I've been blogged on Ikea Hacker!!

I was so excited today to see my studio space featured on Ikea Hacker's blog. This is my first 'blogging' and what a lovely feeling!!

Lisa Currie & The Scribble Project

The Scribble Project, the creation of Lisa Currie. I originally discovered the project via Rachel Denbow's blog, the page was inspiring and I immediately wanted to fill one in. So like a good girl I emailed Lisa and waited for my sheet to arrive in my inbox. It did, (very quickly!) and I printed one off as well as some of the sheets done by others, for inspiration, packed it in my bag for work with the intention of filling it in if I had a spare moment.

It was a busy day at school and we were short staffed, I found myself with a group that wasn't engaging in their work and I was about to lose them when I remembered the Scribble project! I handed out a couple of sheets and suddenly calm rained down and they worked well, expressing themselves. I was so pleased I email Lisa to say thanks!

Eventually I got round to filling my sheet in.....

I'm quite pleased with it, Lisa has given me some lovely feedback already. Take a look at the site, the responses have been great. Lisa's sheets are inspiring and I'm certainly going to keep an emergency stash in my school bag from now on!

Go scribble......

Knitting Needle Case

Pleasingly its been a very productive week for me. I've sorted the studio, caught up with some unfinished projects and started some new ones. One of which was this knitting needle roll....

I've been meaning to make one for a while, all my needles were clumped together in a box with rubber-bands. There were some scraps left over from a special project Mr Shortcake was working on (I'll tell you about that tomorrow) and I managed to throw this together in about an hour including a tea break!! I'm sure there must be some tutorials out there on how to make these. It would make a good starter project for a class I think!

Cloth Dolls: mini naked people!

Their life less forms lay on the cutting mat and I could take it no longer!! The hair went on first, lovingly hand-stitched to their bare heads then one by one the bodies developed (!). I couldn't resist giving them Lady-gardens, it was too much of a giggle! I diligently matched hair colors too!

They have a range of faces as I couldn't decide on a style so I tried them all out. I love the overall effect of them together with their varying expressions!

I'm in the process of designing some dresses for them to hide their modesty! Hope I've not offended anyone!

Toodles, Kt x

Reconstructing knits.....

As you are aware, I've been sorting out the studio. During this process I unearthed a box full of handmade fabric, knitted swatches and woven fabric I have created. I was overcome with inspiration, well, slightly inspired to make use of these pieces. It seems such a shame to have them just sitting in a box, so I got thinking!

There was a piece of turquoise knitting I inherited with some gifted yarn that just screamed at me to make it in to a hat. There was a small hole left in the top once I stitched it together so I made a lovely big Pom-pom to cover it. I love pom-poms!!!

The other piece was a black knitted swatch I made to pass the time about 4 years ago. It was just the right length for an arm warmer, so with the rest of the yarn I had left (yes, after 4 years!!) I made another one!! I'm chuffed with myself, it's been a while since I've been so motivated! There are still some bits left so I'll blog them in their new forms soon!

Studio....Finished!!!

I promised I would keep you updated so I will!!! And here it is, the studio, finished and finally organized! To see the before shot have a look here. I'm so pleased with it, I didn't leave it last night until I went to bed! I took some photos last night and a couple this morning so if the light is a bit off that's why and also because I'm no David Bailey!

The bookcase worked like a dream, the shelves are all movable so I was able to adjust them to the height of the books. I also managed to condense both bookcases in to this one which is great, the only things that don't have a home yet are my collection of Vogues and other magazines which will stay in the study (but that's the next project so enough of that!).

I had said that I wasn't going to touch the paint cupboard but I had second thoughts and I'm glad I did. It's lovely and organized now, and I don't have to remove eight tins of paint to find the one I want. I realized it was full of old, unusable emulsion, so I got tough and sorted out what I really didn't want.

The new sewing desk, it's so good I had to enclose two pictures! I love it! This was such a non-space before, I didn't know what to put on the wall and things used to just pile up at the side. The desk has plenty of storage and loads of workspace. The pin-boards where stuck behind a cupboard in Mr Shortcake's study so I gave them a coat of paint and hey presto! New inspiration-boards!
The call of Ikea was too great and I gave in a replaced my old desk sooner than expected, but I'm pleased I did as the room feels complete now and there are no finishing touches hanging over my head waiting to be done. This desk is smaller than the original but its shape makes it easier to use and as with the sewing desk I've added in extra storage.

I think I might send these to Ikeahacker as the units are for kitchens and the curtains are made from Ikea duvet covers! What do you think?

Pancakes or Crepes = Yummy!

