WIPS

Anyone who know's me and my crafty ways will know that it is practically unheard of for me to have any less three projects on the go at any one time, and usually it's a lot more than three.  The projects can range from crochet to furniture restoration and back again to sewing.  Hence, the name of my blog 'crafty notions',  I follow whatever notion may take me and I run with it.  I also find it impossible to have idle hand's, you will virtually never see me doing 'nothing', even when sitting over a cup of tea or watching the television, my hand's have to be doing something.  This is usually crochet, because it is the thing which I am most practised at and can do without having to think about it too much.  I now even have a wee bag, just big enough to hold a ball of wool, my crochet hooks and a pair of scissors, this bag goes everywhere with me, just in case I have a few spare minutes to fill.  My other projects, such as sewing, furniture restoration and goodness knows what else, take a little more concentration on my part.  I usually try and fit these in between parenting and housekeeping duties.  Although in truth it's more like the parenting and housekeeping duties get 'fitted in' around the crafting most of the time.  Thankfully, I have a very supportive husband who fill's the gap when necessary.  

Quite often my mind is swimming with crafty idea's, most of the time I can't even make sense of them.  Occasionally something come's to the forefront and actually make's some sort of sense and can materialise into a completed project.

This is one such project that has materialised.  It's an adaptation of the owl hat and bag in this post, The owl bag is much the same, but I have made a headband/earwarmer instead of the hat for spring time.  You can't really see from the picture, but the pink has a little glittery shimmer going through it, making it really nice and girlie.  

I thought it would be quite useful for me to do a little round up of the projects I have on at the minute.

1) The Mystery Blanket

This blanket was part of a four part feature in Inside Crochet Magazine over the past four months.  It is done in aran weight wool, which isn't something I generally use, but I had inherited a lot of it from my Grandmother who passed away last year.  I really wanted to do something with it, but wasn't too sure what, until I saw this feature and knew it was perfect.  It didn't take me too long to get this far, this is part one, two and three completed, just to add part four now.  It was, however, really heavy going as the blanket started to grow.  I really like how it's turning out though and can't wait to see it all finished.

2) Crochet Chair

This is one project that I am beyond excited about.  About a year ago my brother gave me this kitchen chair, he and his wife had just moved into her grandparent's old house and inherited a few pieces of old furniture.  This was one of them, and knowing me pretty well, my brother knew I would see something more than a dirty old chair.  He was so right!!  It may not look like much, but as soon as I saw it I loved it!  I thought hard about what to do with it, Maybe re-upholster it and paint with a nice bright colour.  But for some reason that just didn't seen right.  So it has sat 'lonely' in the shed throughout the winter, but thankfully in the new light of Spring it came to me - YARN BOMBING!!!!  Perfect!  So I striped it down, sanded it all, re-upholstered the seat with lining fabric and got started.

It's a pretty slow process, with all the colour changing.  I decided to do the legs with popcorn stitch, which can take a long time too, but I'm in no rush with this one, I'm enjoying doing it and I want to do it right, so I'm taking my time.

3) Fabric, hand-bound notebook's 

I have made these for the upcoming craft fair in April, I sewed the fabric cover's in a few hour's, now I just have to make the page's for the inside and bind them.

4) Long Term projects.

I started this blanket about a year ago.  It's a large blanket for my brother, in the local football team colour's.  It's a really simple, easy pattern to work, but I find it too tedious to do too much of it at the one time.  So I tend to do a square every now and again, in between other projects.  Slowly, but surely, it is getting bigger, I'm just over half way now.  Thankfully, my brother, although he did ask for it, doesn't know I have started it yet.  So at least he won't be expecting it any time soon.

This is another one that is taking a looooong time.  I'm ashamed to say I started this blanket two years ago in May coming.  It's just over half way done, and again it's one that I can only do a little at a time.  I haven't done any of it in a long time, but I think it's more of a summer blanket, so perhaps I'll get the motivation to start it again this summer and it will be ready to brighten up the dark nights of next winter.

