Recycled Shopping Bag #1

Made from some of H's old t-shirts (a horrible promo one from work and another I'd already hacked up a bit), this is my first recycled shopping bag. Took me about 4 straight hours to make; could probably do a similar one in less time now.

First time I had used the sewing machine to do appliqué (actually the first time to do appliqué ever), which was no mean feat since my sewing machine has a Finnish-only instruction book. Practising that took some time. The lettering in general was the time-eater, but not actually that difficult.

Next bag won't be made out of t-shirts, since the finished object is really only any use if buying cereal, cotton wool and packets of air. Got some good ideas, so will be making some more soon.

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New Year Tins

Some craft from H this time, but first some background information. Every New Year's Eve in Finland, people melt tin uudenvuoden onnenkenkä (literally 'New Year lucky shoes'). Once they are liquid the melter throws them into a bucket of water while making a wish for the year ahead. Then everyone analyses the shape of the cooled tin. "Ah yes, a boat, that means travel," spake the wise H the first time I took part in the tradition, "Or not...".

This year H decided to melt some of the tin shoes inside a cast iron pancake pan and then used his Dremel (it's first proper use, hoorah) to engrave them. He scored the backs too, so that they can be broken into smaller parts that will fit in the metal spoon they are melted in.

He thinks they are too girly to give out now that he's made some for his friends, but I think they are great. Ours has our names on and a "+1" for our yet-to-be-born baby.

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Christmas Shortbread

Not the best photos in the world, but you can at least make out what they are (I hope). Found a recipe in a magazine and after a lengthy debate over what semolina is in Finnish (mannasuurimoita apparently), we made a batch for ourselves to munch over Christmas. Pretty successful, although H (husband) helped me with those ones (read: he did nearly everything).

Then we remembered that we were going over to H's sister's house for the evening and we had nothing to take with us. So I whipped up another batch and these are the result. Used a bit too much butter this time, but they were still edible. And this time I did most of it, with H doing the rolling out and cutting (we were running out of time at that point).

Tried to make a nice giftbox as well - used a tomato box (knew it would come in handy when I did the pack rat thing) - but not so pleased with the results. Seems I need some guidance on how to make tissue look right.

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Camera Success: Part One

Found the camera, the charger and a card reader for the computer. After much huffing and puffing, also managed to find a UK-EU adaptor and got the damn thing charged up.

Then I gave in and read the manual - and found out why the card seemed to break every time I used it. Apparently the key thing is to never delete photos or format the card using the computer. Why oh why didn't I read the manual back in 2001 when I got the camera? *sigh*

All that's left now is to a) take some photos and b) track down a special Fuji USB cable so that I can forget about the card reader altogether. I'll get on with 'a' right now - made something last night and so did my husband (seems crafting is contagious...).

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Projects in the Pipeline

Otherwise known as those that I spend ages thinking about, but haven't actually started yet:

• Recycled shopping bags with embroidered comments on them. These are to use instead of plastic carrier bags and I'll probably give the first ones away as gifts. I always feel so smug when I use the cloth bags we have at the supermarket, so it's time to spread the smugness methinks.
  

• Recycled notebooks with fabric-covered end plates. Spotted these in Making Stuff: An Alternative Craft Book, a book I bought myself for Christmas. Trying to work out a way to make them out of the mountain of scrap paper I have at work.

• Fixing the camera. Not that it's actually broken, but I do need to find the charger and work out a way to get the photos from the camera to the computer (lost the cable for that aeons ago). Might be time for a new card reader thingy.
  

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