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Tuesday 23 December 2014

Snowflakes

How's it going? Busy with the cleaning, shopping, baking, wrapping and all that Christmas stuff? Yeah me too. It's been my ulitmate goal over the last week to be able to sit down and crochet something, anything! I've been sneaking in five minutes where I can but with nothing big on the go it's not been the most productive of ways to crochet. It hasn't stopped me being surrounded with wooly delights though, my house is looking thoroughly yarnbombed!


Excuse all the decorations pictures, I just love them so much!

While having a tidy up I found the remainder of the cone of cotton that I used to make my lacy doily bag: 

Not much left but enough to play with in one of my spare five minute crochet breaks. I found myself making some little dinky snowflakes, so teensy and delicate. I had thought about blocking them with PVA to stiffen them up to hang somewhere and maybe adding some glitter to the PVA to give them a sparkle. 
You can see the difference here between the blocked and unblocked snowflakes, it really does make the little bit of pinning, starching and ironing worth while.
I then had visions of a sparkly snowflake window dressing for Christmas, to hang like a sort of curtain but I have only made six! as they are so small that would take a lot longer then the couple of days left until the 25th so not the best idea for this year.

I then started thinking about my Christmas dining table, I like it to look very pretty and I go way over the top. This year I bought some slightly more expensive crackers than usual because I just fell in love with how pretty they were. not too glittery but a bit folksy instead:

In keeping with these more rustic crackers I thought I would turn the snowflakes into napkin rings! I had a rummage through my yarn stash and found some ancient red cotton acquired from my Granny.

 I don't know what she had intended it for but it's a lovely bright red so I hooked up a little mesh effect ring to sew the snowflake onto. 

Yes very pleased with that and only took a few minutes to make so I should be able to find time to knock up another six.

I have asked Mr M. for a pack of yarn for Christmas and if I am lucky enough to get it I am going to start a new blanket! I really can't wait to get my hands on something substantial and sit down for hour after hour of happy hooky. 

I do wish you a very Merry Christmas and thank you for coming to look at my blog this year, it means so much to me that you have taken the time to read my ramblings. I know I haven't been about much on here lately, I am still ironing out the kinks in my daily routine with new working hours and things, I plan to be much more organised in 2015 and have lots of ideas buzzing around that I can't wait to get started on!

XXXXXXX

Sunday 14 December 2014

Being super productive!

Phew what a week! There were good reasons I'm sure as to why we decided to decorate the dining room before Christmas, and we managed it, we got it all done and looking lovely last weekend. The trouble with that was that it really showed up how shabby and tired looking the living room was. I really wanted to get it all nice and ship-shape but thought there was simply not enough time to do it what with all the other things to do in December. Absolutely not going to do it until 2015, apart from somehow being talked into just doing a door by Mr. M and ending up spending my Saturday in an epic paint-a-thon doing the whole room! So exhausted and achy but with a lovely fresh, clean room to sit in I could finally get my Christmas decorations out. 
Ahh my lovely Christmas bunting and assorted softies :-)

We went out and got our Christmas tree on Friday but what with all the decorating I have only just got it up finished today and it is so pretty! Oh and that smell of pine, I love it.
I had thought that I had plenty of things to decorate the house with, home made crochet bits, but I really think a bit more couldn't hurt. I made this string of holly and some Christmas trees but still, I really think I need some more bits, Im sure I could squeeze it in somewhere.

 It looks a bit sparse in this picture but that was because I was giddy at trying to get some pictures taken while we had some good light today, it is now far more busy, as is my mantle. I am so lucky that I have two mantle pieces to decorate; the one in the dining room is newly renovated too and has an open fire. I have strung up my usual berry garland on there, not home made but fire proof and I am a bit worried about changing it for something yarny what with it being a proper fire.

I really am feeling very Christmassy now, I've even got the bulk of the shopping done today in a fit of productivity. I've been wearing Christmas jumpers a lot and made myself a little holly brooch too.

So this evening I am going to think of some other things I can make to dot around the house and get my tree angels head sorted so I can stick her on top. I do hope you are having a festive, fun and happy weekend XXX

Monday 8 December 2014

Little bits

Why did I think that decorating the dining room in December was a good idea? I have been up to my eyes in sandpaper, mess, undercoat, mess, paint, mess and general mess for over a week now. But with a lot of grafting yesterday we have finally got it (verynearlyalmost) finished! Just a couple of little finishing touches and it will be all ready for our Christmas tree that we will be popping out to get later in the week. It is a bit of a ritual of ours, going to buy the tree. When we get it home I stick some Christmas music on, pour myself a large mug of mulled wine and decorate the tree with as much colour and sparkle as I can throw at it.

I have been sorting through some of the decorations in preparation and found the emergency angel that I made for last year, after discovering that my sparkly pound-shop star didn't fit.

She really was an emergency angel, no plan or pattern just a quick thing that did the job. I really do quite like the general shape and design of her, all apart from her head. I think I grabbed a small bauble and wrapped some felt around it and drew her face on with a clothes marker, I didn't do a great job so this week I am going to make her a proper head, with proper eyes and try to neatly embroider a smile. 

As well as the late nights painting I have been making slow progress with my nativity. I couldn't find my original Joseph anywhere so I've had to make another one. 
So far I am not really enjoying this nativity but I have a feeling that as the collection of figures grows the enjoyment will grow too.

I've been making a few little Christmas trees too to hang around the house, these have mainly been because I can pop a ball of yarn and my hook case in my handbag in the morning to do in my lunch breaks at work. I do hope I haven't been labelled as the mad crochet lady just yet, it's not like I am taking giant blankets to hook in my breaks, but there is still time! :)
Oh yes, how could I forget Santa, or as Mr M. is calling him, Chuckie Claus!
My friend asked me to make the outfit that came with this Santa doll so I had a look at it last night and started on the jacket. I used a size larger hook than required due to my tight tension and after I had made the sleeve holes I tried it on him to make sure it fit before carrying on with it...
As you can see, it's not big enough by a long way! So unless Santa has decided to start wearing little bolero jackets I am going to have to have a rethink. I may end up making up my own pattern or maybe using aran weight yarn instead of double knit will do the trick.

With all these little bits and pieces to do I am really craving a large project and would love to make a new blanket. I have asked for a pack of chunky yarn for Christmas and I do hope I am lucky enough to get it so I can start a big, new, warm, cuddly blanket in the new year.

XXX

Monday 1 December 2014

Daylight!

After what feels like weeks or perpetual darkness the sun finally came out for a while yesterday! 

It has been so grey and wet here I have really struggled to take any pictures, most of my last Ta-dah photos were taken right next to a window or outside with as many lamps as I could angle on to them just to get some idea of the colours. Therefore the first thing I did yesterday morning (after the essential coffee) was take a picture of my new Jingle Bells bunting!

I LOVE it, so bright and cheery. I am normally one of those that waits until the middle of December to put their Christmas decorations up but I really am feeling very festive and not sure how long I can wait!

The second picture I took was of the pink giraffe, aww so pretty :)
It was nice while it lasted, I did a bit of shopping and pottering around the house but today was back to the usual murky grey of winter and bad photographs.

I have also made a Mary for the nativity I want to make:
She was quite fiddly for such a little thing and took aaages. Not sure I fancy making the rest just yet, they might be a thing for Christmas 2015, now that is thinking ahead!

xxx