I love......

The weather is still no good for taking pics. I am still working on the latest doily, it does seem to be taking a while but it was my littlest ones birthday this week so I had to prepare for that.

Meanwhile I stumbled across this truly delightful room....

So, so lovely.

Found here ...

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Pot Holders

After feeling all doilied out it took a while for me to decide what I wanted to make next. Thank you for the suggestions, I am still considering them. For the weekend though I wanted something quick and a little less complicated. I finally decided on pot holders after seeing them in numerous blogs and loving the way they look when displayed on a wall. It took ages for me to find a pattern but I eventually came across this and had to give it a go.....

It is a fairly easy pattern to work with and makes a really lovely and thick potholder. In fact I liked it so much that I had to make another.....

I have now gone back to doilies (it didn't long!) and started a new one today. I hope that the light gets better soon so that I can show you.

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Thrifty Things

Hello there. This week my favourite thrifty find is a wonderful 1960's coffee pot by Studio Meakin. I love coffee pots and this is the second one I have by the same maker. I will photograph the other one at some point when it's not so grim outside and I can get some better light. 

The flowers on this one remind me of when I was growing up as we had these kind of flowers on a lot of things around the house. The coffee pot is perfect condition with no cracks or crazing and only cost £1 ! Amazing!

After a little bit of snooping on the net I have discovered that the range is called Topic and it was designed by Alan Rogers in 1967. It really is looking good to say that it is older than me. I wish I was ageing so well!

I also found this rather twee cup, saucer and plate set. I didn't think it was very old but I thought it was quite sweet and for only 50p I couldn't leave it in the shop. It turns out that it is actually circa 1940's and made by Royal Vale who also happen to be the company that made the tea cups that I found last week. 

It is such a shame that many of the companies around Stoke on Trent are now no longer producing as they made such fine pieces.

For more fabulous finds pop on over to Sophie's...

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Pink Daisy Doily

I finally finished the pink doily and wow that took a lot of blocking! When I had finished the crochet it was so curled up that I thought it would be completely unusable. After a lot of stretching, pulling, pinning and wetting followed by three days waiting for it to dry and a lot of re-pinning thanks to the cats I finally had a usable doily. Phew!

Yesterday I finished a more traditional looking doily, again in pink. That too needs to be blocked but not in such a drastic way.
I think that I am now all doilied out. As much as enjoy making them I am running out of room. There are only so many surfaces that can take a doily! The only problem is that I am now stuck for ideas for what I can do for my next project....

Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!

This a photo from my little patch of earth.

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Grey Day with W.I.P.

The greyness has popped it's dreary head up in this neck of the woods again. It has been gloomy and overcast for most of the day so I haven't been able to take many good pictures. In the brief few minutes when the sun managed to poke through I took a couple of pics of another one of the projects I'm working on from Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts - Lacy Crochet. 

I'm still not altogether sure about working with the diagrams but I seem to be coping. I did have to a little bit of frogging but then I still do with written patterns sometimes. This is a pattern for a Pot Pourri Sachet but again I'm only doing the front so that it will be another doily. In case you were wondering, yes, I do have a little bit of a thing for doilies much to the rest of the family's horror.

I thought that this would make a nice doily because it's a little different. I love traditional doilies but sometimes it's good to try to do something a little different.

On a slightly different subject would you please allow me to introduce a very dear friend of mine?

Her name is Plum Plum and she loves to sit on my arms while I am on the laptop or to lie across the wool while I am trying to crochet (as cats do!). I thought that now would be an appropriate time for you to meet....

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Flea Market Finds

The lovely Sophie over at Her Library Adventures has a weekly post showing items that she has found at flea markets and thrift stores. She then asks other bloggy peeps to post a link to their thrifty finds. I have decided that along with re-starting my blog I will try to join in as often possible.

I love my local charity shop for a number of reasons. I can walk it (I don't like driving), it has a high turnover, meaning that I can go in a couple of times a week and there is always something new and it is very cheap so therefore good for my budget. It is run by a couple of lovely elderly ladies who seem to be getting used to me buying up most of the granny items. I do occasionally still get some confused looks, usually when I buy very ugly brownish paintings (I reuse the frames) but for the most part they seem to be getting used to me.

This week my star buy was a set of six lovely, little teacups and saucers for £1! Anyone who knows me will know that I love pink, flowers and teacups so these had my name all over them. They are very sweet and delicate and have been very well cared for.

The only problem with having such a good, cheap thrift shop so close is that it does nothing to help the fact I have far too much clutter! I blame it on being creative....

Doily done

A quick update on the doily/potholder. I really struggled with the last two rounds and I think I did the second to last round wrong. There were also a couple of mistakes as I was going along but I managed to work with them and you can't really tell. It still needs to be blocked as the edges are a bit curly. Overall I quite like it, the pattern was difficult but I suppose its just a case of getting used to following a diagram instead of having it all written down. When I first saw a written crochet it was all complete gobbledegook but I soon got used to it.

