Post Christmas Peace

Well that's another Christmas over whew! I hope you all had a good time. It's been a busy few days but we have all had a ball, the kids have on the whole been pretty good. Christmas Day went by in a whirlwind of noise as we spent the day at my dads with all the family 17 of us ranging from a two week old baby to a septuagenarian and a whole lot of ages in between. Great fun but must admit to being glad to get home to a little peace and quiet! We have had plenty of visitors and done plenty of visiting which means I have not managed to get any stitching or any crafting done.

I did manage to squeeze in a sort of finish by the skin of my teeth on Christmas Eve.

This was from a pattern in Homemaker magazine. Just needs buttons!

I just wanted to share this with you, my daughter was making her annual family peppermint creams when she excitedly shouted me through to see what she had found -

A double yolker! and less than a minute later -

Yep another one! No more twins please!

We have been doing a bit of birthday celebrating this month too. 

The girls hit another teen year and due to time restraints we had to make do with a small cake this year. Ideally they would like one each but as their birthday is just before Christmas there is only so much cake we as a family can cope with! Sorry girls! 

I won't make any resolutions but do hope to get plenty of stitching in fingers crossed. 

I would like to thank you for taking the time to pop by this year and wish you all a healthy and happy New Year! and

Lang may yer lum reek! 

Seasons Greetings

Just a quick post to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and to those of you who don't celebrate then I hope you enjoy the holiday. We are going to be quite busy for a few days then hopefully have a few days of peace and fingers crossed quiet though with two teens and their younger brother, of that I am not so sure!
I have a few last makes to share with you before joining my family for a few days of festive fun. The first is the baby blanket that I started in the summer for my niece. A big push and it is done and with its recipient hopefully keeping her cosy.

It's not a huge blanket but big enough for a buggy or car seat and gorgeously soft and squishy. I must admit I found I was just a teensy bit reluctant to part with it, it was so cosy on my lap ha ha!

A while back I discovered Home-Starts Snowflake Appeal and before I knew it was busy crocheting snowflakes. They are very therapeutic to make and quick too which is always a bonus. Most of the snowflakes were sent on their way but as is the way with these things there were three stragglers that I had just never got round to finishing off and it was now too late to post them. 

Here they are being starched and glittered. 

Although thanks to the wonderful winter light I can't get a decent photo to share the lovey sparkles with you all boo hoo! 

This little star was sent off to a special lady and the other two have found there way onto the family tree.

While taking these pics I thought I would share some of my stitched Mill Hill Bead Santas that I made the year I was expecting my son. I was in the very early stages of my pregnancy at the time  and was suffering from morning sickness and for some odd reason stitching these made the sickness a whole lot worse. I had purchased a whole load of kits to do but only got these stitched before having to admit defeat. I got rid of the rest of the kits a few years later when I realised I just couldn't stitch them without feeing very ill again... Weird huh? Anyway I love my little Santas but still can't help looking at them and feeing a teensy bit queasy lol. 

These are all stitched on perforated paper a first for me.

All that remains is for me to wish peace and happiness to you all. 

Still here!

I hope you are all well and being creative. I have been rather a busy little bee. I finished the cardigans for my niece and even knitted another along with some hats but forgot to take photos before they went to their new homes. I've only a hat still here as it is waiting on a Pom Pom to finish it off.

In my last post which does seem an age ago now eek! I showed you this picture, well I can now reveal what I did with them. I was inspired by Helen Philips and think my little nieces will love these at Christmas.

Apologies for the poor photos but as I am sure you are aware the light here at this time of year is just plain old grey and no matter how or where I take photos everything just looks washed out.

My model is little Miss Rabbit knitted a good few years ago now, she was terribly keen to try out the beds. She says they are very comfy now with the new mattress, pillow and quilt.

Sweet dreams!

I love the pretty pink backing fabric so the girls can use either side.

This little bed is a much nicer shade of pink in reality. 

I've used a mixture of new fabrics and scraps from stash.

I wish the lighting was better *sigh* 

I love this red spotty binding it's so cheerful looking. 

I decided to make the little quilts big enough to drape over the sides of the beds as we don't want any cold dolls or teddies now do we?

I cut out 2" squares and pieced them together with a 1/4" seam allowance. 

A simple quilt to make but I am still rather chuffed with myself!

While I am talking about quilts I finally *fanfare* finished my big quilt.

I've kept it simple with a simple plain border and basic quilting.

Not a great picture of the back.

Ahh that's better you can see the plaid I've used to back the quilt. Since taking these pics the quilt has been washed and tumbled and most importantly is in use! 

Thank you for stopping by.

