Happy Christmas :oD

Hi,

I hope you all had a super duper fabulosimos (lol :P) Christmas :D

 

I had a fantasitc day and got loads of amazing gifts thank you to my very genrous family, including an adjustable dress making mannequin (YAYYYYY! It is what I put on my list so I was so excited :), a giant cute pink piggy bank, a lovely new bag and a pretty scissor charm necklace and handmade 'love to sew' ceramic brooch (sp pretty!)

 

Tommorrow I am off to Disneyland Paris!!! :D I am verrrrrryyyy excited :-) I can't wait to look in all the shops and watch the parades :D And we are going shopping in paris!

 

I will have to take a blog vacation for the next six days whilst I am away though so I will see you all when I get back to share my news!

 

I hope you all have a lovely New Year! see you when I get back,

 

Byeeeeeexxxxx

Christmas crafting

 

Hi guys,

 

Thank you for all the good wishes for my interviews :0)

 

The other day one of the people who work with my mum gave her a cool costume calendar to give to me as a present. It was so cool and had some beautiful pictures of period costumes in it, I can't wait to start using it in January :) As a thank you I made her two of my Christmas tree decorations (pattern can be found on the free pattern page at the top of the blog! :-):

 

 

My mum said she really liked them and left them on her desk all day and kept telling people I had made them! Hehehe, that made me smile :)

 

Another gift I made was this pincushion for my sewing teacher as it was the last class last Wednesday (sorry for the picture I took it just before I went to the evening class so it was a bit dark in my room):

 

I was pleased with how it came out, I went for a super-christmassy theme! My teacher thought it was sweet so I was very happy as I was a bit unsure about giving her a pincushion as I thought she might have hundreds of them already :P

 

I'm almost done for my preparations for Christmas and tomorrow I break up for the holidays so I should then have time to finish off the last little bits.

 

I hope you are having a lovely week and are looking forward to Christmas as much as I am lol! :D 

 

See you all soon,

 

Byeeeeee XXXxxxXXXxxx

Flower headbands

Hey guys,

Everything is still hectic here, (as I am sure it is for many of you now we have reached this festive season :). However the other day I did maange to catch 5 minuites for myself and I made these little flower headbands for my little cousing and two second cousins (who are all under 5 :0)

I was very pleased because they all liked them and I go lots of lovely hugs! :-) Hehe they ended up wearing them as belts though :P

I have another university interview tommorrow so I am once again very excited! :D

See you all soon,

I hope you have a lovely week :)

Byeeee XXX

Busy bee!

Hi everyone :D

Sorry there has been a bit more of a delay between posts than usual, it is because I have been very busy making the last preparations on my portolio for my uni interviews!!!!! :D My first one is on tuesday, I am sooo excited!!! I can't wait!!!  :-)

I have also been busy sorting out Christmas stuff too now we have made it to december.

But I assure you normal posting will resume soon :)

I hope you all had a lovely weekend,

See you soon,

Byeeeeeeeeeeee!

Trouser progress

Hi,

 

A post or so ago I mentioned the vintage fabric and pattern I picked up when I was on holiday, today I thought I would show you my work in progress :D......

 

 

I just have to add the waistband and zip now, which I will probably do over the next few days. I should be finished by Sunday and then I can start wearing my creation :0)

 

Doing the sewing course I go to on Wednesday evenings has really helped make using the commercial patterns a lot easier. I learn how to read darts from a commercial pattern and then we practised them so doing them on the trousers was easy :)

 

I can't wait to wear them somewhere!!!!!! :D

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye xXx

2nd Advent Giveaway Winner!!!

Hi everyone!

Entries are now closed and the time has come for the winner of the Advent calendar giveaway to be

announced! :D

 

Dramatic drumroll (lol :P).............

.......The winner as chosen by the random number generator is....

 

KNITTOTHEEND!

Image from: here!

 

Congratulations!!!!!!! :0)

I have messaged you via ravelry asking for your address so I can get your calendar gifts on their way to you ready for the 1st of December!

