#Storms + #Crafting + Random Ramblings

Storm Eunice, which hit at the end of last week, was bad enough that the MET office issued a red warning for severe weather, and I'm told stories of the damage from it were mentioned on the news outside the UK.  There was a bit of rain and hail with it (and a little snow in some areas, though not anywhere near me) but mostly it was the winds that were the problem, and the cause of all the damage.

 

Schools were switched to remote learning the day it hit, and the rubbish collection didn't happen.  It's possible there was no post delivery that day either, because I don't recall hearing any sounds of the postman/woman (we have both, and I'm not sure which would have been delivering that day) and something I'd been expecting to arrive that day didn't come until the following day, when the winds weren't quite so strong, though the rain and hail were heavier, and the storm was definitely still around.

 

The noise from the wind tossing things about, and making our letterbox bang, was driving the dogs nuts, so they were barking a LOT.  Though I was struggling to remember it while dealing with the constant barking, I'm incredibly grateful things weren't worse for us - we only lost power very briefly, and the only damage we needed to worry about was to a drain pipe that somehow got bent in the wind (which we're now waiting to have fixed... Unless it gets done between when I'm putting this post together and when it goes live).  A lot of people weren't so lucky.

 

~

 

The milder storm Dudley had been here before Storm Eunice, and then Eunice was followed on Monday by Franklyn, which hit further North, so things were even milder in my area than with Eunice, with just a little wind and some rain.  They say there's yet another named storm on its way in the next day or so though, so we'll see what happens with that one.

 

*~*

I finished some more craft projects.

For one thing, I worked on an enamel jewelry kit I got from Cosy Craft Club, and made a necklace with three red and white flags and two blue flags on it, as well as a bracelet with a round circle that's blue with white flecks.  Had to get Dad to help me with atatching the chains, because it was rather fiddly, and I was struggling to manage it.  Anyway, here are photos of them:

I also went to a Future In Sight quilling class, which is part of the Zoom sessions they do for their Kaila's Craft Corner podcast.  And I made this picture of a flower, which also has two hearts and two stars in the corners of the canvas.  The colours are kind of random, because I didn't know which colours I was grabbing for each piece (and didn't really care, hence not asking Kelly to help me make sure I knew which was which before I started).  Anyway, here's my quilling picture:

And I made this good luck card, just as an excuse to play with the Celtic knot and shamrock stamps I got recently.  Yes, I wrote the, "Good luck," on the card.  Anyway, here's a photo of it:

~

I love getting my happy post, as I call it, but I've decided not to continue with the Cosy Craft Club and Makerly Crafts boxes any more.  Though I'll be continuing to get the subscription boxes I have for other things.

 

They're fantastic kits, and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a craft subscription box.  However, it's harder for me to do those kits because of instruction accessibility, so for the most part they're just piling up while I work on other crafts.  And even when I have accessible versions of the instructions - like I got from Rachel of Cosy Craft Club for the jewelry kit... Thanks for that, Rachel (if she happens to see this post, which is doubtful, but you never know) - they're still really tricky for me to do without calling in sighted help, because they're designed with sight and the ability to see the pictures in the instructions in mind.

 

So I decided to stop those, and use the money I'm spending on those each month to ensure I have the supplies for any projects I want to do with the ACB Crafters group or Future In Sight, which are spacifically designed with visual limitations in mind, so are much more accessible to me.

 

I will, of course, get someone to help me get the Cosy Craft Club and Makerly Crafts kits I do have done - Dad and Kelly have both agreed to help - but I won't have those coming every month now, and they'll just be done whenever time and availability of sighted help permits in between other projects.

*~*

There's new content on my YouTube channel, with hopefully plenty more to come in the not-too-distant future.

 

The new stuff this time is all music videos and poetry readings, but you might like to check it out.  If you would like to check it out, and aren't subscribed to my channel, you can find it here.

I'm thinking of possible ideas for other things to put on my YouTube channel, but not sure what I'll do yet.  Suggestions and requests for content are welcome, so feel free to post those below, or eMail me.

*~*

 

On February 13th I did host training with the ACB.  Now I'm officially an ACB trained Zoom host, and can host calls as well as facilitate them.  Well, not at the same time, since the two roles have to be held by separate people if it's on an ACB call, but you get the point.

 

I had my shadow session this past Sunday (February 20th) which is when an experienced host acts as co-host for a newly trained one, just to make absolutely certain they know what they're doing.  It's something all new hosts do for their first time hosting, just to be sure someone's on hand if they have issues.  And tonight (Friday February 25th) I do my first solo hosting session.  It was going to be tomorrow, but I got a message asking if I can fill in tonight, and I'm available at that time, so I said I could.

*~*

 

On February 15th Kelly had his Covid booster.  Now he's tripple vaccinated.  He was a bit more tired than usual for the first 24 hours after it, but otherwise you wouldn't have known he had anything done.  He's been really lucky with jab reactions every single time, even with him being given the Maderna vaccine this time for some reason, despite having had the Pfizer one for the other two.

