New Baby & House Warming Ta-Dahs

So I finally finished a couple of projects and delivered them to their special recipients today. Remember ageeees ago I was chatting about picking yarn and going on and on about picking colours? Well my friend finally had her baby and I finally finished the blanket. I worked the blanket up in gender neutral colours since I didn't know the baby's sex and I decided that when I found out I would do a border in a gender specific colour. Well a little boy arrived, Baby E and this gave me the poke that I needed to finish the blanket. Oh I never used to be a last minute person, when I was at school I used to do my homework on Friday night so that I didn't have that Sunday night dread but now I seem to work best under pressure and leave things to the last minute. Very, very bold! Anyway I only really had a couple of stripes left to do so I guess it could have been worse (my new mantra in life! Oh dear). 

It's actually supposed to be a vertical stripe blanket but I forgot this when I was taking photos! I did the starting chain too long... hope it doesn't really matter!

My friend had just moved into a new house a few weeks before the baby was born so I wanted to make them I little house warming gift. I thought it best to do something small since I wanted to visit them soon after the baby was born and if I picked a larger project well sure I'd still be doing it well into 2013!! So I came across these little crochet jar covers on the internet...

I think they are so lovely, I don't mean my handy work I just mean they are so effective. They make the coldest evening seem so cosy, although I do suspect there is colder to come (please no snow in January!). The link to the very clever lady who made them and her tutorial can be found here. They are super easy to do and now I really want my own and I feel I should make some as christmas gifts for some craft friends but we shall see if time permits.

I like how they look with the baby blanket. I hope my friends and their new baby will be snug as bugs in rugs this winter!

I just love candlelight and yarny creations... 

Ooh and another thing I've been up to.....

 Well for years D didn't like coffee so if we ever went out for coffee or tea he would have a diet coke and while that's perfectly fine, there is something really nice about sharing coffee together.. maybe that's just me. Well anyway since the birth of my Little R, D has felt the need for some extra stimulation each day and as his teeth can no longer stick Coke he has persevered with coffee. At first it was sickly sweet mochaccinos and the like, then a gradual conversion to lattes. I really dislike milky coffees, I find them really sickly but I really wanted to perfect a homemade latte for D. I found this video on youtube for how to make frothy milk. I have been really intrigued by the coffees made by Attic24 as they always have a little embellishment on them.. a star or a heart and I really wanted to do this too. I found coffee stencils online but at £5 a pop I figured I could do a homemade one myself from a milk bottle. And today I finally made the perfect homemade latte for D...

It got a 9.5 score (I told you how my family like to give me marks out of 10!). So I was chuffed to bits. It really makes me smile, just going that extra little mile for my beloved. A little thank you for all the extra work he's putting in at the minute now the third trimester tiredness has kicked in! 

And finally we are getting super excited about Christmas. Today D taught Little R the  start of Jingle Bells... not the whole song but just "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells" which I think is pretty cool for a little 22 month old to learn in about a minute. Oh we are in for a lot of fun this year. And I just noticed that there is a new animation this year... 'The Snowman and the Snowdog' which is going to premiere on Channel 4 this Christmas Eve. I am doing all I can to contain the excitement!!

