Cherry Treats

Last year, I thought it would be nice to make my friend Jen a bag for her birthday.  She love love loves cherries, in all their cuteness, so I decided to adapt a bag from Stitch 'n Bitch: The Happy Hooker and turn it into a little cherry bag for Jen.



Here's the plain bag, in nice simple white.



With some cutie cherries attached.



And then finally lined, with a pocket!

I actually finished the bag part in time for her birthday last year, but it just took me FOREVER to get around to lining it.  And while I finally sent it to her for her birthday this year it was still late!  Whoops!  But I think she liked it :)

Now enough homemade pressies for others, I need to make something for myself for a change!

Rainbow Extraordinaire!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I decided to make a baby blanket for my niece/nephew to be.  As we didn't know the sex, I decided to go for something bright, colourful and gender neutral: RAINBOW!

And I thought to myself, "Well, it needs to be substantial enough, with lots of colours...." so I decided on six colours.  I've done stripey blankets before, so I decided on granny squares.  I found a neat pattern on Ravelry called Around the World Crochet Quilt, and therefore went forward with my 13x13 blanket.  13x13=169 squares.  That's a lotta squares.  A lot a lot.  I started this back in March, with the baby due in May.  I have to admit, I slacked a bit, especially when we went to LA.  But all in all, it didn't take too long to make all the squares.  I was still working on it when Aodhan was born (May 10), but I finished the squares soon after.  Don't they look pretty?

And I thought to myself, "Goody! The tough part is over!"  All that was left was to sew them together.  Easy peasy, right?

Oh. My. God. Wrong.  First, I needed to sew them into 13 strips.  It took me over an hour to do one strip.  So 13 hours later, I had 13 strips that still needed to be sewn together.  But that should be easy enough, right?  No stopping and starting at ends? 

Oh. My. God. Wrong.  To sew one strip to another took OVER an hour. Aye Caramba!  But I missed my first deadline anyway (seeing him at 2 weeks old), so I worked to my new deadline (seeing him at 2 months old).  Sew sew sew.  Sew sew sew.

I finally finished sewing it together and it looked bloody fantastic!!!!!!!!

I quickly added a thin red border around it (once again thinking, "Oh this part should be easy", and once again, being totally wrong), and voila!

Slightly blurry!

pre-sewn, foolishly thinking I was almost finished! Ha!

All in all, I'm very pleased with the results, but very finished to see the end of it!  Now on to something for meeeeeeeeeeee!

Leashie Weekend

I finally get to enjoy having my friend live nearby! Leashie moved to London (ish) back in November, and we've seen each other a couple of times (Thanksgiving and Christmas) but this weekend is the first spontaneous weekend we've planned!  Yippee!

Don't actually have much planned (apart from yarn stuff, I'm sure!), but it will be great to see her.  Now I just need to do the same with Zonko...

R and I have also booked a 3-day weekend up to Edinburgh the first weekend in March.  We haven't been since June, so I'm really looking forward to it.  It's tough going to the 'burgh - it makes me miss it so much each time we go, and it's always tough to come back.  Now that we're on course for the 'Plan' to move back to LA, we've realised we probably won't ever live in Edinburgh again.  What a sad thought :(

But, check out me and Leashie in Edinburgh almost 5 years ago! Look how cute we are :)

KHMXmas

Just about my fave show on TV is Location Location Location. Maybe it's envy, maybe it's middle class porn, whatever. I love it! And I love Phil and Kirstie.


I love Kirstie's style. She is just lovely and so personable. Look at that grace!


Do you know what else I love?


Christmas!

So what could possibly be better than Kirstie AND Christmas???

Kirstie's Handmade Christmas!

I've enjoyed it the past two nights, but unfortunately will miss tonight's as I'm about to head out for my book group meeting. Last night was so cozy, watching lovely gifts being made with care, whilst I was crocheting and working on my own little handmade gifts.

There have been so many Christmas programmes on TV so far this month, and I just love it. Luckily, R indulges me, and puts up with the endless carols and mince pies (so hard, I know!)

Only two more weeks left to get those pressies finished!

Tree Decorations

I love love love Christmas tree decorations. A couple years ago, we ended up buying a 'starter pack' at WHSmith, and it was shite. Absolutely shite. So we're starting fresh this year (well, keeping the super cute red berry lights). Here are a few of my faves!

Embossed Metal Heart Decorations - Velvet

Glitter Wobble Leg Santas - John Lewis

I hate sprouts glass bauble - Homebase

Little London Telephone Box - Liberty

Reindeer Mini Decorations - Paperchase

I've also found a lovely tutorial from Attic 24 for these badboys (which I will be making, en masse, all night, thank you very much):

click here for tutorial

I think we're going to have a pretty snazzy looking tree, if I don't say so myself...

