It's so nice to be back!

Wow, it's been almost a month since I last had a chance to do a post and I've missed it.  So I warn you, this post will probably be long as I've got lots to catch up on.  The days have been absolutely flying by recently.  It has also been the school holidays here so my small folk have been keeping me rather busy.  Both children were sick over the holidays which wasn't much fun.  At least the weather was rubbish so it was ideal to be tucked up on the couch, watching DVDs and resting.  It did mean that I was able to get my hook out a few times during the day which was lovely.  I made a collection of tiny hearts for my wee girl and made them into a garland for her bedroom. 

She is very particular, just like her mother, and they had to be in a certain order.  I am going to have to make more of these as they are just so cheerful.  I can see garlands popping up all around the house (anything to add some colour to these gloomy winter days).

Then there was a bit more heart creating.  I had bought a battered old book of sheet music at the op shop a while back so I got it out while the kids happily played (not fighting for a change!).  With the help of some thick double-sided mounting tape, these layered hearts turned out really well.  Perfect to fill an empty spot on the wall.

 Side on you see the 3D effect.  And while I was taking a photo of these, Miss 5 made this one ...

Too cute!  I didn't realise she had even been watching me make my one.  I think she did a fab job!  She went on to make about 6 of them which are now on her bedroom wall.  Mr 7 was also busy making things - but his makes were Lego.  He is obsessed with Titanic and made a great selection of Titanics and icebergs!! I must get a photo of them.

I also finished my cat from Annaboo's CAL!  I'm so happy with him - I will definitely be making more now that I know it's not as hard as I thought it would be.  I overstuffed his poor head a bit, but hey, he's still cute.  

I also stayed up too late at night having a play on my sewing machine.  My fear of zips and buttonholes were holding me back from making cushions, so I decided to do a flap/envelope back instead and I love the result.

I had been collecting fabric for a while but then I spotted this fabulous length of fabric at Stitchbird.  One length made two cushions and I absolutely adore this bird print.  I had planned to use a plain backing but at the last moment changed it to the green and white spots and I love it!

 I was so pleased with the result, I couldn't wait to make a few more.

 Here's a pic of the back.  Nice and neat and not a zip in sight - yippee.

Here are the next two I made.  I was all set to make some square ones next until my brand new 22 day old sewing machine decided to sound like a helicopter landing in the living room and promptly died.  I know it wasn't a super flash machine and I did get it at a cheap price, it was still a decent machine at a fairly decent price before the sale.  Grrrrrrr.  And because it was outside of the 14 day period I wasn't able to get a replacement machine.  So it is currently away being repaired and I am missing it.  Fingers crossed it gets fixed soon or I will be turning into a super-grump.  I had also started altering all my jeans which I am eager to continue with.  All those jeans that have wider legs have started to be taken in so they are nice and lean.  I used to do this all the time as a teenager and can't believe I haven't done this sooner as an adult.  This way I end up with jeans that actually suit my figure and fit me perfectly.

Big news too - I have finished my giant blanket!  Here's a quick pick of it before I did the border - I had just laid it on the floor to look at it and of course Bella appeared and wouldn't budge.  I'm not going to show you until my next post as I am determined to have every end tied in before I take photos of it.  I know, I know, I said I would tie them in as I went but clearly I am a big fat liar!!  I got carried away and after the first 10 were made and tidied as I went, the next 26 squares were left.  I am absolutely kicking myself now as it's the bit I really dislike and now I have to sit for hours with a needle, sewing the pesky things.  In saying that though, I adore the blanket and can't wait to have it on my bed!!

I had a lovely letterbox treat last week, my book arrived from the UK.  I had read it from the library and had to have it.  So many ideas, so much colour - I love it.  I am a little addicted to Book Depository - it is soooooo much cheaper to buy books from the UK than it is to buy them here.

I love all the mismatched furniture, china and colourful bits and pieces throughout this book - definitely the look I want.

