Our kindness elf and a crazy busy week

Why is it that as you get older time just whizzes past? I'm sure that as a child the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas went so, so slowly - it took forever to get to Christmas Eve.  As an adult, I'm sat wondering where all the hours in the day are going!

This week has been crazily busy. We had a bit of a party at toddler group on Monday which was lovely and then posted the last few Christmas cards. I know that more and more people are stopping sending cards at Christmas and while I understand their reasons I still like to send them to close friends and family where I can. It probably stems from growing up receiving them and remembering how much I enjoyed getting those cards. With the ones the Makepeace clan receive now I display them on strings over the season and then cut them up to make labels for the following year. I then try and recycle any excess parts where I can.

Tuesday was MOT day for the car which meant lots of walking, getting soaked in the rain and a repair bill which was not ideal just before Christmas but these things are sent to try us. Wednesday morning was a trip into town to take my new glasses back to the opticians as I felt that something wasn't quite right. I've been wearing glasses for 32 years and any long time wearers of specs will understand when I say that my eyes were just not adjusting to the new prescription. Turns out I was right and it would appear that one of the lens may have slipped whilst being cut and so it was incorrectly positioned meaning things were somewhat blurry. Now its a case of waiting for the lens to be re-cut, sent back to the shop and then I can pick them up again. Frustrating, but at least I'll be able to see properly again, at least I hope so!

Crafting wise, I've been cracking on with the Lake Baikal cross stitch, although I'm not as far along as I would like. Partly because I've been reduced to only stitching on an evening and partly because a couple of the evenings I've been too tired or been struggling with my glasses. I've been thinking about what project I can start after Christmas and have a couple of ideas, so watch this space. It has to be said that watching Kirstie's Handmade Christmas has been helping to give me some ideas, but I'm not sure that my husband will appreciate me having a go at all of them... The kids also got in on the crafting act this week as one of their 'kindness challenges' set for them by our elf, Jingles.


Jingles first came to stay with us about 3 years ago after some poor behaviour from the boys but instead of the more well known 'Elf on a shelf', Jingles is a kindness elf who appears with a letter each morning with a challenge to encourage kindness from the boys. This year he's been with us since the 1st December (previously he's only done 12 days if visits) and we've had a range of challenges for the children, including leaving happy notes in books at the library, making someone else's bed, talking to someone new at school and making a gift for someone. We decided to go down the salt dough route for their homemade gifts using the ratio 2:1:1 for the flour, salt and water which worked but wasn't as pliable as I would have liked. All 3 kids had a go at rolling out their dough and cutting out shapes, which we then baked and painted. I haven't varnished them, but may seal them with PVA glue so they last a bit longer. Sweetly, L gave his to me, his dad and baby sister - he can be cute sometimes.

That's it from me today. The boys break up from school this afternoon for the Christmas holidays which means I can FINALLY open all the treats I bought the other week.  Chocolates, biscuits and peanuts - I've been dying to crack them open and now I can 😊. A lovely bit of family time for a few days will be just the ticket.

Have a very Merry Christmas if you celebrate it and I'll see you on the other side.

M x

Mincemeat and cross stitch

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas...
I was asked the other day whilst discussing what I was picking up from the supermarket for Christmas nibbles if I was going to get some mince pies. It was a resounding no from me. I am quite partial to the humble mince pie, but I have been thoroughly spoilt in recent years and my husband makes his own (and not just the pastry either). He lovingly prepares a new batch of mincemeat every year (OK I nag, beg and cajole him to) and they are quite simply divine. Trouble is that now I can't enjoy the shop bought ones or even the jars of mincemeat. The house smells amazing while he's making them too. He uses a recipe from a Gary Rhodes recipe book that's about 17 years old.

 So last week, after I uploaded the blog post and shortly before the school run, my new cross stitch arrived. I was itching to get started and I've made reasonable progress I think, despite having to wait until the munchkins were tucked up in bed before making a start. Considering there is around 36,400 cross stitches to complete I've stitched maybe an eighth of the pattern but it still doesn't actually look like anything.

