Restocking

After a much needed hiatus, I'm slowly getting back into the business frame of mind. This week has seen me add a few new memo board designs to my Etsy shop and edit more images  for items to be added in the next week or so.

It's been a lovely month off from thinking about things, and I really needed it after such a hectic end to 2011. Eight craft fairs in eight consecutive weekends plus all the regular Christmas prep and normal life as well meant that once Christmas came, I downed tools and refused to pick them up again until I was good and properly ready to do so! I can feel that time is approaching so I'm easing myself into it!

These are the new memo boards I've added to the shop and you'll note that they're not all 'girlie' so if you're needing a gift for a guy in your life, why not take a look? Click the pic to buy online!

 

Cute dinosaurs

 

Fishing boats

 

Colourful birds

 

Pink vintage roses

 

Planets and outer space

Crochet bunting

It seems bunting is ' all the rage' these days. Everyone's doing it! I got the Cute and Easy Crochet book from the library the other week and got straight into the pattern for crochet bunting which I was keen to make. I didn't follow the pattern's colour suggestions as I wanted to make use of the random odds and ends of wool that I've got in my stash. It was such a quick and easy project and you could make some seriously long bunting if you got too carried away!

Here's how mine turned out

Nine flags in total but there are so many more colour combinations that I could do with these yarns!

I have ideas for creating my own designs of bunting and I think people will be getting these as pressies this year...!

Finished WIP: Ribbed cushion

A while ago I posted about a ribbed cushion I was working on, well it has been finised for a week or two now but I've been waiting for a bright sunny day to take some pics. So far that hasn't happened so I grabbed the 'big camera' and had a go at getting at least one good pic. It's amazing what a difference a DSLR can make over a bog standard point and shoot handbag-sized camera!

Clartered in cat hair - the cats love this one!

The ribbed side came out rather well but I didn't have enough to make the other side the same. So I pondered on what to do and decided to make it a basket weave pattern in a chunky cream. 

 

This stitch looks tricky but it's actually quite simple. I saw a great tutorial on Pinterest which got me off to a good start. I think  I will be making blankets and all sorts of other items with this stitch!

It's a nice chunky cushion which has become a firm favourite on the sofa. The only problem is that cat hair sticks to it and refuses to come off!

Random Pics

Is it me or is January a really long month? On the one hand this is good because I decided to give myself a (much needed) break from a number of things in January. But on the other hand, January is rather a dreary month and at times it feels like it's just dragging on. Shouldn't complain really, as the weather has been quite nice considering the time of year. Cold, but mainly sunny so it's staving off those January Blues everyone keeps talking about.

I've not been doing much crafting really, but there are a lot of ideas ruminating in my mind and once these have formed themselves into something, I'll be sharing what my plans will be! Most evenings and a lot of the weekends so far this year have been spent curled up on the couch watching the telly box and doing some crochet. Utter bliss and such a change from the hectic few months I've had since October! I did want to share a random selection of photos which kind of sum up the goings on of the last couple of weeks.

Teaching myself to basket weave crochet

Fatty Bums admiring my new knitting bag

The nicest shop bought biccies I've tried in a while

Finished my basket weave crocheted cushion

Found a box of Vienetta in the freezer I didn't know was there!

Chocolate cake in a sandwich shaped tin

Teeny weeny pom poms

Rediscovered an old favourite

Normal service may resume shortly, I'm not sure yet. I'm quite liking taking a break from it all and pootling about doing nothing in particular.

WIP: Ribbed cushion

After spending the run up to Christmas making things for gifts, I was ready to make a project for myself and after a bit of pondering I settled upon making a crocheted cushion. I've been inspired by one of the girls from Knit and Natter who has made a number of ribbed cushions and so I rooted about in my stash to see what I could find.

I had some lovely dark brown coloured DK (altho it looks purple in the pics for some reason) in my stash which is actually from my Granny's stash that I decided to double up to make it chunky. This meant I spent a couple of hours unwinding and untangling the wool and then reballing it ready for some hooking. It's amazing how therapeutic playing with tangled wool can be...

Ribbed double crochet

Bubble wanted to help model the cover

Squeak was too busy to help...

I don't have enough of this wool to make the second side, so I've decided to make the other side with a cream chunky wool which I grabbed at Hobbycraft over the weekend (£2 per ball!). To make things a bit more interesting, I'm making the cream side using the basket weave technique which another of the girls from Knit and Natter showed me. It might just be my new favourite!

What are you working on at the moment?

Making space

I got some great kitchen related pressies for Christmas, including a refurbished Sunbeam Mixmaster (from 1954!) which Mr PC repaired, resprayed and even put my name on!

And I got a brand new food processor and several cake tins and cake decorating equipment. 

On Boxing Day I looked at all my new stuff and wondered where on earth we were going to put it all! Our kitchen is tiny boutique and space is at a premium! Cue Mr PC who suggested he could build some extra drawers underneath the existing cabinets. After a couple of days of measuring, sawing, screwing and banging this is what he made:

All the various attachments for my mixers and processors fit in here!

A bits and bobs drawer

This one's full of cake tins!

The top drawer here is one we put in a couple of years ago and it houses the baking trays for the oven

Three fab drawers (and yes that really is the size of my kitchen!)

How about that then?! What genius use of otherwise wasted space! We can't believe it took us this long to think of it!! In an ideal world we would have a much larger kitchen or at least we would refit it so the cupboards are better distributed but we haven't won the lottery yet. In the meantime these drawers will make life easier!

And on the subject of kitchen storage, I thought I'd share a pic of a pan rack which we installed as soon as we moved in. It's great for hanging the pans and all the random things that don't fit in the cupboards! When you have a piddly small kitchen, every inch of space is needed and this does it perfectly!!

It's all over!

Christmas was wonderful in our house, lots of great food and spending time with friends and family. Lots of chill out time relaxing with nothing but telly watching to do. And lots of lovely pressies to keep us occupied for a good while!

All the decorations are packed away now and the house has resumed to normality. The living room feels HUGE without the tree in it! This always surprises me every January, I like it! Aside from the odd pine needle here and there, there are only two traces of the Christmas season left:

Poinsettia which is rapidly losing its leaves

Chocolate money soon to be scoffed!

The weather here is atrocious at the moment and I'm sitting here in the middle of the day with the lights on because it's so dark. The garden is so bare it's a depressing sight, and the Christmas tree has been unceremoniously dumped out there til we figure out how to get rid of it.

On the plus side, I still have loads of great telly to watch on the Sky+ box and January always brings new series of some of my fave programmes, so I'll be snuggling with my blankets and crochet in front of the goggle box for the next few weeks!

Hope you had a lovey festive season and the return to reality has not been too hard on you this week.