The Art and Crafts of Elliementalist
Dear Readers,
It seems like I have really lost my blogging mojo! I have a lot of blog posts in my mind and in my note books but I just never seem to sit down and write them out. I think it is probably to do with all the issues I have been having with WordPress lately is really demotivating me. Anyway enough of that and onto my very belated YOP post.
Continue reading “YOP 2020-2021 week 12/52”
Hello Everyone!
I have a little Valentines Day related tutorial. I do know that this is a bit late for an actual Valentines craft however this technique can be used for many decorations and therefore many cards! Continue reading “Detachable Card Decoration Tutorial”
Hello All,
Today’s post is a little different to the ones which I have been doing lately in that it is a tutorial and not really about my past week experiences. Continue reading “Removing a sleeve cuff: Tutorial”
Hello Lovely Readers,
Welcome back again.
To start with we will have a tiny recap on last Saturday…. we went out to a belated Halloween party and only got back home at 4 am on Sunday morning. I can’t remember exactly but I am pretty sure that I only woke up around 1pm on Sunday. Husband went out because he had to fetch his work laptop so he could do a little bit of work. While he was out he sent me these pictures of George Street (in Edinburgh) starting their Christmas preparations.
Then when he got home he surprised me with a Starbucks festive latte and some mini doughnuts! Until very recently there haven’t been Starbucks in South Africa and at the time that I left there were none in Cape Town. So Starbucks drinks have been a bit of a new thing for me. I had always heard about the festive drinks and wanted to try them. Here Husband got us Toffee Nut Latte and Ginger Bread Latte. We kind of shared them a bit to see which one we liked. We don’t usually get them because they are kind of expensive so it was a real treat.
Monday is cleaning day as usual. (I write this every week :P) When Husband got home in the evening we decided to go for a walk to see the progression of lights on George Street.
And on the way home we got our new favourite dessert. Sticky Toffee Pudding! any ice-cream will do but we got this one because I have never had Ben&Jerry’s before.
Tuesday morning I got a nice little Delivery from Redbubble! Okay well I ordered it… but still I was happy to get it. The RB sticker on the left always comes with any redbubble order, different designs but always an RB sticker. And the little doggie on the right is a sticker of Zoe that my sister designed.
The rest of the day I worked on a present which is a surprise for someone so I can’t talk about it or show it.
On Wednesday I designed this festive mug design for the Redbubble Create Holiday Challenge.
Then I went out to look at the 2nd hand stores and a haberdashery store. On the way I noticed that they are setting up the Christmas Market on Prince’s Street.
I didn’t find anything at the 2nd hand stores but I bought some battery operated tea light candles to cheer the house up as it is starting to get dark around 4pm now days. Also we are not allowed anything flammable in our apartment as per the rental agreement.
I also bought a small pack of safety eyes to make a stuffy for a friend but I can’t show it as it is a surprise.
Thursday I don’t actually have any photos for but I went back to the haberdashery store and bought some size 80 tatting thread to make some earrings for my sister which she wants to purchase from me. I’d give them to her for free but she is insisting. 😛
Friday I worked on two presents for two separate people both of which I can’t show. Haha this should have been the week of – I did stuff but I can’t show you. 😛
Saturday husband and I went christmas decoration shopping!! I know it seems a bit early and I am way more excited about this than I ever was in South Africa. But I think that this is because the days are much colder and shorter now. In South Africa the days are getting long and hot. Next year I don’t know if we’ll put the decorations out so early but that will be because we will already have the lights and we can just put those out. But since we bought the lights and decorations together we just put them all out.
A before picture of the space.
I decorated our tree with some crochet ornaments which I made. I was thinking of making some to sell on my Etsy but then I realised that I am going to be traveling from the 24th of November to the 8th of December and I won’t be able to ship things then. I am afraid of shipping later than that because obviously it needs to arrive before Christmas. So there is only a short two week window now, but etsy charges you to list things. So I don’t think that it is worth it. I think I will have to wait until next Christmas. It is weird to think that you have missed your Christmas window in November.
We may land up getting more decorations or doing some other things too but for now this is how it is and we are super happy with it. And the lights make the lounge so cozy.
And finally to say goodbye here is an unusual picture of Zoe and Salty together. My sister sends me updates of the animal because I miss them so much. Zoe and Salty don’t usually like to be so close together.
On Saturday morning I was dozing, so I was only half asleep. I dreamed that I was in Cape Town and I though that I hadn’t petted Salty in a long time. So I woke up with the conviction to go and pet Salty and to my dismay I was not in Cape Town and Salty was no where to be found. I really really can’t wait until we have our own place and we can have a pet again.
