Lots of Birthdays!

This is a particular time of year is just full of birthdays. Dave's brother and sister are both in December, its my birthday in January and then my sister, Dave and Dave's dad are all in February as well as our anniversary!

When I asked my sister what she wanted for her birthday she said she wanted a tortoise with a balloon attached to it and a Dachshund dressed like a hotdog. So that's what she got.

I made her a Brownie and Marshmallow pie (recipe adapted from one I saw on Sally's Baking Addiction) and made a marzipan tortoise for the top. The pie was really nice, but very sweet so we had very small pieces. Also as we served it hot the candles kept falling over!

And then I crocheted this guy, 

This is Lord Buttons the Dachshund in his removable hotdog costume, the pattern for the dog came from VooDoo Maggie's Adorable Amigurumi book but the costume was something I made up and will be putting up a blog on how I did it in the next week or so.

Tomorrow it is my lovely friend Katie's 21st birthday and she is flying off to Amsterdam,  Monday was her last day in work before her birthday and I promised her that I would make a giant cake so she could share it with as many people in the office as possible. Not everyone got a slice (there's 100 or so people just in our office) but I did my best:

It was dubbed the "Matilda" cake as it looks like the one that Bruce Bogtrotter ate. Just to give you an idea of how big it was, the plate that its sat on is a large dinner plate and the box is about 4 inches tall. It was 4 chocolate fudge cakes with whipped cream in the middle and then the whole thing was covered in dark chocolate ganache.

I also crocheted her this as a Congratulations on her new job in our department

(Pattern from Little Muggles in the Zoomigurumi book)

She named him Charlie after me :)

Hope everyone is recovering from January (gloomiest part of the year) and is looking forward to the rest of 2015 xx

An Open Letter to my Loved Ones

I know that a lot of the people in this won't ever read it, its not the point. I heard somewhere that a way to help boost ones happiness is to remind yourself of all the things/people you are grateful for.

Firstly I would like to Thank everyone who has ever, read, glanced or stumbled upon my blog. You may not realise it but it makes my day to know that there are people out there who read this.

To my blog friend Jenny, 

thank you for your support. You leave the nicest comments and always give me such a confidence boost for things I have made. I feel like we may be kindred spirits and I'm so happy to have "met" you.

To Yeomans,

 I sometimes forget how young you are, its strange to think that you're actually closer to my sisters age to mine. I love your honesty, and I want you to know I value your opinions. You're also the only person in my "real" life that shares my crochet passion. When you asked me to teach you, I never imagined that you would take to it so quickly or learn to love it the way you do.You're the complete opposite to me; where I judge everything I do so harshly, you are incredibly proud of everything you make and so am I.

To Bekki, 

you are my oldest friend, we've had ups and downs, its not surprising really as we're both different people to when we first met. I know that no matter what you will be there, even if it was 4 in the morning I know you'd answer my phone call. You're the only one who has any insight into what my life with my illness is like. You even took time out from your holiday in Greece to message me because you knew I was in hospital. Everyone should be so lucky to have a friend like you.

To Liza,

 I miss you so much, sometimes I don't realise how much until I actually see you. You were my rock throughout our time at Uni, and without you I really don't think I would have stuck with it. Whether it was dragging me to the library to finish up some studying, or just coming round to sit with me when I was alone on mine and Dave's anniversary, you were always there, and I hope that I will get to see more of you, twice a year is not enough!

To my Dad,

 I'll keep this short as you have a whole post dedicated to you. Thank you for looking after me all these years, thank you for loving me and giving me a stable home.No matter what anyone says you're my dad and no one can change that.

To my Little Sister,

 I hope you realise how much I love you. I want you to know that I'm so proud of you. I know things are hard right now but you need to stick with it, I promise it will be worth it in the end. I know you sometimes think that we're trying to interfere in your life, we only want the best for you. No matter what you will always be my baby sister.

To my Mum, 

thank you for everything. You're one of the most amazing and strong people I have ever known. You've tried your best to give me the best life possible, and I can't even imagine the life I would have had if you hadn't had been as strong and brave as you were. You worked 3 jobs to support us and we never went without. You're an amazing woman and I am so lucky to have you.

