a mixed up kind of day

Today I got up way to early for a Sunday morning (6.30am) so I could leave my house at 7.30 for the 2 hour drive to the Birmingham NEC for the crafts for Christmas and Hobbycrafts shows, and all I can say about it is this - DISAPPOINTING!
It definitely wasn't worth getting up early, a 2 hour each way drive and an £8 admission ticket :o( If you don't want to hear my angry rant about this then please don't read any further!

Firstly there was way too many people, so getting to see what was on offer was difficult at times - it's like when you go to the January sales, loads of crazy women grabbing and grappling for a bargain and frankly I just don't have the energy for it.

Secondly, there was just so much rubbish there - the kind of stuff that makes my teeth itch when people call it craft (now I don't want to risk offending anyone here, but pre-made card toppers and hideous hideous gold peel off sticker words just don't cut it as far as I'm concerned). I think you can only really call something craft when you have actually spent time and love creating it.

Thirdly, I know cross stitch pillows of highland terriers are really exciting for some people but they're just not me and there was a lot of this kind of thing.

It wasn't a total loss, I did manage to purchase a few nice papers 60 silver envelopes (for my Christmas cards) some pretty (and nice quality) ribbons from Craft Fairy and some buttons from the Button Company.

The moral of this story is, never go to a craft show at the NEC again. The end.

this is what happens when monsters go bad

You can't turn your back for a minute around here without something going on...

'What's this?' yelled the christmas monsters when they saw a package wrapped in Christmas paperIt must be for us they thought, so they set to opening the package straight away. They got themselves into their best tug of war position and pulled and pulled until they finally managed to get the mysterious thing out of the paper Tug of war can be really hard when you have no hands so the monsters were especially pleased with themselves for this.

Whilst Monsdeer and Abomster discussed that what they thought might be in the package, Pudster guessed that it was most likely a monster sleeping bag, so he tried it out for sizeMonsdeer and Abomster feeling a pang of jealousy at this ingenious discovery by Pudster said that his idea was stupid, and that he was testing it out wrongly. They infact thought that it was a bed for all 3 of them, so they all got into the top and tried it out
With all the fuss of the big monster bed they had almost missed the small blue gift poking out of the pocket. Monsdeer fleetingly wondered why the bed even had a pocket but the rustling of the blue paper made him forget this thought just as quickly as it had arrived.

The monster trio ripped at the paper and found the most wonderful jewels and the jewels smelled sooo good that they just couldn't help themselves and dived right inThey gorged themselves on the jewels until there was nothing left but the ripped up paper They were all feeling pretty happy with themselves until...

Oh no! The jewels must have been poisoned because their tummies were hurting. They rushed off the the bathroom and, well, we'll leave that to your imagination but it wasn't a pretty sight, and even monda the brave felt like she needed to vomThe monster trio felt pretty sorry for themselves so went off to bed. Not in their new bed though, because frankly they were scared that the jewels might make a reappearance, if you know what I meanThe thing that the monsters didn't know was that the jewels hadn't been poisoned after all, and they weren't in fact jewels after all! They were roses chocolates and the thing that made them so poorly was the wrappers - everyone knows you're not supposed to eat those.

So what is the moral of this story?
Never eat the wrappers?
Monsters with no arms can't possibly have a tug of war?
Don't open a parcel that clearly doesn't belong to you?
Monsters can't read labels?

We'll if you don't know the moral of the story then you need to go away and have a long hard think about it... tsk some people.

No monsters were seriously harmed in the making of this story.
Thanks to monkee maker for supplying the props, oh and also for the lovely monster sleeping bag.

Monda
x

enough about me, look at this!

Whilst I'm busying away on monsters (with not that much to show) I thought I'd show you a couple of bits that I have found on etsy recently which I absolutely love (I love lots of things on etsy so could post stacks of pics but these are my latest faves...)

