My big Christmas adventure. Making handmade Christmas tree decorations.

Last year somewhere in December right before Christmas I actually understood that I really want to make all the Christmas tree decorations myself. Well to be honest I tried but made only four or five... And in the end they all disappeared from our Christmas tree as The Little Man loved them so much that he decided they should live with his toys, especially the crocheted little owls. So this year I had the same idea again, but I had it yesterday.
I know it's only the 2nd of November, but all that knitting, crochet, sewing takes time so I might need the whole month to make my little dream real. Plus I must confess - I hate November. I have no idea how can you really like this:

or this:

I know there is some kind of beauty in all of that and I was honestly trying to find it while me and My Little Man went for a walk today. It was cold, dark (at midday), and windy outside, but we still went as we both need some fresh air and a bit of physical activity. So we found some goose and a swan... But even they looked depressed.

 

Little Man was quite happy touching the mud, finding dirty stones and running away from me towards the cold dark water (see pic above), so it all was quite stressful and in that circumstances I wasn't able to find any beauty or romance in November really.

In fact the only two things that make November bearable for me are My Little Man's birthday and Christmas decorations that are starting to appear on the streets and in shops windows somewhere around this time.

So I had an idea - why not stretch all of that Christmas spirit for me? What if I would make at least one little Christmas tree decoration each day during all November and then put them all on our Christmas tree in the beginning of December? And it sounded just right!

So starting from today I will start posting the handmade Christmas tree decorations with the links to free pattern, or the pattern itself if it will be my own, and my own explanations and tips. I'm going to crochet, knit, sew them using all the stash I will be able to find in my stash - felt, cotton, beads, lace and ribbons, any kinds of yarn, may be even paper.
Anyone is welcome to join my Christmas adventure - just post the pictures of your handmade Christmas tree decorations in comments. If you have any links to great free patterns or tutorials it would be great if you could share them too!
And now I will leave you and use a bit of free time while Little Man is having a nap to make the first ornament. Will post the picture as soon as it's finished :)

Gooseberries

Well, Little Man is getting better and can play in the yard (still no contacts with other children until this weekend). So he has a lot of fun in his sandpit - sitting there with a big smile and covering himself with the sand. After that all this sand ends up on our living room carpet, but at least Little Man is happy and not screaming :)
Today he had some fun with his dad picking the gooseberries from our little gooseberry bush.

 You can notice that Little Man still has that chickenpox spot marks, but they are disappearing slowly.

We bought it last year and now it looks twice bigger than it was, and there were much more berries than last year, of course.

Sadly they are not sweet at all. May be it was not enough sun for them... So now I'm thinking that I should probably bake a pie with them.
Oh, we have a raspberry bush too! With one raspberry on it:

And I treated myself a little bit and made a little bag for my new phone.

Still not sure if I like it or not as I wanted something feminine and this one looks too girlish for me. Or may be it's not girlish and looks fine. Really can't decide.

Hope you are all doing great and having a lovely time!
xx

I miss nature...

Little Man has chickenpox. Apparently, what he had before was something else. Poor kid! He is all covered with red spots and the first three days were really awful for all of us as he could not sleep and was constantly crying. The picture above was taken a day before all that red spots showed up. But yesterday he already started eating (good sign!) and slept till 6am. Today he even went to a midday nap, so he is asleep now and I have some time for my blog.

Understood today, that I really miss the nature. Well, we do have a backyard with a couple of berry bushes, nut I mean something totally different. I mean forest, I mean empty beach where the only sounds is a sound of waves and your footsteps, I mean fields far away from big roads and cities... I newer was a huge fun of countryside, to be honest, I could not live there all the time, but sometimes, when I need to escape from everything this feels like the right place to go. Probably now I feel like that because I've been at home most of the time for the last three weeks and I really need to go somewhere to find my lost peace, inner harmony and inspiration.

So when I saw this book an Amazon today it really felt like MY book, something I need, something I would really like at this moment:

 

Have a look inside and you will understand why. All of that nature inspired stamps feel so real and calm, like the nature itself.

