craft

Errands and Handwerkbeurs

Posted on February 18, 2013February 18, 2013 by ghotiindustries

Wow! It never rains when it pours! Have a couple of quiet weeks, and then suddenly a week where I’m out constantly and feel like I’m doing everything!

I had a few errands to run during the week and whilst out finally made it into the secret convent garden of Begijnhof Court. The Begijnhof is the only inner court in Amsterdam which was founded during the Middle Ages, and therefore lies within the Singel — the innermost canal of Amsterdam’s circular canal system. The Begijnhof is at medieval street level, which means a meter below the rest of the old city center.

There is a plethora of information on this place and it’s inhabitants if you’re so inclined to go searching and reading.

It was beautiful, serene, quiet and a perfect place for meditation … until the next tourist group walked through. So I didn’t spend long there, and vowed to go back and visit the chapel on another day. It’s not going anywhere after all.

I then walked through to Dam Square where there was a bagpipe player. This is remarkably incongruous with the country, and so I had to snap a picture to prove to you all that I’d seen him!

Opposite him was the regular Batman. (Palace backdrop is quite effective, don’t you agree?)

Then on Friday I packed myself up onto a train with a group of friends from knit night and we went off to Zwolle for a craft fair! The snow in Amsterdam had melted away under the drizzling rain which had set in; Not so once you got a little bit more East though!

If you squint really hard you can see a farm house in this picture. I swear!

I was glad we’d all been able to go on the Friday as if it was this packed when the general populace was at work, then I wasn’t so keen to be under the crush of people who would have turned up over the weekend!

I’ll think about whether or not to thank my “friends” later. They may have introduced me to a remarkably dangerous store that goes by the name of Bart and Francis.

650m cobweb weight baby alpaca cones, three for EUR15.

You better believe it came home with me! I’ll figure what I’m going to make with them later!

It was only then that my new “friends” introduced me to one of their friends Loret. But by then I was out of budget! And she had the most amazing packs of yarns in colour pallets inspired by the Dutch masters! Oh well. I know for next time that I still need to have money left to hand over to Loret!

The floors were filled not just with stalls that catered to every kind of craft, but there were classes too!

I might look into those for next year when I know the language a little better.

All in all, a spectacular way to spend the day! Thank you guys for taking me with you!

Swaps

Posted on October 5, 2011October 6, 2011 by ghotiindustries

So I’m involved in a couple of swaps at the moment on Ravelry, one of which has a “Gnome” theme. I thought I’d expand the theme a little and for the something small I’m going to send, I made some tiny toadstool stitch-markers!

Of course I documented the process for all of you lovely folks playing along at home!

First there was FIMO in red, white, and sand colours, and I used flat-ended jewellery pins.

On to the pins I shaped the toadstool stalk (I made as many as I had pins for)

then hood

and finally the tiny white dots.

Then it was into the oven for half an hour on 110C

Once out and cooled, I snapped off the excess wire, and used round-nosed jewellery pliers to bend the ends around and hold the closed jump ring.

Finished!

Somehow I don’t think I’ll give up my day job, but I do think they have a quaint and rustic charm! *grins *

Tab closing

Posted on July 27, 2011 by ghotiindustries

In the grand tradition of “I’ve got too much on my plate”, I thought I would share with you some of the tabs which are open on my browser at the moment in the hopes that you might also find them interesting or informative.

I’ll begin with Hel Looks. Fashion from the streets of Helsinki. It’s a photo journal of people on the streets. What they are wearing, where they found it, and what inspires their look. I love the bohemian feel, and the freedom of expression that is nary to be found on the streets of my home town. Even in the “eclectic” areas, there is a pervasive “look” which everyone seems to ascribe to here. But not so there it would seem! (I can’t wait to visit!)

In my ever increasing desire to get organised I have been re-reading the GTD book and inflicting it on the nice lady whose filing/inbox I am attempting to sort out. In my research though I also came across this, and have been re-reminded by it that I need to read The Elegant Solution. *takes it off the shelf, puts it by the bed and adds it to a GTD list*

Let’s see, what else? In the crafting corner I have these amazing felted and embroidered rocks. Which reminded me of these crochet covered rocks, which reminded me I haven’t done any yarn bombing yet, and the up coming break might be a good time to use up some acrylic from my stash! *poses like a ninja*

Last but not least we come to my all time biggest time wasting site other than wikepedia, which is Cracked. Click an article, any article, and in no time at all you’ll have a dozen tabs open to other articles that you’ll have lined up to read when you get to the end of the one you’re reading. It gets exponential surprisingly rapidly!

But that’s enough for a Wednesday night. Enjoy your internet browsing!

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