A Very Special Birthday!

Today was my mum's 53rd Birthday! So this is kind of like an appreciation post for mum. 

She requested the Vintage Victoria Sponge cake, from Sprinkle, Sparkle and Magic (Yours truly!) 

Which is two layers of moist and fluffy vanilla sponge cake, sweet fresh cream, blueberries and strawberries, then dusted with icing sugar and topped with more fruit and cream! Perfect for a summers day!

 

You can find the recipe for the above cake here, go check it out! 

The day was filled with slight sunshine and warmth, I really didn't want to go to work cause I wanted to be with my mum! But I'm off until Tuesday so I get to spend the day with her tomorrow which is great! Dad did a great BBQ which was lovely and the whole family came down which was nice too, sadly, Mr. B couldn't be here but he's with his family too which is fair enough! :) 

We are currently watching the new Tv programme The Strain, it's quite good although I don't like what they have done with the Vampires and the tongues and what not, it's strange and just doesn't seem right. But anyway it's okay I suppose we both have our knitting and crochet! This is our beautiful and handsome dog Harry! Also known as Puppy-roo and Harry Potter haha but they're just nicknames haha. He's getting old bless him, he's 14 now :( Want him forever! 

There is some crafts on here tonight! My mum knitted these beautiful cardigans for my second cousin, they're just wonderful! The colourful one is my favourite, think I might get her to teach me how to Knit, I would like to know :) At the moment I'm making some Granny Bunting Triangles, they we're going to be put up around the garden but didn't have time to make them. So I'm just going to add it onto her now, late birthday present (Blanket) and she can put them up around the Caravan which will be lovely. 

All in all, today has been great and I've enjoyed it and so has mum! 

Will post some more tomorrow, 

Much love as always, 

WIDN, WIP and Lean Mean Crocheting Machine

Hi all, me again! 

I promised you an update on the sunburst granny blanket this morning and now I'm back here, like I said I would be! I'm not at work today and thank god as I need some serious catch up time, if I'm going to try and pull this blanket off and get it done for this Saturday! Like Mr. B said, If I do 20 squares a day, by Saturday all I will be doing is joining all the squares together and tiding up loose ends. 

At the moment my day consists of making as many second rounds as possible, I'm sure there's an actual word for it, but I'm going with that one as it makes more sense to me. I was going to get 10 of each colour done, I already have 10 of each, but you know what I mean  then 40 would be out of the way of 126. 

But at the moment the light blue I'm using is slowly going down, so I thought I might as well reel off as many second rounds as possible then get on with the thirds. Apart from the odd update / post I'm trying to stay of of the Internet as much as possible otherwise I will never get anything done. 

If I have a break, it will simply be reading The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass, which is a great read so far, gutted they're not releasing the second film now! Shall have to re-watch the City of Bones and refresh my memory. 

The above photo is how the blanket is looking so far which is great to say that I didn't start this project not long ago, I am pleased with myself! It's getting there, once I've got some more squares together and I'm reunited with my Darning needle again. I will start to join the squares together in rows, which I can't wait to do. I also need to get started on the other blankets!! Ahh so much too do, so little time!

But for now I need to get cracking with work, I will add the links to some recipes I am putting onto the cake blog later. 

Speak later all! 

Happy Crocheting! 

Large MP3 Case

Hey everyone!

It's just a quick post this morning as I have a current WIP that I need to try and get finished before this Saturday! Ahh! If you've read my latest post, you will know that I am on about the blanket I am doing for my mum, I was originally doing 190 squares but don't know whether to do 125 now, I shall soon see if I have enough time! I will be doing a post later on today about it. 

A couple of weeks back I made an mp3 case for my music player, do you remember? If not take a look! So Mr. B decided he wanted one for his and of course, I had to make one! He chose this lovely Emerald colour that I already had at the bottom of my wool bag (Monsters Inc - Disney reusable bag - Excellent use for everything! I use them to store my cake stuff in too and for college!)

The wool was Hayfield Bonus DK in Emerald and was lovely to work with! :) 

I'll be honest, as the MP3 is a lot bigger than mine it took me quite a while to get the same length and width for each side (I didn't count them like a numpty!) Using a 4mm hook, I then just kept going until it reached the right size, then got the front and the back and darned it together :) I have since realised that I should of probably crocheted the sides together using a single stitch, but hey! I'm still learning! ;) 

Needless to say that he loves his new case for his MP3 and has requested some more, should this one get damaged in anyway, after all his MP3 was not on the cheap side, but he loves his music and only wants the best ;) 

Will post more later!

Happy Crafting! 

What a Gloomy Evening!

Evening everyone! 

How are we all doing? Up to much? 

The weather was so lovely this morning down in South Yorkshire today, it was sunny and bright and I even got sent home from work early! Which was good as I've got quite a bit of crochet done, woo!