That is why, if I would need to make a wish list today, it would look like these:
1. Making an Impression: Designing & Creating Artful Stamps book
2. Lino Cutting Handle and cutting nibs
3. Super soft Lino Double Sided Block Sheets

The other thing that inspired me today was this crochet flowers from Mollie Makes:

 

 

(By the way, this issue with flowers was really good). I'm not going to make a garland, but have an idea of making something nice with this flowers as an embellishment.
While I was searching for the picture of this Mollie Makes issue cover I found a nice knitted heart shaped coasters tutorial there:



I really might need some of those as little gifts for my relatives in Latvia. At least it really looks like a quick and easy project.

Well, after talking about nature and looking at beautiful pictures at Mollie Makes I feel a bit better and can be ready for being a mum of a sick child again. (Yes, I needed this little break!) So I'll go make myself a cup of tea and wait till Little Man wakes up.

Hope Little Man gets well soon and we could go to the forest or Robin Hoods bay which I really like. 

52 Weeks of Happy (2/52)

I know, I'm a bit late this week, but I just wasn't in the mood for blogging. Or may be I just wasn't in the mood in generall that's why it was hard for me to pick the positive moments of the last week. But, as I've started this 52 week long project I decided that I still must concentrate and remember that good things. It helped, actually.
So here are this little happy things:

1. First was a big parcel from Latvia that my mum and dad sent us with lots of gifts. And there was a pile of yarn for me. I hope to turn it all into something beautiful :)



2. Second was a project bag/basket I made for myself. I was using some scraps of chunky yarn I had in my stash and finished it in two evenings.



Before I kept my project-on-the-go in a usual TESCO plastic bag, so now it's much better in a basket.
I will share the pattern of my basket here in a couple of days.

3. The third was Little Man's new game - he takes a flannel sheet and wraps into it with looks really cute and funny.



4. And the last thing was the little bonsai tree I got for Valentine's day.



I recieved plants as gifts before and they didn't last long. But this time I really feel responsible for this little one. Hope I cant treat him nice and he will live with us for years.

52 Weeks of Happy (1/52)

If you haven't heard of 52 Weeks of Happy you can find more info here but basically the main idea is to post four pictures of the things that made you happy every week. I thought it's a good idea and something that really suits me as sometimes I feel depressed or sad for no reason and by making pictures of some happy moments I will be able to look back at this pictures and remember that there is no reason for being depressed.

Ok, let's start.

 Things that made me happy over the last week:

1. a pot holder and dish cloth that came to me long way from USA from my swap partner (I've participated in a pot holder swap on swap-bot.com)



2. Little Man started playing with a ring stacker.



He made this and brought it to show me. I was so proud and happy at that moment!

3. My narcissus. When my husband brought them I thought it's green onions ore something like that, as they were completely closed. Now they are opened to show me how beautiful they are - like little yellow suns on my window.



4. Some lovely crochet I was working on.



This had to be a baby blanket for a baby shower. Unfortunately I had to unravel almost all of it yesterday as I understood that I don't have enough yarn. But I still enjoyed the process, the colours and this picture. I will tell you a bit more about this blanket later as I going to put some rows of white between this colours and some white border.

Hope you had a great week too!

Infinity scarf and other stuff

Yesterday was a quiet day at home as we decided not to go to Little Man's baby group. It wouldn't be great to share our illness with other little ones. So we stayed at home, played with Little Man's garage and all of his cars. It's so much fun now when he is trying to put one car inside of the other.
In the evening, searching for something in the Internet, I accidentally found a wonderful round scarf tutorial on You Tube. Probably I'm just really lucky as I often find something useful or beautiful by accident while looking for something else or just browsing the Internet for no particular reason. But, back to scarf - it looked so beautiful and easy that I immediately wanted to try it. Then I had half an hour inner fight with my rational part who tried to tell me not to start another new project while I have so many unfinished ones, but my impulsive part was stronger and I started the scarf. And it was finished by midnight! Just in one evening!



I'm sooo happy with the result! It will be a present for my sister who lives in Denmark. It's quite cold there at the moment and I hope this scarf will keep her warm. Plus all the nice thoughts of her I had while making it.



