Granny's favourite.

We managed to take some photo's of Rose wearing her new cardigan this afternoon. I had the cardigan blocking on the floor just outside of the back door and she kept going to check if it was dry yet or not, she'd been desperate to have it on to wear ever since she saw me pinning it out early this morning.

 

In the end she actually only wore in for 10 minutes before saying "Mummy, too hot!" I did warn her it was too warm today to be wearing a cardigan but she wouldn't listen.. she is a very stubborn little girl!

The pattern is available to buy here on Ravelry and the yarn I used was Rooster almerino dk in colour 213 (cherry). I bought the yarn when I was back in Dorset from Bridport Yarn which is a gorgeous shop. I originally planned to knit a jumper for Arthur with the yarn but then I realised the colour was much more suited to Rose and I had other idea's for items I wanted to knit for him anyway. It was Amazing to knit with, glided over my needles and is so super soft now it's knitted up.

 

I've really got my knitting mojo back now...  I can't believe that there were Months when I was pregnant with Arthur that I didn't knit a single stitch! All of that time that I wasted where I could have gotten lovely things made.. ahh well, I must have felt Really tired if it meant that I couldn't face my knitting needles!

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Ta-dah! Mini quilt for my Nan x

Finally I have finished the mini quilt made for my Nan's birthday and it's in the post to her, so she should get it today when they return from having a few day's away.

I hope she likes it, I've sewn a few mini curtain/blind rings on the back for her to hang it up somewhere. I've said she can put it up somewhere that people won't have to look at it too much if she wants! 

I used a paper-piecing template that my auntie gave to me and used fabric that I had bought at The Make Lounge, it did take quite a while... but that was solely down to me being lazy and putting it aside about a hundred times!

I did my best at embroidering a label to go on the back of the quilt for her but the handwriting wasn't as neat as I would have liked but then again, I'm not a very experienced embroiderer!

Rose is becoming a bit of a bean-pole, she seems to be getting taller and taller every day. She's already the same height as my friends little girl that is over two now. I always remember being quite tall when I was a child though so she'll probably end up the same as myself. We had a bit of a disturbed night's sleep last night, as she seems to have caught a bad cold. There was a Lot of runny noses at the Wednesday toddler group that we go to, so I suppose she was bound to catch it off of somebody there..!

Right, I'm off to package up some parcels. I've been having a bit of a clear-out and have sold a load of clothes and things on eBay to raise some funds. But now it's the boring bit of having to get everything ready to post... not my favourite job in the world I have to say!

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Fox's are really going for comfort these day's...

Hi everybody,

It's been a little while since I've shown you a few photo's of what's happening in the garden so  I thought I'd do a quick post with a round up of what's growing out there at the moment.

Due to the mainly rainy and windy weather, it's been quite difficult to get out there to do any real gardening as I can't have Rose out there with me when she's going to get cold and wet.

Last week I was able to spend a good few hours doing solid weeding out there and it was starting to look tidy and under control until we started to get a little (actually quite big!) visitor every night/early morning.

A few mornings ago I came downstairs and opened the curtains at our french window doors to see a huggee fox sleeping on our sun lounger! I tried to scare it away but within a few minutes it returned completely un-fazed by my crazy self jumping, waving and shouting at it. It then began to dig up my flower beds right in front of my eyes! Since then, every morning I come down to find huge holes in my flower beds where it's been digging up my plants and masses of soil knocked down onto the paved ground - just perfect for Rose to traipse back in through the house! (we have cream carpets, very practical! haha)

So I was just wondering, has anyone else has problems with pesky foxes? Is there a way to discourage them from coming into our garden, we don't even have any bins out there for it to be attracted to... I guess I'm just wary of letting Rose go to play outside in the mornings like she usually does when it wasn't scared of me At all! Especially after hearing these kind of stories a while ago...

 

I've finished the mini quilt that I've been making for my nan's birthday present, so I will try and get some photo's taken today before I send it off to her and get a post together showing you the results. :-)

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A quick peek at what I'm working on...

It's my Nan's birthday soon and I've been busy trying to finish her present in time, I just don't seem to have as much 'get up and go' at the moment and sometimes struggle to find the motivation to get working on things. I have so many WIP's at the moment that I need to get finished!

