Crochet Teacup

I love finding a new blog that I can connect with and gives me great inspiration! One Sheepish Girl is a blog that I read every day. Some of the things that Meredith produces are beautiful and one of the things that she has made and done a few blog posts about is her Amigurumi Tea Cup. I have so many people that I could make this for, too many people who love tea and coffee.. and then I found it, the pattern!

I found it while looking for something else and yet that project is now on hold, I have to make a cup of tea! The pattern is a Lion Brand Yarn pattern and it looks pretty similar to Meredith's cups. It is free and although you do need to sign up, you don't get lots of emails.

Happy Crocheting x

Moseley Folk 2012

This Friday a couple of friends and I went to Moseley Folk Festival in Birmingham. This was our second year at this really beautiful festival. It is only small and a lot of the music is unknown to us, but we love it! The atmosphere is great, the people are lovely and it's just a really nice time :)

One of the first to play was Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves of Destiny. I had only heard one of her songs on an advert and although I liked it I hadn't looked into the band more. But they were good, with great costumes and strange on-stage banter, they were different from some of the acts we had seen earlier in the day.

Another great group were the Destroyers. A 15 piece "MegaFolk" band from Birmingham with a brass section, string section and an old guy on vocals. Great fun and got me dancing!

Their new single

Next up was an old favourite of ours, the Guillemots. Fife Dangerfield was born in Moseley, so another local boy, and his music I have loved for a few years now. They started in 2004 and have had four albums out and a whole number of singles. They played some really great songs at the festival and even changed some of their old songs to vary them, a lovely set!

Echo and the Bunnymen were the headliners for the evening, a band I saw a few years ago back in 2005 at Reading Festival in the pouring rain. They were brilliant to watch and were so thankful to the crowd, a real great set!!

The day was a really great one and I think I will go back next year too! I recommend it to everyone, take a picnic and some friends and just enjoy it!
x

Angels

It has been a little while since I popped a song on here, but this song is just too beautiful not to share...

The make someone HAPPY project!!

Inspiration is something I look for all the time, I have projects on the go but I am always looking for something else to do next. This is when I came across this idea, the make someone happy project from Maize Hutton.
She, like me, can sometimes make many millions of the same thing to use as gifts for people. I love making gifts, but sometimes I can make a few too many. This is a great idea!! It involves taking your little gift and adding a tag to it declaring that its a gift for the finder or a friend, you then pop that into a small plastic bag (fancy packaging may mean the bomb disposal unit being called out, and that's bad) and leaving them in places all over the community. I would love to find something like that somewhere!!
I am going to make a few extras now just because the world can do with some smiles...
Hope this is an idea that you will take up too!
:)

Snapshot of my week..

1. Plant pot given to me as a house warming present. 2. K2Tog project in Birmingham to welcome the Jamaican Olympic team, which I am proud to have helped towards knitting a few rows of the yellow column. 3. Our first Sunday lunch in our new flat. 4. Trip to Ragley Hall with friends for fun and frolics in the rain.

Strawberry Jam

I have wanted to have a go at making Strawberry Jam for a little while now, but only now have we really got to the season to do it. So after stockpiling the strawberries I searched the Internet for a recipe. I wanted something different and I found it. Strawberry Balsamic Jam. I had heard that Strawberry jam was hard to make but this was so easy. I made two batches and I have had some great compliments.

Then came the nice bit, decorating my jars.  At Christmas when I made Jam I made my own labels from scratch. This time I wasn't feeling so creative so I trawled the Internet again and found these little numbers... Simple but lovely. I mite even try the Raspberry jam recipe off that page next!
:)

Cushion

Sorry it's been a while folks, but moving house takes up a lot more time than you would think. But getting a minute to myself is lovely every now and then. On one of these rare occasions I decided to make some cushions for my dining room chairs. They aren't the most comfortable and a cushion would be great.

I just took my cushion inner and measured out two pieces of fabric about an inch bigger in diameter to the cushion. For my covers I chose two different fabrics so that I can turn the cushions over for a different effect.

Using a sewing machine I sewed up three of the four sides inside out, and then I turned the cover the correct way around. I took six pieces of ribbon about 4 inches long. I then (after turning the edges of the fourth side in) sewed three pieces of ribbon along the top and three along the bottom, making sure that they are at the same places along the top and bottom as they are to be tied together into bows.

That is all! Easy peasy...

x