I've also helped the boys to finish off their felt Christmas tree decorations that we bought from Aldi a few weeks ago and they are now happily adorning our tree. They've come out pretty well and the boys are really pleased with them. I think for next year I'm going to attach them to a length of ribbon and make a garland with them (mean mummy that I am I have a thing about everything on my tree matching!)

Only one week left at school now for the boys and only one toddler group for me and A. I'm hoping that means I can get some more stitching done but I'm also super conscious that this kit was expensive (for me) and I really shouldn't get through it too quickly - I'm just really enjoying it.

Until next time,

M x

Lake Baikal cross stitch

First of all I have to admit that there hasn’t been an abundance of crafting going on here at Makepeace Made. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to, just that I haven’t had the materials to work with and with Christmas just around the corner the finances are being focused elsewhere. When I got pregnant with little miss A, I had a big clear out of my crafting materials as I just didn’t have space for it all what with turning our spare room into her bedroom. I still have some bits and pieces, just not as much as I used to have. Add in to that the fact that I really fancy getting my teeth stuck into a big cross stitching project (thanks for that Floss tube!), and I just haven’t had the motivation to do much of anything.

Top pic is a section of my brother's card.
Bottom pic is one of the teacher's presents - a craft box filled with
sweets. Apparently Mt T is "going to love it!"

I have cobbled together the Christmas gifts for the boys’ teachers and I’ve also hand drawn a card for my baby brother - OK, he’s 29 this week and I’m sure he would hate to be still referred to as the baby of the family but to me he will always be that cute little curly haired boy even if he is married with his own home and a proper grown up job.

As the title of this post suggests, I have also found my big cross stitch project and I am so excited for it to arrive. It’s a counted cross stitch on 11 count Aida which is slightly different to what I have worked with in the past but it is so stunning I thought I’d attempt the challenge. It’s the Riolis ‘Lake Baikal’ which having bought the kit I then had a good old Google about the lake itself and now really fancy a trip around the Russian region of Siberia where this lake is situated. I ordered the kit online after numerous hours spent searching various websites and a couple of fruitless searches in my local town centre.

I was actually incredibly disappointed in my town centre as I couldn’t find one single cross stitch kit. Now I was either looking in completely the wrong places or it’s deemed to not be overly popular around here. Never mind, it worked out for the best as both me and the hubby are loving the Lake Baikal kit and I’m itching to start. It will be the biggest project I have undertaken in cross stitch I believe and will be quite the labour of love. I’m contemplating doing a couple of ‘Stitch with me’ videos for Flosstube, but we’ll see how that pans out as I’m not a fan of my voice on recordings.

You can just about see this year's addition - my little crochet
snowman

On a more personal note, our Christmas decorations have gone up and things are looking decidedly more festive. We've also had the arrival of our Kindness Elf and the boys are enjoying taking part in their kindness challenges.

It’s been a quiet week group wise as A hasn’t been particularly well. I was excited to realise that 'Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas' is on Monday to Friday for 3 weeks so no doubt I will have a lovely long list of crafts I want to do ready for Christmas 2019. I have to be realistic and accept that it simply won’t happen for this year.

I’ll leave it there and catch up with you next week, hopefully with some crafting to share with you,

M x

It’s all about the cushions

Once again the week has well and truly run away with me and it’s Friday again already. It’s been a hectic week with finishing off Christmas shopping🎄, our usual toddler groups and meeting up with a friend. I’ve just got one more present to buy and then that’s the kids done. Phew! I love Christmas and do like to be organised with getting all the gifts bought and wrapped early on so I can relax and enjoy the season. First stop this weekend is the decorations going up and hopefully a trip to a local Christmas sparkle event (depending on the weather), together with the arrival of our ‘kindness elf’. Our elf is a little less cheeky than most and encourages the children to do various acts of kindness in the lead up to Christmas.

