My Crochet Cushion finally completed!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I haven’t blogged about anything crochet related for a while now. Mainly because I have been working on a big-ish project, a lovely rainbow cushion! I got the pattern from my mother-in-law ages ago but it took me a while to get round to it, as I was busy with my Granny Square Blanket and then I did some cute Christmas Crochet Creatures. Come January though it was time to get cracking.

Rather than buy the colours listed in the patterns I decided to use up what wool I could from my bag as I have lots of part used balls leftover. I am a bit OCD about colours and like them to be in spectrum order – I don’t know why particularly but we have some colourful mugs and they HAVE to be on the mug rack in spectrum order. Weird I know!

So these are the colours I got cracking with.

It started off well enough as it was quite small, I made a big mistake somewhere on the first side of the cushion but thought I had rectified it enough (turns out I hadn’t but i will come back to that later!). In the pattern the reverse of the cushion doesn’t have frilly edges like the front, but hubby and I had a chat and decided we’d quite like the cushion to be the same on both sides.

As I mentioned, it starts off quite easily but as it gets bigger, and the rounds get longer, it starts to take a lot longer to finish a row, and, well get s a bit repetitive and dull. I have now well and truly decided that I am better off with smaller projects. I just don’t have the patience to work on big things. Much as i love the way they look, I get so bored and then can’t be bothered to crochet in the evenings and it takes months for me to finish it as a result. It’s a hobby I have really been enjoying but I really don’t enjoy the big projects quite as much. Which is a shame, as I think the blankets and cushions look so lovely when they are finished.

Anyway, it has taken me a while but I got to a point where both sides of the cushion were progressing nicely… then I compared them and realised that the side which I made a mistake on earlier was actually quite a bit smaller than the second side. boooo. It’s not the end of the world, it’s only about a round smaller, but that was a little demoralising and led to the cushion being put to one side again for a couple of weeks…. honestly I can be such an ostrich, I totally bury my head in the sand and ignore problems sometimes! Which isn’t the best idea!

I eventually picked it up again, determined to actually get it finished and knew I just needed an extra row of trebles on the smaller side. I would have dine it in the same dark purple as the final rows… except for the fact that I ran out, I literally only just had enough to actually complete the final row of frills as it was (And that was doing a stitch less in some of the petals on that row) oops! So I had to use lilac for the joining row.

But you know what, I am proud that I have finally finished it and it doesn’t look toooo bad!

So that’s my creative challenge for this week (which has taken me months!) what’s yours?

Creative Challenge Linky #1

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Hello and welcome to The Creative Challenge!!

This is a new weekly linky for you to link up any posts (new or old) about you challenging yourself to be more creative.

Please click here if you would like to find out more, but the basic premise is that you challenge yourself to be more creative. You could be trying to be more creative with playtime ideas or messy play, or with a new hobby for yourself. Push yourself to try something a bit more creative, then come back and let me know how you’ve got on. Even if things haven’t gone quite as well as you hoped!!! We can’t all do everything right all of the time, but the important thing is to try something new and push ourselves. That’s what this is all about!

My creative challenge so far hasn’t been very successful at all!

You may have read about the disastrous attempt at cutting and sticking that was the Failed Valentine’s craft attempt, which basically resulted in this:

Like I say, it didn’t go too well.

Not to be put off though I tried again, this time with glue sticks rather than gloopy glue. Once again though Monkey was obsessed with the lid , and trying to pick the glue out of the stick, but he was not so interested in doing any sticking. (We used foam shapes and googly eyes this time.)

A couple of times I thought he was getting interested in the sticking, but no, if anything he preferred picking off the bits that I had stuck down!! Once again it did not go the way I hoped.

So we resorted back to good old fashioned stickers, which he loves sticking down. Not sure why he likes those rather than sticking with glue but hey ho!

