The life and the times

Hello world!

Wow, it's been over 3 years since my blog post!  I have no idea if there's anyone still out there but I'm still here slogging away and I figured I should really start up blogging again because I feel I want to share so many things, craft related, but also health related, because we all need to know that we're not alone when we have problems, including me ;-)

3 years update...

Loop-da-Loop first!

• Well I have to say it's been a hard struggle the last few years.  Most of my sales came through Facebook, I always had a long list of orders to do and for 2 years in a row I was working on them right up until Xmas Eve, but then Facebook brought in their algorithms.... it's old news now, but essentially it means that of my over 2100 followers on there no more than usually 100-200 see my posts, in fact one photo I posted recently only got shown on 10 people's timelines.... :-(
  
  As such there is no order book anymore and the sales far and few between, solely coming in on Folksy these days, boooooo.  So what I'd like to do now is give Craft Fairs a try... there is a slight problem with this though, which brings us on to....

...health

• My Psoriatic Arthritis is now well managed, so says my doctor, in terms of blood tests anyways, I'm still on the methotrexate though I'm not on the highest dosage any more. A couple of years ago I was walking with a cane, now I do kick boxing, cycling, jogging (yuck!), swimming and more.  That being said, I still have constant pain and the PA has spread to most of my joints now, but I'm strong and I don't/won't let it beat me!
   
• My PCOS I'm no longer trying to manage with medications, it's been a struggle but I've successfully managed to lose over 4 stone so far. I still have about 4 stone to go, but hopefully it's all helping to lessen the hormonal issues!
   
• I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I've struggled with anxiety and depression since my early 20's.  It's gotten worse over the years, and was the predominant reason I quit my day job a few years ago.  On the whole my depression has improved since leaving work, thankfully I haven't had any major episodes during this time despite the health issues that have come since then, buuuuut my anxiety has gotten worse and I suffer from Agoraphobia and Social Anxiety and do struggle to leave the house on my own.  Hence the slight problem with craft fairs...
  
  The way I would describe it, is that I feel like whilst I'm inside the house I'm in a protective bubble of sorts, going out of the door fills me with anxiety and dread, even to go out to the rubbish bin or into the back garden, and even answering the door or phone fills me with fear.  It's easier to go out with others, and it's easier to travel by car (less chance of human contact), and it's easier to go to places I've been to before, I have a mental list of "safe places". 
  
  Some days the anxiety feels like a big brick wall blocking the door, and some days I can find the sledge hammer to break through, and some days I just can't. 
  
  Today I needed to go to the Post Office, a small trip, less than 10 minutes by cycle but I was absolutely "bricking it" about going. I find cycling easier than walking because there is less chance of human contact, and when I wear sunglasses to block my eyes and headphones to block my ears I feel more like I'm in a bubble again, but it's still a struggle to step through that door.  Today I found my sledge hammer, and even went for a longer cycle ride before heading to the Post Office (mostly to burn off those "fight or flight" hormones my body was making through the panic), today was a success.
  
  I have been asked "What's the problem? What is it you're worried will happen if you leave the house?", and frankly it's everything and nothing.  I know realistically that nothing bad is likely to happen, but my mind sees everything that could happen, that my house could burn down, I could get run over, I could get attacked or robbed, I could get chased by dogs, I could be shouted at or harassed... I might have to speak to someone.... And that's why Craft Fairs are going to be a big struggle for me!

I hope that wasn't too boring to get through, if anyone made it to the end!  What I hope will make its way into this blog over the next few months are Craft Fair plans, I have good friends who want to help me achieve this goal and promise/threaten to accompany me and protect me from the scary people.

Loops x

Mmm... maltesers

This week's mini update...

• Blood pressure still through the roof 

• Just completed my latest commission Owl - Riley the Surfer Owl. He was named after a character from my [very odd] teenage obsession with Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea (and other Irwin Allen tv series!).... perhaps I shouldn't have admitted to that... hum ho....

• Yesterday I had the fun of being questionned and prodded by some medical students doing a rheumatology module at med school!  Was quite interesting, and one of them did correctly diagnose me so top marks for her! :-)

• Today I shall be making a red memory bracelet (hand allowing!), sketching up a kitsch girly (not really my thing so might take a bit of imagination!) Owl for Emily, and starting on my newest Owl stuffie - The Owl-inator

• This evening will be my first Methotrexate dose, I've read all the leaflets and spoken to other people [online] taking it but I'm still rather anxious about it.  Going from taking 0 pills to taking over 30 pills per week (6 diff ones) is defo a bit of a body and head shock!