These cute tape purses by Lindsey Porter Perfect for storing cash, make up, mobile phone, ipods etc.

and how about these great little robots by obvious front Perfect for computer geeks!

christmas monsters

my third Christmas themed monster is here - he's a Christmas pudding monster called Pudster! Mr monda thinks he looks like an armed robber as the cream sort of looks like a mask or balaclava. I now have 3 seasonal monsters ready for the shop. There are a couple more that I have sketched out that I'll make before I put them on etsy. Hopefully I'll get time to make them this week after workI spent most of the day today making a stack of cards to replenish my card box at work.
I made 18 which doesn't really seem that many for 6 hours work, but I guess if you work on the basis of 2 per hour it means that I make about £6 per hour. I did also watch a bit of star wars are cook the evening meal in this time so it's not that bad actually. Here are a few of the toppers I have made today
Today I also booked tickets to the crafts for Christmas and hobbycraft shows at the NEC in Birmingham next weekend - 2 shows, one with Christmas gifts, and one full of supplies. I think I'll probably spend a small fortune in the supplies show.

It's November already!

Well I know I'm stating the obvious here but I can't believe it's November already.
I'm just about to make a massive to do list, which includes making Christmas cards, Christmas monsters, and a selection of things to sell at work. My cards always sell well at work because my office is not in the vicinity of any shops, so I thought I'd give the other bits and bobs a go too, as my pink raffle monster seemed to go down really well.
The only problem with selling things at work is that it then becomes difficult to keep any of myself for myself. As it goes I quite like it that none of my colleagues know too much about my alternative blog/monster making life, and sometimes it's nice just to have something for you (and of course everyone who pops by to read this). Does this make sense or is it just a Friday ramble?

Here are a couple of pics of cards I made yesterday, using a bit of the wrapping paper that I bought from John Lewis last weekand also a picture of my babies - mellie and stevie. They actually like each other now (after just an initial week of hissing and spitting at each other). When I took this they both opened their eyes just a little bit and looked at me as if to say 'go away and stop papping us'
It's a small thing but its playing in my mind. Yesterday my dad went into hospital for a knee operation (on both knees). He was supposed to come out today but when he got up on his crutches to leave today he fainted flat out on the floor, so he has to stay in hospital for another day at least. Poor pops, I hope he'll be OK. PMD here's some big love going out to you.

abominable snow monster!

and here it is in all its woolly glory, the abominable snow monster. He's so woolly that you can't really see his body or his tag.Mr monda thinks he's hilarious, and I'm just not sure what I think about him.
I've entered him into the holiday softie awards just for fun really.

Lately I've been quite fascinated by skulls - it could just be the time of year? so I think my next creation will have to incorporate a skull in some way shape or form.
p.s. happy halloween!

a sneaky peak

here's a sneaky peak of a WIP, should be finished tomorrow...

the end of the week already...

I can't believe this week has gone by so quickly. Christmas will be here before we know it, which reminds me, I need to put the last shipping dates for Christmas onto my etsy shop (will put that on the 'to do' list).

I haven't done very much crafting today but I have finally been shopping, and bought lots of stuff, and the best thing was that I didn't really spend that much money!
Purchases included a really nice pair of grey and pink canvas pumps (aka plimsolls, sand shoes, depending on where you come from) for just £7 in the sale, and a really nice cardigan from good old Primark for £8.

With still a few hours left in the day I'm going to make a couple more brooches, and put a few more bits into the etsy shop. This is one I made last night:
Oh and lastly, the pink charity monster was called Josephine.

still feeling pink

daily blogging is quite difficult, but I said I was going to do it every day this week, so apologies if you are tiring of my tales of what I've cooked in the slow cooker this week.

