Cowls for Christmas

Hello! How was your Christmas? I hope it was beautiful and
peaceful, and full of joy, warmth and good cheer. Sorry I haven't been around these past few days. I took a break from blogging and all
social media over the holidays and it was nice. But it's also good
to be back again and today I've got the rest of the presents I've made
to share with you.

As you can see, they're all cowls. I actually made four in total
this Christmas. I wasn't really planning to but they turned out to be
 my favourite gifts to make this year. I've enjoyed crocheting each and
 every one and I'm happy to report that they've all been well received.

 The first one I made was for my mother-in-law. I showed it here back
 in November. This dark grey one was for a new friend I'd met through Instagram. It's a Christmas present and also to say thanks for
the lovely felt garland she'd made for us.

I used Drops Andes, a super chunky wool and alpaca mix, with

a size 9 hook and this pattern by Sarah Hatton. I don't often crochet 

with chunky yarn but I enjoy it when I do. Projects work up quickly

and take less time to finish, and with a lovely, soft yarn like this, 

it was even more enjoyable.

The girls also asked for cowls after seeing the one I'd made

for my mother-in-law. I was going to make them pom-pom slippers 

but decided to give in to their requests.

Markie's cowl is made with rows of trebles in various colours.

She was quite specific about it being colourful and I think we've

got colours here.

I used the same yarn for Lulu's but with little granny squares.
This took me longer to finish as I got distracted making other things
but I did manage to get it ready by Christmas Eve.

The yarn were all Drops Merino Extra Fine, one of my favourites.
Both girls like their cowls although they haven't actually worn them
outside yet. It's been quite mild lately and warm, cosy woollen accessories have not been needed that much. But better this than
ice and snow if you ask me. I'm a warm weather girl at heart and

 I'm always happier when it's not so cold.

So that's my Christmas present making done for this year. I wonder
what I'll be making for Christmas in 2016....


Enjoy the rest of the Holidays and happy New Year in advance!
See you soon!

Christmassy

 We're now well into the Christmas school holidays and so far,
 so very good. After the rush and busyness of the last few weeks,
 we've slowed down and it's so nice to have this time to rest, reflect,
take a breath and finish up the last of our festive preparations.
I think we're almost there, just the girls' presents to wrap and a few
cards to write. We'll be at my parents-in-law's on the twenty fifth
 but we're also having our own little celebration on Christmas Eve,
our Noche Buena. We'll have Filipino food as we do every year -
spring rolls, dumpling soup, leche flan. It's going to be great.

I'm nearly done with Lulu's scarf but aside from the presents
I've been making Christmassy bits and pieces too. I made these
clay ornaments with the girls a few weeks ago.

We used air-dry clay that was leftover from Markie's school
project, biscuit cutters and alphabet stamps. They were very easy
and quick to make and looks lovely on our tree. I think we'll make
some more to use as gift tags next year.

And this is a tree brooch I made for Lulu's cardi.

It was Christmas jumper day at school last Friday but as she
didn't have any to wear, I resorted to a bit of crochet. I think it made
her cardi look very Christmassy, thanks to 201 Crochet
motifs, blocks, projects& ideas by Melody Griffiths for the pattern.
I really like that book!

I also made a mandala for our table. It needed some festive colours
so again, I got out my yarn and crochet hook.

This one's from issue 14 of Simply Crochet magazine and was
another quick make.

For teacher gifts, Lulu and I made these chocolate oat treats.

These are a firm favourite in our house and they're easy to make as
well. I love the decorations and sprinkles we used especially the
 stars and red and green ones. Hopefully the teachers liked them too.

Yesterday we made gingerbread biscuits and spent the whole
afternoon decorating them.

We've never made these biscuits before and neither have we used
our biscuit cutters for baking before this so I was quite relieved and
very pleased when they turned out really well. I prepared and put the
icing on the cooled biscuits while the girls did the rest of the
decorating. They loved it and they did a great job. We brought some
with us to the cinema this morning. It was a lovely snack, just perfect.

This last one is not my handiwork but I'd like to show you because
we think it's wonderful and it's top of our tree this year.

Lulu made it at nursery. Isn't it sweet? I can see this featuring
in our decorations for many more Christmases to come.

Tomorrow I'll be busy wrapping but it's wrapping of a different kind:
I'll be making spring rolls and dumplings. You can say it's wrapping
but of the yummy sort!


I'll be back here before the New Year. Have the loveliest
Christmas everyone!!

Baby Bunting

Thank you for your comments about our robin Christmas cards.
 I'm really glad you like them too. I've finished two more presents this
past week, one for a lovely lady I've met through Instagram and the
other is this bunting for a friend's baby girl. 

