Things I'm Loving

I enjoy linking up with Paisley Jade's Things I'm Loving on Fridays. It's great to find some things to be grateful for whatever life is throwing at us :-)

So here goes... 

this week I'm loving...

A little tiny painting which I did coming up to ANZAC day and is now winging it's way to someone in the mail...

Crochet Hexagons (using Lucy at Attic 24's pattern) - they are addictive and I can't stop making them. I'm thinking about making some into a table runner. The heart's pretty cute too :-)

My own handmade pink scrapbook embellishments (I'm in the process of making some to put in my Felt shop too)

Making Pink Lemonade ready for Royal Wedding celebrations. The smell of orange, lemon and raspberries being heated is divine...

Finding Union Jack cupcake cases, rice paper decorations and little flags at the British food shop and making cupcakes...

PS - Don't forget to enter my giveaway :-)

Royal Wedding Bits and Pieces

I think all this Royal Wedding madness is making me a little bit nostalgic about the country where I was born and grew up. I am loving all the Union Jack decorations and other cute Royal Wedding bits and pieces available everywhere at the moment.

I plan to watch the wedding on Friday night and have even done a little decorating for the occasion...

Here's the link to the Union Jack Mini Bunting printable and here's a close up...

I'm also hosting coffee group on Friday morning so plan to serve a few British things as part of the celebration. All going well I plan to make a Victoria Sponge, some cucumber sandwiches and pink lemonade. There are recipes available on the UKTV Facebook page if you fancy giving any of these a go!

I'm also considering printing the Boden Bingo Cards which look like fun (found via Lil Magoolie)! Hopefully I can convince my husband to play along. You play bingo with certain phrases as the commentary is on. 

And here's another couple of cute things I've found in my hunt for things on the internet...

Keep Calm and Marry On printable

Design Editor printable set

 Does anyone else have any plans to celebrate? 

If so, would love to hear what you are up to :-)

Edited to add:
I'm pretty sure this video has done the rounds but if you haven't yet seen it this Royal Wedding spoof is well worth a watch :-)

100 posts - time for a little giveaway :-)

This is my 100th post! Wow, who would of thought I'd make it this far?! Especially now my baby boy is on the move and taking a lot of time.
I want to say a big thank you to everyone that visits my little blog, the people that follow the blog and all the commenters. You are all AWESOME :-)
Unfortunately I can't send a thank you gift to everyone but I have put together a couple of little things for a parcel to send to one person who comments on this post.

Tell me how you found this blog and what you like to read about here on or before Monday 2nd May (NZ time) and you'll be entered! Entries accepted from everywhere. Just make sure you leave a link or an email address so I can contact you if you win :-)

The little prize includes a crocheted hexagon which I think will make a great coaster, some yummy passionfruit body lotion, some of my mini rainbow bunting, a little notepad in the shape of a shoe, some seeds and some chocolate (may not necessarily be the chocolate pictured - depends if I eat that before the giveaway ends and I have to replace it!).

29 @ 29 - halfway review

I am now officially 29 and a half so it's time for another review of where I'm at with my 29 things to do aged 29 list...

Colour-coded for colourful reading! PINK = complete, RED = in progress.

29 @ 29

DONE 1. Paint my toenails 

DONE 2. Scrapbook at least 12 moments of baby’s first year

IN PROGRESS - I've bought the seeds! Although not sure if the right time to plant them will come around before my 30th! - 3. Plant sunflower seeds/grow sunflowers

 DONE 4. Eat tiramisu

 DONE 5. Get my hair cut

 6. Summarise/scrapbook our first year married

 DONE 7. Read a novel

 8. Lose 5kg

 9. Decide if I’m returning to work or not

 DONE 10. Participate in a Christmas ornament swap

 DONE 11. Write a Christmas newsletter

 DONE 12. See Harry Potter 7 (part 1)