He was quite happy so it wasn’t an all out fail I suppose, even if it didn’t go the way I hoped it would! The whole point though is that I challenged myself to be more creative – and I did even if it’s with an activity he’s not really ready for yet!!

Right, now it’s your turn to link up your posts, and tell me all about your Creative Challenge!

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Here’s how this works.

Write a new post (or an old one if it fits the theme) all about your Creative Challenge.
Grab the Creative Challenge badge (by copying the code above) and pop it at the bottom of your post (in the ‘text’ version).
Link your post by clicking on the ‘Add your link’ button and filling in the form.
Linkys only work when we take the time to read each others posts and leave comments so please let’s support each other and read and comment on as many posts as you are able to.

The linky opens at 6.30am on Wednesday and will close at 11.00pm on Sunday so there is plenty of time to join in.

Our failed Valentine Craft attempt!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

You may or may not have read that I have set myself a Creative Challenge to be more creative with Monkey’s playtime and to allow him to explore his creativity more at the same time. I know I am not alone in my fears about messy play but I am trying my best to brave with this challenge. (Please click here if you would like to join the challenge!)

With V day coming up I thought it was a perfect opportunity to be a bit creative. Hubby and I don’t really do valentines day but I thought that Monkey’s Nanny and Grandma might appreciate a card from him. So using an idea I’ve nabbed from Baked Potato Mummy I decided to do some cutting and sticking. I cut out some heart shapes and tore up some tissue paper in suitable valentines colours.

I was going to try and do the gluing on the hearts before Monkey joined in as I was worried how he would get on with the glue… but well I failed and my child is far too clever for me. He always seems to know when I am doing something I don’t want him to know about. I think it’s a combination of me being rubbish at being sly and the fact that he wants to know what is going on ALL the time to make sure he’s not missing out!

So anyway he came to find out what was going on and was immediately obsessed with the glue bottle and lid….

for ages….

…even while I was trying to get him interested in sticking things (he loves stickers so I thought he would love it, but, no). He eventually had fun blobbing the glue on the card, but he didn’t want to stick the tissue paper down.

And then, well I’m not really sure why, I think he thought I was trying to take the glue away from him (he was getting annoyed with having sticky hands so was trying to help!) but he started bawling. Properly bawling. As if his world was ending. For ages. For apparently no reason.

After a while I got out some little foam bits and he cheered up instantly – and played with them for a bit and then went to off to play-doh. (Kids, eh?)

So well, here are the valentines cards… but I’m ashamed to say that aside from a little bit of glue dobbing, I made them (eye roll). Not a great start to the Creative Challenge! I’ve tried to console myself that it was good sensory play, and good fine motor control practice, but, well, really it was a big fat fail wasn’t it? haha oh well, you’ve got to laugh! Maybe I will try something slightly less ambitious for our next messy play!

The upside was that when my little bro, Uncle Marky, came round for a play after work, the two of them had a whale of a time playing with the tissue paper, throwing it up in the air and all around! haha They were at it for ages! Silver lining and all that!

The Creative Challenge linky will open on the LAST WEDNESDAY of every month – so 26th February. I hope your creative challenge is going better than mine is so far! 🙂 Two weeks to go! Click here to find out more!!

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I’m also linking up with Kid GLloves and Mini creations… though all Monkey really made was a mess 🙂 sorry guys! xx

The Creative Challenge – Join in with me!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I recently posted about how I am challenging myself to be more Creative with Monkey. My aim is to come up with some more arty crafty things to do with him over the next month, and then report back on my progress and how successful I have been! I have decided that this kind of challenge is more fun done as a team, so….

Do you think you could be more creative? Do you shy away from messy play? Is there are a craft/art/hobby you’ve wanted to try but never quite got round to it?

I CHALLENGE you to change all that and give something new a try!

It could be anything you like as long as it’s a bit creative, such as:

Always fancied crochet/knitting? Now’s the time to try.

Do you shy away from sticky/messy play? It’s time to be brave!

