My Little Nephew - Ta-Dah!

Exciting!!!!!!!!!!  A ta-dah for my little nephew!!  Although, I have to give the credit to my brother and sister-in-law for creating him!!!  He is the most perfect little angel you ever did see!  He is as cute as a button, and that is what I call him: Button!  I love him so much!!


He was born on 28th December, weighing 6lb 9oz - a tiny little thing!

Little Button - about 3 hours old!

He was delivered with forceps, so had a bit of bruising, but still looks so beautiful.  Absolutely adorable!!!

Button - 3 days old, with blanket made by Auntie Maria!

I just want to eat him, he is so delicious and perfect!!!  He's amazing!


And yes... you may have spotted the baby blanket you've heard so much about over the last few months!!  The heart squares look so huge next to his tiny little head!


I haven't really got a good picture of the blanket stretched out, as there hasn't been any decent light lately.  I managed to get a few pictures last week, though, when I washed the blanket and had it drying over the clothes horse.

Little angel

Button and Auntie Maria

I LOVE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Handmade Gifts

Merry Christmas!  I hope you've all had a lovely time!  My Christmas was a bit mad, with us all thinking that my nephew was going to arrive on Christmas day... but we are still waiting!!  My poor sister-in-law!


I thought I'd show you a few presents, of the handmade variety, that I gave - now that they have all been received!  I bought the below gorgeous handbag mirrors from Jenny Arnott whose blog I follow:

I stole those pictures off of her blog, as they are better than I could take!  Available at her Etsy Shop.


I gave my sister-in-law this lovely ceramic mini-bunting from Kath Cooper:

I bought myself one too (how extravagant!) with a turquoise cord.  I think it's so pretty!


I also wrapped a couple of bath bombs in pretty fabric and tied them with ribbon as a little extra gift for my Mum and my sister-in-law.

Very simple, but I'm really pleased with how they came out.


For my Lumberjack, a little extra present was this hanging felt tree for his van, as he loves trees so much!!  It's stuffed with lavender, which maybe is a bit girlie... but he said that it's not too overpowering, as it masks the damp and musty air this is usually found within his van!!

That's it for now... next time I'll show you some of the crafty presents I received!!  And there may be a nephew to brag about...!!

Get Well Lavender Bag

I have been released early from work - yay, Christmas is here!!!


I thought I would share with you a lavender bag I made for my Lumberjack's Gran, as a little 'get well' present, as she is poorly at the moment.

The colours are nicer in real life, but I took the photo on a piece of paper on my desk at work the other day, under the weird fluorescent lights!  Those conditions are not ideal for photography!!  Hopefully you get the idea, though!


And last time he went to visit her, my Lumberjack came back with this massive ball of cream yarn and some knitting needles, that his Gran can't use anymore.  Very sweet of them both to think of me, and I haven't even met her yet!  I will have to make sure I use it to make something special...

(The ball is huge - but hard to tell proportions in the photo)


I probably won't post again before Christmas, so I'd like to wish you all a fantastically merry Christmas!!  Lots of love and happiness to you all...  :o)

Another Year Older...

It was my 32nd birthday on Saturday, and I've had such a lovely weekend with friends and family!!


I was so spoilt with such lovely gifts, I'm so grateful!  I'll share some of the more crafty related ones here for you...


Firstly, I wonder if you remember this post about the 'Love' cushion I won that I hoped would be a bit of a good luck love charm!  Well, it seems to be working!!  Around the time I won the cushion I met a lovely guy and things have been going very well so far!  He's a tree surgeon, so I call him my Lumberjack!!!


He bought me a really thoughtful present:

It's a skein of cashmere wool from Devon Fine Fibres who care for a flock of 200 Cashmere goats - their cashmere is the only cashmere grown in the UK.  It is also hand-spun and dyed.  It is lovely and soft!  This is quite a treat for me - I'm usually very cheap and cheerful with my yarn!!  The present included a pattern to make some fingerless gloves which I have been busy working on!

They involve working on the round with four needles, plus a cable stitch which requires a cable needle - which is why you can see five needles in the picture above!!!  I have never worked on more than two needles at a time, or tried cable stitch before, so it was a bit of a challenge!  A morning spent practising with some cheap yarn with my little Mumsie's help got me sorted, though, and I was able to do the above with my fancy cashmere wool!  There will be a ta-dah post when they are finished!!  I'm loving making them, and am really enjoying learning something new!  (The Lumberjack did well, eh?!  Especially as he's only known me three weeks!)


Other crafty presents I received from my family included this book:

Some fantastic projects in there!  I've been wanting to get my hands on that for a while!


Cath Kidston travel sewing kit and tape measure:

So pretty!!


Matryoshka doll tubs which fit into each other:

I'll be able to fill them with crafty bits and bobs!

Aren't they cute?!


I received lots of other treats too - I was so lucky!!!  I love my friends and family!

Angel Giveaway Win

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've just been so busy and time is flying!  Today has been the first day for a while that I've actually had some time to myself to get on top of things.  I had the day off and was able to get some bits and bobs sorted at last!


I also found time to make a little something!


A few weeks ago, I won a lovely giveaway prize from Emma of Bagladee.  Thank you Emma!


It arrived, all wrapped prettily...

And inside was a kit to make a felt angel decoration...

Finally today I managed to have time to make it!

