An Evening of Christmas Crafts

Once a month, myself with a group of school mums get together for wine and chat, cunningly disguised as a book group. We have been meeting for about nine months now and have discussed books once or twice just so that the Mr can quiz me and I can honestly say that books were involved. However we vary the theme every month to keep it interesting and having discussed film, fantasy dinner guests, food and meditation amongst other topics, and this months theme was Christmas Crafts.

I love craft:, cutting, painting, glueing, paper and fabric, but I rarely get enough time to even attempt a quarter of the lovely craft projects I find. Browsing through a couple of our hostess's craft books (of which she has an impressive collection) I was inspired to have a crack at crochet to make some cute Amigurumi like these from Amigurumipatterns.blogspot.com.

They are so cute and I know a couple of small children who would love these for Christmas, either in their stocking or hanging on the Christmas tree. Perhaps not your typical Christmas decoration but definitely a humourous touch to add to the tinsel. Hmm, what about crocheted tinsel? 

The highlight of the evening was to make rag pompoms for the Christmas tree. Many of us hadn't attempted pompoms since primary school but with a little guidance we had a ripping time, quite literally, shredding old clothes, pillow cases and scarves to create our own unique decorations. I was very glad that it wasn't my job to hoover up all the threads afterwards.

I think we were all a bit gobsmacked that we all actually managed to produce pompoms! They have proved to be a big hit and have so far made it to a daughters 'show and tell' at school and onto a couple of rear view mirrors. I'm not sure that they will survive to make it onto the Christmas Tree so we may have to reconvene to produce a few more.

As well as pompoms we had a couple more ideas brought along for inspiration, like these gorgeous fabric star decorations, these polystyrene balls that can be decorated by the kids and what tree wouldn't be complete without a biscuit or two? Our hostess had also been handy with the wool and knitted and crocheted some fabulous dolls.

We really had a great evening! I'm going to have to borrow a few of those craft books soon.

Until next time ladies x

The Most Ridiculously Over-Edited Photo Competition

I read a really informative blog post from Mammasaurus (I know, who would have thought she could be informative as well as hilarious) about the FREE photo editing website Picnik. I had discovered it's remarkable capabilities a few months ago and have spent many a happy hour playing with the effects and creating a hopefully memorable image from a snap on my mobile phone. (Feel free to have a wander through the archives and admire my excellent photography and talented writing style. Or not.) You can upgrade on Picnik, with a monthly subscription to enable you to load more photos in one go and access some more advanced features, but so far I have 'made do' with its standard set of image enhancing settings and got some hilarious, and stunning effects out of it.

Yesterday in twitterland, I set a challenge to Mammasaurus, Motherventing and Bluebirdsunshine to see who could use the most effects on one photo and to post the results today. Not being the competitive type *ahem* this is just a bit of fun but you absolutely have to go and see their efforts creations and come back here and tell me that mine are the 'best'! Okay?

So the brief: See how many processes, effects, stickers and text can you use in one photo using only Picnik.

Hahahahaha.

So from this original, straight from the pocket camera shot:

To this:

I used Heatmap Infrared, Gooify, Posterize and Adjustable Threshold. You can literally overlay one process on top of another to build up surreal images.

Then a different set of effects:

For this image I used used Hypnotic, Boost, Vignette, HDRish and then, for good measure, Ortonish.

Finally, one last little play with a few more effects:

For this one I used 1960's, Seasonal Space Textures, and Amalia Scissored and Solar System stickers.

Obviously Picnik can be used in a little less extreme way to adjust exposure on your snaps, improve the colour balance and if you subscribe you can edit our those annoying little blemishes too as well as gaining many more effects to use. It is seriously easy to use so go and have a play. If you want to join in with this little bit of fun, link up your entries into the Most Ridiculously Over-Edited Photo Competition in the comments section below.

Who knows, this could start a regular linky!

UPDATE: A new linky there shall be. Have a look here.

Sod's Law And Some Of His Friends

Dilbert's Principle - Scott Adams

You know when you say something and then you have to kick yourself (hard) because, by saying it out loud, fate will hear and then come crashing down and rain on your parade (if fate could rain) the day after you left your umbrella on the bus. That. Aka Sod's Law, not to be confused with Murphy's Law where if something can go wrong it will.

Most of these instances inevitably involve children. This sort of thing: 

• While they are quiet I'll just... *tea gets cold. again*
• Don't run around in your socks. You'll...  *wheeee..THUD*
• Be careful. Don't drop it. *CRAAAAASH*
• Oh he'll eat anything. *except what you are giving us for lunch*
• So you are absolutely sure you don't need a wee. *Does the wee jiggle after queuing in post office for 30 minutes*

Then there are the ones that cannot be blamed on the ankle biters much as we would like to blame them.

• I know the fuel light is on but we're only going a couple of miles. *Repeat for every subsequent car journey until fuel runs out in Waitrose car park*
• We don't need these receipts do we? *shred receipt for new shredder as it self combusts*
• There's no need to set the alarm. The Wee One always wakes us up. *except this morning*
• I won't buy it now. They have loads of them. *Sells out in 30 minutes*
• I'll buy it now. *50% off the next day*

Just for a laugh and because I didn't know, I googled Sod's Law to see if I could find out who Sod was. I didn't but I am easily distracted. Instead I found a fascinating list of eponymous laws on wikipedia.

I have a few highlights (because many of them are dull as a very dull thing that lives on a dull street on a very dull day). Having said that, if you even have the remotest interest in anything scientific, the list could keep your scientific juices flowing for days.