I'm still here...

I've been absolutely rubbish on the blogging front. What have I done recently?

*been locked out of Facebook (still feeling the pain...please let me in!!!)
*applied for law vacation schemes
*started on birthday and Christmas pressies
*planned my Thanksgiving menu
*thought about moving to London
*not started on my book group book, Wolf Hall
*saw Up, in 3-D (I'm such a sucker for these Pixar films - tears streamed down my face the WHOLE film)
*comforted my mom when she told me my sister was expelled from school for being a drug transaction stooge

This weekend feels like the kick off to the Christmas season. It's Kate's birthday, so we're heading into London. R has a seminar at uni on Saturday, so I'm going in early and having a wee peek at Christmas Land at Harrods:

Then we have Thanksgiving, James' first birthday party, Christmas lunch at work, The Pogues concert, with a few Christmas meals with friends/family thrown in, then off to Ireland with les parentals. Should be a hoot, and I will be up to my eyeballs in yarn for pressies! I've already started on YOURS!

Winter Hat numbero uno

I did a nice and easy winter hat project last weekend, and I'm quite pleased with the results. I used the leftover wooly cream yarn from R's skull and cross bones jumper, so it's super warm, but it doesn't have much stretch to it. I like the little puffs on it, but I might try and make a simpler beret, or a nice beanie, as well. At the moment, I'm too skint to buy a new winter coat, so it looks like I'm stuck with my plain black pea coat. As long as I keep up with nice bright accessories, like hats, scarves, and gloves, it won't be too dull!

Terminator eyes will KILL YOU

R's Birthday

Man oh man have I been crap on the blogging front. I keep having ideas in my head about what I want to write about, and then keep telling myself 'Set some time aside to write, K!' But it never seems to happen.

Anyway, R's birthday was 5th September, the big 3-3! We had a nice little Saturday, heading off for lunch at Woodie's Diner for some good ole' fashioned American food and shakes (not really, they really just don't quite do it right here!). Then we headed into town, and I got stuff to make for dinner for him. I cooked the most delish cheese enchilads and the most AMAZING brownie cake I have ever tasted in all my 25 years on this Earth. Devine.




For birthday pressies this year, we've decided to be a bit more frugal and not spend more than £25. I went slightly overbudget, but well worth it, methinks!

Tiger slippers! How cute!
super stoked

I'm pretty proud of this! I made the whole thing in secret (and it took FOREVER) but it fits him so well! And it's super warm and soft and looks fab. I can't wait for it to get colder so he can start wearing it to work/uni. He'll be the most bad ass PhD student ever :)

The following weekend, we did a bowling birthday bonanza at Bloomsbury Lanes, an(other) American themed place, that has bowling lanes, karaoke and diner. We bowled for an hour, and then ate/drank ourselves silly. A good night out, even if the food wasn't great. Lots of photos, none of them good, so I won't bother posting. Low point of the evening? Aggressively grabbing the bacon beer (yes, bacon beer) from J, calling him a pussy for not drinking it, and downing it in one go. Yes, Uncle K made an appearance, and it was not pretty. At least I managed to avoid the tequila, unlike R.

After waking up feeling slightly worse for wear on Sunday, it turns out R's brother O got us tickets to see Everton (R's absolute favourite football team) play Fulham, whose grounds happen to be about 1/2 mile from theirs. Yippee! Even though Everton lost (boo), it was so great for R to finally get to see them play, after being a loyal supporter for so long.




Next is my birthday, on Wednesday. Shady Ninja will be here to share in the festivities, yay! I booked for Wed-Fri from work, so I have a 2-day work week, woot woot! Can't beat that.

PS - we're already looking into booking flights back to Ireland for Christmas. Can you believe it??? It's like the holidays are just around the corner (although, it's still too early to play Christmas music according to SOME people, bah humbug)

new bits of reading material

I picked up a couple of books from Borders today that I'm pretty excited about!

The first was on sale, and I thought too good of an investment to skip. While we don't plan on having babies for awhile, lots of our friends (and family, soon!) are well on their way to increasing their family, so I thought it would be a good idea to have a crafts book for baby pressies.

find it on Amazon here

It has some super cute things in it, like hooded towels and mobiles. I can't wait to get started on things other than crocheted blankets. Don't get me wrong, I love the crochet hook, but I need some new projects!

The other book will help fill my time now that triathlon training is almost finished (one more swim tomorrow, and that's me until Sunday!!!)

find it on Amazon here

I want to focus on getting my body into tip top shape, so I'm going to start a new exercise regime that centers around units (30 mins), trying to fit in 10-15 a week (closer to 15), and doing at least 3 weights-based workouts a week. This book has a lot of good tips and exercises for ladies, so I'll definitely be getting a bit of use out of it.

