Love........

Sorry I couldn't resist taking a snap of this heart in my coffee today. I see loads of blog posts dedicated to finding hearts in everything but I never seem to so when I saw this I just had to snap it. 

See....

Yes I guess you have to look closely to see it! This was my lovely latte - a weekly treat from Libby's which you can read all about here. This time, served up with this little beauty!

Now to be fair, I did not eat all of it by myself - way too much - so I shared it with my other half. We have made it a weekly treat to go to this little cafe? Bistro? Bakery? I'm not sure what you would call it. However, this week, we have the Littlies off school so we thought we would take them too and see if they liked it. They both had huge slabs of Rocky Road and ate every last morsel. 

I thought I would do a quick update on my blanket situation. I have made all the squares for my willow blanket and here is how they look. I was thinking of joining them like this - kind of winding the colours together snake like back and forward but now I am not sure and think maybe I should just go random?

I began to join them using the continuous flat braid join which looks fantastic but I ran out of yarn on the second row! Grrrrrrrrrr so I might unravel, buy more yarn and then try a random style. What do you think??? I really love them. Such pretty squares. I really enjoyed making every one of them. I thin it will make a nice sized blanket once I have joined them and done a border around. Yes I will have to think of the prettiest border for this.

I also thought I would send you a quick update of the Elmer blanket I am in the process of making. This seems to have been going on since forever as I have left it and picked it up and left it and picked it up etc...

Rather rubbish pic of it but you get the gist of it right? I think I could be ready or almost ready to do the border on this one as I am plain getting bored of it. I don't think it's going to make double bed size and so may be relegated to the couch or the kids' beds. Not decided yet. I promise to take much better pics once it is complete. 

So that's me for now. I will update soon on the Elizabeth Lillie sampler as she is coming along nicely too. 

Thanks for reading today. 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Come Spring Come...

The Spring

BY THOMAS CAREW

Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost

Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost

Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream

Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;

But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,

And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth

To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree

The drowsy cuckoo, and the humble-bee.

Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring

In triumph to the world the youthful Spring.

The valleys, hills, and woods in rich array

Welcome the coming of the long'd-for May.

Now all things smile, only my love doth lour;

Nor hath the scalding noonday sun the power

To melt that marble ice, which still doth hold

Her heart congeal'd, and makes her pity cold.

The ox, which lately did for shelter fly

Into the stall, doth now securely lie

In open fields; and love no more is made

By the fireside, but in the cooler shade

Amyntas now doth with his Chloris sleep

Under a sycamore, and all things keep

Time with the season; only she doth carry

June in her eyes, in her heart January.

17th century poem just to brighten these oh so dreary days. 

Images courtesy of Google. 

Feast your eyes.....

There's a little bakery/cafe not too far from us so we have taken to driving there every Thursday on my day off. It is called Libby's and it has the most amazing atmosphere not to mention the fantastic food baked in the cellars of the premises. They specialise in cakes and breads but do all sorts of meals. It is in a place called Marple Bridge in Stockport, Cheshire so if you ever find yourselves ending up nearby then it is definitely worth checking out. The marble brownies are to die for and the best brownies I have ever tasted. 

Okay, well guess what? I think my stitching mojo has come back from its travels and is ready to rock! Finally, finally stitching has come back into my heart and I am really enjoying working on my Elizabeth Lillie reproduction piece. I think starting a cross stitch after school club has helped tremendously. I began to rummage through all my charts that I hadn't seen in years and started to remember all those charts I had bought but never stitched. What a waste! Well, it spurred me on and got me going and now I just want to stitch all day! I wish I could actually but those days of stitching all day long have truly gone but I still have a few evenings and the odd weekend. 

Sorry for the crumples but you can see I am making great progress on this piece. I have also joined an exchange! Yay! I haven't done one in years so I am quite excited at the prospect. Whilst rummaging through my stash I came across all the cards and exchanges I had received through the years and it was very moving actually. I really do cherish all those wonderful stitched pieces. 

Next up is a crochet shawl I made using King Cole Riot DK. The pattern is the South Bay Shawlette which is a free pattern on Ravely. It is only a two row repeat and once you get it into your head it is very simple. I love this shawl. It is so snuggly and warm and the colours just blend beautifully. I made it quite big and used two and a half balls on it. I made up the edging myself based on one I had seen and I am really pleased with the result. 

So that's all from me for now. Hopefully in the next post I will have finished my Willow Squares blanket. All the squares are made up now and just need to be joined. It is going to  look gorgeous - I hope! 

All else is well - except the British weather, yack yack!!!!! When will it stop raining??? Hope you are all doing well too lovely people. Catch up soon. xxxxx

Seriously??

What? It's almost a month into 2014 and I haven't posted? Really? Goodness me. All I can say is time is flying by. I've been working a lot and crafting and going new places so I will be back with an update soon. Just didn't want precious readers and friends to be worried. Back soon. Promise. xxxxx

That Christmas post...

Well, I think this will be the last post of the year to wish all my blogging friends, readers and followers and very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

We have a new member of the family! We rescued this darling 9 month old kitten/cat from the RSPCA. She seems to have settled in fine with the exception of the other cat who has taken an instant dislike to her and keeps hissing at her. Hopefully this will stop soon. She is so friendly and cuddly. The name she came with is April but we might change it. Suggestions have included: Brandy, Toffee, Nutmeg, Marmalade, Sandy, Whisky. What do you think she looks like? Should we change her name? Keep as is?

