I cut up a lot of old, vintage books. Usually, they have been scribbled on by previous owners, which puts a stop to any guilty feelings. This is most of what I’ve got shoved in my crafty drawer; some may have fallen down the back, lost for a brief time.
I’ve got a lot of birthdays in October, and my collection comes in handy when I don’t have the time to draw a card design. You upcycle those old pictures into something new, like a card! That’s another thing to feel bad about; If you make a birthday card just by sticking a picture onto some card, is that cheating? Well, it’s what I do when time is an issue.
Here is my favourite box of pens and things. I have a scalpel in there wrapped in a tatty masking-tape protective thing (Husband made it a long time ago, and I have stolen it along with the blade), it’s the dirty thing on the left, next to the brown pencil. We’ve tried to find those Stylo pens, but they don’t make them anymore. This one is used sparingly; it is lovely to draw with.
Anyway, I use that scalpel to slice up my old pictures and then just bung them on some card with a bit of glue. Easy!
See? Easy! A bit more slicing and done.
Lazy, or what? No, it might be simple, but it’s also very creative.
I regret not having made the effort to do some drawing, but I have been so busy that I haven’t had time to think of ideas. I really don’t like drawing something if the idea doesn’t please me greatly. Which reminds me, it is another birthday tomorrow…. Husband’s… I have lost my thinking cap.
(The fabric in the background of the pic above is for a project I did at the beginning of the week. I’ve taken pictures, so it will deffo become a blog post soon.)
Not forgetting to sign your “work” after. Sorry to everyone who gets these from me. I do try to match the picture to the person, but it isn’t always possible.
I spent the weekend making these paper mache toadstools, and I love them! In my head, they were expertly crafted and beautifully painted. In real life, they’re not quite as perfect looking, but I reckon I did a pretty good job. As usual, I was religiously trawling Pinterest when I saw some that I knew I had to make.
At the weekend I am helping with a friend’s birthday party. Her daughter is turning four and is having a fairy-themed party. I think I’ll be able to squeeze these in there somewhere. If they survive, I’ll also work them into my Halloween celebrations!!
Anyway, I thought I’d share my pictures of how I made mine. The original tutorial is really good, and it’s a proper tutorial, whereas I’ll just show the various stages of the makings of them. IÂ recommend checking out the original if you fancy having a go.
Actually, this was an addition to the tutorial; I added copper coins to the bottom of the stems to add weight. They stand up nicely.
For the larger toadstools, I made a disc of foil and put three pennies on top.
Then I wrapped that in more foil and squidged it together.
Twisty twisty with the foil.
The caps were made separately from the stems.
Following the tutorial, I covered it all in masking tape so that the paper mache toadstools have something to grip. I don’t know if this was necessary, but it also helped to shape everything.
Once I had covered everything, I left them for a couple of days to dry naturally. In April, I was playing with paper mache and thought I’d put my creation out in the hot sun to dry. It was too intense, and it did annoying crinkly things to what I was working on (Ice King pinata-it was so cool).
I’ve ruined my tray as I was too lazy to get a separate doodah for the paint. I did two coats of acrylic paint. Three would have been better.
I love playing with my glue gun. Stems got stuck to caps. And fingers.
I thought too much about dot placement. Not the worst thing to worry about, I guess.
Now, er, where to put them? I don’t know, and I don’t care, they’re so cute!
I skipped the stage of using paper mache to smooth out the seal between the cap and stem. I shouldn’t have done. It would’ve looked so much better with lovely, neat gills.
Anyway, that is what I did at the weekend! I also squeezed in a couple of crochet squares for the fireplace blanket (nearly all squares done). And I’ve fun over the last two days making half a tonne of tissue paper flowers and other exciting fairy party related things. Really, I should have my own fairy party. It’s all too exciting.
Look! It’s me!! I made these little guys a few weeks ago with scrap yarn and then tagged Simply Crochet magazine on the picture I Instagrammed. I was pretty chuffed to see the crochet fox and raccoon in the magazine. Now I know they don’t make up pretend readers!
