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Tuesday 29 April 2014

Flower workshop

Saturday was such a fun day - what could be better than an afternoon with good company, yarn, hooks, cake and time to make lovely crochet flowers.

We followed lots of different patterns and made flowers in all shapes and sizes and we even managed to make quite a complicated flower coaster  - as usual I forgot to take photos of our finished blooms. It's so hard to believe that two of my group only started to crochet in March and now they are happily following patterns and making popcorn stitch flowers I am so thrilled.
Talk to you all soon x

Thursday 24 April 2014

Yarn along - stripey blanket .............

The sun is shining and I'm sitting in the sun reading my notes for tonight's workshop. I've started a new crochet blanket, it's very simple just two rows of double crochet in random coloured stripes - inspired by Jules from Little Woolie I'm also trying a new acrylic yarn which is looking and feeling good so far.

    


 Hope you have a fun day too x

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Easter Sunday......................................

We had such a good Easter - my house was bursting at the seams with 16 adults and 11 children. Lots of cooking, baking, chatting, eating, playing and merriment was had by all. I love having my three daughters home with all the little ones in tow. I am a very lucky mum and nana to have such a lovely family. The party included four generations my mum, mother in law, sisters, brother in law, sister in law and many cousins which added to the fun. 
The weather was quite kind to us as it stayed dry but the sun was not persuaded to shine. The children were amazing and played in the garden for hours without many cross words which was a bonus and so lovely to see everyone get on so well together. The age span was from 2 up to 11 so quite a range, eight boys and three girls. Football was heavy on the agenda and penalty shoot outs a firm favourite. Mia helped organise an egg and spoon race and Nicole was great with the little ones. Daisy was eager to join in the rough and tumble as she is used to this with having two big brothers.

We had to put the Easter chocolate somewhere safe after the Easter egg hunt as the bags were brimming with goodies. The children were good though and didn't over indulge.
Even though the weather wasn't perfect we took a risk and had our first BBQ of the year which was a great success. I couldn't quite believe how many sausages and burgers were eaten and it was such a good job that I had a reserve supply of sausages. Running around the garden for hours certainly gave everyone an appetite.

For pudding I had lots of help from Laura who made some fabulous birds nest buns, crispy marshmallow bunnies and her signature rocky road. I added to the sweet treats with meringues, cupcakes and jam and clotted cream scones. As you can see no one went hungry.

My house was filled with daffodils, tulips and hyacinths, plus lots of little Easter touches, bowls of brightly coloured eggs, a little Easter Tree and I filled a wicker hamper and glass jars with chocolate Easter treats. In between cooking I managed to crochet some sweet crochet baskets which I filled with chocolate eggs and hung on another little tree. Laura made some amazing egg bunnies which she filled with little sweet treats - I adore them.
Now that Easter is all over I feel quite sad that I've had to put all my decorations away for another year. Although I have an enormous bag of Easter egg chocolate in the cupboard as a reminder - not sure what we will do with it all as I am trying so hard to drop a few pounds before my summer holiday.

Hope you all had a fun Easter too and thank you for your lovely comments on my recent posts. I have been overwhelmed with your messages of support and good wishes. You have really made me feel so much more confident with my new business venture. I'm sorry I haven't been able to answer you all individually but I am finding it a bit difficult to keep up, I promised myself some time last week to catch up with blog land but I didn't manage to do everything I wanted too. This week is going to be busy too as my grandchildren are back at school, daughter's are back at work and I help with some child minding and collecting from school. Thursday sees the start of my next beginners crochet workshops, and on Saturday I am running a crochet flower workshop. So not much time for resting which as you know I need to build into my days. Life feels busy but fun at the moment so keep your fingers crossed that my workshops continue to be popular and that my health doesn't dip.

talk soon x

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Yarn along - crochet flowers

I'm still having fun making crochet flowers which is a good job as I've had a commission for a little bundle of them. I've used DK sublime yarn and it has made lovely flowers, the detail shows up really well. A lady had seen my flower workshop advertised and contacted me to see if I would crochet some flowers for her daughter. I think she is going to use the flowers to embellish some of her daughters clothes and add them to pretty headbands.


I feel quite guilty that I have been joining in with Ginny's yarn along but I haven't read a novel for ages. Thankfully I have just started a new book, it's written by Sarah Butler "Ten Things I've Learnt About Love" - Laura bought it me a few weeks ago when I was unwell but I have to confess it has stayed next to my bed until now. It's early days I'm only a few chapters in so I will tell you more about the book next week.



I finished my crochet flowers this morning and was very pleased to parcel them up.................

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All ready to go, I also added a little hair bobble which I made as an extra and a few chocolate treats............




I hope they arrive safely.

talk soon x

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Crochet Workshops and Crafternoon Tea.........................

My crochet workshops have really taken off and I've had my first venture into organising a "crafternoon tea" Life has become very busy and I'm finding it hard to keep up to date with everything which is why my blog seems to be suffering. I must apologise to everyone for not stopping by quite as often, I have a quieter day planned tomorrow so I have promised myself the afternoon off to catch up with all my favourite blogs.