 

*~*

Speaking of Kelly: he went to the shop for something the day before Valentine's Day, and came home with a present for me.  These white roses:

 

And he promptly apologized because they were white and not yellow.  He said there were all kinds of shades of pinks,  as well as both red and white, but he couldn't find yellow.  It bothered him because he knows yellow roses are my favourite kind of flower.  I told him the white ones are close enough, and anyway I appreciate the thought enough not to mind what colour they are.

#Snow + A Happy #Westie Wiggle Dance + #Grogu+ A #Teapot + #Selfcare + Inheriting #Crafting Supplies

Look what we woke up to Sunday morning:

 

 

The dogs and I had to go out and play in it, of course...

Apparently my dogs love the snow as much as I do.  This is their first time seeing this much snow at once, and they were thrilled.  They were also as reluctant as me to stay indoors, and as eager as me to keep going out to play in it, which - since they were enthusiastic about the idea, and it gave me an excuse to do so - we did on and off most of the day.

To my delight - since yes, I was delighted, even after a day playing in it - it snowed more in the afternoon, after a bit of the earlier stuff had melted, and we'd trampled a lot of it.  So, since we caught it snowing this time (we'd been asleep when the earlier snow fell, so it was a nice surprise for me to wake up to) we got a bit of a video of the snow falling:

 

 

 Later that same day it snowed some more...

So, of course, I took the dogs out to play in it yet again...

(OK, so I took them so I could go out there again myself, but whatever... They still got to go outside again, which they were happy about).

I know this isn't much to some of you, and it will likely all be gone before this goes live, but... We got around five inches in total in our area that day, with a lot of it (what hadn’t melted or frozen overnight) still on the ground the next day, which is a big snowfall here in Wales.  It's rare to get more than an inch or so in one snowfall.  It's been a great Winter for snow this year, and Winter's not even over yet!

~

I’ve been mentioning Lilie’s happy wiggle dance since she was a tiny puppy, and trying to get a video of it for almost as long.  But, no matter how hard we tried, we just couldn’t get it on video, even though it’s her regular form of greeting.  Now though, with her almost four years old, I can finally show you it, since my Mam got a video for me when I took the dogs outside to greet her when she came to drop off a couple of things she’d picked up for me from Tescos that we didn’t get in our food box, and couldn’t get at the corner shop.  So, though I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with an excited Logan getting in the way from time to time (he was pleased to see Nana too) here, at long last, is a clip of Lilie doing her happy wiggle dance:

 

 

As you can see, my dogs love visitors – especially Lilie.  Even Logan is learning to be enthusiastic about people other than me and Kelly.  Just wait until we stop being in lockdown so Mam and Dad’s visits don’t have to be restricted to them only seeing us briefly for essential errands*.  Lilie’s going to be over-the-moon.  LOL!

 

*We could technically have one of them visit more.  However, to do that we’d have to prevent the other coming, and since both of them are doing different things to help us, we all agreed it made more sense for us to just restrict visits from both to short ones just while essential errands/tasks are dealt with, and keep other contact to phone calls.

 

~

 

Though we still have plenty of things we actually need to get to sort things in the new house, when we learned that Build-A-Bear did a Grogu (Baby Yoda) plushy, I really wanted one, so Kelly told me to get myself one, and count it as paying myself back some of the money I should have been having presents from anyhow (in other words, the money I’d gotten for my birthday and Christmas, which I’d been prioritizing paying for moving and household costs out of, and not spending on myself like I was meant to).  So, I got a Grogu plushy, and here he is:

 

 

He has a sound chip in each of his little paws.  One plays the “Mandelorian” theme tune, and the other plays the various cute little baby sounds you hear him making throughout the show.  I could have had him with just one or the other, or with neither, but I decided to splurge for the whole package.  I mean, if I was paying out for the plushy – which was the bigger part of the cost – I might as well just pay an extra few £s for the sounds too, right?

 

~

 

 I also brought myself a teapot.  It’s a little ceramic one that’s perfect for just a couple of cups of tea, so ideal for when it’s only me having some tea, which is the case more often than not even without lockdown making visitors few and far between.  Anyway, here’s my new teapot:

 

 

Though I’m told it’s not easy to tell from the photo, it’s actually purple.  Well, when I saw they had them in purple, I had to, didn’t I? I mean, purple has always been my favourite colour.

 

I had a teapot before – that one was purple too – which was bigger.  But it was a bit big for me to be using on my own, and I gave it to someone a few years back.  I’ve wanted to get a new one ever since, but wanted just a little one this time.  Well, now I have one, and even managed to make it a purple one again.

 

~

 

In the interests of practicing better self care, adding proper “me time” to my routine is something I’m working on making a priority this year.  I even have a plan.  In fact, I’ve got a list of some things I want to do every day, and a list for stuff I’d like to do at least once a week, which I’m setting days for. My plan is to do the daily things for at least a few minutes every day, and each of the weekly things for at least an hour each per week.

