Some bits and pieces and an Award.

First, the bits and pieces namely brooches and bracelets.  In between a big project (which I will post about over the weekend) I have been making bracelets and brooches for small gifts for the family and friends.  I haven’t quite decided on the buttons yet and will make the final decision after looking at the local shops tomorrow.

This bracelet is for a friend who loves these colours.  It is simply a row of double crochet with a row of single crochets with three chains in between tom give a lacy edge.

This bracelet is for my sister who loves the earthy colours, khaki is her favourite colour.  So I think it will go with her attire!  I am not too sure about the clay button as it is quite rough and might snag her clothes.

This bracelet is for my 6 year old great niece Kendal, it is made  with acrylic/cotton and is quite soft.  I think I might try and see if I can find a really bright button.

These two brooches I think I will use as adornment s for the envelopes of Christmas gift vouchers.  (Makes the gift feel more personal, I think.)

Now the award

Anna of : http://annasimplecrochet.blogspot.com has given me a Very Inspiring Blogger Award.  Her blog is very inspiring to me with her delicate crochet and elegant doilies and fashion accessories.  So thank you Anna very much.

 The rules are:

Say who has given you the award, state the rules and post the award.

Tell your readers 7 things about yourself. 

Then nominate 15 blogs  that you find inspiring and let them know.

7 things about me

I love to crochet, garden and painting.  I love my family, cats and friends.  I find humour in everything, even the sad and annoying.  I love to have coffee with my friends.  My favourite author at the moment is David Baldacci.  I have a passion for old china especially teacups! I am in the process of writing an illustrating my first children’s book.  Hopefully, to be published late next year. Woohoo!

Here’s a sneak preview of the main character, Lily.

Here is my list of inspiring blogs:

http://www.lazydaisyjones.com/

http://zootyowlcards.blogspot.co.nz/

http://craftyinthemed.blogspot.co.nz/

http://chalkygilbert.blogspot.co.nz/

http://lindacraftycorner.blogspot.co.nz/

http://miaslandliv.blogspot.co.nz/

http://dada4you.blogspot.co.nz/

http://natasnest.blogspot.co.nz/

http://nancynicholson.blogspot.co.nz/

http://lovecraft2012.blogspot.co.nz/

http://niebieskachata.blogspot.co.nz/

http://thepatchworkheartuk.blogspot.co.nz/

http://sunshineandasewingbasket.blogspot.co.nz/

http://thelazyhobbyhopper.blogspot.co.nz/

http://colourcrochetlove.blogspot.co.nz/

I hope you find some interesting blogs amongst these!

Have a great day and thanks for visiting.

Apple Blossom Inspiration.

My Apple trees are magnificent at the moment!  I just love how the petals have that touch of pink.

I am in full Christmas present making mode at the moment – sorry for using that ‘C’ word!  I have decided to make some pot holders for various friends.  I have made some when I first started to crochet but they were too thick for using comfortably so I decided to try and make some using a combination of material and crochet cotton.  Looking at my stash of cottons and materials I came up with some colours that mirror apple blossom.  So of course I had to base the pot holder on flowers.  I thought of the vintage flower pot holder pattern but decided that the material I was going to use needed a more abstract version, so I thought of the African Flower.

Err… when I looked up the credit for this pattern I realised that it wasn’t the usual African flower.  It wasn't even the Maybelle flower either; it was a cross between the two!  

This is what happens when you are too lazy to actually look at the instructions.  I actually like this version.  I also changed the pattern I originally had for making it into a square, as I hate the curve that sometimes happens when turning circles into squares.

I decided to do the rest in single crochet as I want a striped affect like the material.  Above it is blocked and sewn to the backing.  At this stage I decided to add the red as edging to give it a finished look.

Tah Da, My Apple Blossom pot holder!

I have just noticed that the apple blossom has only five petals, well I claim artistic licence.

I have lots of other things that I have beavering away at but will leave it for another post.

