Nayu's Craft Time #302 Boxing Day Sale haul!

Forgot to add Pusheen to the mix (sorry for awful photography, doing this while a bit loopy from meds)

As promise on Monday's post here is my Boxing Day sale haul! It was brilliant! There are quite a few cars but I managed to get parking at the local retail park. I was only going to Boots, because they had some Disney merch, and oh boy everything was 50% off! I went a little crazy...

So cute and fluffy!

...got this cutie, who isn't Disney but I love the alpaca toys. I did try using it as it is intended, as a microwave heat toy. I put the bag in the microwave, and while it did get hot, once inside the alpaca it didn't heat up the toy that well. My previous experience with these are the toys where you put the entire toy in the microwave, so I was a bit disappointed. However it's so cute I don't mind adding it to my plushie collection!

I didn't post a picture, but you can see the velcro where the microwave bean bag thingy goes.

...these Pusheen cookies are delicious! Weirdly the kit didn't include icing or sprinkles, so I raided my family's supplies for those. Ended up with two lots as one was a gift but I hadn't yet had the gifts from family when I went shopping, so ended up with double the yummy Pusheen fun!

...You already know I love Pusheen so it's no surprise I picked up this straw cup! The coolest part is the glitter, look what happens when I tip it upside down. Initially I thought the glitter was just in the cup for decoration and it would fall out, but it doesn't! Drinking water is so much fun now

...I really like swans, maybe because of the role of swans in fairytales (Swan Lake) and other fiction. I couldn't resist this cute cup! Which I now realise was actually bought from Sainsbury's not on my sale shop...oh well! It has a little separate screw on pot that I use to take my meds in.

...This is adorable! I think it's the unicorn from the film series Despicable Me, but don't quote me on that. It had some lip balm inside, but once I opened it it didn't stay inside the unicorn. I don't really use anything on my lips not even lip balm, so this won't get used much. 

I'm pleased I went, and am delighted with my stash of cuteness. I also got some Pusheen cookies to make (without any icing or decoration) but forgot to take a picture, and Googlemail is refusing to deliver the final few pictures including the Marie straw cup (in the first picture on the right) and my sewing update pictures that  I want to show you. Did you many to snag anything exciting in the sales?  

Nayu's Craft Time #300 I'm being brave

Found this quote online (& cute picture) & it's very relevant to today's post.

For the first time in what I think is forever I'm actually being an idiot and going to a Boxing day sale because Boots has some cute Disney items that I hope get reduced. If they haven't sold out. I am only going to one shop, as I hate crowds with a passion so the experience needs to be as short as possible. I hope I can find something to make it worth while. If you sale shop, I wish you luck!!! (& yes I plan to rewatch Tangled very soon!)

No idea where I got this Rapunzel fan art, but it makes me feel like this is the attitude I need to have when facing the sale crowds!

Nayu's Project Progress #38 Sparkly Minnie Mouse

It wasn't easy to photograph this, it is super sparkly!

I'm sorry it's been a while! Just been resting as the weather hasn't agreed with me. It has mostly been too cold, plus the rain = unhappy body. My cat has sometimes joined me, when she felt like it, and I've been having lots of hot water bottles and using my heated blanket in the evenings.

My winter essentials: cute hot water bottles and blankets

Admittedly I've mostly been gaming because it's very distracting and fun, I managed some reading and....I have done some craft! Feels like it's been ages since I've done any, but when I finally caught up with my craft friend (I'd had to reschedule our original meet in November to December because I wasn't well when I was due to see her). I knew from the previous session where I did less than 40 stitches in a cross stitch project due to focusing on talking that I needed something simpler. So I did this cool little project! 

This is when I was partway through. I'd done the black gems, the pink were the second colour.

I got it a few years ago (I'm slow in doing stuff, ok?), and it's not an official Disney Minnie Mouse, but since I love Minnie that's who this is! I didn't take many pictures of each stage, but basically it's a piece of card, with the stone area being sticky. I was amazed it still was sticky enough to put the gems on. There weren't many instructions, and I don't understand how the included white pencil was supposed to pick up each gem. I ended up using my fingers, which after a while did hurt but it was fun so I didn't mind much. They provided more than enough gems of each colour, so if/when any fall off I can replace them.

This is really bright!

I did it in 2 days, finishing the top half with my friend and the rest the following day. I like the cute flowers on the card which are done in ink. For some reason they made the easel to stand it on bright green....yeah, not the most stylish! It works for now, I may just stand it up on it's own or put it in a frame (I may have a suitable frame somewhere). Until then the easel will do just fine! 

Sorry for the quality, this is what the main puzzle looks like.

I am having my mega meds tomorrow, which is why I'm scheduling blog posts today. After that I plan to fit doing jigsaw puzzles in my schedule (I want to do them & have more than a few...) I would like to finish my Tsum Tsum puzzle by the end of the year but will wait and see how that pans out. 

Nayu's Craft Time #258 Donut Yumminess, Crochet Progress & Life Update

Peanut buttery donut delight!!!

On a visit to Bath (the English City with the Roman baths) the other day my family treated me to 2 super yummy Krispy Kreme donuts! I've had the Reese's peanut butter one (with a lovely gooey centre), and I'm having the other one today, flavour I can't remember. I adore KK donuts (or duffnuts as they can be called in my house). I rarely have them - there's no Krispy Kreme shop near me, they are more expensive than supermarket donuts, and I absolutely refuse to buy them from Tesco - I don't like the store at all (no offence if you shop/work there). I've been busy with unfortunately necessary life stuff, as well as having lots of rest. I'm sorry for not being able to blog sooner but I have been busy! 

