Monthly Make 2012 and Time to Craft!

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas.
After lots of preparations, celebrations and entertaining (thank goodness for the dishwasher!) I have finally paused for breath and a bit of crochet, felting and blogging.
Aaaahhhhhhh..... there's the the pause...... and it feels good! Even better when accompanied by by a fresh latte and homemade lemon cake!

I've joined Annie The Felt Fairy 's Monthly Make 2012 and joined the flickr group to share our makes.

I'm really excited about it! I have loved following some other blogger's monthly makes and I'm sure it will motivate me to get creating!  Why don't you join us - the more the merrier!

I have made a little more progress with the Japanese flower cowl, 14 flowers so far (almost!) and I'm aiming for 20-24. Here it is with 13 flowers (no. 14 still on the hook!).

I have a new winter coat that it will look amazing with if I can get it finished before Spring!

I also want to get this done so I can go back to my little (hem, hem) ripple crochet blanket. It has been weeks since I have added any new rows and I'm really quite missing it. Too may projects, too little time.

I received two new crochet books for Christmas. I knew they were going to be good as so many of you have recommended them on your blogs and given me a sneaky preview into their contents.

I haven't seen this scarf in any of the previews however and have completely fallen in love with it.

Yesterday a spot of wet felting was done and it did feel good to get my hands all soapy with the fluffy stuff. I forgot to share my new supplies with you, didn't I?!
Here are my lovely new fibres.

OK, in the bag doesn't show off their beauty at all so here are a few pics out of the bag!

Spring Green - a merino tops and silk mix

Strawberry Sundae - a merino tops and silk mix

Raspberry Chocolate - a merino tops blend (good enough to eat!)

Lagoon - a merino tops blend

White, turquoise, deep turquoise and citrus merino tops 

Damson - a rich purple dyed merino top

All gorgeous. I haven't used any yet, I'm saving them for some special projects - don't know what yet! I also couldn't resist this Gillian Gladrag kit which had been reduced from £25 to £16.

She is a brilliant felter. I have one of her books and follow her blog - quite inspirational.
Yesterday's felting was a little experiment I have wanted to do for ages. My Mum's birthday is mid-January and I noticed that she has a raggedy old cover on her new iphone so I thought I would have a go at felting one. What do you think?

I used a blue shell button and elastic for the closure. The lining is bright pink like the ring around the turquoise spots. It's beautifully soft and quite thick so it should protect the phone well.

Well, I have rambled on for long enough now, thank your for your patience and well done for making it to the end of this blog post!

Hope you are all finding some post-festivities time for a little crafting too!

Becky x

Happy Holidays and The Liebster Blog Award

Holidays are here- HOORAY! I am quite organised on the Christmas front this year so I am hoping to be able to find a little time for some crafting. I have some lovely new supplies and several projects to finish so I won't be bored!

I promised I would pass on the Liebster blog award in my next post so here goes...

First up, Twinkle Star of Twinkles, Tutus and Twirls for her brilliant 'Tutorial Tuesday'. She is a source of endless ideas - where do you get your inspiration?!

Secondly, a blog I am quite a new follower of, Cute and Cosy by Claire. She shares some lovely patterns that she has found and tried on ravelry.

Well, I am left with one little robin brooch after making 11 reindeer, 8 robins and 5 xmas puddings, so that's quite good going! It has paid for my latest order of wool tops which I can't wait to get my hands on! All very soft and gorgeous - promise to share in my next post.
I also need to share my progress with Japanese flower cowl with you which is coming along quite nicely.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your week.
Becky x

T'is The Season... To Be Busy!

Oh my! Are you finding it hard to keep on top of everything at the moment? I love this time of year, but it doesn't half leave you feeling exhausted. By the time Christmas Eve comes I will just want to flake in a chair and sleep for a week!

I have sold lots of christmas brooches in the last couple of weeks, some through folksy and quite a few at work. Next year I'm going to try and get started making them a little earlier.

I hadn't sold anything on Folksy for ages and then all of a sudden I sold 5 brooches and a necklace. I thought I was on a roll, then they went and changed the Folksy site... is anyone else disappointed with the changes? Don't get me wrong, I like their ethos and the site looks great, but I'm not sure the new categories or searches are working for me and you can't tag your items in the same way as before. I can't even tell if people are looking at my items as they have taken the 'views' feature away and I haven't got time to work out google analytics at the moment.

A few weeks ago I received a blog award from the lovely Emma of Sweet Williams.

I am particularly grateful and surprised considering I feel I have been a little neglectful of my little blog recently. I hope to catch up a bit over the Christmas break. So a huge thank you to Emma and I will pass this award on to some deserving blogs in my next post.
If you didn't know, she has opened a fantastic little shop on line 'Sweet WIlliams - handmade soft furnishings, cards and gifts', pop over and have a look!

