Its all about the cakes

It's all been a bit cakey here recently.  In the teeny weeny tiny bits of spare time I manage to get nowadays I seem to have been making cakes, of the edible as well as the woolly variety.  This is just a short but sweet (geddit?!) post to share with you my cakey bakes and makes.  George had fun decorating these yummy fairy cakes which were for Freddie's 2 birthday party.  He did a awesome job, I was most impressed, not bad for a 3 and a half year old!

And then these crochet cake creations I made for selling at the art trail stall I have coming up in October.  I plan to make enough to fill my lovely cupcake stand which will then make a very pretty display :-)

So, there you have it.  Cakes!  I hope they haven't made you too hungry! x

Nice Mice

I was recently sent a postcard from my sister with some really sweet knitted mice on it that had huge ears and I thought they were so lovely that I wanted to create some crocheted cousins.  And so began project Nice Mice.  I sketched out how I wanted my mice to look and based on the drawing I started to crochet to match the shape I had drawn.

I am really pleased with the finished mouse, he is super cute with those mahooooosive ears!  They are very slightly bigger than I intended but I think it suits Mr Mouse and adds to his appeal!  I will write this pattern up shortly and will then need a kind soul to test it for me, so if you like mice and want to make an oversized eared one let me know!

On a completely different note, while sewing (with lovely shiny golden thread, not showing well in these photos) the felt hearts onto Mr Mouse this afternoon I had a cup of tea and some Cadbury Caramel Nibbles, which I have never tried before but highly recommend, they are lush! x

Flower power

Just a quick post as it's late and I really need to go to bed!  I just wanted to share this little guy with you.  I made  a flowery cat of great cuteness as a thank you gift for a friend and he turned out quite sweet.  He'll be off to his new owner on Monday so I gave him a quick photo shoot this afternoon.

I have also been spending some time this evening adding my recent projects to my Ravelry profile as I had never bothered using that feature at all before.  Quite time consuming to do but I can see how it is useful, especially listing the exact yarns used (brand, shade, dye lot etc) as that info is then stored for future reference (whereas I normally just chuck the ball band in the bin then panic when I need to get more wool the same colour and have forgotten the brand and where I got it from!).  Right, I must sign off now before I turn into a pumpkin. Night all xxx

I'm back!!

It has been aaaaaaaages since I put anything on my blog so I will try and be better at keeping up to date from now on!  I have been keeping rather busy though, and I have also grown alot........

This was taken today and I am 33+ weeks pregnant and feeling rather large!  So only 6 weeks 'ish to go and baby number 3 will be here :-)  This week a shop assistant described my bump as 'nice football!'.  More like beach ball maybe!

I have been doing quite a bit of crocheting lately so here are a few photos of recent projects.  First here's the blanket I made for the new baby, inspired by the wonderful Attic24 (you should really check out her blog as there are some amazingly colourful inspirations to be had!)  I am now addicted to making granny strip blankets and I will be making many more! I initially made the blanket far too big for a baby so the boys now have a fab snuggly-on-the-sofa-blanket which they love.  I then made a smaller version for the baby but in the same super lush colours.

I have also been making some little Pointy Petal flower brooches, very cute, colourful and fun.  I used a pattern from the blog Crochet with Raymond (another one worth checking out!)  These are quick to make up and I thought it would be good to have some ready made up to sell at the Art on the Hill arts trail I am going to be a part of this October (I'm getting stuff made early as in a few weeks I will be very much time restricted!) 

Other little projects recently have been cats which I had been asked to make as orders.  Here are the little moggies I ended up with.

And lastly, another granny stripe blanket, made for a custom order for a baby with these wonderful colours in her nursery so the blanket will match in nicely :-)

So, there's a little catch up on my recent activities.  I promise to be more active on here in future!  Right now though it's time to make some lunch then sit in the sunshine out in the garden to eat it while to boys create havoc with their sand pit and ice lollies (bad combination!).  Oh, one more thing that is worth a mention...... I got some fab coasters made up the other week with photos of our little family.  The online photo company Snapfish had an offer on of 50% off photo coasters, so how could I resist!  I used photos taken on my phone with the Android app Retro Camera (using the Pin Hole camera setting) and they arrived a few days later and are really well produced and good quality coasters!   For £4.99 plus postage I am a very happy bunny and the boys love them too!

Anyway, I have taken up enough time and space with this post so I'm off for lunch in the sun. xxx

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 ;-)