Lilys House

saturday afternoon

….was one of those mooching around kind of afternoons.  Too late to go anywhere but not quite time for winding down towards tea and bedtime.

Enter the Crafty Crow, a site that has saved the day so many times. A quick look around led me to this little project.

 

The odds and end crayons were chosen and disrobed with great care and attention

Cut into chunks with equal care (!) and put into some pretty rose silicone cake moulds.  A quick spell in the oven, a quick cool and hey presto……

the coolest crayons known to man !

catch – up

Well, I can’t quite believe its been a couple of weeks since I posted, well nearly.

I have been pretty busy doing the various things I’m sure we are all doing in the run up to Christmas. I am absolutely not stressed out about it, even though it has been one of those ‘shock’ years, the kind that seem to jump from September to December with the blink of an eye.  That’s probably a bad sign. Gulp. (I have so got to get on Amazon after this !).

Ok, I’ll let the pics do the talking…a little catch up from the last couple of weeks.

LOTS of getting wet….we have had nowhere near the amount of rain and flooding as the poor people up North, so I count myself lucky but it’s been pretty stormy and generally gloomy….

everything was dripping and glistening in the sun this morning

…until this cloud drenched us with hailstones for what seemed like forever.  I had lost Wilf after some deer caught his attention, so couldn’t really move from the field.  Nice timing. (deer unharmed and dog back safe and sound, albeit covered in mud).

Indoors, there has been dyeing..

knitting..

Christmas tree decoration making…..good old Martha. Can’t wait to decorate these with the girls, they smell divine. (I’d just flipped them, so you are not seeing their best, smooth side..)

and last but not least – dreaming – of that next cast on.  I just fell for these the moment I saw them. Deep in the Forest Mittens (Rav link).  Got the yarn dyed yesterday and it’s dry now !  Very itchy fingers but I must finish Papas mitts first.

       

Right, off now to get a few jobs done (and dry my hair !) x

a little distraction

Helllooo.....! Been a little otherwise  engaged (obsessed) with my new favourite thing. I had a couple of weeks at home after Nicks op (he's back at work and fine now, by the way) and I've being trying to chill a bit and catch up on some sleep.  Work - and life to be honest, has been  getting on top of me a bit, so it was good to have some down time.  In that time though, I had my spinning class and now the wheel just keeps drawing me in...like I really need another hobby ;)

 It was fantastic and I am beginning to have more of an understanding of the way it all works.  Below are my first two bobbins of yarn.  Plied together, they make the lumpiest, bumpiest wool you have ever seen.  I've just realised I never took a photo of the final skein, but you aren't missing much :).  Still - I did it and I'm proud !

My kind of mess..I'm all excited just looking at it .

  

We experimented with carding and combing, wool in all sorts of manifestations, alpaca and goat hair and spinning and plying and drafting and...and ....and.....

  

We were all complete newbies and the camaraderie was lovely...

 

...plus, this was my view for two days.  Yep, total heaven if you are a saddo like me.  Being surrounded by all the gorgeousness was almost overload, but contrary to expectation, I only walked away with a ball of Kidsilk and a bag of Merino roving to practice on (and dye).

 

Spinning has opened up a whole new world of fibre.............and I like it !

today

I got some bargains.  In the current credit crunch and hard times, a £4 haul is just the thing to brighten the day.

 

these Guernsey pottery mugs hold about a pint of tea, cup included to show monstrous scale...actually the picture doesn't really do them justice - they're huge.  Nice.

 

despite having quite a 'few' pretty plates, I couldn't leave this unusual one behind.

pale grey chunky wool, just what I needed for a little pressie I'm working on for Lilys birthday at the weekend.  Chunky = quick ;)

I've been doing a little creating too and managed to finish off these little brooches for the party bags.  Actually I've only made 8 and there are 10 girls including Lily...but I'm almost there...

The next  couple of days will be spent tidying and de-dogging the house in preparation for the  Mums picking up their girls.. Not that I really care, but I think I'm used to a higher level of clutter and animals than some, if you know what I'm saying.

Lily has also requested about 10 different cakes for the tea party (strictly cakes only - skip straight to the best bit - that's my girl) so a mass bakeathon is on the cards too. I'm trying to get through to her that one can only eat so much cake without feeling ill, but I have yet to suceed..

the weekend was spent....

.............playing with my new tripod..

the wiggly weird grey and black thing sticking out of my camera is the Gorillapod..a birthday pressie from Nick  (very good choice, dear !).  This little tripod fixes to anything and is truly brilliant - a lot of fun and very, very useful.

And...............making this little pencil roll from instructions in The Creative Family.  Just the sort of nice project for Saturday night crafting, it's destined for my little nephew for his 5th birthday.  I really enjoyed making it and it's proved popular with the girls, who are now queueing up for one! 

