Apologies…..

First things first…. I must apologise for not blogging for ages! And it really has been ages 😦

The reason for this is not because I haven’t been crafting, its because life has got in the way a lot. We are currently in the process of packing all our belongings up ready for the move to our very first house next friday. Very excited about owning our own home but equally stressed out about it – just wish I could click my fingers and it would all be moved over – somehow do not think that will happen 😦

Still yet to pack away the craft supplies – I’m determined to leave it to the last minute (because you never know when you might get a few spare minutes to do a bit more crocheting etc!) 🙂

As well as putting our lives into boxes, we have also been busy with wedding plans. Which are coming along nicely now (was not particularly organised to start with!) Invites have now been sent out – just waiting on RSVP’s so that we can organise the seating plan – which I already know will not be an easy task.

The above picture shows a cross stitch card that I did for my Nan’s birthday – stitched it up at pretty much the last minute (good job I have kept a lot of the free kits that I got with magazines!!). It is a Kate Knight design which I am pretty sure it came free with a Cross Stitch Crazy magazine.

I have also been crocheting (still massively addicted to it :)). However, I forgot to take photos of a couple of things I hooked up before I gave them away – one being a three eyed alien toy and the other being a bunny rabbit complete with a pompom tail (first time I have ever made a pompom – took a while but turned out much better than I expected).

I did, however, remember to take a photo of one of the things I crocheted up which is for a new baby that is due to arrive soon……

I used a pattern that ‘HodgePodge Crochet’ posted a while back – it is called Baby’s First Bunny and you can find the post here. I bookmarked it ages ago because I thought it was so cute but did not have a reason to crochet it…..until now! It was so very easy and quick to crochet – the instructions are very easy to follow, will definitely be making more when the time comes 🙂

I am hoping to blog again before the big move happens (and also before the internet gets turned off – will be a few weeks without it 😦 how will I survive not being able to look at my favourite crochet blogs – oh yeah, I know, I have the wordpress app on my iPhone, no excuse to be moody then 🙂 🙂

Ta Ta For Now…..

Miss C xx

Peppa Pig – My Own Version

I searched for quite a while for a crochet pattern of peppa pig, but could only really find a knitting pattern. Since my knitting skills are not quite as good (or as quick) as my crochet skills, and I did not have the time to try and convert the knitting pattern to crochet….. I decided to make it on my own 🙂

And here she is! I am really pleased with how it turned out. Think I will have to make her brother George too!

My little nephew absolutely adores watching Peppa…. ‘more peppa’ he keeps saying 🙂 So this is for him. I hope he likes it as much as I do!

When searching online for crochet patterns, I get a little miffed when I see lots of toys for kids which are absolutely amazing and ones that I know my nephew and PR’s nephews would love, yet they are knitting ones only. Must try and convert them to crochet I think. Fireman Sam and Postman Pat are the top two next to try and crochet. Wish me luck 🙂

Miss C xx

Squiddly Dudley

 

This is Dudley. Dudley is a sailor; he also cooks in the Royal Navy. He is extra special because he can work faster than anyone else due to his eight hands!

His speciality is curry and all the other sailors love him because he tells them really funny jokes – ‘Oh Dudley, you are so funny’ they often shout!

…..a little present for my nephew 🙂

Miss C xx

A Late Easter Post

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry I have not posted for a while…. two weeks I think! What have I be doing you might be thinking?

Well, we went away for a week to Cornwall over Easter – stayed in a lovely cottage with my brother and his family, did lots of lovely walks along the coastline, ate fish n chips, ice-creams and watched all the little ones crab fish around Padstow Harbour. Wonderful!

And I even managed to do a bit of crochet whilst on holiday! Yay! I have also gained two crochet students – my Sister-in-law and nephew – I’ve got them both ‘hooked’ 🙂

Prior to our Easter holiday, I managed to make the chicks you can see above. A mummy and a baby chick 🙂 Loved making the mummy chicken – might have to make a daddy one too!

