It's been too long...

... but I am finally BACK! Not just to blogland, but to life in general - and of course, that means lots of crafting!

I've been busy (amongst other things) turning this:

Into this:

As you can see, we are starting to settle in. Mr T was at home straight away... It took the others a little longer.
Sadly, Miss P had to go to a new home. We miss her and her fresh eggs, but we weren't allowed to keep her here, and at least we know she will be ok and with other chickens once again.

Miss P would have loved our new "blank canvas" back yard:

I managed to pick myself up a bit of a bargain last week:

Can you believe it was only 99p in a charity shop? I saw it, and knew I had to have it (useful for hiding some of my yarn stash, don'tcha know?!?) - I was expecting it to cost a bit more, so I was really thrilled!

Ok, on to the crafting!
I've been working on a promise I made a while ago - a little snowman and penguin:

My pastel squares blanket (my first attempt at join-as-you-go, so be gentle in your comments! Mr T and Mr R thoroughly approve though!):

It's not all been about using up my stash... I bought this:

To be turned into a blanket made out of squares like this:

Pretty, huh? I don't think the lady in the shop thought it would come out quite this good when I told her my plans and she eyed up my chosen colours. What can I say? I'm a misunderstood genius!!

I've been working on a few things for my Etsy shop too, which I'm planning to put up next week. A few pairs of earrings, another hat and scarf set, and a new bag based on this one:

Ok, that's all for now... I missed so much crafting during the move that I don't feel as if I've had my "fix" unless I squeeze in a good 12 hours!

I've got something really good to share with you next time... I just know you will love it as much as I do... But, I've said enough! You'll have to wait and be surprised!

Lesson learned: Always make time for crafting... If you don't, madness is only a very short step away!

Juggling...

Sorry it's been so long since my last post... I feel like I'm juggling a million different things right now!
I am making progress though, and actually enjoying the harassed feeling!!

First of all, I'd like to apologise to the people who were expecting this blog post to include a step by step Yorkshire Pudding tutorial... The truth is, my muffin tin is in an awful state that I really wouldn't want anyone but family to see, and I forgot to buy a new one for the tutorial... I'll try to remember this week and get the tutorial done soon!

I noticed recently that my views on Etsy go up a lot whenever I add a new item. I put some thought into what this possibly means, and discussed ideas with J and K. We all came to the conclusion that I need to be adding a new item as often as possible...
So, today begins a year of adding listings to Etsy on a daily basis:

This lovely hat and scarf set was added today. Yes, I know it's July - but I live in England! We had our few days of sunshine and warmth a while back, so my thoughts are turning to winter now!
I have 5 more sets similar to this already made up. They will be added over the next few days.

The hat and scarf were made to use up some of the yarn I bought for a custom order - yes, really, a custom order! The customer wanted a small bag in a deep purple colour... I only needed 100g for the bag, but I couldn't find any suitable yarn in the right colour and ended up buying a massive 400g ball!

Here's the bag:

I also tried out a new bag design. I had an idea of how I wanted it to look, so I sat down with notepad and pen, hook and yarn, and made the bag. It's not often an idea works straight away, so I'm really pleased with it!

Do you remember this from my last post?

This preserve jar cover is on its way to Canada, where it will be appearing on a market helping to display the wonderful flowers made by Stephanie! Please  have a look at Stephanie's Etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/berryisland

It's been so wet here, that I haven't been taking many photos of scenery. I did test out my photographic skills by taking some photos from the car:

I'm really quite surprised at how well this turned out - especially considering we were going about 50mph at the time!

Lately, I've been wondering what to do with my yarn trimmings. I was planning to stuff a small pillow with them when I had enough, but decided that washing said pillow could be pretty troublesome as they are various materials, weights, etc.
I was looking at my bag of trimmings when Miss E came along and gave me an idea:

Purr-fect! All of the trimmings are now back in the bag and waiting for our next play session!

Lesson learned: One woman's trash, is one cat's treasure!