Summer and Winter in one day?

I met a friend for a cuppa at The Chocolate Frog Cafe today which is inside a garden centre. While we were sitting there, a trolley of gorgeous sunflowers was brought in ready to put on a display. It was one of the most cheerful sights - I just had to grab a quick pic. Sunflowers really are the most spectacular design aren't they? My wee girl was with me and she was in awe of them. We have grown them at home before but she is too little to remember. I think I am going to have to go back to the store tomorrow to buy one of these. They were only short ones so would be perfect in a pot. Gorgeous!

And in stark contrast to the above burst of summery goodness, I finished another winter scarf today. It seems a bit crazy posing for a pic (taken by little Miss 3) wearing a warm scarf over a summer top on a stinking hot day.

The pattern is on Ravelry and is called a Sweet November Scarf.

It was really quick to make. I know it's a bit beige when I'm trying to put more colour in my life, but it will go so well over a bright coloured winter jacket. And let's face it - I'm not exactly short of colourful scarves at the moment! I'm not convinced just yet that I'm a tassel/fringe kinda gal but I'll give it a go. I like that it can be worn so many different ways.

Now I can concentrate on making some more flowers. Miss 3 has requested some to decorate a hat I made her last winter. She loves my tea cosy so much I think she want's to have her hat look just like it. So cute.

Hope everyone is having a lovely week so far. Bring on the weekend! I am bursting with excitement about a night out tomorrow night. I am going to a fabulous charity movie event raising money for Ovarian Cancer Research. The ticket price was only $25 and it includes the movie ticket, a glass of bubbles and a gift bag by a cosmetic company valued at over $300 - now what girl doesn't get excited by a gift bag! I can't wait.

Just a quick note

Hello all, it's just a quick little post today to say thank you so much to everyone who has left such lovely comments recently. I'm fairly new to blog land and am so excited to receive any comments whatsoever! I am constantly blown away by the way we find our way to new blogs and the resulting inspiration. So thank you again for making me smile.

I have got a few projects on the go now and am flitting from one to another. But thankfully with both children back into their regular routines this week, I am able to grab a bit more time to crochet. I am making another flower topped tea cosy for a friend whose birthday is coming up, I have a granny square cushion part way done and this morning I started a shawl/scarf that I found on Ravelry which looks perfect for the upcoming winter months. I think I am going to have more scarves than anyone I know at this rate!

My dear friend Kylie from Blue Teacups asked me to make her a wee mat to go under her teapot and by fluke I had the exact same wool that she is using on her current tea cosy. So here is what I made, it's the front piece of a potholder from Crochet with Raymond. It's similar colours to the cushion I did recently but I love this so much more. I was going to back it like a pot holder but we decided it is probably fine to use as one layer.

I loved it so much I decided to use one I'd made a while ago and edge it to match my new tea cosy - the two look so cute together. This pink one was my first attempt at an African flower and I mucked it up completely but I still like it and couldn't bring myself to undo it. My darling Nana always used to say, "A blind man would be pleased to see it"!!

Right - my oven timer is beeping to remind me to go and knock down some lovely bread dough that is due for its final rise ready for our Valentine's Day dinner. It's actually the 14th here in NZ already but the post dates always show US dates (I think that's what it is!). So happy Valentine's Day to you all. Have a lovely week everyone!

Anyone for tea?

It's that moment - the excitement of seeing the completed project! But with it comes a hint of owwwww as I didn't really want it to end - I was having so much fun making it.

I have absolutely loved making this tea cosy! It was my first attempt at knitting which I really enjoyed but as my first love is crochet, it was making all the cute flowers and leaves for the top that I loved the most. I got a crochet flower book for my birthday and have had so much fun working my way through it for this tea cosy. I neglected all household jobs last night so I could sit at the table and stitch all the flowers and leaves on. I love the colours, I love the randomness of the placement but most of all I love that it makes me smile whenever I look at it.

Is this my best side?

Or maybe it's this side?

My favourite view is this one. A nice big pile of flowers plopped on the top.

This pic was taken last night just after I had pinned all the flowers on and I was getting set to start attaching them. I was absolutely smitten at this moment!

My teapot was a very short, chubby 2 cup style so with a picture in my mind of what I wanted to make I just had a go at making up the pattern as I went along and I am thrilled with it. I will be popping the pattern in a post in the next few days.

There are so many gorgeous tea cosys I have come across recently that have inspired me. Alice's flowery tea cosies at Crochet with Raymond are utterly adorable and so is the gorgeous basket of flowers cosy by Pearly Queen . I hope you don't mind me mentioning you - I just love what you do!

Right, I'm off to make a cuppa! Have a lovely weekend all. It's Friday evening here, the sun is shining, it's 27 degrees in my house and the cicadas are chirping like crazy. I'm hoping the weather stays like this for the weekend but I'm told it's due to rain darn it. Oh well, rainy days mean more opportunities to crochet!

Tea Cosy - an attempt at knitting!

I adore crochet and am really quite obsessed with it, but I have two very good friends who are the most amazing knitters. Having seen their work recently I have been inspired to give it a go - but combining it with crochet of course! For some reason I can follow a crochet pattern, after much reading and regular mistakes, but a knitting pattern might as well be in a foreign language for all I can understand. So for this one, I knew how to do the basic knit/purl stitches but that was about it. I had an idea in my head of how I wanted it to look so I just went for it - scribbling down notes after every few rows.

