All in a Good Cause

My lovely friend Jo is holding a Marie Curie tea party on June 21st from her house and garden.  Our little group of friends began a knitting/crochet group a few months ago and during our sessions a couple of us have been beavering away making daffodils to sell in aid of the cause.  These are gradually increasing in number and Jo has also now decided to make some blue tea cosy's adorned with daffodils to help boost funds.

Jo asked if I'd like to sell some of my Twinkle Twit goodies on the day so I agreed, but on the condition that a percentage of the proceeds also goes to Marie Curie.  In honour of the cause I've also decided that until the 21st June, £1 from each sale through my Etsy shop will also go towards this extremely worthwhile charity.

Lots of new goodies to peruse in the store!  The Mary Poppins line is proving very popular and there's now Wizard of Oz themed pendants too.  Although, I'm still not back into full plaque making mode due to lack of space, I have begun work on a few more wooden initial letters, so these are also back in the shop.

 I've produced a few pairs of earrings especially for the occasion.  I've listed these on FB and Instagram, again with £1 from each item going to Marie Curie.  Not to be missed at just £4 per pair including postage :-).

Thanks for stopping by! x

Our new home (a not so crafty project)

As I mentioned, we moved house recently.  March 13th to be precise and not before time too!  The sale/purchase had been in process since October last year and we felt like it was never going to happen.  In the end it all kind of happened quite quickly and then it was a mad dash to pack and boxes and find a removal company.

Moving went fairly smoothly and I have to say I felt at home right away along with Paul and Abi, although it took Sam a little longer as he said he felt homesick for a few days after.  I thought that when everything was packed from the old house that I'd feel quite emotional but surprisingly enough I didn't!  Rather than feeling like I was leaving 15 years of memories behind me I realised that those 15 years of memories were packed on the truck and ready to move to our new abode with us.

Now, the one thing I will mention is that our new home is not quite up to the standard that our previous home was.  Nowhere near in fact!  Our new home is what you'd call a 'project'.  We fell in love with the house because of the area, the large south facing garden and the fact that we have soooo much potential to improve and renovate it.  But....... it's in quite a state.

The project list

When we first moved in we had no lights in the hall, stairs and landing.  Luckily enough, our friends other half came and rectified this situation for us shortly after moving in so we're now illuminated :).  We had no doors upstairs apart from the bathroom and our room.  But our bedroom door had no handle so not much privacy there either.  The kitchen is a health hazard, with manky flooring, worktops loosely held up, cupboard doors missing, cupboard handles on the wrong side (yes, we've amused ourselves watching many a visitor trying to open these ones), shelves falling down and you guessed it, another missing door.

Landing - no carpet/wall lights not working

Hole in bay ceiling

Hall - dire! Need I say more

Drain broken on driveway

Gutters and fascias from Abi's window 

Just one of the knackered kitchen units

Back of the house - overgrown

I could go on as pretty much every room has something or other that needs fixing (whole in the bay ceiling, radiator falling off wall, toilet leaking etc etc etc) and this is just the inside.  Gutters and fascias to be replaced, ridge tiles loose, pointing to be done plus exterior doors to be fitted.  This is going to be a work in progress.

The progress 

We have made some progress however, as I mentioned above we now have lighting on the hall and stairs and a couple of weeks ago I decorated our bedroom as this was one of the only rooms that didn't need building work completed.  This is now my little piece of heaven to escape to when the rest of the house gets too much to handle.  

Our bedroom - Before

Our Bedroom - After

Paul pulled the remaining dead plants from the back of the house the day after we moved in.  So much better but now there is lots of re-pointing to be done.  This week we had the huge Weeping Willow tree removed from the back garden.  Although it was a beautiful tree it was much too big for a garden of this size so it had to go.  You wouldn't believe how much brighter the house is now and it was lovely yesterday sitting outside with sun shining down into the garden. 

Willow Tree - Before

Willow Tree - After

Before & After - Plants on the back of the house

I painted the garage doors today, not much I know but it looks a little tidier.  Paul has spent time in the garage number 1 laying flooring and getting the place ready for his gym equipment.

Another update coming soon hopefully with news from the kitchen.  I don't know how much longer I can stand it.

Thanks for stopping by! x

A new look and a quick catch up

Welcome to my new look blog, what do you think?

I've had a new logo created by Saffy Loves on Etsy.  She has some beautiful designs which she regularly updates on Instagram and I just love to see her creations.

I thought the new logo called for a whole new layout so I've spent today re-jigging my background and other settings.  I may still make a few changes but I'll see how I go for now.

Today the sun is shining and I've been off out and about with my top off.  No, put them away I hear you cry! You'll be pleased to hear I'm referring to my mini convertible and not my apparel.  Was great blasting through the country lanes earlier with the wind blowing in my face (although I looked my Bridget Jones and Grace Kelly when I finally arrived home).