 IN PROGRESS 13. List 29 reasons why I’m a good mother

 DONE 14. Blog at least 29 times

 DONE 15. Email at least 50 photos/videos of baby to family

 DONE 16. Finish rainbow crochet blanket

 17. Get a nice photo of all 3 of us (plus maybe the dog)

DONE 18. Take baby swimming

IN PROGRESS 3/10 -19. Send 10 postcards or letters (with photos of baby maybe)

DONE 20. Buy at least 10 bunches of flowers

DONE 21. Try 10 new recipes

 22. Create a photo wall (in the dining room?)

 DONE 23. Make bunting for baby’s bedroom

 24. Have a picnic or tea party

 IN PROGRESS -25. Find ways to celebrate each season

 DONE 26. Give away at least 29 things

 IN PROGRESS -27. Try to take at least 1 photo every day

 28. Write my birth story

 IN PROGRESS 3/12 - 29. Have 12 ‘dates’ with my husband

I'm pretty pleased with where I'm at. More than half done and lots more in progress...just need to keep the momentum going for the next 6 months!

And I also need to give some thought to what I will do for my 30th - 30 things or something a little different? All ideas considered :-)

Things I'm Loving [Easter Edition]

Happy Easter Everyone :-) Or should that be Hoppy Easter?!
I thought I'd link up with Paisley Jade again this week and share a couple of things I'm loving.
So here is my Easter 2011 Edition...

my hand-painted rainbow bowl filled with yummy mini eggs...

homemade hot cross buns minus the crosses and plus icing (I used the recipe in my breadmaker book and made the dough in the breadmaker. They are easy and yummy! I suspect they will become a year round treat)...

getting to spend 4 days with my 3 lovely boys...

Our plans for the weekend involve catching up with friends, tidying the garden (if the weather holds) and a wee bit of shopping (a snuggly sleeping bag for the wee man to keep him toasty on these chilly nights). Plus lots of relaxing :-)

What are you loving right now?

Ta-dah! My Rainbow Crochet Blanket...

Ooops, I meant to post this days ago. I took the photos but didn't quite get around to writing the actual post!

Better late than never...

MY FIRST CROCHET BLANKET IS COMPLETE - WOOP :-)

All 7 colours used....this is the edging...

The idea of this blanket started way back in 2009...

I stumbled across Lucy's Attic 24 blog and Heather's Little Tin Bird blog and quickly decided that crochet blankets were cute and I wanted to have a go! 

I found a lovely friend who could teach me the basics in person (the awesome Laura who has lived in 4 different countries since teaching me!). 

If you are keen to learn crochet I would suggest finding a 'real' person that can teach you the basics - it's much easier to have someone show you the stitches and then watch what you do wrong and help you fix it!

Once I'd bought a hook and some cheap yarn Laura and I spent a few evenings 'bitching and stitching' which was great fun :-)

I practised for a while and enjoyed it but soon other things took over...like a fiance having to fly back to the UK after a family bereavement 3 weeks before our wedding...then having 14 people staying in my house...and then my wedding...and then morning sickness :-)

I think it was early 2010 that I found myself in the wool shop looking for a selection of rainbow colours. I'd had the idea of a rainbow blanket in my head for a few weeks. I'd even 'designed' how it would look on the computer. I didn't buy expensive wool. I bought acrylic yarn at $5 a ball. One ball of each colour costing $35 all together.
I had a couple of practise go's with this granny square pattern and then got stuck in...

When I sat down and did them the 7 colour squares came together pretty quickly (well I thought so considering I was a beginner!) - I managed to do each one in about an hour once I got a rhythm going.

I kept going at it over a few weeks and ended up with 11 squares. I decided 12 squares plus edging would be the perfect baby sized blanket.

And then I don't know what happened but it stopped. The crochet bag with my squares was cast aside (after an unsuccessful attempt at blocking my squares) and a baby came along and took up a fair amount of my time.