:-D

To all the other entries, don't worry if you didn't win this one as, of course :), there will be more giveaways and other cool stuff coming soon and I will be putting a picture up of all the things included in the calendar after the 24th of December, like last year, So you won't have to live without knowing what was in all the little parcels :P

See you all soon and congratulations again to Knittotheend! :0)

 

 

Byeeee xxx

 

 

Vintage sewing patterns and fabric

Hi

 

I forgot to mention in my holiday posts that when I was in an antique style shop I found a whole box of vintage sewing patterns :) I got sew excited (lol :P) because they were all only about 90p each and some of the garments looked so pretty! I picked up my 3 favourite ones and then later in a vintage themed craft shop I found a neatly tied up bundle with a vinatge bedspread and pillow cases in it- for only £10! It had a pretty flower pattern on it and I thought it would be great for making up some of the patterns in:

 

I think I am going to get started on the trouser and top set tommorrow, Yay! Then I will have a cool vintage outfit to wear :-)

 



I hope you all had a lovely weekend :o)

See you soon,

Byeeeee XXXX

***The 2nd Crafty Advent Calendar Giveaway!!!***

Hello everyone!

The time has finally come for the return of the Crafty Advent Calendar Giveaway!!!...

I am once again giving away to one person 24 festive crafty gifts to countdown to Christmas- a crafty advent calendar! :0D

Image from: here

I had tons of fun looking in all the craft shops for the different little festive themed gifts that can be added to/used in your Christmas craft projects :)
 

I hand wrapped each  one and added a number for the 24 days, here are all the little parcels o<:0 p="p">

 

 

You can put them all in a fancy bowl or a fill it yourself decorative calendar (those felt/stitched ones with pockets :) and then open the right one each day from the 1st to the 24th of December (like the choccy calendars) to get your little surprise!

 

Here is what was in the last crafty advent just to give you some idea (though I have bought some differeent stuff for this year of course :-)......

 

 

-*-*-*-

 

Giveaway entries are open until the 16th of November and the winner will be randomly selected and announced on the same day!

The giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere! :)

HERE IS HOW TO ENTER:

To be entered you must:

> Be a follower

> And leave a comment below with some way to contact you in case you win! :)
(e.g ravelry name, blog or email address etc...)

 

-*-*-*-

 

I hope you all like the giveaway, It was very fun arranging it!

See you soon

Bye xXxX

 

Back in the Isle of Wight

Hi guys :)

 

I am once again speaking to you from the (...currently not so...) sunny IOW!

 

We got here on Sunday and the place we are staying this time has a hot tub on the balcony so it has been fun using that, I hadn't really ever been in one before but they are very warm and bubbly and nice :-)

 

In between going out I have been working really hard on getting some of the finishing touches on my portfolio as I have now sent off my uni application (YAY!!!! :D) so the interviews are coming soon! I am sooo super excited!

 

I have also been knitting my own 'perfect boyfriend' lol! from a kit my great aunt gave me for christmas. Pictures coming soo when I make it a bit further I have only done one front so far so he doesn't resemble Mr handsome yet! :op

 

When out shopping Iv'e been picking up bits for the return of the crafty advent calendar giveaway coming soon in November. It has been really fun looking for the 24 different little gifts for each day for the prize, I have to find 6 more and then wrap them all :0)

 

Also as part of my work towards uni my dad has been helping teach me the basics of life drawing (proportions etc...) so that has been really interesting. I have mainly drawn faces so far, I think I am making progress :) Next I am going on to drawing bodies so that will be fun to learn.

 

Today we went out to the Chocolate Island Cafe for lunch and i had a slab of Millionaires shortbread, it was verrryyy tasty :P Tommorrow I think we are going to the Garlic Farm cafe so I think tommorrow will be their special garlic bread for lunch!

 

I hope you are all having a lovely week,

 

Speak to you all again soon,

 

Byeeeee XxXxXx

 

 

Blythe Halloween costume- complete!

