Brain slug

I've made a brain slug before but I now see that my method then was not the wisest way of doing it. This pattern is way better, plus had the wiser idea of using a hair band rather than a hair grip. I think I may have to give up my day job and make these full time from the way everyone asked for one when we paid a visit to the pub.

 Apparently I can't do a vacuous look (beyond the one that I always wear)

Jayne hat phone cover

My new phone has been shamefully naked for far too long. No more!

Here's the back, only a little bit different from the front so I don't know why I bothered showing you really.

Oh check out the cute nails I have!

Wampa cushion and keyring

I had a satin red cushion I got as a part of a set for a christmas present a few years ago. I didn't have the heart to chuck it out but certainly wasn't going to use the ugly thing. So, I cut off the cover and here's a kawaii wampa cushion for you.

And just because, here's a severed wampa hand keyring! (Gosh, aren't my nails long here?)

Moustaches and snowflakes

Here's a random selection of little things I've made recently.

Moustache cookies on sticks for Movember!
(I forgot to take pictures of other people eating them so you'll have to make do with my ugly mug.)
I provided both left and right handed moustache cookies, you will notice.

Snowflakes for the Dev

Tie fighter

Boba

It may not shock you to learn that this one wasn't from a template, I made it myself. Supposed to be batman but his head looks more like a cat

A keyring that ended up looking like the cookie monster.

Star Wars hand puppets

Princess Leia is all..give me a hug!

" Gggggaaaaaaarrrrr. Arrrrhhhn."
 

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm"
That being said, he is '4-6 year old hand'-sized, as indeed they all are.

"Luke, you are getting scrabble and a pogo stick for christmas"
"Wow, dad, how did you know?"
"I have felt your presents"

The gang, just hanging out.

"Will someone get this walking carpet out of my way?"
 

 Lord Vader, I should have known. Only you could be so bold.

Yoda defeats Vader! Obviously holding the camera meant I only had one hand to do the puppeteering, and my hand didn't really fit, but you get the idea. I hope you appreciate yoda's little bow at the end.

Teddy Bear hat

I thought my despicable me hat was looking a little worn and decided I needed a brand shiny new 2013/2014 hat. And yes, I do have dozens of hats already but I wanted a day to day not *too* silly hat that I can turn up to work in and still retain the dignity (ahem) with which my peers regard me.

I think I failed in that.

It is really warm though!

Sock sloth and conkers

I'm getting some silly little projects out of the way before pumpkin season commences.

I've never made a sock monkey before, never felt the need, but I did see someone make a sock sloth and that seemed like something I could get on board with. Asda couldn't furnish me with brown socks, so this a grey sloth. He's not perfect but he seems happy enough hanging there.

Little embroidery hoop to be given away this afternoon. The felted conker is 3D.

Another cuddly dragon

I have three more dragons on the go (in varying media) but I decided against waiting until I'd finished them all to do one dragon-heavy post and post this little chap now. This is basically the same design as Dilly the dragon but I like this one more. I like that the material used for inside the wings/ears holds its shape better than Dilly's. I bought a cushion last year, reduced to £2.50 because it had a slight mark on it. The cushion pad alone would normally have cost £4 or £5 plus I got a small amount of lovely material, sort of micro-suede. It feels nice to touch. I used that for the inside wings.

So here is Rhaegel, or Puff, or... perhaps I will let his new owner name him. (Falcor would also work)

 As usual, the fur was way too long for what I needed so I spent most of the weekend trimming it. I have fluff everywhere. Still, at least it is masking the purple fluff all over my clothes.

 

Actually, all the time I spent making him I was watching Due South (yey!) so I think if he was mine I would probably call him Diefenbaker.

Fuzzy bag and some food

So, I made a purple fuzzy bag. He is sort of Animal-esque but not totally. He is a step-brother to the Beaker bag.

The inside lining, the reinforced strap and the back of the bag are made of a sort of mauvey pink cotton

He looks sort of sad here, but it is just the way the fluff is going.

In other news, I spent most of my 4 day weekend baking. Did you know you can freeze home made hummus? So I made loads and froze in individual portions for work lunches. Obviously you need crudites with that, but what about when you don't have lots of spare carrots? So I made (about) 80 bread sticks, with a bit of garlic salt sprinkled on top. As you can see, they are not exactly all the same length, but that is fine. They, too, are in the freezer for quick lunches. The roll you see was glazed in balsamic vinegar and was very nice!

So, for the chili festival I made chili infused toffee and chocolate on nachos with candied chili sprinkles. I didn't get a picture of the finished article but I can say it was tasty - like a spicy dime bar, weirdly.  However, I do have this, of the pre chopped sprinkles, and my chili themed fingernails.

I've often though it would be nice to do a tutorial, but nothing I do is particularly hard to work out and it isn't like I work from a template or anything, usually just wing it.  So, just for you, here is the secret to making candied chili sprinkles.

