My Last Charity Shop Purchase Before Lockdown

I have to admit that I have quite settled into lockdown mode, but, if I am honest, I am really beginning to miss a good old Monday morning mooch round the charity shops of Evesham ……. and goodness only knows when I’ll finally be able to indulge again.

This was my very last purchase, the day before the shutters went down ……

……. now, I rarely delve amongst the picture boxes, but this unframed cross stitch caught my eye, mainly because of the subject matter and the workmanship and hours someone had put into it ……… and it cost me all of 40p, how could I leave it there?

There’s not a lot I can do with it for the next little while, it doesn’t fit any of the spare frames I have stored under the bed which is a pity and I’m not sure if, when framed, I will actually keep it, as my shelves and wall space are pretty much full, however, as there doesn’t seem to be an end to lockdown on the horizon, I reckon I have plenty of time to think about it’s future!

Sam’s Study – A True Adventure In Fiddle Fart!

Oh my goodness, what a load of old fiddle fart ……..

I felt I needed to put a 50p beside the armchair just to show you how small it is, I wish I could have also put all the blood, sweat and tears I shed to put it together………..

…… in what was a two and a half hour marathon! Just look at all the blinking stages and there was very little margin for error, as you are given the bare minimum of material,  should  you, pardon the expression, cock up!

I tried my best, it’s by no means perfect, but hopefully, if the whole thing is ever finished, amongst everything else all the squiggly digglely bits won't show up too much.

All the furniture is now completed, it was a bit disappointing to find the drawer front on the shelves above was split, so fixing it into position without snapping it completely was a little touch and go. 

Now it’s time to put all the hundreds of tiny books and boxes together, these are just the first few.  A lesson I quickly learned was to glue scraps of card inside to make the tops, bottoms and sides of the boxes a little sturdier.

As I did with the suitcase, even the tiny luggage labels and handle had to be cut separately and then glued on ………. happy days?

Lady Bug Card

This card measures 6ins by 6ins and uses a pre-scored Hobbycraft blank.

I am particularly chuffed with this card as it came together so effortlessly, despite my flagging mojo, nothing, for once, ended up in the bin for once!

I used the ladybirds and sentiment from this pack of cardboard stickers, that I believe, came from Poundland …….

……. and these trusty old old punches go back for far too many years to remember.

I decided to layer the daisies to give the card some extra dimension, especially when they are fluffed up a bit.

The gold circles and oblongs are nail art embellishments are also from Poundland.  Originally I doodled the heart shaped frame, but as I added the flower centre studs, I wondered if the oblongs might work if I added them to the lines, I think they did!

I put a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents on both of the ladybirds and sentiment, again to add some extra texture and dimension.  The finishing touches were made with a scattering of groups of three white dots using a white gel pen.  Voila!

Too Much Time To Think In Lockdown

I love my spare bedroom, I have just got it about right, but living in lockdown has finally got to me and I am beginning to think just a little harder than perhaps I ought to ……….

……. because much as I love the room, especially when I dress it for Christmas,  it doesn’t really “earn its keep”, it’s used about once a month for visitors or baby sleepovers but for the rest of the time it just seems to breed dust  and a store for all crafty tools and materials.  I pop in and out to search for or collect bits and pieces, which always results in a whole host of open boxes being left all over the bed ……..

……. as well as others being transported into the lounge, which then annoys the hell out of me, as I am sure I have mentioned a hundred times before. Then when I’ve finish working, I have two rooms to tidy away.  It’s weird, but it only takes a couple of things on the table to make the lounge “feel/look” like a bombsite and I know that the whole palaver often puts me off even starting a project, hence the thinking ………. 

It’s something Marc has suggested many times, why not simply replace the bed for a sofa bed?  The space between the two fitted drawer units only gives me 155cms to work with, but after a bit of searching I finally found this one which measures 145cms at it’s widest. 

I am thinking mustard or teal. I am currently bombarding the company that makes it with questions …….. however, won’t be doing anything until lockdown is over, giving me plenty of time to really think about it.

Replacing the bed with a sofa will give me more than enough room to slide my Ikea gateleg table from the kitchen area to the window in the bedroom (very much as it is already).

Then, when visitors stay it would be nothing to just slide it back again.  In the meantime I gain a little more space in the kitchen and when Iris and Bertie come over, they will have the option of playing with their toys in another room and I can just shut the door if I don't want to tidy up immediately, which also goes for when I am crafting, not to mention all my crafting stuff now being at arms length.

https://www.houzz.co.uk/photos/office-guest-bedroom-contemporary-home-office-and-library-miami-phvw-vp~4844082 – this is the nearest example I can find to how I sort of envisage it, minus coffee table etc.