Want to get more adventurous with cooking/baking? Do it.

Always fancied writing a short story? Why not start right now?

CHALLENGE YOURSELF.

Then come back and let me know how you’ve got on.

I’m giving us a month to give time to prepare and have time to make a good start.

The linky will open on WEDNESDAY 26TH FEBRUARY for you to share your creative story.

Please grab my badge, and spread the word! #CreativeChallenge

If you think you are going to join in I would love it if you could comment below and tell me how you are going to challenge yourself

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Christmas preparations and child-proofing the tree!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Our tree

Well it’s that time of year again! But I have to say I have been surprisingly organised this year. Compared to most years where we are buying pressies on credit cards and getting presents and wrapping paper last minute, this year we have put aside some money each month, and bought all of our presents and wrapping paper etc. pretty far in advance! Not sure what has got into me!

It’s quite nice being pretty organised, much less stressful, but there’s something about the stress and last minute shopping that gets you in the christmassy mood, and I haven’t got that feeling yet to be honest. But I haven’t wrapped any presents yet so this week my task is to use Monkey’s afternoon naps for Christmas films and present wrapping, hopefully that will get me more in the mood! I’ve just finished writing all of the Christmas Cards (today’s job) so need to deliver those.

We are also all decorated, and we were slightly worried about how Monkey would get on with the tree. Apparently when his uncle was his age he kept pulling the tree over and pulling all the decorations off! Monkey is generally pretty good but still we wanted to try and make things as safe as possible, but we still wanted to have a big real Christmas tree, because we just love them!

For me, one of the most important things at home is that we have a safe enough environment for our main living area, so that a) Monkey can have a bit of a free reign without being told off all the time and b) I can leave him alone for a few minutes at a time without having to worry about what he is up to. There is door-gates on the kitchen and hall doors so that he can’t get up to any mischief if I have to pop upstairs or to the loo etc. So it is important to me that Christmas is no different, and while he needs to learn that certain things are off limits or shouldn’t be touched/pulled etc. I also want it to be safe for him so I don’t have to worry about him being on his own for a few minutes.

So we took a few precautions. We have tied the top of the tree to the curtain pole with some tinsel, just in case, and we made sure that all the decorations at his level are soft, home-made, or polystyrene inside so that there is no broken glass baubles to worry about! To be honest though he has been pretty good. Occasionally he stops and stares at it and he has tried to pull a few of the decorations off, but after a few remonstrations he is leaving pretty much alone, which is good! Some bits get knocked off sometimes but they are all soft ones so it doesn’t matter.

Last year was a different ballgame entirely, seeing as he was only 6/7 months old at the time and was spending most of his time careering round the house in his walker, we had to get creative in order to protect the tree! After weighing up lots of different options, we decided to make a sort of tree guard, using a big old cardboard box. We obviously wanted it to look nice so I got a bit crafty and made a nice wintry scene. It was slightly odd I’ll admit, and looked like we had a tree in a box, but it did the job and made sure that the tree was safe. For Christmas Day we took it off as he was never going to be in the living room by himself and there was too many bodies for him to be running about in his walker.

Last year’s tree and tree guard!

Monkey in his walker last year

How are your Christmas Preparations? Do you childproof your decorations or Christmas trees?

Cute Crochet Christmas Decoration

Posted by Caroline Elliott

As part of keeping myself busy, I have been doing some very lovely and cute Christmas Crochet. Only small things that give me a lot of satisfaction for not too many man hours. I wanted to do a lovely decoration for our Christmas tree, my mother in law makes lovely decorations every year and as I have got into crochet this year I have been inspired to make one or two of my own. On browsing the internet for inspiration, I came across these very cute decorations, but I could not find the pattern for them anywhere.

