Pinterest Picks - February 2014

Here's a quick roundup of a few of my favourite images this month:

First - following on the Star Wars theme from Valentines Day:

Star Wars rubber ducks - Valentine quotes (note to self: might be useful next year!) - Han Solo encapsulated in a fridge door! Ha ha ha!!

Next some brilliant hat ideas:

R2D2 hat (just the right shape) - ET hat, good idea but he didn't have blue eyes did he?? - Brain hat, LOVE THIS!!

Finally, so good ol' crochet and knitty fun stuff

Knitted snowment being pulled by rabbits (very random, but brilliant - reminds me of Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit) - Monster Feet slippers, I need to make these! - and a Crochetdermy Rabbit Head which is just gorgeous!

If you love Pinterest, then do pop over and follow my Pinterest boards :)

See you soon - have a woolly weekend!

My 3 Favourite Fictional Couples

Not long until Valentines Day now... and everywhere is filled with hearts, flowers and happy couples!

Of course, if you're not part of a happy couple then you definitely need a knitted monster to hug instead - well, that's what Dave tells me anyway!

To follow the loved-up feeling in the air, I thought I would pick some lovely couples to share with you...

Here's a taster!

Read the rest of this post on my website :)

Some Spring coloured creations!

Hello again! It's gone rather chilly today - very different from the lovely mild weather we've had in the last week or so. Still, at least the sun is shining and so I can try and warm up my frozen fingers by telling myself that yes, it really is spring!

It's been a colourful week - I bought some lovely Cascade wool a while back and have been busy making a few bunny nuggets. Remember them? They got a mention last year in a recent projects post! I would really love to make them all year round - maybe with seasonal add-ons like little sunglasses for summer, or Santa hats for Christmas. Maybe I'll get round to it soon....
By the way, I should mention that the pattern is not my own creation - it's from a very clever lady called Rebecca Danger and if you want to make your own, here is the Bunny Nugget free pattern that she kindly shares with everyone!

Here is the latest Bunny Nugget gang :)

Bunny Nuggets for 2012! 

The one at the front has been turned into a keyring - perfect for a little Mothers' Day gift. If you love it, you can buy it from me on my website.

Finally, at long last I finished my crochet baby blanket! I don't have any babies (and am definitely not expecting any more!!) but a baby blanket is just about the right size I think. A huge doube-bed sized blanket would take me far too long and boredom would soon set in!

I love the bright, spring-like colours.

Granny square baby blanket - finished!

This has been keeping me lovely and warm over winter - and I'm quite sad to finish it. I will miss it's cosy softness sitting on my lap in the evenings. My next one is going to be an organic cotton one I think - just need to find some lovely colours, and wait until my husband isn't around to catch me spending yet more money on yarn!!

Don't forget to pop in and see what the other Handmade Monday bloggers have been up to.

Off now to warm my hands up on the dog!!
Ooh! By the way, I've just discovered Instagram on my phone - it's brilliant, so expect some more of my attempts at photography soon.
I snapped this one of Bea, our beagle, and I just love it :-)

Bea - looking very pretty!

Handmade Wedding Keepsakes

Recently I've been working on something a bit different! As you know (or might not) I run a baby hand/foot casting business when I'm not busy being buried under knitting and crochet.

This year I've decided it's time to move into Wedding Impressions - after all, the whole 'handprint' idea is that it's a keepsake of a special time, capturing a wonderful moment and reminding you of those precious memories whenever you look at it - and weddings most definitely fall into that category!

 I took some hand casts from my friends, then gathered together some lovely little wedding mementos and downloaded a royalty-free photo. They were all mounted together in a solid oak box frame, and I'm really pleased with the end result.

Wedding Impressions and keepsakes

Close-up view

I also did a bridesmaid one which you can see on my Little Impressions Stafford Facebook Page - you can't see it in the photos but I added some confetti before I framed it too. Both frames got some really good feedback from a local wedding fair that my husband went to, so I'm looking forward to doing some more soon :)

If you have friends in Staffordshire who are getting married soon, then you can buy Impressions Vouchers online from Little Impressions.

And finally, here are some other lovely handmade wedding keepsakes that I spotted whilst browsing.

Wedding guest fingerprint art

This is such a great idea - available from Personalized Prints on Etsy

I couldn't do a blog post without some crochet, so here we are:

A beautiful crochet covered stone

These would make beautiful table decorations or wedding favours - see them at Table Top Jewels on Etsy

Crochet necklace

Wish I could make these - see it on my Wedding Keepsakes Pinterest Board

Finally, don't forget to look at Handmade Monday to see what the other creative people have been up to!

See you next time :)

Owls everywhere!

Here we are again - another Monday! As always, do visit Handmade Monday to see lots more lovely craft blogs. 


I'm not a having a very productive one here since the kids have a teacher training day, so one has gone out to work on homework with a friend, leaving the other one here all alone with no-one to play with! So I'd better get on with it...



As mentioned last time, I've been introduced to Pinterest (notice my new button up at the top left?? *hint hint*) and I pinned one of my knitted creations on there. It seemed to get quite a lot of 'repins' so I thought I'd share it with you all too! 

