Rainbow ripple ta dah!

I've been looking forward to sharing this wee blanket with you for such a long time. It all started back here (and a wee bit of progress here) as part of Lucy and Heathers ripple-a-long.
My rainbow ripple blanket is a small one designed as a capsule/carseat type blanket for wee babies. It used up most of my acrylic yarn left over from the rainbow granny square blanket.

The crochet work on it has been finished for a long time, like since November 2011! But those pesky ends needed darning and I kept getting busy and didn't get around to it. It's been folded up in one of my crochet bags (I usually have a tote bag for each project on the go) for ages and the other day I finally declared it darning-in-ends-day! It really didn't take very long and I felt a bit daft leaving it so long in the end but it's done now - yay!

My original plan had been to make blankets for each of the 2nd babies in my coffee group but there's too many due close together so I am going with the baby hat plan instead.

And now I'm not too sure what to do with my rainbow ripple. Do I keep it for if/when we have another baby or do I sell it? Anyone want to buy it?!

Linking up with Our Creative Spaces.

Scrapbooking: Document 2012: March

I'm a little behind on this project but getting caught up now. These are my March pages and I'm hoping to get started on my April pages and have them finished by the end of May (I'm cutting it fine but have already made a start!). That should put me back on track!

It was tricky to fit everything in for March. We only had 1 week of March on holiday but there was so much we did in that week that it took up 9 of my pockets plus my feature page! I kept a monthly page for Mr Mischief as I am enjoying tracking his milestones and the cute things he is up to month by month. That left 9 pockets for the rest of the month!

Saying that though - looking at the pages now - I think it's a good summary of what happened.

The first lot of pockets feature my monthly photo-a-day mosaics, finishing the Hunger Games trilogy, swimming lessons, fun stuff happening at work for hubby, a glass of wine and talk of the nights drawing in plus 2 photos from the Butterfly Park open day.

Some cute photos of Mr Mischief and talk of his achievements at 19 months.

My feature page is all about a day out we had in London (do you like the upside down 7 used as a L?!)

It was really tough picking just a handful of photos to summarise that first week of our trip but then I realised my holiday journal is the main documentation and these pages are just a summary. There's the last photo of home when we left, Mr Mischief on the plane, stopping at Hong Kong, an ice-cream on a sunny day, playing with the sand table at Early Learning Centre and the bottom row is pictures of everyone we saw.

And that's this year's album a quarter of the way through. It's crazy how fast this year is going! 

You can see all my Document 2012 pages here and the ones from 2011 are here.

Handmade Heart Swap

I've just signed up to take part in the Handmade Heart Swap being hosted by Mary Poppins. 

There's still a wee bit of time to join up if you're keen - sign-ups close on the 27th May (tomorrow) UK time. 

You can read more about the swap here.

My Creative Space: Crochet Baby Hats

There's something about chilly afternoons and evenings that reminds me to get my wool and crochet hook out and get making!

The other thing spurring me on to get back to crocheting is the influx of second babies in our coffee group. They are coming too fast for me to even consider making blankets for them all so I decided a smaller project like a hat (that's still handmade and useful) would make a great gift.

Dione over at Sew Funky kindly sent me the link to the pattern for the hats she's been making (scroll down to the comments and you will see the pattern) and I got started. 

My first attempt (not pictured) was too small as I'd used a 3.5mm hook but it works as a great little bowl :-)

We had a baby shower for the next arrival due at the weekend so I worked on a boy hat in light and medium blue (see the top photo). 

To make it look a little more 'professional' I popped it into ziplock bag and then stapled some folded over cardboard at the top to use as a label. The picture isn't that great as it was taken in a rush as I was running out the door but here's a look...

And since then I decided to make a couple more to get a little stock ready for future gifts! I had some yummy bamboo cotton left from when I first learned to crochet back in 2009 and decided to make some girly hats featuring little flowers.

I've already had a friend offer to buy one from me when I posted the above picture on Facebook and a few other people have said they like them too.

So I might list one or two in my long-neglected Felt shop. If I can find some time to get more made! 

Linking up with Our Creative Spaces

Making the most of it

With the days and nights getting colder and Winter beginning to make an appearance we've been making the most of the more autumnal days (crisp and clear and dry) and getting out in the garden for a play after Mr Mischief's afternoon naps.
Today I took a few photos to capture the changing seasons and how much my wee man is growing.
I'm also pretty impressed with how my toadstools are looking several months on from their makeover...you can see them in the background behind the dog waiting for me to kick his ball!

