Monstuh roundup

This week is a week of Roundups. I have been so useless at posting this year, so I'm doing everything at once, just think of it as spring cleaning, purging all the dregs out of my photo albums before I start the new year with some wizard new ideas.

Here are some monsters I made ages ago, for Sara. I think it was a wedding present, and the couple are called Anita and Peter, if I'm remembering right!

Complicated stripy top/zebra print scarf combo. She is drinking a glass of wine that I clumsily made out of felt.

I think Peter was supposed to look like a vampire monkey, hence the teeth and ears. Check out the beaded bubbles in the pint, I am so inventive!!! Maybe they're droplets of condensation since they're on the outside of the glass.

Lookee here, it's Sarah and Bondy's wedding monsters.

Sarah is an old fine art buddy of mine from back in the Hudd. I was excited to be part of her happy day in a most minor way.

He's got a star tattoo. I am so OBSERVANT!!! :)

Okay this is Kate and Matt, I made them for Ana. I think these might have been a wedding present too.

Apparently they both like to wear onesies, so the monsters are in onesies too. Here I decided to attempt crocheting the pint instead. Why my monsters drink so much, I'll never know. 

Kate is from Florida and a fan of the Gators (American football! exotic). This is what their logo looks like.

This is my effort.

Similar!

Okay NEXT. I didn't do anything for months and have just had a flurry of activity before Christmas. First up this is Ann.

She was cute and fun to make. All sparkly shoes and nice colours. Check out her butterfly jumper.

Next up I made the whole family of Danielle, who runs Rubbish Revamped in Chorlton and makes loads of crafty bits out of recycled materials. This is Danielle and her husband Bruce, a runner and Leeds United fan.

Here is a photo Danielle sent me of her and Bruce with their Monc-sters

Their two sons Sam and Joe both support Man City so I gave them City shirts with their names on the back. Sam loves cooking and Joe is into his Blackberry.

Added a plastic blackberry bead to make the Blackberry more Blackberryish, but wondered afterwards if it might actually be a bunch of grapes? Never mind.

And this is one of their cats. I made two, but didn't take proper photos because I'm an idiot.

This is turning into such a mammoth post, I had no idea I had so many. Anyhoo last ones for now - this is Trudie and her dog Marty. 

These ones were ace fun, I just love doing people with red hair. Do you like my new backdrop, it is an old A-Z of Birmingham.

Phew, well that'll do for now, I'm tired and monstered out. Hope you liked them. I got them all done to deadline! I'm SO PRODUCTIVE etc.

Well goodbye and happy new year again

bye, I love you xxx

Lovehats (so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully pretty)

Good pun there I thought. Look, I am posting again within a week! Shocker. I wanted to tell you about this the other day but I couldn't because I promised. However, all can be revealed now, much to everyone's delight, I'm sure.

I got an email from Sarah a few weeks ago, asking if I could make two ski hats in a hurry, for a wedding present. I don't normally take commissions for things other than monsters any more, but I thought, why not? It would make a change and I thought it was a cute idea.

The happy couple are going skiing for their honeymoon you see, so Sarah wanted their hats to be personalised. I am playing the parts of both Mr and Mrs Castles in these photos.


Mrs.


Mr.

Aw nice! I was glad to hear that they liked the hats and I wish them all the best. I was reminded of these this morning after a tweet from Sarah with a photo that warmed my cockles! I'm always so pleased when people like their stuff.

Anyway that's that for now, I've got to go, I had the most fabulous idea ever before and I'm trying to get it off the ground. Just you wait and see! Laters, h xx

Two Monster Weddings

Hey friends. I have had the most mammoth weekend. I've been all over the shop and been lucky enough to see two sets of friends get hitched, yeah! Both weddings were so beautiful and special in their own ways, and I'm so happy for both couples! Hooray Rachel and Dave and Sean and Grace! You are ace. Oh that rhymes! I'm a poet and I didn't mean to be one.

One thing that both weddings had in common was that they had MONSTERS in them. You may remember me making these and these ages ago. Well get ready to see them again. Yes!

First up I went to Belfast on Thursday to the Rachel and Dave shindig. It was so good. So good. Rachel and Dave are well into their country music and everything, and all the men in the wedding had cowboy hats and bolo ties (I had to look that up) and stuff and it was all wicked. Here are Rach and Dave with the original monsteroos:



Beautiful! The big monsters sat up at the front while the wedding was going on and on the top table at the meal, they are awful sycophants. They had a good time, I could tell.

Now you know I made little cakey monsters too:



There they are on the cake. It was beautiful and simple so it looked well good. Just a simple white sparkly cake, plus cupcakes and biscuits, so pretty. That Calamity Jane poster had Rachel and Dave's faces superimposed on it, well good. They were all over the tables, my favourite was the Lone Ranger one with Rachel's pretty face and Tonto's big veiny man hands.

I'm ashamed to say I was pretty excited about seeing what the monsters would look like on the cake. Nearly as excited as I was about the actual wedding, if not more. No, not more. But excited anyway.

Moving on.