I don’t often buy magazines (not reeeallly), let alone make the crochet patterns within the pages, but I did this time. It has definitely given me a boost but I am wondering if I should aim higher next time.
I’m thinking about focusing more on my own crochet designs and seeing what happens if I shout loudly about them… for example:
These little hooters are becoming really popular. I posted the pattern at the beginning of the month. They are my Granny Owl Decorations. A few days later, I twigged that I should probably put them on Ravelry. I did, and it went a bit mental for a couple of days. Then yesterday, completely out of the blue, they gathered loads of interest after someone (I’ve no idea who) posted a link on their Facebook page.
Very interesting, very exciting. I guess I need to be less scared about what I’m doing. Stop being a wimp. And I guess I should say “Thanks” to those who have found and liked my crochet owlies. There will definitely be more patterns from me in the future.
PS I’m many places online: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages. Please Follow/Like and what have you. And I’m also on Pinterest (all.the.time). Have a look! Thank you. X
We spotted ripening figs on the tree yesterday. I ate one, just to say that I had. One is enough for me, thanks. They’re so weird.
The flavour is strange, as is the dual texture. I dislike the pap but the crunchy seeds are interesting. I’ll give most of them away, but I like to make one annual figgy gesture by trying them in a recipe. I could do a chutney, I suppose. One year I dried them, but they tasted kind of medicinal.
Nasturtium Seeds
These are Nasturtium seed pods. I’m making piccalilli today. I picked these yesterday, as well as other things to accompany them.
These are all from my garden and have joined a chopped up onion to attend a piccalilli party. Yesterday, I sliced them up and put them in a giant bowl with lots of salt.
In about an hour, I’m going to wash off the salt and then muck about with the pickling ingredients. The recipe is a River Cottage one. I wouldn’t have thought of using the Nasturtium pods. I’ve heard that you can treat them like capers, but I haven’t looked into that.
Courgette Polpette
With more courgettes than is necessary, I also remembered another recipe I wanted to try: Courgette Polpette. They were OK, but I would change the recipe if I made them again. With all that courgette, they were just too wet. And they needed way more cheese. Everything benefits from a shedload of cheese.
The Parsley is from the garden, too. I love it. I like to grow it in the veg bed where it can get nice, big roots. Growing it in pots is not the same. It also lasts all season, and you can collect seeds the following year, to start all over again!
Saving the best till last, cocktails! I had a Mojito with my garden Mint. We’ve only got dark rum, though. I hope that’s acceptable.
The only other thing I use the Mint for is sauce for roast lamb. I’m so hungry right now.
And an order was put in for a G&T, so I plucked a few Borage flowers off of the many many plants I have and popped those in with a slice of cucumber. Borage flowers have a kind of cucumbery flavour too.
I’m also quite thirsty.
Anyway, I’m off to finish my piccalilli! Hope it works. I have to wait at least four weeks to find out…
I haven’t been working on these crochet granny squares since the summer holidays began. I honestly didn’t think the holidays would have much of an impact on my crafty gubbins, but it absolutely has. Progress has slowed right down. However, this is still a good batch of granny squares. So far, there are fifty two petal patch squares and shockingly, yarn ends have already been sewn in. I want over a hundred squares to make this crochet blanket. I can’t remember the exact number needed. It doesn’t matter at this stage. I’ll have a play and then decide.
The pattern for this crochet square takes a weeny bit longer to make than a regular Granny, but it looks that much more special. It’s called the Petal Patch Motif by Betsy Makes. I’ll give myself an Autumn deadline for this one.
And More Granny Squares
I’ve also been having a good old tinker around with this crochet pattern. It’s the Lily Pad square, and it’s very pretty. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing this blanket complete. I have a feeling it’ll look lovely.
The first square I made is the one on the bottom right. The middle is tighter and kind of went kind of nipply?! I added some chains between stitches for the first couple of rounds, which sorted that out. I have also only just twigged that it’s someone called Lily who will become the owner of this blanket! Lily pads for Lily. Hee!
Crochet Blanket Inspiration
This pink, yellow and green fireplace tile is the inspiration for the colours. I wrote about it a couple of weeks ago and haven’t moved on that much further. Fingers crossed that the colours match in real life. It’s tricky colour matching by photographs.