In the mean time, I have a few crochet projects sitting around, waiting to be finished, including two bags for friends and a shawl project for my mom (I found the most delish merlot coloured cotton yarn in DK weight, can't wait to get it started!)

Only 3 more sleeps until the Triathlon!

all by myself...

R's away in Wales for a conference where he's giving a paper (smarty pants). He left this morning. It always feels really strange behing home alone now, especially sleeping by myself. That's probably when I miss him the most (although I love sleeping diogonally).

I've filled my evening with phone calls back home (side note, apparently my cousin is dating a Tunisian dude - my grandma must be wetting herself with excitement! the rest of us are married to white boys!), crocheting and crap property shows - and will probably do the same tomorrow (replace crap property show with fave movie ever, A Fish Called Wanda). I think 2 nights will be enough - nice to be able to be boring and do my boring things, but I do miss my husband tons.

one more thing

awww thanks Alicia :) An award from The Knitty Gritty recognising all my hard work! I'll try to blog a bit more about my crochet adventures, I've got tons of projects queued up at the moment.

summer days

I've really been enjoying the weather recently. It actuallys feels like a proper summer! *fingers crossed I don't jinx the rest of the summer*

Everyday for lunch, we've headed out with sandwiches in tow to the lawns on the square outside our building. I've even had the chance to work on a tan for the wedding coming in a couple weeks!

My big project at the moment is a shawl I'm making for my soon to be sister-in-law, Marga. It's from my fave crochet book, Stitch'n Bitch: Happy Hooker, and it's the Sweet Pea shawl, which luckily, Alicia has already made:


I'm doing it in a lovely taupe cotton DK yarn, togged with silver sparkly. I'll add fringe on to the one I'm making, but I love the colour Alicia used above! I've done 8/20 rows, but as they're tapering down, I'm about 2/3 done. It looks fabuloso!

On the tri front, I'm not doing quite as well...I blame it on the nice weather! Who wants to go to the gym when it's gorgeous out? And there's cider to be drunk??? I'm trying to get back into it, though, so discipline thoughts please!

I want to try and finish making a bag for the wedding, too, and another bag for my friend's birthday next month, but I don't think I will have time for all these projects. But as long as I finish this shawl I will be happy! I have until 4th of July - I've arranged lunch plans for my sister-in-laws on the Saturday before the wedding here in Brighton. I'd like to give it to Marga then. Then, it's wedding time!!!!!!!!! (I <3 weddings, by the way)

crochet ttm

I first learned to crochet when I was about 10. I made a little square for my mom (a pot holder, I'm sure I called it), and that was the end of my crochet career for the next decade. I picked up a crochet hook again during my first year at college, and made a few scarves for my mom and grandma (the only people interested in handmade knitwear). This went on for a few years, with random scarves for people (all in the same heavy chenille yarn from Michael's - I'm not one for messing with a good thing!).

Then last year, we found out our friends Glenda and Dave were having a baby boy. I decided to get cracking and make a nice blanket for him. It took me months, and while I'd probably have done it slightly differently, all in all, I was pretty happy with the results:

cute patootie blanket

and apparently James still sleeps with it everynight :) Glenda even said they have a little song for it, sung to the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon: James' Special Blanket - knitted by the sea (*sniff*, so sweet!).

I also practiced some hat making skills and made this cutie (isn't he SOOO CUTE???):

James in his wee hat

It was so much fun making stuff that wasn't just scarves! There is such a great sense of satisfaction for making something yourself, and seeing other people enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Then, last month, we found out our friends Stephen and Donna (who went through some serious tough times last year) had a baby girl, Grace, in secret! No one even knew they were pregnant (they live in Northern Ireland so we don't see them that often). So I knew what I had to do and jumped on making another blanket. I worked at record speed and finished it in a week! (the other blanket took me at least two months). But boy oh boy and I proud of it, it is so soft and so sweet and looks like neopolitan ice cream, yum yum!

zig zags galore!

close up of yummy blanket

With my leftover pink yarn I decided to make a little cardigan, too. Let me tell you, our house has become overfilled with cuteness. I can't stand it! (yes I can, please can I make some more??)

even the little wooden button is unbelievably cute!

So now that those are out of the way, it's time for me to move on to 'big girl' projects. I need to finish my fat bottom bag for my brother-in-law's wedding coming up. I also want to make a shawl in a lovely lacey/sparkly yarn for my sister-in-law to be. Their wedding is outdoors, so I thought it would be nice to have a shawl to cover up as we dance into the night. I'll definitely post my finished projects!

Alicia has been trying to convince me to move into the medium of knitting, but I'd rather get better at my crocheting. I'm starting to get properly into it, and want to see what kind of stuff I can make with my hook before I start moving on to needles! BTW, Ravelry is my new love affair. (I'm solstice930, look for me!)