Goodbye 2020 (Part 2)

 July - 

  Started the month with homemade Panko pork steaks, I was delighted with how well these turned out.

Then came a lovely zoom crafting session with my friend Tracey and some of the other ladies from our old crafting group.

Homemade Carrot soup with homemade herb bread plait, very tasty.

Closely followed by some cute crochet food

But I think one of my favourite activities had to be the Jennie Rayment online class. I love her style of dimensional sewing, texture through folding. 

It makes a great placemat, I only wish I had more of these fabrics so I could have made a set.

Ah well, I'll start the fabric search.

August - 

August means tutorial time, one of my truly enjoyable activities. Fab'n'Funky challenges take a summer break, so I write a tutorial so our lovely followers have an activity, and I always try to make it family friendly (it is the school holidays after all).

A little bit of dinner experiment, a sort of Japanese style stuff cabbage leaf parcel.

Turned out very nice. One day I'll remember to type up the recipe, especially as I took step by step photo's.

And of course more crochet, to be more precise, more food crochet.

September - 

Christmas cards, buttons and a colouring tutorial (slight mistake but not major), what an interesting month.

Oh and a new cushion for Mawgan's return to Uni. The chairs in the rooms are a little bit uncomfortable, but she decided against taking her gaming chair.

I had to use my embroidery machine on it, I just couldn't resist.

October - 

It finally arrived

I know it doesn't look like much at the moment but my Crafting paradise will be perfect soon. (Hopefully)

Lots of card-making of course

Best part though was preparing for the 500th post at Fab'n'Funky challenges, I had the crazy idea of doing a blog hop for it. I couldn't believe the amount of organising one of those takes, I think everyone was happy with how it went.

Before the month ended we managed to get the She Shed up

November - 

So as I've already mentioned, I entered the Miku costume I made for Mawgan into the 2020 Dressmaker of the Year Competition, in the cosplay section naturally AND it got shortlisted. I've never been so proud!!! Now for the nerve wracking wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What an interesting month this turned out to be. 

A cute little card, of course

Our eldest daughter's maternity leave ended and she returned to work. So every Monday & Friday our gorgeous granddaughter spends the day with us. It is fabulous fun. She & I sing along with Mr. Tumble,  have a wee boogie to music, build blocks as high as possible or any number of messy activities. When it isn't raining we go for a walk to see what wildlife is around.

The She Shed is coming along at a bit of a slow pace but it's getting there.

I gave the internal walls a white wash so it would be bright. Having the front facing south will really help with good lighting and hopefully warmth.

December - 

So after a few days of awful weather I got the outer painting done.

And all the Ikea shelving built. I even got some books moved in. Just needs hooking up to the house and a desktop made.

This lovely cheeky monkey knows how to enjoy her lunch

I'll be damned if I'm not going to let her get grubby.

I'm looking forward to the day she has her own little wellies so we can go jumping in muddy puddles and get filthy.

None of this sterilising crap for my granddaughter 😂

Our youngest daughter came home for Christmas and we started her latest cosplay project

No she's not an elf, this is a game character called May Day from a game called No Straight Roads. This particular costume is from the Christmas DLC. She was a little upset that we no longer had the electric guitar to complete the look.

So that is my review for 2020, pretty much a good year, with only a few not so happy moments.

I hope you had as much joy and fun as we managed.

Love, Hugs & Happy Thoughts 

Buffy xx

Goodbye 2020 what a busy year (Part 1)

Happy New Year 2021 

So I really never thought one year could be so busy, but I couldn't have been further from the truth.

January - 

driving youngest back to Uni and then turning around 2 weeks later to pick her up again so we could go to London for a Miku concert. Poor thing was running a fever and a massive migraine BUT as she so eloquently put it " I've paid a bloody fortune for these bloody VIP tickets, no way are we missing it" 

The fever wasn't a problem as the costume I made her left plenty of exposed flesh 🤦 

It's a little hard to tell but there are only two thinnish straps at the back and it's quite low cut.

I'm sure I've mentioned before that this was my nightmare project. I literally cried when I saw the concept art for this.

I think my very first thought was OMG how am I supposed to make this.

Pushed up my sleeves, cried some more, got angry, cried got frustrated, ripped out some flesh-coloured netting material because I just couldn't get it to sew nicely and then more crying and fury.

I entered it into 2020 Dressmaker of the Year Competition, in the cosplay section naturally, which I will talk about when I reach October, but that's all I can say for now.

February - 

Consisted of a lot of cardmaking and a bit of crocheting and patiently waiting for the arrival of our first grandchild.

I worried about my eldest daughter constantly. She just a tiny thing, so the closer she got to her due date the more nervous I got. Some people might think it is a little cruel but Anne's health & well-being were the only thing I cared about at the time.

My sis-in-law turned 60.

March - 

Our granddaughter arrived safe and sound at a nice healthy 6lb.

My lovely daughter didn't get the water birth she wanted but she and little one were safe and well.

So nothing else mattered.

Son-in-law was beaming for weeks.

Hubby turned 50 just after lockdown, so annoyed as I had a fabulous joint party planned for him and his sister (mentioned above). 

It is also the month I handed my craft-room over to my husband so he could have an office to work from.

And Mawgan was now home from Uni.

April - 

Had to go back up to the Uni to collect Mawgan's belonging, all classes are now online so a little bit pointless her having to spend any more money on basic living.

Ah, the month I became a Scrubberdubber. I know that sounds strange now but getting out my sewing machine and overlocker to make hundreds of Masks, Skullcaps and Scrubs was a wonderful way of passing the time.

Yes, the dining table became a production area. Here's just a sample of it all.

Plus, lots of shopping for others. It's amazing how many people can get so terrified to leave their homes to do some so simple as shop. But someone has to step up, and looking round it seemed like no one from a certain age range were going to. 

But it was also when we discover that the people you've never really gotten to know very well, turn out to be the best neighbours you could have every wished for. So I want to toast Joe & Julie for being the best neighbours on earth.

May - 

More masks, a lot of cardmaking and quite a bit of crochet. 

More of shopping for others too. 

Also I made a top/dress for my granddaughter

June - 

More sewing masks, caps & scrubs. I also helped out our group leader by collect all the scrubs sewn by our group, after her poor daughter's foot was reversed over by a taxi. 

And of course a crocheted Bee or 2

More sewing and crochet  

I left the pattern for the little cones in a post back in June

Part 2 coming soon

Hugs & Happy Thoughts

Buffy xx