I managed to make a few more granny squares on holiday for my Morocco inspired blanket, however I don’t feel like I am making as much progress as I wanted. Partly because I am really cracking down on our wedding plans now (ordered my dress on Saturday :)) and also because I keep adding projects to my to-do list!! I am so bad – can’t help looking at other projects (and not just crochet at that!), especially small projects as I like it when I see the finished result so quickly ( which is a bit of a life-saver what with my large crochet blanket project on the go).

Speaking of to-do lists, I have a few more crochet amigurumi’s added on to it, a cross stitched card, a crochet present for a new baby, and a cross stitched cushion – these are the most important projects at the moment but there are many more on the list! Think my blanket will be pushed to the back for the time being. Boo Hoo!

My granny squares so far:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tower of squares at the back of the photo are the ones I did a while ago which I posted about, and the others are the ones I completed on holiday – not sure if you can see from the photo, but the front six are a slightly different design. The design is called ‘Criss Cross’ and is made fairly similarly to the original granny – entirely treble stitches. More tails to weave in now…….

Nearly finished another amigurumi, so will be back soon! 🙂

Miss C xx

A Friend For Oscar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oscar has a new friend!

Meet Alan the Lion. He plays saxophone in a jazz band. He likes to listen to indie and rock music on his iPod – he also taps his foot to ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’.

It only took me an afternoon to hook up Alan’s body, however, his mane took all evening (just finished it around midnight last night!), but I do love his mane! If you look closely at his tail you can see a small tuft of hair there too 🙂

Now that I have made two of these cute little amigurumi animals, I decided to browse (!) eBay for some safety eyes. Managed to order quite a few pairs for only £2…. bargain! So, watch this space for more of these little cuties!

Now a quick update on my Morocco inspired blanket – have roughly planned out how many granny squares I need of each of the three different designs I am doing and all the times are nicely weaved in on the ones I have done already – think I have around 30 or so done. Still a way to go though! Must get my hook on 🙂

Hope you are all enjoying the weather

Miss C xx

Other Half’s Little Present

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meet Oscar the baby Panda! Oscar doesn’t like to eat bamboo – instead he loves popcorn! His other hobbies include chatting on Facebook and playing online poker 🙂

I made little Oscar for my other half as he likes pandas! Unfortunately I don’t have any safety eyes so instead I did a group of French knots with 2 strands of embroidery thread. The black and white parts of his eyes and nose are made from felt and since Oscar is a boy, I had to have a blue ribbon for him. I also decided to make a little name tag for him from blue card – can’t have people forgetting his name can we?

I wonder who else will accompany Oscar – he’s a bit lonely at the moment I think – plus he can’t spend all his time and money on Poker! Naughty little Oscar 🙂

Hope you like him as much as I do!

Miss C xx

Crochet Headband

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a small amount of purple yarn left so decided to make something small and quick…. and this is what I came up with! A crochet headband/ear warmer. 🙂 However, it’s not really appropriate at the moment what with the lovely weather we are having! Oh well……

As you can see from one of the above photo’s, I have added two buttonholes to one end of the headband and then attached a button to the other – so that the headband can be pulled tighter if wanted. I crocheted the flower very similar to that of the blooming flower I did for my gadget cozy previously, except the centre of the flower is slightly different. When I attached the flower and put the headband on, I realised I had sewn the flower a bit too close to the centre of it – so I think I will remove the flower and attach closer to the side of the band.

This headband took approximately 3 hours to crochet including the flower (whilst watching TV so was probably less really), and about 10 minutes to sew flower/button and weave in the ends.

I’ve managed to use up one of my purple yarns, however I do have another – well, purple is my favourite colour after all 🙂

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend and hopefully the weather stays nice for us in England. Off to a wedding fayre on Sunday – slightly excited already!!! Hehe

Miss C xx

p.s First post with a glimpse of me in it! Bleurgh 🙂

My Birthday – 19th March

Above is a picture of the crochet/embroidery books I received for my birthday! Aren’t I a lucky girl?! So many things I want to make but I just don’t know where to begin! PR brought me the super cute crochet book as he knows I love to make little crocheted animals etc (think he wants me to make him something out of it though 🙂 ). Was very spoilt for my birthday by PR as he also brought me a Kindle and a voucher to buy some books for it – I was allowed to open this present early as he knew I would want it for our little trip away (see below), so I actually got to open it 3 days before my birthday – how naughty! 🙂

Also for my birthday, PR and I went to Edinburgh for a couple of nights. I absolutely love Edinburgh – there’s just something about the place, I can’t quite put my finger on it though! Our hotel was lovely if a little far out of the centre for my liking though (still struggle to walk long distances due to my rubbish knee at the moment), but certainly could not fault the service we had. We went to Edinburgh Castle, did an underground tour called The Real Mary Kings Close – where you get to walk the hidden streets underneath the Royal Mile and see where people used to live back in the 17th century.

