Sunny Crochet

Hello Lovelies,
the sun has returned to these parts over the last two days ....really lifts the mood , making everything outdoors look so much prettier despite the cold and making the house bright and cheerful. Yesterday I sat in a sunny spot adding the last few hexagons to my blanket..........

Then sewing in the final ends..........

When all the ends were dealt with I picked up the almost finished blanket and lifted it into the air in order to spread it on the bed and this is what I saw........

All the colours illuminated from behind by the winter sun looked just stunning.

 This is the same hexagon that's at the start of my half way there post.....looks so different viewed like this.......

I was immediately struck by the way these motifs, that reminded me of a kaleidoscope then I first made them , really do look  kaleidoscopic viewed like this........

I LOVE the suns rays shining through on this shot.........

I got a bit carried away ,snapping lots of  images quickly in case the sun disappeared behind a cloud ..........

As a child I would have loved to build a play tent using this blanket , to be surrounded by all these many coloured flowers  in hexagons would be amazing,don't you think ?............

Just yesterday evening I started on the border....It's just going to be a simple one............

...................so stand by for a Kaleidoscope Blanket  ta-dah very soon :0)
Jacquie x

Countryside Colour

Hello Lovelies,
I'm missing the Nature Notes posts that I so enjoyed writing in 2011.
On Wednesday I was out and about looking for some some outdoor images to share with you all. Unfortunately the day was dark and dismal.
When I got home and looked at what I had managed to capture it looked so colourless I decided to abandon that idea. So instead I've taken photos of some of the images in my calendar..........

It's the first time I've bought this calendar,which is made up of images sent in by viewers of this programme.
I partly bought it because £ 4 of the cost goes towards the BBC's Children in need appeal, a very worthy cause.
 As you know, I'm also drawn to images of our wonderful countryside and it's wildlife.
At the moment I'm so enjoying looking at this cute little fella....isn't this an amazing image, it's called " winter weasel".
The ice crystals and blue in the background makes it pretty darn perfect ,in my opinion.

 I will be very sorry to turn over in a few days and say good bye to him..........

Each month you get two images , these are the images for February.........

The main one is pretty colourful, though I think I prefer the small image.........

This is April...not too sure about this either.......

But I'm loving May......

Wonderful colours in the pebbles and the shiny seaweed

Ooooh , look at my Birthday month, Ahhh lovely June with all it's pretty plants and wonderful colour.Not to mention looooong days :0)............

As the picture below shows, there is a space for notes ...........

The bride and groom make me smile. I've taken a close up of the cute mouse on this months page too........

This is a dramatic shot.......

and this image is pretty impressive , amazing the way the fox is staring straight into the lens......

I can totally see why this image was the overall winner of the competition...

It just looks so idyllic , don't you think ?? All those wonderful fresh greens and the colourful narrow boat.Not to mention the gorgeous heavy horse.

A lovely bonus at the end is this image for January 2013........

The quality of the paper and printing is very good and I can see myself buying this calendar again.

Hope you are finding colourful things this winter , or enjoying summer if you are in the southern hemisphere.
Jacquie x

A Stripey Crochet Distraction

Hello Lovelies,
 thank you all for the hexagon love ....you are all so kind. I've been joining more this weekend but last night I was inspired to put them aside for a couple of hours and make a little something both pretty and practical .
Yet again I was caught up by the talent and enthusiasm of the wonderful Lucy at Attic 24 . Have you seen Lucy's latest fun make ? Covers for Tuna Tins that make pretty plant saucers... brilliant.
I love them and having picked up a pack of pretty potted  primroses with my shopping on Friday I really needed some more plant pot containers,
Lucy also added an edit to suggest pineapple tins would work......I was straight off to the cupboard to see if I had any.......yes :0) I was keen to hide the whole plastic pot so this was a brilliant suggestion.......

Much pondering on possibilities followed. What colours to use, what embellishments would look nice ??
I loved Lucy's versions but being the creative type too I didn't simply want to copy her. I love the moments when ideas pop into you minds eye,many are later rejected but it's fun daydreaming about ideas. Granny squares?? Ripples?? Buttons ?? Felt?? so many possibilities :0)
In the end I decided just to go with colourful stripes but vary the depth of the stitches to add interest.Late last night I started hooking......

Ohhh I love these colours. To me they are a bit Cath Kidston, maybe a bit Pip studio, but certainly happy and spring like.As you can see I didn't add any further embellishments as I loved the stripes so much.

This is them covering that pineapple  tin ........

Yipee!!!   so quick and such a high pleasure factor.I used mostly Patons Smoothie yarn which is Acrylic but smooth like cotton with a lovely sheen.It's very reasonably priced and comes in lots of pretty colours.