Cute Crochet Father Christmas

First attempt

I was a bit disappointed but carried on looking for other options, but really couldn’t find anything I liked as much. So, after making the lovely reindeer and penguin that I did find patterns for, I decided to be brave and have a go at making a pattern up. My first attempt went ok but wasn’t great and not really the look I was going for, so I had another go and Eureka! I love him, and am really proud of the way he turned out 🙂 So I decided to share this cute pattern with the rest of the world. So any crocheters out there that fancy having a go at making this cutey Santa, the pattern is below.

Our Christmas Tree

Some the patterns I have been using lately have been in American terms so this one is too, but basically all you need to know for this pattern is that an SC is a UK DC.

HAT and HEAD
With White, ch 2
Rnd 1: Work 6 sc in first chain.
Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc around – 12 sc.
Rnds 3-4: Sc in each sc around.
Rnd 5: Sc2tog around – 6 sc. STUFF BOBBLE OF HAT
Rnd 6: With Red, sc in each sc around – 6 sc.
Rnd 7: *2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc; rep from * around – 9 sc.
Rnd 8: Sc in each sc around – 9 sc.
Rnd 9: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 2 sc; rep from * around – 12 sc.
Rnd 10: Sc in each sc around – 12 sc.
Rnd 11: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 3 sc; rep from * around – 15 sc.
Rnd 12: sc in each sc around – 15 sc.
Rnd 13: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 4 sc; rep from * around – 18 sc.
Rnd 14: sc in each sc around – 18 sc.
Rnd 15: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 5 sc; rep from * around – 21 sc.
Rnd 16: sc in each sc around – 21 sc.
Rnd 17: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 6 sc; rep from * around – 24 sc.
Rnd 18: sc in each sc around – 24 sc.
Rnd 19: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 7 sc; rep from * around – 27 sc.
Rnd 20: sc in each sc around – 27 sc.
Rnd 21: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 8 sc; rep from * around – 30 sc.
Rnd 22: In White, in back loops only *2sc in next sc, sc in next sc; rep from * around – 44 sc.
Rnd 23: *2sc in next sc, sc in each of next 10 sc; rep from * around – 48sc.
Rnd 24: sc in each sc around – 48 sc.
Rnd 25: sc2tog around – 24 sc.
Rnd 26: sc in each sc around – 24 sc. PARTIALLY STUFF HAT

Rnd 27: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 3 sc; rep from * around – 30 sc.
Rnd 28: *2 sc in next sc, sc in each of next 4 sc; rep from * around – 36 sc.
Rnds 29-33: Sc in each sc around. Fasten off A.
Rnd 34: With B, sc in each sc around – 36 sc.
Rnd 35: *Sc2tog, sc in each of next 4 sc; rep from * around – 30 sc.
Rnd 36: *Sc2tog, sc in each of next 3 sc; rep from * around – 24 sc. FULLY STUFF ENTIRE DECORATION
Rnd 37: *Sc2tog, sc in each of next 2 sc; rep from * around – 18 sc.
Rnd 38: *Sc2tog, sc in next sc; rep from * around – 9 sc.
Rnd 37: Sc2tog, around until near enough to close.

Beard
Row 1: With White, ch 15
Row 2: Starting in first ch from hook, Sc in every chain, at the end, ch 2, turn then
Row 3: Sc in every sc, at the end, ch 2 then turn
Row 4: Sc in every sc, at the end, ch 2 then turn
Row 5: Sc in every sc but skip the last sc, slip stitch into chain at end, ch 1 then turn
Row 6: Skip first Sc, sc in every sc but skip the last sc, slip stitch into chain at end, ch 1 then turn
Row 7: Skip first Sc, sc in every sc but skip the last sc, slip stitch into chain at end, Sign off

Hair
Row 1: With White, ch 15
Row 2: Starting in first ch from hook, Sc in every chain, at the end, ch 2, turn then
Row 3: Sc in every sc, at the end, ch 2 then turn
Row 4: Sc in every sc, at the end, ch 2 then turn
Row 5: Sc in every sc, at the end, ch 2 then turn
Row 6: Sc in every sc but skip the last sc, slip stitch into chain at end, ch 1 then turn
Row 7: Skip first Sc, sc in every sc but skip the last sc, slip stitch into chain at end, sign off