It's been a while since I made anything and it felt good to flex the old creative muscles again.  Hopefully I can keep the ball rolling.

Also...underwear shopping.....and there is no way on Gods earth you're getting a picture of me modelling it !

Lets just say that 3 years after giving birth it was truly time to ditch the outsize maternity pants  (soooo comfy but so deeply unattractive and bad for morale) and feeding bras. I'm going to keep the comfy pants around for a little longer for those slob out moments though, 'just in case' I feel the need to revert to my old ways (highly likely).

New stuff ....think pale yellow with polkadots....:)

the new craze..

Lily has been bitten by the crochet bug as I'm sure I've let on before. Thing is, she seems to have started a bit of a crochet frenzy at school. It all started when she made a hat and scarf for an actionman which was part of a display in the classroom. Singlehandedly she managed to teach most of her friends and it became the activity of choice at breaktimes. Soon there was an abundance of friendship bracelets being made. Word got round, the teeny articles were sent up to the heads office for her to see.
Her teacher was so impressed by the interest generated, he asked Lily if she would like to start and run a crochet club. Hooks have been ordered and Lily is gathering ideas for easy starter items for her and her club to make. She mentioned to me that she would need stitch markers and of course wool too, so he will have to add that to his shopping list !! I was so very pleased that her enthusiasm has been noticed and the club opportunity was put her way....her school is such an encouraging and nurturing place, we are very lucky.

I'm so proud of her - go girl !

dreaming of summer

....when i can use this bag for our beachy stuff. The colours are so happy and sunny. I managed to snag myself quite a bit of the lovely turquoise Sanderson material. A bit much on it's own but lovely for lining. Spring has definitely sprung on this bag, I was feeling all twirly ! I'll probably experiment with some more of these. Love the shape at last....not exactly a radical new shape for a bag but I wanted to do this from scratch and toyed with a few sketches until this one felt right. I'm liking the plain canvas background too, giving me lots of scope to twirl away to my hearts delight with the machine !
It's taken me a while to finish up due to my lovely little distractions here...poor Lily just getting over her spots and Maddie clingy and generally a bit under par..... ominous spots keep appearing then coming to nothing, who knows what is going on..
Hence, an afternoon trip to the (cold) beach is in order if only to give them a bit of fresh air for an hour (and me...I'm feeling just a tad housebound and grumpy). Lil is packing the sarnies as we speak, just a flask of the now compulsory hot chocolate to go in. Mustn't forget the knitting too although I never seem to get any done down there.....live in hope eh....

for your viewing pleasure.....

oops, better click on this to avoid the chopped off head.....

OK. These are just a delight to make. Lily received one a year or so ago and Maddie has been coveting it ever since. Her 3rd birthday is next week and this is her present from me. I hope it will be loved as much as Lilys has been. I just realised that I was referring to it as a he when it is so patently girlie. Not that I'm forcing it into any sort of gender stereotype you understand......(heck it's a stuffed dog - it doesn't matter Asti !)...movin' on......
The pattern is from AerieDesigns and part of the price you pay for the pattern goes towards helping Greyhound Adoption, so it's all good. You must check out the other designs, including the Life Size Greyhound !. Great stuff.

Now he (I mean she ............I think it's because all of our pets are male that I'm having this problem...) is done, that's it for the making stuff for a little while. I need to spend a couple of days trying to organise this chaos and get us ready for our little break. Oh, and go to work....a side issue at this point. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We need a little trip so badly.

get the flags out !

and from the other angle...
(yep, I've been cropping the old chin out..it wasn't good :) The pinky purple bit is round the back. It looks a bit turquoise on my monitor - it's not, it's a most beautiful sea green. Anyway you get the idea...

I know a couple of people liked the pattern, I linked to it in this post. If anyone else tries it I'd love to see the results !

I'm so pleased with it and can't possibly take it off now, it's too snuggly The wool was Noro Kochoran which is a wool, angora and silk mix. Shade 14. I knit it up on US size 10.5 's. I was stressing that I'd not have enough wool to finish - the ball was disappearing fast, bringing me out in a bit of a sweat at the thought of having to go and buy some more!

but as you can see my fears were unfounded.......quite a bit left from 100g/160 metres, so not too bad on the old purse really ! I may crochet a flower and sew it on as well...

Anyway.....hope you all have a lovely weekend...mine will be spent preparing lists of stuff to take on our up coming trip over half term.....Bright lights, big city...I'm a comin' (but not till next Friday, so I'll see you for a bit next week. Can you tell I'm excited ?!)

work is definitely in progress..

in a relaxed sort of way.....my favourite position on an evening off. (The daubs on the front of the dresser are from Maddies little foray into my stamp pad collection...fetching bronze and silver fingerprints)

helped along with a large gin and tonic and the mp3 remote

harry 'helping' .....( it's a crochet greyhound head in the making, in case you wondered ;)