I am so proud of all the women who have been to my beginner crochet workshops they have become so proficient at crochet and many have gone on to master mandalas and hearts. I ran a heart workshop on Thursday evening and Friday afternoon and both sessions were full, it was really heart warming to see the joy everyone felt in creating something so intricate and beautiful. The lovely Sam from Patternpiper gave me permission to teach the heart tutorial she shared with us a few months ago. Everyone loved the pattern and heart bunting is now high on the agenda.

The "Crafternoon Tea" event required an awful lot of preparation and was a bit of a family affair, Kate had kindly let me use some of her beautiful "make one kits" for the craft activity which she had designed and had printed onto cotton fabric.

I have tried to give you an idea of all the beautiful detail Kate has included in her "make one kits" It's full of illustrations that you can cut out and sew to make wall hangings, lavender bags, trees, birds, bunnies, pincushions, key rings, brooches and more.


I spent so much time cleaning, re-organising furniture, baking, cooking, sorting out crafty stuff on the Friday and then early Saturday morning Laura came round to help. With out Laura's help I wouldn't have been ready on time she was amazing and so supportive - Laura went home at 1.45pm and I was all set for the 2pm start - so very close.

The room started off looking like this.......................

 very soon it looked like this.......................................
then it was time for afternoon tea..........................
  more sewing of beautiful things to take home..................
Saturday's Crafternoon Tea was really lovely I could not have asked for a nicer group of women, some people knew each other but some were newcomers all gelled and got on well together.

At 5pm everyone went home full of cake and with lots of lovely handcrafted things to treasure - what a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

I have already planned my next "Crafternoon Tea" event for May and most of the women have re booked, which felt really lovely knowing that people had had such a good time they wanted to come back again.

Apart from an Easter Egg Hunt to organise I have a few quieter days ahead, until my next "Beginner Crochet Workshop" starts on the 24th April, although I've also planned a "Lets make crochet flowers" afternoon as so many people want to learn how to make them.

I'm very proud of my new business venture, I've had to learn so many new things, the need for public liability insurance, having to register with Environmental Health as I am providing refreshments. I have become a self employed sole trader. The lists of things to do are endless but it's all exciting.

I'm off to cook dinner now -  talk soon x


Sunday 13 April 2014

we lost..............................

I'm feeling a bit sad as my football team, Manchester City have just lost to Liverpool. I've had butterflies in my stomach all day as it was such an important fixture, after half time when we scored two goals to equalise I really thought we were in with a chance but then Liverpool got a third. I know this isn't my usual crafty post, you are seeing another side to me today - a really deflated, sad football fan.

To cheer myself up I'm going to share some of the lovely crochet flowers I have been making which should bring a smile or maybe half a smile to my face.






I was inspired by Amy's garland and then I saw a lovely garland pattern on tangled happy I couln't resist even though I've lots of other projects on the go. I'm so pleased with how the garland has turned out, I used 4ply cotton and a lovely bright green cotton for the connecting chain, as usual I didn't stop at one and have made lots of other small flowers just for the fun of it.

I'm afraid it didn't really work but I hope my lovely flowers made you smile and think about lovely warm summer days to come.

talk soon x

Wednesday 9 April 2014

sowing seeds....................

Most years we sow sunflower seeds for the grandchildren and this year was no exception. I currently have a kitchen windowsill full of strong seedlings. I can't wait to plant them out with the children, they choose a plant each and then we label them and watch them grow - unfortunately a little bit of competitiveness does creep in.









talk soon x

Monday 7 April 2014

table cloth edging.............

I've  bought a small bistro table and chair set to have as an extra seating area when I am running workshops and afternoon teas. I wanted to pretty the table top up a little so using some lovely Belle & Boo fabric that Kate bought me earlier in the year I made a cloth. The table was packaged in cardboard and it had a cardboard circle on the top to protect the glass, this made a perfect template. I decided to draw around the template straight onto the fabric and then I cut the circle out with pinking sheers.



I then did a blanket stitch all around the table cloth and crocheted an edging with a 1dc, 1htr, 2tr, 1hr,1dc in each space.


I am pleased how my little corner looks but if I make another table cloth I will hem the edges first as I think the pinked edge may fray after a few washes.

Sorry it has been a while since I stopped by but life is busy and my energy levels are low. Hope you are all enjoying April and our little bursts of sunshine and warm weather although today is rainy and grey.

talk to you soon I promise x

Tuesday 1 April 2014

pretty things...........................

I've treated myself to a few pretty little things that I really didn't need but they just looked so perfect....................

The first thing I spotted on my shopping trip was a pack of adorable tea towels that had a lovely vintage look about them, then two little chintzy jugs and lastly a lovely metal framed basket with a linen cover and to make it even better they were great bargains so far too good to resist.

I've had a little play with one of the tea towels, I added a blanket stitch edge and then crocheted a little edging with half trebles and trebles. I think I will edge them all.
Doesn't my pretty tea towel look good on the washing line - hanging such pretty washing out is a treat in its self.

Before I forget I've just started to use Instagam again not very much to see at the moment but if you want to have a peep I've put an Instagram button on my sidebar - I was very proud of my technical skills but maybe should have chosen a bigger button as you could easily miss it.

talk soon x