Glow event at Bluewater

I went to my first craft event on Friday and had such a blast! These things are always far away day events that wouldn't be up my husband's and little girl's street. I had heard about the Glow event at Bluewater earlier this year as I was invited to teach there but, as it's on my day with my little tot, I decided not to go. Friday came and I thought I would pop in as I had jobs at Bluewater and I grinned the whole time!

I stocked up on healthy nibbles for my baby, milk and planned rest stops but she spent most of the time holding my hand and toddling around as I one-handed pushed the buggy. The Mermaid's Grotto was our favourite- I don't think we could make one pass without popping in and waving to all the fish and stroking the seaweed strands. The life-sized Mermaid and Fisherman are amazing don't you think? I love her hair and false eyelashes!

I met the wonderful Erika Knight who's books I learnt to crochet by and did finger knitting with Hannah on my knee. She is bringing out her own range of stunning wools and individual patterns for downloading which is a great idea. She also said that she's bringing out a new crochet book for Baby patterns which I must get.

I saw the exhibit of costumes from Downton abbey and managed to even quickly stitch my name into the world's longest embroidery- this was tricky as Hannah was again on my knee, babbling away and pretending to sew with the other ladies.

I did buy myself one treat. There was a stall demonstrating how to turn florist ribbon and tape into amazing flowers. The chap who demonstrated had all the right patter and made it look so effortless that you knew it would actually be really hard. He whipped up two flowers so quickly for my girls and spritzed them with perfume ( which is so 1970s). But it looked like something new and a craft I have never done before so I bought into it happily, knowing that I may flop but I would enjoy the process! I bought the starter kit which came with loads of different colour ribbon, tape, dvd of techniques and the special cutting tool. Then I spent a happy couple of hours getting to grips with it all. Guess what? It worked! I love the ones so far and will pop some pictures up when I have made a few bunches. With Mother's day coming up, I know what I'll be making...

It's sewing city over here!

Hello New Year!

It's so nice to have a break from Christmas for a while. I've been having a comfortable January hitting some long awaited projects- several of which I forgot to take pictures for sadly : (

A new hat for me, phone covers for hubbie and sister and lots of over due button-sewing and clothes mending. All these have been made much easier by a long-awaited (and much desired) craft cupboard! It may be small but it's my little space and I love it.

No more hunting for books on the edges of shelves and fishing around under the bed for boxes that never want to come back out unless you lift the darn bed...My buttons are in cute boxes, fat quarters neatly folded and my ribbons are now in a sweet little jar. There is even a bottom cupboard that fits in my sewing machine and larger cloth pieces as I am now getting really good at saving beautiful fabrics from old, worn out and outgrown clothes, buttons and trimmings instead of bundling the lot off to the local charity shop.

These two little Christmas felties are what I made in my spare Christmas holiday minutes. They're both from "Fa La La Felt" (see previous posts) and they have come out so beautifully. This is the kind of thing you can only do when nothing else is pressing as there is a lot of time taken for such a tiny object. They are so worth it now and I am loving how each pattern works up. I will tag my Fa La La projects so you can see how I'm working through this great book.February also sees "Hero Day" at my school. It's my own fault! I've organised a day to celebrate real life heroes past and present and one of the activities is dressing up for the children. I had my costume pretty much sorted until I remembered that Katie was going to need one too! So, I've been pillaging the local charity shops and got loads of cheap fabric and sheets and have been madly cutting and stitching up the costumes. I look forward to sharing these next month- I just hope I can get them finished in time....

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well! I can just breath a sigh of relief and stop the crazy Christmas crochet. No more, nup, nadda, zip, I'm all finished on gifts, wrappings, trimmings and trappings... It's been so long with the work basket out each night that last night's bid for freedom felt sooooo wrong.
Katie's Christmas wrap (the rainbow coloured strip bottom right) was only finished on the 22nd and was causing me so much stress! I could only do it when my little darling was asleep, so, fitting it in with dinner, work and-oh yes- sleep was tricky. But it's done and it's lovely. Thick and warm. Small enough to fit her frame and large enough to use as a small adult wrap will keep it usable for as long as she wishes.
Presents this year seemed to be mainly scarves. This bulky pattern from "Cute and easy crochet" that I talked about last post knocks up so quickly and looks the business.

A last minute gift was this cute pudding. It was a free pattern that came as an email gift from "Inside Crochet" magazine which I was subscribed to. I haven't found many patterns that I would use from this year's magazines, so I haven't renewed my membership. Then this pattern sprung up and it's right up my street. Easy, quick and fun. It's now part of a gift box of handmade decorations for my Mum.
These Christmas projects have now taken my Ravelry page to over 60 projects. Will 2012 see my first 100?? It's a challenge I think I'll go for.

So, Merry Christmas everyone! Have a good holiday and look forward to coming back online after some serious family time!

Christmas is coming...

It's been a whole month since my last post *slap wrist* but I have not been lazy! In fact, it's Christmas Crazy in my work basket at the moment. Where did the year go?? I started so organised with my Christmas Crafty Project in January but had to shelve that due to an overwhelming batch of pregnant friends and family. Now I am in November and my list of jobs seems to be growing instead of shrinking...

Oh well, at least this means that I will have a few posts this month as I frantically pump out projects. This Christmas is turning into a "What can I make with the stash I've got?" kind of year. I've been happily stock-piling lovely wool all year and am trying to work through enough so that I can, once again, close the lid on my huge wool box. This is great for the pennies and means that I am having to read through all my craft books to find projects to match the stuff I've got ( I plan far too many projects in so little time!). I can't wait to take a Crafty Christmas Collection photo of all the completed projects- I may even keep one or two for us this year-Yay!By the way, these patterns (apart from the wrap) came from this gorgeous book. I love, love, love this crochet book! It was one of my birthday presents and may just be one of those books where every pattern is made or planned to be made. I love, love, love this book! I got it as one of my birthday presents this year and just know that it will be one of those rare books where I make all (or plan to make all) of the patterns inside. it's set out into three levels which is great if you want a quicky gift project or something a bit more special.

