Fun with Fire

I have been a bit slack on the crochet front recently.  I have started back at work, only part time, but it's surprising how much quicker it makes the week go!  On the hoop side of things I played with fire on Monday which was awesome, fire hooping is amazing.....if a bit hot and slightly scary...in a good way!  It was only my second time hooping with fire.  Here are a few pics...

....and I love the one below of me with my LED hoop.  I was trying to keep my powers of invisibility on the quiet up until now, darn, my super-hero secret is out!

The crochet love is spreading :-)

Just realised I haven't posted here for a little while, ooops!  I keep up with my Facebook page but seem to forget this one a bit!  Anyway, the crochet love is spreading!  I had a stall in my neighbour's house this past weekend as it was my neighbourhood Art Trail (Art on the Hill) and my neighbour was displaying her paintings and kindly offered to let me have a spare table in there!  I sat in the corner crocheting away and it was great to have people looking at my crochet things and overhearing their comments!  Lots of very positive vibes.  I also sold a few bits, including 2 of my cats and a bunch of animal kids hats.  I also got a few orders for hats in sizes/colours I didn't already have made.  I also have a few orders from friends so I am super busy making owl and fox hats this week :-)  I have also just listed the Strawberry 'n Cream Cupcake pattern on Etsy, thanks to Joan for testing this for me and picking up on my typo's!

Also over the weekend I went to a very fun fancy dress party.  Ended up staying out very late and hooping with my led hoop (and lots of friends with their led hoops) in a bar with a pretty small dancefloor.  I thing the drinkers in there thought the circus had come to town.....

Oh, and on a hooping note, I have uploaded another video to my YouTube channel.  It's of the final practice before our routine at the Bristol Festival BrisFest.  We are all dressed up and were practicing in the park right in the centre of the city, got quite a few looks from shoppers and passers by! Check out my gold leggings......bling!  Excuse the talking part way through, Mark was watching with George and Freddie and I thing George was trying to put his very sticky lollipop stick down, then he was asking for more lollipops, ha ha!  He obviously wasn't at all interested in watching his mummy hoop!  

Pumpkin!

Last night I made a pumpkin for the Itsy Bitsy Spider Pumpkin Patch crochet along. It worked up really quick and I love it! Now I just have to decorate it to enter into the best decorated comp! I have so many ideas for decorating, I am going to have to make loads more I think! The kids will have lots of them to play with at Halloween ;-)

Hooping and a crochet cupcake giveaway!

Just a short one tonight as I seriously need to go to bed now as I am doing a hoop performance tomorrow with the rest of the Bristol Hooping Mad  hoopers! So if you are heading down to the BrisFest festival (Bristol harbourside) tomorrow afternoon then come to the Street Stage at 3:45pm to see us hoop our fab routine in all our sequins and sparkles!  


On the crochet side of things, check out Sarah Dickson's blog for the chance to win one of her delicious crochet cupcakes (blueberry flavour, yummy!).  Sweet :-) x

Home sweet home :-)

I had an amazing holiday with a week of fantastic weather, lovely food and drink, and loads of fun with the boys.  The kids were really good on the journey but it did make me laugh when I asked George if the liked the plane or the bus best and he said the bus!  I really thought the plane would have been much more exciting to a 2.5 yr old!

I am now nicely refreshed and ready for the lovely English Autumn.....and to get hooking more hats for winter!  I finished 3 hats while away and the fourth is half finished.  I also crocheted a sweet little heart for the maid who so cheerfully cleaned our apartment every day.  We were running low on Euro's to leave as a tip but I had lots of wool left and I thought she might like something a bit different.  I didn't have any paper to write on though so used toilet roll for the little thank you note, not the most classy choice but it did the job!

Holiday, yaaaaaay!

I will be away for a week now, Portugal here we come!  I will get on to posting items up in my Etsy shop when I return.  x

Pattern, Etsy, Holiday & Hooping :-)

I finally got around to typing up my Cat of Great Cuteness pattern and it is now a lovely pretty .pdf document, wooo!  One down, now to do the alien and rabbit.  I have two kind people who have offered to test the pattern out for me  and I can't wait for their feedback, hopefully I won't have made too many blinding errors and they will  be able to follow it ok!    Once it has been tested and any corrections etc made it will be going up for sale in my Etsy shop!  Yes, I have set up shop!  Nothing in it yet but I hope to get the patterns in it when I get back from Portugal (wooo I am going on holiday Thursday morning!).  This will be our first time abroad with the boys so that will be interesting.  Freddie will NOT sit still on my lap for more than 10 seconds so a 2hr flight with him supposed to sit on my lap will be very .....erm......entertaining :-/  I have lots of episodes of 'In The Night Garden' loaded onto my phone and  fingers crossed that might work for at least some of the time!  


Oh yeah, I also set up a Facebook page to replace my Facebook group as it seems I should really have done a page to begin with but I didn't know that then.  Oh well, I think that's pretty much everything sorted for now.


I had a great hoop session at class tonight with Emma (our teacher) just back from Burning Man festival in the desert in th USA!  Lots of new tricks, new tricks!  I am looking forward to some hooping in the sun in Portugal, heaven :-)  Right, back to crocheting hats now. x

Alien creation and super cute hats!

Today, in between breaking up squabbles between my two boys over a remote controlled fire engine they both wanted to play with, I sewed the last few stars on to my latest creation, a cute little alien.  I now have 4 creations ready to sell.....I really must get around to opening an Etsy shop!  Here they are waiting to find new homes...

