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!

What a week!

It feels like it's been a crazy week - really, it's been the last 24 hours that have been flat out - hectic - insane! - so I'll deal with that first and then tell you the news from the rest of the week!

Do you remember this?:

Well, it's now on it's way to Missouri in the USA! YES!! My first Etsy sale!! I got the order last night, but didn't see it until I got up this morning... So, I got everything organised as fast as I could, and off I went to the post office :-).

This rather stunning desk now belongs to me... Picked up for the bargain price of £65... It's a little battered, but I think I love it even more because of that!

I've always wanted a desk like this... and now it's mine, all mine... cackle, cackle :-). Although Miss E is a little wary of it for now! Can you see her sneaking into the bottom of the photo?

We threw in a quick trip into town to get some more plastic storage tubs... My yarn collection is expanding very rapidly, and I think I might have to get a larger sofa to hide the storage boxes behind!

I got these jar covers all finished off and added to my shop. I was planning on using two different styles of flower, but for some reason, I couldn't get the second design to curl up right (they looked like pressed flowers!). I'm still happy with the results though:

Anyway, on to the rest of the week.

K had exams recently. In all of his exams he came either first or second in his year! His lowest result was 84% - all other results were above 90%! Truly amazing! I am so very, very proud of what he is achieving!

On Thursday, I went into work wearing this lovely cardigan I found on a charity shop's £1 rail:

There was a brief conversation about how lucky I was to find this cardigan so cheaply... and then the cook stated she would dearly love one... but longer... and in an oatmeal colour. I proudly assured her there were bound to be numerous patterns around that would be very similar...

I spent most of the afternoon and evening searching and searching and searching. I think everyone has hidden them! So, I had to find a pattern that I could try to adapt... The best one I found was this, which I already own!

My faith in my abilities to adapt a pocketed cardigan into one with a cable panel on each side, and a floppy collar isn't great. As I'd already told J that morning that I wanted to knit a similar one for myself, I took the plunge and ordered the yarn for my cardigan... which will be the guinea pig for the cook! Once it's done, I'll take it in, let her try it on, and then she can have her oatmeal, cabled, floppy collared cardigan! Mine's being done in this colour - Velvet Plum:

What do you think? Like the colour? Reckon I can make it work?? We'll all have to wait and see!!

Lesson learned: Be patient, but don't stop trying... and I really need to clean my desk more often!!

All going to plan...

It seems like I finally found a balance between making things for my Etsy shop, and making things for myself!
I have a 4 day "working week" (Monday to Thursday), and 3 days for ME, ME, ME!!
It's working well so far... It means I can fill my shop with basics like these iPod-compact camera-phone covers:

While giving me time to work on larger items, and of course, to design new items.

The weekends are mostly devoted to crafting for me... although I do tend to add items to my shop at the weekends and try to write here too! This is what I've been up to today:

It's my shawl - and it's now too big to get a decent photo of! I'm hoping to have it completed by the end of next weekend, and then I'll get J to take a photo of me holding it.

I need to decide what to complete for me next - the knitted sweater, the crocheted sweater, or one of the throws... Hmm, decisions, decisions!

It's been so windy here. I'm spending a lot of time looking out of the window, watching the clouds scudding across the sky, and I thought it was time I shared with you what I can see.
This is the view from my bedroom window:

Nice, huh??

If you lean out of the window a bit, and turn to the left, you get this:

And if you look to the right, but don't lean out quite so far, you get this:

It's really worth clicking on this picture to make it bigger - you can really see the wind blowing!

I decided that these pictures didn't do justice to the colours in our village... so I took my life in my hands and leaned as far out of the window as I dared without asking J or K to hold my ankles... and took these "aerial" shots of the flower patch in front of our house:

As you can see, it's mostly orange and yellow with a bit of white and red thrown in.

In the photo below, you can just about see my California Poppy patch, on the far side of the steps - they are my pride and joy! I almost lost them due to neighbours complaining they were too bright... Thankfully, they moved and our new neighbours love them!

I'll be sad to leave them when we move (the flowers and the neighbours!), but I intend to plant again and keep in touch with neighbours who have become friends.

Lesson learned: Set targets and try to stick to them!





Stocks and shares.

Why, oh why, have I never had stocks in my home before:

The scent is astonishing - and at 2 bunches for £5 makes a lot more sense to me than one of those plug-in air fresheners! Gorgeous!

Now for the shares... My new yarn that arrived this morning - 49% acrylic and 51% recylcled cotton:

The double knit is shown above, and the aran weight is below:

I'm planning to make something like these:

This is the look Miss E gave me when I told her the yarn was not for her:

And, of course, I'm not allowed to take a picture of Miss E and not take one of Miss D too!

Here she is - she's proudly caught Miss E's latest toy!

Really, it's not been a very good week... a lot of things just seem to be going wrong (mostly it's my fault for not writing things down properly, and trying to do too much at once!).

Lesson learned: Slow down and make proper notes!!



It's not so bad...

Honestly... It's not! There are some good things... It just takes some time to find them when you are a little bit low...
Like these:

A bargain at £1 a box... And here they are "set free":

Ok, so that picture won't be used in their advertising anytime soon, but you get the idea!

Then there's the joy of having a new project to start:

This shawl is from "The Art of Crochet" issue 124. Obviously, these colours weren't going to work for me, so I chose these:

Can you see the mini cupcakes sneaking into the shot??

We mustn't forget the pleasure of having a good book to read. I just started this last night:

After dithering for an hour or so about which book to choose:

Hard to believe, but this is only about a 3rd of my book collection!

Then there's the relief of actually having something finished to put on Etsy this weekend - the rather colourful iPod socks:

Lesson learned today: I can, and I will.

Have a great weekend!

Hugs,

Dawn.

-X-

Let's go back a few months...

Nothing has really been happening here today... I caught up with the laundry, crocheted pieces for another iPod cover, ate a lovely stew made by J (my husband), read a magazine... And all this while wearing my pyjamas! You have to love a good Sunday!

So, I thought I'd take you back a few months, and show you some things that I'm really proud of.

First up is my first ever ripple afghan. I'd never crocheted anything so big before, and I hadn't intended to... But a local supermarket had started selling this really BRIGHT, BRIGHT, BRIGHT yarn, and I couldn't resist.
With my colouring, there's no way this could have been (for me) all the things it had the potential to be: cardigan, sweater, shawl. There was nothing else I could do but go to the yarn shop and buy some contrasting yarn to  calm down enhance the colours. With some help from K (my son), I chose a nice rich brown.
Here it is, complete with matching cushion covers:

I had originally planned to crochet one stripe multi-coloured and one stripe brown, but I thought it might look better with the larger bands.
Here's a close up of the multi-coloured ripples:

Before I started my ripple adventure, I decided I probably should finish off another project... What better than the sweater I had started for J? I felt like this sweater had been preying on my mind for most of my life, but in actual fact, I only started it about 6 years ago!
I will never be forgiven for this, but here's a photo of J modelling his sweater:

Unfortunately, having been washed and tumble dried several times (always following the instructions given on the ball band), this sweater now reaches somewhere around J's knees, and you could probably fit two of him in there... If I was a lot slightly braver, I could buy a nice chunky belt and wear it as a dress...

There's not much else for this time. After a lovely weekend, it's back to work tomorrow. Thankfully, I only work very short hours, but it's still enough to make sure my day is disrupted. Oh, well!

I'll leave you with a picture of my haul from the local car boot sale that happened early last month:

Enjoy your week!

Dawn.
-X-