We also had two lovely meals out, sampled some traditional Scottish Haggis and had a little whisky each (whisky certainly is not our drink of choice but hey we were in Scotland so we had to have some 🙂 ). I am a huge Ian Rankin fan and so had to frequent the pub in which his character, Inspector Rebus, spends many of his evenings drinking – The Oxford Bar. The night of my birthday we spent in a Whisky Bar listening to some live traditional Scottish music – The Whiski Bar – really was a great atmosphere.

Scott Monument is the largest monument to a writer in the world. It commemorates Sir Walter Scott.

The Oxford Bar - both Ian Rankin's and his fictional character Inspector Rebus' watering hole 🙂

So, you can probably guess that I have had a wonderful birthday with some lovely gifts. Cannot wait to sit down later and look at all the beautiful projects in my new books. Will definitely upload some photos soon of projects that I think you may like to see.

Miss C xx

Beautiful Blogger Award!

What a lovely surprise I had on my birthday (Monday), not only did me and PR go away for a few nights to Edinburgh, but I have been nominated for the Beautiful Blogger Award! I was nominated by Creative Pixie because we both encourage each other’s love of all things crafty! How lovely 🙂

It is a wonderful concept where bloggers nominate their favourite blogs for the award.

The rules are:

1. Thank the person who nominated you – ‘Thank you so much for nominating me – was a lovely discovery on my birthday! I have thoroughly enjoyed following your blog from the beginning and  your lovely comments on my blog are greatly appreciated’ 🙂

 2. write a few interesting (?) facts about yourself.

• I work as a Staff Nurse on a very busy surgical ward looking after Head & Neck Cancer patients and also Breast Cancer patients.
• I am getting married on October 12th 2012 to my best friend. (Awww 🙂 )
• I like rock and metal music.
• I used to swim competitively  for my home county and won many awards for fastest time in my age group.
• My eyelashes are so long they touch my glasses.
• I have a habit interrupting others when talking.

3.paste the award on your blog – see above!

4. link the person who nominated you for the award – http://creativepixie.wordpress.com/

5. nominate up to about 5 of the blogs you like with links to their sites.

These are some of the blogs I like to read and have nominated for the Beautiful Blogger award:

• Made By Patch – love the fact that she also has a huge passion for beautiful fabrics and yarns like me! http://madebypatch.wordpress.com/
• The Little Room of Rachell – love her ripple blanket. http://thelittleroomofrachell.wordpress.com/
• Rambling Designs – I absolutely love her crochet tiny top hat! I want one 🙂 http://ramblingdesign.wordpress.com/
• Sheri Crochets – has made some absolutelty delightful granny sqaures http://shericrochet.wordpress.com/
• The Coffee and Crafts Chronicles – love everything about this blog http://thecoffeeandcraftschronicles.wordpress.com/

 

A Scrap Yarn Project

 

After realising I have some yarn scraps to use up, and the recent purchase of a Sat Nav, I thought – why spend lots of money buying a case to hold my gadget and to keep away the scratches, when I can make one! Yay! Project!

I had made a small version of the blooming flower featured on Attic 24’s cushion project yesterday morning and so I knew I definitely wanted to incorporate this on my little gadget cozy!

So I began by measuring the width and height of my gadget and then chaining to roughly the same size as the width (think I actually added an extra chain just so that it was not too snug) and then joined to form a ring. Using double crochet only, I crocheted the corresponding height measurement but adding a couple extra rounds to fit nicely. To form the bottom of the cozy, I worked double crochet out of the front loops only for the first round (to form a defined edge) and then continued normal double crochet for two more rounds with some decreasing in the corner stitches – finally slip stitching the two parts of the bottom together to form a nice flat seam.

