And finally...

I finally finished Luca's gift this weekend, and not a moment too soon!! His birthday was on Monday, but luckily his party wasn't until today, so I had an extra 6 hours to get it finished! Phew!

I had the idea to make a blanket showing his first year, around Christmas time and since then I've been getting a little bit made here and there. Although it's not perfect, I'm chuffed with the finished blanket, and I'm pretty sure my sister liked it...oh and Luca too!

It's made up of patterned and plain squares; embroidered pieces and photographs, which I transferred onto fabric using Inkjet Iron On Transfers Paper, which I bought here. It was really easy to use, although I did have to rope Karl into the photoshop bit (cropping, reversing and printing the photographs!) - thanks honey!

-this is the back

- and as it is Luca's day, and I'm a smitten Auntie, here are some cute birthday boy pictures...

Iggle Piggle - sweet and sugary

Luca drooling over his birthday cake!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Scenes from the Weekend

This is what job hunting looks like...messy! Notice the umpteen cups - tea to get me through the day!

A little night time reading - the newest addition is this book, which I have whole heartedly fallen in love with!

Progress - 8 days to go!

And finally...

I finally got around to snapping my crafty Christmas gift from Karl - only 3 months after the event! Isn't it wonderful! It was completely stuffed to bursting point with shredded wrapping paper which went everywhere! Inside is a real treasure trove of craft goodies - from a scrap bag of fabric, fancy wool, and sparkly thread, to a collection of beads and buttons. All I need now it time to play with it all!

Hope you all had a fun weekend x

Crafty Christmas...Part 2

You may remember that this year Christmas in my household had gone handmade! I would definitely recommend it…gifts were much more meaningful and clearly made with love and a great big handful of patience! Over the next week or so I’ll show some of the gifts I gave and received, including a pair of giant knitting needles, garden kneelers and magic cushions! For now, I’ll leave you with a picture of my nephew in his new woodland elf hat…perfect for foraging in the woods!!

Crochet Challenge!

I love autumn.

It's perhaps my most favourite time of year. I love the mix of autumnal colours everywhere you look and I particularly love the feeling of wanting to snuggle up under a blanket with a hot cup of tea!

It is usually this change in season that sparks a change in craft project too. I tend to move away from sewing and embroidery, in favour of reaching for lovely, warm balls of wool, knitting needles and crochet hooks.

I'm notorious for having multiple projects on the go (usually because I run out of time before I finish, and then have a sudden stroke of inspiration to do something else!) but this autumn I’m determined to set myself a crochet challenge of two!!

The projects I've attempted in the past have consisted of scarves (and other square or rectangular items!) nothing particularly tricky. But not this time!! My crochet challenge is to…

1. Crochet an entire blanket!
2. Crochet a super cute animal from Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet for my seriously cute nephew, Luca!

Luca

Electric Rainbow Blanket

The first challenge will be helped by Carina as I’ve ordered the wool and pattern for the beautiful blanket above. However, thanks to the postal strike I may need to wait a little longer to get started. I’m very excited about starting this project as I only learnt to crochet about 8 months ago and so I’m still painfully slow…checking and rechecking every stitch to make sure I get it right. This will be a real incentive to keep at it.

Has anyone else set themselves a crafty challenge this autumn?