The Owlets

These little birdies are the latest additions to my little family of crocheted animals. They are small, soft and cute. They don't have owners yet, but I don't think finding some will be a problem :)

Our Handmade Wedding

Photo by Laura Ashman

One of the most fantastic events in 2016 was our summer wedding. Planning a wedding has been... Well, let's call it interesting. Being from two different countries with different traditions, what we imagined as wedding had been quite varied. There were moments when I worried about how will certain aspects of my personality that will project themselves into the wedding be perceived by the "natives" of the isles, I worried even more about how the English bits will be perceived by the non-natives belonging to my family (which is in itself a patchwork of Slovakian, Czech and Hungarian).   With the family flying in from afar and staying in our flat, it was sure to be a bit of a bumpy road, but all with a good old happy ending :) 

Wanting to not spend a fortune, we decided to do many things ourselves. Apart from many "me" touches to the wedding like the moss and fern, there were also many "us" touches. After all the wedding was not mine only. The wedding favours were one of these touches.

When we first met, our first conversation was about tea. In spite of being freedivers who generally stay away from caffeine, we both had a taste for black tea, which has brought us together. Therefore love tea favours were a must. Amazingly, we got all the little jam jars for free from a coffee and bagel shop where we both go so often that the owner knows us and agreed to save us these little jars. They are unbelievably cute (alnd also super expensive when you try to buy them in craft supply shops). I really enjoyed mixing the little sugar hearts into the tea.

 Childrens' wedding favours were slightly different - filled with gummy bears. Hubby did the brown paper tops and string tying. Proper teamwork!

Photos by Laura Ashman

Since hubby has hundreds of metres of brown paper in his workshop, I used a lot of it in decorating. The bunting was made by my sister-in-law and her die-cutter and I made the seating plan and table numbers myself, with help of one image from Shutterstock which we also put on our wedding invitations and order of service booklets at church.

Photos by Laura Ashman

I have been saving glass jars from absolutely everthing all year and spent many hours decorating them with hessian, string and ribbons. One of the drawbacks was that because of the fire safety regulations we could not use real candles, but we bought masses of the little electric safety tea lights. We still use them at home - romance at a flick of a switch! :)

Photos by Laura Ashman

The chairs and tables belonged to the village hall where we had our reception, the tablecloths, crockery and cutlery were rented but the flowers, jars and hessian were all prepared and set up by us (well, a dedicated team of groom and a team of helpful family members and friends who worked on it for ages whilst I was having my hair and make-up done).

My flower girl and maid of honor both received a special set of biscuits which I got on Etsy from CookieArtLondon.

Photos by Laura Ashman

The cake was a Christmas-like fruit cake baked by my lovely father-in-law. He had it professionally iced and made the cake toppers himself - a snail and a piano! It was his super secret wood-turning/carving project and there couldn't be anthing better to put on top of a cake for us - a piano technician and a trained malacologist. :)

Well, that was the first day of our married life and I dare sa it left us completel shattered, even though it only lasted until  10 p.m. We tend to be a bit spontaneous and agreeable when we make plans, but we have never planned an event of this magnitude and importance, which meant there were a couple of disagreements on the way, but I am so happy we made it all the way here. Seven years have gone since we first got to know each other, five since we started going out and the rest of our lives is ahead!  I bet it's going to be wonderful :)

A Bowl of Toys

The past month has been very busy not only from the perspective of personal life changes (engagement, moving to the UK), but a lot of things also happened from professional point of view. Firstly, I gained a QTS (Qualified Teacher Status), which means I can teach in the UK and then I took a TEFL (Teacher of English as a Foreign Language) course by Trinity College London, which I have successfully completed, even though I am still waiting for the certificate to arrive. The month of the course was one of the most exhausting times of my life, perharps only working on my master's thesis could compare with it, but I still managed to squeeze in some crafty time. We even set up a little tradition of going for a coffee and to Hobbycraft on Friday afternoons after I got back from my lessons and teaching practice.

I started crocheting some toddler ball toys and continued by making some random other toys, such as the green flat round monster and the sleeping snowflake. Some marine creatures were made and given away, too. I love my little toy collection, I think I might want to play with the for a while before I give them away again :)

Happy Easter !