Fast forward to February - I had been thinking about getting the blanket finished and had even added it to my 29@29 list. My mum booked her ticket to spend 3 weeks with us in March and I told her I wanted to get my blanket finished while she was here (as well as a million other things) so I finally sat down (with the tutorial because I had forgotten how to crochet!) and made up the 12th square.

And then when my Mum was here she showed me how to sew the squares together.

It finally started looking blankety :-)

I decided it wasn't done yet though and decided to edge it in each of the 7 colours. That took quite a few evenings and then finally the purple edge went on and I declared my rainbow crochet blanket complete!

I LOVE it. It most certainly isn't the best crochet in the world by a long shot but I MADE IT! I even made a big mistake with one of the squares and started off with the wrong colour but hey - this makes it an original design! And so that is the story of my first proper attempt at crochet and here is the finished blanket in all it's rainbow-goodness glory...

And this isn't the end of the crochet road for me. I want to try something else. Perhaps a bigger blanket for the back of the couch to snuggle with on chilly days and evenings. Perhaps a bag. We will see. For now I am basking in that amazing glow of a FINISHED PROJECT :-)

Scrapbooking: Document 2011: March

Here are my March pages. 

I've been enjoying putting them together and I'm already jotting down ideas for April!

The 12 by 12 pages follow a bit of a zoo theme - I wanted to use the zoo paper for the main page and I had a  matching sheet so decided to use it for the opening page. I also used the same orange card and green and mini lettering throughout to try and unify it all. I think it worked!

I couldn't resist the pulling out my button stash. I LOVE buttons!

You can see all my Document 2011 pages here.

Happy Bunting

With the grey skies and chilly nights of late I decided I needed something cute and colourful to cheer me up on the dreary days.

I've been a big fan of bunting for a while now and I adore rainbows but don't have enough of a fabric stash to achieve what I wanted...

So I carefully selected paper in 7 colours to represent the rainbow and some bakers twine and made myself some mini bunting!

I am very pleased with it and tend to move it around on a daily basis. 

Admiring it on my mirror, on the wall next to my calendar, trying it out on a scrapbook page.

In fact I got so carried away that I made a couple more and decided to list them on Felt incase anyone is in need of a little rainbow to brighten up a corner of a room or a crafting project.

I also have some other cute ideas for Felt and hope to get to them real soon :-)

An Autumn Walk

A few snapshots from our Sunday afternoon walk. 

I love walking in Autumn and seeing the changes in colours in nature.

We were lucky enough to see 3 tui's having a singsong 

(one popped out of view as I snapped this picture)

I love looking for interesting shaped leaves. 

Can't wait until baby is old enough to help me look :-)

It was a little chilly and someone needed a sleep so he was wrapped up under his blanket

How cool is this with the leaves starting to change colour?

I love walking through woods. 

I love that fresh, woody, rainy smell and the crunch of leaves under your feet.

I particularly like windy paths where you can't see what's ahead of you...it's all about the element of surprise!

Nice to see some dahlias still in full bloom (we were at the same place that I took these photos but these are in a different part of the park)

Unfortunately the baby and dog were not feeling the same level of excitement as I was and both whined for a fair bit of our walk. Thank goodness for a patient husband who doesn't complain when I stop every few metres to snap a picture or look at a lovely leaf or point out trees that look like giant emus!

I'm also developing quite a collection of conkers. 

I have them in a glass and like to admire their shiny-ness every now and again :-)

Here's to enjoying Autumn and all it's lovely colours while it lasts.

Scrapbooking: Document 2011: February

I'm up to date with my Document 2011 pages! Woop. March will come in a few days but here is a look at February...

