My Perfect Afternoon...

Last night, I couldn't sleep. I was so excited because I had decided that today was going to be a perfect day. My legs were dancing under the sheets and it was a good job dh was working away otherwise he would have got kicked a few times. I had managed to get dd into craft club at the same time as ds going to nursery which meant I had two and a half blissful hours all to myself. I love my kids to bits but one needs a break now and again and this was it.



Before I dropped them off, I made sure the house was relatively tidy and hoovered up so I wouldn't waste my precious time. Then I baked scones. I baked them just before dropping them both off so they would be perfectly cool and ready to eat when I got home. I went out and bought some double cream and Bonne Mamam Strawberry Conserve. I served it up with Whittards Irish cream flavoured coffee in my new favourite cup. Ohhhh yummmmm. Delicious homebaked scone with a slightly crunchy outside and soft and crumbly on the inside. Not like shop bought ones with the baking soda aftertaste. I sat there at my kitchen table and browsed my mags. Perfect.



Then I did a bit of hooky. Loving this so much. Have I said that before? I think I may have to buy another pack of the yarn as I am going to make this super big for our bed. The rest of it I will make flowers with. There are plenty of uses for this gorgeous yarn. It is soft and easy to work with and the colours are fab.



And a bit of stitching. I so wanted the unicorn's ear finished but never mind - these things take time. Listened to Micheal Silverman's Jazz for a Rainy Day on Spotify. Lovely relaxing piano music. It wasn't raining, in fact, it was quite a reasonable day with a bit of sunshine but this music was also.... perfect.



Whilst looking at my mags I noticed this:



Can you spot the crochet blanket? £175 from Toast!!! Hmmm excepting the colours, not so disimiar to my Baby Steps.

I got some home decor inspiration and am set on this:



Previously I was adamant it would be this:



I am on a very nice journey of self discovery at the moment and am never quite sure of what I like but I am definitely moved toward the red. I kind of lost myself the last few years with one thing and the other and now I am trying to make out the pieces of the jigsaw that make me up if you get me. It's an interesting journey and I will share more things about "me" as I find them out! Our living room is desperate to be decorated. It is very plain and a sort of yellowy cream and very boring. I like bright bold colours and the red room is just so cosy and I think will be ideal for the coming autumn season.

Well, so long for now good readers. I have much to share but that is enough for one post. I am thinking I should blog more regularly and not leave great big gaps. Passing by your way soon. Big Thank You to all my new followers as well. Some don't appear to have blogs but if you do then leave me a comment so I can find you too. xx

A RAK and Granny Square blanket no. 2 finished!!!

Hello folks in lovely blogland. I hope you are all enjoying your summer. It has been going okay here. I have my two lovelies to keep me company. DD has been to a few different activities including crafting at the local craft centre where she has done all sorts of wonderful crafts. But more about that later.

Firstly, after my last post, I received this gorgeous RAK in the post from Robin



Isn't it great?? I love the chart and fabric and that pink lace - oh I love it. Thanks Robin so much. This was a neat thing to get in the post.

Speaking of giveaways, my followers list has grown to over 200!! I have been doing a few things for the giveaway but I haven't got it all together yet. I can tell you though that it will have a mixture of "Hazel Handmade" and some bought goodies too. So stay tuned.

Next up, I am very proud to present my latest finish. This is my second crochet blanket and I call it my Baby Steps blanket. If you remember my first blanket and how I completely ad-hocked it, this latest blanket was me learning about square sizes and colour organisation. It is also for my ds who, although no longer a baby, is still my baby.





I even learned how to do this lovely shell edging around it thanks to attic24.



As I have got more and more into the crochet and yarns etc I started to really dislike the colours I chose for this blanket. Originally I was so excited about them esp after the Ugly episode. However, now that it is made up, I am really pleased with how it turned out. Not bad for cheap Hayfield Bonus wool! My son loves it too and he is snuggled up asleep in it even as I type ;).



My dd says she wants a ripple blanket now!

Speaking of DD, she has been to a few things this summer. Here is some of what she has been up to:



Jewellery making, wheelwork, tile making, mask making, Hama beading!!!!! She has also done some artwork and the usual colouring in etc...

Right, I'm off to catch up on some blogs whilst also thinking of more crochet blankets! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ta daaa! Second finish of The Pledge

Well I am a happy little bunny now. Here is my second finish since starting my Pledge to have no new starts from June to November. This is Snowfire Christmas by Just Nan. Barb RAKed me this chart to do as part of the Just Nan SAL on Stitch and Stash and I can tell you I have loved every stitch of it. And there were many stitches!









Some stitches used include:

Smyrna Cross
Triple Leviathan
Pulled Satin
Square Eyelet
Diamond Eyelet
Right Angled Leaf
Rice Variation
4 sided
Backstitched Pulled Eyelet

Photographs really don't do our stitching justice do they? It is, of course, much sparklier and prettier in real life. It has "fire crystals" dotted around which really catch the light. It is my first Just Nan and I am pleased to say I have a few more charts in my stash waiting to be done.

So that is two finishes I have now. Ho hum... can I carry on without having a new start???? I have many projects kitted up ready to go but I have already broke my Pledge once and no I will not do it again. Sooooo.. what do I work on getting finished next?? Ahhh you will have to wait and see.

Here's a little Granny Stripe progress:



Again, colours much brighter than pic. Such a happy blankie. I love it.

I was so pleased this week. The lovely Sally sent me an email to check if my wishlist was up to date as she had a chart she wished to RAK me with! Oh my. It came this week. I love it Sally. Thank you so much. I sometimes can't believe the kindness of stitchers.