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Monday. Because school starts tomorrow, I had to take the Sunday evening overnight train to Prague. For the past few days, all I did was sleep and eat and even though I was stuffed and well/slept, I was lazy and all my mind was occupied with was food and sleep. (I think it might be time for some spring detox : )  )

Even though it is way too late to make Easter eggs on Easter Monday, I tried to make some with special egg-paint I brought from my parents' home. I used blown brown eggs (white are quite hard to get), wax from a burning candle and red paint dissolved in hot water with vinegar. The point is to put wax on the areas which you do not want to get dyed and then submerge the whole egg with wax into the solution of water, dye and vinegar. It has to be cold, because the wax would melt away in warm liquid. I think the result is quite impressive, these are definitely the most beautiful eggs I have ever made : ) 

Quick Valentine's Day Cards

This year, the Valentine's day came in a very busy time, so the card I made was a very quick one. I couldn't share it until my boyfriend received it in the post, so here it is now - he got the one on the left. I also cut out a few more ''training" hearts to practise my cutting, but it was really easy. I am considering making this year's Christmas cards this way. 

Any shape works, symmetrical or not, just cut it out of the paper and then fold in various directions and cut out the pattern. The only thing you need to be careful about when cutting is that the holes made in different foldings do not merge and create a one big hole - it doesn't look very pretty.

Happy Simple 2014

The last year has been ful of changes and self-realization. Finishing uni, fighting the black dog and learning more about myself and how to work with my thoughts and my life, starting a job, first problems and first joys of it and of course mostly just casual simple days filled with work, family and friends.

So… 2013 is over and I am a happy person. I have a loving and supportive family, a home (even though rented for now), a job, a wonderful boyfriend and a lot of good friends. There are clothes in my wardrobe, cosmetics in my bathroom, plants on my windowsil, books in my bookcase, blankets on my bed and some money on my account and there really isn’t a thing that could make me happier or more satisfied than I am now.

I am coming to think that the more THINGS I have, the more cluttered my home and my mind really is and the more complicated life gets. So this year maybe my most important resolution is to live simply. To enjoy little things, that do not cost money and are nice and ordinary, yet often not fully appreciated. Sunshine on my face, wind in my hair, swimming in a pool, eating good food, reading a nice book, meeting a dear friend, watching the rain fall in the garden, seeing a plant grow or hearing a snail eat in the middle of the night… and being thankful for being able to experience all that.

Have a wonderful, colourful and joyous new year! 

Getting Ready for Winter

This last two weeks were incredibly busy with work (meetings with parents, preparing for the school play) and family business (graduation - more about that later - my parents and boyfriend visiting at the same time), so I am feeling pretty tired now, as I sit at home on my bed after having made lesson plans for tomorrow while drinking a cup of delicious Lady Grey Tea.

But the last two weeks did not only bring business. Even though I worked hard and had a lot of social interacting to do (and God knows I'm bad at it when I'm not in the mood for it), I enjoyed every single little moment that I could, cups of tea, knotting bracelets, every single cute thing that my pupils told me, every snowflake that fell onto my coat, every bird that flew around my window, every single stitch that I was able to crochet. We had our first snow, although it only clung to some parts of the landscape and only for a day or so. I made more of my snowflake decorations and even a few of my Christmas-themed items from my Etsy shop sold and are on the way to their new homes now.

Like last year, I tried to make all the Christmas preparations and shopping long before December starts, so I could enjoy my cozy winter time with crafts and good food when everyone else is stressing out, but - oh! - suddenly it is past Mikuláš and I have barely done anything! It must be the job that keeps me busy and prevents me from shopping! Anyway, I mamaged to make some coconut biscuits (out of a ready made bought dough) and the weekend has rewarded me with a beam of sunshine through our kitchen window, so I could take this lovely picture.

Coconut biscuits (they are all gone now)

3936 Meters of Colour

Even though it is weekend, today was full of work - this time not teaching, but crafting! Our school organizes a day of various workshops every year and I chose to do a friendship bracelet workshop. My surprise was huge, when I learned that seventy kids signed up for it. Oh wow. Each of them paid a little fee (about 80p), so we had quite a lot of money and I went slightly nuts with yarn shopping - and here they are - thirty-two balls of 100% cotton yarn in twenty-one different colours. I had four busiest crafty hours of my life (and I thought crafting was relaxing!!!), but it was definitely worth it. However, I do look forward to doing some very calm and slow crafting over a cup of hot tea, followed by spontaneous and long nap somewhere at home :))

I Made Snow!

You see, I was at home for too long - nine days - and I got SO lazy!!! Out of boredom, I started making snow!!

I planned to do some lesson plans and read extensively on the subject of teaching and dealing with problems in class while I am ill and all I did was, well, some lesson planning, lots of reading of my Czech copy of Les Miserables, baking biscuits and watching about bazillion Family Guy episodes and similar amount of Ellen show. And yesterday, out of boredom, I started on a snowflake decoration that I wanted to do for ages, but thought it to be too difficult to make. And yet here we have it, and not only one. Three are for sale now in my Etsy shop.

