Instagraming

It has been quite some time since I visited blogland. Apart from my quick entry yesterday I have been away for exactly 6 months. I really can't believe how the time as flown. Work and home life has taken over now I am working more hours and have little time to do the extra stuff. However I have been sharing my crochet on instagram and though I might share some of my most recent makes with you. Please pop over using the little instagram button at the side for a peek and please say hi! 

This is a cushion I started recently from the Emma Lamb book Crochet Home. I'm still only this far and working on it.

A photo posted by Sarah (@hulaloop77) on Apr 4, 2016 at 2:37am PDT

My Spice of life blanket, pattern by Sandra at Cherry Heart. I started the border once in teal but didn't like it. Planning to use sage instead.

A photo posted by Sarah (@hulaloop77) on Apr 17, 2016 at 5:10am PDT

Still only halfway through this Harlequin Blanket, pattern by Berroco

A photo posted by Sarah (@hulaloop77) on Nov 17, 2015 at 1:56am PST

My rainbow V-Stitch blanket is enormous! Still picking it up every now and then but really need to finish this before the summer. Little people love hiding under it and it's great for den building.

A photo posted by Sarah (@hulaloop77) on Jan 23, 2016 at 6:06am PST

Thank you for stopping by
Hope you enjoyed your visit

x Sarah x

Finding time...

Life has been lovely and full of fun but exhausting all the same. When I look back at when I started blogging, not that long ago either, when I was managing a post a week I can't believe I was finding the time and creating so much to blog about. 

Right now I am doing the Mummy thing. I am focusing on their needs. New schools and new routines have been started this term and it's taking a while to get to grips with all the change. I have increased my hours at work and my lovely Fella has changed jobs as well. All at once we are in a new chapter... 

I have been having fun on Instagram. It is such a quick way of sharing pics, ideas and lovely things. So, thought I might share some of my favourite pics and also give you a glimpse of my most recent project. As always I'm not finishing much at the moment but have started a scrummy new Harlequin blanket that just get me sooooo excited.

It's inspired by the colours in my garden. We still have a few flowers in our gardens here, not sure they realise it's late October. I love seeing these colourful flowers and often pick a bunch for the kitchen table.

I am a little under half way there with this blanket already. Playing with colours as I go but thinking about perhaps creating some sort of repeat within the stripes as that really appeals to me right now.  

 I have been using Drops Karisma,  a dk weight yarn using a 4mm hook. It's an easy pattern which I found here. I have to say Drops Karisma is a lovely easy yarn to work with and the colours are really lovely. 

I had so much fun taking these pictures with my phone camera. Although I am starting to be less than satisfied with the quality that my phone give me and keep noticing the Nikon DSLR we bought when Little Man arrived with the full intention of learning how to use it and taking regular photos of our growing baby. Well we have used it on occasion but, of course, like a lot of things when you have a baby the idea went by the wayside. I can see it now sitting idle, can't remember the last time we used it. Really need to put that on my list of things to do...

So, there you are, another project started. But as the evenings are drawing in so quickly now I should hope that I will find myself parked on the sofa under a warm crochet blanket in front of the TV with crochet hook in hand far more often than the Summer months allowed.

Family updates

Little Lady has started at Daycare one afternoon a week and loves everything about it. No tears, no "Mummy not here!!" She is having a wail of a time splashing in puddles, digging holes, dancing to music and doing all the fun and muck creating things they love to do at her age.

Little Man is officially at school!! He is a summer term baby so we were worried as he would be one of the youngest and could be finding it harder. Of course he loves it all and comes home covered in glue and mud every day telling us about graphemes and phonemes (say again??).  Each day I ask him what he did at school and of course this information is highly classified and therefore he can not disclose anything that actually happened. So, due to my persistence, he has started to invent quite funny and elaborate stories about his day; "We zoomed off in a spaceship to the moon and it was very cold and nobbly!". "Today we had PE and the teacher gave us these special shoes which you can walk on the ceiling with and she put cushions all over the ground and we did walking on the ceiling!" And finally "Today we did bottom printing!!" So all the usual then. 

He has had quite a lot of homework already this term including finding autumn things to show and share, a colouring competition and the challenge of making a Scarecrow for the harvest celebrations they will be having this week. This was the most fun task as we had to work together as a family to make it. It was Little Man's design and he helped to find all the creatures that made homes in the Scarecrow's clothes as well as stitching on the sewing machine. Hand sewing the buttons for the face, arranging and fixing the gloves for hands and placing all the little creatures around the Scarecrow's clothing making little nests for them to live in. He named him Max the Scarecrow. 