 

Every day I want to:

•         Enjoy a quiet cup of tea while listening to some music

•         Meditate

•         Read

•         Write

 

My weekly self care activities list though is:

•         Have a bubble bath (scented candles optional)

•         Have a movie/TV show night where I just curl up somewhere and watch a DVD or something on a streaming service

•         Work on crafts (I even re-activated a craft box subscription service I used to get to encourage this... You may remember me mentioning the Makerly Crafts subscription box in the past?)

 

My tentative plan for the weekly thing is a bubble bath on Friday night, a Saturday movie night, and a Sunday afternoon crafting session.  That way I get the whole weekend to recharge.

 

~

 

I won’t be doing a review of this every month, but I figured I’d do a check-in this time, since I’m only now getting around to telling you about my plan.  So, how did the first month – well, about four weeks - of doing this go?

 

I’ve been managing to sit and relax while listening to music for at least a few minutes each day, even if sometimes it’s with a cold drink rather than a cup of tea.  The point is the quiet time just relaxing while listening to the music though, so I’m not complaining.  I've listened to a variety of music, including panpipes, country, 80s, 90s, and classical.  I tend to do this in the morning, when the dogs aren't quite ready to start racing around and cause chaos, Artemis hasn't yet crawled out of her bed, and Mollie is sleepily waiting to see what I'll be offering her for breakfast before she goes for her daytime sleep.  It's a nice relaxing way to start my day.

 

I’ve also generally managed to get at least a small amount of reading time in each day, even if some days it’s only been maybe 20 minutes or so.  And I managed to read five books in January, even with two of them being long-ish books, and mostly doing shorter reading sessions.

 

I’ve had less success with the meditation and writing.  I’ve done some writing since the start of the year, but not as much as I’d hoped, and definitely not every day.  We won’t talk about the meditation part.  Yes, I did that badly with it.  With the writing it was a conscious choice, since I chose to use my writing time to work on unpacking boxes, but the meditation thing just didn’t end up happening... I'll make it a habit again eventually.

 

Also, despite having resubscribed to the Makerly Crafts box again, and gotten my first kit since doing so (January’s kit was a Valentine's themed cardmaking kit, if you're wondering) I’ve not done anything worth mentioning in the way of crafting yet either, since that’s another time slot I gave up to unpacking boxes.  In this case it was essential I did so though, since I needed to unpack and organize the craft supplies I owned, as well as ones I inherited from my Nan (the one who died last August) – which my Dad has slowly been dropping off here for me whenever he’s been here to do an essential errand – as well as make a space to work, before any crafting could actually happen.

 

Plus, my relaxing bath nights have been a bit hit and miss, and the couple of baths I have had didn’t include scented candles, even if they were still relaxing.  Baths are on my self care list because I mostly just have a shower, but a nice relaxing bath is something I enjoy having sometimes.  However, it’s a bit more special if I don’t have one all the time anyhow, so I don’t mind if this one doesn’t happen every week.  I mean, I kind of would like it to happen every week, since it would be a nice way to kick off my weekend.  But I’d still call this one a success even if I only did it once a month.

 

I’ve had better luck with TV show/movie nights.  I watched more episodes of “The Simpsons” as well as a couple of movies.  The movies were the live action version of “Mulan” as well as “Soul” – both movies were on Disney+.  “Mulan” was really good – very different to the animated version I’m familiar with, but still good, even if I did enjoy the animated one more.  “Soul” was fantastic though... An absolutely wonderful movie with a lovely message.  I’d give “Mulan” four out of five stars, and “Soul” five out of five stars.

 

All in all, I don’t think the first month went too badly, especially since I was making unpacking and organizing stuff the main priority intentionally, and we actually have most of that done now, with mainly just stuff we need to buy extra shelves or other storage solutions for still in boxes at this point.  Although, more organization will need to happen with the craft supplies, especially with Dad still slowly dropping off more.  But at least I can now make use of the craft room and supplies when I want to, as well as claim back my writing time.

 

~

 

And there are so many supplies!

 

Nan was a big crafter, who dabbled in a lot of different crafts, and kept anything potentially useful for future craft projects, and I'm inheriting the lot, some of the tools for which she's had longer than I've been alive.  Dad’s dropped off a load, and there’s still loads at his place yet to come over here (since he has to do it in bits, since he can only drop stuff off when he’s coming this way for other reasons, because of needing to restrict his visits due to lockdown, plus there really is a LOT of stuff).

 

There are supplies for crafts I do a lot already, like sewing.  Supplies for crafts I’ve tried in the past and want to do more of, like quilling.  Supplies for crafts I haven’t done since I lost my sight, but would kind of like to try again to see if I can do them – despite my initial reaction on thinking about it being that it would be impossible – like cross stitching.  Supplies for things I’d like to get back in to that I haven’t done much of for a while, like cardmaking.  Supplies for things I’ve never learned to do, but wouldn’t mind learning, like crochet.  And supplies for things Nan was going to teach me, but we never got around to more than a first lesson I don’t remember very well, like tatting.  Let's just say my craft room will be very well stocked by the time it all makes it over here. Oh, I’m going to have so much crafty fun!

