made lamp shade, an iPad/kindle cover and a children’s apron. All doable and really fun projects too.

As my friends and family will now of course know, after opening their recently given Christmas presents, I completely didn’t manage to make a single gift.

In the end I just didn’t have enough time to get them made. There comes a point where you have to start that Christmas buying just in case your handmade gift comes out all wrong and you don’t have enough time to go shopping after this discovery.

In the words of my teenage brother this amounts to an ‘epic fail’.

The extent of the repercussions of my lack of production are untold, but suffice to say that Matt is currently using a scrap of my wadding for an iPad case.

I did, however, make my own Christmas themed wrapping paper using some seasonal rubber stamps and brown paper. This must count for something, surely?

So, my New Year’s resolution must be that next Christmas I make more than just the wrapping paper.

Ass you wish

After my first ever trip to Hobbycraft I picked up an embroidery loop, a huge bag of coloured thread and the cross stitch book, Stitch! . This truly is the mecca of craft and I even managed to pick up a tea pot shaped cookie cutter – truly awesome.

I’ve since discovered some amazing cross stitch patterns online, especially truly geeky Doctor Who ones. I’m definitely planning to cross stitch a dalek at some point.

I’ve discovered that the key to making things using cross stitch is to stick a phrase on it. Suddenly it lifts it from being a bit naff to uber cool. This is a good lesson in all future craft projects – and once you get used to stitching letters it is a lot easier than a picture.

I’ve been using an invisible pen to help me mark out where to stitch.  After my boyfriend corrected my kerning, the self proclaimed typographical Nazi,  it some what altered the meaning of my favourite Princess Bride quote.

The invisible pen is taking longer than expected to fade…..

Last Saturday was ‘date day’ so we went for a surprise, to me anyway, afternoon tea at Drink, Shop and Do. This vintage tea shop, located in King’s Cross, is surrounded by some very unlikely establishments; the doorway for the toilets also leads to a ‘adult’ book store. As if by magic, on stepping into the store you find yourself transported to a paradise for crafts.

The shop sells wool and crochet needles alongside tea cups and candy. The sweets are stored in a display that, to my mind, is an homage to the sweet shop in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The back of the shop leads to a tea shop, that turns into a bar in the evening. This is where everything, from the chairs that you sit on to the cake stand that your crustless sandwiches are served from, are up for sale. Our tea was even poured from  a vintage Diana and Charles pot, celebrating their wedding.

It is a ridiculously fun and silly establishment that managed to make even Matt feel ‘dainty’. I look forward to using the crochet needle I got from here on my next project, and I would love to return for their knit club and Sunday Scrabble days.

While discussing everything craft with colleagues at work, a  knitting fever spread throughout our open plan office. Soon every woman on the floor was discussing their secret knitting, including knitting their children’s dolls clothes. Somehow I’d managed to convince them to set up a weekly knit circle on Wednesday lunchtimes. With one fatal flaw in my plan. I can’t knit.

So, while visiting Leeds, my super crafty friend Rose helped me pick out some wool and needles. We went to a very old fashioned knitting shop run by older ladies, far from the trendy pretentious stores that are wonderfully expensive in trendy parts of London. Rose patiently taught me how to start knitting and after several dropped stitches and cries of help later, I had started work on a pink and blue scarf.  Now I can start up that knitting club afterall – thanks Rose.

Finally my day off from work came round and I spent the day at my sister’s house hanging out with her and her baby. It was really fun spending the day with them both and seeing how Angus has grown. He is very alert and sings and laughs when he is read one of his storybooks.

It was great to give him the toy that I made for him, though we first had to take the button off in case it came loose. I think when I make Angus another toy I will definitely have to do strong stitches so that it can stand up to some serious play.

The last time I held Angus he cried when he saw that I wasn’t his mum but this time he seemed to like me, gave me some really cute smiles and has a curious yet adorable habit of bowing to the side as a way of saying ‘hello’. I think he liked the toy as here is little Angus giving ‘Gus the dog’ the thumbs up!

Last weekend I lured my friend Kat on a trip to Columbia road market, a beautiful flower market that has really cheap deals in the afternoon for all kinds of plants and flowers. It is a great place to grab a coffee and walk along amongst all the lovely flowers and cool shops including Ryantown, which sells Rob Ryan’s intricate paper cuts.

Little did she know my ulterior motive; to visit a fabric shop on this road. Beyond fabrics might have a less than fabulous website but the shop is beautifully laid out with amazing fabric. I bought some elastic to use to make the grocery bag holder and quarter metre bundles of fabric.

Not being the type for things crafty, Kat did a great job holding me back from greedily grabbing bundles. She very sensibly made me tell her what project I was going to use each fabric for before I could buy it. I got some amazing fabric, with owls and birds on, but it is going to take me some more practice and courage before I risk ruining the gorgeous fabric with my dodgy sewing.

It was a great day discovering the market and shops and even more convenient that the nearest tube stop just happens to be where I work. Since it stays open till 6pm, this discovery could prove dangerous for my purse as I can sneak after work without Kat’s guidance.

Street Surfer

For Christmas I asked my parents for a sewing machine that I had spotted in John Lewis for £50. Having never sewed since secondary school I didn’t want anything too fancy in case all this craft making turned out to be just a fad.

Imagine my surprise on Christmas morning when I opened ‘a street surfer’.  It’s kind of like a surf board but you twist your feet to build up speed rather than kicking along the ground.

Those of you thinking this is some kind of  joke, my dad genuinely thought it would be a good idea to buy all my brothers, myself and my boyfriend a skateboard. Though much fun was had ‘surfing’ in a iced up skate park on Christmas morning, anyone who knows my aversion to any form of exercise can imagine this wasn’t going to be a long term relationship with the ‘death stick’ on wheels.

Luckily a sewing machine shaped present was lurking uder the tree aswell, otherwise this blog could be about my street surfing tricks and a whole lot different.

It's really purple.

So meet the machine that I will be learning on and using to create all my exciting new projects.

After New Year’s my friend Julia revealed that she had been talked out of buying the exact same machine after the sales assistant told her it was for children. Be that as it may, at least when anybody asked me what kind of sewing machine I have I can tell them: a purple one.