Busy as a Bee

The last week as seen me inspired to finish off those craft projects that you start and for one reason or another you just dont get round to finishing, you know the UFO (UnFinished Object)

Well I seem to have plenty of them right now. Well firstly I needed to finish my Father in Laws birthday present,  he recently commented that he would like a crochet blanket to keep him warm on an evening as he always feels cold. So here you are, its more than big enough to put over his lap on a cold evening and it keeps you super warm. It looks smaller here but its on a king size bed. Perhaps not the best colours but this is what I already had in and we are been frugal here in this little house right now. 

Friday saw me behind this little love, that was until somehow the foot fell off and it all jammed up. I managed to get it all apart and fixed with the aid of a trusty screw driver. 

This is what I have been making, you may remember this post some time ago. Well I never actually got round to finishing the quilt and it lay in a box for however long. Friday was its lucky day and out it came to be finished into the lovely snuggly quilt.  Sorry for the poor photograph but it proved a little tricky to get a good shot. Anyway this is to be for her 13th Birthday in a few weeks and I am wanting to embroider a name tag for the back but cant decide upon a name for the quilt. Any ideas ?

This is a quick card that I made for a friend of my Daughters for her Birthday recently. I haven't made cards for years despite the amount of card stuff I have in drawers, cupboards and boxes. It was nice to just sit for afew minutes and get this done, I might even have to make another soon. 

Well I have to dash as Sunday evenings get rather busy here. Thank you for reading and please leave a comment to tell me you have been.

Thrilled

Its how I am feeling with this little lot right now, THRILLED... For ages I have wanted to be able to crochet, but due to a lack of time I have been unable to commit to giving it a fair try. I managed a granny square which you can see on one of the previous posts but there was something not quite right. Thank you for your comments and suggestions, yes I was adding some etra stitches in so it was looking a little strange. Anyhow, I think that I have got it right now, have a look at this.................

I have been practising and here is my granny square...
Its not perhaps the best colour but when I went out for wool I only wanted something to practise with so bought this. The wool wont get used for so I have decided to keep on going until I use up all of the wool. We always have a need for blankets in the car so I plan on it been kept in there. I am pleased with it though...
And I have also got the sewing machine out again.

I started this quilt ages ago, you can see here but it never got finished. I have felt really motivated with doing some crafts recently so I got it out to finish. I have all of the squares sewn into strips and I am about half was sewing the strips together. Some of the squares are not quite lined up accurately but I think it is looking so pretty that it wont matter and besides, I have seen worse sewing in some of the so called designer shops for a pricely sum. I also doubt that my daughter will care as she snuggles up in it. I had it in my mind to give the quilt a name as I quite liked the idea, however when I am seeing it sewn together I am not sure if the name I wanted will be right .. I will have to see when it is all done..

What craft projects do you have on the go ?

GOD Bless,

S x

Crochet !

Last year, probably around June I bought myself a crochet magazine complete with wool and was determined to crochet. My Mum showed me how to make a Granny Square, I tried but rather quickly gave it up as a bad job and never really thought about it again (apart from my Mum asking me if I had had another go and been completely envious of both her and Melanie and their crochet talent). Anyway, I cant claim it is my work but here is a picture of the Granny Square Mum made for me.

Today having looked at more of Melanies work I thought I would dust of the crochet hooks and have another go. Here is my version of a Granny Square (looks a little odd if you ask me but I think it is on the right lines).

Here they are both together (I dont know why blogger has rotated my pictures)

Ok so here are my questions for those of you who crochet.

1. Is the tension on my square too tight ? It doesnt look as neat and fluffy (technical terms here) as the other.
2. As the wool was free with a magazine I am sure it would be really cheap wool, would it be better to get a better quality wool ? (although I am sure that my Mum used wool from the same pack so would it be down to tension and lack of experience?)
3. How do I know what hook to use ? Again as this was free wool I dont really know what type it is and have not been knitting long enough to be able to tell the type from 100 yds.
   

If you are still there and havent fallen off to sleep with the lack of excitement please pop over to Melanie and see what she made herself for christmas, tell her to keep posting (more often,ahem) and you never know I may be inspired to make another granny square within the next 6 months, you never know.