I started this paper-pieced patchwork quite a while ago now from a template that was given to me by my auntie, I'm making my first mini quilt to hang up on the wall and am struggling to decide how I will quilt it all together.. hhmm...

My friend has just had a beautiful baby and myself with a couple of other friends went round to hers for lunch. I was to provide something sweet for an after lunch treat and I made a chocolate fridge cake... and I have to say it went down Very well! I'm in denial about how many pieces I had myself but it's not I eat it everrryy day.. I would if I could get away with it though! Yum yum... :-)

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend..?! It was a nice sunny one here which makes a change to the Constant rain we've been coping with!

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Life according to my Instagram.

I've been using Instagram on my iPhone quite a lot lately and thought I would give you a little peek at some of the photo's I've put on there.. 

I meant to put a few of these photo's on my blog before but never got around to it so here's a little catch-up!

 

(Rose's new favourite place, she climbs up onto the buggy to have a peek through the blinds to see what's going on in the street outside.)

(This photo reminds me of the lovely sunny weather we were having a little while back... where has it gone!!?)

(It's been a very gradual process but I've been working a little English paper-pieced patchwork.)

(Hot milky time before bed!)

(Now that's a whole lotta citrus!)

(Apparently this is the new way to travel... not in the comfy padded buggy seat no, but down in the shopping basket..! Sooo normal, haha..)

(I've been busy sewing pin cushions to go in my Etsy shop, now I just need to actually list them on there!)

(It was a day for polka-dots)

(Mum came to stay and we were pretty unlucky with the weather, so we enjoyed having mornings in our pj's while crafting together.)

(Rose has discovered a love of tomato ketchup... I'm rationing it!)

(and finallyyyy... I'm actually almost finished sewing all of my patchwork shapes together, it's only taken me Months!)

If you fancy following me on Instagram you can find me by searching 'countryrosecrafts'.

I can't wait until I can get my iPhone upgraded, the camera picture quality is pretty pants on the one I have now. It does the job okay though..! :-) 

I hope your all having a brilliant bank holiday weekend. Ray is working lots to try and get us some extra pennies but we have the whole day together tomorrow, pleassseee don't let it rain, again!

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What a beautiful day!

When Rose went back down for her morning nap this morning, I didn't do what I probably Should have done which would have been to get dressed! Instead I finished off hand-quilting this pretty patchwork bib.. I'm really chuffed with it as it's a first attempt and I already have another in the making! Addictive!

So, I finally got dressed rather late this morning... thankfully no one knocked on the door! Thursday's we don't have much planned, so it was actually really lovely to just take it easy and relax with my crafty bits and bobs whilst Rose slept upstairs. The front of the baby bib is made up with lots of cotton patchwork squares and the bib is backed with a really pretty polka dot brushed cotton, I'm really glad I hand quilted it, I think it makes it look a bit more delicate...

I've popped it in my shop here. To anyone else that has their own Etsy shop... I'm Very new at all of this and would be so so grateful for any advice or tips you can pass on my way. How do I get people to even look at what I have for sale..? !Thank you Jooles for your emails xx

What a beautiful day it's been here in West Sussex, it felt like early summer! Ray was on-call but had a bit of free time so we packed up to go to the park with a flask of coffee and my knitting in-tow. Reallllyy annoyingly he was called pretty much as soon as we got to the park but it didn't matter too much because Rose and I still had a great time on the swings. Then after we had moved out onto the main grassy area of the  park with our picnic blanket, my friend came to join us with her little girl so Rose had someone to play with.

In between getting up Multiple times to sprint after Rose (those little legs of hers sure move quickly!), I squeezed in some knitting time. I'm working on the second base now of the tea cosies I've been asked to make, something quite simple to work on while 99% of my attention was on the whereabouts of my little munchkin!

The sky was brilliant blue, just gorgeous.

I managed to quickly get a photo of her in the first two minutes of us getting out into the park.. after that it was impossible for me to get a shot of her. Let alone a photo where Rose was actually looking at the camera!