I just have to decide what to play with first...

#BonfireNight Thoughts, And Celebrating #Halloween 2019

It's Bonfire Night here in the UK. Though you'd have thought it was this past weekend with all the fireworks that were happening when the weather was allowing for it. I also happen to know people are doing fireworks this coming weekend.

Not that I'm complaining. I mean, I enjoy fireworks, and I'm hopefully going to one of the ones happening next weekend, assuming the weather is better than it has been a lot of the time lately, and it doesn't get rained off. But I'll tell you about that another day. At least, I'll tell you about it if it does end up happening (it's meant to be, as of the time I'm writing this post; I've just spoken to the people regarding my transport arrangements).

Anyway, I'm torn when it comes to fireworks, because I feel bad for the animals that don't like them - like Logan, apparently - and all the wild animals with nowhere dark and quiet to hide. For their sakes I do wish there weren't so many fireworks happening. Still, I can't help enjoying them. It's like snow: I love it, despite knowing it causes so many problems for some people, especially when there's a lot of it, and even while I acknowledge that, can't help feeling you can never have too much of it.

I actually kind of wish we could all arrange our fireworks displays on the same night. The animals would still get scared, but at least it would just be once. That's not a 100% perfect solution, but it would be better than the scattered displays the animals have to deal with these days.

But, despite the date, and the firework themed introduction to this post, today's post is actually supposed to be about my Halloween celebrations for this year. So let's talk about those now, shall we?

So... I put up my Halloween decorations the Monday before Halloween.

I don't have loads of them, but I have a couple I've had for a few years, and a few new ones. So I set up displays in the living room windows, since it seemed like a good place that was out of reach of the dogs. Plus, I liked the thought that if someone looked up, they might be able to see and enjoy some of them too. It's not very likely, since people almost never look up. But it was a nice thought, and you never know...

Anyway, here are my Halloween window displays:

In the first photo: the beware sign and maple leaf I've had for a while. The bat is a wooden one Kelly helped me decorate a couple of years ago. The lit up black pumpkin is the one I picked up when we took the dogs for their grooming session at the start of September. The ghost, pumpkin lights, orange pumpkin, candle, and Frankenstein figure are new.

In the second photo: the skull in the frame is the quilling one I made last year. The witch and Frankenstein masks are old masks I turned in to decorations a few years ago. But the hanging skeleton and those little candles are new.

There should have been some little bats too. Two on the window sill with the skeleton theme, and four on the pumpkin themed window sill. But Kelly took the photos before I'd added those, we didn't think to grab new photos, and the decorations were put away over the weekend, so it's too late now.

I forgot to get a photo of the Fall themed table runner we stitched on the table too, and didn't keep it on there because Kelly's working on some figures, and I didn't want him getting stuff all over it. But you can see that in this post, if you want to see it, and missed doing so when I shared it among the other things in that post at the time it was finished.

I did get you a photo of this year's Mr. Pumpkin-Head though. I almost didn't get to do one this year, because our local fruit and veg shop ran out of pumpkins. Luckily the supermarket still had some, and Kelly grabbed one when he was doing his shopping. Quite an impressive one too. So, here's a photo of this year's Mr. Pumpkin-Head once he was finished, and all lit up:

Lilie's a fan of the "big orange ball"...

(Don't worry, the candle was removed before the pumpkin was put where she could check it out, and anyway it's a battery one - one of the ones you see in the above photos - so wouldn't have done her any harm anyhow).

We managed to get Lilie to pose with the pumpkin, but Logan wasn't feeling co-operative... I don't think he was sure what to make of it. So this is the best we could do for a photo of both the dogs posing with Mr. Pumpkin-Head:

For more puppy Halloween photos, check out Lilie's post from last Friday (if you haven't already read that post) where you can see photos of Lilie and Logan in their Halloween costumes.

Anyway, Mr. Pumpkin-Head went back to his favourite job of being a jack-o-lantern after the photos of him with the dogs were done. Though it took me lifting her up so she could check him out in his new spot, and the destraction of her favourite ball, before Lilie would leave him alone, since she kept yapping at him to come back down on the floor and play with her. Even with the destraction of her favourite ball, it took a while before she completely gave up trying to persuade him to come play. Like I said, I think she liked him. Haha!

Naturally, there had to be some pumpkin themed baking. In fact, it's sort of a tradition for me these days to do pasta with pumpkin sage sauce on or around Halloween. So, since this was my first Halloween as a vegan, I veganized my pumpkin sage sauce recipe. It wasn't difficult, since it just meant swapping out the milk for a plant-based milk (I used a can of coconut milk) and the butter for a vegan butter. The latter of which I'd actually done for the past couple of years anyhow. So, I had pasta with pumpkin sage sauce, sprinkled with some vegan cheese, for dinner on Halloween and the day after.

