Seems to be working now

All seems to be working now - I'm not sure if it is because I have just downloaded the new Google Chrome but everything seems in good working order and faster too. Off to comment..

Blogger grrrrs!!!

Just a quick one to say that I have not been able to comment on all blogs. It seems to be mainly the blogs that require an additional verification code to comment.You know the one where you can't just click enter at the end but have to actually click on the "post" button. I know a lot of people are having probs at the moment with blogger and hopefully they will get it fixed soon but just sos you know. I am still reading - just not able to comment on everyone's.

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Some stitchy stuff and thanks to KarenV!

Just had a lovely couple of days at my good friend Tracy's house. We had a lovely relaxing time (no kids for me although I did miss them like crazy). We went to the cinema to see the new Thor which was fantastic and then stitched our hearts out the rest of the time. I finished up page 1 of Breaking Dawn HAED. You can see the little pink wing forming.



I am stitching this for my dd - aren't they all for her??? And she loves the way it is turning out. Such an appreciative girl for an eight year old! Just hope she still likes it by the time I have finihsed it. I looked at my last pic update and it was July last year so that is almost a year since I worked on it. Poor girl. The one in the picture I mean hehe.

Before I went to Tracy's I got a beautiful gift through the post from the lovely KarenV - she has a beautiful blog. If you haven't already discovered her then head her way. Karen does the most beautiful pieces of stitchery ever! So a couple of weeks ago (prob less than that), Karen was giving away some bits and bobs she no longer wanted and look what came for me in the post:





Karen had done a little bit of beading in the past and had made this tiny purse necklace. My dd is modelling it for me. She has gone crazy over it! It is exquisite. Beautifully crafted and has a very Elizabethan feel to it which is perfect for me being a big Tudor history buff. So Thank You so very much Karen. I love it and will treasure it for ever!!!.

Now, speaking of dear Karen, some time ago I noticed a beautiful needle keep she had made on her blog and asked her how she had made it and Karen kindly replied and told me all about "finishing forms". I got onto Amy at DSL and ordered a couple and made this up for Tracy as part of her birthday gift. It didn't take long and I just love how easy it was to make up. I popped it into a circular box I had and took it with me. For my first time at using these forms I don't think I did such a bad job! So again I have to say a personal Thank You to Karen for the inspiration and help. Now I really need to make myself one. The design comes from Blackbird Designs Honeysuckle Manor book. Here you can see the front, side and back of it.







Well, that is all for me for now. I have just found out that next Monday the SIL has offered to have the children so me and dh can spend some oh so much needed time together. Yippeeeee! We really REALLY need some kid free time together. I just hope we find something nice to do. Any ideas???

I have been slowly reading and catching up with all your inspiring blog posts. Keep them coming! And also thank you so much for the gorgeous comments that flow my way. I appreciate and treasure every single one of them.

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Oh ETA: I have addded another sidebar thingy to my blog for any recipes I find on fellow bloggers' blogs. If you have one you think I may be interested in then let me know and I'll add it.

Bunting and yarn and lots of colour!

Do you remember the bunting I was making a while back? Well, I am ashamed to say that I had this bunting made and finished and another lot in red, white and blue finished too but never strung up! Finally, motivation kicked in yesterday and I hauled one of the chairs from the garage and lugged it upstairs to pin them up.



The blue ones I hung in the bathroom and I just threaded them onto some pretty stringy stuff. However, I am not quite sure of the way they are hung and may just have to haul that chair back out and try again. They are hung on two walls but I think I need to just double hang them onto one wall.



I made the red, white and blue one for the boy. I was thinking I could turn his room into "american" themed someday and this might just go. I wasn't wrong. After I had sat and crocheted the pieces together, which surpirisingly didn't take long, I took some pins and pinned them to his window frame. I am really super pleased with the result. So is he it seems and he gave me the biggest hug when he saw them.



With the money I earned from selling a few crocheted bits and bobs, I decided to buy some posh wool - that being Sublime cashmere marino silk dk. Deramores were having 15% off and I also got another 10% off from Ravelry so I ended up saving £24 on it. I still spent a lot though - well, what I consider a lot on a mere 20 balls of 11 different colours.



I waited in for two days jumping at the sound of every car door but the postman didn't come. I sat and weaved in the ends on my Jewel cushion and then there it was. The big knock at the door. I threw the cushion down and pegged it to the door and must have looked a right idiot grinning at the postman. I took the parcel and jumped. Literally - jumped. I tore open the bag and let the balls tumble out.



You see, I had not actually seen the colours in real life. I had only chosen them online and was seriously hoping I had done a good job of choosing and that the colours were going to be accurate.



I wasn't wrong. I was lovestruck! The feel of this wool is oh so soft and silky smooth and the colours are to die for. Some were from the baby range and some from the normal range.



So I played with them. I lined them up. The changed them around. Then I turned them around so you couldn't see the labels. I love this yarn.





So I was very good and finished the weaving in of the ends of the Jewel cushion cover before I made a start.

I had been inspired by this blanket here and wanted a similar look/style. The differences are the type and amount of colours and I also did a two round centre in my squares but this is how it is looking at the moment.



Pretty hey? I really love it. It is quick and easy too and doesn't require me to look at any instructions - bonus.