Thanks for reading xx

*~*~* Japanese Flower Scarf: Ta-Dah *~*~*

Hello there and thanks for stopping by, you super, lovely lot. I know I'm probably a bit late to jump on the bandwagon with this, I'm a bit late to the party, the ship has probably sailed and left me waving on the dock but if you can overlook this, I'd love you to stay and have a look at my latest accomplishment, ta-dah if you will.
~~~
I've had this post drafted with the photos uploaded and the text started for weeks now and yet something stopped me sharing (I also have a posted drafted about our week off in July!). I think I am just a weird individual. I couldn't really feel the love for posting about this and yet I love the finished article (see I am weird). I've even had a chance to use it this week when I came down with a rotten cold and sore throat and went into work as I felt I needed to show my face and had some jobs to tidy up. I did this on Monday and Tuesday and felt dreadful and left after a couple of hours, thankfully by Wednesday (today) I came to my senses and stayed at home. Anyway the point of that story is that my throat was sore and needed protected so I wrapped my scarf around me and hobbled into work (haha, a tad dramatic there I think). Anyway I saw a couple of patients and one told me they loved my scarf and I loved telling them that I had made it, just one of the many thrills of wearing something you have made yourself. Another friend in work said she really should learn to crochet so that she could make things like it (sadly she never will but I would happily teach her).

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Do you remember I bought some super lovely Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino with my birthday money, an absolute age ago?

Top row: Lilac (10), Cream (101), Light Pink (601) & Dark Pink (60) 

Bottom row: Dark green (40), Light green (3), Light Blue (202) & Dark Blue (207)

Sadly the above photo is rubbish. The colours aren't as they seem. The light pink look peachy in that photo but it really isn't. Oh well hopefully you'll get the jist. And as mentioned before I purchased the yarn from Fingers and Thumbs and Kate was just lovely cos, yes you guessed it, I absolutely agonised over choosing the yarn for this project (please tell me I will get better at this!!!). I can't recommend Kate's yarn shop highly enough, the thing that sold it to me was that it was a family business and I just loved the idea of that. I hope they are weathering the storm of the recession cos they were lovely people and stock lovely yarns. Anyway thank you Kate*

This is what I have left from all eight balls. You'd think I didn't like the greens but I did, don't know why I have so much left.

I spent many an hour on this project. Once you got the hang of the pattern it was simple to make the flower but I guess the colour changes made it time consuming. It really was lovely to work on.

And as recommended by none other than Attic24 I blocked the scarf after it was complete. 

I have to admit I loved doing this. Armed with a towel and a bottle of tepid water I climbed up into the attic which is usually D's space/bunker were he listens to vinyl and does his podcasts, but he kindly loaned it to me for a short time. Anyway it was a lovely sunny day and I opened out the attic window and listened to the wind (it's usually very noisy around here, one of the many, many reasons we would love to move but sadly can't, but that's a story for another day, or maybe not as it would be a moany, negative, pessimistic post and seriously who wants to read that?!). Anyway my point was I listened to the gentle breeze blowing and I set to work pinning out the scarf. As it happens I ran out of pins. I only have a packet of 34 and I ran out.  

 I had a mini panic and then it came to me - safety pins! A eureka moment. Yippee, the ole brain still works and the safety pins worked a treat!!

So are you ready? I just love this scarf so much I have taken photos from every angle and I do apologise as you are likely to get bored but here we go...

                   

*~*~*~*~ TA--DAH~*~*~*~*

Little R wanted in on the photoshoot! Can you see him above?

Looking splendid on the attic floor, enjoying the unusual peace and quiet

One seriously happy camper. I couldn't get the silly grin off my face for ages.

It is warm and soft, colourful and bright, it is mine and I made it. I feel the love for this scarf. I want to share the love and make some more for special crafty people in my life. I do hope I get the time to do this but time is never on my side!

See you all next time. Happy crafting, happy baking, happy whatever you are doing!

Helen xx

* I'm not working on commission from Kate at Fingers and Thumbs honest, I just love it when you get great customer service.

♣♥ Shamrocks and Hearts ♥♣

♣♣♣♣♣♣

Firstly I'd like to wish you all a very Happy St Patrick's Day from us here in Ireland. Baby R and I are wearing green today but other than we don't have any other plans to celebrate the day.

 We are visiting Toys R Us today to get Baby R some much needed toys. We didn't go over board at Christmas because he wasn't even a year yet and it was hard to know what he needed. But now he is toddling and developing a bit more we think he needs a few more toys. So it's not really celebrating our patron saint but we are doing it in green!

♥♥ Ta-Dah ♥♥

So anyway the main reason I am blogging today is because I have finished something on my to-do list. This is my Granny Heart Bunting Ta-Dah! The pattern/tutorial is from the very lovely Sandra at Cherry Heart  and if you don't know her blog I strongly recommending popping by - she has the most beautiful blog with such gorgeous ideas and is very generous with her time posting lovely tutorials for anyone to use. I am attempting to keep this post brief as I usually tend to write an essay so hopefully the photos speak for themselves!

Happy daffs, yummy yarn and scrummy bunting..

An in situ shot. I just love looking up to see the bunting across the archway it just looks like it should always have been there. It makes me smile a big, dopey, beaming smile when I glance upon it. I am easily pleased....

  And finally Baby R and I in our greenery. I think he likes the bunting too!!

