Hand made Vintage dress

I made another dress. From a copy of an original 40s pattern. It's a lovely floor length evening gown. I've made it in purple crushed velvet effect fabric which is nice and heavy so the gathers on the skirt hang nicely. I'm really pleased with this dress and it fits nicely. I had to lengthen the bodice slightly (added 3") otherwise it didn't sit right. In the pattern the gathers are below hip level. I added a couple of gathers at the shoulders as well so that it fit nicely around the bust and arms. I also added buttons on the front for some detail, because nothing is complete without buttons. 

 

Snow day and Crafting

Today I got up at early o' clock and looked outside to see lots of snow again. No visible tarmac on the road so it must have snowed a LOT last night. I didn't know whether to go to school or not, based on the conditions here I thought I might get out of the village (car at the bottom of the road again) but I might not get back in later on! I decided to check the school website to find out if they were going to make my decision for me. And they did. The school is closed today (like lots of other schools in South Wales). 

Since I was up, I had my breakfast and decided to get on with a craft project which has been underway for a while. 

As I have mentioned, the class teacher I'm working with on placement is expecting a baby in April. I decided I should make something for her as a leaving/baby/thank you present. I thought I would get the kids to help me. Which is difficult when you're in class under supervision! So, I told the teacher I had a college project and could I get the children to help me with it. She said yes. I drew some circles on cream card and asked the children to write a different letter of the alphabet in each, in different coloured pens. Like so: 

Then, I cut out the letters and mounted them on different colour card, writing the child's name around the side. 

I took these circles home and laminated them back to back. Then I punched little holes in the top of each, threaded ribbon through and glue gunned the loop closed. I made wire frames for the mobile and attached them all together. Because I had done the alphabet, I had 13 circles to hang, so I made a complex-ish frame. With fewer hangings it would be simpler. Then, I added buttons to the ribbons to hide the uglier joins and to balance the weight on the mobile so that it hung reasonably straight. 

The teacher doesn't know if the baby is a boy or a girl, so I used rainbow colours and lots of different colours of buttons (including some pink and blue). 

This might be a nice project to do with older siblings when a new baby is on the way. The children could draw pictures or write letters or numbers, or even just cut out circles of coloured card (depending on age) and then under parental supervision attach the ribbon/thread and the hangers (I'd suggest the adult pre-makes the wire hanging parts). If the baby's gender was known you could use shades of pink or blue, or if there's a colour scheme to the nursery you could follow that. 

If making after the baby is born, you could make this mobile as a memory mobile by putting the letters of the baby's name on it, time and date of birth as well as birth weight and place of birth etc? That would be cute. 

I'm really pleased with how this has turned out. I hope she likes it! 

Still Snow!

Ready for a trek out into the snow. Having recently rediscovered my backpack I decided it was the best choice for my journey.  
I headed down the hill into the village, to see what the main roads would be like and to panic buy some bread and milk. 

This is my road, after a very kind person came up with a snow plow and a gritter and cleared the road.

 The pavements are still covered in snow and there are piles of it everywhere because the snow from the roads had to go somewhere. 

Walking along the pavements is an unnerving experience because the snow and ice is all packed down meaning that when you step on it there's a creaking sound as it squashes together. It does feel a little bit like the whole thing is going to give way and I had to keep reminding myself that there was a pavement underneath the ice anyway - and not an arctic ocean! 

The main roads in the village are pretty clear with buses running and everything. The shops had milk and bread and I was impressed. There were plenty of pretty snow and ice pictures to take though! 

A derelict church building at the bottom of the village with a massive icicle from the guttering. 

Cute doggy outside the Spar

The steepest part of the roads up to mine, unsurprisingly it hasn't been cleared or gritted. 

 This is my car. I parked it at the bottom of the street, on the main road. It hasn't been touched since the snow fell on Thursday night. I may have to leave the house earlier than planned tomorrow, just to shift the snow off my car!

 My garden steps up to my front door, complete with foot prints: human and cat. 

Ultimately, I survived. But it was a challenge. I'm keeping an eye on the school website in case they decide to close tomorrow, if they do, no school for me and another day in the house all alone. 

I have started on my dress for Hedna's. I've cut out the pattern and my plan for this afternoon is to pin the fabric and then cut that out as well. So excited! 

Snow business like Snow days

First thing's first, bf and I spent a lovely weekend in Newcastle last weekend to celebrate his sister's birthday and her son's birthday (the same day!). On the Saturday we celebrated Emma's birthday and went to a Chinese buffet which was yummy. On Sunday we had a party for Emma's son who is now 1! Emma is incredible talented and has recently started making cakes. She made her own birthday cake: 

 this is a red velvet cake, made and hand decorated by Emma herself. It was beautiful and DELICIOUS! 

This is the cake Emma made for her son. It's a Ponyo cake! It is absolutely stunning! The chocolate cake was delicious and it looked so amazing. Emma crafted the hill including cliff at the bottom and the bath all the way up. The little house on top and all the trees were delicately hand made as well as the children. They were made with modelling chocolate and hand painted! Such a talented lady. 