Lastly, I have been a bit of a HAED addict of late and get really stuck into page 1 of Breaking Dawn. It is growing into somewhat of a rotation - a thing that I don't normally do - but I seem to be doing a page at a time and it seems to suit me very well. Other projects have taken a back seat though. Too much to do, to much to do!! Anyway, here's my progress on her:



So that's all from me folks. Hope you have a lovely weekend. I am heading over to my friend Tracy's for a break as it is her birthday and mine coming up next month. See you next week.

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Tea towels!

I got an email from a chap called Al from All Tea Towels a few days ago asking if I would kindly review some of his tea towels for him in exchange for keeping them. Well, we all need extra tea towels and these looked like great quality.

I was not wrong. They are a decent size of approx 20x28 inches and were thick and super absorbant once I had given them a good wash in the machine. They are a cotton and a cotton/linen mix and the company have some fab designs. Here are the ones I chose:





Love this one... Thinking about using it as a table cloth for a small table of mine actually.



And more chocolate!

Yes, two vintage Cabdury adverts and a funky polka dotty one. So there you go. Three new tea towels. If you feel the urge to splurge on some new ones I can thoroughly recommend this company. Delivery is quick too and free in the UK.

I think I might need some more floral ones................

Back soon with a crafty update.

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And the winner is......

Using the traditional method of folded bits of paper with a friendly hand to pick the winner.....



I really wish I could send you all a bag of these yummy sweeties....

So.......

The winner.......



It's Karen from Knitalatte

Congratulations Karen!! Please send me an email with your snail mail address and I'll get them sent off to you very soon. Email in my profile. Please feel free to share them out if you can bear to part with any of them. Some people love them and some hate them!

Guess what?? I have a stitchy update.

I haven't worked on any stitching for about a month or a good few weeks at the very least. But Tracy and I started up our HAED SAL on Thursday night again and I have zipped along with it. So here is my Fragile Heart progress:



The eye was just amazing to do. It has some sparkly Petite braid from Rainbow Gallery in it and it looks amazing! I am planning a trip to Tracy's in a couple of weeks and hope to have this page complete by then. Looks like my stitchy mojo is back! Happy to announce that Lisa will be joining us as well every Thursday night. It is quite a special SAL as we text each other before and after pictures so it makes it all a bit more personal and brings us closer somehow.

So that's all for me for now. I have been drooling over lots of the upcoming crochet books coming out soon on Amazon. There is one with a Kangaroo on the cover and I have been reading this to my boy and he loves it:



Here's the upcoming book....



So I am thinking... BLUE... Kangaroo!! I'm just not so confident that I will be able to make it though. hmmmmm....

Have a lovely week everyone.

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More flowery cushiony goodness!! and a mini giveaway. x

Well well well. I have been busy on the hook as some of you have already guessed. I worked hard at turning those ever so pretty flowers into a cushion over the week. It was quite a fiddly procedure but eventually I got it. The hardest thing was working out which stitch in the back of the flower I was suppsed to work into. I only hope I have done it right and they don't all start to unravel.

So.... do you wanna see???

Okay here you go... my latest crochet Ta daaaaa....



I really am quite skippy with excitement about this. It is a specially ordered item and the recipient wanted blues and purple shades. Some of the shades are slightly more pink than purple but I hope they like it anyway.

Close up:

Skippety skippety. Happy, happy happy!

The Back:



Button edge using vintagey buttons I found for 10p each!



Just one last one???



The pattern is Rosehip's flower squares which you will find if you scroll down my sidebar. I think I will call this cushion Violet Sometimes. I am just a little sad that this is going to be going to a new home. Can I bear to part with it??? It would make such a nice friend for Flower cushion.

So.... I started a new project based on a similar one seen in Attic24 archives. Here's a small start. This is super easy and super quick and I love it. I am using 27colours of Stylecraft yarn and the whole thing just looks like jewels to me so this is going to be called my Jewelled cushion.




Now, if you have stuck with me this long then thank you so much. I notice that I have just reached 400 followers!!!! Woohooooo!!! That is just amazing. It really blesses my little heart to think that so many people are interested in my little space on the web. So that deserves a little giveaway don't you think? Well, I will have a little think and see what I can come up with. I will do a separate post for it soon I promise so stay tuned.

I would however like to do a separate giveaway on this post. In my last post there were quite a few people from abroad (I am in UK) who said they had never heard of chocolate limes!!!!! So I would like to invite readers FROM OTHER COUNTRIES ONLY PLEASE who have never heard of or cannot get hold of chocolate limes to leave me a message on here and I will pick a winner and post you out a bag. If you would like to that is. I mean, I cannot have so many people telling me they have never tried them. I think that is simply awful. They are really yummy. You start with a zingy limey hard boiled sweet and it has a chocolate centre that melts as you get closer to it. So please state in your comment if you would like to be entered to try a bag. Remember - ABROAD ONLY!! No cheating Uk-ers.I will leave this open for a week till the 7th - that is plenty of time is it not?? Open to anyone - follower or not - who cannot get hold of them and would like to try them. Make sure I have your email too if it isn't in your profile.

So stay tuned for another giveaway soon and hope you all have a lovely week. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx