Tonight I'm planning a night on the sofa. It may not be the most exciting way to spend a Saturday night, but I'm in the middle of a "six Christmas parties in five days" marathon and I'm shattered! The final one is tomorrow and as much as I've enjoyed them all it has been a bit full on. The picture above shows where I was on Thursday night though - the Houses of Parliament in central London. On behalf of the Watercress Wildlife Association (where Mr C and I are volunteers) I attended a reception that was hosted by our local MP, Anne Main, to thank ... read more
Still on the needles
Today's crafty insight isn't something new and isn't anything festive, but is instead an update on the intrictae scarf that I started knitting several months ago now. It's grown in length considerably and following some help from the lovely members of my knitting group I'm now doing quite well actually following the pattern and not getting to the end of a row and suddenly discovered that I have lost or gained stitches! It's not all been plain sailing though and if you look carefully you might spot an error that's crept in there that I'd decided to leave as ... read more
Lizzie of Langley Street – Carol Rivers
This is so totally not the kind of book that I usually pick up in bookshops or even charity shops. I normally pass over the section entitled "romantic fiction" or similar and imagine it to be full of Mills and Boon style books which are just not my cup of tea at all. My mum passed on this book and a couple of others recently having picked them up from a hospital book stall. I thought I'd give them a go and I'm so glad I did. Lizzie of Langley Street is in a way a typical gritty East-End saga set after the first world war. There's a strong lead female character - daughter ... read more
Festive bird rope
Another Christmas decoration today, but one that's quite different from what I've shown you the last two days - a felt bird rope. This took quite a while to make, mainly because each of the birds and hearts consists of four layers of red felt that are sewn together by hand. Just cuting them all out took a while. The birds' eyes are tiny black plastic beads and I managed to source some lovely red wooden beads from The Bead Shop that form the main part of the rope. The original design came from the book Christmas Stitchery which is packed full of some lovely ideas for ... read more
Designs and Such Christmas Tree
I was delighted to recently be asked to review something from new local St Albans company Designs and Such. They are an online craft store that sell both craft kits and also one-of-a-kind handmade items which would make lovely gifts. Being a crafter myself it seemed logical to test out one of their kits and I was sent the Trio of Feltivity kit to make for Christmas. I should add here that time constraints mean that I've only completed one of the trio so far - the chirstmas tree - but watch out for the other two completed projects later in this advent craft month here on ... read more
Festive bunting
I'm going to start my festive advent journey on here with a simple bit of homemade decoration. There's not much that's as simple to make as some festive bunting. I actually bought this as a kit at the Knitting & Stitching show in Harrogate last week for a bargain price of £2.50, but it's so simple to make this yourself from things that you may easily have in your stash. All you need to do is find some festive fabric and with pinking shears cut out some triangle shapes. If you want double sided bunting (as I've done here) then cut two triangles from each fabric and ... read more
A crafty advent
There is a huge amount of crafting going on here recently. Lots of knitting, sewing and crochet too. So many things to share with you all, yet I've a plan to make sure that you, dear reader, don't miss out. I may regret this, but my plan is to do a blog post a day during advent and to share something new and crafty every day. Fingers crossed. Here goes... ... read more
Introducing Mr Owl
There's not been much blogging here lately as I've been desperately trying to get on top of the stupid number of craft projects that are in progress at the moment. I'm far from breaking the back of the problem, but I have at least managed to get one particular Christmas present for a very special little girl finished. Meet Mr Owl. This lovely chap came from a pattern in Knitted Toys by Zoe Mellor and I completed him using some 100% acrylic yarn from my stash and a large assortment of felt in coordinating colours. The knitting didn't take too long (despite an annoying chart in ... read more
Flowers on the Grass – Monica Dickens
Bearing in mind how many I have already read it's in some ways amazing that there are still some Monica Dickens books that I haven't read yet, but I'm delighted to say that there are. Flowers on the Grass has been sat on my bookcase for a while, but it was only when I picked up a second copy of it in a charity shop recently that I realised it was unread. This book is follows a young man called Daniel Brett as he wanders through life - never staying anywhere long - following the sudden tragic death of his wife in a household acident. The main focus though is not Daniel ... read more
Julie Slater & Son Notebook
Hello. My name is Mrs C and I am a list writer. There I've said it. I write lists and I love doing so. I have lists for everything. What meals we're having this week; what shopping I need the next time I place an Ocado order; what jobs need doing around the house; craft projects that need finishing; what I plan to buy people for Christmas and what I'd like to receive at Christmas. I always have several lists on the go - sometimes on post it notes stuck in strategic places, sometimes on scraps of paper in the bottom of my handbag and some of them written in notebooks that can be ... read more