Minnie Mouse Lovey Blanket

Oh the extreme cuteness!!





Just a quick post for this one today! Last week I was asked about what things I was able to make that were Minnie Mouse themed by a friend at work. Eeep there are so many gorgeous patterns, inspirations and ideas available out there!


I found the pattern for this excessively cute lovey blanket through my best friend having made one a few months ago. So as soon as Minnie Mouse was mentioned, this was found and made! This pattern is available here and is nice and easy to follow, what a winner! :D



This just took me around 5 hours in total one evening last week, and I am really pleased with the way it has come out. I am hoping that the little lady for whom it is destined loves it as much as I do!



Thanks for reading

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that, makes ...

A rather gorgeous little bag!

I have a lovely handy little book from my local library at the moment Stitch Style Bags: 20 Fashion Knit and Crochet Patterns it is a lovely little size and went on a fun trip to Wales with me last week.  I snuck some insight into my friend's favourites when she was looking through and, hehehe sneaky sneaky, made her the one she liked for her birthday!  Hooray. 

So with a little crochet, and the use of my sewing machine, I combined some crafts and created this lovely little beauty.

This book was very helpful, and wonderfully portable, and I love the way that this bag has come out! The pattern given however, did recommend the addition of pearl beads around the opening, but unfortunately when I started to add these, the bag started to look like a child's play bag. So I swiftly stopped and removed these!

Of course, some might be inclined to say that the use of this super-cute owl ribbon to line the straps, and for the bow also makes this look a little like a child's bag, but I am going to say I like it as is! But I have rather a current obsession with owls, so that may be the explanation for this :s

All in all a thumbs up to the book and the pattern, I will have to have another good look through and see what else I can find, as I have some beautiful SMC elements mix yarn

which would make an absolutely stunning bag me thinks! So here's to that.

Thanks for reading!

Halloweeeeeeeeen

The bunting is finished! Hooray :)  

The information on this is in my previous post Halloween Here I Come if you fancy one yourself.

So in preparation, it is up... not sure how the other half is going to feel about his flat becoming a halloween wonderland 2 months early, buuuut I'm sure I can distract him with practice halloween cookies and cakes etc.  Mooowahahahaha halloween evil laugh.

Sooooooo, what to do next 

???

I spent the entire morning on pinterest ... actually I didn't, just all spare moments I had, I actually finished building the chest of drawers that the halloween bunting is on in the picture above.  Amazing you might think, but the ulterior motive was definitely creating more space to fill up with my yarn stash ahem.....

Anyway, back to the point.  I did spend a very large amount of time on pinterest this morning.  The Halloween Party pinboard is definitely reaching a level outside of my ability to create it all... 262 pins and counting.  There is an absolute wealth of halloween crafting genius out there!  It's brilliant.  

I spotted this incredible painted pumpkin on Pinterest.  

Eyeball paintedpumpkin on http://ladeedacreations.com/2012/10/the-great-eyeball-pumpkin/

This has been posted as a tutorial on http://ladeedacreations.com/2012/10/the-great-eyeball-pumpkin/ and looks just fantastic!  However getting a pumpkin now and painting in preparation would be foolish!   Also, I mistook it completely when I saw it and thought it was a cushion!  I know, I am a little slow sometimes... 

Having attempted to find out how to make such a wondrous cushion by clicking on the pin, and becoming slightly disappointed to read that it was a pumpkin (followed by a wave of an emotion I shall refer to as "oh cool, that is awesome anyway") I thought, well what the heck, I shall make up a pattern for a cushion myself then!  Why not, what could possibly go wrong?

Well a lot I suspect, but the early signs are looking positive! 

I have succeeded at getting an inner eye, the first round of white, with veins is coming along swell, sooooo this could be a win!  I shall keep at it and post as I go!  Perhaps even write out a pattern when I'm done.  Oooh the ambition! 

I hope everyone else is thoroughly enjoying their halloween build up as much as I am!  

Thanks for reading.

Taco Time!

Oh my gosh, I just love these so freaking much!  I can't STOP wearing them!  I feel wrong, as a vegetarian of 16 years, it seems odd to be wearing an item depicting clay beef!  But ... well wouldn't you?!?

They are made from polymer clay, set on silver plated jewellery findings, and are just the most awesome thing I think I have ever owned, let alone made!  

I have made them available in my etsy shop, Glitter Shark Gifts for anyone who thinks that these are as cute as I do!  They are lovely and durable and would be perfect for children as well as adults.  And would also be possible to make with clip on backing rather than the earring hooks here, for those with non-pierced ears.

I have spent a lot of my craft time crocheting for the last week or so finishing a big rug, and working on some halloween bits, presents etc.  But I think that tomorrow, when I am off to the other half's parent's place for the day, I may seriously need to take a mobile clay station with me, because having just taken some pictures I am feeling VERY inspired to make more wonderful little clay goodies!  

Eeeeeep.... stay tuned to see what crazy new earrings this brings on for wearing next week!

Thanks for reading.

Halloween here I come ....