That is it for this week. I hope that you had a great week.
Love Diella
Hello Again,
I know I skipped last week so I am just going to pretend that that didn’t happen. 😛
Last Friday Husband and I decided late in the evening that we wanted to buy a puzzle to do. So we landed up on an adventure out to HobbyCraft at Fort Kinnaird at 8pm because they only close at 10pm. We got there around 9. We chose a puzzle called the Carpenter’s Cottage.
Saturday
We just did shopping and we helped a friend look at a flat he was looking at buying. It was a really nice place.
Sunday
Friend E came over and I did some mending of her clothes for her. It was all pretty easy stuff except for a neckline which was made of a fine stretchy mesh folded over by more stretchy mesh, that took a bit of fussing.
Monday
As usual Monday is my cleaning day and so my house got quite a deep clean. It hadn’t be cleaned thoroughly for a while. I mean things like scrubbing the inside of the oven and that sort of thing.
My studio also got an amazing clean. Sigh, it is so nice to be back in my little creative space. I pushed my Laptop backwards so that I could set up my tripod for filming.
Here is my filming set up but I am going to have to play with it a bit more. 1) because I would like to have my tripod set up and also have my monitor on the table. I need my monitor in order to edit my art scans better. Laptops don’t give good colour representation because you can keep changing the angles. and 2) because I keep getting my head in the way!
And for supper I cooked a roast chicken for dinner. Ah, the Roast Chicken story. First of all, all you South African’s take a look at the photo below!
I bet you are thinking what I was thinking when I first unwrapped the chicken. What the heck are those?! I’ll explain. This chicken has shins, or lower leg parts still attached to the drum sticks. The only explanation which I can imagine is as follows: In South Africa there is a market for chicken feet, people buy them and cook them, so in South Africa the lower leg of the chicken is chopped off with the feet and sold that way. Where as, I am guessing here, there is less of a demand for chicken feet in the UK and so their chickens are sold with just the feet removed. My sister told me that she thinks they look like crayfish eyes / eye stalks. I agree.
Anyway so I take this chicken out the fridge and remove the packaging and discover that these leg things are tucked into the carcass of the chicken to make it neat. I gingerly pull them out and immediately get squeamish. (I was vegetarian for 2 years before I had to stop for health reasons) Getting this up close and personal with uncooked meat really freaks me out apparently. Then when I had to rub the butter over the skin I very nearly vomited. This chicken also seems to have a lot more skin than Z.A. chickens and they also left the neck on. Oh and there were some poor little tufty feathers on it.
This chicken has changed my life people. I am not joking, I am going to see if I can cut us down to one meat meal a week and see if my health can stand up to that. At the moment we are doing about 3 vegetarian meals a week.
Tuesday
I continued filming and managed to finish my architectural piece which I was painting.
My mom sent me this cute picture of Salty cuddling her.
Then, having decided that I was going to bake, I went in search of some nice baking trays. We currently only have one really small one that came with the flat. While I was going from shop to shop I saw these pretty pink velvety chairs! But husband pointed out that I already have a studio chair.
And I did find some really nice trays that are the perfect size for our oven! Our Oven is about 36cm squared and these are 34cm squared.
And then the baking bee stung and I baked over 100 cookies. I don’t know why I always do this. I don’t bake for ages and then all of a sudden I bake loads.
In the evening husband and I met friend R out at a restaurant for Taco Tuesday! They ordered something super spicy but I was a sane person and ordered something cheesy 😛
Wednesday
Wednesday was kind of a busy day but I didn’t plan it to be. First of all my prints which I had ordered came in the mail. If I have forgotten to tell you, I am in the process of setting up my Etsy Shop. At the moment there is nothing there because I am still ironing out some kinks.
The print job was perfect. Where you can see colour variation that is where I scanned the picture and then edited it on my laptop instead of on a fixed screen monitor.
Then I decided that I need to do more exercise so I did 45min of Tribal Fusion Belly Dance on my own, which considering I haven’t done it in over a year it was probably a bit much. We are desperately saving for our own place and so I am not that keen to go out and pay for lessons at the moment so I was just practicing what I remember and also doing some drills off Youtube. It is easier for me because I used to do a lot of it so I know how the moves are supposed to go. It’s just building up those muscles again.
After I was done with my dance practice I decided so do a painting of a flower my sister had photographed. It went way quicker than I had expected. It is a peach blossom.