A Garden Update
Will I be getting ripe figs this year? Last year, the tree was laden with fruit, but none of the blighters ripened. I always get excited about seeing them ripen, but truthfully, I think figs are a bit pappy. However, I do like to pass them on to friends. People get excited by homegrown figs, and I like to hand out bags and bags of them.
My runner beans are in full swing. I flippin love runner beans. I’m tempted to make chutney this year. I have a good recipe somewhere and I haven’t made any for a few years. Hmm. I could make some courgette chutney too…
The pink Japanese Anemone is looking fabulous at the moment. I wish I could say the same for the white one I got a couple of years ago. The white one is in too much shade, and I’m not sure the ground, in which it sits, is that nutrient rich. I might dig it up and move it.
Scroll past these if you like. I’m gonna add another anemone picture next too…
Behind, on the right, is Arron’s Rod, I think. A bit weedy, but it is adding height. I really need to research some flowering plants that are about 6 feet tall. Any suggestions?
Helloo baby garden spider. I saw loads of these in the spring when they’d hatched, so I knew they would find themselves homes. He flashed his belly at me.
The garden in the summer looks a lot different to how it was in the spring. There are brighter flowers and it looks a lot less organised. I don’t know how to plan planting very well and it shows.
I’m astounded that the Hollyhocks flowered. They have been affected by rust. I sprayed them with Rose Clear, which has antifungal things in it. It seems to have helped them to recover just enough. Not just for roses, it seems. Beside it, the Crocosmia is mightily happy. It isn’t bothered by rust.
Several sunflowers have come up at the bottom of the garden. I didn’t put them there. What I put there was homemade compost. I deny putting Sunflowers in the compost, though. I have no idea how they got there. Lots of self seeding has gone on down at the bottom of the garden. That Borage has barged its way in. And there is what I suspect to be Verbena Bonariensis coming up too. The pink flowers are Lavatera, but that was deliberately planted.
So, there are all these colours going on. It’s a bit of a muddle. It looks nice enough, but I need lessons in planning. Maybe an overhaul for next year? Do I start now? I’m not sure what to do.
For 2019, I have written an update and created a video tutorial on YouTube: How to Crochet a Granny Owl . Cheers.
A while ago I wrote about how I was working on a crochet pattern. It was a design idea that I came up with a few years ago, but I wasn’t entirely happy with it. I dug out my old and poorly written crochet pattern and decided to play around with it; give it a little makeover. I now think it is ready to be unleashed so it can fly off and make new friends!
Here are lots of crochet granny owl decorations in various stages of making. They don’t take too long to put together.
I’m only hurting them because I love them.
I made eight little crochet granny owl decorations in the end, each of which turned out a little different depending on how I tweaked the pattern. Every single one has a unique personality.
What I like is that you can add bits or leave bits off. Wings, tufty ears, a hangy loop. The wings can be sewn on completely or half-sewn on so that they flap about. They work beautifully as cute handmade Christmas decorations, too.
Owly with wings and tufty ears.
Owly without wings and tufty ears. This one has suffered a minor injury to his hanging loop. He was attacked by a scissor-wielding boy.
A friend of mine knew what I was up to and offered to help turn my pattern into a fancy pants PDF that could be downloaded. This is something I have no experience in, and I am unbelievably grateful that she spent so much time making it for me. She is an amazing artist and graphic designer. It looks so pretty! I have given her an open favour in return, I wonder what it’ll be…
The PDF should be just below. It has the pattern and some (hopefully) helpful pictures.
I love these crochet granny owls. I feel a weeny bit of proud of myself! They’re very cute. I think a snowy owl version would look lovely hanging from a Christmas tree. Or, I’m thinking of a Halloween version?! I’d love to see one of those. Also, I’m sure it could be turned into other creatures besides an owl. Can’t think of any at the moment though…um… turn it upside down, add a few curling tentacles and it’s an octopus??
Last week I said I wasn’t allowed to buy any more fabric…. I have….