I took my teapot with me everywhere I planned to knit so that I could measure my work against it as I went. I had been shown how to knit two together to decrease but had never tried it - and I must admit I'm thrilled with the result as it tapers at the top. Because I'm a total knitting beginner, I decided to knit two sides and join them, as doing it in one whole piece and working around handle/spout was just too tricky for me to get my head around.

Once I'd sewn the two sides together, I edged the bottom in crochet using a fab pink wool. A bit of a wavy bobble edge (which I'm obsessed with doing at the moment) and it looks a treat. I have made lots of leaves and am about to start on the flowers to top it off. I have been saving some gorgeous wool in pinks/oranges/reds that I'm bursting to use. I love, love, love these colours together. I can't wait to see the finished cosy. My 3 year old thought it was a hat this morning with space for her ears - adorable!

Hopefully I'll be finished in the next few days. I'm waiting for a parcel to arrive with my birthday treat in it - a book of crochet flower patterns - and I'm getting impatient. I just want to get on with it - it really is an obsession isn't it.

African Flower Cushion

This started life as my first proper attempt at an african flower potholder. But once I'd edged the last row I kept thinking how nice it would be just to keep going! So I undid the bobble edge and kept on going with rounds. And here it is.

I did have one major problem though - I can't find round cushion inserts or round cushions for that matter anywhere in Wellington!! I've even searched online in NZ to find some but nothing. So if anyone knows where to buy them, please please please let me know. So instead I bought a square cushion, unpicked it, unstuffed it, cut it into a circle, re-stuffed it and re-sewed it. Phew - what a mission. So my cushion is a bit lumpy and bumpy and not a perfect circle but hey - it's a delight to snuggle up against. I think this one is going to find it's way into my teeny tiny, very old Fiat 500 - it will look so cute in the back seat just waiting for a small person to snuggle it when we venture out for a drive.

Such a simple little stitch combo, but what a gorgeous difference it makes when finishing off the cushion.

So until I can track down round inserts, any cushions I make will have to be square! I have found some fabulous patterns for gorgeous granny squares that I'm bursting to try. They are in a book called "Bring Colour to Crochet - 64 multi-coloured squares" by Renate Kirkpatrick. It's a fabulous book - she has made a sampler blanket using a different pattern for every square. But I'll have to be patient as I'm determined to get cracking with my tea cozy as soon as poss.

Birthday goodies!

Well it's official - I am now 40! Although I have taught my small folk to tell people I am only 28 - it's not really lying, it's just a bit of creative maths. I had a fabulous birthday, lots of lovely gifts and treats. Don't you love these gorgeous measuring cups! My sister-in-law gave me these - little did she know I've had my eye on them for ages.



My dearest friend gave me the most wonderful bag of goodies including this delightful book. This is the book I was talking about in a previous post - where my body butter recipe originally came from it turns out. It is full of wonderful old fashioned tips, household hints and recipes. I'm really looking forward to having some quiet time next week when school goes back, so I can sit and have a really good read.

I was also given some gorgeous tea - a beautiful New Zealand Breakfast mix which I tried last night. It was absolutely beautiful. The other one is Earl Grey Blue Flower which is my all time favourite. Brewing a pot of this is just such a treat. Having it in a vintage tea cup makes it taste even better! So it is perfect timing that I am going to start making a beautiful tea cosy in the next week which I'm sure will make the tea taste better still. Can't wait to get started on it but it will have to wait a few more days while I finish off another project first.

High tea and a bit of crochet!

I finished my gorgeous scarf last night - and I absolutely adore it. Roll on winter I say! It was remarkably simple to make (once I got my head around the pattern) and looks much trickier than it was. As mentioned previously, this was a pattern on Ravelry by Kathryn Nunes called the Van Ness scarf. I have decided that I can be a bit blonde when it comes to following patterns. I don't just look at them and get it immediately - but then again I am fairly new to this crochet thing! I always get there in the end which is the important thing.

I tweaked the pattern slightly by leaving off the final few rows. I did them originally but I decided I didn't want the ends to flare out so much so I undid it and love the result. I think it looks fab. I'm off to buy more wool tomorrow to make one for a friend of mine. It was such a lovely pattern to work with - I highly recommend it. In total it probably took about 3 hours to complete. A brilliant last minute gift project perhaps?

Apologies to anyone who is currently in the middle of winter ... but this was just the most blissful hour on Friday. Sitting in the sun on Oriental Parade, looking like a bit of a nana with my crochet hook, but it really was just perfect.

It's now Sunday here and I'm trying my best to ignore the fact that today is officially my last day in my 30's - eeek - but I'm slowly embracing this momentous point in my life. As a bit of an early birthday celebration it seemed only right to leave my 30's with a nice nana-y high tea. Surrounded by wonderful family and friends, we ate and drank until we could hardly move. We had tea at the James Cook Hotel, on the 17th floor so the views were fabulous. The food was gorgeous and I secretly wish no one wanted their chocolate mousse as I really, really wanted to have more than just the one!! I am told that calories don't count when it's your birthday so phew, that's just as well. I will definitely go back there again with girlfriends - it was gorgeous. I've been to a few high teas around town, but the food, huge tea list and adorable staff made this just the perfect morning.