Crazy crochetting guitar playing girl.

Hi there guys. Well what a crazy month or so. Gig/Work/Gig/Wedding/Radio show/Train renovation and More work.....I have been soooo busy that its just blown me clean out of the water. Still I've lost half a stone as a result of rushing around and such so theres good and bad points right?

I've barely had time to pick up a crochet hook but I've suddenly felt this urgent need to create something so I signed up for a swap on craftser thats a monster swap. How exciting is that. I already have soo many ideas tumbling around in my head on what to make. I like really randomly obscure monsters like bugbears and cockatrices so hopefully my partner will want random monsters so I can make some stuff like that.

My last craft swap seemed to go really well. It was my first and it was an easter one,  this is what I sent in the end

It had to be spring themed and fit in a pringle tube. SO I decorated the tube as an easter chick made a little springtime bag, my favourite bits were the carrot phone charm and the be happy cloud/rainbow magnet.  they were made out of shrinkydink plastic and I really had fun making those.  cramming it all into the tube was tricky though.
Anyway i'll be updating more regularly I promise

Sorry I havent been around since Thursday, I was up in aberdeen seeing my relatives.  I have quite a big family and they all live up in scotland.  it was my mums 50th birthday you see.  I got her a book on Macrame because she wanted to learn that.  And I got her a trip down to my place near london so she can go to a west end show.  She's never been so, she was really excited about that.

Today my crochet magazines turned up and already i've done the two crochet techinque squares that go towards building up the patchwork throw.  im excited about that. its going to look awesome once its finished.  But I wonder how much work I am going to get done in terms of arts/crafts as tomorrow final fantasy 13 is released and I plan to be playing it with every waking moment of my life until its completed.

I'm a gamer girl you see, an RPG (role playing game) nut!  I love the final fantasy series and my HD tv and my playstation 3 are going to get a serious playing over the next couple of weeks.  I really really cant wait.  Its the most anticipated game of mine since Little Big planet was released.
The thing is I am also a bit of a cosplayer, thats where you dress up as computer game/anime characters and go to conventions.  I am hoping to see some really inspirational outfits to have a go at making!

Everyone has something shiny. Something they have natural talent at. I think mine might be crochet but sometimes I wonder, and panic that perhaps my shiny thing is actually something i've never done before, like rock climbing or wind surfing or speaking swahili. I dont know until I try these things, but when will I ever get the chance to hangglide?

Everyone I think has something they're shiny at. Everyone. the trick is to find that something. Thats the hard part.



I was also thinking about dust today. Yesterday at lunchtime I was watching dust float in the sun. its so sparkly and pretty and two thoughts came to my mind. If dust is largly dead skin cells from us, then why don't we sparkle in the sun? Also why do we only see dust floating in sunbeams inside the house. Is there dust outside or is that just a house thing? Its important to ask these questions.



Also tomorrow me and paul go to aberdeen, to see my family I must admit im looking forward to seeing everyone. I dont have much to report in about but it'd just be nice seeing them, and although its chaos up there and really very cold I am still hyped up about it.


Oh yeah and my music is going to be on the radio. A guy contacted me yesterday from south africa LOL and asked if he could play some of my songs on his radio station. He said he'd record it and send me a copy of his show. He also said he would need to bleep out the swearwords how cool is that. im gonna be censored. Thats exciting!

I am in the process of crochetting this.  Yes I know, a little odd but you see my husband is trying (with some other people) to set up a train museum and this is one of the trains they saved.  I wanted to make him a cuddly version and so far ive got the sides done i'm currently aking the windows.  its going to be ace once I finish it. 
I have seriously been toying with the idea of crochetting the real thing, like making a giant blanket (I would make 1ft sq granny squares and use them like pixels to make a message and then cover the train.  I worked out it would take over 1600 squares to do as the train is 64 foot long its something ive been really needing to do.
Do you think I should do it?