Here is a picture of my cats waiting patiently for tea as I have been so focused on my crochet.  They are hoping that at some stage I will remember to bring the washing in, so let’s wait here as she will have to move us to get at the washing!

Yeah I know that the laundry basket is in a state!  Both Peggy Sue and Lucy( she is in the basket) love to use it as a scratching and chew post!  If I got a new one, they would do the same so I have given up.

Have a good rest of the week and thanks for visiting see you soon.

A doily, a bag and some tulips.....

In between bouts of gardening the above is what I have been up to over the last week or so.

First the doily, I am so pleased to have finished it as it has been hanging around for ages  I had made a mistake and kept putting off undoing some rows and starting again!  Finally I took myself in hand and finished.  Overall I am pleased with it.  It is actually more of a musky pink than the pink in the photo. Um I have not blocked it yet!

Over the last few days, I have been working on making a summer bag for myself out of some furnishing material scraps.

I added a doily I brought from the op shop for $1.  It took a bit of nerve cutting it in half, but eventually I got the nerve, and each side is embellished with it.

I decided it needed something more and so I crocheted two Irish roses in matching variegated cotton.  These I attached with a central pearl button.  When it was finished I decided it needed two roses  in the corners.

I even lined it with matching material that I had in my stash!  Err … Please don’t look too closely at my hand sewing!  The handles I took off an old bag I brought had the car boot sale for 50 cents.

Now, for some flowers from my spring garden, tulips this week.

Excuse my foot!

The pale lime is my favourite.

Have a happy creative week.  

Thanks for visiting.

Cards and Garden

Finally some time for blogging!  I have been so busy in the garden (I think early spring is always a struggle to keep up with rampant growth!)  Although I have managed to do a little crochet from time to time.  I want to make cards using crochet motifs, so have been trying out a few ideas.  This flower is I think quite successful.  I used no 10 cotton and a 1.5m hook.  I think any bigger than that will make the cards too chunky for posting as letter post.  I might try some using no 20 cotton and 1m hook, maybe a mini lacy doily to stick on the card?

I am very pleased with this camellia I brought it last year and it displayed three flowers this year but as you can see it is rather showy.  Er lost the label and can’t remember the name!  But I love it and can’t wait till it get bigger it is only 40cm at the moment.

Here is evidence of my labours in the vegetable patch.  I decided to keep the two front beds for vegetables as they get more sunlight, the ones behind will be the cottage flower beds.  There are still leeks and fennel from my winter garden which I hope to use up very shortly.

This year I have decided to plant more soft fruit , especially blueberries.  However yesterday I managed to get some pots of raspberry canes from the car boot market.  

Peggy Sue always has to inspect any new item brought onto the property!

Today the weather is damp and dismal, so no gardening, a chance to do some blog reading catch up and do some crochet.  Or maybe I should chill out like my three furry friends!

Have a happy day and see you soon.

A bag and a parcel!

One of the things I managed to get completed this week was this little bag.  I was given a lot of curtain and upholstery fabric samples,   I immediately thought bags!  On Pinterest I have seen some awesome bags using doilies; however I thought that this material called out for a softer flap.  

The samples have different colours of the same pattern so I used a darker brown for the lining, maybe the bag could be reversible!  

I was lucky I had some clay buttons that I used for the embellishments.  They matched the scalloped edging colour perfectly.

Early on Monday morning I was very pleasantly surprised to get this parcel from Spain.

It was the give-away from Amanda of Crafty in the Med that I won.  That was quick 6 days to get here, it takes longer for parcels posted within NZ!!

So I made some coffee and open it to reveal these goodies.

Thank you Amanda!  The colours of the wool are lovely and I could not help myself.  They screamed to me a ripple cushion, which I have been doing during spare moments.

I just love the basket, I think I will be making a few myself soon!

These Mediterranean colours must have been on my mind as when I poked my nose in my favourite wool store I espied some lovely cotton and managed to whip up this small doily.