I know, I know, it is August.  I have already been informed of this fact.  The problem is, that one of my many flaws is my obsessive need to plan things.  Luckily this trait only applies to things that I perceive as particularly fun or I would never get anything done, phew (ahem).

Pinterest having been discovered, like so many crafty people has become a black hole for about 80% of my free time, the remianing time then being spent on the various activities found (I mean who needs food really?? - The "Pinterest diet",  could this become a new thing?... Probably not, I am rambling).  My latest pin board has become a "Halloween Party" board (link here if you are interested), with all of the things I want to make to decorate my house ready for this year's halloween when I will be having a party (I guess the clue is in the name, I may not have needed to explain that part, sorry).

There are so very many exciting things to be done!

So many that there is no hope of managing all of them, but I am starting on the things that I have seen and just can't say no too.  Goodness knows what I am going to do once it comes to the cake and baked goods side of this party, I will probably need a whole other pin board for that soon, and may explode with excitement at the possibilities.  Oh boy! The endless and exciting opportunities!

Anywho, I have started, and made some good progress with my first home made halloween decoration.  Hooray!  Using up some of my extensive stash of wool - which the fella deems "unnesscessary", pffft how little he knows.

My first project is this little gem below:

find the pattern at http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L0644.html?noImages=&r=1

This is a great pattern to follow, really quick and easy, and I am now in the final stages of finishing it up.  I have just one more bow to make, some tidying up to do, and need to stitch the final "O" on.  (Although I have forgotten to take recent pictures, doh!).

Just starting out (beetle juice style trousers adding to the overall effect I think)...

... these candy corns are so cute!!...

... last triangle on the hook.

Now if only I had thought to take another photo!  ... I shall have to add it to my next post!  In the mean time if you crochet, and you want a fun little project between now and the end of October, I highly recommend giving this one a go!

Thanks for reading :)

Going Large

There are some things in life that you just cannot change.  I am impulsive, and have a huge problem where shopping is concerned.  I have tried, oh how I have tried, to change this.  But it is just something that I have to keep living with and learning to deal with.  So I take comfort and solace in the fact that for the last year or so, the majority of my shopping has been directed at craft and crochetables.

Thank goodness for buying useful present makingstuff instead of just straight up cr**!

I'm not sure that my boyfriend agrees with any of my shopping habits, craftables or otherwise, as far as he sees it, our house is full, end of.  This to him is a negative... I don't know that I am so concerned.  If I ever end up on a TV show about hording I will know it has gone too far.

I am going somewhere with this ramble!

I went to visit my best friend after I got back from holiday just under two weeks ago now, and we ended up in a rather large shopping centre.  Feeling very adult when half way through our trip we realised that we couldnt be bothered to shop for clothes/shoes, but were DESPERATE to go into Lakeland and look at kitchen, and craft stuff.  I'm not sure if this signifies "adult" or insance, but I try not to dwell.

We called into the habedashery in John Lewis, and oh boy, it was wonderous!  So much Rowan yarn in beautiful colours and soft, soft, soft goodness!  There were fabrics as far as the eye could see, oh the wonder!  They even had fabric with hungry caterpillars all over it!  And also material with funky cartoony tea pots.

The first thing I picked up and truly refused to put down was a 20mm crochet hook.  The thing is MASSIVE!  Love it.

Whoahoahoa!  Just don't tell my Mum I've become a giant hook-er she might get concerned;) ahoho

Along with this I selected one pretty ball of merino wool, some of the funky teapot material and a few other bits and pieces now added to my stash.

On my return home, I had a good raid of said stash to see what was about that would be thick enough to use on the new gargantuan hook.  I had decided upon making a rug for my living room/bedroom (still undecided on this, but I will figure it out).  Hooray, using up some of my stash and creating more storage space!

I had 8 balls of Wendy Pampas mega-chunky picked up when in a sale at my local yarn shop ( I do so love a bargain).

Then I wasted numerous hours on pinterest and ravelry hunting for a pattern which could be handily turned into a rug with the use of my materials.

I decided upon a lovely star-stitch coaster found on ravelry, which I extended as I went to add an additional three rounds of star stitch before I finished off with the edging (if you are particularly interested in how I did this and want a pattern, please feel free to leave me a comment requesting this :) thanks).  This has made a stunning rug, and oh it is sooooo super soft and cozy, I am desperately regretting not purchasing 100 balls of this yarn now!  But that would have definitely been a step towards TV hoarders.

The end result was this lovely super soft and snuggly rug.

Super cosy, and for now situated on my lounge floor.

Thanks for reading.

Polymer Clay Crafts....

I returned home to Plymouth last weekend having spent a lovely relaxing two weeks on holiday with my family in France.  My Mum and myself being shopaholics, with no chance of rehabilitation in this lifetime, of course took some time from our busy schedule of reading and sunbathing to visit a few of the local towns and spend some time getting to know what was hot and what was not in the local area. 

Unfortunately the first day we chose to do this was on a Monday, on which day the shops in France are .... closed.  Horrifying!  Jones-ing for  a fix, we scrambled back to the car, and on the advice of the local tourist information, swiftly travelled a further 45 minutes to the nearest city which might have some shops open.   There were a few, but sadly it was only that, a few.