...and lastly

To Dave, 

I'm 99.9% sure you'll never read this. You have no need to read my blog, if you wanted to know what I was crocheting you'd look across the room and if you wanted to know how I did it you'd ask. I never thought I would love someone outside my family as much as I love you. You know me better than anyone else in the world. You have supported me through things that you shouldn't have had to at your age, you've carried the financial burden of me being too ill for work, you've pulled 12 hour overtime shifts just to make ends meet. You've held my hand through painful procedures and stayed with me until the early hours of the morning, even though you had to be at work a few hours later. You are my best friend, and though I always joke that "I can't get rid of you" I genuinely don't know what I would do without you. You stayed with me through our difficult long distance relationship, never letting me give up even when I said things were to hard to deal with. I'll never be able to thank you for all the things you've done, and like I said I don't think you'll ever read this, but I hope that you know all this already.

xx

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

Christmas 2014

This should have probably been posted a few days ago but I’ve been living in an Internet nightmare. I hope everyone had a lovely time, Christmas day always feels really busy now that I live away from home. We stay at our house on Christmas eve and have the morning to ourselves, then we went to Dave’s parents for presents and Christmas dinner, and then we went to my parents for our second Christmas dinner and the third and final gift exchange. Dave was very insistent on getting his 2 Christmas dinners, even though he was too full to eat that much at my parents!

I was spoilt (as I am most years), my big present from Dave this year was tickets to see Miss Saigon in London on my birthday in a  few weeks, and then my birthday present is hotel/transport etc while we’re there. I think its made a little bit more exciting by the fact that we will be spending one of the nights with our friends Liza and Leon, we also get to meet their Hamster Winston. I have loved Miss Saigon since I first saw it almost ten years ago. Its lovely and tragic and the songs are just so darn catchy!

He also bought me this crochet book which looks quite standard but is actually amazing, I may review it in a future blog post, it has pretty much every crochet stitch ever invented, as well as patterns so you can try out all the new stitches you’ve learnt. I couldn’t help myself and have already started a new project from it; I found something that my friend Bekki (whose birthday is 2 days after mine) will love and I just so happened to have the perfect wool for it in my stash. Can’t wait to share it when its done!

My sister got me a Carebear onesie, its Gloomy bear and even comes with a grumpy face on the hood. Since receiving it I have worn it a lot and I am starting to wonder how I lived without one. I think its great and I love being able to crochet without my arms getting cold!

My mum and dad really spoilt me this year; as well as the standard bits (nail varnish, pyjamas, socks) they bought me…

I will post a better photo soon!

…my own sewing machine! Not going to lie I did squeal a bit when I opened it, it was a complete surprise. Dave gave them the idea, I've borrowed his sisters one for a bit but its exciting to finally have one of my own. I can’t wait to make lots of lovely things with it and have already been roped into some alterations (it’s inevitable in a family of short people).

I had to go to work on boxing day, we were all scheduled to work either boxing day or new years day.I went in armed with lots of crocheting expecting it to be a quiet day, and it was the exact opposite. There was a constant queue of calls over my whole shift, although I do think it sometimes makes the day go quicker.

  I am looking forward to 2015, I’ve had a horrible last year and unfortunately I think I brought my family and friends down a bit with me. So I intend to spend the coming year (trying to be) optimistic. I haven’t made any resolutions but I have made a list of things I would like to have achieved by the end of 2015. I’ve tried to make them all achievable even if I don’t get any better in the next year, but crossing my fingers I do.

Wishing you all the best for the New Year xx

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

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas is getting closer! Less than 10 days away and I'm already wishing I could stall time because there seems so much to do. This will be mine and Dave's second Christmas in our house. Its the horrible truth that once you leave home for good Christmas is not the same. Last year was the first year my sister woke up on Christmas morning without me, I think that was the hardest part for me. It was odd having no one tell me to go to bed early on Christmas eve. No matter how old we were we were always sent to bed early on Christmas eve because my mum would wrap everything for our stockings. She made me and Dave stockings last year but warned it would be the last time. This year me and Dave are doing each others. He said he didn't realise that everything that goes in the stocking has to be wrapped up (obviously it does or you'd see everything straight away), and I have always to have a tangerine at the bottom of the stocking.

As it is my favourite time of year I thought I would share some photos of how my Christmas is shaping up.

