Back on track now

Ok here I am, back from my holiday and finally with a laptop that actually works! To cut a long story short on the laptop front, the problem that I had with it still wasn't fixed and after much haggling, I finally have been allowed to take a replacement model which at first didn't work either but now has been sorted! Technology really is a blooming pain sometimes.

So with my laptop fixed, of course the next thing to break straight after that was my camera!! So currently, I'm without my nice SLR camera as the lens is away for repair. Hey ho!

I'm so so behind with what I want to show you. You won't believe how much I've got to show you. I've got no less than FIVE crafty reveals as well as showing you some of the highlight photos from my holiday in the very pretty Northumberland.

So I'll start at the very beginning as Julie Andrews deems this as a good place to start. Way back last month, I made a little present for my friend as a little birthday addition to her main present. I'm a little obsessed with Granny Squares at the moment as you know so I made her this mug warmer.

Now I'm pretty proud of this creation as this is all my own design. Ok so it isn't really that technical but there's nothing more satisfying than creating something that is in your head and making it a reality. At least, that's how I feel! The challenge is achieving your vision. It's not always possible sometimes but in this case, this was exactly what I had in mind! I love it when that happens!!

It was pretty quick to make actually. The problem I had was figuring out how to fasten it but this piece of ribbon that I had lying around has solved that problem perfectly.

It seems so long ago now that I made this and I'm sorry that it's taken a while to show you. Still, I hope this inspires you to get your granny square on and to look forward to seeing some more in the very near future...

Best laid plans

Well, as I wrote in my other post, I was going inundate this blog with numerous posts on what I've been up to lately. But unfortunately, my computer (which went off to be fixed) has turned out not to be successfully repaired and so I've had to send it off again. All the photos that I was going to upload onto here are now safely tucked away on an external hard drive which means that I'll be able to access them when I have my laptop granted safe for using again.

Technology really is great when it works but when it doesn't, it's pretty rubbish isn't it! Indeed, it often sends people such as myself to revert back to the tendencies of a neanderthal screaming and bashing at an inanimate object in the vain hope that it will suddenly work again!

Anyway, hopefully I'll get everything that I want posted on here soon enough. In the meantime though, I'm off for a week with my family and the dogs to Norththumberland so that should be good.

Oh, and before I go, I'll leave you with this link to my new college blog:

http://summerproject12.tumblr.com/

As you can tell by the title, I've been assigned a summer project by my college in which I have to create  several artworks. If you follow that then you should be able to see everything that I get up to in that project in this next month.

See you after my little holidays!

Tick tock goes the clock...

Wow! I don't know where the time has gone. It's nearly the end of July and I've just seen that the last time I posted on here was the 10th! I daresay that trips away and a lack of computer due to it going off for repairs (despite only recently buying the thing!) have hindered any progress made on here. Then again, the time has just simply passed with me not blogging anything. Simple as!

But I've got lots of exciting things to show you which I hop you'll enjoy reading about. Along with some crafty big reveals, I've also got to show you something that has been taken up a lot of my time this  week. I'm actually really excited to show you this so keep tuned and I promise it will be worth it!

Tangle free (and pretty funky!) headphones

Fed up of your headphones always ending up as a tangled mess for seemingly no reason? Want something that sets you apart from the headphone wearing human race that we have become today? Well look no further! With some thread and an evening spare, you can achieve all that and more in no time!

Ok, so enough with the cheesy selling patter. Have a look and see what I've been busy doing to my headphones.

As my Dad said the other day, I've yarn bombed my headphones! Having been browsing on Pinterest for a little while, I came across the idea to repeatedly wrap thread around them much like a friendship bracelet. Not only does it make them look really funky but it also prevents the headphones to get in a major tangle. This is a fact and can be backed up by science due to the thread making the headphones heavier!

I've even created each ear piece wire in a different colour so I know which pod to put in which ear. This is especially good for me as I have a weird obsession with having to put the right ear piece into the right ear. It's easy to remember too. Red for Right!

Ok so it did take me a little while to do but it made for quite therapeutic evening's work in front of a movie. I love little projects like this. Fairly quick to do, a bit of fun that generates a lot of talk which sometimes encourages others to try the same! It's almost like a pass it on project.

So why not have a go yourself?

Crochet weather

I have to say, so far I'm quite enjoying my 'summer' holidays. I say summer in that way because I'm sure you'll all agree that you can't really class it as that. It's just rain, rain, rain almost non stop isn't it!

