Doings ::

You lot are a lovely bunch you know. I haven't been posting at all for ages, and when I wrote my last post you left such lovely comments to welcome me back. Thankyou most kindly :)

I have been a busy bee these past months. What with Christmas makes and the likes, I've managed to fit quite a bit in (well for me anyway!).

First up is a photo of the rag rug that I crocheted for my youngest daughter for Christmas..

This is the last photo I took whilst making it (sorry, I haven't taken one of it finished, and I'm too lazy to go and take one to load up -with the amount of time bloggers been taking!!)

In total is measures 3ft (36") in diametre and I loved making it as I knew how much she would love it for her room :)

Next is a quilt I made for a lovely little 'just nine year old' boy. He has very bad epilepsy, and a learning disabilty, and in early February he is going to Great Ormond Street in London to have major brain surgery (similar to what they would give my daughter if they found where her epilepsy came from).

I think he is such a brave boy, and I made him this quilt to take and cuddle. (I know he has it on his bed already, and I'm so pleased he finds comfort in it!)

It's a raggy quilt, and I have to say thatI did struggle a bit in choosing fabric and colours for a boy..

Then, when I gave it to his Mum, I thought that she might like her own quilt to take with her and get some comfort from whilst staying there during her sons operation, so I made her one too :)

I thought of bright sunny days when I made hers :)

Bless them, I have my fingers and everything crossed that all goes well. xxx

And I do have to admit to being a tad jealous that they have been able to operate on her precious boy at such a young age...if only they'd been able to do that for my daughter... :(

Oh dear, does that sound mean and whingy wishing that? ..   I don't mean it too...

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Then, I got fed up with trapsing all the weather in the utility room on muddy shoes, so instead of keep putting paper down, I made a rag mat for wiping feet. -Trouble is, now no one want to be the first to get it dirty!! LOL.

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Well, we got our snow didn't we?  It wasn't much really, and it does make me laugh that everything grinds to a halt in the uk when we get any weather a tad out of the usual. Don't get me wrong, I know some people have lost their electric and such, and we've had trees down due to the weight of snow on them, but after all, it does happen every year!!

And I couldn't leave you without introducing you to ......

......

......

GILLIAN !

Yes, this is Gillian. Our snowman (lady).  my youngest dughter made her, and I have no idea whatsoever where she picked the name Gillian from.

(I would just like to assure you Gill that this has no connection to you what so ever as my daughter doesn't read my blogs :D :D  xx)

Anyway my dears you take it easy and keep warm.

Love Donna xx

P.s.

I've also been in touch with Kings College re; my daughter. The good news is they have received the test results from Belguim. The bad news is *WE*  are still waiting to hear them.  GGrrrr.

But we know how long these things take, so it's another long wait till they pull their finger out and have a meeting to decide what, if anything can be done....

Take care. xx

Granny goodness.......:o)

Well, Good evening people :o)

Hope this post finds you all fine and dandy this fine Thursday.

I can't believe that it's been more than a week since I last posted. I thought I was getting good at posting more often too ;o)

Anyway, I thought I'd show you a few recent makes and thrifty finds today.

Here's my first make....

Some Granny Goodness pentagons!

Below is a picture of the exact replica of my little car.

My husband bought me this when we got my little car so that when I'm driving along, I can see what I look like ..LOL

He stuck it on the top of my dash for me....

Well, I love my little car dearly, and I even name my cars, (but I won't tell you, 'cos it really is a bit laughable....'specially when I phone our local garage man and say "it's me, can i book 'so and so' in for this, that and the other please... :o)"

Well, I've been thinking for a while that my car could do with a liitle bit of Granny Goodness to cheer up her lovely turquoise looks...

See through the window ?...

Look, five little pentagons to cheer up the boot ;o)

I needed a squarish type bunting to match the squarish shape of my car.

I love looking in my rearview mirror at this cheerful bunting..

It makes me smile....I'm just thinking what to do with her next..

I've already planned a towbar cover for our big family car......   :o)

Which I will show you when it's done.

Thrifting tales this week saw me grinning from ear to ear when I spied this set of rosey curtains...

Aren't they gorgeous?

There were three curtains in all, and I bought to lot.

All in really good condition, these will be finding their way to my Etsy store sometime over the next week or two.

Aren't those little rose buds so sweet?

And I found metres and metres of this really gaudy, granny goodness fabric from the 60's early 70's. It even still had it's original order labels on it which are so cool, and I forgot to photograph them for you.