Twinkle Star of Twinkles, Tutus and Twirls has received my decoration swap goodies and has blogged about them tonight, so pop over and see what I made - all very 'pink', I had so much fun!

Hope you have a great week.
Becky x

Decoration Swap Goodies

Quite a while back I signed up to a Christmas decoration swap organised by Hookin' With Laalaa. She paired me up with the lovely Twinkle Star of Twinkles, Tutus and Twirls blog. We sent each other several messages about likes and dislikes and agreed a theme. My theme for making was 'pink' and Twinkles star's was 'traditional'.

So the weeks passed and soon I received a message to say my parcel was ready and winging it's way to me! I quickly finished the last of my bits, wrapped them all up and posted them off. When Twinkle Star's parcel arrived the excitement was HUGE! ...and so was the parcel! (Twinge of doubt at this point - will my goodies be good enough?)

Twinkle Star had put so much love and care into the choosing, making and wrapping of every single gift, I was really quite overwhelmed.

My first parcel was the decoration itself...

A beautiful twig wreath wrapped in red organza ribbon and decorated with wooden hearts, and poinsettias and the letters FP - fluff pot! There were also some other letters and spare pegs, MC for Merry Christmas and JF for the Johns Family!

Two packs of assorted fibres which I can't wait to use with my felting.

A beautiful handmade necklace and brooch.

A sweet little birdie decoration (bagsied by Lulus for her room!). I LOVE the curly ribbon on it's head!

A gorgeous felt stocking from John Lewis (so spoilt - big twinges of 'oh no, I really should have tried harder' now).

Some yummy nibbles. I'm not sure that chocolate dipped marshmallow on the spoon will make it to a cup of hot chocolate!

A scented candle and santa playing cards.

A winter pamper kit filled with an amazing selection of goodies.

I'm looking forward to snuggling up on the sofa and wearing those fluffy socks!

And finally a HUGE box of thorntons chocolates - yum, yum!!!

SPOILT, SPOILT, SPOILT!

Now I am really feeling very inadequate! I did put a lot of thought, time and care into my gifts but I'm not sure they are going to live up to Twinkle Stars superb efforts. I want to say a massive thank you to Twinkle Star for being such an amazing swap partner and an apology for my tardiness in replying to emails. You've been a real star!

Hope you are all enjoying your week. I'm very excited as we are decorating our tree tomorrow! I think I love the festivities more than the children!

Becky x 



Reindeer In the Woods

We took a walk in the woods today. It was blustery and grey, the kind of day that blows the cobwebs away and makes you feel all refreshed and ready to cosy up in front of the fire.

Little Mannie discovered a makeshift seesaw made from fallen logs...

Lulu demonstrated her climbing skills...

And I spied reindeer in the woods...

leaping over logs...

rubbing their antlers on the soft moss...

prickling their noses on the holly leaves...

It was magical!
Becky x

PS Mr FP carried the bags!

Half-term fun!

Another week has flown by here, but it's been a good one!
There's been apple picking...

Once the tree was stripped, we could no longer see the inside of the basket!

A 6th birthday celebration...

I have failed as a Mum because I bought this cake! I do normally bake their cakes - honest!

A halloween disco birthday party...

My little pumpkin is dancing away and you can just see the birthday witch on the edge of the photograph! This was only this afternoon and my two halloween disco dancers are now fast asleep - wish I had their energy!

A trip to the beach...

And just a little crafting...

The skeins were wound into balls ready for those lovely Japanese flowers. I have decided to make a cowl by crocheting two rows of 13 flowers and joining the ends together. It is so lovely to work with; silky soft and worth every penny.

I hope you have had a good week too.

Becky x

Five Little Robins

I wanted to show you my robin brooches I have finished this weekend. I'm really pleased with how they have turned out.

 They're so cute aren't they!? They just look gorgeous on my tree...

...and I'm going to be a bit sorry to part with them, but I must as I want to pay for that Debbie Bliss Andes yarn that I showed you all in my last post. Thank you so much for so many lovely comments and advice regarding the proposed scarf. It was quite unanimous that I should make the scarf. It would be quite different to Lucy's, well shorter anyway, as I only have 5 skeins and she used 9! I'm wondering if I could adapt the pattern to make a cowl as I love the flowers but have wanted to make a cowl for a while now.

I have also made a couple of other birds which I plan to list in my folksy shop soon. 

 

And I've experimented with another little brooch. For a first attempt it's not bad but I think it needs a slightly longer neck!

I hope you have enjoyed your weekend. It's half-term break here so I'm looking forward to some craft catch-up time!

Becky x