One Hundred and Forty

Squares cut out to quilt with.

I asked my dear daughter what she would like for christmas and the reply was

"Something to make my room look nice"

Now this is actually an improvement on previous years where she has just asked for "A surprise".

Now some of this fabric I bought to make her something with years ago and we are talking at least 6 years. It has been put away in the hope that I could think of what to make, only seeing the light of day when I would open the box, look, drool and stroke said fabric and put it away.

Some of the fabric flew all the way from Sunny Australia and the talented Levin as part of a swap, I wanted to use it for something special and couldnt think of anything more special than something for my daughter and some of the fabric is from thrifted embroidered table cloths supplied by Grandma. I am not too sure if I have too many squares but having laid the fabric on top of a normal quilt it looks slightly bigger (thanks for the idea Mum) and taking into account the seams I think it will be ok. I dont think there are any hard and fast rules about quilt sizes are there?

There are 41 days until christmas so really I need to get cracking as there are afew other things I want to make for christmas gifts also. I am still feeling a little under the weather though and dont think that my head will put up with the sound of the sewing maching just yet, so I will have to wait a little longer.

Birthday Gifts

Happy Birthday gifts to take with us to see special people tomorrow.
My homemade gifts challenge is proving challenging but I am enjoying making them. I think it has motivated me somehow to get the sewing machine out or whatever gift I make and getting on with it instead of putting things off and dashing out to the shops at the last minute.
I do owe a gift for my Daddy but as he is understanding he wont mind waiting until it is made.

I am going to tuck little people into their beds and then wait for Hubby to get home, well atleast there is a man who sometimes appears at the breakfast table and I am sure he lived here once over but for some reason someone called "Work" seems to be taking him away from here.
On a good side I get to have the remote and watch my TV without moans of "What are you watching this crap for ?" ha ha ha..

Scenes from the day

Just afew scenes from the day. I am enjoying some much needed rest and relaxation this week. We are on half term holidays so this gives me a whole week off with the children. We have had bloggy meetups with Lucy and Lisa at a local Museum, this involved Hot Chocolate, cake, giggles and laughter. Thank you girls, I had the most wonderful day and cant wait until next time.

Catching afew moments/stitches on my Buttonberry Kit.
Drawing lovely pictures for a special uncles 40th birthday at the weekend.

The want me to stitch these into pillows if I have the time between now and Saturday.

Somtimes I wonder why I so publically announced that there shall be no shop bought gifts this year for birthdays (apart from the books I have stashed away for my Daughters birthday next week). I hope that you are having a good week whatever you are up to.

By the way, the photograph above shows the cardigan that I knit for my daughter, all finished and been worn to keep her snuggly and warm.

More goodies in the post

This what was in the post for me when I came home from work., it was almost too pretty to open. Hop on over to Buttonberry to see their Block of the Month of have a look at their delicious fabrics. I have signed up to receive a different block each month and by Christmas will have a whole wall hanging.

Yummy Love Hearts !!!

Edit: Mum if you read this, click on the word Buttonberry above to be whisked off to lovely fabrics.

S xxx

Crafts and Birthdays.

I have been off owrk today (as ordered by Hubby) as I have an awful cold and I guess sitting in a room with 25 children wouldnt help on the road to recovery.
Anyway whilst I have been sat here wallowing in self pity I have had the chance to surf the net for some blogtastic ideas to craft.

My crafting has become none existent recently although I did sew together the cardigan the other night and as it is the first thing that I have knitted which is not a blanket I am pretty pleased with it. (will post pictures when I can be bothered to find the batterys for the camera).

I was thinking earlier this year to try and make all gifts this year for birthdays and other occasions. There are so many wonderful ideas out there and I feel that most of the shops are full of what can only be described as ....... Well you kinda get the idea, right?
I am hoping that I will get the time to do this and think that it is best to try and plan ahead for what I need so that there is no need to dash out at last minute to get a gift.

I am still thinking about the soon to be 10 year olds birthday. We cant decide what to do.. It is still work in progress, although after today I think I may have some ideas of things to make her. I will just have to have a trip to the fabric shop, oohh the things you have to do to keep them happy .....