So if you'd like any of this fabric it too, will be in my shop over the next couple of weeks ;o)

I was busy crocheting my fabric bowls in the hols too...

And my crocheted ric rac for my shop...

Told you I was sweeping my shelves, and filling 'em up :o)

And below is the cushion I made my lovely husband...

OOOooo, it's really soft and scrumptious...

Crocheted from several strands of similar colours on one of my chunky hooks..

It turned out gorgeous and chunky..

I'm thinking of making a few in this chunky way for my shop..

What do you think?

Anyway, that's it for me tonight.

You all take care now,

and I'll speak to you soon.

Love Donna xx

EDIT ::     I thought I'd just better say that if you do make the pentagon bunting, hang it the way i have, and not with the point down, otherwise it looks like Granny's bloomers rather than granny goodness ;o)

Have a great weekend everyone. xx



Huge Hook ...

Well.  Thankyou kindly for all your comments on my last post about work experience.
It was really interesting to read all your thoughts and experiences to do with the subject.
~~~~~~~~~

I also had a couple of emails and comments on my large crochet hook and using all the yarns, so i just really wanted to do this little post to show you all how easy it is to make your own big hook, and hook away all your favourite odd balls of yarn.

Both the hooks below I made.

The smaller of the two is 12mm wide. It was made from a wooden knitting needle out of the charity shop.

It's my most favourite hook :o)

I use it for my rag crochet mainly, but also for when I make what I call my 'tweeded' crochet with about six different yarns.

Below is my 12mm favourite, a 15mm shop bought plastic jobby, and in the middle is the beginings of my new 25mm large hook.

I've cut the 9" section off of one of the poles of our beach windbreaks :o)

Then got the stanley knife (a blade like a craft knife/scalpel, only stronger and sturdier for 'sharpening' the stick! -for my lovely  readers outside the UK)

See how they all measure up?

Then see, this is the begining where I mark the stick cross ways where my pokey bit of hook is going to be, and where I'm going to wittle the throat.

So you sharpen the pokey bit first (I know all part s of the crochet hook have got names, but I forget!)

You cut crossways, then scrape the wood away to the cut notch..

And you just keep doing that till you get to the size of the actual hook you want.

See above is the basic shape.

Then you get the sandpaper out.

As rough as you can handle it to begin with.

To shape the 'hook' part, you wrap the sandpaper round a kebab skewer, or a knitting needle and sand away.

Then you cut a bit, then sand a bit...See...

See the difference the sand paper makes?

And Voila!  See, a beautifully sanded crochet hook, just the size you need to make a nice fat yarn rug/pad.

I wax my hooks with a candle at the end, and rub the wax in really well with my warm hands to get a nice smooth edge to my hook.

You don't have to do this, but I think it makes the hook nicer.

And if you use a scented candle like my ginger and orange one above (the green thing -don't ask me why ginger and orange is green......) it makes it smell lovely too.

Oh, and the wax doesn't come off on the yarn if you rub it in well and leave about 24 hrs before use. :o)

Above is the little practice rug I made with my new hook, just to see how many yarns I could get on and how fat and cosy it would be.

Let me tell you now, IT IS SUMPTUOUS!

I used 18 yarns all at once on the hook.

And if you pop them all in one of those supermarket big 'green' bags, they don't get tangled up together.

(Well knot much anyway ;o)  )

But you will want to make loads of things once you see and feel how lovely it is.

Believe me, you won't be leaving all those odd balls of mohair and strange yarns in the bottom of the basket at the charity/thrift shops anymore once you see what you can make!  ;o)

Have fun lovely people.

Hope you all have a fantastic week.

And please, please, stop the rain dancing ladies ;o)

Take care everyone,

Love Donna x



A commission Ta..daah.. :o)

Goodness me, it seems aaggeess since I did a blog post, and I've been so busy over the past week, the time just keeps running away again....

Anyway, how are you this warm and bright spring evening?  I hope this post finds you all fine and dandy :o)

What have I been upto?  Well, I finished my first Etsy commission :o)  Yay!

I was so chuffed to get this commission, then I was a bit scared when I did (well quite a bit actually lol) but I've finished it now, and it's on it's way across the lil' ole' pond.  

D'you want to have a look?

Here it is....

This was an action photo ( :D ) finishing off my last rounds..

See 'em?   I had to make four 17" x 13"  (!!) placemats with white and blue running through them..

I learnt a lot by doing this commission.

One of the things was as soon as you finish the job, post it off!

That's because I was going to post it this morning when I got back from the school run, but as I was packaging them (today was the day that I gave for posting them off),the school phoned to say they had to phone for an ambulance for my eldest daughter as she was having a really bad seizure.