5) My Bunny

My bunny is a recent project, I started it just this week and it's almost finished so, hopefully I'll get it done in the next few day's.  I have made softies before following pattern's from Helen Phillips and Tilda,  but this is the first time I have drawn out a pattern of my own.  I have to say I'm not overly thrilled with it, I do like the patchwork look, but I'm not to sure about the pattern.  Maybe from now on I'll stick to the pre-made pattern's and put my own spin on it with the patchwork look.

6) Crochet disaster's

When I sew the doorstop camper van in issue 50 of Inside Crochet,  I instantly wanted to do it, and started straight away.  It wasn't difficult to do and quickly started to take shape.  However, I also quickly began to realise that my effort's bore little resemblance to the one in the magazine and I very quickly fell out with it.

Image from Inside Crochet

So for now I have set it aside, until such time's as I find the heart to finish it or bin it.

So that's it, everything I have ongoing at the minute, and no doubt I will add to it before too long.  Having done a list my mind is now a lot clearer, for a little while anyway.  Thanks for stopping by today, hope to speak to you again soon.

Back Again

I find it really hard to think about how long it's been since I last posted.  I really just completely lost touch with everything there for a while, it's been such a long time since I even dropped in on some of my favourite blogs.  Since I was last here we have been through Autumn and now almost the whole of Winter.  Thankfully it's almost Spring and I can't wait for it,  I absolutely detest Winter.  It's the dullness I hate most of all, I just feel so much better about everything when it's nice and bright outside.  I've sort of hibernated my way through Winter and now I'm just starting to waked up again to greet the coming of Spring.

It has, however, been very busy here in my little world this past few months.  We have had Halloween, Christmas, lot's of cold family outing's, enough sickness to last me a life time (although, thankfully nothing to serious, just a month's worth of chickenpox), and lots and lots of growing up.

They really are growing up much too fast.  My oldest boy is over half way through his second and last year in  nursery,  this morning when he told me I could only kiss him on the cheek on his way out to school, I was devastated.  Last week my youngest little one started a little toddle and talk group, he goes for two hours two morning's a week for two month's.  On his first morning I was all prepared for a hard time when it came to leaving him, but to my utter surprise he just toddled on in not a bother to him.  I have to admit I was a little devastated about this as well.  It's just the sudden realisation that they are not so little any more and don't need me as much as they once did.  As mother's we expend so much time and energy teaching our children to be independent, why then does it come as such a shock to us when they begin to grow into confident independent children?

As well as all the family things that have been going on, I have found time to continue crafting.  I really don't think anything could stop me, it's the only thing that keeps me sane in this crazy world.  My very first craft fair, which i had talked about before, has long been and gone.  I was really busy getting things ready for it, but in the end it didn't go as well as I had hoped.  But nevertheless, I am not put off, I have another one coming up in April for Easter and am busy preparing for that.

After the disaster of the craft fair I was a little disappointed and I would be lying if I said my confidence didn't take a bit of a battering, but I busied myself getting ready for Christmas and home-made a lot of the gifts for my family.  One of which was the rag doll in the picture above, she is called Penny and thankfully is now much loved by my little niece.  There is nothing like the pleasure and delight a child get's from something you have made, to give you a little boost in confidence.  After Christmas I slowed down a little bit, and took some time to complete some projects that had been waiting for a while to have their finishing touches, and now I am once again in full swing and am very excited about some of the projects I have going on at the minute.  I promise more info. on those soon, but for now I am glad to be back!!

Granny Sitting and Crochet

We have had a pretty uneventful week spent in my Mum and Dad's house looking after my Granny.  Granny was largely independent until March this year, Mother's Day to be exact, when she had a really nasty fall down the stair's in her own house.  Leaving her with a good few broken bones and plenty of bumps and bruises.  She went to stay with Mum for a while and has just never really gotten well enough to go home again, although to be honest it's a bit of a relief to all of us that she is there, at least we don't have to worry about her being on her own quite so much.  This past week Mum and Dad have been on holiday in Benidorm (lucky them) so I was volunteered to move in, along with all of my clan, to look after Granny.  I absolutely love my Granny to bit's, I spent a lot of my childhood with her and my Grandad, who passed away when I was nine, and I have the greatest of respect for her and the older generation in general.  They have gone through more in their live's than we ever could, we have it so easy now and we don't even realize it.  All that aside, it really was a long hard week, I think Granny get's frustrated that she can't do all the thing's she used to and she hate's relying on other people to do thing's for her, so it was very hard work at time's.  It was nice, however, to spend some time with Granny, in this crazy life we now all live in everything just gets a bit hectic and thing's like spending and hour just listening to Granny's old stories doesn't happen as often as you would like.