I also had my first attempt at a vegan pumpkin pie. I don't make pumpkin pie every year, but wanted to this year, partially for the challenge of veganizing it, and partially because I fancied some. I brought some evaporated coconut milk as a vegan friendly alternative to the evaporated milk usually used, and used cornflour in place of the eggs to help the filling set (a tablespoon of cornflour for each egg the recipe I was adapting called for). The rest of the ingredients were just pumpkin puree, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice anyhow. And the pastry, of course, which I just used my usual basic pastry recipe for. Anyway, here's a photo of it freshly baked:

When it had fully cooled, I served it with a soya based squirty cream...

The vegetarian friendly versions of both recipes can be found on my website's recipe section already. When I can, I'll get the full vegan pumpkin pie recipe posted up there too. I won't be bothering with a vegan version of the pumpkin sage sauce recipe though, since it's straight-forward to veganize, so I figure you can work it out for yourself.

Anyway, I had also considered making some pumpkin spice cake, and maybe some cookies too. But decided not to. I mean, I already had the pumpkin pie, after all. I'll make cake and cookies another time.

I did make myself another pumpkin themed treat though: a pumpkin pie smoothie. One of the vegan recipe sites I get newsletters for posted about it leading up to Halloween, and I couldn't resist. It's milk (they recommend coconut, but I used almond, and my Mam tried it with dairy milk) a bit of pumpkin puree, some pumpkin pie spice, a banana and a bit of maple syrup (that last being optional; I did choose to add it, but my Mam didn't) blended together in a smoothie. Well, they say to sprinkle the pumpkin pie spice on top, but I went ahead and threw it in my smoothie maker with the rest of the ingredients, since I drink my smoothies out of a bottle anyhow. I'm pretty sure Mam threw hers in her smoothie maker when blending too.

It was all delicious. Mam seems to have enjoyed her version of the smoothie too. I wasn't worried about whether the smoothie or pumpkin sage sauce would turn out to be good, but I do confess I was a little bit worried about the pumpkin pie. I mean, I was pretty sure my plan for the pie would work, but it was an experiment, so... Yeah. Sometimes those work, and sometimes they don't. But I got lucky. The pumpkin pie turned out great. Kelly even had a very tiny taste of the pumpkin pie - only enough so he could tell me how well it compared to traditional pumpkin pie, since he generally shys away from eating most of what I bake or buy that's clearly vegan alternatives to things he usually likes - and agreed it had turned out really well; Kelly says it looks and tastes like a pumpkin pie should, though is a bit darker in colour than most are, which is probably because I used unrefined cane sugar instead of caster sugar. So I have it from a Canadian that I did a good job with my pumpkin pie. That's good enough for me!

Anyway, that's about it for my Halloween celebrations. I didn't expect any trick-or-treaters. We don't generally get them here, because of the type of building and where it is. I think it's a shame, because I'd love to have some trick-or-treaters. But there you go. I usually get a bunch of treats in, "Just in case," and then eat them myself when nobody comes. But I resisted that urge this year, deciding I had enough in the way of treats with the pumpkin pie I'd be having pretty much to myself.

So, what about you? Did you do anything for Halloween? If you did, I'd love to hear about it. Tell me about it in the comments.

@MakerlyCrafts Box Review - #Crafting #Sugarskulls #Quilling

The subscription boxes from Makerly Crafts sounded fun, so I was delighted when I received my first box. I'm going to tell you all about my first box today, which is rather appropriate, given that there was a skull theme to this month's box, yesterday was Halloween, and today is the continuation of the Samhain celebrations, or the Day Of The Dead (depending on who you ask, and where in the world you happen to be).

Before I do though, I want to make something clear for those who aren't regulars to this blog: the quality of the finished project is not a reflection on Makerly Crafts, but a result of my being blind. Someone with sight would probably have produced something much neater, even if they were as new to quilling as I was. Just saying.

Right, now we have that out of the way, let's get on with talking about the box and its contents, shall we?

Makerly Crafts sends different crafts each month. One month it might be a sewing project, another month candle making, another month some kind of quilling kit (I list those because I know they've definitely covered those kinds of crafts, since I've seen them mentioned on their social media as past box themes). You get the idea. So you never know until the box arrives what the craft will be. They even make a point of giving some time for the boxes to arrive with people before announcing online what the craft for the month is. Looking at the past boxes they still have available, and the stuff on their blog and social media, they've had some fantastic kits. I'm only sad I missed some of those (I was too late to buy the pumpkin sewing project they did last Halloween, for example; I'd have loved that one, and brought the kit for that past box for sure, if they were still selling it among their past boxes for sale).

Anyway, back to the box I got this month...

They send the boxes out on the 15th of the month. When your box arrives, you'll get something like this:

(I put something over my address, since I'd rather not have my home address plastered all over the internet).

When I opened my box, it was like Christmas had come early, with a nice little package inside, and even a lovely little welcome note...