Hi guys,

 

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago I started working on a little Halloween costume for my Blythe dolls and today I finished it! Here is Mirabelle modelling her new witch outfit! :03 

 

I am very pleased with how it came out :D It is one of the more detailed costumes I have made for my dolls :) I added little beads to the front to give some sparkle and embroidered the neckline a bit too. The hat was really fun to make and I added a red ribbon band to make it match the dress!

 

Mirabelle can't wait to show her costume off at my halloween party I am having with friends on friday :oP  (We are having a party early as I will be in the IOW when it is actually Halloween.)

 Now I have finished my dolls costume I can start on mine, lol! I am going to be Mummy,I bought some bandages yesterday and dipped them in tea to 'age' them now Ive got to go shread my T-shirt a bit so I will be ready for Friday!

See you all soon,

Bye my lovely friends xxxx

Halloween giveaway winner....!

Hi,

Entries are now closed for the Halloween Giveaway and the lucky winner (as randomly picked out a tea cup by my mum! :-P) is................

STEPH!!!

 

image from: here

 

Congratulations :)

 

If you could send your address to iitki@hotmail.co.uk then I can get your prize on it's way to you! :D

 

Thank you everyone for reading and commenting and of course there will be more fun stuff coming soon so don't worry if you didn't win this time :)

 

See you all soon,

 

Byeeeeeeeee xxx

 

Halloween Giveaway- one day left!

Hi,

 

Just to let everyone know there is only one day left to enter the Halloween giveaway!!!

 

The prize is this halloween themed pin cushion (made by me :0) and creepy chocolate spider :P:

 

Go to This! post to enter

 

Don't miss out!!

 

Good luck :D

 

See you all tommorrow to announce the winner,

 

Bye XXX

Astronauts and Blythe outfits!

Hi guys!

Over the weekend just gone me and my family went to an autograph convention as my brother collects autographs and he also loves space and quite a few astronauts were going too :) (There was also a uni open day near where we stayed which was good as I got to look round!!!) I thought it would be a bit boring if I'm honest but it wasn't bad at all, quite cool in fact! I saw Buzz Aldrin (2nd man on the moon) from afar and also Charlie Duke (anotehr moon walker) said hi to me too :0D Heheh my brother was like ' I'm sooo jelous!', lol! In the end though he got to meet and have his picture taken with all the astronauts so he has a cool collection now :-)

In the evening It was good becuase I got to relax in the room and make a start on my Blythe dolls Halloween costume! I will post pictures when I'm done but it is still in consturction phase in the moment. It is a witch inspired costume... I hope it comes out ok :P I think with my sewing course and tailors experience I am getting better, lol!

I hope you all had a fun weekend too,

See you soon,

Bye! xxx

Halloween giveaway!

Hello everyone,

 

Sorry for the slightly longer period between posts, I have been very busy as my sewing course started this week (yay!) and yesterday I did another day at the tailors which was super fun too (I learnt a lot about altering jackets :).......

 

But...... today I bring you something special........ the in it to knit it Halloween giveaway!!! :0D

 

Here are the (spoooookkkkyyy :P) prizes:

 

 

A handmade (with newt skin, dragon feet and cobwebs, lol! :-) by me, Halloween themed pin cushion and creepy chocolate spider!

 

All you have to do to enter is:

 

1. Be/become a follower :)

2. Leave a comment at the bottom of this post, including some way for me to contact you in case you win! (e.g blog address, email, ravelry name etc...)

 

The giveaway is open to anyone, any age, anywhere!

 

Entries close on the 19th of October and the winner will be announced on the same day :-)

 

Don't miss out!

