Fun with the Fairy's

 

A few week's ago we had a lovely wee day out with my sister and her family at Slieve Gullion Forest Park.  Apparently the forest park has been there for ages, but had just recently been part of an art project which has completely refurbished the park.  It's in a beautiful area known as the Ring of Gullion, an area of 'outstanding natural beauty'  just over the boarder into the South of Ireland, near Newry.  We had heard a lot of good things about the park over the last while and decided to see what it was all about for ourselves!  I have to say I was very glad we did!  There is so much to do and see and the best part is it's all completely free!!  Thankfully we left home early and arrived before the crowd's so the massive play park was fairly empty and the kids had a good time running about and exploring.

Ben was the only one who stood still long enough to have his picture taken, which is a rarity because he usually hate's having the camera pointed anywhere near his direction.  It was pretty overcast in the morning, but that didn't bother the kids and it did brighten up as the day went on!

 

We found our way through the maze to the wishing chair, where each of the children, and a few of the adults as well, made a wish.  I did laugh when NJ's turn came, he squished his eye's up real tight and said 'I wish for Lightening McQueen'.  When he opened his eye's he couldn't understand why Lightening McQueen wasn't there.  The innocence of children is a truly wonderful thing. 

 

 

 

After a long play in the park we went for much needed refreshments, in the form of the biggest ice-cream cones the van had, and then it was off to find the fairy's.  Before starting on the walk through the forest, you can read the story of the giant, witch and fairy's who live there, then your off into The Giant's Lair, and you better hope you don't wake the giant on your way round.

 

 

Through the red door and the beautiful wicker tunnel into the fairy village!!

 

 

The little fairy house's were built so skilfully into the beautiful natural surroundings they looked like they had always been there!

 

They were so cleverly made and named.  There is only a few pictures of them here, but there were at least 60 little houses, all with different names.  The fairy tale book shop was BT's favourite.

These ones were my favourite, the stepping stones winding their way up the tree trunk, with little fairy houses every so often and a wee bridge between the tree's, you can just imagine the little fairy's flying about from house to house!

 

As we leave the fairy village behind we upon a few larger houses belonging to the trolls of the area!

 

 

My lovely family.

 

 

BT listening at the door to see if anyone is home, thankfully there wasn't!

 
Then we came to the part of the forest where the giant lives, we had to be extra quiet here so we didn't wake him up!  This is the kids sitting on the giant's dinner table.

 

 

The Witch!

 

 

HP was very comfy and enjoyed his first time in the baby sling, in fact he slept most of the way and missed the fairy's, the giant and the witch.  He woke just in time for the Giant's tea cups.

 

 

 

 



 
Absolutely magical place for adults and children.  Our visit here was well timed as BT and I were just finished the first book in Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree collection.  If you havn't read the books with your little ones, or even just for yourself, you definitely should, they are fantastic.  We are now half way through the second book in the series and we both love it.  I can't wait to enjoy it with my other two when they get a little older!

We will definitely have another trip to Slieve Gullion over the summer holidays, fantastic day out and loads of lovely memories.



Here we go again!!!

I'm embarrassed to say it's been well over a year since I last posted, and while I hate to make excuses, I'm going to anyway!  I haven't been doing much on the crafting scene, over the past year I have mostly been focusing on my family!  Adding to it, would probably be more accurate. 

I am now the very proud mother of not two but three beautiful boys! 

Most Of my pregnancy with my last little darling was dreadful and I was completely unable to do anything else, let alone crafting.  Even my love of crochet had to take a back seat, for the entire nine months I was completely incapable of picking up a crochet hook, and believe me I tried!  For most people, expecting a new baby is the perfect excuse to crochet and create beautiful baby clothes, blankets and all sorts of gorgeous things!  In fact I actually taught myself to crochet while I was expecting my first baby, such was my intense desire to create some of these wonderful baby things!  But, for some reason during this pregnancy the very feel of the wool and hook in my hand made me incredibly nauseous! When I did manage to start something, the act of crochet gave me motion sickness.  It was not very pleasant!  After nine long months without any form of crafting I was anxious to get going again, but then of course I have my beautiful new baby boy to look after, as well as the two little handfuls of trouble I already have.  As you can imagine it's a very busy household! Eventually, we did manage to get back to some form of normality, our new baby fitting in like he had always been here, and I finally managed to pick up my hook.

It has taken me a little while to get my crochet mojo back, but I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere.

I have completed a few projects in the past few months, and while all I have time for at the minute is my family, with a little bit of crochet on the side, I hope that as time goes on I will get back to some of my other crafty notions as well!

 

 

 

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.