It was only at this point, when I was examining the contents of my box, that I learned what the kit was for the month. In this case it was a sugarskull quilling kit. A perfect kit for October!

The box contained...

• The instructions and template
• Some background paper to put the template on (in a couple of different colours)
• A quilling tool
• A quilling board (for making the actual shapes)
• Some tweasers
• Some pins
• Strips of paper (in several different colours)
• Glue
• A frame to put your finished picture in

Here are some photos of everything that was in the box:

It was everything I'd need to make my kit, both when it came to tools and supplies. In fact, I could have easily made a second one. Although, I'd have had to buy my own frame for that one. Still, you get the point, I'm sure.

Anyway, they say the instructions they include with their kits are simple and easy to follow. They are very much correct. The instructions were clear enough that it only took one time with me having them read to me while familiarizing myself with the various items, and after that I was able to know what I was doing without having to keep asking for clarification on any of the steps. So anyone who can easily refer back to them when they need to would definitely have no problems following them, regardless of skill level. I did need help to cut out the skull template, and with colour identification (for obvious reasons) but that's not something most people would struggle with, of course.

So...

Once I had my skull template, and it was glued on to the background I chose...

I outlined the skull in black...

(Glad for the pins they'd included, which made this stage easier).

Then I gave my skull some eye and nose holes...

Before filling the rest in using my own chosen colour pattern...

(There is a pattern shown with the instructions, which you can follow if you like, but they say you can pick your own pattern, and I probably would have done that even if I could see theirs).

I didn't use tweasers to help with doing it. They suggested it might be easier. For some people it might. But I was managing fine just using my hands and the quilling tools, so I didn't bother. Actually, in my case it would have possibly made things more difficult had I used the tweasers. Still, that might not be the case for everyone, and I thought the tip about possibly using tweasers was nice, and the fact they even included them - just in case you did find it easier that way - was even nicer.

Anyway, once my skull was finished, I put it in the frame...

There you have it. One completed sugarskull quilling kit.

So, what did I think of it all?

The kit was fun. Not only that, but it was all presented nicely, which made me feel like they'd taken special care with my package, so made me feel good. Plus, as I already mentioned, they included clear and easy to follow instructions. I'm already excited about my next box coming, and I still have another couple of weeks before it will arrive.

Is it good value for money? Absolutely! It costs £15 (around US$20 with the current most common conversion rate) and you'd be hard pressed to get everything included in the kit for the cost of the box.

Would I recommend it? Definitely! In fact, consider this me doing so. Yes, to those of you outside of the UK too, since they do ship outside of the UK.

If you want to check it out, but don't want to commit to a subscription, you can buy some of their past boxes - while stocks last - from their website. The sugarskull quilling kit from this post, for example, is available to buy at the time I'm writing this, along with the cupcake candle kit (which I believe had been September's box).

Finally, I'd just like to say a huge thank you to them for this box, and for the hours of crafty fun it gave me.

A #Weather Report, A Week Of Organizing, And A Little #Crafting

Mother Nature: our lives sprung from her life, our health from her health. So we look for that gentle, reassuring rise and fall of her breathing that tells us she is alive and well, that to-and-fro movement that carries her through the seasons.
~C.R. Milne

For those who like to know about weather in the rest of the world: the weather in my area has been sunny most of the time, with a mild storm or two, lots of frosty starts to the days, and a couple of misty mornings thrown in for good measure. But it's been kind of chilly a lot of the time. Not that I'm complaining about the temperatures. I quite like when cooler temperatures arrive. Plus, it's nice after the heat of the Summer. It's been ranging between 3 degrees C (about 38 F) and 16 degrees C (about 64 F). Towards the lower end of that scale more often than not, especially at night, and in the mornings and evenings. In other words, appropriate weather for the time of year. At least, it's what I think of when I think of Autumn weather, and what I think the temperatures should be at this time of year.

Anyway, either we were much more motivated to unpack than pack, not having our movements so restricted made a huge difference, my feeling better helped a lot more than expected, some other forces were at work, or some combination of these things, because we got a lot further with sorting things around here than I thought we would over the past week, even though we were actually taking the time to properly organize everything as we put it all on shelves this time around, and rearranged some furniture too.

That's not to say we're completely done sorting things. We aren't. But our home office now resembles one, our bedroom is only a bedroom again, and a lot of what we had packed is back to being on shelves instead of in boxes.

I think the furkids find it all rather strange. They were watching us closely, as though trying to figure out what we were up to. Especially Lilie, who had to be shut the other side of the babygate for her own safety more than once, since she was supervising a little too closely at times, and we didn't want to either hurt her, or get hurt ourselves trying to avoid doing so.

Anyway, apparently both of us wanted to just get it done as quickly as possible, since Kelly and I both devoted most of our time during the past week to moving furniture, unpacking boxes, and organizing the contents of said boxes on to shelves. There are a few things we didn't get a chance to do that we'd planned to, but the bulk of it is now done.