Fabric For Sewing Curtains
Half a tonne of fabric! Lots of it. Loads. I’m making curtains, it’s totally legit. When I said I wasn’t allowed to buy any more fabric, I had forgotten that I’d planned new curtains. It was not an impulse purchase but a careful, well-thought-out one.
I started on the first curtain the other night but was scuppered by having bought the wrong header tape. I blame IKEA, I don’t think they do the normal header tape anymore, and it wasn’t for normal curtains, it was weird. Anyway, by the time the replacement stuff we ordered from eBay turns up, I’ll hopefully have sorted out all of the other curtains ready for the tape.
I can’t wait to have new curtains!
Giving Away a Crochet Blanket
I got a request from a friend on Monday night asking if I had a spare baby blanket they could have to give as a present for someone. Actually, I had three from leftover experiments. This is the crochet blanket they chose. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite finished. Thankfully, I’d sewn in the ends already. However, it had no border, so I had to quickly whizz around it a few times and find a pretty edge that would suit a baby girl. This is the crochet blanket.
It was initially going to be for a baby I knew, but once I’d almost finished, I decided it wouldn’t suit said baby and stored it away with all the other abandoned crochet projects. Poor, striped blanket. Luckily, someone else saw the potential in it and asked if they could have it. Yes. Good.
There isn’t a pattern for it, it’s just a basic granny stripe mixed in with a variety of doubles, half trebles and trebles in a random order. I used Stylecraft Special DK. I quite liked it once it had its border added. The border was inspired by various patterns I’ve seen around. It’s a bit of a hotchpotch crochet project.
Garden Pics
The garden is getting pretty again after its June lull. It makes me ponder what I need to do for next year, to ensure I have colour in more places. I’ve noticed that the greenfly have come to party on my Sweet Peas.
My six year old and I went outside this morning and snipped all the Sweet Peas and some Lavender to make posies for his teachers. It’s the last day of school today. I shook off the greenfly before he handed them over.
There is loads of Borage in the herb bed, I didn’t realise it was such a prolific self-seeder. There are so many plants. It’s managed to travel to some other parts of the garden too. I’m going to have to keep on top of that.
The bees flipping love it. It would make me feel guilty if I took too much of it out. I’m going to have to keep it to one part of the garden but still make sure the bees have enough to keep their tummies full.
Bees are also having a great time in the Nasturtiums. I’ve spotted more bumble bees here as opposed to the honey bees on the Borage. I don’t know any other type of bees. I could well be mixing my bees.
I’ll soon be running the risk of repeating myself with the garden pics. I’ll need to look at past blog posts to remind myself of my green-fingered blatherings.
Here, another one of Borage! I put them in ice cubes last year. They looked absolutely nothing like those pictures you see on Pinterest.
Okay, I think little crochet brooches are the only finished crafty thing this week. But there are more crafting projects on the go.
The crochet pattern for the raccoon is from issue 33 of Simply Crochet magazine. I made the fox so that he had a friend. It’s the same pattern, just different colours. The raccoon pattern is designed by Becky Garratt. I looked at her blog, and I like it very much.
More Crochet on the Horizon
This new wool, Drops Karisma, is for a granny square blanket that has been “commissioned” (my sister-in-law has asked me to make it). The colour inspiration comes from painted tiles from her Victorian fireplace. I’m assuming that once the blanket is finished, it will drape beautifully somewhere beside the fire on a cold winter’s day. I have made a tentative start to making some granny squares, but the pattern I’ve chosen might need tweaking.
Last week I started the Petal Patch crochet blanket. I found the granny square pattern on Betsy Makes, and it makes a change from the standard granny without going crazy. I really like it. I have pretty much pilfered the colour scheme from Attic 24’s Harmony blanket.
Crochet Blanket Choices
I can’t decide whether to complete this blanket first, or put it aside whilst I concentrate on the fireplace blanket. I know what I should do, but I also know what I want to do. Actually, they will both be fun to make, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.
This Petal Patch blanket will take at least a few weeks more, though, as I want about 100 squares, and so far, I think I only have 25. I haven’t been working as fast as usual either. This is because of a hurty wrist and a yarn-tangling toddler.