After supper my husband and I went for a nice long walk. He took me on a route he had discovered while I was in South Africa. We took some photos along the way because it was so pretty.
Then at home something horrifying happened. Husband and I were chilling on the couch drinking coffee and chatting about our walk when suddenly I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Picture me pulling my legs up onto the couch quickly and yelling ” *insert husbands name here* ITS A GIANT FUDGING SPIDER!” Except I didn’t say Fudging I said a bad word. Husband is momentarily freaked out until he looks over and sees the actual size of it. And then he proceeds to calmly catch it and remove it for me. He doesn’t like killing spiders so he threw it out the window.
We did out best to identify it and we are pretty sure it’s the Giant House Spider. This one isn’t that big but apparently they can grow really huge and also what makes us even more sure that that is what this is is that it once held the Guinness world record for fastest spider…. and boy was this thing fast! Even husband was a bit unnerved by it’s speed. But thankfully their venom is not fatal to humans or pets and they prefer to escape than to bite.
It took me a really really long time to fall asleep that night. 😦 I am convinced I have a mild form of arachnophobia.
Thursday
On Thursday I did a quick expressive painting. I quite enjoyed it as I have not worked in this style for a while.
Then I did a little sketch of an Accounticorn for a friend. I might paint this one up and give it to her.
And then I spent the rest of the day editing and uploading the art video which I filmed earlier in the week. You can see it here.
Friday
On Friday I did a quick little drawing inspired by the lyrics from a song by a band called Cake. “Sheep go to heaven, Goats go to hell”
My mom sent me more cute photos of Salty invading her art supplies.
And I also started a crochet stuffy / amigurumi for friend E. Friend E and I are pretty much obsessed with unicorns.
Halfway through the first leg I discovered that you stuff it while you make it not all at the end. So I had to leave my cozy home and go in search of stuffing. In the end it turned out cheaper to buy a microfiber pillow for M&S and open it than to buy actual craft microfiber at a craft store!
Saturday
We had a lazy slow start to the day. Husband was immensely helpful with my Etsy and helped me with the money side of things.
We went for a walk up Corstorphine hill and saw another monument to Scott.
Sunday
I managed to finish the unicorn!
I love it’s fabulous hair!
Then we took a quick walk through some suburbs that we might consider looking for our own place in. Husband has looked at a lot of the areas before but I was in South Africa and I haven’t seen them yet. It was really nice walking around and discussing the pros and cons of the area. Then at the end of the walk we went to friend E’s house where friend R was meeting us and we made a curry box. Friend R regularly gets these curry boxes. It was a lot of fun, and friend E loved the unicorn!
Well thank you for sticking with me again through another busy week! I hope that you are having a good week and I hope that anyone in the Florida area is busy keeping warm and safe!
Love Diella xoxo
Hi again,
Here’s a quick update on my crafty goings on from last week.
First my mother bought some stunning hand painted sock wool. It came in skeins so I spent a good half hour balling it with the help of T.
I now have a lot of socks to be making. I do plan on doing a post on all the socks that I have knitted so far but here’s the list of future socks that I am making; in order. Socks for me (half done), socks for T, socks for my grandmother, 2 pairs of socks for my mother, socks for me again. I already have all the sock wool enticing me to carry on. In fact it is so enticing I have totally abandoned my blanket that you can see pictured below. I even took that blanket on Honeymoon with my to work on. Crocheters gonna crochet! 
I’ll do a post on that blanket too sometime when it is eventually finished. It is done using a random pattern that T generated for me.
Then there is the sock that I am working on for me, here you can see Salty and I cuddled together working on the sock. It is the same wool as I used for my mother-in-law’s socks because I just loved the colour so much. 
Then the other day dear Salty decided to get involved. Usually she is only interested in my actual wool. Acrylic yarn doesn’t seem to interested her as much. However balls of yarn that roll clearly are fun to play with. She didn’t just tap it around, from what I found she seems to have picked it up and run around with it which leads me to believe that the fun was in annoying me not in the actual ball. 😛
Finally I had an urgent order for a scarf for father’s day, I received the order on Saturday night at 11…. and I managed to have it done by 2pm on Sunday, and I even still cleaned the kitchen first and did some grocery shopping in that time too. I think it took me between 3 and 4 hours. I am pretty impressed with myself because although it may take me that amount of time usually I don’t usually work that hard and fast for that long. Usually I pace myself and do other things as well otherwise I risk getting a stiff back / shoulder. 
Well that’s it for last week.
Feel free to leave a comment below or ask me any questions.
❤ Diella
xYOOPx 