As well as the usual gaming, I've been reading some great books including the soon to be published novel The Rasputin Dagger by Theresa Breslin. I usually just link to the latest review on the right menu on this blog, but this is based quite a bit on a historical event. It's the best fictional account of the end of the Tsars in Russia that I've ever read, with a focus on Anastasia and her other sisters. I adore the Disney version of the story, Anastasia, 

Here's a handy image of the DVD with a summary for you

 and while I know that DNA has proved Anastasia did probably die with the rest of her family when they were killed (there's a horrendous scene at the end of The Rasputin Dagger when the royal family are taken away), but I like to imagine she escaped. The book focuses on a different character (with a lot of poetic licence involved as it's fictional, but a fair amount of historical accuracy too), and I highly recommend it. I'll be taking part in a book tour so will most definitely link that when it's up on my review blog, Nayu's Reading Corner. 

Not only have I been reading, I've been crocheting too! I sort of finished a blanket - I've got some decorating plans which require a bit more concentration than I've had lately. I will show you once it's finished, but that might be a while. I've already started my next project...

Progress by the end of Monday

I'm not sure how big this will end up, as I've only got a few balls of wool, but I'm hoping it can at least reach aby blanket size. I started it when I had my monthly craft day with a friend. She couldn't believe how many times I redid 1 one as I figured out how to join the squares together without sewing them: there's a particular crochet way to do it, which means no seams to sew at the end (minus the ends of each square's yarn in the middle). I haven't done it for a while, so didn't do it quite right at first. It has to be a different method for each corner of the square too, which took even more working out. Yesterday I managed to do almost 2 rows (6 squares), which is good progress considering I was busy gaming & reading too. 

Phone used for scale

Hopefully this post was worth the wait, and, barring any more unexpected life stuff (a lot will be up over the next few months but hopefully they won't affect my blogging schedule too much) my next blog post will be in a few days (or less!).   

If you want to know what I do between blog posts, please follow  me on Twitter - I'm @Nayuleska. I usually tweet a few times a day, and while this can be a lot of gaming tweets, I post updates of my crochet projects and random life stuff ^u^ Let me know if you're on Twitter too!

Hope yours has gone well! Cute bunny = always good to see!

Nayu's Craft Time #235 Fleeting snow flurry

Sadly I lack Elsa's power to create snow. (Frozen)

Last week we had what could have been a snow flurry, but turned into definite rain by the end of the day. I guess the possibility for snow this season is reducing fast. Never mind! I dreamt that it snowed the other night is good enough for me. 

It's been a fairly quiet week, mostly gaming as my body didn't like the weather, but I did some craft too and I baked cupcakes! 1 lot of gluten free and another batch were vegan. Both turned out ok, I'm frosting them this afternoon so will take photos then and share in my next post. It's lunch time so I need to make this a short post (sorry) but wanted to wish you a...

Nayu's Craft Time #93 The Truth About Making Chocolate + Disney Life Membership

This morning's work!

 ...you actually don't want to eat too many. Seriously. After a few hours of truffle making (including a lot of preparation and cleaning away plus the chocolate melting then dipping), I look at all the chocolate and think 'I'm giving it away to friends soon!' ^o^ 

I love chocolate, and I'm saving the leftovers for hot chocolate made the original way by melting chocolate into hot milk (& cream when I make more truffles later this week). Other than that I'm not really keeping any for myself. Friends and family are having them! 

Then there's the fudge, which appears to have multiplied in the freezer without me knowing. Maybe they are the opposite of gremlins, which I think you feed, keep warm, water and do something else to make them multiply & become evil. Only fudge is sweet, not evil, I haven't fed it, and I keep it cold. Either way I have more fudge than I thought - least condensed milk doesn't exactly go out of date in the cupboard! 

In theory I was going to do some crochet today, but with laundry needing doing (all the hanging up isn't so good for my weak arms on top of truffle making) I'm going to be watching anime first. And at least one Disney movie because...

...I've joined a free trial of Disney Life! 

A lot of you will have heard of Netflix, an online movie/TV low cost monthly subscription. Disney Life is like that - you can watch a lot of Disney movies (both what I call human drama and animation), but that's not it. You can listen to Disney music. You can read Disney books. You can play Disney games! 

At least you can if you aren't me. For some reason Disney Life app isn't supported on my Kindle Fire, or my tablets (both the same make). Thankfully I can access the movies on my laptop, just nothing else. Since I'm only joining for the free trial, having a month of watching Disney, then cancelling, that suits me fine. 

* mumbles about the evil that is Apple which can probably almost certainly access everything else, but since it will be a push to watch all I want to watch without adding in reading books and playing games it's possibly no bad thing I can only get the movies. * 

Some of the Disney movies will be ones I do craft to, only because there are parts I don't like so will need to stay preoccupied. Thankfully almost all the movies I want to see are on there - yay! Including Frozen Fever which I've heard about but not yet seen. 

So that's me sorted for movies over the next 29 or so days! Movies that I like but not love are great to do craft to because I don't mind not seeing all of the film (eyes do need to be on my project quite a bit). This afternoon I'm going to watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, which I'm not sure if I like yet but I'm giving it a go. It's been at least 2 decades since I last saw it, so other than dwarves song I can't remember anything! 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend, and let me know if you delve into chocolate making and Disney Life! To find out more check out the Disney Life website.