WIP continued

Thought I'd show my latest progress on the two pieces I'm working on at the moment. I was slightly disappointed that nobody bothered to hazard a guess at the subject of my box that I started showing last week. Seeing as how my brother was completely surprised at what I made him for his birthday, I now realise that not even my family bother to read my blog, which is depressing to say the least.

Anyway, for those of you who may have been wondering, the box has an Alice in Wonderland theme! Todays progress is below

The only clue on the outside is a quote. 

This was a cameo with some cogs in. I've learnt from this that Rangers accents range and my printing ink don't mix. 

Each piece was printed out, coloured with watercolour pencils in the places I wanted them to stand out. I then backed them onto chipboard, cut them out, then inked the edges with antique linen and vintage photo, which is a really good combination for ageing them. The next stage (and last) will be to get the right findings for each piece.

The advent calendar progress has been slow, but I had an idea the other day, which I'm now working on. I had two wreaths from a CC box, so grabbed them.

I started with balling newspaper up and glueing it to one of the wreaths

The other one I just put strips on.

Following on from the newspaper, I used thin tissue to paper mache the first wreath and left it to dry

Here is the progress so far. Basically the themes are naughty and nice and of course, when you are naughty santa gives you coal, so that's the one in the foreground. It's actually come out quite well. 

Spending wise it's not been good at all honestly.I got the £20 back for my toaster and used it for sandwich thins, chocolate bar multipacks, Terrys choc orange, giant buttons, shreddies, weetos, microwave rice, french fancies, a cross stticher mag and some marmite. I also topped up my phone £15 and paid the phone bill £23.14. 

On the 6/5 I went to Asda and got some milkshakes, kievs and pork belly slices for £10.32. On the 8/5 I went to Boots and got a load of reduced stuff, a pork and potato salad, red velvet cake, Starburst and some Dr Pepper. 

9/5 was Carl's birthday and I said I'd take him out to dinner. Franky and Benny's was his choice. Two rump steaks, one bacon cheese burger, garlic bread, two apple pies, a milkshake, lager and cocktail cost me £80! Then I went to Peacocks and got 6 t-shirts, 2 dresses and a pair of shorts (some for me, some for mum) and it cost me £66. I've decided this blip costs me a task, so when I make the last birthday present I won't get a treat.

Finally, I lent mum £300 to go on holiday with her brother. I know one of my problems is I'm too generous with my money but to be honest, how many times is she going to be able to spend time with her family in the future? 

Finally the tasks

1. Starry night cross stitch (DONE)

2. Project book (DONE)

3. Book plans (some  progress)

4. Read and review 100 books (71/100)

5. Make 14 christmas presents (started work on second half)

6. Make 11 birthday presents (1 left)

7. Make calendar, box and tags (some progress)

8. Hit minimum savings target (47%)

9. Kili cross stitch (completed 7/9)

10. 50,000 words (11533/50,000)

Ems