Pollock House

Pop over to the photography tab for some spring pictures. I'm so in love with the sunny, cold mornings and lighter evenings. 

Pollock house was beautiful - the grounds in particular. Will have to remember for next time we want a country walk in Glasgow city center! There was an amazing gnarled old tree covered in scraps of fabric, pieces of rubbish, christmas baubles and hairbobbles...all sorts! I'd love to know more about it.

Life at GP practice is fantastic - I'm taking 'student surgeries' where I see all the patients and attempt to cobble together a management plan and prescribe the right drugs! Very tricky but loving the challenge. 

I'll be sad to leave the practice - especially to go onto ENT!!

WIPs...

I have a few little silly things on my to do list at the moment...

1. Make a valentine themed garland with chocolate coin papers...(getting there! Think it needs more pompoms...)

2. Finish my crochet llama (!)
3. Find pretty colouring pages to use as squiggley embroidery patterns.
4. Make random wall art thing with recycled magazine pages...(rethink stapling technique)

5. Papier mache something...(I'm thinking little bright bowls!)

6. Felt and embroider a set of stones...(one for each of the family?)

7. Create a crocheted flower and leaf garland...(currently testing patterns, not found the perfect one yet! I like the flower with the large centre...but love the heart! May need 2 garlands)

8. Find something gorgeous to make for OWOA

Mixed Media A-level Canvas's

Some of my A-level canvases which I remembered to picture before they were crushed into the bins :s 

4 or 5 years ago now. Where does time go??

This was Little Red Riding Hood inspired - see the twigs, the trees coming to life, the 2 pictures of the granny and the wolf superimposed on top of eachother...plus dripping blood, her abandoned cloak and mini cartoons traipsing along the bottom edge. Very teenage angst don't you think :p

I don't even remember what inspired this project. And I've actually photographed it upside down!! I think da vinci was in there somewhere...Top right (should be bottom left) is a venice scene...there's a lilly in white outline on the bubbles too. I'll dig out the inspiration book and clue you and me both up sometime soon. 

This one was not by me...but most definitely inspired my A-level work. A close family friend (and ex-teacher!) Sarah gifted my this when I admired it :)

Voile, feathers, orange bags, fabric, paper, voile, card etc etc etc!! Beautiful.

A piercing and a book

My new nose piercing...wow!! So exciting! I can't wait for it to heal and to change to a ring/sparkle. Although all this attic work is not good- the dust does not help healing :s

I also wanted to share this fantastic find with you. Technically it's one of MummySews Christmas presents.

Phantasmagoria by Lewic Carroll. The whole (long) book is if verse! Amazing! It's about a little ghoul.

P.S. GP life still very cool - need to get some serious study in mind you...the brain has got complacent during my last surgery block :s

Mad Rush!

This weekend was amazing - so busy, but amazing! Tom bought me 2 enormous bunches of flowers which I had to snap a very quick picture of in-between outings. 

This was the cheesey card I sent him last week - I've never posted a Valentines card before and it was definitely very cheesey but made him smile. You get a few crumbs free with this picture :p

Then the weekend highlight was a trip to Castlerigg stone circle with some friends and their 3 year old who I am slowly learning to deal with. It's a difficult skill to master - communicating with children. Hats off to all you naturals out there!

Finished an amazing day off with a 4 mile run (ahem...walk) and the first BBQ of the season!! Warm enough with blankets and a fire pit :)

Again, I've added some fancy pics to the photography tab... but here are 2 to tempt you over :)

Anniversary times...

Fifth Anniversary. FIFTH!! Amazing weekend in Edinburgh. 

See some snaps under the photography tab.

Happy Valentines Day!

Well I've been busy! Maybe not crafting...but busy none-the-less.

As you will see from MummySews blog, I have been home for the weekend - we packed a million boxes or STUFF and practically emptied the attic. Packing away the craft room was hilarious - it's not nearly half done and we have so many yummy things to play with!

This is, of course, for Mums big move. We just don't know when yet!

