Merry Christmas!

I’ve been given a new toy for Christmas; a tablet! So while I’m having a play and working out what it can do, I thought I would wish you all a merry Christmas and a very happy new year. 

We’ve had a lovely day so far. Bacon and eggs for breakfast and a couple of presents before church, then a big roast pork dinner before finishing opening the rest of our presents. Our front room looks like a warehouse! The boys are very happy and excited with what they received, and baby Sweetie was of course thrilled with all the wrapping paper that she was allowed to scrunch and wave about. 

Now it’s almost time for Doctor Who, so I’m settling in for the evening!

As I’m passing by…

Just a really quick post to say hi! as I’ve not been by for a while. I’ve been super busy trying to get ahead of the game with Christmas crafting, and I’ve also been working on getting my Etsy shop ready to show you all. I’m nearly there, but I want to put a few more things in the shop first.

Anyway, it occurs to me that I haven’t showed you my latest knitting projects that I’ve finished, so I thought I’d nip in and share a couple of photos. Hopefully I’ll have some time later on to write a little more.

This is my Ishbel shawl, which will be a Christmas present for someone who for now will remain nameless! I’m fairly certain she’s never looked at my blog, so I’m safe to add it. It’s from a pattern by Isolda Teague, and I love the vinework lace pattern.

And this is my second Travelling Woman shawl. The pattern is free (I’ll find a link later) and it was so lovely to knit up. This one’s for me, although I think there’ll be at least two more knitted as Christmas presents.

And that’s all for now. I’ve got to dash or the kids will be late for school. Catch you later!

Probably the last of the Christmas presents

I meant to post all of these posts at the beginning of the month, but I got carried away with writing about other things, so here we are, a day away from February and I’m still writing about Christmas! I’ll probably just about finish telling you about last Christmas before I start writing about the next one!

Anyway, today I want to show you some of the presents I made for my friend Maria’s family.

First up, I made her mum this apron and oven glove set;

After Maria made dinner wearing her little dress and high heels, not getting a mark on her, I thought that an apron would make a good present for her mum. We agreed at the time that either of us would have ended up covered in flour and gravy had we attempted cooking in such an outfit! She seemed to like her set anyway, putting it on straight away and wearing it for the evening! And I loved her Christmas crown!

Also, Maria’s mum loves her Nintendo DS, apparently spending time on it on most days before she goes to bed. So when I saw this pattern in one of my magazines I thought it would be perfect for her.

I thought this little Shaun the Sheep pattern was really cute! I lined the case with felt, and you can’t see here but it buttons up at the top to keep the DS from sliding out.

Maria’s sister has her birthday just after new year, so I had to think of Christmas and birthday presents at the same time. For her Christmas present I made her a pair of fingerless gloves of my own designing. I’m annoyed with myself for not having taken a picture, but I’m planning on making some more soon anyway so I’ll photograph them instead. I also made her a hat.

This pattern, from Ravelry, is based on the hat that ‘Hermione’ wore in ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’. I designed the gloves to have matching cables, and they were obviously made in the same wool, Sirdar Click DK which is a wool and acrylic blend. Hopefully enough wool to make them warm, but enough acrylic to make them easy to care for!

Finally, for Maria’s sister’s birthday I made her some jewelry. I’d not really done very much with beading and jewelry making before, but I was quite pleased with the outcome.

Just a simple bracelet and earrings set. Not the best picture as I suddenly realised as I was packaging it up that I’d not taken a photo, but you get the idea! I also made a necklace and bracelet set for Maria, but I’ve yet to get a picture of that. She definitely liked them though, as I’ve seen her wearing them many times since Christmas. Nothing like a spot of appreciation to give you a warm glow inside!

More Christmas presents

So, another picturey post tonight. I’m not in much of a mood for words, so pictures will have to suffice.