I love breakfast but it's posed a bit of a problem for my the last couple of years as I was diagnosed with some food intolerances. A fair few to be exact! I've got a lot of them under control now but I still have to eliminate Gluten, Dairy, Soya and concentrated fruit juice from my diet! I've got a pile of fabulous cook books but I came across one last year that is now invaluable, all because of one recipe, yes, you guessed it, Crepes!

Oh, how I love thee! My heart was broken when I had to give up cakes and pastries but when the realization hit me that it meant crepes too, well, I was devastated! :( I experimented with shop bought, as I have with the cakes too, but they're never up to scratch, dry and crumbly. I sourced some flour I could use but couldn't get the old family recipe to work right, then along came the book! I'm pleased to say I now frequently have crepes for breakfast, and numerous other times of the day which gives me great joy! I'm a traditionalist, it's always lemon juice and sugar for me, but my, they are delicious!!

Just thought I'd share a little of my obsession with you!! :) What food could you not live without?

New Year Resolutions, An Update!

I'm please to say that I'm working quite well on a few of my resolutions. I'm drinking far less coffee, turns out it was affecting my sleep by making me over heat! I've been commenting on more blogs, which is great, especially when you get responses, I love the interaction! Sweets have been cut out from my diet, not completely but enough :P we've got a Learn Spanish pack from Mr Shortcake's mum, the Etsy shop exists just need to sell something! The house has also begun it's transformation, I did a big de-clutter in the lounge the other day and my studio is in the process of being kitted out!

This week is half-term holiday so I hope to be very productive, I'll keep you posted on any further developments!

Toodle-pip!

Kt-x

Cloth Dolls

Over Christmas I made this young lady and a couple of others to give as gifts. Very cute and very long!!!! I absolutely loved making them and it has inspired me to create some cloth dolls that may end up in my Etsy shop! This lady was a little too long though so I'm refining the pattern.

I wanted to create my own pattern but wasn't sure where to start. How long should their legs be? Should I give them joints? Clothes or clothing shaped bodies? So many questions!

So I took a couple of patterns from a book and used them as a template, adapting the head and body shape, blending them together, varying the limbs and changing the construction method. Here are the six prototypes I've created.....

My favorite is the fourth one along with the small head but I'd like her limbs to be a little thinner. I also like the last one, although I might give her the small head too!!

They're in the process of getting hair (and body parts!?!) and i've got to dress them! I really enjoying creating these ladies!! I'll keep you updated on their progress and add the development photos!!

A Smitten!!! How Cute!!!

I came across this today on Curbly, a Smitten! It's so adorable!!! Designed by Julie Weisenburger, the pattern is available via Coco Knits. Ok, so it's a little geeky but who cares, you know you all secretly want one!!

I do!!!

The Studio, a Work In Progress!

I'm in a very fortunate position, where Mr Shortcake loves my creativity and has sacrificed the spare room to provide me with a Studio space. However, I do really love the space but it needs a bit of work. I've been so inspired by the Handmade Spaces on Modish, all the beautifully organized rooms, tidy shelves and cupboards that I made a couple of decisions, I recently sold this.......

......My weaving loom, a treasured possession that was invaluable while at University but since then has sat in the corner gathering dust, looking sorry for itself. So I bit the bullet and put it on eBay and it's now winging its way to Sweden to be used and loved. This has given me the cash to sort the studio out! Yay!!

So I thought I would document the before and after look. Now, don't get too excited, the changes will not be massive but hopefully enough to make it a little more usable. As you can see there is a lot of stuff!!! Eventually there will be a new desk in this space but I'm going to make do with this one till I find 'The One'!

This bookcase has never met requirements! I'm hoping to condense two bookcases into one when the new one goes into this space but we'll see.......
The Paint Cupboard!!! This will remain as it is, it does the job and that's all that matters!
The weaving loom lived in this corner, I never realized how much space it took up! Along this wall will be my new sewing desk, it's bright yellow (we got the work-top in the sale already!) I'm very excited about this bit, it's long enough to have both the sewing machine and the overlocker on at the same time if needed!
Overall, very exciting! Mr Shortcake has some spare time at the moment so he's helping to sort it out. I made the cabinets for the sewing desk yesterday and gave the wood for the bookcase a wash of white. Stay tuned for the finished article........

Snow, snow, snow!

Well, to say we were unprepared would be an understatement!!! Although the snow had been forecast for a days, the roads were not gritted, the traffic jams began and the accidents happened.....But on the positive side we had SNOW DAY!!!!! So much fun! I had a lovely 2hr walk with Mr Shortcake, we built a snowman, watched some families sledging in the park and walked round our area investigating the Snowings-on!!!

I've worked hard and tidied the studio, it's helped a lot and I've started to make some rag-dolls/cloth-dolls. I'm experimenting with shapes at the moment and have six patterns I'm working with. I'm also going to be doing different hair and clothing on them too. I'll post some photos when they're completed.

For now, adios!

Kt-x