Ouchy!!

Hello Bloggy-verse..I've had a free week and my lovely OH has had most of the week off work too,so I had originally planned to get very crafty and try out a few ideas I'd had floating about recently BUT a sore finger put paid to all of that!
I am a lifelong nail biter,disgusting I know but I do it without even noticing,anyways I think I've nibbled a bit too much on one nail and the skin at the side and basically its become very sore,swollen and infected OUCH!
and silly as it sounds the throbbing pain has ruined my entire week..I've managed only 4 rows on my crocheted blanket and I really wanted to get it finished by this weekend.
So I've moped about most of the week reading 'Kane and Abel' for the first time in years.
We took a sneaky trip to the cinema on Wednesday afternoon to see 'Sherlock Holmes' and it was brilliant and nice to get out by ourselves for once,although we didn't realise it was pensioners afternoon at our local cinema and they put the heating up so I really struggled to stay awake!!
As for crafty-ness all I've managed apart from my 4 rows of crochet is to line a bag I made in the summer...

 

 

The pattern for my bag comes from here..Lovely Bag from lovely Attic 24 the very first blog I ever looked at last year when I learning to crochet.

So my tale of woe is almost over..the swollen finger is on the mend and I'm going to stop moping and go to a big Burns Night party tonight and indulge in haggis and single malt whiskey and hopefully get a good bit of crochet accomplished tomorrow.

Em x

Keeping Cosy

So at long last the horrible snow has just about dissappeared from our little corner of the world but its seems to have been replaced by lots of dull grey skies and endless drizzle..how depressing!
Keeping cosy and cheery has been my main focus this past week so I've read lots,listened to lots of podcasts and crocheted even more..my big blue ripply blanket is getting huge and is fast becoming a bit too cosy when I'm sat under it crocheting..a few times now I've found myself on the verge of dozing off to sleep. I had a panic early in the week when my yarn supplies for the blanket started to run low,I'm using a random assortment of chunky and aran weight yarns in shades of blue and grey,its for my youngest daughter to go with her Doctor Who bedding!
Anyway by Thursday I was getting desperate for more colours so a quick trip to 'Paulines' was in order to stock up.

 

So with all my fabulous new shades of blue and grey I've made so much progress that I think I'll be finished next week..I've done 68 rows so far and to be honest I'm not quite sure how many I'll need but I think I'm well over halfway.

 

 

I was woken this mornig far too early by the postman with a parcel for me,inside were lots of lovely crocheted pink squares and some nice Rowan felted tweed yarn from my daughter at university.

The squares are for me to crochet together in groups of 4 for a big pink blanket she is making and the yarn was for me..I've stashed it away for a future project!

My Daughter has used a wide variety of yarns in many textures and weights..I'm really interested in seeing how its going to turn out as the only blanket I've ever made from squares was from different shades of the same yarn.

I meant to take a picture of the Rowan felted tweed but when I went to the drawers where it was stashed I just didn't have the heart to move Coco from her cosy spot!

I have a mostly free week coming up so I'm hoping to post a little more often and catch up with a few projects that have been bouncing around my brain for a while now.

Byee xxx 

 

 

Snowy Fun!

On Tuesday morning I got up very briefly at 6.20 am and glanced out of the window to see if the forcast heavy snow had appeared..but no,not a single snowflake..so back off to bed I went having a little giggle to myself at all the people I know who had panicked about the aforementioned snow..only to rise again at 8am to about 3 inches of glittering,pure white snow!!
It snowed heavily until about 4pm and has snowed on and off ever since then,I think We have had about 10 inches fall around where I live,I've never seen so much snow since I was a child living in Germany.
Anyway I decided that rather than sit in the house and moan about it I'd get out and build a snowman,throw a few snowballs etc
and do you know what..I loved it!!

So for two lovely days snowy fun was had by all!

But now its a bit messed up and dirty looking..going a bit slushy then freezing again,its just slippy and cold now.

So to keep warm and cosy I've spent a good bit of time this week getting on with my very first attempt at a ripple blanket,after hours of agonising and almost crying because I couldn't quite get it right I finally cracked it and now I'm well on my way to a lovely blue ziggy zaggy stripey blanket...

 

 

Its getting pretty cosy sitting under it whilst I hook away,unlike the last blanket I made which was in the middle of summer..I was so hot sewing it together that I kept falling asleep!

 

One last thing I really wanted to mention,I read lots of books,I don't have a genre I prefer over any other I just love to read.

So last January I decided to make a note of every book I read over the year and my goal was one book a week,which at one time would have been easy peasy for me,but since I discovered crochet and computers my reading time has greatly reduced.

Anyways I read a grand total of 50 books and had 2 more books not quite finished so..not a bad years reading I think.

I read a mixture of old favourites and new discoveries including the delicious stories by Alexander McCall Smith...

I only picked up one of his books because my daughter had been studying it at college and She'd left it lying around..and now I'm hooked!

I re-read all the Harry Potter books and some other old favourites,I as always took an entire library on holiday with me in the summer and I sought comfort in some old friends during a sad time in the autumn.

so 2010..I'm onto my third book already and hoping to beat last years goal! 

 

New Year Again...

Thats it..all over for yet another year and this years celebrations were as always filled with fun family times,lovely presents and good food but also tinged with a little sadness at various times for those missing from the celebrations.
For my own part I recieved lovely presents and enjoyed seeing my lovely family enjoy the gifts I'd chosen for them.
We had yet more snow on Christmas Eve ..enough to build a snowman!
Overnight it mostly melted but froze over making our hill very scary and slippy to drive down!

                                                 Christmas Day Sunset.

Little homemade table decorations.

So tomorrow the schools re-open and life gets back to normal,I have my first 'Stitch 'n' Bitch' of 2010 and I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone there.

My crochet suffered from lack of attention over Christmas but I threw myself back into it before New Year and I'm now working on my very first ripple project,a blanket in shades of blue and grey.....