Crafting while melting

Anyone reading this who knows me knows that I am a bit broken.
Apparently, heat makes this a lot worse.
Incidentally, Britain is having a massive heatwave at the moment.

My doctor's advice was, and I quote "You need to hibernate"

So, what can I do while sitting (part of the time in a paddling pool) hiding from the sun like an old school vampire? (not the poor excuses for vampires that just sparkle in the sun... pah)

I can make stuff!

So I did. I've been enjoying drawing recently, it's one of the things I can do that doesn't kill my back, but there's only so many of your own drawings one can have sitting around in your house before people start to assume you're a little self obsessed. I realised, however, I could draw on shrink plastic!

This is what I got after I'd finished doodling. I then cut the plastic into triangles. Some fairly randomly, some making sure they had a same (ish) size partner.
Some oven time (although I'm pretty sure I could have just left them outside for the same effect) later, and some findings and I came up with something that looked a bit like this

And I was pretty impressed with myself. So I did it again and turned this:

(I almost didn't want to cook this because I thought it looked so lovely as it was) into this:

I also made some clear ones that look like glass which I adore.

All of those, and others (including some little silvery charm earrings) are available on my etsy shop.

Something else that I'm working on that will not be on the shop is a patchwork blanket. I'm making a load of rectangles, all 15 stitches wide but of varying lengths and any yarn I find in my stash. I'm going to sew them up into strips, then sew the strips together. Hopefully. Knowing me I might just give up because I get bored, but I've got until December to finish it as it's going to be a present. As you can see I haven't got too far yet, but I'm making my way through series 4 of Breaking Bad at the moment as I do it!

The only other thing I have been making is rather useful in this weather. I need to be very hydrated due to my broken-ness, but the WHO recommended hydration solution tastes more than a bit horrible. I drink it, but only because I don't want to feel more crap!

However, I have had a brainwave today. 

Soda water, I thought, is salty. Soda water, I thought, tastes amazing with mint and lime and sugar (and rum!). If I used carbonated water instead of soda water, added the recommended quantities of salt and sugar, then added some mint and lime juice, I might have a rehydration drink that was actually tasty!

So, here is my tasty version of the WHO recommended rehydration solution:

• 1 litre of carbonated water
• 6 teaspoons of sugar
• Half a teaspoon of salt
• Some mint leaves
• Lime juice to taste.

The ratios of sugar to salt are quite important it seems, they help the body absorb the water so I wouldn't omit much sugar, or any salt. I made mine in a pint glass (because it was easier and it's just over half a litre) with a handful of leaves, and lemon juice instead of lime because that's what I had in my fridge and used half quantities of salt and sugar. Don't add the salt to a full glass of carbonated water though, it fizzes up everywhere as I learnt the first time!

It's pretty damn good.

Anyway, I'm going to get back to watching Breaking Bad and knitting.

Enjoy the weather, people.

Janet

PS. I became a pirate today!

Blog, Janet, BLOG!

I have left this for a very long time. I completely suck at writing blogs. I've been busy and I've been poorly. But I'm going to try again!
I've made lots of things in the last...two years or so.

Here are some of them:
I made a...... DRESS

 I made a.......... ANOTHER DRESS

 I tried my hand at screen printing (I actually made an instructable for that, see here)

 I arranged my nail varnish collection....

 I painted my nails....

 I made some socks! (I saw the idea at the Wellcome Collection but didn't want to pay £15 for socks!)

 Around Christmas I made my own chocolate ornaments for my tree with a glue gun and paper clips

 And I made a wreath for my door that was full of sweets!

 In February, I was lucky enough to go to a residential week with the amazing Shooting Roots and we made really creepy masks.

As demonstrated: 

 I also took the innards out of an old CRT monitor and made a cat bed

 At Easter, my brother, uncle, cousin and I made some rather wonderful piñatas

 I got the tattoo on my foot extended

 And more recently I've turned my hands to drawing.

So, that's kind of what I've been doing in between  going to India, working at festivals, moving house, getting caught in mountains of paperwork, having working for the NHS alongside someone with an OBE, the choir I direct winning two national awards for excellence in Mental Health Provision, and having a short lived career as a knife thrower's glamorous assistant (ok, that one is a lie but I'm sure I did something equally cool but have forgotten about, and everything else is true).

As for now, and why I'm starting this blog up again, well I've not been all that well for a while. I damaged my back further to it's already not great condition in August, then again in May. I'm not allowed to sing, and a lot of the crafts I had been doing have become a lot more difficult. Sewing is a novelty now rather than how I would spend a standard afternoon. 

Anyway, so that's why I'm back to this. I've been working on some things recently and putting them on my etsy shop and am generally trying to make a go of making stuff for other people. My lovely friend Corrie of Plutonium Muffins suggested I make a blog so I thought I would revisit this and here I am!

I will make another blog post about what I've been doing these last few days so they don't get lost in all this mush, and I will try to keep this blogging malarky up!

For now, I'm out.

Janet

PS. I also went to a ball dressed as a parrot, made my hair many many colours and accidentally dyed my cat.