Though it is rubbish in some ways as I won't get paid much for today, but it's not the end of the world!

But yeah, it was lovely and sunny, though it was really humid which can only mean one thing over here in the UK. Thunderstorm and  my god it has thrown it down! It's stopped for now but it has been coming and going and also thundering and lightening! I do love listening to the rain though, it's so peaceful. 

As I said, I have been able to get up to speed with some of the crochet for this blanket of my mums :) 

It's been nice, she was at home today so we sat watching The Boxtrolls - We still like watching Disney films regardless of our ages, who doesn't love a good Disney film? :)

Mum sat and did some of her Knitting and catching up with all the baby jumpers she's doing and I've been sat catching up with blankets and her's too! Though I could only go unto the 2nd round as I don't want her to see what colours I'm doing! Here was the before shot of all the 1st rounds I made!

And here's all the 2nd rounds! I finally feel like I'm catching up with it all and I'm quite positive that I may get it all finished or at least a couple of days late for her birthday! It's better than a month late though! Granted they all need darning. I will hopefully be getting them all to round 3 this afternoon. 

I'm back at work tomorrow which is rubbish, only because it's a weekend haha but I don't mind I get to see Mr. B tomorrow as well so I'm excited about that too! Don't you think flowers looks just as beautiful with raindrops on them? 

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend and thinking of me when you're all having fun ;)

Will update soon!

Happy Crocheting!

Much love as always, 

 

Plans for the day

Hey everyone! 

How are you all? What do you plan on doing today? 

Right now I'm enjoying a late breakfast of a lovely bacon and eggs sandwich with a caramel coffee, as I've just finished watching the rest of the first season of New Girl, which I loved! 

I'm going to get as much of my crocheting down today as there is no reason as to why I shouldn't! I've got the day off and not working today and it's the only chance I have to get stuff sorted!

I made a load of the first round last night for the Sunburst Granny blanket I'm making for mum, which is supposed to be all finished for next week - it's not going to be done I can assure you! 

I have got 20 squares so far and need something like 190, so I don't know when it will get get finished but I will keep you updated on the progress :) I'm still doing the squares in group stages, it's so much quicker and easier to learn :) 

A couple of days ago Mr. B and I went up to the park and picked some fresh Blackberries, they we're so nice! Much better than buying them from the shops, they're right of my doorstep so no point in hopping on a bus to go and get some from Asda is there? Fresh is best! 

I made an Apple, Pear and Blackberry crumble with them, which was just lovely with a lovely pool of custard - Yummy! I will post the recipe up on the cake blog soon and when I do, I shall post the link up on here for you all - as well as the other recipes :) 

Just look at how beautiful they are though! Gorgeous! 

For now I am off! But I will be posting later with what I'm doing or things I've made! 

Happy Crocheting! 

Much love, 

Old Pillow's

Evening everyone!

Thought I would do a quick post, it is something I made in the past!

So this was a pillow I made a while back, couple of years maybe? That I made for Sam, he's an avid Guitarist and owns an old fashioned 1970's HH amp, he's also a big fan on T.Rex. 

So I decided to copy his amp and made it into a Pillow for his birthday! It was a surprise and he loved it :) 

It was just black material for the amp, then all the other bits sewn on like the buttons and lettering were felt. All hand sewn, as well as the pillow case itself. I did make this after the T.Rex pillow and the case is removable, as I added on some pop studs.

I also made another Pillow before the HH one, which was based around the band T.Rex which is one of his favourite, hence why he has HH amps ;) He does love the amps though and the pillows haha 

The pillow is looking a bit worse for wear now, it had a drink spilt on it and at the time, I didn't make the cover removable so it's all stitched up. I sewed on the letters out of leopard print felt and sewed the whole pillow cases together by hand :) it was like a white silt material with multicoloured shiny stars on. 

I will do another post later of things that are more current! 

But for now, I need to get some crocheting done!

Happy Crafting!

Mini Project: Sony MP3 Case

Evening everyone! 

What have you all been up to recently?

I was going to post this a couple of  days ago, but I never got round to it, what with making all the blankets and what not. Busy, busy bee! 
Be warned -  The pictures are a little bit dull I'm afraid. 

So here it is! Sadly I can't remember the pattern for it as I made it up as I went along. 

I do know that it is all in single and chain stitches. 

I managed to roughly make them the same size which I am so happy about, as I made one for Mr. B and his was a pain to do, but I eventually did it in the end. 

I decided to do the sides separate this time, compared to the first one I did where I did it in one long, stretch and then stitched it all the way around. It looks much better like this...

And it looks a lot neater once all sewn together! Quite proud of myself really, it's nice and snug so it wont fall out either! I was going to make one for my Kobo but I can't seem to find it anywhere :( Which I am gutted and a little worried about, I'm sure it will turn up somewhere!  