:( 

Undeterred we tried again on Tuesday, and thank goodness we were in luck this time!  We spent a fantastic morning perusing the local boutiques and eying up the pastries.  

And of course, as we wandered, I was drawn into the depths of a new obsession, how very unlike my usual behaviour (ahem, cough, cough). 

We found an incredible little shop which had some fantastic jewellery and homemade crafts within, an absolute haven for persons such as myself (I was struggling to deal with the fact that I had gone without crafting for almost a week and a half at this point, having left all crochet, jewellery making, card making etc etc etc gubbins at home). 

Of course many an inspirational photo was taken....

...A very French set of croissant and pain au chocolat earrings!  LOVE these...

...French macaroon earrings!!! Desperately want these!...

...Cupcakes AND bows??? now why didn't I think of that!...

...Oh ice cream, you are my true weakness.

Unfortunately, my obsession was a little focused on the cupcake, croissant and macaroon earring sets, and I rather dropped the ball in regards to some of the other crafty bits they had in there.  Doh.  I regret this now, but was too in the moment at the time.

 Upon my return to Plymouth the newly built hobbycraft had been opened, and so further inspection was neccessary.  Of course they had plenty of polymer clay, and so supplies were purchased!

With a little help from you tube and various available tutorials on bow making, and a little book on working with polymer clay, also bought in hobbycraft, I was able to fashion my own version of the cupcake dangley earrings, with bows attached too.  

HOOOOOOORRRRAAAAAAAYY!!

 And what with it being the weekend and all, I carried on making and created a set of dangley doughnut earrings too!

 

They came out so well, I just love them!

I have been happily making more and more items all week, I also now have orange cupcakes with bright orange bows, ice cream cones, and tacos!  I am hoping to keep on experimenting and make lots more, I just love the versatility.

I have also been putting these onto my etsy shop Glitter Shark Gifts please feel free to go take a look at my items.  There will be many more to come!  And perhaps the beads for jewellery making of your own design soon too. 

I've also, well my ears at least have, been getting a lot of attention from the ladies at work with my novelty fun and funky earring choices this week.... so now I will just have to make new and interesting options, because I wouldn't want to disappoint them by wearing the same ones too often!

Oh yes, I will certainly be well occupied for the foreseeable future :) 

Thanks for reading. 

Beeeeeeads!!!

So it turns out that there is an incredible bead shop that has been in Plymouth now for the last nearly a year. I don't know how I missed this, but hooray I have found it now! 

The shop is called Bead Boutique and I went for the first time today, and the choices, oh the endless choices!

I exercised an unprecedented amount of restraint (sort of) and only bought bits for a few pieces of jewellery this time around.  Glossing quickly over the new set of tools I bought just because they were purple and sparkly ... Ahem.

Aren't they cute ;) 

I wanted to practice using crimp beads and make some floating bead style necklaces. The white and black roses are just so beautiful, I am soooo pleased with how the shorter necklace has come out.

I also used the additional green square beads to make a little bracelet, as below.

I also loved these purple flower beads, which I mixed with dark grey round beads with lovely silver patterns on them. 

From which I made the other necklace and matching earrings below.

Which concludes the beads bought this morning, but I will most absolutely be returning very very soon! I have barely even scraped the surface of the possibilities :) hurray! 

Thanks for reading

Getting back in to the swing of things

Well I have got quite a bit to catch up on, so I have a glass of wine in hand, and pictures a plenty, and I'm ready to write!

Since the run up to Christmas both my cake related musings (bake me a picture) and my woolly knitty crochet blog here have been completely neglected, despite both activities increasing quite considerably in actual number of hours I spent on them.

So a quick little catch up on the things that I have been making and what my stash has been last seen in.

First up is this cute multicoloured head band with a nice big bow on the top.  Beautiful purple tones, lovely!

Also, available to buy in my all new etsy shop GlitterSharkGifts ... shameless plug but bah! If you're reading my blog, I might as well at least try ;)


Next up... 


A lovely little cuff bracelet which I made with clear glass seed beads running around, about, and all throughout it.  I used a gorgeous grey lampwork heart shaped bead as a button to close this with, because I felt it deserved something just a little more glam than a piece of plastic.  

More shameless plugging, this one can be found on my folksy page (also Glitter Shark Gifts, but this time a different link!).

Then I started thinking about some valentines possibilities, and thought dangly heart earrings! Here's what I came up with... 

 (on etsy!...If you're interested)

Oh this cowl might just be my favourite thing that I have made so far! I love it's snuggly warm feel and look.

and this fan pattern, with the undulating texture, I just love it!  Plenty more to be made where this one came from I think! Oh the winter birthday gift market for my friends and family is just ripe for it...

... and with this insane number of colour options to be found in my yarn stash alone(!) well the possibilities are endless.  Hooray for crafts!

 Also available for purchase, ahem, on my etsy store (what's that name again? yes it was Glitter Shark Gifts).

 Oh yarn, the endless possibilities....