My Little Knitted Sock Owl

It's a prototype really - I think it needs a bit more 'cuteness' somehow. Maybe some more embroidery on it? Does anyone have any suggestions?
The owl was made from hand-dyed sock yarn, and is filled with plastic pellets and lavender so it smells gorgeous!


This then got me thinking about all the lovely handmade owls that there are around, so here are some of my favourites:

Tiny Crochet Owls on Etsy

These are so sweet! I want them all dangling off my bag.

Owl Mobile Phone Cosy on Etsy

Here's another thing on my 'Projects to Make' list!

Owl Cushion from The Purl Bee

This is just too gorgeous and huggable! It's made from alpaca yarn, so I can only just imagine how soft it must be.

Lastly, a lovely big thank you to Jam Dalory for this lovely award - it's very kind, and it's always nice to have a pretty picture to add and brighten up my page! I am struggling to find 5 blogs to award, because all the ones I follow have too many followers to qualify - but I will work on it and pass on the award soon!

See you soon!

Short & Sweet

Ok, I confess - I have rather neglected my blogging duties of late! I could blame all sorts of things - Christmas, New Year, laziness, the children, my very old/slow/unreliable computer etc. etc. All of those things do hinder my progress - so.... I am attempting a new tack. I will try to post more often, but in shorter bursts. Let's see if it works!!!

So, what have I been up to? The most exciting thing is that I'm currently doing a handmade marketing course - so I'm busy learning all about all sorts of cool stuff like branding, writing great product descriptions, the dos and don'ts of selling online... we've covered so much my poor brain can hardly take it all in! This week is our week off, so I'm supposed to be putting it all into action, so I'm gradually re-vamping my website, hopefully listing some things on Folksy and adding to my new Etsy shop - phew!

My new Etsy shop scheme

If you want to have a nosey at the course I'm on, there are some great freebies on their website so do feel free to have a look at Handmade Horizons, and watch this space for more news!

I've also discovered the black hole of gorgeousness that is Pinterest - those of you who are on there already, you will know what I mean!!! I could spend literally hours pinning away, so have had to be strict and set my timer when I'm on there. If you like, you can follow me here.

Finally, here's a couple of recent makes - a mini monster, who lives on my daughter's schoolbag!

Knitted Mini Monster bag charm

and since I'm thinking about Easter - the knitted chickens are back! I've done a variation on last year - this one has been knitted and then felted, and has crochet & embroidered features. She is filled with polypellets and lavender too, so she smells rather nice - unlike real chickens...!

A felted Spring Chicken!

Ok - that's it for now! I shall try to post again sooner rather than later.
Now don't forget to visit Handmade Monday and click on some of the other links!

See you soon ;-) xx

Sudbury Christmas Market - some lovely things!

This weekend I was at Sudbury Hall - a National Trust property near Uttoxeter - where they held a Christmas market over the weekend. Luckily for me, it turned out to be nicely busy!
 I usually display a range of products - some are bought-in wholesale gifts and others are my own handmade items (I don't think I could make enough stock to fill a whole table!) and I have to say that it was the 'bought-in' things that sold more than anything else. I do think that it has a lot to do with the fact that people seem to be being quite careful with their money this year and the imported, mass produced goods are obviously much cheaper than good quality handmade ones. However, it's not all doom and gloom - I did sell a good few of my wooden plaques, knitted boots, crochet toys etc. so I'm happy :-)

I was lucky enough to share the marquee with some very talented and lovely crafters so I thought I'd share some photos with you. Sorry that the quality of the photos is so awful - I used my phone, and I blame the fact that it was so cold that my hands must have been shaking too much!

Well, you know what a fan I am of cute needlefelted critters - imagine how inspiring it was to find these on the stall next to mine! They are amazing aren't they? All made by the very clever Sarah at Two Fat Hens


Needlefelted teddy bears

 It was also lovely to catch up with Naomi from Doveridge Crafts who sells Decopatch materials and also makes her own gorgeous items - check out this chair!


Decopatch chair in progress

 I love the way the paper blends so well with the colour of the wood - what a lovely way to make a piece of furniture really special. I couldn't resist a closer shot...!



Love the knitted hearts too!

 Being a birdwatcher in a previous life, it didn't take me long to spot these little lovelies - which I recognised from HWR Designs because I've admired them on Etsy! It was so nice to meet Helen, and I can now put a face to all the tweets (no pun intended!). I know what I'm going to be saving up for now... a whole menagerie of these little birds!



Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!!!

 And last but not least, here are some beautiful wooden ornaments from Diane at An Eggcup Full of Whiskers - sorry but I don't have a website address for her! These are made from reclaimed wood - can you guess what they were in a previous life?



Lovely, simple wooden ornaments

 Well, believe it or not Diane gets a lot of her wood from old pallets!! What a great way to recycle an everyday (and let's be honest, rather ugly) piece of wood.

So there you are - a lovely, inspiring weekend. Thank you to everyone who chatted to me, and especially to the stallholders who let me take photos of their fabulous products!
Now go and visit Handmade Monday to see what everyone else has been up to - see you next time :-)