I made a few crocheted animals (or amigurumi) as presents. This first one was for my Dad, and is called Joshie. If you look at my Dad’s blog, you’ll see that he owns a tortoise called Henry. Joshie was made to be a substitute for Henry whilst he’s in hibernation!

Next up is Lavender, the baby elephant. She was made for my mother, who is something of an Elephant lover. I also put dried lavender in her feet. Lavender is now living with my mother’s collection of elephants in her living room.

Finally is Tubby. Tubby is a bath frog, with a sponge in his tummy, so he’s also an exfoliating frog!

They were all great fun to make, and the recipients were suitably impressed!

I should probably add that Joshie and Tubby were both named by my younger son, leaving the originally named Lavender to me!

Christmas presents

After making myself miserable earlier, thinking about my stupid hands, I’ve decided to cheer myself up by ignoring them and starting to tell you about some of the Christmas presents I made last year.

First up, I’ll show you the presents I made for my friends in my Stitch and Bitch group;

I had real trouble deciding what to make these people. After all, by the very nature of the thing they are very crafty and able people themselves, so I had to take some time to convince myself that it wouldn’t be insulting to them if I were to make their presents.

Anyway, eventually I got the idea for their Christmas presents when I was at the Ally Pally show in October. When I bought one of the skeins of yarn, the stallholder gave me a simple cloth bag to keep the project in while I knitted the yarn up. I liked that idea, as I’d been keeping my works in progress (WIPs) in plastic or paper bags. So I decided to try to make a slightly more luxurious version of the simple cotton bag I’d been given in London. Dad came with me to the material shop (as we’d been shopping for yarn to make Mum’s present on the same day) and helped to pick out these two different chinese silk brocades.

These three bags were made for my friends Heidi, Machelle and Ellie, as were the stitch markers below. The bags are lined with cream cotton, and I hope will make a nice home for a shawl or a pair of socks in progress! The bags are all a little bigger than A4 size, as far as I remember!

   

The pretty rose stitch marker was one from Heidi’s set. The little green dogs reminded me a little bit of Buca, Machelle’s cute little dog (although he’s not green!!) and I thought that Ellie would appreciate the cute cute yellow ducklings! In order to get a better picture, I only photographed one from each set – I did give them more than one each! These were my first attempt at stitch markers, and I was reasonably happy with them, although the ones I received from Ellie were far more sophisticated and better made. I’ll try to photograph them at some point. I’ve already used them more than once!

This bag was made for Jaxom. I thought that maybe the more masculine colours would suit him better, although I spoilt it all by putting the little bow on the front inadvertently at the end! I forgot to photograph his stitch markers (I think they were little peppers) so you’ll have to imagine them for yourselves!

I won prizes!

Ravelry was such a good find for me. I’ve been a member of this knitting, crocheting, weaving and spinning community for some time now, but only in the last few months have I really been getting involved with some of the groups. There is a Cardiff Knitters group which I’m in, a group for Welsh yarn addicts and (the one I’m having lots of fun with at the moment!) a Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup! I joined only this term, and was sorted into Gryffindor, and the assignments have helped me to get most of my Christmas knitting and crochet done well ahead of schedule. But the extra fabulous special lovely fact has to be that I have won prizes for two of my projects! Yay!

The first prize I won was for this shawl/cardigan (the pattern is the Berocco Juliana) which I made for Maria for her birthday in September. She always dresses well, and likes to look elegant, and when I saw this pattern I hoped to be able to create something that was both elegant and a little out of the ordinary at the same time. I was quite pleased with the result, and glad that I persevered through the many weeks it took to knit it! I took this project into the detention class in September as I was worried that I wouldn’t get it done in time for Maria’s birthday if I didn’t get a bit of a kick up the bum to keep me motivated. Obviously it worked, and in October the ‘professor’ in charge of the detention room nominated my cardigan for a prize. It was against two other projects, and it was left to other students to vote for their favourite, and my Juliana won! I got my prize (all the way from Ohio) the other day – a beautiful kaleidoscope which gave me a very happy time as I sat looking at the mess in my living room through it, captivated by how beautiful it looked through the prism!