I went to John Lewis today, and as always I was like a kid in a sweet shop, so many nice things, books and stationery, homewares, kids toys etc. I was looking at a blender thinking 'i really want that'. It was a sexy blender (if you can call kitchen equiptment sexy?), but it had an unsexy price tag - perhaps something for the wedding list (whenever that will be).
What I could afford to buy was several sheets of lovely giftwrap - which I will cut up and use in my cards, this one is really lovely:Also this card, which I just love. I love the cut up collage style art - so simple and yet so effective: and some ribbon which John Lewis sell as gift wrapping ribbon: I raided my button tins and felt scraps when i got home and made a couple of brooches.
Also I popped into work today to drop off the pink monster. A 'name that monster' competition (£1 a go) is happening as we speak - 50 names to choose from so my monster will be making £50 for charity. Impressive indeed. I chose the name today and will tell you what it is tomorrow when the competition is over and the monster has been won :o)

pink monsters?

a pink monster might look a bit wrong but this one is for charity so he (or she) really has to be pink. Although I'm not at work this week we are holding a 'pink day' on Friday in aid of breast cancer research
This is a national charity day where everyone wears pink. We have a team challenge whereby each team in the office competes to raise the most amount of money for this charity and this pink monster is my donation for the raffle.

Today I made a really nice dessert in my slow cooker (getting a lot of use as the cooker is still not fixed yet). It was a mixture of apple, plum and cinnamon, with a sponge topping - kind of like a sponge pudding really. It cooked for about 5 hours and mr monda agreed that it was the best thing I'd done today (although he did like the pink monster too). Tomorrow's slow cooking effort will be a sausage casserole :o)

I now have a new carpet on my stairs, that's one more job out of the way and I've also entered my Monsdeer in the holiday softie awards over at softies central

Not a bad day all in all, although the planned shopping trip didn't happen, maybe tomorrow?

the monsters are back

Here is a pic of the monsters I made yesterday they've got different coloured backs this time, so you could say they are two tone trunk monsters. Mr monda thinks that they look a bit like fruit salad chews (in their colour). Now that's something I haven't had for years.

I haven't been as productive today as I had hoped. I started to read a new book last night, and it was so good that I just had to read a bit more today, but then I thought to myself 'you're on holiday, so it's ok to read a book without feeling guilty'.
I did make our slow cooker meal this morning, so we had stew and dumplings for tea (mmm) and just for a bit of festive/seasonal silliness, this is a 'monsdeer' (a reindeer/monster cross breed). I like his hooves the best.
I'm thinking of splurging tomorrow and going to buy myself some winter clothes. It's getting a bit chilly out there, despite the sun trying to fool us all, so jumpers are definitely on the shopping list.

a week off

Brilliant, a whole week off work for a much needed recharge of batteries, although I'm probably not doing very well as it almost 11.30pm and I'm still up!
I promised myself I would blog every day this week - call it a quest, something to help motivate me not to waste the week. I thought it would be a poor show if I didn't blog on my first full day away from work.

I've spent most of the day doing those jobs that you just don't get around to doing - so I've taken a pair of shoes back to Next which were just a bit too small, I've been to the bank and the post office, I've taken 2 quilted throws into the cleaners, been food shopping, sent my bobble hats off to the folks at innocent, and I've made 2 monsters.
It was a bit too dark this evening to take pics of the monsters so I'll take some pics of them tomorrow and then pop them into the etsy shop.

In the meantime, here is a few pics of some of the bobble hats that I'd made (thanks to the goose for modeling) and finally a pic of cheeky little stevie, who is growing bigger by the minute it seems. She's a bit of a menace at the moment and i feel like we are constantly telling her off for climbing on the table, or jumping on mellie (our other baby cat), or running up the back of my legs (thank god for denim). She's still an angel in cat form though :o)
Tomorrow, I'm going to start the day by putting a stew in the slow cooker, which means I can give myself a good amount of uninterrupted time for making more monsters, and maybe a few other bits and pieces too.

Where have I been?