Oh and I've just had a food delivery from Tesco.  I maaaaaay have snuck in a giant bag of maltesers....I like food. :-)

TTFN
Loops
xx

Owl obsessed

This week.... I shall be mostly.... watching Studio Ghibli films.... and making owls :-D

Thanx to the delivery men today and Saturday that is, who dropped off a pile of fleece for me!!  You have no idea how bl**dy hard it is trying to find matching fleece though, the colours for my first few owls I got from a place that no longer sells those colours, and elsewhere the colours are either named entirely different or same name different colour, it's costing me a fortune just for samples and I still haven't found matches yet!

Raymond guarding the fleece pile!

So this week is reasonably busy, I have to drive (with the aid of my wrist support, or with Mr Loops chauffeuring me) to the hospital to book my chest x-ray, I have a blood pressure check on Wednesday (as my BP is through the roof, hum ho), I have to go and get my refund for £28 worth of prescriptions from last week (when my pre-payment certificate finally comes through from the NHS), aaaaand I have to pick up a few more new meds from the pharmacy!

But when I'm not doing that I shall be mostly.... watching Studio Ghibli films.... and making owls :-)

TTFN
Loops
xx

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to all!!!

I hope everyone had a fab NYE, whether chilling at home or gadding about town! :-D

I should start by saying I'm not normally one for New Years resolutions.... but this year I resolve to be more regular with my blog posts  o_O

Sooooo, following on from that.... here is post #1 of 2011... written in my pjs whilst watching Big on the tv.... hum ho.....

I had hoped to make all my Xmas presents this year, but alas illness and time constraints worked against me.... but here is the journey of one of my handmade gifts this year, a stuffie of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy for my mate Sammy's boyfriend :-D

Stewie in design format with initial sketch

All the pattern pieces prepared for cutting out in felt

In progress shot of Stewie's clothes

Clothes complete, addition of head and hands!

Features completed, ready to sew back and front together

Stuffing in progress

And the unveiling of the completed Stewie stuffie:

Completed Stewie (front)

Completed Stewie (back)

"VICTORY SHALL BE MINE!!!!"

In hindsight he's a bit lanky and I should have made his head muuuch bigger, but I think the recipient was happy with his gift and I certainly enjoyed making him :-D

TTFN
Loops
xx

Halloween: The Costumes!

Sorry for the giganti-gap since my last post, pretty much October-November has mainly consisted of illness so far, here's to hoping things improve on that front soon!

So this year my friend Spammy and I decided to co-host a Halloween party at my house, and thus having costumes along the same theme.  Soooo after discussions we decided upon Victoriany looking (not historically correct by any means!!) wampyr sisters!

Spammy and myself before the arrival of the guests looking sufficiently vampirish

Soooo... what was crafted and how did you craft it I hear you say??

HATS

• Bought a cheap fancy dress sequin top hat for each of us 
• Removed black ribbon and crappy piece of net 
• Got the hot glue out :-D
• Hot glued burgundy velvet ribbon round them  

• Dismantled and hot-glued big black fake flower 

•  Cut and hot-glued cobweb lace veil

CHOKERS
Found THIS awesome choker online but wanted to make as much as possible, plus couldn't really afford to buy after spending so much on fabrics and decorations (and BOOOOOZE :-D).  Soooo...

• Bought some wide black velvet ribbon
• Cut to size and attached velcro to ends 
• Fixed flat back red gems as vampire bite
• Attached red blood droplets [beads] to chain and attached to choker

EARRINGS
Made some earrings to match the droplets on our chokers.  Apologies for the artsy photo, I only had the one I took for my folksy page!

SKIRTS
I made us 3 skirts each for the look.  I could of course have made them all as one skirt but I figured this way each element could be reused if wanted!

• Black net underskirt for a bit of poof!  
• Red satin circle skirt.  
• Black glittery cobweb lace handkerchief hem overskirt.

BOLERO
We were after something with nice drapey sleeves and a large collar to highlight our chokers, but we couldn't find anything suitable (or cheap enough) to buy, so we ordered some black jersey so I could make jackets from scratch but decided that I didn't have the time nor inclination to do that in the end so we had a rethink!

