Love it: Creature Comforts

It would seem that I have a bit of an addiction to creatures ...

I have made knitted and fabric creatures - which I like to call Critters - for a while now and even have made my friends a few with personality traits and facial features and all!  Friends also, have bought me or made me creatures too and so I think its starting to become a bit of a collection!

So, I thought I would share with you some of my Creature Comforts.

1.  This was a monster making kit that I was given a few years ago by my friend Stef.  You got all the fabric, felt, stuffing and glue in a kit and just had to put it all together.  I think one of his eyes must have fallen off in a move at some point, but I love him because he is a bit odd shaped and a one off!

2.  Some people will probably have these at home too, it is a Munny, this one was given to me by my friend Vic.  You are supposed to draw your creatures features on it, but I quite like it plain as it seems to already have its own expression.

3.  A sock monkey!  There is always room for one of these in your life.  I used to go to a pub in Putney where you could get the kit and sit and make your own sock monkey over a few drinks!  This one reminds me of my first few years in London and the sock monkey family me and my friends made.

4.  This random parrot is from a Mexican Restaurant - well just about restaurant, in New York.  I was there for a culture trip with the other students from my Masters course.  It was a hazy night of burritos in a basket and mojito cocktails with a loooooong drinking game of 'Have you ever'.  The aim of the game is that one person says something like ' have you ever seen Topgun?' and everyone who has, drinks a little sip.  This can get quite funny quite quickly, the more people think of things to try and learn about everyone else.

I do like things and objects and am always attracted to these little items when out and about, but also, I love the little faces and personalities they seem to have.  Just like people collect dolls or my little ponies (like Sammy), I seem to collect odd little creatures and people seem to keep buying them for me.  It probably gives them really easy present ideas, because I am probably most likely to love something a little weird and quirky.

These little Russian dolls, were given to me from my friend Sam (another one) who brought them back from Prague I think.  I used to have them all in one, but then I thought it would be nice to see all the little ones.  They sit on my window sill smiling at me every morning, I am pretty much a morning person, but every little helps as they say!

These little Panda beauties were given to me by my friend Jenean from the V&A show 'China Now' a few years back now.  The Hurt, Happy and Evil Panda's sit on my shelf on top of their little boxes, which I cannot bear to part with, they also make very handy display stands.

Inanimate objects which give so much pleasure, maybe I am a little sad, who knows, but everyone has some sort of ornaments around the house, perfect for catching the dust as my mum would say! Mine just happens to be little creatures of all shapes and sizes!  Does anyone have any creature comforts in their house?  Please do comment below to tell all.

reporting from the creature house,

H

Love it: Books, books everywhere!

Whilst over at my parents during the Christmas and New Year break I got a big reminder about our family hobby...  books!

I have so many books that I cannot fit them all in my current house and they are mostly languishing in a tall bookcase at my folks place.  I have a few with me, but they seem to grow so easily that soon they will take over all over again.

Having studied design for 6 years, this has meant that I have Architecture, Design and Museum books which range from the Coffee Table books to the theory ones.  I think I have more than my Uni Library used to have!  Then there is the travel books and the fiction books which I try and pass on to Charity shops, but there are just some that you want to keep aren't there!

I really like old books and used to love rummaging around Spitalfields and Portabello market when I was in London to find unusual fiction or craft books.  Now being out in the suburbs means I have lots of Charity shops to check out and also the web to get my new book fix!  I have a book from the 1950's on dressmaking and bough my dad an engineering book which was a newer version of something he had at college - good skills for a great rummage in a second hand bookshop in Wantage.

I love rummaging in bookshops wherever I go, I always have a look in museum bookshops, second hand stores and charity shops wherever I go, from New York to Manchester, I have a book from pretty much every place I have visited!  This probably lends itself to a collection, but I have more of them so I like to call this my hoard!

Over the holidays we discovered that my parents had books in every single room of their house (this was not a new thing, but something we just thought about!), apart from the bathrooms - but even then some people like to have a bathroom book don't they?  I'm not sure about that one myself, but each to their own.  My dad's books are more engineering and racing based and my mum's books are art based, then there are the books from my childhood (more about them another time) and the information ones, like the Joy of Knowledge which was the encyclopaedia to have in the 1980's - it got me through my GCSE's!

I love having books around me and often refer back to them for all sorts, but it's like a comfort blanket for me really, I know where I am with them and it's the joy of getting them home and then flicking through it to find something new.  So on that note, I was given Material World by Perri Lewis for Christmas and so I am off to read some fascinating crafty bits!

Love it

H

'A charming woman is a busy woman'

The title of this post is a quote is by Loretta Young, an american actress - and I think it just about sums up this post!

It's been one heck of a few weeks back in the office and with our blog.  You may have noticed that we have been updating a little more and so we are being kept very busy.  We hope you like the content and if you have anyone or something you would like us to feature then please do contact us at liveit.loveit.makeit@gmail.com.

And then onto my day job!  If you checked out my post last week you will know that I work in a museum 'The Lightbox' and it has been a case of hitting the ground running since I got back after Christmas.  I thought I would show you a few of the many projects we have been up to.

First up is the opening of a new exhibition that one of my colleagues ran with the local community called Landscapes of the mind.  They looked at the collection we store at the museum - which is owned by Chris Ingram, a local art collector and business man - and then they produced their own work inspired by the works.  I particularly liked this one at the top of this post with the umbrella's so I thought I would share it with you, you'll have to come see the exhibition to see the rest!

I have been working with the Volunteers at the museum to produce a knitted landscape in conjunction with our Welsh Landscapes exhibition - which is only on until the 27th January, so be quick.  There is a painting in the exhibition of 2 ladies knitting in a welsh landscape and so this was the influence to get people knitting!  This is the first of a few landscapes I think as the volunteers have been knitting up a storm and I have to keep up to put it all together!

This time of year we are already onto working out what our next set of workshops will be from April to September, so it's quite a lot of planning.  If you follow me on Instagram (@H_a_Sketch) you may already have seen these little fellas on there.  Let me explain, we have a exhibition coming up about a Victorian Garden Designer called Gertrude Jekyll and so we thought a drop-in Gnome making session might be good!  Do you like?  I think they are funny, but then I do have a very odd sense of humour!

So that's just a few things I have been up to, we have a lot of School visits coming up and so it's all go and I am learning so much about the local history of the area along the way.  

Do pop in to The Lightbox if your in the Woking area and bring your kids or just yourself for any of the workshops coming up!

Living it

H