I will need to find a place for the existing bedding but I have more than enough room in the fitted wardrobes in my bedroom, especially if I order a couple more vacuum storage bags.  The kettle, cups etc. will remain so that I can make a drink without going in the kitchen, however I may have to absorb or cull some of the stuff currently stored under the bed at the moment. I may buy a WiFi radio too save moving my other from room to room plus it’s nice for guest to listen to at night or in the morning.

So, that’s the theory, I have more or less worked it all out and should be able to finance it using all the money I haven’t been spending due to lockdown.  I think it all makes sense ……. I have just got to commit.

Halloween Truck - Almost Done

Today I have more to show you on how my Halloween Truck is coming along. The drawers all but finished (some just need Halloween papers put on the insides) so I have moved onto the truck itself, with, I admit, a little trepidation, because I don’t really have any concrete ideas as to where to go with it, it’s all very trial and error I am afraid.

I started with the back first, covering it with a orange/purple patterned paper and then making two separate door panels that will, hopefully, give it a little extra dimension………

……. adding two resin frames,

………. and colouring them with a green Sharpie pen …..

…… before creating two little scenes  with spooky sticker characters to give the impression that they are looking out from the back of the truck. They look OK, but I think it still needs a little something else, if only a couple of handles but I have left things as they are for now while I have another think about it.

I am also experimenting with the roof, using the same paper as the door and some lengths from Halloween straws round the edges, again another work in progress.  The current idea is to cover some small lidless boxes in assorted papers that when filled with sweets can be arranged on the top?????? 

I’ve gone round all the edges with a white gel pen, which I think works adding the skulls on the doors and front of the truck which came off  the straws used for the roof edging.  They will eventually have a layer of Ranger Glossy Accents put on them.

I am chuffed with the skeletons, I had to chop their legs off in order to fit in the cab, but they appear to have stayed in position with the help of a generous dollop of super glue.  I was able to bend one of the arms and hands using my heat embossing gun.

I am now thinking of giving them both a hat, either a witches one or a top hat using Fimo?

That’s as far as I have got so far, it really is a slow work in progress. There isn’t that much more to do, but I am wondering if I could possibly varnish over the black acrylic paint without it running everywhere. It’s the final bits of fiddle fart that will “make or break it” so I know I need to get them right, no pressure then ……. but hopefully you’ll hang on in there for the final episode in the next week or so.

Doodled Patchwork Birthday Card

This card measures 6ins x 6ins and is made using a Hobbycraft pre-scored card blank.

It’s been years since I think I’ve done a doodled card and this one came about because I needed a quick and simple idea, but because of my missing mojo I’ve found myself relying far too much on a random alphabet letter card of late and I this time I knew I had to pull my finger out.

I started with square piece of card, cut a little smaller than the card blank, adding an arrangement of punched, patterned paper circles and leaves and a handwritten dotty style greeting, using a black fine liner pen.

Then using the same pen I proceeded to doodle on and between the shapes which I found really relaxing and absorbing.

…….. so much so that taken by the moment I then went on to doodle the envelope.  I mat and layered the completed square on silver card and then added

Very simple and not a lot to it I know ……. but it served it’s purpose.

Sam’s Study

OMG, never have my eyes been so crossed or my fingers so stuck together!

Please, please, please don’t look at all the strands of glue I’ve left,  I know they need cleaning off, but after putting this tiny cabinet together, I was in no mood to start scrapping them off. I absolutely hated every single minute of making it, but on the other hand I was a little bit chuffed that I had seen it through to the bitter end ……

I know all the way through this project Sam’s Study is going to be a total love/hate relationship, but I won’t be beat, it just might take a very long time time to complete ……….

…….. especially when summoning up the courage to go back to an item when it is completely dry to tidy it up ……… all I am saying is aghhhhhhhhhhh

Halloween Truck–All The Drawer Fronts Are Completed

Woo hoo hoo, all twenty-four of my Halloween truck drawers are now completed …….

…… and despite my initial misgivings, I am well chuffed.

I coloured the sides and edges of each drawer in black and let them dry properly to prevent any murky fingerprints, before adding the plain background papers as mentioned last week, this time everything came together much better than my first few drawers.

It also came as quite a relief that each drawer front took a fraction of the time that my previous Advent calendar drawers have taken me in the past, it was pretty much wham bam, thank you Mam once I got going.

Seeing how all now looks has helped me decide, more or less, how to decorate the rest of the truck.  My original idea was to be quite grown up and gothic, but now it’s going to be much cuter, more colourful and child orientated ………..

…….. using the Halloween patterned papers that didn’t suit the drawers on the roof, back and perhaps the panels on the sides …….. well, that’s the theory anyway, so, again, watch this space!

Using Open Live Writer with Blogger

First of all, my apologies to all total no techies (of which count myself of being one) for this post, but it is a tale of tentative persistence!!!!

