Monday 21 December 2009

One Year today

One year ago today - on the winter solstice 2008 - I started this blog.



Happy Blogiversary to me!

I started out just wanting to document an attempt to build creativity into daily life - around family, motherhood, work and illness.  The idea was to reconnect with the creative person I was before I had all the responsibility and all the worries I have now.  One year on I can say hand on heart without a shadow of a doubt that this little adventure in blogging has worked for me more than I ever imagined it could.

Creativity is a huge part of my daily life and the person I am once more, and I am better for it.  I am not afraid of what I do, or what others might think of it anymore. I am not afraid to let the housework slide once in a while in favour of a night of mosaicing, crocheting, stitching or drawing.  This is thanks largely to the online community of crafters and creative types who share their ideas, knowledge and conviction. Over the past year I have been inspired by so many wonderful crafting bloggers who have quite literally changed my outlook on art, craft and..well...life.  I truly mean that.

If I get an idea in my head I grab a biro and a scrap of paper and sketch it down.  I wouldn't have done that before, I would have just dismissed it and moved on.  I might not always get around to bringing the idea to fruition very quickly but I now have a notebook crammed full of ideas and inspiring pictures, sketches and notes.  The ideas therefore are out there in the world, just waiting to be, not locked away in the dark (slightly scary) recesses of my mind!

I played around to make some lovely little mosaics of the past year of creativity.  Of things I made...






And of things I loved, things that inspired me, and things I found....



Of course there are a zillion half-finished works in progress still to be finished, mainly mosaics put to one side since summer, which I gaze at everyday not with disappointment but with excitement for what these will become.

So, at the end of my year do I say a fond farewell and close the doors to snipsnaphappy's world? 

I am not sure very many people read this little corner of blogville, the ones that do though have left such encouraging comments.  But it was never about people reading really, it was just about sharing the adventure, making a commitment, and learning.   I hope, of course, that some people might have stumbled through here and found some inspiration.

Me?  Well I have benefited in more ways than I could ever have hoped for in starting this blog.  The fact is I can't imagine not documenting what I am doing, and taking the pictures is almost as fun as making the creations. 

So yes snipsnaphappy will go on another year.  Not with the purpose of building creativity into daily life, that has already been achieved, but as a commitment to doing what I enjoy and as a record for my children, and for my family, maybe one day even my customers!  Well...you never know ;)

So merry yuletide everyone, enjoy the winter solstice and of course...




...merry Christmas :)

xx

Sunday 20 December 2009

Day 365: Hang on...

Day 365?  Doesn't that make a year?

Yes - looking back I see I started this blog on 21st december last year, which means tomorrow is my One Year Blogiversary!  Well well.

Less of me today then, I need time to prepare a good anniversary entry tomorrow!  In the meantime I will leave you with a couple of pics of the snow here in our little corner of Kent, this has been causing untold excitement in the snipsnaphappy household let me tell you!




One year?!  Where did the time go...

Sunday 13 December 2009

Day 358: Little gifts

"I need neither future nor past, but to learn to take today not too fast. "
                                                                                       Jeb Dickerson



Christmas is a mad time for us, we spend a most of our weekends during December on motorways travelling up and down the country visiting our various parents and step-parents.  Creation continues though; car travel affords a bit of time to crochet or plan the next exciting crafty adventure in my head. 

Visiting friends and family means gifts are needed too, and what is more personal then a few little homemade treats?

For various friends and family around the country (and one international friend too) some radiator smellies were posted out this week...





I have to say I made rather a lot of them.



These are just a teeny sample.



They are extremely easy to make and the smell of the crushed cinnamon and cloves is just pure christmas indulgence.
 
                    

Here they are all wrapped up and ready to be posted out.  Excuse the office paraphenalia, I took these pictures at work as it's always too dark when I get home to get any pictures.  I expect they made the post office sorting room smell delightful!



I do love wrapping things up...



With lots of sparkle and festive touches...



Little fimo hearts and string made from recycled paper...




I also have a weakness for stickers, yum!



I hope the recipients are enjoying their little gifts as I write :)

For a much younger family member some more of the felt post I first made back in September...



Little Gracie is only 2 years old so she is just the right age for a bit of postal make believe!  I made sure nobody was left out of the fun of course...





The little letters to go inside have cardboard inside to make them a bit sturdier and easier to get in and out of the envelopes...



I love creating things as gifts, it is such a pleasure, I just wish I had more free time to do it!

xx

Friday 4 December 2009

Day 349: Moving on...

Thanks very much for the comments on yesterday's post, I am glad I mentioned it rather than glossing it over, life is not all leisurely crochet days and Cath Kidston bags after all!  Sometimes the crappy stuff gets in the way.

Blog-wise I am shaking it off *shake shake* and moving on...

Say hello to Janome...



An early Christmas present from my Dad, and it arrived just at the right time.  That little union jack there in front of it is the last part of my anniversary pressie from my hubby - a super cute little Cath K pin cushion! 

My plan for today was to spend the entire day playing with my new toy.  But then the Movies24 channel did something incredible.  It has changed for the month of December to...



Christmas24.  Christmas films 24 hours a day.  And not just any Christmas films...but really really bad, drastically awful, smulchy dreadful Christmas films. FANTASTIC!!  So now today has been spent playing with my new sewing machine and watching endless festive films of the worst possible quality.  It has been just what I needed.  Perfect.



What have I been making with my new machine?  Well I have run out of light to photograph the finished articles but here are some pictures of the componant parts...












I will get photos of the results for you tomorrow, lets just say that right now my house smells like Santa's grotto with all the cinnamon and clove scents wafting around!  Divine.

Ali
xx

Thursday 3 December 2009

A little blip...

It's hard to know how much of real life should spill into a blog such as this. 

The main topic of this blog is building crafts and arts and lovely such stuff into my busy every day life as a working mum.  I want the feel to be happy and cosy, the tone to be that of a conversation with an old friend about I've been up to lately.  I want it to be the kind of blog that leaves people, including me, feeling nice inside.  Which is why it's difficult to let reality, the hard side of life, seep in.  But seep in it does.

I had a miscarriage yesterday.  I was six weeks pregnant, it was early days, it was all very straight forward, not much pain involved other than heartache.  This news has nothing to do with crochet, or crafts, or baking, or making dolls or mosaics or happy things so it really should have no place here.

Normal crafting cosy happiness will resume in the next post, life does after all go on.  But if I were catching up with an old friend then that is what I would tell them.  Off topic or not. We lost our baby yesterday, and that hurts.