For this scarf I used a ball of James C. Brett Marble DK, shade MT9 and 6mm crochet hook. It's 100% acrylic, but I love this yarn for it's gorgeous colours. One ball was enough to make a 16 row scarf. And it turned out to be really warm.
So, are you excited and want to make a scarf too? OK, guys, here is this wonderful video with all the explanations:
 

The author uses chunkier yarn and 6.5mm crochet hook, but as you can see on my scarf DK works too. Go watch the video and make a scarf for yourselves as it is sooo easy!

After a nice evening yesterday this day just had to be good. And it was especially because we all felt better and the sun was shining, so we even had a short walk out.
Little Man was asking for freedom and straight after he was given what he wanted he fell into snow with his face. And he didn't like it :)



But he enjoyed all the trees and bushes in snow and I couldn't resist to make a picture.



We've seen the ducks and geese to. Last year I was mentioning them a couple of times and we went to see how are they going in this cold weather. Well, they're just fine in the middle of the pond looking really funny when they try to walk on ice.



If you remember, last spring the swan couple had babies there and now I was really surprised to see how big this babies are grown.



And here is me with the Little Man just before we went back home:



We do have quite funny faces. Probably it's because we spent more than a week stuck at home and were a bit confused to be out for the first time :)

Hope you all had a nice day too. See you all soon.

Snow!

O my God, I got such a great gift from Mother Nature today! It's snowing here! And I do like snow, I like the whole world around being white and quiet and I always have such a Christmas feeling when it's snowing outside. So I couldn't resist and grabbed my camera to catch a couple of pictures as it doesn't snow so often here.
 

And here you go a picture of happy Little Man who is so interested in my camera, that it makes me think that he might become a photographer in the future.
 

Now it's time to make some tea, light the candles and finish some knitting while Little Man is asleep.

Hope your day was fab too and let it end with a nice evening :)

Baby Phoebe blanket and some news about my Little Man

Well, here I am again this Thursday morning to show you a baby blanket I made for a lovely baby Phoebe on her first birthday. Little Man was invited to her party but was ill that day (had a real Niagara waterfall from his nose) so we cold not go. And then it took me more than a month to actually meet Phoebe's mum Jenny and give her the blanket. And as I didn't want to show it before the little owner gets it I'm showing it only now despite it was finished in September.



Sorry for the picture quality, had to take them in the evening right before I gave the blanket away. I really wanted to make a picture of it outside, but the weather just didn't let me do it.
Here is a little close-up to show you the edging. I was using the tutorial from Attic24 for the edging and must say that it's a good way to finish a blanket. Looks nice and feminine, but not too feminine if you know what I mean.



For the squares I used a Squaring Big Circle tutorial from Signed With An Owl and I'm totally in love with this granny square. It's bright, it's fun and it looks really good. So no wonder I really like the result.
When I was crocheting this Little Man was trying to steal the blanket from me and ewerything I said about it beeing pink and girlish, so not for him, just didn't help. So I guess he liked it too.

By the way, if you are interested in Little Man, he is just fine and started walking two days ago. It doesn't mean that now he is walking all the time, as he is choosing between walking and crawling and since crawling is easier and faster he still prefers to crawl mos of the time. But when he is walking through the room hugging a teddy bear it just looks sooooo sweet! The only problem with taking a photo of it is that the moment Little Man sees a camera he goes back to crawling. Is he shy? Not shure about it yet but will try again and see if I can manage to make some pictures.
Here is how he looks now, little smiling boy:

The owl

When I was making gifts before Fathers Day I bought three plain vests for our Little Man and made the "SON" aplique on one of them. As I thought it looks fun I had an idea of making some apliques on two other ones. So I searched the Internet and found an Owl aplique pattern which I liked immediatelly. It was a bit too big for a 6-9 months vest, so I printed it out on 70% (not 100%) and made one for the Little Man.



