Versatile Blogger Award

Hi Everyone,

I hope your all having a lovely weekend. I was recently given the Versatile Blogger Award from Kashi at Kashi's Corner. I am delighted to get this award and even more delighted that Kashi and others enjoy reading my blog. I am relatively new to blogging and I love getting to know people with the same interests as me, its an inspiration and really great fun. Thank you Kashi for the award, it means alot to me and I am grateful :)

The rules of the award are:

1. Add the award to your blog;

2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you;

3. Mention 7 random things about yourself;

4. List the rules;

5. Award to 15 bloggers; and 

6. Inform each of those 15 by leaving a comment on their blog.

Hmmmmmm, 7 random things about me, well lets see:

1. I have a phobia of tomato ketchup. I hate it and I can't even touch a plate if its on it, how weird is that :)

2. I burned 2 fingers on my right hand when I was a toddler, I put my hand over a candle and didn't think to take it out, oooopsie

3. I have an honours degree in Chemistry and a Masters Degree in Environmental Science

4. I met my husband when I was 17

5. I really am addicted to books, I just love books especially craft and cook books

6. I LOVE Christmas

7. I love a hot cup of tea first thing in the morning, it sets me up for the day

Now to pick 15 bloggers to give the award too, this will be tough because I love Kashi's blog and her list, alot of them are my favourites too. :  

1. Rose & Dahlia

2. Little Woolie

3. Sew On and Sew On

4. Unravelled

5. Lori Makes

6. Bunny Mummy

7. Coco Rose Diaries

8. Country Rose

9. Crea in the City

10. Ali G Knits

11. Sweet Birdy Love

12. Tales from Cuckoo Land

13. Sew I See

14. Off the Hook on the East Coast

15. Knitspiring Odyssey

I didn't like to overlap my choices so the following blogs are the ones Kashi nominated but I also really enjoy them. They're really worth checking out:

All4Meggymoo, Faith, Hilly Town Blue, Stocki, Vintage Homespun, Little Things Made with Love 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. 

Happy Crocheting, x

One a Day - I'm baaaaaack

Hi Everyone,

I'm baaaaaack, finally. Sorry its taken me so long to get back on the one a day wagon. I must start with a confession I didn't do one a day. I finally picked up where I left off all those weeks ago when I ran out of cream yarn on Sunday. I finished joining the final line, did a row of cream dc around all the rows and then began a row of granny stripe around that.

Guess what though????? I'm over half way around and don't think i'll have enough cream, AGAIN. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, I knew in my heart when I began the row it'd be a long shot to get it finished and now I've realised it was a silly ambition. Not too worry though I can just rip it out and finish off the blanket with the green and red yarn I have left over. Red and green just happen to be the Mayo colours, which is the county i'm from so i'm very happy to be finishing in those colours.

Hopefully by next week i'll have some good progress to show. For the time being though I will spend my time pondering that age old question, Why, Oh Why did I not sew in ends as I was going along. What was I thinking? I hate sewing in ends. I promised myself i'd be good and keep on top of it but of course I let it go :(

I hope everyone's progress is going well. I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone over on Gingerbread Girls blog.

Until next time,
Happy Crocheting, x

Beautiful Blogger Blanket 2012

Hi Everyone,

I had a lovely wake up call yesterday morning. The post man arrived with a packet from Deramores. It was the Debbie Bliss Cotton DK yarn I'd ordered so I could enter the Beautiful Blogger Blanket 2012 on Stocki's blog. I think its a brilliant idea and i'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's squares. Check out her blog for information on this project.

I'm using Debbie Bliss Cotton DK, its a 100% cotton. I used colours 13049, 13058, 13055 and 13057. I was delighted when I opened the packet. The colours were yummy, way nicer than I expected. I wish I could buy enough to make a blanket.

I made 6 squares, all granny squares because I love granny squares. The photo of the finished squares below was taken late so the light makes the pink look red. The squares look a lot nicer than the photo shows.

The closing date for finished squares to be in is 31st January. I hope lots of people enter because its a great idea and Jill has put a lot of work into organising this competition. 

Hope everyone's having a happy Tuesday.

Until next time,

Happy Crocheting, x

Happy 2012 everyone

Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year to you all. I'd planned to post last week but it was a busy week with some slight injury. I fell down the stairs with Ben in my arms. Thankfully my back and arm took the force of the fall. Main thing is Ben was ok. My nerves were in bits after, as was my arm. Luckily with some ice packs it returned to its normal size by the weekend and I even managed some crochet over the weekend.

I rarely do new year resolutions. It's my birthday so I never find that starting a diet or the likes with birthday cake and treats all around works and usually by the 2nd any novelty of resolutions have worn off, so I don't make them. This year though I've felt the need for change. I insisted that all the decorations were taken down on the 6th(I have never taken our decorations down on time, one year it was march and last year it was the earliest at the end of january). Its been very mild here and yesterday Ben and I were out for a walk. The birds were singing and it was a beautiful day. I decided that my new years resolution was going to be that I'm not going to be so afraid all the time. Now don't get me wrong I don't live my life cowering in fear but I do care way too much about pleasing others and what others think of me. Crazy isn't it??? So this year I'm not going to bend over backwards to please others, especially ones that constantly let me down, and i'm going to concentrate on my son, my husband and myself and making our life a happy and relaxed one.