Opening page - I've got some extra photos that didn't make it onto the pages hidden behind the calendar

1st of the divided pages featuring recipes, a summary of the month, a photo before our 1st swim lesson and my washi tape craft projects. The stamps on that photo and on the opening page are from the package the washi tape came in (all the way from Japan)

2nd of the divided pages includes my sewing machine, photo of a scrapbook layout I did at a class, a picture of the Earthquake reporting on the telly, a picture of a house we viewed which we love (address blurred out) and the front page of a beauty place brochure where I got a voucher from G that I used this month 

And the main 'feature' this month is baby turning 6 months. I thought that was pretty big! There's a picture of him with me and with G and there are little tags tied with bows hidden behind each photo where me and G have written him a little note each

So there you have it. Month 2 done. I already love looking over these pages and think it will be AWESOME to look back on in years to come. 

Also I just want to link back to this FREE calendar which is beautiful. I printed it and have it hanging on the wall beside my scrap table (great for checking dates to work out when something happened!) and I decided it was too nice to bin as each month went by. So I decided to use each month on my Document 2011 pages. I'm also loosely trying to work the colours in to each months pages where possible. 

I know we're already in April but it's worth printing just the next 8 months off - it's lovely :-)

You can see all my Document 2011 pages here.

Almost finished...

I'm down to the wire on my crochet rainbow blanket. 

Only one more colour edge to do. 

Hopefully tonight. 

Definitely by the weekend...

Watch this space for a big reveal :-)

Today:

Time for another Today: post. You can see my previous one here.

I am eating: I stopped this morning at a cafe and had a choc chip cookie (it was huge and delicious) and a hot chocolate that come with a chocolate fish. For lunch I'm planning on roast chicken and stuffing sandwiches - they are my favourite sandwiches EVER.

I am drinking: nothing at the moment. Must fill my water bottle up and get drinking. I have developed a terrible habit of waiting until I'm thirsty to drink water and then trying to drink my daily allowance all at once. Very silly.

I am listening: the baby banging his toys on the window and the rain on the roof.

I am wearing: my new jeans (thank you Mum!), a grey stripy top and my soft grey cardigan.

I am looking at: my beautiful rainbow crochet blanket - only 2 more edging colours before it's complete and the cutest baby in the world.

I am thinking about: how much I enjoy being at home with baby. how nice it is to have a clean and tidy house. how the weather has taken an Autumnal change and is rather chilly today.

I am watching: nothing at the moment but I watched a My Sky'd Brothers and Sisters while baby was napping and plan on watching Emmerdale later (yes, still have that crazy addiction - it's soooo good at the moment!)

I am loving: being crafty. I'm manging to find time for crochet and scrapbooking at the moment and it really does make my heart smile.

I am missing: Mum - glad she got spoilt with 2 bouquets for Mothers Day :-)

I am looking forward to: possibly moving house, a hot bubble bath (just need to find some time somewhere!) and lunch :-)


I copied and pasted the original post and didn't pay too much attention to my previous answers until I'd finished these ones. Isn't it interesting how life plods on. I think I quite like it like that.
What are you doing today?

Scrapbooking: Document 2011: January

I decided to jump on Shimelle's Document the year project this year after seeing lots of awesome pages from 2010. 

Basically you do a round-up of each month using 1 title page (featuring an envelope with leftover photos and other tickets, receipts etc you don't use on the other pages), 2 multi-pocket pages and 1 feature page of a big thing that happened that month.

It's an awesome way to summarise each month and I think it will be awesome to look back upon. 

I still plan to scrap random events and pages but this will be an ongoing project to keep on top of what baby is doing each month and what we've been up to!

I'm a little late in starting because I had to get my mum to bring me the scrapbook pockets I wanted from the UK. But I've been collecting photos and other bits ready to go.

This weekend I sat down and put my January pages together. I went for some pinks and purples because it makes a nice change from the 'boy' colours I have been scrapping with lately :-) 

Here they are...

(I've purposely blurred other babies photos on this page to protect their identities - it's not your eyes going funny!)

So there you go. I have some photos and other things collected for February and hope to get those pages done soon. And I'm hoping to take advantage of a cheap photo printing deal this week and get the March photos printed ready to go.