The stitches are a mixture of single crochet , half double crochet and double crochet ( U.K. Double, Half treble and treble) I also chose a 3.5mm hook so the result would be close stitches that didn't let the tin underneath show through.


I love the way they look next to my colourful utensil jar on the kitchen window sill .......

The plant pot JUST fits in ...ideally I would like to find a slightly bigger tin ...I'll have my eyes peeled at the supermarket next week ...then I'll have an excuse to make another.

I love the recycling element to this make . I also had an excuse to do some baking with the pineapple ...a little search of the www lead me to this recipe for Carrot and Pineapple Muffins.........

They were super easy to make . The recipe called for crushed pineapple so I had to get out my potato masher and  give the chunks a squish ...seemed to work O.K. and they taste lovely.I'm claiming this is more healthy baking as they contain fruit AND vegetable :0)
This is what my kitchen windowsill looks like this evening..........Thanks for the inspiration Lucy. I'm loving my P.P.P. (Pineapple/Primrose Project )   .

Hope you have a creative week.
Jacquie x

Half Way There

Hello Lovelies,
 it's been rather dull here today.Not the best light for taking good photos but I've taken some of my blanket progress anyway . I'm loving the joining of all those hexagons soooo much. The colour combinations make me smile and I still love this pattern.

This one is a favourite .....

And this one is very pretty .....

I'm loving this one too........

Oh and this one .........

But I think they look best en masse.......

Wooo Hoooo !! and that's not even  half of them ! I've joined sixty in total.
 This is going to be one colourful blanket. At times I've thought maybe a little too bright . But on a dull January day this amount of cheerful colour is wonderful to work with and admire :0)

Hope your week is going well .
Jacquie x

Morning :: Afternoon :: Evening

Hello Lovelies,
It's so cold here at the moment ...minus 5 early this morning meant there was lots of ice to scrape from the car before I could begin the journey to work. But what a journey....a gorgeous icy wonderland and a beautiful sunrise that turned the sky pink ..........

In the afternoon I stopped at my local yarn shop on the way home . Yipee, some lovely merino in the £1 bin...just two balls but I guess that's the great thing about working with LOTS of colour...you can benefit from reduced odd balls that many people would not be able to use...........

It's James C Brett pure merino . It's beautifully soft and I was so happy to find more Luxury yarn at a bargain price to add to my stash (" stashmerino" as Heather calls it ...love that :0)   )

Look it's the exact same colour as my current Hyacinths...fancy that .........

In the evening I was determined to squeeze in a little baking, having perused my cookery books late yesterday  and settled on something that would use up these....

Ummmm, dates.... bananas..... honey . I love all these so I was attracted to a recipe for a cake that combined  these goodies........

The recipe is from a book I picked up years ago , I think it was at a school fair . The "Blue Peter book of gorgeous grub" from 1980.......very nostalgic for lots of U.K. peeps . I used to love this show............

I was not disappointed by the flavour of this cake...it's delicious....and I'm calling it "healthy " due to the fruit, honey and wholemeal flower :0)

Have a great week .
Jacquie x

Big Thank-you's

Hello lovelies,
I'm feeling very lucky this week. I was so happy to win this cute little fella from Claire's giveaway a while back . He has winged his way from the other side of the world and landed on my doorstep.........

Isn't he gorgeous , he's a needle case and I'm sure he will come in very handy. Thank you again Claire...he is even cuter close up and just my colour :0).
 When I opened my parcel I was surprised and delighted to see Claire had sent extra,unexpected  handmade goodies.........

I love this little brooch so much . One day I would love to try free motion machine embroidery, but I doubt I would ever be this good at it .......

Do check out Claire's lovely blog "Sweet Birdy Love" It's an inspiring place :0)

The next thing that I've been thankful for this week is the sunshine ,and the early appearance of my crocuses.....

We've had a lot of sunshine over the last few days ,making the countryside look so pretty....

At home the low winter rays have been filling our home with light and I've moved my bulbs onto the mantle ,where my Amaryllis has started to flower.........

The flower heads are huge and really gorgeous ......

I've also revamped my mini bunting with some pretty CK papers  ....I was very happy with my Noel version but right now I'm loving the spring like prettiness of this version sooo much :0)..........

At the other end of my Mantle the tiny " tete a tete"  have been simply perfect........

I was totally surprised and delighted by all your wonderful comments and encouragement on my Kaleidoscope challenge. It really spurred me on to knuckle down and keep to my plan to finish this blanket by the end of this month. Can you see the piles of hexagons next to my chair.........

Here's a close up of then looking pretty  .........

Yes, I've completed all 100 hexagons and yesterday afternoon , started joining them together ...hurray !!!............

So a BIG THANK YOU to all of you for your enthusiasm :0)
Have a great weekend
Jacquie x