Christmas trees are an important part of Christmas for a lot of people. In my family its tradition to go to Wheelock farm and pick out a tree. Last year Dave suggested we get an artificial tree and I threw a tantrum! They don't smell like a tree its not the same!

Here's a picture of my sister holding up a tree for inspection at the farm, she always seems to pick the ones we get. All except the year I brought my friend Liza home from Uni to help pick out the tree. It didn't even last until New Years eve, my dad got so sick of needles falling off every time someone went within a foot of the tree he took it down early.

And here it is all decorated, I have nothing to do with tree decorating. Once me and Katie got to the age where tree decorating got tedious, my mum would take a day off work and decorate it while we were at school and it would all be lit up when we got home. Now Dave does it while I give constructive criticism from my seat on the sofa.

For the last 2 years I have bought some tree decorations while at the farm, there are some lovely bits that are a really reasonable price. Last year I got these 2 stars (please ignore the photo bombing penguin)

Then this year I picked up a couple of these.i thought they were quite unusual and almost Great Gatsby-ish (loved loved loved the film!)

Also as the nightmare before Christmas is my favourite film (I own a 3D version of it and get very excited every time it snows in the film) last year we bought the set of nightmare before Christmas ornaments. They actually change every year so its nice to have the 2013 collection for the year we moved in together

I have started wrapping presents, I have a bit of a ribbon addiction, I put it on all the presents that I wrap! this one is for my mum, and in case she's reading this.

Mum the photo makes the box look bigger than it is.

Also as its Christmas, there has to be Christmas candles! Dave bought me a new one yesterday and it smells amazing. Its from the Glade Christmas collection; its roasted chestnuts and macaroons

Which leads me nicely onto my last few photos - Christmas isn't Christmas without baked goods!

I absolutely love Lebkuchen. These traditional German biscuits just taste like Christmas, I have been informed by Dave that there is a good selection of different ones in Tesco at the minute, I think they're getting more popular

And here is my contribution to Christmas baking, iced sugar cookies

I hope everyone is having a lovely time preparing for Christmas, and if I don't post again before, Merry Christmas to you all, I wish you all the best for 2015 x

(And here's a picture of Norris the elephant with Santa just to finish)

Blog Pondering

I've been very lax with my blogging lately. I have had some genuine reasons; being in hospital for a week threw almost all parts of my life out of balance. Even small insignificant things like having to throw away lots of food that didn't get eaten because I wasn't there to cook and Dave was at the hospital with me until late in the evenings so wasn't eating properly, washing backed up, crafting came to a grinding halt while I was there and my blog was the furthest thing from my mind.

Over the last two years I have gotten sicker and sicker and I feel like things are slipping through my fingers. The once meticulously organised me has slowly descended into chaos.

 I hate it.

I feel like I have so little control over my life at the minute. Tomorrow I may wake up and feel only slightly nauseous and be able to have breakfast or I might spend the majority of my morning dry heaving in the bathroom. I might be in minimal pain meaning that my painkillers will do their job, or I may be in crippling agony that no amount of pills will touch.

No matter how I feel I will try to push past it and go to work for the few hours I can manage; I've had the comments from my colleagues, about how lucky I am to finish early every day, to not have to come in before midday. 

It makes me feel like screaming.

I would gladly let them take my place. No. I don't mean that, I wouldn't wish this existence on anyone. That's what it feels like, not a life just existing. I'm now getting to the point where I'm starting to have to seriously consider the fact that I may not get better. Ever. If that's the case then something has to change because I can't carry on like this. 

Which brings me back to my blog (its been a bit long winded). I have to seriously think about whether I want to continue, my blog deserves a lot more care and attention than I've been giving it. I'm not under any illusions that there are loads of people out there who will be reading it, but its still a thing, a project I've been working on, and it deserves the same attention as any project. 

I've given it a lot of thought, and I'm not willing to give up on this just yet. The craft blogging community is large and so welcoming. It's something that I am proud to be part of it. I have met some wonderful people, and I have enjoyed sharing my crafting. So I vow to me much more organised; it may not kick in until the new year but I promise I will.

I'm also hoping to be much more organised with the rest of my life...I'll keep you posted on that one

Have a wonderful weekend xx