So I had to rush to school, administer her emergency meds, then bring her home early and sort her out ...bless her. (She is fine, and this is a usual procedure :(  just in case you're worried)

She had a really bad one yesterday as well, which is why I didn't do it yesterday. But, I got them posted off in the end today, so alls well that ends well.

Second thing I learned was not to underestimate your postage weight (eh Jennie :o) )

BUT, I really, really enjoyed doing them, and I have learnt by my mistakes (no, really lol).

I've also been doing a small amount of patchwork. I used to do quite abit when I was younger, and I'd really like to do a bit more.  Not necessarily quilting, but I just like pretty, cosy patches.

I just used a thrifted piece of fabric, and crocheted around the edge, cos' I've found out that I adore crochet and patchwork together !

And when I finally get my childrens clothes (from when they were little) down from the loft, i'm going to patch and crochet a blanket :o)

I'd like to do squares with crochet joinings.

I've also got three of these on the go to pop in my Etsy shop..

They're lovely, lacy scarves. I have one sitting by my computer to do while I'm waiting for my photos to appear, one in the car, and another one by my bed (sometimes the one in the car gets transferred to my handbag to finish off while I'm in the post office queue LOL.

So if you see anyone crocheting in traffic jams (NOT when I'm driving I hasten to add) or in a queue, it's probably me  =)

We've been out inthe garden too this week. And here's our little tomato plants and beans and asters...getting bigger every day..

See these beans in a saucepan? well, that's my big old one, not one we use for cooking :0)

When the bottom kinda come away from the top, I couldn't bear to part with it, so made up a really good (not) excuse to my hubby that I desperately needed it to pop the runner bean seeds in. (not sure how I got away with that one, cos' I'm a terrible hoarder and it drives him nuts! LOL)

I have loads more to tell you, but i need some sleep now, so I'll try and pop back on Friday with the rest of my news.

Take it easy and enjoy the sunshine while we can =)

Love Donna xxxx

Hello lovely people :0)

How are you this sunny Sunday afternoon? (this should read Monday now lol)

I hope you're all fine and dandy :0)

I seem to be going longer and longer between blog posts lately.....

But I'm here now, and I've brought you all the details of my Paying-it-Forward bloggy business..

I actually managed to pick a few sprigs of flowers from the garden the other day..

I picked some forsythia and the only three daffodils....

I've also been busy crocheting...
From these fabric strips (kindly cut by hubby :0) )

I made a new rag crochet bag...

I'm sorry, but blogger won't let me load any more photos (it's taken me two days to get these ones on!!)

Is anyone else having trouble with blogger at the moment, or is it just me?

 I also crocheted a 'fancy' scarf for one of my daughters teaching assistants -this teaching assistant is amazing, and we so appreciate all she does for our daughter- it's her birthday and 

she always wears greens and rose colours, so I had this gorgeous 80%wool yarn that is so cosy, and I thought she'd like it.
(no photo...naughty blogger)

I'm a lot poorer (£ wise) this month as it's my youngest daughters birthday on Thursday, (12 years...how did she get to that without me noticing? lol) and my poor old car needed £400. worth of work to get him through his MOT. 

Now, my Pay-it-Forward...

To enter (OOoooo, I hope some of you lovely bloggers do enter !) all you have to do is leave a comment on this post asking to be entered. If you don't ask, I won't enter you, so don't worry if you're just leaving a comment, you won't get roped into anything by mistake :0)

It's a pif for THREE people, so I will then choose three of you from my furry hat, and send you the lovely little gifts :0)

Now, I'm doing this pif a bit different from others I've seen, in the fact that I'm sending out surprise gifts.

You will get a sewn gift, a crochet gift and a mystery gift :0)

They're just little ones, but you will get lovely little surprises through your door to open. And then you can pass on the bloggy goodness..right?  :0)
This pif is open to the world :0)

Now I've finally managed to load some photos (one day after I started this post!!) I've got to head off to Karate (not me the children lol) .

I was making bunting today for my daughter too, but I'll have to try and load some pictures in the week before I do my writing !

So that's it for today folks, short and sweet. (well, short for me :0))

I'll be ending the pif entries next Monday evening, so you've all got plenty of time to enter :0)

Take care lovely people,
Speak soon,
Love Donna xxxxxx

Ps. I think I'm addicted to making those little dotty, o, bracket smiley faces...sorry lol but at least you all know I'm sending you smiles :0)  -or frowns lol xxxxx