Nose
With Red, ch 2

Rnd 1: Work 4 sc in first chain.
Rnd 2: sc in each sc around – 4 sc.
Rnd 3: Sc in each sc around. Sign off

Sew it all together! I Sewed on the hair first, then when I sewed on the beard, I tried to give it a bit of a peak in the middle so that it looks like he is smiling! Then sew on the nose and finally use a bit of black yarn to sew some smiling eyes. Enjoy!

If you do have a go yourself, please share a picture or a link so I can see them too!

The Granny Square Blanket is finally finished! (for the moment at least…)

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Sooo, as I have mentioned before, I was getting pretty annoyed with my granny square blanket, which is why it has taken me this long to finish it! But it is done, finito, finally!!

The border isn’t quite the way I planned or wanted but it is done and I am happy that it is finished.

So, I think the last time I blogged about it, I was frustrated by the waviness of the edge of my blanket and wanted it to be a straight edge. After a bit of a break I decided to embrace the wave. What I had originally wanted was a few rows of straight then a wavy edge, but instead I ended up with no straight, and just wavy edged.

I got a bit creative with crochet stitches to create the first line of the border, in the navy. This is what it looked like with just one line of border.

I wanted to use this lovely peach wool for the next line of the border. I wanted to carry on the wave, but thought as I had already created a wave, that by just doing purely treble stitches in the next wave, that it would automatically follow the same pattern. Nope. This didn’t happen, instead it pretty much straightened out! When I wanted to straighten out the edges of the blanket, I couldn’t get it to do it, now I want to carry on with the wave and it goes straight, crazy! Anyway got a bit creative with stitches again (and got some inspiration from wave blankets from much better crocheters than I) and made the wave bigger and better.

I was happy with this, but this blanket is huge and it’s a lot of repetitive crocheting to get it finished. Add to that my boredom and impatience and it has taken me ages to get round to doing it. I had thought I would do at least one more layer on the border, if not two, but at the rate I am going it would never get finished. So I have decided to leave it be for the time being, and maybe look at doing some smaller projects, with more instant results.

I may pick it up and add to the border again one day but for now, I am very relieved to say that at last it is finished. It has certainly been a labour of love but I am proud of it, considering that at the beginning of the year I had no idea how to crochet.

Frustrated with my Granny Square Blanket :(

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Urgh is how I am feeling towards my blanket at the moment. After months and months and months of crocheting and sewing, the blanket is now together and I just need to put a border on it. ‘Just’ pffff.

The problem is that I don’t think I am really very good at crochet, as my squares aren’t really squares, they are more like wavy blobs really. I thought when I put the whole blanket together that they would look ok, and the ones in the middle of the blanket have been pulled together when I have sewed them up, so they don’t look too bad. The ones on the edge however are another matter. They are so uneven and wiggly that the blanket has an unintentional, higgledey piggedly wave to it and I am just not happy with it at all.

I was hoping that by adding the border to it that they would also get pulled a bit straighter, but as soon as I started my first line of crochet border I could tell that wasn’t going to happen, so I unpicked it all for a rethink.

I spoke to my mother in law the next day when she came to play with Monkey, as she is much better at crochet than I am, and how I got started with it in the first place. So I hoped she may have some ideas to help. She tried a few different things and we decided on one approach, which is basically to crochet double stitch on the high bits and then to half trebles, or trebles in the gaps (which are longer stitches) to try and even it out. I am trying that but honestly it still looks really wavy and a bit rubbish to me, even though it is definitely straighter than it was.

