Another row finished whilst watching today's swimming lesson. #crochet #craft #momsoninstagram #handmade #homemade A photo posted by Penny Carr (@realbeingmrsc) on Apr 16, 2015 at 1:50am PDT It's been a week of mainly continuing with the two main projects that I started last week. Firstly the crochet ripple blanket has progressed well. With it still being the school Easter holidays here Little Miss C was booked on to an intensive swimming course which meant that we were at the pool every morning for a 30 minute lesson, in addition to her usual slot on a Friday afternoon. Excellent ... read more
Introducing the Pointy Nosed Pooch and Finding Balance
It's funny how sometimes you don't realise what is missing in your life until it is reintroduced and then you're left wondering how you ever coped without it. Back when I started this blog (nearly 7 years ago now) one of the main drivers was because I was feeling swamped by my day job and I wanted to force myself to make the time for all the crafty things I enjoy. It may seem a bit like a backwards way of doing things, but I was determined to actually do some of the things that I was reading about on other people's blogs, and for me a way to do that as to make myself write about what I got ... read more
Banner Making with Super+Super at Drink, Shop & Do
I had quite simply the most brilliant time at the Super+Super workshop at Drink, Shop & Do last week. I'm under absolutely no obligation to blog about it again, but I came home absolutely buzzing from it and therefore want tell you all about it. Firstly, the workshop itself. As I said last week it was put on by the publishers GMC to promote the two new books by Super+Super: Embroidery and Printmaking, and a review of both books will be coming soon. The aim of the workshop was for everyone to make their own banner on the night - either embroidering it or printing a design on to ... read more
Owl Advent Calendar
As anyone who knows me in real life will tell you, I'm brilliant at starting craft projects, but when it comes to finishing them it's another story entirely. The house (and cabin at the bottom of the garden) are full of unfinished projects (over 41 at the last count - but shhhh don't tell my husband) and the situation has been getting a bit out of hand lately. And I daren't even count how many project I've got everything for, but haven't yet started. It's not that I don't want to finish them, it's just that I either run out of time or something more exciting comes along and they're ... read more
Slow and steady
There might not be much to see yet, but slow and steady progress is being made with Jemima Puddleduck. Whether or not I make the self-imposed Christmas deadline is yet to be seen though. The majority of my progress was made whilst I was at my knitting group last week (I know sewing at a knitting group, but still...) as Master C slept through the whole session in his buggy. Unfortunately I'm going to miss the next two session though due to hospital appointments, so I need to find some extra sewing time whilst Master C sleeps. Maybe less time blogging and more time sewing is the answer... ... read more
Return of the missing mojo
I seem to recall that after Little Miss C was born it took me a while to regain my craft mojo, and the same seems to be the case after Master C's birth. Obviously there have been plenty of other things going on here too this time round (including having a toddler to entertain) but this last week or so the need to create has returned. Before I can start any new projects though there are so many around the house that need finishing off. My plan, certainly for the next 6 months or so, is that I'm not allowed to buy anything for any new craft projects and instead need to concentrate on ... read more
Little Peter Rabbit
Yep, here I am STILL waiting! All I can say is that this baby must be pretty damn comfortable in there. All this sitting around waiting for things to happen is pretty damn frustrating, but there is one small advantage. I have at least managed to finish one of the sewing projects that I started for Baby C. Before Little Miss C came along I had both a knitting and a cross stitch project on the go for her. OK, so neither were finished before she actually arrived (mainly due to carpel tunnel during the last month of that pregnancy) but eventually I did manage to complete both her blanket ... read more
In situ
In an amazing show of efficiency, yesterday's numbers have been hung and after searching aorund the house for a suitable place I finally settled on the side of our staircase. Whenever we take Little MIss C upstairs one thing we do is count the stairs as we go. The only slight problem is that this means that the numbers read from right to left, rather than left to right as is conventional. I figured that putting up with that was cheaper than moving the staircase to accommodate them! In case you're interested, the wooden pegs were bought very cheaply on eBay and the lovely ... read more
Counting
It's several months since I gave you a sneak preview of the fabric numbers that I had started to make from Meg McElwee's book Growing Up Sew Liberated: Making Handmade Clothes and Projects for Your Creative Child. You may know Meg from her lovely blog, Sew Liberated, but if you don't make sure you head over there and see the wonderful things she makes for her two gorgeous boys, and also the fun activities that they all get up to. There's no real reason why these numbers have taken so long to finish as they're not at all difficult. The numbers ... read more
Upsy Daisy’s Skirt
Whilst she doesn't watch it all that often, it's fair to say that Little Miss C is quite a fan of In The Night Garden and loves the characters in it. We are often asked to drawn Igglepiggle and Upsy Daisy for her and she loves dancing like Upsy Daisy whenever she can. The only ITNG toys that she has are small ones that have been free on the cover of the show's magazine so she was thrilled therefore when my parents were given an Upsy Daisy plush toy for her by some of their friends. Now this Upsy Daisy had sadly lost her skirt at some point in the past and LMC was very quick to point ... read more