I'm off to carry on with my mission of removing these bl**dy acrylic nails! I got them done when visiting Josie in London, a spur of the moment decision but they're now getting in the way of my crafting so I'd like to remove them... except they just won't come off! Extremely frustrating...

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Granny square blocks & some Etsy bits.

The other night when I was browsing through my Twitter on my phone I came across a link to this tutorial, it's been a while since I've come across a tutorial and just though 'I Have to make this!' but the blocks are so pretty and apparently quite simple, so I thought why not!? I might as well give it a shot!

The next evening I began cutting my 2.5inch square's... I'm rubbish at using a rotary cutter and it took me a longgg time and I managed to slice into the side of my wrist which also slowed down the process! *Ouch!*

I really liked the look of the green and red together, as they could be for either a girl or boy but now I'm looking at the photo's, they look far too Christmassy! This was not the look I was going for.. but I put So much effort into making them that I'm going to finish what I started. My plan is to make a baby quilt for my Etsy shop, even though no one might want to buy it until December!!

I've sewn two sets of fabric coasters also for my Etsy shop, hopefully I'll get them in the shop this evening if all goes well. I'm feeling all motivated now that I have 1 item actually for sale!

We've had a busy day so far today, we've been to the NCT nearly new sale and got a big load of bargains for Rose. She's over the moon with her new toys, she grows bored of toys so quickly but if we bought all of her toy's brand new it would cost a fortune! Why are toy's So expensive!? 

We've got quite a few new pieces of clothing for her as well. I found a gorgeous rose print Cath Kids dress age 2-3yrs and it was only £4! It's a few months before she can wear it but it's definitely a bargain!

*Just a reminder that my Giveaway finishes tomorrow evening at 8pm, so if you haven't already entered follow this link and have your chance at winning some goodies! :-)*

Right, off to carry on with my knitting. I've knitted the main body of one tea cosy, now onto the next one!

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Patchwork, fabric and venturing outdoors.

This is the progress I've made on my dresden plate potholder today. It's all sewn together now, I just need to decide on how I'm going to hand quilt it.

It's going to be Ray's mum's 60th birthday present, I was planning on sewing her a tea cosy but that never materialised! I was instead inspired by Amy's dresden trivet's over at nanacompany and thought that something similar would be perfect for her to either use to place her teapot on or she could use it just for decoration or on a little table or something.

I now realised I should probably have hand quilted it before I sewed the back on as now the stitches will show all the way through, I'm really kicking myself as there's no way I'm going to un-pick it all as that would mean un-picking the centre circle as well.. What should I do!? Silly me...

My hyacinth bulbs are coming along nicely in the kitchen, it frustrates me the way they droop over every time though. I know they were just reaching out towards the sunlight, but now they look all lop-sided... well anyway they're now tied together with a little ribbon.

A little camera time today when Rose had just woken from her morning nap... I think it's my favourite part of the day to spend with her as she always wakes up from that nap incredibly bright, happy and with a big grin on her face. The mid-to-late afternoon nap is a wholeee other story though!

A little treat was popped through my letterbox this morning, a few pretty fat quarters from myfabrichouse. It's such a lovely website to have a browse through and the brilliant thing about it is, postage is completely free! :-)

See... so so pretty. Gorgeous!

Rose and I took a walk to the local swing park this afternoon and there was still a scattering of snow around, she was fascinated by it all. I let her have a little walk in the snow as she was desperate to see what it all was when we got into the little park area but it wasn't long before she was too chilly. We managed a good session on the swings before we were straight in M&S buying her a snowsuit! Hopefully we'll have a little more snow tonight and she can be all snug tomorrow when exploring the white stuff!

Here are a couple of photo's from yesterday outdoor adventures. I met up with a friend with a little girl who's a week older than Rose and we went for a lovely walk all around Bosham. 

It's such a pretty scenic area and how amazing would it be to have that view out of your kitchen but it must become really busy in the summer... We were walking along the water's edge next to countless gigantic houses, they all had their curtains shut so I think they were all second homes. Lucky people! 

Okay, I'm off to carry on with my baby bootie knitting now. I'm trying to get some thing's made so I can get my Etsy shop up and running...

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