My biggest bargain last weekend was these pretty sneakers for less than $10.  I bought them at a children's shop as I have ridiculously small feet.  The lady in the shop asked me "how old is she" presuming they were for my daughter.  I replied that she was quite old, 41 in fact!!  Oh well, at least my feet feel young.  

My gorgeous friend Ange gave me this most amazing recipe recently and I have to share it with you.  Ginger crunch is a popular slice here in NZ and one I make often.  This recipe is for a fancier version which is beyond delicious.  It's easy and the outcome looks much more difficult and will guarantee to get lots of oooohs and aaaaahs.  If you're able to stop eating it, you're a stronger person than me!

Oaty Ginger Slice

3/4 cups sugar
1 Tbspn chopped crystallised ginger (or substitute with 1 tspn ground ginger - works perfectly)
7 Tbspn golden syrup
250g butter
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup sliced or chopped almonds
3/4 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
4 tspns ground ginger
2 cups icing sugar
3Tbspn chopped pistachios

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.  Line a slice tray.  Combine sugar, crystallised ginger, 2 Tbspn golden syrup and 150g butter over a low heat.  Stir until melted then add oats, almonds, flour and coconut.  Mix well then firmly press into slice tray.  Bake for 20 minutes then cool.

For the topping, put remaining butter, golden syrup, ground ginger and icing sugar in a pan over a low heat and stir until smooth.  Pour over base and sprinkle with pistachios.  Allow to set then cut into slices.

Enjoy!

Have a fabulous week - see you again soon.
Leah
xxxx

Hearts and other Bits and Pieces

This really melted my heart(!) last week. It's one of those proud mum moments - but I hopefully won't bore you. We were at a cafe last weekend when Mr 6 asked if he could have the camera to take a photo 'of that heart up there'. We were all looking around trying to see what he could see. It turned out the heart was a blob of moss on the plastic awning outside the cafe! It didn't appear as a heart from any other perspective except his chair. He knows how much I love hearts (remember the heart shaped cornflake he gave me?) so he was determined to get a pic of it. I think he did a fab job! It has all these lovely textures and shades of grey all around it so it looks really cool. I surprised him by printing the photo and framing it so he could see it as soon as he walked in the front door. He loves it and so does his mum!

My cushion is now all joined and ready to be backed. The raised seams look great and feel really nice too. I think I should probably have a go at blocking it as I have never blocked a project before but have read a bit about it lately. Probably not too vital on a cushion as it will be pulled into shape once the insert is inside but I'd like to try it out on a smallish project just in case I make a mess of it!
The chair with my cushion on it is my latest bargain purchase. It was $20 on Trade Me and I've been looking for one of these old lovelies for ages. Just what I needed to finish off my mix and match dining chairs - yay! I'm really looking forward to taking to it with some steel wool and furniture oil to breathe new life into it. It is solid and sturdy but in need of some TLC. I have popped another pic a bit further down of a gorgeous tray I bought recently and did the same restoration on. It's such a lovely, simple process which can make the cheapest op shop treasures come to life.Isn't this so pretty? I absolutely adore the colours on this piece of china. I wish I had some fabric like this - I can think of a million things I'd make with it.This gorgeous old cake plate is one of my favourite, favourite things. It's really quite old so I am terrified I'll break it every time I use it! But it was just screaming out to be used ...Yummy chocolate chip biscuits made for afternoon tea and for a lunchbox treat tomorrow when the small folk start the new term after a two week break. Two weeks of rotten, wet weather so we were stuck inside most of the time and wouldn't you know it, today the sun comes out just in time for school tomorrow. Aargh.
Here's that tray I was talking about earlier. $5 at the local Salvation Army store - talk about a bargain! It was in a terrible state but I could see that it had potential. This pic was taken after I had given it a huge clean as it had clearly spent it's previous life living next to an oven as it had oil splats all over it. An hour of steel wool, furniture oil and elbow grease and here she is ...How cool is that? I'm thinking it's the perfect tray for bringing me breakfast in bed for Mother's Day next Sunday! I might have to drop a few large hints I think. Although yesterday when Miss 3 was being chef in her toy kitchen, she asked me if I'd like an onion smoothie - mmm lovely! So hopefully she won't be in charge of the Mother's Day menu!! One last pic I wanted to show you. This is a wee ceramic brooch I bought at the Craft 2.0 event last weekend. I love it so much. It features the Maori koru just like in my Dad's 70th birthday tattoo (it still cracks me up that he did that).