I also decided I want to start making some cute hats for the boys for winter so set about searching for some good patterns.  After a long time searching online I found the cutest crochet hat patterns from the Inner Hooker.  I ordered 3 patterns for $10 (£6.66 when converted to pounds) and I can't wait to start making them!  The email with the pdf patterns came nice and speedily :-)  I am going to be taking one of these as my holiday project next week when we go to Portugal!  She has amazing animal hats, I ordered the Fox Earflap pattern and also the Owl Earflap hat pattern.  The other hat pattern I got was the Long Tail Stocking hat one, soooooo cute! So go check out the Inner Hooker Etsy shop or join her Facebook page.

Hoop practice....8 months in :-)

A hoopy post today instead of a wooly one!  Last night at hoop class we had the wonderful drummers back in to  dance to, amazing!  So, I thought I would get a video clip on my phone.  Well, I managed to really bodge up the video in all ways possible!  I balanced the phone on my cardigan (which completely muffled out the sound of the fab drummers, doh!) so I have had to add some music to the clip.  Also I had pressed record whilst focusing on something close up to the phone (probably the table or the sound-muffling-cardigan) so when pointed into the room the focus is all soft and fuzzy :-(  Oh well, better luck with my next recording but in the mean time click here for the YouTube link to see the video of me practicing at class, 8 months into my hooping.  

Woooo, it's pumpkin crochet along time!

If you have never done a crochet along (CAL) before then why not join in with this one!  It is being hosted by the lovely Karla of Itsy Bitsy Spider and she has written a beautiful pumpkin pattern especially for it.  If you sign up then you will get a free copy of Karla's pumpkin pattern and the idea is to make at least one (but as many as you like) and then decorate it in whatever way you want.  Then at the end of the crochet-along there will be a pumpkin 'fashion show' where people can vote for their favorite and the winner will get a prize!  The pattern only involves being able to do single crochet, decrease, and half double crochet (but the majority of the pattern is single crochet), so nice and easy!  Read Karla's introduction post more details.
I have signed up and am looking forward to starting!  I did Karla's Great Owl crochet along and it was so much fun so if you love crochet then JOIN NOW!

My stock so far....

Woooo, I now have a stock of 3 creations to sell! I am really enjoying making these critters :-)

Bank Holiday Monday creativity!

My second creation! I used the body pattern I wrote for the cat, altering the head shape slightly so it wasn't quite as pointy and feline as the cat one. The arms are just a couple of rows shorter and of course the ears are completely different! I made huge ears, still in a round, but not stuffed at all. So they have a nice weight to them :-) He also has a tail and a flower on his ear, cute! What will the next variation be?! ♥

My new creation :-)

Here is it, my finished creation!  My very first attempt at writing a pattern.  I made it so the legs, body, head and ears are all in one piece.  I am not a fan of sewing body parts together so this way it meant all I had to sew on was the two arms, woooo.....although I then spent ages sewing the felt pieces on....but that's different, fun!  I am going to make more, with variations so they are all unique, and get a stall together for the Art on the Hill Windmill Hill and Victoria Park art trail that takes place in my neighbourhood at the beginning of October.  EXCITING! 

 

A creative weekend!

I have written my first ever crochet pattern, woooooo!  Well, I say written.....it's still a bunch of notes scribbled on lots of paper with ALOT of crossing out!  But it's mine, I did it!  I have made and stuffed my creation and I am just adding the finishing touches.  All will be revealed soon :-)  It was so much fun and I have plans for more so I might have to set up my own Etsy shop to sell patterns soon......or am I just getting a bit ahead of myself....whoa Heather, slow down!  First I need to type my pattern then follow it to make sure it's right and easy to follow.  Then I will need to find some testers to make sure it makes sense to people other than me!  Also does anyone know how to copyright a pattern?

I've been featured!

Woop woop, my pink flower monster got featured on another blog....one with lots of followers.....wow, little monster's gonna be famous ;-)  Check out Feature Friday by the lovely Karla of The Itsy Bitsy Spider.  To a newbie blogger like me this is VERY exciting stuff!

Pink flower monster!

Check out the cute pink monster I finished today (seen hanging from my ceiling light.....naughty monster!)  She has a flower in her hair to make her more girly as she is a pressie for my cousin's new little baby girl, Florence, and I don't want to scare her!  Surely every baby should have a monster of their own to play with!  I used the Bobbly Wobbly Bear free pattern from Demonstrative Amigurumi Bears and Friends as a base for the monster and then added the cone horns and the little flower etc.  

A whole new world!

Helloooooo!  Yay, I have a blog!  I am very excited about this....but at the same time it's all a bit new to me so bear with me while I get into the swing of it! 


Today I received a little brown box in the post from The Itsy Bitsy Spider, very exciting!  I took part in my very first crochet-along (The Great Owl Crochet Along hosted by Karla Fitch of The Itsy Bitsy Spider) and in the parcel was the owl I would get to keep from one of the swap participants!  On opening the package I was greeted by a beautiful bright red owl as well as his travelling companion, a pretty little blue frog!  There were also two gorgeous skeins of yarn, some stickers and a badge!  As my 2 year old excitedly took charge of the stickers I opened the card to find out who had made my lovely owl.  Well, I was very honoured to find out that Karla herself had chosen to keep my owl out of all the ones sent in to her, and in return had sent me 'Big Red'!  A very successful first crochet-along, I am looking forward to doing another one soon.  Me and the boys took Big Red to the park this afternoon to show him a little bit of his new hometown (he came all the way from the USA so had been cooped up in his box for a fair few days!)