I did spend my time wisely though, between school run's, cooking, cleaning, playing, etc. I did manage a bit of crochet. I think lately I have been sidetracked from my main crafting passion, crochet.  I do enjoy sewing as well, but i think because i'm still learning it can be stressful at time's, so this week i needed to relax and that's exactly what i did.  Although, as anyone out there who crochet's will know, you are constantly learning new stitches and technique's, crochet is just so comfortable for me, it's like my safe place.  When life get's stress full i pick up a hook!!  I thought I would try and get a little bit of stock together for the Christmas Craft Fair and so I spent the week doing small thing's that I think people will like.

This is the second owl bag I have made and i'm really loving them, I have a real 'thing' for owl's at the moment, and woodland thing's in general.  This bag and the other one I made have already been claimed by my sister-in-law for Christmas present's, so i'll have to make some more for the fair.  I'm debating whether to line them with material or not, i'm really not sure what i should charge for them either, is £10 too much?  If I line them should I charge more?  That's the part i'm not looking forward to at all, pricing the product's.  I want to make it worth my while, but I don't want to over charge and not sell anything.

The phone sock's are perhaps my favorite product of the week.  Again, it's the woodland thing.  I came up with the pattern for the ladybird as I went along and I made the owl one after seeing something similar on pintrest, but thankfully I did write the pattern's down so I will be able to make more.  Which is just as well really, because I've decided to keep Mr Owl for myself.

                                            

I got the pattern for the rose corsage via pintrest, here, and added some pretty button's to the middle, tidied up the back with felt and added a broach pin.  I did have a lovely orange one as well, but my sister swiped it, ah well, that's what family's for, or so she tell's me anyway.

I did the same with the triple layer flower's, added a button, felted the back and added a pin, I really do like these because the color combination's are endless and I am a girl who like's her color.  I will be making more of these as well, you can find the pattern here.

The little hair clip's are really simple, I used Lucy's pattern for Teeny Tiny Flower's, again added a button (everything is made better with a button) and sewed them onto a hair clip.  I also had more of these, but they seem to have disappeared as well.

Lastly, I tried my hand at a bit of felt sewing and made some Christmas decoration's.  I thought I really should do some as it is a Christmas fair.  My sister is usually the one to do the felt thing's, but her stuff is just so lovely, she inspired me to have a go and this is what I came up with.  I'm quite pleased with them and may just have to do some for my own tree this year.

So that's my week in crochet and felt,  I hope you like my little makes, thank's for dropping in, see you again soon.

The little things!

I love that wee saying ' always remember the little things,  because one day you will look back and realize they were the big things'.  Forgive me if I haven't got that exactly right, but you know what I mean. Generally, everyday we take so much for granted,  my biggest problem is not taking the time to step back and look at what's going on around me.  Like being too busy tidying the toys to watch how the kids are playing. 

                           

Like when did my little man learn how to be a doctor, honestly the last time I looked he was building blocks and knocking them down again.  Now all of a sudden there he is playing pretend doctors with a teddy bear.  It was so cute I almost cried, he did it all himself.  Well, alright, i did help him with the blanket, but he was keeping a real close eye on me the whole time to make sure I did it right.

I really enjoyed watching him.  Another thing I love to watch is my boy's interacting, particularly with their daddy.  I firmly believe that little boy's have a very special bond with their daddy's, I suppose it's much the same as little girl's with their mummy, but I don't think i'll ever get to experience that.  They just want to be like him so much, my boy's just love to spend one-on-one time with their daddy, and thankfully their daddy is more than willing to spend time with them, most of the time anyway. 