Still, keep positive and I find that despite the weather, it gives me all the more reason to get cracking on with my summer projects.

Another little update on the cushion I think is due here about now. 

Not too different looking from the front. You might have noticed though that I've added the light blue border that I said I would in the last post. I think that this definitely helps make that patch in the middle less of an accident now!

The big change is on the back of the cushion. As you can see, I'm in the process of crocheting the back in the light blue colour again. So far, I've got the first part of the back stitched on with lots of room for a big chunky cushion to fit in! I'm now in the process of making the other part which will then be stitched and joined together with buttons so I can easily get the cushion in and out. Pretty nifty eh?!

After this, I'll show you the finished piece which hopefully shouldn't be too far away now. I must in the meantime though show you everything else that I've been up to. There's quite a few things that I think will be quite interesting to show! I hope that's enough of an enticer for you to come back!

Cushion Update

Well I know that this isn't quite the big reveal that I had promised but I thought that I would instead show you a bit more of the progress that I'm making with the cushion. I guess it also shows you just what I've been up to lately!

Well, I've had a good couple of days to work on the cushion which has been lovely and as you can see,  there's been quite development from the last photos I showed you. 

Yep! All the squares have now been created and stitched together, yay! 

But hang on a minute?! What is that rogue little light blue patch doing in the middle there? Well yes, I thought you would notice that! Slight hiccup there. I literally got to the last patch and found that I had no more dark blue for the border. After some much hopeful rummaging in the box to see if there wasn't any scraps that would save me, I resigned myself to that fact that I would have do adjust my pattern.

By the way, just incase you were thinking it, I couldn't buy a new ball as it wasn't available in the shops anymore and the closest I could find was to me, not good enough. Besides, I was quite open with the idea of creatively getting round the idea then and there! 

I decided that I would redo the middle patch in a lighter blue. Easy to say but as it was all sewn up, it was a bit of a problem getting there and a few times, I cut the wrong yarn which unravelled the crochet on the surrounding patches. Still, I got there in the end and with a few knots tied here and there, I don't think you can see the trail of destruction. 

I quite like the different patch in the middle. Admittedly it wasn't what I had in mind originally but I think it works. I'm planning to do a border around the patches in this light blue along with the backing of the cushion too so I think that this will tie it all together and make it look like less of an accident!

It's funny, it's turning into a bigger project than I thought it would be. I thought that as it's just a cushion, it wouldn't take that long but still, I have the time now!

A puppy visiter

The other day I had a lovely surprise when one of the new owners of a puppy popped in to say hello. It was Koura (now called Molly) who came and showed us how much she had grown in the few weeks since we had last seen her.

Jenna and Molly continued where they left off and played the whole time they were there. For this reason, it made it fairly hard to get a good photo. But, just to show you how much she had grown, I'll show you this:

A blurry action shot I know but to me it really shows how much bigger she is now! I would say that she's about half the size of Jenna now! 

And here's the cheeky little double act together. No I'm not talking about the image below but the one above! She really is exactly like Jenna when she was a puppy in both looks and personality. Oh and you know that she and another little puppy had what was called an innocent heart murmur? Well, they've both been checked out and are totally fine and no murmur is there now.

It was so great to see them all and see how close they had all become with Molly and vice versa. 

We also get lovely updates from a couple of the other new owners too. One had to give us a bit of bad news though in saying that Tilly who is now called Mary Poppins has broken her leg! A rough and tumble play with the other puppy they took ended in the sand pit lid falling on her front leg. She's fine though and is sporting a cute little blue cast till next week when it's being taken off.

Bless her! 

Well, I think that's about it on the puppy front. It's so nice getting the little updates from people. I just can't believe that we actually managed to raise 8 puppies! But, here is the proof. 

Iced hearts

Last weekend, I went back to Durham to have one last visit with my sister before she came back for the summer. Being a guest, I couldn't just turn up empty handed so of course, some baking was in order. 

Mulling over the numerous baking books that we have in the cupboard, I eventually settled on a simple but always appreciated option, biscuits. 

Ah the good old biscuit. Quick to make and sure to be a safe option when you know that there are people who have certain dietary requirements (well, safe for most people anyway). As I was travelling on the train, something that wasn't too delicate and would travel well I knew was a big factor too.

So yes, here they are as you can see, taken late at night before my journey hence the bad photo quality. Simply decorated, I think that they don't look to bad at all considering that I made them the night before almost on the spur of the moment.

