Crochet Mug Cosy

Hello Lovelies,
have you seen the lovely crocheted mug cozies popping up all over blog land ? Penelope's gorgeous version ,towards the bottom of this post really caught my eye and I loved her idea of giving them as teacher gifts.
All the cozies I'd  seen wrapped around the sides of your mug and fastened with a button, like Penelope's. Then last week I saw this inspired idea....a crochet coaster and mug cosy in one......brilliant !!

There is a link to the pattern but I just started mine using the first couple of rounds of this rather lovely simple coaster pattern ....when it was as wide as the base of my mug I  stopped increasing made stripes in U.S. half double crochet ............

Here's a peek at the bottom....

I've now made two of these to cover inexpensive mugs I picked up at the supermarket, using Patons Smoothie yarn, here's the second....

Having the integral coaster means the button fastening has to be at the top, but I've made sure it's at the side away from your thumb so it's not annoying. I LOVE how these turned out, all those colourful stripes make me smile......

I've also copied Penelope's idea to fill them with chocolates and I'm hoping the excellent  teachers they were made for will like them ( I suppose they would make a pretty desk tidy if they did not want to drink out of a mug with added yarn ! ) ........

One last photo , a close up of this sweet button, I may have to go back and buy a couple more of these ....aren't they pretty ...........

On a different subject ,the weather has turned COLD around here at last . We haven't had the snow that some  of the U.K. has seen but here is a yarny version I spotted when I went to buy those buttons....

I love this seasonal crafty window , especially the cute crochet snowman.........

Lastly here is a picture of the sunrise I noticed when I arrived at work at 8am this morning....

Simply stunning.

Hope your week goes well , they are whizzing past at a rate of knots around here ! My November nature notes post will appear sometime this week !!

Jacquie x

Colour at Home

Hello Lovelies,
with the short days we are experiencing at the moment I'm drawn towards cheerful colours to combat the gloom . My jolly gingham bunting has made a reappearance in the kitchen .It's not specifically Christmassy but has a festive feel to me......

Did you notice my crochet birdy hanging in the window. He has lived in this spot since I made him back in October 2009...inspired by this clever creation,back in the days BB ( before blogging ) . I still love him, with his ric-rac legs and wooden beady feet..........

The yarn I used was mostly patons Smoothie and I've been working some colourful stripes with the same yarn this week. This project is for a gift and it is almost finished so I will do a little Ta-dah later this week :0)......

Something else bright and colourful that's making me smile are my new Wellies......

These are actually the first pair I have owned as an adult !! I always remember having freezing feet in wellies as a child so I've resisted buying any for many ( many, many )  a year but there are occasions when wellies are ideal footwear .And I've also bought some matching wellie socks to combat the cold. Whilst I was outside today  photographing my feet I did notice how pretty our little silver birch tree is looking........

Many trees are now without leaves but this one  is  still looking gorgeous,especially against a blue sky with the sun shining through the leaves........

Around the garden , if you look closely there are still a few flowers , like these sweet little fuchsias....

And the lack of serious frost means even my geraniums are still flowering........

Such a contrast to this time last year .

Wandering around I was rather taken with the look of this moss covered stone viewed in macro, what a lovely fresh green........

Back indoors , wellies off , I remembered some rather colourful recent purchases I wanted to share with you lovelies ............Sarah Smith cloths.........

My dishwasher has died recently so anything to make the washing up more bearable has got to be a good thing :0)

And some rather lovely new oven gloves, I'm so pleased with these ....

More red , this time with polka dots.......lovely.

 I'm cheering the long evenings is with lots of candles.........

This year we have  an Advent candle for the first time ever. Here it is lit on Sunday.....seemed appropriate as several lovely blogs reminded me that last Sunday was the first Sunday in Advent .Tomorrow we can start burning down the numbers, hope we remember to keep an eye on the progress.........

My colourful   oil burner was a lucky charity shop find.........

I'm currently using it with fabulous Sparkling Cinnamon wax tarts from Yankee Candle......I adore this festive scent !!

Hope you are finding little things to cheer you .
Jacquie x

P.S. in case anybody was wondering , my wellies,cloths and oven gloves were bargains from the appropriately named " Home Bargains"

A little more colour

Hello Lovelies, Thank you all so much for your kind comments on my last post. Some crochet in white and grey is all well and good but this week I've been feeling the need for a little more colour.

On Monday I decided to make a Christmassy brooch and after a bit of pondering I settled on a poinsettia . I touch of red to contrast with my grey coat and grey cowl...........

I'm loving red at the moment but unfortunately it's the colour my camera seems unable to cope with so I struggled to get a decent picture of this pretty flower......