So I stayed in Belfast with my friends for a couple of nights and then pegged it home on Saturday morning, back to my flat for a shower, then straight out again to Preston for Sean and Grace's do. I was a bit demented with rushing around but I eventually managed to calm down and it was a really nice day. Here, have a picture:



Aren't they perfectly GORGEOUS. Couldn't you just dip them in your tea.

Those are little mini monsters for the cake by the way, which is here:



It's a cake of cheese, as in three or four wheels of cheese in tiers instead of cake. Fair enough, it makes no difference to me at all because I do not partake of the dairy produce anyway. Fruit salad all the way me. It's pretty though and I love the royal blue and bright orange combination. Bright colours are my faves, I don't know if you have ever noticed that.

So after the 'cake' had been cut and dished out, Sean put the monsters in his pocket where they remained for the rest of the night.



He also took some of my business cards and flyers and became my impromptu agent, on his blimmin' wedding day. What a guy. You are a guy, Sean. Ta very much.

Both couples will now be on holiday and not read this, but I wanted to get it up here because I'm proud to have played a tiny role in their days. I love them all, they are lucky and they deserve it. I'm totally weddinged out now. If any more people talk about how much they love each other I'm going to gip in their pocket. No, no, I don't mean that.

I do enjoy making the wedding monsters though, what do you think? I could add them to my repertoire. Monsters monsters monsters.

G-force and S-express

Well hello there, welcome, welcome! I hope you are well. It's been ages again hasn't it! I'm a right slacker. Not to worry, I am about to present you with the WORST photos I've ever taken, so its all right.

Remember ages ago, I made some monsters for Rachel and Dave for their wedding? Well it appears I'm making a habit of this. THIS is Grace and Sean.



I don't think Grace will thank me for this one to be honest, but it's not like she's never posted photos of me on Facebook, falling-down drunk and looking like a spanner, is it?

I met Grace and Sean about 6 years ago in Seville, where we were learning to teach English as a second language. We all lived together in a big house with a load of other friendly people, and drank a lot of horrible sangria out of cartons. Then the course ended and we all went our separate ways, but through the magic of social networking we have managed to stay in touch, more or less.

Anyway then I came back to Manchester to concentrate on being miserable and temping, and Grace and Sean went off and had some adventures and stuff, and now they are married and everything, and best of all moving to Manchester to be near ME! That is the only reason!

So because Grace is English and Sean is American, they have to have two weddings, don't they. The English one is pretty soon and they asked me to make them some little monsters to celebrate.

Now before I show you these: they ARE the worst photos ever. I have a wack camera and not enough light, and I like to saturate all the colours and I have no skills. There I said it.

So here's Grace:



I decided to indicate that she's wearing a long dress by crocheting a worm emerging from a flower, and not giving her any legs. I think it works well.

This is Sean.



He favours big trainers and a baseball cap, so you know, why wouldn't he wear them at his wedding too? I put a star on his cap as well, why didn't I just embroider THIS BOY IS AMERICAN across his face? Because there isn't room, that's why.

The happy couple.



Hope you enjoyed that. If you want to see some more monsters, or order one, or something, then you're in luck because I'VE GOT A NEW WEBSITE! It was designed by Jim McDougall and it's the complete biz. Take a look. Unless you were directed to this blog from there, in which case never mind.

Oh my lordy this month has been crazy. I've been going mental what with one thing or another, and I haven't had time to do anything much to show you. I am sad to say that my job at the Arts Council finishes next Friday, which I'm upset about, but hopefully I will have a bit more time to do some work, which is Good News. I have some other stuff which I will post very soon, so keep an eye out, okay? Okay? Hasta luego x

Yee hawwwwww part two

Well well. Hello, I am mega excited, I have just dropped rice on my bed but I'm not excited about that. I have something to show you which I made ages ago. Wow!!

Listen, do you remember these monsters? Specifically, the cowboy ones? They are Rachel and Dave and they are getting married REAL SOON. Rachel asked me to make them tiny monsters, little minuscule wee ones, to go on top of the wedding cake. Super wow!! Of course, I had some doubts about whether I had the skills for this one. I am NOT a super accomplished mini-crocheter, I am pretty cack-handed actually. There I said it. (Gasp!) Anyway these guys had to be REALLY small, just visible to the unclothed eyeball, and I didn't want them to look all bulky and rubbish. So this is what I came up with: first up, Rachel:



She's still a cowgirl, like. I think I did all right in the end. I put wire in the hats to keep them shapely, and she's got her little cowboy boots on too. I thought I'd photograph the monsters on horseback by the way.

Full frontal:



Pouty!

Now Dave:





Looking good there Dave.

Here's one of them both:



Dat's very cute. I wonder what they're going to look like on top of the cake. I will have to see if I'm allowed to post photos of it after the wedding. Everyone else will be cooing over the bride and groom, and I will be in the corner, taking pictures of the cake from all different angles.

Any road up, I have done some other monsters which I have yet to photograph. I am aiming to do at least some of them this weekend seeing as I'm off work for FIVE DAYS. All right! Catch you later then, take it easy, blah.