So are we all looking a lot like Christmas now? I thought I would share a few pics with you. It looks pretty much the same as last year to be honest with a couple of minor changes. Less pink on the tree this year and more traditional colours. I must admit, having the decorations up really does something to the atmosphere here. Everything seems calmer and an excitement hangs in the air. Christmas really does seem to have crept up on me unawares this year. I don't normally think about festivities until after my daughter's birthday in November and by then it is Advent and whooosh! it's suddenly here. I think especially now that I am working (in a school environment at that) it really does seem to come quickly. 

Bad picture but this is my stitching tree this year. I had to buy a slightly bigger tree but even this one seems too small for all my ornies. I do have one nearly finished but one ornie is a bit shameful really isn't it? If I get it finished, I will post up a picture. 

Crochet wise, I couldn't resist starting my merino from the inspired post you can find here. Please do go and take a look. I absolutely love her work. So anyways, this is where I am at with it:

I am using the Jan Eaton Willow pattern from her book 200 Crochet blocks which you can find here. Reduced price too at the moment. I am not sure of the lemon colour yet but I am going to add more colours. The colours you see above are all Rico essentials merino. The colours are much better irl as always. It is a lovely yarn to work with - very soft and smooth although it is slightly on the thin side. Here are the colours I am going to add to it:

More Rico on the left column and then Katia pure merino in purples and green. The Katia is so lovely. I will definitely be buying again. I am going to edge each square in cream before joining and I am thinking of a lacy kind of braid join. I will keep you posted about the progress.

Well, the extra merino will form part of my Christmas present from my husband. He couldn't believe I wanted wool for Christmas. I have also purchased a couple of crochet books which are still unopened in the box they came in. I am dearly trying to resist the temptation to open them so at least I will have something new on Christmas day. 

Something new on Christmas day. That for me is what Christmas is all about. Jesus came to give us his life in exchange for ours, creating in us a New Heart. There have been a lot of bad things happening to me this year - if you can believe worse than last year and so it is with certain hope that I am believing for a NEW start this Christmas and New Year and will finally draw a closure on the last crappy, few years. God has done and is still doing a miracle in our lives. A miracle of reconciliation and healing of broken hearts. I am hanging onto His very great and precious promises:

"Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you , and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:25-26.

So I want to end this post by giving glory to Jesus who is my "reason for the season". 

Have a very merry and peaceful Christmas and a happy New Year. 

Jeepers Creepers.....

How long has it been??? My dearest bloggy friends, I am so sorry for being away so long. All I can say is one word... LIFE! I got busy with stuff. Work, children, marriage, hobbies.... something had to give and sadly, my poor blog got neglected. Part of me wants to scrap this bog and start over - especially since Webshots did away with most of my pictures! Happily, I can say that I still have those pictures. I managed to salvage them from my last computer and save them onto USB. So hopefully one day I will get time to go through my posts and replace them. I also thought about changing my cover on my blog and making my pictures bigger etc but I am not entirely sure where to start on that one. I did ask one blogger who very kindly (cough) didn't even respond (RUDE!!!!). But I am determined that next year I will give this little blog a makeover - somehow... some way... So I thought I would just share a few bits and pieces I have been working on over the last few months and maybe do a couple of posts before Christmas just bringing you all up to speed. How about it?

So, pictured above you can see how my Elmer blanket is coming along. I love, love, love it! It is so bright and cheery and such an easy one to make. I really need to get cracking on it and get it finished as I have quite a way to go on it. I am using the Stylecraft special pack which I used for the Granny Stripe blanket. Same colours - different look.

Okay then. This one is a quick Zigzag blanket I am doing for my son. Just three colours so it is a bit biring to make but he likes it and it is a super simple one for me as well. I am quite enjoying making this. The wool was totally cheapo. It came from Aldi when they sometimes have a wool offer on. Green, blue and cream. He is such a boy boy.

This was a quick, one nighter project when I was feeling cold and really wanted to snuggle up to a hot water bottle but all I have are the pinky, red ones with no covers on! No good! No good at all and so the night was spent using up oddments of wool - nothing special. This was a Made Up on the Spot cover and so I wasn't about to use expensive yarn. I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out and I will definitely be making more of these. I made this one as a tube and then sorted the neck out - decreasing and increasing to make it fit. I finished it off with a scallopy edge and some spotty buttons at the bottom. For a first effort I think it worked a treat.

Here's another project I am working on... A hexie blanket! It might take some time this one. I am using Rico Baby Cotton Soft which is a cotton/acrylic mix which is lovely to work with. I was inspired by something I had seen on Pinterest and wanted to make a similar one. I am making up all the circles first and then joining them together as I go into their hexagonal shape. (ETA - pattern is from the lovely Lucy from Attic24. Find the pattern here.)

I also am collecting Merino yarn too. Isn't it luuurvvvellly!! I want to make something really special with it but am only collecting pastelly shades. I was inspired by this blanket:

which you can find here. So I may well do something similar to that. I need to collect a bit more first though! Well, I have finally succumbed and opened up my own Etsy shop. You can find me here if you want to look at some of my items. I really am just beginning this journey and have a long way to go. I have a lot of marketing to do and marketing is really not my bag. So it is in its beginning stages with more stuff to be added. I really hope you go and have a peek and I am open to Custom Orders. Please let me know if you see anything you like or have any thoughts or tips you can give me. I will be back soon for another update. I promise! Thanks for all who have stayed with me during my busy time. I think of you and your wee blog spaces often. Much love. xxxx