Candied chili sprinkles

• Get your jalapenos/chilis/whatever you use (preferably half red and half green). Have a look around the kitchen to see if you have anything you can use to rough up the surfaces a tiny bit. Something with a sort of pumice stone roughness about it would be perfect. If you can't find anything like that, a gentle bash with the fine side of your grater, or a couple of soft slashes with a knife would work. Note this stage is optional, it is just nice to give the sugar to cling to when we get to that stage. Don't worry if you can't find anything appropriate.
• Cut the chilis into slices of around half a centimetre. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the seeds. 
• Mix 1 part water to 4 parts sugar and heat in a saucepan until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil then carefully add the chili slices. 
• Turn the heat down to a simmer and allow to bubble away for about 4 minutes. The sugar water does little bubbly geysers up inside the chili rounds. It is kind of fun.
• Take off heat and remove chilis, leave for a few minutes to drain while preparing the sugar. 
• Take a cup of sugar and separate it into two bowls (I used ramekins, but I'm classy like that) In one add a couple of drops of green food colouring and in the other, red colouring. 
• Now dip your chilis in one by one and coat in sugar. Shake off any excess. Obviously the red chilis go in the red dye and the green in the green. 
• place them on greaseproof paper on a baking tray. If you have two baking trays, it  might be good to separate the colours, as the dyed sugar does tend to spread a little bit.
• Bake in a medium heat oven for about 10 minutes, though you will want to keep an eye out from 5 minutes. Take your sprinkles out of the oven and leave uncovered for the sugar to dry out. 
• Once dry take scissors and chop them up into iddy biddy bits, and sprinkle on whatever you fancy.

Felt Fob Friday - A power up star and some fluff

Someone on the internet pointed out real life should be like Mario, you get power up stars when you need them the most and when you are doing really well and winning at life they are few and far between. Sadly this is not how it happens.

The keyring didn't seem worthy enough to be a post on its own, so here's a purple fluffy keyring I made - it is terribly cute. The material is from some left overs from the mome rath outfit. He's got a little bobble nose!

Speaking of which I have finally got round to taking a photo of that. I did have a sign that I hung round my neck saying don't step on the mome raths in flowery writing, but that is down the pub now, so just imagine me wearing it.
Best news about this is that now I feel I can justify taking this outfit apart and reusing the material for all sorts of fun things. Perhaps more dragons and cthulhus may be in the mix!

For anyone not sure these are the mome raths. Obviously I went for a rough feel, rather than spot on representation of them. The most important part of the costume was my outgrabing.

The fur on the hood of this bad boy is 15cm long! It is so soft and floompfy. I wanted to show you how it sways and ripples at every movement, very much like long grass dancing on the breeze. It really is quite lovely.
This video ... really doesn't do it justice. I probably should have been slower and more gentle in my movement. It makes me laugh though.

Felt Fob Friday - Fox

Something I learned while making this smug little fox: in Japanese folk tales, leaves are important things for foxes. When a fox puts a leaf on the head and does a somersault, he can transform into anything. Upon learning this I meant to give him a little leaf on his head but I forgot.

And, in honour of shark week (aw, who am I kidding? In honour of Sharknado week, about which everyone at work has been terribly excited):

He looks a bit more like a whale, but you goes with the material at hand. This took under half an hour to make, so if I had the fleece and the inclination I would make a dozen of them and have a sharknado mobile..

Warm dragon neck pillow thingy

Here's dragon the second. This chap has a removable heat pack stuffed in his belly. Microwave it and you have a nice friendly dragon that you can wrap around your neck and snuggle with to keep warm.

 I'm sure in a few months keeping warm will seem like something we would need to happen, not so much now though. But hey that works quite well seeing as I don't have a microwave. May have to heat my lavender scented heat pack toasted over dragon breath..

Curled up, waiting for winter

Felt Fob Friday - Owl

Here's a little keyring I made while waiting for the Ocado delivery man. Owls are very 'in' at the moment, so I am trendy.

 

And if you need closure on the Ocado delivery story, the guy never came. Turns out I was 15 days too early. Oops.

Dilly the Dragon

I currently have two more dragon projects underway, but this was the quickest, and dare I say it, cutest. Oh that mome rath material (originally "teddy bear chenille" throws from Dunelm Mill) really was a good buy.

Dilly (as he has been named by a colleague) has gone to work with me, and so far no one has felt impelled to take his or her clothes off upon seeing him, so that was probably a one off incident.

Oh hey, look there in the corner, it is Tom the Troll. Hi Tom!

Squishy ferret

So, I'm getting rather good at ferrets, having made a ferret cake and a ferret pinata in my day. At least they are a bit more shapely than guinea pigs.

This particular ferret did survive both having his bottom repeatedly squooshed by Simon, and the threat of getting popped down Tim's trousers.

Underside - pretty proud of that gusset, it runs all the way from his nose long his belly and right up to the tail (not to mention it is made of different colours so that is technically three gussets!)

I didn't get a successful picture of his face, so ... it was mostly ferret faced looking.

Felt Fob Friday - cupcake

A little bit of sweet for today in the form of a pink frosted cupcake, with sprinkles and a cherry on top. Nom nom..
You very possibly can't see, but trust me that this is a keyring - it has the fob at the base of the cupcake.

Can't promise but there may be some exciting bigger things on here over the next week or so. Watch this space!

Felt Fob Friday - K9

This was supposed to be posted yesterday but it has taken me this long to work out how to post photos on blogger from this computer. It proved to be harder than expected.

I was planning to give K9 a neck, but that sort of thing usually makes the head wobbly and liable to fall off if tugged, so I didn't. But wish I had now.

 

View from the top

 

Also, as an apology for the post delay, a fluffy D20 dice, requested by Doug. I had more pictures to show the size etc but either I am looking in the wrong place or they have been sacrificied to the pixel god in the sky. I did point out to Doug that a plush D20 would be nothing other than a round ball but he didn't seem to mind. I don't think he is planning to play with it