Knitting Project #7

It is snowing AGAIN! Edinburgh is getting hit pretty hard right now and my poor husband is out in it. Being nice and warm inside I decided to finish up a project. I needed to make my husband a new stocking as the one I made him two years ago was horrible. It was before I had ever knitted a sock so I didn't understand the heel.

This new one isn't perfect. I would have liked more red in the foot but I ran out. I will probably make him another again in a few years. By the time we retire he will have a ton of stockings!!

The pattern was easy enough but I did not like how the heel was turned because you didn't actually turn it. I don't think the finished product looked nice and I ended up sewing the seams. It will do for now.

My guilty pleasure...

I have always been an avid reader and growing up in the late 80's and early 90's the Babysitter's Club was my favorite. I joined they Babysitter's Club Club and I got a book every month and details on how to start my own Babysitter's Club.

I guess I really like the BSC books because I really wanted to have friends like that. I however had friends that liked me when it was convenient for them and they always seemed to know I was different than them no matter how hard I tried to pretend I wasn't. Its okay though because they are all probably still in the same town and I have a wonderful life.

Anyways I think this explains why, every year, I still watch the Babysitter's Club Christmas Special. I got the vhs as part of the club and I think I wore it out.

So this is my guilty pleasure, except I don't feel so guilty.

Baked Project #11

Okay, yes marshmallows aren't baked but that's okay. I guess they are boiled and whisked but that makes for a bad section title. I made these bad boys a few days ago and they are all gone. Billy ended up taking half of them to work to save us from a sugar coma. I would categorize these as not so easy. It took me FOREVER to get them off the baking paper. So next year I think I will make up some hot chocolate and give out that with the marshmallows for a nice pressie.

We actually don't give out many presents because our first year married I had only been in the country for a month and a half, the second year we went to Florida and this year we are skint. Boo. And The Gap is having a %50 off sale and I am so sad. Billy and I are only doing stockings this year. I have his all done but I can't write about it because he is my most devoted reader.

His birthday is the 23rd so he usually gets the "Oh this is for your birthday and Christmas." I however am big on birthdays and even if we can't afford much I try and make the day all about him.

Sewing Project #11

I am actually quite proud of this bunting because I came up with the idea all by myself. I always save the spare buttons that come with store bought clothes and I've been wanting to do something with them for a while. I also did applique for the first time ever! I thought it came out quite well considering I was using super cheap felt.

We are renters, so we are very limited to what we are allowed to put on our walls I have to think of things that will leave the least amount of damage. I think if I were going to change anything about it, I would have used interfacing on the back but I had a different plan for it originally.

Robert Ryan

I know I should be working right now but I am really, super tired and I really can't get motivated. So instead I'm going to write a post about this artist whose work I love. Robert Ryan is a London-based paper cutting genius. I have drooled over his Etsy site since visiting his shoppe in La La La London. But the best is that he created a lot of very cool stuff for John Lewis. I want this vase! The prices aren't too bad considering it is JL but I still can't afford any. Stupid being skint.

Almost Legal...

I sent out my application today for my "Indefinite Leave to Remain" visa. Basically it means I can stay in the UK permanently but I have no recourse for public funds. I've been in Scotland for just over two years and my current spousal visa is about to expire. I think this is how they deter people from becoming residents because you have to pay 900 pounds for the sucker (on top of the 500 pounds I had to pay to get my first visa).

In three more years I'll be eligible to get citizenship. I can't wait to have a British passport because then I can live and work in any country in the European Union. I'd love to move to Paris or Madrid.

But there is something terrible scary about sending my two passports (the one with my visa expired so I have to carry around two), Billy's passport, our marriage certificate and all of our financial information out in the mail. Eek. And to top that off, the postal service here is backed up because of the weather.

Anyways, here are the ID photos we took. For some reason they keep Billy's photo on file as well. In the end we had to go to one of the booths because the photos I took at home kept printing weird. We're not allowed to smile and we both had hat hair. I think Billy looks like a bible salesman in his tie.

Knitting Project #6

Okay, so I don't usually put up more than one project in a day, but I am really trying to catch up with all finished stuff. These are constellation fingerless gloves from Lion Brand. I love the cabled ones in Gap but I wanted ones that didn't go over individual fingers so that I can wear my leather gloves underneath. I used two skeins to make the wool chunkier and they are really super warm. They fill in the gap where my gloves end and my sleeve begins.

Sewing Project #10

I have to send out my momma's presents tomorrow so I photographed the gardening apron I sewed last week. My mom is the greatest person ever and she deserves much more, but I'm skint this year so instead I made something using leftover material.

She, being a mother and all, always loves home made gifts the most. Momma spends most of her time in her garden in Florida and since she started it she has stopped feel arthritic, lost weight and is happy. I made this apron using the basic dimensions from this tutorial, but I figured the rest out my self.

PS It is really hard to take a photo of yourself wearing an apron when you're too lazy to dig out your tripod. Its not the best photo, but you get the idea.

Knitting Project #5 & Sewing Project #9

This is the dress that I made in my sewing class with Lubi. I finished it about a month ago but I've been too busy (or lazy) to put up my studio lights and take a proper photo. Well tonight we had to set up the lights to take id photos for my visa so I thought I'd tick something off my long list of things to do.

This is based on a New Look pattern, but we really didn't keep to it that much. We changed the front and we just used some maths to figure out the skirt. I don't really like dresses with these sleeves, but I wanted to do the hardest ones in class so that other sleeves with be easy for me on my one. I want to make either one with three-quarter sleeves or sleeve-less with a boat neck. I really think it would look great in a tweed and quite fitting as I'm in Scotland.

This scarf is a quickie I whipped up when my husband needed to keep warm. It really is too short but I only had a little bit of man acceptable colors available to me. I tried to convince him to wear a cowl but that was a bit much for him. I really like the pattern for a guy and I think I will make it in gray when I can afford more wool.

I still have fingerless gloves and a gardening apron to photograph and put up. I really should keep up on these things better.

Oh and I found a shop in Edinburgh that sells my favorite winter tea! Yay.

Knitting Project #4 & Sewing Project #8

Billy and I trekked through the 2 feet deep snow today and happened upon a Christmas tree seller. We were going to go for a fake tree as we thought we couldn't afford a real one this year, but they were selling four feet tall trees which are really just the tops of bigger trees. So we bought one with a stump to put it on and they delivered it to us tonight. I love this tree. I think it is my favorite that I've ever had. I can't really explain it but all the ornaments on it were either made by us or had some significance.

I have been knitting little stockings since October. I think someone saw one and thought I might have been 'expecting' but the only thing I was expecting was a tree! I used super cheap yarn I bought my first Christmas here from Pound Stretcher, similar to a dollar store.

While waiting for our tree Billy and I made our ornaments from book pages. I sewed and he cut them out from an old book. He was quite pleased to cut up the Dan Brown book and I wasn't sorry to see it go. I saved the rest for future projects so books purists shouldn't worry.

Our star was made our first year we lived in Scotland together. We were super poor and couldn't afford a proper star. We made it out of tin foil and cardboard and we will probably keep it for the next forty years. We like it so much that we made one for my mom's tree last year when we were in Florida for Xmas. Though that one was spiced up with some amazing glitter glue!