Thank you for stopping by

love

Sarah xxx

Summer Fun

 I'm sitting here with sunburn on my shoulders, flip flop markings on my feet and hair that has reached new levels of wildness in the sun, sea and sand. It has been a good summer. The kids have needed a thorough washing every night to remove inches of sand and sun cream, mud, grass, sticky ice creams and general grime from fun packed days of playing in the wild outdoors. 

So here is a summary of my summery fun ;0) 

Inbetween all the outdoor tomfoolery there has been some lovely moments where I have enjoyed a little crochet, a coffee and on occasion and large wedge of cake. Old projects have been worked on and new ones started.

Nothing has really reached that final ta dahhhhh moment yet. There is still hope! The summers not over yet!!!

Hope you are enjoying yourselves too!! 

xx Sarah xx 

Feeling Thrifty

Feeling a little bit chuffed today, all is going well so far. Aside from the fact I managed a perfect transfer of a sleeping toddler from car to house giving me an hour of free time... Yay! I am feeling really rather thrifty at the moment......

Thrifty moment #1:

Today, on the way home from the school run, I picked up these lovely peonies, half price at the supermarket, as well as these rather tasty raspberries, also a tiny bit reduced. We grow all manner of fruit on our allotment but no raspberries so far this year, so this is a bit of a treat. The verdict from the little people was... very yummy!

Thrifty moment #2:

Right now, as I write this, I'm enjoying a cold glass of homemade elderflower cordial. Also yummy!!

This was our first time making elderflower cordial and it is delicious. A big hit with Little Lady, although Little Man refers to it as 'pond water!' Apart from the sugar, citric acid and lemons it's almost free....

Thrifty moment #3:

Last night I started to make this little beauty! It's called Sophie's Garden by Dedri Uys, a free pattern that can be found here on Ravelry. I am using a 4.5mm hook and Drops Love You 5 100% cotton yarn that's currently selling at Wool Warehouse for only 80p a ball. Bargainous! 

Thrifty moment #4: 

We have also just about finished doing up the front garden...

All the materials used to make the planters, bar the paint, were recycled from our back garden when we took out the decking to lay turf. We even filled them with free top soil found on freecycle. We reused the Scottish cobbles from the back yard too.  The olive tree was also transplanted from the back garden, although the jury's out as to whether or not it will survive. It's looking a bit bare. 

Thrifty moment #5 

The plants are from various places including some transplanted from the allotment, car boot sales, donations from relatives and a recent Sunday afternoon outing to a local fair where you could purchase a large tray of near on 40 plants for only £5! Beyond bargainous!!

I am feeling very chuffed with my little front yard. It has given me lots of pleasure so far, watering  not so much, but I do enjoy the pottering about, dead heading, adding in something new, getting excited about a new flower popping open and generally admiring.

Thank you for coming by. I do hope you have enjoyed your visit and feel inspired to enjoy something thrifty too.  

Sarah

x

Dolly Blanket Ta-Dah

 

 

There is one happy Little Lady in our house. We have been having fun playing with our dollies this week. I finished the little dolly blanket the other night and since then there has been a hive of activity around the wooden goose pram Little Lady got for her birthday all those months ago. She is very much a girly girl and loves her dollies dearly. Spending hours looking after baby is her favourite thing to do.

You might also have noticed the Rabbit I made Little Lady a while back features in a few of the pics today. Rabbit has now got all his limbs and ears firmly secured with chunky buttons and is a happy little chap. He still needs something to wear though...

I used leftovers of Stylecraft Special DK in meadow, plum, pomegranate, turquoise, saffron, lavender, fondant, sherbert, with cream as the main colour and using a 4mm hook. It measures 49cm by 31cm with 35 little squares each with only 3 rounds measuring 6cm square each. It was quite a quick project only taking a few evenings in front of the box but lots of fun to make too. A nice break from some of my other bigger projects. 

The pattern was from this book, Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench.

I didn't follow the pattern exactly as I wanted my little squares to be quite tight and I made the edging up as I went along using one round of dc first followed by two rounds in htr stitches. 

It's a lovely little book with lots of very vintage and retro ideas for crochet. Took me a while to get going with it but now I have mastered the basics of crochet I can whizz through these patterns easy peasy.

Best be off now for more playtime... Thank you for visiting today. Come back soon!  

Sarah xxx