Feeling Festive

We're putting up decorations this weekend so I've taken a photo of the wreath I constructed- it took an obscene amount of baubles, most of which I bought in the sale after Christmas last year.

I based it off this wreath tutorial and a couple of others, it's pretty addictive- I'd like to make lots of other colours if I had the money!

Hello Again!

I'm pretty bad at this whole 'updating on a regular basis' thing, mainly because I'm lazy at scanning things, although I do have a whole load of things I want to share, so maybe over the Christmas Holidays I'll get around to it!

I'm posting this picture pretty much safe in the knowledge that although my Grandad has the internet, he doesn't know I have a blog, so if you're a cousin who stumbles across this- don't tell him!

This was comissioned by my Grandma for Grandad's Christmas present, based on a railway poster of Broadstairs I cut it all from paper (apart from the really small bits like people and fences- if I could cut that small I'd be rich and famous in the land of small bits of paper!). It's originally a little smaller than A4 size so it was quite fiddly, but I'm pretty pleased with it on the whole!

If you can't try something new for Christmas and up against a tight deadline, when can you try it!?

Book of the Week- The Return!

The first book of the week for the new school year is Young Sherlock Holmes: Death Cloud by Andrew Lane. Not to be confused with the comedic film, this is actually a very good book in a similar style to a lot of 'books for boys' at the moment- action packed plotlines like Alex Rider and Young James Bond.

You know you're fighting a losing battle, when one pupil asks you why Sherlock Holmes was book of the week every week, when you only put the poster up yesterday!

Oldies but Goodies*

Just posting some old work that I've dug out of my folders in a tidy up!

First few are from my fairytale project at Uni- based on the 7 Ravens story about a girl whose brothers are cursed into ravens. A bit like the swan fairytale, only with ravens.

This last one is a contact sheet from uni, can't remember what the project was- may even have just been 'take a reel of black and white film'! Anyway I love the look of contact sheets- can't get that with digital!

*no guarantee that these are any good!

Jack Johnson at Eden Project!

A pretty good quality video of an excellent, quality night! The Eden project makes an incredible venue for music and the weather was perfect for it. The whole night was brilliant and Jack played a good mix of new album, old album and even some requests. Watching him the next day on TV at Glastonbury makes me realize what an initmate gig this was by comparison!

Wave your Flag!

This week's book of the week is the first in the Stadium School series - appropriate for the World Cup. I would have Chosen something tennis related- but there doesn't appear to be any tennis fiction for kids!

Book of the week will be taking a holiday as we approach the end of term- with 2 'closed' weeks in the library and then only a half week left there seems little point in doing any more until September.

Scott Pilgrim Avatar Creator

A little bit of randomness- but I like how they 'assigned' me the moniker of 'The Vegetarian'!!

Here be faeries...

This week's book of the week is The Spiderwick Chronicles Book 1- The Field Guide.

This is the start of a really excellent modern fantasy series with some incredible illustrations.

Homework

This week's book is 'Across the Nightingale Floor' by Lian Hearn, a psuedo-historical/fantasy novel and first in a trilogy, but it can be read alone.

As you can probably tell by the cover it's set in Japan and is very 'forbidden love and samurai' in theme!

Knit, Knit, Knit, Knit, Knitting

Just some photos of things I'm currently knitting, and have just completed.

This is my first attempt at fair-isle, I've never really had the guts to do it before and it takes a lot of concentration but when I saw this wool in Edinburgh I knew I'd have to give it a go. The yarn is Rowan Scottish tweed- it's pretty expensive, so I only bought 2 balls, but it'll be enough for a pencil case.

I'm also nearly done doing this 'Gilmore Vest' in Stylecraft yarn- it's been an on and off project since before Christmas, but I realised I messed up the back a bit so it'll have to be taken back and re-knitted.

I finally finished mum's Christmas present! Better late than never and I'm not a huge fan of lacework, and the pattern I used ended up having an error, which put me off for a little while- I ended up ignoring it and carrying on regardless! I've done a small closeup of the lace, it's knit in 2 skeins of Debbie Bliss Silk.


Finally, my grandad sent me his old teddybear from when he was a child and it needed some tlc, so I reattached his limbs and knit him a new jacket as his old one was very worn. I've really proud of this one as I made the pattern up- I've never knit a jacket for a toy before, or completed sleeves so although there's a few things I'd change if I did it again, on the whole I've very pleased.

Start Again! (and some Neil)

So I'm attempting a restart on this blog and kicking things off with something new I'm doing in conjunction with my new job.

(circus font taken from dafont.com)

As I'm working in a school library and we're currently trying to get more kids reading different things, I'm re-starting book of the week and posting the books on here.

The first book of the week is Neil Gaiman's 'The Graveyard Book' which is excellent and has only been taken out once since purchase, which is a major crime.

This isn't his first 'kids' book (though how kiddy friendly it is depends on the reader) but I do think it's his best. Read it and I don't think you'll be disappointed. He also has a very interesting blog: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/

Stamp Test