Old Stuff!

Well, I'll start with a bit of crochet I've picked up again, that I started quite some time ago!  I first posted about it 1st June last year!  It is my African Flower Runner...

I've completed a couple more flowers... but have changed the plan from a runner to a cushion.  Hopefully I'll be able to show you the completed item at some point!  It would be nice to get it finished at last!!


Also, I have been given some old crafty bits and bobs from the Lumberjack's Gran.  She can't use it anymore, so has very kindly passed it onto me.  There are...


...pinking shears:

I really needed these, as I have some very cheap rubbish plastic ones which I can't even get to cut through paper, let alone fabric!


...old buttons that she had accumulated over many years:

...in a lovely old tin:

...loads of them!!:

...some reels of cotton:

...two of them wooden:

I love that big wooden cotton reel!!


I will have to see what I can make with all these bits and bobs!  It was very kind of her to give them to me, and I think she was glad that they've gone to someone who will make use of them.

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter to you all!


I only got round to getting the Easter Tree up this morning...

The feathers are from my friend Anna, who is Swedish.  They are a Swedish Easter tradition - nice and colourful!

I also finally did my Easter chocolate shopping - can't believe I've left it this late!!!

Oooh - yummy mini-eggs in my little jar!  (I've just thought that if I'd been organised enough, that could have made a nice Easter present for my mum and sister-in-law... damn!  Sorry Mum and Roon, if you're reading this!)


And look - a lovely present from the Lumberjack - a gorgeous jug with flowers!!  Lucky me!

Happy Easter everyone!!!!!!  Make sure you eat LOTS of chocolate!!

Crafty Cushion - April Make!

At the weekend, I finally cut into some fancy material that I bought a year ago!  I used some Riley Blake fabric, with some Michael Miller fabric to create a border:

I used this as the front of a cushion cover, and used the border fabric to make the back:

Complete with buttons and button holes!  (I wasn't sure I knew how to do button holes - but I managed it!)

I really love it!  I'm so pleased with how it turned out!

The next pictures aren't in natural light, so the colours don't look quite right, but I'll include them anyway...

(Oh, and I am still planning on doing a giveaway, but I need to think of what to make for it!  I've been a bit preoccupied with leaving my last job on Friday and starting my new job yesterday.  Well, and making my cushion!  But you're not having that!!  ;o)  Mean, I know!)

Colourful!

A post full of colour today...

The above picture is of the colours that I'm using to make my waterlily blanket, previously posted about here.  I've done a few more squares now, as you can see below!

My first plan was to do a flower every other square - but after doing one, I decided to cut back on the flowers, or I would probably have never finished the blanket!!  Therefore there will be a few plain squares between each flower square - for the sake of my sanity!  (They are not too bad, but some bits of the flower are a bit fiddly!)


More colourfulness comes in the form of a print from Caroline Rose.  Yes, I've treated myself AGAIN!!  (I find the 'treating myself as a reward for getting a new job' excuse is really not getting old!  Fabulous!)

I'm sure that most of you read the Attic 24 blog - and will have seen this post.  Well, after reading it I had to go and explore Caroline Rose's etsy shop - and I just couldn't resist this print:

(It's still in it's protective plastic - and I need to find a good frame for it, and a place for it to go!)


To be honest, it was a bit of a nightmare trying to pick which one to go for - I loved all of them!  The one that Lucy of Attic 24 commissioned was very close in the running, plus a few others!


Well, it's late - time for bed!!  Night night...

More Treats!

Thanks for all the positive comments and good wishes - they are really appreciated!  Just one more day of work now, then the new job on Monday - scary!!!


I had a lovely treat in the post today!  A surprise little envelope from my friend Anna, with a little good luck note for my new job, and this pretty crocheted heart to brighten up my new desk!!

It made my day!!  What a nice surprise!  Thanks Anna!


I have also treated myself to some new fabric...

The PiP Studio bowl just wasn't enough - I needed fabric too!!!  ;o)  (I'm getting carried away with rewarding myself now!!)


I actually have no plans for the fabric, I just wanted it!  I'm trying to think of something good to use it for.  Although, knowing me, I will just keep it... waiting forever for a mysterious project that is worthy!!  I'm a bit rubbish like that - I hate to use up my nice stuff, which is stupid I know!  What is the point of having it?!


Hopefully I will get over that madness, and be able to present something fabulous I've made at some point in the not too distant future!

Treat!

It was announced last June that our site was closing, and we were all being made redundant.  (Some of my long-standing followers might remember this!)  Nine months later, the end is here.  I've got five more days of work - my last day being on Friday.  Very sad to be saying goodbye to such lovely colleagues, after four years with the company.

But... I've managed to find a new job that starts the Monday afterwards.  Only a weekend break for me!  I was hoping for a little bit of time off to see friends/family who are at home with children, and to do lots of crafting too of course!  But I'm grateful I've managed to find a new job, and quite excited to get started actually!

On that note - I decided I deserve a little treat!  I thought I'd jump on the PiP Studio band wagon, and bought myself this beautiful little bowl!

So pretty!  I can't stop looking at it!

And here are some tulips from the Lumberjack - I love tulips, they are one of my favourite flowers...

(That was my attempt at an arty shot!!)

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Happy 30th Birthday, Roon! (And Happy 1st Birthday, Blog!)

