Pierrot Yarns

Just skipping in here in an excited manner to share with you a website I just happened upon whilst looking for a pattern for an oval rug.  I found this pattern which is just what I was looking for....

...then I got drawn into the site as they have some simply amazing patterns.  Pierrot Yarns is a Japanese site with loads of free patterns translated into English (by using slightly scary looking crochet charts).  The patterns are just luv-er-ly!

Here are just some that I have to make immediately, though of course I don't have the time to make them immediately so I shall just have to dream of having the time....

The Newsboy Cap, which would look cute as a pudding on Lillia...and the Carnival Hat for me...

Don't get me started on the bags! Oh the bags! 

The Ribbon Accent Bag, oh my!

 

And the Striped Bag makes me want to grab my hook right now...

The Floral Pouch would be excellent to make for gifts...

And for the home, among all the cute blankets and rugs there's this gorgeous Pillow pattern...

Lastly how about these cosy Blossom Slippers now that the nights are getting cooler?

So now I need to teach myself how to properly read crochet charts (I am a little rusty) so I can get on and start ploughing through all these tempting patterns.

All pictures and patterns are from Pierrot Yarns and are copyright of Gosyo Co. Ltd, who kindly agreed to let me use them so I could share them with you :)  They also have a rather lovely online yarn shop, head over there if you dare!  My debit card is twitching in my purse already....eek.

Rocks and flowers

I just wanted to share with you some lovely sunny pictures taken over the weekend.  With Mr Snipsnaphappy away on a stag weekend (axe throwing and whisky drinking) the girls and I decamped to my mum's house with it's large sunny back garden, and of course the extra pair of hands offered by Granny!

There is something about bright flowers on a backdrop of stones on a hot day, I just can't resist taking photos of them...

I even got a chance (ok about five minutes) to put my tootsies up and browse through the latest Ideal Home magazine.  I like to play my own personal game of "When I Have My Forever House I Will...." when browsing through interiors magazines.  In this case When I Have My Forever House I Will have a guest room that looks very much like this...

*sigh* How lovely :)

Not so sunny the last couple of days of course, but that's fine with me, I do love a bit of rain. Half term is now over, Lillia is back at school & we are on the last leg of the school year...lots of change and transition afoot this year...

To Ali, With Love

Well well, a whole week has zoomed passed in a whirlwind!  So much to share with you!   Firstly, I finally decided to make the move away from breastfeeding.  It had been a long hard and exhausting experience and one I was determined to give my best go, I am very sad to be stopping, very sad, but at the same time I am now emerging faster and stronger (and ever so slightly fatter) from this post-natal depression.  For the first time in over three months I straightened my hair, bought a new top, stopped subconsciously wearing only black, started enjoying my baby.  I am still feeding her every evenng and there is a lot to say about this whole story, but another time. 

This week is half term and it has been insane here.  My first week alone with my two girls has been...brilliant.  Granted it has been hectic, messy, nuts, noisy, stressy, sometimes verging on impossible but on the whole it has been so bloody rewarding, the sense of achievement I get from surviving the day with nothing to show for it but two exhausted, snoring and happy girls I can't put into words.  Plus, we've had four nights with the baby sleeping through (touch wood) which means I can finally indulge in a couple of well earned glasses of wine :)

Two other things have brought smiles to me this week - both of which arrived via snailmail...

What's my favourite colour? That would be yellow.  What's my favourite combination of colours?  Um, yellow, orange and pink actually.  What's my favourite craft?  That'd be crochet. 

The ever glamorous and ever fabulous Charlotte who writes the hugely inspirational Lottie Loves blog sent me this scarf.  It was a huge surprise when I reached into my mailbox (yes we have a mailbox) and retrieved the parcel.

"What is it mummy?", asked Lillia. 
"I don't know but it's from America", said I.
"Ooooh, Amerwica...can I open it?", said Lillia.

I shall be wearing this scarf until the weather turns spring-like and warm and the other mums on the school run think I am nuts.  Ha!  Thank you Charlotte, it really has made me smile :)

The second snailmail surprise I received was this utterly gorgeous print...

Gretchen, who writes at June at Noon, has been a long-term bloggy friend, but she is also somebody whose work I am in awe of.  Her sewing and embroidery is amazing, but her illustration...well...

I just love it, it is totally my "thing", completely my style.  I love to collect original prints of art that just appeals to me but I don't often treat myself.  Hubby surprised me by ordering me this print of Gretchen's "unexpected" illustration for Valentine's day.

Included was a small print of her "catch" illustration too.