Right, off for an early dinner then off to swimming lessons. My son moved from swimming one to swimming two after christmas. we went to his first lesson last week at level two and the instructor said she wanted him moved straight into level three as he was doing so well. He has come on leaps and bounds, he was unable to swim a stroke in September when he started and was terrified of the water and now we jump in and swim and go under the water.

Fathers Day and Kitchens

Happy Fathers day to all the Dads, Daddys and Papas out there. The children took their daddy breakfast in bed and then we got the craft things out and had a little craft session o make their gifts. I remember that as children my Dad always liked the homemade gifts and cards and kept them and I think that they mean more to our family than the shop bought stuff. We printed out the DAD template, cut it out and stuck oictures behind it before sticking it t the card. My son drew the house and we cut out the windows and stuck more little pictures behind. I think that these are going to be taken into wrk to be kept on his desk.

On Saturday night once the children were fast asleep in bed I decided to make the long overdue pelmets for my kitchen windows. The kitchen is quite dark and when I made curtains in the past it made it look even darker...... Soooooo I bought some blue fabric years ago and it has been sat waiting for such a project as dressing up my kitchen windows. All that I need to do now is get a blue blind to go behind it and get rid of the awful blinds that the previous owners left. The embroidered table cloth on the table is one that my Great Grandmother made and the Orchid was a present from Andrews parents and so far I have managed to keep it alive. I can keep plants going in the garden but House plants seem to die off pretty quickly for some reason.

Here is a view the other way to the utility area of the kitchen, I think that I need to get a picture or something on the wall over the sink. For once I think that the kitchen is finally starting to look right, I have changed my mind with it lots of times but I think that this mights be here to stay.

A fairy came into my Garden and left her Magic wand
I think that she also had a snack on my plants.

Scrapbooking and Tea Towels

Today we have spent most of the day in the garden digging over the veg patch and then we took the children to the park on their bikes but I forgot the camera. To save you from looking at a picture of dug over soil and horse manure I thought that I would show you some scrapbook pages that I have been working on. The photographs are not recent as you will see but you cant rush these things. This is my Mother in Law and my Daughter,

b oth the children swimming
Having a walk and bike ride in the snow with dolly of course

These are some towels that I bought recently from Laura Ashley, I feel that they are far too good to dry the dishes and no doudt someone with grubby hands will use them. I have decided that I will probably use them to make a couple of cushions for the Monks Bench in the Kitchen. I dont know how I will do it but that is the idea for now anyway.

I have two very tired children right now, The eldest was sleeping at a friends last night so you can imagine how much sleep they got and so she is sat watching Riverdance, the ther has spent the day digging out weeds in the garden. Daddy told him that he would pay him 10pence per weed, at last count he had over £4.00, either I have lots of weeds or he got lost with the maths somewhere along the line.

Sewing time

Today has been my day off work..HOORAH!!! I was joined by the children who are home from school today as their schools are been used for Polling tations and are therefore closed. I brought the sewing machine own stairs today and happlily sewed away whilst listening to the VOICES of the two little monsters in the other room building some sort of den and then playing a game which involved dogs and vets. I decided to keep away and take advantage of some sewing time. Have a look at what I made.

Isnt she the cutest (we decided that with all that pink she had to be a she). What else could you do with a pair of socks that would bring so much excitment?

Here she is stealing some quiet time to look through some recent purchases from Amazon. Eeek shopping again, I blame the people who recommend these books to me... YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE......

She had a little read

But decided that she would prefer to be sat with her new friends, Chick Chick and Barney... Her name, yes my daughter wants to call her Rosie and my son wants her called Pinky... Any ideas?
I almost forgot I have been challenged to post every day for the month of May. I have no ideas what I will write about without boring you all to death but I always like a challenge. You can find out more over at http://www.nablopomo.com...

Holidays and craft stashes.

It is finally the end of term and I have two whole weeks at home with my own children and no work. Please dont get me wrong, I do love my job but there are days when I ask myself what on earth am I doing. I guess it is the same with any job. Anyhow it will be nice to spend some quality time with my children..

On the crafting side of things, er it is moving S-L-O-W-L-Y... I am still knitting the cardigan for my daughter and to be honest I am growing tored of it. I dont always undertsnad what the pattern is saying and it is in my nature to get cross with it, especially when there are other things I am wanting to get on with. I shall finish it, oh yes I will. I would show you a picture but honestly how exciting can a half knitted front of cardigan be?

