It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's been a little while since I've had a chance to get back here and post anything. Life has been pretty hectic to say that least.

Mum has been moved to a new nursing home, the one that she really wanted to go to, when she found out she had to go into care. They rang me 2 weeks ago and she was moved last Friday and seems to be settling in well :)

The preparations for Christmas are well under way. Presents have been purchased or made and 95% of them are already wrapped and sitting under the tree. It's a bit more exciting this year than it has been in the past, because we have a new family member. Josh, my 18 year old, now has his girlfriend living here with us and she hasn't had a "real" Christmas before. She's pretty excited about it all and it is definitely rubbing off on all of us :)

I've finally finished my teaching job for the year, so for now, there is no job to go to, so I have plenty of time to get some baking and cleaning done.

We are going to just have a quiet Christmas at home, with a visit to mum after lunch and then we can just sit back and relax for the rest of the day.

Ebony, my 17 year old is having her boyfriend come and join us to ring in the new year, so it's going to be a pretty loud night. 4 teenagers, myself and my husband and anyone else that wants to join us lol.

I haven't had a lot of time to sit and do any crochet, I've worked on a couple of little things, one is a seriously overdue birthday gift for a dear friend and I've made a couple of little things here and there, but no real crocheting for a good couple of weeks and I'm starting to have withdrawals!
Hopefully once things settle down a bit I will be able to get back to it :)

So for now, I don't have any new things to share on the creative front, just some news about what has been going on here.

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and may the New Year bring you everything you wish for.

Another Tilda :)

I've been busy with my hook and yarn again. I decided I needed to make another Tilda seeing as I gave the first one I made to my mother for her room at the nursing home. She loved it!

I decided to change it up a bit this time. I gave her plaits in her hair, "pants" under her dress and edged them with some lace that has ribbon the same as on her plaits and "ballet shoes" and I  shortened the sleeve length on the bodice of her dress. I also decided to edge her wings in some silver lurex thread that I had in my stash.

I made this one out of 4 ply crochet cotton, so it's smaller than the one I made for mum which was made out of 8 ply acrylic yarn.

This one is very dainty compared to hers but I love it.

I'm not sure about the heart I made for her to hold, I think it's a bit too large and bright for her, I may have to hunt through my stash for some thinner yarn or a smaller pattern and I may give her a smile.

But overall, I'm happy with her.

Here she is..... 

Update: I decided to send this sweet angel to my sister as a special gift of thanks for her help and support, while I was going through all the stress and organising of getting mum settled in the nursing home. She loves it!

I guess that gives me a good enough reason to make another for me! :) 

Hot Off The Hook...

I found this pattern on Pinterest and it really caught my eye. The designer is a lovely lady named Angeline and she has a blog of her own.....
Mijn Eigen Plekkie

Angeline has some beautiful things on her site, it's definitely worth a look.

I decided to move away from the owls for a little bit, because I wanted to get this on my hook. I've made it for my mother to have in her room at the nursing home, so she will have an "angel" watching over her.

 I used acrylic yarn to make her and she is huge. She measures 57cm (approximately 22 inches) from the top of her head to the tip of her toes!

I'm planning on making another one, once I clear some more "to-do's" out of my folder. The next one will be in 4ply cotton and I'm thinking of changing her hair and experimenting with her.

This was a fun and easy pattern to follow and best of all, it was free!

The original pattern is in Dutch, but Angeline offers an English version if you email her.
All you have to do is say "thanks" and maybe send her a nice pattern in return. Not much to ask at all for a lovely pattern!

Follow up: I went and saw mum yesterday and delivered the Tilda, she was very happy with it and it now hangs on her wall in her room :) 

Owl Tote 'Em Completed :)

Well it's finally finished! My Owl Tote 'Em is completed :)
I love the way it's turned out, all those cute little owls everywhere.
Here's a picture of the finished project:

This is one side:

 And this is the other side:

The pattern didn't call for a lining, but I chose to include one, I found this corduroy in my material stash and I think it blends nicely with the outside of the bag. The whole lining was hand sewn because my sewing machine refused to play nice with me. It took a while but I love the way it turned out.

 I chose to crochet the handles, because I couldn't find any that I liked in a length that I wanted.
After the first use of the bag, I found that the handles tended to "roll", so I went out and purchased some ribbon, chocolate brown with white polka dots and sewed that to the outside of the handles and now they are much sturdier and don't roll anymore :)

(I haven't had a chance to take a photo of the bag again, now that the handles have been updated. I'll try and do that in the near future and I'll add it to this post.)

I took it out to town with me the day after I completed it and the girls at work saw it and asked if I could make them one too! lol
I told them that they would have to wait a while because I have other things in my "to-do" list that I want to make first!