Where did the week go?

Life is very busy at the moment.
I have taken over a new voluntary role since we've been back in New Zealand - I'm the new Editor of our Parents Centre magazine which I'm excited about but it's taking a fair bit of my time while I get my head around how it all works and work on the upcoming issue.
I'm also doing an extra morning at work - it's the same total hours across the week but it means an extra morning out of the house.
There's also a joint coffee group 2nd birthday on the horizon over the next couple of months.
My time seems to be disappearing fast!
I have lots of ideas for posts but just need to find some time to get them written and share them with you. I really hope to do that soon.
In the meantime - those of you on this side of the world wrap up warm and those of you on the other side - I hope you get some decent weather soon!

Take care x

My Creative Space: UK Holiday Journal

I knew before we left that I wanted to document our trip while we were away. I did something similar last time I was back in the UK in 2009 and still love looking back at it.
I wanted to have a book that would expand as I filled it with photos, tickets and all the other things I tend to collect on holiday. Rather than make something from scratch (mostly due to a lack of time!) I decided to order a custom made rainbow mixed paper book from Elise Joy. The book arrived quickly and I was so excited to see the mix of colours and patterns. The biggest page is 6x4 and it has a clear cover.  (You can see a similar book for sale here.)
Here's how it started out:

And here's how it's looking now that I have completed it....

note the size upgrade on the book rings!

Massive huh? It's absolutely chocker-block full of words, photos and other memorabilia. I am so pleased to have this record of our trip and the whole family have enjoyed reading snippets and having a look as I was making it.

I worked on it at least every couple of days (even if it was just jotting some notes down on a post-it, picking photos to print or making detailed notes using the "Notes" app on my phone) and printed photos 1-2 times per week while we were away at instant photo kiosks (found in photo shops, chemists and supermarkets in the UK). Each day we were away has at least 1 page dedicated to it and there's at least one photo (but usually more) featured from each day.

It's too big to share every page on here but I thought I'd share a selection of some of the pages/photos I enjoyed putting together...

It's a great place to keep all the tickets, boarding passes, leaflets and other memorabilia I have picked up along the way as well as the photos and words.

I'm looking forward to reading it with Mr Mischief when he's older to remind him of our time with family and friends.

Linking up with Our Creative Spaces.

Best of (holiday awards)

As our holiday was coming to a close we had quite a lot of driving to do (from Scotland all the way back to Essex with a night in York in between) so we spent some of the travelling time coming up with a list of awards for our trip. They range from silly to serious and I added them to my holiday journal at the back as another way to remember the best bits from our holiday. 

Seeing how slack I've been at sharing photos of the trip here I thought sharing the Best of awards would be a good start...

Best uh oh moment : trying to get off the top bunk in the morning at YHA Windermere

Best day trip : Anstruther with G & C

Best roast : carvery at halfway house in Southend

Best bargain : red socks at the rangers shop

Best ice cream : rossis on the cliffs with L on a sunny day

Best hot chocolate : white hot choc at tinderbox with D

Best non-hotel comfortable bed : at G & C's

Best bed : Novotel at York

Best luck : waiting less than 10 min in the standby queue to see the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo

Best gossip filled car trip : dropping S home at midnight

Best new word Mr Mischief learnt : "cheese" when posing for photos

Best services : Tebay on the m6, included a farm shop we could have spent a fortune in

Best photo : Mr Mischief and my nan (his great-grandmother) - I know I'll treasure it, their personalities shine through

Best detour : through Skipton to York rather than via A66

Best oldest shopping street : the shambles in York

Best snobbery : shop keepers of York

Best souvenir : Hadleigh castle and rainbow canvas

It really was the BEST trip :-)

photo a day : : April

Here's a look at my April mosaics for photo a day. 

I am so pleased I've kept up with taking at least 1 photo each day (since 12th January) and then picking my favourite one each day.

And I love that for April I can tell I was still in the UK when I took the 1st mosaic snapshot because the service provider at the top is listed as Vodafone UK!

I get these images by taking a screen shot of my iPhone - if you press and hold the Home button (at the bottom of the screen), then press the Sleep/Wake button  (at top right) your screen flashes and the picture appears in your Camera Roll.

There always ends up being 1 row of overlap (13th - 16th in this instance) but when I use the photos in my Document 2012 pages I trim the double-ups off.

You can see my previous photo-a-day mosaics here.