We also went to see 'A Night in Vienna' which was an fantastic orchestra who played vienesse waltz's - usually Strauss all night. The composer was great fun and there were dancers and the odd operatic number too! Very cool :) us 3 generations loved it!

Then I trained back to Glasgow and rolled up some truffles. Rum Truffles and chocolate fudge (MummySew has the recipes here). And yes they are Barbie sprinkles.

What the occassion? I'm moving in with a GP family in Newton Stewart for 5 weeks. I'm on placement at their practice which is 2 hours away from Glasgow. They have 4 amazing kids and a huge dog.

Learning curve to say the least - very strange being part of a big family with family meals and outings and evening activities!! Fab house too.

The drive down was through the Galloway Forest Park which was stunning - drove past some really weird things! Blockloch tower for one...which sticks out like a rather impressive 4-storey thumb.

But there were also snow topped mountains and Lochside power plants. Would love to wander a few miles with my camera! Road-side snapping just wasn't good enough. As you can see:

It was so much more beautiful than these 2 crappy pics. You'll have to visit yourself to find out!

The first night I was here I agreed to go along to their running club. 6km run! Wow. 2 days later and I'm still aching. I suppose I better keep exercising though - in Glasgow I do weekly salsa and pole-dancing so I need to keep doing something while I'm away.

I am also loving seeing what the GPs do day-to-day. So much more than you would expect. 

Treacle Scones Recipe

Fancied a bit of baking today, wanted a yummy no sugar something for breakfasts when I have to be up early for surgery (and don't want to pass out!)

This is a NannyBake recipe...

8oz SR Flour

2.5oz Marg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp black treacle

3oz raisins (optional)

1 egg made up to a tea-cup full of milk

I realise that last ingredient is a bit airy fairy but you'll see what I mean. 

1. Mix all dry ingredients together

2. Add butter and work into breadcrumbs with fingers (or the back of a fork works brilliantly for me)

3. Add treacle and again work into breadcrumbs

4. Add raisins

5. Crack egg into a small tea cup, beat lightly and add a splash of milk. This is NannyBakes recipe - I find it much easier to crack the egg directly into a well in the dry ingredients, mix in with your fork and add small splashes of milk until you hit the right texture. Not too wet - like dough really

6. Remember to be quick! Once you add wet ingredients the raising agents loose their oomph

7. Cut into 5cm rounds and place them on a baking tray

8. Quick into a preheated oven at 200 C for 10-12 mins

Mmm! Not as floofy as ones I usually do, maybe throw some bicarb in next time. They're very light though, unlike shop bought ones (which are usually horrible).

Do you see the enormous one on the back row there? That's our little tradition, the last scone is all the left over bits so it's massive and gooey in the middle - cooks perks!

Sea-Weathered Treasure (and a mini-flower garland tutorial)

Tom came back to me today with a new piece of sea-weathered pottery for my collection. I have 2 handfuls now...aren't they beautiful?

And those bright threads I blogged about recently haven't done much - I'm making a teeny tiny flower chain to wear as a necklace. Some look more like flowers than others - they need a bit of moulding!

They're each roughly the size of my pinky finger nail. 

Chain 12

Sl st into 6th chain to make circle

2 double crochet

Slip stitch into centre

Flip tail over and repeat 5 times on the other side of the tail

Chain 12...repeat...

I have about 15 flowers now...unfortunately I think I need about 40!!

Post from NannyBake

I spend quite a bit of time thinking about organising, packing and filing! Mums hoping to move house soon and Tom will be quitting the 9-5 job to be off traveling before I graduate so between them there's a lot of organising happening!

At uni I can't really help, but I find little bits of my own to sort out. Nanny's letter to me are hidden all over the place. I'm rounding them up and binding them - Most still have envelopes so I can hole punch the envelope without damaging her long mis-spelt letters :p

I thought the book binding rings were perfect - I would maybe buy a smaller size next time though? I'm trying to pluck up the courage to bind all the birthday cards that I have lurking around, but some are so pretty that I daren't punch holes in them! 