And yesterday I found out that I’ve won a second prize! But…I can’t tell you anything about it, because the item in question is intended to be a present for someone. At least the recipient can be proud in the knowledge (because you should be very sure that I will tell him or her!) that they are receiving a prize winning piece of hand crafted loveliness!!!

I will tell you all about it in January. TTFN!

Quiet time

So, I’ve been somewhat absent from the blog for the last month or more. Initially, it was due to a distinct bloggy block, preventing the flow of inspiration from my brain through my fingers and onto the keyboard. More recently, however, my blog silence has been attributable to my need to keep secrets about Christmas presents in the making. So, like KateOhKatie‘s recent post, my only possible blog posts would be lists of censored names and presents!

I can tell you that I have a list by my side of all the things I hope to make. The most difficult one is done, as of this morning. And that’s all I can tell you about that one until January! I have a list of thirty presents to make in all (it sounds scarier than it is!). Of those, I’ve already done ten, with three in progress. Of the things left to do, only three are likely to take more than a day or so to make, and some of the gifts will be made in groups, so I’ll be able to do a few at a time if I set aside an afternoon. I also hope to make some Christmas cards again, but I think I’ll see how I’m getting on with my crafting over the next couple of weeks first!

I wish I could tell you more about the biggest (as in time wise) thing I’ve just finished, as I’m really proud of myself for having got through it! Needless to say, I will take lots of pictures and tell you all about it in January!

Anyway, my washing machine is beeping and demanding attention, so I must go and see to that. Then, at 1pm I will have my lunch hour (why shouldn’t I have a structured lunch hour if I’m a stay at home mum?), eat a sandwich, watch ‘Bones’ and do a bit more work on a Christmas present! Oh, and pray that the rain holds off until after I’ve collected the boys from school.

Diary/notebook – what a good idea!

I spotted this Moleskine diary/notebook on Frugal + Urban today, a website that I found via the Simple Green Frugal Co-op. And what a good idea it is. On each double page, one side has the diary for the week, and the other side is lined note paper. For me, as someone who makes lists regularly, but then forgets or loses said lists almost instantly, this would be a really useful memory aid to make sure that I do things in the right week!

I’m definitely going to try to remember to ask for one for Christmas!

A lovely birthday present

With all the recent kerfuffle (to put it mildly) involving our neighbours, I’ve not been in the mood to post happy thoughts, or really, thoughts about anything else. This could be because I’m still seething about the whole affair, especially as our door has not yet been fixed, and since the door was broken, the lock has also, mysteriously, been damaged beyond repair.

Anyway, I need to move on, and try to ignore the annoyance I feel, and so I want to tell you about the lovely weekend away that GG and I had, courtesy of his family, as a birthday gift. When you live in a flat, there’s a limit to the number of actual objects that you can fit in. I think it’s safe to say that we have reached, or are incredibly close to reaching, that limit, and so this birthday present was especially welcome.

On my birthday, we were presented with a card containing details of Bridge House Hotel in Wilton near Ross On Wye where we would be staying on the last weekend in June, and also enjoying a lovely dinner. The gift also included free babysitting from my mother in law, so how could we refuse!

We were blessed with a very lovely weekend, weather wise, and enjoyed every minute of it. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Ross On Wye before, and I really liked it. I was surprised by the number of independent shops in the town centre, being accustomed as I am to Cardiff and it’s identikit city centre. We had a lovely cream tea in a little cafe/gallery, and also managed to buy a Christmas present while we were there – how efficient was that!