As you know, until last year I always used Open Live Writer to create my blog posts as it was such an easy program to use, allowing me to size pictures to fit the text and place exactly where I wanted,  as well as adding frames, watermarks and effects to them. Then around March 2019 things went pear shaped, it’s too complicated to go into, but Live Writer was abandoned by its developers, so that when there was a glitch there were no updates to fix it. So when a problem arose with Google pictures, millions of bloggers all over the world were left high and dry, up  the river without a paddle!  At first I kept posting questions on various forums and progress was made when developers on Git Hub took it up, but soon it all got too technical for me and I just gave up!

The future of both Fiddle Fart and Mums Monkey, you may remember, was in the balance, but even though I have always found the Blogger interface a absolute “beeping” nightmare to use, I persevered and after over a year I have just about got into the swing of things, the presentation of both blogs had to change slightly, but I just had to live with it in order to continue.

Then, under lockdown, something made me think about looking at Open Live Writer again, just in case any progress had been made, but girding my loins for whatever frustrations that could bring ……… however after about half an hour of following links I happened upon this post ………..

https://www.hackinguniversity.in/2020/04/fix-blogger-sign-in-error-open-live-writer.html

……. and very, very tentatively decided to download the program it included, which, unbelievably, then opened up my old familiar Open Live Writer editing page, I was now terrified that as I started to put a test post together it was too good to be true as ……. it was! The pictures wouldn’t publish as before, but remembering what I had read many times before, I went into Google pictures and changed the name of every single album I had from Open Live Writer to a random selection of four letters just for speed.  This still didn’t work, I now got a new error code “error:"invalid_grant", Description:"Bad Request", Uri:" ………..

What happened next is a bit of a blur, but after trying to publish again I think I got a Google request to allow access to Fiddle Fart (????)  I was reticent, but went for it …….. OMG it worked, I did several test posts and all went straight to the blog.  I then repeated it, still in a haze, with Mums Monkey, I just don’t believe it, still dont!!!

The only tiny issue I have is that it doesn’t open straight into Blogger as it did before, I now have to open Blogger separately, but the posts are there large as life in the drafts folder and just need scheduling.

How long this will last, goodness only knows ……… but what I do know is that my Open Live Writer editing skills are now a bit rusty, so I need to relearn one or two things, but no way am I grumbling ……… HAPPY DAYS HERE AGAIN.

Chalk and Cheese

As I have said before, unlike Iris, Bertie just isn't interested in drawing other than drain pipes and writing his name ....... 

...... however, the other day he proudly announced that he had drawn the cylinder in the airing cupboard in his bedroom, including all the wires and pipes!!! This masterpiece was duly mounted for display on the kitchen wall. 

Although he was born four years after Grandy Andy died, Bertie is indeed his Granddad's Grandson, with plumbing undeniably his DNA, bless him!!! 

Halloween Truck Continued .......

I think you all know me pretty well by now and that if I get frustrated with a project it often takes me an awful lot of effort to return to it ....... and that is so true of my Halloween truck.  I got smudge marks on the fronts of some of the drawers and that was it ........ but now I have bitten the bullet and returned to it.

Although I only had half of the drawers covered I decided I needed to start embellishing these before I went any further so that I could work out which way I was going to go and boy was I glad, in the end that I hadn't covered the rest, because lesson learned, using such highly patterned paper was a BIG mistake!!!!

So ...... the next lot of drawers I cover (for the opposite side of the truck) will be coloured with a black pen first, to prevent smudging and then the fronts covered with plain papers after.

 The original patterned papers, though lovely, just distracted and failed to make the embellishments stand out leaving the drawer fronts in danger of looking a total mish mash, however there was no way I going to start all over again, so I persevered with what I had and I think I may have got away with it, to my satisfaction, at least.

I used a variety of Halloween stickers left over from last year, however I quickly discovered that my favourite  plastic ones let the patterned paper underneath show through, so another lesson learned and another reason for using plain paper on the rest of the drawers.

After a few successful drawer fronts were basically embellished I decided to repeat the designs again, giving me two similar, but not exactly the same designs, for each side of the truck, so that I could get away with the change to plain papers, giving me a half and half mix, which I think should work out OK.

To help break up the pattern round the drawer front edges I used white and/or black pens to go round them, which I think also worked.  I then went over each front with Modge Podge Gloss Lustre to set everything and then when that was dry added googly eyes to any faces, a few 3D stars here and there before applying a good layer of  Ranger Glossy Accents to each embellishment, like the skulls and pumpkins to add extra dimension.

That's as far as I have got, with eleven drawers now completed ...... I am pretty pleased with how they have turned out so am not as disgruntled as I was when I first started, which also means I am pretty eager now to complete the rest of the drawers ........... so watch this space!