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Fantastic Fairies! Book Review.

Posted on by Abi

I’m probably not alone when I say that I have always loved the magic of fairies. When I was little I had a fold out pop up book about Flower Fairies that I loved and carried on many trips. So when I had the opportunity to review a book teaching how to make your own I jumped at the chance. The book was Fantastic Fairies and their friends by Julie Sharp.

The book is filled with gorgeous pictures of fairies, mice, toadstools and bugs. But I’ll admit I found the prospect of making the fairies slightly daunting. They are made from surprisingly simple components such as pipe cleaners, but in a funny sort of way that made them seem harder (my experience of pipe cleaners is limited to the basic twisting required in primary school).

I would love to claim a huge success here, but this little lady is all down to my husband (who is a bit of a whizz when it comes to wire).

She took one evening (and a bit) to make. I think she is adorable (and have plans for him to make me many more).

Was she a success? You can judge from the pictures yourself, but I think she was very much a success!

Was there any issues or problems during her construction? The book requires you to reference techniques laid out at the back of the book. This means a lot of page turning and can become a little confusing after awhile. We also found that the tutorial told you to make one set of arms when another was featured in the picture.

Would I recommend this book? Yes I would, but it does require a fair amount of patience which I hadn’t expected. It’s more indepth and definitely more skilled than you might imagine. This doesn’t mean it isn’t worth having a go at though.

Could the book be improved? As I said earlier the instructions do jump around a bit which is a bit annoying, especially when your trying to master the basic techniques. The book would also benefit from giving you alternatives for some of the materials. We had to improvise with our fairies eyes because we could not for love nor money find any stores that sold ready made pom poms small enough.

I think the fairies and creatures would make wonderful Christmas presents. Perhaps attaching some ribbon to their heads so they could be given as decorations. I am particularly excited to make Bud The Mouse and a fairy toodstool.

Book Details

Title: Fantastic Fairies and Their Friends.

Author: Julie Sharp

ISBN: 9781861084620

RRP: £12.99

Publisher: GMC

Publication Date: Spring 2006.

 

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Stupid Sock Creatures!? Book Review

Posted on by Abi

Time for a book review! If like me you have noticed the recent popularity of creatures made from socks then you might be wondering how you too can get in on the fun. I have been keen to have a go for quite sometime, but despite being fairly experienced at sewing; cutting up and reforming a pair of socks seemed quite daunting. Enter Stupid Sock Creatures by John Murphy!

This book was very kindly sent to me by the publishers GMC Publications and I have to say I love it! For a start the author is very funny which makes the book very easy to read. He freely admits that his creatures came about because he failed at his attempts to make a sock monkey. So I chose a pair of socks and set about making a creature called Owlsley.

The end result? Well… he is very creature/monster like, but he isn’t such a great copy of Owlsley.

Do I consider him a failure? No, not at all. He is much adored by my daughter and I think this is rather the point the book is trying to make, that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to creature making.

Why did he turn out looking more like a donkey than Owlsey? I think it’s probably to do with several things, firstly I was using womens socks, the author uses mens so they would be wider. Secondly I was using very very cheap socks with a huge amount of stretch so my stuffing technique may have elongated his head slightly.

Finally the pattern is more of an explanation, it doesn’t give exact measurements, so I probably didn’t cut far enough down the sock to make his head, thus he got a longer one.

Would I recommend this book? Yes I would, it’s quirky and genuinely amusing to read. It also offers something completely different from the standard fare. I think my children could probably master sock creatures, I’m fairly confident my husband could too. Infact I wonder if they would be better at it than me.

Could the book be any better? Perhaps, I did find the instructions slightly difficult to follow, but I have a feeling this is because I am used to detailed patterns and this comes more from the angle of a person with no sewing experience. The huge benefit though is that the pictures are very clear. The part I most stuggled with was the mouth, thankfully the picture helped me work it out and now I understand what the author was saying in the first place.

I think this book plus some socks, scissors and thread would make a fantastic Christmas gift (I know, I know, there’s months to go yet, but we Mums have to think ahead!) It is also currently available at Amazon for a very good price.

Book Details

Title: Stupid Sock Creatures

Author: John Murphy

ISBN: 9781579906108

RRP: £8.99

Publisher: Lark

Publication Date: Autumn 2005.

 

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Grow Your Own Drugs! Book Review

Posted on by Abi

This week I have been reading Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Treats a book written by James Wong. If your not familiar with James, he presented his own television series on BBC2 called (funnily enough) ‘Grow Your Own Drugs’. James is an ethnobotanist and throughout the series taught viewers how they could make creams, ointments etc from plants grown in their own garden. The book follows this theme giving detailed instructions and recipes.

I could have dived right in and tried to cure the many ailments we all seem to suffer from time to time. But instead I plumped for the beauty section and attempted the Body scrub.

I assembled all the ingredients, all the lovely herby smells put me in a good mood from the beginning.

I chopped and cooked. I strained (without making too much mess).

The end result looked really rather beautiful. But of course the proof is not in the scent or the presentation. So off to the bath my scrub went and I am happy to report that I came out of that bath with silky soft and moisturised skin. The only downside is that the residue on my skin did send my white towel slightly green, but this did wash out without any trouble.

I have particularly sensitive skin so I am hard to please when it comes to beauty products, I also react quite badly to several additives, making a homemade remedy very appealing.

As for the rest of the book, aside from the gorgeous recipes, there is also a lot of very helpful information about which items to grow in your garden, where best to buy them or times to harvest. I can’t wait to try out some of the creams or facemasks. There is even a recipe for deodorant!

I thoroughly enjoyed the series on TV and I’m happy to say that the book lives up to the same standards, with the added benefit of concrete recipes and instructions. No more trying to write in shorthand and missing steps, they are there whenever you want them.

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