So heres the strawberry hat I finished recently for my best friends newborn baby thats supposed to be popping out tommorrow. I'm really excited for her and i'm really pleased with how the strawberry hat turned out. The pattern can be found at Theartofcrochet its in the members section but I think its free to sign up. It was a really simple pattern and i've already been asked by another 2 people to make them one, so I will probably knock them out later tonight.
I am soo on a crafting bender at the moment, the thing is, being a gemini I tend to go through phases of obsessions. At the moment its crochet but who knows what next week it'll be. it might be me trying to learn japanese again, or robotics, or maybe something new might catch my eye. With a crochet hook in one hand and my guitar in another its tricky finding time to get new hobbies.
Music wise I have a lot of upcoming gigs. I've been asked to play a venue in Shoreditch and I have the usual ones in my home town and now theres also one in hemel hempsted and another couple in couple in camden. Its all getting a little busy but I guess I wont always be in demand so I should do as many as I can now whilst people still like my music. I sing comedy songs if anyone was interested.
JammieSammys Music page Yeah thats all taken off really rather suddenly. I finished recording my debut album in december and its just not something I ever thought i'd do. I mean of course I dreamed about doing it, but thats exactly my problem. I'm a dreamer, I never actually follow through on any of my ideas so this one has taken me by surprise.

Anyway I better stop blogging and actually go do those strawberry hats I promised.

Has anyone heard of a new magazine thats out in the Uk called 'The Art of Crochet' I've seen it in shops, its one of those weekly collect the issues and put it in a binder thing, and every week they give you a ball of wool and teach you a new crochet technique so that you can make a square that will eventually all combine to make a throw. It looks ace. The thing is I have a problem.

I signed up for a subscription at the beginning of January and a week later I got my first issue, all was good I made my square, things were happy. Then I waited patiently for my next 2 issues to come as they were coming together...and i'm still waiting. The magazine is up to issue 8 now i've seen it in the shops The Art of Crochet but I havent even had issue 2 and it makes me sad. I mean I want to get stuck in, I want to do so many of the patterns I see in the mag and learn new techniques and I have to be patient. I dont want to be patient. I wrote to the people at the website and they told me issue 3 was needing a re-print which was why I hadnt got it yet, and that my sub would start in the middle of feb, but feb ends on sunday now and I still dont have any copies. *sighs*
Has anyone else signed up to the mag and has anyone else had any problems?

Well this years crafting projects so far whittle down to, a star afghan for my friends new baby, A strawberry hat, a doll which follows Beths Spirit doll pattern found on her blog by hook by hand
And Rigby the wonder dog.

Rigby actually started out as a pattern fround on craftster, one of my most favourite sites online, the pattern was for a bunny pincushion Bunny pincushion pattern I saw it immediately dropped all my other craft projects and started making it, only once I had the main body piece I kinda deviated and made a dog instead, then he looked like he needed underpants and well...thats how Rigby turned out. I love making stories for my characters that I make and Rigby is no different...
Rigby is a bit of a loser really, he worked at a small office firm being an errand dog, fetching paperwork, making tea, he spent most of his working day at the photocopier machine where he daydreamed about being someplace better, and being someone special. He wanted to be in crufts as part of the working dogs events, doing the obstacle course, he wrote to crufts but they rejected him, as hes a bit on the podgy side. The same day he got the rejection letter he was also made redundant. This double whammy sent him over the edge
Now he wants to be a superhero and believes his cape gives him super powers but of course it does nothing of the sort. Completely out of his tree he goes round all day trying to do good deeds but on the whole messing things up.
I also made a crazily long rainbow scarf, doctor who type length and its ridiculously bright, thats for a friends christmas present but I havent seen him since November. the thing is I suddenly realised that rainbows are adopted by gay people as their badge of honour and well my friend isnt gay so I wonder if he'll use it or not. LOL by the time I see him it'll probably be summer anyway.

Anyway off to work I go, wonder what new craft project i'll come up with next?

Sammy