Christmas at outoftheframe

The Holiday season is here! Today is Halloween but as I'm not really into that I thought I'd show you what I've got in my shop for the Christmas Season. If you're looking for cute and unusual decorations this Christmas season then outoftheframe is the place to look!

And don't forget tomorrow is giveaway day :)

Look What We Made!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the latest Plush Team Challenge - FrankenPlush, and I uploaded a photo of 2 arms and 2 legs that I was posting off to Cat of RaggyRat in the UK.

Well Cat recieved these random limbs about a week ago and has now completed our FrankenPlush. Cat's kids have named her Ingrid Ennerver! I think she's awesome :)

LightBox Attempt 1

Thank you to everyone who has given me advice recently about taking photos and lightboxes. I have been looking around in shops here to see what stuff I can get to make a light box and this is where I'm at so far. I have 2 more big sheets of that white card so I will continue to experiment and maybe make something different but this is a definite improvement on what I had!

cheesecake and being a domestic goddess

For Matt's birthday I made mini cheesecakes. The recipie is from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess which has to be my favourite cookbook. It seems that even I can almost seem like a domestic goddess when I bake from the recipies in this book!

there's snow on the mountains!

In an earlier post I wrote about how the view from our windows here is amazing - well this morning we woke up to snow on the mountains which makes it even more beautiful. I can't wait to see what it's like with snow everywhere and the sun shining. This photo doesn't really do it justice - it's cloudy and grey, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like. You can also see the thick black cable which is our new telephone line put in last week to finally connect us to the internet. It has been put installed in a pretty dodgy way - it hangs down really low before it gets to the telegraph pole and the first night after they installed it the cable slipped down a bit more making the whole house shake!

This is a bad attempt at taking a panoramic picture from our windows! The wall doesn't really bend at that point! As you can see this was on a sunny day and before the installation of the phone line! The ruins on the right are of a mosque.

working down my to-do list

I've got a string hanging from my curtain rail with notes clipped to it listing all the amigurumi things I need to make and the deadlines. This helps me keep organised and gives me a sense of satisfaction when I finish something and I can take it off the string! At the moment I'm working on some more Christmas stuff for my Etsy shop and on pieces for the Plush Team CandyLand Exhibition which will be at Hot*Pop Gallery in January .

Partizanka

This Partizanka is a custom order I've just finished. I'm really happy with how she turned out - but I'm not happy with the photos! So far I haven't found a good place to take photos in our new house. They all come out too dark. Maybe it's time to make a lightbox - any thoughts on this?

Chocolate Mug Cake

When we lived in the UK we had pudding pretty much every day - I mean what meal is complete without pudding? But here in Bosnia and Herzegovina it's pretty unusual to have pudding after your meal. This was pretty hard to get used to at first - but now I can easily finish a meal without feeling the longing for chocolate cake and ice cream. Today however we decided we would have pudding - so I made 2 chocolate mug cakes. You can make one in 5mins, they're super easy, taste good and it's kind of amusing to watch them rise in the microwave. If you've never made one before then click here and give it a go.

PlushYou 2010

And we're finally online :)

These are some photos of my dolls at PlushYou 2010 taken by Anne-Claire of Hibou Cards. As you can see they are in good company - Just in front of them are the Moon Buns from Moon's Creations, on the wall are the cats from Yummy Pancake and you can just see on the shelf above some spider babies from Scrumptious Delight.

FrankenPlush

This is my part of the latest Plush Team Challenge. I'll be sending this off to RaggyRat in the UK and then she'll do her part and in a couple of weeks we'll see what kind of monster we have created!

The City of Kings

It's been 2 weeks since I last posted a blog! that's a long time - the reason... we've moved and still have no internet connection! But here's a quick blog post for those of you asking for pictures. This is where we live now - Jajce, the city of kings. That's our place on the left and on the right and going up to the top of the picture you can see the old city wall going up to the castle. More blog posts and pictures will come soon - whenever the internet connection arrives, which as it has been every day this week, is promised for tomorrow!

more of my sewing endevours...

This week I've been to a sewing course that was held in our church for a couple of hours each morning. While most people were interested in making clothes for themselves I decided to try making clothes for amigurumis!

'a' is my first attempt at making a summer tunic top type thing. It was a bit bulky round the top but not too bad as first try.

'b' is my second attempt and turned out a lot better.

'c' is one of my dolls wearing the top - it doesn't really go with her outfit but I had to try it on a doll to check it was the right size.

'd' shows my first attempt at making jeans - they're unfinished and a bit too small so I'll try again later.

All in all I think it's pretty good progress for 3 mornings work and has given me the basics I need to keep going. Eventually I'm sure I'll make something I'm really happy with.

And if you're interested in how my curtains turned out you can see one of them in my blog post finally - a space to be creative.