Saturday 8 February 2014

A nice catch up!


I was shocked to see it is almost two months since I last blogged anything. When I think about everything that has been going on I am not really surprised but this does little to relieve the guilt!

So to catch you all up with a quick overview - Since my last post I have:

Made Christmas presents for some of my smaller relatives...


...and one for Darren of course!

Made this gorgeous little doll from a book published by my work. More on this soon - I shall do a review!


Lost over a stone with Weight Watchers - still a long way to go but making good progress!

Made and Decorated my Christmas cake - which I have been very good and only had a couple of slices of!



Got engaged to my darling fiancee Darren...



We visited my Mum in Preston just after Christmas, then went to the Lake District for the day on New Year's Eve for a walk. Part way around we stopped for a brew and a sandwich and he read me a poem he had written all about us, and asked me to marry him. I said yes (of course!) After our walk we drove to a little farm cottage he had booked for us and celebrated New Year in a lovely lazy, laid back style. We tucked in and watched the Godfather in our cozy little room together. He bought this beautiful ring for me - just perfect - and I am desperate to get it back from being resized but I must be patient! Wedding plans abound but we are aiming for next year to give ourselves some breathing (and saving) space.

Wrote a crochet project for a book - so much fun to make as it is in my usual crazy rainbow colours. The book will be published next year I think so I will post more on this soon.

Here's a sneak preview of the finished item. I just love the crazy rainbow colours!


Completed my tax return and filed online with about three days spare! Oh the agony!

Became a master of procrastination and learned to embroider when I should have been completing my tax return! Here is my progress on a little sampler I have been experimenting with. I just sketched out a few elements and started stitching, working out the colours as I went and changing a few things along the way. I am really pleased with how this is looking and aim to frame it within the hoop and maybe use an edging method from hoop-la!



Begun creating crocheted rainbow squares to cover my little old lady chair 'Dorothy' up in the craft room...



It is quite a big project to take on but I know that if I just do a little bit at a time I will eventually have enough to cover her. Then the challenge will be getting all the pieces fixed together and stitched to the chair. I am researching upholstery and looking any images I can find to see how this would be done. So far I have come up with a curved needle and that is about it! I think I need a Pinterest board for this so I will post more when I have more to share.

So...What next then?

Well, I will focus in on completing a few things so you should see a few posts which are concentrated on a particular project. I think I should make sure I detail the chair project and give any advice I can as I have not found much on the subject online and think this would be valuable info for yarny upholsterers!

I desperately want to restock my shop and will try to make things for this at the weekend. I started experimenting with marbles in the week so these might appear soon if I can bear to part with any of them!

The stitchery was something I found really enjoyable so there may be more of this to come too. This year was supposed to be the year I got to grips with my sewing machine and I have not begun that journey yet... I'm scared!

I think that's enough to be getting on with for now isn't it!

I hope you are all having fun so far this year with all of your projects, hooky or otherwise!