November DI Craft Swap Part 2

So I'm still working on catching up with my posts from the end of last year. This post is about what I sent to Jenny at pretty column. When I found out that the theme was Woodland I messaged Hannah to ask if she would be able to let me have Jenny as my recipient because I knew what I wanted to make her because of something I'd seen on her Pintrest board.

Jenny had previously pinned some pictures of children's snoods with animal ears and said that maybe one day she would make one for herself, and I remembered this copy of Simply Crochet from September 2013 with this lovely snood pattern in it. Originally I wanted to make an Orange one as Jenny's favourite woodland animal is a fox but I could not find the yarn I wanted anywhere so decided to make a grey one instead.

Whilst I was working on this Craft Swap I ended up in hospital (an unfortunately common occurrence at the minute) and I don't like crocheting in the hospital (germs!) so I messaged Jenny to apologise that her parcel was going to be late; and I suggested that as her birthday was at the beginning of December that I would hang on to her parcel and add to it for her Birthday, and I was really happy when it got to her actually on her birthday.

So in addition to the snood, which was horrible to photograph, for a better picture go to Jenny's Instagram there's a photo of her wearing it...

I also made her a cupcake pin cushion (you can never have too many pins!)

And for the bought items I got her a fox mug and a fox notebook. 

I was so glad that Jenny liked everything I made, I think its one of the things I love most about crafting is seeing someone so happy with something that you made especially for them.

Also realised the other day that me, Jenny and Hannah were all born within 6 weeks of each other, thought that was a bit of an odd coincidence - there must have been something in the water 24 years ago haha

x

November DI Craft Swap Part 1

There will be a few catch up posts over the next few weeks, I thought about leaving them and just starting afresh but I've received some lovely things and want to share them all with you.

November's theme was Woodland and my parcel came from Anna over at teawithmissbeatrix.com

She really looked into my need for things to be useful and she did a wonderful job.

 Firstly the box everything came in was lovely (and you can never have too many boxes to put things in!)

I got a lovely postcard from Anna herself and some lovely Beatrix Potter postcards which I think I might frame, they go lovely with our little Victorian house!

Inside the box were lots of lovely things!

These lovely leaves are now hanging by my fireplace

I adore the pegs, red an white polka dots are my favourite pattern, I'm looking forward to the weather getting better so I can hang my washing out with them.

A fox rubber (which was really hard to take a photo of!)

A hedgehog button that Anna made

And then there was this...

Anna crocheted me a lanyard, and I was so happy because I have to wear a lanyard to work and now I have a lovely crochet one rather than a plain boring black one. When I wore it to work I got loads of compliments on it and a lot of people asked if I had made it, I took great pleasure in saying it was a gift.

Every month I take part I am overwhelmed by the talent and generosity of the people involved. As always a big Thank you to Hannah for organising everything! What would we do without you?

This will probably be my last post before Christmas, I'm spending tomorrow morning with my mum and sister to do our annual tradition of watching "Its a wonderful life" in our pyjamas before coming home and watching "The nightmare before Christmas" with Dave while eating obscene amounts of cheese!

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and wish you all a fantastic New Year

xx

September DI Craft Swap - Post 2

My Craft Swap arrived!!!

The postman tried to deliver it on Friday (the one day I wasn't at home for the post!) so I went to the sorting office before work today. The first thing I noticed when I picked it up was that it was heavier than I expected, and then, when I was walking up the road, decided I could feel what I thought was a book. Then I was super excited!

And I was right!

Sarah-Jane has sent me a copy of "Cute Little Gifts to Crochet". I love to crochet books! (and I have a lot!) I draw a lot of inspiration from them and find they often have stitches and techniques that I've never heard before!

The book is lovely, full of pictures and diagrams to help with making the amigurumi. It's divided into chapters, one of which is based on the holidays we celebrate. And then I was even more super excited - Christmas Crochet! Just the other day my mum was asking me to make her a Christmas tree decoration for her tree this year and now I have a pattern.

The second part was the handmade part and Sarah-Jane has made me this really cute picture holder - the base is a camera with a face!

I love inanimate objects with faces! They're just so cute! This is going to take pride of place on my desk at work when I put a photo in it

I've had a great time taking part in the Craft Swap and I can't wait until next months Woodland theme swap

If anyone wants to join in contact Hannah

Have a lovely weekend x

September DI Craft Swap - Post 1

I was trying to hold off on blogging about the swap until I had received my package, but it seems to be taking its time, so figured I would just split it into 2 posts.

This was my first time taking part in any kind of craft swap and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't actually know what Kawaii was until I started the swap but I now understand why everyone is so exited by it. I have decided not to take part in Octobers one because I have a lot of personal crafting to get on with. I'm hoping to join in with the one afterwards which is a Woodland theme (if anyone is interested, contact Hannah, she's on twitter at @DaintyandIvory or over on her blog at daintyandivory.blogspot.co.uk

My parcel went off to our lovely organiser Hannah. She sent me some information about herself, and I wanted to make sure that she would get use out of everything I sent.

I started with the bought item, she mentioned that she liked tea so I picked this coaster;

How could anyone resist the happy cakes and ice cream!

She also mentioned she likes to read so I made her a Panda bookmark, it was designed so that the Panda's head will stick out of the top of the book

I think this could be customised to be pretty much any animal. This is another pattern I'm considering posting on here at some point.

The last thing was something that combined that make it and buy it components of the swap. On Hannah's blog she has mentioned that she sews plush toys, so I decided to make her a pin cushion...shaped like a turtle, with a pastel flower on its shell as they are her favourite colours. 

He's pretty adorable! Hannah nearly didn't get him because my mum tried to steal him, but I pointed out she can't sew so has absolutely no need for a pin cushion of any kind haha.

I tried to match up the pins with the colours on the turtle's shell!

I also sent Hannah some home made clotted cream fudge to make up for the delivery being late because I had a delay in the delivery of the heart shape pins.

I wrapped it up like this because I thought it would look nicer than clingfilm or tin foil. Then the sound of music popped into my head "brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favourite things"

I was so happy that Hannah liked everything that I sent her, and I will continue stalking my post lady until she brings me mine!

Have a lovely weekend x