Creating shouldn't be so difficult...it never used to be

....but this CJ entry has taken me nigh on a week, and it really shouldn't have taken anywhere near that long!

Anyway, it's done now :)

This is my entry in Lori's book in the Tattoo CJ circle. Her theme is "the good, the bad and the ugly" - great fun theme - it gave me an excuse to scour the net for some really naaaasty tattoos, and also some really amazingly wonderful ones.


The actual layout uses all sorts of random stuff I had lying about - the fabulous leg was cut out of a tattoo mag; the black netting used to add a bit of texture to the background, while also toning down the bold pattern of the floral paper underneath, was cut out of an old pair of Connor's tracksuit bottoms lol; and the black tape around the edges of the pages is hockey tape - which is JUST like 7 Gypsies bookbinding tape but about a tenth of the price :)

I got the gorgeous wooden swallows from Etsy.



The text up in the top right hand corner (which is somewhat less violently pink in real life, the flash messes with it) was generated with an Around The Block label machine - just like an old fashioned Dymo but with cooler fonts



I made my leggy lady a footrest from red felt, with stamped calico labels for three little accordion books - these contain photos of good, bad, and ugly tattoos I had found on my Google expedition. I had to hand sew this onto the paper and mesh backing, because my sewing machine wasn't having any of it.

The accordion book covers were made with some leather-style vinyl I picked up in the scrapstore years ago. It was white, but I coloured it with red and black alcohol inks, and perforated it around the borders of each cover with a tracing wheel, which you can't really see in the pics, but it makes them look quite convincing IRL.


The accordion books look like this ^ once opened.

A closer look at the contents of the three books is below:

The good


The bad


The ugly


So that's one CJ down 2 more to go in the next couple of weeks - it's a good job I have deadlines because it is keeping me making stuff even when I'm not really in the mood for it. I know I would be really frustrated with myself if I let myself stop altogether.

They caught me out this week....

I went looking for the Friday Five and it wasn't there.... because instead this week there was a Saturday Six (I guess those hlog girlies want to keep us on our toes)

So here goes:

1.) Do you like rain?
I tolerate it, and appreciate that we need it for the plants to grow, but have seen rather too much of it for comfort this year, I think this summer was the wettest since records began or something equally dramatic

2.) What day of the week is laundry day?
Every day! I have three kids, and a tumble dryer that is on its last legs so takes forever to dry anything, and as already mentioned, it's not like I can hang anything outside to dry because IT IS ALWAYS RAINING - so the dryer is on constantly and the washing machine isn't far behind

3.) Are you addicted to Youtube?
Nah, the novelty has worn off a bit now. I still find it a really useful resource, though.

4.) How efficiently can you type one handed?
Not that well, as it's hard to do the capital letters if they are a long way from the shift button

5.) Did you indulge in any leftover Halloween candy?
Yes but not much, as most of it looked naaaasty

6.) What are your plans for Thanksgiving? If you are Canadian, what did you do for your Thanksgiving?
We don't have Thanksgiving here. But I think we should, it's a good concept.

Getting better with my new lens....

I had another practice with my lovely new lens last night at the Guildford game (which saw our boys playing with real heart, fighting for every puck, and basically making me proud, we lost more through bad luck than lack of effort).

And although I'm still having a bit of problem with the depth of field, these are tons better than last week's.

Getting there. By the end of the season I reckon I'll have mastered it :)

Scroll to the bottom for first view of Sitko's new Village People cop moustache. Lovin' it! :D

Full set of pics here

awww he so cuuuute :D

it's the little "hallo" at the start

I am so smitten lol

and what a superb goal by Sitko!

This is uber cool

Local video firm Crazy Dog Media have teamed up with my Wildcats to produce a few game DVDs, complete with commentary and player/coach interviews and all sorts of bells and whistles

It's fab!

Here is a little vid they have put together to promote the three DVDs so far filmed. I'm hoping to pick up the one from the Telford game tonight.



I could watch this over and over :) It's so surreal seeing my team playing, on the TV, with a commentator. HNIC here we come :)

Tau is such a cutie

some piccies of our surprisingly cuddly hedgehog:

(ok, when I say our, I mean Darby's, but I reckon that makes me her granny)

Top of my Christmas list....if Santa is reading.....

I just wish I could be over there to see it in the actual movie theatre next week, I bet I would cry, buckets, just like I did as the real events were unfolding. Not getting into the playoffs HURTS.

The Nazzy bits alone will have me reaching for the Kleenex.

Woohoo I MADE something!

This is my entry for the November Art Raffle - theme "circles".

As I am currently obsessed with fabric, it's a mini quilt.

Not sure if I like it or not, but hey, I made something. Been a while....

The bird and eggs are from a fabric collage sheet from the Retro Art Cafe.

The nest is made from eyelash fibres sewn down with a zigzag stich

The border was made by sponging blue ink through stencil waste and then overlaying with copper leaf attached to "wonder under" iron-on adhesive.

Friday Five 2nd November

1.) Have you ever played an intramural/rec league sport?
I think this means a team sport outside of school. In which case, no, I haven't. My only sporting activity since school has been solitary stuff like swimming, aerobics classes, and going to the gym.


