Busy with the crafting

A painting by the lovely Joxy arrived on Friday morning - just wonderful, thank you. She also included this ball of Noro wool which I have never used before, so I set to work on it that evening.....

.....and finished it yesterday evening. It's lovely and stiff so this bowl sits proudly, even without the turned down top.



I also finished the bags that I've been making. My sewing machine was finally fixed...all that time sat in the loft as I thought it would be expensive and it only cost £10!!! A screw had moved so the shuttle wasn't sitting still!!! Anyway, all done now and being used :o).

(Black one is sold already)

(This one was made ages ago, I'd just never put the lining in!!)

Off to put them in the shop now. Hope everyone is having a good weekend and the sun is shining for you (it's still not here).


Edited to add: the bags have been added to the MISI shop as I couldn't upload via my own site!

Finished or Forgot

Finished this Week

2 christmas cakes (the above one was a pressie) I make my own royal icing too as I can't stand the ready roll stuff.

The jam tarts, mince pies and butter tartlets.

The cranberry and orange relish.

Uncle billies toffee (Delia Smith's recipe), and it tastes just like dime bar!!

The Christmas dinner (3 courses) for 10 people.

Completely Forgot (or didn't get round to)

The cloak for JJ (was mortified when I realised, but I actually don't think he would've noticed).

The greenery for the front door.

The Christmas sack.

The finger puppets for the stockings.

I'm actually quite pleased with myself really, although when I forget/didn't get round to the things I wanted to get done, I was pretty disappointed. Thinking about it later on did help - when I think of the things I did achieve. I hope everyone else was pleased with the things they achieved. The blogs I follow (must update the list) are sooooooo inspiring, full of mum's who have to put the family first, yet still achieve a whole variety of things, just amazing.

Thank you Mamas.

xxx

PS The green man painting was done by the very talented Joxy. Thank you - it was loved hugely xxx

Whoops

Ta Joxy, see I was so excited I forgot to tell you what I was going to do with them. As the only hook I have is a 10/3.25mm? then the squares are quite small (2 and a bit inches) so I was going to make a cushion with them - I'll need to back it with some fabric or I'm going to see if I can find a wool jumper in the charity shops to make a back with. Must keep a look out for crochet hooks as well.

Surprising myself

It's amazing the lack of confidence we have in our own abilities isn't it - I'm sure it's not just me. Well, I've surprised myself again by re-teaching myself how to crochet granny squares. My Mum taught me when I was in my teens, and thinking back it's probably 18 years since I last did any. She used to start me off and then pass it to me when there was 3 rounds - then I would just go round and round so it was a big square. Well, inspired by Claire, Becky, Joxy and Lucy, I got my hook out again on Tuesday. I've attempted this a couple of times already over the last few months but never mastered it - well, Tuesday was the night and I made 5 little squares using the bamboo wool that I got a few weeks ago. Amazing - I was so thrilled - my hubby knows I'm bonkers already but on Tuesday he was rolling his eyes ;-). Yesterday I sat and made another 22 and then this afternoon and this evening I've done another 3 (to finish the balls of wool) and then weaved all the ends in. Since this is my first go I'm going to do the blocking as well - might as well start as I mean to go on :-).

GP LETS goodies

The lovely Joxy was offering crocheted eggs on the Green Parent LETS so I requested one. It arrived this afternoon with an extra treat in there too - they're both gorgeous and now adorn our season/nature table, thank you so much.