Emma and her husband David have a really exciting enterprise going on, if you like fantasy, cosplay and general amazingness pop over to www.esotericon.co.uk

 Snow. I live in the RED zone of the recent weather warnings and was snowed in yesterday and today. Pretty much the whole of South Wales had a snow day yesterday and everyone was panic buying bread on Thursday. It did snow, a lot. And it's very pretty, particularly when you don't have to go anywhere!

The animals were intrigued by the snow but not particularly impressed.

 Reebok was exhausted by his brief exertion in the snow.

I spent some time knitting. The teacher in my placement class is expecting a baby in April and I decided I'd knit her some booties. Bearing in mind I have only recently learnt to purl and struggle to read patterns I think I did quite well!


Today, I am making needle felted things! Having completed my essay for college already I am feeling very proud of myself and rewarding myself with a creative day.

Hypnotherapy Gastric Band

Well, 

I had my second hypnotherapy appointment today. I have lost 6lbs in the last week, since my last session so I'm feeling incredible positive about the whole thing. 

Today I had my hypnotic gastric band fitted at Solutions Hypnosis and it was one of the most surreal and one of the most relaxing experiences of my life. I was put under hypnosis and talked through the procedure, from entering the hospital/clinic and handing over my appointment card to sitting in the waiting area and looking at the front cover of a magazine with a picture of a celeb on who has successfully lost weight through hypno-gastric band right up to changing into a hospital gown and into theatre. The therapist talked me through having the aneasthetic and falling deeper into a sleep and continued to talk me through the key-hole surgery and then through to recovery where I was woken up from the operation and then gently brought out of the hypnosis. Afterwards, I felt like I'd been asleep for ages, even though it was under an hour that I'd been at the appointment. I could feel the tingle of the aneasthetic and a strange sensation in my stomach - all through the power of suggestion. 

 This evening, I am with my boyfriend and we had a lovely dinner of bangers and mash and I couldn't eat half of it. I was just too full. Which, for the girl who is always hungry, is INCREDIBLE. (Paul ate the rest since he hadn't had lunch today anyway, so no food went to waste!) I am now comfortably full and not even fancying that little something sweet. With no real surgery, to feel this way is so surprising and really pleasing. 

I have such confidence in this and it really is amazing. I wasn't sure whether it would work, since diets haven't really worked for me, but now, I am so certain that it will. 

Sweets for my Sweets!

I've been making sweets! 

Laura, you should try some of these as your craft a month thing! 

I have made:

• Peppermint, orange, cherry and strawberry creams
• Honeycomb
• Chocolate fudge
• Chocolate cherry royales (basically a version of rocky road/tiffin)

The creams are a recipe from Emmie (my boyfriend's sister) which I fell in love with over Christmas. 

You need: One egg white, 425g icing sugar, 1tsp flavouring of your choice and colour if you want to add it. 

top-bottom: strawberry, cherry, orange.

 

 

 

 

 

 

peppermint creams

Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks, add the sieved icing sugar, flavour and colour. Mix it, until it forms a ball (I ended up using my hands because I use gel colours and they're easier to mix in when you use your fingers). Then knead the ball until it makes a smooth paste and your colour is evenly mixed. Put the ball onto an icing sugared surface and roll it out. Cut with pastry cutters/fondant cutters of your choice (I used a flower shape for the orange creams, hearts for the cherry.

 

Emmie used stars for her peppermint creams) When they're cut, put them onto a foil covered board/tray and put in the fridge overnight. Once they've been in the fridge overnight you can take them out and present them however you like. Emmie put hers in jam jars, I've wrapped some in tissue and put them in a handmade box. Up to you! You can also decorate them at the point where you've just cut them out, you can add sugar cake decorations or impress a pattern into them by gently rolling a textured item over them or imprinting with something that will leave a nice design (some felt pens lids are quite good as they leave a star/flower design which is very cute). You can also coat them in chocolate, either entirely or just dip half in the chocolate. Very gourmet! 

I also made honeycomb. I used this recipe:

all recipes simple honeycomb

I think I overcooked the sugar and golden syrup slightly so it caught a little bit, just went a little darker than I thought it should be. It tastes lovely though! It is quick, uses very few recipes and it really is simple! 

 

When I broke my honeycomb up into smaller pieces, I had some crumbs left over so I thought "waste not, want not" and put them into a small jar. I'm sure I'll find a use for them at some point, either as an ice cream (or Frozen yoghurt) topping or something to add to some cake mix or hot chocolate!

I used this recipe for my fudge: 

elisa's famous fudge

I went through a few different recipes and settled on this one because it doesn't require a sugar thermometer. People were also saying (in the comments) how simple it was and how they'd changed the ingredients etc. I didn't include the marshmallows or pecans. I put a few cherries in instead, as I had left overs from another recipe I was doing. 