I haven't done much sewing lately, I think I like working with yarn
more at this time of year, but I did enjoy making this, especially
 hand sewing the appliques. Our friend requested for the colours - purples and greys with a little bit of pink. I don't use purple much
in my projects but I think they all go well together here. I'm
 particularly pleased with the pink binding. I think it just lifts it a bit,
 making it a little less too purple.

We went to see both new mum and baby last weekend and
they're both doing well. And I'm pleased to say that the whole
family likes the bunting. It's going on the wall next to her crib
and I like to think that she will be looking at it when she's a little
bit older. And when she does I hope she'll like it too.

I just have one more Christmas present to finish and that's it.
School is breaking up for the holidays today and I'm really looking forward to a couple of weeks of just staying at home with the girls.
We'll be making more Christmas cards this weekend and it's the
Strictly Finals tomorrow. I cannot wait!!


Thanks again for your lovely comments.
Enjoy your weekend!

Red Robin Christmas Cards

We've been making Christmas cards this week. Last year we had
 reindeers, this time we have little red robins!

We really enjoyed our card making last Christmas and I wanted
a design that was as easy and simple but equally as effective as the
reindeers, something that we can all do together. I thought robins
might work. They're very Christmassy, appearing in cards, postage
 stamps and all manner of festive decorations every year and they're
cute too. So I came up this little idea to make them:

We started off with brown paint (we used children's washable paint)
and using their fingers, the girls made three or four brown circles
on the cards. Lulu needed a bit of help with this but Markie did hers
 all by herself.

When they have dried, Markie and I coloured in the bottom half

of the circles with red felt tip pens to make the robins' red breast markings.

Then it was adding the little details - eyes, wings, legs. 

Ta dah! Four little robins! 

I then used alphabet stamps to write the Christmas greetings
and it was done! Simple, quick and lots of fun.

We're really pleased with these and we're looking forward
to giving them to friends, family and the girls' teachers. As always
I'm glad that we can do things like this together, that they're happy
to help and join in, and I have the time to craft and be with them.
It makes this time of year even more special and really great fun.


We'll have more Christmassy things to share soon.
Thanks for stopping here. Enjoy your weekend!

Winter Projects

I've scarcely made any progress with my crochet blanket since
 my last link up post. I have, however, been busy with lots of other
things. I have been making Christmas cards and decorations with
my girls and I've also made some presents. So far I've finished
a crocheted cowl and pot holder for my mother-in-law and I've
just made Markie's request- 'a scarf like Nanny's but with lots
and lots of colours.'

Lulu wants the same thing as well but I'm making hers with
these little granny squares. It's coming along nicely and I'm
enjoying using all these colours. I think it will be finished soon.

And this is a bunting for a friend's baby girl. It's all purples and
greys with bits of pink - very sweet and very girly. I've sewn all the
appliques by hand and my main job today is sewing all the pieces
together. Fingers crossed it will ready before we see both new mum
 and baby this weekend!

So not much to report about my blanket but hopefully progress
will resume once all the festive crafting, making, and preparations
 are over!


Joining in with Jennifer's Winter Project Link Party.


Have a lovely weekend!!

Advent Calendar

Hello. I hope you've had a lovely start to the Advent season. There
are still three weeks to go before Christmas but I'm starting to feel
excited. I've finished making Markie's cowl and this week I've added
a few more ticks in my list of presents to buy. Our mantel is looking
a little more festive too with some red and sparkly things and every
 morning over breakfast we light our Advent candle. And of course,
there's the Advent calendar with a surprise treat for the girls everyday. 

As you can see I've made our own Advent calendar this year. This
was a very last-minute make, hurriedly assembled on the afternoon
of December first.

I've forgotten to buy the girls their usual chocolate-filled calendars
and after failing to find on Tuesday morning anything that wasn't
 either a Peppa Pig or Olaf, I decided to just make my own. I got
a packet of small brown envelopes and number stencils from
Ryman's and I found these festive wooden pegs from Poundland
 - twelve for a pound. Perfect!

I stencilled the numbers on the envelopes, hung them from a string
 using the pegs and it was done! It's very simple but it works and
the girls love it.

So our countdown to Christmas is underway with the help of
our DIY Advent calendar and there are lots of things we're looking
forward to. Top of the list is the girls' Christmas show at school
next week. I'm very, very excited about that. We're also getting
our tree, maybe on the twelfth and I'd like to try making gingerbread biscuits with my girls. This is a very special time of year and
I'm beginning to really enjoy myself now.