I so love these colours and the cotton is lovely and soft I think I shall go back and buy some more balls and make a shawl that I have seen on the net.

In my garden this week I was pleased to see that the freesias were in flower.

And the Bluebells….

Well that’s it for today see you soon and have a lovely week and thanks for visiting.

Bear Hat

First of all welcome to my new followers,  Paula and Compostwoman.  Also I would like to thank Ilona of Life after Money for the link and mention.

I have been doing a bit of stash busting this week.  I have been invited to a baby shower and needed to do something for a baby boy.  I had been told that something for 3 months to 6 months would be nice as the mum-to-be is awash with new born gifts already.  I thought I would do a bear hat as I think they are so cute. 

So I went to Ravelry and Pinterest, there were hundreds of variations and patterns!  You would think that I would able to find something, but no, I have realised that I am picky!!  In the end I picked a basic pattern and started it was dreadful, so I frogged it and just got to and made it up as I went on.  It worked!

So much so, that my visitor this afternoon wants me to do a pink version for a 2 year old girl.  I am thinking that I might write a pattern for it, improving on some of the kinks.  I will post it when I do.

I have been doing some other stash busting and will post them when they are finished.

This week has been about the garden, spring is well and truly here.  I have been digging compost into the future cottage garden bed and the vegetable patch ready for planting in a few weeks.  Also I have been sowing seeds galore and the potatoes are nearly ready to plant..

Blooms are starting pop up everywhere and I was pleased to see the bees swarming over my white borage.

In the flower garden the Bergenia  or ‘elephant ears’ is putting on a wonderful show.

Well that’s it for today, thanks for looking and see you soon.

I am linking the hat to Linda of Crafty Corner’s Septembers Stash-buster link party.

Spring is on the Way!

Woo hoo!  Spring is nearly here.  It officially starts on the 1^st September here.  We have had a hard cold late winter.  Up till today I thought spring was never going to arrive, the days have been damp, cold and grey.  However today we saw the sun and didn’t need the heating on!

You might have gathered that I have fallen in love with doilies!  This week I got to and finished some of the doilies I have started over the last month or so.

First the yellow pineapple doily – it ended up a lot bigger than I thought but it makes a wonderful table centrepiece, that’s because I used no. 10 cotton.

I just love the pineapple patterns.  I might do this again with no. 20 cotton and make it two colours.  Pattern here

What gave me the idea was this doily.

The light colour is actually a lemony cream.  I am thinking of doing a set of four as placemats and doing some coasters to match for ‘Christmas presents’.  Am I allowed to use that word yet!  I used no. 10 thread again but with a 1.5 hook so it came up quite solid. Pattern here 

Today I finished this simple doily.  It is called Ferris Wheel, you can imagine the picot edges as the buckets on a ferris wheel.  This one is going to be used on the door curtain I am making.  Pattern here

This week I got a lovely surprize and won Amanda of Crafty in the Med Mediterranean give away.  Thank you Amanda looking forward to the goodies.

Also I have been very remiss in not welcoming new Followers So welcome and hi to Mamasmercantile, Ewa, Tami and By Nemes.

Today I decided to walk into town and noticed that a lot of my favourite flowering trees were in bloom.  I just love magnolias.  I have a small stellata variety so when I got home I went down the back and yes there were flowers, I had to pick a shoot and put in a vase.

While I was in the supermarket I saw this amazing fruit!  It is so ugly, its beautiful!

The Dragon Fruit (pitaya) it comes from Vietnam and Thailand from a cactus.  It has a melon like flavour and can be eaten as melons or used smoothies.  I have visitor with young kids in the weekend and I am going have a game with them!

While I was inspecting the magnolia bush, I also managed to harvest these, Yams and Celeriac.  I don’t think you get this type of yam outside of NZ, although I think it originates from  the Andes where they are called oca.  They are vaguely scented,  and boiled or roasted they are mealy like potatoes and slightly cooked they have a crisp crunch to them.'

Well I think that’s it for today. 

Thanks for visiting.