After checking in to the restaurant’s bed and breakfast, we decided to go out rather than waste the rest of the afternoon by hanging around the local pubs, and so we went to Hereford, another place I’ve not been before. There was a fair on in the castle grounds which we visited. Lots of lovely examples of handmade items for sale, such as glassware, garments, woodwork and some hand made goats milk soaps. I bought a soap for my mother in law to say thank you for having the kids, and asked if I could take a photo of the stall as the detail in the decoration of the soaps was phenomenal, and I really wanted to share it with you all. The stall holder grudgingly allowed a picture to be taken, after I promised that I had no plans to copy her soap designs myself. After that, I didn’t feel that I could ask if I could share the picture on my blog, as she seemed very touchy about it. A shame, as it would have been some free advertising for her, and I don’t feel very inclined to return to buy any more. She has a website, and after looking at it, I’m surprised (given the visual attraction of her soaps) that she has no pictures on immediate view. However, that’s her business, and her loss.

We had a good wander around Hereford and then made our way back to the restaurant, where we enjoyed the most sumptuous dinner, mostly produced with local ingredients as well, which was a bonus. I’ll not describe each and every course, as I’d be here a while, but here’s a photo montage of the meal that I made earlier!

Yum yum!

After a truly scrummy breakfast on the Sunday morning, we were having too much fun to go straight home, so we decided to visit Hay on Wye. I’ve not been for a good few years, so it was lovely to go back. We made a few purchases; a haematite bracelet for me from Satori (to try to ease the pain and stiffness in my hands that the doctors can’t explain), GG bought the original, much scarier version of Grimm’s Fairy Tales and we also bought a couple of things from the food festival with which we were lucky enough to have coincided our visit.

After this, it was time for home (with a slight detour en-route due to GG’s notorious lack of direction!) and we arrived just after the first drops of rain had begun to fall. A lovely time was had by both of us, and if my in-laws would like to repeat this present next year for our birthdays, it would be more than welcome!

Twenty-ten today!

Today is my twenty-tenth birthday (I strongly discourage any use of the ‘th’ word in my presence, until I grow more accustomed to my new age)! So far, it has been absolutely fab. I had breakfast brought to me in bed by my boys. Handsome made me a cup of tea, and Cheeky presented me with a dinner plate, on which was placed a satsuma, a yoghurt and a tablespoon with which to eat the aforementioned yoghurt! My presents were likewise brought to me, and they are brilliant. I couldn’t have chosen better myself!

These presents were from my beloved husband, GG. I can now officially call myself ‘Lady Jen’, and expect to be addressed as such by all you lesser mortals, as I’m now a landowner in Scotland! Also, I had a Christmas decoration for my tree (he knows that I like to collect nice ones, and thought it would be funny to buy one for my June birthday!) and a gorgeous sapphire and diamond eternity ring.

My friend Chris bought me this array of goodies, including a signed picture of the gorgeous Mr Tennant (I think there may be opposition to my plan to put this on my bedside table, by hey ho!), and a swiss army knife which he has had inscribed with his nickname for me – ‘Alcatraz Jen’! Fabulous!

My friend Maria presented me with this cake when we went out for lunch on Sunday, along with the badge that I’m holding in the picture at the top and my balloon in the bottom picture. She took the photo on the cake on my 21st birthday, when we were sitting in the Foreigners’ Club in Sorrento, overlooking the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. What a wonderful holiday that was! Oh, and the cake was good too – chocolate sponge, mmm!

In these pictures are (from the left) the glass bangle from Angie, my gorgeous eternity ring from GG (didn’t he do well!) and my rose quartz heart pendant from my children (they did well as well!). I’m a very lucky girl to have such kind and generous friends and family! And my birthday’s not done yet – I’m seeing more people this evening, and I’m told that there are more presents to come! Yay! I love birthdays! (And I think I’ve been very restrained in my use of exclamation marks, given how excited I am this morning!)

Finally, the photo below is, I think, my official birthday portrait, captured (as was the first picture) by my eldest son. The first picture of Lady Alcatraz Jen after my appointment to the title! It shows the conflict in my mind between my real age (twenty ten) and my (optimistic) inner age (twenty one). I hope you all have a wonderful my-birthday today, and have a glass of wine and a piece of cake for me!