• Amara's law – "We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run."
• Dilbert principle – Coined by Scott Adams as a variation of the Peter Principle of employee advancement. Named after Adams' Dilbert comic strip, it proposes that "the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management."
• Dunbar's number – A theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. No precise value has been proposed for Dunbar's number, but a commonly cited approximation is 150. First proposed by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar.
• Littlewood's law – States that individuals can expect miracles to happen to them, at the rate of about one per month. Coined by Professor J E Littlewood, (1885–1977).
• Muphry's law – "If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written." The editorial equivalent of Murphy's law, according to John Bangsund.
• Parkinson's law – "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." Coined by C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993), who also coined its corollary, "Expenditure rises to meet income." In computers: Programs expand to fill all available memory.
• Rothbard's law – Everyone specializes in his own area of weakness.
• Sturgeon's law – "Ninety percent of everything is crud." Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon (1918–1985).
• Wirth's law – Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster.

This got me thinking...

If a law was to be named after you, what would that law be? Tricky I know but to get you started here is mine (it could equally apply to any parent).

Mrs Five's Law - "The quieter the child in the next room, the larger the repair bill."

x

10 Questions

The origin of the Question Mark. Wikipedia.com

The origin of the Question Mark is from the latin 'quaestio' meaning to ask as illustrated above. Don't ever day that this blog isn't educational!

I like questions and I like question marks and I have been set the challenge by Motherventing to answer 10 questions. Not 9 or 11 but a nice round 10. Apparently I am supposed to be honest to reveal to my followers a little bit more about me so they can get to know me better. Thing is I am very shallow and there isn't a whole lot of interesting stuff to know.

Fortunately the questions are nice and shallow too. So without the aid of any swimming aids I can jump straight in.


Describe yourself in seven words.
Bad-tempered writer of the next best seller (hyphenated words count as one don't they?)

What keeps you awake at night?
The Wee One but fortunately not that often any more. I am blessed with the ability to sleep through all manner of stress.

If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be, and why?
I would like to be Orla Kiely on a day when she is designing and playing around with patterns and colours and handbags. Heavenly.

What are you wearing now?
My wedding ring, a bad haircut, clothes that Gok would frown at and an expression that says, what the hell!

What scares you?
Spiders, rats, cockroaches, and anything else that might make itself at home where I am and it should not be.

What is the best and worst thing about blogging?
I like that, as a blogger, I can write what I want, when I want and occasionally get my ego massaged by some lovely comments. The worst thing about blogging is how remote it is. I can't wait to meet some fellow bloggers IRL!

What was the last website you looked at?
Apart from Motherventing's blog obviously, I was ordering my shopping from Ocado. Sorry, very dull but hey, the family's got to eat.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Shave a few pounds off here and there and add a few to the bank balance would be a good start.

Slankets: yes or no?
I think I might be a closet slanket lover but I cannot quite bring myself to buy one. It sits along side a foot cosy on the shopping list. Both practical, warm and snuggly but not something you really want the Mr to see you in.

Tell us something about the people who tagged you?
Motherventing is my writing and blogging inspiration. I aspire to her greatness of the use of the english language and her ability to make people not just laugh, but laugh until they either cry or pee.

Now I need to hop over to the Super Amazing Mum's blog where all this started and leave a comment along with everyone else who has answered the 10 questions.

And tag someone, a deserving cause who is also taking part in NaBloPoMo (or National Blog Posting Month) where you write a blog post a day. By being tagged for this meme I didn't have to seek inspiration for today but tomorrow is another story!

So Cat at Yellow Days... over to you x

Silent Sunday

My week. One picture. No words (Apart from these: search #silentsunday on twitter for more.)

Bonfire Night & Misty Moo

She gets scared.
She shivers and shakes.
She retreats under the bed.
She tries to hide in the corners of rooms.
Her ears go back.
Her tail is between her legs.

Misty Moo is very very scared of Bonfire Night.

If only there was such a thing as ear defenders for dogs. OMG. There is. Check these out! Darn! No next day delivery. As you were.

It is really hard because we know every year she will have to go through this. If it was just one night of the year we would go somewhere else to stay with her, a long way from fireworks, but it isn't one night is it? Just as soon as the fireworks are on sale you can guarantee someone will set them off that very night.

BOOM.

CRACK.

WHIIIIISTLE.

And away goes Misty to shiver until she thinks it is safe to come out.

And so it goes on for a few weeks until the ultimate weekend when it feels like we are in a war zone.

We can't take the children to a firework display because we can't leave her. It just wouldn't be fair. We have tried hormonal drops, herbal remedies and even bought her an indoor kennel, her war bunker as we call it, but it doesn't really help. We just have to comfort her if she will be comforted and wait for it to end.

She gets scared during the day too. We could have several days even stretching to a couple of weeks when she is too scared to go for a walk. The slightest noise, the lid of a dustbin, a car door, something being dropped in a skip, and she turns tail, pulling and tugging to get home.

I feel so sorry for her because I can't explain it or make it go away. She is 11 years old (or thereabouts) and I worry for her health. She is fit and well otherwise but the term 'scared to death' could easily apply.

I hope you enjoy your firework night but spare a thought for your pets.

• Turn the TV or radio on quite loud to drown out the fireworks.
• Draw the curtains.
• Make sure doors are locked (Misty is a Houdini and can open our front door!).
• Reassure them.

Happy Bonfire Night x

Saturday is Caption Day!

This is oh so simple and oh so much fun so I am setting myself a challenge this week to think up a caption for every single entry on Mammasaurus's blog. I feel like a gigglefest of a Saturday and so can you by clicking the badge at the end of this post.

Just think up a caption for this picture, jot it down in the comments and await your worthy applause!

This week it is Misty Moo who has the staring role.

I'm looking forward to reading your captions and getting involved with all the other great entries over at Mammasaurus.