Of Chickens and Candles and Holes (by sarah)

This weekend has been absurdly busy, for a start I have finally been putting the attic back together after the whole roof fixing of last year! Then there were chickens! It was time to fetch our new rescue chooks - these ones are slightly less rescued than the previous lot as they came from a free range farm and so are a lot perkier than the first lot were initially. They also look better with already red combs and wattles.

It was getting dark by the time we got back with them so photos are not brilliant I'm afraid. Felix who is one of the original four, is not impressed as she is in the rabbit run whilst they settle in.

She was always quiet pecky so we shall have to see how introductions go!

We had planned on getting four hens but when we got there they had spares, so we ended up with 6. Their names are:

1) Squwashy - apparently this is something minecraft related that Jeany has picked.

2) Rose - named by Mary, she didn't give a reason

3) Chris - a chicken scheme programmer as picked by Alaric

4) Pete - another chicken scheme programmer

5) Tardis - this is my chicken 🙂

6) Firefly - this is my dad's chicken and apparently the most intellegent of all the dinosaurs.

They laid an egg on the way home and have since laid 3 more - we had fried eggs for dinner. The run looks so much better with chickens in it 🙂

The weekend also saw Alaric drilling holes in the walls.

Apparently I didn't want this part of the house! No he isn't just randomly destroying the house - he is network cabling so that we can have proper internet in all the rooms in the house etc...

Also the compressor was the best buy EVER! It now unsurprisingly has a hole saw attachment.

Last but certainly not least - Jeany has been wanting to do some more of her candle making for ages, in sorting the attic I discovered just how many candle ends we had accumulated - to be fair friends do post her candle ends to melt down.

This is her main craft activity that she does with Alaric, and it is also her little business which she started years ago now 🙂

Infact the square moulds that came with the starter kit that... erm... started it all broke, so this is the last batch of square candles until she sells some candles and buys a square mould with the money.

It was a pretty epic weekend to be honest.

Cheese and Soap and Skillz (by sarah)

At the beginning of the year when we were setting down our New Year Resolutions, me and Alaric realised that we were still stuck with exactly the same stitches for kniting and crochet that we started with three years ago. All our projects have been variants on a theme.

We also wanted to move forward with the home stedding stuff, having added chickens and allotment since moving house. So here is my first cheese - it is a soft spreadable thing but I am very proud of it - I might also have accidently made a butter but that's cool too and is being used 🙂

The other skill we've been meaning to try has been soap making and we thought this would tie in really well with the yarn craft side of things. So the easiest way of learning the stitches is to knit or crochet squares but I have to be making something or else it wont happen - I've never been good at practice - learning yes but practice no!

Anyway we are basically knitting and crocheting flannels or face/wash cloths to go with the soaps. Here is my first crochet attempt - I think it is double with single as the edging - it is lumpy and bumpy and miss shappen but I am so happy - of course it took me like a month to create.

This is the current one - a single crochet - lets hope I can remember how to carry on with it now Mum's gone home - I really struggled with the double when she wasn't about.

I have also added on four different rag rug making techniques to the skillz I haz, recently, plus improvisational comedy and sketch writing so I am feeling quiet chuffed. I am also nerviously awaiting proof copies of a book which is more painful than I would have thought!

Old Maps (by sarah)

I went through our books and found we had like a shelf of out of date maps of various types so I thought I would do some craft stuff with them. I had a few ideas which I'm sure you will all be getting to see soonly! But I also popped on the laptop to have a little look around the net and found some amazing things on Pinterest.

I saw some amazing pictures done on maps and though that type of drawing isn't really a me thing I thought about the fact I have a draw full of old mapping pens which were damn expensive (geology was known as the colouring in degree at Imperial), and I thought and thought and remembered I'd wanted to do some pictures of little creatures....

And yeah - so now I have a few of these pictures and lots of butterflies the girls punched out of maps and I have plans for bigger art works and what not!

I will be selling the Maps of the Imaginary at the comic con in Cheltenham in Feb for anyone who is interested 🙂

Day 23 – Blondie (by sarah)

I am actually happy with this painting - had to be done in two lots though with drying time inbetween 🙂

Also Alaric is blonde and has a pudding hat and I have a new onsie which I'm sure there will be plenty of picks of over Christmas 🙂

Big thanks to our friend Nicky 🙂

(photos)

Day 22 (by sarah)

This painting actually took longer than the landscapes! It's supposed to be the surface of ice crystals all reflecting the light differently.

Card fail - so cards arrived but turn out to be not cards but one sided printed card 🙁 also they took longer to arrive than planned so I can't see us sending them out to people now either! Never mind we have them for next year and maybe I can get a batch of cards made properly or something for next year 🙂