I am a lucky girl.  I have a friend who cares enough to make me something gorgeous just to cheer me up, a bloggy mate who is an inspiration on many levels, a husband who surprises me with something he knows I will love.  Plus I have two beautiful girls who I am at last appreciating and enjoying fully.  And it's only February...

:)

Handmade rabbit

On my last day at work my lovely colleagues sent me off with some lovely clothes and toys for the baby.  They know how much I love handmade so the clothes were handmade and beautiful, as well as this gorgeous little bunny...

Isn't she lovely?  She is called "Rag Rab" and she is made by Once Upon Juliet.  Unfortunately they have no online presence that I can find so I can't provide you with a link, but if you live in London they have a stall at Spitalfields Market every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

£40 Voucher Giveaway!

The lovely people at CSN Stores have given me another chance to do a little giveaway for my lovely readers - I have a whopping £40 voucher to give away to the lucky winner! Not heard of CSN yet?  They're a UK based online supplier of..well..pretty much everything from wardrobes to wall-art, lamps to cookie cutters.  If you win you can use the voucher in any of their online stores and treat yourself (or someone else if you're feeling really generous) to something lovely in time for Christmas!

I wanted to do a little giveaway of this kind for purely selfish reasons - I need a little good karma to come my way.  I am having a Bad Week.  Considering it's only Monday night you can imagine how rough my day has been!  I am not well at all and could end up being admitted to hospital for the remaining 3 weeks of my pregnancy...I don't want this obviously so I need all the postive karma I can get!

In the absence of any of my own photos to accompany this post, and in honour of winter fast approaching, here are some lovely frosty things I picked out from CSN..stuff I would definitely be buying if I were lucky enough to have a £40 voucher...

Marvell's Ltd Winter Tree Scene Wall Art

KitchenCraft Star Shaped Cookie Cutters

Dar Lighting Gazetta Table Lamp

This giveaway is open to UK readers only I'm afraid as they only ship to the UK, sorry lovely US readers!  All you have to do is leave me a comment (and send a little luck and positive vibes my way of course).  Make sure you leave your email address please, if I can't get in touch with you I can't send you your online voucher!

You have until 7pm GMT this Friday (12th Nov) night to enter.  What are you waiting for?

Why I believe in handmade

(I just posted this in my other home and thought my readers here would enjoy a little crafty eye candy too!)

I love to make my own handmade things, and I love to buy things handmade by others.  In fact I feel rather strongly about it. 

Why buy a generic gift set from the high street when you could spend less, or the same, and get something totally original whilst supporting small producers?

Halloween Spiders by Diomo Glass on Folksy

I am sure those that read my blogs need no convincing, I am more than likely preaching to the choir.


Hair flowers by Calexendra on Etsy

This is all rather indulgent really, a blog-post equivilent of a cuppa and slice of cake :) 

The spiders are my most recent purchase - for my Halloween decorations - they are simply too cute for words, I am tempted to keep them out all year round.  The flower hair clips are from one of my most favourite Etsy sellers who happens to also be a fellow Kentish girl! I wear one or two of her flowers every day, it makes it look like I have made an actual effort with my appearance rather than just scraping my hair back in a hurry :) 

I have a very talented best friend who is a fiend with beads and a wire cutter.  She made the above necklace for her shop and I nicked it before it could get listed.  I wear many of her items every day and I always get comments.  It's great to say, "This?  Oh, it's handmade...I got it from Folksy..." in reply to the where did you get it question. 

Blue and Pink Rose Clock by Elibee Gifts on Folksy

The creativity that is out there in the UK, lurking on Folksy and Etsy, is amazing.

The Green Collection Button Ring by Maisie Wilson on Folksy

And so many people don't even know about such sites!  Folksy especially seems to be rather unknown.

Key to Your Heart Earrings by Lonely Hearts on Folksy

The whole process of buying directly from sellers on Etsy and Folksy is wonderful.  When your item arrives it is often wrapped so beautifully you feel you are getting a gift sent by a friend.

Sterling Silver Textured Surface necklace by Esme Dodsworth Design on Folksy

And the best part is that you are getting something totally original as something handmade will never be totally uniform, will never look as though it fell off the production line.

Vintage Image Christmas Decorations by Silent Theatre on Folksy

So you can always be safe in the knowledge that you carry a little bit of originality with you wherever you go.  Like the brooch on my shopping bag which gets used every single day...

Flower brooch by June at Noon on Etsy

So with Christmas season starting more or less now (yay!) don't forget to buy handmade - your friends and family will be delighted and you will get a reputation for being a great gift-giver!  You know it makes sense.