I have a letter en-route this week too... *excited!*

p.s. Nanny has evolved into NannyBake recently. We all need blog pseudonyms!

Daphne, Crochet, Quiche and Wasgijs...

This post is a strange selection of recent things...

I'm most excited about the crochet threads I found in a local charity shop recently...this is definitely seed bead crochet necklace material!! Watch this space!!

Oh and that's Daphne - on my to do list after I finish the trash I'm currently reading. I'm getting itchy fingers though!

I also branched out in the kitchen and made a quiche for placement this week - didn't quite fill the case but the blind-baking was enormously successful! This week was salmon, mushroom, spinach and onions. Didn't realise quite how easy this was!! Just eggs and cream! Might have to do this regularly with whatevers knocking about in the fridge :) Easy to eat in lunchtime meetings at the hospital.

 And a bit of geek-ery...the most recent flat wasgij (a backwards jigsaw - the photo on the box is definitely NOT the picture on the jigaw - it's just a clue...hilarious!).

Snow!

...we have none here in Glasgow. BUT Tom took some photo's of what they had in the lake district...get this...on his PHONE!!

His phone camera is as good as my £300 Nikon J1. Gr.

Here's a sneak preview - the others are listed under my 'photography' tab.

I can't wait to get down to the Lakes this weekend and get snapping myself!

Flights booked!

MummySew started bloggin recently and I really like how she tells you a bit about her day to day life in-between her crafty posts and I fancied this was a good idea!

At the moment I'm on a surgical placement in the Southern Hospital in Glasgow - 5 weeks of general surgery, urology and breast surgery, clinics and ward rounds. Exciting stuff! Plus the hospital's having an epic make-over...

This is me in my 4th year of study - 12 months, 3 weeks until finals...but who's counting.

So after 3rd and 4th year in out summer 'holiday' we are expected to do a 4 week elective. Last year I went to London for 4 weeks to do Obs and Gynae...this year I hope to do A&E in Carlisle. I'm doing these in the UK for cheap unlike ALL my friends who are shooting off around the world.

On the plus side, this saves money for Tom and I to go to India for the remaining 3 weeks in my summer hols! I AM SO EXCITED!!! We booked flights this month so it really is getting exciting now!

1/8/13 - Set off Glasgow Airport to London Heathrow and eventually end up in Chennai 2/8/13 at 03:30

We decided to stop here for a few days instead of 10 hours between flights.

6/8/13 - Fly to Trivandrum, arriving mid-afternoon

From here we travel north, 1000km via Kerala and Karnataka to Goa

22/8/13 - Back to reality from Goa, via Mumbai (5 hours here...maybe we could pop out of the airport???) and London Heathrow to get back to Glasgow at 22:15

My planning head is going insane!! Hehe, I'm determined to have an open itinerary though - so make lists of cool places, and if we fancy going then so be it. This is going to be a very relaxing 3 weeks. I'm determined!

I cannot wait to get my hands on some indian textiles!! And spices!! And hide in cafes while the monsoon hits, explore temples and go on safari, see the markets and wear the local clothes...it's all I can think about right now! 

My tab at the top 'Travel Diary' should start filling up nicely in August :)

Mix it! Swap

First post swap of 2013!! (I don't think I did ANY in 2012 - too much textbook reading *yawn*)

I was paired with a girl who had a blog here - I saw she liked knitting, disney, stickers, scrapbook stuff...and I found a great collection of things to send her way.

The Tom and Jerry knitting patterns I thought were a particular find...hope she loved them.

And then some time later I received this in the post....and oh wow!! I have never been so excited to unwrap a swap - everything had its own cute little bag to unwrap (I am so stealing that idea for the next swap I do). Thank you so much Ichigoshortcake

She was sew thoughtful - vintage patterns, vintage jewellery, wooden buttons (WOW!), LACE!, gorgeous ribbon and crochet flowers which I'm trying to make at the moment (she read my mind). 

Maybe I don't need to raid mums craft room after all!

See that pink all-in-one?? I need to make this. 

Scarlett...

Happy Birthday MummySew!!!