Have a fabulous week all! I am just about to pick up my hooks and start a new project. A fabulous cowl I have designed so fingers crossed it works. If it does I will definitely share it with you!

PS: I am having a nightmare with line spacing on my posts. It all looks fine until I publish it. Any ideas/help gratefully received!! It's driving me crazy. I like my spacing to be nice and even and when it decides to do it's own thing I go mad.

Lots of crochet and my first pattern!

I made one of these lovely wee jar covers for my very first crochet project last year. I haven't made any since, but today I had a bit of free time while the rest of the family were at the local pool. I decided to make another one with some lovely wool I have been using recently. It is quite a firm wool so feels more like a cotton in some ways, and it is perfect for this little cover. When my little ones got home, they both agreed that these stripes would be really nice as a hat. So they have put in their requests for what colours and styles they want!

Lovely rainbow-y stripes!

Just a quick cushion update .... I started joining them yesterday but forgot to take a pic of it all joined. So here is one after joining the horizontal rows. I have joined these squares with a raised join as I wanted a bit more texture to this one. I love the result! I'm sure there is a perfectly good crochet term for this but I don't have a clue what the stitch would be called!!! I am still on the hunt for either some merino fabric or a jersey to use on the back. Fingers crossed I find something this week as I'm bursting to get it finished. Tomorrow my small folk are going to help choose the buttons from our big button jar. These woolly cushions are so warm to snuggle up against! I adore them.

I am loving this long Easter weekend! I have been able to grab a bit of extra time to crochet which has been fab. The weather hasn't been so great so it's a good excuse to stay inside with my hooks, oh and lots of chocolate too! I think next week I will have to have a bit of vege fest to feel healthy again.

As we head into winter, it's so lovely to find monarch butterflies still in the garden. This gorgeous butterfly sat and posed quite happily for me. They really are the most stunning creatures aren't they?

And now, here's my first pattern! It's not exactly a tricky one, but something that gets lots of compliments whenever I wear mine.

I have been meaning to pop this on my blog for a while but kept forgetting to take pictures while I was making one. So this weekend I finally did it. It's a little pattern I have done to make a fab necklace. It's a fairly simple thing to make but to people who don't crochet, it looks difficult. I have given quite a few of these to friends to 'road test' and they all really like them. They look great over a plain t-shirt. You can make it any length you like, so you can wear it doubled or tripled around your neck. The possibilities are endless - colour, length, yarn etc. I have gone for just a single strand here to show you.

I have never written a pattern before so fingers crossed this makes sense!!! I have tried to take pics of each step. I'd love to hear what you think of it. So here goes ...

I have used thin crochet cotton and a 1.3mm hook for this example - and I am using US terms.

Firstly, chain 25. Try and keep your chain fairly tight.

Insert hook into the 5th chain from hook and sl st to form a small ring.

The ring will be fairly tiny so you might need to give it a wiggle to gently find the centre.

Make 8dc into ring. At this point your original chain length will be coming out of the bottom of your work (see below).

You now need to move your chain in a clockwise direction so it is now at the top of your work (see pic below). This will ensure that you have a nice even entry/exit chain coming out of the circle/round that you have created.Make another 8dc into ring. Join with a sl st into the top of your first dc. You have now completed your first 'circle'!