"Ahhh, nature! It’s all over me, get it off!"

The title of this post has to of course be credited to the great Melman the Giraffe, from Madagascar.

It started well enough, a lovely red leaf on the side of our path, the first sign that autumn is well and truly in full swing...

But then it all went a bit wrong.

As I was emptying the washing up bowl the biggest spider I have ever seen fell out from between two plates.  It was dead and scrunched up in that creepy dead spider way.  It scared the heeby jeebies out of me!  I didn't know what to do with myself, so I just darted about the kitchen for two minutes going "eeeeeyyyyyeeeeeerrrrrrrgghhh"!!  Then I soaked some kitchen towel and dropped it on the beast, just in case it was playing dead and waiting to strike once I had been lulled into a false sense of security.

So now I have a load of washing up that I can't do until hubby gets home and removes the creepy corpse from the sink.  *shudder*

After that brush with nature I headed out to pick up a prescription.  I stopped on the path to take a picture of some lovely autumnal looking berries to share with you.  Just as I was snapping a gigantic beetle buzzed out from behind a neighbouring bush and flew at my head.  Hence the displaced focus of the photo...

THEN as I got in the car I was met with a squatter setting up home in my wing-mirror....

I let him be.  No spider I meet from now on will ever scare me in the same way the tarantula in the sink did.

Nature is also against me in other ways.  I have been taking my homeopathic remedies for two weeks now and although I am seeing subtle improvements its not enough to get me fully back to the real world.  So today I had to consider something a little less natural...

This is just a third of my stash of steroids for an eight-week course should I choose to take them.  For now they are sitting on the shelf taunting me, we could make you better, we could do nothing at all, either way we definitely make you fat...

Decisions decisions.

My favourite blogs..and a thank-you

I have been fortunate enough since starting this blog to meet (in the virtual sense) some pretty fabulous people.  I don't think I spend enough time singing the praises of those whose blogs I love to visit, who make me laugh, and who provide support in the form of comments, little tweets, emails or through the writing and pictures in their inspirational blogs.  So it is time for me to give a little back!  Over the next month (or six, may as well take my time) I am going to draw attention to some (not all, or I'd be here all year!) of my very most favourite blogs, so that others who pass by here can find other fantastic bloggers. 

So first up!  Lottie Loves.

Picture: Lottieloves

Lottie and I are no strangers to each other in the virtual world, and we've even met twice in real life, as we both suffer from the same illness which we both used to blog extensively about (I still do occasionally).  Before this though we met through Babyworld when I was pregnant with Lillia and Lottie was pregnant with her second son.

Picture: Lottieloves

She is a crafty mum of two and a bit of a domestic diva truth be told.  I've never been to her house but I bet it's very stylish!

Picture: Lottieloves

Lottie is also a big fan of the the 1940s and wartime things, she's an expert (!) West Coast Swing dancer and as if that were not all enough she is also a Labour fundraiser AND she and her lovely hubby were the last couple in Britain to get married in the 20th century!

First Blogland..then the WORLD!

Lottie also recently nominated me for the MADS awards, which was a lovely thing to do, but even lovlier was the post she wrote when she did so.



When I read what she had written I was so touched.  Most of us just get on with things don't we?  Yes things can get pretty hard sometimes but you'd bore everyone to tears if you harped on about it (besides that's what my other blog is for!)  So for somebody to say such lovely things, to acknowledge what you go through, or what you have been through, and say a kind of "well done you"...well...that's just amazing.  Truly.  Especially when it is said by somebody you really like and appreciate.  I won't be asking for further nominations or pursuing this though, just because being nominated at all is basically the same as being handed an Oscar for me!  I am very easily pleased :)

So, basically if you have a moment make a cuppa and head on over to Lottie's blog, she has some interesting things to say, she makes some lovely crafty things, she is a fantastic mummy and a genuinely lovely person, you won't be disappointed.

Ooh, that was fun writing that.  Now..who will be my next victim..?

My new kitchen hook

I love cake I do!

I love making it and I love eating it and I love neat, colourful little images of cake too.

When we went shopping on Lillia's birthday earlier this week we couldn't resist a visit to the Mystical Fairies shop at Bluewater here in Kent. 

We went in to find a little birthday treat for Lillia, which we did in the form of a decorate-your-own princess mirror, but we also came away with a little treat for me too...

I've needed a hook for my kitchen calendar for ages and now I have the perfect cakey one to use...

It is perfect for hanging my calendar (a freebie from Ideal Home magazine)...

Now I'll remember all those April birthdays...including mine!  ;)

Hope you are all enjoying the Easter weekend xx