I used chocolate cherry royales for my final recipe. This recipe says to make mall balls of the biscuit and condensed milk mix but mine didn't seem to want to do that, so I spread it out into one big sheet on a tray. I then spread the chocolate on top. It looks more like a refrigerator cake but it looks quite nice. I'll reserve judgement for now.

I'll be taking these with me to Kyla's tomorrow and I will try to remember to take pictures of them when they're all cut up and on plates etc before we eat them!

Phonics and Hypnotherapy

Happy New Year everyone! 

To start 2013, I have done a two day phonics course and I've just got back from my first ever session of hypnotherapy. 

Phonics

I am registered with an educational temp agency who offer courses from time to time. Before Christmas they sent an email offering a subsidised phonics course for a new phonics scheme called Read, Write Inc. As I am currently on a placement within the Foundation Phase (3-7yrs) and plan to work in this phase as well it's very useful to have experience or knowledge of as many different phonics schemes as possible. I already have experience of Jolly Phonics and of Big Cat Phonics and I now have training on Read, Write Inc. 

Although my brain is absolutely exhausted now, I have learnt a LOT. RWI is based on 100% participation, all children participate in all of the session. They work in partners and talk to one another, discussing and practicing with one another rather than the teacher/ta singling out individuals every time. There are a lot of acronyms, signs and 'cheers'. These include: MTYT which is My Turn Your Turn, the teacher says a sound, the children repeat back, this comes with a hand gesture (teacher indicates themselves for "My Turn" and the children for "Your Turn". There is also TTYP (talk to your partner) as well as Special Friends (a digraph or trigraph, two or three letters that form a sound-ay, igh), Perfect Partner Position (shoulder to shoulder), Same Sound Different Appearance (sounds like ee, ea) 

The course covered lesson plans, how to teach the phonic sounds right up to complex words. They discussed expanding vocabulary and phonical logic and so far. It was amazing. 

The scheme also 'links' their own texts to other "real" books to expand reading. If the children are being taught "The Foolish Witch" a RWI Storybook the teacher will read Hansel and Gretel to them and they might have some picture books and other fairytale books in the reading area, all to expand their understanding, vocabulary and imagination. 

A key idea of the scheme is Fred Talk. Fred is a frog (a soft toy) who only understands Fred talk, not full words or letter names. Fred talk is phonic by phonic s-a-d rather than sad. The idea behind this is that if children understand Fred talk they can encode, if they can speak in Fred talk they can decode. If children can encode, they can read. If they can decode, they can spell. Both key objectives in education. 

RWI also runs a Keep up scheme not a catch up. And they offer an adapted programme for older children who are low ability readers. This scheme follows the same schedule as the younger scheme but uses subject matter and format more appealing to year 5/6 children, they have magazine style anthologies and modular workbooks rather than Fred and the storybooks. 

As with all these things, there will be bits of it I will be able to use more easily than others, if I were in a 'RWI school' I would be using this all the time and would be getting better and better at it. 

Hypnotherapy

The beginning of this is that I'm a bit of a sumo wrestler. I have tried various diets over the last 5 years, nothing works, or if it does it's very short term and I end up gaining more weight than I lost anyway. Very frustrating. I would like to have a gastric band, but can't afford it privately and also am worried about the risks involved. Hence: no gastric band. 

I saw an ad for Hypnotherapy Gastric Band. No surgery, no infection risk, no worries. I have been looking into it for a while and read a load of reviews and so on. I found a deal on Groupon for 3 sessions. I had my first session today. I was pretty nervous because I've never been hypnotised and I didn't know what to expect! The hypnotherapist was very nice. He did an initial consultation bit asked my weight, height, bmi, past ways of losing weight, what my weight loss goal is, any medication and all that. He explained what he thought would work best for me. He explained what the results could be expected to be. He said a realistic goal is 3 stone in 6 months. Which sounds awesome to me. It's my best friend's wedding in July so if, by June, I've lost 3 stone, I'll be a happy bunny. 

So, he then did some hypnosis. Which was bizarre. I was fully awake the whole time, at no point did he wave a pocket watch in front of my face... but I was relaxed, and chilled out and a bit 'drifty'. He spoke to me and clicked his fingers and touched my head and shoulder as he was talking. I remember him counting down from ten and then I remember him saying 7, 8, 9, 10. And I felt like I'd been asleep for a week. 

We talked a bit, he asked if I felt ok, did I remember what he'd told me? (nope!) and he explained what he would do over the next two sessions. The last thing was a quick exercise, he told me to focus on my hand (held in front of my face) and clicked his fingers a few times, moving my hand away from my face and said I'd remember everything he'd told me, as and when I needed it. 

I have my second session booked next Friday morning and I will have the 'preparation for the placebo procedure'. 

I don't know if I feel any different. But I feel very focussed and bright eyed and bushy tailed (he didn't hypnotise me to feel like a squirrel!) and we shall have to wait and see. 

I'll keep you posted.