February's decoration: Crochet baubles

I've had these very cute crochet baubles on my Ravelry queue to try making for ages so when it came time to choose my decoration for February I thought I would give these a go.

The bauble pattern is by the very talented crocheter Lucy of Attic24 - a beautiful blog filled with colour and crochet. She has written it as a photo tutorial and it is so easy to follow that I think even a complete beginner could do these.

Because they were so quick to make up I managed to finish 15 decorations this month, so I'm well on target for having a nice stash of decorations to give as gifts next Christmas.

Giveaway winner & presents for me!

Firstly, the lucky winner of my little giveaway is commenter number 2 - Joan. Congratulations Joan, once you let me know your address I'll get your bookmark out in the post to you.

Next I thought I would quickly show off the beautiful presents I got in the recent Valentine swap I had with my sisters.  From my lovely sister Thea I received a very cute mug cosy (which is perfect for me as I always forget to drink my tea before it goes cold) as well as some delicious smelling teabags decorated with hearts which have little heart warming messages on :-)

There was also the most beautiful button decorated notebook cover which I'm so delighted with I want to hug it. Can't decide yet what important job I should dedicate this notebook too - I'm tempted just to carry it about with me so I can show it off to everyone.

My lovely sister Liz also astounded me with her gifts. She has recently been trying her hand at wood burning - and this beautiful photo frame is one of her early attempts - isn't it fantastic!


She has also made a beautiful necklace by hand bending wire around beads - however my son ran off with the necklace which is why I don't have it in this photo to show you. There is also a pretty crochet flower which I shall probably wear on a coat or jumper and I'm sure everyone will be envious of it :-)

February's craft: Glass painting

The giveaway is now closed - thanks to all who took part!

I love painting glass - it's easy, relatively quick and always gives such rewarding results.

These heart nightlight holders are the ones I painted up for the recent 'sisters valentines swap'. Very simple to do - just some free hand hearts drawn on with outliner paste and filled in with red glass paint.

If you fancy giving this craft a go then have a look at my mini glass painting tutorial.

200th post giveaway!

My Valentines day post yesterday took me up to the 200 post mark so to celebrate I thought I would send out a beautiful crocheted fan bookmarks to one lucky winner.

If you want to be in with a chance of winning then just leave a comment on this post before the end of Tuesday 21st and I'll draw the winner the next day. All entries welcome as I'm happy to post this out to anywhere!

Thank you all for keeping me blogging, having people read and comment here have given me the encouragement to keep posting.

So get commenting and I'll start thinking about what my next giveaway will be!

Oh - and if you don't win this time then you could always have a go at making one for yourself, the pattern for it is free :-)

Sharing the love

Even though I love the idea of the craft swaps that happen on so many of the wonderful blogs I follow I've never had the courage to put myself forward to join in. However, when my sister suggested that we do a few craft swaps between just the 3 of us I decided it would be the perfect way to make 2012 the craftiest year yet.

We decided to have our first swap in February to give us a bit of time to think about what we wanted to do and hopefully be able to make a couple of pretty things. February = valentines so hearts seemed to be a good theme for us to focus on.

For the packages I sent out to my sisters I managed to make them each a simple card, a fan bookmark, a painted nightlight holder and a batch of slightly undercooked heart shaped biscuits. I also included a pack of 'love in a mist' seeds in case they felt like being green fingered this year...

I also had a bit of craft fun with my lovely husband's gifts - hopefully he'll enjoy his lego chocolates (I just melted some chocolate into this fantastic lego man ice cube tray). For his card I used the free template off minieco which I had a bit of a struggle cutting correctly - but I'm very happy with how it looks.

Now I'm off to open up the packages my sisters have sent - I can't wait to see what they got around to making :-)

Latest winter head gear

This has to be one of the simplest hats that I've made for Sam yet... it's just a rectangle shape with pom poms added to the top corners. To make it up was so easy (the hardest part was getting it the right size) that I'm slightly ashamed that it's taken me over a month to finish!

I started out with a foundation chain the width I wanted the finished hat, then I worked double crochet into the back loops of the chain, continuing crocheting round through the front loops of the chain and finishing the first row with a slip stitch to join. Next I joined the second colour and did a row with that (still double crochet) and after that changed colour every row. I continued working in rows (carrying the second colour at the inside so no need to rejoin the yarn) until the hat was the depth I wanted.

Now I'm tempted to make a matching hat for baby Emily...