How to make a Christmas advent calendar

A few pics of the Christmas advent calendar I made for my niece:












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How to make a Christmas stocking

A few pics of the stocking I just made for my niece:









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How to make beeswax candles

Here's how to make some lovely beeswax candles:
What you'll need:
Shallow beeswax foundation (unwired) (I got mine from Cornwall Honey)
Wick
Wick holders


Cut your wax and wick to size - knot the wick one end and thread the wick holder:



Using the edge of a table, gently and slowly roll the wax around the wix, trying to leave as little air between the rolls as possible.



Squeeze the edge of the last roll down to keep the candle together:

Et voila!

Make a couple and tie some ribbon around them to make a gorgeous Christmas pressie for your loved ones:

Marketing in a social environment

With the arrival of frictionless apps from Facebook it seems the line between private, social and professional life has finally and irreparably been blurred.

Facebook used to live under strict rules akin to Google+ - no business need apply. In fact, if they found out you were a business with a profile page they'd suspend your account.

Then came targeted ads - remember those? It would announce what you just bought on amazon and target similar products to your friends. Well, we rebelled and Facebook tucked its tail between its legs and scampered off to think again.

Finally pages arrived and we all jumped right on board. Newfeeds became an amalgamation of what colour your mate’s bra was followed by what special offer dominos had on that night, followed by what the current situation in the West Bank was...

And it worked.



In choosing to allow which organisation can sneak into our life on Facebook we accept that marketing and information dissemination from news agencies, corporate conglomerates and PR agencies might actually occasionally be of interest, nay of use to us.

With frictionless apps we can take it to the next level and not even have to leave the blue and white platform to take in every aspect of online existence. Scary? Or clever? Or both?

I fear until Google+ catches up it might simply limp along behind Zuckerberg’s online ‘social’ giant.

Clegg answers 'two people'

Back in the South East I bumped into a very unfortunate interview with our Deputy Dawg, Cleggery.

Reading back to last year's Leaders' Debate I was impressed by a first charismatic performance by this man.

Such that in considering the Blue/Yellow swing in my humble part of Cornwall I took a deep breath and laid my hopes firmly at his feet.

Service cut after service cut after education cut later I have to say I'm a little pissed. To say the least.

Cleggery was shown two short clips of South Easterners saying they felt their Lib Dem vote had been in vain, for nothing, worthless, and that they would never vote for him again.

Cleggery's response? 'Well, that's just two people.'

Wake up Nick, and smell the disenchantment.

Fimo buttons!

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Recent crafty projects: How to make a tea cosy

I'll upload some pattern templates for the cosy and giraffes soon...



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Recent crafty projects: Barking bags

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Recent crafty projects: how to make a table runner

Table runners actually couldn't be easier to make - you just need coloured fabrics (that go with your dining room...!), wadding and a backing fabric.

Here's one I made recently:






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Recent crafty projects: Tweet bag

This cute bag for life is fully lined and therefore reversible, which is a bonus in this household!

The little bird and her wing have been sewn onto the front and back panel using satin stitch- with a button for her eye.

A pretty easy project once you've done the appliqué:






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Recent crafty projects: Christmas Tree Decorations

Here's a very cute Christmas tree decoration- simply stripey fabric filled with wadding:




And this little chien is made with thin white felt stuffed slightly with wadding and a woollen red neck-tie. Woof:



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Domestic Goddess or double square bear?

Recently, posting yet another living-room-made sewing project to my Crafty Homemaking blog I was struck by how much my back ached. From sewing, you understand, not late nights in noisy pubs, sleeping rough under the stars or even picking up infant sproglets. No, from sewing.

See, I don't have children. Nor do I live in a desirable enough area to happily own a pet without the worry of it being stolen/ kicked at/ urinated against (welcome to Newquay). My job is quite demanding, so how should I spend my down-time when the sun is neither out, nor brightening up?

The age-old art of the seamstress. It started out of necessity - sewing blinds and curtains for about a thousand staring windows in my boyfriends former-bachelor-pad-turned-love-or-lets-face-it-in-those-days-lust-nest.

Curtains turned to cushions - that's still acceptable, right? Cushions turned into felt hanging mobiles and perhaps the odd garmet for godchildren - still socially acceptable when you're helping to clothe naked children, yes?

And then my brother, goddamn him, went and announced that I'm soon to be an aunt. Well something took over. A friend of mine happened to show me a 1970s patchwork book she'd found and I couldn't be stopped.

My sewing machine used to get so dusty that said brother had to whittle me a sewing box for my 30th birthday last year. Now the poor thing's on its last legs. Every time I open the box I can hear it groan. 'Come on you loser', it's telling me. 'Get a bloody life'.

But I can't. This is the life of a 30 something career woman. I know I've probably stepped straight out of the 1800s, but even so, back then it was a social acceptance. Nowadays you feel you should keep such a habit out of the public eye - knitting from behind bus stops, embroidering confined to your bedroom with the (home-made) curtains firmly shut.

Perhaps I should just give in to being 'Desperate Housewife' Bree, duster in hand, smoothing down my half-apron. And before you ask, yeah, I've made one of those too....

How to make a baby's patchwork quilt

To make a baby's patchwork quilt you will need some time, some patience and some more time. And a bit more patience.

This is an endurance project - you're not going to get this finished in a day, probably not in a week. But when it's finished you will be left with a piece of art which will see a child through from baby to toddler through his or her most formative years - so let's make it a good one!
The finished quilt will measure 90cm long by 70cm wide. The patchwork made of of triangles and hexagons is called baby block.