I currently have a huge infatuation with cabochon jewellery and am having great fun creating lots of new designs.  This seem to have gone down really well on Instagram and Etsy and I've been busy fulfilling orders over the last couple of weeks.  More to come on this in my next post.

A house move

Since my last post we have now finally moved house and are spending time planning all the repair work that needs to be carried out.  We new when we chose our new home that it would be a bit of a 'project' but we loved the position, the lovely large south facing garden and fact that it had so much potential.  There's still a lot of boxes to unpack but we're using our back room for storage at the moment while we renovate the rest of the house.

I promise to post again very soon with house progress and news of my new jewellery creations.

Off to enjoy the sunshine and tea and cake for Niece Sophie's 16th!

Thanks for stopping by! x

Rainbow Baby Blanket

I've been working on this project for a few months and finally finished it a couple of days ago for my lovely friend who's expecting a baby on the 5th Feb.  I was originally making two of these as I found out I was pregnant myself back in September.  My plan was to make one for myself and then one for my friend but sadly, I miscarried.  It took me a few weeks before I felt able to pick up my project again and continue without feeling teary and upset.

These granny square blankets are so easy to make and are perfect for the beginner.  They only use Triple Crochet and Chain Stitch, so there's not a huge amount to learn.  It's amazing how quickly they grow but then eventually you do get to a point where it takes an age just to finish one side! I'm not the fastest crocheter in the world.

I decided on a rainbow theme as the sex of the baby had not been confirmed and cream or beige just gets a little boring.  I'd made a few granny squares before in various patterns but this was the first blanket.  I'm a bit annoyed at how the squares came out twisted but I've seen a solution for this since finishing.  Apparently, if you turn your work over after each round (ie. working on right side, wrong side, right side, wrong side etc) this solves the problem.  Needless to say I shall be trying this next time.  I did decide to block the blanket when I'd finished and this went some way to helping the twisted look and at least made the side line up nicely.

My Basic Concept (UK terms)
DK Yarn
4mm Hook
The blanket follows a basic Granny Square pattern (You can find these anywhere on the internet but try - Little Tin Bird , Girly Bunches - Granny Square Part 1 Video).  I decided that I would like tighter stitches so only chained 1 stitch between each cluster of triples.  The corners were also completed in the same way using one chain but with - 3 tc, 1 ch, 3 tc into the same stitch.  I did 6 rounds of rainbow colours, changing colour after each round and then 5 rounds of white.  This I repeated twice more before completing the blanket with a final round of red.

To finish the blanket I used a slightly different round, this time I used 2 tc, 2 ch, 2 tc in each stitch to create a scalloped effect (or double V edging as it's actually called).  For the full pattern see here - Bunnymummy-jacquie.blogspot.com.au

My friend thinks she'll have her new arrival any day so looks like I finished it just in time!

Thanks for stopping by! x

Some 'old' posts for you

Hi all

Just to let my old and new followers know that I've now imported all my old posts from Tales from a Mother, Musician and Multi-tasker over to here as I now intend to use only the one blog for everything!  So those of you who don't know me too well, have a browse through my old posts.

You'll notice I now also have some additional pages which include Crafty Blogs and Sites I love and a couple of pages dedicated to my other great love....making music!  If you have a craft site you'd like me to add, please just get in touch and I'll head over and have a look.

Thanks for stopping by! x

Packing and crochet projects

After my rather cynical last post of 2013 I did actually have a lovely peaceful Christmas. No rushing around and lots of family time with games and films galore. But I'm quite pleased to say goodbye to certain aspects of 2013, so bring on a new year!

2014 so far has seen us packing a few boxes in prep for our move. We don't have a completion date as yet but we're hoping for end of Jan/start of Feb. Unfortunately this means I've had to pack up my craft room for the time being. Lack of creativity is driving me insane so I've picked up my crochet again to do a little hooky! After being inspired by some of the lovely items on Pinterest and Instagram I decided to have a go at making a yarn wrapped wreath. 

I bought a small polystyrene heart from Hobbycraft and wrapped it with a mint green yarn from my stash. I then made a variety of small crocheted flowers using various online tutorials in pink, white and purple adding a button to the centre of each one. I pinned them individually onto the wreath and then completed by tying a hanging ribbon.  I'm quite pleased with the result but I didn't realise how large the flowers were on the wreath until I started to the pin them on.  In hindsight I would use a smaller hook next time for a wreath of this size.

Since my miscarriage in November I've not been able to pick up my crochet as my last project was a large granny square blanket that was intended for our baby. I've decided to carry on with this now and give as a gift to my friend who's expecting in a months time. It's coming on nicely and I reckon maybe 8 more rounds and it will be finished. Pictures to follow!

I've been out and bought a lovely stash of cotton yarns in super bright colours. I'd like to make a flower garland and maybe some bunting for our new house, so time for some experimentation I think.

Thanks for stopping by! X