So, photo explanation is now due, I think. Using left over chunky wool from my earlier baby blankets, I've made a seashell chunky scarf and a lovely shopping bag which will be filled with Christmas sweeties for one of my nieces. I've made a wrap for my Mother-in-law and a delicate scarf for her daughter too! I did take a small Halloween break to stitch this Cat Woman mask for my wonderful minxy daughter (didn't it work up well?) and am now working on another wrap for her too as she has been asking each time I work on one for others!

In between all this is various cards, baby gifts and party presents...I just can't crochet fast enough at the moment. I've also been using crochet and knitting in teaching a Year 5 class about instructions. Quite a few are asking for lessons so I'm sowing some more seeds next week and will keep you posted...A school crochet/ craft group may be on the way!This is why blogging has taken such a back seat as I can't seem to stop long enough to share. I will be good this month and aim for at least 3 posts.

Welcome to a special little lady!

The final baby box is on its way out!

There just wasn't enough time to make all the gifts I wanted to shower on this little darling but I put together a special box with some old, new, borrowed ( a returned book) and even something blue! There's even a cookie for big brother from the wonderful John Lewis.


I love the fabric for this bib and this was the least painful of the 3 that I made. (Left-overs made the phone cover that's in shot). I so wanted to make a big blanket to wrap baby up in but was hinted not to so I snuck in a mini blanket "The Mini Snuggly" which is the same pattern but with soft Sirdar Snuggly wool and a much smaller hook-kind of a comfort blanket that can be replaced if lost!

All other pieces have been dotted around in posts through the year....check them out! It was only when I was unpacking the last box from under the bed that I realised how many bits I've been hoarding. Spreading the cost by over planning definitely works for me. I really must attack the Christmas box now and see what I've got!

Wow. I've been making baby gifts for so long now that Christmas seems just around the corner and I have a list of jobs that keeps getting longer but not really started. Thank the Lord that I started earlier this year with my Christmas Tree project. Even though I ended up dropping my decoration each week idea early due to all the babies, it may well prove my life saver this coming festive season. So, watch out for more Christmas posts on their way.

PS- My typing glitch seems to have resolved itself. Weird?

Camping Madness!

My other half has always been a bit loopy when it comes to camping. So, for those early years of courtship, I had to endure many cold, damp dashes to the toilet block all whilst tripping over invisible guideropes. Don't get me wrong, Ienjoyed those strange trips. Only when camping can you take the entire morning to make an egg and bacon sarnie for breakfast and wash up at a chatty sink area. But the time has past and I happily sit in our tiny warm caravan and beam as the rain pelts down on those poor, mad tenters. My poor husband has been missing it though and is over the moon that our little girl is now happily camping out with him. 4 weekend out of the last 7 have seen my two intrepid explorers grabbing pilows and lanterns to go exploring- it won't be long before she is introduced to the fishing lakes! I have been left with the baby "sigh" and had time in the evenings (Yay!) to do some little crafty jobs. It's been a wonderful time indulging in guilty tv pleasures of X factor and Sci-fi films, late night espresso and having all my craft boxes spread around me in chaos! First on the list was a new school hat for Katie. I wanted a cushy, big, warm, blokey hat that would cover her ears and last a good long time. Well, it does the job ampley as it fits me pretty darn good too!

These two are more gifts. The corsage was for Mum's birthday. I used my leftover bootie wool and some tiny soft grey beads. I accidently stitched the leaves on too far out and, even though it looks beautiful, it ended up HUGE. I mean, my Mum's not tall and she may be in danger of getting lost behind it!

The little felt Humbug is cute idea from a book Mum leant me the other week. It's a very detailed book with wool explored in many intricate forms- not for me though. I liked the humbugs though as you stitch together two squares, going around 3 sides. You stuff the pocket and stitch the final sdie by pushing the corners together to stitch the line that runs across in the oposite direction (does this make sense?)

I'm now working on some more wraps for Christmas as my Step-Mother-in-Law has been admiring my one as well as my litle girl who's been asking for her own since last year. It mean that my birthday money this year was used on wool for other people. I know all crafters will understand this madness- bags of lovely wool! I also got some great craft books which I can't wait to try. So, as the Mad Campers are off again, I will get back to my fun!!

Baby Box number 2 (and other cute stuff)

Another beautiful baby has joined our family and it's a boy!! I must admit that I thought it would be another little girl but that's ok- I'll forgive him as he is so sweet. I hope he likes his goodie bag. Now I can keep working on the last baby due for a while (I hope). I'm trying to save those items for another "don't look at this post" so my final pregnant lady can keep up with my other blog posts whilst still having some surprises in her bag...

These next projects are a catchup from a blog post that seems to have gone missing. It's this darn laptop! The keys have recently developed a glitch, missing every other letter. This makes blogging a real pain in the neck as I have to seriously correct and retype every word (typing each word slowly also does nothing for the flow.)

I've also had issues with my iphone and some of my photos are lost : (. My lovely lunch basket that I made during the summer holiday for a little girls birthday has gone. Such a shame as I was sooo impressed that I managed to whip it all up in a week. There was a yummy cooked breakfast with bacon, sausages, mushrooms eggs and toast, loads of fruit and veg, chicken drumstick, some cookies and cakes and even a cheeky red toadstool ( how very dare I!) Here are the pictures I've managed to find:

These all came from my "Tasty Crochet" book again. It's a great book and makes up some beautiful food with little effort. Great for last minute birthday presents and stocking up my daughters tea party set.