2.) Do you have any Halloween plans?
I am answering this a little late so Halloween is over. But I had a fab Halloween on Manchester's Canal Street in the company of FABULOUSLY costumed drag queens :)

3.) Do you carry a planner around with you?
Nope. I don't do much planning.

4.) Do you watch a lot of movies?
Nope again. I don't have time. Can't remember the last time I watched a film all through. Oh - yes I can - I took Connor to see Wall-E on his birthday in July.

5.) Are you aware who won the World Series?
I'm not even sure which sport it is! Baseball? No, no idea who won.

Apologies for lack of blog activity recently by the way. No motivation. No mojo. Feeling a bit sorry for myself. I'll snap out of it soon I expect.

What a purty bunch of assistant captains we have

'scuse me while I have a puck bunny moment :)

Friday Five - bit late again

1.) Are you sick of election time yet?
Luckily being in the UK we're not quite as engulfed in the US election as I expect you guys are over there. We still get plenty of coverage - and I find it quite interesting - but not so much as to be tedious.

2.) What color Post-It notes do you prefer?
Classic yellow for me - the bigger the better, as I use them mainly for cutting out masks for stamping and stencilling

3.) Do you use coasters?
Nah :) My table is already covered in paint and glue - the odd mug ring isn't going to matter

4.) Are you a better presenter or paper writer?
Paper writer definitely. When I present out loud I am all umms and errrs, it's painful to watch

5.) Do you buy CDs any more?
Very rarely. I'll be buying the new John Frusciante CD though fo sho

This is so overdue it's not funny

but hopefully worth the wait

Alix - sorry it has taken so long!

I quick photo stencil how-to for anyone wanting to make something similar (but hopefully not take almost 6 months over it like I have!)

This was the photo of the suave Swede that I started off with:










I took it into Photoshop and thresholded it, playing with the cut off until I was happy that the resulting black and white image was recognisably Mattias:



This image was then printed onto freezer paper, and all the black parts were cut out with a sharp knife (slowly and carefully) - leaving bridges where necessary to make sure that bits like the vintage logo on the jersey didn't fall out of the stencil completely.

the freezer paper stencil once I had finished cutting ^

(his hair was a total PITA! I should have used a pic of him with his lid on lol)

The freezer paper stencil was then ironed onto the front of a light blue cotton t-shirt (cutting away the bridges once everything was positioned properly). And a complete sheet of freezer paper was also ironed into the inside of the t shirt behind the stencil, facing the other way. This is to act as a barrrier to any paint that might bleed through the fabric, as otherwise it could stain the back of the shirt.

The next step is to carfully sponge fabric paint - I used a metallic royal blue coloured paint by Lumiere - over the stencil, in a dabbing motion, with a fairly dry sponge. In other words, don't saturate the sponge with paint as if it is too wet it might make its way under the stencil and ruin your nice sharp outline. Instead go over with a nearly dry sponge a number of times, always dabbing up and down never dragging or scrubbing.

I didn't take a photo of this step, but you can imagine.

The next bit seems to take a lifetime - that is waiting for the paint to dry COMPLETELY before peeling off the stencil to see if any paint has crept underneath and ruined the whole thing (and wasted the stencil you took hours cutting!)

Thankfully, it was a very successful paint job in this case, with no bleeding at all, phew!

All it needed was a good iron to make the paint wash-proof, and it's ready to go over to Canada to the home of the Humming Giraffe :)

A Twitter experiment

As a way to keep people up to date who couldn't make it to the rink, and also just to see if I could, I thought I would live Twitter the Wildcats v Telford game last night

Never again :)

Unless I can learn how to text without looking at the phone, anyway.

I missed too much of the game by taking my eyes off it to text about it.

I even missed a goal - grrr. Forsyth turned the puck over in the neutral zone and gave Telford a clear breakaway, nobody was anywhere near the Tiger but Sitko zoomed up there like a man posessed, dived half way across the width of the ice and poked it out just in time.

So I leapt on my phone to tweet about Sitko's sweeeet defending, and before I'd got to the 2nd or 3rd word everyone's cheering, because that puck had gone straight down the ice while I wasn't paying attention, Joel had found it and popped it in. Pah. They should check I'm looking before they take a shot :)

I also was so rattled trying to watch and text at the same time that I apparently was under the impression that the game had four periods LOL. I haven't corrected them below - but when I mention the 2nd period I meant the 1st and when I mention the 3rd period I meant the 2nd. (hence us managing to score 2 more goals after the end of the 3rd period) DOH!

Anyway - here are the results of my experiment (and if I ever do it again I will only text in the period breaks) :

• Out come the lads. Both watt bros icing by the look of things. So that doesnt clear anything up.


• And again. Ryan w got the loudest cheer . Hope the p t b are listening.