This is our big boy baking with daddy, they made some lovely soda bread.  Speaking of which....

was absolutely delicious with my home-made sweet potato, carrot and coriander soup.  I got the recipe here, but I left out the ginger, because i'm not a big fan of ginger, it was really lovely.  I love soup at this time of year, it's just so warming and home-made soup is something I just took for granted as a child.  I usually make soup on a Friday, to make use of any left over vegetable's before they go bad and also so there is something in the fridge which is quick and easy to get to the table.  I'll be doing this one again, and i'll be convincing my husband to make the soda bread every week too.

Another favorite from this time of year is chestnut's, or conker's as we call them here.  I have very fond memories of going out with my brothers and sister looking for chestnuts, the boy's used to take them home, screw a hole through the middle, string them on a rope and play 'conker's' with their friends.  Did anyone else play? or is it something from this part of the world?  They would take it in turn's to hit each other's conker's and the aim was to break the other one, the conker that ended the game intact won.  This is the first year we have taken our boy's out looking for chestnut's and they really enjoyed it.

We have yet to teach them how to play conker's, but i'm sure my husband will get round to it.

Lastly fitting in some time for some sewing, this time a small doll's quilt, I will show the doll next time.

This is the first quilt i have made,  i really enjoyed making it and it will not be my last.  I hope someday the when she is all grown up, the little girl who is getting this little quilt will look back on it with some big fond memories as well.

Thank's for stopping by today, hope to see you again soon xx.

My First Reveal!

I'm really excited to be doing my first reveal, and I really hope it is the first of many!  My 'Little Artist's bag' came about when i started to think of Christmas present's.  I usually start with the children in the family, you know nieces and nephew's, and i usually always try and make the children something handmade.  I think children in general get so much stuff at Christmas they hardly know what they have and i just like to give them something different, something unique, something they can keep and know that it was handmade by their Auntie Milly especially for them.  As a more obvious added benefit it's not as expensive as trying to keep up with the ever demanding and changing toy market.  Especially if, like me, most of your things are made from recycled and reused material.  I love it when you can give something a second life as something else, there is just something extremely satisfying in knowing that you have given something that was destined for the charity shop, or bin, a second chance and it will continue to be used for another few years at least.  The material used in this project was given to me by my sister when she was redecorating her two girls room's, isn't it ironic that they are now getting them back as Little Artist's bags.  

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.  While trawling through pinterest for inspiration and idea's i came across a few bags like this.  I particularly liked this one and this one.  So i decided to give it a go and make my own.  After a few failed attempts with incorrect measurement's and a lot of frustration I eventually got something I am really very proud of, so here goes.

My Little Artist's Bag

There is a little pocket on the outside.

The inside

Inside there is pocket to hold  an A3 size art pad and a pocket with individual section's for the colouring pencil's and another space for a ruler, which i haven't put in yet.  The only problem I have had is that when the colouring pencil's are put in it sort of pulls the edge up a bit.  I'm thinking that maybe i have made the pencil pocket's to tight a fit.  I will have to try and make them a little bigger next time.

Despite that little default, i am very proud of this little bag, and i just hope the girl's like them too!!!!  I'm hopefully going to do a tutorial on this, when i can get round it, and i'm thinking i might make an A4 sized one for my older niece   She is eight and the other's are 3 and 4, so i want her's to be little more grown up.  So watch this space.

Thanks for dropping in today, hope to see you again soon.

The Dreaded Dummy!!!!!

 

We had a bit of a hard time this weekend with our oldest boy and his beloved dummy.  He is four now and for about the past year and a half has taken his dummy just at bed time, he literally has it about 5mins and he is out like a light.  Lately we have been telling him how big he is getting and that he really doesn't need a dummy anymore, in the hope that he will decide of his own accord to leave it out for the dummy fairy's. 

