January

I can't believe where this month has gone! I am so sorry I haven't blogged and now, because I have left it so long, I am going to have an extremely long post! Lots of bits of things - this and that. Hopefully it will brighten your day. Feel free to just skim through the pics.

So what have I been up to this month? Well I have been a busy bee, celebrating my ds's 3rd birthday (can you believe he is 3 already???), stitching and crocheting my little heart out as well as trying to keep on top of blog reading. Do you know I am following that many blogs that when I try to add to my list it tells me it is too full to add any more!! So I have been more than inspired by all your lovely blog posts. I love them!

I noticed that quite a few of you had been doing the Crazy 15 challenge. That has been something to see. I have been adding more and more charts to my wishlist after seeing all the lovely ones you lot have been starting. No no no no.. I haven't even been tempted to do that challenge. My life has enough CRAZY in it without adding to it!

I did have a new start though. I decided to break my HAED rule once more and start the freebie SAL they are doing this year. I chose Fragile Heart and here is my start.



I really love this. Big blocks of black filled in with the most gorgeous pinks. Love it. If you haven't seen the picture of Fragile Heart and don't know what it looks like then I am going to surprise you as I progress through it. Watch this space!

And here is my progress on last years HAED SAL Rose SK:



Woohoo a full page completed! This is really coming along and I love stitching on it but I have promised to wait for Tina (no Blog) to catch up before we move on to p2. So that is 3 HAED wips I have on the go now. Shall I make it an even 4???

There were a couple of Christmas gifts I received which I didn't mention in my last post that really deserve a mention.



I got this from my best bud Michelle (no Blog). She bought it for me when we had our trip out to The Nimble Thimble last year. Complete with threads too. I think I am going to stitch this on the green fabric that Tracy bought me.

I also got given this which was a complete surprise from Karan:



One of the charts from off my wishlist. This was such a thoughtful thing to do and I love it. Thank you Karan.

This is my first finish of 2011!




Buttoned up for Christmas Victoria Sampler

32 count Summer Khaki linen Mixture of threads
It was the Buttoned Up chart from our Stitch and Pass it on exchange! I made this for CindyMae who will then stitch it up for Tracy. It was a fun stitch although I agonised over the colours for ages as it didn't give DMC alternatives.

Now, I think that is the stitching part over with and I will turn my attention to my crochet endeavours.

I finally finished a lap blanket which I had been working on for a while. Sooo... here's the reveal:











It measures 36' by 36' and uses the lovely Stylecraft acrylic. It is snuggly and warm and makes an ideal lapblanket. I was thinking of selling it so if you're interested in buying it then please send me an email and I can let you know what I am asking for it. Email in my profile!

The border around the edge of the blanket I found from this lovely book which I bought along with the two other flower ones. I have not tried the flowers yet but the books are sooo lovely.



I can't recommend these books enough. Oh and here's another one I bought myself for Christmas and I let my dd wrap it up for me:



This funky crocheter makes food scarves! T-bone steak, fried eggs, cupcakes, spaghetti bolognese lol. You get the idea. There is a lot of fun to be had with this book and again I can't recommend it enough.

My friend Kathy has asked me to crochet her two boys some blankets and she wanted a rectangular granny - one in blues and one in greens. It was really hard to not go for frilly colours and styles lol. I had to remember, these were for boys! I am using a size 8mm hook and double strands of DK to give it a chunky look. Here's is where I am up to with it so far:



So, dear Kathy, I hope you like what you see so far! The pattern is a really good one and can be found here:

Rectangular Granny

And that's not all the crochet I got up to. Nooooo!! You see this came for me just before Christmas and I had been waiting and waiting for this yarn.



Yay! It's the Lucy pack of Rico Creative Cotton. So I began a bag! But you know I discovered that I need to learn a little bit about colour so although I have made this so far.....



.....I am in fact going to be unravelling it and ordering the colours a little better! Good practice though.

Well I think that's about all from me folks. Sorry again for it being such a long post. I will try to update more regularly and not put it all in one post!

Love and hugs xxxxxxxxx