Frank and Josie's House

This year I went a bit crazy but I'm really proud of the fact I made so many Christmas presents. The picture below is a selection. So there's three adult hats,  three kids hats , one pair of gloves and an ear warmer. Add to it another hat for my dad, a pair of slipper boots, a toothless hat, a chunky cowl, a Shield logo cushion, another child's hat, and a partridge in a pear tree. (Not really but it felt appropriate). Today it's the Marvel hat and Shield logo cushion I want to show off about....I mean discuss! I found this awesome website whilst looking for patterns. It's called  The Happy Hooker . Basically the lady's who runs it (Jess) does tapestry crochet and puts up tons of free patterns, most of which have pictures showing you the finished projects. Some are really stunning. I was searching for a Marvel logo for Frank's hat and found one here . I like following chart patterns like this as they are so simple and you can really see what you're doing,...

I'm not normally one to write blog posts about celebrity deaths. I leave it up to other people usually. But waking up the news today that Debbie Reynolds has died only one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher , moves me to write this post. I know there are other turmoils in the world, and I'm not belittling those. Yes, there are deaths every day and wars continue and cause chaos and rip lives apart. I am someone who wears my heart on my sleeve and regularly cries at the news. But it's one of those strange twists in life that because we see celebrities and, in this case, know their films well, can read about their lives etc that we feel we know them, even if all we truly know is their public persona. For me both these women have given a great deal of inspiration. I consider myself an actor. I've deviated from this as a professional career as I had children instead but it remains my first true love. Two films I love (and I mean are my go to films when I'm ill/tired/...

So I can't show much of my Christmas makes just yet but I can show you some of the kids stuff. First is the Polka Dot Dog hat for my baby. This was one of the first presents I started for this year's Christmas haul. It's a really good detailed pattern. I had to alter it slightly as the yarn I had was double knit and not aran (or worsted as detailed). But it was enjoyable to make and the instructions were lovely and clear. I love how detailed the pattern is. Sometimes I feel patterns assume you know a lot about crochet. Whilst I've been crocheting a while I haven't made many hats for babies so it was good to have lots of pictures, which I like to refer to.  The best part was that Rose is young enough I can sneakily try it on her head without her realising what I'm doing! The little touches really make this hat for me. Well they make all the hats to be honest, otherwise they'd just be beanie hats! But I love how easy the details were to make and set in the ri...

I've been so super busy it's been crazy. I suddenly found myself with three part-time jobs which was awesome, if time consuming. I loved it though, and was just starting to hit my stride regarding being a working mum when illness struck.  Suddenly, one day, I was in pain. I thought it was random girl stuff even though it was the wrong time. However, much pain and general exhaustion prompted several trips to the Dr and one to hospital. To cut a long story short it took two weeks to be diagnosed as an ovarian cyst rupture, even now they're not 100% sure. [caption width="721" id="attachment_1104" align="alignnone"] The dog kept me company though and even warmed my seat for me[/caption]  It took me another week to start to feel human again and even now it's touch and go with how much I can do in one day. I have days when I feel great and others when I just have to sit down. It's always crap to be ill but even worse around Christmas especia...

We love  Westonbirt . As a family we try and go there once a week. It doesn't always happen because life is busy but we try, whether it's just me and the dogs or the whole clan. I mean just look at these colours.  The perfect place for a crocheter looking for inspiration. These Japanese Maples are the main attraction during Westonbirt's Autumn Colours feature. So many beautiful colours that it's difficult to really capture. The colours range from bright orange to dark purple with a vibrant red in between. These photos were mainly taken in the Maple Loop of Silk Woods. I took the kids, dogs and our friend during half term and even on a chilly day when we were bitten by little bugs we still had a great day. The kids always collect leaves during this season. They never seem too old for it. The picture below is of some tiny maple leaves. The hand below the leaves belongs to Merida to she you how tiny they are. It's a great place, always has been in our experience, and s...

Bat wings, mummy fingers, carrots cut in the shape of pumpkins, monster cupcakes and ghost gingerbread - it must have been Hallowe'en! We love Hallowe'en in our house, can you tell? Every year we do something for it, even if it's something silly at home like dressing up and painting faces, apple bobbing and dancing to Hallowe'en related songs. This year the main focus was on fun and food! My sister invited us to her house in Dorset to spend the weekend (just) before Hallowe'en. It was the end of half term week and seemed a good note to end the holiday on. The idea was to dress up and play games and watch the Hallowe'en Strictly Come Dancing . I started talking to Merida about the food side of things and we mentioned blood soup and all sorts of grisly ideas. I then logged on to  Pinterest  and then had many more ideas, as is the way of a good Pinterest search! Before I knew it I'd created a new  seasonal recipes board ! So many wonderful ideas. The ones I pic...

Since the kids have gone back to school life has ramped  up to craziness. I know that sentence doesn't quite make sense but I'm tired and wanted to write a blog post about how wonderful I am. (Now there's a statement of self-confidence if ever there was one). I've been neglecting my lovely crochet and prioritising singing. I was asked to be a soloist in a concert (ok so I was asked by my dad but the local paper gave me a good review), I had a gig with my a cappella group and I was in a play (in which I did more singing than had lines ironically, but it was super fun). All of it was great to get the creative juices flowing and the vocal chords warbling.  Here I am doing my thing  But now I'm back to crafting and starting with a little upcycling (I'm still unsure about that word). Basically I wanted to clear a few things out of my house. My son's duvet got trashed by going through the eash, despite carefully followed washing instructions. The outside covering ...