Sewing Too
I bought this poly cotton floral fabric in May, I think. It isn’t posh quality, but it was less than £3 a metre, so I don’t care.
I made a bag out of it first, and this week I hope to sew a summer skirt. If, once finished, it looks good, I will post some pictures. I should probably take a picture of the handmade bag, too. I have found what looks to be a good free sewing pattern for the skirt.
Other Handmade Crafting
This isn’t my hand; it belongs to my blanket-wanting sister-in-law. She is into embroidery, and when she visited last Friday, she whipped it out whilst me and some other fab people crocheted. I wanted to share it simply because I like it!
Obligatory Garden Snaps
Moving on from the crafting projects, I am reminded that the garden is thirsty. These Anagallis are my new favourite flower. For about five years, it was a Salvia, which I think is called Cambridge Blue, but my Mum gave me some Anagallis seedlings after I spotted it in her garden last summer. These guys look like they need a drink; they are a bit hot.
Both the Salvia and the Anagallis are here. I expect the Salvia is feeling a bit miffed now. I love all blue flowers equally. Just some more equally than others.
Down at the bottom of the garden, the Crocosmia is just beginning to flower. It was here when we moved in. I don’t mind it too much, so it has been allowed to stay. This picture doesn’t show the Lavatera that has come up behind it but it does show the Salvia, which looks so much better in real life.
I went upstairs and took a picture. Everything is looking quite nice from this angle! Hopefully, I will get the sewing machine out tonight. I’d like to make a start on that skirt.
I made pretty embroidered felt brooches, inspired by the real thing growing in the garden. Then I had to crochet a purse for one of them to live on. So here, I talk a little about how I designed the elderflower brooch, and then how I made up an on-the-spot crochet purse pattern!
Elderflower Cordial
I think it was the weekend of Father’s Day that we saw lots of elderflowers blooming in Grandma and Grandad’s garden. Six year old and Daddy filled a little trug with elderflowers because six year old wanted to make elderflower cordial. I hate the stuff, it sucks. I do not get why everyone loves it so much. Blurgh. Anyway, seeing as he’s only six, I obliged and helped him make a drink out of the pretty but stinky flowers.
It was a made up recipe because we didn’t have things like citric acid. To go with the collected elderflowers, I whacked in a tonne of sugar and loads of lemon juice. It was far too sweet, but mixed with fizzy water, we got away with it. My six year old made me drink some.
Anyway, playing with these flowers gave me an idea for an elderflower without the stench. I quickly sketched out my idea and got stuck in. I decided to sew a brooch using felt. The last time I did felt sewing was when I made a cherry blossom needle case. It was one of my first blog posts so no one saw it!
Elderflowers Made of Felt
Cutting out the little felt flowers was a fiddly job. I didn’t bother using the templates I’d made for those, just cut little circles and snipped petal shapes into them.
I have white felt and off-white felt. They are both different sorts of felt. I wanted to use the off-white but I think it must be 100% wool because it is mega fluffy and breaks away at the edges very easily. I decided to make two brooches as I wasn’t sure which felt fabric would be the best.
In the above picture, you can see I have used off-white flowers on a white felt backing and vice versa in the other bloom. The extra woolly felt was definitely not good for the small flowers.
Adding Crochet
I’m going to pin one of the finished flower brooches onto a new crochet purse. Originally, I was going to do it applique style and have the flower as the purse’s design feature. It turned out I couldn’t be bothered to do that, so I added a little brooch clasp instead and that way I had a removable brooch, or bag decoration!
Crochet Purse Pattern
I used a 4mm hook and double-knit yarn.
To make the purse, I chained 34+1 and did enough rows until I was happy with the length, approximately 46 rows of UK dc / US sc crochet stitches.
Then I began a few regular decreases to shape the purse flap. I dropped the first stitch of every row for about eight rows (it might have been ten rows!). I then did six (maybe eight?) rows with a UK tr2tog / US dc2tog at the beginning and end of each row.