Now you chain 25 again ...... and repeat the above instructions until you have reached your desired length. Join your last 'circle' to your initial chain and fasten off.And there you go, a cute wee necklace! You can go as crazy as you like with colour, or even add some small beads or buttons to the centre of the circles perhaps? And if you want the circles to be smaller, just use a smaller stitch, an hdc works well too.

I hope that all made sense!

Have a fab week.

Leah

Cushion Love!

It has taken far too long, but I have finally sewn the backs on to my gorgeous cushions!! I am so so so happy with the result. It really was worth waiting to find the perfect jersey to use as the backing - and I'll forever be grateful to my dear friend Ange for spotting the lovely merino jersey at our local op shop. $5 - great price, size XL - perfect size for chopping up!

It's just so nice to see them complete and not hanging around in my to-do pile. If I'm honest, the top cushion still has a few threads to darn in but I can do that at my leisure as know one else would know they were there!

Here's the back view. The waistband of the jersey made the perfect hem. A few rows of SC and a quick dig through my jar of vintage buttons and voila - a pretty back. I love the way this finishes it off so tidily.

Button love!

This one is my absolute favourite. There is something about this particular colour combo that really does it for me! I also really love that my laziness to join the squares in my usual way led to me playing around with different options before finally coming up with this one. Love, love, love it. I will definitely be using this joining stitch again. You can have a look on this previous post for instructions on how to do it.

This one is darn cute too though. The two of them together look lovely. Almost too nice to lie against. They certainly won't be allowed to be used in cushion throwing games by my small folk that's for sure!

I still have a lot of the same wool leftover so have started making winter hats now that we are slowly leaving our summer months. Miss 3 asked if I could make one in the same colour as her red one for her little friend Beth (you can find the pattern here). The flower is my first attempt out of a recent book purchase and I love it. One of my friends spotted this hat today and asked for a grown-up version for herself. The colour is so warm and toasty looking - I think I will need to make one for me too!

I made these cute little caramel tarts to take to a girly afternoon tea today. So glad I kept a few here, just what I need now with a nice cuppa.

Enjoy your weekend!

Cushion Update

My cushion is coming along nicely and I'm bursting to get it finished. I just have to edge the front then add the back and it will be complete - yippee. Because I adore this wool so much and don't have an endless supply, I have decided to back the cushion using a jumper/jersey (thank you Lucy for the idea). I figure that you really only ever see the front of a cushion so why waste my favourite wool putting it on the back! This way I will have enough to make two gorgeous matching cushions instead.

Here it is leaning against the insert so you get an idea of what it will look like. I absolutely love it! It's very bright and cheery and with the stitches between the grannies, it almost starts to look like a printed fabric the more you look at it - or maybe that was just my tired eyes not seeing straight!

Because I was feeling a bit lazy and didn't really fancy joining the squares in my usual way, I decided to have a play with alternative options. After a few attempts I decided this was the look I was after and I'm thrilled with the result. The contrasting wool really stands out and I think I will use it to edge the cushion now.

To do this joining stitch you take two granny squares with right sides together. Into one of the 3DC clusters, insert hook into the space between the 1st and 2nd DC and draw through wool, make a SC into this space, then make another SC into the space between the 2nd and 3rd DC, cut and tie off wool. Repeat this between all the 3DC clusters on your granny squares. You need to tie off the wool after each cluster otherwise I found you can see the thread behind the grannies.

Just starting to join the grannies - but more importantly, check out the very cute pink and white spotty crochet hook holder! Visiting a friend in a suburb I hardly ever go to, I was wandering through the local shops and found two of these in a bargain bin at a bookstore - very random! I think I may have actually squealed out loud when I spotted the price tag of only $2.00!!! You have to love a bargain like that.

More granny gorgeousness.

And speaking of bargains - my visit to my local Op Shop last week ended with me finding this fabulous book for $1.00. It brought back memories as I had this exact image of Holly Hobbie on my bedroom wall my entire childhood. It has been so well looked after and is in pristine condition considering it is 32 years old. This is definitely one I will keep forever. Miss 3 loves it too.

Have a fabulous week!