Looks like he likes it :) It was easy to make and fun to look at so I would really recomend it :)

Some family news

Wow, it's amazing time here in our little family! My parents came all the way from Latvia to meet Little Man. My mum was here when he was born and she saw him in his very first days - a tiny little creature with big blue eyes (well, not so tiny - 3.920kg, but small anyway) and now he is 10.24kg and 76cm long and totally not tiny anymore! And my dad haven't seen him at all! Thanks to Skype they both saw him quite often, but it's not the same thing. At least he knew their voices and faces, so there was no fear when he finally saw them both. Was a bit confused with his granddad in the beginning, but recognized grandma immediatelly. That's what the mighty Internet does!
They arrived yesturday night and today was a day of family fun, new toys and gifts for Little Man. And for me too, of course. Now for two weeks my mum and dad are here with us and it means a bit more spare time for me. At least I hope so :)

And the last news - LITTLE MAN STARTED CRAWLING YESTURDAY MORNING!!! Hurray! I'm sooooooooooo proud of him!

Father's day 2012

On the 17th of June we had Father's Day here in UK. For my husband it was the first Father's Day in his life so I really wanted to make it special. And it is allways more difficult to make a gift for a man, they usually like something usefull, not just something pretty like we, women, do. So it was a challenge untill he mentioned that he really would like a hat. And not just any hat, but an orange hat with a ram scull. I sad that I'll try but can't promise and of couse decided to definetly make him one.
So I want to the internet and spent a day trying to find a knitting pattern for a ram scull. No results. Then I tried to find a cross stitch pattern to adapt it. No result either. And after all I had to make one myself. It was the first time I did something like that and here is what I ended with:

I made this apliqued T-shirt and a vest for our Little Man too, so everyone would know who they both are - dad and son :)
And I was really happy watching how proudlu my husband was wearing both the hat and his new T-shirt.
And I really like this picture. Aren't they just lovely together?

Duck family busuness

There is a pond just 5min away from our house. I've posted some pictures of it in winter here and here. Now it's all changed there and last time we were there we noticed a lot of new duck families growing around the pond.



This one was the first one we met. 3 ducklings and their parrents.



The next couple had 5 ducklings. They look bigger and older but still try to be closer to mum and dad.



This family has 3 apparently big ducklings and they even were not afraid of people passing by.



Safe road crossing: one of the parrents in the front, then all the babies and the other parrent behind.

There even is a swan couple and I really wanted to find them to check if they have some babies too. Well, yes, they have! And they have a lot!






There definetly were 5 of them. May be even more as some were hiding.

And have you noticed the whole field of little white flowers on the pictures. Well, here they are:



I could not resist to make a close-up :)

Little Man was looking around from his new pram (we call it Ferrari or the fire brigade car as it's bright red), made some funny noises and even let me make a picture of him:



It is so lovely to live near such a nice place and to see how seasons change there.

My little Man's half-birthday

It is unbelievable, but yesturday My Little Man had his half-birthday! Yes, he is 6 months old now! And to me it still feels like he was born just a couple of weeks ago. but in the same time it feels like he's been with me all my life and all the years before him seem like an old movie about someone else, someone i used to know, but now barely can remember...
Anyway, yesturday we spent a lovely time out, sitting on the grass, watching duck families and ladybugs. Little Man had no cake as he is too young for it, but he had some giftshe seems to enjoy. We bought him a highchair so now he can join us while we have our dinner. And I also made a crochet garland with his name on for his room (photos will follow a bit later) and some soft crochet cubes for him to play with. I started a couple of days before, as it is not as quick to crochet all 6 sides for each cube and then join them together. Here are some colourfull pics of the process:



Love the light an this picture, but it doesn't show how really bright the colours are. This one is more precise:


Then I had to decide in what order to put them before joining it all into a cube:



And they all looked so bright and fun that I could not resist and made a couple more pictures:





The last one is my favourite.

And then, finaly, when it was all finished and presented to My Little Man I definetly could say he likes them all!



Well, I know he looks serious on this picture, but all the funny faces were blured as he was moving and trying to eat his gifts all the way long while I was playing a photographer. But he still is gorgeous, isn't he?