First thing's first, you will need:
3 different colours, light, medium and dark - to be sure, get a metre sq of each fabric.
Backing material - 92cm x 72 cm
Cotton wadding - 92cm x 72cm
An equilateral diamond shape card with 6cm sides plus a 1cm seam allowance (you can buy these as templates - it has to be accurate!)

Cut out plenty of diamond shapes in each of your three colour materials:

Using a 1cm seam sew the backs of three diamonds together to form a hexagon

Once you have several of these, start to join the hexagons together:
It will look like this on the back:
Once you have a shape that is roughly 80cm x 60cm, stop:
Now you need to create a 5cm boarder out of dark and medium coloured fabric - 3cm light sandwiched between two 1cm dark strips (each with a 1cm seam allowance)

Sew the boarder to your hexagons, then sandwich the wadding between your patchwork and backing fabric and sew together with a 1cm seam. You're back hurts, your eyes are bloodshot and you've got pins and cotton all over the floor, I know. But just look at what you're left with:

How to make a pleat skirt

Not to be worn on a Cornish windy day (of which we have many) this gorgeous pleat skirt is actually a doodle to sew. Stick with me. This is what you'll end up with:


You will need:
Pretty skirt material and matching cotton thread: width 3 x your waist (size 12 = 135cm) height = 50cm
Matching bias binding: 2 x width of waist (90cm)
Matching zip: 20cm

Lay out your material and every 12 cm overlap a 4cm section and pin in place - that will leave you with 8cm, then a 2cm pleat, 8cm then a 2 cm pleat etc. Try it for size around your waist and adjust as necessary.

Sew these pleats in place along the top of the fabric horizontally, and then vertically 8cm down each pleat.

Fold in half right side to right side, and seam together to make a tube - sewing in the zip at the top. Then sew your bias binding along the top of your skirt to hide your top seam:






Hem the bottom of the skirt:


Sew a hook and eye to the top of the zip on the underside:


Et voila - your very own pleat skirt.

A dark day for the 'Dems

So it seems Cornwall did vote after all. I'd rather have lost to a 40% turnout than to a 12% turnout, so I'm happy that democracy has been done.

69.6% voted no to AV, 30.4% yes.

The Lib Dems elsewhere have taken a battering in the local elections. The Scottish Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott has stepped down saying he's taking responsibility for a 'disastrous' result for his party.

Pressed on whether Clegg should do the same, Scott replied that he thinks Cleggy-boy does take responsibility for the Liberal bullet-to-the-stomach. Funny then, that the news is full of Tory put-downs - Lib Dems accusing their parliament lovers of being 'tribal'.

What is a political party if not a tribe? Is it possible that the Lib Dems threw their lot in with the wrong team 12 long months ago? That policy after policy has been dictated by the right wing, when so much of the country voted middle-left or left?

Time for the yellows to now accept that with the rejection of an alternative vote, this is the closest they will come to power for another long generation.

Make hay while you can still feel the warmth of the sun, Cleggy-boy. For tomorrow might just see the dark clouds return.

How to make Beautiful British Bunting

Bit late with this as the Royal Wedding was last week - but really it's never too late to have bunting up, is it?

First, cut yourself out a card template that is 7" from top to tip, and 6" wide.
Pin this to your swatches/ leftover pretty materials and cut yourself a pile of, er, bunts using pinking scissors... Take a length of ribbon and zig-zag stitch your material to it, leaving an inch gap between each triangle:

Et voila! Now hang and if required, sing Jerusalem! at the top of one's voice:

#yestoAV if we can #getoutofbed

Voting felt a little strange this morning.

Not least because it was before nine and I was in a church hall. Not least because I was in a church hall at all. But because I was the only one.

Three helpful referendum assistants (I'm sure that's not their formal job title) jumped to tend to my every need.

One to take my postal invite, the other to cross of my name (very neatly) from a master list, the other to, I don't know, check pencils are sharpened well enough? He lingered, anyhoo.

Where was everyone else? Surely my Newquay town peers care about the future of our vote? Don't they?

With Cornwall's local elections put back until 2013, giving our new Unitary Council a fun-packed four-year term in office, perhaps people just weren't inclined to get out of bed to exercise democracy.

What a shame as it’s their very democracy at stake.

If there wasn't already enough reason to vote #yestoAV, as it's known on Twitter, this was the Mail's front page today:

Following an earlier tweet saying Hitler would have got into power 10 years earlier under FPTP, West Briton reporter Anthony Bonnici tweeted "Now really concerned no matter what voting system I pick the Nazis will get into power sooner or later".

How to make Crafty Curtains for your home

Patience is a virtue. Never more so than when making curtains.
First thing's first, get some space. Floor, table, wherever you can find it - the more flat space you have at your finger tips, the easier it will be.

What you'll need:

• Curtain material (see how much you'll need below)
  
• Lining material
  
• Sewing machine
• Curtain tape (I used this one. The longer your curtains, the thicker your tape should be. Up to 2m drop = 2" tape. Up to 3m drop = 3" tape, and so on)
• Thread - similar colour to curtain material

Helpful:

• Tailors chalk
• An iron

Each curtain will be the length of your window + 20cm x the width of your window +5cm.
Here's how to work out how much material you'll need:


Lay lining material out, right side up.
Pin your curtain tape along the top of the lining, 7.5cm down.
Lay your curtain material on top of it, right side down and pin all layers in place.
Sew 2.5cm around both lengths and the top of the fabric.
Repeat with second curtain.

Turn inside out (to right side) and iron flat.
Sew top and bottom lengths of tape through both lining and curtain material - in order to avoid wrinkles, sew both in same direction:


Gather the tape on one end so curtain is half the width it was (half the width of your window):


Slip hooks through the tape at even points about 8cm apart and hang:


Once your curtains have hung in place for a good 4 weeks, hem by12.5cm and re-hang