Zeens and Roger

Easy DIY Halloween Tiara

October 28, 2015February 28, 2026crochet2 Comments

I’m still not 100% certain of what my Halloween costume will be on Saturday, but I know it will involve this spooky tiara doodah I made today. It’s still wet, which is why this isn’t going to be a fancy tutorial. And I’ve rushed the pictures because I’m running out of Halloweeny time.

Things You Need to Make an Easy DIY Halloween Tiara

Garden wire or similar.
Masking tape.
Cheap headband.
PVA glue.
Black tissue paper.
Glitter glue.

Get your headband and the wire.

Do some twiddling of the wire around the headband.

I think it helps to do a couple of feet of wire at a time to avoid tangles. Bend the wire into crooked shapes.

Get busy with some masking tape. This creates a better shape without overdoing the paper mache stage.

Mix PVA glue with some water, and glue torn up bits of black tissue paper to the tiara. This might not strictly be paper mache, but it’s what I call it.

I blasted mine with a hair dryer to dry it more quickly. I’m not sure if this is a good idea, but I did it anyway. Splodge on some glitter glue and leave to dry. Job done.

Happy Halloween!!

I made stuff pre-blog too; pretending to be a crafting blogger. When you’re not. Yet.

October 23, 2015March 2, 2026blanket, crochet, sewing17 Comments

I’ve spent years being inspired by other bloggers’ work. It became something I really wanted to do, too. It looked like lots of fun, and it looked like a good way to keep on track of what I was doing creatively.

I was lazy and procrastinatey and used several excellent excuses as to why I hadn’t just done it. I’m still so new to craft blogging, but if I had started when I first had the notion, then I would have been being bloggy for six or seven years by now!

I’ve spent much time taking pictures of crafty projects, and each time I’ve thought that maybe they would end up as a blog post. So, I’m going to put up some pictures of work that was done in the six months prior to hitting Publish for the first time.

I went through a mandala phase. These two are both Made in K Town using Rico Creative Cotton. Cheap cotton, very splitty, lovely colours. This has led me towards doilies, which I still need to make more of. Soon.

I made my eldest boy an Attic 24 Ripple for his bed. It’s Stylecraft Special. Everyone loves a bit of Stylecraft rippling.

The boy chose the colours. So off I went. It was reasonably speedy once the first few rows were out of the way. A repeating colour pattern was a weeny bit boring though. Next time, it’s random colours, like it’s supposed to be.

I made teeny niece the mini version for her dolly. I didn’t use the same pattern. This version has more ripples so it looks better scaled down. It’s actually adapted from a cushion cover pattern from Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench. When I say “adapted” I mean “added a few more rows”. The edging, I think, is the one that was on the Granny Stripe made by Lucy at Attic 24.

This grey and chartreuse granny blanket was a special request for a baby blanket. My sister-in-law chose the colours. It’s Stylecraft alpaca DK. The blocks were from 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton. Don’t go thinking that all the blocks end with the same stitch count, though. They really don’t. Hmm. I really liked how this one turned out, but I only blocked the edge (which is from Edie Eckman’s Crochet Borders book) and not the individual squares. Next time, I will try super hard to block stuff.

One of the quickest little blankets ever. It was so much fun. The squares were done in a few days, and it was the first time I used a continuous-join-as you-go. This was for a baby girl born in early spring. I’d make one of these again for sure. It was inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest and it led me to Katie’s Kitchen.

There are six handmade things in the picture above. Six! I am responsible for five of them, but the cream knitted blanket is a mother-in-law job. Three blankets, two cushions and a dolly. Huzzah.

Sewing has been worked on, too. I’m better than I was, but there is definitely room for improvement, too. Having said that, the cherry blossom needlecase is one of my favourite felty sewn things I’ve done.

And a Mermaid’s purse! Well, another needlecase… She was lovely to make. After Christmas, I plan on making more of these sorts of things and giving them a go on Etsy. I’m not entirely sure what the demand is for needlecases and such, I guess I’ll find out. I will obviously shout very loudly on here if these sorts of things head towards my Etsy shop.

Phew, I feel a bit better now. I’m off to have yesterday’s leftovers for lunch, which thankfully, taste better than the experience that I had in the kitchen.

Lily’s Lilypad Fireplace Blanket.