A big thank you to ♥Sandra♥ for the tutorial. I am super happy to have made it. I love it when I achieve something, it helps to keep me going and keep me smiling.

♥ Enjoy the weekend and the sunshine everyone ♥

Ta-Dah: My First Crocheted Blanket

Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! I'm so happy because I finished my first ever crocheted blanket. Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy. It really was a wondrous day as I never thought I would complete it, it has been a mammoth project, well it certainly felt like it. So the story goes...

I started crocheting in August having come across the craft magazine Mollie Makes and I started with a crocheted apple cosy. Before I could master the apple cosy I needed to learn the basic crochet stitches and so I learned how to crochet using YouTube and the wonderful Beth from bethintx1 who so kindly has a whole host of really easy to follow tutorials on YouTube. Beths tutorials are so easy to follow and I was totally bitten by the crocheting bug. The apple cosy aside, the main reason that I decided to start crocheting was because I wanted a craft to do that was quiet (my sewing machine is not particularly quiet), that I could do while my baby was sleeping. My little dandelion, Baby R was really not doing very well at sleeping during the day and definitely would not go into his cot to sleep so in the end I gave up (it was too painful letting him cry in the cot) and let him fall asleep on my bed while I sat beside him. This seemed to work and while I know many people would tell me off for 'spoiling' the child I just had to do something to get him to sleep and also it just felt right. I actually loved having him sleep there beside me and anyway I knew it wouldn't be forever so I just followed my instinct. So while I loved having this time together I also wanted to do something with my hands and to achieve something. I dug out my granny's old 4mm crochet hook, some dodgy luminous green yarn that my mummy had bought me a while ago and I sat on the bed with headphones in watching crochet tutorials on YouTube on a 3rd hand iTouch while little R slept. So then I wanted to make a blanket and I have to admit I kind of jumped with both feet into this blanket project and didn't really do much research on yarn, colours or styles of blankets which I sort of regretted because then I discovered Coco Rose who let me to Attic24 and the blankets they were doing look A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and the yarn they used was so beautiful and luscious, but hey you live, you learn. I visited the yarn shop in my home town, The Yarn Barn, a treasure trove of yarny delights and picked Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK yarn (a 80/20 Bamboo/Wool mix). I had been looking for something by Rowan or Debbie Bliss but the shop owner had stopped stocking these as they were too expensive and people just weren't able to afford them. For my next big project I think I might try to build up a stash of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino as I have discovered another shop near my home town which stocks it, now I just need to rob a bank to afford it (or save up)! Anyway there won't be anymore big blanket projects for quite a while as I am only just recovering from this one and I'm back to work soon so I'm not sure how I'm going to fit in looking after my beautiful baby boy, working 4 days a week and crocheting a blanket, so only small projects for the next while. Anyway I digress, I think I've blethered on quite a bit and maybe now it's time for some photos. Here it is in all it's glory my very first ever crocheted granny square blanket.....

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140 five round granny squares 

4 granny rows 

finished with scalloped edging (courtesy of Attic24 pattern can be found here).

I think the edging looks really pretty and transforms it from a bog standard blanket into something much more special. Well that's just what I think

This is where the blanket is going to live so we can see it every day. I'd like some more crocheted items around the living room, I'm still trying to talk D into some granny bunting to adorn the arch between our living and dining rooms but discussions are still ongoing (but just between us I'm going to make it anyway and put it up, he might never notice, ssshh don't tell!).

I'm still not in love with the green colour and I maybe should have thought through the colour choices a bit better and also thought more about the type of yarn I chose. When I started this blanket I was a total novice and I didn't realise how many balls of yarn I would need to finish the project (a whole 30 x 50g balls, eek), how long it would take (3 1/2 months, but it wasn't exactly full time plus I made a quilt for baby R, bunting for baby R, bunting for my niece and christmas decorations while being a mummy, a wife, a dog lover&walker and all that life brings along) and how expensive it would be (I don't even want to go there)! But having said that I do love it. 

♥♥♥

I love that I made it myself. 

I love that it reminds me of sitting on the bed beside baby R as he slept. 

I love that it will always remind me of the year baby R was born. 

I love that I saw it through to the end even though I wanted to give up as I decided I didn't like the colours or the yarn.

I love that I am now a crocheter.

I love that it's mine.

♥♥♥

Christmas and Ta-Dah's too

So finally I get to post something that I have made and that's Christmassy, happy-happy-joy-joy. WARNING BIG MOAN COMING UP: I'm finding it very difficult to get the time to do anything these days, I just don't know how other people do it. My little baby boy is 11 months old and we are having so much fun together but it's just very difficult to get anything crafty done, let alone get to blog (originally when I started the blog I had hoped to get a post a week but that was very wishful thinking!!). But anyway enough moaning although I did warn you! So I have been veeery busy - I have been working furiously on my granny square blanket (I am on the last row, although I'm wondering if I should make it bigger, haha I am my own worst enemy!), I made a Christmas present for my 9 1/2 month old niece (some sausage doggie bunting, a post to follow *crosses fingers*) and I made some Christmas decorations (hurray!). Would you like to see them???

