A Good Idea

Have you ever had one of those ‘great ideas’ and are now beginning to re-think it was ever great!

A couple of years ago after much discussion with Mr OCG we decided we just couldn’t bear to have to work until we are 67 so it would be a great idea if we could semi-retire or at least go part time by the time we are 55. We also realised that our 2 adult sons, having moved to the Midlands to go to university were in fact settling down there. Perfect we thought, we can move to the Midlands, where we grew up anyway and where our extended family still live. So we will be able to live closer to all our family but particularly our sons. To make this happen we hatched a grand plan.

Within the next few years we will,

Cash in on our, relatively expensive Oxford house, pay off the mortgage and buy a relatively inexpensive house in the Midlands.

Find new jobs in the Midlands.

Move house with the intention of going part time /semi retirement by 55

What could go wrong?

Haha just 12 months later who would’ve known…….

So thinking that anyone on the wrong side of 50 would struggle to get a new job, last September I began applying thinking I was in for the long haul. Little did I know the first job I applied for, I got! Head of Physics in one of my first choice schools. Oops that threw a spanner in the works, fortunately the job didn’t start until this September so that gave us almost a year for Mr OCG to get a job and for us to sell the house and move.

Mr OCG patiently waited for a DT job to come up in a Midlands school and of course, typically not one came up, hmm what were we going to do…. wait and be patient, thats all we could do.

Then of course all of a sudden just before Easter this year, a great job came up, he applied and got it, hurrah things were dropping into place.

To be continued……..

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Craft tutorial – knitted bag

Happy New Year to all you lovely blog followers, I have spent a very relaxing Christmas creating a new pattern for a knitted bag that will be stocked in my ETSY shop ‘studio10oxford’

I thought I’d share this tutorial with you which is a plain version which can be adapted to your own pattern or you can download my pattern from my ETSY shop.

I also stock the leather handles and fabric lining.

For the medium sized handbag which measures approx. 30cm x 20cm:

 

You will need 

200g of Aran weight yarn

Sew on leather handles (I use 60 cm length)

Lining fabric ( a fat quarter is the perfect size)

optional zip or other closure.

Knitted Bag

Using 4mm needles, cast on 71 sts

Knit 7 rows 1×1 rib

Next row knit

Knit 7 more rows 1×1 rib


Change to 6mm needles 

Stocking stitch (or pattern of your choice) until work measures 42cm from beg


Change to 4mm needles 

Knit 15 rows rib as at the beginning.

Cast off loosely.  

With right sides facing sew side seams..


Turn over rib edge and sew inside bag, knit row should form the top edge of the bag..


Measure the exact size of the bag and cut your fabric allowing 1cm seam allowance for the sides and bottom and allowing 3cms at the top to fold in and attach to the knitting.


Press thoroughly.


Attach the lining to the inside of the bag by pinning then. sewing invisibly to the bottom edge of the rib row inside.


Position and attach the leather handles, they are best sewn on with a thick thread such as tapestry thread.


Optional extras include adding a zip or an inside pocket or a button fastener.

Have fun and i would love to see your results on Instagram just tag @studio10oxford or @oxfordcottagegardener

Photographing your creativity……..

Lots of us enjoy creating things, whether it’s crafts, cooking, gardenening or DIY and once the creation has happened it is nice to be able to take photographs whether to keep for prosteritory or to upload to social media or in fact to upload to a website to sell.




Taking photographs of the creation is often what people find tricky to do, to catch the detail, to try to incorporate some of the story of where the creation has come from and to show the creation in its true light.

It is often good to take pictures whilst you are creating, to show how you are making your product. Take pictures of the materials you are using, the methods and techniques you have  included in the process, all of which builds the story behind the product.

Don’t however be tempted to just snap the picture as it sits on you knee, pay some attention to the surroundings, spend a little time to arrange the work on a neutral background with no distracting elements that may draw attention from your work. Little touches like flower heads or pieces of beautiful lace will help to enhance the picture.

Once completed take time to arrange the items, again paying much attention to creating a neutral background, here I have used a piece of pure linen which I have crushed to add some texture. I have ribbon and lace, items I have been using lately along with the wool and needles used to create the item. I have also snipped some flower heads from the garden to dress the picture.

Happy crafting!

Renovation – crafting project, dining room chairs

We like to create unique pieces of furniture from everyday items. So when the opportunity came to renovate our dining chairs, we wanted to do something different.

We have some very comfy cream leather dining chairs which when we bought them, looked perfect with our light oak dining table. When we moved house and the large dining table no longer fitted or matched with our gloss white and black granite kitchen we were in a dilemma as to what to do with the chairs.

We had bought a gloss black dining table from Next but the cost of 8 chairs to go with it was another £1000! We decided on a temporary solution of some black stretch covers which we imported from America and they looked fine for the time being.

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Last year, having seen Pinterest articles about painting leather with Annie Sloane paint, we thought, why not give it a go. We started with just one and used that for a good 6months before committing, what would happen with the heavy traffic of Christmas or when boys with jeans squirmed on them?

 

Perfect, the one test chair lived up to the demands so we went ahead with the rest and painted several coats of AS Pure, it went on perfectly covering the cream leather with ease. We also painted the light oak legs with AS Paris Grey……they looked and matched beautifully.
Our last flourish was to add our own stamp on the chairs with a little bit of stencilling. We brought a couple of stencils from Hobbycraft so we could choose and customise our own design.

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Armed with a stiff brush, a ceramic tile and the AS paint in Paris Grey,

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we found the centre line of the chair and stencilled the design evenly on each chair.

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We combined designs from three different stencils to give the chairs their own unique look.

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The stencilling didn’t take very long at all, and I am very pleased with what we’ve achieved, a French vintage look.

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