January Check In

Well Hello!
 Has Winter visited you yet?  We got a bit of a blizzard last night; and with the way the wind was howling  I thought for sure this morning there would be monster drifts to dig through and perhaps a 'snow day' for school.  Turns out the wind just blew the snow somewhere else!

(Free crochet pattern from Repeat Crafter Me)

I thought I would do a bit of catching up since Christmas.  It seems like a long time ago now, what with having put everything away doesn't it?
My last post was a few days before Christmas and I still had gifts to make.  Can you believe that I actually got them finished?  I'm a little surprised myself!

I completed the slouchy beanie hat for My Favourite Girl.  This is actually the second pattern I used:  the first one was really nice, but I had to rip it out three times to make adjustments and I was running out of time.  This second edition was much quicker, and I am happy to report she likes it!  Yes, a thirteen year old girl liked her homemade gift!  That was like a gift to me:)

The pattern for the hat was from HERE.  The glove pattern is called 'Shell Lace Fitted Fingerless Gloves' by Sherry Ramaila.  This is a free Ravelry download as well.  Both are easy and quick.  For the gloves I would recommend using a larger size hook on the foundation row before switching to what your yarn calls for.

These next gifts I have been wanting to make my kids for years.  They are a little too old for stuffed puppers now (especially made by Momma!), but there is a redeeming feature about these.  Inside each dog is a removable barley bag to heat in the microwave and cozy up with on cold winter nights.

The dogs have been put to good use the past few weeks, but of course nothing is as good as the real thing!

I am happy I finally got the dogs made, and I can say with confidence I will never sew with this fake fur again!  Holy cow what a mess!  I had fur up my nose; in my mouth; stuck to my eyeballs and on every surface within five meters of where I was working!

In the last little bit before Christmas day I found the pattern for those crocheted Christmas lights above.  I fell hard for these and crocheted enough for two sets, with plans for a pastel version next year.  I crocheted so much my wrists were sore for days!

Of course once Christmas was over it was time to look forward to new projects.  I bought myself a pretty little notebook and jotted down all the crafty projects I want to make.  There are over thirty in the crochet section alone! *Sigh*, it's good to be optimistic and busy though isn't it?

I got a few works in progress out of the way, which I thought was a great start to the new year:

This pattern is a freebie from the DMC website and I started it quite a number of years ago.  Why I never finished I can't tell you, because it is neither large or complicated.  I didn't know how to finish it:  it's too large for an ornament or a small, so another piece of hoop art it is!

My Favourite Boy finally got his new flannel pyjama bottoms!

I have also had my first crochet fail of the year.  This is the Fifties Cowl from ByHaafner.  It is very simple and I was really looking forward to this one.  It's just not large enough and all the fudging I had to do to make it fit doesn't seem to help.  I'm sure I will make another one, but for now it's going somewhere else and I will move on to another project.

And that my friends, is enough for today.  I will be back in a couple of weeks with the rest of my January makes.  As always, thank you so much for visiting and your kind words:  it's always the cherry on my cake as they say!

Happy Days!
Jenn

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.