Adding the Buttonhole into Crochet
To add the buttonhole to the top of the purse flap, just before the last couple of rows, I missed two stitches in the middle of a row and chained two instead. In the following row, I made two single crochets in the chain space and then did the final row normally.
Apologies, probably not the best instructions in the world, but I didn’t write them down, so I’m remembering. Before fastening off, go around the edge of the entire piece with UK dc / US sc stitches for a neater result.
Adding a Simple Lining To Crochet
I sewed on the lining by hand and cut a hole for the button to go through. The buttonhole is hand-sewn, so a little messy, but I still like it.
I measured a piece of fabric against the finished crocheted piece and folded the edges in to hide the seams. Just eyeballing it all, really.
Finishing the Crochet Purse
I folded the straight section in half to meet the bottom of the flap. I then crocheted the sides together (a sewn whip stitch would be good too). I actually forgot to go around all edges first with the single crochet, so I botched it, as usual. To rectify my error, I attached some yarn to one of the corners and just single crochet stitches along the flap edge. Seeing as this is a prototype, it’s not bad. You learn as you go, I suppose.
I absolutely prefer the brooch on the right. It is brooch number two. The first one, I used a darker embroidery thread for the middles of the flowers, and it doesn’t work for me. I also went crazy with some dodgy French knots, but they don’t work for me either.
They look lovely! I’m pleased with how they match the crochet purse. I think, if I were going to get brave and open an Etsy shop, this is the kind of thing I’d want to sell.
So, that is the new thing I made. Sewing and Crochet, two fab hobbies!
Back to just crochet this afternoon, I reckon. And after a week of feeling rough, I have my appetite back just in time for slow-roasted pork and veg from the garden. All is good. Hurray!
On a gloriously sunny weekend in Dorset, we went camping. It was hot. There were eight of us, four adults, four children. That’s two families. We had a lovely time.
Two Adventurous Nights in a Field
There was only one heavy tumble down into a badger’s set (resulting in lots of bruises) and only one incident with a hand saw (involving a quickish trip to a Minor Injuries Unit) but they somehow have added to the weekend, making it more memorable… and good for story telling.
Our shoes had to dry by the fire after a short but heavy downpour.
We briefly took refuge in the woods but it got slightly soggy so, in a break in the rain we went back to the tents.
Camping By a Fire
We had delicious meals on the camp fire. The first night was a chicken and chorizo stew with new potatoes. The second night we had carbonara with homegrown courgettes.
We camped in this very green and clovery field.
Lots of West Country Sunsets
I took a ridiculous number of sunset pictures.
It was a beautiful and peaceful place to be. On the first night, we had to listen to music from a nearby party. It went on until 2am, ugh. In the first photo, peaking out from behind some trees is a white marquee. That is where the party was happening.
Camping On A Dorset Farm
We stayed on a farm I know. I’ve been camping there a few times, but this is the first time since having kids. I was worried it would be a nightmare, but the children had a fantastic time. I didn’t like them waking us up at 4.45 but at least it was only for two nights.
More Silly Adventures
Unfortunately, we forgot our sleeping bags, so Husband kindly drove back home to get them. It’s only about fifty minutes from home, and I don’t think he minded tooooo much. I just can’t believe we forgot such fundamental camping equipment. Duh.
Intense Stuff
This is our new tent, bought so that the boys could have one section and we could have the other. It has a porch in between. Nice and roomy.
Camping isn’t camping without a proper fire to cook on and keep warm.
This looks messy in the photograph but in reality, it was very well organised. Instead of crafting, we set to work making an awesome drying rack for dishes and a washing line for clothes. There is a rudimentary rubbish bin in there, as well as extra sticks stuck in the ground to hang lanterns from. It was very cosy.
Here is a proper camping breakfast!
Nice views.
All Camping Things Come to An End
Promptly upon our return we all came down with a bug. I’m still feeling rubbish as I’ve been kept awake by pukey kids for two nights. Decent sleep hasn’t come to me yet. It’s such a shame because it put a downer on coming home. I think we caught the germs before we went camping and harboured them whilst we were away.
I might get back to some crochet today but I still don’t have much energy. I’ve been doing too much camping laundry instead. Boo.