• Lee r is on fire! Less than 3 mins in and about 3 or 4 shots already and now a goal. Yes! Assist sitko


• Beautiful end to end from sitko! Scrum at the goal to stop him. Got us a powerplay


• Goal! Looked like we were going to concede after a scary telford breakaway. But 24 saved the day and on the way back 23 scored :)


• Last few mins of 2nd we have lost momentum. Forsyth seems a bit rattled and we have lost dominance a little. Eop score 2 0 us


• Dont know why they bothered to dress ryan w. He didnt play a single shift :( guess that is that then :(


• And lots of other rumours flying around too. Including a brand new one. All very odd.


• Less than a minute into the 3rd and we are 3 0 :) sitko from nicky watt. Wish i could enjoy this game properly


• Ryan w on the ice :) huge cheer :)


• When kudrna is on form he is godlike :)


• End of 3rd period. 3 0 cats. Watt the younger iced twice. Both brothers smiling. Even nicky :) no idea what is going on. Good game tho :)


• And its four ! Aaron nell from stringer aka the torch


• Johnny 5 is alive :) long from hayes. And nicky watt just had a short but successful scrap


• And its a shutout :) great game! Very proud of my boys :) no idea who mom was asked pete r he didnt know either :)

For the record, MOM was Kudrna. Couldn't have been anyone else really. Never seen an EPL goalie get that far into the zone. He could have stopped anything last night.

And it was his turn to do autographs too - never seen a signing queue like it, because we all wanted to tell him he's a genius :) And commiserate with poor Oli that he is never going to get any ice time at this rate!

Connor's first ATC trade

and I'm sure it won't be the last

Connor traded with Lorraine's son Luke, who is 5, after discovering that they both share a love of Dr Who and Wall E :)

Connor's ATC was based on the photo below, that we found on the net - of Wall E sitting atop a pile of rubble and gazing wistfully into the stars

Luke's fab collaged ATC has a Dr Who Top Trumps card as its base, and a cheeky little pumpkin to remind us it's nearly Halloween :)

Both boys were really excited to receive a special gift in the post just for them, and I'm sure they will be trading again soon

One of those ideas that worked better in my head....

I really can't work out whether or not I like this

Half of me is really proud of it, as it's my first ever attempt at embroidery (although, to be fair, this is more darning than embroidery...) and I think it turned out pretty neat and tidy.

But on the other hand I was aiming for an arty mini quilt. But it just looks to me like something you'd expect your granny to make. Not very edgy :)



Anyway - it doesn't really matter if I like it, as long as the CJ recipient (Efemera) does :)

One thing I am pleased with is the silk that the embroidery is sitting on - I dyed that myself and I like how it came out.

The flower was hand drawn and then filled in with variegated embroidery threads in a darning stitch (a bit like weaving over the surface of the fabric). It took forever! But at least I could do it sitting in front of the TV.

And there's even a bit of machine sewing on there too - I'm slowly getting less scared of the machine :)

Friday Five 18th October 2008

a bit late

1.) What is your favorite pasta dish?

Spinach and ricotta cannelloni, I think, or maybe a nice veggie lasagne.

2.) Where was the last postcard you got from?

From Crete, where my chappie had most inconsiderately gone on holiday without me, pah :)

3.) Can you name all the state/provincial capitals? How about just all the states/provinces?

No fair - I'm a foreigner. Can I do the English counties instead? (not that I could do that either, there are way too many of them)

4.) Which new iPod color is the coolest? http://www.apple.com/itunes/

I quite like the green one, but to be honest I prefer stuff like that in plain black.


5.) How many pairs of jeans do you own?

about 8 that fit :O

Feisty!

So - we had a bit of a chippy game at the Link last night!

Penalty minutes: SWI 118, WIG 129

eeek!!!



But in between all the fisticuffs we managed to pop 8 - yes 8 - pucks in the net :)

Wightlink managed 2

Result! :)

What happened to the Wildcats of old who go one ahead in the first, then collapse in the second, and struggle back to a one goal lead in the third if they're lucky?

What happened to the Canucks who can't score or come back from behind?

Whoever woke up my teams over the summer - THANK YOU!!

Oh - and those 8 goals? Joel didn't have a hand in any of them - so we're not goalless when we're Joelless, oh no. Poor bloke only lasted about 5 mins then then took a stick to the face and had to go to hospital for stitches. Ouch.

But to prove he was there:



I took my posh camera along for a change and am glad I did as I am pleased with how the pics turned out.

The full set is here

But here's a gratuitous shot of Sitko:



Sing song part 1 - let's all do the conga:



and part 2 - they'll be comin' round the mountain:



And Connor and his heeeeeeeero:



I was going to write more about the game, but it's already been discussed to death on THF anyway, and, well, it can be summarised pretty succinctly: "naughty Gareth, WTG Jamie, that wasn't boarding, lots of goals whoot, Ryan is entertaining, we won"

My new career as a sports journalist is beckoning, huh?



Footage of all the major fights, not for the fainthearted!:

Further proof that the Wildcats and the Canucks are actually the same team leading a double life

just like Hannah Montana!

6. Brothers....both teams have brothers

7. Both teams seem most vulnerable at the hands of recently departed ex teamies who couldn't score FOR us but don't seem to have any trouble scoring ON us. Addie Brittle got a hat trick??? wha???? Nathan McIver gets past Luongo???? what's going on???