 I made some FIMO snowflakes as inspired by the lovely Coco Rose. I came across this post and I realised that I had the exact snowflake cookie cutters that Vanessa used and I love red and white Christmas decorations so it was the perfect mini-project for me. I really loved making these and as soon as they were made I gave most of them away as presents, so I had to keep making them and finally I got to keep some myself!

 Then I made some crocheted snowflakes as inspired by the lovely Lucy at Attic24, who so kindly made a super easy-to-follow tutorial on how to make the lovely snowflakes (after the miserable winter we had last year crocheted snowflakes and FIMO snowflakes are the only kind I really want to see this year *crosses fingers again*). These were really easy to make, I think Lucy's instructions are always really easy to follow, she is the crochet oracle to me! Again as soon as I had made these they were also out the door like hotcakes and so I kept making them and finally got to keep some for myself. I had intended to make a garland of snowflakes but without complaining again I will just say that time really is not on my side. But there is always next year Haha! 

We did manage to get our Christmas Tree up on the 1st of December which has been the tradition in our house for quite a few years now and we still managed to get a real tree. We were worried about a number of things (I am a worrier in case you hadn't noticed), firstly that we wouldn't have the space anymore for the tree because we have had to re-jig our living room/dining room to give Baby R more space for cruising and for speeding about in his walker, secondly that the tree wouldn't fit in the car with Baby R in the back too and thirdly that Baby R would pull the whole thing down (that last point lets just say is a work in progress!!!). But we managed to get a smaller tree (we love the Fraser Firs and fortunately the garden centre we love had a smaller tree that was perfect for us, still cost the same amount as the massive one we got last year mind you!), which fitted in the car with Baby R smiling at it as we drove home and it fitted in our alcove (minus lots of it's back branches). 

This was taken on the night of the 1st of December as we enjoyed a well earned glass of wine after decorating the tree and Baby R was tucked up cosy in bed.

This was taken then next day with the top of the tree included (we were very tired after all our hard work!)

You might have noticed that the bottom of the tree is a little bare, well that's because we've had to gradually move the decorations up the tree out of reach of teeny tiny fingers who can't resist the sparkles and dangly bits and bobs.  

Some snowflakes in situ

I also made some FIMO hearts.. I ♥ hearts

This is my favourite new decoration.
  

I wish I had made my favourite new decoration myself but I bought the wreath from the internet in the summertime and then a few weeks ago I bought some battery powered fairy lights and wove them around the wreath. I love, love, love it, it's been the missing decoration from my life!

This Christmas is so special for my husband and I as it is the first with little Baby R. I am loving every minute of December 2011 (I love the run up to Christmas with Christmas Eve as my favourite day of the whole year), it's just so special because we have Baby R to share it with and really that's all I've ever wanted. Last December I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and the snow was so bad that I couldn't leave the house. Baby R was due on the 27th of December but he decided he was too warm and snug to come out into all that snow so he stayed tucked up like a bug-in-a-rug for an extra 11 days. This year I'm happy and sad all at once, Christmas is tinged with sadness for me because I have to return to work on the 3rd of January. I have to let go of the light of my life and give him over to someone else to look after (Granny 1 day and a lovely lady childminder for 3 days and I have Fridays off on a temporary-to-be-reviewed basis). I think it's the toughest thing I'll ever have to do and I just wish I didn't have to. Then sensible, rational part of me knows that it will be good for both of us as it will help little R to become independent and hopefully to socialise and make wee friends. I was a terribly clingy child, even when I started secondary school I was so anxious, I didn't want to go and "leave my mummy", I wanted to be with her all the time and while this sounds nice it was stressful for me as a child and for my parents to have a child crying every day before going to school so I really don't want baby R to experience this. I want him to be a happy-go-lucky child who enjoys life and new experiences but the emotional, irrational part of me is having her heart torn out and while I know I should be enjoying the time I have left I can't help feeling so sad about what's around the corner. I wish I wasn't so sensitive and could toughen up, I knew this time was coming but it's crept up so fast and in the blink of an eye he'll be sharing his laughter and tears with someone else each day, but I want to be the one to make him giggle and to wipe his tears away. I'll have to settle with wiping my own tears away with an entire box of kleenex 


Oh dear I was so happy at the start of this post because I finally got to share my Christmas decorations and now I'm just so sad. I hope I haven't totally depressed you, somewhere in here I'm still feeling happy-happy-joy-joy I just need to let the sadness out from time to time. Baby R and his Dada are off visiting Santa in Dada's work, I thought it best to stay at home to work on my blog so that we would both get used to being away from each other (it's horrible being so sensible), and from the reports I am getting from his Dada Baby R is handling it much better than me, which was to be expected really. Maybe a hot cup of Lady Grey tea and a dark chocolate hobnob will cheer me up and maybe a cuddle from Luca and Monty. Sorry for my ups and downs over this post I hope you can forgive me.... *crosses fingers and toes*