As I'm sure you can imagine, it gave my muscles a good workout, so I went to bed sore and achy quite a lot during the past week, and am still feeling it now. I don't mind too much though, because it's nice to be able to actually do stuff. It's also nice to have so much of it done already. The rest will be done slowly, as we get the extra shelving and things, sort the household repairs that are our responsibility, and replace items that need replacing. Or, in the case of stuff we just ran out of energy to tackle, when we have a few free moments to deal with it.

The rest of my time during this past week - what little there was of it - was devoted to keeping up with the usual day to day tasks as best as possible, playing with the furkids, and that kind of thing, with a little time for working on one of my craft projects thrown in. Though not as much as I'd hoped of the latter.

I've finished the kit from my first Makerly Crafts box, which was also my first attempt at quilling. I had fun doing it, even if I had to have a little help from Kelly to start with, and with some colour identification. But I'll tell you about that properly another day, since that's the one where I promised to review the box. Watch for that review coming very soon; since it's a sugarskull quilling kit, I'm posting the review on the Day Of The Dead... November 1st.

I'd planned to start on some of my other projects too, but all the organizing and unpacking took up a lot of time. Plus, it wore me out so much I was going to bed early. Since I had some reading commitments that needed to be met before the end of the month, I made those and the quilling kit my priority. Then I ran out of time to do anything else, despite the clocks going back and giving me an extra hour. It doesn't matter though. I finished what was most important, and got some rest in when I needed it. That matters more.

Of #HarryPotter Boxes, #Crafting Kits, The #KindleFire8, Neighbours, Organization, And #Sewing Projects

Those who know me well won't be surprised to hear this, but... I did end up signing up for the Harry Potter box. I wasn't sure if I should, so Kelly made the choice for me, and signed me up for it. It asks you to pick a house, because it customizes some of the items based on your house. We picked Ravenclaw, because that's what Pottermore says I'm in. The sorting hat has put me in Ravenclaw in the past too, when I was sorted on the old Harry Potter site that used to exist. My first Harry Potter box will arrive any day now.

I've had lots of fun post this week.

On Monday - as in October 15th - my first Mr Maker box arrived. It's got kits to make both a pizza and a doughnut. Not real ones. Ones made of foam that are either decorative or for use as play food, depending on the situation or who has them. There's also an activity book and a sticker in it. I'm not sure whether I'll keep the sticker or not, but I'm planning on collecting up the activity books, and sending them to one of the people I know who can actually use them with a child. By the way, if you like the sound of the Mr Maker box, and decide to sign up, can you do so using this link, please? In theory, if you do, you get your first box for free (though they still charge you the £1 postage) and I get a half price box for refering you. I know the free thing works, because I got my first box for just the cost of shipping, having used a similar sort of link from the subscription boxes website.

Also, the nice people who do the Makerly Crafts boxes sent me one to review for my blog. It arrived on Wednesday. I'm now signed up to get their boxes regularly, and will be posting a detailed review of the box they sent me some time soon. The kind of craft their kit is for each month varies, and this month the kit in it is a quilling kit. A skull themed one, in honor of Halloween. I'd never tried quilling before, though I'd heard of it, and my Nan (Dad's Mother) has tried it. Anyway, more on that soon.

I also checked out the My Gecko Box kits. But I only liked one or two of the things they do, so I won't be subscribing to that one. It looks like a great box for teaching children, but not so much for someone like me who's just looking for some fun craft kits and goodies to enjoy each month. I did order their owl sewing kit and heart dream catcher kit though, since I liked the look of them, and they didn't cost much. Those arrived on Friday. I'm calling them an early birthday present to myself.

Then there was my early birthday and Christmas present from Kelly. You see, on Monday evening, it took me three hours to get my Kindle to open a book and start reading, and then it wouldn't read for long. For a while now, it's been slow loading books nine times out of ten. It's also been doing this thing where it starts reading a book, and then stops and closes the book and returns to the home screen. It does the same with apps sometimes too. I'll be using it, and suddenly I'm back on the home screen. My Dad had another kind of tablet that did the same kinds of things shortly before it died. We suspect that's what's happening here. In all fairness to it, I've now had it for four years, and it really is used a lot. As in, pretty much every single day (there has been the odd day I haven't turned it on to read, but those days are few and far between). Well, at least that helped me with deciding what I want for my birthday and Christmas from Kelly. Plus, the newer Kindles have more storage space on them to start with, as well as a mini SD slot, so I have more book storage on my new one. Silver linings and all that. *wink* Yes, I've now got a new one. My old Kindle was a Kindle Fire 7. The new one is a Kindle Fire 8. More storage, faster processor, slightly different size, better sound quality. Other than that, it's basically the same in my opinion. Well, other than the fact my old one isn't working properly any more, and it was a purpleish-pink colour, where as my new one works properly, and is blue. Yes, I could have had red, but we'd just signed me up to the Harry Potter box, so I felt like sticking with Ravenclaw colours. Oh, and there's the fact it has a "restart" option, which I keep accidentally pressing when I go to press the "power off" button, which is really annoying, though it's something to do with me, and not the Kindle's fault (I know it is, because Kelly can press the right button, and he's not very good with touch screen as a rule). Anyway, it was meant to arrive on Friday or Saturday, but actually came on Wednesday, which was an excellent thing as far as I was concerned. Kelly got me a case for it too, since my old Kindle's case would be too small. That's blue as well, to match the Kindle, and also arrived on Wednesday.

