A Little Snowflake Flurry

A big HELLO to you all and a warm welcome to my new followers, thank you all for joining me.  I think this week is by far the quickest week EEVVEERR! I think I may have said that last week but this one is EVEN quicker!! Thursday already.  I have made progress in the evenings this week with my various projects and of course, I managed to fit in a project which wasn't even on my original list of projects, if you can keep up with that one.............. I fell InLoVe with the Snowflakes Lucy made on her blog so had to have a go. Luckily as I showed you previously, the hat and scarf for my friend was finished and I needed another break from the COT BLANKET!!!!  So it was Snowflake Time here,

By-the-way do you like my cute new scissors? I was christmas shopping and saw them and couldn't resist, I mean hubby wouldn't even know where to look for scissors like this, so I saved him the trouble, and after all with all us girls do for everyone else at this time of year, I think a tiny bit of retail therapy goes a looooong way!

A flurry of snowflakes, but I like them silhouetted on my lamp by my computer

They look great with the light shining through them don't you think?

The other project I have started is a pair of wristwarmers for another friend they are made with Rowan  Tapestry which is a mixture of wool and soya bean fibre! Different! 

I have added the odd row of ridge stitch to add a bit more interest and will let you know how they turn out.

Now for the blanket:-  I am getting there gradually - it feels like I have been making this forever! But the beauty of taking lots of piccies for a blog means that I can compare and as these piccies show, progress has been made yay!!!

Its coming along!

Thank you for dropping by it is absolutely fascinating speaking all you lovely people across the world, and a big Thank You to Sue, the lovely Mrs Twins for sending me her ripple pattern, I will give that a go in the New Year! 

Have a great evening, speak soon xx

Ho! Ho! Ho! Its Getting Nearer!

The Advent calendar is out and the countdown begins!  Once we reach December, despite the stresses of getting ready for Christmas, the inner child in me kicks in - I love it!  Out comes my favourite videos/dvds

The Disney songs we have had since the children were little people and I get a huge lump in my throat when I first watch it (which I do every year) but then it makes me very happy indeed, I don't know what I will do when the tape wears out!  The other must see early in December is Its a Wonderful Life - I have loved this film since I was a little girl and still enjoy it enormously - it makes you really think about what is important in life, and with the current world recession, in fact is really relevant this year. Whenever I hear a bell ring I still think of the Angel who has just got its wings!!!! Aahhhhhh!!  Priceless.  I have some other films I just have to watch, but they are for later in December and I will share them then.

I try not to put the decorations up too early, usually around the 13th because that is hubbys birthday so we do it to make a fuss of him. 

I have finished the hat and scarf for one of my friends for Christmas

I hope she will like it, it is in random colour wool called Crofter by Sirdar and is really soft.  I have enjoyed making some presents this year and it has felt like a lot more meaning and effort has gone into them rather than just buying something. 

Thank you for all the lovely comments about the Summer Garden Blanket yesterday, made my day... I love to read your comments.

Oh well, I hope your all enjoy your day and speak soon xx

Summer Garden Blanket Story

Good Morning!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  Here in the UK it was wet and windy AGAIN.

 It occured to me over the weekend that I haven't acutally posted about my Summer Garden Blanket which was what started me on this whole blogland thing.  I apologise to those of you who have seen the pictures on Flickr, but felt we all needed a burst of colour on a drab Monday morning!!!!!

In the middle of the summer I decided to make a blanket like Lucy's , and once I found a supply of reasonably priced wool I embarked on a colourful journey, I was absorbed straight away and found it easy to 'run off' a couple of squares in any spare moment that I had.  When I went camping in the late summer it was blissful sitting outside crocheting and playing around with the finished squares to find the colour combination which worked for me, laying them out on the bed of our trailer.

I decided to add a single colour 'frame' to all of the squares and make a border with the same colour, I have discovered I like to frame things!  I finished off the edging with couple of rows of clashing purples!!!

I then uploaded a picture of the finished blanket onto Flickr and had a great response,  it was then that I decided to try my hand at blogging as it felt really good to chat to others with the same interests and crafty hobbies!  It is such an interesting hobby to have and I am enjoying it immensely.

A quick update on the icing roses, I had another go last night and

Ta Dah!!!!!

They look a lot more rose-like don't you think?  I am feeling a lot happier about it now!

Hope you all have a great day, speak soon xx

Seeing Stars!

This has been a bit of a 'Starry' week, I have been really enjoying making the Grandma Twinkle Stars from
The Royal Sisters blog, you saw the glittery ones that I made earlier in the week and last night I experimented with some IKEA cheap parcel ribbon and this is the result

A bit of a result I think!  The parcel ribbon one feels silky and shiny and quite strong so it would make a great coaster

A coaster for Christmas or could equally be used in the garden on a warm summer BBQ day.  It would also make great outdoor bunting to trim a garden umbrella of patio area.  I have to do these little projects inbetween, to keep relieve the monotomy of the cot blanket, which I have so say is making better progress and I will have an update on that next week. 