I am really proud of me for making these - I did not use any pattern, I made them as I imagined the snowflakes when I was a kid and they look extremely old-fashioned to me. It is possible that someone somewhere made one that is very similar to this, or even that I saw something like that and unconsciously started thinking this is what a snowflake should look like, or that someone will see this photo and will make ones that look exactly like these, but for now, I am enjoying the thrill of having made something unique and one of a kind.

I Decorated

I probably didn't mention that I moved about a week ago. It wasn't a big move, only to a different room in the apartment, so it was all done comfortably in slippers and with a cup of tea. The room is smaller, but brighter. It gets more sunshine and will definitely benefit the plants and my winter mood. Yesterday, I felt the need to decorate, so I scavenged some business-themed newspaper from our "recycling" box of paper and cut out hearts of different sizes. Then I put them on a string and hung on the wall. It didn't cost me anything and it looks pretty.

And because Christmas will be here in a month and a bit, I also decorated. While the old room was facing west (and offering nice sunny evenings in summer), this one faces south-east, thanks to which I get to enjoy pink morning skies daily.

Have you already done some winter-themed decorating? Do not hesitate and let me know in a comment. Blog links are welcome!

Wednesday Night Sock Yarn

Making a yarn out of old used clothing is something I always wanted to try, especially after I saw wonderful rugs made by EsteraP and found the easy how-to tutorial on MollieMakes. As you can see, it worked out perfectly, so ignore the silly comment below the tutorial (the person must have done some mistake). I didn't have to "waste" any clothing, after all, the whole point of making this type of yarn is to use clothes that would get thrown out otherwise. I used two socks with holes on their heels that I really wouldn't even bother to throw into the charity bin.

The yarn that came out is not wonderfully regular or beautiful, but it is mine! I got more than five meters of thick yarn from each sock. From now on, we are not throwing any socks away! And when we move, I will dye all the yarn  and make a bathroom rug from it. It's a dream! And so romantic - having a shared rug made of our worn socks!!! Romantically creepy? A bit too much? Should I have said it will be my socks only? Oh well... Being a bit of a geek has never hurt anyone...

The good news is that you do not have to undergo the whole "looking for the bad sock" process and can simply buy the yarn if you want to. Etsy shops such as TheRecyclery, OfUsualtees, Chennapenna,  meangreenmachine, EclecticNotions, TShirtYarnBoutique, GreenTeeYarns, pinkamigo and downtherabbitholeSH sell lovely t-shirt yarns.

Disconnected and Stitching

New birdies hanging from the windows

Something happened with our routers a few days ago and so far we've been unable to fix it, so there is no Internet connection at home at all. That is why I am sitting at the university (on Sunday!!!) and blogging and writing my e-mails from here. Luckily now that I have no work that would require being online, I can enjoy my time at home without the need to check my email or Facebook every three minutes. 

Life is sweet without living in the cyber-space. I managed to do a lot of things that I couldn't do for a long time - cooked, re-potted some plants, tidied up the room finally and even spent a nice evening in bed, watching Narnia and stitching up some socks and eventually also these little birdies that have been waiting in the box for a long time.

See?? You can get work done if you stop wasting time online! So get away from your computer (but come back later for more posts) and do some work!!

Soon to be listed on Etsy

"Crystal" Friendship Bracelets

It's been ages since I blogged about anything even remotely crafty, so here we go!  These are a few bracelets that I made for my shop during this summer. It is not often that I learn a new pattern, but I really liked this one, so I did. It is called "Crystal" and originally it is designed for six different colours, however, I decided to use only three -two full coloured and one variegated. I made three different bracelets with this techniqe and I really like them.

The green one (on the right) is already sold, however the dark blue-grey one and the orange-yellow-brown one are still available in my shop.

The design comes from my favourite Czech website naramkypratelstvi.cz (see the tutorial here) and is originally from a Polish crafty website.

Gone Beady!

I haven't touched my relaxing pile of unfinished friendship bracelets for some time now. Why? Because I've gone beady!!! Yes, again.

Earlier this week, as I was running some work-related errands, I happened to pass a craft shop that I didn't visit for quite some time - and as you have probably guessed, I came out with some beads. Most of the long ones have some chips in them -about which I am not at all thrilled!- so they will probably be listed under low price or given to family and other people who won't mind or those with bad eyesight.

Summer is traditionally a time when I start getting into beady craftiness and making Christmas decorations. This year is no exception and - to be honest it looks a bit like November outside. We haven't had a day without rain for more than a week now and for the past four days it's been only all-day downpours here in Prague.

Anyway, I can still bake cakes, tea still tastes great, beads are shiny and work is going (kind of) well.

New Bracelets

Thesis time is showing in the amounts of bracelets that I am knotting these days. These two new bracelets have recently been listed in my Etsy shop. Follow the links under the photographs to see the listings.

