CANINE FRIENDS

" He is your friend, your partner, your DEFENDER, your dog.

 You are his life, his love, his leader.

He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart.

You OWE it to him to be worthy of such

DEVOTION"

-Unknown

Found this lovely little prose on a calendar we have featuring Mini-Schnauzer's

I would like to introduce you to

Stan the Man

Our handsome Mini-Schnauzer

STANLEY

Today he celebrates his 3rd Birthday

(He really really does NEED a bath and a haircut!)

HAPPY DOGGY BIRTHDAY!

Stanley
 WE LOVE YOU
 Stanley
 WE DO!

He has brought soo much love to our family and he gives soo much love too!

I'M GOING ROUND IN CIRCLES...

Beautiful,
 Pleasurable, Hooky, Rainbow Coloured Circles...

The result of 6 hours of lovely, enjoyable non-stop crochet

What time did I go to bed? ...1am

This is SOO addictive.


CAN YOU HELP ME TOO PLEASE?

I think this is the right side

This is the wrong side ...with all my threads


There is always an awkward one...I actually prefer the wrong side...it looks flatter
Do you think I can poke the threads through and darn them the otherside
and use the wrongside as my right side?
Or have I got them back to front?


P.S.
My 12 year old son made me really laugh last night,..
Being the London Boy he is...he asked me very seriously.
 " Mum are you knitting a Rastafarian hat?"

I LOVE MY GRANNY...

YAY!

I'm hooked!

I did it!

I love my granny...
my first crochet Granny Square!

And then I did another one in the reverse...

And then a slightly BIGGER one!

I think I can crochet now.

Thanks to Attic24's tutorial for
Summer Garden Granny Square 

I am soo absolutely, blooming pleased with myself!
(HUGE SMILE ON MY FACE)

I understand completely, totally, the thrill of it!
When lovely, inspiring people like Lucy from Attic24 and 

Vanessa from Coco Rose Textiles say things like
 "It makes them go all hoppity skippity..."

I know, I know, I know, that feeling.

I think I'm addicted to my Grannies!

NEXT
 I am going to try and crochet the lovely bag
from Tutorial given by Attic24.

Soo that I can store some yarn and hooks...
I'm in it for the long-haul...

Nana GOGO has just made one too!
It's beautiful.

I recently remembered that I had bought a Crochet Pattern book off Ebay a long time ago and hunted it out

It had really clear concise...idiot proof instructions for me

 

I am still very confused with regards to the type of yarn
to use and crochet hook size

Any suggestions and guidance would be gratefully received.

I found a 5.5mm hook for 10k in my local charity shop
And some bright DK cotton yarn in a local supermarket.

And soo this is what I have been using...

This is lovely to crochet with compared to the acrylic wool I first started to chain and practice with...
That made my hands sweat and the wool strands split so it made it quite difficult.

Is DK Cotton the best thing to use or Aran Wool?

What hook size is generally used?

Can anyone recommend anymore crochet websites/blogs
Especially and an on-line place to purchase lovely yarn that could be sent abroad if necessary?

HAPPY CROCHERING!

~x~

THE GREAT APRON SWAP 2010... Update

Do you remember way back in MAY/JUNE I particpated in this great Swap?

A big Thank You to  Sarah of Red Gingham for organising it!

My beautiful Apron arrived mid June, just as I was setting off back to London. 

 I took it back,to show off to everyone and to photograph it on my mannequin which is still at my parents.  

I left the apron there and forgot to take photo's grrr...!

This time back in London, I remembered to take the photo's and bring the gorgeous Apron back with me

And now I can tell you all about it! 

Albeit a bit later than anticipated

My Swap partner was FRAN  all the way in Australia

  she is a fantastic sewer and crafter!

Her sewing skills are exceptional.

And her Lovely Little Sweet Peas blog

 is craft inspiring 

You can read all about the details of my Gorgeous

 Amy Butler designed apron and the wonderful Heather Bailey fabric 

here

GORGEOUS

Cabbage Roses and Gingham!

And Girly Frills Too...

I just LOVE IT!

Thank you Fran

~x~

BECAUSE...

I wanted to firstly make sure that Fran was safely in receipt of the Apron I swapped and sent her,

I have not posted any photo's here previously.

I took the easy option and bought an Apron to EMBELLISH from my local charity shop/thrift store/loppis here in Sweden called St Eriks Hjalpern.

It is a pink and white ticking/candy stripe Bread Apron overall.

My neigbour informed me, that in Sweden they used to wear these when they made the daily bread.

Two large pockets at the front, where you kept the flour.

 Handy to  keep dibbing into for more, as you knead the dough... 

I thought that as Fran was a 'full-on' crafter the pockets would be ideal to keep things at hand.

I am glad she thought the same to.

I wanted to keep with a Scandinavian Swedish theme so...

I chose to firstly embellish with a heart as it simply symbolises LOVE and is synominous with Scandinavia.

Most women like a bit of lace, so I found some old vintage lace and that was added to the pocket edge.

In our local DOLLAR STORE

 (which I and the boys love to visit for a cheap tacky bargain when we go to town)

 I found some individual SWEDEN sew/iron on patch

I thought this would be perfect for the other pocket 

The DALAHAST 

a typical wooden, hand-carved Swedish horse from the Dalarna area

 is also very typically Swedish.