I made two sizes of petals in red  and three leaves in green then sewed them to a felt back . I added some pretty beads to the centre to finish it off . I've been out to a Christmas market today so I wore it to that. I think I will now save it for other Christmas events .........

It's was beautifully sunny here this morning, making the higgeldy piggeldy old buildings where the market was held look so pretty.........

I loved the sun on this rooftop.........

And indoors  there were lots of handmade goodies to see, though I did not dare take photos. On the way home we stopped at a garden centre  and I sneaked a photo of my this cutie......... my current obsession ,owls....this is a tape measure, you pull out its right wing ....eeek.....so cute :0).....

I've also taken some pictures of my Kaleidoscope blanket progress.....does any one remember this project ??
 I started it, full of enthusiasm ,way back in April. Lots of other blankets and smaller projects have been completed whist it was left untouched. I did do some work on it here, after deciding that the only way I stood a chance of finishing it was to make lots of hexagons, production line style, a round at a time.
 I now have 100 motifs at the round three stage.....

just one more round ...and 800 ends ( yikes ) then I can start joining ....still a long way to go I fear but sharing images here will hopefully spur me on :0)......

Here's a reminder of how the part I completed initially looks.......

Certainly colourful :0)

Have a great weekend .
Jacquie x

This Week..........

I've been turning this ball of chunky yarn........

Into soft snugly rows .........

I picked up this odd ball from the £1 bin outside my LYS in the summer. It didn't have a label so I don't know what the fibre is but as soon as I touched it I knew it would be lovely and cozy worn around the neck so it's now a cowl .Really quick and simple to make, just rows of U.S. double crochet. I made it quite long so you can loop it twice around your neck for added warmth and I'm really pleased with how it turned out :0)..........

I've also been doing some baking with the boys. Last year I made my own mincemeat for the first time, and it was so easy I decided to make some  this year. I used this recipe again.
I think I love the smells that fill your house when you make this as much as the finished product. Orange,Nutmeg, Apple, Cinnamon, Lemon , mixed spice .....together they are so Christmassy and gorgeous .
 I'm sure it won't last long as the whole family love mince pies and homemade ones, still warm from the oven, are divine..........

Fresh indoor flowers have also made a very welcome comeback this week.  At this time of year when the garden is looking dull and the days can be dark I feel the need for some indoor floral goodness and some candles to cheer me up.......

I LOVE these simple white  chrysanths with yellow and green centres............

The days are getting so short on our side of the world..........this picture was taken at three thirty ....is wasn't quite as dark as this photo taken into the sun suggests but you can see how low the hazy sun is. By four thirty it is dark.

So to cheer up the long evenings I've been making this......

To use with this.........

I also added these..........

Inspired by this post I decided I needed some crochet and candle cozyness of my own. This is what I ended up with..........

Yay, another quick make that made me smile this week ...........

You can find a tutorial for a similar cover HERE.

Have a great weekend

Jacquie x

A quick crochet gift

Hello Lovelies,
At work we have enjoyed having a sweet young lady's company over the last few weeks. A visiting colleague from the other side of the world who will be missed by myself and quite a few others due to her lovely , friendly , generous nature.
On Wednesday evening it suddenly dawned on me that the next day would the last time we would meet and I wanted to give her a little gift  . No time to go shopping meant it would have to be something handmade. Something quick to make ...but what ?
I hit upon a crochet bowl ( like the one in my side bar ) and dug out my assorted cotton yarns. I was looking for the right colours when I spotted a little forgotten W.I.P. in the bottom of the bag, some pretty stripes....

I think this was started from a library book a couple of years ago.....possibly to make a child's handbag. With time short I decided to turn it into a little pouch. Luckily I still had the same yarns so I just added a few more rows. It was about half this deep when I found it........

I didn't even sew in the ends...just trimmed them a bit so they were not quite so bulky........

The next morning I  hand sewed a lining from some thrifted fabric. These days sewing dark fabric requires daylight and some help with vision :0).........

I then added a zip...not so hard to do with small hand stitches .....

Pin and then sew the first side between the lining and the pouch ,then unzip the zipper and pin and sew the second side .............

As you can see this zip was a little small and not really matching in colour but I think it looks OKish and It was all I had. It was a 6 inch zip , to give you an idea of size......

The whole project took a couple of hours .If these photos look a bit hurried , they were ........

I popped a little tin heart on some gingham ribbon that I had bought as a Christmas decoration inside , wrapped it up and gave it . Phew , just in time !
I hope she likes it ...I think it could have lots of uses, like make up or gadgets........

Soon it will be another well traveled bit of Bunny Mummy crochet so it's nice to have a record here :0)
Have a great rest of the weekend .
Jacquie x