I then joined my yarn back to the top as I realised I wanted a tab top so that the gadget would be nice and secure. Again, double crocheting only along one edge of my cozy for two rows and then decreasing two stitches at either end to form a graduated tab. To make the buttonhole, all I did was chain 3 and miss out 3 stitches and then continuing the double crochet row. Here is the front side:

Obviously had to add a lovely purple button to it – I just love rooting around in my buttons jar, I always forget that I do have some lovely buttons that I brought in a little vintage shop in Dinan, France. Ooohh, reminiscing about the beautiful lace trims, ribbons, and buttons this lovely shop had – will definitely have to venture back to the lovely medievel town, Dinan – especially seeing as that was where PR proposed last year 🙂

Anyway back to the project……. where is the blooming flower you might ask?

Here it is! On the back of the cozy 🙂

I’m pleased with this useful and cheap little cozy – I love it when you make something so very useful yet it cost you pretty much nothing (used up small amount of yarn and only a small amount of my time – not that time bothers me as I enjoyed making up my own little pattern for it!)

Hope you like it, and I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Happy Mother’s Day to you mummy’s out there in the blog world – hope you get spoilt.:) I shall be spoiling my Mum tomorrow but then equally I shall be getting spoilt myself as it is my birthday on the 19th and I will only get to see my parents tomorrow. I’m heading nearer and nearer to 30 years old! Eeek 🙂

Miss C xx

 

Japanese Lanterns

Yesterday I finished off making these cute little Japanese Lanterns. They really were so quick to make. I found the pattern on Etsy in a shop called ‘The Itsy Bitsy Spider‘. You can find the listing here.

On the white lantern is a kanji character meaning ‘strength’ but you could add a different kanji or even flowers if you wanted to. I love the little cherry blossoms on the red lantern – perfect symbol of Japan I think.

Whilst making these little lanterns, a news story came on the TV and I suddenly became aware that it had been a year since the Japan Tsunami! So I definitely thought that these were a fitting project to do – plus I thought they looked rather cute 🙂

And don’t they look great next to my little Kokeshi Doll:

Having a very small break from my granny square project as I started a very much needed but very quick project last night – details and photo’s to follow very soon! 🙂

Miss C xx

My Morocco Inspired Crochet So Far….

This is my progress so far on my Moroccan Granny Squares. As you can see the colours are going to be splashed throughout the entire project. The new colours that arrived recently were the rust colour and the orange.

In the above picture, you can see the rust coloured yarn a bit better (next colour after the yellow centre). I think this colour is particularly Moroccan, don’t you think?

You may have noticed from my previous post about this project, that I initially started doing very different square designs – but very quickly (thankfully), I realised that it was proving quite difficult to get each square exactly the same size and so I thought that the different colours was enough to make the project unsymmetrical which is how I want it.

Still quite a lot more squares to do so had better get cracking!

Happy Monday fellow bloggers…

Miss C xx

My First Flower Arrangement

It must be all this wedding planning that made me want to get some flowers for my lovely vase that I got for Valentines Day (the roses did not last long :(). Yesterday I brought two bunches of daffodils – none of the flowers were open when I brought them but by the late afternoon a few had started to open. This morning – they are all pretty much open and add a lovely bright yellow springness to our dining room!

So this morning I hobbled up the road (still have problems with my knee :() to a lovely little flower shop called The Red Flower Barrow. I have always driven past this shop and thought what a lovely little shop it looks. The florist was lovely and very helpful – I love it when people are very enthusiastic about something they love – a bit like me with my crafty stuff! So after 20 odd minutes going through different types of flowers, I walked away with everything I needed to make my own flower arrangement.

Here is what I brought:

 

I have pink Gerberas, purple Tulips, purple Aster, Eucalyptus and green Leather Leaf.

Now here’s hoping I can do them justice and arrange them nicely!

 

 

 

 

 

After fiddling with what height I wanted for the arrangement and where to put each of the Gerberas and Tulips – I was finally happy to start adding the filler flowers – the Aster, Eucalyptus and the Leather Leaf. Proved a little difficult to get it all balanced right as the Tulips were remarkably heavy compared to the other flowers and the oasis kept tipping forward because of this.

