The Beginning of Blogtober! (Blogtober #1)

As everyone will know, today is the 1st of October and for this month I want to try something new with my blog. I'm going to do "Blogtober"! I've seen people on YouTube do "Vlogtober" before and I thought I'd do a similar thing here on my blog.

So for the next month I'm going to try and post everyday, but it may not be everyday as I'm still quite new to this blogging thing. I've got some ideas for upcoming posts and all sorts of things I want to write about.

Hopefully I'll get my posts out on time, lets wait and see!

So you'll be seeing a lot more of this face in October. And reading a lot more of my words. I'm looking forward to it!

I've Gone Cross Stitch Mad!

Over the last few months I've really been getting into cross stitch. I first started doing little cross stitch kits when I broke my ankle at the beginning of the summer and now I absolutely love it. I'm a little bit obsessed!

This is all the stuff I have in my cross stitch kit and how I store everything.

So first I have my sewing box, I bought it from John Lewis and it is the Daisychain print from one of their 150th anniversary collections. The outside is cream with yellow and blue flower details and the inside has a contrasting blue polka dot pattern. I love the little pocket and pin cushion, they're so useful!

In the top I keep the threads I'm using for the project I'm working on, as well as two pairs of scissors, a tape measure, a stitch picker and needles. I also have a few pens and pencils as well as the bits and pieces the box came with.

Underneath I keep my 10cm embroidery hoop, aida fabrics, spare thread, old patterns and mini cross stitches I've finished.

This is my bobbin box, isn't it amazing?! I got it from amazon but I have seen them in craft shops as well. You can also get different sizes, depending on how much space you need.

I have started organising my threads into colour order but I haven't done it properly yet as I did this quite quickly last night. All of my thread is from John Lewis. They have really good value embroidery floss there. You get a packet of 36 different colours for £5.50 so it's perfect for starting your collection. I got the cardboard bobbins from Ebay.

I have one cross stitch book and it's the Cath Kidston "Stitch" book. It's a really great book with beautiful photos throughout. It's full of different patterns and projects. It has tips and tutorials on different types of stitches and the projects in this book suit a range of abilities. 

This is my current project that I'm working on and it's from this book, it is the House Cushions pattern. But I'm not making the cushions I'm just following the pattern and making it into a picture to frame it.

Recently I found this Cross Stitcher magazine in Tesco and it's brilliant. It's full of different patterns and projects. I've seen one I really like in here and I can't wait to get started on it. This issue also came with a free gift - 6 cardboard sausage dog thread bobbins and neon thread! They are so cute!

I also use an A5 Black n Red notebook to plan any little cross stitches as well as copy some patterns from the internet. It has squared paper and is perfect for drawing your designs.

I'm so glad I started cross stitching and I'm really happy that I've found a hobby that I love so much. It's really satisfying to finish a cross stitch after you've worked so hard on it as well. Soon I'll be finished with my Cath Kidston House picture, I can't wait to frame it and hang it on my wall!

Highlights of My Week

I had a really good week last week. Some days I didn't do anything, just spent them in my pyjamas (pretty normal for me) but I actually went out a few times, which was fun!
I thought I'd share some of my favourite things with you today, just things I've been enjoying and some highlights from the past week.
Here we go!

1. Being able to walk.
Seven weeks on from breaking my ankle and I'm slowly getting better at walking. Either using just one crutch or neither when I'm inside and then two when I go out. I've been going for a walk around where I live every evening, just for 15 minutes or so but it's really helping.

2. Half of My Heart by John Mayer
Such a lovely song! I first heard it when a band I like called Thee Acquainted did a cover of it on their Youtube channel and since then I've been hooked. I've been listening to their version and the original non-stop!

3. Guardians of the Galaxy
Have you seen this film yet?! It's absolutely brilliant. It's funny, has a great soundtrack, the makeup is awesome and the characters/actors that are in it are really cool. I also had a great time seeing this because I had my favourite flavour of ice cream at the cinema, American Birthday Cake from Baskin Robbins! And free popcorn and a drink!

4. My new Nikes
I bought these trainers from Sports Direct last week and I looooove them. They're a really bright pinky red colour, they're also really comfortable and make walking so much easier. They're a similar shape to the pair of New Balance trainers that I have but they're just a bit thicker with more support.

5. Getting my ear pierced
I finally got my ear pierced! I've wanted to get the top of my ear pierced for ages now and just never got round to doing it. But when I was out shopping on Saturday, to cheer myself up a bit I decided to go for it! Now I've got 12 weeks of healing to go through, which sucks.

6. The 100
If you haven't heard of this TV show then you're missing out! It's an American show that's on E4 at the moment and I've been really enjoying it. It's a bit cheesy but if you can ignore that then it's great. So it's set in the future after a nuclear war has left the world uninhabitable and everyone lives in a giant spaceship. But after 100 years they've decided to send 100 prisoners to earth to see if it can be repopulated. Oh and all the prisoners are about 17! So it's full of drama!

I might do another of these posts in a few weeks, to keep you updated on all my favourite things and what I've been watching/listening to. I think it's quite a fun post to do. I always like watching peoples monthly favourites videos on Youtube so this is like my version of that.

Painting Plates - 9/8/14

That’s me concentrating on staying in the lines!

On Saturday I went to a creative cafe where you can paint your own bowls, mugs, plates and loads of other things. My Mum and her partner Janine both chose small plates and so did I.

I was flicking through a book of Street Art for some inspiration and found a page on one of my favourite artists “Stik” and I thought drawing my own would look really cool on a plate.

If you've never heard of Stik, here's some of his artwork. I found these photos on Instagram, but the middle one is in New York and the other two are in London.

Here’s the book and here’s the plan on my plate, I also chose this because I thought it’d be quite easy to do.

 

You have to paint three layers of everything you draw so that when it's finished it's bright enough.

And that's my finished plate! It's really simple but I think it'll look cool when I get it back.

I really want to paint more plates now, we were there for a good two and a half hours and we were all concentrating really hard on our plates.
Now I have to wait a week till I can pick it up because they have to cook it and glaze it. Or something like that!