 

I hope you all like the prize,

 

See you soon,

 

Byeeeee xxxx

 

 

Finished hats and my fun day! :o)

Hi,

I managed to get my hats sent off on Thursday, I didn't quite reach my target of 20 as it took me a whiIe to decorate the ones I had already knitted but I was close with 18. Here are all  my hats for 2012!!!! :-)

 

 had tons of fun making them and I can't wait to see all the little hats appearing on the smoothie bottles in boots and sainsburys in November! (As usual if you see any of mine please let me know as I would love to know where they end up :D)

 

Thank you for all the lovely comments when I posted about the tailors voluntary work experience  managed to get :) I had a brillllliiiiaaannntttt day yesterday!!! I got there and the manager and seamstress working there greeted me and were so nice :-) I was prepared to make teas all day, just getting watch them work would have been great but they actually let me help them on some of the projects they were working on (they don't just tailor they do dress making/design and alterations as well). I was a lot slower than they would have been but I had to cute out several fabric shapes to be used in dresses and sew around the edge on the professional sewing machines (they are al ot better than my home one! :oP), then iron the pieces and once I had done that I got to sew quite a few buttons down the back of a dress :) I was so pleased I got to work on something that would actually go to a customer! I also tried on a dress (over my jumper so I must have looked silly) to help them so they could see how it would fit. The best bit is I can go back next Saturday! As a thanks I said I would make them pincushions as they had one similar to the jar ones I like to make and started saying about them and they seemed quite interested. Here are their personalised ones I made to take next week:

 

 

Hehehe, I hope they like them! :)

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye XXxxXX

Innocent hats, afternoon tea and some exciting news!!!

Hello,

 

Hehehe, first off I will start with the exciting news :0D As many of you will know I hope to do costume design and production at university next year (My first open day is on Thursday :). My dad was telling someone he knows about my plans and he said hi sbrother was a tailor and that he would talk to him about letting me do some work experience. Yesterday my dad gave me a number he had been given for the tailor, I was sooo excited!!! I phoned up and he said I could come on Saturday. I can't wait! he sounded really nice and said I could basically get stuck in so I am really ecited to see all the things I will learn :) I will let you all know how it goes.

 

Now I have managed to calm down, lol :P I will show you the fruity cereal bars I made to go with the other afternoon tea treats my dad made for when my Aunt came round yesterday. She is allergic to gluten so we were really careful and scoured the supermarket for gluten free ingredients :) She said my fruity bars were delicious so I was really pleased. Here they are:
 

 

And in other news I have made quite a few more innocent hats :-) Which is good as I aim to send of twenty by Thursday!

 

 

I am going to turn the yellow ones into chicks and the black ones into Mickey style ones :) Then I am making some red ones wiith hearts on top too and probably a few more gnome style ones.

 

I am determined to hit my target so I better get back to knitting :P See you all soon,

 

Bye xxx 

Innocent smoothie gnome hat pattern

Hi everyone,

It's the time of year for the innocent smoothie big knit again supporting Age Uk! I started making some hats and then came up with the idea for a gnome hat :P
 

 

 

I thought I would put up the pattern in case anyone else wanted to make some and get involved :)

The pattern uses the same materials as the original basic innocent hat pattern so you just need some 4mm needles and DK yarn in any colours you like!

Pattern:

In the rim colour cast on 28sts
Row 1-4: Gst
Row 5: Change to the main hat colour and then; k2tog, k to end, k2tog (26sts)
Row 6-8: Stst (beginning with a p row)
Row 9: k2tog, k to end, k2tog (24 sts)
Row 10- 12: Stst (beginning with a P row)
Row 13: k2tog, k to end, k2tog (22 sts)
Row 14-16: Stst (beginning with a P row)
* Row 17: k2tog, k to end, k2tog (20 sts)
Row 18: P *

Repeat from * to * until 10 sts remain

Then: k2tog x 2, k2, k2tog x 2 (6sts)
Next row: P
Then: K2tog x 3 (3sts)

Making up:

To finish draw up the remaining 3sts, sew down the side (with right side facing inwards), darn in loose ends then turn right side out. You can add buttons or pom poms etc.. to the point of the hat  or any decoration if you wish :)

And your gnome hat is all finished! o<:0 u="u">

 

I hope you like the pattern and have fun making tons of different little hats for the innocent big knit! I love joining in every year :-) I will post up pictures of the other hats I make soon,

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye! xxx

My Birthday :D

Helloooo,

As I mentioned today is my Birthday! :) I have had an amazingly fantastic day and feel thoroughly loved from all the good wishes from all my friends and family.