This girly bracelet is a slight variation to a clasic "V" shaped pattern, but instead of one-colour Vs I made two-coloured ones. In my opinion, it worked out quite well.

The second bracelet is on of my very own patterns. The original idea was to have circles and crosses and even though the crosses worked out perfectly, the circles are not very round - I drew the pattern out on a square grid before weaving, but the knots are more rectangular than square, so the circles got a little "stretched".

Colourful de-cluttering

These old and a bit low-quality yarns that I got from a friend some years ago and did nothing with are on their way to another friend of mine right now - a Czech blogger, mum, crafter and eco-gardener who will try some guerilla crochet with her friends during a one-day course that she organizes. I am happy to have a bit of space in my yarn box again and also that these get to be crocheted around a tree rather than rest in peace in a rubbish bin. Also, the leftovers of my green blanket half-eaten by my rats  and a tiny little freeform crochet piece will keep them company : )

Rainbows

In summer 2011, the charity that I worked for became a supporter of Prague Pride festival and walk. I did not walk, but I stood by out stand in the city centre and watched all the crowds gather and walk past me, waving (maybe a bit too enthusiastically) a little rainbow flag (apparently, I was caught on camera by some of the Czech TV stations - I did not watch the programme myself, even though it was posted on my Facebook wall by my friends repeatedly - I must seem crazy enough to the world even without waving around a piece of rainbow cloth on a stick). Anyway, I think that was the day I heard most opinions about gay people and met the nicest people of same-sex orientation and it was a great summer day. Just to say, a Mum carrying a board that says "I love my lesbian daughter" speaks for everything.



To be able to buy these friendship bracelets, have a look at their Etsy listings: striped FB, FB with squares, FB with vertical stripes

So, full of new thrill and opinions, I came home and started getting ideas and had to buy some pride-coloured threads and started weaving these. The middle one has been finished for quite some time, but I only finished the other two a few days ago. They have waited in the box for a long time, now it's their time in my Etsy shop!

And if you want to experience it yourself, this year's Prague Pride will be in August!!

Newly Finished

I have begun the tedious task of composing my master's thesis lately. And the number of written lines is increasing at a regular rate of one page per approximately seventeen excruciating hours of writing. Of course, with a difficult task as that, I must refuel myself by lots of encouraging cups of tea, lunch meetings and gossipping with friends, episodes of some my favourite series and some crafting. When the thesis is nowhere near its end, it is nice to sit down and FINISH some little project, like these two bracelets...

Soon to appear in my Etsy shop

And ... even though I rejoice at the thought of some poor new bachelor's degree student exclaiming joyfully over my thesis, because they just found the citation they needed, I sometimes think that maybe these little bracelets, even though they might be regarded as "crafty clutter", might actually bring people more happiness than whole of my research work. Luckily, I have an alternate carreer, to become a teacher and make people like all the "creepy-crawlies".

I have pulled out a whole box full of unfinished bracelets that I am going to work on slowly during the evenings and finish. Just to give my motivation the little boost.
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P.S.: The camera is still having some problems, so it might take a while until I list these in my shop :(

Did I say "No heart decorations" ?

Well, then... ooops?

Yes, on Valentine's day I suddenly felt intense aversion towards hearts... But thein it turned around and suddenly a wave of inspiration came upon me, urging me to cut out some hearts, splashing around me in mixture of pink felt and threads. It might have something to do with my man coming to visit tonight. Then I hope he enjoys pink, because his life will get tough otherwise... : )

I even tried stitching out what was intended to be stars, but mostly they ended up being crosses with an occassional star hiding among them. Still, I like it. Not a single heart was cut out using a template (therefore the shapes) and here is the result. One finished ornament and a few hearts cut out of leftovers. I can sense more hearted decorations coming soon...

Procrastination Crochet

There are days when work goes great and there are days when it doesn’t. I am having one of those other days today. Nothing, even the shortage of time seems to motivate me. My daily strategy is to wake up really early, so that I can spend even more time by procrastinating. I even started crocheting a special thingie.

I am not sure what it is going to be, so far there are two squares with a side of 15.5cm, which might possibly turn into something awesome, but most likely just some more clutter (I feel incredibly environmentaly irresponsible at the moment).

Also, I happened to have an open bottle of wine in the fridge – and as I explained to my boyfriend earlier on the phone, there is something terribly sad about unfinished things other than work. So... I had to help it to get to wine-bottle heaven.

At least, this bright green yarn makes me think of green spring lawns which we will soon be able to enjoy. And I am optimistic and I really think that in the light of the longer and brighter days that are about to come, I will be able to do more work. Or... you know... procrastinate somewhere in a sunny field and get a tan and blonder hair at the same time.