It is my lovely sister-in-law's 30th birthday today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROON!!!  (Roon is a strange nickname I have for her - that kind of evolved from some nonsensical words I used to add to her surname before she married my brother!  She calls me Loon... which probably explains itself!!)  It is possible I went a bit over the top with the present wrapping and decorating...

Yes, mini paper bunting was involved!  I was really pleased how it turned out - I got quite excited when I finished making it!

And a tissue paper flower...

...adorning a wrapped box, filled with more tissue paper...

...and...PRESENTS!!!

OK, maybe I'm bigging myself up a bit now... but I would be so excited to receive a box of presents like this!!!  I'm getting excited just looking at it up on the side now!!  I can't wait for Roon to see it!  She will love it!

Only one of the presents is handmade... and here it is:

What?!  How boring!  But wait!  That was how it started... a boring black notebook.  But now...

Ooooh prettiness!!  A felt notebook cover!  It's removable, so when that notebook is finished, she can use the cover on another A5 notebook (and she better had - she must use it forever, till the end of time!!!)

I want one for myself, but I'm not sure I can be bothered to make another one.  This is where I will never be able to make money out of crafting - I can rarely bring myself to make two of anything, so I'll never have anything to sell!  Not to mention that I somehow seemed to drag this out so it took nearly all day - I don't know how I do it!  I think I spent a lot of time pondering on the design and gazing at it wondering how it was going to look when finished - I find that gazing is not a very productive activity!

Wow - a lot of pictures in this post!  I think I'd better stop now....!!


(Oooh - I just suddenly thought that my blog-iversary must be coming up soon... had a quick check and it turns out my first post was a year ago today!  So there are two birthdays today!  I will have a giveaway to celebrate a year of blogging, and also reaching 100 followers which happened fairly recently.  Not sure what it will include, and when it will be ready as I've not made anything for it yet, but watch this space!)

Transformations!

Thanks so much for all the lovely comments on the start of my flower crochet blanket, and on the bunting!  We all love bunting!!  :o)


Oh... and I should have mentioned in my last post that the bunting is my March Make No1.  It is also part of my mission to have a pretty, crafty home.  (See 'A Monthly Make' and 'Pretty Crafty Home' in my sidebar).


I have been busy trying to get things decluttered, tidied, organised... and trying to do projects that have been on my list for months on end!


One project involved using this lovely (bit creased!) material:

I started with these two sorry looking fake leather brown footcubes:

I've had these for years, and they are all squished and squashed, and needed their filling topping up.  I've been lightening and brightening my living room over the last 6 months or so, and this dark colour just isn't right anymore!  Not to mention that they barely ever get used and are just taking up space that I don't really have.  I didn't want to get rid of them completely, so I decided to replace these two with...

...this one!!  I made the cube (complete with zip on the bottom for filling) and filled it up using the beans from the horrible brown ones!

Much better!!  This is my March Make No2, and again, part of making a pretty, crafty home!


But... I didn't stop there!  Another job I've been meaning to do is to prettify this cube storage thingy...

Looking dull and dreary... (the fact that it was dark, and I didn't use a flash, didn't help!)


I emptied it ready to get to work:

Then I made backings by cutting out squares of card from cereal boxes, and covering them in lovely wallpaper.  I had a bit of rearrange of my bits and bobs, and here is the result...

I love it!

I've been meaning to do this for so long, and I'm so glad I finally got round to it!


Oh, and if you spotted the little owl and penguin in the top left cube... here they are in more detail:

I made these nearly a year ago.  The owl was inspired by a knitted one made by cupcakejojo, and the penguin then followed!


Right - now I'm off for a girlie afternoon tea with my sister-in-law, at her mum's house.  (Her mum does the BEST afternoon teas, yum yum yum!!!!!)  And I've just realised that my sister-in-law is in every one of the photos in my cube storage thingy!  I do love that girl!!


Bye for now!

Bunting!

Doesn't bunting make you happy?!

The other day I decided that it was crucial that I had some bunting in my living room - so I proceeded with great excitement to make some...

I love it!

I smile every time I look at it!

I just wish a bit more sunshine got into my flat, to show it in better light... but it's my same old moan!!!


In other news, I've been a bit quiet lately as I have been involved in a bit of professional development ready for my pending redundancy... I've been on a PRINCE2 course (PRojects IN a Controlled Environment - bit of a stretch how they got 'PRINCE' from that!)  It's a project management course.  It involved a foundation exam, and a practitioner exam - and I found out yesterday that I passed with flying colours!  It was quite a relief as the practitioner exam was very tricky!!


Now I have more time for crafting!!

New Project!

Oooh, what is this?

A new project!! 


I fell in love with both of these beautiful blankets - this one from Cherry Heart, and this one from Serendipity Patch.  I just had to make one, inspired by the gorgeousness!!

I bought a load of Stylecraft Special DK yarn for it.  It is very reasonably priced, and I've heard lots of good things about it over the blogs.  I thought it was time to give it a go!

I've picked 9 colours, with cream as the border.  I've not worked with so many colours before, so I'm a bit worried they'll not work together.  I wanted it to be pretty and colourful, but we'll see how well it works!
It's going to be a long slow project, the rate at which I crochet (and get distracted!) but I hope to get there in the end!

Thanks for the kind comments about the rabbit from my last post.  My nephew seems to like it - in fact it was the first thing he's ever grabbed and held on to!!!  (That warmed the cockles of my heart!)