• Bought us each a plain black long-sleeved t-shirt from the supermarket 
• Cut the sleeves to around elbow length 
• Marked the t-shirts to a bolero jacket type shape on the dress form (for mine, and directly on Spammy for hers) and cut to shape
• Did a massive amount of gathering to a massive amount (a good 8-10 metres) of black chiffon ribbon :-S 
• Attached the now gathered frilly ribbon to boleros 
• Cut squares of cobweb lace (with a sleeve sized circle in the centre) and attached to the sleeves to make some drapey sleeves

In addition we each wore a non-me-crafted top under our bolero.

(Apologies for the strange boobage of my dressform, to emulate my mahoosive boobage she wears a big turquoise padded bra which I tried to cover with my half-sarong, but alas the camera flash has x-ray vision!!)

 Hey presto we have clothes to wear!!

FANGS
Using some friendly plastic I also made my own vampire fangs with the help of THIS tutorial.  However whilst the teeth I made came out superb, apparently denture glue stuff doesn't work on my teeth cos even though they were custom made to fit my teeth they still wouldn't stay in.

Sooo the fangs ended up being lost almost immediately somewhere in the house (hence no photo) and my teeth left covered in denture glue which is the most disgusting substance known to man and took much brushing (thus ruining my makeup!) and mouthwash to remove!!  Boooo, so I ended up wearing some 10p fangs from Sainsburys, which is why my face looks so bizarre (more than usual anyways) in the first photo >:-E

I leave you with a shot of Wampyr Sam showing off her evilness with her pet Arnold the Bat-Cat

Next Halloween post = photos from the party :-)

Dr Loopenstein presents...

Mr and Mrs Frankenstuffy, and their journey into the world of the everliving :-)

Mr Frankenstuffy in design format

Mr Frankenstuffy ready for sewing together and stuffing!

Mrs Frankenstuffy in her undies waiting to be sewn together!

THE HAPPY COUPLE!!!

Happy Halloween!

Gratuitous advert: Available at my Folksy shop they could be attending your Halloween Party!! :-)

Halloween: The Decorations

Ok, so I have trouble making decisions and deciding what to write for my 2nd post has been a toughy, particularly since I hadn't really decided what kinda stuff I plan to write about here!!  I think it'll be a bit of a mixture, some crafty stuff since that's what I spend most of my time doing, the ongoing saga of my hand and wrist problems, attempting to stay organised in my tiny crafting room, and potentially the general thoughts of a depressive anxiety-ridden agoraphobic! ;-)

So apart from crafting stuff for my folksy shop my current focus in on Halloween, my favourite time of year!!  This year (as most years) I shall be hosting a Spooktacular Halloween party, with the help of my good friend and co-host Sammy who is also a creative soul and will be helping me to make food and decorations for the party.

Unfortuntely I didn't get any in progress shots, but this week I've been working on painting and embellishing a papier mache pumpkin I picked up from Hobbycraft.

 

So initially a week or so ago I painted the whole pumpkin with orange acrylic paint, and the stem with green and brown.  The next day I added some shading to the indents and top (though of course that's all covered up with leaves now!) and mottled it a little, and gave our pumpkin gal some eyelasheys.

And finally on Friday I had some fun with my glue gun (unused up til this point :-D) and some autumnal looking fake leaves, and then coated her with sparkly orange glitter glue (including some on the leaf veins) to give her a shine and brighten the colour up a bit!  And hey presto!! 

I'm planning to display her on the coffee table, which will be covered in sparkly cobweb lace, with some LED tealights inside!

Next I decided to make a Halloween wreath to hang on the front door.  I started with a polystyrene ring and wrapped it in orange ribbon for a base.  Prepared some more of the autumnal fake leaves, cut out some foam bats n skulls n ghosties, and got my now fave tool the glue gun out :-D

In progress shot after all the leaves were in place and I'd remembered buying some grey-black fake roses as well!

After adding all the leaves I then hot glued another 5 roses around the inside of the ring, hot glued some googly eyes on the ghosties and skulls, and attached those.  And finally I got the glitter glue out again and highlighted the rose petals and leaf veins with sparkle!!

And that's that for this post, thanks for reading, more Halloweeny treats to come as I'm also making mine and Sammys Halloween costumes!!

TTFN
Loops
xx