What with everything that’s been going on this week I haven’t got as much crafting done, but I’ve still had my sewing machine on the go. I’ve finished off the tortoise pincushion from the Cath Kidston book for L and I’ve made a start on two cushion covers for my bedroom that I have designed myself. The pincushion was actually fairly fiddly once I got on to the sewing machine parts as all the pieces were fairly small and it's not something I used to, but L was really excited with it. I have to admit it is pretty cute, given that it's basically been made with some leftover scraps I had from some other projects. As it's such a fiddly thing to make up it may be that I practice a few more to perfect them - you can never have too many pincushions, right?!?

The cushion covers are one of those items that have been on my to do list for a while, but I wasn’t set on how I wanted to do them. Then I decided to keep it simple and rather than cut a number of squares and producing a quilted front, I decided to go with 2 inch wide strips, with some top stitching to give the idea of quilting without the wadding and additional time it would take. I’ve used what was left of the fat quarters that I used for the sewing machine cover and the quilt topper for my bedroom so everything matches which makes me happy.  I just need to find some material to use for the backing fabric and then they’ll be finished. Given that it’s the festive season though and I’m planning on avoiding town for the next few weeks, they may still be on my ‘work in progress’ pile for a little while yet.

One of the five minute jobs I managed to fit in this week though is the personalisation of the Christmas sacks for the kids. Just some really simple back stitch to add each child’s name with some DMC floss that I had leftover from a cross stitch I designed a few years ago for my wonderful inlaws for their Jade anniversary. The Christmas sacks were something I picked up last year when Toys R Us was closing down. The kids have no idea that I have them, so everything is crossed that they will like them although I'm very aware that Santa and the elves will be getting all the credit. I’m really pleased with how they’ve turned out, although it wouldn’t surprise me if the boys still get confused about which is their sack!

So that’s me for the week. I’m still hunting for a big project to have running in the background and I’m hoping that something that will jump out at me over the next few days. I’m also hoping that there will be some craft stalls at the Christmas sparkle event this weekend which might give me some inspiration. I have to admit though that the return of Kirsty’s handmade Christmas has helped that along quite a bit and there is a huge part of me that is itching to get hold of some fake snow for the windows.

Until next week,

M x

Crochet Snowman and a Cross Stitch Christmas Card

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Well Christmas is fast approaching and I just don't know where the time is going. The youngest and I have been back to normal with our groups this week after she was under the weather last week and we've been having lots of fun.  I'm not actually sure who was the messiest after messy play, me or her! My highlight for this week has got to be how much I'm loving being back into crafting with a purpose - I may not be selling things, but knowing that I am in some way accountable for creating things by blogging about them has really got me back into it with a vengeance.  I want to do ALL the projects 😀

Crafting wise I've had a pretty productive week.  I've finished off a crochet snowman which is a hit with the kids, completed the very cute cross stitch polar bear Christmas card which I think will be winging it's way to L's teacher at school and I also whipped up a sewing machine cover that I've been meaning to do for who knows how long. I've also made a start on a pincushion for L; he picked up a sewing set from Aldi last weekend and requested his very own pincushion. More on the set he picked later.

My friendly little snowman is my first attempt at amigurumi and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  The pattern I used, designed by Zoë Halstead and from the Christmas Crochet book 2, called for toy eyes but I couldn't find them in the craft type shops near me so I went with some small buttons instead - I think that it's still come out pretty well.  It's an easy enough pattern to follow and there are a number of others in the book so I might just have a go at some of the others for next Christmas.

The polar bear was a simple enough chart with a whole host of back stitch to add detail and it does work well, it's just back stitch is my nemesis so it took me a little longer than the 4 hours suggested on the chart.  I'm still really pleased with how it turned out and I'm sure that L's teacher will appreciate the work that's gone into it.  My plan is to send it in with the little Christmas hamper I'm doing for her.  G's teacher will also get a hamper - I'm planning on doing the shopping for them next week so I can add a photo to next week's blog post.

With the sewing machine cover, I utilised a pattern from a Cath Kidston book that my beautiful sister and her family bought me this year.   It came together really quickly, despite a number of interruptions from the kids who always get excited when the sewing machine comes out, and the end result is a perfect fit.  I used some fat quarters pieces that I had left from sewing the quilt topper for my bed a couple of years ago. With my sewing machine having it's current home in my bedroom, it now fits in beautifully with the decor as well as being kept dust free.  Win-win.



