The Catch Up

Hello Lovelies!
Oh my!!! It's been such a long time since I last popped by and posted here on my blog. For weeks I've been meaning to write a post or at least come and say a quick "hello" but it seems that time is always getting the better of me.

Not only have I been extremely busy at work, but Summertime has also finally graced us with its presence.
With the sudden appearance of the sun I've noticed a rather direct correlation between my crafting time and the changing of the seasons. I've not been crafting quite as much, mainly because the weather has been soooooo nice.  Locked up at home working up a crochet frenzy is not quite as appealing to me as it is on a frosty winters day. Instead I've been using my free-time by spending it out and about in the freshair and enjoying this rather splendid hot Summer spell we are having.

Lots has been going on since I last had a chance to catch up with you all. I spent most of my free time at the beginning of June enjoying my time with Dennis before he prepared to leave again on another cruise ship contract.

At the start of last month, having been talking about it for ages, Dennis and I finally got around to buying bikes. We both bought the same Dutch style city bike (except mine is a little smaller, as I'm only little). Its been amazing cycling around the city on our new modes of transport, enjoying being active and outdoors. Having a bicycle makes me feel very VERY happy indeed!

What else have I been up to?

I've been enjoying treats at my favourite local cafe.

Of course you can't have coffee without a little something to nibble on! Sandwiches with fresh crusty bread! MMMMMMMMM!

I took a trip with Dennis to the brilliant zoo in Hamburg and we enjoyed a day playing with our cameras and watching the fascinating and beautiful animals.

I been eating lots of ice cream!!!
For those of you that don't know, I am the biggest ice cream fan ever!!! I could eat ice cream all day if I had my way.

I've been enjoying the Summery flowers on offer at the local florist. They have certainly been making my apartment feel lovely and fresh. 

I  also took a quick trip home to England to celebrate my little sisters 18th Birthday along with the rest of my family. Here I am with both my Sister and my older brother. We had such a lovely evening laughing and joking the night away. A fun evening I won't forget in a long time.

As for the crafting........
I bought some new colouring pencils and have been doing a spot of drawing once again. I couldn't resist laying them all out and taking a rainbow picture...... I love a good rainbow picture!

And I have some new yarn!!!! Its the softest most vibrant yarn ever! Alpaca by drops. This yarn is simply delicious!

I'm working on a project using these 10 lovely shades:

Hopefully in the next couple of  days I'll get some pictures of my current project to show you what I'm working on.

So there we have it!!! The quick catch up I'd been meaning to have with you all for the past six weeks!!!
Better late than never!!!

I hope you are all enjoying your Summer?
I'll be back soon!

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Cheeky Monkey

Oh hello gorgeous people! How are you all?

I was very sneaky this week and managed to squeeze in a little crafty time. 

Having little moments of creative "me time" has been rare recently, I've just had too much going on. However as soon as I saw the opportunity, I squeezed in a little time for some creative chaos. This fun little project turned out to be not only a creative outlet for me, but also a fun work related task I could tick off of my list of "things to do"!  

Having been rehearsing with the new Tarzan cast members for the last six weeks, we had reached premiere date. An exciting evening when all of the new cast members go onstage for the first time. I couldn't let them go onstage without a little good luck token. 

I made a quick dash to the craft store one morning before our final rehearsals and bought myself a lovely stash of "super fluffy" modelling clay.

I bought a variety of colours. Colours that I felt would work well with a Tarzan/jungle theme.
That evening I got to work playing with this fun material, creating some cute little tokens to give to my new colleagues.

It was a lot of fun fiddling around with this clay. It reminded me of playing with plasticine as a child....Oh the memories! 

Rolling clay balls to be squished into faces.



Adding little button noses.

And making monkey ears by the dozen.

It was a joy forming these little lumps of clay into something magical. Slowly building layers of personality to each individual charm.

My favourite part was styling chunky over the top features. I was in pure creative heaven!

I used finishing touches of good ol' googly eyes and a plastic daisy here and there.

Shall I show you what I came up with?...

It's the whole jungle crew! We have apes, Jane, Tarzan and Professor Porter!
I was so thrilled with how they turned out! Cute, quirky and fun!

The modelling clay was so easy to work with. It formed easy shapes and the googly eyes stuck no problem with a little blob of glue from my glue gun.

Here's how I formed the cheeky faces of the monkeys:

Easy!! I added some extra detail by poking nostrils and a little mouth with the help of the pointy end of my compass.

How fun are they!?!

The great thing about this modelling clay is that it air dries firm. It meant I could leave all of my creations overnight and they were hard enough by the morning to add any finishing touches.

Using a very pointed darning needle I made holes in each of the firm faces and threaded some jungle inspired embroidery floss through each of them.
Of course I had to add a little extra crafty touch of beads and bells, just to finish them off!

All done....placed in a box and ready to give as a lucky charm and a warm welcome to all of the new Tarzan cast members.

Of course I kept one for myself! A little something to hang on my dressing table at work to remind me of how much I love being a crafty monkey!

Make your week creative and crafty!!!!! Until next time......

This post has moved!
You can read an updated and revised version on our new blog.

Click here to read this post in full at it's new home!