As usual my Dad blew me away with the amazing cake he made me! It was Domo themed as he knows how much I love the little guy :0) My dad was a little bit dissapointed as Domo fell off the top off the cake (he was standing up) 40mins before my dad was going to pick me up from 6th form but I think he did a brilliant repair job :) (And even if the cake had completely collapsed I still would have loved it because of all the effort and love that went in to it!) He added funny little signs like 'ouch' hehehe cos domo fell over that made me laugh because domo is mischevious :P Here it is:

 

Everything is edible and it's all delicious! I had a huuugggggeee slice when I got in and I'll another bit having some for breakfast tommorrow :0P

 

I had so many lovely gifts to open too :-) One of my (brilliant) friends was so generous she brought me ten gifts all wrapped up individually and some pretty flowers! They were all so fitting to me too :D And my parents and brother got me some fantastic presents too, my brother got me a special kung-fu domo and domo DVD and my parents got me a weaving loom, some more monster high dolls, a beautiful apple print bag, costume books (as that is what I really want to study at uni next year), an iron which I asked for for ironing fabric and stuff (our one is reallly old :P) and more! Here is a group shot of my prezzies:

 

 

THANK YOU SOO MUCH TO EVERYONE!

 

I feel very lucky to have such nice people to share my birthday with, that includes all of you lovely readers too :)

 

Tommorrow I am off to London with my three best friends for my party. As I like sewing and cute stuff I decided I wanted to take them all to Build a bear (lol, not what your average 18 year old does :P) and then we are having a meal somewhere and doing a bit of shopping :) I am super excited so I better go get my sleep for the busy day ahead!

 

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend :D,

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye XXX

Cupcake teacosy- finished! and some more jewellery :)

Hi guys,

A couple of days ago I finished the cupcake tea cosy I blogged about that I was making for my dad :) As usual  I couldn't wait to give it to him so I gave it to him that day! He really liked it so I was pleased. He said it was good because it was big enough to fit over all of the different tea post he has. Here it is on one of them :P:

 

I enjoyed making the pom pom, hehe I think it is one of the biggest Ive made to date :-) I only usually make mini ones to go on the innocent smoothie hats at Christmas.

 

After recently discovering pop tabs being used in crochet and making my pop tab bracelet tutorial it made me want to try and experiment with other things I hadn't ever thought of using in my crafting before. This lead me to come up with my newest design- Crochet paperclip jewellery! :D

 

My dad had a whole massive box of  paperclips in different colours and size I started taking  them all out and I came up with the  rainbow coloured necklace and bracelet design above :) I will definitely keep look out for more things to use and try different versions of my paperclip jewellery too as I think It worked out quite effective! :o)

 

I hope you are all having a  nice week! Tomorrow is my Birthday so I am sssssuuuuupppppppeeeeerrrrrrrrrr excited!!!! I will be sure to post a picture of my cake which is currently being hidden in the dining room so I'm not allowed in there till tomorrow :D

 

Hehehe, see  you all soon,

 

BYE XXX :)

Pop tab friendship bracelet - tutorial! :D

Hello everyone,

 

Today I bring you the new tutorial I made- Pop tab friendship bracelets:

 

 

A while ago my crisp packet coaster tutorial was mentioned on another blog and in the same post was a tutorial for a flower decoration made out of pop tabs- the ring pull bits of soda cans (links coming soon I just can't get them to work at the moment). I hadn't thought of using these for crafting before and it made me want to experiment with them. I collected up a few and after some playing around came up with the idea for the friendship bracelets above :-)

 

Here is how to make some if you would like to make some :P

 

You will need:

 

 

> DK yarn in any colours you want

> A 4mm crochet hook

> 9 pop tabs :)

 

How to make:

 

1. Join your first choice of yarn to your first pop tab and 4dc into the top of the pop tab.

 

2. Take the next pop tab, attach it by crocheting 4dc into the top, like for the first tab but turn the second tab the other way round as in the picture below. (This creates an interesting design in the final bracelet if you crochet one tab round one way then the next the other way :)

 

 

3. Continue along doing 4dc into each stitch until all 9 pop tabs are joined then slip stitch into the top of the last tab to fasten.