It's been a busy week

It's been rather busy lately here in our household what with starting a new job, albeit part time, hubby being away all week on business, throw in parents evenings and being the only taxi driver available ....I am pretty shattered. This is one of those odd occassions when I ask myself why we chose to live in a small village *grumble grumble*. Tonight is the first night of the week at home ..yeah..so the kids and I are having a movie night; bliss just to not have to drive someplace.
I have managed to sneak in a few precious minutes here and there to craft, definitely helps me to de-stress! With the imminent arrival of my sisters baby at the back of my mind I rummaged through my yarn stash to see what needed used up, a ball of cream yarn, a part used multi coloured yarn and a weeny bit of bright pink. Ravelry came up trumps with both these patterns; hat and cardi

Just needing some buttons........if I can only remember where I put my button tin?

All very easy, simple and quick knits just what I was needing they will be finished once pressed and buttons attached.
I also did a little retail therapy and ended up with these..

I had my eye on them after stumbling across Helen Philips blog recently, such pretty eye candy. This pattern in particular appealed to me.

There is just something about the colourful stars on the white background just love it! After a rummage through my material stash I realised that I just didn't have a great selection of brights so I bought these

My excuse were they were on sale so the damage wasn't too bad. I also purchased some paper diamonds as the pattern is for English paper piecing. I have done this before my first quilt was done with paper piecing but in squares so this will be new to me. I also found myself *cough* slipping this teeny weeny kit in with my purchases. 

It is teeny honestly and I just couldn't resist ...ok I am weak!

Oh I so hope my hubby doesn't read this but I did some more shopping.

Not sure what I will use these for but I just love the Tilda fabrics (the three on the left). 

There has been progress made on the baby crochet blanket it is slow going though I find I lose  enthusiasm after a few rows..must persevere.

Oh and just one more purchase to share with you all this..

Well actually there is two of them for a wee project, but I will tell you more next time!

Thanks as always for popping by and have a lovely weekend.

La D Da ...ta da! Happy Halloween!

I've finished or almost finished just to make some cord to hang it but otherwise it's done!

Phew! My first ornament finish, which I managed thanks to several online tutorials. I did it yeah with just a little bit of chaos along the way ;0)

One person was brave enough to take on the orange linen challenge so the linen is on its way over to Annette of California Sticher as we speak. Hope you have your sunglasses ready Annette!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Wales part two

Goodness I had hoped to post this earlier but it has been rather hectic round here this week. Hoping things settle a bit over the weekend, I just don't do hectic very well.
I promise this will be the last post on my welsh holiday for those who are thinking 'oh no not more holiday snaps' *grin*
One of the holiday highlights was visiting the National Wool Museum of Wales in Llandysul Carmarthenshire.

These fun guys were waiting for us at the car park.

The museum is housed in the old Cambrian Mills which used to produce blankets and shirts. The old mill machinery has been restored and is run at certain times during the day unfortunately we missed them running but I can imagine the noise when the machines are all running! I didn't get any pics of the wool exhibits as I left my phone with hubby wahhhh!  There was an amazing array of blanket styles, clothing and exhibits of art and design students work from local colleges.

I did manage to snap this on the way out, isn't it amazing! a map of the surrounding area all done in wool by a local group.

I fell in love with the Welsh wool blankets they come in an amazing array of colours and patterns but sadly they were a little out of my budget. 

But not to be thwarted I treated myself to these gorgeous lavender bags made from Welsh wool blanket scraps. I can't tell you how soft and snuggle and gorgeously scented they are! 

I just love that spotty pattern. I will have to save up and go back one day to get the whole blanket. 

While we were in the area we also visited New Quay Honey Farm.

This amazing contraption allowed you to open up a hive and see the bees busy at work. Soo glad they were behind glass though.

My little bee keeper!

 We of course visited a lot of castles and stately homes while we were away but I have to say that Manorbier Castle was by far our favourite.

This was the view from the car park and there was a steep climb up to the castle itself. 

 Manorbier is not a big castle but beautifully proportioned.

Hubby took these photos for me as I was too much of a scardey cat to climb up onto the remains of the battlements. I got up the stairs where you can then walk out on the remains of the wall and there is a small metal barrier but it just didn't look substantial enough for my liking lol. Hubby and son scoffed at us girlies and walked out while we girlies walked back down to terra firma. 

The weather was amazing look at that blue sky. 

This was the walk back down to the car park, do you see the sea over there? 

Well there was also a beach! The kids and I had great fun down here while hubby read a book in the car. 

We did some rock pooling. 

Building dams to hold back the sea. 

Not too successfully. 

Not to be thwarted, another try! 

Time to go home.

X

As promised I also have a couple of progress pics to share.

I've still to add a name but otherwise done.

I started this using two strands of thread over two however it looked very loose and chunky if that makes sense and frankly it was going to end up enormous. Soooo I ripped it out and started again using one over one only problem is that some of the colours were made by mixing two different coloured strands so I am having to make some executive decisions about colours. Oh well it will be unique. Thank you for stopping by.