We visited IKEA earlier this week to get some new kitchen chairs (see above photo)  I kind of have a love/hate relationship with that store - sometimes I come out with loads of stuff I never knew I needed and can't live without - and other times I leave frustrated because they haven't got all the bits of something I need.  We arrived home with our boxes and set about putting the chairs together, cripes! I didn't realise a chair could come with sooooooooo many pieces, the lounge was covered in boxes and paper

Hubby and I put together two chairs each - I beat him, but he says we must monitor to see whose chair falls to pieces first!!! Cheek!!!!  Our cat Thompson had a great time with the boxes

The Recycling bin was nearly full after we had put so much cardboard into it!!!
Many thanks for your company this week to those who leave comments and those who take a peek, you are all welcome!!!! I hope whatever you are up to you have a great weekend - the weather here is set to get colder so I think some snuggling up is called for!

Speak soon xx

Stars and Ice (ing)

Good Morning! Thank you for dropping by.  This morning is actually a tad sunny for a change, the last few days have been sooooo wet.   I am feeling in a 'getting things done' sort of a mood, you know, around the house, I think its a pre-christmas clear up and clean.  Hopefully I will get the time for some hooking later.

I must show you my first attempt at making icing roses - as you may remember I have made a cake for my mum's 80th birthday in December and I want to ice it myself - I have made novelty birthday cakes for my kids but never a serious grown up cake! So on Sunday my daughter and I decided to have a go at making roses as a practice, oh dear! I don't believe blogging should always be about the perfect projects you should come clean and show the not so good ones too - and this wasn't so good...........................

We thought it would be easy but we struggled, laughed, made progress only for the petals to droop, and got ourselves into a gooey icingy mess! But we did have fun!!!

Anyway the upshot of this tale is, that we were using the wrong type of icing paste, so yesterday I found a cake specialist shop and I now have the right stuff, so later in the week I shall have another go, cripes if that doesn't work I may have to resort to fluffy snow peaks!!!!

I have finished my Grandma Stars from The Royal Sisters blog  which I found through Lucy and I am pleased with them, they go really well with the Snowmen.  I made them in crochet cotton and glitter cotton and I added an extra round to emphasise the 'pointy bits', because they looked too small in crochet cotton and when I blocked them I sprayed a little fabric stiffener on them, and hey presto they have come out really well.

I must say a thank you to Maria who mentioned me on her blog and made a snowman from my tutorial, I am glad it worked.!

Well I will leave you for now or else my 'getting things done' mood will rapidly diminish hehe! oh and if anyone is an expert at icing roses maybe you could give me some tips!!! 

Have a great day, speak soon xx

 

Cosy Creative Weekend

Can't believe it's Monday morning again.  I looked forward all of last week to Friday night - I love that feeling with the weekend ahead, but it seems to go so quickly.

I know that some of my lovely blogland readers are sweltering in heat on the other side of the world, but here has been very wet and windy, with intermittent power cuts. But the positive side to the bad weather is that we cosied up indoors and had the best weekend! 

I did some of this:

Grouting in our downstairs cloakroom which we have been decorating................ and some of this

baking - these are sticky toffee puddings to be frozen for our Christmas Dinner dessert (only a couple of us like proper christmas pudding, so we have to compromise)......................some of this

chillin in the conservatory ............................... and lots of this

knitting, I finished the hat for my friend and I started a scarf to match

and also quite a lot of this.............................................................

the cot blanket. Finally I have been dabbling with the Grandma Twinkle Stars made from a tutorial by The Royal Sisters which Lucy showcased last week.  Here is a peek and I will show you them in later in the week.

Yep! all in all it was pretty good.

Have a great day speak soon xx

Those 'Inbetween Moments'

My crochet output has been rather slow the last couple of days, work and other commitments have got in the way.  However, I must say that since I have started blogging I am much more aware of making the most of every minute of the day, and although other "stuff" has taken precedence over 'creative output' I am learning to make the most of those 'Inbetween Moments', you know what I mean, those times when you have literally a few minutes spare - waiting for the potatoes to boil, or the washing machine to finish and in my case  (I work from home as a Beauty Therapist) waiting for a client to arrive. These are the times I grab whatever project I am working on and even if I only manage a few stitches - that's progress, slow, but progress all the same. In my 'Inbetween Moments' the last couple of days I played around with these granny squares

and decided that they will be my next blanket project - I might make them larger because I don't think I will be able to join the squares as you go (unless any of you lovelies knows how to do this)  and I might even be tempted to use my secret Rowan stash!  I keep gazing at it and thinking its too nice to use!!!!! 

I also started another project which has been (sorry to all you dedicated crochet fans) knitting!  I made myself a hat which a dear friend remarked on, so I am making her one for Christmas and a scarf to match.

Its in this nice Crofter wool and knits ( or I'm sure crochets ) to a pretty random look and is nice and soft.

I am also making a glasses case for the same friend, and I must start some of Lucy's wristwarmers for another friend. Of course, there is still the matter of the Cot Blanket - hoping to make more progress with that tonight  - phew!  I had better get started - as my English teacher used to say:-

"Procrastination is the thief of time"

Have a great evening

Speak soon xx