I then wondered if I made the border and then sewed it onto the blanket, whether the act of sewing would straighten the edges… I tried that last night and that didn’t work so well either. So honestly I am not sure what to do with it. I may have to leave it for a few days so I can approach it fresh, but it is really bugging me at the moment 🙁 Not feeling very happy with it at all 🙁 which sucks when you’ve put so much effort into something! Maybe It’s as good as it is ever going to be, I dunno, just urgh!

Easter Nests fun and crochet chicks

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Who can believe that it is Easter but it has been snowing?! Miserable and so so fed up of the cold but hey ho, what can you do? Have lots of fun indoors, that’s what! We’ve also taken the opportunity to do lots of the niggly little DIY jobs around the house that we haven’t got round to so far, but I won’t bore you with those! This post is about making some lovely Easter chocolate nests with a bit of help from the Monkey, and my attempts at making some cute crochet chicks.

After making the lovely blue bunny I decided that it couldn’t be that hard to crochet a little chick for Easter. I looked at lots of patterns online but couldn’t find any that matched up to the image I had in my head so I decided to just go for it, using the bunny pattern as a starting point and then going from there. I couldn’t make up my mind whether to make the head and body separate and then sew them together, or whether to try and make it so that it went in, and then out again, kind of like a skittle pin. I tried this first and the body looked ok, very much like a skittle pin, or maybe a yellow penguin! It was ok but where I really went wrong was with the eyes!! I am not very good at this bit and the end result is here – now known in our house as Evil Chick! hehe

You see the problem is the knots in the yarn, clearly the eyes need to be a lot smaller if they are to look cute but as I am sewing them on after stuffing them, I don’t know how to hide the knots at each end without them ending up huge, and, well, evil looking! hehe

So I decided to try again and as I wasn’t 100% happy with the shape of Evil Chick I thought I would have a bash at making a separate head and body. I also decided this time that I would sew the eyes into the head before I stuffed it, so that the knots could be inside and therefore the eyes much smaller. This ended up looking much better! Much cuter and just a nicer shape all round I think too so yay me 🙂

Loving the long weekend with hubby off and wanted to do a few cooking things, including making some chocolate Easter nests, because they are delicious and it’s really the only time of year you can make them! Monkey has dropped his morning nap this week (it’s been fun) and so is awake much more and I am having to find ways of entertaining him more, whilst also getting my jobs done, more on that in another blog, but it also means I have less time to do baking and chores when he sleeps.

I thought making the nests would be a nice thing for our little family to do together, and have this week bought a little sand and water table for him for crafty time and in readiness for the summer, so decided to involve monkey in the crushing of the shredded wheat. He was much more interested in eating it, but as it’s 100% wheat I don’t think there’s too much wrong with that! It was a bit chaotic and it went all over the floor but it was lots of fun too!

Daddy then melted the chocolate over a pan of boiling water while Monkey and I played. He also did the serious business of mixing up the shredded wheat and chocolate.

Monkey has never really eaten chocolate before now but we thought we can’t keep it from him forever, and as it’s Easter it’s a bit mean not to share. So we gave him a little bit of the much cooled but still soft chocolate and wheat mixture, and he loved it. He loved eating it, smushing it around his tray and generally waving it around and spreading it throughout the living room hehe. All good fun.

Meanwhile Daddy finished making the nests and filling them with yummy mini eggs.

Then we ran out of mini eggs and made some more with minstrels hehe. Slightly less elegant but still good.

Yum, yum, yummers 🙂 we have eaten far too many but I have also been handing them out to all the family we have seen to make sure that we don’t eat them all! haha Had a lovely quiche for dinner, another of my mum’s recipes, but this one is a slight adaptation from a Mary Berry recipe, and much easier to follow and tastes delicious. Monkey loves it too which is great so some has gone in the freezer for him later in the week 🙂

Happiness this week is a dustbuster and a crochet bunny

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Well, what a busy week! You’ll be pleased to know that we are all much better, no more tummy bugs, so a much happier household going in to the beginning of the week 🙂 First of all, the baby booties that I made for my friend’s little boy fit his teeny feet perfectly! It’s funny how quickly you forget how small they are in those first few months, although monkey has always been a big boy with big feet!

