Cosy Things

The weather took a cool turn last week, leaving no doubt that fall has come.  The kids went back to school and I have been nesting; doing all sorts of laundry and clearing out and cleaning.  At night my creative time has been spent crocheting cozy things; thick and soft yarn have been the preferred choice on my hook.

I made two more neck warmers with a lovely variegated yarn.  Funny how the colours are almost the same as the hydrangeas I picked a couple of days ago.

These are still waiting for some buttons: going through my button box to find the right ones usually takes a fair bit of time. ( Pattern can be found here.)

I also made Fiber Flux's Vanilla Bean scarf using some really soft and chunky Country Loom yarn.

 It only took two nights to work up so was a really nice project to work on.  I liked it so much I am making another in Homespun.  The scarf uses two skeins, so has been great for helping me "de-stash" a little bit.

I have done a lot of baking too.  Plum cake and jam squares, lemon loaf and muffins.  I guess I'm making up for all those times in the summer we craved something sweet but didn't want to turn the oven on.

The weekend was chilly and rainy so I put away my summer clothes and brought out the fall-winter ones.  It took me a whole day, but I tried on everything and purged quite a bit of it.  I was rather disappointed to see how much grey and black make up this wardrobe though; seeing them all hung up together makes for a sombre effect.  I think I may have to add some colour to perk things up.

Of course now that I have done that I see the forecast for the week is temperatures in the high twenties.  Cosy things will no longer be on the agenda but will be replaced with things like cleaning out the car and removing the last of the old baseboards from the living and dining rooms.  Bring back the chilly weather please!

Daisy Crazy

When we went on our West Coast vacation  a couple of weeks ago I wanted a quick, portable project.  I also wanted to use up some of the cotton yarn that I swear was reproducing on its own in the basement.  I started making these daisy dishcloths and got addicted like you wouldn't believe.  I even bought more cotton yarn just so I could make more.  I ended up making eighteen!

I gave one away; I will probably make three more; and no, these are not all for me.  After making the third or fourth one I decided I will donate these to our church bazaar in November.

The other portable project I took was an ornament kit I bought years ago.  I thought this would be the time to finish it off for good instead of donating a partially opened kit to Goodwill.  One night of movie watching and I had all these teeny tiny angels finished.

These really are tiny: each one is less than an inch long.

I will make some hangers for them and they will get added to the church bazaar pile along with the dishcloths.  Two more reasons to feel good about purging my crafting space!

Back To It

  As of yesterday summer holidays are officially over.  I wasn't so eager for the kids to get back to school this year: we had a g-r-e-a-t summer and I was sorry to see it end.

The last two weeks of our vacation were spent on the West Coast and it was so terrific nobody wanted to come home!

I kind of overdid it yesterday with all the back to routine busyness, so this morning I have been taking it easy and making myself a little memento of our trip.  On the last day of our vacation I saw a post done by Jacquie over at her blog, Bunny Mummy where she showed her sweet crocheted seagull.  I knew that was totally perfect so I made my own:

If only I could have stuffed him with the scent of sea water, blackberries and cedar.  I had to settle on lavender instead.  Thank you for the great idea Jacquie:)

Now that he is done it's back to purging and organizing for me.  It's almost become a little habit:  this morning while I was making breakfast I reorganized two cupboards.  That's a great start to the day!

Not everyone is so happy.

This is Libby wearing a long sleeved onesie.  The only time she isn't scratching all her hair off is when she is asleep.  I make her wear the onesie while she is inside to keep her from cutting her skin with her claws while scratching. We think she has some kind of allergies because the poor thing is itchy all over and has been most of the summer.  Tomorrow we go to the vet and hopefully get some relief for our poor pooch.