Postcards from our Summer Holidays #11 ::

Postcards from our Summer Holidays #10 ::

Postcards from our Summer Holidays #9 ::

Postcards from our Summer Holidays #8 ::

Postcards from our Summer Holidays #7 ::

Postcards from our Summer Holidays #6 ::

Postcard from our Summer Holidays #5 ::

Postcards from our Summer Holidays #4

Postcards from our Summer Holidays #3 ::

Postcards from our Summer Holidays #2 ::

Postcards from our Summer Holidays #1 ::

Birthday ::

Yesterday I turned 31...a fairly unimpressive birthday really in terms of age, but a wonderfully pleasant birthday in terms of celebrating.

 

It was fairly simple, yummy breakfast, with cards and gifts, out for lunch, lots of cake and visits from friends throughout the day, much knitting and a little bit of lego building with the boy!

 

I got lots of really lovely gifts, including a gorgeous bunch of lavender and rosemary, the Belle and Boo book of Craft and an especially beautiful necklace from Bex of Stuffed Nonsense just like this one (but in purple)

I spent a lot of the weekend working on knitting just for me, no work at all! It was really nice, but now it's back to work, in a week without any childcare, wish me luck.

FO Friday :: Sunhat ::

I've been in need of a new sunhat or about 2 years, ever since I managed to leave mine at Bristol Zoo on Milo's 2nd birthday.  So prior to our trip to Latitude at the end of July I decided it was high time I make myself one.
As the current (at the time) issue of Inside Crochet had a gorgeous hat on it's cover, it seemed meant to be.
Unfortunately first time round I made the mistake of getting started with some yarn leftovers without checking the actual yarn requirements, causing my first attempt to halt abruptly before the rim when I ran out of cotton.
For my second attempt I made sure I had plenty of yarn to complete the project.  Using some old cotton yarn I had stashed away, I'm afraid long since without labels, I got started and finished fairly quickly, I think the whole hat took me two evenings.

 

The colour probably wouldn't have been my first choice, but I'm trying to be good and use up what I have (though it's possible I made 3 new yarn purchases just this week! It's my birthday on Sunday that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!).  But despite this the finished hat served me very well over the hot and sunny weekend at Latitude and has been out on a few excursions in the sunshine since.

 

The pattern itself is great, I love the shape of the hat and I especially like the contrasting coloured band idea, it looks fairly 20's on.  I'd quite like to make myself another one in a sagey green with cream band and maybe another in cream with a rainbow stripe band.  But hey I'm not a big hat wearer and in reality I probably don't need 3 of the same style hat.

The pattern is Worthing Hat by Salena Baca from Issue 43 of Inside Crochet available :: here
My Ravelry notes are :: here.

Blogtacular ::

Oh my, have you heard about Blogtacular?  Launched yesterday I've got a feeling it's going to be amazing.

From their website ::

Blogtacular is a place for bloggers whose hearts flutter with aesthetic joy to come together to meet, share and inspire.

This is a place for people who create vibrant and original content to discuss their work, fill their minds with new ideas and to collaborate with fellow bloggers.

Blogtacular will be bringing together some of the hottest talent from the online world. We’ll have a schedule packed full of innovation, inspiration and mind blowing points of view.

At the heart of our business we’re guided by our principles: we value talent, we create great content and we work with nice people.

Taking place next year on the 9th and 10th of May, it sounds fabulous in so many ways...I'm not sure I can wait all the way until May.

Organised by the Kat's of Capturing Childhood, both beautiful blogging personalities (you can find their blogs here and here).

I'm by no means a professional blogger, I'm certainly not prolific, I barely manage to pop in most months, but I am trying to improve this.  I enjoy blogging very much, I've been doing it since 2006, I love reading blogs and I really love it the way it brings people together, especially in crafty circles.

I'm confident this event will be just the thing to take your blogging experience to the next level and besides a weekend away with the opportunity to meet lots of lovely likeminded folk sounds just wonderful.

You can find the website with all the details over here.