I mentioned in my last post that hubby and I had bought a big jug for the windowsill but didn’t have anything to put in it – well long term is not sorted but in the short term hubby brought home some gorgeous bright coloured flowers for it – so at least it feels a little like spring inside the house – if not remotely like it outside!

Very lovely and thoughtful of him (although I have to admit my initial gut reaction was one of suspicion and that he was trying to soften some bad news, like having to work away overnight or something silly, but no just a sweet gesture after all :)) and they do look lovely in the kitchen.

My little project for the last week or so has been to make this really cute bunny that I saw in my simply crochet magazine.

I thought he was just so cute and a perfect little toy for the monkey to chew on. It said in the pattern to use alpaca wool, but well that is pretty expensive. I also know that anything that is for monkey needs to be very easily washable, which I don’t believe alpaca is, and I could easily see the gorgeous bunny becoming quite stained very quickly! So I decided to go for it with some of the acrylic wool I already had. I also didn’t have any brown and was far too impatient to wait until I could get some so decided to go for a multi-coloured blue bunny!

It was quite simple really, mainly double crochets (UK terms) and after learning what a htr2tog was last week I managed to figure out what a dc2tog was quickly enough. My big flaw though seems to be counting, I lose count of stitches so blimming easily and really struggle to get it right after that, so tend to have a bit of interpretation of the pattern. This is fine until you are making a pair of something, such as the ears, which have come out as completely different shapes! hehe ah well, I think it adds to his character, what do you think?

I also was a bit ummm unorganised with where I was sowing the legs on, so he’s a bit scew-wiff but again I think he looks cute so decided to go with it. Monkey has chewed on him a few times and shaken him around but so far he doesn’t seem anywhere near as pleased with him as I am! hehe

It’s my birthday coming up in a month or so and it’s one with a zero on the end! A few people have asked what I would like, so have duly created a lovely amazon wishlist, though I really couldn’t think of much I wanted, a few dvds and a portable dustbuster type thing being the highlights. I know that is not very exciting as a birthday present but honestly I spend half my life on my hands and knees wiping up crumbs that if been thrown from the highchair tray or fallen off of the monkey himself, and the other half hovering up where any I have missed have been walked on and spread throughout the house! (Ok slight exaggeration as obviously I manage to squeeze in crochet and blogging too :)) Our hoover is he too and monkey is terrified of the noise so I can only hoover certain parts of the house when he’s asleep, and other parts only at the weekend or sometime daddy is available to otherwise entertain him!

At our weekly visit to the lovely mother in laws I was very touched and surprised when they received a delivery of said dustbuster and said that I couldn’t possibly have it as a birthday present as it is much too boring, but that they wanted me to have it, so they bought it as a present! Like I say, very touched, and almost bought a tear to my eye. Feels a bit sad to get so excited over a dustbuster, but honestly, since becoming a stay at home mummy, anything that makes my life easier really makes such a big difference! And I have to say both hubby and I love it, makes post mealtime clean-ups so much quicker, its quiet and monkey doesn’t mind the noise so yay! Fantastic all-round 🙂

Becoming a Stay at Home Mum

Can I really do this?

craft

My Crochet Cushion finally completed!

Creative Challenge Linky #1

Right, now it’s your turn to link up your posts, and tell me all about your Creative Challenge!

Here’s how this works.

Our failed Valentine Craft attempt!

The Creative Challenge – Join in with me!

Christmas preparations and child-proofing the tree!

Cute Crochet Christmas Decoration

The Granny Square Blanket is finally finished! (for the moment at least…)

Frustrated with my Granny Square Blanket :(

Easter Nests fun and crochet chicks

Happiness this week is a dustbuster and a crochet bunny