In other news we are still having some good weather here in Lancashire. There is a volcanic dust cloud heading our way from Iceland which I think is quite a rare event. I don't remember anything like this ever happening before. At the moment though the sky is a lovely shade of blue with the odd white fluffy cloud drifting past. No planes at all though which is a little odd.
x

Good Day

how does your garden grow  

By Kirsten @ Tollipop 

Kirsten from Las Vegas has a very, very lovely blog called Tollipop. She creates the most enchanting paintings of adorable girls, foxes and bunnies. She also writes the sweetest short stories based on the characters in her paintings.

Her house was recently featured on Bloesem Kids as part of their series Mom stories.The house is beautiful and to me shows how she has created a family friendly and very creative environment which her girls clearly love. Speaking of her girls they always look so happy and contented, it really does like a house full of love and creativity. She often photographs her girls in a variety of fantastic outfits hanging out, having fun. It is such an inspiring blog and if you haven't been there already I would definitely suggest checking it out. 

This morning while browsing the many blogs that I follow in Google Reader I came upon Tollipop and was delightedly over the moon to discover that I had won her latest giveaway!! This came as a great surprise to me as I won one of Kirsten's previous giveaways a few months ago. Now I am the type of person that never wins a thing so to win twice is like some kind of miracle to me. I nearly fell off my chair! I did whoop out loud which made my daughter think that I had seriously lost the plot until I explained why. I have won two (yes two) of Kirsten's amazing little paintings. I am so chuffed you wouldn't believe it. 

Now I need to have serious de-clutter so that when the little lovelies arrive they can have pride of place and won't be swamped by all of the other stuff  that I insist on having around me.

Thank you Kirsten for being such an inspiration.  Please go and check out her blog, I am sure that you will fall in love x

all images are by Kirsten at Tollipop.

Trying...

I first became obsessed by crochet four years ago while I was pregnant with my second daughter. I really wanted a granny square blanket for her but couldn't find any to buy. I was living in Spain at the time and only knew a few English people none of whom knew how to crochet. I couldn't ask any of our Spanish friends because that would have been far too difficult as my my Spanish is not very good. I ended up compromising and bought a pink crocheted blanket but the longing didn't go away.

When we returned to the UK I decided to bite the bullet and tried to learn. Again I could find nobody to teach me, my Mum knits but doesn't crochet. I turned to Youtube where I found a fantastic little video with a lovely American lady who showed, step by step, how to make a granny square. After a few failed attempts I finally grasped the concept and now I am hooked (pardon the pun). Unfortunately I can't find the link so I can't give the lovely lady the thanks that she deserves.

Up until now I had never bought a pattern or a book. All of the patterns came from the internet and from the many generous bloggers who put their patterns on the net. Until today, that is, when a marvellous and oh so lovely book entitled Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts! Lacy Crochet arrived. I spent a while drooling over the pictures and then panicking at the look of the diagrams. I have only ever followed patterns that are in words and so looking at the diagrams was more than a little daunting. The above image is what I finally decided to do. It is a pot holder but I have decided to only do the front so that it will hopefully be a doily.

I hope that it works out because I am still not sure about exactly what all of those symbols mean. I'll let you know how I get on......

Birthday Gift

It is my good friend Sarah's birthday coming up. She lives in Spain and I miss her dearly, I haven't seen her for 3 years! I have hunted high and low for a gift for her but to no avail so I decided to make her something. I always worry when I give someone a gift that I have made because not everybody appreciates it. I really hope that she will like this keyring/bag charm.
It has a hand felted wool ball, a glass heart and beads, a crochet flower, her name and a star made from polymer clay. The star had to be included because she is indeed a star. She helped me out in such a big way and is always there when I need her.
She has been having a few problems herself so I hope that this will cheer her up a little. Friends like her are hard to find and I want her know how special is.
Happy birthday Sarah, you're the best x

Spring has sprung....

I have decided to give this blog another go. I hope to be able to post a few times a week. Spring is finally here in the deepest, darkest depths of Lancashire so I decided that now was as good a time as any for a new start.

My daughters spotted a wee ladybird in the yard this afternoon. We don't tend to get a lot of them so I quickly took her picture. To me this is a good sign that things are warming up a little.

We only have a small yard so most of my planting is done in pots and baskets. I love having plants and flowers but with two dogs who like to eat everything it often proves difficult. I have tried all sorts to keep them off but nothing works, they always find a way.

One of my favourites at the minute is the little beauty above. I can't remember her name but she seems to be doing well. Maybe that's because I planted her in a hanging basket where the mutts can't reach her...........