Like I said, I've had lots of fun post this week!

I also had an iron come. My Mam is still laughing about my needing to get an iron. You see, I always refused to get one. I can iron, but I don't see the point in ironing laundry, so I didn't see any reason to own an iron. I've always refused to get one, and wouldn't let my Mam buy me one. Anyway, the craft kits in the boxes come with everything you'll need to do the kits, except for items they assume every home will have. Items like irons. So, we start checking out what we need to do for the Autumn themed table runner, and it turns out we need an iron to make the special paper stuff become sticky, so it can help hold the fabric leaves to the runner. Except, as already mentioned, we didn't have an iron. Now, we could have improvised. Skipped that step and just gone on to the stitching part. But the leaves will be more secure with the sticky stuff as well as the stitching. Plus, we do want to do these kits as close to how they're meant to be done as possible. So, we brought an iron. It arrived on Thursday. It's not a fancy one. It's just a cheap little travel iron. After all, I only want it for crafting. Hey, just because I now own an iron, doesn't mean I'm about to start ironing my laundry. *wink* Here's a photo of my iron, for the benifit of anyone who might want to see it:

In other news:

We already have someone new moving in downstairs. Kelly's spoken to him some, and so have one of our other neighbours, and he seems nice. Plus, he was there a couple of times when Lilie was racing around like a maniac when I was playing with her, or she was playing in general, and he didn't complain about that, and hasn't complained that we walk about too loudly, even if we have some reason why we're walking around at night (such as bathroom trips). So that's a great start. Let's hope he stays this nice, since we've decided not to move now that nasty neighbour is gone.

Yes, we were still planning on moving. In fact, that was the plan right up until this past Friday. But then we had a long chat about it, and decided we didn't really want to move. We no longer have to, now that nasty neighbour has been moved, so the real reason for continuing to move now would be the stairs. Kelly doesn't consider them a problem for him, and I don't struggle with them so much now the dizziness isn't an issue, and will likely struggle with them even less again when my body gets used to exercise again. So we're just going to stay here.

When we were packing boxes before, we weren't paying much attention to how we stored them. The result was a mess of boxes blocking our access to half the stuff in the spare room - the room that's officially meant to be our home office. So, not this past weekend, but the one before, we started organizing the room better. That was what I was doing that meant I didn't have more than a few moments here and there to snatch to make a start on one of my craft projects. We didn't finish sorting it that weekend, and started doing more during this past week. We started doing it with being able to access stuff to pack it in mind, and ended up doing it with restoring the room to its intended use in mind instead. It's still a bit chaotic in there, despite our having done more in there this past weekend, but at least we can actually get in there now, rather than leaving the room to the spiders who - judging by all of the cobwebs - considered us not going in there to be an invitation for them to claim the room as their own. The spiders won't be pleased to hear this, but we'll be continuing to sort things out in there this week, and reclaiming the room from the spiders in the process.

I guess it's a good thing we never got around to packing all the boxes in the end, because we now need to unpack the ones we did get around to packing. We're making a point to properly organize things as we put them on the shelves this time though. We'll need to get some more shelves, and there are things in our home we need to replace, but we already knew that was the case, since it's something we'd have to do whether we move or not. We'll use the money we'd saved towards moving to make a start on sorting that, since we won't be using it for moving after all.

Anyway, in between all the unpacking and organization - and evicting of spiders - I managed to get about half the purse kit completed during last weekend. I even managed to watch some TV, including a new to me movie, while doing part of it on the Sunday (I'll be telling you about the new to me movie in another post). I managed to finish the purse this past weekend, so here are a couple of photos of it:

The inside fabric isn't the same one the Sew Mine Box people gave us for the inside in the kit. The one they gave us was white with purple-ish polkadots. But I had a bit of trouble with the template at first, and ended up using a different fabric. They would have replaced it if requested, but I didn't think it was fair to ask them when it was an issue caused by me not being able to see what I was doing, so we replaced it instead. We couldn't find identical fabric at short notice, so went with a solid purple instead.

Anyway, I'd planned to also do the quilling project this past weekend. I was going to do that one, and see if I could start the Autumn themed table runner too, though I was doubtful I'd get to the table runner. But time got away from me, so I didn't do more than start the quilling kit. I hope to have both the quilling and table runner projects done by this time next week. I'd like to be able to post about them around Halloween, especially given their themes. I might work on the quilling one on and off through the week, instead of waiting until the weekend, thus freeing up a bit more time to work on the runner over the weekend. We'll see what actually ends up happening though.