Good question. I have not blogged for over a week (eek). Been super busy this last week (day job) and also feeling a little under the weather with a seasonal cold/sore throat. Next week I am having a well deserved rest - a week off work. It's really going to be a week to catch up - I need to get the oven fixed (I'm really missing it, especially with the colder weather - I feel the need for hot comfort food). I'm also going to get a carpet fitter to fit my new stair carpet - which I probably bought about a year ago, if not longer - it's probably gone out of fashion now!
I might even blog every day - what a luxury and of course read a few blogs too. oh yes, and I'm going to sleep a lot. zzzzzz.

I have been a little bit creative though - I've made a few more innocent bobble hats whilst watching TV in the evening and I've made a wedding card for a colleague - it was quite a big affair this one, and took a fair few hours to create. I hope she likes it.
It's A4 size - I printed the background text and flowers onto handmade paper, and then collaged with photographs, magazine cut outs and machine embroidered the clothing in felt.

I also went to the second week of the origin craft fair in London, which was good, but not as good as the first week, and because I felt a little under the weather I didn't really have much energy for it - which is a real shame.
I'm really struggling at the moment to understand what is happening to all the hours in the day - thank goodness for daylight saving (in a couple of weeks I think). We'll get an hour back - yay!

My latest monster is also in my etsy shop. He's a trunk monster (so called because of his rather trunk like legs) and he's called Sebastian.

origin 1st week

today I went to the origin craft fair at Somerset House in London, and I came out saying to Mr Monda, 'I could do this' and 'this makes me want to do an M.A.!'.
I did my degree in design crafts - I dropped ceramics after the first year and concentrated on textiles (printed, embroidered and multi-media). Whilst I mull over what it might take for me to do an M.A. i'll tell you about a couple of the designers/artists/crafters that caught my eye today.
Firstly this pic is just a selection the cards i picked up today - mainly so I could go to their websites and find out more about these talented folks.Samantha Bryan is a mixed media artist. I can't copy any of her pics from her website (would be naughty) but check out the link here, its definitely worth it!

This is a pin brooch that I bought from erin hensley. In her words she makes 'handmade originals from repurposed materials'. You can see her website here
Occasionally I have to work at weekends, and tomorrow is one of those days. There won't be much in the way of crafting from me this weekend. If I'm lucky, I might end up making innocent bobble hat number 3, but at least I have the second week of origin to look forward to next weekend :o)

monsters and bobble hats

This weekend I did the following:
Bought a pair of shoes even though I was shopping for a pair of boots. They are nice shoes though, and surprisingly for me they have heels. This is the time of year when I can no longer wear flip flops, but every cloud has a silver lining - I can wear jumpers and cosy clothes now. I quite like Autumn as it goes - I like the smell in the air when the leaves have turned brown and have fallen on the ground. I like seeing all the shiny treasures of the conker trees. I like halloween and bonfire night and the smell of fireworks and bonfires in the cold air. If you could describe yourself as a season I would definitely be Autumn.

I also made a new monster - although I think he needs a slight modification. Mr Monda thinks he looks like he's got butt cheeks (!) which was probably not helped by the placing on the name tag - it looked fine before I added the stuffing.
Finally I made my first little hat for the innocent supergran project. I am slightly embarrassed to say that when I eventually got the needles out, my brain also seemed to fall out and I had temporarily forgotten how to knit. I sat there for ages trying to wind wool around needles to no avail. I eventually looked up some knitting instructions, which I knew wouldn't help because I've never been able to follow the written instructions of how to knit. What I really needed was my mum to show me how to do it, but she lives a good 3 hours drive away from me so that really wasn't an option. Eventually I found my brain, and the result was this little hat. Not perfect but not bad either. I'll need to make a few more though, so i'm off to start another one now.
In the meantime, here is something funny I found whilst taking pics of my new monster - a very battered (but much loved by both my cats) cupcake which I posted about a bit further down my blog. It was a worth while investment from paper and string and my moggies love it. I think it looks kind of rustic now :o)