Have a look at thie gift from my Hubby, isnt it wonderful? Ok well I like it. I had spotted it but would not normally buy myself something like this so he decided he would do it for me.

I think that I will put it up in the bedroom as it will surely be a magnet for grubby little fingers to touch.


Now when I am in re-arranging mode I tend to organise things around where the craft stash can be stored. When he bought me this I said it would be perfect to store craft things and this was of course met with roars of laughter. When it arrived yesterday my Daughter proudly declared that "It is a good place to put your craft things Mummy", shows you how much he knows.....

Stories and Sunshine

Today has been a much needed day off work, i am looking forward to the end of the week when we start our two weeks holidays. I think that the children could do with the break also. We have so many things that we would like to do but just dont get the time to do it with school and various after school clubs. We have managed to get the after school clubs down in numbers which is good but I am sure that it wont last. This next picture is just to prove that the sun can shine in England, how wonderful it is to feel the heat of the sun eventhough it is through glass and not to mention the gale force winds that are blowing outside.

Big sister is on a school trip until late this evening so we made the most of a little time just the two of us, he is using a wildlife magazine to help him draw a swan. I didnt get a picture of it, he loves to draw but soon gets tired and moves on to something else. He has mountains of energy and I find it hard to get him to burn it this time of the year. When he comes home from school he just want to run around and play but with the weather it has been hard to get him outside in the garden.

I managed to get a couple of frames over the weekend to put the cross stitch pictures in,


I like to have a stash of drawing materials for the children to help themselves to whenever creativity strikes them. Please note however that this is only a VERY SMALL amount of their craft stuff, it is literaly all over the house and garage. Pens, pencils, play doh, paint, paper, books and every other craft thing you can imagine fills every nook of the house.

I wanted to show you a story book that my son has made, it is "The Story's of the Twins" and apparently is a 4 in 1 story book (I will show you one)


One day two twins were playing passies on the beach. Then they,

saw a boat coming towards them.

After that they raced eachother.

In the end it started to rain.

THE END....

I am sure that it will become a classic story to be heard by many many generations to come. Passies is his choice of words and not mine however it didnt feel right to stop his creative outburst by pointing out to him that it didnt really make sense.

Look at what I found !!

I found these two cross stitch pictures I made whilst searching in the loft for embroidery hoops. I made them ages ago, one of them I have dated as 1996 on the bottom of the picture. I remember making them but had no idea where they had gone since we moved to this house 5 years ago. I used to have them framed and hanging in the bathroom of our old house. They appear to be a little creased and I have had them under a heavy book to see if that improves them otherwise I will have to iron them. I think that I will get them framed and hang them somehwere, I will update with better pictures later.


I never did find the embroidery hoops, I have one which fixes to my desk but I cant find the others anywhere. I have placed a sneaky order online to get some more delivered.

Easter Weekend

We have had a wonderful time over the easter Weekend, spending time togethere just the four of us has been a rare treat recently. We started on Friday with another trip to watch the basketball, we won again much to the delight of our son. He is becoming quite the expert at basketball now !!
We have been making chocolate egg cakes, which is becoming quite the tradition now. Isnt it funny how you start to do something without quite thinking about it and before you know it has become quite the loved family tradition.

On Easter Sunday we made the most of some Sunshine and headed for the beach and no matter how cold it is the children just had to have an ice cream, hem hem ok yes I just HAD to have one also.

The sea was quite rough but it is so beautiful to see and listen to. I think that I may always have to live within a short drive of the ocean. It is quite hard to understand how in some parts of the world the land is so vast that people have never seen the ocean. I guess that the advantage of living on a small island is that you are never that far from a beach.

HOWEVER I draw the line at getting into the water on such a day, can you spot the surfer? CRAZY !!!!

To finish off here is the little corner of our living room that seems to have evolved to this.

I have been busy knitting, reading and cutting up fabric to make my rag rug and seem to have built this little corner with all of my things. All it needs is a drink and I may never have to leave. Hope that you all had a wonderful Easter. We have two more weeks and then school closes for two weeks.