October 14, 2015February 27, 2026blanket, crochet, free pattern18 Comments

A Granny Square Blanket

At last, I have finished my new granny square blanket! It has been an age. I got the wool in July, which to me seems like a loooong time ago. The first post I mentioned it in reminds me not to just click on auto edit when sorting out the photos because, crikey, those pictures need toning down. I hope I’ve improved since then. The next picture doesn’t count, it was taken indoors on a rainy day :/

Inspiration For Crochet Projects

These are the decorative fireplace tiles, which originally inspired the colour choices.

I used the Lily pad square from Pasta and Patchwork, but I added extra chains between stitches for the first couple of rounds as my granny squares were not sitting flat. Indeed, they looked like strange nipples. They still don’t sit flat, so they could do with blocking. However, blocking things increases waiting time, and I just want to see a crochet blanket finished. I’m too impatient for it, but this granny square blanket would really benefit from blocking. Over time, it’ll sort itself out.

Woolly Yarn For A Crochet Blanket

I used Drops Karisma yarn for this project. It has alpaca in it, and it’s super warm. It’s nice and hefty; the weight of it has real cosiness.

The colours are: light beige, olive, mint, light dusty pink, dark mustard, light grey green, chocolate brown, wine red and beige brown mix. I used 7 balls of light beige and two of each for the others.

The blanket is an odd size: 6×9 granny squares, which is slightly over long, or not quite wide enough, depending on which way you want to look at it. I actually planned for 7×7, but I didn’t want to have that much leftover yarn, and I wasn’t sure it’d be that big. Unfortunately, I was a square short to add another row of 7. I eeked it out with what I could, and this was the formation that used the most squares.

I think the border suits it very well, and I will use it for my next crochet blanket (which I’ve already started!). The border has come from Around the Corner, Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman. It’s the last two rows of pattern 27. The corners are made up because I hadn’t laid the foundation stitches from the pattern (not enough yarn for that). I think it works beautifully.

Continuous Join As You Go

I’ve used a Continuous Join As You Go to join the granny squares together. I learned this method using a fabulous JAYG tutorial, it’s the clearest one I’ve found. I used two UK trebles in every other stitch, which is different from the cluster used in the tutorial, but the principle is the same.

I’m properly pleased with this new blanket. I will be waving goodbye to it at the end of the month when I hand it over to my sister-in-law. A Lily Pad blanket for Lily, or a Fireplace Blanket.

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Upcycling Old Books

October 9, 2015February 27, 2026crochet8 Comments

Vintage Illustrations From Old Books

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.

making a birthday card with vintage illustrations

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.

HANDMADE BIRTHDAY CARDS USING OLD PICTURES

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.

Encouraging Fairies; Paper Mache Toadstools!

September 10, 2015February 26, 2026crochet8 Comments

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. I 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.

Getting Out There in The Crochet World

August 25, 2015February 26, 2026crochet, free pattern, sewing7 Comments

I’m In A Magazine!

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

Using Stuff From The Garden.

August 15, 2015February 26, 2026crochet3 Comments

It’s Fig Season

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.

Parsley from the garden. Very easy to grow.

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.

Gin and Tonic with cucumber and borage flowers

Anyway, I’m off to finish my piccalilli! Hope it works. I have to wait at least four weeks to find out…

Catching Up with Crochet Blankets and Changes in the Garden.

August 12, 2015February 26, 2026crochet8 Comments

Not quite half way to go in my new blanket.

Crochet Granny Squares

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…

cottage garden with pink japanese anemone

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.

Crochet Granny Owl Decoration. Free Pattern!

August 5, 2015February 26, 2026crochet, free pattern14 Comments

Crochet Granny Owl Decoration

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.

tufted crochet granny owl. free pattern.

Owly with wings and tufty ears.

crochet granny owl pattern. Add wings and tufts for more owliness.

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…

crochet owl pattern. It's in the detail.

The PDF should be just below. It has the pattern and some (hopefully) helpful pictures.

GRANNY OWL PATTERN (2)

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??

If you like this pattern, please take a look at my other free crochet patterns.

I’m also on Pinterest come and have a look. I flippin love Pinterest!

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Sewing Curtains, Re-Homing a Crochet Blanket and Enjoying Summer.

July 23, 2015February 25, 2026blanket, crochet, sewing6 Comments

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!

a mixed up granny stripe crochet blanket

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.

mixed up granny stripe crochet baby 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.