I had a pattern and so cut it out in blue felt.

I thought the Apron was complete.

But it looked bare and quite childish to me...

I needed something to make it a bit more retro and contemporary

I then decided on the Birdy's...

Howevery my sewing and sewing machine skills are NIL.

I was getting very daring and actually turned the dial to ZIGZAG

This was a very first attempt...

I was really quite chuffed how they turned out.

I feel it was just what this humble bread apron needed to bring it into 21st century!

It's given me some confidence to experiment more with my artistic side and encouraged me to craft ...MORE 

It has been great Fun!

P.S.

You can also read what Fran, thought and wrote about  the Apron I made and sent to her... here

BEAUTIFUL GIFTS FROM MY BEAUTIFUL GIRL

Our Daughter H-R and her partner F came to stay for 1 week prior to me flying back to UK.

She came bearing gifts...

A beautiful traditional Swedish  'Marbacka' perlagonium, in full bloom and in the subtlest shade of pink.

A vintage pressed glass cake stand

 ("For your Victoria Sandwich Cake, Mum")

A Vintage Hand-Blown Glass Pitcher and Stirer

(Perfect for my PIMMS or Sangria)

I am soo lucky to have such a kind, beautiful & thoughtful Daughter.

THANK YOU

~X~

I HEART...? & SWITCHING OFF

Guess where I'm flying back to today?

Available to buy from here Dotcomgiftshop

I have been posting
few and far between these last couple of weeks.

NOW school is out 
I am completely switching off
( I will try to at least until 1st Sept)

I DONT do T.V. but I LOVE BLOGGING and EBAY!

I think I just need a  COMPLETE break from the computer
IF I FEEL really compelled to I will post

BUT
I am going to switch off NOW!

LOVE PEACE enJOY

Your Summer!


Julie
~x~

THE ENVELOPE PROJECT

I signed up for the Envelope Project
  Meet Me At Mikes

What with travelling backwards and forwards to London and Stockholm, twice in 6 weeks and Hubby being in London too (we are like ships in the night at the moment), 1 weeks holiday in Motala in Ostergotland Sweden, in the South, visits to hospital with Little J who decided to Axe wood for the bastu and in the process, partially axed his thumb off right through the nail and had to have it stitched back on, finally making the most of this glorious weather and the great outdoors and my beautiful daughter H-R and her partner F coming to stay for the week...

DEEP BREATH...coming up for air

Amongst many, many other things, you may have noticed that I have neglected my blog for a couple of weeks.  I am now in PANIC MODE as I have committed myself to a few fun projects and suddenly realised that I fly off to London again Monday morning and hadn't completed any of them.

So at least the ENVELOPE PROJECT is now completed.

I think it is upto about 300 envelopes now!

So one lucky person is going to receive alot alot of crafting goodies to keep them busy for a Long Long time.

Here is what I included in my envelope trying to keep in with the theme of Sweden and Swedish House

1. 
   
   A Midsommer napkin/serviette
2. 
   
   Red Gingham checked waxed paper
3. 
   
   Red Wool Crochet Heart
4. 
   
   Eukalyptus o Menthol BONBONS extra stark sweet wrapper
5. 
   
    Alphabet Rub on Letters 
6. 
   
   TO SOMEONE SPECIAL embroidered tape/ribbon
7. 
   
   Swedish Flag SWEDEN peel-off sticker
8. 
   
   Plain Brown Paper & String baggage label
9. 
   
   Swedish Jack of Hearts playing card
10. 
    
    Printed Cherubs You are Invited To...unused invitation
11. 
    
    1 metre Blue and white Gingham checked gift ribbon
12. 
    
    Old Black White Scandinavian Photograph Board with advert on reverse

Phew!

All I have to do now is remember to post it!

My ONE THING to do?

UPDATE!

Look at all the fantastic envelopes received so far...

I WILL DO ONE THING TODAY. Thing:

SCHOOLS OUT!

Us Mums can become a bit stressed out.

IF like me you always have loads of projects on the go and more than one thing to do...

I think this great note pad is brilliant, when I first saw it, it pulled me up sharp and got me thinking...

 Working out what is the main ONE THING to get done each day is the a big step towards being more productive and less stressed.

Anything else that gets done along the way is a BONUS and I have NOT wasted all my time and energy being consumed with thinking about ALL the things I MUST or HAVE to do NOW, THIS INSTANT, TODAY!

My one thing I will do today is PUT AWAY all the clean, folded washing.

(And its a mountain, believe me having just got back from a 1 week holiday)

Please join me ...

'I will do One Thing Today'

Thing:

Leave a comment

Share what your 'Thing'  is

Hmmmmm...I CONFESS, THE TRUTH

All Washed!

Hmmmm... 1 2, 3 4  5 days later...

They are still sitting here!

Each morning the boys have sifted through it carefully (I must add) for  a T-shirt, Shorts, etc

The underwear is still sitting, dried in the tumble dryer, for the same amount of hmmm... days.
 They help themselves too!

That's what happens after a  1 week holiday and  a mountainous load  of washing.
AND
Soaring temperatures and Sunshine...
means
 OUTDOORS!

How Bad am I?

FLOWERS FOR YOUR FRIDAY...

Swedish Flowers

TAKE YOUR PICK...

This weekend

Where Ever you are...

What Ever your doing...

ENJOY!

~x~