I'll make a confession. The icing is actually an icing mix but this was only purchased due to the lack of icing sugar in the shop. Still, I'm not ashamed and the mix actually produced some nice icing that didn't taste funny (as it can sometimes do) at all.

Along with the stars, my younger sister and I spent a nice evening together pasting on either the chocolate or lemon icing whilst watching a film on Netflix which is a service that I'm testing out with one of those free trials at the moment. Just quickly, I'll say that I'm not really that impressed with it as it is definitely a case of watching what is there rather than you just popping something up on demand. I think I'll try the free trial on Lovefilm next!

Leaving a few biscuits with the family here, the remaining biscuits went down a storm in Durham. They tasted pretty good even if I say so myself and by the end of my visit, had been almost entirely consumed.

I have to say, I'm really enjoying being a more constant blogger on Bekah's Corner again. Even if no one really reads this, it has and is giving me great satisfaction to see all the little achievements of my life gathered in such a way as this.

I think the other reason why I'm blogging now so much on here is due to the fact that my college blog has now finished. I blogged so much there and now I think the withdrawal symptoms of that are displaying themselves in the transfer of writing on this blog instead. It seems that I just have to blog!

And so the crocheting obsession grows...

Oh I don't have find crocheting addicting sometimes! I don't crochet all the time but when I do, I get hooked! Ok so that was a pretty bad joke but it kind of had to be said!

As mentioned in my last post, I was in the process of making a crochet cushion. Well, here is a peek of how it's looking at the moment:

Well as you can see, I'm making a granny square cushion!

Rummaging through my wool hamper, I picked random colours and gradually built up enough squares to form what is looking more like the beginnings of a cushion. As I have accumulated a reasonable collection of wool throughout the years, I thought that this would be the perfect chance to use up the supplies a bit and those colours that for some reason never really get used too much.

I also chose the main colour scheme as blue as this is the colour that I'm hoping to paint my room with. I'm in the process at the moment of collecting blue pillows to bulk up my sofa/bed 'thing'.

As I have now finished college for the year (where did that time go!) I now have a full summer to get on with those little projects that have been put on the back burner for the crazy time that was puppy breeding and of course college in itself. Decorating my room in a nice tone of blue and generally updating the look to something that fits where I am now, I think making this cushion is a nice way to start!

To keep you in the know how, I'll create a big reveal post when the cushion is finished which hopefully won't be too long. Up next though, stay tuned for a post of the baking kind!

Crochet Bird

Ok, so I know that I was going to put up a sneaky peak of the crocheted gift I had made but as it's taken me so long to write this post, the receiver of the present has now had the little bird for so long now that this post is now just a straight up, plain and simple reveal. 

First things first though, I feel I should give credit for the creation to a lady who has a blog called Attic 24. This is a lovely blog that is full of lovely crocheted items where she often puts the patterns for them on her blog for free! 

As I'm on one of my crochet rampages where I can't seem to get enough of it at the moment, I searched through some ideas on what to crochet my friend. 

I find it funny how I switch to preferring knitting and then  switching again to crochet. I never tend to have a knitting project and crochet project running at the same time either. I guess it's because it's craft offers different things. Crochet is generally faster so is great to do on the side with college work. 

But anyway, I went of one a little natter there. Back on track now. I saw this pattern for the bird a while back and for some reason thought that this gift would be something that would suit her. Choosing colours not to dissimilar to the tutorial, I ended up with this cute little thing!

Do you like it? I think it's got quite a quirky cute look about it which was something I thought my friend would enjoy. It ended up travelling in the post although not flying there but rather squashed up in the only size jiffy bag I could find. It's made of strong stuff though so I'm sure it survived the journey!

As well as crocheting this, I'm also busy crocheting a pillow for myself. This seems a fairly simple project considering that it's me but as funny as it sounds, I've actually wanted to make one for a long time but been distracted with all the amazing knitted toys I realised you could make! 

I'll show you some photos of this as soon as I've put them on my computer so expect a post coming shortly. This should be a guarantee as I have now finished college! I'm all done and dusted for the year which seems pretty crazy as it didn't feel long ago that I started the course! 

Still, it's been a great year and now looms ahead the exciting prospect of a whole summer to catch up on those projects that have been put on the back burner. This should mean some more frequent blog posts and although I know, it's something I always say but I'm determined to keep a better record of the things that I do now that I'm not run over with my college blog now. 

Honestly, I've got so many things to tell you already that I think will make pretty juicy posts so please do join me in my reminiscing of the recent past!