After stitching my header, I found this really awesome site - Sarahs Hand Embroidery Tutorials. It has a fantastic embroidery picture dictionary, sew you can pick a stitch, click on it to see how its done and away you go!! I'm loving the knot family at the moment (first 't').

I wanted to add more, but didn't really know how - better planning next time. I'm thinking chain stitch flowers and fishbone stitch leaves. 

I printed out the 'Scarlett' from the computer in a fancy font and penciled it onto the linen (I need to find a better way of marking my fabric - pencil does NOT rub out).

And then I didn't know how to present it!! Eventually I made it into a card, just glueing the edges of the linen behind a frame. Really I suppose I should have stretched it over some card...or framed it...

I had great fun though! And I hope Mummy Sew liked it :)

P.S. that linen is a recycled tea-towel. Hope you approve!

Tutorial: Crochet Necklace

This is a little tutorial for the crochet necklace that I made in my last post here.

I made the decision to keep the single strand instead of with the scallop edging...but I had a pattern ready so here it is. I'll be trying making dozens of these once I get hold of some more materials! 

Stop at step 3 if you simple version or carry on to add fancy edging (like teddy's displaying).

 1. Pick your materials...

I have a limited craft supply with me at University but I managed non-the-less. Pick a thread (be it wool or crochet thread) and then find a set of beads which you can thread on. Obviously they need to be able to pass over the eye of the needle which will hold your chosen thread.

I used 62 beads and size 3.00 crochet hook.

I wanted a very long necklace which I could wind around my neck 3 or 4 times - you can use your artistic licence with this!

2. Make your button-hole...

Use that artistic license again with this. I used the following, but I was using wool not crochet thread and quite a large crochet hook. You may need more chain and more single crochets with smaller thread/hooks.

8 chain, slip stitch to form a ring

15 single crochet into ring

Pick up the tail and chain 3

Drop the tail and chain 4

3. Crochet in your first bead...

This is easier than I expected. Snuggle the bead up close to the last chain, yarn over and do a chain as if the bead wasn't there at all!

Chain 7, add 2nd bead

Chain 7, add 3rd bead

Repeat

You will need to keep pushing the beads away from your crocheting - don't worry, it's not a hardship.

4. Add your edging...

You can choose any edging you want at all! I found hundreds on blogs and on pinterest but settled with a simple scalloped edge to get me started. So after you have crocheted in your last bead...

Crochet 7

Turn, skip one chain and single crochet

Skip one chain and do 5 double crochet into this chain

Skip one chain, single crochet

2 chain to get you over the bead (with smaller beads, this may only need to be one chain)

single crochet into second chain after bead

5. Finish off...

When you get back to your button hole, weave in your tail from the beginning and the end.

Sew on a button or large bead to secure.

Some edging patterns want you go up one side and down the other so you may need to travel the length of your necklace a third time...good luck!

As I said in my previous post, I still need to block my necklace - soak in warm warm and then pin to the ironing board, slightly stretched until dry. This makes it keep its shape better!

And there you have it! A simple, classy necklace. I can't wait to try this in lots of bright colours and with snazzy beads.

Crocheting Pearls Darling

Sew today Teddy has been helping me make a crocheted necklace! Pinterest has inspired me - in my head I had a looong necklace, quite simple, which I could loop around me neck a few times.

I rummaged through the vintage suitcase I use as my craft stash and the only beads I had which would fit on my thinnest wool were nobbley pearls...which I love.

 This is what I ended up with! I really like it actually. Apparently it needs blocking which makes it holds its shape better. Soak in warm water and then pin to the ironing board, slightly stretched.

Thing is, I got a bit carried away and tried a scalloped edging - now I'm not sure if this will work...anyone have any preference - plain or with edging? I made the pattern up too which I can post if I go for the scalloped type. Do you think it would lay flat on my chest or curl up and look messy? Choices choices!

I would love to try this with proper crochet thread, a tiny needle and seed beads - there's no end to different colours and different edgings you could play with...I feel a new obsession coming on.

They were sew quick that really, I have no excuse to not make more!