Finally.....Reveal #2

A while back I posted about some "mystery" projects that I had been putting together.
Reveal #1 was done a while back, the Luigi and Yoshi amigurumi's, now I can reveal what the other 2 projects were.
They have finally been delivered to their new owner, so I can now share what I was working on....

The first one, which, if you've been following along, you would remember me showing you this...

 Well, now I can show you what it is :)

 It's a project bag  that was sent to a good friend in America! The whole bag was "rebel crocheted". I took a pattern for an Owl project bag and used the pattern for the body of the bag for this one. I then had to painstakingly create the face and legs. I didn't have a pattern for these, so had to do them from scratch. (The green dots on the face are actually pins that are securing the face onto the bag). I think it turned out pretty cute!

And what's a lion, without a tail!....

It's big enough to hold the yarn, pattern and pieces of a smaller pattern. You definitely wouldn't be able to fit an afghan project in this ;)

So, onto the next reveal......

You'll remember the teaser photo as looking like this....

Well, this is the finished project....

It's an angel lion, created for the same friend that received the lion bag. Can you see a theme happening here!!! lol

This is from the pattern called " Dalenna - Angel Of Courage" by  Gurumiorama (http://www.etsy.com/shop/gurumiorama)

I decided to 'rebel crochet' this one as well. The pattern called for a yarn mane, where pieces of yarn were cut in lengths and then attached to the head.

I decided to delve into my yarn stash and found a skein of eyelash yarn and then went through the process of crocheting this to the head, working in rows. I love the way it turned out :)

The wings were made with some silver lurex type yarn I had here and I used a silver pipe cleaner for the halo.
I had to make this for my friend, because it sums her up beautifully!

So that's it, that's what I've been working on and they have all now gone to their new homes.

As a side note: I'm still working on the Owl Tote and am close to reaching the finish line. I have the body of the bag completed and one handle attached. I just have to make the other handle and then decide whether I want to line it or not.

Stay tuned......

WIP's & Chains Excite Me...

I thought I would share my most recent WIP's (Work In Progress) with you :)
I'm pleased with the way they are both coming out and I love the colour combinations.

This first one is a pattern that I love!
It's called "Owl Tote'em" by Marken of The Hat & I
It's definitely worth taking a look at her patterns. She also has a hat and scarf in the same type of motif!
Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/marken-of-the-hat--i

Currently I have 6 motifs worked up and it's been a great pattern to work with. The instructions are clear and very straight forward. It's my first adventure with reverse single crochet and I think I took to it like a duck to water lol

Anyway, here's where I'm at with it at the moment....

Of course I still have to finish the eyes and attach them and the beak and then attach the motif to the others, but you get the general idea. Feel free to comment! :)

This other one is a design of my own....a rebel crafting expedition so to speak lol

I recently got myself an iPad and couldn't justify the cost of the covers for it, so I thought I would break into my stash and make my own.

I bought the cotton yarn from Ebay a while back and it had been sitting there waiting to scream out at me and tell me what it was to become, I love the colours and the way that it is coming together.

Rather than me blather on about it, here's a preview....

I'm about 1/2 way done with it and the ideas are coming thick and fast for how I'm going to "pretty it up" when I finish the main body of the case.

Don't panic! That's not the only ball of yarn I have like this. I bought 3 of them and there is more than enough to get this project finished and maybe another smaller project once I decide on what else it will be.

So that's what is on my hook at the moment......

iPad cover update:  
I ended up "frogging" the iPad cover :(
For some reason, I did the really awesome job of decreasing stitches and it started to lean inwards and look funny. I started ripping it out and by the time I had found where I'd made the 1st mistake, it was too far down, so I just gave up and pulled the whole thing out. In disgust I went out and bought myself a folio for the iPad lol
Looks like I'm looking for a new project for the purple variegated cotton lol

Owl Tote Progress....

I'm still working on the Owl Tote'em pattern, I haven't had much chance to pick it up lately, but have made a conscious effort over the past couple of days.

The pattern calls for 8 of the Owl motifs to be made, but because I'm using a smaller hook than suggested in the pattern, so I get a good tension, I've decided to make 12 Owl motifs and make the bag rectangular instead of square.

I'm loving the way it's coming together at the moment, the colours are so bright and vibrant and with the chocolate brown, they really stand out.

Here's where I'm at after last nights session of working on it....

I just have to put the eyes and beak on the top left hand side Owl and make 2 more for the right side and then I can start on the triangular motifs and make the extra small square motifs.

I'm thinking about lining it, because we all know how us girls can fill a handbag lol. So I went into my stash of material and found a deep red corduroy fabric, that I think will go nicely with it.
I'll just have to figure out how I want to insert the lining and make it up.

Who knows, by the end of the weekend, I could be sporting a new handbag :)