It's the little things...

So I thought that with the way my week was going, I wouldn't have anything to show you. I've been hit with a summer cold, so I've been stuffed up, sniffling and coughing, and I hadn't once touched my rustic flower scarf.

It was only near the end of the week that I managed to add some more mood flowers.

Then impulsively I decided to try out an idea that's been in my head awhile. 

I started by making two identical circles, and putting some stuffing in between them before joining together

It looks like a little space ship, don't you think?

I then added some petals around the edge

To add to the 3d effect in the middle, I decided to add a highlighting colour, following the swirl of the centre, an effect from only working through the back of the stitches.

I picked up stitches from the top circle and worked my way round

Originally I had intended to do a cushion or blanket with a flat background and padded flowers, but after this little experiment, and the fact that big projects take me forever, I actually thought what a cute little brooch this would make.

I've already started on a different colourway, with just the swirls to add

I'll make a few more of these padded floral brooches, trying out different colours, but I suspect that none will quite have the impact of the original flower for me...

I spotted a great little find in Tiger this week (one of my favourite go to stores), a mini loom. Back in the day when I studied textiles, I had not only participated in knitting, but weaving, tapestry and rag rugs too. I have been itching recently, to have a go again, and in fact the big ideas swirling around my brain, are incorporating weave and crochet together.

So of course I was eager to get it out and have a little play

Now I just need to practice and see if I can bring any of my ideas to life

So it's been the little things that have allowed me to be creative this week...

Floral inspiration this week comes in the form of a mandala, coloured in using a colouring app on my phone

From corner to corner...

Very little to show you this week, as all I've been working on is a square

A corner to corner square

A pretty big square!

I've also been keeping up with my mood flowers daily. Although i'm a bit behind with all the ends!

Haven't managed to do anything socially at all this month, but it's been successful craft wise, here's to the next month where we hope to get a better work/home/social balance

We are off for our annual Cornish visit tomorrow, so I'll see you in a fortnight!

Chrysanthemum cushion..

So i've put my last cushion on the back burner for now, until I feel ready to show it some love again.

I spotted a pretty yarn in Tiger last week, so wanted to get stuck in and give it a try

I've seen a pattern made by many in various colours on pinterest. I've admired these images for awhile but been unable to find any instructions. 

I felt this yarn and this image was the perfect combination, so I dived in and gave it a go just from viewing the images. 

I'm really pleased with how this turned out.

But I wanted to take this one step further and try to adapt it into a square shape. I had no idea how exactly to do this but I just started working round and amazingly its been taking shape nicely.

Along with the lovely spring sunshine my floral mood blanket has blooming

I've finished work for the week, and now have the pleasure of a weeks holiday, starting with a little trip to the south coast

Post Easter and springtime flowers...

So after the busy build up, Easter itself was a quiet, relaxed affair.

My Mum spent the day with us, and it was great to catch up, exchange gifts, have a lovely roast dinner and indulge in some goodies

I adore bunnies, and I'm so happy with this big fluffy fella that's come to our home

We had the traditional goodies

and Mum always comes bearing homebaked treats. This time we had cheese and marmite sticks (we so need to make more of these!), and cornflake cakes

We've had blue skies, a hint of warmth and longer lighter evenings, so nice to be in Springtime and out of the depths of Winter.

Quite frankly I should have finished this 'Fallen petals' cushion but I seem to have fallen out of love with it, and I'm finding that I enjoy the finishing stages less and less. I need to give myself a serious talking to get this completed!

On the other hand I have been good with keeping up with my daily mood flowers. Again I'm having to use a lot of self control to make myself sew in all the ends regularly, I've got a little section to catch up on but all in all its growing nicely.

Now I've worked through the seasons, I really need to train my focus on my course, I'm way way behind and it's all quite daunting, but I just need to take a day at a time. As you can see I have changed my header, as I knew my old one was completely irrelevant. I don't intend to keep it that way as I wish to add images of my own work, but I wanted to play around and think through colours and images.

Picnics and fevers

It seems to have been a week of two halves.

The start was warm and sunny, and Springlike. We took a bus to go a little further out for another Geocaching trip. We went to Brooklands park, somewhere we'd not ventured to before, and found a couple more, one tucked in a fence

and a hole in a tree, a perfect hidey hole!

This time we took a picnic with us and sat by one of the duck ponds

It was lovely to be somewhere new, and to be out in the fresh air, feeling the warmth of the sun, and enjoyed being surrounded by nature.

We spotted this that made us chuckle, we've heard that Red Bull gives you wings but....how?

There has been very little achieved on the crafting front this week as expected, with the work load piling up, what I didn't expect was to be hit by another virus, after not long getting rid of one!

I did manage to block my cushion, the only time an iron comes out in my house!

and a few more flowers added to the mood blanket

and i've been reading through the first few of the course emails. I've not physically done anything yet, but it's all been very thought provoking, and i'm looking forward to making progress once I stop feeling so physically and mentally exhausted.

I get a couple of days rest now before the final push (for those of you who don't know I work in a Chocolate shop, hence my life evolves around seasons) and then I hope to get back into my crafting rhythm 

Happy Easter to you all

Fallen petals and Woodland walks...

So the 'Fallen Petals' cushion has been coming along nicely. 

The backgrounds are made, and i chose to use to try Attic24's teeny tiny flowers pattern, and they were the perfect size...

I picked out matching tones from the Ice background and chose 4 different Stylecraft shades.

Such quick and cute little flowers...

Now I need to make a start on the edging and get joining the pieces together

We managed another little Geocaching jaunt, this time heading into the woodland

With a great mix of finds...

In all different shapes and sizes, some so tiny!

And one which was easy to find, but a puzzle on how to get it out!!

I love that this is making us venture out and into the fresh rather than staying stuck indoors!

I'm pleased to say that I've pretty much caught up with my Mood blanket, except for a few ends...

This week I will be embarking on a 30 day course called Set-up shop. Thank you Lucy for the recommendation. I'm hoping this will give me some invaluable tips on my online store to enable me to start getting some sales. I'm sure I'm a little crazy for taking this work load on now, when the next two weeks will be the busiest of the year in my full time job, but my 'word' for this year is "Determined", so here goes...

London bound...

We had our fun trip to London, and the rain stayed away. We ventured down Regent street, and I had to pop into my favourite shop, Desigual, which happened to have a sale which was a bonus, so I was able to add to my collection. 

We came across Chinatown, with it's festive colourful lanterns 

And worked our way along Carnaby Street

We found a restaurant near the theatre. We chose Bella Italia, and I had a chicken pasta with courgette, spinach and lemon.

Then it was round the corner to the stunning theatre

with amazing interiors

Fantastic singing and dancing, made this a wonderful production

So this week I made a little progress with my monochrome cushion.

The blooms have been attached to the edge of the cushion

Buttons chosen, and buttonholes made.

A little disappointed that I didn't manage to get finished by the end of February, but that pesky short month beat me to it!

The flowers are still growing

It feels like Spring everyday in my house!