Now to crochet, I love it so I plan to do lots more of it. As always I have a queue of projects. I'm really looking forward to getting back to the one a day. 100% cotton yarn arrived this morning so i'm going to get working on that today and enter the beautiful blogger blanket 2012 make it together project on Stocki's blog. This year I want to enter some craft competitions at the local agricultural shows over the summer so i'm trying to plan projects that I can enter.

I also have some finished bits and pieces to show you. I gave some candles as Christmas gifts and so to personalise them I made some doily's for under them. The first was a lavender candle in a triangle shape glass so I made a triangle shaped coaster/doily for underneath using motif #62 from Edie Eckman's book Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs. I added an extra round so it was the right size for the candle. Unfortunately our cat Mr Man(AKA The Destroyer) took offence at the present and knocked it off the table when we were wrapping it and the glass broke so we had to keep it for ourselves.

This is Mr Man, the glass breaking culprit. He likes to help in everything we do as you can see in this photo of him helping me felting.

I also made two doily's for two yankee candles. I made both the same. I used the Granny Mandala tutorial from Crochet with Raymond. I used less rounds and I changed the edging to a row of dc's with a 3ch picot over the chain spaces from the previous round. 

I used Stylecraft Special DK yarn for the doily's.

I hope everyone's new year is off to a great start and I'm looking forward to catching up with all your projects.

Until next time,

Happy Crocheting, x

Crafted Christmas Pressies - Part 2

Hi again,

I made a garland for my husband. I put 13 items on it for 13 years together. I did a mix of items including 3  crochet stockings, 3 felt gingerbread men, 2 crochet snowflakes, 1 felt candy cane, 1 felt bell, 1 felt star and 2 felt snowmen. The felt items were cut from squares of felt and not felted using a felting needle. Time would not have allowed for that detail.

In the end I had ran out of time. I had planned to stitch the snowflakes onto some red felt cut in a circle but it was Christmas Eve and my husband phoned to say he was just leaving work so I just attached them. Even though they're starched they're still floppy so i'll take them down and fix that part.

Garland

The crochet stockings were made using Angie's Le Monde de Sucrettes Little Christmas Socks pattern. This is a brilliant pattern and very easy to follow. Angies blog is truly inspirational and is a must follow blog.

All the felt items were edged in a blanket stitch using embroidery thread. I used a variety of buttons and beads to decorate the items.

The crochet snowflakes were made using the snowflake how to pattern from www.marthastewart.com. The patterns I used were pattern 1 and 2.

I used the second snowflake previously in a cushion and the picture of that snowflake is clearer so i'm showing you that one instead.

I used a gold braided rope that I purchased in a curtain shop as the garland rope. I tied each item to the rope with a basic knot. I enjoyed making this garland and it does look nice. If I was to make it again I'd use a thinner thread for the blanket stitch, it looks slightly amateurish. Other than that though I'm happy with the results.

More projects to follow.

Until next time,

Happy Crocheting, x

Crafted Christmas Pressies

Hi Everyone,

Hope you've all had a lovely Christmas. We had a perfect Christmas. My mom, granny and granddad were here with us. It made Ben's first Christmas very special indeed.

This year I was very over ambitious with the amount of projects I decided to do for Christmas and some did not get completed in time.

I made a stocking for Ben. I used red felt for the stocking and lined it with a Christmassy fabric with some gold ric rac around the top. I used some gold piping for around the seams. I also sewed in a little pocket on the inside with little note in it saying it was made for him on his 1st Christmas for Ben to read someday. I didn't have a pattern so I made it up as a went along with the result that I made some extra work for myself in spots. Still I was happy with the results.

Stocking

Pocket inside

Stocking top and lining fabric

I'll post the other projects as I upload some pictures. 

Until next time,

Happy Crafting, x

Crocheting Christmas

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all ready for Christmas and that all your projects are nearing completion. Things here are hectic. I've been trying to get as much finished as possible. Some projects I can't speak about in case curious eyes are watching my blog and the surprise is spoiled. Other gifts however are safe to show you.

The cover for this photo album was an impromptu present. My husband got his mother a photo album and filled it with photos of our son. The cover was very plain so he asked could I crochet a cover for it. I was surprised but of course I could and would oblige. I did estimate an hour to complete but given that i was making up a pattern as I went it took closer to 3 hours. Still I was happy with the results. Here is the completed item.

Cover flat

Front Cover

Side of Album

Back Cover

I was rushing to get the cover finished because my husband was visiting his family and won't see them again until after New Year. Because of that I didn't take as many photos as I should have. Basically though I crocheted in rows of shells, trebles and doubles until the swatch was long enough to cover the album. The ends were folded over the cover and stitched so it stayed on the cover. I did a row of dc around all four sides of the swatch to neaten the edges. I added a picot on the short sides that are inside the front and back cover.

I'll write up what I did and post it as a pattern in case anyone wants to do something similar. It may take a few days though because I still have some pressies to finish. I'll post more projects as I complete them.

Till next time,

Happy Crocheting, x