 

 

4. Turn and repeat down the other side with your second colour yarn.

 

 

5. Darn in all loose ends

 

6. Then cut two lengths of each colour yarn around 25cm long each.

 

 

7. Join one set to the end of the bracelet in the following way:

 

 

 

8. Then repeat for the other set at the other end of the bracelet (these are the ties so you can tie it round your wrist :) and Voila, you are all done! Make sure there are no sharp ends of the tabs poking through at all before you wear it though, just for safety!

 

 

You can have fun and make them in all different colours for all your BFFs, lol :D

 

I hope you like the tutorial! :)

 

See you all soon,

 

Byyyyeeeeee xxx

 

Cupcake crafting

Hello,

 

Today was my first day back at sixth form :) I had been meaning to decorate my ID card holder for  a while but yesterday I finally got round to it, ready for the big day back! I collected up all my gems and stickers and here is what I ended up with:

 

Hehehe, I went with SUPER jazzy :P And cupcakes are very cute so I went with those too!

 

Talking of cupcakes, for Christmas (if I can keep it a secret for that long... :-) I am making my dad a cupcake tea cosy. He saw a cupcake hat in a fairtrade shop in the IOW and thought it would be cool to have a cupcake tea cosy. When I got home I realised I had the perfect yarn to make him one so I got started and I have made one side already:

 

 

I am going to add some multicoloured beads as sprinkles and a giant red pom pom as a cherry :o)

 

I'm off to start knitting the other side,

 

See you all soon!

 

Bye Bye xxx

 

IOW holiday pictures and the paralympics

Hi,

 

As promised I have complied some of my best pics I took while on holiday :) Hehehe, I hope you enjoy them. I love to share my holiday with you all! :0)

 

Here are some of the beautiful koi in the ponds at Butterfly world, I really enjoyed seeing them all, so many pretty colours and patterns:

 

 

Hehehe, a monkey having his lunch at monkey world- such a cute little guy!:

 

As I mentioned me and my brother made dinner for my parents a couple of evenings, but as I also mentioned I forgot to take a picture of the first meal before we ate it all, lol! I did remember for the second meal though so here are the dough balls and pasta bake we made :)

 

Everyone enjoyed it so I was happy :D

 

We stayed at Sandown this time. It has a really nice old fashioned sea side feel there. Here is a sunny view of the beach!:

 

 

There is always good stuff to buy in the IOW that is one of the reasons I love there so much. These are the beautiful masquerade style masks my mum treated me to:

 

 

and here are the cross stitch kits too...

 

 

.... I am very lucky! :-)

 

 

This is the little seaside bear stitch kit I finished, very appropriate seeing as I was staying at the seaside, lol!

 

That is all my holiday snaps..... for now, hehehe :P I will post a picture of my vintage dresses nearer my birthday and a picture of the monster high doll dress when it is finished :)

 

In other news- yesterday I went to the see some of the Paralympics, we had a day pass so I got to see two events in the end. I saw wheelchair basketball and goal ball, I hadn't ever seen either of them before (like when I saw handball at the Olympics- I hadn't seen that before either) so it was very interesting. They were both enjoyable to watch and it was fun to see different stadiums/arenas too :0)

 

See you all very soon,

 

Bye :0)

*** 2nd Blogiversary giveaway winner!!!***

Hola,

Entries for the 2nd blogiversary giveaway are now closed and the lucky winner......... as randomly selected is.........

 

 CUCKI!!!!!

 

:D

Image from: Here!

 

Congratulations Cucki :-)

 

I have sent you an email asking for your address so I can get your parcel on it's way to you as soon as possible!

 

As usual don't worry if you didn't win this time as there will be more giveaways and fun stuff coming up in the very near future :o)

 

Thank you for reading and see you all soon,

 

Bye! xxxx