It isn't the best light as I only finished it this evening, so there was no natural light to take the photo.  I'm really pleased with it, though!  (Although, I am quite annoyed that I somehow managed to position the hanging ribbon off-centre.  Very disappointed in myself!!!  Hopefully it's not too noticeable, though.  I don't know how I did that... ggrrrr!)


Thank you again Emma, for a lovely giveaway prize, I really appreciate it!


Other than that, my crafting has been non-existent lately - every spare moment has been taken up with work or socialising!  (Get me, the social butterfly!!)  ;o)


I'm off to catch up on your blogs - I can't keep up with it all!!!  Bye for now...

Award and a Giveaway!

Thanks Rhi at Pretty Petal Handmade for awarding me with the Liebster Blog award!

Thank you, that's so sweet of you!  :o)  Rhi is lovely and if you don't follow her blog - check it out!!


Apparently I don't have to share any facts about myself (luckily for you all!) and I should pass it on to 5 blogs with under 200 followers.  This is tricky as I've already passed awards on to blogs I like in the past, so I need to think of 5 I've not 'awarded' previously... so here goes:

1. Crochet in Color
2. Hook and Yarn
3. Booty-licious
4. Home Made Gorgeous
5. Pootle Handmade

Phew, that was hard work!

Now I also want to let you know about a lovely generous giveaway Rhi is doing here.

Go and enter - I think it ends tomorrow!!

I'm working on a little something for myself - how selfish, making myself a present at this time of year!!  Hopefully I'll have a picture for you fairly soon!

Love...

I keep alluding to these "wins" I've had... finally I'm going to show you one of them!


I received this a week ago, but was waiting until the weekend to take a picture so I could have a vague bit of light for the photo!  During the week it's dark before I leave work, so difficult to take photos in the evenings.  So on Saturday I got snapping...


I entered a giveaway on Mary Poppins' lovely blog, and I can't believe I won!!  It was such an amazing giveaway - a Jan Constantine 'LOVE' cushion from John Lewis!

Isn't it lovely?!  It is really heavy too - no Wilkinsons cushion pad in this baby! - you can really feel the quality!  Even the back is gorgeous... I have to keep turning it over to look at it...

As I said to Mary, I am hoping this cushion will bring some love into my home and life!!  Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while will know that I broke up with my boyfriend, and he moved out, six months ago.  So it is definitely time for things to turn around in the love department - I have decided that this cushion is a good luck love charm!  (Fingers crossed!  I need all the luck I can get!!)  :o)


Thank you so much Mary - I honestly can't believe I won such an amazing giveaway!!  I really appreciate it!


Oh, and it came with a lovely card - which I am going to frame and put up in the kitchen because it's so pretty!

Thanks again Mary!


In other news, I whipped up some cupcakes yesterday!

Before you start thinking I'm really talented - I didn't make the toppers!!  I made the cupcakes, and iced them (rather haphazardly - I mean, look at the one in the bottom left corner - what happened there?!  As you can tell, cake decorating is not my forte - I'm more of a cake eater!!) but the toppers were from a giveaway I won back in July, from Sue at The Krafty Cupcake.  As you can tell, cake decorating definitely IS her forte!  You can see the post showing my winnings here.  That was an extremely generous giveaway!


I especially like these two...

Thanks again Sue for these toppers (and everything else!)


I also won another giveaway a couple of weeks ago - but it is a kit, and I want to make it up before I do the post for it... which is why I've been delaying telling you about it!  Wow, it seems like a win a lot of things!!!  I'm not usually lucky like that at all - most strange!


I also need to post about my blog award, but I've gone on long enough in this post - so next time!  I've got the day off today, yay! - although I woke up at 7am which is very annoying!!  I'm off to see my lovely friend Anna later, which I'm looking forward to!  I'm going to bring some of my cupcakes for us to partake in!


Until next time...

Ta Dah and Ta Dah!

No... it's not the baby blanket ta dah - although I have finished it - yay!  I love it!  I'm gazing adoringly over at it now...aaahhhh.  Just haven't taken photos yet... and won't do the ta dah post until after I've given it to my brother and sister-in-law.  So you'll have to wait!!  :o)


To keep you going, here are pictures of a felt stars hanging decoration I made for my sister-in-law as one of the presents I gave for her baby shower.  It is to hang in the nursery...

Poor light as usual... so excuse the dingy photos...

I don't know how many pictures you need to see of three felt stars - but there you go!!  Overkill!!!  :o)


I have also quickly whipped up a little tealight jar jacket thingymabob!  And this actually was a quick easy project that turned out to be quick and easy - phew!  I'd seen them on Coco Rose Diaries and Bunny Mummy blogs... and got the pattern from Nature Nut Notes.

I made it with an 8mm hook, to try to make it a bit looser and more holey, to let the light through...

I absolutely love it - it looks so pretty lit up!!  

Wow - loads of photos today!!!


I've still got to tell you about a couple of wins, and about a blog award (thank you Rhi!!!)  I will do that next time!


Bye for now...

Crochet Squares...

Thanks for the lovely positive comments on the baby blanket!  I've not made much progress since I posted that - it's been a busy week!  However, earlier in the week I did get around to taking some more pictures...

Piles of squares...

I like seeing them stacked in piles!

And here they are laid out...

We actually have the baby shower for my sister-in-law today, so that should be good fun!

I've got more to share on a couple of wins (!!!) and another make!!  But you'll have to wait for that, as I've got to rush now!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!  :o)