Afternoon granny square delight!!!

I thought it was about time I shared something crochet related, so I'm going to talk about my latest crochet project!  I have managed to be quite organised lately with regards to my ongoing projects.  It's quite unusual for me to only have one thing on the go at a time, maybe it's because of my already limited crochet time.  I can't afford to be doing too much at once.  I'm not sure how long it will stay that way though, my mind is already bussing with idea's for other projects!!  It my also be because my current project, as well as the one before, is very important to be.  A little while ago I suddenly realised that neither of my older two boy's own a single object that has been crocheted by me!!!  That must be some form of child neglect!  To have a mother who is an avid hooker and not own a single crochet item, it must be unheard of.  I mean, sure, as babies they had blankets and things, but those are all safely packed away in memory boxes!! 

I simply had to fix it, and my first thought was a blanket!  In my crochet history I have made a few blankets, mostly as gifts and a few for around the house in general, but the boys are always fighting over them.  So I thought it would be a good thing for them both to have one they can call their own!!  I thought it only right that the oldest get first, he had waited the longest after all! 

After trawling through pinterest in search of the perfect blanket I finally decided on this 'as we go stripy blanket' from 'not your average crochet'.  With money being a bit tight, and an ever growing wool supply, I thought it was about time I used up some odds and ends of wool that I already had!  It really didn't take as long to complete as I had expected, probably about six weeks or so, which is good going for me!!  Any way here is the finished result........

I'm pretty proud of it and more importantly BT loves it, it sits on his bed and is frequently used for T.V. days! 

 

With blanket number one finished it was time to move on to number two!!  I gave pinterest a bit of a break this time, as I remembered having seen a blanket I liked in one of the issues of Simply Crochet Magazine.  This Rainbow Brights blanket was my initial inspiration!

 

 

I loved the idea of the Rainbow colour scheme, but I knew NJ wouldn't like the pinks, so I changed the colour's slightly.  Taking out the pinks and adding in some extra green's and blue's seemed to work well.  This is the colour scheme I went with....

 

 

The pattern was a basic granny square, but I made the square's one round bigger than the pattern stated.  I love doing granny square's, it's just the type of pattern you can do without thinking too much about it, so they fly off the hook and before you know it your surrounded by little square's!  Very satisfying!!! 

 

 

Although the squares are quick enough to do, the blanket seems to be taking a long time.  Probably because the children are off school for the summer, the only crochet time I get is in the evening's when the little monsters are in bed and few snatched moments where I can throughout the day!  Like yesterday evening while dinner was cooking, the older two were out playing and baby was happy playing on the floor. 

 

 

The ring is now the safer option, when he doesn't have your full attention, from he learnt to roll it's amazing how far he can travel just rolling over and over!!  Between shouts from outside of 'mum BT's stuck up a tree' (he actually was), and scream's from the floor when Mr Elephant went out of reach, I actually managed to do a little crochet!

 

 

I'm trying to be really good this time and sew in all the ends as I'm going, like most people, it's the part I like least, so if I can do it as I go along it won't be so bad!

 





I'm trying to do the square's a colour at a time, so I do all the squares in one colour then join them into the main blanket while I'm crocheting the cream boarder, using Lucy's 'join as you go' technique!  It's coming together slowly, but surely! 

 



I'm really pleased with how it's turning out so far and I'm already starting to think about the boarder!  I want something really fun, I was thinking maybe pom-pom's attached around a simple treble boarder, or maybe a popcorn stitch boarder.  What do you think?



Enjoy the little things!

 

Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and find they were the big things!

 

One of my favourite quotes! It's been in my head a lot this past week, I've been forced to realise just how quickly time is passing and how quickly our babies are growing up.  Particularly, my littlest baby!! Just going from milestone to milestone, from one first to the next.  It seems like no time ago at all that we were taking him home from hospital and having his first night at home, first bath, meeting family for the first time!

 

Then, in the blink of an eye, we were doing first spoon-feed! 

In the past week alone we have had HP'S first night in his own room, his first tooth and he has rolled over for the first time!!  Understandably, a little much for any mother to take!  While, I love to see him doing so well and achieving all these little goals, ultimately it means he his growing up and a little to fast for my liking. 

Just look at that cheeky little face, devouring the strawberries!                 

Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to slow time down, so I have came to the conclusion that all we can do is try our best to live in the moment, and truly experience out lives as they are happening.  This is no easy feat, most of the time I'm so caught up with the daily routine of cleaning, cooking, feeding, school runs etc. to truly enjoy the little things.  So this summer the plan is to take life at a slower pace and enjoy as many moments as I can, and hopefully give the illusion that time is going even just a little bit slower.  

All of this philosophical thinking brings to mind another wee poem that I like very much and should really try to live by, so I will leave u with that!

I hope my children look back on today

 and see a mum who had time to play! 

There will be years for cleaning and cooking,

but children grow up while were not looking!

Anonymous.

 

 

Inspired by Fairy's

So after our recent trip to Slieve Gullion, I felt very inspired to create something pretty in our own garden.  Obviously a Fairy garden was the perfect solution, so I trailed through pintrest for hours, thoroughly getting lost in the world of fairy's.  There are some amazing examples of fairy garden's out there,  some simple everyday item's used to create the most magical and enchanting space's. 

Feeling truly inspired I headed out to the shops in search of some fairy like item's, primarily some sort of fairy house.  My first thought was an upturned flower pot, but I liked the idea of adding flowers, so in the end I went for a  pretty watering can with a lovely dainty flower in the top.  Of course I couldn't just leave it as an ordinary watering can, it wouldn't be complete without some sort of crafty make over!

 

 

I made a little door out of lollipop sticks and added a little button door handle.  Some large button windows and little lacy ribbon around the top, finally the addition of a pretty flower growing out of the roof completes the look, but now our fairy house needs a garden!  I created a little winding garden path using mosaic tiles.  A little moss dug up from the darkness under the boy's trampoline, by my ever suffering husband, created some greenery either side of the path.  Two topiary trees that I had from a dolls house I once refurbished either side of the door made the perfect entrance! 

 



Then, it was decided our fairy's would need some company in their garden, so along came Sammy snail and knobbly gnome.  A few more miniature looking plants (my knowledge of gardening is limited to nothing), I just picked some that looked like they would belong in a fairy garden!  A windmill ladybird completed the garden and I have to say I am very pleased with the finished product.  The boys were two, especially BT, who has just recently lost his first two baby teeth and thought it would be a lovely place for his tooth fairy to stay when she has to visit.  His tooth fairy is called Trixie, I think he is sort of hoping that by giving her a nice place to stay she will leave him some more money in exchange for his teeth. Not very likely, but he can hope!  For now they are very patiently waiting for some fairy's to take up residence I our garden, or indeed butterfly's, as according to BT fairy's disguise themselves as butterfly's so people can't see them.  Who knows it might be true, so the next time you see a butterfly in your garden, say hello, it may just be a fairy in disguise!!