Spring, spring, spring - must be nearly here?

 

The sun is shining today - horray.  How wonderful everything feels on a bright sunny day.  Spring is definitely on it's way.  Potatoes are chitting everywhere inside!  I've got garlic bulbs to plant out asap and signs of life are coming back in the garden.  The hellebores are flowering and my peonies are starting to show their little maroon tips, lots of fun to be had in the garden soon.

Then amongst the chicken pox and half term a special little girl turned 5. Five! I can't believe it but there we have it and here is her cake - a little bit wobbly and not as smooth as I had hoped but a feat of engineering non the less!  Flopsy Bunny had her party at the weekend and had a fantastic time - I am exhausted having entertained 24 little ones for 2 hours but it was lovely seeing her with all her friends and she was very pleased with her cake - I don't think she even noticed the bumpy icing!

Happy Birthday my gorgeous girl!

Something for the CV?

 

I was wondering - if I ever needed to write a CV again - whether I would add arranging crockery by colour as a skill or an interest?!  I do love those Pantone mugs - as you can see!  So does DH and now they are stocking them in our local hardware store he keeps coming home with a couple more - more colour arranging for me - whoopee!!  Might need a new shelf on the dresser for them soon though . . .

A Busy Bee

Despite lots of sickness lately - yes poor Little Roo has succumbed to the chicken pox and is having a miserable time of it too - I have managed to finish a few projects - all this enforced confinement!  Anyway, a quick ta-dah for my sweetheart cushion, finished - well almost  - a button or two to sew on the back when I've found something suitable.  Flopsy Bunny is suitably impressed with this new cushion because it is small (10"sq) and has a heart on it so it must be for her!

Wizard Boy

At last some dressing up clothes for Little Roo.  As requested by Flopsy Bunny - his very own wizard outfit . . .

. . . and of course every wizard needs a magic wand to cast his spells - which in our house involves turning everyone into a goat!  I used the Simplicity Pattern 5512 - which I fell in love with not least because of the girl's cape.  I have always wanted a cape like that.  I am definitely going to make it for Flopsy Bunny.  She is already asking for a Belle dress (from Beauty and the Beast) and I think she might just have to settle for a Belle cape instead.  As I have some red velvet left over from curtain making and spotted some lovely cream fur trim in Fabric Land recently!!!

So the outfit was a little bit of a pain to make, mainly because I choose some very shiney fabric which frayed a lot.  I appliqued on the stars and set to work making it up.  Lovely design but it was miles too big, the smallest size was age 3 but still Little Roo looked a bit like Dopey from Snow White in it.  Anyway disaster struck with a too hot iron while I was pressing seams and it meant that I had to chop 6 inches off the bottom.  But as it turned out that was exactly the amount needed for it to fit properly!  The purple tabbard has been a great hit with Flopsy Bunny and she likes to wear it for a dance class play.  I've been instructed to make another in pink for her!  I love the edging - silver ric rac and silver bias binding wonderful!  The wand was made from black felt and although not very straight and a bit bendy is great because it won't have anybody's eye out!

Three Beautiful Things

The sun came out on Thursday!  I've started marking the sunny days on my calendar to remind myself I have actually seen the sun recently!!  With all that lovely light I snatched up my camera and ran around taking photos.  It's a bit of a flowery post today but I'm just loving that I have some colour in my house again and some gorgeous flowers too.

There you are, three lots of gorgeousness dotted around and smelling heavenly.  I'm just wishing that spring would hurry up and arrive soon.  I'm itching to get outside and start work on the garden and we have big plans on the veggie front this year!

A little bit flitty and flighty

I've been a little bit flitty and flighty on the craft front recently, which is most unlike me.  Usually I like to finish one project before launching into the next - unless I'm not getting on well with a project and then it just gets parked - usually indefinitely!  Anyway, here I have lots of projects on the go, all of which are going well but there are just too many!!!  Which to do?  Things haven't been helped by some deadlines that have come up, a fancy dress party - yes someone might be going as a wizard!  A birthday - ok I've gone a bit mad on that one - more on that later!  Valentine's day - yes that has passed but those hearts do need felting and I've wool for some more and I might add some embellishments . . .  The list goes on.

Luckily every cloud has a silver lining and the cloud came in the form of a very spotty Flopsy Bunny.  Yes I thought she had some inbuilt immunity to chicken pox the number of times she'd been exposed to it and not got it, but somehow, out of nowhere spots appeared and there we were house bound for a week.  Hmmm what to do . . . .!  So the silver lining has meant that I have managed to crack on with all my projects in a rather flitty and flighty way, while administering to the sick and playing with the toddler - who no doubt will be ensuring another house bound week in the near future!

So the birthday, well, that deserves a post all to itself, not least that not much has been made yet and so in my usual style it will have to form part of the I.O.U. birthday present list.  But I did get the above made and I have to say, I'm very pleased with my efforts!  My first try at needle felting.  Now, any guesses as to what I'll be making . . . .?

Love is in the air : Part 2

A couple of cute little hearts waiting to be felted, and maybe a couple more to join them before they jump into the washing machine.  What a great way to use up left over yarn and a really quick and easy pattern too once I had got my head around what I needed to do.  Again, I found the pattern on Ravelry but you can also find it here.  So I learnt two new techniques with this pattern - who'd have thought it with such a little project!!  I had never tried the figure of 8 method of casting on so that you get equal numbers of stitches on two needles and then knit the front and the back at the same time, but I found a really good clear explanation over at Hello Yarn.  The tops of the hearts are finished off using the Kitchener stitch and I found a good explanation of it at Knitty: little of purls of wisdom.  It always amazes me that you can find out anything on the internet!!!

Anyway, with the help of these lovely blogs I managed to make my hearts.  I did realise as I started to write yesterday's and today's posts that I do get a bit carried away with themes sometimes - I had my Bunny Obsession last year - although I have a feeling that is ongoing  - I have a post or two coming up on that theme!  And I'm obviously going through a bit of a heart thing at the moment!  Now what to do with the hearts when they are finished . . . .!