Easter (better late than never!)

The Easter holidays seem to have flown by in a blur, I am genuinely sad that my tribe are going back to school next week & I am sad that we didn't do half the things I had wanted to, instead I seemed to play Mum's taxi a lot of the time or spend time cooking for all the friends over, but this makes me happy :) I will save some of the crafty projects for half term or a rainy weekend

We had the usual mountain of chocolate which amuses me as most relatives said they wouldn't be buying it & still they had an obscene amount, I am thinking we might melt the rest down & make some cornflake crispy cakes or similar

Do you remember the picture I showed right on my first post of some cotton on a colour card, I finally got round to finishing my little stash busting project & made some bright & zingy circles to adorn our Easter tree.  I had taken this project with me to my parents in law & was playing around making some circles, I explained to my Mother in law what it was for & she disappeared & came back a few minutes later with a selection of little wooden Easter decorations & told me that she used to put up an Easter tree many years ago & let me have them.  I hung them with pride & look forward to doing so each year

Goodness, time just seems to be flying by lately, I can not believe I haven't written on here for a couple of weeks.  There has been a lot going on here, we all got struck down with a nasty spring cold which was pretty gruesome, I did however manage to finish a blanket (more on that next time) plus we've had two birthdays in the house.

Yesterday was my youngest daughters birthday, I decided I would make her a little amigurumi lion as lions are her favourite animal.  I have been secretly working on this when she's not been around & had kept it hidden, I am quite pleased with the finished lion as amigurumi & I do not really get on & I excitedly gave it to her yesterday, only for her to look at it, throw it on the floor & tell me she didn't need it, I am hoping this was down to overexcitement/tiredness of the day & that she might love him eventually

an here is Mr Lion's ta dah moment........

I made the pattern up by mashing up various patterns I'd seen on the internet of other animals as I couldn't see what I was looking for online

So Mr Lion was made using stylecraft special dk & a 3mm clover amour hook, if you want a pattern let me know & I'll write it up

counting my blessings

So it's been a funny sort of week, there have been times when I've been so rushed off of my feet I haven't known if I've been coming or going & other times when I've enjoyed the simplest pleasures of playing in the park with my youngest.  I sometimes feel guilty that I am not doing other things like housework, tidying etc & then I get a reality check & remember that it will all wait & that spending time with my family is what is most important, be that ferrying them around to various clubs or playing in the park with them all after school........

These are the things I hope my children will remember & not wether the house was tidy

Now on a lighter & yarny note I did manage to squeeze in some time crocheting, I felt the need to work on something very easy & repetitive to allow my mind to drift from all the chaos this week so I made some good progress with this lovely bright granny square blanket

I really enjoy this style of blanket, they are quick & easy & cheery, I can pick it up & work on it for five minutes before the school run or half an hour if I have more time & it seems to grow quite quickly which I like very much.

I also had a sort through some of my shelves which makes me very happy :)

spring scrap cushion

So last week after attempting to tidy my study & my out of control yarn stash I gathered up a selection of yarn scraps, it was a bright day & my thoughts were full of spring & colour so I set about creating a little project with these scraps & the spring scrap cushion was born

this box of bright little scraps soon turned into this

I was having a little search for my pattern & was delighted to find nearly a dozen little circles already made which were left over from a cushion I was making for Christmas.  I soon had 32 circles ready to be joined & turned into squares, I searched around & found two balls of yarn that were already stared, cream & graphite, I decided to use the graphite & I am really glad I did as I think it really makes the colours pop

This was a lovely quick little project to work on & I really enjoyed it, there is something very satisfying about making something from almost nothing.  I don't know about you but I adore looking at all the little snipped pieces of yarn after sewing in ends, I have several jars around the house filled with them, the little yarn ends are also really good for stuffing.

I decided to finish the cushion off with a button opening & used this tutorial by Bunny Mummy to do this which was extremely helpful & I am somewhat in love with the finished article, what do you think???

So there we are, one spring scrap cushion finished with some cheery buttons 

thoughts of spring

Hi there,

I have been really enjoying the sunshine over the last few days albeit interspersed with some wintery showers (cue a hail shower) .  I love seeing the buds appearing on trees & spring bulbs emerging, it fills me with a sense of excitement that spring is finally on it's way

Today I decided to cheer up my study with some gorgeous daffodils & narcissus that I picked up in my local farm shop

I love them on my desk to cheer me up while I am blogging here

This has got me thinking about a few spring projects, firstly I'd like to make a nice bright cushion using up some of my yarn scraps & my second project is going to be a surprise so watch this space, however here is a little colourful teaser

So for my scrap cushion I have decided to make circles into squares, I will be using up all of these scraps & joining in either cream or grey

I can't wait to come back with an update - I hope you've enjoyed reading, leave me a comment to say hi :)