Snow , Santa , and a WINNER :0)

Hello lovelies ,
If you are in the U.K. I hope you are coping with the unusually cold weather we are having.

A super cold night on Saturday ( it eventually got to minus 11.5 degrees C ) gave way to a beautiful , sunny , snowy, frosty morning on Sunday.

The lake at the country park was frozen solid.....



The sky was a beautiful blue , and the glistening frost and snow just added to the fab winter scenery................



I do love the changing seasons , especially when the sun shines and the landscape looks as pretty as this ....



It was bitterly cold but fortunately , I had an extra layer to keep me warm...



why was I dressed up as Santa ? .....It was to take part in a fun run, here are a few of us waiting to start.....



My youngest son and my Niece also took part and it was a great family event, raising money for such a good cause.
It was just the right distance for little legs ( 3K) . We all had a great time . I've never been brave enough to take part in an organised event before so this was a gentle introduction .
The setting couldn't have been more stunning , and getting a cheer and a medal at the end was brilliant , I felt like a kid myself ........



I nearly forgot about my giveaway in all the excitement . But here's the winner , only a day late.....

I got my niece to choose a number at random and she chose....

28....

Which means the winner is SYLVIES GARDEN :0)

Congratulations Emma !!!

Have a great week
Jacquie x

Playing Hooky again

Evening Lovelies , yes it's me staying in on a Saturday night ( as usual )Mind you , it's so cold and icy out there tonight I'm glad to stay in.

I bought this weather station of Mr BM many Christmases ago, the top reading is the outside temperature , which you can see was -7.4 degrees celcius at 10.07 this evening ( it's gone down to -8.0 now)....



The boys love this little gadget and I've been getting a running commentary on how cold it is today :0)

We had snow last night , like lots of the U.K. Not loads but enough to made the world look pretty .......



Here's me in the snow modeling my latest make.......



I must be a crochet addict , it's plain to see . I finish a big project on Tuesday, blog about it on Wednesday ( thank you again for all your amazing comments, you're the best !), then pick up my hook again on Thursday .
Yep , despite a long day at work, an amazing tutorial over at the wonderful" Royal Sisters "caught my eye and I just had to start one of Michelle's gorgeous little Granny bags straight away....



This was so quick and easy to do , she has done a great tutorial here, thank you Michelle :0)

I made mine with the same square I used for my blanket , just because I was too tired to read a pattern on Thursday evening.Both sides are a bit different...




I lined it with felt and added a magnetic closure like Michelle....



This little bag has already had an outing ,last night I used it when I went for a meal with a group of friends , it felt great to take something handmade , and my friend who commented how much she liked it will be getting one for Christmas.

Hope you are keeping warm . Have a great Sunday.
Jacquie x

Circle Blanket Ta Dah

Hello all you lovely people ,

Thank you for all your sweet comments on my recent posts. I've noticed I now have 220 followers ...WOW. It means a lot to be able to share my makes and adventures with such kind , generous ,like minded people :0)

I'm so excited today. I was keeping my fingers (and everything else) crossed for a bright day so I could take nice photos of my finished blanket to show you all .
Jack frost had been out to play whilst I slept under my newly finished blanket .This lovely view greeted me when I pulled back the curtains.....



And after I dropped the boys off at I school I quickly took this picture of the fields before I dashed home to take blanket photos :0)..



If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know I started this blanket back in late August. Making the circles was such fun and so portable I even managed to make some on the beach.

I felt self conscious at times but you lovelies encouraged me to be brave and I ended up making my circles at the boys swimming lessons , relatives homes , and in the car.

So here, finally, is the finished product.

Ta-Dah ................



Here is my bed B.B. ( before blanket ) ....


And after.........



Ooooohhh, that's better, don't you think !

As you can see , it's pretty big ( 6'4" X 5'5")........




Here it is looking pretty with my other blanket compleated in 2010, my granny stripe .........



I love both these blankets sooooo much :0)

For those who like statistics, here are some

1. I used Acrylic yarn , a mixture of Hayfield Bonus, Patons Fab, Cygnet and Style craft .
2. I used a 4.00 mm hook
3. It's inspired by this beautiful blanket
4. The pattern is here
5. It weighs 1.5 kg which means it took 15 100g balls of yarn in total .
6. The white is Patons Fab which cost £1.19 a ball in The Range.I used 6 balls .
7. Other makes cost about £1.40 on average .
8. If my maths is correct the total cost is just under £20 !!! Bargain :0)
9. there are 168 squares and 14 rows of border.

I think it's beautiful and practical , and I'm sure it would have taken me MUCH longer without all your encouraging comments .
As it is , it's finished at the perfect time because snow is forecast for us tomorrow ,and by the look of the sky by this afternoon , I think the forecast is probably right !...



Oohhh , Snow , Love it :0)
Jacquie x

Double V Edging

Hello lovelies , well it's not quite the ta dah post , but bear with me , I'm sooo nearly there ...hip, hip, Hurray :0)

I've been working on the edging this weekend . After trying a couple of patterns I didn't like , I've pulled it all out and gone back to the same edging I used on my square throw...