We have tried once before to get rid of the dummy, I took it away while he was at nursery and told him the dummy fairy's had taken it to give to a little baby who didn't have a dummy.  WELL!!!!  The hysterics were unreal, and he ended up being so terrified of the dummy fairy's coming into his room he didn't sleep for 3 nights, even after I had given him a new dummy.  So we had to tell him that the fairy's will only come for his dummy when he is ready to give it up and leaves it out for them.  So, has anyone spotted my mistakes. 
Mistake number 1:  The fact that my four year old should even have a dummy!!!! I can practically hear all you mummy's out there screaming at me, and I'm not even going to try and make any excuses for it, because I don't have any.
Mistake number 2:  Giving him back his dummy after I had taken it away.  I know, I know, I should have persevered then and I wouldn't be going through this now!!  Again I have no excuses, other than to say four year olds really know how to make you feel bad.
Mistake no 3:  Putting the ball in his court (so to speak), by saying they won't take it until HE is ready, I have now given him the control, as he constantly reminds me by saying "I'm not ready to give my dummy away yet mummy".

Anyway, this weekend we thought we were having a bit of a breakthrough.  The boy's go for a 'sleepover' at my sister's house once a month, and then in turn I will take her girls once a month.  This weekend was the boys turn and when packing their bag's, we couldn't find dummy anywhere, and we looked everywhere.  I thought disaster, it's six o'clock on a Saturday evening, where am I going to get a dummy.  But, miraculously my big boy didn't seen too bothered by it!!!!  He just said he 'wouldn't need it'.  Brilliant thought I, let's go with this!!  So we all made such a big deal about it, he thought he was the best thing since sliced bread.  Slept all night, no problem's at all.  Again the next day we made such a big deal, even bought him some moshi monster's, which I usually think is such a rip off and refuse to buy, but this was a special occasion!!!  All was good.  Until......
Bedtime, my big boy walks straight into his room, open's the train station's door (obviously a toy one) and lift's out dummy looking far too smug.  He had obviously known it was there all along.

I tried and I tried to get him to give it up, but to no avail.  So many people, have told me to just take it off him and put up the crying, he will stop in a day or two, but I just feel so guilty.  So, long story, that I haven't made any attempt to shorten.  We have compromised and are going to leave it out for Santa this year in exchange for an extra present.  I'm feeling quite defeated about the whole thing, I really thought we were getting somewhere.  Anyone out there with any advice is more than welcome to share it!!!

What i'm about!

So today I thought I would show you what it is I'm all about.  Really it's hard to pin it down, because I like to try many different things and if I just see something that I like I will try to recreate it in the best way I can.  Most of the thing's I make are for myself and my house, but as I begin to get more confidence in my crafting abilities I have started to make thing's as gift's for family, and I am even contemplating going to a local Christmas craft fair this year to try selling some of my goods (more on that at another time).

Anyway, here are a few of the thing's I have made in the past few month's, I hope you like them, your feedback would be greatly appreciated!
 

 

This is the top half of my little wall unit in the kitchen, which I absolutely adore.  It has to be my favourite piece of furniture in the house.  I bought it from a local charity shop and painted it up myself.  I crocheted the bunting along the top, making up the pattern as I went along.  The little teddy in the left hand corner (Milo as we like to call him), I made from one of my current favourite sewing books by Tilda, Sew Pretty Homestyle, and the crocheted bird in the right hand corner I made by following the tutorial on Lucy's blog at Attic 24.   

 

 

The two item's in the picture's above I  made for my newly painted beach style bathroom, I  think this deserves a post all of it's very own, which I hope to do very soon.  I've also added a few of my crochet item's, the wash cloth's were also made for my new bathroom with a pattern from my own head. 

 

This little bunny is from last month's issue of Inside Crochet magazine, she is called Rosie, because of her rosy cheeks and was made for the upcoming craft fair, but I'm not sure I'll be able to part with her.

 

 

 

This little owl bag is my latest creation, and I have to say I'm really proud of it, even if I do say so myself.  I have seen a few similar ones on pinterest here and here and really liked the idea, so I decided to make my own and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

 

 

 

Last, but not least is this pretty little madam, called Sally.  I made her as a Christmas gift (it's never too early to start when your giving handmade gifts)  for my niece from a lovely little book of stuffed toys called Sew it, Stuff it.  I hope she likes it.

 

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed a little look into my crafting adventure's, I did warn you it was quite diverse, sometimes I even have trouble keeping up, so I hope your up for it.  Thanks for calling in today, hope to see you again soon!