So in way of giving back, I noticed my followers have reached 199!!!!!!! What??? Where have all those people come from? So as soon as it gets to 200 I will be doing a little giveaway. So stay tuned for that. I have a few ideas of what I will be giving away and I think it will be a lovely package if I may say so myself. A little bit of this... a little bit of that.

Now I do have lots and lots of pics to share of what has been going on in the holidays but it's a big kid's post so I will save it for another time. In the meantime, I will leave you of the iside of the wasps' nest. It had been pretty much demolished by the Nice Man but there was enough left to see how it had been constructed. The white bits in the "honeycomb" are wasp maggots. Nice!



And on that happy note, I will leave you to your stitching. Thank you for your lovely comments on my last post. I will be round to visit you soon. xxxx

Biscuit anyone?

Today I made the perfect cookies. I got the recipe from the fabulous lady of Attic24. They were so easy to make and didn't take long. The longest part was waiting for them to cool. Now if you have ever had Millies Cookies then these are just like them. No kidding. Nice and chewy on the inside and a bit of a crunch on the top. The little peeps really couldn't wait to get their hands on them:



Now I started a new blanket until I can get more white wool to finish my granny square afghan off. I am just loving these hippy dippy stripes. They make me so happy. They are just so bright and colourful. This in no way is a breaking on my Pledge as it's a different craft so it doesn't count (cough cough).

This is the very tricky start. I had to chain 240 stitches and I had fortunately made a small practice piece first which I had undone twice before I got it right. So 240 stitches and hoping it would work out and that I had counted it right. I had!



It quickly worked up and then there were three colours:



Then this:



I am so loving this! It is very addictive. Sorry to the stitching which has been set aside for just a little while. This is just so very satisfying.

On a not so positive note we have one of these:


Wasp Nest. Which resulted in this:


Nice man reckons there are approx 5000 wasps in that nest. Nice! So then they all went bezerk and we shut the door!



Can you see all those blighters?? Most of them are queens as they have started reproducing queen wasps. They were huge!!! All is calm now and the nice man is coming back next Thurday to remove it. I might get a pic of the inside.

Okay that's me. Thanks for all your sweet comments on my face painting skills or lack of them and the granny blanket! I appreciate all your comments so much. It's good to be in blogland. xx

Hooky time

School holidays.... I remember them well. Not quite the same as an adult! So dh takes little one off to nursery which left me and dd with some time on our own together. Mum and daughter stuff. We started our day with dd wanting to start a new stitchy project. Very good. It gave me a bit of time to work on my crochet blanket. Here is where it is up to now:



73 squares up to now.



and a few more squares to add...



I am going to do one more row of granny squares then figure out how to edge it. I quite like the squares without the white edge to it actually. Funny, when I got the wool it was a big improvement on the last blanket made with all odds and ends and scraps. However, I have seen some amazing blankets out there and so now I'm fed up of these garish looking colours. But my ds loves it so all well and good. I have just ordered some yarn to do the granny stripe blanket from Attic24's blog. I have ordered the same colours and hope they come soon so I can make a start.

So Back to me and dd and our day. We motivated ourselves to do an exercise dvd. My lazy butt badly needs a kick in this direction. I was surprised she sat out sooner than I did.

Time to go get ds and once home we entertained ourselves doing some face painting:

Ocean Fairy & Dog



It has been a couple of years since I last had this stuff out and wasn't sure I could still do it. Not too bad an effort hey? I need more clients to practice on.

So all is left to do is baking I guess then I can be the perfect Mother Earth figure! Yeah right. Happy holidays xxx

I'm still here!!!

I am so sorry for the major absence! Life has just been too hectic and busy. Hubby goes away again today but only for a couple of nights so not long and to be honest we could both do with the break away from each other I think. Today is dd's last day of term and I am dreading the upcoming holidays. I am really going to have to put my thinking cap on and get out there and do something with them. I am thinking, picnics in the park, trips to sealife places, Chester Zoo. Lots of museums and of course, the odd ball pool place thrown in for good measure.

Sooo what have I been up to?? Well I broke two rules in one go. I did. I really broke two of my own rules. So, my rules for the Pledge was to have no new starts right? For six months, yes? Well I boo boo-ed on this one. It wasn't intentional. No. You see I blame the HAED forum and that enabler Fudgey. She had a Storykeep SAL earlier in the year and I missed it. Well, basically all you have to do is post up two progress pictures in six months and then you get all the charts offered as part of the SAL. So it means I get three more charts just for posting two pics! So I had to you see. I really did. But wait, it also meant I broke my second rule:

"I will only ever stitch on one HAED at a time."

Yes, that's my very own quote and I broke it. :(

So here are some progress pics:

HAED Rose Storykeep



I know it doesn't look much yet but it is a unicorn and a girl. Or will be...

HAED QS Breaking Dawn



This is lovely to work on. The colours are amazing. You can see her hair forming now.

And just so you know that I really have been sticking to my Pledge, here is my progress on the dreaded CdC. I have finished page 3 so I am half way there. Sorry the photo isn't great.

CdC Ink Circles



Here's a fabulous finish by my dd. Thi sis her third finish and it only took her a couple of days so she is definitely improving. I am so proud of my stitching girl:



I went to visit my parent's not too long ago. Their garden is just gorgeous! Here are some pictures.















While I was there, I snapped a quick pic of "I am Half Sick of Shadows" which my dad is working on for me:

I am Half Sick of Shadows



Unwashed, unironed, but you get the picture.

Well, I have been busy hooking away on my next crochet blanket but I have forgot to take it out of my ds's bag and he has gone off to nursery with it so next time I'll show you that.

Next month, I am hoping to get my Just Nan finished off and make some more progress on CDC.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving me comments. You make my day! x