Feeling Festive

Good evening! Yesterday afternoon was very wild and windy - a perfect excuse to spend some time indoors making Christmas cards! It always takes far longer than I realise to make batches of cards, which is one of the reasons I have failed to prepare adequately for both of the Christmasses that my Etsy and Folksy shops have been open (there's no point linking to them, they're empty for the third Christmas in a row ;-)). To be ready for when everyone else starts to feel festive, I need to have started my Christmas crafts in August, but that's still camping and cider-in-the-garden time, not crochet and tinsel time!

Of course, now it most definitely is hot-chocolate (okay, hot Bailey's!) and warming soup weather, and I'm getting very much in the Christmas spirit, and time is already running out! But nevertheless, here are the cards I'll be selling at the Christmas fairs this weekend!

We'll be at Adel Primary School Christmas Fair on Saturday 3rd December and Hollybush Christmas Fair on Sunday 4th December - if you're in the Leeds area, please come down! All proceeds are going towards our fundraising efforts!


If you're not in the area but would like to buy some handmade Christmas cards, please email me at wrappedupwithstring@googlemail.com and let me know what you fancy!

Here I Am!

Hello!

I am alive! I am rubbish, but I am still here, and I do read everyone's blogs regularly, even if things are rather quiet on Wrapped Up With String! Since getting the puppy, then having two part-time jobs, then starting a college course, everything seems to have ganged up against me being a reliable crafter and blogger - I do apologise.

Oscar is also v. apologetic...

...see?

Anyway, I do have some very exciting news that will a) help re-invigorate my crafting and b) give me inspiration to blog...you might remember at the start of the year that one of my resolutions was to find a swimming event that I really wanted to do, and do it. Back in July, I swam the Swim for All and after this, I swam in a team triathlon with Oliver and our friends Sophie and Garnet. Now I definitely have the swimming bug, and next summer I will be swimming the Real Channel Swim - a relay Channel swim with a team of five others swimming to France in aid of spinal injury charity Aspire!

Of course to do this, we need to raise £1750 each, and my friend and team-mate Sophie and I have teamed up to raise our collective £3500 together, crafting, creating and selling as much of our friends' and families' junk as possible - all in the name of charidee! You can follow our fundraising on our blog Sophie and Sarah's Channel Swim - all words of encouragement welcome!

This week we have been crafting salt dough and crocheted decorations to sell at Adel Primary School Christmas Fair on Saturday 3rd December and Hollybush Christmas Fair on Sunday 4th December - if you're in the Leeds area, please come down!

You can also support us by... 
- following our training and fundraising on our blog
- following us on Twitter @sas_swim
- liking us on Facebook
- donating on our JustGiving site
- donating by texting 'SOSA86' and £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10 to 70070 (eg. 'SOSA86 £3')
- sending us an encouraging email at saschannelswim@gmail.com!

I promise I won't inundate this blog with charity posts, but I'll keep you updated with my crafty bits and bobs :)

My name is Sarah, and I am addicted to CSI...

I have a surprise day off tomorrow, and in celebration I am staying up too late watching American crime drama and window-online-shopping (I also crocheted a pretty headband from this pattern - I'm not having an entirely superficial evening!). But instead of buying lovely frocks and accessories that I've almost convinced myself I'll use forever, I have spent this month's extra pennies on exercise kit...a teenage me would never have seen this coming!
So instead, here's an August-payday wishlist, in the hope it will relieve my shopping urge!

Dress / H&M
Bag / H&M
Shoes / H&M

Dress / Monsoon

Necklace / Monsoon

Dress / Monsoon

Ooh, and a little update - I did my first outdoor swim! I mentioned it in my last post, and here's the proof:

Friends Garnet and Sophie on the left, little old crazy-haired me on the right!

...although I sadly have no proof of my time since my timing chip remains at the bottom of Pugney's Country Park lake *sigh* gutted! It was around 32:20, and I wanted to do it in less than 35 mins, so I'm chuffed anyway :-) and hopefully there'll be a couple more swims before the year is out - I've got the bug now! Plus Sophie keeps tempting me with new events, and I can't resist a (swimming) challenge!

I've also just jumped on the 30 Day Shred bandwagon, as seen everywhere at the moment, but particularly on the lovely Where Are My Knees? blog - I've done two days so far...fingers crossed! So my pledge is: to complete the full thirty days of the Shred, then train for the swimming events whilst watching what I eat with a view to losing 1 stone by 1st October. Wish me luck!

Apologies for the hiatus - working two part-time jobs seems to take it out of me so much more than one full-time one! I still read everyone's blogs at lunchtime though!

Splash!

My affection for amazingly poor Monday night television is obviously what inspires me to blog... ;-) tonight is brought to you by Dirty Sexy Things - previous favourites have included Glee and Made in Chelsea, brilliant!

Anyway, a little update! I mentioned a while ago that I'd signed up for the Yorkshire Swimming Festival 1500m Swim for All...and it's now bearing down on me, it's this coming Sunday! I tried out my wetsuit when we were on holiday in the Lakes (for the record, Crummock Water is terrifying....and I am a wimp), stunning, no?


...and had my first proper outdoor swim this Saturday - Puppington joined in, too!


I realise this is not amazing training, outdoor-wise, but there are chuff all places to practise around Leeds (unsurprisingly, really, being in the middle of the country!) so I've been swimming in the pool instead - we'll just have to see how it goes! I'm trying to get used to the initial shock of the cold water by having cold showers (it's a good job it's toasty warm this week!), as I find it really hard to control my breathing (minor issue...) but I'm just going to shut up and (wo)man up - wish me luck!