*Crosses fingers and toes*

So here we have it! Was a nice quick and little project to do, there is a hole in it, simply because I was going to make a fasten on clip form the back with a button but then I couldn't be bothered as I felt it looked cute already! 

Will post again soon! 

Happy Crafting! 

Much love, 

Goldfish Case

Hi everyone!

I know what you're thinking, a case for an actual Goldfish?!

I am happy to tell you that it isn't, it's just the name I have decided to give it as I felt like the colours went well. Infant, I might make a blanket out of those colours for myself :D 

Don't you think the colours are just beautiful? 

Oooh I could squeal I'm so excited about them haha 

I decided to make up a pattern, in all honesty it's not too great but next time, it shall be wonderful!

Mr.B asked me to make him a case for his new MP3 player, it's not your average MP3 either. It's like this big industrial expensive one, and trust me, even I wouldn't want it to get broke. 

The pattern consisted of: 

Chaining 12 and then turning the work around, doing a treble crochet into every chain stitch. Continually turning over your work as you go and doing this to the desired length and height. I used a 5mm hook

I think I did about 28 rows altogether, I then just used the folding method and just sewed up the left and right sides. 

I know that the stitching isn't that great around the outside but hey ho! I'm still learning and will get there the next time I make one. I did make a button but he decided he didn't want it, which was a shame cause it was so cute! So here it is! it fits nice and snug, which is what he wanted the design to be and it's not safe and has a little home! 

I present to you...

The Goldfish! 

Much love as always, 

Emma 

Bag Update

Hey everyone! 

Hope we're all okay? 

It's just a quick update really, you know the bags that I we're making a couple of weeks ago? 

Well...They're finished!

Here's the front of the Space bag - I did eventually add in some red ribbon for the drawstring, but I forgot to take a pic! I'll post another one up at some point!

Here's the space one that I made out of the lovely, vintage space material that I found in my Nan's sewing room. This material and all the others are so unique and I just love them, more so because they were what my nan purchased years ago, and now that she's not around anymore, I feel like I have some small connection with her and I love it. She would of been happy and pleased that I'm making good use out of them!

Back in the day my nan was a seamstress, and I remember going to Colebrothers in town and walking around aimlessly with her, looking at all the different materials and buttons and what not, it was so lovely. I also I have a pink blanket with white sheep on, that I remember going with her to get when I was younger :) 

Anyway!...

And here's the back of the bag! Such lovely colours! 

I also made another one, I couldn't help myself! This material was a little bit thicker which was nice to work with, but not as smooth going through the machine as the other two (Green pinstripe one) 

The material was lovely and bright, it reminds me of Spain for some reason. I think it's the colours and flowers on the material itself, so lovely and vibrant though. I added some lime green ribbon for the drawstring and I think it makes it stand out all together and brings in those colours! 

Here's a close up of the pattern and the drawstring!! I love it! I know that the stitching on the ribbon is red, I didn't have any green so just had to improvise, but I don't mind as it's only for me!

I will do another post soon as I an working on mini project! Keep your eyes open for it! 

Much love as always, 

Learning The Puff Stitch

Hey everyone! 

Hope we're all okay? 

I've had a good day, work has been good but now I'm getting tired, I just want to curl up in to a ball and do some crocheting.

I recently learnt a new Granny Square pattern, with thanks to Bella Coco, her videos are amazing and so much help! I just love this pattern and the colours that I have used for the squares!

Although I am not new to crocheting, I am new however, to some stitches. Such as the Puff Stitch, which has now become one of my favourites and it just looks so pretty! 

I thought it would of taken me longer to figure out the stitch but it wasn't that hard, it was a bit complicated at first because I couldn't get the hook to go through all 7 loops, but then on the next Puff Stitch square, I crocheted them a little baggy and the hook went straight through like a dream! 

I am currently making 7 blankets and this is one of them, it's for my mum who's birthday is this month on the 29th, so I've got to get cracking with it! 

So far I have done about six squares, I still have a long way to go and I'm hoping I can get it finished in time, but I'm starting to learn and remember the patterns quickly.

I have found that the quickest way for me to get through them personally, and to get more done is to do them as a group. So with the above photo for example, I would crochet loads of 'part squares' up to The Puff Stitch stage, then I would carry on and do the next round...

As above, and then I would do the final stage. This way I get to learn the pattern quicker by continuously doing the same stitch over and over, instead of changing stitches and colours all the time. And I also get the squares done quicker too.

So, I'm getting there quite quickly, or I would hope I am haha I'm currently trying to find some other patterns for the other blankets I'm doing, well I only need one for another blanket, but I'll find one soon enough. If anyone out there has any patterns, please let me know! :) 

I love the colours of the squares, they just seem to go together really well and look nice and summery.

Just a quick post to say where I am at the moment, will post some more later and tomorrow as I've got to get cracking with these squares! ;) 

Till next time!