cuties for the fete

I've been very busy hooking this week.  This cute little guy is one of a bunch of little birdies I made for the craft stall at Lochie's upcomming school fete. 

I've also made a few more jelly-fish too.  I'm gettting quite good at these and I now know the pattern off by heart.

The different types of yarn made the finished jellies all different sizes which was a little disapointing, but theres not much I can do about that.   I just hope that people like them enough to buy them.

While making the little birdies I got a bit bored and made these little monsties instead.

Erin said they looked like mutant pineapples, which was kinda the idea I guess? Anyhoo, if they don't sell I can always bring them home because my kids have already claimed the ones they want if I do.

new Jelly-Man

I'm not usually this fussy, but the fact that I made Lochie's Jelly-Man (as he calls him) with loose tension was bugging me, so today I had to fix him.

Instead of remaking the whole thing I just remade his head and stitched it on over the top of the original one. I used a smaller hook too and this made the stitches a lot tighter. 

I also thought he needed a smile....much better I think.

Cool Jelly

Lochie wanted me to make a jelly-fish to hang in his room...

I couldn't find a pattern that I liked the look of so using my new found toy crocheting skills I made this pattern up as I went.  Petty good eh? 

It was pretty easy once I got going and it only took me a couple of hours while watching TV to get him done.  I have been practicing with my tension because I naturally have a tight tension and this is sometimes too tight. With this jelly fish I think I went a little too far on the loose side, but he's not going to be played with that much hanging in Lochies room, and Lochie was happy with him so I guess thats the main thing.

Check out Erins blog where she shows the little birdie I made for her .

more yummy crochet goodness

this is Missy Strawberry, and I think she is so adorable!  She was sooooo much fun to make and she took no time at all.  You can purchase the pattern for download at the gorgeous Salihan Crafts. 

Heres a close up of the cute little strawberry blossom Missy wears.   I can see myself making a lot more of these.

Crochety turtle and blankety goodness

Isn't this little guy cute. I am very proud of my very first attempt at a crocheted toy... Lochie chose the pattern and the colours. The yarn is also something new I found at Kmart. My Firends by Pallet yarns Its a cotton and acrylic blend and it crochets up with a nice soft and cuddly feel to it.  And at only $2.00 a ball it's a good price for all those smaller projects.

And LOOK at my finished blanket! *squeal*   This I am most proud of.  I have never tried a blanket where I had to join all the squares before and I just looooove how all the colours worked so well together.

Here's a close up of the 'fancy' edge I made up as I was going along. As ususal I purchased too much wool so I was trying to use it all up with a really wide edge. I worked out nice and pretty while also making the overall size of my blanky a bit bigger.

blanket progress

57 squares done!

6 more to do...I think

the postie delivered my order from the Bendigo Wollen Mills this morning.  Four big 200grm balls of yummy plum coloured wool. This is the colour I am going to use around all my squares and for the edges of my woolly blanket. It's going to look very missmatched but it will have lots of colour. I so want to finish this and it looks like I am going to get it done sooner than I first thought.

a happy crochet bag

I'm finished!

I am so pleased with the way this bag turned out it makes me so happy.  I modified Lucy's bag pattern on her blog a little to make it smaller at the base but taller overall. I also added a heart motif to give it a more retro feel. This was my first attempt at a heart and I am thrilled with it. I got the pattern for the heart here and I found it really easy to follow.

I used Spotlight's range of  basic 8ply100% wool as it was not as expensive as some of the other brand names, and for a project such as this bag there was no reason to pay the extra $$$.  I found it was a lovely yarn to work with as well.  I also used a size 3.5m hook and kept my tension extra tight

Here are some close ups of the details... 

these big buttons were perfect to cover the heavy stitching where I attached the handles.

a close up of the heart... I added three rows of single crochet stiches around the outside.

now I have also started on these....another project that I just had to start. Although with summer just around the corner I am not putting any pressure on myself to finish any time soon.

i've been crocheting

I started this throw rug for my niece years ago. since that time my niece changed the colours of her bedroom and it no longer matched so I lost the will to complete the rug. Last weekend was so cold and misserable that I felt like curling up on the lounge and crocheting so I dragged it out of the bottom of my yarn box with a mission to finally finish it. And that I did....

I've now got the bug and started searching online for some inspiration and found this little beauty and knew I just had to have one.  So I went yarn shopping and with Erin's help came up with these colours.  Bright and funky, just the right kind of colours to welcome some warmer weather.

Here's how I'm going so far. I changed Lucy's pattern a little bit and used a treble stitch instead of double because I like the wider bands of colour and it seem to crochet up quicker.

red centre pages

I decided to make a seperate album for our red centre trip, and I thought a 8x8 format would work well. I choose to use papers from the Fancy Pants Delight range, as the colours and patterns were just what I was looking for. I didn't want to make the album too bulky as I had a lot of photos I wanted to include so the only embelisments I used were rub-ons, stamps, punches and stitching. This also helped me keep the whole album simple and unified.

I've completed about 15 pages so far here a few... Broken Hill first...

(click on the images to view larger)

the missile park at Woomera...

Coober Pedy...a strange but interesting place

Uluru at sunset...

back home

(click picture to view larger)

Another layout completed today. Some older photos from last year, but they still bring a smile to my face when I look at them. Lochie with another friend he found in the garden. He is always finding something new to study and examine.

We've been away for a while, travelling to central Australia. I now have another 500+ photos to add to the ever grown pile of ones I need to get scrapped. We had a fantastic time seeing Uluru and Kata-Tjuta (the olgas), Kings Canyon, Alice Springs...and many other places along the way.

Here's a few pics...the first is Erin on top of Uluru looking down at the car park below, it really is very very high. And the second is all of us with the rock in the background....the classic postcard shot, but I love it.