What have you been up to? Any events you're gearing up for? Good luck!

Music Monday - Bastille

Sitting knitting in front of Made in Chelsea (which I secretly love of course, since I have such appalling taste in television...) I heard this, and it's lovely!



...and then I had a bit of a nosey and found this, and it's lovely too!



Hope you're all well :) if I ever finish this sample square, I'll share my knitting attempts! x

Garden of Delights (no nudity involved...)

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! We spent most of ours in the garden, potting plants and feeding our vegetables (me), mowing the lawn and fixing things (Oliver) and eating plant pots (Oscar). We also rescued a frog and set him free in the river! It was pretty darned exciting, believe me ;-) I thought I'd share some photos!

Onions, herbs, strawberries and forget-me nots!

A rogue strawberry which managed to escape Strimmergate...

A little bit of Christmas in May? Why not!


Tiny shoots which WILL become beautiful flowers!

'Me? I wouldn't dream of eating your flowers.'

Hopefully we'll have some produce to eat at some point in the future! I'm coming over all Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall! What have you been up to?

Tomorrow...

...we get a chance to change the voting system here in the UK.



I'll be voting! Will you?

Golly gosh...

...where have the weeks gone?! I realise I have been a DREADFUL blogger and I do apologise - life seems to have become crazy busy recently! As well as spending lots of time with Oliver and Oscar the pup, I've got a new job working for a conservation charity (eee, exciting!), but as it's part-time, I'm still doing my old job part-time too, and it's taking some organisation! We've also spent a lot of time in our garden with the recent beautiful weather - it was hidden under a layer of snow when we first moved in, and we're just discovering the potential for growing vegetables!

Optimism, eh?

Besides the commission I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I've barely had chance to get making anything new, and I feel my shops are looking rather neglected, so I've decided to close them for a little while and concentrate on my blog for the time-being! And to begin with the blog again, I should probably revisit the resolutions I made at the beginning of the year!


Resolutions Revisited

- make at least one new thing every week, and share it. Well...I HAVE been making, but not sharing, I do apologise! Most of the bits and bobs have been for the wedding commission, so they're for the bride's eyes only until the wedding day, exciting! As an aside, did you watch THE wedding? I'm not particularly fond of the royals, but I AM fond of weddings, and what a beautiful wedding it was, just lovely!


- share my Meat Free Monday meals with you. Again, I have failed! I have been making lots of Meat Free Monday meals, but the time to document and share seems to pass me by! Must try harder!
- teach myself Spanish - I have the books and the discs...the time to get working on them has so far eluded me, however - MUST TRY HARDER!


- save, save, save! This one is trickier, but I'm not doing too badly, yet!
- run a personal best half-marathon (without moaning!). I've signed up for the Bradford Half Marathon in October and I'm trying to run at least three times a week - more on that in a future post!


- find a swimming event I really want to do...and do it! I've also signed up for the Swim for All in July - I've yet to sort myself out with a wetsuit, but with plenty of advice from Sophie, I shall be hitting the water soon! Brr!
- learn to park! Erm...the less said about this one, the better! Me and Xena the Seicento have been out on a few little adventures, one of which including bumping a lamp post...ha!
- learn to knit! I've signed up for the new 'Art of Knitting' magazine, as it worked so well for crochet, and I've finished my first sample square! I'll share them as they improve!


- plan. My lists are second to none...doing what's on them remains the challenge ;-)

Well, this has turned into a right essay; I hope I've not bored you into a slumber if you're still out there! I've missed you, and I've missed blogging, and I hope I'm back for good now :) what have you been up to?!

All images from weheartit.

A Little Bit of Everything...

Golly, it's been tooooo long! I haven't been slacking, though, I promise! I have been...

...making delicious Meat Free Monday meals to share with you (details will follow soon, I promise)!




...working on a lovely commission! Very excited about this one :)



...gatecrashing afterparties (well...one)!



...and of course spending lots and lots of puppy time :)





Whimsical, eh? Yes, that would be a bag of poo in my hand...

Oh! I almost forgot! I am also now the proud owner of Xena the Fiat Seicento...I'm hoping her name will make her ambitious, since she is granny-tastic...I don't have a photo to share as, well, would you really want to see it? Anyway that's my other bit of Real Life news! Watch the road, kids! Especially as she currently doesn't have a working speedometer...

Wool Hello! (say it, it sounds funny...!)

In between the madness that is the puppy (he is very very well-behaved and sleeps about two thirds of the time, but when he's awake he likes to chew wellies, newspaper, my hair and of course he needs plenty of cuddles!), I spotted this post by Deanne of Quirky Boots appealing for donations of wool for her premature baby appeal. I wanted to share it as it's such a great project :)


Deanne is going to make premature baby hats in various colours for the babies to wear in hospital and to be given as a little present to the parents when they are able to take their babies home. She doesn't want any money, but she'd like your donations of wool - preferably organic wool as it's so soft to the touch.


She's hoping to get enough donations so that all through March she can get crocheting the hats, and if she has lots of donations then she'll continue into April and donate to another local hospital as well.

Besides the above (which I've mostly pinched from her post!), she says:
'Please share this with friends far and wide, the more wool, the more hats, the more hospitals, the more babies that have a special little gift.'

Please email her at quirkyboots@hotmail.com if you would like to donate a ball of wool - mine's in the post! Thank you :)