Bamm Boo

I’m hoping this post really should be called “the other side of the creative block”!

Some of my very good friends had a major life event happen 4 months ago!! I wont give any details because it’s not my story to tell but it’s something that they – and so because I love them I- have been waiting for for a very long time. My initial thought was I must make them something really thoughtful and amazing to show them how happy I am for them and how much I love them. But, my own life was totally crazy at the time; I was working full time while my husband was completely changing his career path.

So I spent a long time with no inspiration and then when I had some I just couldn’t picture how I would do it and then I just couldn’t start. Of course at that point a normal person would have just bought a lovely present – probably via amazon so they could deliver it directly and promise herself she would make something at a later date.

Instead what I did was to keep it at the top of my list. In the meantime 3 more couples have had  similar (although without such a complicated back story) life events. I usually make presents for friends at those times and have a stash of ideas of things I can make reasonably easily but I couldn’t push the first one off the top of the list so those people are still waiting too (Obviously I’m not so vain as to think people have given more than a passing thought to their lack of present or even a card from me). Again I could have just bought a nice present but, as I keep telling myself, I like to make presents!!!

The point of this long waffly post is that I’ve done it; I’ve finally finished the present and sent it.  My ever supportive husband even said, “Oh that looks nicer than I thought it would look.”

(The blurring is there on purpose – that bit says the family name)

To all our much loved friends who might think their special times went by unnoticed – I’m sorry, it turns out I’m practically insane and I might just let my husband be in charge of gifts from now on. They’ll probably come from amazon and if he’s feeling flush he might even pay for wrapping but they will at least come in a reasonable time frame.

(Comments are off but feel free to come and tell me how silly I am on Facebook!)

Argh How can it be more than two weeks since I blogged? I thought I was getting the hang of this!

We’re vaguely unpacked and I’ve even managed a bit of sewing. Of course I haven’t managed to take any decent photos. My niece who’s birthday was earlier this month wanted a hand-muff for her birthday so I made her one using this tutorial unfortunately I totally forgot to take a picture at all. The tutorial was really easy to follow and I think she likes it – hopefully she wont have lost it before it’s actually cold enough to use it.

I also did a hoodie for my sister and her new hubby.

They wore them the day before the wedding while we were getting everything ready. (I say we but I didn’t really do much mainly because Boo and I were stuck in dreadful traffic all the way there!)

The “Mr” one says, “And they lived…” so they look cute from the front too. I was pretty happy with the hand embroidery. I might have made up tho technique but it’s more likely I read how to do it somewhere but I didn’t save the link.

What I did was print out the text I wanted then trace it onto some greaseproof paper (obviously proper tracing paper would work although I think the rubbish thin stuff is better than the high quality kind) Then I pinned the traced writing  inside-out onto the back of the fabric I was stitching on and stitched over it to make the letters. I ended up with the paper sewn onto the back of the fabric but because it’s really thin it tears away really easily.

I’ve always been a bit nervous of hand embroidery because I don’t really like my handwriting so this is a great technique for me. I love to learn new ways of doing things and there’s probably a much easier way of doing it so if you’ve got a different way be sure to pop over to my Facebook page and let me know.

I can make these for sale if if anyone is interested I can price them up properly, they’ll be around £25-£30 each plus postage.

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