Mini giveaway

During a wool stash sort thorough I found a few more UFOs that I had started and then forgotten about. First off would be these little Koala booties (designed by crochetroo). These are the first pair that I made from this pattern, but they ended up at the bottom of my stash due to being too small for the intended recipient. They are light lilac with light blue koalas on the front and they measure 9cm by 4.5cm. If you have a little one that they would fit then leave me a comment (with your email address) to let me know.

Next up is a little crochet thread bag - made from the same lovely book as my crochet stars. Another very early project, it has a simple round bottom with a petal design and then a lacy body through which you can thread a bit of ribbon to act as a drawstring. This bag does not come with the tasty chocolate money that is shown in the photo as I have every intention of eating it all... however, if you would like the bag (sans chocolate) then again just leave a comment with an email address so that I can contact you.

Last of the resolutions

Look who came round to my flat to play this weekend - two of the little guys from Aranzi Aronzo's "The cute book". These slightly mischievous friends came to help me with my third and last new years resolution -

#3 - to make at least one item out of each of the craft books (and magazines) that I currently own.

Last year I went on a little bit of a spending spree when it came to craft books (in my defense there were published some truly irresistible new books) and looking at my lovely shelf with them all on I am ashamed to say that I've only made a couple of items out of all of them!

So last week I had a fun hour having another good look at some of the lovely projects that they contain and I've marked up a few potential projects that I will be sure to start making.

Just a quick note about "The cute book", lovely though the little toys are, be warned! They are incredibly fiddly to make, all the cutting and gluing and tiny sewing will take a good long time and may well try your patience. I love how mine turned out but it will be a while before I make any more.

Slightly late scottie dogs

This little chap is running slightly too late to be put on the Christmas tree so he has had to make do with decorating our friendly yucca house plant.

Yes I'm still working on Christmas decorations even though it is mid February! If I had been slightly more with it I would have done something crafty for valentines - but that will probably have to wait until at least July now..!

There is a reason why I choose to make scottie dog Christmas decorations though - it all started months ago when I decided to make up the lovely poinsettia pattern that is freely available from PlanetJune's blog. When asked by my husband mid through working on this poinsettia what I was making he seemed surprised and said that he always thought that was a dog. After that I had to make him a dog decoration - and the most Christmasy dog that I could think up were these cute little scotties.

Now to get that poinsettia finally finished!

Yarn stash overload!

Today I've been left to my own devices as I had booked this day off thinking I would be worn out after all the skiing... but as I seem to have far too much energy I've been getting up to all sorts of mischief.

Rich called me this morning to let me know that our local Lidl store had some cheap wool in and so off I went to have a look. Instead of being sensible and only purchasing one or two bags, I went completely overboard and bought four large bags of yarn and 8 balls of crochet cotton!

Now I need to find somewhere to hide it all before Rich gets home from work...

Holiday crafting

Myself and Rich are just back from a fantastic skiing holiday where we stayed in the most lovely chalet with a group of friends and spent our days falling over and eating. As promised I took some craft supplies on holiday with me in the hopes that I would find some time to do a little crafting while away.

In the end I decided that crochet would be the most portable, and I did manage to find a little time in the evenings to whip up a little amigurumi octopus for one of our ski friends. I've finished writing up the pattern for him this evening so if you fancy trying to make one too the pattern is now up on the Crochet Me website.

I also had a good bash at trying to make a little crochet whale - but I'm sorry to say that he did not turn out well at all. However, after checking up on a few of my favorite blogs today I found that another crochet blogger has also come up with a pattern for a lovely little whale! Once I've finished up sorting through my suitcase I'm going to give him a go instead.

Miniature patchwork

For the last week I've been sewing like a maniac trying to finish off what is probably my oldest UFO.

My older sister used to do a little part time work for a local fabric store and her one perk would be that she would get the occasional offcut. One day she came home with a small plastic bag full of these tiny squares of fabric - they had been samples that the shop owner had given her. She gave them to me and so the patchwork began. These squares are tiny - 2cm x 2cm and all of them I've had to hand sew together (324!)

Well that was about 14 years ago now and this patchwork has been done in little bits for many years in a number of different homes. Every now and then I would take it out and add a few more squares then put it away again. Now in my fever to finish off all my different projects I have finally put the last squares together and I'm ready to turn the
whole thing into a cushion. I've added a border of purple corduroy fabric and once I've bought a suitable zip I'll finish the whole thing off. I love this cushion and I'm so excited that it is almost finished - but I probably will have to keep it locked away for fear of ruining it.

Tomorrow I'm off on holiday for a week - but hopefully when I get back I'll have something to show you for my time away, I just have to decide what crafty goodness to pack!