Crochet hooks and cookery books!

Sooo I popped into my local wool shop in Sheldon to ask if they knew of any good sewing machine stockists and got chatting to the owner who is a fantastic crochet expert... and before I knew it I was walking out with a crochet needle and a ball of wool.... several days (and attempts) later this is what we have so far!

I think I will probably continue as I am and make a scarf out of this for Aaron as he doesn't have one, but I would like to try some new colours too so may just stop my 'practice run' and start an actual design...

I really love crochet, it is actually very simple to do, as long as you don't do the stitches (chains) too tight in the first instance until you have got the hang of it! I followed the 'how to' bit in Kirstie's Homemade Home book, which was very useful, and have since borrowed a fabulous book called Amigurumi by By Lan-Anh Bui, Josephine Wan which contains lots of crochet designs to make at home including soft toys, bags and much more! Am truly inspired...thanks to Gina for lending it to me!

As if my new craft wasn't enough to keep me busy this week... I then decided to have a go at making my own pastry which resulted in a rather miraculous homemade pie and with the leftover dough I made some scrummy jam tarts with my little man the day after! All in a days work... :)


 
The pie received my dear husband's (DH) full approval although I think he was as genuinely surprised by my success as I was.... lets hope I haven't set myself up for a fall as  I dare say future crafty and cookery experiments may not be quite so successful!!

Looking forward to a crafty 2012!

Happy New Year!! I am soo excited about 2012, after a long struggle we have finally moved from our one bedroom maisonette into a lovely 3 bedroom semi detached family home - praise God! Now that we are settled in and Christmas is done and dusted I am so looking forward to making our new house a home and have been inspired by Kirstie Allsopp's Homemade Britain series to get creative!

My lovely hubby spoilt me rotten with lots of crafty goodies including sewing box filled with all the essentials, felting mat and tool, papier mache letters (R D and A, one for each of us!), decopatch paper to decorate them with, candle making and mosaic starter kits plus Kirstie's own homemade home and craft books, Cath Kidston Sew! and Homemade Vintage which are all great reads and very inspirational...

So here goes nothing! My very first craft project was to paint and decopatch my son's shoe box to transform it into a little storage box for my already growing collection of ribbons and odds and ends! It is a little rustic looking as the Emma Bridgwater union jack paper that I chose didn't lend itself to well to overlapping as the prints showed through each layer, but I am super pleased with the result! It was very easy and quite therapeutic to boot! Please note that Aaron got in on the artwork with some fingerprint thank you cards to send to family and friends for his christmas presents!