Finding Inspiration :: Macrame Plant Hangers ::

So as I mentioned yesterday I learnt how to make macrame bracelets on Monday, not one to take baby steps at anything, I've decided I'd now like to make some macrame plant hangers!
Getting a little carried away...I think they'd look good in my bathroom, with herbs in my kitchen window and maybe some larger ones in my living room...ooh and maybe a couple in the bedroom.  The reality is I'll probably manage to find time to make one maybe two at a push, but hey a girl can dream.

As with most ideas I headed straight over to pinterest for a bit of inspiration.  Below are some of my favourites ::

Click the photo's for the original links, a lot of these are tutorials too if you fancy having a go yourself.

Macrame Bracelets ::

You may remember me talking about By The Yard a while back.  Well last night I attended one of their 'Make it Monday' workshops.  These are great little informal workshops, held twice a month, each workshop looks at a different crafty project, the session runs for 3 hours and all supplies are included, plus a cup of tea, all for the bargain sum of £10.

 

I went a few weeks ago to stationary making, where I made stamps and envelopes, which was lots of fun. But last night was macrame bracelet making.

It was great and without blowing my own trumpet too much...I think I did a pretty good on my bracelets!  I managed to get 3 made in the workshop, but I 'm sure I'll be making more in the future.  I'm also totally obsessed with the idea of making a macrame plant pot holder now too.

 

You can find the By the Yard facebook page over here.

And the Make it Monday schedule here.

Inside Crochet 44 ::

Issue 44 of Inside Crochet made it's way through my letterbox a couple of weeks ago and it's a gorgeous summer spectacular, filled with beautiful garments and accessories inspiring the reader to get out into the great outdoors.

The cover star is Joanne Scarce's gorgeous poncho, which she shares the inspiration behind over on the Inside Crochet website ::

I'm totally in love with Linda Skuja's eyelet top, just wish I had more time to crochet for myself ::

You can also find a pattern by myself in this months edition, a rafia bag.  I love this bag and already have one in another colour way.  The yarn is Adrafil's Rafia which comes in a really great range of colours.  I'm not going to lie, crocheting with rafia is a little hard in the hands, but really worthwhile, just remember to take lots of breaks!

You can find this issue on newstands until the end of the month or digitally here.

FO Friday :: Daisy Chains ::

As soon as I saw the preview picture of these daisies in Simply Crochet, I knew I wanted to make them.  Once Issue 7 landed on my doormat I immediately hunted out the yarn (fortunately I had the exact yarn used in the pattern) and got hooking.

 

I love this pattern it's so sweet and such a clever idea.

My original intention was that this was to be for me, but on visiting my nieces in Norfolk, it quickly got rehomed!

 

The pattern is Hippy Chic by Nicky Hale available in Issue 7 of Simply Crochet :: here

The yarn is DMC Natura Just Cotton :: here
My Ravelry notes are :: here

Festival Watch ::

A couple of weeks ago Milo and I went off to Latitude Festival for the weekend...we had a blast, seriously far and away the best festival I've ever been to.

Whilst on the way there, I made myself up this crochet watch strap.  It's been a while since I've worn a watch I'm in the habit of using my phone these days, but as I was conscious my phone battery barely manages to last a day without charging, I figured there was no way it would last 4 days.

So the day before we headed off I purchased a super cheap watch to take with me, it cost me the grand old price of £2.50 and came from a charity shop, the only problem was it had a horrible plastic strap.  I grabbed myself some cotton yarn from my stash and a crochet hook before heading off for the train and took the travel time as a the perfect opportunity to amend the dreadful strap situation.

This colourful accessory served as the perfect companion for the weekend, the cotton means it's light and easy on the wrist, particularly good as it was so hot whilst we were away.  I love crochet, being able to fill some time on my train journey with something I love whilst making something super useful, is just amazing.

 

 The pattern for this crochet watch strap is available in my August Newsletter which is going out to subscribers today, if you'd like to sign up to receive emails you can do so here ::