From the same Cath Kidston book, I've started working on the pin cushion for L.  It's a tortoise and the top part of his shell is completed using English paper piecing.  This is a technique I've had a brief go at in the past, but never really with any project in mind.  It was fun sewing up the pieces by hand and when A is older I'm sure I will have lots of fun sewing little projects using this technique while she plays in the park or has her swimming lessons or something.  It's a real 'sew-on-the-go' technique which is great.  I'm now onto the machine stitching side of the pincushion and all being well I should have a finished article to share with you next week.

L has been wanting to find himself a hobby for the longest time and of the 2 boys I think he is the one that is more likely to craft. When I got my sewing machine out at the weekend he was instantly at my side asking to be allowed to sew something, but he wasn't really sure what he wanted to make.  Having done my weekly food shop at Aldi, I'd spotted some kits for kids so I suggested we go and take a look.  He bought himself this gorgeous sewing set which is filled with material, embroidery thread, a tape measure, needles and instructions to make 4 projects.  He was s pleased.  I also picked up a set of 3 sew your own Christmas decorations for the boys to do, which they have been cracking on with this week.  They've had a little help from me with the blanket stitch, but it's mainly their own work and I'm really proud of them.  Added bonus is they've had less time on their Nintendo's and watching TV 😉


I'd better leave it there as this is turning into an epic blog post.  If you have any questions about any of the projects I've completed or am working on, or things you'd like to see me do, please let me know by posting a comment.

Until next week,

M x

A long overdue catch up

So, I've been pretty quiet. I got some fabric for my birthday, which I was incredibly excited about, and then I disappeared from blogging. Basically, life got a little crazy! (It’s actually been over 2 years since I last posted and please believe me when I say I am hanging my head in shame.)  My boys were on school holidays initially and so needed to be my main focus and while I was still crafting and making, there was less of it going on.

Then something happened that actually made me physically incapable of crafting, let alone getting on here to blog... the pitter patter of tiny feet. Yup, Makepeace Made was busying creating, just more a case of growing a new life 👶  and sadly the onslaught of morning (and evening!!) sickness knocked me for six. I couldn't even watch 'The Great British Bake Off' without feeling poorly. Combined with increased hours and an increased workload at my day job, there wasn't a hope of me getting on here let alone spending time doing the things that I enjoy such as knitting and sewing.

I did spend a few months as a stay at home mum to two after my contract ended before the baby arrived and I did do some crafting but just never seemed to find the drive to blog. I went back to work at the start of the year in a new role, but after 5 months of hard slog we took the decision that a house to run and 3 kids with both of us working just wasn't feasible and I'm now at home full time until the smallest starts preschool. That's the plan anyway ha ha but who knows where life will lead?

Jumpers for the boys, a dress for me from my birthday fabric,
a play mat for my daughter, last year's Christmas cards,
Halloween outfits and a birthday gift for a friend, all
'Makepeace Made' 

I have been crafting off and on throughout, making various baby related items and a couple of bits and pieces for the boys, but haven't made anything to sell. Last year I realised that my confidence has taken quite a knock what with one thing and another and so I took the decision to hold off starting a new business and to develop my skills and knowledge in knitting and sewing more through studying a diploma. Yes, I could have just gone on Youtube and trawled the net for information, but I like to learn and take notes and I'm aiming to improve what I produce by understanding the craft more. I completed a course in sewing last year and am part way through a knitting diploma and feel happier knowing that I'm working to improve myself, and hopefully improve the prospects of any future business.

This is the finished article of the
card - it remains to be seen if mine
will turn out the same. 

More recently I have fallen down the rabbit hole of Flosstube and have fallen in love with cross stitching again. If you haven’t discovered Flosstube yet don’t do it! You will lose hours!! Seriously though, if you’re into stitching it’s quite therapeutic. Anyway, I’m cracking on with a Christmas card that I got free with a magazine this week which I should hopefully finish later on today and then I have plans for some more things to make. Stay tuned for those and I promise to not be quite so rubbish in the future.

Thanks for reading,

M x