So, after a few little distractions (Dottie and Lillie decided they wanted to sniff every single flower and brush past my arrangement constantly!), my first ever flower arrangement was finished!

What do you think?

Not bad for my first attempt don’t you think?

Think it looks lovely in my butterfly vase – thank you PR for your excellent choice 🙂

Miss C xx

Craft Time Of The Non-Hook Variety.

Today I decided to try and make a good stab at our wedding plans. I have many (probably around 20!) of magazines similar to that above. All of which have been stuffed into a drawer for the last 4 or 5 months.

So, out came the glue stick and scissors to make mood-like boards for wedding ideas:

Most of the ideas I seem to be drawn to are all of the colour purple or variations of. Found a lovely picture of a long cascading bouquet in purple – but think a bit of ivory would help break up the ‘purpleness’ of it.

I also spent some time a few days ago looking at different types of ivory fabric – but then stumbled upon some lovely ivory lace 🙂 I must admit, I was in my element!

My Purple (with a couple of exceptions) flower board:

Sorry this next photo is not that great, but I just had to show you this dress – personally don’t think the photo does the dress justice as the fabric is heavenly! I love the tulle material over the arms. I don’t think it is a dress that I would wear as don’t think it would suit me but that does not mean I can’t drool over the fabric does it?? 🙂

This next picture might make you realise just how much mood-boarding I have done today – whoops, out of glue!

But at least the wedding drawer will now be tidy and organised (well, sort of…. for now anyway!) Off to a wedding fayre in a few weeks so will probably have more ideas/plans to add to the ever growing stash of magazines, business cards, leaflets etc etc. I’m definitely becoming a firm believer of too much choice is a bad thing!

Ahh...tidy! For now 🙂

 

Well, I think that’s enough about weddings, so tomorrow its back to my lovely hook and my crochet project. A few more granny squares have been done for my Moroccan inspired project – new yarn colours turned up so have a few more with different colours in which I think look more ‘Moroccan’. Photos to follow another time…..

Miss C xx

 

A Touch Of Moroccan Crochet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pictures above are what I have used as inspiration for my next crochet project. As me and my fiancé are getting married in October this year and that our honeymoon will be spent exploring the sights of Marrakesh, Morocco, I thought it would be nice to make something that perhaps can reflect on this very special year for us.

As you can see from the above photos, typical Moroccan colours mainly include browns, golds, deep reds, and orange. Sometimes a splash of different colours such as bright blue, pink and purple can also be seen in some art pieces.

So, bearing this in mind (and also what colours I have in my yarn stash 🙂 ), I have decided to try and use very similar colours as above but with some brightness as well – well I hope they will appear Moroccan colours when it’s all finished!

From all this inspiration you may be wondering what it is I shall be making – well, since I have started crocheting (which to be honest, has not been very long at all) I have never done a granny square! Well the time has come 🙂

I have decided that whatever my granny squares will be made into at the end, I did not want the design to be symmetrical – equally I wanted splashes of colour in some of the squares but then not others (hopefully this will turn out how I imagine, eek!). So far I have decided to do 6 (maybe five though) different designs which I will then duplicate to make the required amount.

And now for the sneak preview of what I have done so far – please bear in mind that I have not blocked any of the squares yet (also have not weaved the tails in – really must do this as I go along!). Here they are so far:

The above photo does not really do the colours much justice – the peach colour looks pink in this photo! I have actually used deep red, brown, blue, mint blue, yellow, peach and cream. So what do you think so far? The next few I am going to do are going to be more of the browns, cream and yellow. I also need to decide what colour to use to join them together – am currently awaiting delivery on two colours – a rust colour and orange but I don’t think I will use these two for joining. However, time will tell 🙂

They measure 5 inches squared – however some of the patterns I have are for ones much larger than this so I have had to improvise on some of the finishing rounds. I’m not completely happy with a couple of the squares so may not use them in the final product. Hmm, what to make these into? I’m thinking maybe a blanket – perfect for snuggling under when we are back from our honeymoon 😀 that’s hoping I finish in time for then!!

Hope you like my first attempts at granny squares!

Check back for more updates soon,

Miss C xx