I made this up for that project , though no doubt it's not original .It's so simple but effective , just the right amount of prettiness without being too fussy ...in my opinion :0).....



Here's a quick "how to " for those of you who are interested ...

Working in the spaces between the clusters of the previous round , make 2 U.S. double ( U.K. treble ) crochet ...



Chain 2....



Then make 2 more double/trebles in the same space.Then repeat in the next space ....



On the corners I simply added an extra chain 2 and 2 dc....



And that's it . Told you it was simple . I'm calling this "Double V Edging" as I've had a look around on t'internet and I can't actually find another example .I'll add a link in my side bar , with my other tutorials , in case you want to find it in the future.



Back Soon with the finished project .. can't wait to show you ,and I think it's going to be just in time , with freezing weather and snow forecast for later this week .

Jacquie x

Nearly There

Hello all you sweet people ,

Just squeezing in a quick post , in what seems to be turning out to be a rather busy week.

It's been pretty chilly in these parts this week . Lots of frost and scraping of ice off the car in the morning. I took this picture out of the car window on my way to work yesterday (I was stationary at the time :0)



As you can see it was pretty foggy. Maybe I should have cropped this image , hang on ....there , that's better......


Would you like to see how my blanket is coming along ? I do hope so ...This is what it looked like on Monday........



I'm loving doing the border ! So nice to be able to whizz along doing simple double/treble clusters . It reminds me of my granny stripe. And in the cold weather it's so nice to snuggle under my blanket as I work :0)....



This picture was taken today , cosy crochet in front of the fire. An open fire or log burner would be even better , but the flames on my gas fire looked very homely and I certainly enjoyed sitting in my warm lounge , hooking away on a chilly day :0)

Hope you are keeping warm .

Jacquie x

Happiness is ........

......Reading all your lovely comments about my wreath. So glad you like it :0)




......Having a day out with my Mum on Wednesday ( and getting the best weather of a pretty dreadful week)
It was very cold but the sun shone,after 2 days of solid rain, so we decided to go somewhere pretty.

Staunton Harold has a lovely craft centre and tea rooms set in an old stable yarn ...



Looks warm but you will notice no one is sat on those metal chairs, Brrrrrrrrrr !!

The Autumn light was fantastic........








....Going to bed early yesterday to watch telly and sew in the last ends on my blanket, such bliss after a hectic day at work ......



.......Waking up to no work today and making a start on my border Yay, yay ,yay.......




.....Going shopping and picking up a half price tin of chocs for Christmas, and remembering what inspired the colours in my round cushion :0)



Thank you for so much the kind comments about this cushion on my "splash of colour" post.I made this pre blog and didn't write a pattern , but there is a lovely, similar, pattern here .

What's bringing you happiness today ?

Jacquie x

P.s. Don't forget to leave a comment on the previous post for a chance to win my giveaway :0)

CHRISTMAS RAG WREATH GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello Lovely people :0)
I'm so excited today . I've been planning another giveaway for a while now . I think it's a great way to say thank you to all you great peeps who take time to read my little blog . Of course your lovely comments are the highlight.

So I got my thinking cap on as I wanted to make something special but not too time consuming, as you know I've got a crochet blanket on the hook which is very labour intensive.

Well , this is what I've come up with ....



What do you think ???? I must say, without wanting to blow my own trumpet too loud , I think it turned out great :0)

It literally only took a couple of hours to make , well maybe a bit longer with the crochet snowflake , but I already had that .

So because I'm thinking you crafty types may like to make your own version I photographed the steps . So here goes with a very short tutorial.

I used plastic coated garden wire , and shaped it around a upturned plastic wastepaper bin to get a perfect circle......



I used a double loop to add strength to my circle .......



Then the fun bit , I chose some co-ordinated fabric from my stash. As you can see it's not expensive stuff just bits and bobs I've collected over the years....



I then used pinking shears to cut out rectangles of fabric, approximately 6 inches long by 1 and a 1/2 inches wide (15 cm by 3.5 cm)

NOTE:- I bought my pinking shears from amazon and they're great

Then it's simply a case of knotting each strip of fabric tightly onto your hoop...



Building up your design , I used a random order , but anything goes :0)...



Push them close together for the best effect and when you have squeezed in as may as possible you end up with this ....



This could be used as it is , I just liked adding more detail like the crochet snowflake sewn onto red felt and the pretty gingham ribbon to hang it up with.



Of course there are so many possibilities for these , they are lovely for any time of year, maybe for a child's room or anywhere in your home really , just make it to fit in with your style and colours.Have a go , it's really easy.

I imagine these would be great quick makes for Christmas fairs .



If you would like to win my version please leave me a comment below , and I'll have a little draw on the 28th of November , then it will arrive with one lucky person in time to look pretty for the festive season .

If you fancy adding a link on your blog that would be extra kind :0)

Jacquie x

P.S. the crochet snowflake pattern is from Attic 24
P.P.S. here's a Flickr group Here for further inspiration