Some big Adventures and some January finishes!

Oh dear!  I seem to have got right out of the habit of blogging lately.  Not sure what to do about this – perhaps I should just blog intermittently for now.

But here’s some fabulous news!  My one little word for 2015 is ADVENTURE.  In fact, it is a really BIG word, as I have 2 BIG adventures to look forward to this year. 

In just over 3 weeks time, we take off on our holiday of a lifetime!  We are going to tour New Zealand on a motorbike.  It is something we’ve dreamed of for some 10 years or so.  Some old motorbiking friends are coming along too.  We had to wait until we didn’t have our dog anymore, and they had to wait until their youngest child had grown up.  Well, it has all come together now!  We join the tour in Auckland and tour the north and south islands for 18 days.  We are stopping off in Australia on the way out there to visit my cousin in Adelaide and Maurice’s nephew and family near Sydney. Very exciting!  I can’t wait to show you some of the wonderful scenery we are travelling through.

My second ADVENTURE is to get a puppy when we get home!  We are researching breeds and fancy either another flat-coated retriever or a springer spaniel.  I warn you, this blog may become very doggy!

I think as my word is ADVENTURE that I should do my mini-adventures again, and I may well do this in September.  Anyone fancy joining in? 

I intend to continue ADVENTURE into my crafting, and hope to challenge myself and try new things.  I want to continue dressmaking, crochet and scrapbooking.  I’d really like to make some money from my crafting interests, that could become quite an ADVENTURE.

Finally here’s a couple of items I’ve finished this month:

Ripple Baby blanket for niece’s baby boy.  The pattern is by Lucy at Attic24, and I bought the kit.  I made this one small, so I have loads of wool leftover to make another one for myself.  Aren’t the colours lovely? There are 15 different colours of Stylecraft wool, which is very soft and feels lovely.

And here’s a jacket I have finished.  It is Butterick B5958.  I made it in a soft brushed cotton fabric, that has a tweed sort of pattern to it.  It’s lovely and soft, in fact, it might be a bit too soft for the jacket.  But I do love it!  It will be fab to wear in the spring and autumn.  Thanks to Laura at More Sewing for help with the fitting and construction.

 

Ta-dah!

Remember this wool:

 

Well, this is what it has turned into, ta-dah!

 

During the course of this year Burnice, Tash and I have crotcheted our way through this book.

 

We chose squares to crotchet each month.  So most evenings this year you could find me crotcheting in front of the tv!  A great way to spend an evening.  We have ended up with 100 squares, all different (well actually there are 2 that are the same, can you spot them?).  Because they are all different they ended up slightly different sizes, so the finished blanket is a bit lumpy.   I crotcheted mine together with cream wool, and did a simple double crotchet border in cream and then green.  My idea was to have green as the dominant colour and to make it look like a garden.   I am so happy with this colourful blanket and am looking forward to the cooler weather so I can snuggle under it.  It is very warm!

TV Crafting

I like to sit and watch telly at about 9pm for an hour before going to bed.  I find it relaxing, but I need something to do with my hands! A bit of crotcheting, knitting or hand stitchery is best.   Here’s my latest ‘in front of the tv’ crafting, a Nancy Nicholson embroidery.  I fell in love with her drawings and embroideries as soon as I saw them.  This ‘love birds’ picture comes preprinted on good quality linen, needle and threads, with stitch instructions printed around the edge of the picture.  It all comes packed in a sweet little fabric bag with more preprinted stitchery!  Now what to do with it?  Shall I make it into a table runner, or a cushion?

Now that autumn is just around the corner and the weather is getting cooler, I will finish my granny square crotchet blanket. Inspired by Lucy at Attic24, I started crotcheting squares in all sorts of rainbow colours.  Now I have enough to make a 9 x 9 blanket.   I have tried laying them out in a random fashion, but have to say I much prefer a more organised rainbow pattern!

Do you have a favourite craft to do in front of the television?

Rainbow Colours

Inspired by Lucy who blogs at Attic24, I have been working with rainbow colours recently in Scrapbooking, Crotchet and Quilting